 ROMOX Publishing History -
1982-1984
Tim McGuinness, Romox Inc.,
Director Software Publishing &
Director Software Development
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Founded in Campbell, California in 1982, ROMOX was a software
company that produced games for the Atari 2600, Atari 8-Bit
(400/800/1200),
Commodore Vic-20, Commodore 64, and Texas Instruments 99/4A.
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ROMOX was founded by industry leaders Dan
Izumi of National Semiconductor; Paul Terrell of the Byte Shop
chain; Art Carlos a Plastics and Electronic Manufacturer, and
others. Together they assembled a first tier team of
managers and engineers.
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Tim McGuinness was responsible for
software product development and design, working closely with Jon
Monday, VP of Marketing.
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ROMOX moved from a single title to almost
100 in a year, and was poised to become a major forced in software
publishing.
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ROMOX Not
only sold and distributed their own titles for various systems, they also
invented an new technology called "Electronic Software
Distribution" (something we now take for granted via the web).
This included the "Edge Connector Programmable Cartridge" (ECPC),
and the distributed ESD network in 1983.
ROMOX ESD terminals were located in numerous retails stores:
Sears, Longs Drugs, 711, K-Mart, and more. This technology allow the user to purchase a reusable ECPC
cartridge, and then bring the cartridge to a ROMOX "Software Center"
in their favorite retailer, where
they could load a new game onto the cartridge from ROMOX's catalog.
The original cartridge was $24.95, and games could be "burned" to
the cartridge for around $10 each. The actual "Software Center" was
a countertop device with cartridge slots and a membrane keyboard to
select the desired game. ROMOX was the only company to aggressively
deploy such technology.
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By the end of 1984 the market collapsed
due to Atari's suicide, and by 1985 ROMOX was out of business, another
casualty of the videogame crash. Like most companies of that
era - greed and short sightedness drove its board, and ultimately
the company to its death.
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The ROMOX Software Catalog
Published 1983
The ROMOX Software Catalog
Published Early 1984
 Product Fliers &
Brochures:
Sea Chase
Whiz Kid
Fortune Hunter
Ant Eater
1st Brochure
1
2
General Brochure
1
2
3
4
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First Generation Home Computer Video Games |
96 Products
Distributed Through:
Mass Markets &
The First Software Catalog
Distributed By:
Byte Shops
SoftSel
Micro-D |
Brands Published:
ROMOX
R.S. Publishing
SoftSync
Navarone
London Software |
  
ROMOX Titles
Designed and/or Published By Tim
McGuinness |
1982 - 1984
Thanks to
ROMOX Programmers:
Eddy Fries
Myron Meier
Marlan Meier
Mory Mirzazadeh
Charles Humphrey
Bob Horton
Marc Benioff
Jim Dunion
Tim Schmidt
S. Law
Ken Sibertz
Mike Edwards
ROMOX Artists:
Pat Hubbell
Jim Hammerud
Tim Mitoma
Dona Lang
ROMOX Musician:
Anna Monday
ROMOX Photographer:
John Scholl
ROMOX Copywriter:
Annelise McGuinness
and many more...
We Were Believers All!
On our way to greatness! Special Thanks to
Jon Monday
An Honorable Man
Amongst Cutthroats! Greetings to Leana Carlos and the whole Carlos
Family! |
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Ant Eater
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Ant Eater Rev 2
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Attack At EP-CYG-4
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Bartender
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Bat Cave*
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Castles And Keys*
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Character Crayons
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ColorSounds
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Coma
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Counter Point*
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Crater Lake*
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Dancing Feats
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Disk Fixer
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Flapper*
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Forklifter*
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For Knox*
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Fortune Hunter
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Hen Pecked
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Hot Lips
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Jabberwok*
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Mama Mia*
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Mothership
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NATURE'S WAY
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Nitro*
* Design & Copyright Tim
McGuinness |
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Overkill*
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Parallax
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Pox
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Princess And Frog
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Renegade*
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Ripper
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Rotor Raiders*
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Scuba*
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Sea Chase
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Shadow Hawk
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Sketch
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Spark Bugs
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Starion
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Talking Typo
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Taxi 2070*
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The End*
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Trion
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Trojan Point*
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Topper*
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Typo
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Typo II
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VIC DOS
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WaterWorx*
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Whiz Kid
1983 ROMOX Products
Price List |
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Also Produced By ROMOX:
TI
99/4 GAMEPORT EXPANSION MODULE
PHOTO
INFO
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