People in Community
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Astrobash 1983. AstroBUG User Group Gathering. November 1983. This is an excerpt, just the first two paragraphs, from the full article called "Special Report on the Big 'Astro-Bash!'" by George Moses that appeared in the November 1983 issue of the "Michigan Astrobugs" Newsletter. "Well, the famous Michigan Bug Astro-Bash is now history! As many of you know we worked on this club meeting since last May to make it a truly national bash, and thanks to Don and Peggy Gladden, we succeeded beyond our wildest dreams! "The party was scheduled for the third Sunday of September, but the gang started arriving at Don's house in trailers, motor homes and sleeping bags. And once they began setting up their computers and showing off their software, nobody wanted to go to sleep until Tuesday, when the last of them left. Sunday the party officially started at about 10am at the Green Oak Township hall near Brighton, Michigan. We had guests from at least 7 states. The one who came the farthest was Tom Meeks, an Astrocade executive who flew in all the way from Maryland to be with the BUGs. He told us that the company was now coming out of their chapter 11 mode and would now be actively soliciting the support of users to develop software, hardware and ideas for the future. In return, we were told that some of us would receive support from Astrocade in the form of development systems to use in writing cartridges for them to market. The BUG members had lots to show Mr. Meeks too! On display were many new programs including "Sneaky Snake", a new cartridge introduced by New Image that is a dead ringer for Centipede. It's a 4-player game/with all the fast action, great sound effects and rapid fire we expect from a good Arcade game." This is the photo identification of the thirteen pictures: 1. Don Gladden, Drummer 2. Mike Peace, Entertainer Extraordinaire 3. Peggy Gladden "womans' The Corner Store as Marion Nalepa & Don Gladden watch 4. The Peace-Gladden Duo. 5. Tom Meeks and George Moses share a laugh. 6 Rick Moses supervises game tournaments. 7. Pat Brady and Melanie Moses share a break 8. Gladden shows off his new offspring to Meeks while Melanie Moses looks over his shoulder. 9. The Astrobash barbecue is underway! 10. R&L show off their 64-K board. 11. Mr. & Mrs. Ken Lill from Chicago 12. Tom Meeks speaks to the crowd. 13. Bob Pease Sells an Astrocade to Mike Toth As an example of the quality of these pictures, I have extracted the picture of Mr. & Mrs. Ken Lill from Chicago.
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Brett Bilbrey with MBUG April 2012 This picture was taken on the last weekend of April 2012 when Brett was in Michigan for his father's memorial. Brett says, "I checked, and folks said it was OK to use the picture." Most of these people were member of MBUG (Michigan Bally User's Group). The people in the picture (left to right), are: Marion and Anne Nelepa Mike and Barb Toth Joe and Patti Borrello Brett Bilbrey and his wife Ann Bilbrey George and Meline Moses |
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Fred Cornett This is the publisher of the Cursor newsletter (AKA BASIC Express). This picture was developed in January of 1980 and was provided by Brett Bilbrey. |
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Fred Cornett and Jim Terry from the CURSOR Newsletter. CURSOR 2, no. 5 (January/February 1980): 83. This is a picture of Fred Cornett and Jim Terry from page 83 of the Jan/Feb issue of the CURSOR newsletter. It's impossible to see anything in the B&W scanned version currently online at BallyAlley. Jim Terry was Vice President of Operations for the Cursor Group. His full name is James A. Terry. |
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Fred Cornett and Jim Terry Buried by Bally Arcade RF Shields. BASIC Express, The 3, no. 2 (May/June 1981): 23. (Top, Fred Cornett). BASIC Express, The 3, no. 3 (July/August 1981): 31. (Bottom, Jim Terry). The picture of Fred Cornett accompanied a piece of news in the May/June 1981 issue of "The BASIC Express" called "REPAIRS?" that said, "As you can see by the huge pile of RF Shields covering our illustrious leader, we've been doing huge quantities of Tune-Ups and Repairs!" The picture of Jim Terry accompanied a piece of news in the July/August 1981 issue of "The BASIC Express" (the last issue) called "REPAIRS" that said, "The battle against the 'Belligerent Bally Blues' continues!! If you are having trouble with your Unit or if you want to avoid future problems, we will give your Bally a Tune-Up." |
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John Perkins (on the right) with his friend Len Brightman. On September 30, 2021, "brightman" (a person named Len) posted a picture of his "Muncher" cart to an AtariAge thread and said this: "I have the prototype, actually titled "Pac Man," from Clyde Perkins. It was given to me by John Perkins [of Perkins Engineering] with his original Bally system." Over three posts, Len posted a picture of himself with John and this additional information: "John was my best friend for the 8 years I knew him. John and his wife Karen went to the same church as me and my children. We would visit, but I never realized what he had going with the Blue Ram and the Bally stuff. The man never talked about himself.. He gifted me his Bally system on my 50th birthday. I just recently dug it out of the closet, but couldn't get it working. I was looking for someone to possibly repair it for me. Then I read about the Clyde Perkins Pacman cartridge I have...So Yes I would like to use the system again, but would hate to have something happen to it. any suggestions. "That the picture was taken on my 50th birthday ....John passed shortly after. He was one of the most kindest , most brilliant , and funniest person I have ever had the pleasure to be around. He gave from his heart and would listen intently because he truly cared about what others were thinking. Anyone that knew him would say this about him. I hope when my time comes I have just a fraction of the respect that he earned from everyone's life he touched. You can find Len's comments here on AtariAge: |
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Ken Lill and Mike White with White Astrocades Two people from the early 1980 Astrocade era (and still talking about the Astrocade today). This picture was taken in November 2011. Ken Lill is on the left, and Mike White is on the right. With this picture, emailed on November 27, 2011, Ken wrote: "This is the only picture we know in existence of 2 working "whities" at the same time. His he has had since the 80's, mine I've had since October, 2011. I needed to do minor repair to get mine up and running, but it does work. Both came with the FULL top metal sheild. His has survived all of these years with it on. He doesn't use it much now, but he DID use it to write Quadra!" This picture is quite large (2.4MB), but I didn't want to downgrade it (and get additional JPG artifacting), so I kept it in the original size and format. |
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Mike White with Friends (July 4'th weekend, 1985) The people in order of appearance, from left to right, are: Leroy G. Flamm, Mike White, Don Gladden, and Tim White A more detailed account of this picture can be read here. |
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Jane Veeder Jane Veeder with her WARPITOUT machine. Picture taken in 1982. |
