Almost everything you wanted to know about Bouncer by Entertainment Sciences and more !!!!
An Evil Ninja Possessed This "Bouncer" machine in the NINJA III: The Domination, a screenshot of Bouncer ejecting a rowdy patron at "The Ritz",
and Mr. B gets ready for work at Gulley's.
Why am I doing this ?
I decided to put this site together because I love video games !!! I especially love video games from the 80's
And I have always believed that there were a lot of great games that never made it to the mainstream.
Bouncer is my holy grail ! I put this site together to share the information that I've come across with other
collectors and hope that others will come forward and share any information they have.
My quest for “Bouncer” started in the early 90’s, During the construction of the KLOV “Bouncer” started
getting discussed in rec.games.video.arcade.collecting. Ever since then I've been searching for more
information about this game and the company that created it. For the past several years I've been trying to
collect as much information as possible. My cousin Jason Spindler arranged for us to purchase 4 incomplete
Turbo Sub cabinets from the now famous warehouse raid. I've since been in contact with another collector
Todd Bordelon, together we've pulled a lot of our resources together in search of this machine,.
Many people wonder “Did Bouncer really exist ?”
The answer is Yes, unfortunately it was never commercially released. Below is the story of Bouncer and
Entertainment Sciences based off of several conversation that Todd, Jason, and I have had with various
employees of Entertainment Sciences. Please note many names have been omitted to protect the privacy of
these employees.
The Story Of Bouncer
In 1982 Entertainment Sciences was formed by Creative Sciences to enter into the video game market. . Ulrich
Neumann, an engineer with Sega was hired as the vice-president of engineering and was tasked with building the
hardware platform. From his experience with SEGA, Ulrich envisioned a reusable hardware platform that would not be
obsolete months later. With this is mind, the RIP (Real-Time Image Processor) system was born. Ulrich designed the
RIP system in 9 months, as the prototype was nearing completion Entertainment Sciences interviewed Rob Patton, a
programmer from Cinematronics. During his interview he pitched several game ideas including "Bouncer". Rob Patton
was one of the first programmers to be represented by a talent agent, Entertainment Sciences and Rob soon game to an
agreement and development started on "Bouncer". One of the first things that Rob did was hire a graphic artist to
design a set to develop the story line. A large backdrop was painted and the initial characters were made as movable
pieces. It was at this time that Rob hired an animator from Disney studios, the animator did some cleanup work on the
characters and started creating the animated cells needed for the game. Each cell was digitized and stored as a graphics
image, the end results was several megabytes of graphic data. The hardware was very advanced for the time and
allowed for the images to be scaled depending on their location on the screen, the initial resolution was 512 pixels per line
with a color palette of 16,000 colors.
The game was premiered at the AMOA show in New Orleans in 1983, it was well received and generated a lot of
excitement in the industry. Unfortunately Dragon's Lair was also getting a lot of attention was cheaper and shipping.
Entertainment Sciences was setup more to be a design studio and started looking for a company to license "Bouncer" to.
During AMOA several companies showed interest, ultimately it was Atari that showed the most interest and promised a
license deal. Atari strung Entertainment Sciences along for quite some time, and they were became very concerned.
For ES to produce the game it would have a price tag of $4295, this was considerable higher than other games for the
time. Entertainment Sciences was selling the system as upgradeable, but there was no second game at the time and the
operators didn't buy it. Not to mention that operators were only interested in Laser Games in 1983. At this time period
Rob Patton left the company to pursue a job with Sega. "Bouncer" was shelved until money could be raised to produce
this game in quantity, it was at this time that work began on Turbo Sub. With 2 games under their belt they were ready
to market it again, unfortunately the operators viewed "Bouncer" as an old title, forcing them to focus on Turbo Sub. In
a string of bad luck, they were having trouble raising the required money, were plagued by a batch of troublesome PCB's
that needed troubleshooting, and to make matter worse Atari announced the release of Paperboy on their System II
platform (it's been suggested that the System II and Paperboy both heavily borrowed from Bouncer and the RIP system).
In the final days there was some changes in management and a last effort was made to release Turbo Sub, unfortunately
it was the beginning of the arcade crash!!
The majority of the assets were lost during a bitter legal battle with the company contracted to build the games and
Entertainment Sciences. Everything that the contract company had (prototypes, pcb films, pcb's, roms, bouncer parts)
were eventually destroyed and tossed out. Almost everything Bouncer related is currently under 15 years of garbage in
a landfill in Southern California. What remained was a large amount of unfinished Turbo Sub cabinets, and just a few
completed board sets. The remaining assets were relocated to southeast Louisiana where it was hoped these games
would be completed and operated. As it goes, rows and rows of unfinished Turbo Subs sat in a warehouse undisturbed for
many years. A few years ago Todd Bordelon received a call from a friend about someone smashing lots of video games.
Todd showed up and found this warehouse to be that of Entertainment Sciences. With the help of Kirby Gowland they
managed to save a lot of these machines from destruction. Unfortunately they were all missing their PCB's, there was
only a few Bouncer parts found also. Today there are a handful of working Turbo Subs within the collection community
(most from the few that were completed from the Louisianna bunch), In my research I have determined that at least 20
Bouncer machines were initially built, of those 20 I have found evidence that at least 3 survived destruction.
Additional Bouncer Information
Screen Shots From The Game "Bouncer"
Here are a few screen shots of Bouncer from various sources including flyers, the NINJA III movie,
and some video clips from a promotional video made by Entertainent Sciences.
Animation
Because of the high resolution graphics many people initially though this was a laserdisc game, this game
was designed by using animated cells and digitizing them so they could be painted and stored in sprite
format. The animation of the Bouncer character took 90 cells. Below is an animation cell for the Bouncer
character. The animator for Bouncer was a former Disney animator who worked on the Winnie the Pooh
cartoons. This sketch was provided to me by one of the former employees of Entertainment Sciences.
Bouncer Cabinet Parts
Here are a few of the Bouncer parts that have surfaced so far, these were found by Todd Bordelon during the
warehouse raid. I’m looking for a picture of the cabinet, so far all I have found in from it’s appearance in the
NINJA III: movie. If anyone watches the movie, please feel free to drop me a line at chris@turbosub.com with
your thoughts on the cabinet. According to a former employee, the Bouncer cabinet was custom designed for the
game.
Look Mom, a prototype Bouncer Cocktail
So far I’ve only been able to get my hands on a cocktail unit……………then I woke up !!!! This was apparently
the only cocktail table made for the game. It sat in the reception area of Entertainment Sciences. The image
was obtained from a promotion video produced by the company in the early to mid 80’s. I hope to get this video
published on the site in the near future.
The Bouncer Poster
Game Play Information
You’re the “Bouncer”, and it’s your job to keep away the bad guys before they disturb your customers. Bad guys include FATSO, SOPPY, ROMEO,
and SCOOTER. Other character include the waitress Julie, and the bartender Jake..
Mr. B - As the Bouncer he must keep the partrons from being annoyed by the bad guys
FATSO - Eats The Customers Food
SOPPY - A drunk, steals peoples drinks
ROMEO - Is a flasher that enjoys showing his boxer shorts
SCOOTER - Is on a skateboard and trips waitresses and patrons
JULIE - The Waitress, The more drinks Julie can server the higher the score
JAKE - The Bartender
THE PATRONS - You've got to keep them getting annoyed by barflies
The bouncer is controlled using a trackball, you have several options available to disable the bad guys, a punch will stun the bad guy temporarily, to
eject a bad guy you can grab and toss them, grab and kick them, or roll them into a ball using the bounce button and then toss them out the window or
kick them out the door. If you have a happy patron remaining at the end of the round, then you’ll advance to the next round (different bar). There are 4
bars in the game “Hussang’s Cantina”, “Gulley’s” , “Studio 64” and “The Ritz”. The game ends when there is no more happy patrons.
Hardware Information
Bouncer, as well Turbo Sub used Entertainment Sciences RIP (Real-Time Image Processor) System. The RIP has 1 million bytes of memory, 3
eight-bit processors, 1 sixteen bit processor, high resolution graphics, full speech capability, and over 500 graphic imagines per game. I hope to
have some comprehensive technical documentation in the near future.
Below is a screen shot from the RIP system showing it's graphics capabilities for non-arcade applications, these demos include a " pilot less drone
monitor" and "race car monitor", as these type of applications are used today, it shows Entertainment Sciences was ahead of it's time. In a related
note there was a deal pending with Rockwell for use of the RIP system on an unmanned drone system, however this deal never went through.
Here Are The Facts
1) A flyer for the game exists
2) Between 5-20 Prototype machines were built and put on location over labor day weekend in September 1983
3) Game was horizontal orientation using a color raster monitor
4) The control panel utilized a track ball, and the following action buttons (Grab/Toss, Punch/Kick, and Bounce)
5) Both an upright and cocktail version were created
6) A working Bouncer machine plays a major role in NINJA III : The Domination
7) Several people have claimed to play Bouncer in the 80’s
8) My research shows that at least 3 machines survived destruction.
9) The upright cabinet was designed and built in house
10) The game was designed by Rob Patton
11) Practically everything Bouncer related was destroyed and thrown out years ago after a bitter lawsuit between
Entertainment Sciences and the company contracted to build the machines. This includes prototypes, pcb's, parts,
documentation, etc.
Rumor Mill (Is It True Or Not)
1) Hardware costs made it to expensive to commercially released (True), The cost was going
be $4295 is Entertainment Sciences released in house.
2) According the Electronic Games, Bouncer was originally to be released as a laserdisc game,
but later it was determined that the cartoon style animation could be done with hardware.
(False - It was always intended to be hardware based) In fact at the AMOA show many of the
operators though it was a laser games, and amazingly lost interest when they found out it
wasn't.
3) Game used a medium resolution monitor (Sort Of - it was programmed for high res, but in
the end a modified G07 was used, and modified hanarex monitors for Turbo Sub), this is true,
the cost was already too high even with a standard resolution monitor.
4) Unit cost was close to $5000 (true, the list price was $4295)
5) A California operator claims the “Bouncer” he operated was in a converted Tempest
cabinet, and the game used a modified G07 monitor. (Confirmed). This is consistant with other
reports.
6) Hanna-Barbarra was involved in the project (False). Hanna-Barbera used a similar method
of animation.
7) A set of ROMS has been located (Possible). A lot of people like to talk, but when it's time to
step up to the plate..well you know
8) An untapped warehouse in Louisiana may contain additional Bouncer parts, as well as whole
machines. (False, Definately False) As much as I wish this was true is it definately not a
reality.
9) The game was completed before Turbo Sub, but may have been shelved due to the
controversial actions. (false, costs prevented it from being released, Turbo Sub was designed
while waiting for costs to go down and finding funding to purchase parts in bulk. (True and False
, the game shelved to wait for the costs to go down and for the completion of a second title).
Unfortunately by the time it was ready for release with Turbo Sub operators viewed it as an old
title.
10) One of the initial characters was a rowdy prostitute (True, Rob Patton confirms there was
a rowdy prostitute named Bambi, she never made it past the story boards). Bambi was
replaced by Romeo (the flasher who shows his boxer shorts with hearts on them). However, a
reader wrote a memorization of the game and he mentioned a prostitute, so it's possible it
could have been in an earlier ROM set. Jeez, I'd be happy with a single ROM set.
11) Almost everything related to Bouncer production was stolen and eventually destroyed.
True, unforunately!!! Entertainment Sciences contracted with an electronics company to
populate their PCB's and build their cabinets. After the contracted electronics company failed
to meet expectation, Entertainment Sciences filed a lawsuit against the electronics company
and won. Unfortunately, the electronics company disappeared over the weekend with almost
the entire operations (prototypes, PCB films, production schematics, rom masters, code tapes,
parts, etc.) I tracked down the owner of the electronics company about 2 years ago, he
informed me he held on to the stuff for several years, and eventually smashed it up and took it
to the dump (Gasp!!, It took me several years to find this guy and get him to talk to me, my
heart sunk after I heard this! He held on to one Bouncer machine, and sold it at a garage sale
a few years back. I'm trying to find out which dump, anyone want to get out some shovels with
me : )
12) A few Bouncer machines made it out and are in the hands of private collectors. (Possibily
True). None of the machines ended up with any employees, and what was found in the
Louisianna warehouse was all that was left on Entertainment Sciences. I'm confident that
there are at least two in existance. 1) one sold in a garage sale, and 2) one sold by an operator
in 1989. I've heard through the grapevine someone knows someone who has one... I've asked
just for a picture of the cabinet and have not yet received a responce. I'm also tracking down a
lead on another machine. By the way if you have one, please drop me a line.
Contact Me
If you have any information to add or correct, or you just want to talk about classic video
games, drop me a line. chris@turbosub.com
