ABSTRACT
In May 1975, a new player appeared in the coin-operated video game industry called Fun Games, Inc. The founder of the company, Oberto Alvarez, was a banker forced to leave Cuba in 1962 due to his opposition work against Cuban leader Fidel Castro. After arriving in the United States, he took a job as a janitor at the Corrobilt Container Company in Alameda County and rose to become VP of wood products. Corrobilt built shipping containers for coin-op manufacturers, providing Alvarez his introduction to the amusement industry. Like Harry Kurek at Meadows, he decided to establish his own coin-op manufacturer because the industry appeared recession proof. 1 The key employees of Fun Games, salesperson Pat Karns and engineer Larry Leppert, defected to the firm from Atari after becoming fed up with the chaos, financial difficulties, and politicking that marred Atari during the John Wakefield presidency. 2
