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The article focuses on the latest trends in amusements technology and the amusement industry of the U.S. First there was pizza and singing robots, then talking teddy bears and now comes businessman George Carter III and his Photon zappaterias computer war games. George A. Carter III opened his first Photon zappateria in Dallas, Texas 31 months ago. Today his Photon Entertainment Inc. has 16 Photon centers up and running, opened at a cost of $400,000 to $1.2 million each. Carter spent the 1970s operating go-cart tracks in Arizona, Nevada, Alaska and Texas. He said that he twigged to the Photon idea while watching "Star Wars." As malevolent troops ran across the screen, Carter imagined a place where kids could play space-age cowboys and Indians. Seven years and about $500,000 in seed capital later, Carter had developed the proprietary software and, in 1984, opened his first Photon in a converted warehouse in Dallas. |
