Pinball and video arcades were entering a new technical era in 1975. Several companies were experimenting with central processing units, but showing a working prototype was not the same as delivering a game to operators. Mirco Games’ PT-109 sits at the centre of that distinction.
The evidence places PT-109 at the October 1975 MOA Expo in Chicago alongside Midway’s Gun Fight and Innovative Coin’s Spitfire. All three used a CPU, creating an awkward question for arcade historians: which one was first?
Earlier research by Kevin Smith and Ethan Johnson has explored the arrival of microprocessors in games. The commonly accepted answer remains Midway’s Gun Fight as the first mass-produced CPU arcade game. A closer look at PT-109, however, suggests that its appearance at the show may have been the beginning and end of its commercial life.
For readers interested in the broader development of arcade hardware, the RETROCADE arcade blog covers more stories from the industry’s formative years.
Who was Mirco Games?
Mirco is easily confused with “Micro”, but the company’s name was spelled Mirco. Based in Arizona, it began as a manufacturer of foosball tables and test equipment before entering the video-game business during the Pong boom at the end of 1973.
The company later moved into amusement card games, including a licensed version of Ramtek’s blackjack title Hit Me!. Mirco also produced two pinball machines. Its first was promoted as the first full solid-state pinball machine, while the second was an unremarkable cocktail cabinet.
Cocktail cabinets were a recurring choice for Mirco. The company even presented a racing game this way instead of in an upright. Its catalogue is not generally remembered for enduring hits, although Super 21 may be the closest exception.
Mirco’s early interest in CPU technology was not accidental. Some employees had previously worked at Motorola, yet the company selected the Fairchild F8 processor for its early CPU-based projects rather than Motorola’s 6800. Mirco also released a version of Scramble; further documentation and photographs of that title are planned for a separate history project.
Three CPU games at one trade show
The MOA Expo created a genuine historical complication. Gun Fight, PT-109 and Spitfire were all shown as CPU-powered games at the same October 1975 event.
That does not necessarily make them equal contenders for the title of first CPU arcade game. A closed experiment or an unreleased prototype belongs in a different category from a machine that reached distributors and operators. Spitfire is known to have shipped in very small quantities in January 1976, while Gun Fight was reportedly appearing in distributor showrooms and on game floors by November 1975.
Arcade history contains many examples of games that appeared once at a trade show and then vanished. A show debut, a surviving flyer or an entry in an emulator database does not, by itself, prove that a title entered production. That is an important distinction for anyone researching cabinets, prototypes or how to choose an arcade machine.
What happened to PT-109?
The surviving record for PT-109 is remarkably thin. There are four known references in Cash Box and Play Meter, followed by a technical-magazine article in EDN in March 1976. After that, the title disappears.
A search through trade-magazine classifieds and other industry material reveals no clear sales activity. Mirco’s own advertising is especially telling: the company promoted its 1974 Pong clone, Challenge, and later advertised Sky War, but did not appear to support PT-109 with a comparable campaign.
Challenge had received UL certification, reportedly a first for an arcade game, and Mirco seemed more interested in highlighting that achievement than its CPU-powered naval combat title. An advertisement for Challenge appeared on 14 February 1976, precisely the period when a new production game would normally have been promoted.
Mirco attracted substantial attention at the MOA show because of Spirit of ’76, its ambitious full solid-state pinball machine. The machine did not work at the event, yet the attention generated large orders and intense pressure to deliver.
A later account attributed to Cash Olsen described both Spirit of ’76 and PT-109 as remaining in prototype status after the show. Mirco returned to Phoenix to prepare additional prototypes for an initial customer, believed to be C.A. Robinson in California. The quoted sales price was below the cost of manufacture, while sourcing problems and the complexity of the pinball machine added to the company’s difficulties.
Olsen’s account says that both games were still prototypes after the show, with nothing finalised and ready to hand over to manufacturing. It also describes the subsequent preparation of more prototypes for the first customer.
If that account is accurate, PT-109 was not shipping alongside Gun Fight. It may have existed as a playable prototype, but that is very different from being a production release.
The missing distributor evidence
C.A. Robinson held a post-MOA event in California for customers who could not attend the Chicago exhibition. The distributor carried Mirco products, and trade coverage listed Spirit of ’76, Gun Fight and other games at the event. PT-109 was not included in those lists.
The known evidence therefore consists of one MOA appearance and a flyer. Neither proves a production run. Flyers were routinely prepared for prototypes and show exhibits; even a home-market announcement promoting Asteroids as an Atari 5200 pack-in game did not guarantee that the plan would reach consumers.
The software trail is also absent. No PT-109 ROM has been identified, and the title is listed as undumped. That could indicate cancellation, extremely low production or the survival of a single prototype, but it provides no support for a normal commercial release.
For comparison, Mirco’s later flight-combat game Sky War did receive a documented release. Its presence in later advertising makes the complete disappearance of PT-109 even more conspicuous.
A cautious conclusion
The most convincing explanation is that Mirco cancelled PT-109 after displaying it at the 1975 expo. The company may have lacked the manufacturing capacity, encountered technical or commercial problems, or simply decided that demand did not justify the expense. This pattern is familiar in the arcade business: a title is shown, promotional material is printed, and the project quietly ends.
A surviving machine with a serial number indicating a broader production run would change the picture. Testimony from someone involved with Mirco could also clarify whether the MOA cabinet was unique or one of several units. Until that evidence appears, PT-109 is best treated as a CPU-powered prototype rather than a mass-produced arcade game.
That leaves Gun Fight with the strongest claim to being the first CPU arcade game that actually reached the market. Spitfire follows as a very limited January 1976 release, while PT-109 remains a fascinating unresolved case.
Could the cabinet design have hurt it?
There is also a design issue to consider. Mirco presented PT-109 in a cocktail cabinet rather than an upright. At a time when many cocktail machines looked similar, a naval combat game could easily be overlooked among rows of Pong-style tables unless visitors stood directly over it.
An upright cabinet would have given the game a stronger visual presence and made its subject easier to identify from across the show floor. That may not have caused the cancellation, but it could have limited attention at the precise event where Mirco needed operators to notice the machine.
For modern collectors and restorers, the case is a reminder that a cabinet’s form, documentation and production trail all matter. RETROCADE’s arcade machines and arcade parts collections offer a useful point of comparison when considering how surviving hardware is identified and preserved.
Unless a forgotten unit turns up, Mirco’s PT-109 will remain the ghost of the 1975 CPU arcade race: visible at one important show, documented in a handful of references, and apparently absent from the production line.
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