[3] Instead of hiring away existing game designers from Mattel or Atari, as some developers had done, Roper placed an advertisement in the Dallas Morning News and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Sent a copy of the Morning News ad by a friend, a young programmer from Iowa named Ed Salvo contacted Roper to pitch him Skeet Shoot, a game he had developed in about four weeks.

During the segment, Salvo made a customized Spacechase for her, which involved changing an explosion graphic so that when her ship was destroyed, her initials appeared.

Other programmers interviewed for the piece were Dan Oliver (Space Cavern), Steve Stringfellow (Lochjaw) and Ernie Runyon (Lost Luggage).

[citation needed] It was created after Roper flew Salvo to the Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas to see Imagic's new game Demon Attack.

[3] Apollo attended the June 1982 CES in Chicago with a booth of their own, which included the obligatory hiring of models to demonstrate its games.

Billy Sue, a strong woman, has to defend her farm from pesky rabbits in the game Wabbit (Atari 2600 VCS 1982).

[3] In late 1982, Ed Salvo, Terry Grantham, Mike Smith and one other employee left Apollo when it appeared that Roper was not taking the right steps to stay in business.

Programmer Larry Martin stayed until the end, recalling that he had been working around-the-clock for several weeks, trying to finish the game Guardian.