They notably created a few of the earliest games incorporating microprocessors, including The Spirit of ’76, the first commercially available pinball utilizing the technology.
The roots of Mirco Games lie in the company Arizona Automation, an importer of foosball tables founded by Richard “Dick” N. Raymond and John L. Walsh.
Walsh and Raymond had worked together at General Electric in Germany and discovered the popularity of foosball in Europe, which had not yet taken off in the United States.
Using manufacturing materials in both the United States and Taiwan, Raymond found great success as the popularity for foosball boomed in the country.
In 1975, Mirco Games was approached by engineer David Nutting who had led the project to convert an electro-mechanical pinball table to be powered by a microprocessor.
At the same show, Mirco also introduced one of the earliest microprocessor-based video games, PT-109 (1975), utilizing the Fairchild F8 microprocessor – which also sold poorly.
[12] In January 1976, Mirco entered into an agreement with Fairchild Camera & Instrument to create a dedicated home video game console based on their Challenge arcade machine.
[14][15][16] Micro Inc's financial situation took a serious hit as a result of the game business, with The Spirit of '76, the Fairchild agreement, and the formation of their German subsidiary being blamed for the company's first reported loss in fiscal 1977.