Ramtek Corporation

[3] Ramtek Corporation was founded on September 4, 1971 by engineers Charles McEwan (1935-2006)[4] and John Metzler (1935-1982) as well as lawyer Jack Teeters.

[2] The company recruited other members of the Data Disc terminal business to join them as well as Charles' brother Melvin McEwan.

[2] Despite the growth of the computer graphics market in the early 1970s, Ramtek initially found it difficult to survive off of contracts from high-end corporations.

The company attempted expansion into lower scale markets with black and white visual displays and they acquired venture capital from the likes of Exxon,[2][7][8] but found their break in the coin-operated video game industry.

Friend of Charles McEwan and later Ramtek CFO Tom Adams was co-owner of Sunnyvale bar Andy Capp's Tavern, where the video game Pong was first location tested by Atari.

Ramtek contacted local coin-op distributors in California and found an enthusiastic partner in Rowe International who ordered 2,500 Volly cabinets.

While maintaining their graphics terminal business, the company threw its weight behind the coin-operated industry including a partnership in Canada.

An internal team assisted by consultant Ray Holt created a prototype pinball machine called Lucky Dice based on the Intel 4040 microprocessor.

[14] In 1975 Ramtek purchased the company Micro Machines from Larry Krummel and commercialized the MM 80, an in-circuit emulator of the Intel 8080 microprocessor for development purposes.

[20] A collective effort by around ninety Ramtek employees and their families helped to clear the rubble of the facility, enabling them to build a temporary manufacturing plant to meet orders on their graphics display monitors.

[23] In 1977, Ramtek monitors were used by Bendix in their work on the Viking space program and later by UCSC professor Ralph Abraham on an advanced mathematical project.

[42][43] In 1982, they minted a deal with Digital Equipment Corporation to sell graphics systems based on their VAX line of computers.

[54] Layoffs hit the company at the end of 1985[55] and the following year Ramtek worked out a deal with the SEC to establish a public offering to repay debt.

[61] Two of Ramtek's officers - Thomas Adams and G. William Theriault - were accused of falsifying the company's revenue between September 1986 to March 1988 through fictitious purchase agreements.