Deconstructing Golden Tee LIVE is the only book I’ve ever worked on in which we omitted Chapter 13. We decided to skip Chapter 13 and head directly to Chapter 14 in keeping with tradition. Larry Hodgson of Incredible Technologies (one of the game’s creators and developers) explains:
When we were shipping the release of Golden Tee Fore!, I insisted that the number 13 not show up in any of the boot screen indicators, including the game’s version numbers, (for example, 1.00.13), the build time (for example, 12:00:13), and the build date (for example, 02-13-2000).
I have since lightened my stance on the 13′s in the boot screen indicators, but for Golden Tee LIVE, we were not taking any chances. Since we started developing games on the Eagle platform in the late ’90′s, we’ve assigned a numerical product code to each game. Golden Tee Fore! Was product code 4.
When it came time to assign a product code to Golden Tee LIVE, the next number was 13. When Demetrius mentioned this to me, we decided to skip it and go straight to 14. Understand, we’re not necessarily superstitious people, but after all the work that we all poured into LIVE, I just couldn’t stomach assigning the game a product code of 13.
Deconstructing Golden Tee LIVE never took off in terms of sales, perhaps because we lacked a clear vision before we started. I still think it’s a great book, however. In part, it reveals the process and expertise that goes into developing a top video game of this caliber. In part, it offers some history of the video game industry. Perhaps the most interesting part, however, is that the book reveals how the developers used this video game as a revenue-generating machine and completely revolutionized the coin-op video game industry at the same time.
Instead of following the old model of selling its game to distributors and relying on only one stream of revenue to flow into the company, the visionaries at Incredible Technologies figured out how to multiply those streams. With the release of Golden Tee LIVE, Incredible Technologies was able to establish at least six revenue streams:
- Wholesale to distributors
- Direct sales to game operators
- Licensing fees from various manufacturers who wanted to capitalize on the popularity and success of Golden Tee
- Product update fees charged to game operators
- Per-play fees charged to players
- Advertising fees charged to manufacturers who wanted to post clever ads inside the game or on one of the displays
Whether you’re interested in video game development, learning more about the industry, or witnessing how some brilliant business people expanded their revenue streams from a single product, you’ll find Deconstructing Golden Tee LIVE a very enlightening read.
