Lyle Raines: Pioneer of Atari’s Coin-Op Gaming Era

A batch of previously unseen videos from the Golden Age of coin-operated gaming for you this week. Lyle Raines was one of Atari Coin-Op’s most influential employees. He arrived at Atari with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of California in Berkeley, where he graduated in 1973. He had a big hand in the creation of Asteroids (arguably Atari’s biggest arcade hit) and went on to become a senior executive of the Coin-Op division helping steer the company through its golden age years of the late 70s and early 80s. Whilst being known as a quiet unassuming figure, his influence is well documented, bringing conceptualised ideas through to commercial reality on the arcade floors. I’ve dug out a couple of videos and thought they were worth sharing here. Note this is largely unedited b-roll footage (which sort of adds to the authenticity and charm) and as far as I know, were never screened on TV. The first is interesting in that Raines initially showcases and…