The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 265

D9 A TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1991 LOS ANGELES TIMES Valley Business THO'S Video-Game Success Comes With Betting on Winners Toys: The young Calabasas firm expects 1991 sales of $34 million. The fast start is linked to the popularity of films and books its products derive from. By JAMES F. PELTZ TIMES STAFF WRITER Video-game mania may be easing in America, but Christmas sales end today with more than 50 companies still vying for part of the Nintendo -game market. And there's still room for one more game marketer to make a splash, and to make its founder rich in the process.

Just ask THQ Inc. in Calabasas. THQ, founded only 19 months ago by President Jack Friedman, expects its sales this year to reach $34 million. (The company earned $1.5 million on sales of $13.7 million in the first nine months of 1991.) The quick start reflects THQ's early success with a video game based on the popular movie "Home Alone" and one on the hit series of "Where's Waldo?" kids' books, among other titles. Like its rivals, THQ is licensed by Nintendo Co.

Ltd, of Japan to develop and sell cartridges for Nintendo's enormously popular players, which account for more than of the U.S. video-game market. (Nintendo also sells games itself). THQ has games for all three of Nintendo's formats: the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), of which 32 million have been sold since its 1986 debut; the 'Super NES system, unveiled just four months ago; and the hand-held Game Boy player, introduced in 1989. Nintendo games currently account for of THQ's sales; dolls and board games make up the balance.

THQ's video hits are sold through such outlets as Toys 'R Us and Kay Bee Toy stores, and reflect Friedman's strategy of developing games derived from books, movies, television shows, celebrities and other subjects that are already popular with his young audience-or that Friedman thinks will be popular. That means the games have instant name recognition, which is how Friedman expects THQ's products to stand out in the cluttered video- -game aisles of toy stores. The trouble is, lots of Friedman's rivals have the same strategy. Three of the largest Nintendo licensees -Konami Acclaim Entertainment Inc. and Capcom USA Inc.

-also sell games based on popular subjects. "They're not unique," Acclaim Chair- ALONE BORIS YARO Los Angeles Times 'If you have a good title but a poor game, you'll get a quick shot out of the box at retail, and three weeks later it will JACK FRIEDMAN THQ Inc. president 5 OF MACE JOEL, P. LUGAVERE Los Angeles Times -Lab tech Sandra Goettling loads a tube of silicon wafer into a furnace at a temperature of 1,000 degrees centigrade. New Light Shed on Photodetection Technology: A Camarillo firm's new cnergy converter could affect everything from medicine to military equipment.

By PATRICE APODACA TIMES STAFF WRITER uring the- Persian Gulf War, A Americans glued to their television sets saw images of so-called bombs devastating bridges, military facilities and enemy aircraft with concanny precision. Those bombs found. their targets thanks to devices about the size of a quarter that sense light and then convert it into electrical energy. These photodetectors, introduced more than a decade ago, arc used in a wide array of applications including medical imaging, facsimile machines and telecommunications. They perform cssentially the same function as photomultiplier tubes, devices that look something like light bulbs and that have been around for 50 years.

even though silicon photodetectors are much smaller and more rugged than the old glass photomultiplicr tubes, they have yet to replace the tubes completely. The reason is that silicon detectors haven't been able to function adequately when the levels of light are very low, Advanced Photonix Inc. in Camarillo hopes.to change all that. It has created a silicon photodetector it says will work in low light situations--a development that company officials say could have an enormous impact in a wide range of Meeting Scheduled Over Stockholders' Questions on AME By JAMES F. PELTZ TIMES STAFF WRITER A special stockholders' meeting was scheduled Monday at AME Inc.

after some holders complained about not being given enough information about the company, including its possible salc, The Times has learned. 4 Results of the meeting at AME's Burbank headquarters were not immediately available. But informed sources said the stockholders mainly wanted to know about AME's reportedly troubled financial condilion, whether it has defaulted on any of its debts and the prospects for its sale. AME declined comment about the meeting, saying it has a policy against publicly discussing its affairs. AME is Hollywood's biggest post-production company and provides such services as.

transferring filmed movies to videotape for mass distribution. The company went private in a $57-million leveraged buyout in 1989 but, according to Please see AME, DOD man Gregory Fischbach said of THQ. All big vide sellers "are trying to buy licenses cheap in front of the market," he said. Acclaim sells games based on "The Simpsons" cartoon show, and Capcom in the past four months has sold 500,000 copies of "'The Little Mermaid" game based on Walt Disney hit movie. Konami sells seven different games based on the blockbuster "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." Konami claims to be the industry leader with U.S.

sales exceeding $200 million a year, and "because of our size we get to see everything THQ and the others get to see" in terms of potential new licenses, said Emil Heidkamp, senior vice president for Konami's consumer division. Of course, Friedman knows he can't rely on name recognition only to 'sell his software. He also needs well-crafted games that challenge youngsters. "If you have a good title but a poor game, you'll get a quick shot out of the box at retail, and three weeks later it will die," he said. Still, there's no denying THQ's strong start, which could grow stronger next year.

One reason: THQ's license from Nintendo, Please see THQ, D9D Hybrid assembly unit, above, is about the size of a quarter. At left, Advanced Photonix light-sensing device gets a cleaning. The new technology means that silicon photodetectors can replace photomultiplier tubes, and that new solutions may be found to problems such as mapping the ocean floor or medical imaging, fields, including medical diagnostics, Advanced Photonix Chairman William night-vision military technology and R. Graham. eventually consumer electronics.

That might sound like hyperbole, but "It does for photonics -the conversion industry observers are only slightly of light into electricity- -what the tran- more subdued in their enthusiasm. sistor did for clectrical circuits," said Please see PHOTONIX, DID RICARDO DeARATANIA Los Angeles Times! Richard E. James, JBL president, left; parent company chairman Sidney Harman. Martin Lawrence Planning to Close 13 of Its 33 Art Galleries By PHILIPP GOLLNER TIMES STAFF WRITER Martin Lawrence Limited Editions an ailing Van Nuys-based operator of shopping-mall art galleries, said it plans to close nearly of its galleries in the next year and eliminate approximately 45 jobs, partly through attrition. The closings will result in a charge against fourth -quarter results, the company said.

Martin Lawrence will shut down 13 of its 33 remaining galleries, with eight scheduled to be closed by New Year's Eve. Four of the remaining stores will cease operations by Dec. 31, 1992, and one will close by July, Martin Lawrence said. The closures will bring to 23 the total number of galleries closed since Martin Lawrence began cutting back earlier in the year. The company started out the year with 42 galleries.

Allen A. Baron, chief financial officer, said the cuts are needed to cope with recession and the continued weak art market, which the company has blamed this year for three quarterly losses in a row totaling $5.6 million on revenue of $18.7 million. That compares to a nine-month profit last year of $3.4 million on revenuc of $37.4 million. "I feel that we're pared down," Baron Please see ART, D9C JBL Making Big Sounds With Speaker Technology Audio: Industry sales have a pair. The K2 is only widely available in remained flat in recent years, Japan because the Japanese "are willing to pay top dollar for top sound.

We sell but the Northridge-based firm them as fast as we can produce them," has seen annual sales growth of said JBL President Richard D. James. Some Japanese retailers wait as long about during the period. as five months for delivery, said Bruce Scrogin, president of JBL International, By PHILIPP GOLLNER the company's export division. The sysTIMES STAFF WRITER tem, acclaimed for its ability to reproduce concert-hall-quality sound, has In the halls of Harman International won the top award from Japan's leading Industries Inc.

in Northridge, executives audiophile magazine. speak with awe of "Project K2." For those whose tastes aren't quite as It's not a classified weapons system demanding, there are JBL speaker sysbut a set of audio loudspeakers named tems for the home and car from about after the Himalayan peak, K2, which is $125 per pair, while its top-of-the-linc considered the most difficult mountain speaker for the North American market on earth to climb. The 4-foot-tall speak- retails for around $3,500 a pair. er, available in whitewashed maple and But the success of the K2 says a lot black lacquer, is the crowning jewel of about JBL. While audio industry sales JBL Farman's main subsidiary and nationwide have remained basically flat one of the oldest and best- -known names for the past two years, JBL's sales in that in the speaker business.

Its price: $35,000 Please see JBL, DOC.