Leland Interactive Media

Overview

Cinematronics Inc. was founded in 1975 in El Cajon, California. The company manufactured coin-op games as well as arcade action games for the Vectrex console and then branched into the Commodore 64. Their most well-known games include Space Wars and Dragon's Lair, their first laser disc game.

Cinematronics financial situation deteriorated after some bad decisions, and it filed bankruptcy proceedings under Chapter 11 hoping to reorganize and recover. Unfortunately their efforts failed, and the company was acquired by Tradewest in 1987 in an unfriendly take-over. The company was renamed The Leland Corporation, after one of Tradewest's co-founders Leland Cook. John Rowe (another Tradewest co-founder) was chosen to run the operation, which remained in El Cajon.

Games under the Leland Corporation name were released from 1987 until 1992. In early 1993 game releases showing the new name of Leland Interactive Media appeared.

When parent company Tradewest was acquired by WMS Industries in 1994, Leland (and Tradewest) ceased to exist.

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Also Known As

Leland Corporation (from 1987 to 1992)
Cinematronics, Inc. (from 1975 to 1987)

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Trivia

The first three games Cinematronics manufactured were a Pong clone, a copy of the Flipperball game and Embargo, their first original game design. For more info on Embargo, see this page: http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=embargo&page=detail&id=751

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