Boy do I have some stories after seeing those AAMD pricelists. I'd say it was around 1976-77, Dad and I went down to AAMD - which we did every now and again. I used to play all the EMs as they were all lined up. To me, it was just like Dad's operation, only all the games were under one roof. Most were second hand. Most visits were pleasant and long - so I played a lot of machines that Dad did not have. This particular visit, Dad was fuming. We left after some words were exchanged, and I don't ever remember going back until KISS was released (another story)..
When I was a bit older, Dad explained the angry visit - Dad used to go the USA and pick the new games straight out of the Bally / Gottlieb / Williams factory. There was no such thing as "distributors" back in the 60's and 70's (USA - Australia) - until AAMD picked up the Bally distribution. Seems AAMD didn't like the fact that Dad could buy direct, so they tried to monopolize the distributorship to PREVENT Dad from buying direct. This was a very big deal, as Dad was buying machines for his business and other operators in Melbourne. Dad found out about this, and confronted AAMD Management and told them that he was still able to buy direct, and he would still supply local operators - as he had a "telex" in his had that said so - right from the top brass at Bally. A "telex" was like a fax - correspondence by paper, but faster than mail. So AAMD cracked the shits and they never spoke or did Business for 2 years.
