Entex Industries

Entex Industries, Inc.^[1] was a toy and electronic game manufacturer based in Compton, California.^[1] The company was active during the 1970s and 1980s.

Background

The company was formed in 1970 by G.A. (Tony) Clowes, Nicholas Carlozzi and Nick Underhill.^[1] It was based at 303 West Artesia Blvd,^[2] Compton. Its name was derived from taking Nicholas' and Tony's initials and adding an 'X' on the end to form NTX, which when spoken sounds like Entex.^[1] Nick Underhill's initial was not included as he had joined the company after the name had already been chosen, but before it opened for business.^[1] The company logo consisted of an RAF bullseye with a smiling face in the middle.^[2] In 1980, the company achieved sales in excess of $100 million.^[2] The company folded in the early eighties, due in part to increasing competition from video game consoles and computer games which quickly became a preferred form of entertainment, much to the cost of the electronic games industry.^[3]

Products

The company originally made model kits and Lego-like connectable toy bricks called Loc Blocs,^[1] before later moving into the handheld and tabletop electronic game market. Electronic games produced by Entex have been described as "high end"^[4] and "high-quality"^[3] and the company itself used the motif "Games for the discriminating player",^[4] indicating that the more expensive end of the market was specifically targeted. Many Entex products were rebadged and sold under license outside the US.^[5]

Conventional Electronic Games

Entex produced LCD, LED and VFD-based electronic games, including 3-D Grand Prix, Blast It, Defender and Pac Man 2 amongst others.^[2]

Programmable Electronic Games

In order to compete with video consoles,^[3] Entex introduced two cartridge based tabletop electronic game systems in 1981-1982, called Select-A-Game and Adventure Vision.^[3] In particular, the Adventure Vision, along with its cartridges have become highly sought after collector's items.^[1]

References