Microprocessors: Beating an electronic opponent is a challenge: But the road from the concept of an intelligent game to the final product is both challenging and tortuous

Got an idea for an intelligent electronic game? It will take more than convincing a game manufacturer to bring it to fruition, it took Gary O'Hara and Tim Shane seven years before their highly successful backgammon game, Gammonmaster, landed on department store shelves. The long turnaround wasn't due only to engineering problems, but rather because of such uncertain factors as cost/performance trade-offs, market acceptance-, and competition from other game vendors and other television video games.