Chapter 4) How do Wells-Gardner and Amplifone differ?
Atari used 2 different (but pinout compatible) versions of the color vector monitor. The first and most unreliable was the Wells-Gardner. The second (used only in Star Wars and dedicated Major Havoc machines as far as I know) was the Amplifone. There were several versions of the Amplifone, early ones used in Quantum, and later ones used in Star Wars have differing tube/yoke numbers. I’m assuming they are all compatible but don’t know for certain? Another quick aside; all the boards and professionally produced documents spell the company name correctly as “Amplifone” but lots of supplemental documentation (such as the document below) misspell it as “Ampliphone”. I use whichever spelling was used in the particular document presented. Each monitor design has a slightly different electrical characteristic and tube shape that will cause games designed for use with the Amplifone to bulge out around the edges (a defect known as “barreling”) when using a Wells-Gardner and similarly will cause
