The channel never launched because the board of Time, Inc. developed cold feet when it witnessed Atari’s sudden collapse almost bring down Warner Brothers due to a snafu over inventory management, leading some directors to declare: “Video games are a fad.” Atari has shot to prominence and profitability by marketing cartridges of video games to retailers. 

Created in 1983, the Video Games Channel was to be marketed nationwide via cable operators as a subscription service with a collection of rotating games each month, including fantasy, action and educational offerings. The longer-term aim was to evolve to multi-person games, once the fibre optic cable network could allow two-way signaling. The high-resolution, low cost adapter was engineered in Japan to plug in to the installed base of video game players and PCs. This venture with TVIS was shut down by the board of Time, Inc.

Monica as General Manager, Games, Delta Project, was the innovator, creator and strategist. The concept arose from market testing of teletext and videotext, when games emerged as the hottest of buttons. But technology was deficient, limiting the graphics and speed and playability. Monica developed the technology (hardware and software) and acquired rights form independent game makers (Activision, Imagic, Sega…) to launch the Video Games Channel over cable. But Monica failed to persuade the board of Time, Inc. that video games were a growing appetite and were here to stay.