Kyle Shelley was only a year out of Baylor University in 1982, when he left what was then the comfort of the giant Republic Bank in Dallas to buy a video game arcade in Del City.

"I was managing pensions and profit sharing accounts at Republic Bank," said Shelley, a Putnam City native, "but I thought there would be opportunities in video games. Buying the arcade at SW 29th St. and Sunny Lane Rd. was a way to learn about them. My father, Charles Shelley, helped me buy it."

While Republic suffered with the 1980s energy slump, Shelley rode the growth of video to movie rentals, a used movie exchange and a national distribution network and catalog. That led to manufacturing video games with national attention, such as Technocop, Storm Lord and Jerry Glandville's Pigskin Footbrawl.

Now, after building RazorSoft Inc. of Oklahoma City to sales of $10 million a year in manufacturing and distributing video games, the 34-year old Shelley is adding still another dimension.

RazorSoft, based at 7416 N. Broadway Extension, has found two toys to distribute to major chains such as Toys `R' Us and KB Toys in addition to video games. Both were developed by Oklahoma inventors and introduced to RazorSoft by Floyd Farha of the Oklahoma Department of Commerce Inventors Assistance Programs.

"We had been looking for new products to distribute," said Shelley, "and I was talking about it with several people at an Oklahoma Venture Forum luncheon. Farha said: `You need to let us help you.'

"They brought us about a dozen products invented by Oklahomans, and we have licensed two new toys, which we will manufacture and distribute."

The two toys include: A hand launcher for discs such as Frisbees. It is similar to a hand launcher for clay pigeons and was developed by Gerald Bridgeman of Drumright. He called it "Long Discance," but Shelley said it probably will be renamed the "Disc Launcher" and will retail for $24.95.

"We thought it would be for 12 to 19 year olds," said Shelley, "but older people like it. The sensations are tremendous. You can throw a Frisbee about 150 yards with it, and you can make a Frisbee do things like rise 80 feet in the air and dive sharply.

"We spent three hours with it behind the plant the other day, and we couldn't stop." A disc for sliding downhill under control on snow will provide a new toy product for the winter season. It was developed by Tim Hopkins of Bartlesville as the "Downhill Screamer," but it probably will be called the "Snow Seat" by RazorSoft. It is expected to retail for $12.95.

"It's similar to round plastic discs that kids have been riding downhill in recent years," Shelley said, "but there was no way to control them. Hopkins has developed a way to control his."

The most important factor in the addition of toys is that RazorSoft has the distribution system to get them on the market.

"We have credibility with huge chains like Toys `R' Us and KB Toys," said Shelley, "as a result of the video games we have manufactured and distributed. So we have a good chance to get these new products on the market.

"We also have a catalog and a nationwide system for distribution to other stores, and our video game products have been successful."

RazorSoft has beaten some Japanese firms at their own games in producing a series of successful video products. In the process, Shelley feels the firm has made a case for American products in general and for Oklahoma as a prime central location for manufacturing small products such as video games.

"In 1990, when we started to create our own video games, about 60 companies were producing them," Shelley said. "They were dominated by the Japanese, with only three or four based in America. Now, we are one of six American firms out of 70 overall.

"Oklahoma City is a perfect place to produce them with our central location. …