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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Cammeray,

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With

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Speaker 1: text style from how stuff works dot com. Hello, everyone,

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Speaker 1: welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Pellette and

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Speaker 1: I am an editor at how stuff works dot com.

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Speaker 1: Sitting across from me, as he always does, is senior

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Speaker 1: writer Jonathan Strickland flawless victory. Nice. Yeah, we just said

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Speaker 1: that we were going to do a profile not on

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Speaker 1: a person, but on a company, a company that has

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Speaker 1: ceased to be and is sort of rung up the

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Speaker 1: curtain and joined the choir invisible well, ceased to be

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Speaker 1: as an independent company. Yeah, we're talking about Midway Games,

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Speaker 1: and Midway Games has a special place in my heart

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Speaker 1: because they actually published one of my favorite video games

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Speaker 1: of all time. Gee, which one would that be? You? Well,

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Speaker 1: I mean you might two are three titles going through

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Speaker 1: your head? Yeah, but considering your quote, no, it is

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Speaker 1: not that one. It's not Moral Kombat. Really, that's probably

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Speaker 1: probably the most famous title that that Midway published, but

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Speaker 1: it is not the title that's my favorite. Okay, which

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Speaker 1: one is your favorite? Spy Hunter? That's mine too? Now

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Speaker 1: you got the you got the Peter Gun theme, and

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Speaker 1: you've got the cool spy car with guns and stuff.

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Speaker 1: And I mean, I like the old old classic Spy

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Speaker 1: Hunter game. We're we're talking the one that that you

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Speaker 1: look down on top of the car, not the remake

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Speaker 1: where you're in the car. That was kind of fun too, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but it was the the overhead view and especially the

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Speaker 1: ones that had the cockpit style console, so you were

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Speaker 1: sitting down and you were you know, completely enveloped, and

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Speaker 1: you just had that Peter Gun theme playing and glorious,

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Speaker 1: glorious low fidelity. So um. But yes, the Midway Games

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Speaker 1: has sadly fallen on hard times to the point where

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Speaker 1: the company is no more than just a name really

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Speaker 1: at this point. Rum But let's let's kind of set

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Speaker 1: the whole story here. So, going way back into the sixties,

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Speaker 1: Midway was a company that was developing and producing equipment

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Speaker 1: for amusement parks and fair grounds. So the name made sense,

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Speaker 1: the Midway. That was the area of a carnival where

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Speaker 1: you would find all the games, right so that that

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Speaker 1: you know, and rides as well, that's the Midway. So

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Speaker 1: Midway starts off developing various games for amusement parks. And

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Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty nine, uh, they were purchased by another

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Speaker 1: company that became known for producing lots of games and amusements, Bally. Now,

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Speaker 1: for those of you who have listened to our pinball podcast,

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Speaker 1: you may have heard us talk about Bally actually Midway

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Speaker 1: as well, because both companies did produce pinball machines, and

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Speaker 1: so that back then that's pretty much what the coin

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Speaker 1: operated divisions of these companies were concentrating on producing pinball machines. Well,

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Speaker 1: they didn't have video games at that point. Yes, this

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Speaker 1: credates video games really not. That didn't exist on an

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Speaker 1: oscillator in a lab, right, So eventually video games do

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Speaker 1: start to emerge. People begin to play with this idea,

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Speaker 1: and Midway published a couple but the first one of

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Speaker 1: any real note that they published was in nineteen seventy

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Speaker 1: eight and it was a Biggie UM. Now, before before

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Speaker 1: this they had made one of their probably one of

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Speaker 1: the earliest and biggest blenders. They turned down the opportunity

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Speaker 1: to publish a certain video game that became synonymous with

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Speaker 1: the early early early days of video games. It was

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Speaker 1: a creation of a Mr Nolan Bushnell. You know what

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Speaker 1: I'm talking about Chuck E Cheese Pong Oh that the

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Speaker 1: earlier creation, yes Pong So Pong was. They had the

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Speaker 1: opportunity to publish Pong Y they they turned it down,

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Speaker 1: but they did not turn down the opportunity to publish

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Speaker 1: a video game from a Japanese company called Tito called

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Speaker 1: Space Invaders. Bom Bom Bom Bom bom. You this is

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Speaker 1: our sad attempt at recreating the space and I'll improve

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Speaker 1: my fully technique. Maybe we can get Liz to throw

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Speaker 1: in like a a just an electronic beap here and

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Speaker 1: there for this podcast. So Space Invaders comes out in

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Speaker 1: ninety eight. Now, for those of you younger listeners who

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Speaker 1: never played or saw Space Invaders, or maybe you've only

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Speaker 1: seen it in one of those are acades where they

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Speaker 1: have like the Classic console where it has five or

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Speaker 1: six different games and then Space Invaders is one of them,

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Speaker 1: you may not realize that this was an enormous hit

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Speaker 1: in the video game world. I mean, you can't really

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Speaker 1: understate how big this was. Yeah, I mean seven years old,

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Speaker 1: and you know, I remember Space Invaders machines being at

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Speaker 1: skating rinks and people used to roller skate in the

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Speaker 1: seventies and pizza part owners. This was before inline skating. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: people still quad skate, but it wasn't you know at

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Speaker 1: that time, that was a big thing to do. And

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Speaker 1: there were you know, any place where you might find

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Speaker 1: a video game, because they really didn't have video or kids.

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Speaker 1: I never really saw one until the eighties. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: remember seeing them in bars because that's where my dad

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Speaker 1: would leave me. You go next door to right, Just

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Speaker 1: tell the people on side, look after look after this kid,

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Speaker 1: will you. I'm just kidding. My dad never ever left

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Speaker 1: me in a bar. Mom, that's a different story. But anyway,

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Speaker 1: so no, no, my parents are fantastic. Did they they are?

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Speaker 1: But did they listen to the podcast? I don't know

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Speaker 1: from them. I'll find out, um So at any rate,

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Speaker 1: the yeah, The Space Invaders was in lots of these

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Speaker 1: different little locations. One of the reasons why it was

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Speaker 1: such a huge hit was introduced a new concept into

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Speaker 1: video games that did not exist at that point. There

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Speaker 1: was no way to win Space Invaders, right, There was

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Speaker 1: no ending. You would just keep playing. You would get

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Speaker 1: a new wave of enemies and you would fight them off,

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Speaker 1: and then you get another wave, and it would keep

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Speaker 1: going until you were finally lost your last life. What

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Speaker 1: it did have was a high score. Yes, so you

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Speaker 1: could put your initials in and have the high score

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Speaker 1: on that console. And this was a new concept back

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Speaker 1: in so people began to compete with each other to

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Speaker 1: try and get that high score. And it meant that

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Speaker 1: people are spending more money playing these games. I mean

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Speaker 1: the games really sticky, right, because you would you would

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Speaker 1: establish your score and then you would have to defend

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Speaker 1: it because if someone else beat your score, well, then

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Speaker 1: you'd have to go back and try and beat their

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Speaker 1: score so you could get it again. Um and yeah,

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Speaker 1: that that ended up being a huge hit. Uh. The

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Speaker 1: next three big games that Midway released back in the

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Speaker 1: early early eighties were Defender, where you would shoot aliens

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Speaker 1: and try to defend your human colony against them. There

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Speaker 1: was Robotron eighty four. So Robotron introduced a new control

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Speaker 1: system and had two joysticks. The left one you would

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Speaker 1: use to move your character with right when you would

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Speaker 1: use to control your guns. Actually there were eight way joysticks.

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Speaker 1: Right you would direct your your laser fire using the

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Speaker 1: right joystick. And this this setup actually served as a

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Speaker 1: model that ended up being used in other games in

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Speaker 1: the future, including Smash TV and Total Carnage. Yes, um,

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Speaker 1: that'll come into play a little bit later. The third

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Speaker 1: game is probably the most famous video game of all time,

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Speaker 1: arguably the most famous video game of all time. And

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Speaker 1: you could maybe make a case for Pond or Space Invaders,

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Speaker 1: but it would be pac Man. Yes. I don't think

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Speaker 1: any of the others spawned a whole album of music,

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Speaker 1: a dance and a cartoon an Yeah. Yeah, so Pacman was.

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Speaker 1: There's just really no way of saying how big it was.

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Speaker 1: It was enormous. If you were growing up in the eighties,

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Speaker 1: you knew what pac Man was. Yes, and of course

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Speaker 1: pac Man in it was a licensed from Namco, who

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Speaker 1: stole owns the right right to it. Yeah, But Midway

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Speaker 1: didn't necessarily develop these games. Midway was the American and

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Speaker 1: European carrier the publisher of these games, so that's an

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Speaker 1: important distinction. Now, Midway has of course developed and published

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Speaker 1: its own games as well, but these early successes are

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Speaker 1: are mainly Midway licensing the titles from other companies and

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Speaker 1: then publishing them under the Midway name. Uh, which still

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Speaker 1: makes it quite a bit of money. Oh yes, yes, yes.

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Speaker 1: So then in the pinball divisions, of Bally and Midway

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Speaker 1: officially merged becomes Bally Midway Manufacturing Company, and five years

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Speaker 1: later they were published by another Midway was published by

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Speaker 1: another big electronics company, one that also had its name

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Speaker 1: on several pinball machines, Williams Williams Electronics. We talked about

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Speaker 1: them quite a bit in our So, yeah, Bally, Williams, Midway.

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Speaker 1: These names have always been big, and you know, you

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Speaker 1: start to see how they kind of mesh and merge

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Speaker 1: throughout the years. So in eight that's when Williams Electronics

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Speaker 1: purchases Midway, and in one Williams starts to incorporate its

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Speaker 1: own gaming division with Midways Gaming Division, so they're not

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Speaker 1: just you know, it's not just a subsidiary company. They're

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Speaker 1: actually merging together. The first game that they produce is

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Speaker 1: Total Carnage, which I mentioned earlier. Okay, that's a sequel

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Speaker 1: to Smash TV, which came out under the Williams name.

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Speaker 1: Total Carnage was the product of both Williams and Midway

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Speaker 1: working together, and there were two developers who worked on

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Speaker 1: Total Carnage who also became famous later on for the

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Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat games. That's Ed Boone and John Tobias noob cibot.

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Speaker 1: That only makes sense if you've played some of the

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Speaker 1: Mortal Kombay games. But yeah, they both worked on Total

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Speaker 1: Carnage Ed Boone actually did a voice for it and

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Speaker 1: Tobias did some of the art for it. And uh

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Speaker 1: then in that's when Mortal Kombat actually launches, and you

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Speaker 1: could say that this game was also a hit, maybe

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Speaker 1: just slightly. Yeah, another big, big hit, huge controversy on

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Speaker 1: this game because it was very very gory, very violent,

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Speaker 1: lots of blood. I mean, you have a you have

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Speaker 1: a game where after you finished defeating your opponent, you can,

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Speaker 1: if you know the right sequence of joystick and button moves, uh,

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Speaker 1: finish him with a fatality. And the fatalities although really,

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Speaker 1: when you look back at those early fatalities and really

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Speaker 1: all the fatalities in the Mortal Kombat franchise, they're over

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Speaker 1: the top and to the point where I think of

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Speaker 1: them as silly. The first time you see it, you

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Speaker 1: might be like, Wow, that's cool that guy grabbed the

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Speaker 1: other guy by the head and ripped out his entire spine.

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Speaker 1: But really, when you watch it, like for the fourth

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Speaker 1: or fifth time, you're like, yeah, that's kind of stupid,

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Speaker 1: but I mean it was cool at the time, and

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Speaker 1: it was and it was a neat idea, and it

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Speaker 1: also made that game very sticky because everyone wanted to

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Speaker 1: learn not just how to play each character, because each

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Speaker 1: character's moves were different and the combinations you had to

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Speaker 1: use were different. They need to learn each character's fatality,

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Speaker 1: and as the game series goes on, they introduced more

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Speaker 1: fatalities so that each character had more than one um

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Speaker 1: and they had different flavors, not just the fatalities, but

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Speaker 1: things like the bability where you would turn into a

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Speaker 1: little baby, or the friendship where you would, instead of

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Speaker 1: killing your opponent, make them feel better by perhaps presenting

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Speaker 1: them with some flowers. Um, but they had, you know,

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Speaker 1: or animality or yeah, I guess it had to be

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Speaker 1: animal itty because the other alternative would have been really

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Speaker 1: unfortunate um animality, where you would turn into an animal

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Speaker 1: and then disable your opponent that way. I think Chris

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Speaker 1: just got my joke. I am I'm pretending not to listen, okay,

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Speaker 1: Um so yes. Several sequels follow the Mortal Kombat series.

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Speaker 1: Right around that same time, Midway released one of the

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Speaker 1: biggest arcade games ever in terms of earnings NBA Jam. No,

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Speaker 1: NBA Jam, I actually enjoyed playing NBA JAM. I don't

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Speaker 1: typically like playing sports games. NBA Jam, of course, being

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Speaker 1: a basketball game, it's a two on two basketball games.

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Speaker 1: I'm not big on sports games in general. I'm not

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Speaker 1: a big sports fan. I'm not particularly good at sports games.

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Speaker 1: But NBA Jam was an arcade ish sports game, and

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Speaker 1: that the the the emphasis was not on accuracy by

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Speaker 1: any means. It was on outlandishness and and fun gameplay,

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Speaker 1: fun being of course of a subjective term. Okay, if

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Speaker 1: I get what you're saying here, what you're saying is

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Speaker 1: it wasn't necessarily realistic, not at all. It was intended

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Speaker 1: to be amusing. I mean, something that amuses you and

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Speaker 1: keep keeps you going and you're enjoying yourself. But it's

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Speaker 1: not necessarily the physics are necessarily exactly accurate, like, for example,

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Speaker 1: the difference in uh, you know, something like Grand Turismo

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Speaker 1: being a realistic car game, which is not midway, you

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Speaker 1: know it's not. But I'm saying burnout, burnout exactly where

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Speaker 1: the point is justiculous run into things, and you know,

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Speaker 1: ridiculous in a good way. By the way, so don't

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Speaker 1: don't yell at Both are good games, but they're different

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Speaker 1: because the point is not burnout is not to be

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Speaker 1: hyper realistic, it's to just you know, it's it's a

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Speaker 1: simplified version of the game that's just there for you

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Speaker 1: to have fun with. Right. So NBAHM was sort of

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Speaker 1: like that. Yeah, And and it was a four player game.

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Speaker 1: Up to four people could play, so one per character

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Speaker 1: often did arcades that I would go to. It was

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Speaker 1: always very, very popular and and that's how these machines

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Speaker 1: earned so much money so quickly because it was usually

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Speaker 1: an expensible one to play, and you had four people

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Speaker 1: playing it once, so you're earning a realm maybe like

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Speaker 1: up to four dollars of play, and everyone's eager to

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Speaker 1: play it. So Yeah, that one was a huge hit

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Speaker 1: for Midway financially, um, and also served the basis of

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Speaker 1: other sports games that they released later on that had

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Speaker 1: kind of followed kind of a similar philosophy, things like

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Speaker 1: a NHL two on two and NBA Ballers and NFL Blitz,

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Speaker 1: which are more arcades style sports games. Um. The next

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Speaker 1: thing I want to talk about was that Midway in

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Speaker 1: the in the early mid nineties purchased another big big

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Speaker 1: name in gaming. I s Atari Games. Yeah, Atari has

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Speaker 1: We need to do it. We need to do a

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Speaker 1: podcast on Attariya because if tari has had several lives, Yes,

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Speaker 1: Atari has split and reformed and split and died and

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Speaker 1: been reborn, purchased and stuff. It's actually a very complex

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Speaker 1: thing to talk about. So Midway purchased one of the

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Speaker 1: companies called Atari Games. I think, I think, um, if

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Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken, they're we're talking about the arcade version. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: because has Ro Interactive owned the other Atari. In fact,

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Speaker 1: Midway not just didn't just purchase Atari Games, but they

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Speaker 1: renamed it. They eventually renamed it Midway Games West because

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Speaker 1: they wanted to avoid the confusion of the other Atari Games,

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Speaker 1: which was owned by by Hasbro. Uh. And then they

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Speaker 1: produced some games through their like a WrestleMania the arcade

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Speaker 1: game WrestleMania Killer Instinct, which that was huge when I

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Speaker 1: was in college, and that was that was an older

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Speaker 1: game when I was in college. It wasn't then just

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Speaker 1: come out. But um, well some of these things are timeless.

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Speaker 1: You know, there's still new versions of pac Man being introduced,

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Speaker 1: and yeah, you know, people still love playing it. This

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Speaker 1: is true Rampage World Tour. That was another game. Used

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Speaker 1: to love Rampage. Yeah, this one was one of the sequels,

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Speaker 1: not not the original Rampage. Um. And then the Midway

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Speaker 1: decided to branch out, not just making arcade and console games.

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Speaker 1: Really they were still focused on arcade games at this time. UM,

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Speaker 1: So they tried something new. They financed and released a

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Speaker 1: film of one of their properties. It was not Pac Man,

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Speaker 1: it was not. It was Mortal Kombat. Yes it was.

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Speaker 1: And Paul W. S Anderson, not Paul wes Anderson, which

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Speaker 1: is confusing enough, was the director. And the film ended

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Speaker 1: up meeting with some success. Yeah, quite a bit. Actually

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Speaker 1: I've never seen it. I know that shocktiondn't see Mortal Kombat.

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Speaker 1: I was never a fan of the game. I've never

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Speaker 1: enjoyed really the fighting games like Street Fighter and uh,

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Speaker 1: which is not Midway. As a matter of fact, Mortal

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Speaker 1: Kombat was supposed to be the competitor to the Street Fighter.

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Speaker 1: But just as Teken is in a way an answer

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Speaker 1: to Street Fighter would say, um but yeah, I mean

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Speaker 1: I've never been so I wasn't really interested in that.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, I do remember meeting with some success, although

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Speaker 1: I remember people saying that it was sort of a

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Speaker 1: silly movie. Um, okay, Mortal Kombat was awesome. Uh and

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Speaker 1: it once again helped to cast us for Lambert and

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Speaker 1: a character whose nationality is totally not the same as

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Speaker 1: the actors. Yeah, which was awesome. I mean we're talking

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Speaker 1: about the same actor who was We've got We've got

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Speaker 1: a is Lambert French or Belgian? I can't remember. He's

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Speaker 1: French and um and he was cast, of course as

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Speaker 1: the Scottish Highlander in the Highlander movies, when you had

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Speaker 1: the real Scott being an Egyptian character which going under

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Speaker 1: a Spanish name that's neither here nor there. Obviously I'm

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Speaker 1: getting off track with Highlander. But yeah, and it's okay.

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Speaker 1: Keep so you're looking up to see if he's French

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Speaker 1: or Belgian. Um So in Mortal Kombat he played Raid

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Speaker 1: in the the Japanese Storm. God, you're not going to

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Speaker 1: enjoy this. He's American. Lambert is wow. Interesting morning, great

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Speaker 1: Neck Long Island, New York, USA. According to IMDb, well,

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Speaker 1: I was just trying to deport him. Um but anyway,

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Speaker 1: here he is here. He is playing various roles like you, Oh,

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Speaker 1: I see what you're saying. Because his hiscording again. According

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Speaker 1: to IMDb, he uh he was. He left the United

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Speaker 1: States when he was two years old. His dad was

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Speaker 1: a U N diplomat and so he uh he went

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Speaker 1: to school in Switzerland. Switzerland. See now that explains the accent. Yes, yes,

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Speaker 1: that would be the French. And it might be why

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Speaker 1: he's uh, you know, he's so neutral when it comes

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Speaker 1: to being. That must be why they can cast him

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Speaker 1: as any any nationality at any rate. So he played

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Speaker 1: rate and yeah. The movie met with some success and

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Speaker 1: in fact got to the point where Midway was kind

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Speaker 1: of getting a little confident about their their abilities to

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Speaker 1: enter various forms of entertainment, including the movies. So they

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Speaker 1: made a sequel, Moral Kombat Annihiliation, which did not meet

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Speaker 1: with success. Uh thirty five million dollar box office worldwide,

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Speaker 1: not good. So that was a that was kind of

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Speaker 1: a flop. They decided to get out of that. There

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Speaker 1: there's been talk of another Mortal Kombat movie, and in fact,

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Speaker 1: you know, if you've been on YouTube in the last

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Speaker 1: year or so, actually the last couple of months, um,

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Speaker 1: you may have seen the the promo kind of uh

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Speaker 1: sort of a test for another Mortal Kombat movie. But

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Speaker 1: in this case, it's it's really it's not even a preview.

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Speaker 1: It's just kind of a a a real to show

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Speaker 1: investors to see if you can get money to actually

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Speaker 1: film a full feature length movie. So we may eventually

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Speaker 1: see another Mortal Kombat movie, even though Midway itself is

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Speaker 1: not really uh its name is probably not going to

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Speaker 1: be on that anymore. Well, I think we haven't gotten

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Speaker 1: to the very end of this, but I had the

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Speaker 1: feeling that Midway's current owner will be able to do

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Speaker 1: something with that, probably if they wanting there, considering there

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Speaker 1: right their pockets. So Midway becomes a fully independent company.

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Speaker 1: It splits off from w m S, which was the

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Speaker 1: Williams Williams Electronics. Yeah, Williams Midway Company, So Midway becomes

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Speaker 1: its own company again in um and release is that

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Speaker 1: same year releases Moral Come at Four. So, like the

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Speaker 1: various games have been coming up, Moral Come at Four

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Speaker 1: does not get a huge amount of positive reviews. It

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Speaker 1: was the first one that kind of made it a

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Speaker 1: three D game as opposed to a two D game,

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Speaker 1: and that's when we discovered that people kind of like

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Speaker 1: things to be the way they always were. Funny that

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Speaker 1: so in John Tobias leaves Midway. Um again, he was

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Speaker 1: one of the two guys who brought the Mortal Kombat

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Speaker 1: series to Midway. Um and he uh, he goes off

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Speaker 1: to found his own studio, studio Gigante or Hunt. I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna get blister mail for that. I'm so sorry. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: his studio creates a Tao fing in a couple of

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Speaker 1: other games, but it does not last. It closes in

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Speaker 1: two thousand five. So sad story for Tobias there, and

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Speaker 1: that his his efforts ultimately fail. In two thousand that's

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Speaker 1: when they Midway renames Atari Games to to Midway Games West. Um.

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Speaker 1: Two thousand one, they have a lawsuit begins between Midway

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Speaker 1: and Pandemic Studios, which have been developing games for Midway

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Speaker 1: at that point. Um, that was not pretty. And two

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Speaker 1: thousand three, Uh, that's when Midway closes Midway Games West. Yes,

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Speaker 1: and I have information that suggests that, um, the coin

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Speaker 1: operated video game business was sold off in two thousand one, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: to to have Controls Incorporated. Yeah that yes, so they

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Speaker 1: at that point the arcade business is really pretty much gone.

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Speaker 1: By two thousand one, you don't have that many arcades anymore.

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Speaker 1: You've got a few places like David Busters. You've got

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Speaker 1: a few independent arcades, and you've got some student centers

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Speaker 1: at various universities, but really the days of the old

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Speaker 1: arcade in the in the mall are pretty much over.

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Speaker 1: Kind of ironic considering the home console bust in the eighties,

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Speaker 1: right that it recovered so significantly that it is essentially

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Speaker 1: replaced going out to them. All home consoles playing game

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Speaker 1: eventually cannibalized the arcade industry, just as they were threatening

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Speaker 1: to do when they first appeared in the early early eighties,

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Speaker 1: late seventies, early eighties. Massive come back there. Yeah, so

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Speaker 1: it's kind of interesting to see that cycle. So two

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Speaker 1: thousand three, Midway closes Midway Games West and opens a

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Speaker 1: San Diego studio. But don't get too attached to it.

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Speaker 1: Uh So, as they purchased, they start they start purchasing

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Speaker 1: other companies, including one called Surreal Software, which released some

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Speaker 1: games like The Suffering. I've actually played The Suffering, which

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Speaker 1: is a pretty intense game for the Xbox. Um it

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Speaker 1: maybe for other platforms as well, but I played it

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Speaker 1: on the Xbox. Then in two thousand five they sign

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Speaker 1: a deal with Cartoon Network to create some games based

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Speaker 1: on the adult Swim lineup of programs, and then uh,

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Speaker 1: in late two thousand five, Midway shuts down the Australia

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Speaker 1: studio and the San Diego studio. So yeah, two thousand

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Speaker 1: three they opened the San Diego studio. Two thousand five

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Speaker 1: they close it. Uh. They also in two thousand five

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Speaker 1: by another studio called rat Bag Games, which makes a

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Speaker 1: phenomenal title based on the Dukes of Hazzard movie, which

395
00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:24,639
Speaker 1: is about as good as you expect. I heard uh

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Speaker 1: not so positive things from the fans around the rat Bag. Here.

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Speaker 1: Here's a position. Here's a rule of thumb. Rule of

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Speaker 1: thumb is that video games based upon television shows, movies,

399
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Speaker 1: comic books, and cartoons tend to not be very good. Well,

400
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Speaker 1: there are notable exceptions. Midway had had released other games

401
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Speaker 1: related to the movies and TV shows, such as Tron

402
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Speaker 1: and Discs of Tron, which were awesome. I enjoyed them

403
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Speaker 1: very much, both of them. Like I said, there are

404
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Speaker 1: notable options. There are certain games that are based on

405
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Speaker 1: these properties, these kind of properties that are amazing. But

406
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Speaker 1: for every amazing game you get, you get ten E

407
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Speaker 1: t s or Superman in sixty four. No, frankly, I

408
00:24:13,359 --> 00:24:18,200
Speaker 1: think there's only one that we should be thankful. So

409
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Speaker 1: that is particularly awful. So two thousand and eight, we're

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Speaker 1: jumping ahead a bit here. But Midway. Midway has been suffering, Okay,

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Speaker 1: they've they've not been breaking in the revenue to be

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Speaker 1: able to pay off the loans that the company has

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Speaker 1: taken in order to stay in business. And those loans

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Speaker 1: have started to really accumulate. Um. By two thousand and eight,

415
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Speaker 1: they start to They shut down a Los Angeles office,

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Speaker 1: they move the operations back to San Diego. They shut

417
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Speaker 1: down the Austin office, which was developing some pretty cool

418
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Speaker 1: games at the time. I remember I had friends in

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Speaker 1: Texas at the time and they were very upset. Um

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Speaker 1: I no longer have those friends. In December of two

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Speaker 1: thousand eight, uh, the holding eight seven interest in the

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00:25:02,240 --> 00:25:05,840
Speaker 1: company sells it off. Sumner Redstone. You may be familiar

423
00:25:05,880 --> 00:25:10,280
Speaker 1: with that name. Yes I am, Yeah, are you Redstone?

424
00:25:10,359 --> 00:25:13,320
Speaker 1: That's a pretty famous name. If you're if you pay

425
00:25:13,359 --> 00:25:16,399
Speaker 1: attention to media at all, you're probably familiar with some

426
00:25:16,480 --> 00:25:21,480
Speaker 1: your Redstone huge many many, many, many many media property

427
00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:26,200
Speaker 1: things like CBS. Um So, Redstone sells his controlling interest.

428
00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:30,119
Speaker 1: He had eight seven percent of the ownership of that company,

429
00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:32,440
Speaker 1: and he sells it to an investor named Mark Thomas,

430
00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:37,479
Speaker 1: and he sells it for one hundred thousand dollars. And

431
00:25:37,560 --> 00:25:39,359
Speaker 1: think about this for a minute. Guys. This is the

432
00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:44,359
Speaker 1: company that brought Pacman to America and it's essentially being

433
00:25:44,600 --> 00:25:47,680
Speaker 1: the ownership of this company more or less is being

434
00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:51,400
Speaker 1: sold for a hundred grand. That that makes a statement. Yeah,

435
00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:55,440
Speaker 1: that's how the mighty have fallen, is might be that statement. Now,

436
00:25:55,640 --> 00:25:58,040
Speaker 1: he didn't have much confidence it was going to improve,

437
00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:00,639
Speaker 1: and only that, but also we should also point out

438
00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:02,719
Speaker 1: or I'll point out that, um, well, the company at

439
00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:05,800
Speaker 1: that point had over two million dollars in debt. Okay,

440
00:26:05,840 --> 00:26:08,520
Speaker 1: so just Midway alone had two hundred million dollars in debt.

441
00:26:08,560 --> 00:26:13,200
Speaker 1: But Sumner Redstone had bigger problems to worry about because

442
00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:16,439
Speaker 1: the parent company that owned Midway at the time was

443
00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:19,840
Speaker 1: or the parent company that Sumner worked through in order

444
00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:23,760
Speaker 1: to own this an ownership. This is really complicated when

445
00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:25,879
Speaker 1: we get into this. We need we need this working.

446
00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:30,800
Speaker 1: Um But the parent company was called National Amusements. It

447
00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:34,680
Speaker 1: had one point six billion with a B dollars in debt.

448
00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:37,959
Speaker 1: So Redstone had some big problems to worry about, and

449
00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:41,600
Speaker 1: so getting this other debt filled property off his hands

450
00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:45,200
Speaker 1: was probably seen as a quite the boone, so to speak,

451
00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:49,600
Speaker 1: not the ed boon, but the boon. So he sells

452
00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:52,520
Speaker 1: it to Mark Thomas. Now and two thousand nine February

453
00:26:52,560 --> 00:26:59,160
Speaker 1: of two thousand nine, Midway declares bankruptcy. Um. And then

454
00:26:59,520 --> 00:27:03,040
Speaker 1: later on that year is purchased by Warner Brothers for

455
00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:07,879
Speaker 1: a thirty three million dollars. Yes so, and and Warner

456
00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:11,600
Speaker 1: Brothers closes the the corporate headquarters of Midway, which was

457
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:16,600
Speaker 1: located in Chicago. Um, that office closes. Uh. That was

458
00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:18,400
Speaker 1: kind of like the end of an era because that

459
00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:22,800
Speaker 1: was really the heart of Midway. Uh. The company really

460
00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:25,919
Speaker 1: kind of doesn't exist anymore. Has been folded into the

461
00:27:25,920 --> 00:27:30,600
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers Interactive Division for video games. Right. The people

462
00:27:30,600 --> 00:27:35,320
Speaker 1: who were developing properties for it are basically doing so

463
00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:38,320
Speaker 1: now under Warner Brothers name. And we we should be specific.

464
00:27:38,760 --> 00:27:44,200
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers only purchased certain intellectual property from Midway. Other

465
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:47,159
Speaker 1: parts of Midway were sold off to other companies, and

466
00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:50,879
Speaker 1: some of them just shut down because no one bought them. Uh.

467
00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:55,240
Speaker 1: The San Diego one shut down, Newcastle shut down. Um,

468
00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:59,840
Speaker 1: so it's not it's not that Midway now belongs to

469
00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:03,800
Speaker 1: Ner Brothers. It's certain properties of Midway belonged to Warner Brothers,

470
00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:08,639
Speaker 1: most notably the Mortal Kombat franchise. UM. But like NBA

471
00:28:08,720 --> 00:28:11,520
Speaker 1: Jam went to a different company, and I don't remember

472
00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:13,880
Speaker 1: who it was, but I know it was not Warner Brothers,

473
00:28:14,359 --> 00:28:16,080
Speaker 1: Um e A. I think it went to e A.

474
00:28:16,280 --> 00:28:20,320
Speaker 1: I think they're producing NBA Jam for the week. So

475
00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:22,760
Speaker 1: I had no idea. Yeah, I saw that E three.

476
00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:24,560
Speaker 1: I was trying to remember as like, wait, it was

477
00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:26,920
Speaker 1: the really big loud booth, which one was that it

478
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:31,600
Speaker 1: was e A. So yeah, the the company is pretty

479
00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:34,199
Speaker 1: much no more. It what remains of the company. The

480
00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:36,520
Speaker 1: people who worked for the company are either working for

481
00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:41,520
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers or some other uh studio, or they're sadly

482
00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:45,040
Speaker 1: looking for work. Um. It's really kind of a tragic

483
00:28:45,080 --> 00:28:47,880
Speaker 1: tale because you think about some of the games they released,

484
00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:51,000
Speaker 1: like the you know, like pac Man, Defenders, Spy Hunter,

485
00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:53,400
Speaker 1: the Moral Kombat series, NBA Jam. You think about these

486
00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:55,720
Speaker 1: games and you're like, Wow, this company really made some

487
00:28:55,760 --> 00:28:59,800
Speaker 1: blockbuster games. But it just shows that that, you know,

488
00:28:59,840 --> 00:29:02,600
Speaker 1: the the hard times when they hit the video game

489
00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:05,440
Speaker 1: industry really hit Midway hard. It did not make the

490
00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:09,440
Speaker 1: transition to console games fast enough or effectively enough, and

491
00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:14,240
Speaker 1: I would say the combination of some poorly timed purchases

492
00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:19,040
Speaker 1: and some less than stellar games really did the men.

493
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:23,520
Speaker 1: And plus backing movies like Mortal Kombat Annihilation probably didn't help.

494
00:29:25,880 --> 00:29:27,920
Speaker 1: So you told us what your favorite is. Do you

495
00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:30,520
Speaker 1: have a sleeper favorite one that wasn't a big hit

496
00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:32,200
Speaker 1: that you really enjoyed. I'd have to look at the

497
00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:34,400
Speaker 1: entire you know what. I'd have to look at the

498
00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:36,640
Speaker 1: entire library of Midway games to tell you, and I

499
00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:38,880
Speaker 1: did not do that, so I can't really well, I

500
00:29:39,160 --> 00:29:42,000
Speaker 1: you know, there are lists out there, and you know,

501
00:29:42,040 --> 00:29:44,640
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how authentic they are. I'm pretty sure

502
00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:48,120
Speaker 1: they're fairly accurate. But I do have a couple because

503
00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:50,120
Speaker 1: I was I didn't realize that Tron was a Midway game.

504
00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:52,720
Speaker 1: Tron's way up there. That was always a great game,

505
00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:56,720
Speaker 1: but I always enjoyed UM. Actually discovered this one in college, Trog,

506
00:29:57,280 --> 00:30:00,760
Speaker 1: which was really fun and very cartoony, pack An esque

507
00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:05,400
Speaker 1: game where you played a caveman. I vaguely remember Trog. Actually, no,

508
00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:08,600
Speaker 1: you played it a dinosaur running from a caveman. Which

509
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:11,880
Speaker 1: is very, very funny game. I underst enjoyed it and

510
00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:17,000
Speaker 1: Tapper root Beer Tapper, you know, for the different you know,

511
00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:19,040
Speaker 1: I may not be in the the bar. I had

512
00:30:19,160 --> 00:30:22,640
Speaker 1: root Beer Tapper for the Apple to E. I really

513
00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:24,800
Speaker 1: enjoyed that that. As far as I can tell now,

514
00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:26,960
Speaker 1: I haven't done any any research on this at all,

515
00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:29,360
Speaker 1: but I'm pretty sure that that game may have launched

516
00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:31,400
Speaker 1: the whole time management thing which is so big and

517
00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:34,040
Speaker 1: casual games with the diner dash and all the other

518
00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:37,440
Speaker 1: dashes and you know, move stuff over here. You better

519
00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:40,200
Speaker 1: hurry or you're gonna get you know, your customers are

520
00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:42,680
Speaker 1: gonna leave or whatever. That was the first time management

521
00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:44,400
Speaker 1: game I saw, and I played that in you know

522
00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:49,120
Speaker 1: high school, actually junior high school, well midway games, we

523
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:54,400
Speaker 1: hardly knew ye rest in peace, Uh, your games shall

524
00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:57,800
Speaker 1: live on. And there are these companies are going to continue,

525
00:30:57,880 --> 00:31:00,400
Speaker 1: Various companies are going to come to the franchises. There's

526
00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:02,280
Speaker 1: going to be a new moral combat game coming out

527
00:31:02,360 --> 00:31:03,960
Speaker 1: very soon. I actually got to see a demo of

528
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:06,160
Speaker 1: that at the three and it was it was just

529
00:31:06,440 --> 00:31:10,400
Speaker 1: as gloriously violent, over the top ridiculous as all the

530
00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:12,920
Speaker 1: other Moral combat Once it actually goes back to the

531
00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:15,280
Speaker 1: philosophy of the original moral combat game. So I think

532
00:31:15,320 --> 00:31:18,360
Speaker 1: fans will be pleased. And uh, well, that'll wrap this

533
00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:20,960
Speaker 1: discussion of Midway Games up. We'll probably do profiles and

534
00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:24,400
Speaker 1: other companies in the future, and not just video game companies,

535
00:31:24,400 --> 00:31:28,000
Speaker 1: but other electronics companies sure, um and and computer companies,

536
00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:30,480
Speaker 1: and so we're gonna wrap this up. If you have

537
00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:33,320
Speaker 1: any topic suggestions that there's a particular company you would

538
00:31:33,320 --> 00:31:36,240
Speaker 1: like us to talk about, write us. Our email address

539
00:31:36,360 --> 00:31:39,160
Speaker 1: is tech stuff at how stuff works dot com and

540
00:31:39,240 --> 00:31:41,360
Speaker 1: Chris and I will talk to you again really soon.

541
00:31:45,480 --> 00:31:47,280
Speaker 1: If you're a tech stuff and be sure to check

542
00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:51,200
Speaker 1: us out on Twitter text stuff hs wsr handle, and

543
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:53,800
Speaker 1: you can also find us on Facebook at Facebook dot

544
00:31:53,880 --> 00:31:58,160
Speaker 1: com slash tech Stuff h s W. For more on

545
00:31:58,240 --> 00:32:00,960
Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works

546
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:03,080
Speaker 1: dot com and be sure to check out the new

547
00:32:03,120 --> 00:32:09,640
Speaker 1: tech stuff blog now on the House stuff Works homepage,

548
00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:13,280
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549
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