Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Cammeray,
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
Speaker 1: text style from how stuff works dot com. Hello, everyone,
Speaker 1: welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Pellette and
Speaker 1: I am an editor at how stuff works dot com.
Speaker 1: Sitting across from me, as he always does, is senior
Speaker 1: writer Jonathan Strickland flawless victory. Nice. Yeah, we just said
Speaker 1: that we were going to do a profile not on
Speaker 1: a person, but on a company, a company that has
Speaker 1: ceased to be and is sort of rung up the
Speaker 1: curtain and joined the choir invisible well, ceased to be
Speaker 1: as an independent company. Yeah, we're talking about Midway Games,
Speaker 1: and Midway Games has a special place in my heart
Speaker 1: because they actually published one of my favorite video games
Speaker 1: of all time. Gee, which one would that be? You? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean you might two are three titles going through
Speaker 1: your head? Yeah, but considering your quote, no, it is
Speaker 1: not that one. It's not Moral Kombat. Really, that's probably
Speaker 1: probably the most famous title that that Midway published, but
Speaker 1: it is not the title that's my favorite. Okay, which
Speaker 1: one is your favorite? Spy Hunter? That's mine too? Now
Speaker 1: you got the you got the Peter Gun theme, and
Speaker 1: you've got the cool spy car with guns and stuff.
Speaker 1: And I mean, I like the old old classic Spy
Speaker 1: Hunter game. We're we're talking the one that that you
Speaker 1: look down on top of the car, not the remake
Speaker 1: where you're in the car. That was kind of fun too, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it was the the overhead view and especially the
Speaker 1: ones that had the cockpit style console, so you were
Speaker 1: sitting down and you were you know, completely enveloped, and
Speaker 1: you just had that Peter Gun theme playing and glorious,
Speaker 1: glorious low fidelity. So um. But yes, the Midway Games
Speaker 1: has sadly fallen on hard times to the point where
Speaker 1: the company is no more than just a name really
Speaker 1: at this point. Rum But let's let's kind of set
Speaker 1: the whole story here. So, going way back into the sixties,
Speaker 1: Midway was a company that was developing and producing equipment
Speaker 1: for amusement parks and fair grounds. So the name made sense,
Speaker 1: the Midway. That was the area of a carnival where
Speaker 1: you would find all the games, right so that that
Speaker 1: you know, and rides as well, that's the Midway. So
Speaker 1: Midway starts off developing various games for amusement parks. And
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty nine, uh, they were purchased by another
Speaker 1: company that became known for producing lots of games and amusements, Bally. Now,
Speaker 1: for those of you who have listened to our pinball podcast,
Speaker 1: you may have heard us talk about Bally actually Midway
Speaker 1: as well, because both companies did produce pinball machines, and
Speaker 1: so that back then that's pretty much what the coin
Speaker 1: operated divisions of these companies were concentrating on producing pinball machines. Well,
Speaker 1: they didn't have video games at that point. Yes, this
Speaker 1: credates video games really not. That didn't exist on an
Speaker 1: oscillator in a lab, right, So eventually video games do
Speaker 1: start to emerge. People begin to play with this idea,
Speaker 1: and Midway published a couple but the first one of
Speaker 1: any real note that they published was in nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: eight and it was a Biggie UM. Now, before before
Speaker 1: this they had made one of their probably one of
Speaker 1: the earliest and biggest blenders. They turned down the opportunity
Speaker 1: to publish a certain video game that became synonymous with
Speaker 1: the early early early days of video games. It was
Speaker 1: a creation of a Mr Nolan Bushnell. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about Chuck E Cheese Pong Oh that the
Speaker 1: earlier creation, yes Pong So Pong was. They had the
Speaker 1: opportunity to publish Pong Y they they turned it down,
Speaker 1: but they did not turn down the opportunity to publish
Speaker 1: a video game from a Japanese company called Tito called
Speaker 1: Space Invaders. Bom Bom Bom Bom bom. You this is
Speaker 1: our sad attempt at recreating the space and I'll improve
Speaker 1: my fully technique. Maybe we can get Liz to throw
Speaker 1: in like a a just an electronic beap here and
Speaker 1: there for this podcast. So Space Invaders comes out in
Speaker 1: ninety eight. Now, for those of you younger listeners who
Speaker 1: never played or saw Space Invaders, or maybe you've only
Speaker 1: seen it in one of those are acades where they
Speaker 1: have like the Classic console where it has five or
Speaker 1: six different games and then Space Invaders is one of them,
Speaker 1: you may not realize that this was an enormous hit
Speaker 1: in the video game world. I mean, you can't really
Speaker 1: understate how big this was. Yeah, I mean seven years old,
Speaker 1: and you know, I remember Space Invaders machines being at
Speaker 1: skating rinks and people used to roller skate in the
Speaker 1: seventies and pizza part owners. This was before inline skating. Yeah,
Speaker 1: people still quad skate, but it wasn't you know at
Speaker 1: that time, that was a big thing to do. And
Speaker 1: there were you know, any place where you might find
Speaker 1: a video game, because they really didn't have video or kids.
Speaker 1: I never really saw one until the eighties. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: remember seeing them in bars because that's where my dad
Speaker 1: would leave me. You go next door to right, Just
Speaker 1: tell the people on side, look after look after this kid,
Speaker 1: will you. I'm just kidding. My dad never ever left
Speaker 1: me in a bar. Mom, that's a different story. But anyway,
Speaker 1: so no, no, my parents are fantastic. Did they they are?
Speaker 1: But did they listen to the podcast? I don't know
Speaker 1: from them. I'll find out, um So at any rate,
Speaker 1: the yeah, The Space Invaders was in lots of these
Speaker 1: different little locations. One of the reasons why it was
Speaker 1: such a huge hit was introduced a new concept into
Speaker 1: video games that did not exist at that point. There
Speaker 1: was no way to win Space Invaders, right, There was
Speaker 1: no ending. You would just keep playing. You would get
Speaker 1: a new wave of enemies and you would fight them off,
Speaker 1: and then you get another wave, and it would keep
Speaker 1: going until you were finally lost your last life. What
Speaker 1: it did have was a high score. Yes, so you
Speaker 1: could put your initials in and have the high score
Speaker 1: on that console. And this was a new concept back
Speaker 1: in so people began to compete with each other to
Speaker 1: try and get that high score. And it meant that
Speaker 1: people are spending more money playing these games. I mean
Speaker 1: the games really sticky, right, because you would you would
Speaker 1: establish your score and then you would have to defend
Speaker 1: it because if someone else beat your score, well, then
Speaker 1: you'd have to go back and try and beat their
Speaker 1: score so you could get it again. Um and yeah,
Speaker 1: that that ended up being a huge hit. Uh. The
Speaker 1: next three big games that Midway released back in the
Speaker 1: early early eighties were Defender, where you would shoot aliens
Speaker 1: and try to defend your human colony against them. There
Speaker 1: was Robotron eighty four. So Robotron introduced a new control
Speaker 1: system and had two joysticks. The left one you would
Speaker 1: use to move your character with right when you would
Speaker 1: use to control your guns. Actually there were eight way joysticks.
Speaker 1: Right you would direct your your laser fire using the
Speaker 1: right joystick. And this this setup actually served as a
Speaker 1: model that ended up being used in other games in
Speaker 1: the future, including Smash TV and Total Carnage. Yes, um,
Speaker 1: that'll come into play a little bit later. The third
Speaker 1: game is probably the most famous video game of all time,
Speaker 1: arguably the most famous video game of all time. And
Speaker 1: you could maybe make a case for Pond or Space Invaders,
Speaker 1: but it would be pac Man. Yes. I don't think
Speaker 1: any of the others spawned a whole album of music,
Speaker 1: a dance and a cartoon an Yeah. Yeah, so Pacman was.
Speaker 1: There's just really no way of saying how big it was.
Speaker 1: It was enormous. If you were growing up in the eighties,
Speaker 1: you knew what pac Man was. Yes, and of course
Speaker 1: pac Man in it was a licensed from Namco, who
Speaker 1: stole owns the right right to it. Yeah, But Midway
Speaker 1: didn't necessarily develop these games. Midway was the American and
Speaker 1: European carrier the publisher of these games, so that's an
Speaker 1: important distinction. Now, Midway has of course developed and published
Speaker 1: its own games as well, but these early successes are
Speaker 1: are mainly Midway licensing the titles from other companies and
Speaker 1: then publishing them under the Midway name. Uh, which still
Speaker 1: makes it quite a bit of money. Oh yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1: So then in the pinball divisions, of Bally and Midway
Speaker 1: officially merged becomes Bally Midway Manufacturing Company, and five years
Speaker 1: later they were published by another Midway was published by
Speaker 1: another big electronics company, one that also had its name
Speaker 1: on several pinball machines, Williams Williams Electronics. We talked about
Speaker 1: them quite a bit in our So, yeah, Bally, Williams, Midway.
Speaker 1: These names have always been big, and you know, you
Speaker 1: start to see how they kind of mesh and merge
Speaker 1: throughout the years. So in eight that's when Williams Electronics
Speaker 1: purchases Midway, and in one Williams starts to incorporate its
Speaker 1: own gaming division with Midways Gaming Division, so they're not
Speaker 1: just you know, it's not just a subsidiary company. They're
Speaker 1: actually merging together. The first game that they produce is
Speaker 1: Total Carnage, which I mentioned earlier. Okay, that's a sequel
Speaker 1: to Smash TV, which came out under the Williams name.
Speaker 1: Total Carnage was the product of both Williams and Midway
Speaker 1: working together, and there were two developers who worked on
Speaker 1: Total Carnage who also became famous later on for the
Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat games. That's Ed Boone and John Tobias noob cibot.
Speaker 1: That only makes sense if you've played some of the
Speaker 1: Mortal Kombay games. But yeah, they both worked on Total
Speaker 1: Carnage Ed Boone actually did a voice for it and
Speaker 1: Tobias did some of the art for it. And uh
Speaker 1: then in that's when Mortal Kombat actually launches, and you
Speaker 1: could say that this game was also a hit, maybe
Speaker 1: just slightly. Yeah, another big, big hit, huge controversy on
Speaker 1: this game because it was very very gory, very violent,
Speaker 1: lots of blood. I mean, you have a you have
Speaker 1: a game where after you finished defeating your opponent, you can,
Speaker 1: if you know the right sequence of joystick and button moves, uh,
Speaker 1: finish him with a fatality. And the fatalities although really,
Speaker 1: when you look back at those early fatalities and really
Speaker 1: all the fatalities in the Mortal Kombat franchise, they're over
Speaker 1: the top and to the point where I think of
Speaker 1: them as silly. The first time you see it, you
Speaker 1: might be like, Wow, that's cool that guy grabbed the
Speaker 1: other guy by the head and ripped out his entire spine.
Speaker 1: But really, when you watch it, like for the fourth
Speaker 1: or fifth time, you're like, yeah, that's kind of stupid,
Speaker 1: but I mean it was cool at the time, and
Speaker 1: it was and it was a neat idea, and it
Speaker 1: also made that game very sticky because everyone wanted to
Speaker 1: learn not just how to play each character, because each
Speaker 1: character's moves were different and the combinations you had to
Speaker 1: use were different. They need to learn each character's fatality,
Speaker 1: and as the game series goes on, they introduced more
Speaker 1: fatalities so that each character had more than one um
Speaker 1: and they had different flavors, not just the fatalities, but
Speaker 1: things like the bability where you would turn into a
Speaker 1: little baby, or the friendship where you would, instead of
Speaker 1: killing your opponent, make them feel better by perhaps presenting
Speaker 1: them with some flowers. Um, but they had, you know,
Speaker 1: or animality or yeah, I guess it had to be
Speaker 1: animal itty because the other alternative would have been really
Speaker 1: unfortunate um animality, where you would turn into an animal
Speaker 1: and then disable your opponent that way. I think Chris
Speaker 1: just got my joke. I am I'm pretending not to listen, okay,
Speaker 1: Um so yes. Several sequels follow the Mortal Kombat series.
Speaker 1: Right around that same time, Midway released one of the
Speaker 1: biggest arcade games ever in terms of earnings NBA Jam. No,
Speaker 1: NBA Jam, I actually enjoyed playing NBA JAM. I don't
Speaker 1: typically like playing sports games. NBA Jam, of course, being
Speaker 1: a basketball game, it's a two on two basketball games.
Speaker 1: I'm not big on sports games in general. I'm not
Speaker 1: a big sports fan. I'm not particularly good at sports games.
Speaker 1: But NBA Jam was an arcade ish sports game, and
Speaker 1: that the the the emphasis was not on accuracy by
Speaker 1: any means. It was on outlandishness and and fun gameplay,
Speaker 1: fun being of course of a subjective term. Okay, if
Speaker 1: I get what you're saying here, what you're saying is
Speaker 1: it wasn't necessarily realistic, not at all. It was intended
Speaker 1: to be amusing. I mean, something that amuses you and
Speaker 1: keep keeps you going and you're enjoying yourself. But it's
Speaker 1: not necessarily the physics are necessarily exactly accurate, like, for example,
Speaker 1: the difference in uh, you know, something like Grand Turismo
Speaker 1: being a realistic car game, which is not midway, you
Speaker 1: know it's not. But I'm saying burnout, burnout exactly where
Speaker 1: the point is justiculous run into things, and you know,
Speaker 1: ridiculous in a good way. By the way, so don't
Speaker 1: don't yell at Both are good games, but they're different
Speaker 1: because the point is not burnout is not to be
Speaker 1: hyper realistic, it's to just you know, it's it's a
Speaker 1: simplified version of the game that's just there for you
Speaker 1: to have fun with. Right. So NBAHM was sort of
Speaker 1: like that. Yeah, And and it was a four player game.
Speaker 1: Up to four people could play, so one per character
Speaker 1: often did arcades that I would go to. It was
Speaker 1: always very, very popular and and that's how these machines
Speaker 1: earned so much money so quickly because it was usually
Speaker 1: an expensible one to play, and you had four people
Speaker 1: playing it once, so you're earning a realm maybe like
Speaker 1: up to four dollars of play, and everyone's eager to
Speaker 1: play it. So Yeah, that one was a huge hit
Speaker 1: for Midway financially, um, and also served the basis of
Speaker 1: other sports games that they released later on that had
Speaker 1: kind of followed kind of a similar philosophy, things like
Speaker 1: a NHL two on two and NBA Ballers and NFL Blitz,
Speaker 1: which are more arcades style sports games. Um. The next
Speaker 1: thing I want to talk about was that Midway in
Speaker 1: the in the early mid nineties purchased another big big
Speaker 1: name in gaming. I s Atari Games. Yeah, Atari has
Speaker 1: We need to do it. We need to do a
Speaker 1: podcast on Attariya because if tari has had several lives, Yes,
Speaker 1: Atari has split and reformed and split and died and
Speaker 1: been reborn, purchased and stuff. It's actually a very complex
Speaker 1: thing to talk about. So Midway purchased one of the
Speaker 1: companies called Atari Games. I think, I think, um, if
Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken, they're we're talking about the arcade version. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: because has Ro Interactive owned the other Atari. In fact,
Speaker 1: Midway not just didn't just purchase Atari Games, but they
Speaker 1: renamed it. They eventually renamed it Midway Games West because
Speaker 1: they wanted to avoid the confusion of the other Atari Games,
Speaker 1: which was owned by by Hasbro. Uh. And then they
Speaker 1: produced some games through their like a WrestleMania the arcade
Speaker 1: game WrestleMania Killer Instinct, which that was huge when I
Speaker 1: was in college, and that was that was an older
Speaker 1: game when I was in college. It wasn't then just
Speaker 1: come out. But um, well some of these things are timeless.
Speaker 1: You know, there's still new versions of pac Man being introduced,
Speaker 1: and yeah, you know, people still love playing it. This
Speaker 1: is true Rampage World Tour. That was another game. Used
Speaker 1: to love Rampage. Yeah, this one was one of the sequels,
Speaker 1: not not the original Rampage. Um. And then the Midway
Speaker 1: decided to branch out, not just making arcade and console games.
Speaker 1: Really they were still focused on arcade games at this time. UM,
Speaker 1: So they tried something new. They financed and released a
Speaker 1: film of one of their properties. It was not Pac Man,
Speaker 1: it was not. It was Mortal Kombat. Yes it was.
Speaker 1: And Paul W. S Anderson, not Paul wes Anderson, which
Speaker 1: is confusing enough, was the director. And the film ended
Speaker 1: up meeting with some success. Yeah, quite a bit. Actually
Speaker 1: I've never seen it. I know that shocktiondn't see Mortal Kombat.
Speaker 1: I was never a fan of the game. I've never
Speaker 1: enjoyed really the fighting games like Street Fighter and uh,
Speaker 1: which is not Midway. As a matter of fact, Mortal
Speaker 1: Kombat was supposed to be the competitor to the Street Fighter.
Speaker 1: But just as Teken is in a way an answer
Speaker 1: to Street Fighter would say, um but yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I've never been so I wasn't really interested in that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I do remember meeting with some success, although
Speaker 1: I remember people saying that it was sort of a
Speaker 1: silly movie. Um, okay, Mortal Kombat was awesome. Uh and
Speaker 1: it once again helped to cast us for Lambert and
Speaker 1: a character whose nationality is totally not the same as
Speaker 1: the actors. Yeah, which was awesome. I mean we're talking
Speaker 1: about the same actor who was We've got We've got
Speaker 1: a is Lambert French or Belgian? I can't remember. He's
Speaker 1: French and um and he was cast, of course as
Speaker 1: the Scottish Highlander in the Highlander movies, when you had
Speaker 1: the real Scott being an Egyptian character which going under
Speaker 1: a Spanish name that's neither here nor there. Obviously I'm
Speaker 1: getting off track with Highlander. But yeah, and it's okay.
Speaker 1: Keep so you're looking up to see if he's French
Speaker 1: or Belgian. Um So in Mortal Kombat he played Raid
Speaker 1: in the the Japanese Storm. God, you're not going to
Speaker 1: enjoy this. He's American. Lambert is wow. Interesting morning, great
Speaker 1: Neck Long Island, New York, USA. According to IMDb, well,
Speaker 1: I was just trying to deport him. Um but anyway,
Speaker 1: here he is here. He is playing various roles like you, Oh,
Speaker 1: I see what you're saying. Because his hiscording again. According
Speaker 1: to IMDb, he uh he was. He left the United
Speaker 1: States when he was two years old. His dad was
Speaker 1: a U N diplomat and so he uh he went
Speaker 1: to school in Switzerland. Switzerland. See now that explains the accent. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: that would be the French. And it might be why
Speaker 1: he's uh, you know, he's so neutral when it comes
Speaker 1: to being. That must be why they can cast him
Speaker 1: as any any nationality at any rate. So he played
Speaker 1: rate and yeah. The movie met with some success and
Speaker 1: in fact got to the point where Midway was kind
Speaker 1: of getting a little confident about their their abilities to
Speaker 1: enter various forms of entertainment, including the movies. So they
Speaker 1: made a sequel, Moral Kombat Annihiliation, which did not meet
Speaker 1: with success. Uh thirty five million dollar box office worldwide,
Speaker 1: not good. So that was a that was kind of
Speaker 1: a flop. They decided to get out of that. There
Speaker 1: there's been talk of another Mortal Kombat movie, and in fact,
Speaker 1: you know, if you've been on YouTube in the last
Speaker 1: year or so, actually the last couple of months, um,
Speaker 1: you may have seen the the promo kind of uh
Speaker 1: sort of a test for another Mortal Kombat movie. But
Speaker 1: in this case, it's it's really it's not even a preview.
Speaker 1: It's just kind of a a a real to show
Speaker 1: investors to see if you can get money to actually
Speaker 1: film a full feature length movie. So we may eventually
Speaker 1: see another Mortal Kombat movie, even though Midway itself is
Speaker 1: not really uh its name is probably not going to
Speaker 1: be on that anymore. Well, I think we haven't gotten
Speaker 1: to the very end of this, but I had the
Speaker 1: feeling that Midway's current owner will be able to do
Speaker 1: something with that, probably if they wanting there, considering there
Speaker 1: right their pockets. So Midway becomes a fully independent company.
Speaker 1: It splits off from w m S, which was the
Speaker 1: Williams Williams Electronics. Yeah, Williams Midway Company, So Midway becomes
Speaker 1: its own company again in um and release is that
Speaker 1: same year releases Moral Come at Four. So, like the
Speaker 1: various games have been coming up, Moral Come at Four
Speaker 1: does not get a huge amount of positive reviews. It
Speaker 1: was the first one that kind of made it a
Speaker 1: three D game as opposed to a two D game,
Speaker 1: and that's when we discovered that people kind of like
Speaker 1: things to be the way they always were. Funny that
Speaker 1: so in John Tobias leaves Midway. Um again, he was
Speaker 1: one of the two guys who brought the Mortal Kombat
Speaker 1: series to Midway. Um and he uh, he goes off
Speaker 1: to found his own studio, studio Gigante or Hunt. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get blister mail for that. I'm so sorry. Anyway,
Speaker 1: his studio creates a Tao fing in a couple of
Speaker 1: other games, but it does not last. It closes in
Speaker 1: two thousand five. So sad story for Tobias there, and
Speaker 1: that his his efforts ultimately fail. In two thousand that's
Speaker 1: when they Midway renames Atari Games to to Midway Games West. Um.
Speaker 1: Two thousand one, they have a lawsuit begins between Midway
Speaker 1: and Pandemic Studios, which have been developing games for Midway
Speaker 1: at that point. Um, that was not pretty. And two
Speaker 1: thousand three, Uh, that's when Midway closes Midway Games West. Yes,
Speaker 1: and I have information that suggests that, um, the coin
Speaker 1: operated video game business was sold off in two thousand one, Yeah,
Speaker 1: to to have Controls Incorporated. Yeah that yes, so they
Speaker 1: at that point the arcade business is really pretty much gone.
Speaker 1: By two thousand one, you don't have that many arcades anymore.
Speaker 1: You've got a few places like David Busters. You've got
Speaker 1: a few independent arcades, and you've got some student centers
Speaker 1: at various universities, but really the days of the old
Speaker 1: arcade in the in the mall are pretty much over.
Speaker 1: Kind of ironic considering the home console bust in the eighties,
Speaker 1: right that it recovered so significantly that it is essentially
Speaker 1: replaced going out to them. All home consoles playing game
Speaker 1: eventually cannibalized the arcade industry, just as they were threatening
Speaker 1: to do when they first appeared in the early early eighties,
Speaker 1: late seventies, early eighties. Massive come back there. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: it's kind of interesting to see that cycle. So two
Speaker 1: thousand three, Midway closes Midway Games West and opens a
Speaker 1: San Diego studio. But don't get too attached to it.
Speaker 1: Uh So, as they purchased, they start they start purchasing
Speaker 1: other companies, including one called Surreal Software, which released some
Speaker 1: games like The Suffering. I've actually played The Suffering, which
Speaker 1: is a pretty intense game for the Xbox. Um it
Speaker 1: maybe for other platforms as well, but I played it
Speaker 1: on the Xbox. Then in two thousand five they sign
Speaker 1: a deal with Cartoon Network to create some games based
Speaker 1: on the adult Swim lineup of programs, and then uh,
Speaker 1: in late two thousand five, Midway shuts down the Australia
Speaker 1: studio and the San Diego studio. So yeah, two thousand
Speaker 1: three they opened the San Diego studio. Two thousand five
Speaker 1: they close it. Uh. They also in two thousand five
Speaker 1: by another studio called rat Bag Games, which makes a
Speaker 1: phenomenal title based on the Dukes of Hazzard movie, which
Speaker 1: is about as good as you expect. I heard uh
Speaker 1: not so positive things from the fans around the rat Bag. Here.
Speaker 1: Here's a position. Here's a rule of thumb. Rule of
Speaker 1: thumb is that video games based upon television shows, movies,
Speaker 1: comic books, and cartoons tend to not be very good. Well,
Speaker 1: there are notable exceptions. Midway had had released other games
Speaker 1: related to the movies and TV shows, such as Tron
Speaker 1: and Discs of Tron, which were awesome. I enjoyed them
Speaker 1: very much, both of them. Like I said, there are
Speaker 1: notable options. There are certain games that are based on
Speaker 1: these properties, these kind of properties that are amazing. But
Speaker 1: for every amazing game you get, you get ten E
Speaker 1: t s or Superman in sixty four. No, frankly, I
Speaker 1: think there's only one that we should be thankful. So
Speaker 1: that is particularly awful. So two thousand and eight, we're
Speaker 1: jumping ahead a bit here. But Midway. Midway has been suffering, Okay,
Speaker 1: they've they've not been breaking in the revenue to be
Speaker 1: able to pay off the loans that the company has
Speaker 1: taken in order to stay in business. And those loans
Speaker 1: have started to really accumulate. Um. By two thousand and eight,
Speaker 1: they start to They shut down a Los Angeles office,
Speaker 1: they move the operations back to San Diego. They shut
Speaker 1: down the Austin office, which was developing some pretty cool
Speaker 1: games at the time. I remember I had friends in
Speaker 1: Texas at the time and they were very upset. Um
Speaker 1: I no longer have those friends. In December of two
Speaker 1: thousand eight, uh, the holding eight seven interest in the
Speaker 1: company sells it off. Sumner Redstone. You may be familiar
Speaker 1: with that name. Yes I am, Yeah, are you Redstone?
Speaker 1: That's a pretty famous name. If you're if you pay
Speaker 1: attention to media at all, you're probably familiar with some
Speaker 1: your Redstone huge many many, many, many many media property
Speaker 1: things like CBS. Um So, Redstone sells his controlling interest.
Speaker 1: He had eight seven percent of the ownership of that company,
Speaker 1: and he sells it to an investor named Mark Thomas,
Speaker 1: and he sells it for one hundred thousand dollars. And
Speaker 1: think about this for a minute. Guys. This is the
Speaker 1: company that brought Pacman to America and it's essentially being
Speaker 1: the ownership of this company more or less is being
Speaker 1: sold for a hundred grand. That that makes a statement. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's how the mighty have fallen, is might be that statement. Now,
Speaker 1: he didn't have much confidence it was going to improve,
Speaker 1: and only that, but also we should also point out
Speaker 1: or I'll point out that, um, well, the company at
Speaker 1: that point had over two million dollars in debt. Okay,
Speaker 1: so just Midway alone had two hundred million dollars in debt.
Speaker 1: But Sumner Redstone had bigger problems to worry about because
Speaker 1: the parent company that owned Midway at the time was
Speaker 1: or the parent company that Sumner worked through in order
Speaker 1: to own this an ownership. This is really complicated when
Speaker 1: we get into this. We need we need this working.
Speaker 1: Um But the parent company was called National Amusements. It
Speaker 1: had one point six billion with a B dollars in debt.
Speaker 1: So Redstone had some big problems to worry about, and
Speaker 1: so getting this other debt filled property off his hands
Speaker 1: was probably seen as a quite the boone, so to speak,
Speaker 1: not the ed boon, but the boon. So he sells
Speaker 1: it to Mark Thomas. Now and two thousand nine February
Speaker 1: of two thousand nine, Midway declares bankruptcy. Um. And then
Speaker 1: later on that year is purchased by Warner Brothers for
Speaker 1: a thirty three million dollars. Yes so, and and Warner
Speaker 1: Brothers closes the the corporate headquarters of Midway, which was
Speaker 1: located in Chicago. Um, that office closes. Uh. That was
Speaker 1: kind of like the end of an era because that
Speaker 1: was really the heart of Midway. Uh. The company really
Speaker 1: kind of doesn't exist anymore. Has been folded into the
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers Interactive Division for video games. Right. The people
Speaker 1: who were developing properties for it are basically doing so
Speaker 1: now under Warner Brothers name. And we we should be specific.
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers only purchased certain intellectual property from Midway. Other
Speaker 1: parts of Midway were sold off to other companies, and
Speaker 1: some of them just shut down because no one bought them. Uh.
Speaker 1: The San Diego one shut down, Newcastle shut down. Um,
Speaker 1: so it's not it's not that Midway now belongs to
Speaker 1: Ner Brothers. It's certain properties of Midway belonged to Warner Brothers,
Speaker 1: most notably the Mortal Kombat franchise. UM. But like NBA
Speaker 1: Jam went to a different company, and I don't remember
Speaker 1: who it was, but I know it was not Warner Brothers,
Speaker 1: Um e A. I think it went to e A.
Speaker 1: I think they're producing NBA Jam for the week. So
Speaker 1: I had no idea. Yeah, I saw that E three.
Speaker 1: I was trying to remember as like, wait, it was
Speaker 1: the really big loud booth, which one was that it
Speaker 1: was e A. So yeah, the the company is pretty
Speaker 1: much no more. It what remains of the company. The
Speaker 1: people who worked for the company are either working for
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers or some other uh studio, or they're sadly
Speaker 1: looking for work. Um. It's really kind of a tragic
Speaker 1: tale because you think about some of the games they released,
Speaker 1: like the you know, like pac Man, Defenders, Spy Hunter,
Speaker 1: the Moral Kombat series, NBA Jam. You think about these
Speaker 1: games and you're like, Wow, this company really made some
Speaker 1: blockbuster games. But it just shows that that, you know,
Speaker 1: the the hard times when they hit the video game
Speaker 1: industry really hit Midway hard. It did not make the
Speaker 1: transition to console games fast enough or effectively enough, and
Speaker 1: I would say the combination of some poorly timed purchases
Speaker 1: and some less than stellar games really did the men.
Speaker 1: And plus backing movies like Mortal Kombat Annihilation probably didn't help.
Speaker 1: So you told us what your favorite is. Do you
Speaker 1: have a sleeper favorite one that wasn't a big hit
Speaker 1: that you really enjoyed. I'd have to look at the
Speaker 1: entire you know what. I'd have to look at the
Speaker 1: entire library of Midway games to tell you, and I
Speaker 1: did not do that, so I can't really well, I
Speaker 1: you know, there are lists out there, and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how authentic they are. I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: they're fairly accurate. But I do have a couple because
Speaker 1: I was I didn't realize that Tron was a Midway game.
Speaker 1: Tron's way up there. That was always a great game,
Speaker 1: but I always enjoyed UM. Actually discovered this one in college, Trog,
Speaker 1: which was really fun and very cartoony, pack An esque
Speaker 1: game where you played a caveman. I vaguely remember Trog. Actually, no,
Speaker 1: you played it a dinosaur running from a caveman. Which
Speaker 1: is very, very funny game. I underst enjoyed it and
Speaker 1: Tapper root Beer Tapper, you know, for the different you know,
Speaker 1: I may not be in the the bar. I had
Speaker 1: root Beer Tapper for the Apple to E. I really
Speaker 1: enjoyed that that. As far as I can tell now,
Speaker 1: I haven't done any any research on this at all,
Speaker 1: but I'm pretty sure that that game may have launched
Speaker 1: the whole time management thing which is so big and
Speaker 1: casual games with the diner dash and all the other
Speaker 1: dashes and you know, move stuff over here. You better
Speaker 1: hurry or you're gonna get you know, your customers are
Speaker 1: gonna leave or whatever. That was the first time management
Speaker 1: game I saw, and I played that in you know
Speaker 1: high school, actually junior high school, well midway games, we
Speaker 1: hardly knew ye rest in peace, Uh, your games shall
Speaker 1: live on. And there are these companies are going to continue,
Speaker 1: Various companies are going to come to the franchises. There's
Speaker 1: going to be a new moral combat game coming out
Speaker 1: very soon. I actually got to see a demo of
Speaker 1: that at the three and it was it was just
Speaker 1: as gloriously violent, over the top ridiculous as all the
Speaker 1: other Moral combat Once it actually goes back to the
Speaker 1: philosophy of the original moral combat game. So I think
Speaker 1: fans will be pleased. And uh, well, that'll wrap this
Speaker 1: discussion of Midway Games up. We'll probably do profiles and
Speaker 1: other companies in the future, and not just video game companies,
Speaker 1: but other electronics companies sure, um and and computer companies,
Speaker 1: and so we're gonna wrap this up. If you have
Speaker 1: any topic suggestions that there's a particular company you would
Speaker 1: like us to talk about, write us. Our email address
Speaker 1: is tech stuff at how stuff works dot com and
Speaker 1: Chris and I will talk to you again really soon.
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