WEBVTT - Profile on Midway Games 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Cammeray, 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:08.959 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:18.000 text style from how stuff works dot com. Hello, everyone, 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:20.400 welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Pellette and 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:22.920 I am an editor at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:25.920 Sitting across from me, as he always does, is senior 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:32.200 writer Jonathan Strickland flawless victory. Nice. Yeah, we just said 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:34.239 that we were going to do a profile not on 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:37.480 a person, but on a company, a company that has 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:41.120 ceased to be and is sort of rung up the 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:43.800 curtain and joined the choir invisible well, ceased to be 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:48.200 as an independent company. Yeah, we're talking about Midway Games, 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:50.520 and Midway Games has a special place in my heart 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:54.400 because they actually published one of my favorite video games 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:58.760 of all time. Gee, which one would that be? You? Well, 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:01.760 I mean you might two are three titles going through 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:05.800 your head? Yeah, but considering your quote, no, it is 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.680 not that one. It's not Moral Kombat. Really, that's probably 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:13.399 probably the most famous title that that Midway published, but 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:15.399 it is not the title that's my favorite. Okay, which 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:18.200 one is your favorite? Spy Hunter? That's mine too? Now 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:20.360 you got the you got the Peter Gun theme, and 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:23.000 you've got the cool spy car with guns and stuff. 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:25.360 And I mean, I like the old old classic Spy 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:27.360 Hunter game. We're we're talking the one that that you 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:29.720 look down on top of the car, not the remake 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:32.280 where you're in the car. That was kind of fun too, Yeah, 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.760 but it was the the overhead view and especially the 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:39.640 ones that had the cockpit style console, so you were 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:42.520 sitting down and you were you know, completely enveloped, and 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:46.400 you just had that Peter Gun theme playing and glorious, 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:52.279 glorious low fidelity. So um. But yes, the Midway Games 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:55.160 has sadly fallen on hard times to the point where 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:59.440 the company is no more than just a name really 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:02.760 at this point. Rum But let's let's kind of set 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:09.560 the whole story here. So, going way back into the sixties, 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:14.000 Midway was a company that was developing and producing equipment 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:18.680 for amusement parks and fair grounds. So the name made sense, 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:22.640 the Midway. That was the area of a carnival where 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:25.280 you would find all the games, right so that that 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:28.240 you know, and rides as well, that's the Midway. So 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:32.440 Midway starts off developing various games for amusement parks. And 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:37.080 in nineteen sixty nine, uh, they were purchased by another 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:44.080 company that became known for producing lots of games and amusements, Bally. Now, 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:47.320 for those of you who have listened to our pinball podcast, 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:51.000 you may have heard us talk about Bally actually Midway 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:54.960 as well, because both companies did produce pinball machines, and 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:58.200 so that back then that's pretty much what the coin 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:03.799 operated divisions of these companies were concentrating on producing pinball machines. Well, 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:05.720 they didn't have video games at that point. Yes, this 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:10.160 credates video games really not. That didn't exist on an 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:14.000 oscillator in a lab, right, So eventually video games do 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:17.160 start to emerge. People begin to play with this idea, 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:21.760 and Midway published a couple but the first one of 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:25.320 any real note that they published was in nineteen seventy 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:28.840 eight and it was a Biggie UM. Now, before before 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:32.080 this they had made one of their probably one of 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:36.760 the earliest and biggest blenders. They turned down the opportunity 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:40.880 to publish a certain video game that became synonymous with 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:44.280 the early early early days of video games. It was 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:47.840 a creation of a Mr Nolan Bushnell. You know what 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:52.120 I'm talking about Chuck E Cheese Pong Oh that the 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:58.000 earlier creation, yes Pong So Pong was. They had the 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:01.000 opportunity to publish Pong Y they they turned it down, 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:04.720 but they did not turn down the opportunity to publish 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:09.280 a video game from a Japanese company called Tito called 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:17.560 Space Invaders. Bom Bom Bom Bom bom. You this is 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:21.039 our sad attempt at recreating the space and I'll improve 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:24.120 my fully technique. Maybe we can get Liz to throw 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:27.120 in like a a just an electronic beap here and 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:30.560 there for this podcast. So Space Invaders comes out in 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:34.080 ninety eight. Now, for those of you younger listeners who 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:37.560 never played or saw Space Invaders, or maybe you've only 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:39.320 seen it in one of those are acades where they 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:41.520 have like the Classic console where it has five or 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:44.120 six different games and then Space Invaders is one of them, 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:47.680 you may not realize that this was an enormous hit 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:50.320 in the video game world. I mean, you can't really 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:55.440 understate how big this was. Yeah, I mean seven years old, 0:04:56.040 --> 0:05:00.200 and you know, I remember Space Invaders machines being at 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.200 skating rinks and people used to roller skate in the 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:08.080 seventies and pizza part owners. This was before inline skating. Yeah, 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:10.320 people still quad skate, but it wasn't you know at 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:12.440 that time, that was a big thing to do. And 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:14.520 there were you know, any place where you might find 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:17.559 a video game, because they really didn't have video or kids. 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:19.600 I never really saw one until the eighties. Yeah, I 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:22.760 remember seeing them in bars because that's where my dad 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:27.159 would leave me. You go next door to right, Just 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:29.800 tell the people on side, look after look after this kid, 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:33.000 will you. I'm just kidding. My dad never ever left 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:36.520 me in a bar. Mom, that's a different story. But anyway, 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:39.880 so no, no, my parents are fantastic. Did they they are? 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:43.000 But did they listen to the podcast? I don't know 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:47.640 from them. I'll find out, um So at any rate, 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:49.960 the yeah, The Space Invaders was in lots of these 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:52.479 different little locations. One of the reasons why it was 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:56.159 such a huge hit was introduced a new concept into 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:57.960 video games that did not exist at that point. There 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:01.200 was no way to win Space Invaders, right, There was 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:03.080 no ending. You would just keep playing. You would get 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:05.320 a new wave of enemies and you would fight them off, 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:07.160 and then you get another wave, and it would keep 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:09.400 going until you were finally lost your last life. What 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:13.320 it did have was a high score. Yes, so you 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:15.840 could put your initials in and have the high score 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:18.640 on that console. And this was a new concept back 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:22.320 in so people began to compete with each other to 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:24.320 try and get that high score. And it meant that 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:27.040 people are spending more money playing these games. I mean 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:30.960 the games really sticky, right, because you would you would 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:33.200 establish your score and then you would have to defend 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:35.000 it because if someone else beat your score, well, then 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:36.800 you'd have to go back and try and beat their 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:40.640 score so you could get it again. Um and yeah, 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:43.200 that that ended up being a huge hit. Uh. The 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:47.800 next three big games that Midway released back in the 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:53.440 early early eighties were Defender, where you would shoot aliens 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:57.080 and try to defend your human colony against them. There 0:06:57.200 --> 0:07:03.719 was Robotron eighty four. So Robotron introduced a new control 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:06.800 system and had two joysticks. The left one you would 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:09.520 use to move your character with right when you would 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:12.920 use to control your guns. Actually there were eight way joysticks. 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:16.560 Right you would direct your your laser fire using the 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:20.760 right joystick. And this this setup actually served as a 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:23.160 model that ended up being used in other games in 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:26.800 the future, including Smash TV and Total Carnage. Yes, um, 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:29.280 that'll come into play a little bit later. The third 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:32.800 game is probably the most famous video game of all time, 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:35.200 arguably the most famous video game of all time. And 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:38.760 you could maybe make a case for Pond or Space Invaders, 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:41.960 but it would be pac Man. Yes. I don't think 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:44.440 any of the others spawned a whole album of music, 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:51.720 a dance and a cartoon an Yeah. Yeah, so Pacman was. 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:55.040 There's just really no way of saying how big it was. 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:57.200 It was enormous. If you were growing up in the eighties, 0:07:57.240 --> 0:07:59.360 you knew what pac Man was. Yes, and of course 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:02.600 pac Man in it was a licensed from Namco, who 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:05.800 stole owns the right right to it. Yeah, But Midway 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:09.320 didn't necessarily develop these games. Midway was the American and 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:13.240 European carrier the publisher of these games, so that's an 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:16.800 important distinction. Now, Midway has of course developed and published 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:21.200 its own games as well, but these early successes are 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:25.400 are mainly Midway licensing the titles from other companies and 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:29.000 then publishing them under the Midway name. Uh, which still 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:31.360 makes it quite a bit of money. Oh yes, yes, yes. 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:35.400 So then in the pinball divisions, of Bally and Midway 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:41.080 officially merged becomes Bally Midway Manufacturing Company, and five years 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:45.440 later they were published by another Midway was published by 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:50.000 another big electronics company, one that also had its name 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:54.640 on several pinball machines, Williams Williams Electronics. We talked about 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:58.640 them quite a bit in our So, yeah, Bally, Williams, Midway. 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:00.760 These names have always been big, and you know, you 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:02.880 start to see how they kind of mesh and merge 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:06.760 throughout the years. So in eight that's when Williams Electronics 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:11.760 purchases Midway, and in one Williams starts to incorporate its 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:15.719 own gaming division with Midways Gaming Division, so they're not 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:18.800 just you know, it's not just a subsidiary company. They're 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:22.559 actually merging together. The first game that they produce is 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:26.439 Total Carnage, which I mentioned earlier. Okay, that's a sequel 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:29.600 to Smash TV, which came out under the Williams name. 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:33.040 Total Carnage was the product of both Williams and Midway 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:36.360 working together, and there were two developers who worked on 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:40.800 Total Carnage who also became famous later on for the 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:45.839 Mortal Kombat games. That's Ed Boone and John Tobias noob cibot. 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:49.360 That only makes sense if you've played some of the 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:52.319 Mortal Kombay games. But yeah, they both worked on Total 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:55.600 Carnage Ed Boone actually did a voice for it and 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:58.480 Tobias did some of the art for it. And uh 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:03.920 then in that's when Mortal Kombat actually launches, and you 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:07.480 could say that this game was also a hit, maybe 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:11.480 just slightly. Yeah, another big, big hit, huge controversy on 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:15.000 this game because it was very very gory, very violent, 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:17.200 lots of blood. I mean, you have a you have 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:21.880 a game where after you finished defeating your opponent, you can, 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:26.359 if you know the right sequence of joystick and button moves, uh, 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:31.120 finish him with a fatality. And the fatalities although really, 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:33.520 when you look back at those early fatalities and really 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:37.360 all the fatalities in the Mortal Kombat franchise, they're over 0:10:37.400 --> 0:10:39.520 the top and to the point where I think of 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:42.040 them as silly. The first time you see it, you 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:44.319 might be like, Wow, that's cool that guy grabbed the 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:46.840 other guy by the head and ripped out his entire spine. 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:49.120 But really, when you watch it, like for the fourth 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:51.000 or fifth time, you're like, yeah, that's kind of stupid, 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:53.800 but I mean it was cool at the time, and 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:55.920 it was and it was a neat idea, and it 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:59.600 also made that game very sticky because everyone wanted to 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:03.400 learn not just how to play each character, because each 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:06.720 character's moves were different and the combinations you had to 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:10.920 use were different. They need to learn each character's fatality, 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:14.160 and as the game series goes on, they introduced more 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:17.840 fatalities so that each character had more than one um 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:21.000 and they had different flavors, not just the fatalities, but 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:23.280 things like the bability where you would turn into a 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:26.920 little baby, or the friendship where you would, instead of 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:30.199 killing your opponent, make them feel better by perhaps presenting 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:33.280 them with some flowers. Um, but they had, you know, 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:36.000 or animality or yeah, I guess it had to be 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:39.040 animal itty because the other alternative would have been really 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:42.560 unfortunate um animality, where you would turn into an animal 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:45.400 and then disable your opponent that way. I think Chris 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:50.599 just got my joke. I am I'm pretending not to listen, okay, 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:53.760 Um so yes. Several sequels follow the Mortal Kombat series. 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:58.520 Right around that same time, Midway released one of the 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:05.680 biggest arcade games ever in terms of earnings NBA Jam. No, 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:10.280 NBA Jam, I actually enjoyed playing NBA JAM. I don't 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:13.800 typically like playing sports games. NBA Jam, of course, being 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:16.040 a basketball game, it's a two on two basketball games. 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:19.680 I'm not big on sports games in general. I'm not 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:23.640 a big sports fan. I'm not particularly good at sports games. 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:28.120 But NBA Jam was an arcade ish sports game, and 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:34.439 that the the the emphasis was not on accuracy by 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:38.760 any means. It was on outlandishness and and fun gameplay, 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:44.880 fun being of course of a subjective term. Okay, if 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:47.480 I get what you're saying here, what you're saying is 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:51.160 it wasn't necessarily realistic, not at all. It was intended 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:54.920 to be amusing. I mean, something that amuses you and 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:57.679 keep keeps you going and you're enjoying yourself. But it's 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:03.000 not necessarily the physics are necessarily exactly accurate, like, for example, 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:06.960 the difference in uh, you know, something like Grand Turismo 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:11.280 being a realistic car game, which is not midway, you 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:14.880 know it's not. But I'm saying burnout, burnout exactly where 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:17.920 the point is justiculous run into things, and you know, 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:20.520 ridiculous in a good way. By the way, so don't 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:23.360 don't yell at Both are good games, but they're different 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:25.920 because the point is not burnout is not to be 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:29.720 hyper realistic, it's to just you know, it's it's a 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:31.840 simplified version of the game that's just there for you 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:34.440 to have fun with. Right. So NBAHM was sort of 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:36.840 like that. Yeah, And and it was a four player game. 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:39.600 Up to four people could play, so one per character 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:42.480 often did arcades that I would go to. It was 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:46.440 always very, very popular and and that's how these machines 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:49.640 earned so much money so quickly because it was usually 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:52.360 an expensible one to play, and you had four people 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:54.760 playing it once, so you're earning a realm maybe like 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:58.160 up to four dollars of play, and everyone's eager to 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:00.559 play it. So Yeah, that one was a huge hit 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:03.680 for Midway financially, um, and also served the basis of 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:06.200 other sports games that they released later on that had 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:08.520 kind of followed kind of a similar philosophy, things like 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:12.680 a NHL two on two and NBA Ballers and NFL Blitz, 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:18.120 which are more arcades style sports games. Um. The next 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:20.640 thing I want to talk about was that Midway in 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:25.040 the in the early mid nineties purchased another big big 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:31.440 name in gaming. I s Atari Games. Yeah, Atari has 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:32.760 We need to do it. We need to do a 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:36.320 podcast on Attariya because if tari has had several lives, Yes, 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:40.040 Atari has split and reformed and split and died and 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:45.880 been reborn, purchased and stuff. It's actually a very complex 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:48.560 thing to talk about. So Midway purchased one of the 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:52.000 companies called Atari Games. I think, I think, um, if 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:55.840 I'm not mistaken, they're we're talking about the arcade version. Yeah, yeah, 0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:59.280 because has Ro Interactive owned the other Atari. In fact, 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:03.200 Midway not just didn't just purchase Atari Games, but they 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:07.720 renamed it. They eventually renamed it Midway Games West because 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:11.000 they wanted to avoid the confusion of the other Atari Games, 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:15.360 which was owned by by Hasbro. Uh. And then they 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:19.000 produced some games through their like a WrestleMania the arcade 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:23.320 game WrestleMania Killer Instinct, which that was huge when I 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:25.280 was in college, and that was that was an older 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:27.160 game when I was in college. It wasn't then just 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:30.320 come out. But um, well some of these things are timeless. 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:33.760 You know, there's still new versions of pac Man being introduced, 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:36.440 and yeah, you know, people still love playing it. This 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:39.840 is true Rampage World Tour. That was another game. Used 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:42.520 to love Rampage. Yeah, this one was one of the sequels, 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:49.280 not not the original Rampage. Um. And then the Midway 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:53.520 decided to branch out, not just making arcade and console games. 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:57.000 Really they were still focused on arcade games at this time. UM, 0:15:57.040 --> 0:16:03.280 So they tried something new. They financed and released a 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:07.080 film of one of their properties. It was not Pac Man, 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:10.720 it was not. It was Mortal Kombat. Yes it was. 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:15.760 And Paul W. S Anderson, not Paul wes Anderson, which 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:20.320 is confusing enough, was the director. And the film ended 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:23.640 up meeting with some success. Yeah, quite a bit. Actually 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:27.080 I've never seen it. I know that shocktiondn't see Mortal Kombat. 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:28.720 I was never a fan of the game. I've never 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:33.000 enjoyed really the fighting games like Street Fighter and uh, 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:35.080 which is not Midway. As a matter of fact, Mortal 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:38.520 Kombat was supposed to be the competitor to the Street Fighter. 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:40.800 But just as Teken is in a way an answer 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:44.000 to Street Fighter would say, um but yeah, I mean 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:46.400 I've never been so I wasn't really interested in that. 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:49.120 But yeah, I do remember meeting with some success, although 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:51.200 I remember people saying that it was sort of a 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:56.560 silly movie. Um, okay, Mortal Kombat was awesome. Uh and 0:16:56.760 --> 0:17:01.120 it once again helped to cast us for Lambert and 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:04.800 a character whose nationality is totally not the same as 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:08.760 the actors. Yeah, which was awesome. I mean we're talking 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:11.440 about the same actor who was We've got We've got 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:14.640 a is Lambert French or Belgian? I can't remember. He's 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:17.720 French and um and he was cast, of course as 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:21.439 the Scottish Highlander in the Highlander movies, when you had 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:26.640 the real Scott being an Egyptian character which going under 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:29.199 a Spanish name that's neither here nor there. Obviously I'm 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:32.200 getting off track with Highlander. But yeah, and it's okay. 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:35.160 Keep so you're looking up to see if he's French 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:38.120 or Belgian. Um So in Mortal Kombat he played Raid 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:41.399 in the the Japanese Storm. God, you're not going to 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:48.160 enjoy this. He's American. Lambert is wow. Interesting morning, great 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:51.360 Neck Long Island, New York, USA. According to IMDb, well, 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:55.120 I was just trying to deport him. Um but anyway, 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:57.800 here he is here. He is playing various roles like you, Oh, 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:00.919 I see what you're saying. Because his hiscording again. According 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:03.960 to IMDb, he uh he was. He left the United 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:06.520 States when he was two years old. His dad was 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:09.159 a U N diplomat and so he uh he went 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:13.640 to school in Switzerland. Switzerland. See now that explains the accent. Yes, yes, 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:15.920 that would be the French. And it might be why 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:18.280 he's uh, you know, he's so neutral when it comes 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:20.920 to being. That must be why they can cast him 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:24.000 as any any nationality at any rate. So he played 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:27.640 rate and yeah. The movie met with some success and 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:29.800 in fact got to the point where Midway was kind 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:32.800 of getting a little confident about their their abilities to 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:36.080 enter various forms of entertainment, including the movies. So they 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:39.760 made a sequel, Moral Kombat Annihiliation, which did not meet 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:45.000 with success. Uh thirty five million dollar box office worldwide, 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:48.320 not good. So that was a that was kind of 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:51.760 a flop. They decided to get out of that. There 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:54.560 there's been talk of another Mortal Kombat movie, and in fact, 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:57.080 you know, if you've been on YouTube in the last 0:18:57.200 --> 0:19:00.440 year or so, actually the last couple of months, um, 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:04.200 you may have seen the the promo kind of uh 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:08.000 sort of a test for another Mortal Kombat movie. But 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:10.400 in this case, it's it's really it's not even a preview. 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:14.720 It's just kind of a a a real to show 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:17.439 investors to see if you can get money to actually 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:20.560 film a full feature length movie. So we may eventually 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:23.159 see another Mortal Kombat movie, even though Midway itself is 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:27.000 not really uh its name is probably not going to 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:31.320 be on that anymore. Well, I think we haven't gotten 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:33.119 to the very end of this, but I had the 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:38.719 feeling that Midway's current owner will be able to do 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:41.760 something with that, probably if they wanting there, considering there 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:49.120 right their pockets. So Midway becomes a fully independent company. 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:51.359 It splits off from w m S, which was the 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:56.520 Williams Williams Electronics. Yeah, Williams Midway Company, So Midway becomes 0:19:56.560 --> 0:20:00.560 its own company again in um and release is that 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:02.920 same year releases Moral Come at Four. So, like the 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:05.880 various games have been coming up, Moral Come at Four 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:09.720 does not get a huge amount of positive reviews. It 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:11.280 was the first one that kind of made it a 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:13.080 three D game as opposed to a two D game, 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:15.359 and that's when we discovered that people kind of like 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:18.720 things to be the way they always were. Funny that 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:24.919 so in John Tobias leaves Midway. Um again, he was 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:27.600 one of the two guys who brought the Mortal Kombat 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:30.479 series to Midway. Um and he uh, he goes off 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:36.520 to found his own studio, studio Gigante or Hunt. I'm 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:40.520 gonna get blister mail for that. I'm so sorry. Anyway, 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:43.439 his studio creates a Tao fing in a couple of 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:45.840 other games, but it does not last. It closes in 0:20:45.880 --> 0:20:48.560 two thousand five. So sad story for Tobias there, and 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:53.960 that his his efforts ultimately fail. In two thousand that's 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:58.240 when they Midway renames Atari Games to to Midway Games West. Um. 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:03.040 Two thousand one, they have a lawsuit begins between Midway 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:05.840 and Pandemic Studios, which have been developing games for Midway 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:09.400 at that point. Um, that was not pretty. And two 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:16.560 thousand three, Uh, that's when Midway closes Midway Games West. Yes, 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:21.040 and I have information that suggests that, um, the coin 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:26.200 operated video game business was sold off in two thousand one, Yeah, 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:30.480 to to have Controls Incorporated. Yeah that yes, so they 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:35.040 at that point the arcade business is really pretty much gone. 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:37.760 By two thousand one, you don't have that many arcades anymore. 0:21:37.760 --> 0:21:39.639 You've got a few places like David Busters. You've got 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:42.520 a few independent arcades, and you've got some student centers 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:45.640 at various universities, but really the days of the old 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:48.120 arcade in the in the mall are pretty much over. 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:53.800 Kind of ironic considering the home console bust in the eighties, 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:58.360 right that it recovered so significantly that it is essentially 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:02.360 replaced going out to them. All home consoles playing game 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:06.439 eventually cannibalized the arcade industry, just as they were threatening 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:09.000 to do when they first appeared in the early early eighties, 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:13.320 late seventies, early eighties. Massive come back there. Yeah, so 0:22:13.359 --> 0:22:16.400 it's kind of interesting to see that cycle. So two 0:22:16.400 --> 0:22:20.119 thousand three, Midway closes Midway Games West and opens a 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:22.919 San Diego studio. But don't get too attached to it. 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:28.240 Uh So, as they purchased, they start they start purchasing 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:32.720 other companies, including one called Surreal Software, which released some 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:35.920 games like The Suffering. I've actually played The Suffering, which 0:22:36.000 --> 0:22:40.600 is a pretty intense game for the Xbox. Um it 0:22:40.640 --> 0:22:42.600 maybe for other platforms as well, but I played it 0:22:42.640 --> 0:22:46.480 on the Xbox. Then in two thousand five they sign 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:49.879 a deal with Cartoon Network to create some games based 0:22:49.920 --> 0:22:55.400 on the adult Swim lineup of programs, and then uh, 0:22:56.200 --> 0:22:59.359 in late two thousand five, Midway shuts down the Australia 0:22:59.480 --> 0:23:02.880 studio and the San Diego studio. So yeah, two thousand 0:23:02.960 --> 0:23:05.240 three they opened the San Diego studio. Two thousand five 0:23:05.280 --> 0:23:08.320 they close it. Uh. They also in two thousand five 0:23:08.440 --> 0:23:13.360 by another studio called rat Bag Games, which makes a 0:23:13.359 --> 0:23:18.639 phenomenal title based on the Dukes of Hazzard movie, which 0:23:19.320 --> 0:23:24.639 is about as good as you expect. I heard uh 0:23:25.040 --> 0:23:28.479 not so positive things from the fans around the rat Bag. Here. 0:23:28.600 --> 0:23:31.480 Here's a position. Here's a rule of thumb. Rule of 0:23:31.480 --> 0:23:37.159 thumb is that video games based upon television shows, movies, 0:23:38.040 --> 0:23:44.720 comic books, and cartoons tend to not be very good. Well, 0:23:44.760 --> 0:23:50.440 there are notable exceptions. Midway had had released other games 0:23:50.480 --> 0:23:53.199