1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:15,000 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:15,160 --> 00:00:18,320 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 4 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:23,239 Speaker 1: and I love all things tech and Way back in 5 00:00:23,400 --> 00:00:28,200 Speaker 1: twenty Holy Cow, more than a decade ago, tech Stuff 6 00:00:28,240 --> 00:00:32,440 Speaker 1: did an episode that was a profile about Midway Games, 7 00:00:33,159 --> 00:00:37,440 Speaker 1: and the company Midway was going through bankruptcy at that time, 8 00:00:37,520 --> 00:00:40,159 Speaker 1: and it would effectively cease to be by two thousand 9 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:43,400 Speaker 1: and eleven. But the story of Midway is a really 10 00:00:43,479 --> 00:00:46,680 Speaker 1: complicated one and it involves a lot of other companies 11 00:00:46,800 --> 00:00:49,800 Speaker 1: as well. And while the company that fizzled out in 12 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:56,040 Speaker 1: can technically trace its history back to arguably you could 13 00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:58,760 Speaker 1: go even earlier, it wouldn't be fair to say that 14 00:00:58,880 --> 00:01:03,040 Speaker 1: was really the same come monny, throughout all that time, plus, 15 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:07,160 Speaker 1: titles that Midway created are still going strong today years 16 00:01:07,160 --> 00:01:10,240 Speaker 1: after the company has gone away, as there is a 17 00:01:10,280 --> 00:01:12,959 Speaker 1: new Mortal Kombat movie preparing to finish up on the 18 00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:17,000 Speaker 1: big or more likely for most of us, the slightly 19 00:01:17,080 --> 00:01:19,759 Speaker 1: less big screen. I figured that we could learn more 20 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:23,800 Speaker 1: about Midway, its history, it's influence on video games, the 21 00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:27,680 Speaker 1: development of Mortal Kombat in particular, and While I could 22 00:01:27,800 --> 00:01:32,880 Speaker 1: dive into excruciating detail, I'm not going to. This is 23 00:01:32,880 --> 00:01:35,720 Speaker 1: going to be more of a summary than a full account, 24 00:01:35,880 --> 00:01:42,039 Speaker 1: because to go year by year would be tedious. Uh, 25 00:01:42,319 --> 00:01:47,199 Speaker 1: Midway has been involved in tons of different coin operated 26 00:01:47,240 --> 00:01:51,200 Speaker 1: amusements and then later on the home market, so we're 27 00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:54,000 Speaker 1: gonna take kind of a very high level view, but 28 00:01:54,040 --> 00:01:55,480 Speaker 1: it also means we're gonna have to look at a 29 00:01:55,480 --> 00:01:57,760 Speaker 1: lot of other stuff. So along the way we will 30 00:01:57,840 --> 00:02:02,200 Speaker 1: learn about coin operated our acade games and amusements, how 31 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:06,120 Speaker 1: the video game crash affected the arcade industry, and more. 32 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:11,040 Speaker 1: But our story begins well before there ever was a 33 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:14,840 Speaker 1: Midway Games. We're actually going to look at a time 34 00:02:15,160 --> 00:02:18,639 Speaker 1: that happened a century before Midway Games was founded. But 35 00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:23,280 Speaker 1: don't worry, we're not again going to go into deep 36 00:02:23,320 --> 00:02:27,440 Speaker 1: detail here. It is fascinating, but around the eighteen seventies, 37 00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:30,560 Speaker 1: clever engineers figured out ways to make machines that could 38 00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:35,799 Speaker 1: deliver some sort of product or service automatically in exchange 39 00:02:35,880 --> 00:02:40,040 Speaker 1: for a coin. So a coin operated device, you might 40 00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:42,480 Speaker 1: put a penny in a slot and then maybe a 41 00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:46,400 Speaker 1: little ten figures like T I N ten figures begin 42 00:02:46,440 --> 00:02:50,239 Speaker 1: to race around a race track. Or jazz band might 43 00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:54,639 Speaker 1: appear to dance around as music plays from the machine. 44 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:58,600 Speaker 1: By the way, if you're ever in San Francisco, I 45 00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:03,640 Speaker 1: highly recommend you check out muse A Mechanique. It is 46 00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:10,400 Speaker 1: a an entire museum dedicated to coin operated devices, ranging 47 00:03:10,480 --> 00:03:16,840 Speaker 1: from games like pinball two very odd and specific implementations. 48 00:03:17,040 --> 00:03:20,480 Speaker 1: It is a fascinating place and I love it very much. 49 00:03:20,639 --> 00:03:25,320 Speaker 1: Also kind of creepy. But the basic business model of 50 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:28,960 Speaker 1: this whole operation was that you have a company that 51 00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:32,760 Speaker 1: builds these sorts of machines, right They specialize in creating 52 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:37,280 Speaker 1: the clockwork or mechanics that actually do the thing. And 53 00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:41,320 Speaker 1: then that company, once making this machine, would sell that 54 00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:45,000 Speaker 1: machine to various business owners, and the owner might run 55 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:48,560 Speaker 1: a bar or maybe an amusement park or carnival or 56 00:03:48,680 --> 00:03:52,160 Speaker 1: a bowling alley or whatever, and the owner would then 57 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:57,200 Speaker 1: recoup the cost of that purchase a penny or much 58 00:03:57,280 --> 00:04:00,320 Speaker 1: much later a quarter at a time. So as long 59 00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:03,120 Speaker 1: as the machine was in good working order and people 60 00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:06,240 Speaker 1: liked whatever it was the machine did, it would become 61 00:04:06,280 --> 00:04:09,760 Speaker 1: a revenue generator and eventually turn a profit if you 62 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:13,280 Speaker 1: could run it for long enough. There's a great story 63 00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:16,560 Speaker 1: of a sort of proto coin up device I want 64 00:04:16,560 --> 00:04:18,640 Speaker 1: to talk about for a second. It came from the UK, 65 00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:23,960 Speaker 1: specifically London, even more specifically Fleet Street, where a barber 66 00:04:24,040 --> 00:04:26,560 Speaker 1: of some renown was known to cooperate with a local 67 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:30,680 Speaker 1: pie shop owner. But that's a musical for another time. Anyway, 68 00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:35,360 Speaker 1: there was a bookseller and political agitator named Richard Carlisle 69 00:04:35,560 --> 00:04:40,320 Speaker 1: who had this weird idea that it wasn't totally fair 70 00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:43,640 Speaker 1: that only about three percent of the UK's population actually 71 00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:46,560 Speaker 1: had the right to vote. So he set up a 72 00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:50,360 Speaker 1: bookseller shop on Fleet Street. And the authorities didn't really 73 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:53,480 Speaker 1: care for some of the literature he was selling, and 74 00:04:53,520 --> 00:04:56,560 Speaker 1: they brought upon him charges that he was knowingly selling 75 00:04:56,680 --> 00:05:00,919 Speaker 1: prohibited books. Carlisle came up with what thought was a 76 00:05:01,080 --> 00:05:05,800 Speaker 1: pretty clever workaround of this. He installed a shoot near 77 00:05:05,839 --> 00:05:09,000 Speaker 1: the front of his shops. So there is a wall 78 00:05:09,040 --> 00:05:12,480 Speaker 1: there and a little shoot a slot that was right 79 00:05:12,520 --> 00:05:14,600 Speaker 1: there at the front, and there was also a coin 80 00:05:14,680 --> 00:05:18,000 Speaker 1: slot and a dial next to the shoot, and customers 81 00:05:18,080 --> 00:05:21,080 Speaker 1: could come in. They could put a coin into the slot, 82 00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:23,960 Speaker 1: and then they would turn the dial to a number 83 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:28,159 Speaker 1: that would correspond to a specific title of a book 84 00:05:28,200 --> 00:05:32,520 Speaker 1: that would otherwise prohibited, and then the respective literature would 85 00:05:32,600 --> 00:05:34,640 Speaker 1: come down the shoot and the customer would pick it 86 00:05:34,720 --> 00:05:37,760 Speaker 1: up and walk away. Now, the only reason this doesn't 87 00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:40,719 Speaker 1: actually fall into a true coin op is that behind 88 00:05:40,760 --> 00:05:45,120 Speaker 1: the scenes there was no automatic vending system. Carlisle had 89 00:05:45,160 --> 00:05:48,560 Speaker 1: employees who were behind that wall. They could see what 90 00:05:48,760 --> 00:05:51,480 Speaker 1: number of the dial was set to and then they 91 00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:55,200 Speaker 1: would select the appropriate piece of literature and slide it 92 00:05:55,520 --> 00:05:58,640 Speaker 1: down the shoote by hand. And carl Le wasn't trying 93 00:05:58,640 --> 00:06:01,359 Speaker 1: to fool anyone into thinking the was an automatic system. 94 00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:05,240 Speaker 1: He just wanted plausible deniability. If the fuzz came by, 95 00:06:05,360 --> 00:06:08,720 Speaker 1: then Carlisle could claim that the customer would be unable 96 00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:11,719 Speaker 1: to say who it was that sold them the book 97 00:06:12,160 --> 00:06:17,000 Speaker 1: because whomever it was was behind a wall. Reportedly, this 98 00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:21,800 Speaker 1: defense wasn't really impressive to the coppers and not found 99 00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:24,919 Speaker 1: to be legally sound, but by the eighteen seventies the 100 00:06:24,920 --> 00:06:28,520 Speaker 1: basics of coin operation and automation had really taken shape. 101 00:06:28,880 --> 00:06:32,440 Speaker 1: Penny arcades would then become a thing, and they were 102 00:06:32,520 --> 00:06:36,680 Speaker 1: extremely popular from the eighteen nineties into the first few 103 00:06:36,760 --> 00:06:40,080 Speaker 1: years of the twentieth century. So these were areas that 104 00:06:40,120 --> 00:06:43,680 Speaker 1: were specifically set aside to hold different amusements that were 105 00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:47,400 Speaker 1: operated by the insertion of a penny, and then you 106 00:06:47,400 --> 00:06:49,680 Speaker 1: would get to do whatever it was like. It might 107 00:06:49,720 --> 00:06:53,160 Speaker 1: be a game, or it might even be sort of 108 00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:57,359 Speaker 1: like a little movie. There were these devices called muto scopes. 109 00:06:57,839 --> 00:07:00,960 Speaker 1: They did not mutate people. Rather, they were kind of 110 00:07:00,960 --> 00:07:05,479 Speaker 1: a predecessor to motion pictures, and they allowed people to 111 00:07:05,480 --> 00:07:08,520 Speaker 1: watch short, silent movies. It was really a series of photographs. 112 00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:12,080 Speaker 1: I mean all movies are really those, a series of 113 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:16,480 Speaker 1: photographs that were mounted on stiff cards that were then 114 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:21,240 Speaker 1: in turn mounted on a round drum. So the machine, 115 00:07:21,320 --> 00:07:24,120 Speaker 1: once you put a pinnion, would rotate the drum and 116 00:07:24,160 --> 00:07:28,120 Speaker 1: that would present these photographs in series at a speed 117 00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:33,040 Speaker 1: fast enough to create the illusion of animation. Many of 118 00:07:33,080 --> 00:07:37,040 Speaker 1: these early devices were of a rather salacious nature. They 119 00:07:37,080 --> 00:07:41,840 Speaker 1: featured movies of young women cavorting in various stages of undress, 120 00:07:42,760 --> 00:07:46,960 Speaker 1: and each device was dedicated to a specific film, sometimes 121 00:07:47,200 --> 00:07:53,400 Speaker 1: with incredibly evocative titles like what the Butler Saw. This 122 00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:56,680 Speaker 1: also meant that the industry in general of the coin 123 00:07:56,720 --> 00:08:00,000 Speaker 1: op world was starting to get a bad name for itself. Uh. 124 00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:02,960 Speaker 1: A lot of the people behind it also abandoned it 125 00:08:03,120 --> 00:08:06,880 Speaker 1: because they started to get into the actual motion picture industry. 126 00:08:06,960 --> 00:08:10,120 Speaker 1: So for a couple of different reasons, the penny arcades 127 00:08:10,760 --> 00:08:14,280 Speaker 1: began to have a bit of a decline in popularity, 128 00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:16,640 Speaker 1: and they definitely had a stigma attached to them. I mean, 129 00:08:16,680 --> 00:08:21,280 Speaker 1: the fact that you had these little, you know, movie 130 00:08:21,320 --> 00:08:27,320 Speaker 1: machines showing off women partially undressed, meant that they were 131 00:08:27,400 --> 00:08:33,800 Speaker 1: essentially associated with a certain clientele of low repute. And 132 00:08:33,880 --> 00:08:37,560 Speaker 1: the next big advantage in coin operated amusements fell into 133 00:08:37,640 --> 00:08:42,080 Speaker 1: the gambling category, with like the early versions of slot machines, 134 00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:46,280 Speaker 1: and that further associated coin operated devices with the more 135 00:08:46,480 --> 00:08:50,559 Speaker 1: seedy elements of society. First you had peep shows, now 136 00:08:50,640 --> 00:08:54,920 Speaker 1: you got gambling. Such stuff attracts the wrong crowd, you know, 137 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:59,560 Speaker 1: like hoodlums and gangsters and hop heads and whatnot, or 138 00:08:59,720 --> 00:09:03,440 Speaker 1: so thought the various guardians of virtue, many of whom 139 00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:08,640 Speaker 1: were self appointed. Meanwhile, some inventors were creating devices that 140 00:09:08,679 --> 00:09:13,040 Speaker 1: introduced games of skill rather than just games of chance. 141 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:17,640 Speaker 1: So in other words, it was something where the person 142 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:20,080 Speaker 1: putting in the coin actually had a chance to to 143 00:09:20,160 --> 00:09:24,280 Speaker 1: change the outcome in some way, as opposed to just 144 00:09:24,880 --> 00:09:28,320 Speaker 1: hoping that dumb chance makes a ball fall into a 145 00:09:28,360 --> 00:09:31,920 Speaker 1: particular pocket or something. But the association with stuff like 146 00:09:31,960 --> 00:09:35,400 Speaker 1: gambling and peep shows clung to these devices too, and 147 00:09:35,400 --> 00:09:39,440 Speaker 1: they were all kind of lumped into uh machines that 148 00:09:39,480 --> 00:09:45,160 Speaker 1: were guaranteed to send the country into moral decline. Then 149 00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:48,320 Speaker 1: we get into pinball, which similarly had to deal with 150 00:09:48,360 --> 00:09:52,960 Speaker 1: the problem that citizens of unimpeachable morality were sure that 151 00:09:53,040 --> 00:09:56,520 Speaker 1: pinball machines would lead the innocent youth astray and perhaps 152 00:09:56,800 --> 00:10:00,520 Speaker 1: serve as a front for organized crime. Serious of y'all. 153 00:10:00,920 --> 00:10:05,520 Speaker 1: And there were tons of other coin operated amusements, some 154 00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:09,120 Speaker 1: of which simulated various sports. So you could play a 155 00:10:09,160 --> 00:10:13,640 Speaker 1: sort of game of baseball or tennis on this mechanical device. 156 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:16,640 Speaker 1: It was coin operated, and you would control these little 157 00:10:16,679 --> 00:10:20,480 Speaker 1: figures using different handles and wheels and other types of 158 00:10:20,840 --> 00:10:24,240 Speaker 1: you know, input devices. And and they were also early 159 00:10:24,480 --> 00:10:28,079 Speaker 1: pellet gun based games and later light gun based games, 160 00:10:28,080 --> 00:10:31,720 Speaker 1: so they were shooting games as well. Meanwhile, mass production 161 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:35,280 Speaker 1: had also become a thing, with assembly lines and efficient 162 00:10:35,320 --> 00:10:39,800 Speaker 1: methods of making a lot of versions of the same product. 163 00:10:40,200 --> 00:10:42,760 Speaker 1: That led us to the birth of several companies that 164 00:10:42,840 --> 00:10:48,360 Speaker 1: started to specialize in coin operated entertainment. One of those 165 00:10:48,400 --> 00:10:53,679 Speaker 1: companies was Lynn Durance United manufacturing company, which would end 166 00:10:53,760 --> 00:10:56,760 Speaker 1: up being incredibly important for our story. It first burst 167 00:10:56,840 --> 00:11:00,640 Speaker 1: onto the scene in ninety two, but its first really 168 00:11:00,679 --> 00:11:05,679 Speaker 1: big hit was in had a bowling game called Shuffle Alley. 169 00:11:05,840 --> 00:11:09,600 Speaker 1: The game had these little cutouts that represented bowling pins. 170 00:11:09,640 --> 00:11:13,920 Speaker 1: They were suspended from hinged poles. So you would slide 171 00:11:13,920 --> 00:11:18,360 Speaker 1: a puck like device down the alley, uh, which really 172 00:11:18,400 --> 00:11:21,120 Speaker 1: is going kind of underneath where the pins are. But 173 00:11:21,280 --> 00:11:23,880 Speaker 1: as it goes down the alley, it would trigger these 174 00:11:23,920 --> 00:11:29,080 Speaker 1: little switches that corresponded to those suspended pins. So as 175 00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:32,640 Speaker 1: the puck would trigger the switch, those poles would flip 176 00:11:32,720 --> 00:11:35,480 Speaker 1: up and retract the pins, which represented that they had 177 00:11:35,520 --> 00:11:37,959 Speaker 1: been knocked down, like in a game of bowling. And 178 00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:41,840 Speaker 1: it was a really big hit. But more importantly, United 179 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:46,480 Speaker 1: employed a couple of amusement designers who are critical to 180 00:11:46,600 --> 00:11:51,679 Speaker 1: our story. One was Marcine Iggy Wolverton. He went by Iggy. 181 00:11:52,120 --> 00:11:55,720 Speaker 1: I felt that Marcine was a uh an effeminate name 182 00:11:55,760 --> 00:11:58,680 Speaker 1: that he didn't want, and so he went with Iggy. 183 00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:01,160 Speaker 1: And he was an engineer who had worked on everything 184 00:12:01,240 --> 00:12:04,840 Speaker 1: from military aircraft in World War Two two juke boxes 185 00:12:05,320 --> 00:12:09,359 Speaker 1: before he actually joined United. The other was an electrical 186 00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:14,400 Speaker 1: engineer named Hank Ross, and together Wolverton and Ross worked 187 00:12:14,400 --> 00:12:18,080 Speaker 1: on lots of different amusements coin operated amusements, but in 188 00:12:18,120 --> 00:12:22,040 Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties, United was going through some financial difficulties 189 00:12:22,040 --> 00:12:24,760 Speaker 1: and Wolverton and Ross decided that they wanted to strike 190 00:12:24,800 --> 00:12:28,320 Speaker 1: out and found their own company. They did so in 191 00:12:28,520 --> 00:12:32,560 Speaker 1: Franklin Park, Illinois, and they named their company after the 192 00:12:32,760 --> 00:12:37,720 Speaker 1: nearby airport in Chicago. They called it the Midway Manufacturing Company, 193 00:12:37,760 --> 00:12:40,760 Speaker 1: and it officially became a thing in nineteen fifty eight. 194 00:12:41,280 --> 00:12:44,880 Speaker 1: Funding coincidence, the Midway is also the name for the 195 00:12:44,960 --> 00:12:48,760 Speaker 1: area in a carnival that hosts stuff like games and 196 00:12:48,840 --> 00:12:51,760 Speaker 1: amusement rides, so in this case the name of the 197 00:12:51,760 --> 00:12:55,560 Speaker 1: company had a sort of double meaning. Anyway, the two 198 00:12:55,559 --> 00:12:58,240 Speaker 1: men founded the company with a startup fund of just 199 00:12:58,400 --> 00:13:01,920 Speaker 1: around five thousand dollars, and they knew that they wouldn't 200 00:13:01,920 --> 00:13:05,120 Speaker 1: be able to compete on the same scale as the larger, 201 00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:08,720 Speaker 1: more established companies in the business, most of them located 202 00:13:08,760 --> 00:13:12,600 Speaker 1: out of Chicago, so their plan was to keep costs 203 00:13:12,800 --> 00:13:15,240 Speaker 1: low so that they could sell their games and their 204 00:13:15,280 --> 00:13:20,080 Speaker 1: amusements for lower prices than other companies. The margins would 205 00:13:20,120 --> 00:13:22,680 Speaker 1: be small it would be hard work, but they figured 206 00:13:22,720 --> 00:13:25,240 Speaker 1: they could carve out a place in the market for themselves. 207 00:13:25,280 --> 00:13:28,240 Speaker 1: That way, they might not get rich, but they thought 208 00:13:28,280 --> 00:13:31,720 Speaker 1: they could make some interesting games and devices and earn 209 00:13:31,760 --> 00:13:35,240 Speaker 1: a good living. Their first game was called Bumper Shuffle, 210 00:13:35,400 --> 00:13:38,360 Speaker 1: a sort of shuffle board game with bumpers similar to 211 00:13:38,360 --> 00:13:40,960 Speaker 1: what you would see in a pinball machine. But their 212 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:44,560 Speaker 1: first big hit came out in nineteen sixty It was 213 00:13:44,880 --> 00:13:47,800 Speaker 1: Shooting Gallery, and it used a pellet gun. It was 214 00:13:47,880 --> 00:13:51,480 Speaker 1: such a hit that shooting games became a cornerstone of 215 00:13:51,520 --> 00:13:55,480 Speaker 1: their business. They also kept innovating. In nineteen sixty four, 216 00:13:55,800 --> 00:13:59,080 Speaker 1: they created a system in which the machine would automatically 217 00:13:59,200 --> 00:14:03,720 Speaker 1: speed up the moving targets as players scored more points, so, 218 00:14:03,920 --> 00:14:06,640 Speaker 1: in other words, the game got more difficult if you 219 00:14:06,679 --> 00:14:09,040 Speaker 1: were good at it kept the game interesting for like 220 00:14:09,280 --> 00:14:13,080 Speaker 1: highly skilled players. They also introduced targets that were covered 221 00:14:13,080 --> 00:14:16,320 Speaker 1: in fluorescent paint, and they started to use black lights 222 00:14:16,320 --> 00:14:19,280 Speaker 1: and some of their games, and both of those innovations 223 00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:23,600 Speaker 1: would find their ways into shooting games moving forward. Before long, 224 00:14:23,920 --> 00:14:26,080 Speaker 1: the demand was high enough that it required them to 225 00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:29,240 Speaker 1: move to a larger building to house their operations. In 226 00:14:29,400 --> 00:14:33,520 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty six, Midway, the company that was going to 227 00:14:33,560 --> 00:14:38,960 Speaker 1: be a scrappy little underdog had become an overdog, or 228 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:41,560 Speaker 1: maybe just a dog whatever I mean. It got big, 229 00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:44,800 Speaker 1: big enough to stand toe to toe with the four 230 00:14:44,920 --> 00:14:51,400 Speaker 1: other big coin operated companies in the United States GOTTLIEB Williams, Bally, 231 00:14:51,880 --> 00:14:56,480 Speaker 1: and Chicago Coin and spoiler alert. Two of those four 232 00:14:56,720 --> 00:15:00,280 Speaker 1: are going to be incredibly important to our story. And 233 00:15:00,520 --> 00:15:02,120 Speaker 1: let's go ahead and get this one of those. In 234 00:15:02,200 --> 00:15:05,000 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine, there would be a big change in 235 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:07,680 Speaker 1: the industry. That was the year that Bally bought out 236 00:15:07,840 --> 00:15:12,680 Speaker 1: Midway Manufacturing. Bally was known not just for coin operated amusements, 237 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:16,880 Speaker 1: but specifically for gambling devices, though it had made its 238 00:15:16,920 --> 00:15:19,160 Speaker 1: name early on with pinball machines. And if you listen 239 00:15:19,200 --> 00:15:22,400 Speaker 1: to the whose song Pinball Wizard, you'll hear the lyric 240 00:15:22,760 --> 00:15:25,480 Speaker 1: I thought I was the Bally table King, but I 241 00:15:25,560 --> 00:15:29,040 Speaker 1: just handed my pinball crown to him. So yeah. Bally 242 00:15:29,160 --> 00:15:32,000 Speaker 1: also very much associated with pinball machines as well as 243 00:15:32,040 --> 00:15:36,520 Speaker 1: gambling machines. Bally itself had nearly collapsed in nineteen fifty eight, 244 00:15:36,600 --> 00:15:39,200 Speaker 1: that was the same year the Midway was founded. That 245 00:15:39,280 --> 00:15:43,280 Speaker 1: was when Bally's founder had passed away. A group of investors, however, 246 00:15:43,320 --> 00:15:46,000 Speaker 1: came in and purchased Bally's and the company went on 247 00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:49,080 Speaker 1: to produce updated slot machines kind of similar to the 248 00:15:49,160 --> 00:15:52,280 Speaker 1: ones that you might find in a casino today, of 249 00:15:52,320 --> 00:15:55,160 Speaker 1: the classic type, that is, and Bally had a near 250 00:15:55,200 --> 00:15:58,880 Speaker 1: monopoly on slot machines and casinos in Nevada and became 251 00:15:58,960 --> 00:16:02,880 Speaker 1: financially stable, in fact, flourishing enough to acquire Midway Manufacturing 252 00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:06,400 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty nine. So at this time, the Midway 253 00:16:06,440 --> 00:16:10,600 Speaker 1: division was still making electro mechanical arcade devices. But in 254 00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:14,440 Speaker 1: the early nineteen seventies things changed. The birth of the 255 00:16:14,520 --> 00:16:17,600 Speaker 1: video game opened up new possibilities. You could make a 256 00:16:17,680 --> 00:16:21,000 Speaker 1: game that ran on code instead of on servos and 257 00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:24,880 Speaker 1: actuators and lightbulbs. You could reduce the number of possible 258 00:16:24,960 --> 00:16:28,080 Speaker 1: fail points, and that would reduce how much maintenance you 259 00:16:28,080 --> 00:16:31,280 Speaker 1: would have to perform on machines, and so Midway's focus 260 00:16:31,320 --> 00:16:35,720 Speaker 1: began to include video games. Early on, Midway established a 261 00:16:35,760 --> 00:16:40,160 Speaker 1: couple of incredibly important partnerships with Japanese companies. The first 262 00:16:40,280 --> 00:16:44,680 Speaker 1: was with Tito, which produced the phenomenally popular Space Invaders 263 00:16:44,760 --> 00:16:47,720 Speaker 1: video game. At the end of the nineteen seventies. Midway 264 00:16:47,760 --> 00:16:51,560 Speaker 1: would also become the North American distributor of Space Invaders, 265 00:16:51,720 --> 00:16:54,320 Speaker 1: and that got that company a lot of money. The 266 00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:57,840 Speaker 1: second big partnership was with Namco. That's the company that 267 00:16:57,880 --> 00:17:01,160 Speaker 1: brought us pac Man. So Midway introduced these games two 268 00:17:01,160 --> 00:17:05,320 Speaker 1: Americans who went gaga for them, and Midway, Tito, and 269 00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:10,040 Speaker 1: Namco all benefited from this relationship. Around this time, Valley 270 00:17:10,160 --> 00:17:15,680 Speaker 1: merged its own games division with Midway, creating Bally Midway. Previously, 271 00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:19,239 Speaker 1: both divisions had been making games like pinball machines on 272 00:17:19,320 --> 00:17:23,159 Speaker 1: their own. Now their forces were combined and they moved forward, 273 00:17:23,520 --> 00:17:27,400 Speaker 1: with Bally usually using its own name for the pinball 274 00:17:27,440 --> 00:17:32,000 Speaker 1: machines and using Midway for the arcade video machines. Midway 275 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:35,240 Speaker 1: would also jump on some other opportunities. When a company 276 00:17:35,240 --> 00:17:39,960 Speaker 1: called General Computer Corporation created a modified version of pac Man, 277 00:17:40,400 --> 00:17:44,840 Speaker 1: Midway agreed to act as distributor, and through collaboration, this 278 00:17:44,920 --> 00:17:48,920 Speaker 1: game evolved into MS pac Man. It was fairly late 279 00:17:49,320 --> 00:17:52,600 Speaker 1: into that project when Midway actually bothered to seek out 280 00:17:52,680 --> 00:17:55,640 Speaker 1: the blessing of Namco that's the producer of the original 281 00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:58,879 Speaker 1: pac Man game. They were able to get it, obviously, 282 00:17:59,080 --> 00:18:01,399 Speaker 1: but they also had to agree to pay out royalties 283 00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:03,960 Speaker 1: to Namco for leaning so hard on the I P 284 00:18:04,320 --> 00:18:08,640 Speaker 1: And that only makes sense. So you had engineers, developers, artists, 285 00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:12,119 Speaker 1: and such working on games under the Bally Midway label. 286 00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:14,199 Speaker 1: When we come back, we're going to switch gears and 287 00:18:14,200 --> 00:18:17,639 Speaker 1: talk about a totally different company. But don't worry, it 288 00:18:17,680 --> 00:18:24,040 Speaker 1: all comes back together as we head toward Mortal Combat. Okay, 289 00:18:24,040 --> 00:18:33,720 Speaker 1: I'm gonna take a break now, all right, it's time 290 00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:36,280 Speaker 1: for us to backtrack a little bit. You might remember 291 00:18:36,359 --> 00:18:38,639 Speaker 1: before the break that when I listed out the big 292 00:18:38,720 --> 00:18:41,920 Speaker 1: coin op companies that emerged from the nineteen fifties, one 293 00:18:41,960 --> 00:18:46,760 Speaker 1: of them was called Williams, which also grew out of Chicago. Now, 294 00:18:46,800 --> 00:18:50,159 Speaker 1: remember when I mentioned United Manufacturing, that was the company 295 00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:53,560 Speaker 1: founded by Lynn Durant. Well, technically there was a co 296 00:18:53,720 --> 00:18:57,480 Speaker 1: founder to that company, Harry Williams, And that means you 297 00:18:57,480 --> 00:19:01,440 Speaker 1: can actually trace the history of both Midway and Williams 298 00:19:01,480 --> 00:19:04,640 Speaker 1: to this one company that produced coin op entertainments way 299 00:19:04,640 --> 00:19:08,119 Speaker 1: back in the nineteen forties. Harry Williams actually left United 300 00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:11,200 Speaker 1: after only a year of being with the company, and 301 00:19:11,240 --> 00:19:14,760 Speaker 1: then he formed his own Williams Manufacturing company in nineteen 302 00:19:14,880 --> 00:19:18,400 Speaker 1: forty three, Williams had already made a ton of contributions 303 00:19:18,440 --> 00:19:21,640 Speaker 1: to the development of games like pinball. He had actually 304 00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:25,600 Speaker 1: introduced elements like the tilt detector, which can tell if 305 00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:29,200 Speaker 1: someone's trying to nudge or tilt a pinball table in 306 00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:32,200 Speaker 1: order to control where the ball is going. If that happens, 307 00:19:32,560 --> 00:19:35,480 Speaker 1: they tilt detector shuts everything down and allows the ball 308 00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:37,560 Speaker 1: to drain. It's kind of a punishment for people who 309 00:19:37,560 --> 00:19:40,240 Speaker 1: are trying to cheat the game. He also introduced the 310 00:19:40,320 --> 00:19:43,040 Speaker 1: concept of a free play. If a player achieved a 311 00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:47,000 Speaker 1: sufficiently high score on a game, the Williams Manufacturing company 312 00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:49,760 Speaker 1: would have a pretty wild ride of its own. I 313 00:19:49,760 --> 00:19:52,280 Speaker 1: guess it's a good thing there wasn't a sensor in 314 00:19:52,400 --> 00:19:55,040 Speaker 1: the company for tilt, because it would have gone off 315 00:19:55,160 --> 00:20:00,119 Speaker 1: numerous times. In ninety eight, Sam Stern would buy to 316 00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:04,199 Speaker 1: the company, taking up almost half of the ownership Williams 317 00:20:04,440 --> 00:20:07,800 Speaker 1: is Harry Williams focused on developing games, while Sam Stern 318 00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:10,720 Speaker 1: kind of handled most of the business side of the enterprise. 319 00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:14,120 Speaker 1: In nineteen fifty nine, a conglomerate out of New York 320 00:20:14,160 --> 00:20:18,600 Speaker 1: called Consolidated sun Ray bought out Harry Williams share of 321 00:20:18,640 --> 00:20:22,840 Speaker 1: the company and it became the Williams Electronic Manufacturing Corporation. 322 00:20:23,119 --> 00:20:26,119 Speaker 1: Harry Williams essentially left the company at this point, though 323 00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:30,320 Speaker 1: he did occasionally design games for Williams in the following years. 324 00:20:30,840 --> 00:20:34,960 Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty one, sam Stern then purchased the shares 325 00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:38,840 Speaker 1: that were owned by Consolidated sun Ray, but in sixty 326 00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:42,280 Speaker 1: four he sold the company to another corporation called ce Berg, 327 00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:46,879 Speaker 1: which also acquired the old Union Manufacturing. So yeah, I'm 328 00:20:46,920 --> 00:20:50,639 Speaker 1: getting kind of dizzy too. The operations transferred over to 329 00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:53,560 Speaker 1: a factory that had been owned by Union, and the 330 00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:58,560 Speaker 1: entire company adopted the Williams brand name, becoming Williams Electronics. 331 00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:01,480 Speaker 1: Sam Stern was actually brought back in to run the 332 00:21:01,520 --> 00:21:06,240 Speaker 1: operations that were overseeing the coin op amusements like Bally 333 00:21:06,280 --> 00:21:09,359 Speaker 1: and Midway. The folks that Williams understood the potential for 334 00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:12,719 Speaker 1: video games as those came onto the scene, and so 335 00:21:12,800 --> 00:21:16,040 Speaker 1: the company started to work on developing arcade video games 336 00:21:16,040 --> 00:21:20,159 Speaker 1: in the early nineteen seventies. This coincided with a restructuring 337 00:21:20,359 --> 00:21:23,120 Speaker 1: of the company, and in nineteen seventy four we got 338 00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:27,640 Speaker 1: Williams Electronics Incorporated, which was still a subsidiary to see 339 00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:30,640 Speaker 1: Berg at that point. But in nineteen eighty a guy 340 00:21:30,720 --> 00:21:35,720 Speaker 1: named Louis Nicastro purchased Williams Electronics from Seaberg. It was 341 00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:38,199 Speaker 1: this version of Williams that would introduce the world to 342 00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:43,880 Speaker 1: some incredibly popular arcade titles like Joust Defender and Robotron. 343 00:21:44,320 --> 00:21:47,040 Speaker 1: Classic arcade game nerds will be familiar with those titles, 344 00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:51,040 Speaker 1: which sucked down quarters at an incredible pace. Now, a 345 00:21:51,119 --> 00:21:56,000 Speaker 1: related area of revenue was the blossoming home video game market. 346 00:21:56,040 --> 00:21:58,320 Speaker 1: That one one was ramping up quite a bit, in fact, 347 00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:02,200 Speaker 1: a bit too fast, as would turn out. Usually, companies 348 00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:06,800 Speaker 1: like Midway or Williams wouldn't develop games for home systems. Instead, 349 00:22:07,119 --> 00:22:11,240 Speaker 1: they would license out their i p to other game studios, 350 00:22:11,240 --> 00:22:14,479 Speaker 1: which would then create home versions of those arcade games. 351 00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:19,000 Speaker 1: The home versions were often, at best pale imitations of 352 00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:22,160 Speaker 1: the original arcade game experience, and there were a couple 353 00:22:22,160 --> 00:22:25,280 Speaker 1: of big reasons for this. Some of them are technological, 354 00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:29,359 Speaker 1: some of them are more related to gameplay, and let's 355 00:22:29,359 --> 00:22:33,639 Speaker 1: go with technological first. From that perspective, early game consoles 356 00:22:33,840 --> 00:22:37,520 Speaker 1: had a really limited amount of processing power. Moreover, I 357 00:22:37,560 --> 00:22:40,520 Speaker 1: am really talking about consoles that could play different games, 358 00:22:40,560 --> 00:22:44,040 Speaker 1: typically by inserting a cartridge into the video game console. 359 00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:49,639 Speaker 1: The games were hard coded into the circuitry inside those cartridges, 360 00:22:50,080 --> 00:22:53,680 Speaker 1: and plugging the cartridge into the console connected the game's 361 00:22:53,800 --> 00:22:59,360 Speaker 1: circuit board to the consoles processors. Arcade games were instead 362 00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:02,199 Speaker 1: dedicated machines that just did one thing. They played a 363 00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:06,680 Speaker 1: specific game based on whatever wrong chips that is, read 364 00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:10,120 Speaker 1: only memory chips were plugged into the circuit boards for 365 00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:14,520 Speaker 1: that arcade cabinet. Arcade games provided a more sophisticated experience 366 00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:17,440 Speaker 1: than the home game market, even when the experience was 367 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:21,400 Speaker 1: still fairly primitive early on. You would never say that 368 00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:25,240 Speaker 1: the Atari twenty version of pac Man was identical to 369 00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:28,720 Speaker 1: the arcade version, because it clearly was not. In fact, 370 00:23:29,359 --> 00:23:33,200 Speaker 1: it was pretty awful. But from a gameplay perspective, there 371 00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:36,680 Speaker 1: was another big difference. Let's talk about why arcade game 372 00:23:36,720 --> 00:23:39,840 Speaker 1: designers made games the way they were. So. The whole 373 00:23:39,880 --> 00:23:43,159 Speaker 1: point is to convince someone to plunk over a quarter. 374 00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:46,199 Speaker 1: In order to play a game, the game has to 375 00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:50,720 Speaker 1: be interesting and more importantly, arguably fun. It needs to 376 00:23:50,760 --> 00:23:53,600 Speaker 1: give the player the sense that if they are skilled enough, 377 00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:57,080 Speaker 1: they can progress further into the game, perhaps even getting 378 00:23:57,080 --> 00:24:00,679 Speaker 1: a high score or finishing out of storyline depending on 379 00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:03,439 Speaker 1: how the game is constructed. But that's just one side 380 00:24:03,480 --> 00:24:06,439 Speaker 1: to it. The machines have to make enough money to 381 00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:10,160 Speaker 1: convince proprietors, that is, the people who own a video game, 382 00:24:10,280 --> 00:24:13,720 Speaker 1: arcade or a carnival or whatever. It has to convince 383 00:24:13,760 --> 00:24:17,240 Speaker 1: them that they will recoup their investment after they purchase 384 00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:20,320 Speaker 1: the arcade game. And if a machine costs a couple 385 00:24:20,359 --> 00:24:23,479 Speaker 1: of thousand dollars, the proprietors want to know that at 386 00:24:23,480 --> 00:24:25,879 Speaker 1: the end of a week they'll have a few hundred 387 00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:29,280 Speaker 1: bucks in quarters. And this is really important because games 388 00:24:29,359 --> 00:24:32,320 Speaker 1: might pass out of fashion. That means over time you're 389 00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:34,679 Speaker 1: gonna expect to see smaller takes at the end of 390 00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:37,640 Speaker 1: a week, So you need a lot of quarters. Well 391 00:24:37,680 --> 00:24:40,960 Speaker 1: how do you get a lot of quarters? Well, part 392 00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:42,840 Speaker 1: of it is that you have to make a game 393 00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:45,600 Speaker 1: that people want to play, But another part is figuring 394 00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:48,159 Speaker 1: out a kind of an amount of time that the 395 00:24:48,200 --> 00:24:51,640 Speaker 1: average person might play before they run out of lives 396 00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:54,280 Speaker 1: and thus require the player to either cough up another 397 00:24:54,359 --> 00:24:57,720 Speaker 1: quarter to start over or to continue to play, or 398 00:24:58,040 --> 00:25:01,080 Speaker 1: they'll move on and open up the arcade machine for 399 00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:04,639 Speaker 1: some other player to come and try it out. That 400 00:25:04,720 --> 00:25:07,280 Speaker 1: amount of time has changed over the years, like the 401 00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:10,639 Speaker 1: amount of time that developers aimed for, but at one point, 402 00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:12,920 Speaker 1: the general rule of thumb was that a company wanted 403 00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:16,040 Speaker 1: a player to plunk in another twenty five cents every 404 00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:19,600 Speaker 1: forty five seconds or so, so less than a minute. 405 00:25:20,320 --> 00:25:22,800 Speaker 1: So your game had to convince a player to keep 406 00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:25,920 Speaker 1: ongoing and reward that player with the possibility of hitting 407 00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:29,240 Speaker 1: new heights or getting further in the story. If it didn't, 408 00:25:29,359 --> 00:25:32,439 Speaker 1: people would just give up after getting obliterated, and then 409 00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:34,760 Speaker 1: they would talk about it, and word would get around, 410 00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:38,360 Speaker 1: and then that game might sit in the corner unplayed, 411 00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:41,439 Speaker 1: and the proprietor of that establishment, whether it was an 412 00:25:41,520 --> 00:25:44,359 Speaker 1: arcade or a movie theater or whatever, might not be 413 00:25:44,480 --> 00:25:47,720 Speaker 1: inclined to purchase an arcade machine from that same company 414 00:25:47,760 --> 00:25:51,320 Speaker 1: in the future because they got burned. So the reputation 415 00:25:51,359 --> 00:25:54,119 Speaker 1: of the companies was dependent upon the fact that people 416 00:25:54,119 --> 00:25:56,000 Speaker 1: would want to play the game and be willing to 417 00:25:56,080 --> 00:26:00,560 Speaker 1: keep plugging quarters in over time. So companies like Williams 418 00:26:00,560 --> 00:26:04,520 Speaker 1: and Midway would frequently deploy a game under development at 419 00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:08,200 Speaker 1: a couple of controlled spots in town before they would 420 00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:12,480 Speaker 1: go into full production. They would install the game into 421 00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:16,200 Speaker 1: like an arcade that they kind of they had friends 422 00:26:16,200 --> 00:26:18,879 Speaker 1: who ran it, and they would keep it high on 423 00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:22,640 Speaker 1: players to see how much money that arcade machine would 424 00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:24,400 Speaker 1: bring in by the end of a week, to figure 425 00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:26,280 Speaker 1: out if they were on the right track or if 426 00:26:26,280 --> 00:26:28,920 Speaker 1: they might have to make changes before they go into production. 427 00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:32,399 Speaker 1: A target figure was between seven eight hundred dollars in 428 00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:34,600 Speaker 1: a week by the time you get to the late 429 00:26:34,640 --> 00:26:38,199 Speaker 1: eighties and early nineties, So this was different from the 430 00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:41,000 Speaker 1: home market. At the home market, you wanted a game 431 00:26:41,119 --> 00:26:45,080 Speaker 1: that people wanted to play, and it wasn't so important 432 00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:49,399 Speaker 1: that the game experience only last a few seconds because 433 00:26:50,320 --> 00:26:54,200 Speaker 1: you only sell that cartridge once. You're not collecting over time. 434 00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:58,119 Speaker 1: I mean, you can actually compare arcade games to micro 435 00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:01,879 Speaker 1: transactions and mobile games in a lot of ways, but 436 00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:05,240 Speaker 1: with home games, it was very different. You sold the cartridge, 437 00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:09,840 Speaker 1: you're done, So the game developers were more concentrated on 438 00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:13,840 Speaker 1: making experiences that players really enjoyed, that they could play 439 00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:18,600 Speaker 1: for a while, because that would be reflected in reviews 440 00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:21,760 Speaker 1: for the game, which then could help drive sales. So 441 00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:26,240 Speaker 1: very different approach to video game development from the arcade 442 00:27:26,520 --> 00:27:31,040 Speaker 1: versus the home market. All right back to arcade games, 443 00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:35,440 Speaker 1: because those games were programmed onto wrong chips, making changes 444 00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:38,760 Speaker 1: was a pretty big deal. You were actually creating new hardware, 445 00:27:38,960 --> 00:27:41,479 Speaker 1: new rong chips in order to do it. So in 446 00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:44,639 Speaker 1: some cases the arcade machines circuit board might allow for 447 00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:48,920 Speaker 1: easy swapping of ROM chips or adding a new wrong chip, 448 00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:51,560 Speaker 1: but in others it would mean having to create new 449 00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:55,200 Speaker 1: circuit boards with the games physically programmed onto these chips 450 00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:58,920 Speaker 1: and then redeployed for testing. If a company couldn't demonstrate 451 00:27:59,200 --> 00:28:01,760 Speaker 1: that their game was going to be popular, it would 452 00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:04,960 Speaker 1: be very hard to move units, and the process of 453 00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:09,159 Speaker 1: developing producing arcade games wasn't cheap, so there was a 454 00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:11,280 Speaker 1: lot of pressure to make games that could have a 455 00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:15,560 Speaker 1: proven success rate. All right, let's get back to our story. 456 00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:19,520 Speaker 1: So Bally Midway was making a lot of arcade games, 457 00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:23,440 Speaker 1: including a ton of you know, games that were licensed 458 00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:26,960 Speaker 1: from other gamemakers in Japan, so they were really distributing those, 459 00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:30,959 Speaker 1: not making them. Some of those games, though, were truly iconic. 460 00:28:31,359 --> 00:28:34,320 Speaker 1: Spy Hunter remains one of my favorite arcade games from 461 00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:39,000 Speaker 1: my childhood, particularly the versions that were in a cockpit style. 462 00:28:39,120 --> 00:28:43,040 Speaker 1: Cabinet Tapper was a really big hit that featured the 463 00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:47,080 Speaker 1: player taking control of a bartender serving up drinks root 464 00:28:47,120 --> 00:28:51,360 Speaker 1: beer in a lot of family friendly locations, and you're 465 00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:54,080 Speaker 1: serving them to various patrons who are moving slowly across 466 00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:56,920 Speaker 1: the screen down a bar, and you're trying to keep 467 00:28:56,960 --> 00:28:59,360 Speaker 1: them from getting to the end and throwing you out. 468 00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:03,920 Speaker 1: Tron and Discs of Tron were two licensed arcade games 469 00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:06,840 Speaker 1: based off the Tron motion picture and I loved both 470 00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:09,440 Speaker 1: of those games. And then there were the games from 471 00:29:09,560 --> 00:29:13,600 Speaker 1: Japan that Bally Midway distributed here in America, like pac 472 00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:18,920 Speaker 1: Man and Galagha and Galaxion. Midway also created Rampage, a 473 00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:21,520 Speaker 1: game in which players took control of one of three 474 00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:26,600 Speaker 1: giant monsters going on a a rampage through various cities. 475 00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:30,080 Speaker 1: That game was developed by Brian Collen and Jeff Nauman, 476 00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:33,800 Speaker 1: who set out to make a cartoonish fun game at 477 00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:37,560 Speaker 1: which there was no specific set way to play. You 478 00:29:37,680 --> 00:29:40,920 Speaker 1: just had fun smashing stuff up while puny humans tried 479 00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:44,280 Speaker 1: to stop you, and if you took enough damage, your 480 00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:46,600 Speaker 1: game was over. But it was a big success for 481 00:29:46,720 --> 00:29:51,160 Speaker 1: Bally Midway. Williams meanwhile, was struggling a bit in the 482 00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:56,680 Speaker 1: arcade game department. It's arcade video game division was effectively 483 00:29:56,800 --> 00:29:59,720 Speaker 1: shuttered after the home video game market crash of the 484 00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:04,240 Speaker 1: early eighties. They had encountered difficulty getting their units sold 485 00:30:04,360 --> 00:30:07,760 Speaker 1: into different arcades, so they kind of put it on 486 00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:11,280 Speaker 1: the back burner. The overall company had cash, but it 487 00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:13,720 Speaker 1: was finding it difficult to get traction in the video 488 00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:19,800 Speaker 1: game market again, so Williams acquired Bally Midway from Bally Proper, 489 00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:23,600 Speaker 1: the parent company. Bally was getting out of the coin 490 00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:28,560 Speaker 1: op entertainment arcade business, focusing on other stuff like gambling 491 00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:32,160 Speaker 1: machines and the like. According to the documentary Insert Coin, 492 00:30:32,560 --> 00:30:37,080 Speaker 1: the acquisition was just for five million dollars. Williams would 493 00:30:37,120 --> 00:30:40,920 Speaker 1: get the rights to the Bally Midway name for arcade 494 00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:43,920 Speaker 1: machines and pinball machines that sort of thing, and they 495 00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:47,760 Speaker 1: would continue to release pinball machines branded under Bally because 496 00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:50,680 Speaker 1: of how well known that brand was in pinball. But 497 00:30:50,800 --> 00:30:55,160 Speaker 1: this meant that Williams, Bally, and Midway we're all the 498 00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:58,480 Speaker 1: same company, at least when it came to coin operated 499 00:30:58,680 --> 00:31:03,440 Speaker 1: entertainment devices, and Williams even changed its name to Midway 500 00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:08,520 Speaker 1: effectively for video games. Uh, and they relocated Midway operations 501 00:31:08,520 --> 00:31:11,960 Speaker 1: to Chicago in the process. The Midway name had a 502 00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:17,200 Speaker 1: stronger presence in the arcade world, but Williams still used 503 00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:20,520 Speaker 1: its own name for pinball machine. So it gets really confusing. 504 00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:23,719 Speaker 1: And now all the folks who had been working on 505 00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:28,360 Speaker 1: Williams games became Midway game designers, which they kind of resented. 506 00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:32,240 Speaker 1: As for the folks from Midway, the teams that were 507 00:31:32,240 --> 00:31:36,600 Speaker 1: working on coin operated devices, most of them did not 508 00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:41,120 Speaker 1: go with this acquisition. A lot of those designers quit. 509 00:31:41,720 --> 00:31:46,400 Speaker 1: There's a famous photograph, the Waiving Goodbye photograph, where they're 510 00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:49,920 Speaker 1: not really waving goodbye, they're holding up a single digit 511 00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:53,680 Speaker 1: each a very rude gesture. I think you can see 512 00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:56,800 Speaker 1: where I'm going anyway. Well, two of the designers actually 513 00:31:56,840 --> 00:32:00,080 Speaker 1: did make the move over to Williams, that being and 514 00:32:00,200 --> 00:32:03,400 Speaker 1: Colon and Jeff Nouman, the guys who made Rampage. They 515 00:32:03,440 --> 00:32:07,600 Speaker 1: came over to Williams now Midway. But some of the managers, 516 00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:10,880 Speaker 1: also from the old Valley Midway days, made their way 517 00:32:10,920 --> 00:32:13,680 Speaker 1: over to Williams as well. So now you had Williams 518 00:32:13,760 --> 00:32:18,120 Speaker 1: designers who were reporting to Midway managers. And so the 519 00:32:18,160 --> 00:32:20,680 Speaker 1: Midway of the late eighties and early nineties was really 520 00:32:20,680 --> 00:32:25,640 Speaker 1: a mishmash of Williams employees, Midway managers, and some folks 521 00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:28,320 Speaker 1: who had come up from the older coin not days. 522 00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:31,960 Speaker 1: One of the people working in the pinball division at 523 00:32:31,960 --> 00:32:36,000 Speaker 1: Williams was a man named Ed Boone. Heck Boon made 524 00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:39,000 Speaker 1: a contribution to one of my favorite pinball games of 525 00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:43,000 Speaker 1: all time. It's a pinball game called fun House. In 526 00:32:43,040 --> 00:32:46,360 Speaker 1: that game, there is an element on the playing field, 527 00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:51,320 Speaker 1: a ventriloquist dummy head named Rudy, and Rudy heckel's you 528 00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:54,840 Speaker 1: as you play. Rudy has a moving mouth and his 529 00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:57,880 Speaker 1: head's right there on the playfield, and with the right 530 00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:00,600 Speaker 1: timing and angle, you could shoot the pinball right into 531 00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:04,040 Speaker 1: his mouth make him cough. It was fun anyway. Boone 532 00:33:04,120 --> 00:33:07,800 Speaker 1: was the voice for Rudy. Midway also added a few 533 00:33:07,960 --> 00:33:11,400 Speaker 1: new developers and artists to its roster that would shape 534 00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:14,200 Speaker 1: the evolution of video games and caused quite a bit 535 00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:18,000 Speaker 1: of controversy in the process. One of those was Mark Termel, 536 00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:21,920 Speaker 1: who had designed games for Activision back in the early eighties. 537 00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:27,120 Speaker 1: He joined Williams Slash Midway in nine and got to 538 00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:30,719 Speaker 1: work on a game called Smash TV. The control system 539 00:33:31,040 --> 00:33:34,040 Speaker 1: was a pair of joysticks inspired by the classic arcade 540 00:33:34,080 --> 00:33:38,440 Speaker 1: game Robotron. One joystick controlled character movement and the other 541 00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:42,000 Speaker 1: controlled which direction you were firing in the game had 542 00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:45,800 Speaker 1: a cheeky sense of humor, styled as a violent game show. 543 00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:48,880 Speaker 1: In the vein of Running Man, players would go through 544 00:33:48,920 --> 00:33:52,320 Speaker 1: a maze of room after room that would become flooded 545 00:33:52,360 --> 00:33:56,880 Speaker 1: with enemies and pickups or the occasional boss fight, and 546 00:33:56,920 --> 00:34:00,400 Speaker 1: you weren't likely to survive for too long, which meant 547 00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:03,800 Speaker 1: players would keep feeding quarters into the machine. The game 548 00:34:03,880 --> 00:34:07,040 Speaker 1: promised players that if they got to the end, they 549 00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:10,080 Speaker 1: would be awarded with a run in the Pleasure Dome, 550 00:34:10,680 --> 00:34:13,880 Speaker 1: but turned out that this was originally an empty promise 551 00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:17,160 Speaker 1: because there was no pleasure dome in the original game. 552 00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:21,719 Speaker 1: I think that just makes it more in line with 553 00:34:21,880 --> 00:34:25,839 Speaker 1: properties like Running Man Now. It turned out that some 554 00:34:25,920 --> 00:34:29,960 Speaker 1: players were complaining about this, so Turmel actually created an 555 00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:33,479 Speaker 1: updated wrong chip that could be installed into Smash TV 556 00:34:33,640 --> 00:34:38,319 Speaker 1: cabinets to include the pleasure Dome, which was a room 557 00:34:38,440 --> 00:34:41,040 Speaker 1: filled with an icon of a woman in a swimsuit, 558 00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:43,920 Speaker 1: like just a whole bunch of this icons of the 559 00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:47,160 Speaker 1: same woman, which then you could collect like coins or cash, 560 00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:50,000 Speaker 1: which is kind of gross. So maybe a tiny bit 561 00:34:50,040 --> 00:34:52,879 Speaker 1: of a downer there. But one of the artists who 562 00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:56,759 Speaker 1: worked on Termel's Smash TV was a guy named John Tobias. 563 00:34:57,520 --> 00:35:01,240 Speaker 1: He had joined Williams in the late eades and decided 564 00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:03,880 Speaker 1: to work on art in the video game industry. He 565 00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:06,360 Speaker 1: had graduated from art school and this is what he 566 00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:09,120 Speaker 1: wanted to do. So when we come back, we'll find 567 00:35:09,120 --> 00:35:12,040 Speaker 1: out how Smash TV and the meeting of Tobias and 568 00:35:12,080 --> 00:35:16,239 Speaker 1: Boone would lead to the development of Mortal Kombat. But 569 00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:28,560 Speaker 1: first let's take another break. So Smash TV and another 570 00:35:28,640 --> 00:35:32,320 Speaker 1: earlier Williams game called Narc helped set the stage for 571 00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:37,160 Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat. Both of those games featured over the top violence. 572 00:35:37,719 --> 00:35:41,840 Speaker 1: Narc also made use of actors. Williams The company would 573 00:35:42,040 --> 00:35:45,640 Speaker 1: bring in actors and film them against a backdrop doing 574 00:35:45,680 --> 00:35:48,640 Speaker 1: stuff like, you know, just walking on a treadmill or 575 00:35:48,719 --> 00:35:51,960 Speaker 1: other simple actions, and the team would take that footage 576 00:35:52,080 --> 00:35:55,960 Speaker 1: to create in game animation and make it more realistic. 577 00:35:56,800 --> 00:36:00,920 Speaker 1: The company began to develop a small video unit dedicated 578 00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:04,200 Speaker 1: to getting the sort of reference material which would later 579 00:36:04,239 --> 00:36:07,800 Speaker 1: be used to create digitized content for games like Mortal 580 00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:12,719 Speaker 1: Kombat and NBA JAM. Narc caught a lot of flak 581 00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:16,520 Speaker 1: for being an incredibly violent game. In it, you played 582 00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:19,239 Speaker 1: as one of two characters who had great names. There 583 00:36:19,320 --> 00:36:23,839 Speaker 1: was Max Force and there was hit Man. These two 584 00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:27,640 Speaker 1: characters progressed through levels, taking out various drug dealers and 585 00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:32,000 Speaker 1: junkies with what can only be described as extreme prejudice. 586 00:36:32,360 --> 00:36:36,480 Speaker 1: Both characters had rocket launchers and machine guns, downed enemies, 587 00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:40,640 Speaker 1: practically exploded in blood and limbs, but the whole thing 588 00:36:40,719 --> 00:36:44,160 Speaker 1: was still kind of cartoony, so it was violent but 589 00:36:44,239 --> 00:36:48,080 Speaker 1: not realistic, so cartoony and violent. That was enough to 590 00:36:48,120 --> 00:36:51,839 Speaker 1: get a lot of concerned parental types upset at the game. 591 00:36:52,360 --> 00:36:56,560 Speaker 1: But the company Midway, kind of corded this attention because 592 00:36:56,600 --> 00:37:00,080 Speaker 1: the publicity just drove up interest in the games, and 593 00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:02,880 Speaker 1: so Midway was able to sell more cabinets to arcades 594 00:37:02,920 --> 00:37:05,600 Speaker 1: and movie theaters and the like because customers really wanted 595 00:37:05,600 --> 00:37:08,840 Speaker 1: to play this controversial game. So for them it was 596 00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:14,040 Speaker 1: a good thing. They were not upset being called UH 597 00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:18,520 Speaker 1: and criticized for violence. It just made them more money. 598 00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:22,160 Speaker 1: So they started to have this uh, this culture change 599 00:37:22,480 --> 00:37:25,279 Speaker 1: over at Midway, one that started to embrace over the 600 00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:28,400 Speaker 1: top violence and gore, and that set the stage for 601 00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:31,320 Speaker 1: John Tobias and ed Boon to pitch their own game, 602 00:37:31,480 --> 00:37:34,200 Speaker 1: though they did not intend for it to be a 603 00:37:34,239 --> 00:37:37,040 Speaker 1: super gory game when they first set out, and it 604 00:37:37,080 --> 00:37:39,440 Speaker 1: all really came about because there was going to be 605 00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:43,600 Speaker 1: a production gap in the in the actual manufacturing facilities 606 00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:47,640 Speaker 1: that were coming up in like six months, So Midway 607 00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:50,640 Speaker 1: had to take production runs into consideration when it was 608 00:37:50,719 --> 00:37:53,680 Speaker 1: rolling out games, because it's one thing to design and 609 00:37:53,760 --> 00:37:58,640 Speaker 1: program a game, it's another to produce thousands of copies 610 00:37:58,800 --> 00:38:01,640 Speaker 1: of that game. Particular early when you remember you're talking 611 00:38:01,680 --> 00:38:06,160 Speaker 1: about arcade machines, these are big, heavy things with monitors 612 00:38:06,200 --> 00:38:10,200 Speaker 1: and circuit boards and meters and meters of wiring in them. 613 00:38:10,239 --> 00:38:13,560 Speaker 1: So in this case, the company had a gap of 614 00:38:13,680 --> 00:38:16,799 Speaker 1: three months between production runs. One game was going to 615 00:38:16,840 --> 00:38:19,239 Speaker 1: come to the end of its production run, the next 616 00:38:19,280 --> 00:38:22,040 Speaker 1: game wasn't going to be ready for another three months, 617 00:38:22,440 --> 00:38:24,920 Speaker 1: so Boone and Tobias were essentially given the chance to 618 00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:28,360 Speaker 1: develop a fighting game that would fit in that gap. 619 00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:31,280 Speaker 1: To the executives at Midway, this was a no brainer. 620 00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:34,279 Speaker 1: The manufacturing line was going to be idle, and so 621 00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:37,040 Speaker 1: it was better to have a potential revenue generator going 622 00:38:37,080 --> 00:38:40,920 Speaker 1: into production than to do nothing at all. But half 623 00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:44,600 Speaker 1: a year is a very short time to design a game. 624 00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:48,400 Speaker 1: The original idea was to create a fighting game based 625 00:38:48,480 --> 00:38:53,360 Speaker 1: on Geenclaude Van Dem, the martial artist and actor. Van Dam, however, 626 00:38:53,719 --> 00:38:57,280 Speaker 1: passed on the pitch, which freed up Boone and Tobias 627 00:38:57,360 --> 00:39:00,600 Speaker 1: to come up with their own characters and designs. They 628 00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:03,520 Speaker 1: added John Vogel and Dan Ford in to their team 629 00:39:03,680 --> 00:39:06,280 Speaker 1: to help in the development, with Ford and really focusing 630 00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:09,640 Speaker 1: on sound design. Tobias called up a friend he knew 631 00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:14,400 Speaker 1: from childhood, Daniel Posina. Pasina was into martial arts, and 632 00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:17,640 Speaker 1: Tobias wanted Possina to come in and be part of 633 00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:21,040 Speaker 1: the team and allow them to get some video footage 634 00:39:21,239 --> 00:39:26,480 Speaker 1: of Possina doing stuff like walking, kicking, punching, falling down, 635 00:39:27,239 --> 00:39:30,880 Speaker 1: and this footage would be digitized, so Mortal Kombat was 636 00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:32,919 Speaker 1: to be a fighting game in which the figures were 637 00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:37,839 Speaker 1: actual people rather than animated cartoon characters. Passina would go 638 00:39:37,880 --> 00:39:41,600 Speaker 1: on to portray not just Johnny Cage, who is in 639 00:39:41,640 --> 00:39:45,520 Speaker 1: the game a martial arts action star clearly inspired by 640 00:39:45,760 --> 00:39:49,680 Speaker 1: Van Down, but he also played the ninja characters Scorpion 641 00:39:49,800 --> 00:39:54,279 Speaker 1: and sub Zero in those early video capture sessions to 642 00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:57,479 Speaker 1: Bias and Boone had to tell Passina to move more 643 00:39:57,520 --> 00:40:01,279 Speaker 1: slowly than he normally would. Passina, being trained in martial arts, 644 00:40:01,680 --> 00:40:06,240 Speaker 1: naturally would throw punches and kicks much faster than the 645 00:40:06,320 --> 00:40:09,400 Speaker 1: studio camera was able to handle because the resulting footage 646 00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:12,279 Speaker 1: would end up being really blurry, so he had to 647 00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:15,840 Speaker 1: do everything at a more methodical pace. However, this proved 648 00:40:15,840 --> 00:40:18,439 Speaker 1: to be difficult for a certain moves. At one such 649 00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:21,560 Speaker 1: move in Moral Kombat sees Johnny Cage do this flying 650 00:40:21,719 --> 00:40:24,960 Speaker 1: kick which can go a pretty good distance, but turns 651 00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:28,480 Speaker 1: out it's really hard to jump and hover in mid air, 652 00:40:28,960 --> 00:40:31,920 Speaker 1: and so the solution was to use various surfaces, like 653 00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:35,040 Speaker 1: a portable set of steps, so that the actors could 654 00:40:35,239 --> 00:40:38,160 Speaker 1: make a pose and hold it in mid air being 655 00:40:38,200 --> 00:40:41,440 Speaker 1: supported by this stuff, and then that would all be 656 00:40:41,520 --> 00:40:45,239 Speaker 1: removed once the video game was going into production, and 657 00:40:45,280 --> 00:40:48,200 Speaker 1: you're just left with the digitized image of someone doing 658 00:40:48,200 --> 00:40:53,240 Speaker 1: this incredible kick that just suspends in mid air. Boone 659 00:40:53,320 --> 00:40:56,080 Speaker 1: and Tobias put together an early version of the fighting 660 00:40:56,080 --> 00:40:59,160 Speaker 1: game something to show off to the executives at midway 661 00:40:59,200 --> 00:41:01,920 Speaker 1: to kind of give up progress. Update. It wasn't the 662 00:41:01,920 --> 00:41:05,000 Speaker 1: full game didn't have the full roster of characters. A 663 00:41:05,040 --> 00:41:07,080 Speaker 1: lot of stuff that would make it into the final 664 00:41:07,200 --> 00:41:11,200 Speaker 1: version wasn't included yet, but what they showed off impressed 665 00:41:11,200 --> 00:41:14,239 Speaker 1: the executives so much that they decided to make a 666 00:41:14,320 --> 00:41:17,680 Speaker 1: drastic change rather than have the game be a gap 667 00:41:17,840 --> 00:41:21,080 Speaker 1: filler from midway, something that was just thrown together without 668 00:41:21,160 --> 00:41:23,799 Speaker 1: much thought or effort at at the management level. At 669 00:41:23,880 --> 00:41:27,520 Speaker 1: least now it was going to become a fully fleshed 670 00:41:27,560 --> 00:41:31,839 Speaker 1: out project. The development team got more resources so they 671 00:41:31,880 --> 00:41:34,960 Speaker 1: could put more into it, and now the game that 672 00:41:35,040 --> 00:41:38,080 Speaker 1: would become Mortal Kombat would no longer be rushed through 673 00:41:38,120 --> 00:41:40,960 Speaker 1: to production midway. Since that they had a real money 674 00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:45,520 Speaker 1: maker on their hands. Boone and Tobias brought in more actors, 675 00:41:45,640 --> 00:41:48,759 Speaker 1: creating more characters, fleshing out their back stories a bit. 676 00:41:49,080 --> 00:41:52,000 Speaker 1: Each character had his or her own reason for being 677 00:41:52,080 --> 00:41:56,160 Speaker 1: in this tournament. They created the conflict between the Earth Realm, 678 00:41:56,440 --> 00:42:00,600 Speaker 1: which was a version of our reality, and the out world, 679 00:42:00,640 --> 00:42:03,560 Speaker 1: where a lot of batties lived. The lore has since 680 00:42:03,600 --> 00:42:06,760 Speaker 1: been fleshed out much much further, and I don't even 681 00:42:06,840 --> 00:42:08,960 Speaker 1: want to go into it because this would turn into 682 00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:12,759 Speaker 1: a fan cast about Moral Kombat. Plus I'd have to 683 00:42:12,800 --> 00:42:15,040 Speaker 1: try and make sense of some of the contradictions that 684 00:42:15,040 --> 00:42:19,040 Speaker 1: have popped up in the storyline as more versions of 685 00:42:19,040 --> 00:42:22,440 Speaker 1: the game have come out. During the development process, the 686 00:42:22,480 --> 00:42:25,920 Speaker 1: team gradually began to make the game more violent and 687 00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:29,560 Speaker 1: more graphic. According to Tobias and Boone, this was never 688 00:42:29,640 --> 00:42:31,719 Speaker 1: part of the original idea just came about as the 689 00:42:31,760 --> 00:42:35,719 Speaker 1: team began to incorporate more fanciful and magical elements into 690 00:42:35,719 --> 00:42:39,640 Speaker 1: the game. So sub Zero got ice powers, Scorpion had 691 00:42:40,120 --> 00:42:43,320 Speaker 1: his famous harpoon on a rope, lu Kane could shoot 692 00:42:43,360 --> 00:42:46,000 Speaker 1: fireballs from his hands, and so on. And then the 693 00:42:46,040 --> 00:42:49,240 Speaker 1: team also decided to mock a common practice a common 694 00:42:49,280 --> 00:42:52,600 Speaker 1: mechanic in fighting games at the time. So a lot 695 00:42:52,640 --> 00:42:56,600 Speaker 1: of fighting games incorporate a dizzy ing or stunning effect, 696 00:42:56,960 --> 00:42:59,120 Speaker 1: meaning that when your character gets hit by a powerful 697 00:42:59,120 --> 00:43:01,480 Speaker 1: move or you end up on the receiving end of 698 00:43:01,520 --> 00:43:04,880 Speaker 1: a few moves, you get stunned and you can't respond. 699 00:43:05,280 --> 00:43:08,040 Speaker 1: That gives your opponent the chance to land additional hits 700 00:43:08,080 --> 00:43:10,880 Speaker 1: on you can't really do anything about it. Boon and 701 00:43:10,880 --> 00:43:13,400 Speaker 1: Tobias were not big fans of this, but they decided 702 00:43:13,400 --> 00:43:16,960 Speaker 1: to incorporate it in a different way. Instead of happening 703 00:43:17,160 --> 00:43:20,200 Speaker 1: in the middle of a match. They decided that at 704 00:43:20,280 --> 00:43:23,640 Speaker 1: the deciding match, because moral comments set up to be 705 00:43:23,680 --> 00:43:27,400 Speaker 1: a best two out of three per match between two fighters, 706 00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:31,440 Speaker 1: at the deciding match, the losing character would be stunned 707 00:43:31,480 --> 00:43:34,240 Speaker 1: at the end, and this was mostly just an excuse 708 00:43:34,280 --> 00:43:36,719 Speaker 1: for the winning player to be able to land a 709 00:43:36,719 --> 00:43:39,840 Speaker 1: big upper cut on the loser, and the upper cut 710 00:43:40,200 --> 00:43:43,680 Speaker 1: always resulted in an exaggerated move that would throw the 711 00:43:43,719 --> 00:43:46,279 Speaker 1: opponent up into the air and that would be the 712 00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:50,400 Speaker 1: final blow. But that led the team to consider alternatives 713 00:43:50,440 --> 00:43:52,759 Speaker 1: that they could do. Instead of just letting you do 714 00:43:52,800 --> 00:43:55,120 Speaker 1: a big upper cut or kick or whatever. What if 715 00:43:55,200 --> 00:43:59,120 Speaker 1: they hid a few really over the top moves that 716 00:43:59,160 --> 00:44:01,240 Speaker 1: could be pulled off at the end of a match. 717 00:44:01,600 --> 00:44:04,560 Speaker 1: Players would have to execute a series of joystick moves 718 00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:08,000 Speaker 1: and button presses to pull off these maneuvers. They would 719 00:44:08,040 --> 00:44:12,640 Speaker 1: be finishers or fatalities that would show one character killing 720 00:44:12,680 --> 00:44:16,560 Speaker 1: another on screen. They did this sort of for fun 721 00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:19,960 Speaker 1: and initially got a very shocked reaction from within the 722 00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:23,040 Speaker 1: company and the actors portraying the characters. They kept saying, 723 00:44:23,760 --> 00:44:27,319 Speaker 1: we can't do this, and the developer said, why can't 724 00:44:27,360 --> 00:44:29,839 Speaker 1: we do it? No one ever comes in to check 725 00:44:29,920 --> 00:44:33,680 Speaker 1: on us, I think we're okay, And sure enough people 726 00:44:33,880 --> 00:44:36,279 Speaker 1: thought about it, and soon dollar signs were kind of 727 00:44:36,320 --> 00:44:38,680 Speaker 1: appearing all over the place, and they thought this could 728 00:44:38,719 --> 00:44:41,160 Speaker 1: be a really big part of the experience of playing 729 00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:44,799 Speaker 1: the game. Players could discover the correct combinations and then 730 00:44:44,840 --> 00:44:48,720 Speaker 1: show off to friends who would go ape at seeing 731 00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:52,240 Speaker 1: one character rip the heart out of another or decapitating 732 00:44:52,280 --> 00:44:54,799 Speaker 1: them with an uppercut or whatever. So it went into 733 00:44:54,800 --> 00:44:58,240 Speaker 1: the game. In the end, Mortal Kombat would be a violent, 734 00:44:58,560 --> 00:45:02,759 Speaker 1: bloody and cheeky game. It didn't take itself too seriously, 735 00:45:03,120 --> 00:45:05,359 Speaker 1: and when the company tested out the game and its 736 00:45:05,400 --> 00:45:10,800 Speaker 1: locations around Chicago, it was immediately clear they had produced 737 00:45:10,840 --> 00:45:15,719 Speaker 1: a huge hit. Orders poured in for the game. More 738 00:45:15,719 --> 00:45:20,640 Speaker 1: than twenty five thousand units were sold. Players were going 739 00:45:20,880 --> 00:45:24,160 Speaker 1: crazy finding out how to pull off fatalities, and the 740 00:45:24,200 --> 00:45:28,600 Speaker 1: game's practice of loser pays, winner stays was really popular too, 741 00:45:28,880 --> 00:45:32,040 Speaker 1: meaning if you were facing off against another human player 742 00:45:32,120 --> 00:45:35,040 Speaker 1: and you won, you got to keep playing, but if 743 00:45:35,040 --> 00:45:37,080 Speaker 1: you lost, then you had to put in another coin 744 00:45:37,200 --> 00:45:39,560 Speaker 1: or make way for the next person. This encouraged people 745 00:45:39,560 --> 00:45:43,320 Speaker 1: to line their quarters or tokens up on the arcade 746 00:45:43,360 --> 00:45:46,280 Speaker 1: machine in order to call next, and you had lines 747 00:45:46,360 --> 00:45:49,760 Speaker 1: of challengers forming to play against the current local hot shot. 748 00:45:50,320 --> 00:45:53,680 Speaker 1: The arcade machine just kept collecting coins, so it was 749 00:45:53,719 --> 00:45:58,640 Speaker 1: a really effective product for Midway. It was a huge success. 750 00:46:00,160 --> 00:46:03,200 Speaker 1: Now we've been going for a while and I've got 751 00:46:03,239 --> 00:46:06,360 Speaker 1: a lot more to say about Mortal Kombat and Midway. 752 00:46:07,000 --> 00:46:09,640 Speaker 1: I want to talk more about how the game progressed 753 00:46:09,960 --> 00:46:13,920 Speaker 1: and changed over the years, the pressures that the developers 754 00:46:13,920 --> 00:46:17,759 Speaker 1: found themselves under and things that that led to them 755 00:46:17,800 --> 00:46:21,680 Speaker 1: deciding to try something different, as well as the demise 756 00:46:21,840 --> 00:46:26,160 Speaker 1: of Midway and the continuing success of Mortal Kombat. But 757 00:46:26,239 --> 00:46:28,800 Speaker 1: all of that's gonna have to wait for another episode, 758 00:46:28,840 --> 00:46:31,640 Speaker 1: So tune in later this week for part two of 759 00:46:31,680 --> 00:46:36,719 Speaker 1: this and we will pick up to talk about the consequences, 760 00:46:37,120 --> 00:46:41,040 Speaker 1: perhaps with a k of Mortal Kombat coming out. If 761 00:46:41,120 --> 00:46:43,840 Speaker 1: you have suggestions for topics I should tackle in future 762 00:46:43,840 --> 00:46:47,040 Speaker 1: episodes of tech Stuff, let me know on Twitter where 763 00:46:47,040 --> 00:46:50,680 Speaker 1: our handle is text Stuff hs W, and I'll talk 764 00:46:50,719 --> 00:46:59,120 Speaker 1: to you again really soon. Text Stuff is an I 765 00:46:59,239 --> 00:47:02,720 Speaker 1: Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, 766 00:47:03,080 --> 00:47:06,240 Speaker 1: visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 767 00:47:06,320 --> 00:47:12,400 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. H