Over the following few weeks, I’m going to share a number of posts regarding Bally Midway, one of many cornerstone producers of the Golden Age of arcade videogaming.

Established in 1958, Midway Mfg. Co. started life by manufacturing and promoting amusement tools, earlier than being bought outright by its competitor Bally. The firm created a few of the greatest recognized mechanical and electro-mechanical amusement machines all through the early to mid 70s.

Midways shut relationship with Japanese producers like Taito throughout this time is effectively documented. This culminated within the big success of Space Invaders, with Midway being the unique producer of the sport that took the USA by storm in 1978. This in flip would kick-start a sequence of huge hits for the corporate through the early 80s.

And it’s at this second in time, that we will be a part of Midway as they rode an enormous wave of success with the discharge of Namco’s Pac-Man, and wildly profitable observe up Ms Pac-Man.

Let’s begin with some nice footage from Midway’s manufacturing unit ground, filmed on the peak of Midway’s success, through the summer season of 1982 at its headquarters in Franklin Park, Illinois. We be a part of as Ms Pac-Man was rolling off the manufacturing strains with the corporate attempting to maintain up with the massive demand for this recreation.

You might have seen clips of this footage earlier than, however right here is the total model, spanning a full quarter-hour. The high quality is great and a great deal of element is proven:

To complement the manufacturing footage, right here is an in-depth interview with Bally Midway’s Vice President of Marketing Stanley Jarocki. Shot across the similar time in 1982, Jarocki discusses the present online game growth, specializing in the recognition of Pac-Man and Ms. Pac Man.

Particularly attention-grabbing are Jarocki’s insights into the state of the trade, why it was so profitable at the moment, and he even calls out Nolan Bushnell, the person chargeable for bringing video video games to the general public’s consciousness.

Later on, he talks about how the corporate was eager to develop the Pac-Man franchise, referencing how Ms Pac-Man took place (we interviewed Steve Golson some time again which is price a pay attention to for extra element on this), and the necessity to ship video games sooner or later that continuously push the envelope:

The apparent causes for fulfillment on this explicit trade is to have the ability to supply on a steady foundation one thing new and one thing extra refined to the gamers than the final piece of kit.

Stanley Jarocki

There’s additionally speak about Bally Midway’s then upcoming licence of the movie Tron – clearly on the time of this interview, the sport was in growth, one thing we’ll cowl within the coming weeks right here on the weblog.

This is an extended interview, however its price sticking with as Jarocki provides some attention-grabbing perception to the state of the nation concerning the arcade trade at this key time.

I hope you get pleasure from these two movies. Keep an eye fixed out within the coming weeks for extra perception into Bally Midway.

Thanks for visiting this week!

Tony