Bally Midway logo used from 1981 to 1991
Bally Midway (also previously known as Midway Manufacturing Co., often shortened to just Midway) was an American arcade game manufacturer, developer and publisher founded in 1958, based in Chicago, Illinois.
Bally Midway was the original North American distributor of Pac-Man from 1980 to 1987 in association with Namco’s American division, handling all distribution and licensing of the Pac-Man IP in North America; Midway was also assigned the Pac-Man copyright and trademark in the United States. The company also developed and published many Pac-Man games for the United States and European markets; notably, Midway officially released Pac-Man games not directly created by Namco (such as Ms. Pac-Man), licensed countless amounts of merchandising, and introduced various aspects to the series such as new characters and elements. Midway's Pac-Man derivatives were produced with supervision and approval from Namco’s Japanese offices. Bally Midway's distribution contract for the Pac-Man IP ended in 1987, and all rights to Pac-Man and its media in North America were transferred back to Namco.
In 1988, the Bally Midway company was purchased by Williams, then known as WMS Industries; in the mid-1990s, Williams rebranded all of their operations as Midway Games. Following a bankruptcy proceeding, Warner Bros. purchased Midway Games in 2009, which also resulted in Warner re-acquiring the Atari Games library.
Pac-Man releases[]
Published games[]
- Pac-Man (1980)
- Pac-Man Plus (1982; developed by Namco, but originally only published by Midway)
- Super Pac-Man (1982)
- Pac-Land (1984)
Original games[]
- Kick (1981)
- Ms. Pac-Man (1982; developed by General Computer Corporation)
- Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man (1982)
- Baby Pac-Man (1982; developed by Dave Nutting Associates)
- Professor Pac-Man (1983; developed by Dave Nutting Associates)
- Jr. Pac-Man (1983; developed by General Computer Corporation)
Cancelled games[]
- Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp (1983) (rebranded version of Pac & Pal)
- Count Pacula (1983)
Midway also planned to release a Bally Professional Arcade port of Pac-Man, though it was canceled due to risk of litigation from Atari (who had the exclusive rights for home console releases of Pac-Man). Additionally, the handheld game PacMan2 was licensed under Midway's contract, under the result of a court order.
Among video games, Bally Midway handled all licensing of Pac-Man in promotions and in merchandising, which includes restaurant promotions, foods, clothes, toys, covers, carpets, records, the Hanna-Barbera produced TV series, theme park areas, contests and more. Bally Midway had notably attempted to create a feature film based on the Pac-Man series, but could not reach an agreement at the time.
Trivia[]
- It is rumored that Midway developed a game titled Pac-Pengo, a crossover between Pac-Man and Sega's 1982 arcade game Pengo. Little information on this has surfaced aside from vague recollections of it being test-marketed.
- Similarly, two hacks of Ms. Pac-Man - Ms. Pac-Man Plus and Super Ms. Pac-Man - have been cited as being internal Midway creations; however, these games may actually be bootlegs.
- Both "Bally" and "Midway" were different parts of the company, with Bally focusing on pinball machines and Midway on video arcade machines. Despite this, most games used both names combined together.
- While the Namco distribution contract was terminated in 1984, Ms. Pac-Man machines were still produced up until 1987, as Midway still owned the rights to the game up until that point. Midway agreed to grant Namco the rights about four years earlier, but this was delayed until 1987 for unknown reasons.
- For a brief period starting in 1983, Bally Manufacturing acquired Six Flags Corporation, the company behind the Six Flags amusement parks. Using the Midway license, Bally opened a short-lived Pac-Man Land at the parks; it was replaced with Looney Tunes Land in 1985, likely due to Namco's partnership with Bally Midway ending.
- Bally Midway operated the Aladdin's Castle company, and its respective chain of arcades, in the 1980s. In 1992, Aladdin's Castle was purchased by and merged into Namco USA (then known as Namco Operations/Namco Cybertainment).
- There was only one non-Pac-Man sequel to a Namco game unofficially developed by Midway - Gorf, a space shooter that combines both Galaxian and Space Invaders.
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