If you were a gamer in the 90’s then Midway is a company you know. The developer behind NARC, Mortal Kombat, Smash TV, and NBA Jam created some of the most beloved gaming franchises in the 1990’s. Many of which are still with us today, even though the company has long since folded. Now, the former Art Director at Midway is looking to produce a documentary about the heyday of Midway Games and he’s gone to Kickstarter to help fund it.
In addition to discussing the genesis of many of Midway’s popular franchises the documentary, which will be titled Insert Coin, also promises to delve into games that were never finished by the publisher and find out what happened to them.
As you can see from the Kickstarter pitch video there’s actually a lot of video footage from the Midway era that has apparently survived. Watching WWE wrestlers doing early motion capture for Midway’s Wrestlemania game is quite interesting.
http://kck.st/1faDNuF
Kickstarter rewards include the standard stuff, copies of the finished film, t-shirts, you name in the credits, etc. The two top tier rewards include an “executive producer” credit for $3,000, or, for $5,000 they’ll actually interview you for the documentary so you can talk about your own memories of Midway games, like the time you spent your life savings in quarters to finish Smash TV, or the time the final boss of NARC gave you nightmares for a week.
Midway was founded in 1988, although previous companies related to Midway existed all the way back to 1958, and made arcade and home video games until they declared bankruptcy in 2009. They were absorbed by Warner Brothers Interactive shortly thereafter and WB purchased most of their valuable properties.
If you have fond memories of pumping quarters into Midway arcade machines and pinball games, I nearly got a degree in Addams Family pinball in college, then check out the documentary plans.
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