One month ago, on August 25, Dolly Parton died at the age of 80. She was best known as a singer and actress (especially in her leading role in the movie 9 to 5 (1980)). She was also a philanthropist and had business ventures such as Dollywood, an amusement park located in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, United States. (Namco was also in the amusement park business with NAMJATOWN in the Sunshine City building in Ikebukuro, Tokyo and the defunct Wonder Eggs.)
I myself have been to Dollywood a few times, most recently in 2023. I went as part of a weekend vacation to the Smoky Mountains. The day before, we stopped by an indoor flea market where they had two Midway Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga arcade cabinets and a Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga Class of ’81 cabinet.
When the news broke out about Parton’s death, I was made aware that Bally released a Dolly Parton pinball machine. I posted it on the Namco Historian socials, given Bally subsidiary Midway’s relationship with Namco.
Bally was a prominent manufacturer of pinball machines beginning in 1932. The company later acquired Midway, a company that would later be known for arcade games. Midway distributed the Japanese arcade game Space Invaders, developed by Taito. The space shooter took off in the North American market. Midway would later be the North American distributor for several of Namco’s earliest arcade games.
Namco games distributed by Midway in North America:
- Submarine (electro-mechanical)
- Galaxian
- Rally-X
- Pac-Man
- Galaga
- Bosconian
- Super Pac-Man
- Mappy
- Gaplus
- Pac-Land
Midway also released games in the Pac-Man series made by developers that were not Namco. Midway developed the game Pac-Man Plus, a modified version of the original Pac-Man. General Computer Corporation, a company specializing in arcade modification kits, developed a Pac-Man modification titled Crazy Otto, which would later be retooled into Ms. Pac-Man and was distributed to arcades by Midway. GCC would later develop Jr. Pac-Man. Dave Nutting Associates developed Professor Pac-Man, a quiz game released by Midway for arcades.
In addition to developing Ms. Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man, General Computer Corporation also developed the Atari 2600 versions of Galaxian, Dig Dug, and Pole Position and the Atari 7800 versions of Galaga, Xevious, Dig Dug, and Pole Position II.
Midway attempted to localize Pac & Pal as Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp for the North American market. The release was canceled.
Midway Manufacturing was renamed Bally Midway in 1982, and the company made both pinball and video game arcade machines. The company released two Pac-Man pinball machines: Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man and Baby Pac-Man, a hybrid video game/pinball machine.
Bally Midway would end its relationship with Namco in the mid-1980s. Following the Video Game Crash of 1983, Atari Inc. would split into two companies: Atari Corporation, responsible for Atari’s home console business and Atari Games, a coin-operated arcade game business co-owned by Namco and Warner Communications (now Warner Bros. Discovery, which, at the time of writing, is in the process of being absorbed into Paramount Skydance). Atari Games would distribute Namco games in North America and Namco would distribute Atari Games games in Japan in return.
Bally owned other amusement businesses in the ’80s, including Six Flags, which had a Pac-Man themed area, and Aladdin’s Castle, a chain of arcades in the United States. In the early ’90s, Bally would sell the Aladdin’s Castle arcades to Namco. Locations were converted to Namco Cyberstation arcades.
Bally Midway was later sold to WMS Industries in 1988. WMS later acquired the Atari Games library from Time Warner in 1996. The Midway and Atari Games assets are currently owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Bandai Namco currently owns the intellectual property rights of Midway’s non-Namco Pac-Man games.
When the world mourned for Dolly Parton, actor Tim Curry was also mourned as he died the same day as Parton. Curry was a voice actor in video games such as the PC adventure game Toonstruck (1996). Voice actor Peter Cullen died the next day (August 26), who was known for voicing animated characters such as Optimus Prime from Transformers and Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. In relation to Namco, Cullen voiced the Pac family cat Sour Puss in the 1982 Pac-Man cartoon from Hanna-Barbera.
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