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by mattnewton 2001 days ago
> As an optional fun fact, Midway Games was probably using the same allegory when they picked their name.

Really? I always thought this was because they were founded in Chicago, near Midway airport. (The airport itself was named after the battle though). Midway games got started in video games licensing games from japanese companies Taito and Namco, so I never thought about an adversarial explaination of the name.

2 comments

Yeah, there's no weight to this.

Midway started in the 60s. They weren't competing with Japanese companies back then. American arcades were filled with American pinball machines, Computer Space or Pong. Japanese games like Space Invaders and Pac Man wouldn't take off until the late 70s.

In addition to the airport being a source for the name, in the 40s, the Chicago Bears were nicknamed "Monsters of the Midway" and there is also a park known as "the Midway" in Chicago.

The midway is the line of games at the fair. I've always assumed it had something to do with that.