Namco vs. Midway: The King of Arcades 2: Intro & 1979-1981

The Capcom vs. SNK: The King of Arcade series I did was a lot of fun.  The advancement of technology, culture and game design through the games themselves was fascinating to see unfold and I even discovered a few hidden gems I didn’t know I liked, all while making an observation of what both companies were pulling off at the time.  I should hope that trip down the annuls of arcade history was also entertaining to read and maybe got people to try out some of the games for themselves.

It was so much fun, in fact, that I’m doing it again.  The only problem is there isn’t any arcade gaming rivalry quite like that of Capcom and SNK.  I mean they made multiple games in which they fight each other, for pete’s sake.  Who else then would make for an entertaining head-to-head competition that only exists in my mind?

The real question is what game companies have an extensive arcade catalogue that can come close to that of Capcom and SNK that’s also viable for me to play.  Some people see a rivalry between Sega and Namco, but that was mostly during the 3D era and Namco’s biggest games date back to the 80s, something Sega doesn’t have the prolific catalogue for.  There’s also arguably Taito and Midway, but it has the opposite problem, where Taito stopped making arcade games in the 90s as Midway continued to do so until 2001.

 

I found the best idea was to make it between the two default winners of those aforementioned rivalries: Namco and Midway.  One company Japanese, the other American, both with a big back catalogue of smash hit arcade games, from the most primitive of the 80s to the more advanced polygonal ones of the 90s.  Sure, they don’t have a series of crossover games like our previous contestants; in fact, Midway wasn’t exactly a fierce rival to Namco, considering Midway published some of their games for American distribution, but that didn’t last forever.

The rules are the same as before.  While not as much as with Capcom and SNK, I have a big catalogue of arcade game collections for both companies as well as a series of old-school arcades at my disposal with which to play as many of each company’s games as I can, much like last time.  As I do I’ll once again be writing my thoughts and judgements, then deciding on a victor on a year-by-year basis.  Games from Namco will be marked as “NAM” and games from Midway will be marked as “MID”.

 

Technically speaking there’s kind of a complication when it comes to Midway.  The company has bought companies, been bought themselves and has been renamed a few times.  Through acquisitions and mergers, Midway ultimately got the rights to games from both Atari Games and William Electronics, including ones made before those rights transfers.  Something similar happened in the previous competition with ADK, who technically weren’t owned by SNK until later on.  Just like then, I’ll be putting the arcade games that the company owns the rights to under the same umbrella, since by the end of the competition, those were legally Midway games.  The other option is retroactively revising previous years with Midway’s newly-acquired games as the corporate shenanigans happen in the timeline and that wouldn’t flow well at all.

To this competition I’ll be adding a little extra.  To put both Namco and Midway’s games in perspective, I will have a “meanwhile” segment for each year.  This will recap what Capcom and SNK were doing during their own battle for arcade dominance at that point in time and see how the Namco and Midway competition stack up to them.

Just like with Capcom and SNK, the competition doesn’t start until both companies have games (that I can play) available in the same year and Namco is practically a granddaddy of arcade gaming, meaning they get a head start.  The first game from Midway I have for this didn’t arrive until 1981 so I’ll kick things off with Namco’s uncontested years: 1979 and 1980.
 
Galaxian (Nam): True for the time period in which video games as a concept was practically witchcraft, this is a primitive shooter, but so elegant in its simplicity.  You have to correctly gauge your shots (no rapid fire) and shoot down all the colorful enemy ships as they swoop down from their formation to fire at you.  For 1979, it was a big deal to have so many enemies onscreen at once doing loops with firing patterns beyond just a straight line.  It even has some ambient sounds, which is more than can be said for a lot of games at the time.  Still, there’s no getting around how rudimentary it is.  The gameplay and enemies don’t change from level to level so after beating one you’ve seen the whole game.  It’s still fun for a while at a base mechanical level though so it keeps me distracted for a few minutes.  I guess that was worth a quarter back them.

Cutie Q(Nam): Break-out by means of Pong, with a touch of pinball.  That’s about it.  Interesting concept for the time, but that’s all it is.  There’s nothing notable about it and the fun wears quickly.

Rally X(Nam): You drive through a maze collecting flags while enemy cars are on your trail trying to kamikaze into you.  Again the game doesn’t really change anything after beating it the first time except for where the flags are placed.  Since you’re given a limited view you can only make decisions in the moment to go to where each one is because the map only shows you, the flags, the enemy cars and nothing else.  It’s another 5 minute distraction you forget about as soon as you’re done.

Pac-Man(Nam): I think it’s fair to say that no game in history has ever been as mind-meltingly popular as the original Pac-Man and unless Sengoku Basara 4 comes out in English, that will probably never change.  It is crazy how much this game blew up back in the day.  Even now it’s common to find arcade machines of it (when it’s not Ms. Pac-Man).  Namco never misses a chance to plop it in whenever there’s a collection of Namco games or just for the hell of it.  This game is everywhere.

It’s not as good as its widespread popularity would suggest, but it’s a fun game.  The stage never changes, but by design there are many different means by which you can navigate the maze to get the dots and time eating a power pellet right.  Coupled with the AI of the ghosts making them move differently each time, it surprisingly doesn’t get stale as fast as the games before it.  You even get a little comical animation every few levels to give some personality to the game.  It’s remarkable how much Namco was able to do with such weak hardware.

King & Balloon(NAM): This is Galaxian with an added twist.  You can get hit and die as many times as you want, but if one of the invaders takes the king below you and you don’t shoot down the one that’s got him, you lose a life.  Just like Galaxian, it’s another forgettable time waster, but the voice samples for the King was neat for 1980.

Now is where the fun really begins: 1981.  It is Midway’s turn to throw their hat in the ring and, as was the style at the time, that means shooters

Defender(MID): This space shooter has some funky controls.  You can move in all directions, but entirely with the control stick.  The stick moves the ship up and down, but to go forward you have to use a thrust button and as that thrust button is held down the ship picks up speed.  What keeps you from crashing headfirst into things you couldn’t possibly see is the minimap that shows the position of your ship, the terrain and the enemies, which is much preferred to having nothing but dots in Rally X.

It works better than you’d think.  The speed buildup from the thrust is innovative and it feels natural to let go and have the ship cruise at a slower speed for a while.  Once you get good at the game you can speed through the looping stages, dodging and weaving enemy ships while shooting them down, which is a rewarding feeling at a base level, just in case the pretty explosion effects weren’t satisfying enough.  This is a solid win for Midway.

 
New Rally X(NAM): This updated version of Rally X makes much-needed improvements to give it a lot more longevity.  Now there are different mazes with different colors and different numbers of enemy cars, all with a jaunty little tune instead of nothing but simulated car motor noises.  All of this makes the fun last a lot longer and puts it closer to Pac-Man in quality.

Wizard of Wor(MID): In Wizard of Wor you navigate a Pac-Man like symmetrical maze and shoot monsters as well as the second player you’re competing with.  It’s a fun concept for a simple head to head arcade game and similar to King & Balloon, you just gotta love those garbled voice samples that were such a flex back in the day.

What keeps Wizard of Wor from matching up to the other games thus far is the controls.  It’s in a maze with nothing but corridors so control amounts to changing which way you’re going down a corridor.  That’s fine for Pac-Man, where all you have to do is move, but when you have to line up a shot it can be finicky to get to the exact point of a corner that will let you turn.  Intersections are even worse because the game seems to need a moment to decide which path you’re trying to go down and thus, aim down.  You can’t just take a shot down one path and then go down another in the next instant.  You have to turn around, go back to the intersection and then hope the game is registering which path you want to go down.  I never feel like I’m in total control and that makes it far weaker than it should be.

Galaga(NAM): An incremental improvement to the shooter formula set up by Galaxian.  Now there can be two shots onscreen at once and there’s more variety to the enemies both behaviorally and visually.  The faster pace and improved visuals make it much more exciting and thus holds my attention longer than Galaxian did.
 
Stargate(MID): Also sometimes called Defender 2.   I can’t imagine why.

Like many sequels of the time, the core gameplay of the first is kept intact, but it adds enemies, obstacles and a new little feature that allows for invincibility for a limited period of time.  It’s a better version of an already good game.
 
Bosconian(NAM): As fun as the previous shooters have been, this one is my favorite thus far.  The Defender games let you move in multiple directions with a thrust button, but Bosconian has truly free movement in a top down perspective with the control stick.  With this new way of playing you fly around space blowing up enemy space stations with Galaga’s satisfying explosion sound effects.  That the ship fires straight ahead and straight behind makes lining up the shots you need much easier and it ramps up the obstacles with each level so they don’t feel the same, even if the enemies don’t change.  It’s the discovery of games like this one that make this project so fulfilling.

Namco started out the competition by establishing the precedent that they can get a lot out of such little technology and they make fun titles with simple to understand mechanics and pleasing visuals that are still fun to play today despite their age.  Midway also had some good games, but I have to give the first win to Namco this time.  Namco's games were consistently pretty good, but Midway had a weak link with Wizard of Wor, a game with a neat idea hampered by its controls.  That consistent quality puts Namco in the lead.

Meanwhile…

There were only 3 games I played for SNK from 1979-1981: a Space Invader clone, a Space Invader clone with a ninja theme and a really good fixed scrolling spaceship shooter.  Namco and Midway’s games all went beyond being simply Space Invader retools and innovated with bigger and better shooters, plus race cars.  Vanguard is the only thing SNK did better than everything Namco and Midway made at this point, but Bosconian wasn’t far behind.

With one victory under their belt, Namco is in the lead, but Midway has only begun in their arcade game production.  Next time the competition will get fiercer as we look at their offerings for 1982.