Bally Midway’s Stanley Jarocki

Sad news to report on the blog this week. Midway’s Director of Marketing during the Golden Era of classic arcade gaming passed away on 14 May 2024 aged 94. He lived out his later years in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Jarocki’s influence on the industry should not be underestimated. He was the king of the Japanese licence, bringing many games over from the East and introducing them to American arcade gamers across the nation. Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Rally X to name a few, and of course he oversaw the most successful arcade game ever to be released in the United States – Ms Pac-Man.

Interviewed in September 1979, he had this to say after the acquisition of the Space Invaders licence from Japanese manufacturer Taito:

We’ve distributed many thousands, well beyond 20,000 of the machines. It’s been popular for 19 months, and it looks like its going to continue that way for another 10 months.

Space Invaders of course was a huge scoop for Midway beating other American manufacturers, all desperate to get the exclusive distribution licence for that market. Distributors at the time recognised that Space Invaders was going to be the hottest electronic game every introduced to the coin industry.

The game has great retaining power. Many games are played on a time basis, but with Space Invaders, the player keeps on playing as long as he is not wiped out by the invaders. The game seems to be gaining player appeal as it goes on. It’s phenomenal. People have gotten into it and really critique it and even they have not stopped playing it. Its like a cult of players have developed around the game. Its unbelievable. There is no area in the United States that is immune to Space Invaders. You can go to Turtle Bayou, Texas and they have Space Invaders in that town.

Within 12 months of its release in November 1978, over 60,000 units were sold across the USA at a price tag of $1,700 apiece. A huge earner for Midway with many locations reporting the machine paid for itself within a month. Even after 16 months of production of Space Invaders, distributers had to wait five weeks to receive an order for the game. It is reported that 370,000 Space Invaders cabinets have been sold worldwide.

It was an even better story for the American release of Pac-Man. Some 96,000 machines were manufactured and sold by Midway. But it wasn’t just machine sales that brought income to the Chicago based manufacturer. An article dated February 16, 1982 by the New York Times had this to say:

”Pac-Man is a cute creature with cute features,” Jarocki said. ”I don’t think the novelty is going to wear off.” In the past eight months, 30 companies have signed sublicensing agreements with Midway for Pac-Man products ranging from greeting cards and wrapping paper to bumperstickers, watches, clocks and mugs. In addition, three new Pac-Man home games are making their debut this winter, including one from Coleco Industries, a Hartford-based manufacturer of video games and above ground swimming pools. Last year, Pac-Man arcade game sales totalled about $200 million.

Interestingly, Pac-Man nearly didn’t happen for Midway at all. Jarocki had returned from a trip to Japan where he was rather taken by Namco’s new Puck-Man game.

I was really excited. It was a very pleasant departure from the usual space, combat and shooting games. Plus it was totally simple to operate and easy to understand.

Jarocki urged Bally president Robert Mullane to buy the rights from Namco, and manufacture Puck-Man in the States. “He turned it down, plain and simple”.

However, fate was to step in. Midway’s governing committee over-ruled Mullane and a deal was struck with Namco and made the company an absolute fortune.

But in possibly his most audacious business decision a couple of years later, Jacrocki decided to release Ms Pac-Man as a complete standalone game, rather than the add-on kit it was originally proposed to be by its creator, GCC. It was an instant hit, becoming the biggest selling classic arcade videogame of its time.

General Computer Corporation’s Steve Golson spoke to us on the podcast about how Ms Pac-Man came about, including the approach they made to Midway – you can listen to that fascinating interview here.

There are many more games that Jarocki oversaw during his time at Midway – he was a huge figure in the world of arcade manufacturing, responsible for billions of dollars of revenue for the firm. Check out this interview from 1982, where he gives his views on the industry at the time. It’s a long discussion, but well worth pulling up a chair for, as Jarocki gives a fascinating insight into how the industry worked back then:

Condolences to Stanley Jarocki’s family. He was a man full of passion for the industry, who brought us a slew of great classic arcade games that entered popular culture in the USA.

Stanley W Jarocki: 13 July, 1929 – 14 May, 2024.

See you next time.

Tony