Tradewest

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tradewest, Inc.
Image:Tradewest logo.png
Fate Merged into Williams and later Midway
Successor Williams Entertainment (now Midway Home Entertainment)
Founded 1986
Defunct 1994
Location Corsicana, TX, USA
Industry computer and video game industry
Products video games
Key people Leland Cook, founder
Byron Cook, co-founder
Subsidiary Leland Corporation

Tradewest is a now-defunct video game company based in Corsicana, Texas that produced numerous games in the 1980s and early 1990s. The company is best known as the publisher of the Battletoads and Double Dragon series in North America and the PAL region.

Contents

[edit] History

Tradewest was founded in 1986 in Corsicana by Leland Cook and his son Byron Cook. Tradewest started out by manufacturing SNK's Ikari Warriors arcade game in the United States. This would be one of the few arcade games to be released by Tradewest (along with Victory Road, Alpha Mission and Redline Racer) as the company would shift away from the coin-op business to concentrate on video games for home consoles.

In 1987, the Cooks purchased Cinematronics from El Cajon, California and renamed it Leland Corporation, which would later be merged into Tradewest in 1991. The man chosen to run the El Cajon office was John Rowe who already had a history in video games as president of SNK's American division.

Tradewest was acquired by WMS Industries (the owners of the Williams and Midway brands) in 1994, and renamed Williams Entertainment, Inc., thus signalling the end of Tradewest as a company. Williams Entertainment became WMS's official division and entrance to the video game console market. In 1996, WMS was losing interest in video games and, as such, Williams Entertainment was transferred to Midway who renamed the division Midway Home Entertainment, Inc.. Like it was the case with WMS, the division served as Midway's foothold to the home console market, who could now port its video games in-house without having to rely on other publishers. Both the Corsicana and El Cajon initially remained opened within Midway and continued to employ Byron Cook (who became president of Midway Home Entertainment) and John Rowe.

[edit] Aftermath

  • The El Cajon location moved to nearby San Diego, California and is now the only office for Midway Home Entertainment.

[edit] List of games distributed by Tradewest

[edit] Arcade

[edit] Nintendo Entertainment System

[edit] Game Boy

[edit] Sega Genesis

[edit] Super Nintendo Entertainment System

[edit] References

[edit] External links