Midway Studios Australia

Overview

Founded as Emergent Software in 1993, the company was renamed Ratbag in 1998 and was based in Adelaide, South Australia. Ratbag's first title Powerslide was released in 1998 and the studio has been focused on racing games ever since. Ratbag also owned the motion-capture studio Madcap in Sydney.

Ratbag's titles were driven by the company's proprietary Difference Engine. This was the first PC engine to support unlimited textures and 60 frame per second high resolution graphics. The company's second title was Dirt Track Racing (1999) followed by Dirt Track Racing: Sprint Cars.

World of Outlaws Sprint Cars 2002 was the title that marked Ratbag's first foray into the realm of PlayStation 2. WoOSC2002 was a racing title in the vein of Dirt Track Racing: Sprint Cars. It was released in Spring 2002 in the USA and May 2003 in Australia / New Zealand.

Dirt Track Racing 2 and WoOSC were Ratbag's most recent PC titles, released in September 2002 and March 2003, respectively. They were preceded by Leadfoot and Dirt Track Racing Pinball.

The Ratbag story is one of struggle and ultimately success. Greg Siegele and Richard Harrison spent three years and all of their personal savings developing the company's early technology. In 1996 they took the original Powerslide demo to E3, knowing that if no publishing deal were forthcoming the company would have to close its doors. Thankfully, the game received a lot of attention, and before they knew it Greg and Richard had no fewer than eight of the biggest publishers in the industry engaged in a bidding war for the rights. Coming full circle, Ratbag showcased Powerslide: Slipstream for PS2 at E3 2003.

The studio was eventually acquired by Midway in August 2005 and renamed Midway Australia. A mere 4 months later, in December, it was shut down.


Contributed by Sciere (123498) on Jun 24, 2004. [revised by : Sciere (123498)].