The company had gone bankrupt in August 1982 in the wake of several unsuccessful games and spent more than four years staving off foreclosure under Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Initially, Cinematronics co-founder Jim Pierce remained President of the new company, but he was eventually supplanted by Tradewest partner John Rowe.
The celebrity endorsement strategy was carried over into other games including Ivan “Ironman” Stewart’s Super Off-Road (1988) and Danny Sullivan’s Indy Heat (1991).
[5] Leland’s arcade games found their way to home consoles like the Nintendo Entertainment System courtesy of their connection to Tradewest.
(1988) and Ataxx (1990) were created in cooperation with Virgin Interactive, who had opened an office in California under the name Arcadia Systems which Leland did distribution for.
[6] Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp, which had been completed in 1984, had been location tested but not released due to the decline of LaserDisc arcade games.
In 1992, they moved out of their manufacturing facility on Friendship Drive to a small studio located at 4444 Zion Ave in El Cajon.
In April 1994, WMS Industries purchased Tradewest as part of their strategy to become more directly involved in the home video game market.