Joseph Middleton has done what many entrepreneurs -- not to mention large businesses -- only dream of: hit the Wal-Mart jackpot. Two weeks ago, the retail behemoth began stocking 20,000 copies of "Ultimate Duck Hunting," a 3-D hunting simulation game, in its U.S. stores. Now, other retailers, from Target to Best Buy, are considering adding the game to their inventory this fall.

Middleton, 60, says he got the game on Wal-Mart's shelves through persistence and luck. That he was already known by the retailer helped. A dash of luck didn't hurt, either.

Middleton is a self-described country boy born in Cuthbert, Ga., with a bachelor's degree in business from Georgia Tech.

He spent 22 years in New York, first as an actor and aspiring moviemaker. In 1981, he wrote "Just Before Dawn," a horror movie starring George Kennedy. Few people saw it. That same year, he started working on Wall Street as a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch. Money was coming in, but little creativity went out.

On Wall Street, one of Middleton's clients was Richard A. Wolters, a popular dog-training author. When Wolters died, he left half his estate to Middleton, who put the books into video. Middleton started Mid Carolina Media with his then-wife, Leslie, in 1994, to publish and market the video series. He decided to try to get the videos into Wal-Mart, and in 2002 visited the company's headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.

After his fateful inheritance, chance struck again. The buyer was a hunter who had used Wolters' training method. Middleton found out later that Sam Walton himself had used the original Wolters book series to train his own dogs. Wal-Mart picked up the videos, and Mid Carolina Media's franchise had begun. The videos are now produced in DVD format as well.

"It's not a blockbuster," Middleton said. "But it's a steady source of income."

Wal-Mart no longer carries the videos, but Middleton's one full-time assistant still gets orders from dog owners as far away as Australia, Japan and Germany.

The success of the dog training videos spurred Middleton to leave the financial world. He retired in 2002 from UBS and focused full-time on Mid Carolina Media, turning the company into a book, video and software company.

He had noticed the success of "Deer Hunter," a computer hunting game that came out of nowhere in 1997 to become the No. 1 game for three months. An estimated 4 million copies of the game has sold since then.

"After 'Deer Hunter' hit, I was excited about the prospects for a duck hunting game," Middleton said.

First, he came out with "Top Dog," a 2-D PC game precursor to "Ultimate Duck Hunting." Middleton's luck failed that time. The game flopped, and the software buyer for Wal-Mart didn't want to take a chance. The game is out of print, though it can still be found in some outdoor stores and online outlets.

Leap of faith

Then he got lucky a second time. R. Michael Young, a computer science professor at N.C. State University, introduced him to some students.

One of those students became the lead programmer. "My only game before this was a class assignment," said Will Sanders, 28. "Joseph took a real leap of faith in me."

In exchange for a percentage of the profits, a handful of young graphic artists, artificial-intelligence specialists and game testers joined Middleton's team, never totaling more than 10. It took them two and a half years, but using novice developers allowed Middleton to keep costs down. Most video games cost between $5 million to $10 million to produce; "Ultimate Duck Hunting" cost less than $100,000.

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