The Pinball Blog

Pinball Heroes: John Popadiuk

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 10:07:00 +0000

Time for another Pinball Heroes guest and this week it's the man behind Cirqus Voltaire, Theatre of Magic & Tales of the Arabian Nights!

John Popadiuk.

Let me start by saying John has been a really great guy helping me put the interview together and if you have any questions, he is happy to answer them. Leave a comment at the bottom of the interview and I'll make sure John sees it. Or if it's not suitable for public consumption, drop me a line and I'll forward it on.

The Pinball Blog. Your first production game came a while after you'd started in the industry. What were your roles before World Cup Soccer and was there a particular industry figure you most enjoyed working with?

John Popadiuk. Well this is a big question....we will need to do another interview. I started working at the Bally Pinball Division at the ripe old age of 19! Norm Clark brought me in to work in engineering with legends like Jim Patla, Greg Kmiec, Gary Gayton, George Christiansen, Greg Freres, Paul Faris, Ward Pemberton, Claude Fernandez, etc.....My first job was lab tech in the whitewood lab. It was a wild job! At that time all themes were attached to games AFTER the whitewood was playing well. Not the way we do it today. I was able to work with everyone at Bally and eventually Williams after Bally was bought in 1988. To meet Steve Ritchie the first time was amazing...after playing and operating all his games. Same for Greg and Jim......the Bally group was a big family, we would all work together, and then hang out later at nights all the time. Many got married just becuase we all were always doing stuff. Sometimes we would go into the city and mix with the Williams designers for a night of gossip.....something that was not allowed.

As far as who i enjoyed working with...that's a tough one. As a designer you are linked to so many people in the factory and in sales support. But honestly, and Cameron Silver or Duncan Brown might agree, probably the factory people I enjoyed working with the most. They were responsible for building your game from scratch, so we would really *live* with them daily and get to know them very well. Their family's, dogs, grandmas, etc....Games going into the carton, World Cup Soccer did almost 300 a day, meant jobs for us and revenue for Williams or Bally. In the old days I heard they used to ring a bell at Williams everytime an order of games were sold. We all worked our butts off on the assembly line, some days sweating it out if the air was not working. Great memories of a great time. And that new pinball smell.....ahhhh!!

TPB. How did you get your job at Bally?

JP. I bought Roger Sharpe's book on Pinball.... and wrote Norm Clark a letter. He invited me for a factory tour...and at lunch I told him I was not returning home and he would have to hire me. And he did, on the spot! I had been working for a pinball jobber for a while, so I knew the ins and outs of pinball repair, construction, etc......so I was useful on day 1 at the Pinball Division. Bally became my family and I met then a host of great lifelong friends.

TPB. Towards the end of the 1990s the powers that be asked designers to come up with something different to save pinball. Your own concept looked for a while to possibly be the direction they were heading before the Pinball 2000 idea was chosen. Can you tell us more about it?

JP. Well after TotAN, I knew pinball needed something new. I worked in my off hours on a new project that was to take a Nintendo Game System and merge it to our pinball hardware. Only a few people at WMS + Midway knew what I was doing...but the idea of a digital commercial pinball game seemed to be a natural extension. Kids know pinball today from the computer.

So I worked on this at WMS from my original designs I showed Jim Patla in 1993 from a very cool game called TILT. It was a hybrid game that had a digital ball on the playfield. The real ball would "digitize" into the computer ball....really cool......We experimented with this on ToM and Cirqus Voltaire. So when I was asked to come up with something, it was easy to get the pinball 2000 concept game built. Originally it was just called Virtual Pinball. The whole mock up was completed in 3 weeks. We chose Mace ( a Midway Game) as the theme because we could get art from Midway for the cabinet and playfield. Mark Weyna and Lyman Sheats did the other work, actually Lyman has a very basic game built with some code and effects. We presented a full size working mockup to management...and they decided to move forward with this idea and give us 2 years to turn around pinball.

This design had a new backbox with a digital screen and art. The ideas was to leave the playfield the same for now (as it was buildable) and introduce this Nintendo *feel* into the game via backbox art. It had a new cabinet that would fold up so the operators could easily transport the game. Overall it was a real jolt of pinball excitement for us in engineering, and it was a time that the whole pinball group at WMS were unified as one force to save pinball....all Ego's aside. But that did not last for long unfortunately. The pinball 2000 story really starts from here......a loooooong story......with an unhappy ending.

TPB. You have a very good knowledge of the history of pinball, how did historical pinball machine features influence your own designs?

JP. Well I think we have a mandate to keep the tradition of pinball alive (King for a Day)....so keeping the great pinball features in new games is a super idea. Most of what we know as modern pinball was designed a long time ago: spring plunger, scoring holes, bumpers, double level rails, flippers, magnetic things, etc......so not really much is new. It makes sense to keep the *retro* cool pinball stuff current. Ties the modern game with the historic game. Actually a lot of cool stuff was built 75 years ago, inside great rule sets like Contact, Ballyhoo or Spinball (really old games).

TPB. You're working at Zizzle now. With that fella down under not making pinball machines and times reportedly being tough at Stern, is there a possibility we could see an arcade sized pinball from Zizzle?

JP. A full size game was never in the plan for Zizzle, a completely different business model to support. It could be done relatively easily, but actually the 5 Zizzle's made to date took almost the same time to design and engineer as a commercial game. Building a full size game that actually looks cool and makes money is a tall order.

TPB. Would you like your children to follow in your footsteps or are you hoping they'll get proper jobs?

JP. Well I think I have a proper job. But the Popadiuk house is full of inventing, computers, gadgets, pinball parts, markers, paint, robotic animals and the sort. We turn off the TV and go dig in the dirt as much as we can. Actually my oldest daughter Isabella (8) and I are developing game ideas now for the iPhone and Nintendo DSi platforms. The twins Donna + Zophia (3) are the UI testers...

TPB. I believe you appear in a video sequence on Star Wars Episode 1. Did you get to choose your own character or was the force strong with the casting staff?

JP. Yes I am the motion capture character of Qui Gon Jin from Star Wars. For SW:EI we had a lot of animation to do, so it was decided that capturing real footage would fit our timeline better than do all the animations from mocap + Max/Maya work. Which is very time intensive. I had long hair like QG and kinda the same build...so it worked. I had to take some Jedi lightsaber training as well...so I didn't get my hand cut off. Kevin O'Connor is Darth Maul...we used to practice the scenes at his house in the driveway! All the neighbors would stare at us.

TPB. Any idea why Cirqus Voltaire was so popular among the gay community?

JP. The happy music and bright colors? Who knows. But it is one of the most popular home games today! Was supposed to be our homage to the Voltaire and the French...who brought pinball to America in the 1700's. Gotta' love the French.

TPB. You told me recently that the next Zizzle game is an Atari license for the first time in 30 years. Did Atari think you were joking when you approached them about making a licensed pinball product with their name?

JP. Actually Atari is very nice to work with. They just want to rebuild the brand, but it is cool that Superman was produced about 30 years ago! The Zizzle version of Atari Classic is really great, good music + sfx. Fantastic new art package. Another Zizzle team effort!

TPB. Tell us more about your job today at Zizzle, your responsibilities and whether you got to give yourself a funky job title?

JP. As the Zizzle Creative Director (not my title choice) I was responsible for anything creative and graphic. From toy ideas, to packaging to designing tradeshow exhibits and dvd demos. We had a small team of professionals who did a ton of work in short order. Currently I am in the process of building a new design and game development company here in Chicago.....more news on that very soon!

TPB. Who would YOU like to see featured as one of our Pinball Heroes and why?

JP. A tough one. I think all the folk behind the scenes who make pinball are really heros. It's a tough climate for the game today, and has all but vanished from the popular culture.

TPB. Finally, we always ask our Pinball Heroes to sum up their involvement in pinball with one word or sentence.

JP. I have been allowed to be *King for a Day*...and hopefully will be allowed to be again!

There are more pictures for this interview below. Many, many thanks to John Popadiuk for his great answers and more Pinball Heroes will be featured soon.

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

Pictures Courtesy:
John Popadiuk
Jim Schelberg (PinGame Journal)
Gary Flower

Gary Flower & John Popadiuk

Jack Skalon, who engineered all of John Popadiuk's games. "The best pinball engineer ever." He is checking the engineering sample to make sure all the parts fit within tolerance before prototype production.

John Popadiuk as Qui Gon Jin

The white SW works-like proto was built with 1 mode, and the cabinet was built only on 1 side....for a big presentation....prior to WMS agreeing to the license from Lucas.

The "Kid" Jake Lloyd playing the SW:EI game at the Star Wars convention in Denver. The game was transported all wrapped in black plastic during shipping per Lucasfilm!

Cameron Silver and John Popadiuk building proto#1 in the lab. "Cameron would have built all the games by himself if he had the time".

Duncan Brown, Mike Hanley, John Popadiuk & Gary Flower

Pinball Heroes: Michael Shalhoub

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 17:08:00 +0000

Maybe not a name some of you are familiar with, but if you like your pinball books, then you must know the work of today's Pinball Hero. Pictured to the left with pinball designer Mark Ritchie, Michael Shalhoub's series of books cover several eras of pinball and are called The Pinball Compendiums.

The Pinball Blog: So you're Michael Shalhoub, you've released a book every year for the last 5 or 6 years which must make you the most published pinball enthusiast in history. It must be a huge commitment but also very satisfying, do you have a particular highlight from the books?

Michael Shalhoub: It has been an amazing journey I have been on these past few years, I fell in love with pinballs at the age of six. It was the Parker artwork that drew me in, the first game I ever played was a 1960 Kewpie Doll, I can still remember this game, I used a Coke box to stand on as I could not reach the flippers. I also remember playing a 1972 Gottlieb Flying Carpet, I loved this game as it was truly challenging, when I went home I built my own version using pegs as flippers. A thought that went through my head was the person who designed this game must be a genius, only God knew that many years later I would meet and become good friends with one of the Greatest Pinball Designers in the history of the game, a man who has designed more games than anyone else, Ed Krynski.

The greatest highlights for me doing the books was meeting the great designers and artists whom I have had the pleasure in getting to know over the years as they are the reason the books were written. Only a few people have tried interviewing them, I made it my venture to interview everyone. The biggest highlight for me was back in 2003 when I inducted Ed Krynski into the Pinball Hall of Fame. This man once told me 'There is life after Pinball', Ed left the industry in 1984 on a very sour note, and here he was with his family around him tears in his eyes, a moment I will never forget.

TPB: You're the owner of a desk once used by Alvin Gottlieb. How did you get it, do you use it today and is there a 'vibe' that comes from it, or is it just the same as any other desk?

MS: The desk I have was David Gottliebs desk, it was given to me by Ed Krynski who used it when he worked at D Gottlieb & Co, it is currently in storage, it will be displayed in the Pinball Museum when it is opened in the section dedicated to Dave Gottlieb. We will have different sections dedicated to the Pioneers in the industry. When I first saw the desk I got Goosebumps as I envisioned Dave himself sitting next to it with a cigar in his mouth.

TPB: Are you and Alan Tate still collecting trees to build a pinball museum in Australia and any idea when you'll have enough to get the project underway?

MS: The museum is a huge project we have over 2000 games between us the majority belonging to Alan, the project is underway, there are at least 250 games that have been shopped/restored and are ready to be displayed. Now the work has begun on the building, Alan has purchased the perfect site for the building and work hopefully will begin on the huge building that will house all these games.

TPB: I hear you've bought machines from America and had them shipped over. Ever had any interesting experiences to share from buying machines?

MS: Back in 2004 Alan Tate and I were in Ashland Missouri were we were going to load a 40 foot container. When the driver delivered the container and unhooked the trailer, Alan commented it didn't look right as it was leaning to one side. I told him not to panic as I could see no problems with it. Anyway it took us two days to load it, the last thing we loaded were the backglasses. We started loading on the Friday and had finished on the Saturday going out to dinner after a huge job had been done.

The next day Alan and I were going to fly out going to Wayne Neyens house. At 7.00am a friend of ours B.J Cunningham rang me telling me there was a accident last night and one of the legs on the trailer had given way and the container had rolled. Even talking about this brings back terrible memories as the was a lot of money invested in the games, we ended up hiring a crane, getting the container back on its feet. As we opened the doors to see what damage was done about twenty backglasses dropped out smashing on the ground. This was a terrible experience, thank God the pinball's were packed tight and there was no damage to them.

TPB: With such a large area of land the pinball community in Australia must be spead pretty thin. Is there still a close-knit community of pinball enthusiasts despite the distances between you?

MS: Recently we had the first Pinball Expo in Australia, it was held in Sydney with over 1500 people coming through the doors on the first day. There were many people attending from all the States for this event. There are different pinball's clubs around Australia, and two forums bringing collectors together. The books I have written are also helping generate a interest here is Australia, with many readers wanting to re-live their childhoods playing the wonderful game of pinball. Australia was a huge market for imports of pinball's back in the 1960's and 1970's with games being seen everywhere. Pinball's were at nearly every corner shop, there were many arcades, pool rooms spread throughout the major cities

TPB: I believe you think Ed Krynski is often overlooked as a pinball designer. Is there something about his work (other than the fact he designed 200+ games) that you particularly like and why is he under-rated in your opinion?

MS: The one thing I loved about a game Ed Krynski designed, was he always knew how to challenge a player. This was the case for me on many games I played growing up. He has never been recognized for designing pinball, gun and arcade games for Keeney in the period 1960-1963. He brought so many innovations to the game: the vari-target first seen on Airport (1969); the laneways to the flipper first seen on Bank-a-Ball (1965); carousel target first seen on Dancing Lady (1966); multiple drop targets first seen on 2001 (1971). He has captivated players with his extraordinary designs that had Gottlieb dominating the industry from the day he took over from Wayne Neyens till the end of the 1970's.

He knew what players wanted and the majority of the games he designed challenged players, and were a huge success for D Gottlieb & Co. I made it a personal venture to make sure recognition is brought to the man who has designed more games that anyone else in the history of the game. Sadly Ed is not with us today, personally, I am flooded with memories of his games and of the man that I have grown to love. I will miss having pepperoni pizza with him. Ed Krynski’s has designed more games than anyone, some he has yet to be credited for. He will be with me for the rest of my life, in the many games I have that he has designed, every-time I see one I start to cherish the many memories I have of him. When Ed left the industry back in 1984 he left on a sour note, wanting nothing to do with pinball's or anyone associated with them, thank God I helped change this. When I first tried contacting him back in 2000 he kept hanging up on me, until I one day talked with his wife Gilda who talked him into being interviewed by me. I feel him not wanting to take part in the early Pinball Expo's and not being there for people to interview him is the reason he was under-rated by many.

TPB: Is there a holy-grail of collecting pinball machines that you still haven't found?

MS: The one game we don't have for the Museum is the 1951 Gottlieb Mermaid, one came up just over a year ago on EBay in the US and it went for over $17,000.00. Other than that we have hundreds of games from the 1930's, 1940's, 50's 60's all the way up to the modern game days. Including many gun and arcade games from the 1930's- today.

TPB: You've bought containers of slot machines. Do you collect other coin-op machines or sell these to fund your pinball addiction?

MS: The only slot machines i have bought are ones from the 1930's and 1940's these are to go into the Museum, I do collect other arcade games mainly gun games and Fortune tellers. Alan in his collection has over 200 arcade games that will also be displayed in the Museum.

TPB: Vegemite Nick & Nuggy from down under produced the Coconut Island pinball machine from scratch. Have you played the machine and what are the chances of us seeing any other machines made in Australia?

MS: At the Pinball Expo in Sydney I got a chance to see Coconut Island, an amazing accomplishment by Nick and Nuggy. These two are extremely talented and I hope to see another game from them. I had a game on it and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. There is talk of another company here manufacturing games but is all talk at the moment and I haven't seen anything. I will leave this here as people have given deposits and to date have seen nothing.

TPB: Who would YOU like to see interviewed for Pinball Heroes and why?

MS: The one person I would like to see featured is the Legend Wayne Neyens whose employment in the coin machine industry started back in 1936 when he started work at Western Equipment & Supply. It has been such an honor and privilege for me getting to know Wayne over these past years. He started working at D Gottlieb & Co in 1939, his first job there was testing play boards. He designed many classic games from the 'Golden Era of Pinball' he was there when Harry Mabs invented the flipper back in 1947 and was the second person the flip a ball on a pinball machine using the flipper. Wayne has many stories to tell, he worked with Lynn Durant, Jimmy Johnson amongst others. He is a True Pinball Hero

TPB: Finally, we always ask our guests to sum up their involvement in pinball in one word or sentence!

MS: It has been a privilege and Honor meeting all my Legends, the greats who have brought us these games. Always follow your dreams, if you have a passion for something go for it. I have been on an Amazing Journey meeting many wonderful people from around the world. My books were written to pay tribute to all the designers and artists who brought us these games. I am also pleased to see the many people reading these books getting to know these greats, and enjoying a game I fell in love with many years ago called The Pinball Machine.

Many thanks to Michael Shalhoub for taking the time to answer our questions and more Pinball Heroes coming soon.

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

Photos & Pictures
Michael Shalhoub
Gary Flower
illawarra_steelers from Aussie Pinball

Pinball Heroes: Greg Kmiec

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 30 May 2009 15:43:00 +0000

Pinball Heroes: Greg Kmiec

The Pinball Blog: So you're Greg Kmiec. You designed 30+ games including EM, solid state and dot matrix in a career spanning 3 decades. Is there a particular machine you are most proud of and why?

Greg Kmiec: Historically speaking, the game that I am most proud of is Xenon. I designed Xenon as Bally’s first multi-level game with the pinball going under a part of the playfield (the tube.) (All of the contemporary games were single level.) The artist for the game, Paul Faris, saw the clear tube and he said it reminded him of a neon sign. He wanted a futuristic name for the game. He came up with the name Xenon (an inert gas like neon.) Paul did a terrific job with the futuristic artwork.

(There's more about Xenon later in the interview)

TPB: Who that you worked with was a highlight and who are you still friends with today?

GK: Without question, the person that I worked with who was a highlight in my career was pinball artist Dave Christensen. Wizard! was just the 4th game I ever designed and the attention Dave’s artwork generated on that game was unbelievable. The artwork was so different from contemporary games. It really put that game over the top. Bally Marketing VP Tom Nieman should be credited for his brilliance in securing the Wizard! naming and artwork rights.

When I designed the pinball game Wizard!, I had a different theme in mind. I designed the bonus lights in a W as the first letter in Wizard. I had envisioned a medieval-themed Merlin-type wizard as the main character in the game, flipping over the Flip-Flags with magic spells. The Wizard playfield was given to Dave for artwork. Dave had quite a reputation as an eccentric artist. Everything you’ve heard about Dave’s eccentricity is true. But, isn’t that the case with every great artist? 35 years later, I am still good friends with Dave. We communicate regularly.

TPB: There was break of several years between Transporter the Rescue and Breakshot. What was your brief with Capcom for the machine and how far did you get with other pinball designs that never made production before Capcom pulled out of pinball?

GK: I designed a game called Red Line Fever just as Capcom was going out of business. It was a beautifully designed motorcycle themed game with actual handlebars mounted on the front of the cabinet to actuate the flippers, movable ramps and directionally timed speed-measuring features along with several severe playfield mechanical animations. I brought the game to a Pinball Expo one year and a motorcyclist tracked me down and told me it was just like riding a motorcycle. That comment made me feel good. The concept of using handlebars to control flippers on a pinball game was quite unique and years ahead of current thinking in pinball game design.

TPB: Stan Fukuoka created some alternative art for Breakshot, which I'm guessing had a more adult edge. Was the art simply not suitable for the machine and have their been other instances in your career where the artwork was a way off what you had envisaged?

GK: I was brought into Capcom to design an economy game. Breakshot was designed as a single level playfield with an economy board set to distinguish it from 1995 contemporary games. Capcom wanted to offer a game to the operator at a lower price.

The original artwork by Stan was indeed adult rated. The original name of the game was Cloud 9. The artwork had the ancient Gods looking down on the 9 planets of our solar system (Pluto was still a planet at the time.) As can be expected with Stan’s creative license and extreme talent, the female Gods were very scantily clad (if at all.) The president of the company saw the artwork and although he personally liked it, he thought it would be hard to sell it to family recreation centers. So the 9 planets became 9 pool balls and Breakshot was born, with the pool games 9-Ball, Strikes and Spares and rotation.

I have already mentioned that the artwork on Wizard! changed from my original concept (thank goodness.) Also changed was the artwork on Supersonic. Originally the name of the game was Star Ship. I designed the bonus lights to be the 2 S’s in Star Ship (a Star Trek themed gamed.) At that time, I had several promotional themed games in a row and Bally had just hired a new game designer. I gave up the Star Ship name and artwork to the new designer. His game used newly licensed artwork and eventually was named Star Trek. My game was already designed and in order to utilize the 2 S’s already on the playfield, the back glass name was changed to Supersonic and the playfield artwork was changed to SST. (The Super Sonic Transport plane was also called SST.) (That is the reason that only the S’s are used in the bonus lights and not the T.)

Artwork also changed on Spy Hunter. Originally, I designed the game with an Elvis theme. The bonus lights represented the push buttons on the front of a juke box. Each button pair represented a different Elvis song. Aligning 2 bonus lights played the indicated song. The only problem with that was that at the time, Bally had not secured the Elvis license. I was a little ahead of the curve. At the time, Bally had a video game called Spy Hunter and wanted to cross promote it with a pinball game. The Elvis game was a completely finished whitewood with hand drawn lettering indicating scoring features. My boss (ED: Norm Clark) gave me 24 hours to change the whitewood from an Elvis theme to a Spy Hunter theme. I disassembled the entire top of the playfield and ran a belt sander across the entire playfield eliminating the juke box instructions. It took most of an overnight effort to re-letter the instructions to a Spy Hunter theme, reassemble the top of the playfield and trouble shoot the result. Let me tell you that sawdust does not mix well with playfield switches.

TPB: I'm led to believe City Slicker was planned to include a remote flipper button to enable an opponent to interfere with the game. Can you tell us more?

GK: City Slicker did indeed have a remote controlled flipper on the playfield. I designed City Slicker as a gun-fighting themed game. The Roaring 20’s styled artwork reinforced the gun battle theme.

There was a gun handle attached to the pinball cabinet by a 6 foot steel cable (just like the gun handles used in video games to shoot at the screen.) The concept was to have your opponent stand alongside of the cabinet and give him control of one of the flippers on the playfield. The flipper was positioned mid-playfield to shoot the pinball into the out hole on an exact shot. The pinball player could battle against the opponent’s shot and save the pinball. It was my attempt to make pinball more interactive instead of taking turns and watching others play their turn. The feature was years ahead of its time.

TPB: Gary Flower sometimes wears the most ghastly 'pinball' jacket I've ever seen. It's based on the Wizard! playfield and he blames you for the purchase, but I believe the story behind it's existence is a little strange, can you tell us more?

GK: Actually, that Wizard jacket was all the rage back in the day. You can blame Rob Berk, the founder of Pinball Expo, for Gary’s jacket.

Rob had arrived in Chicago, the location for Pinball Expo, several days ahead of the show. As is our tradition, Rob, Gary, Jim Schelberg (editor of Pin Game Journal) and I met to discuss the nominees for that year’s Pin Ball Expo Hall Of Fame induction ceremony. Rob then wanted to go shopping in downtown Chicago at Water Tower Place on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. World traveler that he is, Rob wanted to acquire something that had the Chicago look. All of us went to a clothing store in Water Tower Place. I think Gary was the first one to spot an entire rack of Wizard jackets. No one in the industry had even heard about the jackets. The jackets were made with a pinball theme and the word Wizard across the back in Dave Christensen’s style of artwork. Needless to say, we all bought jackets and informed the rest of the industry of our find. So, I believe that Gary was the first to spot the jackets and unleash that fashion statement on the industry.

TPB: Your surname is spelled on the Spy Hunter targets and the computer on Vector . Your nickname Gypsy appears on Wizard. Where did the nickname come from and was there any resistance to designers putting their names in games? Any more subtle ones we may not have noticed?

GK: Dave Christensen was the first pinball artist to put the name of the artist and designer on a Bally pinball game. The artist and designer had to communicate quite regularly about the different aspects of game features and scoring to be represented on the artwork. And Wizard! was quite a break from contemporary pinball artwork.

At the time of the development of Wizard!, I was moving residences. As anyone can tell you, moving residences before the internet was invented involved a lot of legwork and waiting for utilities to be disconnected at one place and reconnected at another. And as anyone in the industry can tell you, there were deadlines that had to be met (in Wizard!’s case, the artwork had to be approved by the stars on the back glass and also by the movie company.) Dave could not get in contact with me as I explained to him later that I was in between residences. That is when, in his infinite creativity, he labeled me as a gypsy running around without a home. That nickname never really meant anything to me or anyone else and it never really stuck with me.

Of course, industry insiders know that I always included a single red playfield post on every game I designed. Here is the story behind that: When I was first starting out in design, it was industry policy that a designer could not put his name on a game. That was to prevent another company from finding out who designed what game and hiring them away from their current company. That was archaic thinking. In fact, literally within hours of a new game being placed at a test location, everyone in the design industry knew who designed what game and what features were on it. Anyway, under this company-imposed anonymous design decree, I decided to set apart the games I designed. Bally was running two production lines at the time, a pinball line that used white playfield posts and a bingo line that used red playfield posts. I just installed one red post on my pinball games, usually in an inconspicuous spot on the playfield. I kept that secret for quite awhile. Then it became a Kmiec game tradition.

TPB: Bow and Arrow was predominantly made as an EM but it was also Bally's first attempt at a solid state machine. I was quite surprised to see Norm Clark credited with the software for the solid state game. How did that come about and what was it like working with Norm?

GK: That’s an urban legend. Norm Clark never had anything to do with the software on Bow & Arrow. At the time at Bally, Norm was head of the design department and Frank Bracha was head of the software department. Obviously, Norm’s name was well known in the pinball industry, Frank’s was not. Norm and Frank were both interviewed about the conversion of Bow & Arrow from electro-mechanical control to solid state control. Someone, somewhere, somehow in some article credited Norm with Bow & Arrow’s software conversion. I guess it was a more interesting story talking to Norm about pinball than talking to Frank about bits and bytes. Frank really headed up Bally’s solid state conversion effort.

As to working for Norm, he really taught me about the business end of pinball. Up to then, I designed games that I thought were fun to play. Norm introduced me to the profit and loss of pinball. The entire industry was becoming cost conscious. Norm said that a designer couldn’t put every feature into every game. There had to be a reasonable cost to the game. I always introduced one new feature in every game I designed. There is a progressive thread of one new feature in all of my games.

Of course, the way I got to that point is an interesting story: Norm was the head of the design department at the time. He was charged with keeping the cost of the pinball product within certain price points as well as keeping the games interesting and desirable. He pretty much left the designers alone until the final review of a game. Then he would invariably take out a feature he deemed too expensive. To get around that, I always put in two new features in every game, one that was extremely costly that I knew Norm would take out and another less costly one that I really wanted in the game. That way, when Norm took out the costly feature and left in the other one I really wanted, everyone was happy.

TPB: Word on the street is Xenon was changed to be a multiball game at the last minute to compete with other manufacturers taking this step. Did you need to make wholesale changes to your design to accommodate multiball?

GK: Xenon was originally designed as a single ball game. The playfield had a ramp and a tube shot. It had great artwork and an infinity back box. This total package was complete.

Bally’s marketing department had heard of a competitor’s talking game. That’s when the decision was made to include speech. The decision was made to one-up the competition by utilizing a female’s voice, as dictated by the artwork. Bally’s marketing genius Tom Nieman secured the popular, technically astute, new-age recording artist Suzzane Ciani to supply the sounds and voices in Xenon. Ciani is known by some in the industry as the Goddess of Pinball.

So now Bally had a game with a multi-level playfield, great artwork and great sounds. Then, Bally’s marketing department heard that a multi-ball game was planned for release by a competitor. Well, Bally couldn’t be beaten at their own game of one-upmanship. Bally wanted to sell a multi-ball game also.

Alan Riezman was an electrical engineer at Bally. He was part of the software department. One day, he was helping to percentage Xenon. During lunch, he threw two balls on the playfield, just to see how it would feel. He liked the action. He showed me his idea and I liked it. I told him to take his idea to the marketing department. Within hours, Xenon was transformed into a multi-ball game. Credit is due where credit is due, to Alan.

Once I determined where to capture a ball on the playfield, the only change I had to make was to add a safety switch in the lane above the MOTA saucer. This was to prevent two balls from being captured in the MOTA saucer lane. (MOTA was just ATOM spelled backwards.)

TPB: Who would YOU like to see featured as one of our Pinball Heroes and why?

GK: From strictly an insider’s technical point of view, I’d recommend Doug MacDonald. Doug is an electrical engineer who was intimately involved in Bally’s conversion from electro-mechanical games to solid state.

An interesting story can finally be told now that all of the principles are out of the industry. When Atari first wanted to enter into the pinball industry, a representative of Atari contacted me at Bally and offered me a job. I was having some success at Bally at the time so I refused his generous offer. It seems that Atari then promoted an unknown technician working for them at the time named Steve Ritchie to a pinball design position. Many years later, when my supervisor left Bally to work at Williams as head of pinball design, he asked me if I wanted to leave Bally and work at Williams, as they had a position open. Again, I was having some success at Bally and refused his generous offer. It seems that Williams then consequentially hired an out-of-towner named Steve Ritchie. The rest is history.

TPB: Finally, we always ask our Pinball Heroes to sum up their involvement in pinball in one word or sentence.

GK: I was fortunate to experience the industry during the change over from electro-mechanical to solid state control and the introduction of promotional themed games in what I consider the Golden Age of Pinball 1975-1985.

Many thanks to Greg Kmiec for his great answers and we have more Pinball Heroes coming soon.

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

Games designed by Greg Kmiec 1) AMIGO - Spanish theme 2) ROGO – Fantasy Historical 3) KNOCKOUT - Boxing 4) WIZARD - Promotional game - the movie “Tommy” 5) BOW & ARROW - Indian theme 6) HOKUS POKUS - Magic 7) OLD CHICAGO - Historical 8) CAPT. FANTASTIC - Promotional game - the movie “Tommy” 9) ALADDIN’S CASTLE - Fantasy 10) NIGHT RIDER - Transportation Realism 11) POWER PLAY - Promotional game - Bobby Orr 12) SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN - Promotional game - Lee Majors 13) SUPERSONIC - Flight 14) PARAGON - Fantasy 15) HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS - Promotional game 16) XENON – Sci-Fi Fantasy 17) VECTOR - Fantasy 18) GRAND SLAM - Baseball 19) CYBERNAUT – Sci-Fi Fantasy 20) KINGS OF STEEL - Cards 21) SPY HUNTER - Video game cross-promotion 22) MOTORDOME - Fantasy 23) CITY SLICKER – Retro Historical 24) TRANSPORTER – Sci-Fi Fantasy 25) BREAKSHOT

Photos & Pictures
PinGame Journal
Gary Flower
Jeff-z.com / Red Post Page
Internet Pinball Database

Pinball Heroes: Martin Wiest

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 23 May 2009 15:29:00 +0000

We've interviewed machine designers, authors, historians and players here on The Pinball Blog for our series of Pinball Heroes. But what about people who collect the things and play a part in the social side of the hobby? There are a number of well documented collectors in America, so we're taking a cyber-trip over to mainland Europe and interviewing a guy who lives in Groebenzell near Munich, Germany and was the co-founder and long time president/vice president of the German Pinball Association. Martin Wiest.

The Pinball Blog: Let's start at the beginning. How did you get into pinball, what was your first machine purchase and when did you realise you'd moved from enthusiast to serious collector?

Martin Wiest: Being a small child I was already excited about all types of coin op machines. I checked every gumball machine for stuck coins and started early to check German money winning machines for loose change. Being about 14 years old I started to play my first games on pinball machines located in many bars and restaurants in Germany. My first coin-op was a money winning machine bought for about $100 when I was 15. In the upper 3 classes of german high school I had 2x2 hours of spare time every week. As my school was downtown in the city Luebeck (North Germany) we'd sneak around to find some amusement and finally started to play pinball during all of these hours. We played either in restaurants, grills and bars or we tried to play in arcades which was not easy as we weren't 18 years old at the time.

I really got addicted to pinball at that time as arcades were filled with EM games and then early electronics - showing new models every month. At 18, playing in arcades became easy and I checked for new games in about 10 arcades every week. In the summer holidays 1980
I worked for 4 weeks in a factory and with part of the earned money I bought my first game - a Williams Stratoflite. I did not last too long, then I bought my first electronic game, Trizone, starting my 'career' as electronic pinball enthusiast and repair expert.

TPB: How many machines do you have now, and do you have a personal favourite?

MW: For many years my personal collection was just 2 or 3 games, but as I moved into my own house in 1995 I started to fill the basement and then all spare rooms of friends and finally our first rented gameroom. Currently I own about 65 games, where 55 or even more are keepers that I like to keep forever. I cannot say which is my favorite game - this would be unfair as there are several games I like most and this changes over the months.

On my shortlist are Star Trek: The Next Generation & Twilight Zone great gameplay on wide body, Spider-man for the best STERN game, Revenge from Mars for great concept and humor, Safecracker for being so small and still a great game, Eight Ball Deluxe for great gameplay and sound, Flash and Firepower - for awesome speed and fun so early, Big Bang Bar for beeng the best Capcom game with great humor and some more.

TPB: I believe you're a Star Trek fan. Do the machines released under the Star Trek license satisfy both your pinball and trekkie cravings? Would you like to see another Star Trek pinball made and based on which series or movie? What unique mode would it have?

MW: The Data East Star Trek was my first DMD game as I am especially a fan of Kirk, Spock and Bones (and their dialogues). Although the gameplay is rather poor, the artwork includes pieces of so many episodes and the beam-up display are really awesome. STTNG was I believe my third DMD game and is one of the best games for gameplay in my opinion. The Bally Star Trek playfield and backglass are decorations on my wall. If I could design another Star Trek game this would be probably a mixup of all Startrek series - with a mode with Kirk & Spock, one TNG mode, one DS9 and so on - and all characters being shown on artwork and DMD. It would have a cannon to fire photon torpedoes and a device to beam the ball to another place ... where it shows up (which in fact is a second ball).

TPB: You're a Steve Ritchie fan and share a passion for motorbikes. I understand you spent some time with Steve and cooked some fish under the bonnet (hood) of a car, can you tell us the story?

MW: I met Steve a couple of times at Expo and we had some great mailing concerning my all time favorite Firepower. We (the GPA) invited Steve to the German Pinball Open 2007 in Bremen and just in time with the release of Spider-man Steve arrived in Germany. Steve, his wife Dianna, my wife Anja and I had some great days in Germany with lots of fun. We became friends and I wrote down all my feelings of that days - Steve commented on it and we had a story that finally got even published in the PinGame Journal. This includes the crazy smoked fish dinner:

Steve got 2 boxes of smoked fish as a present from in fan in Bremen. Being on the highway to the Netherlands for the next 4 hours I decided to buy some rolls, some water and eat the fish out of the box on a parking lot near the highway. We ate the fish with fingers out of the box and it was absolute fun!! After those days in Europe my wife Anja and I were invited by Steve & Dianna to visit them at their house in California. In May 2008 we made this real, rented a BMW bike nearby and had 4 great days together with the Ritchies and made 3 awesome bike trips in the area of Hollister on great roads with great nature. Steve will stay friends forever and I hope to see him as often as possible.

TPB: I've not been to Expo (yet) and it's a must-see event for pinball enthusiasts. What emotions did you experience on your first visit and what have been your Expo highlights?

MW: For enthusiasts like me the pinball expo is a must! I am really sad that I did not know that earlier than 1999 during the high times of pinball. Besides the experience to see the factory where machines are built, it is the spirit of pinball coming from the the people who were and are behind pinball that makes it worth visiting expo. I never play many games at expo - only very rare games are attracting me - it is the talk to the people behind pinball and to people from all over the world that makes me visit.

TPB: I understand in the 1980s German operators could only use machines less than 2 years old which resulted in a number being exported. Does that make it more difficult for German collectors to find older machines?

MW: The 2 years rule was only valid for money winning machines, pinballs could be operated longer.

Nevertheless, most operators did not want to sell games to private owners, as they thought these owners would never spend money on operated games .... and would call every week for technical help. Due to these facts many games were just trashed - even burned in the garden of an operator or just sold by traders to foreign countries. Still, as there were so many games operated in Germany in the early electronic time - it is still easy to find a Firepower, Flash or other successful games from that time.

TPB: You're ranked 5th in Germany and just outside the top 50 in the World as a player which is quite a high standard. You're coming to the UK in the summer for the IFPA World Championships. Are you hoping to win it?

MW: I am not a bad player - sometimes really good, but I am playing in another league than Lyman Sheats or Keith Elwin. So am really honored that I was positioned well enough to qualify for the IFPA 2009 and so I took the chance to enter. I hope that I get a place in the middlefield which I would see as a great success already. My objective is to see the TOP 10 players playing, to talk to them and to have fun. Usually I am lacking the time to play, as I am fixing my games or fixing circuit boards for friends all over Germany. During tournaments in Germany since 1997 I've often been organising the events - so I could not play or at least not concentrated - I am planning to play more in the future - 47 is old, but not too old for pinball.

TPB: You spent some time with Roger Sharpe at the GPO recently and we've heard you know Steve Ritchie, but who is your own Pinball Hero?

MW: Knowing them both know very personally I can only say - they are both my pinball heroes.

Steve, because he designed some of my favorite games that i already played 30 years ago - knowing nothing about pinball and the world behind it. Steve designed great games from the seventies right up until recently - that makes him a real hero. Since the GPO 2007 (see PGJ #127) we are friends and are in permanent contact. I like Steve very much and we are a similar kind of human being in many ways.

Roger Sharpe is pinball from foot to head. He can tell pinball stories all day long without stopping! He lives pinball. Roger is a good player, tournament organizer, designer, collector, worked in the industry for many years (still doing WMS licenses), is a pinball father .... is there a pinball role that he does not fulfill? He is Mr. Pinball in person.

TPB: Germany has always been a big market for pinball, is there now a large enthusiast community and what is your role?

MW: The German market was a big market and the arcades were full of pinball from the end of the 70s. In the beginning 90s the pinball comeback in Germany was tremendous - many games were operated. Today the commercial importance of pinball is low - caused by many facts - but years and years with many games on the road 'infected' people in 70s (like me) and in the 90s (So many people who call me remember starting to play on The Addams Family and their first question is: Do you have an Addams Family game?). In 1996 a pinball friend of mine, Bernhard Wagner, organized the first German Pinball Convention. 26 players and collectors met and decided to found a club - which became the GPA 'German Pinball Association' - founded 1997 in Munich. From 1996 we organized 2 pinball events each year - a spring event with the German Pinball Open (call GPO first time in Cologne 2000) and the GPA championship in autumn. To spread the word - and make pinball popular in all regions of Germany our events took place in many different cities and locations - small and big - more private or with extreme PR (like Munich 2003). From the beginning in 1996 I have always been one of the main helpers - first in the background, but then more and more in the foreground. As GPA vice president and president, as convention organizer, GPA parts and lists responsible and much more. My wife knows how many hours that work took - and with the beginning www our community grew and grew. Currently the GPA has more than 200 members - I am no longer in direct responsibilities but I am doing a lot of background work and action. I am also a moderator in the forum www.pinballz.net (which has also english parts!) that is cooperated by the GPA.

TPB: Who, that we haven't already featured, would you like to see interviewed for Pinball Heroes and why?

MW: I would like to hear Eugene Jarvis being interviewed. He did the software in the early days of pinball together with my friend Steve Ritchie. As I am a software Engineer - I like to hear pinball software stories and stories of the great time of pinball (and also video - like Defender).

TPB: Finally, we always ask our Pinball Heroes to sum up their involvement with pinball with one word or sentence.

MW: For me pinball is more than a passion - it is part of my life and after family and work the most important thing in my life.

Many thanks to Martin Weist for his great answers. There's a big ol' world of pinball out there yet the same few people have touched the lives of so many.

More Pinball Heroes coming soon

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

Photos & Pictures
Gary Flower
PinGame Journal
Internet Pinball Database

Pinball Heroes: Todd MacCulloch

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 16 May 2009 13:46:00 +0000

OK, so Todd MacCulloch might be better known for playing basketball than pinball, but he's hoping that's all going to change. With NBA being Stern's next pinball machine and with Todd coming to the UK in the summer to play in the European and World Pinball Championships it seemed a perfect time to catch up with him for an interview.

The Pinball Blog: So you're Todd MacCulloch, do you want to be remembered as a basketball player or pinball player?

Todd MacCulloch: I would like to be remembered as a pinball player but only on NBA Fastbreak. Just Kidding. I think I would like to be remembered for pinball but that seems like a bit of a longshot at this point. There is really nothing memorable about my pinball skills at this point. I think my pinball opponents would remember swiftly defeating "the biggest guy at the show". Unfortunately intimidating size does little on the pinball battlefield. I think I am best remembered from my basketball career in that I went to back to back NBA finals in 2001-2002. If only I could get to one pinball final, that would be something I would remember.

TPB: You earned a few dollars playing basketball, do you get the "he's got money" treatment when buying pinball machines or do you look for a deal?

TM: I did earn a few dollars playing basketball. It is a little strange to have your salary posted in

USA

today at least once a year (while you are playing) for everyone to see. I think when I first started collecting games, I probably overpaid until I learned the range of what each title would cost an average Joe. Sometimes my friends would do the negotiating for me so there wouldn't be any funny business or phantom price increases. It would seem a little shortsighted for someone to try to take advantage because I wouldn't feel the need to be a repeat customer. The people that treated me equally and fairly saw me come back to them the next time I needed a new game.

TPB: When you're playing in a pinball tournament is there a certain machine you hope you don't have to play (and one you do)?

TM: I would rather not see Creature from the Black Lagoon. This game tends to end up being dreadful for me when it matters. I hosted a fun pinball competition last year at my home with 16 players. We needed to all play the same game to establish a starting point. We all played Creature. I posted the lowest score of all 16 players...ON MY OWN MACHINE! This put me in the lowest group of 4. I finished first in the next game on a different title and moved up to a higher group. The person with choice of the next game once again chose my killer CREATURE. Of course I finished last in our group and was once again banished to the lowest group of 4, where I stayed for the rest of the evening. The CREATURE had bitten me twice and I couldn't recover. I had a friend over who is a very casual player. He asked me which game in my gameroom he had the best chance of beating me. I told him honestly that that would be CREATURE. Once he defeated me in the first game, he quit playing, walked upstairs without giving me the opportunity to get even and told me he was done. He likes to remind me of that sneaky victory he had. Needless to say, I have since sold the CREATURE machine in favor of games that let me win every once in a while.

On the flip side, I have seemed to have some success at EARTHSHAKER. Im not sure why, I have been able to keep the game going for a bit. I also sold this machine, go figure.

TPB: When you were playing basketball you had arcades in 2 homes with pinball machines and other stuff from different eras of coin-op. When you sold your home in Philly did the arcade go with it?

TM: When we sold our house in Philly, my gameroom games were not part of the deal. I had cleared the game spaces out before we started showing the home. We were worried that someone interested in the home might get scared off by all the pinball machines. They might wonder what kind of normal good homeowner would have so many pinball machines. When we cleared out the basement of the pins (fairly jammed in there) several people commented, "I didn't know you had a sink down here!" as it has been well covered with pins. I rented a 53 foot truck and filled it with games and shipped them cross country to their new happy home.

TPB: If you could only own one pinball machine what would it be?

TM: That is a very difficult question. That's like saying if I only had one breath to take, how long could I live? I would have to ask myself if it would be worth living if I could only own one. Just Kidding. I think Whitewater would be my choice. I think the amazing Dennis Nordman nailed it with this game. It has so many cool elements and I personally love the theme. It is a very challenging game with great sounds. Whitewater,... instead of "don't leave home without it", " don't leave home without playing it!"

TPB: You're coming to the UK this summer to play in the European Pinball Championship AND the World Pinball Championships, any chance you'll be winning them?

TM: Y

eah, if nobody else shows up. Or if we decided to compete at SUMO wrestling instead of pinball. Or if everybody lets me win. The pinball community is very generous but I just don't see this happening. I didn't advance past the opening round of EPC in

Sweden

so my goal will be to make it past the preliminary round.

TPB: Of course being featured on The Pinball Blog must be one of your all time highlights but is there a moment in pinball that gets close to a basketball high?

TM: Being featured on The Pinball Blog is definitely a highlight for me. As far as pinball, I really haven't had that many highlights. I suppose winning my first pinball trophy (2nd place) on Fireball at 2009 Texas Pinball Festival was my biggest pinball highlight so far. The most elation I have ever had from any kind of sporting event was winning the Provincial championship in Manitoba Canada in Grade 11. We were playing the defending champions and we won 61-59. I chipped in 50 for our squad. It was an out of body experience and I felt like I was on a cloud. I have never been able to quite recapture that feeling in any sporting venture, including the Olympics and 2 NBA finals. Maybe a big finish at a future pinball tourney will bring back that same feeling of weightlessness. At my current weight, that would be impressive.

TPB: My wife and family think I'm a nut with all this pinball stuff, is yours more understanding?

TM: My family has been very supportive. My baby girl is only 14 mos. old so she hasn't voted one way or the other but she can already reach and push the flipper button. She likes to add 3 players to my single player game by pressing the shiny blinking irresistable start button over and over. She loves to shift the gear shifter on Getaway. So far so good. My wife doesn't play on her own but usually agrees to play a few games with me on my birthday. I used to try to get her to play with me more but then I started to see things from her point of view. She likes to quilt, but if she said, "Todd will you come quilt with me?", I'd have to say no. I don't take it personally any more if she turns me down for some silverball.

TPB: Who that you met through basketball was the most influential to you and the same question for pinball?

TM: The most influential person I have met through basketball was an assistant coach of mine in college. His name is Ray Giacoletti. He helped me realized how good I could be and helped me believe it. He pushed when he had to, complimented when I needed it and gave me a kick in the pants when necessary. He helped prepare me for the next level of competition.

The most influential person I have met through pinball is Bowen Kerins. There are a lot of similarities between he and Coach Giacoletti. Bowen has always believed I could be a good pinball player and has helped me improve my game drastically. The nice thing about pinball is that it is recreational so the kick in the pants is neither necessary or appreciated. It's hard not to listen to and respect someone who has been the best in the world at something. Can you imagine a kid at basketball camp telling Michael Jordan, "you don't know what you are talking about" or "you only won six NBA championships, what could i possibly learn from you."

TPB: You've played in front of thousands of fans and on TV in front of millions. At a pinball tournament there's probably a handful of people watching but is the pressure similar?

TM: The pressure of competition is very similar at a pinball tournament; Even if there are only a handful of people watching, at some point, the number of spectators becomes irrelevant. You have a job to do and there is something on the line, be it a city's pride, a lot of money or a plastic pinball trophy. Your mind makes the situation difficult. The best players, whether in basketball or in pinball, are able to block out the natural response to an important moment and play as if it is routine. Like you were shooting hoops in your backyard or playing pinball in your basement. This is easier said then done and experience makes it easier to do this.

I felt some pinball pressure this past weekend. I had qualified for head to head competition in an electro mechanical tournament. Very little, if any money was on the line, yet I found myself feeling nervous even though my match wasn't for another 15 minutes. I performed poorly, which was not aided by the fact that I let the pressure get the best of me. Logically, there was no reason to get even the least bit worked up. A nice thing about basketball is that it is a team game and the calmness of your teammates and team leaders can have a positive effect of refocusing you during a big basketball game or possession. In pinball, (unless you are playing doubles) it is up to you to overcome the tendency to tighten up and place unneeded pressure on yourself.

TPB: I think the people enjoying pinball today are generally more 'cool' than they were say 5 or 10 years ago, do you think pinball has historically given out the wrong image?

TM: I would agree, although since I was a pinball player both 5 and 10 years ago, I must have been one of the uncool guys playing and I was probably helping bring down the cool factor. That's one of the great things about pinball, is that you can't really generalize the type of person who is drawn to the game. it appeals to kids, grandparents, athletes, couch potatoes and everybody in between. The only real commonality I see running throughout the pinball population is that the vast majority of players are great people who are more than happy to open their game rooms for the enjoyment of a fellow pinballer.

I am not sure what image pinball itself has given out over time. I think it definitely has been misunderstood at times. I think at a time it had a negative image when it was unjustly thought of as a gambling machine. Even today, people are always surprised to find out that pinball can have strategy and that there is more to the game than luck and just trying to keep the ball above the flippers. I really think if more people knew how great the game is and everything that they encompass, that the market would be much stronger.

TPB: A little birdie told me you have a nice car collection, are some of these eye-candy as I guess you're a big guy to be driving some of them everyday?

TM: I have three cars from the sixties. A 1964 1/2 Mustang Coupe, a 1968 Mustang Fastback and a 1969 Chevy Camaro convertible. I thought I was going to collect more cars but I started collecting pinball machines instead. More people get more use out of them and you can fit more of them in the space you could put one car. All of a sudden, the plans for a classic car garage started to change to become gameroom plans. I have no regrets about this.

The old cars are more than eye candy. I really enjoy driving them on nice sunny days, especially the convertible. I have had them all modified by having the driver's seats unbolted and slid back as far as possible and rebolted firmly in place. I was once pulled over while in the 68 mustang. He pulled up next to me and said, "you look a little cramped in there!" I started wondering if he was going to give me a citation for operating a vehicle that I was too big for, possibly making it unsafe. I was relieved to find out he was a car fan and once traffic cleared, he instructed me to, "open her up and show me what she has got!" I wasn't sure if he would just pull me over again after but I followed directions and squealed my tires and peeled out.

TPB: You're currently the 4th best pinball player from Canada, I didn't even know there were 4 pinball people in Canada! Do you compete because you enjoy it or are you out to win every time?

TM: There aren't that many of us so I guess is isn't that great of an accomplishment. I will be proud to be representing Canada with one of the two Canadian exemption spots at the IFPA tournament in England this summer. I hope to do my country proud.

I compete because I enjoy it. I would love to win every time but that's not why I play or compete. I've had plenty of meaningful sporting competition over the years so I don't mind some competitions for the fun of it. I like to be challenged and with all the great pinball players out there, it is always a challenge to try and stay with them as long as I can.

TPB: You have a large collection of pinball machines, how do you maintain them all? Are you happy to pull the glass off, dive in and get your hands dirty?

TM: I don't mind getting my hands dirty, when it comes to donuts with icing or eating chocolate cake with my hands. As far as pinball repairs are concerned, I leave that to the pros. I have two friends at Classic Amusement in the Seattle area who do a great job keeping my pins in order and working on my EM arcade collection. I used to tinker a little bit but I started melting innocent bystander wires with my soldering iron. I tended to make things worse rather than better so I decided to call in the experts. I enjoy picking their brain about what the problem areas were but it is more for my curiosity than for future application on my part. Some guys like to fix 'em, I like to play them. I'll take the glass off for stuck balls etc. but nothing too major.

TPB: Finally I always ask our Pinball Heroes to sum up pinball in one word or sentence....

TM: "Perfect", as in the game of pinball is a perfect game. Everything you need to keep you coming back for more!

Many Thanks to Todd for answering the questions, no one gets paid for being interviewed, although I did offer to buy Todd's dinner at the UK Pinball Show banquet - he accepted - d'oh! He's one of a number of great guys I'm looking forward to meet in the summer and he certainly comes across as a very cool guy!

It's the Pinballers Anonymous Monster Meet here in the UK next weekend so no promises I'll have a Pinball Heroes interview done, but I'll try!

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

Photos & Pictures:
Todd MacCulloch
Pinball News
Allen Saby ("Hobbs" on RGP)
Jimmy Rosen @ Sledworks
IFPA Pinball
Gary Flower
PAPA
Internet Pinball Database

Pinball Heroes: John Youssi

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 10 May 2009 10:24:00 +0000

When I started Pinball Heroes, I didn't really know how far I'd get, how many people I'd find, or how many people would be willing. Sure, there's been a couple of weekends when I haven't had an interview ready, or I'm waiting for replies, but on the whole the generosity of the people within pinball never ceases to amaze me. No exception to that is today's interview with one of the best known artists in the industry.

John Youssi.

The Pinball Blog: So you're John Youssi, famous pinball artist and husband of a lady who makes rather fine cookies (I never reveal my sources). When you told your wife you were going to design pinball machine artwork did you get one of 'those looks'?

John Youssi: Difficult to remember that far back but no... I was a free-lance illustrator & every job was important to us. Jenny was always behind me 100% & had seen lots of unusual projects come & go so although Pinball was exciting to us, I never got ’one of those looks’.

TPB: Do you think pinball art has benefited over the years with moves to computerised drawing and strict ties to licenses or has this taken away some of the personality of machines from earlier 'conventional' drawing methods?

JY: Good question!

On the ‘negative’ side:

A) I was trained in the traditional methods & techniques & love the smell of paint & wearing paint splattered clothing so the change to digital didn’t come easy to me & I still miss the hands on approach.

B) We do much less drawing these days & have less control over the subject matter. In the case of licensed games we are provided a style guide & often we must use the images as is. Back in the day, an artist set the look for a game & was responsible for creating characters, settings etc. As you say ‘personality’. Much of that is over but don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike licensed games. Demand & profitability fuel the industry’s choice of games. If a few ‘Funhouse’ type games were hits, you’d see more of them.

C) You don’t end up with a final piece of physical art that you can frame or just plain old touch or perhaps sell someday. I miss that.

D) No ‘Command-Z’ (see ‘On the positive side’).

On the positive side...

A) ‘Command-Z’ or in layman’s terms, a ‘do-over’. In Photoshop, we can go back over 30 steps so if you screw something up, it’s no problem to correct it. It’s a liberating feeling & frees one up to experiment more & take chances he wouldn’t ordinarily try on a traditional painting. I LOVE Command-Z!!! As much as I love traditional art, I always felt a little stressed that I might spill or smear paint on something. You weren’t 100% safe till the art was scanned or photographed. Then you could finally relax. Any artist who tells you he doesn’t like Command-Z is a liar.

B) The artist is more in control over the quality of the printing. The file I send to the client is very close to what ends up being printed. A traditional painting must be scanned, adjusted, separated, plates made & finally printed. That’s a lot of generations to get right. The printing methods & quality control at Stern are unsurpassed & very accurate. Gary Stern & Marc Schoenberg supervise every back glass print run & the end product is beautiful!

C) There are lots of digital tricks & techniques that can enhance the process.

TPB: From who did you take the likeness for Rudy in Funhouse?

JY: Ah... Rudy. I just happened to have a 3 foot tall 5 year old son (Charlie) who was an acting ham & chose him from the start for Rudy’s general look & gestures. Charlie was too young for the face so I researched manikin dummies & just drew till I came up with the ‘look’ I wanted. I have a few framed photos from the session here in my studio of Charlie, in his Rudy get-up standing on a picnic table thrusting his cane into the air.

TPB: Any plans to come over to the UK anytime soon as I'd love to get you to sign my backglasses (erm, I mean get to meet you)? And are you attending any pinball events this year?

JY: Although I love the UK, I don’t have any plans for a visit in the near future though Gary (Flower) works me over every fall @ Expo here in Chicago. Other than Expo, no plans yet. One of these days I’ll travel to Texas for their big event.

TPB: Which pinball machine are you most proud of as an artist?

JY: I have a few & it’s changed over the years. Twilight Zone is probably my favorite with Addams Family #2 but I’m also proud of the Medieval Madness back glass & cabinet. Also love the Jokers back glass.

TPB: And what of machine art from somebody else, which machine has artwork that you think is outstanding?

JY: Going back in time... Almost anything by Roy Parker. If I could afford it & had the room, I’d buy his old games & just hang them on the wall as art. I believe that’s how they’ll end up years from now.
Dave Christensen’s Capt. Fantastic.
Kevin O’Connor’s Star Wars work.
Greg Freres’s Star Trek.
Python’s 3-d like playfields were an inspiration.
I also admired Doug Watson’s playfields back at Williams. He’d use 6 shades of gray & do it effectively.

TPB: Do you keep your original drawings from each machine and any plans to put them on ebay?

JY: I do have lots of art as I never throw anything away but have no plans to sell anytime soon. Like I said earlier, we’re not doing paintings anymore & you can’t frame & hang a cd on the wall.

I have spent lots of time archiving my game art & have only scratched the surface.

TPB: The Addams Family was the most successful pinball machine of all time and is unlikely to ever be outsold. Did you and the design team realise you had started on something special or was it simply the right time for a pinball revival?

JY: I remember the day Pat Lawlor called me to let me know we’d be doing Addams Family. I loved the show & was excited from the start. Pat was always fired up about his next game & his enthusiasm was contagious. It flowed into the entire team so my concern was always to do the best I could & not let our team down. I approached every game that way. Pat had some great tricks up his sleeve for Addam’s Family so I knew it would be a cool game & I figured it would be popular if we all did our jobs well. The theme crossed over generations & was fun, cute, yet devious all at the same time. Plus... they let us ‘do our thing’. Having said all that, it was a very pleasant surprise when it broke the record.

TPB: What's it like to be among the last of your kind and is there a future beyond the short-term for a pinball artist?

JY: Hey, wait a minute, I ain’t dead yet! I feel like a walkin’ talkin’ dinosaur! I’ve invited teams of designers to my home/studio for meetings & tour if they’re interested. It always ends up the same way... Down in my ‘vault’ going through my old pinball art. That kind of art isn’t being produced anymore & young artists want to feel & touch it as they’ve never seen anything like it. Makes me feel good about my part in the whole thing but I wouldn’t say it’s over. Never say never!

TPB: Finally, please sum up your involvement in pinball in one word or sentence.

JY: Very hard work but a great ‘Ride’ with some unforgettable, one of a kind, dedicated teammates who have become good friends over the years.

I can’t say it all in one sentence, as there’s the ‘family’ part. Everyone who has worked in pinball at least here in Chicago is a part of a big family & it’s a joy to run into them almost wherever you travel.

Many thanks to John Youssi for his incredible art over the years and also for taking the time to become one of our Pinball Heroes. More Pinball Heroes coming soon.

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

Pictures courtesy: John Youssi, Internet Pinball Database

Steve Kordek: More Pics

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 03 May 2009 22:26:00 +0000

Yesterday I posted up the Pinball Heroes interview with Steve Kordek and it seems most people enjoyed it. Jim Schelberg, who kindly interviewed Mr Kordek by telephone for me has also sent me a load of extra pictures. Some I've added to the original article, but as it was already pretty picture-rich, there's some more pics here for you...

Steve Kordek chairs a meeting of the Century Club
Steve Kordek with Space Station drawings
Steve Kordek with Harriet
Wayne Neyens, Steve Kordek, Alvin Gottlieb, Norm Clark
Pinball Records
Norm Clark

Thanks again to Jim Schelberg for his help with the interview and for the extra pics. I sure hope he's got his photo archive backed-up as there's some amazing stuff!

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

Pinball Heroes: Steve Kordek

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 02 May 2009 10:13:00 +0000

With 50+ years in the industry and more than 100 pinball machines under his belt, it's no surprise that many of our Pinball Heroes named one man the most influential to their careers. Of course we wanted to interview the great man himself, but being opposite sides of the Atlantic and only one of us owning a computer (and the other breaking them regularly) this might be a bit of a challenge!

Jim Schelberg from the PinGame Journal kindly offered to conduct and record the interview by telephone and I've just finished typing it up.

It gives me enormous pleasure to announce the latest in our series of Pinball Heroes.

Steve Kordek.

The Pinball Blog: Let's start at the beginning, you've told this story many times but for people who may not have heard it, can you tell us how you found yourself in Chicago and in the pinball business?

Steve Kordek: I had at the time, left the Forest Service in Idaho where I had worked in the Rangers Station. They wanted me to come back after I'd gone home for the winter and they had a contract they wanted me to sign by May. They would take me back, put me into university in Montana to study forestry and I would stay there. I had no desire to stay in Idaho when I had a home of 8 brothers and sisters and my father and mother in Chicago.

I went to church everyday hoping that I could get a job, it was very difficult to get a job during that period (1936-1937). What happened is I was walking one day in Chicago and it started raining. I had no umbrella, so I opened up the door to a factory just to get out of the rain and a woman asked me if I was looking for a job. I said YES! I'd walked into the Genco factory, I was 26 years old.

TPB: Sadly Norm Clark recently passed away and it was you that gave him his first break in pinball. What was it like working with Norm and what are your memories of the man and his legacy?

SK: For 20-something years I worked very closely with Norm Clark and I have personal experiences that I'd like to keep private for now. I will speak about them at Pinball Expo for the Norm Clark memorial. Some of them are very exciting and interesting and many people won't know about them.

When I started for Williams in 1962 I had an opportunity to really start making games and I was making as many as 7 or 8 a year with no trouble at all. I was given the opportunity to get some assistance and I took Norm Clark who I'd worked with from engineering. He and I, for 15 years, alternated making games for Williams. We had such a great run of games that at one time Williams controlled over 70% of the production of pin games in the world and we produced some of the greatest games ever. Normally a game would have 3000 made to pay for itself, we were averaging anywhere from 7-8,000 and some games as many as 12-15,000.

My associating with Norm during that period was very, very, very good. We enjoyed working together, we had several experiences together that were very exciting..... we almost lived together! In 1975 he had personal problems that affected him and he left Williams.

Whenever we were building games we would have the bosses at Williams look at our games. We also looked at each other's games. I built every game as he built every game. If we had a feature each of us wanted to use we alternated and we never had a problem.

Norm Clark had some of the greatest soccer games and the funny part about it was when he was learning he only built one game in 1962 and then not another until 1964. Everybody wants his first game, King Pin. There's just something about it, something about playing it that makes it exciting. As he was learning his trade I was in the next room and I did everything I could to get him to understand what was right, what was wrong, what was good, what was bad and that's how we finally got together and starting building games.

For 15 years we built games alternately. I had one hell of a time working with a guy who was really really great and he deserves all the credit he could get.

TPB: How did Harvey Heiss end up with a pair of shoes nailed to the ceiling?

SK: Harvey Heiss was involved at Genco because he was the main designer at the time when I joined. It was there that I learned from Harvey Heiss how to design games. He would teach me and tell me what was good for making games. It worked out very very good because there was a time in 1948 when he was hospitalised and I had to build a game all by myself. I built Triple Action with only 2 flippers at the bottom of the game and it's been that way ever since and I made myself quite a reputation.

Harvey Heiss always had a pair of shoes that he changed into when he came to work and there was a way of getting his shoes nailed to the ceiling and that's where he found them.

He had a sail-boat on lake Michigan. The mast was about 50 feet long and he used to put it in on top of his convertible and bring it in to the factory at about 3am so he could work on it over the winter!

TPB: There are stories that some of the industry shows of the past were raunchy affairs with, shall we say, a lively social aspect! Any that you can tell us about?

SK: All the time! Not too much I can tell you, but many of the games were dice games and they used to gamble like all hell. Women? Not in my case but maybe there were ladies involved!

TPB: Can you tell us more about The Century Club and your role in it?

SK: I started the Century Club because I wanted to get some pinball people together to discuss the problems that they had, the fun they had and everything else. I designed a game and called it Century Club because at that time there was a celebration of the century of music deals. I was the president of the Century Club for many years until I couldn't do it anymore. Steve Epstein was a good man for the job and I asked him to take over.

TPB: Budget restrictions led to just two flippers at the bottom of the playfield on Triple Action, a concept that then became common throughout the industry. If the budget had been available do you think pinball even today would be very different?

SK: I was taught by Harvey Heiss to be conservative. They were building Humpty Dumpty with 6 flippers and when the show came in January 1948 there were about 8 other companies building games and every one of them copied Humpty Dumpty. Either 2 flippers on a side, 4 flippers on side or 6 flippers on side. I went ahead and put 2 only at bottom and made the game which topped the show and at the same time made a reputation for me.

TPB: So many of our Pinball Heroes have said you are the man who has been the most influential in their careers, but who played the most significant roles in your own time in pinball?

SK: I don't want to name names but I want to tell you that I pulled people off the production line who were inspectors, brought them into engineering, taught them how to design games and they turned out to be the best designers in the world. I spent a lot of time with the designers and I gave them all the credit whenever the bosses came around and would compliment something on a game, even if I'd had an influence in the design. I always gave credit to the people that were working for me. Most of them made unbelievable, unbelievable money!

Harvey Heiss influenced my own games after that I would say people who were in the business who would in someway or other would tell me what was right and was wrong and what was good and what was bad.

TPB: Vagabond was the first pinball machine to use a drop target. Where did you get the inspiration for that idea?

SK: I had an idea that if I could hit a target and it disappeared that it would be exciting to know that you might have accomplished something unusual. If the target would come up and for whatever reason, some kind of scoring and when you hit it it went down. I decided it was a good way to do it with a single target. Gottlieb then came up with 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 drop targets and they did a terrific job with that feature. Sometimes you come up with an idea that you put in a game and you don't change it but you may work on parts of the machine around the new idea but you don't change the idea if you have a good one as we had to patent some of it.

TPB: What were your roles at Williams after you moved on from designing pinball machines?

SK: I was an adviser to the designers. I also had an accumulation of about 10,000 brochures which I used to take care of requests from the field and getting feedback from the field, helping people research the machines for many years. I walked around and enjoyed watching the production efforts of the other designers who put their best into what they had. Every designer was a little bit different, every designer had a different idea on how to make a game right.

TPB: Finally I always ask our Pinball Heroes to sum up their involvement in pinball with one word or sentence, but seeing as your career is probably the longest of anybody we've spoken to, we'll allow you as many sentences as you like.

SK: I would like to say, first of all in the position that I had, I had the greatest association with the finest people in the world. People who did very well and people who did very well by themselves, people for whom I trusted very well and people who I loved to work with and people who really did what I thought they should do and had some unbelievable experiences with some of the best people and engineers in the world.

I'm 98 on 26th December this year and I have a lot to be thankful for, to God first of all, because the good Lord has been very good to me. Secondly I had a great wife who was with me for 62 years, I have brothers and sisters, I had 4 brothers 5 sisters and I still have 1 sister and 2 brothers alive with me and all I want to say is i thank God for every day that I'm alive and able to walk and take care of myself and hope that I can get out of some of the problems I have now. I had quite an operation recently and they tell me that at my age you don't heal as quick as you think you'd like to.

I have done the best I could. Everything that I have done I've done for the good of the people that I worked for. I did the best I could for the individuals who were working with me and I did the best I could for the company itself to make money - and they made money!

Steve Kordek with (left to right) Chris Hibler, TheKorn, Phoebe Smith

More pictures on this link.
- - - -

Please note: Mr Kordek asked that information within this interview should not be used elsewhere without permission. Likewise images here are used with permission and please check with the image owners that they are happy for them to be re-used.

Many thanks to Jim Schelberg, Gary Flower & Duncan Brown for helping beyond the call of duty with this interview and of course HUGE thanks to Steve Kordek for taking the time to be featured as one of our Pinball Heroes. Also many thanks to all the great people who provided photographs for this interview.

More Pinball Heroes coming soon!

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

Pictures and photos thanks to...
Duncan Brown
Jim Schelberg / PinGame Journal
James Hamilton - From the book Pinball! By Roger Sharpe
Gary Flower
Internet Pinball Database
Chris Hibler (Photo By Phoebe Smith)
Pinball Expo
PinAffliction
TheKorn
Terry Cumming

Pinball Heroes: Kevin Martin

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 14:08:00 +0000

Steve Epstein created PAPA, the Professional and Amateur Pinball Association in New York. When he retired, he sold the name and assets (magazines, shirts, trophies etc) to the guy who was organising the Pinburgh tournaments. Now the excellent 30,000 square foot facility that houses PAPA is opened up twice a year to host the PAPA World Championships and a fund raising weekend.

Still with me? Let's try and clear it up a bit, The Pinball Blog presents:

Kevin Martin. President of PAPA.

The Pinball Blog: PAPA looks like a beautiful facility. With all those machines couldn't you open it up a little more often?

Kevin Martin: We've been working on that, actually. There were some false starts, and it's by no means simple to achieve, but we're working on renting it out for events, company meetings, etc. It's also been used for a few private parties with great success. Also, there are now two annual events open to the public - the main tournament in August, and the Cupids & Canines Casino Night, which raises money for dog charities. This year we raised over $10,000.

TPB: PAPA/IFPA do we really need both?

KM: Ha! You'd have to ask Steve Epstein and Roger Sharpe - I think they founded both organizations originally. Roger's son Josh runs IFPA now, they have an "event points" system - sort of like what you see for online poker, only a little more haphazard because the events themselves are more haphazard. PAPA and IFPA had both been on hiatus, until in each case, someone new stepped up to run things.

PAPA has a ranking system, too - "PARS" - but it's strictly a mathematical endeavor, using the Glicko system to assign scores to players based on their competitive matchplay. It's a fun little project and doesn't attract too much controversy.

PAPA really exists just to run the best possible annual tournament. IFPA has a broader variety of goals.

TPB: Who that you have met through pinball would you say has been the most influential and why?

KM: Kudos first have to go to Steve Epstein (left in picture with Roger Sharpe), who ran tournaments and put up with the likes of me, a snotty-nosed kid, in an overpriced, rundown NYC hotel. The early PAPA tournaments really showed me what a pinball tournament could be, and how it should be run - to create a good experience for everyone, and to be as fair as possible to every player.

My actual pinball play benefited tremendously from being at the same grad school as Keith Johnson (recently an ex-Stern employee) and from driving to Norfolk one weekend to meet Lyman Sheats. Competing against Keith, and watching Lyman as he thrashed everyone, including myself, really sharpened my skills and extended my love for the game. Keith and I used to drive around the South, looking for pinball machines in every nook and cranny.

TPB: What do you do 9-5?

KM: I own pair Networks, Inc, which I started in the summer of 1995. It's a 24x7 business so "9-5" might not be the right term. pair is one of the oldest independently-owned Web hosting companies on the Internet.

TPB: I'm sure you've told the flood story a hundred times, but how do you pick yourself up from something like that?

KM: There was an interesting sensation of freedom, actually. I was there when the floodwaters reached the cabinets, and I knew everything was a loss - and I realized that I could choose to do, or not do, whatever I wanted about it. We had just run a hugely successful PAPA tournament in a brand new facility, after PAPA had been offline for seven years. Nobody would fault me for just walking away and writing it off. Of course, anybody who knew me realized I was just going to rebuild. Once you're crazy/determined enough to build the place, rebuilding it is only a few percentage points crazier.

I actually went to Kennywood, our local amusement park, for most of the rest of the weekend. On Monday, I had our contractor out, an environmental cleanup crew was hired, and we were using forklifts to carry all the games out into the parking lot and smash them for parts. It was a fast, brutal assembly line - or more like a killing floor.

By the time we held PAPA 8, I actually had more machines in the facility than we had at PAPA 7. And there have been more every year since, and in better working order, especially since I hired Dave to stay on top of everything down there.

After the flood, the Army Corps of Engineers dredged the river and cleared its banks - so not only were the conditions in 2004 a "perfect storm" (two hurricanes coming through), the risks are much lower now regardless. And there's flood insurance on contents... which we had discussed, ironically, the day before the flood in 2004.

TPB: On the PAPA site you call yourself a formerly-somewhat-dangerous player. Do you think you're losing your touch or are other players getting better?

KM: Oh, I'm definitely losing my touch. Working for Data East/Sega Pinball was the first blow - when you play with the glass off, it's really hard to keep your skills sharp. My other big fault is concentration - trying too hard just makes pinball feel like hard work, and I prefer to just have a good time playing. I'm not a wild and crazy player, but I'm not going to sit there and shoot a ramp three hundred times, either. I've just got no patience for that.

I've been doing alright lately, mostly beating up on Dave. I hope to go to a few events sometime in the next year or two, but I've just been too darn busy.

TPB: What was the first machine you ever owned and what is the most recent you bought?

KM: When I lived in Virginia in grad school, I bought Dodge City and Gay 90's from an operator in the middle of nowhere. A few months later, I took the job with Data East and drove to Chicago - selling the games to a friend of mine. Since then, I've owned three other Dodge City machines, including one that was lost in the flood.

Today, I was getting quotes on 24 - so that might count as the most recent. Unless you want to know about some video games I just brought in from Hong Kong.

TPB: You also keep the excellent Pinball Archive which seems to have been around since the mid-13th century. Do you get much time to write the rule sheets like you used to?

KM: I would love to write more rule sheets, but I seem to have lost my ability to quickly grasp rules - I think I'm turning into an old man! For example, I've been playing a lot of Spiderman lately, and really killing it, but I couldn't explain about a third of the game to anyone. When I wrote rule sheets for games like Twilight Zone and Whitewater, I nailed down every detail, and that was before I even had access except as a player.

I think the Pinball Archive was an idea I had over Christmas 1991, and started up in the following month. That is pretty ancient - it was an FTP archive at my undergraduate school, in the image processing lab where they had Sun servers.

Lately, the Pinball Archive is pretty quiet - just the events page and very very rarely, an update to a rule sheet :(

TPB: Other than pinball, what makes Kevin Martin tick?

KM: Hmm. Well, I'm happily married to my brilliant, delightful, and adorable wife Doreen, and I have a 10-year-old stepdaughter, Rhiannon, as well as three dogs and three cats. I love to travel, either with friends & family or just for relaxation - sometimes, the further away, the better. I'm an old school computer geek who tends to learn new things just for the sake of learning, and I'm likely to solve any problem you give me by writing some crufty Perl, or C if really necessary. I've been playing a lot of poker in the last couple of years, mostly online, and although I'm not bad, I suffer from the same shortcomings as my pinball play - a lack of patience and concentration. Being impatient in a cash-based game is not usually a good idea...

TPB: Finally, we always ask our Pinball Heroes to sum up their involvement in pinball in one word or sentence.

KM: I enjoy the atmosphere of friendly competition that you find at tournaments and sometimes at leagues - I always say my goal is to "spread the pinball bug from player to player".

- - - - - -

Many thanks to Kevin for taking the time to answer our questions and more pinball heroes coming soon. Plus remember there are PAPA12 registrations and division entries as prizes at the Monster Meet in May so thanks again to Kevin and Dave for those!

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

Photos Courtesy. Kevin Martin, PAPA, pair Networks, IFPA Pinball

Pinball Heroes: John Borg

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 10:08:00 +0000

There aren't many guys who still design pinball machines in the 21st century, but The Pinball Blog tracked down John Borg who can make that claim.

The Pinball Blog. So you're John Borg, one of the only people on the planet who can still claim to be a pinball designer! What are your current responsibilities at Stern and who else does what?

John Borg. I am wearing a lot of hats these days as are many of the small staff at Stern. I am designing and a mechanical engineer, working with artists on concepts and content, Designing game rules with software, Creating the game manual with service and parts sale departments. I work with purchasing and production and building prototypes (whitewood game). I also put out fires.

Gary Stern and Marc Schoenberg are handling our licensing contacts. Kevin O'Connor and John Youssi are creating art packages. Mark Galvez is producing Dot Matrix art. Lonnie Ropp and Lyman Sheets are the software engineers. John Rothermel and Robert Blakeman are the mechanical engineers. Patrick Powers and Dorothy Brown are Service and Part Sales. Sheridan Oursler is producing our Bill of Materials, Cable design and handles all of our Engineering prototype orders and change notices. He is a Jack of all trades. Ed Spears runs purchasing and Don Thorn runs Production.

We are certainly a smaller group than we were last. I am just about to prototype a game that is two games ahead of 24. I am gaining ground and trying to get ahead in order to give software as much time as possible on future product. 24 turned out to be a very nice game and is being well received. The two games that will follow 24 will be awesome as well.

TPB. From all the machines you've been involved with, which are you most proud of? Commercial success, or personal favourite or innovation.

JB. This is a tough question Nick. I would have to say Data East Star Wars which was my first game. Indiana Jones which was my first game since I returned to Stern in 2007. My Frankenstein monster on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein game, the Moon and Rocket assemblies I designed for Apollo 13. Also have to add the Electro magnetic spinning Disc I designed for the Twister game and the door handle shooter on Tales from the Crypt.

TPB. You like your ramp shots on pinball machines, is this anything to do with your passion for BMX bikes? Do you still ride?

JB. Ramps and BMX - Bmx was a part of my life that ended in the early 80's. I started again in 2006. It was a mid life crisis thing. When I started again I never thought I would be getting 5-6 feet in the air again at my age but I have. What a rush !!!! As far as pinball ramps go, I like smooth long shots with smooth curves and a soft landing. Bmx ramps are sharp and abrupt and the landing is not very soft. The similarity between the two is they are both gratifying.

TPB. How difficult is it to work on a license like Indiana Jones when the theme has already been produced with much success as a pinball machine and the two will always be compared.

JB. I had a great time working on Indy Jones. I didn't have the budget or the timeframe that they had at Williams back in the day. However we did make a really nice playing game with a great multiball introduction and some of the best Dot Matrix work I have ever seen on a pinball game. The Arc of the Covenant is a really cool pinball toy.

TPB. A little birdie tells me you were working on Transformers as a pinball license for around 6 weeks before this was put on hold to concentrate on Indiana Jones. Is that the nature of the industry or is it a major frustration? How far had you got and is it likely to ever be finished?

JB. I wasn't working on Transformers. I was working on a rock and roll game themed on the best rock and roll band of all time. Unfortunately the license didn't go through. I was devastated and lost two months of work. I was really glad to get the Indiana Jones theme but still had to have a game ready for the same time slot.

TPB. When Ray Tanzer left Stern, you came in to run engineering and were given the schedule of the next 6 titles. I understand those 6 machines have since changed. Are you able to give us an exclusive on what's coming up from Stern Pinball?

JB. We didn't have a schedule of 6 titles at the time. NBA will follow 24 and a very cool theme follows NBA. We are looking at several titles for next year. I'm really pushing for Munsters. I miss Ray, Steve, George, Pat, Keith and Dwight. Maybe when the economy comes back some of the guys might come back. Hopefully before I'm in a rubber room in a straight jacket.

TPB. You designed Guns n' Roses and Slash also has a design credit. How much involvement did he really have with the design, did you get to meet him and did you party/jam with him?

JB. Yes Slash had design input on the GnR game. Joe Kamikow asked Slash to dig up an unreleased GnR song to put in the game. That was really cool and a nice touch. I visited Slash in LA and he came out to visit us a couple times. I still have the Jack Daniels bottle. We had a great time with him. When I visited him in California his 6 month old cougar Curtis pinned me and had his mouth around my neck. Never pet a cougar on his belly !!!!! I just layed there calmly until he was finished playing with me. I figured if he bit down hard it would have been over quickly.

TPB. Steve Ritchie may have moved on from pinball but I hear he was designing a game to follow 24, is it something that is likely to be finished and if not, (or even if so) can you tell us what it was?

JB. Steve started a layout for a game. I'm not sure if the license is secured yet or if it will be produced or not. Can't say what it is at this time.

TPB. How much time/money is spent on a machine like Richie Rich as a one-off movie prop and do you know where the machine is today (I believe it was given to someone at Stern, but subsequently sold)?

JB. Well the playfield was a Lethal Weapon III. The artwork had to be produced and screens needed to be made. A few weeks of Dot Martix work, sound and programming. A custom game would not come cheap. I remember we made a few games for Aaron Spelling. We had a special artist come in and decorate the cabinets. He painted them to look like marble that matched the marble in Mr. Spelling's home. These games were a present from his wife.

TPB. Finally, I always ask our Pinball Heroes to sum up their involvement in pinball in one word or sentence.

JB. JACKPOT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Many thanks to John Borg for taking the time to answer our questions and for his great answers. If you would like to see YOUR Pinball Hero interviewed drop us a line and we'll try and make it happen!

More Pinball Heroes coming soon.

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

John Borg Photo Courtesy The PinGame Journal

Pinball Heroes: Barry Oursler

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 10:28:00 +0000

This week we're interviewing a guy who helped pinball fight back against the popularity of video games in the 1980s.

Ladies and gentlemen, The Pinball Blog proudly presents.

Pinball Heroes: Barry Oursler.

The Pinball Blog: So you're Barry Oursler. Over 20 years working on pinball machines with the same company is impressive. Machines you've been involved with have sold over 100,000 units! Do you have a particular 'defining moment' you're most proud of?

Barry Oursler: I think that seeing my first game roll off of the assembly line would have to be one of the highlights of my career. Who knew that I would be there for 26 years.

TPB: Were you always aware that Gorgar would be the first talking pinball machine or was it a case of when technology was ready for that step it was the machine that was in production. Also were there any prototype 'talking' machines that we never saw?

BO: The truth is that I was not totally aware when I started designing Gorgar that it would be the first talking machine. As the development progressed, our programmers had finished developing a speech program. The chip that we used had very little memory, so we could only use 10 or 12 words total. We had to come up with different phrases using combinations of those words. Everything had to be monotone so it would sound right. There were no other talking machines before that.

TPB: PIN-BOT was hugely popular and also spawned a couple of sequel games. Did you think when designing the machine it would be such a success and what made it so?

BO: I had a feeling that it would do very well for a several reasons. The game had a new feature, the visor and target bank. I teamed up with Python and Pfutz again. From my perspective, it was one of the first games ever designed after the artwork was done. Python had come up with this "crazy" drawing depicting a giant robot in space with flipper fingers. I studied his playfield artwork and designed a game around it. He had a "visor" on his drawing. I created a moving visor and used two eject holes for his eyes. I also created the target bank, which became his teeth. I had a lot of help with the mechanical devices, the visor, target bank & the spiral "skill shot", from Joe Joos. He was the best mechanical engineer I ever worked with.

TPB: Following on from PIN-BOT, there are some similarities with the Doctor Who playfield. Obviously for us UK guys it was surprising to see a 'home-grown' theme being made by a company largely building for an American market. I understand that Bill Pfutzenreuter was a big Dr Who fan but did the license come up against much resistance from the powers that be at Williams?

BO: Bill and I were both Dr Who fans, that's why we teamed up on it. Bill tried to design the playfield himself, but just couldn't get it to play the way he wanted it to. I agreed to take his concept and design a totally new playfield. The PIN-BOT bank was a huge success, so we decided to take it a step further. We mad it a 3-level moving playfield. It took a while to get it to work right, but with the help of Zofia Bil, our mechanical engineer, we had it working perfectly. I just sold my Dr Who last year. It still worked flawlessly after 15 years. I don't recall too much resistance from management over the theme. If you can show them that you truly believed in a project, they would usually give it a chance.

TPB: Popeye doesn't get much credit from the pinball collectors. I guess back then you were building for the coin-op market rather than thinking we'd be collecting them in our homes all these years later. Were you happy with the machine at the time?

BO: Not really. Management wanted me to do another game with Python to try and capture the "magic" we had with previous collaborations. I wasn't too happy with the theme or the drawings that he had created. It was another scenario where the artwork was done first. I reluctantly agreed, due to pressure from "above". I think it was one of my two least favorite games that I designed, the other being BAD CATS.

TPB: Space Shuttle is often credited with the revival of pinball against the popularity of video games. Did you think 'this is the one' or was the time right for pinball to fight back?

BO: I believe that it really did spark the fire that revived pinball. We had a do-or-die situation. We were told that the next game had better be a "hit" or else that would be the end of pinball. Management & sales went over each project in development at that time. They decided to go with SPACE SHUTTLE. Luckily, it worked out. It's possible someone else could have had their game do the same thing, but we'll never know.

TPB: Your brother Sheridan I believe worked at Stern for a while. Who's the better pinball player and was there much rivalry between you?

BO: There has never been a rivalry between us, unlike the Ritchie brothers. My brother was mainly working on video games for Midway, while I was at Williams. He never played much pinball. He is still working at Stern in the engineering department.

TPB: Many of our Pinball Heroes say Steve Kordek was the most influential to their careers and I understand you had a close relationship with the great man. It must be time someone dished some dirt on Mr Kordek, maybe you can?

BO: No matter how had I try, I don't think I can come up with anything "bad" to say about Steve. I don't believe you can find anyone who doesn't love and respect that man. If he does have any secrets, he's not telling!

TPB: What does Barry Oursler do in the 21st century to pay the bills?

BO: From 1998 to 2006, I worked for Betson Imperial Parts & Service as a purchasing manager. They are the largest distributor of games and parts in the USA. Sadly, I was laid-off a couple of years ago. For the last two years, I have been working for EcoSure, a division of Ecolab, a worldwide company. They are mainly involved in food safety, sort of like a health dept. Big restaurant corporations hire us to come in and evaluate their restaurants, hotels, etc for cleanliness, proper food handling, etc. I do mostly administrative work.

TPB: Finally, I always ask our Pinball Heroes to sum up their involvement in pinball in one word or sentence.

BO: It was a great ride while it lasted! I truly miss it!

Many thanks to Barry Oursler for taking the time to answer my questions and becoming another of our Pinball Heroes. I'm constantly amazed at how much time these guys give to our hobby, maybe even years since their paths led in a different direction. More Pinball Heroes coming soon.

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

Steve Kordek Photo courtesy Pinball News

Pinball Heroes Re-Visited: Jim Schelberg

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:22:00 +0000

We recently interviewed PinGame Journal editor Jim Schelberg for Pinball Heroes. As with much of the blog writing, the interview was done very much on-the-fly. Jim was interviewed on the 'phone as he headed to Chicago to meet some pinball folk and then was off to the Midwest Gaming Classic, and I was just bumming around like normal. We had hoped to add some pictures to the interview (other than stock pics) but add the schedules of 2 busy guys and these things can take some time. Finally we got our acts together and we've got a few pics of Jim on his pinball travels, so thought I'd share them here rather than update the original interview.
Many thanks to Jim for the interview and now for the photos. Jim has always been a great help with finding pictures of other Pinball Heroes guests, thanks Jim.

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

Photos Courtesy Jim Schelberg/PinGame Journal

Pinball Heroes: Jim Schelberg

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 22:39:00 +0000

UPDATE: Some belated pictures to accompany the interview.

If you think keeping a pinball blog is hard work, you should probably try and produce a pinball magazine. I've attempted both and the blog is easier by a country mile. So why on earth would anyone want to produce a magazine dedicated to pinball machines in the 21st century?

Let's find out and interview the man that normally does the interviewing on the PGJ.
The Pinball Blog. So you're Jim Schelberg, producer of the PinGame Journal. What do you do 9-5?

Jim Schelberg. I'm a podiatrist, I believe you may still call us chiropodists over there in the UK. Four years at college then another four years studying before I graduated and that was 1977!

TPB. What made you start a pinball magazine?

JS. Basically my wife wanted to buy me a pinball machine for my 40th birthday (bear in mind I'm 60 this October!). She did some research and contacted Gordon Hasse who was a big force in the hobby back then and a big woodrail collector. In then meantime we bought a Gottlieb Sharp Shooter from a local place. While I was there I noticed Gary Flower's book and I saw it said he competed annually at an event in Chicago. I had no idea what Expo was! I rang the Chicago tourist board to find out more and they had no idea what I was talking about! Luckily someone in the room overheard the conversation and said something like "Oh, that's the pinball thing out by the airport".

Eventually we found some more information and I contacted Rob Berk. That year I ended up at expo for 3 hours between other plans. I also picked up a copy of Pinball Trader, produced by Dennis Dodel and subsequently had letters published. A couple of years down the line it turned out they needed help to produce the magazine and I got myself geared up with all the computers. The next I heard two guys from California were buying the magazine. I rang Dennis to tell him I was all set up to help him and he used the immortal line "Why dont you start one of your own". With an advert in Pinball Trader and not much in the way of internet or email back then I was amazed that 85 people sent me money for a magazine which didn't exist. $26 for a subscription! I produced the 1st issue in May of 1991.

TPB. Does your family understand the pinball thing and how important is their support?

JS. My wife, although she understands it is not thrilled with the amount of time it takes and the amount of time it takes me away from other activities. To start with I produced 12 issues a year, pulling all-nighters to get it done - insane! She was not happy. The kids back then were young and got to come with me to Chicago. We had a tour round the Williams factory with Pat Lawlor when The Addams Family was in production. The kids were of course fine with it, the wife less so! An article appeared in the local newspaper "Podiatrist's Hobby has Wife Crying Tilt". After that I changed to a more casual schedule where things get done when they get done. Not in a mean way, but everything has to fit around the family!

TPB. We've heard a bit of how you started as a collector, and we already know your first machine, but what else do you have and what your last purchase?

JS. I stopped buying quite a while ago, but I think my most recent was Star Trek: The Next Generation - which I bought NEW! I have around 60 games from woodrails, including Steve Kordek's first machine Triple Action and a 1940 'Metro' to Star Trek.

TPB. Do you still get the same buzz from producing the magazine as you always have?

JS. Yes I do. The 1st issue of course was pretty cool, but I still love seeing the magazine in print. I always get a paper copy sent to me as soon as possible so I can see what it feels like. There are a number of other great things that come with the magazine. Like the interviews, getting to see what goes on behind the scenes. One of the best things is the factory visits where I can see what games are on their way and how they progress. What gets added and what gets taken away and why. I've talked to some great people, designers and artists and all sorts.

TPB. You must have met some interesting celebrities over the years, any highlights?

JS. I interviewed James Doohan who played Scotty in Star Trek which was great for me as he was such a cool guy and I'm a big Star Trek fan!

TPB. And what about in pinball? Who would you say within the hobby/industry, has been the most influential to you? And any particular pinballing highlights yourself?

JS. Difficult, but if I had to pick I would say Roger Sharpe. Certainly early on, but even now, he knows how and what to write. He's written for GQ magazine and Play Meter and has done a LOT of writing. He'd be the guy I'd go an see at Williams.

As for highlights I used to go to Chicago 3 times a year, flying in and out on the same day. FOUR pinball factories in a day! In the morning I could go to Premier, then Williams where I would have lunch with some of the guys, then I'd pop into see Alvin G on the way over to Data East. I had to drag myself away to make the flight! I'd have a tape recorder running because so much could happen in a day and I'd not remember half of it - great, I loved it!

TPB. I know you visit Expo and other trade shows, how important is industry support for the PGJ and has it changed over years as the manufacturers disappeared and even more recently with the global economic slowdown?

JS. Industry support is important and thankfully I've always had it. All the companies and all the people have been extremely helpful and open all the way through from the beginning. One day I asked the guys at Data East if I could take some photos of the assembly line and it was late. Everybody left and I was the only guy in the factory! I was told to lock the door on the way out! Even at Stern today I have a free reign over the workings. If Stern were to stop, which by the way from what I've heard is nothing like the case, there are still so many other things going on, so many stories, that I don't think it would make a huge difference to the PGJ.

TPB. Tell us about the production schedule for an issue of the PGJ.

JS. Hah! There are tons of people who help, amazingly so, sending articles and helping in a number of ways but it all boils down to one man, one computer. I often think about going to the Detroit News office, throwing some magazines on the desk, take some pictures and say it's my production office, but it's just not like that. I've had some help with the graphics lately, not because I can' t do it myself, but my helper can work a lot faster than me. The product just has to come when I have the time and the mental time to wrap my head around sitting down. I've never really timed it, I'd be afraid to put a clock to it. Even when several of the pieces are done, I've worked every night until I've fallen asleep for 2 weeks solid. The calendar took longer. I dropped everything I normally do and it took me a month even with help on the graphics side.

TPB. Finally, please sum up your involvement in pinball in one word or sentence.

JS. The pinball hobby is great because it allows you to do so many different things other than just collect or play ... Including publishing a magazine!

- - - - - -

I interviewed Jim on the phone as he was driving to Chicago and then onwards for another pinball-packed weekend. Hopefully I didn't miss too much and apologies if I heard dates wrong or got anything else mixed up! I think I got most of what he was saying and he's certainly had a great insight into the industry over the last 20 years. Many thanks to Jim for taking the time to answer our questions and we have more Pinball Heroes coming soon.

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

Pinball Heroes: Cameron Silver

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 11:32:00 +0000

When we first approach pinball designers we don't expect to get a response starting "I've been following your blog for some time and really enjoy it", but that was the case with this week's Pinball Heroes guest! If he already reads The Pinball Blog then he must know how it works, or perhaps he was softening us up to ask for a fee or maybe, just maybe, we could push our luck a little further than we have before..

Let's Try...

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Pinball Blog proudly presents Pinball Heroes: Cameron Silver. Cameron was employed at Bally/Williams in the nineties and worked on titles such as Scared Stiff and Cirqus Voltaire.

The Pinball Blog. So you're Cameron Silver, the way I see it is you worked your nuts off on pinball machines and then John Popadiuk put his name on them?

Cameron Silver. Well everyone worked their nuts off, at least on the games I was involved with. They really were team efforts, and I never encountered anyone who slacked off or didn't pull their weight. So on Cirqus John and I sat down and laid out the playfield together, but then he went away and did the real work to actually design a buildable product. Anyone can sketch a ramp here, or some bumpers there, but it takes a mammoth amount of work and skill to actually build something that shoots well.

I'll add here that I gave Cameron an alternative question in case the first one was a bit too blunt and he kindly answered that one as well!

TPB. Whose idea was the display under the glass on Cirqus Voltaire?

CS. The location of the display was not new, since Capcom had a display there for "Flipper Football" in 1996. Whether John had thought about this before is something that I honestly do not know, but when he suggested it to me I didn't hesitate to jump on-board. We actually talked briefly about mounting the display flat and reflecting it off an angled piece of glass (ie: like Asteroids Delux and Pinball 2000); it would have allowed us to do some neat tricks, but would have been quite expensive.

We did have a "Digital Multiball" mode in the game for a while - using the same idea from the video mode in Theatre Of Magic. The display served as a second playfield, and the idea was to knock down all targets to get the jackpot. You'd shoot physical balls into the display by shooting the loops, and could have up to all three balls on the display at once. It was pretty cool! However to do it properly would have required turning the ball-popper into a three-ball lockup (with three additional optos and more metal), which was too much money to devote to one single mode that wasn't really related to the theme at all.

TPB. How stiff were 'Team Stiff' when meeting Elvira?CS. No comment! :)

Actually she was amazing to work with, a lovely person who really loved pinball. She had loads of fun recording speech for us (a lot of it being improvised on the day), and added a huge amount of personality to the game.

TPB. Which machine did you most enjoy working on and which was the most challenging?

CS. The machine I most enjoyed working on was definitely Cirqus. First of all it was the first game I was involved with right from the start, and second of all it began with John unrolling a blank sheet of paper and asking the team "so, what game should we make?!". Considering that less than 12 months prior to that I was a college kid / tech in Australia dreaming about pinball, it was unreal.

Most challenging was Star Wars. The technical challenges have been discussed numerous times, but for me there were personal challenges too. The biggest thing for me was being locked away, separated from the rest of engineering. I don't care who you are, you can't design a good, balanced game in a vacuum. I mean this honestly when I say that Star Wars actually turned out pretty close to our original vision, but I still think it could have benefited from outside influence. Still it sold at least three times more than Cirqus and remained in the top-10 charts for close to a decade, so I probably shouldn't complain too much.

TPB. What started with an email to Dwight Sullivan turned into employment in the pinball industry, the stuff of dreams for many of us! I guess the chances of that happening today are pretty slim. Apart from the suit and haircut, what advice can you give a wannabe pinball designer in their quest for employment?

CS. First would be patience, the second would probably (unfortunately) be to find another way to pay the bills. I certainly don't think that pinball is dead; but it's so tiny that even if it quadruples in size, it will still be tiny. I'm in coin-op video now (which I love), but even that is minuscule.

TPB. The Pinball Blog is known for it's vast knowledge of programming(!) 10. PRINT "The Pinball Blog is da best". 20 GOTO 10. Did pinball programming change over the years with technology or were the basics the same throughout?

CS. Things didn't change that much through the WPC years. In fact it's possible to take the very latest WPC operating system (which we called A.P.P.L.E), and re-build the Funhouse code to run on it. Things obviously changed a lot when we started working on Pinball 2000, which was all C++ and PC motherboards, etc. Even though WPC was a tiny 2mhz 6809 processor, that has been the absolute favorite development I've done (admittedly a big part of that is the final product).

TPB. Was there a machine you worked on that never saw the light of day?

CS. I don't know if it qualifies but I worked on a redemption game called Ticket Tac Toe when I first started at Williams, and we only built about 100 of those; despite the fantastic earnings. Local pinball enthusiast Rush Luangsuwan and I added a custom built gumball dispenser to TTT for Pinball Expo 2007.

More recently, I just finished working on a coin-op, green-screen, video karaoke booth (themed to American Idol) that we were unable to produce due to music licensing issues. A huge shame considering the amazing amount of work (18 months), incredible technology, and long list of "it's impossible" we were able to overcome.

TPB. I personally prefer Star Wars Episode 1 to Revenge from Mars but some might say I'm in the minority (or stark raving bonkers). When people ask why one Pinball 2000 title is more 'popular' than the other I tell them the cost of the license influenced the budget for rules on SWE1, but to be fair, I completely made that up! Am I anywhere close to the truth?

CS. Short answer: no. Long answer (for me anyway) is that I don't like either titles. Revenge is just too dark, I can't see the playfield. Episode 1 has vastly improved lighting, but I'm not a fan of the mode-based rules structure. I feel that both games hold the ball too much, and both over-use the display; however understand that it was intentional to over-use the display in order to show it off (Episode 1 actually uses up less image space than Revenge). Amazingly though some people still don't "get" that platform, which really boggles my mind.

Wizard Blocks had lighting that was a vast improvement over Episode 1, and a much more pinball-like ruleset.

TPB. Who that you met during your pinball career was the most influential to you, and who are you still friends with today?

CS. Working with Steve Kordek on my first game (Ticket Tac Toe) was amazing, and I thoroughly enjoy catching up with him a few times a year. Working with programmers like Ted Estes, Larry DeMar and Tom Uban really shaped what type of programmer I have become today, and I remain close friends with all three (I still see Tom several times a week, and chat with Ted and Larry almost daily).

Dwight Sullivan opened my eyes to the amazing world of game mechanics, and is still one of my dearest friends. (Coincidentally as I type this, I can hear our testers playing "La Grange" on "Guitar Hero Arcade", anyone know what pinball machine used that song? Hint: Dwight programmed it...)

TPB. What does Cameron Silver do to pay the bills today?

CS. I currently work at Raw Thrills, which is one of the largest coin-op game houses around. We are headed up by Eugene Jarvis, and have released the "Fast And The Furious" driving games (three of them), Nicktoons Racing, Big Buck Hunter, and "Guitar Hero Arcade" which is rocking seriously hard.

TPB. Finally can you sum up your involvement with pinball in one word or sentence.

CS. Yes.

And there you have it, a great interview with Cameron and hopefully more of what you guys want to read. Many thanks to Cameron Silver for being such a great sport and answering some random questions!

Cameron was already reading The Pinball Blog which is just great, so if YOU'RE reading and you're a pinball designer or contributed significantly in other ways to the industry drop me a line and we'll hook you up. Or if you're a regular Joe like me, then let me know who you'd like to see interviewed on Pinball Heroes and we'll try and hunt them down!

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

Pinball Heroes: Mike Pacak

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 11:54:00 +0000

We interviewed Rob Berk, the man behind Pinball Expo for Pinball Heroes a few weeks ago, but Rob doesn't work alone. His partner in crime is Mike Pacak and The Pinball Blog tracked him down and pestered him with our questions.

Some of the questions were the same as we asked Rob, partly because we didn't know that both of them would reply and partly because it saves any serious effort on our part!

The Pinball Blog. So you're Mike Pacak, co-founder and organiser of the fantastic Pinball Expo. What do you do when you're not sorting out the event?

Mike Pacak. Well for 21 years from 1975 until 1996 I ran a chain of 76 game rooms here in USA. Since then I buy, sell, and operate games and parts. I visit many amusement parks each year as well.

TPB. I hear you've got a few flyers stashed away, anything else you collect?

MP. Well I have more flyers and schematics and manuals than anyone on earth. I also have over 700 pinball machines, 200 arcade games and over 100 jukes as well as thousands of translites, hundreds of backglasses and playfields. I have 18,000 sq feet of crap here!

TPB. I organise the UK Pinball Show and normally by the end of the weekend I'm sick of the sight of the damn machines. Do you normally have a pinball sabbatical after each Expo?

MP. No, Expo runs smooth has for 24 years. I also put on a show here in Ohio now for 5 years and attend several other shows too.

TPB. Expo is 25 years young this year, did you ever imagine when it started you'd reach such a milestone? Anything you're particularly proud of?

MP. No, never did think it would go this long. I am proud of the many good friends I have made over the years. I look to Expo as a large family reunion.

TPB. Anything in 2009, you're particularly looking forward to?

MP. Well at this point we are concerned if Stern will still be around come Expo time. Without them Expo will be very different! TPB. I've heard through the grapevine that some of the industry legends have extreme 'rider' requests. Crates of beer, hookers, winnebagos and even a dwarf dancing crew. How far will you go to get the guests that the people want to see and hear?

MP. Well, that is generally true about operators and trade shows, but not a collectors show like ours. We just try to treat people right and they usually help us.

TPB. Surely it's about time Gary Flower was replaced as host for the fireside chats?

MP. No, he does a good job.

TPB. Are you much of a player? (I'm talking about PINBALL!)

MP. Yes not too bad. I belong to a league here in Ohio

TPB. Other than Expo are there any must see events or places around the globe?

MP. If you mean pinball-related the Allentown Show & Chicagoland Shows are a must

TPB. Finally, can you sum up Expo in one word or sentence.

MP. A place to hang out and meet anyone that's ever had anything to do with pinball and play over 200 machines.

Thanks to Mike Pacak for taking the time to answer my questions - even if I wasn't quite able to drag him down to my level!

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

Pinball Heroes: Dwight Sullivan

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 13:13:00 +0000

This week we've nailed pinball designer and fellow blogger Dwight Sullivan to be one of our Pinball Heroes.

The Pinball Blog. So you're Dwight Sullivan. You've designed some great pinball machines over the years and written the software for others (I guess you knew that). Can you tell us which machine you are most proud of and why.

Dwight Sullivan. It has been no secret that I am most proud of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was an excellent project from start to finish. Real quick here are the reasons it was great for me: Great team; you cant make a great game without a great team, I am huge sci-fi fan and a fan of Star Trek since I was 5, We got to go out to Paramount and see the Enterprise up close, I got Married during the project, Steve and I got fired during the project, I think the final game is lots of fun and we captured the theme extremely well.

TPB. You've written some fascinating stuff with a nice turn of phrase about pinball on your blog. Have you always had a passion for the written word, or was it your accumulating life experiences that you thought perhaps needed to be shared?

DS. I have and both. As I got older I realized that two things were happening. My brain was filling up and my capacity was shrinking. So I found a need to write things down just to help me remember them. Not really to share but I don’t mind if others read it. Also since I was little I have enjoyed making up stories but like MANY of my hobbies I have never really given writing the proper amount of time to become good at it.

TPB. On a licensed pinball machine, how much influence does the license holder have over the design? Are they able to insist on certain elements or do you share the progress as you go and hope they like it?

DS. Early in the discussions with the licensor, after its clear that both parties are interested, we show them a playfield drawing and explain to them what we want to do. This is when they will typically make suggestion about design aspects. After the licensor only sees our art and speech progress as we develop the game. We show them our dot-matrix animations, playfield art, speech scripts, then the recorded speech, backglass art, plastics art, and cabinet art. All as soon as we can. They always get to see the final package before production but I don’t remember them stopping the production. That would be devastating to us so we make sure that isn’t going to happen.

TPB. Meeting which person would you say has been the highlight of your time in pinball?

DS. I have met quite a few people; celebrities both inside the industry and out. But the question is easy to answer; Steve Kordek is the man I am most glad to have met.

TPB. In 5 years time some say there'll be no pinball, others say it'll still be here, just different (we hope so!). But what about in 30 years when all the current collectors are old and grey, and there's not a huge generation of new players to collect the things?

DS. Wow thirty years?!? Who could answer that?

TPB. Do you have any machines at home and do your family play?

DS. I have several machines at home: Revenge from Mars, High Speed, Road Show, Terminator 2, WHO dunnit, Star Trek: The next Generation. My kids and their friends play them often.

TPB. If you hadn't been involved in pinball, any idea what you'd be doing today?

DS. No idea. I was pretty lucky to land in game development and many times I have thought “They are paying me to do this?”

TPB. Do you look forward to expo and all those questions (a bit like these!), and how often do you have to plead the 5th to something posed from visitors?

DS. My favorite part of Expo is giving the tour at the factory. Sadly I will not get to do that anymore. I never minded all the fans and their questions. I actually like talking to outsiders because it really helps ground the design process in reality. Adds perspective and helps prioritize the real issues.

TPB. Other than Pinball & writing, what makes Dwight Sullivan tick?

DS. I am a family man first; I love my wife and Kids and to do things with them. Beyond that I love games next. All types of games. One of my many hobbies is designing board games.

TPB. Finally, can you sum up pinball (or your time involved with it) in one word or sentence.

DS. Pinball has been a large part of my life, I often measured time by what game I was working on when this happened or that.

Many thanks to Dwight Sullivan for taking the time to answer our questions. More Pinball Heroes coming soon.

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

Pictures Courtesy: Dwight Sullivan, Pinball News & random other places :o)

Pinball Heroes: Rob Berk

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 12:15:00 +0000

Whenever we're talking to random pinball guys around the world there are two words that keep popping up. These same two words also appear several times in our Pinball Hero interviews, so we thought we'd hunt down the man behind

PINBALL EXPO

Expo 2009 is the 25th Anniversary event and continues to grow each year. I had a fantastic international long distance chat with Rob Berk (reversed the call-charges of course ;o), and he certainly is a man with a passion for the Silver Ball. During our chat I managed to squeeze in some questions for Pinball Heroes...

The Pinball Blog. So you're Rob Berk, founder and organiser of Pinball Expo. What do you do when you're not sorting out the event?

Rob Berk. We run a restaurant supply company and also service the carnival and amusement industry.

TPB. I organise the UK Pinball Show and am a complete gob-shite, you seem to keep yourself to yourself. Every event around the planet gets some criticism, do you ever want to shake the people and say "have you any idea how much effort these things take!"

RB. I guess it's a small frustration but the criticism is only from a tiny minority.

TPB. I hear your own collection of machines is impressive. How much of a task is keeping them all working?

RB. At one time I had a running competition with Tim Arnold. If I had 300 machines, he'd have 350, when I went to 400, he'd have 500! I think my highest number of machines would be around 500 but many are in storage.

I have around 80 machines set up in my basement at home. I'm happy to work on many of them myself, especially the EM machines, but for anything I can't handle, I'll ask a friend over to help!

TPB. Expo is 25 years young this year, did you ever imagine when it started you'd reach such a milestone? Anything you're particularly proud of?

RB. When I first had the dream it was to honor my heroes - the pinball designers. After 1985 I had no plans to do another show and within a few months I was getting calls asking when the next event was. Well, there was no next event, but we did another, then another and it's gone from strength to strength.

I've met some fantastic guys through Expo, many have since passed away. Harvey Heiss from Genco was a highlight. He was so full of life, so full of jokes and had a rich history to share and, bearing in mind he was in his 80s when he came to expo, his enthusiasm was incredible. Also hearing Steve Kordek share the pride on the production line at Genco gave a feel for the era with machines like Victory. Dave Christensen and Python Angelo: people were lining up to shake their hands, buy them a drink and ask questions. It was a great opportunity for visitors and fantastic to watch.

TPB. Anything in 2009, you're particularly looking forward to?

RB. Mike Stroll president of Williams in the 80s when it was rocking is our guest, and there's more seminars, more exhibitors and maybe an extra day of activities with Expo starting on Wednesday!

TPB. I've heard through the grapevine that some of the industry legends have extreme 'rider' requests. Crates of beer, hookers, winnebagos and even a dwarf dancing crew. How far will you go to get the guest that your visitors want to see?

RB. Thankfully that's never really been an issue, never had anything like that list! I suppose being in Chicago has helped us secure the great guests, and most are very cooperative.

TPB. Surely it's about time Gary Flower was replaced as host for the fireside chats?

RB. I did it myself for many years, but it's nice to now have someone else handle that and give me a breather. Gary has a special connection with us having attended every Expo since the beginning, and for anyone to accomplish that - especially from the UK - is quite remarkable. For him to make such an effort I wanted to honor him in a small way (if he would accept the role). Plus as an author of a pinball book, he has a great knowledge and knows how to interact with the guests.

TPB. Are you much of a player? (I'm talking about PINBALL!)

RB. No. I'm an average player, never ranked in any major tournament, but I still enjoy playing pinball, especially with my family.

TPB. Other than Expo are there any must see events or places around the globe?

RB. ALL the shows have their own charm and something distinctive. I visit other shows and enjoy them as I have more time to myself than at Expo.

TPB. Finally, can you sum up Expo in one word or sentence.

RB. Pinball author Dick Bueschel (now sadly deceased) said the Expo was a "love-in". It's a gathering point to meet your pinball heroes, from designers and artists to the players.

There was so much Rob had to share and, typing one-handed while we chatted, I hope I didn't miss too much! Where else can you buy from so many vendors, get autographs from 15-25 artists and designers, shake their hands and play so much pinball? Expo really is something special.

Many thanks to Rob for his time, best of luck for Expo 25 and although my penny jar won't allow me a visit this time round, everyone should make the pilgrimage at least once.

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

Pinball Heroes Lite.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 12:06:00 +0000

I interviewed Bryan Kelly as a bit of fun for Pinball Heroes and it proved to be a very popular item on The Pinball Blog. Pinball attracts a great diversity of characters into the hobby and I wanted to share some of these with the readers!

So I introduce....

Pinball Heroes LITE.

Consider it the low-alcohol, lo-carb, sugar-free alternative to Pinball Heroes.

I plan to continue with the 'proper' Pinball Heroes features, and my interview with Rob Berk of Pinball Expo is going up right now, but I wanted to find if there were other guys out there that I could poke fun at, and see how far I could push my luck before receiving a slap across the chops (by email of course).

This week... Mr. 68 AKA Kim Mitchell of PinZero DMD Glare Guard fame.

(!) This interview includes some adultish language & humour.

The Pinball Blog. So you're Mr. 68 from Wrong Crowd Productions. Your name sounds just one short of a decent night in.

Mr.68. Mr. 68 is based on an old joke. I asked my lady if she'd like to 68. She said "you mean 69" I said "no, 68". Puzzled she asked what that was. I told her 68 is where she goes down on me and I owe her one. =)

My first name is Kim and people on the internet often mistake that as female. Hence the "mister" in Mr. 68.

I'd like to also mention that a favorite game to play with my lady is "Pearl Harbor". Free Glare Guard to the first person on RGP to decipher that joke. =)

TPB. What inspired you to make the Horse-Flaps?

Mr. 68. Horse Flaps, Pooper Scoopers, Snack Trays, DMD Shields; my Glare Guards have been called many things. The humor on RGP is the best.

It was the DMD reflecting on the top of the playfield glass that got me started. I just couldn't see the top one fifth of the playfield clearly. It bugged me as I had to look through or around the glare into the game. There's a lot of action and great artwork at the top of a playfield and it was all obscured. I hated that distraction.

I tried the polarized film which is a fine alternative for some games and some people. But I chose to go another direction and opted for economy, simplicity, and ease. My game play enjoyment was immediately enhanced by blocking the glare and I knew I couldn't be the only one. I'm pleased so many people enjoy them.

TPB. I've seen some generous things said about you on RGP, it must be good to know that people think of you as the "Glare Guard Hairless Chihuahua"?

Mr. 68. Ah yes, a classic insult from one of the veteran stooges on RGP. Is it no wonder that I've named my company Wrong Crowd Productions with friends like this.

I've been shaving my head since May of 1990 and it's become fodder for the jealous. Ironically, the comment was made by a gentleman whose top of the head looks like he shaves it with a cheese grader. That being said I must say that the humor and good natured jabs on the newsgroup is a big part of what makes RGP special. Sometimes I think we take ourselves way too seriously and we need to be able to laugh at ourselves. Besides, if I'm going to dish it out, I need to be able to take it. =)

TPB. If I ever get my back-side over to America and get the chance to meet some of the guys from RGP, who should I avoid and why?

Mr. 68. The question really becomes; Who in America should be avoiding you? Sorry Nick, but I don't want to develop Carpal Tunnel typing up that list.

TPB. I hear at Expo last year, you wore a badge with somebody else's name on and it almost went spectacularly wrong - tell us more.

Mr. 68. Lloyd and I were hanging around Expo together and I wanted to goof on him a bit along with some of the other RGPer's. So I made up a badge with the name Lloyd Olson and wore it. Most people that know of Lloyd, knows what he looks like. And with him standing next to me we got some fun reactions. Korn and Phoebe, whom I'd never met before, were two of my favorites.

That evening Lloyd disappeared and I was standing amongst a sizeable gathering of RGP friends, new and old. Famed pinball designer Pat Lawlor was walking by and saw the name tag. All of us recognized who he was as he came near and our conversation kind of went quiet.
I could tell that Pat was targeting me as he approached and suddenly remembered the name tag I was wearing. "Oh shit" I thought.

As Pat is shaking my hand he is telling me how he has always wanted to meet me, meaning Lloyd. I immediately identified myself and began explaining I was only having a joke. Pat looked a little flustered and confused. Suddenly everybody burst out laughing at me and I think he felt a little bit embarrassed. He may have mistakenly thought the laughing was directed at him. It wasn't, but it did make for an awkward situation.

Earlier in the evening, prior to Pat Lawlor, I saw Gary Stern wandering around all by himself in the game room. So I walked up and introduced myself using my real name and forgetting I was wearing the Lloyd Olson name tag. We chatted for a bit and shook hands goodbye. Gary was gracious to speak with, but did look a bit puzzled at times.

I didn't put that one together until long after the Pat Lawlor incident.

But I've learned my lesson and won't make that mistake again. Next year I'm going as Cliffy.

TPB. I guess Glare Guards are up there with 'Ball Sacks', pin footies, cup holders and other essential after-market parts. Any plans for more 'must have' pinball accessories?

Mr. 68. I don't care for the way you wrote that question Nick. I've re-phrased it more to my liking here "I guess Glare Guards are up there with 'Ball Sacks', XXX XXXXXXX, cup holders and other essential after-market parts. Any plans for more 'must have' pinball accessories?"

Thank you Nick, those are impressive company's you've placed me with in the "must have" category. Yes, I now manufacture game specific back board mirrors.

TPB. A little birdie tells me you've been shortlisted for the Pinball Expo Hall of Fame. It must make you hugely proud to think your name could be there with Harry Williams and Sam Stern, although I wonder why it's taken them so long?

Mr. 68. Sadly you have been misinformed. I have been inducted into the lesser known, PESL. The Pinball Expo Shit List. It's a quiet ceremony at Expo each year where I'm personally escorted passed the entrance crowd and taken directly to the back door exit.

Alumni's such as myself then gather in the parking lot. So far I make a crowd of one. Every hour or so, Mike Pacak will stop by and get my attention by banging on the glass door. He will then turn, drop his pants and display a pressed ham against the glass. It's a unique bond Mike and I have and I'm honored by the recognition.

TPB. Mystery Painting. Any progress?

Mr. 68. No progress on the painting. However because of it, I did reconnect with a former juvenile delinquent friend of mine from 30 plus years ago. I don't want to embarrass him here so I will only refer to him by his initials, S.t.e.v.e. K.u.l.p.a.

TPB. There's a guy in Germany who's made some anti-glare glass, does this spell the end for the Glare Guard?

Mr. 68. No, the anti-glare glass does not eliminate the DMD glare. It eliminates reflection from every other light source to the glass, but not the DMD. I'm please to say that the glass and Glare Guards compliment one another.

The guy in Germany is a new friend and I'm very excited about his innovations. His name is Roman and he contacted me after finding a link on RGP. Roman had seen my Glare Guards over in Europe and was curious about its design and evolution. We have spoken several times on the phone since then and have been exchanging ideas and brainstorming pinball. Roman is quite brilliant and one of the good guys in this hobby.

TPB. Finally, I always ask everybody to sum up their involvement in pinball in one word or sentence, so for Mr. 68..... What's your favorite dinner?

Mr. 68. Theses aren't exactly Steve Ritchie type questions are they… My favorite dinner is crow. I've developed a taste for it over the years and have consumed more than my share. Disturbed blog interviewers have me entertaining the thought of cannibalism.

- - - - - -

Many thanks to Kim/Mr. 68. for taking the time to be interviewed for Pinball Heroes LITE.

If you know anyone else in pinball that can have a laugh at their own expense, then why not see if they'd be up for an interview and have their answers forever archived on the interweb (or until I get sued at take the blog down).

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

Pinball Heroes: George Gomez

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 10:41:00 +0000

I can appreciate there are guys with their place in the decades of pinball history, like last week's Pinball Heroes interview with Roger Sharpe, but what about something for us new kids on the block, maybe somebody who helped influence the DMD era. An era that enticed a whole new generation of players into this seedy addiction!

George Gomez seemed to fit the bill.The Pinball Blog. So you're George Gomez, designer of Corvette, Batman (Stern) and several in between. What did your parents say when you said you wanted to be a pinball designer?

George Gomez. "What's a pinball?"

TPB. Lord of the Rings! It must be pleasing for you to see such a recent title so highly regarded among the ever-critical collector community.

GG. Uhm...Balrog Shmalrog.

TPB. Did you design NBA Fastbreak as a parts machine?

GG. You guys have no appreciation for true innovation.

TPB. It must have been exciting working on the new concept of Pinball2000, and then have it all taken away from you so quickly. Did you think you were experiencing the end of pinball right there and then? It must have then been a relief to be able to carry on your trade with Stern.

GG. "End of pinball"...not really, but I was kinda bummed, no doubt.

TPB. Playboy. Get to the mansion? Stay the night?

GG. Yep, got to the mansion...

TPB. Out of all the machines you've designed which is your favourite (and why)?

GG. I like Fastbreak, probably because you guys don’t.

TPB. They filmed some of the Batman movie near me in the UK. The lorry flipping over really happened - it wasn't CGI (no idea why I needed to share that)! How much time do you have to design a pinball for a movie tie-in when release dates must be strict? Do you get scripts, artist roughs or unedited scenes to work from?

GG. Yes, we get scripts, style guides and sometimes audio. The dev cycle is no different, license or not, there is never enough time.

TPB. Is there a machine you wish you'd had more time to work on?

GG. Pretty much all of them.

TPB. If machines from the 1960s (and before) can still be in people's games-rooms today, then you've got to think that even when we're old and grey, there'll be your machines in collections around the planet. Trouble is do you think your grand-kids or great grand kids will even know what pinball is?

GG. My 4 year old niece in Switzerland plays my pinball games, I think we'll be ok.

TPB. Finally, can you sum up pinball (or your involvement with it) in one word or sentence.

GG. Good times, great people, lots of work!

Many thanks to George Gomez, a man of few words, for taking the time to answer our questions. More pinball heroes coming soon, and remember you can drop us a line with who you'd like interviewed and I'll see if my mum has them in her phone book!

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

Pinball Heroes: Roger Sharpe

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 16:41:00 +0000

After some light relief provided by the very funny Bryan Kelly, we're back google-stalking industry legends to feature as our Pinball Heroes.

The existence of this blog might even be down to one man (so you can blame him). Had pinball remained illegal in some American states then you've got to think the whole thing would be very different! Thankfully, this one man stepped up to the plate, and the rest - as they say - is history!

Roger Sharpe.

The Pinball Blog. Player, collector, historian, author, professional? Where do you sit most comfortably?

Roger Sharpe. I've never been asked this question before and really don't know if I'm able to differentiate between the various roles I have been able to take during my 'pinball career'. So let me try to answer it this way...

I came into pinball as a player and, at one time far too many years (dare I say decades) ago, was actually a pretty good one at that. So that has definitely been a constant for over 40 years. I don't believe I have ever viewed myself as a collector having encountered so many serious ones when I began doing research for my pinball book.

My collection, if one wants to call it that, numbers only about two dozen machines with many that I had a hand in designing or making happen. Where I might be seen as a collector (although my son Joshua would probably call me a 'hoarder') is my collection of pinball brochures and other literature and this, again, is more an outgrowth of the pinball book and then my subsequent role at Williams Bally/Midway when we were still in the business of designing and producing pinball machines.

As for being a historian and author, those labels have remained and probably rightfully so. I have been an author and not just for the pinball book but I have also written or contributed to thirteen other books so that label is accurate. In regard to being a historian, I take my hat off to the late Dick Bueschel and what he meant to the hobby of pinball in writing his detailed literary contributions to the history of the industry. If anything, I have viewed myself as being more of a 'popular historian' as evidenced by the approach I took with my book and subsequent writings for various publications.

And, lastly, with my apologies for being so long winded, I don't know about the moniker of 'professional'. I'm not a professional player by any stretch of the imagination especially at this stage of my life. My collecting is now limited to the occasional Stern brochure or other collateral materials created for coin-operated amusement games in general as well as the various trade and enthusiast magazines. History continues to happen right before our very eyes and although I might not be documenting it per se, I am still an observer of what is and has been taking place. And, lastly, I suppose I will always be an author although I don't see myself writing any new books in the near future.

TPB. In a varied and interesting career, do you have a particular highlight?

RS. This is a very difficult question to answer since I think of myself as really being blessed when it comes to the role that pinball has had in my life. First off was just the discovery of the games and the magical hold that they had on me almost at first sight. If anything, that experience helped shape and define the life I have had. Writing the pinball book has to rank at or near the top and the doors that the process opened as well as the relationships I formed were, again, life altering.

Testifying before the City Council in New York City (as well as playing to demonstrate that pinball was a game of skill and doing so on a Gottlieb Bank Shot) to over turn the ban on pinball is most assurdedly a highlight not just for myself but the entire industry and its ultimate destiny as a result of my role.

I was given the gift of being able to design pinball machines and take considerable pride in what I was able to achieve with games such as Sharpshooter, Barracora and Cyclopes to name only three. For someone who ventured into the entire world of pinball as just a player, the subsequent road I traveled was never expected or anticipated and as such is a multi-faceted highlight as I look back at my life.

But maybe the greatest highlight is the fact that my sons, Joshua and Zachary, have embraced my love affair with pinball to such an amazing extent. If there is a legacy to be had, they have and continue to carry it on with a depth of passion and commitment that makes be incredibly proud.

TPB. Your boys Zach and Josh are doing some great things with the WPPR & IFPA. Do you still get to tell them off every now and then?

RS. Finally a question that can be answered in a much more succinct fashion. As a father I guess I still have some influence and might I be so bold as to assume some 'power'. When it comes to pinball, our disagreements are few and far between and if there ever is an opportunity to 'tell them off', I honestly can't remember it. But the better question might be, do they still even listen to me--and to that I have to admit: sometimes.

TPB. What was the first machine you owned and what's been the latest addition?

RS. The first machine I ever owned was Gottlieb's Buckaroo, the replay version of Cowpoke (which was the game that I actually wanted but it wasn't available at the time). The latest addition to the collection was Star Wars Episode 1 which I got a few years ago as a birthday present.

TPB. Peter Max? Tell us more?

RS. This was a strange twist of fate brought about by my dear friend Steve Epstein the former owner of the world famous Broadway Arcade in New York City. Forgive the temporary memory loss and I am sure that someone can provide the more accurate details but for the PAPA tournament events we staged in New York, we always tied in with a charity. Whether it was PAPA2 or PAPA3, through a mutual friend, Steve was able to approach Peter Max with the sole purpose of asking him to redo artwork on a reconditioned Pin-Bot courtesy of Frank Seninsky of Alpha-Omega Amusements.

Knowing that this was happening, Neil Nicastro the president of Williams made a lone bid of $11,000 to purchase the game. It was only when I made my way to New York for the tournament that I had the chance to go to Peter Max's studio and see the game as well as meet him. Suffice it to say that the end result of what was done with the cabinet art was less than inspiring. And when I met Peter I made mention that I was the brother of Geraldine Sharpe-Newton who had been a long time friend--we actually have some one-of-a kind art pieces dedicated to her by Peter.

Anyway, his comment upon hearing that Geraldine was my sister was an apology and that if he had known, he would have done much more with the project. When the machine was finally shipped back to Chicago and Neil saw it, he was flabbergasted and wanted to just throw the game away. I stepped in and said I would take it and it resides still in my living room today.

29Jan2009 Added: Photos for this question.

TPB. When you're looking for a pinball license do you ever get approached by the license holder or do you have to go looking?

RS. It can actually work both ways. There have been times over the years where I have been the aggressive pursuer of a particular property--whether a movie or celebrity theme. And there have been many other occasions where the license holder--a studio or agent--has approached me with the opportunity. So it is, and can be, a two way street.

TPB. Is there an existing pinball machine that you wish you'd secured the license for or been involved with the design?

RS. This question made me pause for a moment but there really isn't anything that I wasn't able to get over the years for Williams Bally or, more recently, on a couple of occasions for Stern. I will say that there were any number of licenses that for whatever reason management didn't have an interest in getting or I couldn't find a designer willing to make the commitment.

TPB. If there was a simple playing tip that you could pass on to a wannabe world champion, what would it be?

RS. I don't know if I still have the credibility or skills as a player to offer any such guidance other than to say that you have to make the commitment to being a world class player and be able to master the broadest variety of games from any and all eras. Having said that, the best of the best do have their individual techniques and approaches to game play that, strategically, are totally different to what I did decades ago.

The methodology and science of skillful playing is now an art form of control and precision. But one piece of advice to the upcoming or new player is to not get discouraged and to hone your skills and, lastly, enjoy playing not matter what the outcome.

TPB. Are you making any appearances at events in 2009? Competing, speaking or socialising?

RS. I guess your timing is pretty good with this question since I have tended to not attend too many events or tournaments over the years. And that has definitely been the case when it comes to international events. But this year I will be attending GPO in April in Germany--or at least I am planning to be there.

In addition, the IFPA world championships are going to be staged in England in late July/early August and I will be hoping to make it since it will give me a chance to see my sister, who lives in the UK along with my niece, nephew and their families.

And, last but not least, would be Pinball Expo in the fall. Those are the ones that come instantly to mind although there could be others that I am totally forgetting.

TPB. Finally can you sum up your involvement with pinball in one word or sentence.

RS. I guess my involvement with pinball can best be described as an enduring love affair between myself and an amazingly unique and unparalleled device that has given me so much joy and, maybe in some ways, has helped to keep me young (or at least younger at heart).

- - - - - -

Many thanks to Roger Sharpe, a man who certainly has his place in pinball folklore!

More Pinball Heroes coming soon...

Nick
The Pinball Blog

'The Sharpes'. Photo Courtesy The PinGame Journal

Pinball Heroes: Mystery Guest

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 16:59:00 +0000

When we started this Pinball Heroes thing, it was a smoke-screen to snare a particular industry legend. One man, whose contribution to the pinballing community stands head and shoulders above any other person alive. A product so unique, so innovative, so essential, that whatever the cost, whatever the lengths, whatever the stress, we'd find our man and drag him kicking and screaming to be one of our Pinball Heroes. Nervous moments passed while we waited for a reply from his people and finally, seconds later, the deal was done and we'd got him!

The Product? Pin Footies.
The Man? Bryan Kelly.

The Pinball Blog. So you're Bryan Kelly, CEO of Pin Footie Enterprises. When did you realise you could turn lumps of old wood into something so incredible?

Bryan Kelly. My second love, after pinball, is woodworking. I came up with the idea for Pin Footies for use in my own gameroom. I simply liked the wood look under the legs. I never thought about mass producing them until I started receiving numerous requests for them from guys who saw them on my gameroom picture site. Roughly 2000 Footies later, the rest is history.

TPB. I noticed when playing a machine fitted with pin footies (cherry) that the machine was slightly higher than I was used to. Could you make some "shoe footies" of equal height to get things back on the level?

BK. Funny you mention shoe Footies. Because of the popularity of Pin Footies, Pin Footie Enterprises has faced some competition over the years. A good example is from Rick Swanson and his now defunct Swanson Industries. Here are two examples of his prototypes.

Not to say I haven’t tried new things myself.. Here’s a little something I came up with to try and corner the female market.Needless to say, that idea’s been put on the shelf.

TPB. I've heard the US government are considering a multi-billion dollar bail-out of Pin Footie Enterprises. Couldn't you just cut down some more trees?

BK. I’m not sure who you get your inside information from, Nick, but there’s no bail out necessary. In fact, Pin Footie Enterprises has expansion plans in the works and may even go public.

TPB. I bought a job-lot over of Pin Footies over to the UK and they're not exactly selling like hot-cakes (although the dog is quite partial to them as a chewy toy). This might partly be down to the fact I don't remember where I put the box. Do you think the UK guys just aren't stylish enough to 'get' the whole thing?

BK. Sorry, Nick, it’s not my fault you UK guys have no taste for the finer things in life. You also forget, there are a multitude of uses for Pin Footies. Here are just a few from my good friend Jesse.

TPB. Away from pin footies, I hear you tinker with the odd pinball machine or 2. Tell us more.

BK. My true pinball passion is the restoration side of things. I do enjoy playing them, but I spend about 90% of my pinball time in the shop. For me, there’s nothing like taking a routed machine and making it look like new.

TPB. And the Bryan Kelly restoration video? Coming to "all good video stores near me" anytime soon?

BK. I should give you a little history of the videos. I have a good friend, Chris, who owns his own landscaping business. Living in Minnesota, he has nothing to do in the wintertime. Besides pinball, another passion of his is video work. He came up with the idea of doing a series of restoration videos, so last winter, he videoed me doing a ground up restoration of a Medieval Madness. It took us about 4 months and he ended up with about 18 hours of footage.

The problem now is, all the editing has to take place, and anyone who’s done any of this will tell you, it’s the most time consuming part of the process and takes the longest. As it turns out, Chris has had other commitments this winter, and hasn’t been able to work on it. As much as I’d like to get them done, it looks like it won’t be until next year.

TPB. A ship lost it's load of 1500 tons of timber along the UK coast on the way to your Russian rivals Pin Footski Enterprises. Police are investigating after Oak flavoured round holes were found in the ships hull. Anything you'd like to share?

BK. The FBI’s investigation is still ongoing, so I’m not at liberty to say anything at this time.

TPB. I've heard the delay in the remakes of Medieval Madness is due to a technicality with the size of the levellers not fitting the existing pin footie template. To the people that paid their deposits, and are waiting for these issues to be ironed out, what do you have to say?

BK. Again, the FBI’s investigation is still ongoing, so I’m not at liberty to say anything at this time.

TPB. Although I voted in your favour, Steve Ritchie just pipped you to the post as guest speaker for the UK Pinball Show in 2009. Organisers thought his bar-tab would have less of an impact on show funds. Why should we consider you in the future?

BK. I don’t quite see what the problem is. I would think the attendees would be more than happy to kick in an extra buck or two to cover my bar tab. I mean really….do you honestly think they want to hear from some over the hill, older than dirt pinball designer like Steve Ritchie or hear about the inner workings of Pin Footies Enterprises?

TPB. I've asked everyone else, so you might as well have the same. Can you sum up pinball in one word or sentence.

BK. There’s nothing else in the world like it.

- - - - - -

Many thanks to Bryan for being such a great sport. Get yourself over to Rec.Games.Pinball to meet other equally strange people!

Normal Pinball Heroes service will be resumed shortly....

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

Pictures used without asking from www.pinfooties.com

Pinball Heroes: Steve Ritchie

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:01:00 +0000

Steve Ritchie made some classic pinball machines in a career spanning 4 decades, and we're really looking forward to welcoming him to the UK as the special guest of the UK Pinball Show in July. In the meantime, he gets the Pinball Heroes treatment.

The Pinball Blog. Let's jump right in. Had you ever played poker before designing World Poker Tour?

Steve Ritchie. I had played poker when I was growing up, but I was never an enthusiast. I was forced to design WPT, but I am not at all ashamed of it. The playfield turned out nice, and with the weak license, I decided to compensate with lots of innovative toys. Keith, of course, is a big fan of poker, and his rules are very innovative.

TPB. Hyperball. WTF?

SR. Hyperball was the result of my frustration designing a mechanical game when the world around me was far more interested in video games. At that time, I wanted to produce a video game with a team at Williams but management refused, and said "more pinball please", even though pins weren't selling half as well as the popular video games of the era. I was determined to do something different, and came up with Hyperball. Look closely at the Hyperball playfield: Hyperball is a mechanical "firebase" game like Space Invaders. I wanted it to test the player's skill and accuracy at high speed, and wanted to make a shooting game with very fast machine-gun-like action. We sold 5,000 units, and they earned a lot of money. No regrets.

TPB. You're coming to the UK in the summer for the UK Pinball Show and European Pinball Championship. Any chance you'll be taking home the title?

SR. There is no chance at all. I am only a slightly better than average player, and got my ass trounced as recently as last night when Mike Hafner (phishrace) and other friends and I got together at Pizza Depot in Sunnyvale, CA. I love to play pins, but I am just not that skilled. I consider my average abilities an important asset when designing games. It's too easy for guys like Keith Johnson and Lyman Sheats to play a game for an hour or more. Newer or less-skilled players want to enjoy a game too, and I temper the "front end" of the game to make sure that we achieve the broadest audience possible. Good programmer-players can then add the depth with features that we agree on to make sure there is plenty of challenge for better players.

TPB. I interviewed John Trudeau for Pinball Heroes and he had some kind words to say about you. Can you dish the dirt on John for us please?

SR. John Trudeau is a great guy and a talented game designer. He has been dedicated to pinball his whole working life. I enjoy playing CFTBL, and he designed one of my favorite games of all time, Hollywood Heat. He is very innovative and fun to be around. I haven't seen him in a long time, but hope to see him at EXPO if we both can make it.

(Editor: I guess not!)

TPB. So many enthusiasts with top-end 'A-list' machines also have The Getaway: High Speed II which is, comparatively, a budget title. Any idea why it's so popular among collectors?

SR. I think that The Getaway appeals to better players, and it is an exciting game with flashy and violent toys like the accelerator and the shifter. I think there is some appeal in the visible locks and the ramp that feeds them. It has a good selection of some of the best features from the day. Loud ZZ Top music doesn't hurt either. "La Grange" is the best driving tune I ever heard. I used to play the cassette in my Porsche and turn up the volume as I ripped through the country lanes of Loomis, CA. I think HSII was a 'more modern' take on High Speed. We sold a lot of them, and that's maybe why you say it's a 'budget title'.

Collectors view games differently than I do. I must consider earnings above all else. If the fun to be had on a game is sufficient to generate a high earnings level, then I have done my job. Collectors do not base their pinball choices on any such thing. They buy games that they enjoy. Often, games that earned well end up in collections, as well as games that did not earn well.

TPB. Is there a machine you're immensely proud to have designed and sit back and think "I did that!"?

SR. I haven't made any games that I am not proud of. I spent many hours trying to do my best work on each machine, and tried to top my previous games with each successive game. I feel best when watching someone who is clearly enjoying the play of my machines. I don't say to myself "I did that!", I say to myself "What am I going to do next that will be successful?". In the game business, a developer is only as good as his last game. There is no 'laurel-resting' in my life. I am always ready to begin the next game adventure.

TPB. I'm a fan of the recent Spider-Man, and maybe wish I'd held out for a Spider-Man Black. Was there always a plan to produce a limited edition follow-up, did you have any say, or was it just a marketing strategy?

SR. The marketing plan was in place at the 6-month milestone. It was completely my idea, and I saw the opportunity in the script to produce a special version. Gary Stern of course approved it. He also suggested a mirrored backglass, which I never dreamed he would allow. I was most interested in the webby side armor and made 3 passes at the design for the cutouts. They had to be designed to look great, and not intrude on the player's hands or comfort in any way. Others at Stern wanted a grey colored (!?) armor and legs, etc on SM, but only chrome would do it for me.

TPB. What have you been up to since parting with Stern and what does the future hold for Steve Ritchie?

SR. I have been actively seeking employment! Times are tough. I spend my days writing resumes, interviewing and networking. I have a few other irons in different fires, but none that I can discuss here.

I would love to be producing Xbox 360 or PC video games. I have produced several video games and the sky's the limit with platform games. In November of 2008, $2.3 Billion dollars worth of platform games were sold worldwide. It is obvious that people are realizing the extreme value in buying a game for their home systems instead of going to movies, dining out etc.

There is a huge market for my work, and I can't wait to get started for some company out there.

TPB. I guess you didn't plan on being a pinball designer when you were at school, so what did you want to be?

SR. There was a time that I was very interested in electronics. I have had extensive training in this area and found it fascinating at one time. After my service in the US Coast Guard, I walked into Atari Games in 1974. I knew that I would be making games from that time on.

TPB. Finally, can you sum up pinball in one word or sentence.

SR. Pinball is great fun, but no longer a viable commercial product of the 21st century.

A huge thank you to Steve Ritchie for finding the time to answer our questions. The only trouble is I now have a whole load more I want to know! Guess, I'll have to wait until I see the man in July!

More Pinball Heroes soon..

Nick
The Pinball Blog

Pinball Heroes: Tim Arnold

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 11:45:00 +0000

When we speak to some of our Pinball Heroes there's one place that keeps coming up as a 'must see'. You probably don't need to be a rocket surgeon (or brain scientist for that matter) to work out where that is.

The Las Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame.The Pinball Blog jumped on a plane and popped over to Vegas to catch up with the man behind the madness (actually, we sent him an email).

The Pinball Blog. So you're Tim Arnold from the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas. Do you still get the same kick out of pinball that you did when you first opened the doors to the PHOF?

Tim Arnold. I don't really play pinball anymore. I spend all day every day around the machines. If I get time away, the last thing I want is more bells buzzers and brats. I go play with my dogs.

TPB. If you had to do something else, what would it be?

TA. Don't know anything else, this is all I have done my whole life. Perhaps I could open a soft drink stand on the Merrick road.....

TPB. You're a keen supporter of the Salvation Army, do you ever see how the money is being used and what difference it's making?

TA. Our charitable acts are the most important thing we do. We support the Army because they are a lot like us, low rent, very efficient, and totally dedicated to one thing. The hippy and I just went to the latest graduation ceremony and saw first hand crack heads, dopers, and low lifes that had finished the program, and were placed in a job after training and were ready to rejoin normal life. It was done with our money. I am very proud.
TPB. What happens one day if you're too old to run the Pinball Hall of Fame?

TA. I figure I have 10 more years at least. After that, I will close the museum, take all the machines out in the parking lot and burn them so nobody will ever play pinball again. Or I could find somebody to take over.

TPB. You must have had some interesting visitors to the Pinball Hall of Fame. Are there any that stand out? Maybe one from pinball-circles and one from the 'real' world!

TA. Only non pinball famous guy we ever had was Lenord Maltin, Teevee critic. He came in a limo, stayed about an hour, then left. Nice guy.
Steve Ritchie refused to autograph his brothers games, so he is no longer famous.
Eugene Jarvis really liked the picture on our Asteroids.

TPB. So you let people play pinball and give the money to charity. You sound pretty-darn perfect. There must be a dark side to Tim Arnold. Drink? Drugs? Ladies? All of the above? Come on, you can tell us.

TA. We have had several e-mails from people who came to the museum and expected a personal tour and a lot of time with the Hippy or me, and we spent very little time with them. Every second we are there, we are fixing games. Many people take this as rudeness, when it is just attention to detail. If we have offended anyone, we are sorry.

TPB. If the PHOF had to be somewhere else on the planet, where would it be?

TA. Las Vegas is the only place on earth this can work. You need tourists AND locals to make the numbers work 52 weeks out of the year. Many other places have shows once or twice a year, which is SUPER WAY COOL, but keeping it open year round is a whole nother Magilla.....

TPB. All those change machines and pinballs. How many quarters are in circulation at any one time at the PHOF?

TA. Games are scooped all the time, and we leave very little change in the place over night. No use tempting people. Under 500 dollars.

TPB. Although everyone should try and get to the PHOF, it clearly won't be possible. Is there anything we can do from afar other than marvel at your collection?

TA. In the coming months, we will be moving to 1610 E. Tropicana, a building we will OWN, out of the cramped and dingy rental we are now in. We paid 1.2 million for the new place. We had 700K. in the building fund. We are now 500 thousand in debt. As soon as we get the move over with and up and running, we will be passing the hat among the pinball world in a GIVE ONCE fundraiser. We will have basic memberships, gold, Silver (Not Herb), platinum and diamond memberships, along with sponsorship of a machine, restroom, vending machine, etc. Sorry, toilets are already named for Shaggy and Normm.

When the time comes, PLEASE SEND MONEY!. The sooner we are out of debt, the sooner we can get back to giving to charity.

TPB. Finally, can you sum up pinball in one word or sentence?

TA. Needs more salt!

Many thanks to Tim Arnold who I'm sure has much better things to do than answer questions from us! Thankfully, he found the time.

If you'd like to send a paypal donation to the PHOF then you can use this address (pinballhalloffame@msn.com) to send payment. Or check out the PHOF Support Page to find out other ways you can help the guys.

Hopefully, you're starting to see how Pinball Heroes works! 10 questions, some for fun, some out of curiosity and some to try and start a bun-fight. These guys will have answered thousands of questions over the years, so we're trying to make it a little different!

More Pinball Heroes coming soon!

Cheers

Nick
The Pinball Blog

Pictures used with permission from The Pinball Hall of Fame.

Pinball Heroes: John Trudeau

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 00:23:00 +0000

John Trudeau was the first ever guest speaker at the UK Pinball Show in 2008, becoming the inaugural inductee into the UK Pinball Hall of Fame and certainly made an impact on the UK pin-heads.

A few months have now passed and The Pinball Blog catches up with John to see what he's been up to and to find out what he really thought about the guys over here!

The Pinball Blog. You were the first ever guest speaker at the UK Pinball Show, and certainly helped us secure the evening function as an essential part of the show for visitors. What or who was the influential factor in your agreement to come over for the event, and are you glad you did?

John Trudeau. The real deciding factor was your decision to ask me if I was interested. Gary Flower was our go-between, I believe. He may have even suggested my name. As you can tell, I was very happy to get and accept your invitation. There was never any hesitation in my decision to go. I enjoyed my stay (way too short) and the show and just everything!

TPB. What have you been doing since the show?

JT. I returned to a new engineering design employment opportunity. I am still engaged there. Not as much fun as pinball design, but it pays the bills.

TPB. A little birdie tells me you're working with some of the UK guys on a secret project? Is there anything you can share with us at this time?

JT. Your little birdie is correct. I am laying out a playfield (and designing some new toys) for a group of pinball enthusiasts I met while at the UK Pinball Show. I really don't know how much of this is supposed to be public knowledge, I wasn't told anything either way. I am patterning the theme after the <<<< Editor Snip >>>>>. All of the actual devices (toys) aren't finished, so I am not going to promise anything I can't make good on :o)

TPB. You were certainly a captivating speaker for the UK pinball enthusiasts, do you have any other speaking engagements planned?

JT. Yes. I am talking to the Midwest Gaming Classic (MGC) convention in March in Milwaukee, WI. That's only 90 miles from here. Nice short trip. I haven't been there before (for the convention) but I have heard that it is a really great show. It crosses over to videos and other genres. Should be fun.

Also scheduled to speak at the Pacific Pinball Expo (PPE) in the fall, in San Rafel, CA. That is the biggest west coast convention for the silver balls. I have some family out there, so I am staying a little longer to spend some time with them. Again looks like a fun time! :o)

TPB. Steve Ritchie has agreed to come over as our guest in 2009, did your paths cross during your time designing machines, and do you think he'll have much to say?

JT. Steve and I were friendly competitors for many years, while I was with the competition (Gottlieb/Premier). We became good work friends when I got to WMS. We always have a good word for each other and I have always loved his design work. He will have PLENTY to say at your next get-together! He's an excellent choice for your next guest. I am sure you will not be disappointed! He's a great guy!

TPB. The recent job lay-offs at Stern were a concern for many. Do you think in 5 years there'll be anybody earning their living from designing or building pinball machines?

JT. Only if they are allowed the freedom to design and manufacture the product without outside interference. This, I believe, is what is stopping anyone from starting up something new right now.

TPB. If you had to own a single pinball machine (regardless of designer), what would it be?

JT. This is always the toughest question.... How can I pick from so many? If only I could choose a machine from each designer, but only one machine? To be diplomatic about this I am going to pick my own Creature from the Black Lagoon. But there are an awful lot of great games out there to choose from....

TPB. Are you sure you don't have a secret stash of Judge Dredd toppers?

JT. I wish! I did have a couple in the beginning, but they were given away to friends and family (of course).

TPB. We welcomed you as the inaugural inductee to the new UK Pinball Hall of Fame. Over time we hope the list will build into an industry who's who. Is there anybody you think we simply must have over to be inducted in the future, and why?

JT. I believe any of the pinball designers that have demonstrated their ability to repeatedly bring a fun product to the masses should be in there. If you want a real practical answer I guess you should go by age. We are not a lot of spring chickens, for the most part :o) Let me suggest that there may be a need to bring in some designers (into the Hall of Fame) that can't attend for one reason or another (either health or no longer among the living). I did notice that there weren't any "wood rails" at the show. Perhaps you could put some enticement there for the collectors to bring them too. Just a few would be a nice addition!

TPB. If you had to sum up your time in the industry in one word or sentence, what would it be?

JT. Fantastic! I never dreamt that I would be fortunate enough to have a 'job' that I could love so much. For almost 20 years I went to 'play' not to 'work'. If I could, I would wish this experience for everyone!

Many thanks to John Trudeau for being an exceptional special guest and for taking the time to answer our questions. More Pinball Heroes coming soon, and don't forget to send in your suggestions so we can send out the stalkers.

Cheers

Nick
Pinballers Anonymous

Pinball Heroes: LTG :)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 00:05:00 +0000

If you've ever searched a technical question about pinball machines on the internet, then it's quite likely you would have come across an answer/solution posted by LTG :) on Rec.Games.Pinball (RGP).

So who is this LTG :) fella, and what makes him tick?

The Pinball Blog attempts to find out more about the man from SS Billiards who can.The Pinball Blog. On RGP you are possibly the leading authority on pinball repairs and tips. Where did you learn it all?

LTG :) I sincerely doubt I'm the leading authority on RGP for pinball repairs. There are a lot of people there who contribute a lot, and sadly a lot of them don't get the recognition they deserve. Whether it's complicated tech help, parts, a favor, etc. RGP is loaded with a wealth of good help dedicated to pinball and this has always made me feel honored to be a part of this newsgroup.

I do think a lot of people identify with me. Especially people new to the hobby. If I can help with their problem, I try to figure where their repair skill level is at, and work through to a solution for them so they can make the repair and gain in confidence and repair skills. My thinking has always been that if a new person comes for help and gets it, the hobby grows and gets stronger, and that helps everybody. On other newsgroups new people ask a question and get flamed, and that hurts the group and particular hobby. Check out one of the barren newsgroups and what stuff sells for in that hobby, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that they destroyed it themselves.

RGP generally is more humane towards new people. A few are gun shy and will email me rather than take a chance on the newsgroup. They usually start off with an apology for contacting me directly, but they need help. I don't ignore them or blast them out of the water. I always respond and start off with " Hi my friend, good to hear from you".

As far as learning, I've spent near half a century in coin op. I remember being about 4 years old and standing on a stool and scrubbing a baseball machine playfield with comet cleanser. Most of my years were pre-internet and instant help. You needed to get something fixed, it didn't matter if you knew how or had parts or not, you figured it out. The process of needing to learn probably helped me.

TPB. Are you still learning today?

LTG :) I think as long as a person is alive they are learning. Technology changes, parts quality changes, we are always learning better ways to care for our games. The manufacturers weren't building them for collectors many years later. The sheer number of years collectors are getting out of their games and the quality of the game's condition, is testament to a lot of learning.

And I'm still forgetting too. As things change and we leave things behind, you don't remember everything. I used to be pretty sharp with EM games and pinball machines, it's probably been over 25 years since I've been in one. I'm sure I'd be lost for a while and have forgotten the basic problems and what to do for them.

TPB. Although currently a tough-time for coin-op you must have some incredible highlights from your time in the business. Is there a moment that particularly stands out?

LTG :) From a business standpoint it would be October 23rd, 1987. A Friday, I had just put in the new rug, gotten Sega's sit down afterburner. MEA week, kids had off from school on Thursday and Friday. That Friday I set a record for one day income in my business, just 5 years after the video game fad flopped, a time when I didn't know how much longer I'd be able to remain open. And I managed to bring my business back huge. A feat I'm trying to replicate again.

From a humanitarian standpoint. It would be an incident at my 30th Aninversary party. Lyman Sheats was there and brought souvenirs to hand out. There was a father brought his little girl in to play pinball. She was cute, the perfect kid. About 8 years old, missing a tooth, freckles. I asked Lyman if he'd do me a favor. Autograph a Medieval Madness poster for the child. Lyman did. I gave it to the girl. She was thrilled. The next day the father called and thanked me for the poster and that he hung it on his daughter's wall. She loved it. I suggested he should get it framed. When he asked why I told him to look at the autograph and then the design credits on the playfield. He was all excited, he said he'd get it framed for his daughter. Nothing in the world like putting a smile on a child's face.

TPB. We've all made some great friends through pinball. Is there an individual you have met this way who you're glad you did and what influence have they had on your life and/or business?

LTG :) . Steve Tsubota. Only person I've ever met who I wished I was more like.

TPB. In 5 years do you think there will be anybody designing or making pinball machines?

LTG :) Stern pinball. I don't know if Gary Stern will still own it, or be as active in running it. But they are surviving in the worst of times, and I think will continue for some time to come. If the economy turns around and the hobby stays strong, I believe we may see a custom manufacturer or two pop up. But it would be very limited runs and extremely costly. Namely for the rich and famous.

TPB. If you had a time machine and had a chance to go back to where you started in the business, would you take a different path?

LTG :) When I got out of high school, if I had the money to start the schooling, I'd be in radio broadcasting now. I would have never continued working for my father. As far as my business, the average life of a game room is a year and a half. So I never dreamt of being there over 36 years. Had I known that then, I would have stood in the center of the room and taken pictures front and back to see the changes in games and technology. I would have kept a diary too. Why I got a game, why I didn't, and if I did, pictures and notes about it. I was a test operator for 19 years, so I had a lot of odd ball stuff come through here.

TPB. Is there a pinball place or event, anywhere in the world (other than SS Billiard of course) that is worth a visit for every enthusiast?

LTG :) Of places I'd like to see and haven't: the woodrail pinball museum in France, Pinball Hall Of Fame in Las Vegas, and any pinball show anywhere on the planet, big or small.

Of things I have seen: Pinball Expo in Chicago. Especially with their Silver Anniversary this year. I've always loved Expo. So much to see and do. Mike and Rob put on a heck of a show. Stern tour, seminars, tournaments, increasing time pins can be played, banquet, which is a tradition in itself, fireside chat. And the people. You never know who you'll run into. Old friend, new friend, somebody famous from the industry, somebody famous from supporting and promoting pinball. I like to land there, grab some souvenir mugs to hand out, and then mingle. I like to go with the flow. A bunch of people go to lunch, tag along, get back, another group are leaving and go with. I've had three lunches in a row. You just never know who you'll all run into. I am sad I can't see everybody and spend time with them or even get in a game of pinball with them. I love Expo and all the people there.

TPB. As an enthusiast, what in your opinion was the best pinball machine ever made?

LTG :) While I'm not much of a player and rarely get to play, I've always loved Capcom's Kingpin.

TPB. Now, as a businessman, what has been the most successful pinball machine for you, and if you know, why?

LTG :) Funhouse. Wore out two playfields on one here. I believe it was the game that kicked off the modern era of pinball as we know it. It really launched the 1990's for pinball.

TPB. If you had to sum up pinball in one word or sentence, what would it be?

LTG :) One of the few things built by man that is almost alive.

Many thanks to LTG :) from SS Billiards who despite his modesty, really is a leading authority on RGP. Many people join in and ask for help, countless thousands of others will just be finding his answers on a search engine from the other side of the world. If you ever find yourself in Hopkins, Minnesota, then be sure to pop along to play the games and meet the great man himself.

And of course we welcome suggestions for future Pinball Heroes victims.

Cheers

Nick
Pinballers Anonymous

SS Billiards Pictures used with permission from SS Billiards