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Inventor of the Modern Pinball Machine Dies At 100
porsche911 writes with this excerpt from the New York Times: "Steve Kordek, who revolutionized the game of pinball in the 1940s by designing what became the standard two-flipper machine found in bars and penny arcades around the world, died on Sunday at a hospice in Park Ridge, Ill. He was 100. ... 'Steve's impact would be comparable to D. W. Griffith moving from silent films through talkies and color and CinemaScope and 3-D with computer-generated graphics,' [pinball historian Roger] Sharpe said. 'He moved through each era seamlessly.'"
***TILT***
As a kid, I loved pinball machines. It was like a coming-of-age thing to go to the game parlor full of these beeping, ringing, singing gadgets and blow 4, 5, 6 quarters on these wonderful games of skill and chance and, er, gravity.
Many kids today probably haven't had a chance to play a physical, mechanical pinball machine. It's a visceral, physical experience, different from the cute virtual pinball games available on most computers. Kind of like playing a real piano versus an electronic keyboard, only more so. There was the art of shaking the machine just enough not to get a tilt penalty. There was the knowledge of each machine's little quirks and peculiarities.
Thank you Mr. Kordek for your contributions (note that he did not "invent" pinball machines; he invented the paddles, as the article explains). You changed the world, hopefully for the better!
By the way, another interesting factoid in the article: in the late 40s, there were TWO DOZEN manufacturers of pinball machines just in the Chicago area alone. Them was the days for manufacturing in this country!
it's = "it is"; its = possessive. E.g., it's flapping its wings.
Shouldn't he get a free game at 100?
He outlived his creation... Pinball machines are almost nowhere to be found any more. Unfortunately those photoplay machines offered more variety in gameplay and less maintenance (not to mention way less floorspace), replacing pinballs almost worldwide.
I find pinball machines (especially the later ones, from the solid state era) a perfect blending of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, art, and game.
As a proud owner of an Addams Family machine, I can only think of Anjelica Huston's sampled voice saying "Rest in peace" after draining the final ball.
He was at each of the Chicago shows I got the chance to go to and was always willing to meet fans, shake hands and talk pinball.
He was obviously in it for the love of the game.
I am glad I got to meet him and speaking for all the pinheads out here I say he will be missed.
I worked at Williams/Bally/Midway/Atari/etc in the late 90's. I worked in the coin-op video game division, where Steve was across the street in the pinball division. Occasionally he'd swing by our building, and had a fondness for the game system I was working on, so he'd sit at the test machine outside my office and play for quite a while. He always had this knack for making what sounded like the simplest suggestion, yet it actually being a profound change that took it to the next generation.
He'd walk into my office and say "You know, I like (game X) a lot. Have you thought about adding (feature Y)? It's probably a lot of work, but maybe worth it?" and an hour later we were smacking our foreheads as to why we hadn't thought of that ourselves. There's no doubt in my mind how he could look at something like a flipperless pinball machine and figure out how to take it to the next level. It's something I really wish I could do more often myself.
He was a great guy, and one of the most patient people I've known. He'll be greatly missed.