Steve kordek pinball games

Kickstarter Tumblr Art Club. Film TV Games. Fortnite Game of Thrones Books. Comics Music. Filed under:. The father of pinball games, Steve Kordek, passes away at New, 15 comments. Linkedin Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. Pinball Machine Flipper Flickr. More From The Verge. Sign up for the newsletter Verge Deals Subscribe to get the best Verge-approved tech deals of the week.

Just one more thing! Please confirm your subscription to Verge Deals via the verification email we just sent you. There was no way I was going to put six flippers on a game when I could get away with two. Kordek died Sunday at a hospice in Park Ridge, Ill. He was Born Dec. In his early 20s, Kordek joined the Civilian Conservation Corps and worked for a few years with the Forestry Service in Idaho before returning to Chicago. In the s, he left Genco to work for Bally Manufacturing Corp.

Through the s, he designed up to 20 games a year. He eventually became chief advisor and mentor to up-and-coming designers. Even after almost 80 years, Kordek found out that you just needed 2 flippers in a pinball machine, and those had to be positioned at the bottom of the playfield. It sounds so simple, and in fact it is. But there was only one person who invented this, and that man is called Steve Kordek. In the many years after his innovation with the flippers, Kordek changed the world of pinball in an inimitable way.

These were also invented by Kordek. Certainly not in these days, when only 3 or 4 new titles are launched yearly. But, from an unusual perspective, was one of the most successful years for Steve. In that year, both Space Mission and Grand Prix were launched. More than 10, machines were manufactured of each title. Seven Up was a special machine as well, not only because Pat Lawlor once confessed to it being his all time favourite, but because of the theme, the backglass and the gameplay.

Vacation America from was the last machine Kordek worked on. The pinball division closing its doors: this image being a striking metaphor for the pinball industry slowly passing away. Fortunately it never went that far, and until his very last days Kordek was involved with everything happening in the pinball industry. Every single year he visited Pinball Expo in Chicago. No matter what happened, Kordek always came by to talk about pinball and about the history of pinball.

There was simply one reason for doing so: he was the living conscience of pinball, and had created his own legacy in the industry. As Steve turned , a great birthday movie was created. You can still watch it on YouTube.