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Steve Kordek, 100, Legendary Pinball Designer
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NotYetObit
Feb 19, 2012, 1:38:51 PM2/19/12
to
Word is just getting out that legendary pinball machine designer Steve Kordek
passed away in Chicago this morning at age 100.
It is mentioned in an email from The PinGame Journal Magazine and others in the
pinball world including the newsgroup rec.games.pinball. It should be on the
Chicago newspaper sites soon, as well as pinball news outlets like:
http://www.pinballnews.com/
http://www.pingamejournal.com/
Although the news has *NOT* yet been announced on these sites.
2009 profile, when he was 98!
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-07-08/news/0907060393_1_stern-pinball-multiball-roger-sharpe
2009 Photos:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-pinball720090706144609,0,5144936.photo
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-pinball520090706144337,0,2851172.photo
Thanks for being the one to add flippers to pinball, Steve!
--
passed away in Chicago this morning at age 100.
It is mentioned in an email from The PinGame Journal Magazine and others in the
pinball world including the newsgroup rec.games.pinball. It should be on the
Chicago newspaper sites soon, as well as pinball news outlets like:
http://www.pinballnews.com/
http://www.pingamejournal.com/
Although the news has *NOT* yet been announced on these sites.
2009 profile, when he was 98!
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-07-08/news/0907060393_1_stern-pinball-multiball-roger-sharpe
2009 Photos:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-pinball720090706144609,0,5144936.photo
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-pinball520090706144337,0,2851172.photo
Thanks for being the one to add flippers to pinball, Steve!
--
MWB
Feb 19, 2012, 2:10:57 PM2/19/12
to
"I just figured two flippers on a game was enough," said Kordek, who went on
to design about 100 pinball games, and worked on hundreds more. "I was
taught to be very conservative to hold down costs. There was no way I would
put six flippers on a game when I could get away with two."
I spent my youth playing the silver ball.
I don't care for the multiple pairs of flippers.
I'd love to have a late 1960's - early 1970's machine in my man cave.
This was one of my favorites. Give me a quarter and I will play this game
all day.
http://user.xmission.com/~daina/images/jw/baseball.html
GO LEIF MANSON
Mark
to design about 100 pinball games, and worked on hundreds more. "I was
taught to be very conservative to hold down costs. There was no way I would
put six flippers on a game when I could get away with two."
I spent my youth playing the silver ball.
I don't care for the multiple pairs of flippers.
I'd love to have a late 1960's - early 1970's machine in my man cave.
This was one of my favorites. Give me a quarter and I will play this game
all day.
http://user.xmission.com/~daina/images/jw/baseball.html
GO LEIF MANSON
Mark
NotYetObit
Feb 19, 2012, 8:54:57 PM2/19/12
to
National Public Radio report:
http://www.npr.org/2012/02/19/147131062/the-man-who-revolutionized-pinball-dies-at-100
The Man Who Revolutionized Pinball Dies At 100
February 19, 2012
Sunday the world lost a man who elevated a simple arcade game into an American
obsession. Steve Kordek was Mr. Pinball. National Pinball Museum founder David
Silverman talks to guest host Mary Louise Kelly Kordek and his legacy.
NotYetObit
Feb 20, 2012, 2:45:33 PM2/20/12
to
http://www.vendingtimes.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=EB79A487112B48A296B38C81345C8C7F&nm=Vending+Features&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=7C99F301B662448386A4A6BD1500188D
Steve Kordek, A Pinball Legend, Dies At 100
Issue Date: Vol. 52, No. 3, March 2012, Posted On: 2/19/2012
by Nick Montano
PARK RIDGE, IL -- Steve Kordek, widely regarded as the man who transformed the
pinball machine from a simple arcade game into a great American pastime, died on
Feb. 19. He was 100.
About 80 years ago, a young man who would become a coin-op legend wandered into
a penny arcade machine company called Genco Manufacturing "just to get out of
the rain," as he tells it. He stayed to revolutionize the pinball industry, and
many of his designs, still used today, would elevate the game into a
sophisticated entertainment form.
In 1947, Kordek's Triple Action (Genco) was the first pinball machine to
incorporate only two flippers at the bottom of the playfield. These more
powerful flippers were facilitated by the addition of a DC power supply. Also
invented by Kordek were the first drop targets, unveiled with Vagabond
(Williams-1962), and multi-ball play, featured on Beat the Clock
(Williams-1963).
The player-controlled flippers at the bottom of the playfield, drop targets and
multi-ball mode have been standard pinball game features ever since. These
innovations were a few of many by Kordek.
On Dec. 26, 2011, Steve Kordek turned 100 years old. Admirers of the pinball
superstar celebrated his remarkable life at a party in Niles, IL, on Jan. 20.
During his six decades in the coin machine industry, he designed more than 100
pinball games for Genco, Williams and Bally.
David Silverman of the National Pinball Museum spoke to NPR's Mary Louise Kelly
about Kordek's legacy. "Steve Kordek's big breakthrough was the design of a game
with two flippers instead of a lot of flippers, and in the position they are in
today," Silverman told NPR.
In pinball circles, Kordek became a legend, and well into his nineties he would
get mobbed at pinball events. "Every year he would go to Pinball Expo in
Chicago, no matter what, and everybody would want to hear him talk and listen to
his history -- because it was the history of pinball," Silverman said.
Steve Kordek, along with such designers as Gottlieb's Wayne Neyens, were the men
who made the pinball manufacturers of yesteryear great, Silverman told NPR,
because they kept producing the games that the public continued to want to play.
Listen to the NPR report here
http://www.npr.org/2012/02/19/147131062/the-man-who-revolutionized-pinball-dies-at-100
Steve Kordek, A Pinball Legend, Dies At 100
Issue Date: Vol. 52, No. 3, March 2012, Posted On: 2/19/2012
by Nick Montano
PARK RIDGE, IL -- Steve Kordek, widely regarded as the man who transformed the
pinball machine from a simple arcade game into a great American pastime, died on
Feb. 19. He was 100.
About 80 years ago, a young man who would become a coin-op legend wandered into
a penny arcade machine company called Genco Manufacturing "just to get out of
the rain," as he tells it. He stayed to revolutionize the pinball industry, and
many of his designs, still used today, would elevate the game into a
sophisticated entertainment form.
In 1947, Kordek's Triple Action (Genco) was the first pinball machine to
incorporate only two flippers at the bottom of the playfield. These more
powerful flippers were facilitated by the addition of a DC power supply. Also
invented by Kordek were the first drop targets, unveiled with Vagabond
(Williams-1962), and multi-ball play, featured on Beat the Clock
(Williams-1963).
The player-controlled flippers at the bottom of the playfield, drop targets and
multi-ball mode have been standard pinball game features ever since. These
innovations were a few of many by Kordek.
On Dec. 26, 2011, Steve Kordek turned 100 years old. Admirers of the pinball
superstar celebrated his remarkable life at a party in Niles, IL, on Jan. 20.
During his six decades in the coin machine industry, he designed more than 100
pinball games for Genco, Williams and Bally.
David Silverman of the National Pinball Museum spoke to NPR's Mary Louise Kelly
about Kordek's legacy. "Steve Kordek's big breakthrough was the design of a game
with two flippers instead of a lot of flippers, and in the position they are in
today," Silverman told NPR.
In pinball circles, Kordek became a legend, and well into his nineties he would
get mobbed at pinball events. "Every year he would go to Pinball Expo in
Chicago, no matter what, and everybody would want to hear him talk and listen to
his history -- because it was the history of pinball," Silverman said.
Steve Kordek, along with such designers as Gottlieb's Wayne Neyens, were the men
who made the pinball manufacturers of yesteryear great, Silverman told NPR,
because they kept producing the games that the public continued to want to play.
Listen to the NPR report here
http://www.npr.org/2012/02/19/147131062/the-man-who-revolutionized-pinball-dies-at-100
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