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Pinball wizard Steve Kordek passes away

Pinball wizard Steve Kordek passes away

THE death has taken place of Steve Kordek who is credited with transforming the game of pinball. He was 100.

The modern pinball game can incorporate sophisticated software and images, but when Mr. Kordek became involved with the game it was low-tech.

His initial introduction to the game came about as the result of a shower of rain. He had been out looking for a job in his home city of Chicago in 1937 when he was caught in the shower and had took shelter in a nearby building.

The building turned out to the headquarters of the Genco company — one of the main manufacturers of pinball games. The receptionist asked if he was looking for a job and he was soon working on the production line.

By the late 1940s he was working in Genco’s design department. His first major innovation, which helped transform the game, came about after he was put under pressure to come-up with a design to counter a rival company’s new game. He found himself in the design ‘hotseat’ because his boss had fallen hill. 

Mr. Kordeck’s innovation was to turn pinball into a defensive game by removing flippers from the upper portion of the game and leaving just two electrically-powered flippers at the bottom. Now players were able to use these flippers to keep the ball in play.

In the years that followed, Mr. Kordek was to design nearly 100 games and introduce further innovations to enhance the player experience. In his Vagabond game (1962) he introduced drip targets for the first time. These were obstacles on the playing surface which when struck (earning extra points) would drop down.

He was also responsible for coming up with the Beat The Clock system which saw players having to deal with up to six balls at once in a bid to earn extra points.

Mr. Kordek never lost his enthusiasm for designing new games or with keeping abreast with technologies or techniques. When he was in his 80s he took night classes to learn about software development.

He contributed his last game, Vacation America, in 2003.

To view the 100th. birthday tribute to Steve Kordek, click here.

 

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