George Gomez | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Havana, Cuba |
| Nationality | Cuban American |
| Other names | Jorge Alfredo Gomez Marth |
| Occupation | Designer |
| Known for | Pinball, video games, toys |
George Gomez is an industrial designer, video game designer, and pinball designer who has worked for Bally, Williams, and Stern Pinball, among other companies. He has designed or contributed to several notable games, including Tron (1982), NBA Fastbreak (1997), and Monster Bash (1998).
Gomez received a degree in industrial design in the late 1970s, influenced by his interest in drawing an making things as a child. [1]
Gomez began his career in game design at Bally Midway in 1978. [2] He worked on the team that created the Tron video game, and headed the team that created Spy Hunter . In 1984, after the 1983 video game crash, he left Midway to invent toys at the consulting firm Marvin Glass & Associates.
Gomez is the inventor of numerous toys, including Tonka's "Splash Darts" and Galoob's "Crash-N-Bash".
After Glass, Gomez worked on projects through the contract manufacturer Grand products, including the Battletech Centers and several Sega, Jaleco and Taito coin op video games of the late 80's. In 1993 he became a designer at Williams Electronics and designed several notable pinball machines including Monster Bash and was one of the lead developers of the Pinball 2000 system. [3]
After Williams closed their pinball division, Gomez re-joined Midway Games heading Xbox and PlayStation game development teams. [4] Gomez was one of key designers of the street basketball video game series NBA Ballers . While at Midway he became a consultant designer to Stern Pinball; during this time he designed several games, including The Lord of the Rings, Batman the Dark Knight, Playboy and The Sopranos. In July, 2011 he joined Stern Pinball as Vice President of Game Development, responsible for all of the company's product development efforts. [5]
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Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails called 'pins' and had hollows or pockets which scored points if the ball came to rest in them. Today, pinball is most commonly an arcade game in which the ball is fired into a specially designed cabinet known as a pinball machine, hitting various lights, bumpers, ramps, and other targets depending on its design. The game's object is generally to score as many points as possible by hitting these targets and making various shots with flippers before the ball is lost. Most pinball machines use one ball per turn, and the game ends when the ball(s) from the last turn are lost. The biggest pinball machine manufacturers historically include Bally Manufacturing, Gottlieb, Williams Electronics and Stern Pinball.
Midway Games Inc., known previously as Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known as simply Midway, was an American video game developer and publisher. Midway's franchises included Mortal Kombat, Rampage, Spy Hunter, NBA Jam, Cruis'n, and NFL Blitz. Midway also acquired the rights to video games that were originally developed by Williams Electronics and Atari Games, such as Defender, Joust, Robotron: 2084, Gauntlet, and the Rush series.
WMS Industries, Inc. was an American electronic gaming and amusement manufacturer in Enterprise, Nevada. It was merged into Scientific Games in 2016. WMS's predecessor was the Williams Manufacturing Company, founded in 1943 by Harry E. Williams. However, the company that became WMS Industries was formally founded in 1974 as Williams Electronics, Inc.
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Christopher P. Granner is a freelance music composer, best known for composing music for video games and pinball games.
Patrick M. Lawlor is a video game and pinball machine designer.
Steven Scott Ritchie is an American pinball and video game designer. His career began in the 1970s, Ritchie holds the record for best-selling pinball designer in history. He has been called "The Master of Flow" due to the emphasis in his designs on ball speed, loops, and long smooth shots. Ritchie was also the original voice of Shao Kahn in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series, serving as the announcer of Mortal Kombat II (1993), Mortal Kombat 3 (1995), and the updates to Mortal Kombat 3. He is the older brother of fellow pinball designer Mark Ritchie.
Digital Compression System, or DCS, is a sound system developed by Williams Electronics. This advanced sound board was used in Williams and Bally pinball games, coin-op arcade video games by Midway Manufacturing, and mechanical and video slot machines by Williams Gaming. This sound system became the standard for these game platforms.
Brian L. Schmidt is a music composer for various video games and pinball machines.
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Harley-Davidson was a pinball machine arcade game manufactured by Midway and released under the Bally label in February 1991. Barry Oursler and Mark Sprenger designed the pinball game utilizing the Williams Pinball Controller arcade system board platform. This was the first pinball game sold under the Bally label to use the Williams WPC system and their last to use an Alphanumeric Display.
John A. Popadiuk Jr. is a Canadian pinball machine designer. He started work in the business at 19 for Bally in 1980, and later at WMS Gaming from 1989 to 2000. He now works for deeproot Tech as Exclusive Game Designer.
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Lyman F. Sheats Jr. was an American pinball champion, game designer and coin-operated game operating system software engineer who had worked for Bally, Williams, and Stern Pinball, among other companies.