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 '80s. 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 EVP/ Chief Creative Officer, 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.
Midway Games Inc. was an American video game company that existed from 1958 to 2010. 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 WMS Industries 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.
Stern is the name of two different but related arcade gaming companies. Stern Electronics, Inc. manufactured arcade video games and pinball machines from 1977 until 1985, and was best known for Berzerk. Stern Pinball, Inc., founded in 1986 as Data East Pinball, is a manufacturer of pinball machines in North America.
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.
NBA Fastbreak is a 1997 pinball machine released by Williams Electronics Games.
Checkpoint is a 1991 pinball machine released by Data East. It featured the first dot matrix display (DMD) ever incorporated into a pinball game. For Checkpoint, Data East used a "half-height" DMD. By way of comparison, Williams later produced machines with standard DMDs that were twice the height. Checkpoint also features video mode minigames on its display.
Scared Stiff is a 1996 pinball game designed by Dennis Nordman and released by Midway, featuring horror show-hostess Elvira. It is the follow-up to 1989's Elvira and the Party Monsters, also designed by Nordman.
Pinball 2000 was the last pinball hardware and software platform developed by major pinball manufacturer Williams, and was used in the machines Revenge From Mars and Star Wars Episode I before Williams exited the pinball business on October 25, 1999. It is the successor to the Williams Pinball Controller platform.
The Williams Pinball Controller (WPC) is an arcade system board platform used for several pinball games designed by Williams and Midway between 1990 and early 1999. It is the successor to their earlier System 11 hardware. It was succeeded by Williams/Midway's Pinball 2000 platform, before Williams left the pinball business in October 1999.
The Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show is an annual pinball and arcade game festival held in Tacoma, Washington, United States.
The Party Zone is a crossover solid-state pinball machine released in 1991 by Midway designed by Dennis Nordman and programmed by Jim Strompolis. It is in a single playfield format and collaborates characters from previous pinball machines. It is the second pinball machine released after the Bally-Midway division was sold, yet still operated under the "Bally" name.
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.
Play-Boy is a pinball machine released by Gottlieb in 1932. The game features a card gambling theme. It should not be confused with several other pinball machines with the name Playboy as from Rally Play Company, Bally, Data East and Stern.
Lost World is a pinball machine released by Bally in 1977. The game features a fantasy theme. It should not be confused with the pinball machine Escape from the Lost World from 1987.
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.