Pat Lawlor had originally been a video game designer and had entered the coin-operated game design industry in 1980, working for Dave Nutting Associates. Lawlor's pinball career began as an engineer for Williams in 1987, when he co-designed a dual-playfield machine called Banzai Run with Larry DeMar. In 1988, he was assigned his first individual design project, a machine entitled Earthshaker!, which was released in January 1989. Notably, Earthshaker! was the first pinball machine with a shaker motor.[citation needed]
Early games
Lawlor's first solo project, Earthshaker!, was noteworthy for its implementation of a relatively obscure theme (earthquakes). The follow-up to Earthshaker! tackled a different form of natural disaster: tornados. The new game, Whirlwind, was released in early 1990 to similar praise. Both games demonstrated components of Lawlor's design methodology.
Foremost, Lawlor introduced thematically appropriate elements that altered gameplay. For instance, upon progressing toward multiball mode in Earthshaker!, the playfield vibrated to simulate the effect of an earthquake. In a similar mode in Whirlwind, rubberized disks set flush in the playfield spun rapidly back and forth to throw the ball off course as it passed over them, while an electric fan mounted on top of the backbox blew wind in the player's face.
Secondly, Lawlor created playfields that were especially crowded compared to the faster flow-oriented machines that were popular at the time. Lawlor also introduced his signature "bumper shot", in which players needed to shoot the ball between pop bumpers—a tricky shot that requires great precision. Also, critical shots in Earthshaker! and Whirlwind were obstructed when attempted from the lower flippers, and could only be hit directly from a third flipper, located near the middle of the playfield on one side, requiring that players develop acuity at sending the ball across the playfield rather than simply up the playfield. Thus, his style of gameplay has often been described by players as "stop and go". Whirlwind was among the first pinball machines to feature what became known as a "wizard mode," a final special mode accessed by particularly skilled players for completing numerous difficult tasks on the playfield, a reward that was imitated in many future designs. "Wizard modes" were important in giving pinball games a sense of progression absent from pinball in its earlier years.
Lawlor followed up Whirlwind with FunHouse, which released in November 1990. Funhouse was a carnival-oriented game which bore the trademark playfield elements established in Earthshaker! and Whirlwind, plus a unique talking head named "Rudy" (voiced by Ed Boon). Over 10,000 machines were produced.
Other releases from the 1990s
The Addams Family
Lawlor's next design went on to become the best-selling pinball of all time. The Addams Family (TAF) was released in March 1992 by Midway (under the Bally label) and ultimately sold 20,270 units. The Addams Family was the first time Lawlor developed a game around a licensed theme rather than an original concept.
The Addams Family included several new features. One of these was "Thing Flips," in which the game could automatically take control of one flipper under certain circumstances and attempt to make a particularly difficult shot for the player. Results of previous shots were used to adjust the timing of the flip for each new attempt. Lawlor also placed magnets under the playfield that were activated during multiball and other modes, adding tension and randomness to the gameplay. In 1994, a limited-edition Gold version was produced to commemorate the record-breaking sales of the original. The Addams Family Gold featured minor rule modifications, as well as cosmetic enhancements such as a gold lockbar and gold-trimmed rails.
Twilight Zone
His next design (over which he was given complete creative control) was another licensed theme based on a popular television show: The Twilight Zone (TZ). While Twilight Zone never sold as many units as The Addams Family (although it did sell over 15,000 units) it is popular amongst pinball enthusiasts, due in part to its complicated ruleset.
Its complexity was a mixed blessing, highlighting many of the pitfalls of the coin-operated game industry in general and pinball in particular. That is, the more elaborate the game, the more likely it would overwhelm the average player, which in turn would hurt sales. Furthermore, Twilight Zone was expensive to produce, particularly in the massive quantities that were expected following the astronomical record sales of The Addams Family. Lawlor was well aware of the difficulties the project posed, as he told an audience at a trade show in 2003. "We had a nickname for Twilight Zone," he said, "and it was 'In Excess Pinball'...we had just gotten done setting the record with Addams Family, and [Williams executives] were willing to let us do anything, and we did, which was a big mistake." While he conceded that "extreme pinball players" would enjoy the game, he added that "from a commercial standpoint, we were out of control...nobody would be allowed to do something that complicated again; nor should they be."
Among its toys was an elevated, magnetic flipperless mini-playfield; the player pressed the flipper buttons to activate the magnets, driving the ball into switches on the walls and through a scoring hole at the top. The game also featured a gumball machine, which could be loaded by the player and which could dispense a ball into play. This machine was also connected to another new feature, the "Powerball" — a white ceramic ball which was lighter than the others and unaffected by the game's magnets. A fully operational, 12-hour analogue clock served as a timer for several modes and could also display the current time.
Red & Ted's Road Show
After the release of Steve Ritchie's Star Trek: The Next Generation machine in late 1993, the fortunes of the pinball industry began to decline as the coin-operated arcade industry faltered in the face of increasingly advanced home video game systems. 1994 saw the release of Red & Ted's Road Show, a game that paid homage in many respects to The Addams Family and Twilight Zone while reverting to the more generic theme-oriented play of his earlier games like Earthshaker!, Whirlwind, and FunHouse. Instead of another natural disaster theme, Lawlor decided to make a game based on construction work and cross-country travel. It is said that he arrived at the concept for Road Show while sitting stuck in rush-hour traffic outside of Chicago due to road construction. The game became particularly popular at truck stops.
While the theme of Road Show paid homage to Earthshaker! and Whirlwind, the game's most prominent feature duplicated the talking "Rudy" head in FunHouse. Road Show included two talking-head characters: a male bulldozer driver named Ted and his female boss named Red (voiced by country singer Carlene Carter; she also performs her song, "Every Little Thing" in the multiball and jackpot modes). The game's design, however, resembled The Addams Family and Twilight Zone in that a sinkhole started modes, the progression of which could be followed by a prominent display in the bottom center of the playfield. It had a dual-plunger design reminiscent of FunHouse.
Decline of pinball
1995 marked the first year since 1991 that a new Pat Lawlor-designed pinball machine did not appear. The decline of the pinball industry had intensified by this point, and, even though several well-received pinball machines came out during this period, including Steve Ritchie's No Fear: Dangerous Sports, John Popadiuk's Theatre of Magic, and Brian Eddy's Attack from Mars, the commercial success of pinball machines was diminishing by each fiscal quarter.
In 1996, Lawlor designed a new take on pinball, an innovative game called Safecracker, which featured a much smaller playfield than standard pinball machines of the time, operated on a timer rather than a 3-ball structure, and featured a backglass-based "board game" as a major gameplay feature. Safecracker was unique in that players could earn collectible tokens by achieving certain goals. It is widely believed that Safecracker was actually originally intended to be a game based on the Monopoly board game, a contention supported by the prominence of the generic board game ultimately included in the final product, but Williams was unable to negotiate a favorable deal for the license. True or not, Lawlor got another crack at Monopoly in 2001. Safecracker, however, met with uneven critical response and was not a particularly successful commercial product: only 1,148 units of Safecracker left the Williams factory (compared to the over 20,000 units of The Addams Family only four years earlier.)
Lawlor returned to his more conventional style in 1997 with No Good Gofers, an amusing golf-themed machine that returned to his standard signature design elements as well as featuring the return of the spinning disc from Whirlwind. The game included a retractable ramp that launched a ball onto a transparent upper playfield with a hole at the top to simulate a golf shot for a "hole-in-one". No Good Gofers was a limited commercial success with only 2,711 units made.
1998, however, marked the beginning of the end for the Williams pinball franchise, as its final three games, The Champion Pub, Monster Bash, and Cactus Canyon were released. The production run of Cactus Canyon was cut short as Williams made a drastic alteration in their hardware philosophy, attempting to revitalize the pinball industry by integrating video screens with standard pinball playfields with Midway's Revenge from Mars (the sequel to 1995's Attack From Mars, and designed by longtime Midway employee George Gomez) in 1999. This experiment, called Pinball 2000, ended ignominiously after heavy initial losses, and Williams ceased pinball operations in late 1999, leaving Pat Lawlor's only planned game for the Pinball 2000 platform, Wizard Blocks, canceled.
Stern Pinball era
At this time, Lawlor founded Pat Lawlor Design (PLD) with partners John Krutsch (mechanical designer for all of Lawlor's games) and Louis Koziarz (software programmer), and agreed to terms with Stern Pinball to distribute pinball machines, beginning with a September 2001 release of a traditional pinball machine based on the world's most popular board game, Monopoly. Monopoly was well received by the pinball community and the signature elements of Lawlor design were prominently included.
Lawlor has since designed RollerCoaster Tycoon, Ripley's Believe it or Not!, NASCAR (also known as Grand Prix in Europe), Family Guy, and CSI pinball machines for Stern. NASCAR, released in 2005, was a bit of a departure from Lawlor's normal design philosophy, utilizing more "flow-oriented" gameplay due to the more speed oriented theme. Family Guy, released in 2007, was notable for a unique design element, the "Stewie Pinball", a mini playfield within a playfield. Unlike other mini playfields which simply reduced the distance between pinball elements, "Stewie Pinball" actually engineered all the pinball elements to be completely reduced in scale, a first in mini playfield design. The Family Guy playfield design was duplicated and re-released as Shrek the following year, with all the same features and a different rule set.
Jersey Jack Pinball
On January 24, 2014, Jersey Jack Pinball announced that Pat Lawlor would be designing their third release and that the machine would feature an original theme.[1] On October 13, 2016, Dialed In! was announced, which was the first pinball machine to feature Bluetooth connectivity and smartphone integration.[2]
Dialed In!
Lawlor worked on this title for nearly 2 years, citing when it was announced that he was joining the Jersey Jack team that he would have creative freedom again like he did back in the Williams days. This third title for Jersey Jack was released in 2017 and would be its first standard body game, yet packed with features similar to previous Lawlor titles. This theme sort of ties into his existing Whirlwind and Earthshaker! themes as a disaster city, but this time updating it to modern times where a rogue cellphone begins causing the havoc. This game features a hologram that is similar to the premium/LE Stern Ghostbusters. It also has a built-in camera that takes selfies during the game. Lastly, it also has Bluetooth that can pair with a phone, and allow the player to control the flippers remotely, a first in pinball.
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.
A glossary of terms, commonly used in discussing pinball machines.
Safe Cracker is a pinball machine with a safecracking theme, designed by Pat Lawlor, and distributed by Midway. It was created in 1996. About 1148 were manufactured.
The Addams Family is a pinball machine released in March 1992. It was designed by Pat Lawlor and Larry DeMar and released by Midway. It was based on the 1991 film of the same name, and features custom speech by the stars of the film, Anjelica Huston and Raul Julia. It is the best-selling solid state pinball machine of all time with 20,270 units sold.
Twilight Zone is a widebody pinball machine, designed by Pat Lawlor and based on the TV series of the same name. It was first released in 1993 by Midway. This game is part of WMS' SuperPin line of widebody games alongside Star Trek: The Next Generation and Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure.
Cirqus Voltaire is a 1997 pinball game, designed by John Popadiuk and released by Williams Electronics Games. The theme involves the player performing many different marvels in order to join the circus. Some of the game's distinctive features include a neon light running along the right-hand ramp, a pop bumper that rises up from the middle of the playfield at certain times, and a magnet at the top of the left ramp that can catch balls and divert them into the locks. The most notable feature is the Ringmaster, a head that rises at certain times and taunts the player.
High Speed is a pinball game designed by Steve Ritchie and released by Williams Electronics in 1986. It is based on Ritchie's real-life police chase inside a 1979 Porsche 928. He was finally caught in Lodi, California on Interstate 5 and accused of speeding at 146 miles per hour (235 km/h).
Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure is a 1993 widebody pinball game designed by Mark Ritchie and released by Williams. It was based on the Indiana Jones movies. It was also part of WMS' SuperPin series of widebody games.
The Flintstones is a pinball game released by Williams in 1994 and based on the movie of the same name which is based on 1960–1966 animated television series of the same name. This machine is not to be confused with another pinball machine, a redemption game, based on the TV series and also released in 1994, manufactured by Innovative Concepts in Entertainment (ICE).
Doctor Who is a pinball machine designed by Bill Pfutzenreuter (Pfutz) and Barry Oursler, and released by Midway in September 1992. It is based on the television series Doctor Who. As stated in the Gameplay section, the rulesheet is rather different from other pinball machines released at the time, which didn't help popularity as casual players did not understand the complex rule changes that occur during the game.
Creature from the Black Lagoon is a pinball machine designed by John Trudeau and released by Midway. It is loosely based on the movie of the same name. The game's theme is 1950s drive-in theater. The pinball game was licensed from Universal Studios by Bally so that all backglass and cabinet artwork and creature depictions would resemble those of the original movie.
Red & Ted's Road Show is a 1994 widebody pinball game designed by Pat Lawlor and released by Williams. It is part of WMS' SuperPin line of widebody games.
FunHouse is a pinball machine designed by Pat Lawlor and released in November 1990 by Williams Electronics. Starring a talking ventriloquist dummy named Rudy, the game is themed after the concept of an amusement park funhouse. FunHouse is one of the last Williams games to use an alphanumeric display; the company switched to dot matrix the following year.
The Who's Tommy Pinball Wizard is a pinball machine based on the rock musical The Who's Tommy, based upon the band's 1969 rock opera album of the same name, which was also adapted into a 1975 motion picture. The machine features twenty-one songs from the musical sung by original Broadway cast members. The game was designed by Joe Kaminkow, Ed Cebula, Lonnie D. Ropp, and Lyman F. Sheats Jr. The machine was built using Solid-state electronics type components. The backbox of the machine has a dot matrix display with animations by Kurt Andersen and Markus Rothkranz. 4,700 machines were manufactured by Data East in January 1994.
Pin Bot is a pinball video game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in North America in April 1990. It is a conversion of the pinball machine by the same name. The NES version of the game accurately reproduces some of the game-play and aesthetics of the pinball machine, while introducing new features and added challenges.
Whirlwind is a pinball machine produced by Williams in 1990 and was one of the last Williams System 11b games. It was designed by Pat Lawlor, who created a previous natural disaster-themed pinball for Williams, Earthshaker!.
Judge Dredd is a four-player pinball game produced by Bally Manufacturing in 1993, based on the British comic strip Judge Dredd in 2000 AD. Nearly 7,000 were made.
Harley-Davidson is a Sega Pinball pinball machine released in September 1999 and was the last machine released by this company. It was designed by Jon Borg and Lonnie D. Ropp.
Earthshaker! is a pinball game designed by Pat Lawlor and released by Williams Electronics in 1989. The game features an earthquake theme and was advertised with the slogan "It's a Moving Experience!" Some prototypes have a building that when the shaker motor is activated will fall down but the team removed it due to cost savings.
Sorcerer is a 1985 pinball machine designed by Mark Ritchie and released by Williams Electronics. The table is placed in the "Internet Pinball Data Base Top 100 Rated Electronic Pinball Machines" chart.
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