Subject: A few words for the dearly departed...
From: Russel Willoughby <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 02:15:50 -0400
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball

>From the WMS press release:

-------------------------------------------------
WMS also reported that it will discontinue
its pinball and cabinets manufacturing operations.
--------------------------------------------------

Last Friday at Expo, George Gomez warned us. That was the first time I
had seriously considered the possibilty of the death of Williams
pinball. At the end of George's speech, I had the beginnings of tears
forming in my eyes. Later, I heard from other Williams people things
like, "WMS is just trying to keep us a little scared," and "It's been
much worse than this before." My tension was eased a bit, but I think in
the back of my mind, I still knew that George was right. However, I
really didn't expect WMS to disconnect the life-support on the very next
business day.

Death is hard thing to deal with, and sometimes that's true even when
it's not a person who has died. What has died here is a vehicle for the
passions, dreams, and energy of some of the most insanely brilliant and
creative people in the world. It's not the only possible outlet for
these things, but it was a remarkable and fantastic one, and one that
will not be replaced easily, if at all.

There are those who will say, "Look on the bright side. Things could be
worse. This could be a blessing in disguise." All apologies to these
people, but that is bullshit. The death of Williams Pinball is a tragedy
for the people who dedicated their lives to making pinball great, and to
the _millions_ of people around the world who play their games. I'm
afraid this cloud has no silver lining.

Over the last few years, my life has gradually changed to point where
pinball and other coin-op games have permeated my entire existence. At
work, I fix and play games. At home, I fix and play games. In my spare
time, I play games. It's an obsession, perhaps even a madness. I feel
that I've been breathing pinball for the last five years or so, and now
a corporate decision has been made to remove the oxygen from the air,
because it's not cost-effective to keep it in there.

I feel an incredible sadness for the folks at Williams, but I know
they'll find employment elsewhere. After performing the incredible feats
of engineering they did at Williams, other jobs will seem easy for them.
The real tragedy will be apparent a few years down the road, when all of
the Funhouses and Twilight Zones and Scared Stiffs and Attack from
Marses and Medievel Madnesses and Corvettes and Monster Bashes and
Theatre of Magics and Cirqus Voltaires and NBA Fastbreaks and No Fears
and Star Trek: The Next Generations and World Cup Soccers and Champion
Pubs and Star Wars: Episode Ones and No Good Goferses and Shadows and
all the rest are finally retired, gone to people's homes, parted out, or
whatever. When that time comes, I know there will still be days and
nights when this thought will pop up in my head: "Hey, I'd like to go
out and play a good Williams pinball machine somewhere." And almost
immediately, I'll catch myself, remembering that those days are gone.

I offer my gracious thanks to those people who made the last decade of
Williams pinball the best ever, even though much of the world had
counted pinball out back in the early '80s. Those games will be not be
forgotten by anyone who played them.

--
       Russel Willoughby
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