Subject: End of Bonus Count. No Extra Balls. Game Over.
From: Ted Estes <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 19:20:08 -0500
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball

I woke up today thinking it was all just a bad dream.  No such luck.

It was almost exactly 8 years ago that I decided on my way to work that I was
pretty tired with my job and that I would type up my resume that day to send
off to Larry DeMar.  Ironically, when I arrived at work, I discovered that
my division of Memerex-Telex was shutting down operation, and that 1/3 of us
were out of jobs that day.

(Anyone interested in the story of how I ended up working at Williams
Electronics Games can check out an interview I did early this year at
http://www.blarg.net/~roya/pinterview.html)

I was one of the ones chosen to finish up the current work at Memorex-Telex, and
to document it for those who would support it later, so I didn't start at
Williams until March of 1992.  When I arrived at the factory that day, the
line was busy cranking out Addams Family and Getaway pinballs in a desparate
attempt to keep up with demand.  When I visited the shiny new pinball factory
last week to guide the Expo tours, it was barely dribbling out Star Wars:
Episode I games.  And now we all know that will stop soon.

The past seven and a half years have brought some of the best times of my life.
The crew at Williams is a blast to work with.  The best part of working here is
the wide array of backgrounds from many varied disciplines.  I have been able to
stretch my brain by working with artists, composers, mechanical designers,
electrical designers, and -- of course -- other software folks.  The fact that
we were all working to make an entertainment product, and that most of us were
all a bit nutty, added up to a pretty fun time overall.

Even though I haven't worked in the pinball division at Williams for the last
two years, my office is right in the middle of pinball engineering.  During that
two years, I watched that crew pull off the amazing piece of technology known as
"Pinball 2000".  The attention to detail and the innovations that went into
that product made me proud to have had a hand in forming the team that produced
it.

I am truly saddened by yesterday's announcement that Williams pinball will be
no more.  It really is a glum epilogue to the the pinball engineering
department's hard work and dedication as they attempted to save pinball.

I made the mistake of going to work on the Saturday after Larry DeMar's last
day of work last month.  The engineering floor was deserted, and I was already
pretty down.  It struck me as a bit out of the ordinary that there weren't
some crazy pinball programmers in on a weekend, but I kept telling myself that
it was to be expected, since no games were in "cruch mode".  Little did I know
that it would be a preview of last evening.  When I left work at my standard
time, I was the only person left on the pinball engineering floor.  Normally,
I would be running into software guys heading out to dinner or leaving work
at the same time.  Damn depressing.

Below are a few of my memories of working at Williams with that great crew.
Sorry to get all misty-eyed and nostalgic.  I think much of the reaction on
the newsgroup has to do with pinball being a very emotional experience.  It
has to be, otherwise it wouldn't be entertaining.  Something about a game
will strike a chord in us, and we connect with others who share the same
chord.

- On the day I interviewed at Williams, Steve Ritchie invited me to try his new
  game, currently in development -- Getaway.  There I was, playing pinball with
  Mr. Ritchie anxiously watching me as I sweated profusely in my suit.  He was
  trying to explain the rules to me as I was trying not to let him see my
  pathetic pinball-playing ability.  Afterwards, he asked "Well.  Do you like
  it?"  Steve was (and still is) one of my favorite pinball designers -- I
  owned two of his games at the time -- and there he was asking my opinion.
  Unfortunately, I was too busy sweating and being nervous to pay attention to
  the game at all.  I mumbled "Well, it has nice flow", and scurried out of the
  office.

- Before games go out on test, they are "alpha" tested "at the bottom of the
  stairs".  During the time that Doctor Who was at the bottom of the stairs,
  Dwight Sullivan would pop into into my office and query "Who?"  The reply
  to which was always "Yes!"  The winner of the match invariably would
  declare "Hah!  SMOKED you!"

- From Thanksgiving weekend 1992 through March 1993, when Twilight Zone was in
  development, I worked seven days a week.  I took two days off during that
  entire time -- Christmas Day and New Years day.  Twilight Zone was the first
  game I worked on at Williams, and I was frantic to make a good impression.
  I was worried that we wouldn't have enough "stuff" in the game.  One weekend,
  I took a bit of a break from bending over the keyboard and actually played
  a few games on the whitewood in Larry DeMar's office.  (We both had whitewood
  games, but they were never in sync in terms of completeness.)  I was shocked
  (and pleased) to discover that it was fun!  Hey, this is almost a game!

- Another Twilight Zone memory:  I spent almost an entire Saturday working on
  the jackpot effect for TZ.  I wasn't really happy with the sound that Chris
  Granner had given me for the effect, but I asked Scott Slomiany to give me
  some of the swooping circle dot matrix art from his Lost in the Zone effect.
  I spent hours trying to get the timing correct with the display, sound, and
  lamps.  The process was:  Tweak timing.  Download.  Trigger effect.  Repeat.
  I finally quit with what I deemed "good enough".  The next week, Ed Boon, who
  I consider the master of pinball choreography (ref. Banzai Run, F-14 Tomcat,
  Black Knight 2000), came up to me and asked "Did you do that jackpot
  effect?"  "Uh, yeah."  "Great stuff."  (Or something to that effect.)  Made
  my week.

- The summer after Twilight Zone I convinced my friend from college, Tom Uban,
  to uproot his family and come work at Williams.  He started that fall.  A
  couple weeks before he started I was headed to the fall trade show and
  George Gomez was on my flight.  George had just been hired to do pinball
  design, and he asked me who I was going to assign to do software on his
  first game.  I told him about this sharp engineer who was starting in a few
  weeks, but George was skeptical, as Tom had no previous experience in
  coin-op games.  Tom ended up working with George on his first three games at
  Williams and later led the software development for the Pinball 2000
  platform.

- Walking through a bustling pinball factory is exciting enough, but it takes
  on an extra dimension when the game being assembled is your own.  I was lucky
  enough to have that experience three times:  Twilight Zone, Demolition Man,
  and Roadshow.  Before the pinball production line moved north of the city, I
  walked through the factory every morning and dodged the newly-assembled
  pinballs being carted onto trucks.  I always quickened my step to hurry to my
  office to get going on what ever game I was developing at the time.

- When I first started at Williams, I couldn't believe they were paying me to
  work there.  It was like a dream job.  I didn't want to leave.  At night, I'd
  throw some popcorn in the microwave and grab a soda and keep on programming
  when I should have gone home.  When I worked at Memorex-Telex, and before
  that, at AT&T, I would have mornings where I'd wake up and think "How many
  personal days do I have left?  Maybe I'll take today off."  That never
  happened while I was working on pinball.  Too many things happened every day.
  I didn't want to miss anything.

- The concept piece for Pinball 2000 was a mockup made by George Gomez and
  Pat Lawlor they dubbed "HOLOPIN".  It was made with an old Amiga and a
  No Good Gofers whitewood.  It was kept under lock-and-key in a secluded
  office, and one had to be escorted by George to see it.  When I was shown the
  game, I was part of a group of about 10 software people.  When George turned
  it on, and some jerky animations appeared reflected in the glass, the
  excitement in the air was palpable, and I could almost see the light bulbs
  turn on over everyone's head.  The entire group was chattering with "You
  could"s and "What if"s.

- About six weeks before the Pinball Expo, I heard about the plans that Tom
  Uban and Lyman Sheats had for putting together a tournament system on a LAN
  with Pinball 2000.  My comment was "They're nuts.  That will never be ready
  on time."  They proved me wrong, and far exceeded my expectations by
  incorporating the barcode readers and digital camera.

I guess that's enough reminiscing for now.

My hat is off to those talented folks.  I wish them all the best of
luck.  I'm bummed for them, and I'm bummed I'll never get to do another
pinball game.  It sure was fun while it lasted, though.

Ted Estes
Software Manager, Advanced R&D
WMS Gaming Inc.