Louis Koziarz pinball files: Roger Sharpe's 1996 Licensed Properties Update Report

Louis Koziarz has been sharing a lot of pinball industry history on Mastodon.  

Roger Sharpe - the man, the myth, the legend. His job at WMS was to scour the entertainment business and sniff out potential licenses and report back to engineering when he found something interesting. He would put out reports every so often like this one to describe upcoming titles, sometimes with a critic's eye to what might be usable. It's fascinating to read in hindsight.

Louis' original github link (archive)

Full text archived under the cut:

Louis Koziarz pinball files: Jack*Bot

Documents that Louis Koziarz has shared, this time related to Jack*Bot.

Jack*Bot

William, 1995

Jack*Bot #Pinball, how it started: We bought a Pinbot, ripped out the playfield, tore out the harness,and wired up a WPC harness to it. And that was the whitewood for the first four months.

There was a bit of spy work involved with getting that Pinbot. The biggest help was Rick S, a friendly local collector who we swore to secrecy. But the whole ask was a bit out of the ordinary.

"Can you help us find a Pinbot? And can we get it in the next 48 hours?"

Jack*Bot #Pinball, how it ended: Field test game #1 at the Old Town Ale House, Chicago. Drinking a toast with Larry DeMar (LED) and Jim Patla. I'm not even sure the Ale House served champagne. Maybe Larry brought it along?

Louis Koziarz pinball files: industry files

These are things Louis Koziarz shared that aren't tied to one specific game, and give broader views of the pinball industry and development process.

More #pinball artifacts from Williams. This chart is one of my favorite, it's the master project list from around 1996 or so. There are all the familiar games here, and a lot of abandoned prototypes or cancelled projects. It's worth a whole thread on its own.

Project 90004 "Armed and Dangerous" was a Gomez shooting game. Kind of like Hyperball but with flippers and standard balls. Games would be linked with a serial cable.
https://www.thisweekinpinball.com/this-week-in-pinball-september-30th-2019/

#Pinball designer George Gomez, looking really pleased that Armed and Dangerous got cancelled. You can see the whitewood over there on the left.

Louis Koziarz pinball files: No Good Gofers

 These are tidbits that Louis Koziarz has been sharing on Mastodon.

No Good Gofers

Williams, 1997

Back to #pinball concept art. Meet Bud.

Gofer evolution. The macquette was carved by Youssi as our visual guide to Buzz. (More on that first guy later).

Dave Link sculpted it into a 'squarish' target that filled the mechanical space and wouldn't fall apart when hit. Then it was molded in different materials like sticky rubber and hard Delrin until we found something that felt right.

Louis Koziarz pinball files: Tales Of The Arabian Nights

Louis Koziarz has a decade of pinball credits, for both design and software.  From Theatre of Magic for Midway in 1995, to NASCAR / Grand Prix for Stern in 2005.  They are on Mastodon sharing some incredible things, and I am boosting them here.  These posts will be compiled one per game.

Please show Louis some love for their incredible contributions to the industry.  

These have been reposted without express permission.

Tales Of The Arabian Night

Williams, 1996

First whitewood. See if you can spot all the changes from the final version. The actual playfield shot geometry didn't change at all, but the ramps did.

Note the "open sesame" cave that was trying to have two positions (partially open and fully open). And the vanishing magnet was on that small standup off the left ramp. The mech is awesome, but not in that position. Capturing the ball was impossible.