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Old 27-02-12, 11:07   #1
Spong
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Unhappy R.I.P. Steve Kordek - the inventor of pinball...

I considered putting this in the videogame board, but pinball, to me, is something which has a far more widespread appeal than that. You don't have to be a fan of videogames to have played and enjoyed a pinball game.

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Steve Kordek, the man credited with inventing pinball gaming, has died aged 100. Kordek, of Park Ridge, Illinois, passed away on 19th February, according to a Time report. He designed the two-flipper pinball machine - a standard that remains today - and built over 100 pinball games during a vast, influential career.

Kordek took the six flipper design popular in the 1940s and reduced it to two. His game Triple Action wowed fans upon its 1948 Chicago début and revolutionised pinball gaming. He then added direct-current power to the flippers so a ball could be skilfully and somewhat accurately flipped from the bottom of the playfield to the top.

Kordek also invented the first drop targets and multi-ball play.

His best-known games include the space race-inspired Space Mission, an auto-racing game called Grand Prix, and the poker-themed Pokerino. His final pinball game was Vacation America, a 2003 machine inspired by National Lampoon's Vacation movies.

"Steve's impact would be comparable to D.W. Griffith moving from silent films through talkies and colour and CinemaScope and 3D with computer-generated graphics," Roger Sharpe, author of Pinball! (1977), a history of the industry, told the New York Times.

"He moved through each era seamlessly."


From Eurogamer
R.I.P. to the man who gave so many millions of people around the globe so much fun. I'm sure his legacy, which has already evolved into the digital domain, will live on.

Last edited by Spong; 27-02-12 at 14:57.
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Old 27-02-12, 11:11   #2
TippingWater
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Rest in Peace .
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Old 27-02-12, 11:12   #3
EscondeR
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R.I.P.

Not into pinball myself, but still sad
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Old 27-02-12, 11:13   #4
noonbob
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R.i.p
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Old 27-02-12, 11:26   #5
TRULuverzz
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Rest In Peace
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Old 27-02-12, 14:40   #6
Sir Croft
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This man was a genius, seriously. Jesus, the amount of money I made my dad spend on pinball machines...

RIP.
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Old 27-02-12, 14:46   #7
klona
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Rest In Peace.
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Old 27-02-12, 14:49   #8
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Requiescat In Pace.
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Old 28-02-12, 01:17   #9
Encore
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Oh my God. This man should have won a Nobel Prize. So many fond memories I have, and now I know who I should have thanked.

RIP.
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Old 28-02-12, 01:38   #10
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^Exactly what Encore said.

Pinball was one of the first few games I was introduced to, and I still love it. No matter if it's an actual pinball machine or a computer game.

RIP Steve Kordek.
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