The Making of 

Comments to the Pinball Expo 99 seminar given by George Gomez

(recorded by Martin Wiest on 10.8.2000)

Dave Stambaugh:
I might be the last person on rgp to do this, but I just read the transcript
of "The Making of Pinball 2000" seminar from Pinball Expo 99.  This is the
presentation that George Gomez gave.  BWAHH!!  If you haven't read it or
seen the video, and if you mourn the demise of Wms/Bly pinball, you owe it
to yourself to take a few minutes to check it out:

Aron (boag1):
Wow...that was the first time for me.

I'd just like to publicly thank the folks who worked so hard and had/have so
much passion for Pinball 2000.  That was truly a great speech and interview.

Comment from Dave:
I agree.  It's so easy to sit here doing the armchair-quarterback thing on
the games these people created.  Reading what George had to say is a knock
upside the head for me that I don't know a tiny fraction of what those
design teams know [knew] about the game.

Edloco:
Great article by George.. In 1980, I got a Personal Tour of the Bally
Bensenville Pin Factory. At the Time they were making Space Invaders &
testing Mystic. They showed me every step of actually making  SI,
including the line of women making the wire looms for it.
George's remark, that they didn't really disect the competion's games,
brought back to mind what I was shown at Baly's facility.
They had an Employees game room, full of pins of their own, AND of
other mfgs. The exec. who was showing me around, did say they were
there to check out the competition's games, & get feedback from their
engineers, & other employees.
For sure, it was a never forget experience for me.......EL

Tony D'Aprile:
hoa...first time I've read it too.... Was George just kidding about writing
a book? I think it would sell nicely.

John Hasselkus
Holy smokes.  That's one of the most interesting articles I've ever read about
the behind the scenes activities in the Pinball industry.  It makes me
positively ache to think what might have been with the Pat Lawlor P2K pin that
was on deck.  <major sigh>

I may have to pick up a Revenge From Mars now just to honor these guys'
herculean efforts to keep pinball economically viable.

I'm not worthy!
John
 

Fred K (Texas):
Yes, and in person it was one of the most moving presentations that
I had ever attended. It had a very ominous quality in it's delivery and
was from the heart. The cassette recordings that were available at the
show recreate the scene...
Fred

Terry Nelson:
I was fortunate to have been there.  What the text doesn't show is
the emotion of his words.  When George said "The engineering department
that I so lovingly spoke of, is in danger and the brands that we
recognize are in danger. And Gary Stern might just be the last man
standing. Please remember that I tried to elevate the art.", the room
was hushed - you could hear a pin drop - and George was fighting to hold
back the tears - it was a very intense.  I was filled with pride and
admiration for George and his team's accomplishments yet it was so easy
to sense his fear and concern about the future of Williams.  And of
course the very next business day was Black Monday which made all of
George's words and emotions really hit home.....
Terry

Martin Wiest:
I felt the same like Terry - only I was missing the english words...
Thanks for that post.      Martin


 
Martin Wiest - Started: 08.03.2000 - (German date format)