Episode 11 - Life of a Former Pinball Programmer

Former Williams/Pat Lawlor programmer recounts pinball industry history from inside.

Synopsis

Greg Dunlap, a former Williams and Pat Lawlor Designs programmer, discusses his journey from pinball enthusiast in 1990s Chicago to software engineer working on titles like Monopoly, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Ripley's Believe It or Not, and NASCAR. He shares insider perspectives on the Williams shutdown following Pinball 2000, theme licensing negotiations, and his role in dot programming and display choreography.

Highlights

• All pinball machines made in the United States were manufactured in Chicago for most of pinball history
• Greg met Larry DeMar at World Cup Soccer test location and later worked with him at Williams
• Williams had a networking system for Star Wars Episode I at Expo that uploaded scores to a central server, which Stern later replicated as Stern Insider Connected
• Williams employees were fired immediately after Expo, despite successful Pinball 2000 launch
• Pat Lawlor originally designed Safecracker to be a Monopoly game but couldn't get the license
• Gary Stern rejected an unlicensed theme park game concept from the design team
• Pat Lawlor originally wanted to do a Crocodile Hunter game with a revived alligator mech concept from an old EM game
• Steve Irwin's death occurred approximately six months after Ripley's development began, which would have complicated marketing

Entities

• Pat Lawlor Designs / LLR Designs· company
• Stern Pinball· company
• Williams Electronics· company
• Pinball 2000· event/product_line
• Monopoly· game
• Monster Bash· game
• NASCAR· game
• Ripley's Believe It or Not· game
• Roller Coaster Tycoon· game
• Safecracker· game
• Rick Gaines Pinball· organization
• Wedgehead Pinball Podcast· organization
• Cameron Silver· person
• Duncan Brown· person
• Dwight Sullivan· person
• Gary Stern· person
• Greg Dunlap· person
• John Crutch· person
• Keith Johnson· person
• Larry DeMar· person
• Louis Coziarz· person
• Lyman Sheets· person
• Pat Lawlor· person
• Steve Ritchie· person