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Ep 59: The King of Flow, Steve Ritchie
PodcastAnalysis updated 3d ago53 min listen
Steve Ritchie joins us on this episode to talk about his dream theme, Led Zeppelin. Also we talk about the Williams days and some of the awesome people he has met in pinball over the years!
Highlights
- Steve Ritchie has designed approximately 30-40 games across pinball, slot machines, redemption games, and novelty games
- High Speed sold close to 16,000 units and was a major commercial success
- Flash Games sold 19,250 units in one year, which was Steve Ritchie's first game at Williams
- Steve Ritchie is 71 years old and going deaf
- Black Knight Sword of Rage was designed partly as an escape from frustrating licensing experiences
- Led Zeppelin Premium/LE features expression lights in the cabinet that sync with music and affect scoring based on color
- Steve Ritchie named Mortal Kombat with a 'K' and provided voice acting for Shao Kahn
- Steve Ritchie was at Williams for 20 years and has been at Stern for 16-17 years
- Steve Ritchie designed the first expression lights on Star Trek LE
Notable quotes
“For me to play that game is like, it is the most intense pinball machine ever made. And I played them all.”
“I have another, you know, monkey on my back. It's called make it smooth. And so I won't pick just any shot. I can't because I don't want to hate a shot.”
“Games have to speak because they do. They got to tell people what to do. It's like it's such a good communication tool.”
“I'm better than an average player by far, but I'm not great. And so I kind of fight for the guy on the street.”
“You can't have people's egos getting in the way. You've got to spread it out. You've got to make those things happen, and it's got to take the best of the best.”
“It's like people around here, they think I've done too many voices for games. I don't know why they say that.”
“Plastics. I hate them.”
“A game has to be fun it has to be fun for everyone in some way or other”
Entities
- Atari· company
- Jersey Jack Pinball· company
- Stern Pinball· company
- Williams· company
- Black Knight Sword of Rage· game
- Led Zeppelin· game
- Chuck· person
- Danai· person
- Dennis Nordman· person
- Ed Boon· person
- Elliot· person
- John Rothermel· person
- Josh Roop· person
- Kevin O'Connor· person
- Nicole· person
- Pat Lawlor· person
- Ray Day· person
- Raymond Davidson· person
- Robert Plant· person
- Scott Larson· person
- Stefan Jensen· person
- Steve Ritchie· person
- Tim Sexton· person
- Wyman Sheets· person
- Zach· person
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