Pat Lawlor

Patrick M. Lawlor (born November 30, 1951) is a video game and pinball machine designer.

Pat Lawlor had originally been a video game designer and had entered the coin-operated game design industry in 1980, working for Dave Nutting Associates.

Lawlor's pinball career began as an engineer for Williams in 1987, when he co-designed a dual-playfield machine called Banzai Run with Larry DeMar.

In 1988, he was assigned his first individual design project, a machine entitled Earthshaker!, which was released in January 1989.

Notably, Earthshaker! was the first pinball machine with a shaker motor.

Lawlor's first solo project, Earthshaker!, was noteworthy for its implementation of a relatively obscure theme (earthquakes).

The follow-up to Earthshaker! tackled a different form of natural disaster: tornados.

The new game, Whirlwind, was released in early 1990 to similar praise.

Both games demonstrated components of Lawlor's design methodology.

Foremost, Lawlor introduced thematically appropriate elements that altered gameplay.

For instance, upon progressing toward multiball mode in Earthshaker!, the playfield vibrated to simulate the effect of an earthquake.

In a similar mode in Whirlwind, rubberized disks set flush in the playfield spun rapidly back and forth to throw the ball off course as it passed over them, while an electric fan mounted on top of the backbox blew wind in the player's face.

Secondly, Lawlor created playfields that were especially crowded compared to the faster flow-oriented machines that were popular at the time.

Lawlor also introduced his signature "bumper shot", in which players needed to shoot the ball between pop bumpers—a tricky shot that requires great precision.

Also, critical shots in Earthshaker! and Whirlwind were obstructed when attempted from the lower flippers, and could only be hit directly from a third flipper, located near the middle of the playfield on one side, requiring that players develop acuity at sending the ball across the playfield rather than simply up the playfield.

Thus, his style of gameplay has often been described by players as "stop and go".

Whirlwind was among the first pinball machines to feature what became known as a "wizard mode," a final special mode accessed by particularly skilled players for completing numerous difficult tasks on the playfield, a reward that was imitated in many future designs.

"Wizard modes" were important in giving pinball games a sense of progression absent from pinball in its earlier years.

Lawlor followed up Whirlwind with FunHouse, which released in November 1990.

Funhouse was a carnival-oriented game which bore the trademark playfield elements established in Earthshaker! and Whirlwind, plus a unique talking head named "Rudy" (voiced by Ed Boon).

Over 10,000 machines were produced.

Lawlor's next design went on to become the best-selling pinball of all time.

The Addams Family (TAF) was released in March 1992 by Midway (under the Bally label) and ultimately sold 20,270 units.

The Addams Family was the first time Lawlor developed a game around a licensed theme rather than an original concept.

The Addams Family included several new features.

One of these was "Thing Flips," in which the game could automatically take control of one flipper under certain circumstances and attempt to make a particularly difficult shot for the player.

Results of previous shots were used to adjust the timing of the flip for each new attempt.

Lawlor also placed magnets under the playfield that were activated during multiball and other modes, adding tension and randomness to the gameplay.

In 1994, a limited-edition Gold version was produced to commemorate the record-breaking sales of the original.

The Addams Family Gold featured minor rule modifications, as well as cosmetic enhancements such as a gold lockbar and gold-trimmed rails.

His next design (over which he was given complete creative control) was another licensed theme based on a popular television show: The Twilight Zone (TZ).

While Twilight Zone never sold as many units as The Addams Family (although it did sell over 15,000 units) it is popular amongst pinball enthusiasts, due in part to its complicated ruleset.

Its complexity was a mixed blessing, highlighting many of the pitfalls of the coin-operated game industry in general and pinball in particular.

That is, the more elaborate the game, the more likely it would overwhelm the average player, which in turn would hurt sales.

Furthermore, Twilight Zone was expensive to produce, particularly in the massive quantities that were expected following the astronomical record sales of The Addams Family.

Lawlor was well aware of the difficulties the project posed, as he told an audience at a trade show in 2003.

"We had a nickname for Twilight Zone," he said, "and it was 'In Excess Pinball'...we had just gotten done setting the record with Addams Family, and [Williams executives] were willing to let us do anything, and we did, which was a big mistake."

While he conceded that "extreme pinball players" would enjoy the game, he added that "from a commercial standpoint, we were out of control...nobody would be allowed to do something that complicated again; nor should they be."

Among its toys was an elevated, magnetic flipperless mini-playfield; the player pressed the flipper buttons to activate the magnets, driving the ball into switches on the walls and through a scoring hole at the top.

The game also featured a gumball machine, which could be loaded by the player and which could dispense a ball into play.