The Trip, as it came to be known, started with an invitation. One evening in late January of this year Gene Cunningham phoned to ask me to visit him in Bloomington for a three-part purpose.
One was to see his game collection, the second was to check out his Illinois Pin Ball parts operation, and third and most interesting, was to see his newest acquisition: A working whitewood version of what was to become the third Williams Pinball 2000 game, Wizard Blocks.
Any one of these enticements should have been enough to make me jump in the Cobra and head out, but scheduling proved tricky and The Trip was put on hold. As a start, I made a call to Toronto pin collector and pGj Technology Advisor, Michael Hanley.
He is usually up for driving most anywhere at any time for pinball and we often meet for at least a few minutes each time he comes through the Detroit area on a road trip. He was excited but it was up to me to set the date. Enter son David who will be attending the Engineering Department of Purdue University (what IS a boilermaker, anyway?) this fall. Plans were made for him to spend a day or two in a dorm with a sophomore to get the feel for the place and … he needed to be driven there! Ah Hah! My Chance.
Mr. Hanley quickly cleared the time with work and it was all set for the weekend of March 2. Whilst talking to pinGame journal Foreign Desk Editor, Gary Flower, I mentioned the trip and told him it was too bad he lived so far away in England. To my surprise he quickly said, "What's the date, I'll be there!" A simple trip was becoming more complicated.
Around the same time, though email, I described this trek to former Williams programmer and photographer of pinballs, Duncan Brown. When I mentioned we'd be up in the Chicago area before going to Bloomington, he asked if he could be added to the group … and maybe Cameron Silver and possibly John Popadiuk would join us as well. … it was becoming a mob!
Trip time arrived and Gary flew to Toronto. He and Michael drove here in his wife's van (thanks, Chris, it was blessing!) and the four of us drove the six hours to West Lafayette, Indiana. After leaving David at the dorm with his host, Mike Zipkin, the three of us checked into the union hotel and went for dinner. We found a pizza place on the way back and stopped for a few games on JackBot and Dr. Who. After that, before getting some needed sleep, we hit the union arcade which had a nice lineup including Medieval Madness, Tales Of The Arabian Nights, Attack From Mars, Addams Family and Champion Pub.
After a good night's rest we continued on our journey north through Indiana and up into Chicago. On the way we stopped off at Midway to say hi to any former pinball people we could find still in the area … but it seemed that most everyone we asked to see was in a meeting. Then we slowly got the word that it wasn't the best day to visit, as the entire Midway video game division was being laid off in much the same way as the pinball division was axed on that fateful Monday in 1999. We did meet up with Mark Weyna who's testing division was stripped leaving him as it's lone member. Although it wasn't pinball we were all affected by being that close to disaster. But as we headed north to Stern our excitement grew and the conversation became more and more positive.
Things were really humming over on Janice avenue with High Roller Casino rolling off the assembly line, the next game taking shape in the engineering center, and two or three more in various stages of development for the future. Everyone we met was in good, optimistic spirits with solid plans for the future. Pinball is alive and well at Stern Pinball, Inc. Most of the discussion focused on the current game being developed and that discussion will have to wait for a future issue of the pinGame journal. But we did talk about High Roller Casino and along with interviews done at Expo time a story took shape that can be read elsewhere in this issue.
Everyone is excited about the announcement that Pat Lawlor and his Design company are creating a pin for Stern, but the game scheduled before that, created primarily by John Borg and Lonnie Ropp, looks to be quite exciting, with plenty of cool, mechanical-action items and a very popular theme. It should be groovy, baby!
For the past two weeks we had been trying to decide on a time and place for a pinball gathering dinner that night. We finally settled on Pequod's, a small place with big pizza, in Morton Grove. We pretty much invited everyone we saw that day and we wound up with a pretty good sized group. After dinner, we finally had time to do something we wanted to do all day: pay a visit to Steve Kordek at his home. Fearing it was much too late in the evening, I called and he said, "Sure, what the heck do I care, come on over!"
Steve recently retired from Williams but missed his own retirement party due to a Sciatic nerve disorder. (The party also recognized the retirement of long-time company receptionist, Monique Jagielnik. (More on this and the private ceremony Larry DeMar and Greg Freres "brought" to Steve in the next issue of the pGj!) It was 10 at night and Steve was out on his porch,waiting for us, as we drove up. Duncan Brown and Cameron Silver came too and we all sat down with Steve and his daughter to talk about … stuff. It was great to see Steve who seemed to be doing fine even though we all knew he missed being "on the front."
We bid him farewell, and just because we hadn't had enough pinball for one day, we drove out to meet John Popadiuk at a suburban Krispy Kreme for some talk, a donut or two and some needed caffeine to prepare for our trip down to Bloomington Illinois still scheduled for that night. John's schedule wouldn't allow time for the trip, Cameron couldn't swing it either, so Gary, Michael and I took off for another multi-hour drive and, as you might expect, slept well that night. We awoke to greet Duncan Brown in the lobby who had driven down that morning to join us for our visit to Mr. Cunningham and his complex. Duncan had been there before and was keenly interested in photographing some of Gene's massive collection.
As we pulled up to Gene's house I started wondering what all the fuss is about. The house is large by most standards and from the outside seemed to be nice and comfortable, but except for a few sheet metal skinned buildings out back, there wasn't much else. Gene met us at our cars and took us into the closest of the buildings. I believe "wow" was the first thought in my head as Gene pointed out some of his many rare and unusual pinballs and led us through his sea of games. Games, setup on legs, lining all the walls, many rows filling the space inside them and more games lined up in the isles! … and this was just the first building. There is another space, I remember it as much bigger than the first, again filled with games. There are also stacks, and lofts filled with games. Many of these are stored on end and piled two or three high. Even the passageway from one building to another was full of games … games, games everywhere.
It became clear that there existed a need to thin some out or build another building. Gene explained that he is having his auction on May 12 and 13 to sell 500 games and other items to create some breathing room. There was yet another room which had only a very few pinballs. This was a massive gym dedicated to weight training and exercise of other types. The walls are covered with among tons of stuff, neon signs, photos of bodybuilders and X-rated Dave Christensen artwork painted on glass. (A set of this art will be auctioned at Gene's May event.).
There are workout areas, an aerobic dance floor, massage/physical therapy room, and more free weights then in your local Gold's. When it's time to take a break there is the bar area and a few recent pinballs to play. For our visit Gene had set up his three Pinball 2000 games. Yes, three. Revenge From Mars, Star Wars: Episode One, and the unfinished Wizard Blocks … but more on that later.
Then on to see the Illinois Pin Ball Company headquarters a short drive away. Gene welcomed us into a giant warehouse building with rows of shelves and parts. We met Kim Carter who is manager of the operation and happens to be Gene's daughter. Gene has purchased what was left of Alvin G. and Capcom pinball but the bulk of what was there was from his recent purchase of Williams parts. Kim explained that there had been some start up problems but that they were working very hard to get on track and streamline the operation.
She asked that their customers, primarily former Williams distributors, be patient during this time. One problem is that they were not allowed to receive the "used in" computer file from Williams. This database lists the game or games in which a specific part was used. We were told that Williams' reason was that the video and other parts were listed among the pinball numbers and they did not want to release all of that information. However Kim is optimistic that things will gradually become easier with each order filled and operation improvement will be a continuous learning experience.
Gene explains that he is far from content with just providing parts for games he has in stock. His plans include manufacturing new parts as they are needed to help operators and collectors maintain their games. These new items will be produced from the same equipment and by the same manufacturers as the original items when possible. Gene further hopes that his on-going negotiations with Williams will result in the ability to produce full games at some time in the future. But for now he is committed to picking up the slack created by the cessation of Williams pinball production by providing a full variety of parts for those games out there.
Lunch at a local restaurant was next and Gene and wife Georgiana were gracious hosts as we and the weekend staff were treated to some great food and conversation. Saving the best for last, it was time to check out Wizard Blocks. With all I've heard about this aborted third Pinball 2000 Pat Lawlor creation for the past year or so, I was quite excited to see it. Keep in mind that there is no physical art on the game. Black cabinet, no backglass and only a whitewood playfield. Much of the planned art for the game was never created. But when we hit the power switch and we heard some wizard-type voice proclaim, "There's power in the blocks," our ears and eyes perked up. It was difficult to figure out exactly what to do in the game, but different and interesting looking cubes appeared on the playfield. Some were stacked, but when hit they exploded and the one on top fell into place. At some point a Wizard appeared and other elements came and went.
We were taking a peek at game that is probably 15 to 20 percent done compared to the plans for the project. According to Pat, who I've spoken with recently, the game is in no shape to even be shown, let alone played. Besides the lack of art, both on the game and in it, most of the programming was never completed.
But it was, in a word, cool, to see what was there and imagine how it all may have looked had it been allowed to be completed. (There will be more photos of this game and an exclusive interview about it with Pat discussing what his team was trying to accomplish, in the next issue of the pGj ... It will be magical!)
The time finally came to head out, pick up David at Purdue and get back to Farmington Hills. After a little creative navigating, we pulled into the driveway, unloaded and hit the hay for yet another sound, if brief, sleep. We had one more "trip" stop to make. Mark Bakula invited us to breakfast with his wife Kathy and daughter Sara, before Gary and Mike left the USA for the great white north. Kathy cooked up an amazing offering of omelets along other breakfast foods and all the trimmings. Mark's new house is built in a wooded setting and the meal in the glass lined breakfast nook was lovely.
Mark had the house built, at least in part, with his hobby in mind. The 12 foot high basement ceiling caused immediate jealousy. Mark has a nice collection of about 12 recent games up and running but the focus was his "mini-Viper" he has just finished restoring. This one of a kind game was built at Data East and never produced. Mark had to go to further than usual lengths to complete this beauty and his efforts will be detailed in a near future article in the pinGame journal, as well as a talk at Pinball Expo 2001 (October 11-14, 2001).
As I left the Bakula house for my home, the "Trip" was at an end. It's amazing to think of how much we had seen and done in so short a time. We spent many hours driving and never seemed to have enough time at each place we stopped. These trips seem to go that way and I guess it adds to the excitement of it all. I can't wait for the next one. pGj
Photos and text used exclusively by permission from the pinGame journal. Please contact Jim Schelberg for further information.
