Quoted from ALJO

Steve Ritchie has a reputation for fast games......
What about Steve Kordek and john Trudeau???
What's they're reputation?

Steve Kordek is a legend. Has made a ton of games. I'm not that familiar with his games. Phil, aka Mr Hide will probably chip in.

Trudeau designed some fun games while at Gottlieb, but at Williams, in my opinion, his games were only so so. The only exception, for me, is Congo. I find that to be a really fun game. I know folks will chime in about CFTBL, but I find it very, very repeative and gets deadly dull in a home environment. Love the theme, not the execution.

Kordek was a prolific designer and an innovator at the most basic level. I think he was the inventor of drop targets. Need I say more?

Trudeau was a designer, that's it.

Any big fans out there please elaborate.

Didn't Steve Ritchie also invent player controlled rollover lane lights? Not as big a deal as drop targets, but every game in the 90s and on had them.

Quoted from TwilightZone

Trudeau designed some fun games while at Gottlieb, but at Williams, in my opinion, his games were only so so. The only exception, for me, is Congo. I find that to be a really fun game. I know folks will chime in about CFTBL, but I find it very, very repeative and gets deadly dull in a home environment. Love the theme, not the execution.

I'm a big fan of Trudeau's designs. I like how he attempts to bring something new and novel to his designs. I also like the way integrates tight rounds and unconventional alleyways. I have only Congo and Spirit but both are unique, fun and have an interesting flow. I plan to add a Judge Dredd, Black Rose and TX-Sector to my collection.

Kordek may have invented drop targets but Trudeau tried to take his games to the next level. Check out:
- Black Rose's middle ramp and under-playfield 'cannon'
- Congo's Amy ramp, Volcano, and Gray gorilla under-playfield mini game
- Spirit is just weird but has the 2nd level and Spirit 2-ball multiball lift gate, playfield bonus display, and the rotating backbox, of course. 3-ball multi is not that easy to achieve. Wild sounds.
- I don't like CFTBL but it has the hologram and ramps everywhere
- Flintstones playfield went wild with the license but includes behind the flippers habittrails and upper ramp feature.
- Bride of the Pinbot! That's a nutty playfield and rotating head concept.

Check out his games: http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?searchtype=advanced&ppl=John%20Trudeau. Not designed to be a fast and frantic as Steve Ritchie but more of a varied gamplay experience with less stop-n-go. He really integrates lights, sounds and music well.

If you haven't already done so and you have the time, listen to the TOPcast interviews: http://www.marvin3m.com/topcast/past.php. It's a lot easier to get them through the iTunes store.


  

Quoted from jonny_eh

Didn't Steve Ritchie also invent player controlled rollover lane lights? Not as big a deal as drop targets, but every game in the 90s and on had them.

There's no doubt Ritchie brought a whack of great things to pinball. A lot of his games had a lot of 'firsts'. Off the top of my head:
- BK - 2-tiered
- HS - full background music, percentaged jackpot
- Flash - flashers
- T2 - DMD

I just find his games seem to be a lot of the same for some reason. There and back fast and not much in between.

I think that people tend to forget that any design is a group effort, regardless what people say or what product you make.

Every designer has his hits and his duds. And all 3 have different styles. Steve Ritchie is more commercial. More bang for your buck and keep the games relatively short to increase revenue. Mr.Kordek is more old school and that means slower play and wide open gaps to drain the ball, which didn't translate so well into the SS era, hence Pokerino. Trudeau's designs are less aggressive that Ritchie's, but they have very good gameplay on average.

Their claim to fame?

Steve Ritchie's games were hits due to them being on excellent theme and art-wise. That is what attracts the player first. Then they play a game with good gameplay. So it works.

Steve Kordek is legendary by the sheer number of designs he put out... simply amazing. He is considered one of the forefathers of pinball, along with Harry Williams and Ed Krynsky. He paved the road pinball rolled on.

John Trudeau's designs had innovative designs considering his budget constraints during the Premier years. The only thing is that his games suffered theme and art-wise, thus never attracted a large following. But if you look past the bad backglasses and cheezy art, they are fun games to play. The same goes for some of his Williams pins... Flintstones and Congo are fun to play, but often get overlooked due to the dated movie themes.    

- BK - 2-tiered   + jeweled inserts + Magnasave + Bonus Ball concept
- HS - Jackpot + percentaged jackpot

First pinball to play a complete song.
First Williams pinball game to use alpha-numeric displays.
First use of Auto Percentaging (for replay scores).
First Jackpot available only during multiball.
First use of broken switch compensation programming.
First SS game with operator report.
First use of credit dot (malfunction indicator).

- Flash - flashers
'Flash' was the first game from any manufacturer to have a dynamic background sound during gameplay. It is also the first game from any manufacturer to use Flash Lamps,
- T2 - DMD -  nope.. that's actually Data East Checkpoint.  At Williams T2 was first designed with it but Gilligan and Slugfest actually made it to market before it   T2 was the first Video Mode.
First game with a swing-out Cannon, fired by the player.

Most of those HS innovations belong to Larry Demar though, he did program it after all.