Steve Ritchie
Game Developer
Class of 2010 Inductee
Steve Ritchie is a pinball and video game designer.
Ritchie holds the record for best-selling pinball designer in history.
He has been called “The Master of Flow” due to the emphasis in his designs on ball speed, loops, and long smooth shots.
Ritchie joined Atari Inc. in 1974 and was employee number fifty.
Two years later, he was promoted to work at their fledgling pinball division, where he worked on his first game, Airborne Avenger.
Ritchie developed a pinball machine that eventually became the Superman pinball based on the Superman comic book; however, in the final stages of production of the table, Richie left to join Williams Electronics, a major pinball company.
In 1978 Ritchie moved to Chicago, Illinois, the home of Williams’ headquarters.
His first game for the company, Flash (released in 1979), was noted for its revolutionary figure-8 design and the first pinball game to feature bright Flash Lamps and an ascending background sound that increases in intensity the longer the play lasts. It would go on to be his best-selling pinball game, having sold over 19,000 units. In 1980 he designed Firepower (the first electronic pinball to feature multi-ball, as well as Lane Change), and eight months later, he designed Black Knight, which was noted for having the first two-level playfield and the patented “Magna-Save” feature (in which magnets help prevent out lane drains). He was also on the design team for Williams’ Defender.
Steve Ritchie returned to Atari Games in 1996 as a senior staff producer. There, he would design and produce the racing game California Speed, which sold 7,856 units for total sales of about $40 million, on a budget of $2 million.
After designing and selling a few redemption games, he formed Steve Ritchie Productions (SRP) in 2002, and returned to pinball design contracting with Stern Pinball to distribute his games.
In August 2021, Ritchie left Stern Pinball and joined Jersey Jack Pinball.
In 2023, Jersey Jack announced the release of their Elton John pinball machine, Ritchie’s first design for the company.
Wikipedia Link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Ritchie_(pinball_designer)
Pinside Profile:
20 credits on 14 games on Mobygames: