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[Originally from a rec.games.pinball Usenet post by Steve Ritchie.
See http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.pinball/browse_thread/thread/79d40b30a6c050d7/2d9a9ce0a616ea8a ]
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Subject: Spider-Man Contributors & Facts
From: Steve Ritchie

I put this together a few days ago and some of the data is already
generally known. I also want to recognize some talented and hard-
working people that helped create the Spider-Man Pinball Machine at
Stern.  Spider-Man Pinball contains some of the best work these
contributors have ever done:

Hey guys,

As long as Jack and Korn [aka TheKorn, aka Vincent Giovannone] put
their Spider-Man pictures up [test location pictures of the first game
found out on mechanical test. -ed.], I guess it's OK to clear a few
things up and take this opportunity to thank a lot of folks who put
their best work into Spider-Man.

The Spider-Man game was my ship to steer as far as play goes, but no
pinball is ever made by one person.  Lots of people never get credit
for what they do at Stern, and it isn't an easy business to make
pinball games.

By the way, "Wait and see" [used below -ed.] means I am not going to
elaborate on the subject matter here.  It isn't a boast, a
carrot-on-a-string thing or the fact that I want to control the flow
of data, OK?  It just means that you need to play the game and read
the in-depth Pingame Journal Interview [Issue 122, June 2007 -ed.].
Jim and Koz [aka Louis Koziarz] have been following our every move
throughout the game's progress.  There is also the Gameroom interview
coming soon, and more will be revealed.

First off, Koz is right, (and thanks for the speech call ideas, dude),
the spell-out at the bottom 4 lanes is H-E-R-O, not nerd.  NERD would
never fly past the licensing people, and this game is about you, the
player, being Spider-Man, not Peter Parker.  (Well, maybe NERD could
be appropriate, depending on who is playing it!)

The top 3 lanes spell W-E-B.

The art is a fantastic job done by His Worship Kevin O'Conner with
Dame Margaret Hudson on the Backglass, Playfield, Plastics and
Decals.  I would like to thank them for a great job that virtually
everyone at Stern loves.  YMMV, but most everyone that has seen it
says it's the best Stern artwork ever.  I have to agree.  Wait and
see.

I would also like to introduce two "new" artists who did the cabinet
and backbox art as a team, and that's Marc Schoenberg and Mark
Galvez.  I call them Marky-Marc.  Again, a great job guys, and I thank
you.  By the way, no one asked Marky-Marc to do the cabinet art, they
just started on it on their own, and even the first pass was damned
good.

The dots are a fine job by Mark Galvez, who has really come into his
own.  His work features many actual scenes from all 3 SM movies, as
well as original art that he has created.  Thanks Mark.

  INTERESTING FACT: It takes plastics (internally known as butyrates)
  from 3 different sheets to build one Spider-Man pinball machine.

There is more than one picture of Kirsten Dunst on the plastics.  Wait
and see.  The plastics are very well done and light up much better
than the red ones in Jack's or Korn's pictures because:

What you see in Jack's and Korn's pictures are plastics and the back
panel "flooded" with red just to get the game covered up and somewhat
presentable.  The decal sheet also is flooded with red.  This will
change to the beautiful colored plastics as soon as they are
delivered, correct, and approved by the licensor.  I think they
arrived the day I left Stern.  Wait and see.

We don't wait for finished, approved artwork if we have a testable
game mechanically.  It is a smart move to make sure things are going
to hold up and work right on location, and the sooner the better.
Also, all devices have also been tested long term in multiple unit
test beds that sit in a hot room and are worked to death, but it is
never the same as a real world play test.  Wait and see.

There are three ramps and the flow and shots please me immensely.  I
can't speak for you guys, and wouldn't dare.  The mechanical
engineering crew and I have spent a very long and hard time making the
ramps and shots work well, with careful tweaks, protection, and smooth
action.  They are plastic.  Wait and see.

The orbit shots loop nicely in both directions, except when they
don't.  The balance is perfect.  Wait and see.

Spider-Man is not a comic book license.  It is a movie license.  Sony
and Marvel had to approve all our stuff, but they were pretty cool
about it.  Marc Schoenberg did a great job being the ultimate
diplomatic man-in-the-middle between the design team and the Sony &
Marvel people.  He scored some major stuff for us.  Thank you, Marc.
Wait and see.

Spider-Man Pinball by Stern and SRP was ALWAYS scheduled to be timed
with the movie release.  Duh.  I will not acknowledge any other fool's
take on how or why Spider-Man has burnt any other game.  The cards
fell where they fell.  All it might have taken to figure this out is a
little common sense, but sometimes the jar is just empty.

Speaking of fools and empty jars, the playfield has flippers, posts,
jets, and rubber just like WPT.  That is the only similarity between
WPT and SM.  Someone ridiculous thought otherwise while looking at a
poor photo on the web.  We all laughed our asses off at the "Sanding
off the old artwork and printing Spidey graphics over the WPT
playfields to use them up" post.  A couple of you have better
imaginations than keyboard-finger-posting-restraint.  My goodness.

By the way, I like and play Family Guy, and it is a good, fun game.  I
played it every day when we had it in the Stern game room.  Most all
of us at Stern like and respect the Family Guy pinball machine.  It is
a very nice effort by Pat with Keith, Lonnie, and Dwight.

Cody and Jason have ME wanting to get my game home, too!  I don't know
when I will get mine yet.  You will certainly have yours before I get
mine.

The toys are prototypes in Jack's and Korn's pictures.

The production toys were done by Gentle Giant Studios, (Google them!)
and are beyond cool!!!!  They smoke everything we have ever done with
molded toys!!!  They are detailed and beautifully painted.  Ray Tanzer
was instrumental in getting these toys into the design of Spider-Man.
Thanks Ray.

There is one magnet in the game.  It is in front of Doc Ock, as
someone has pointed out.  It is a popular and dramatic feature, and
has some great operating modes that I suspect you'll like.  Wait and
see.

We are not using color LCD displays.  They are too dim and expensive.
I have never seen one anywhere close to bright enough to rival the
plasma displays.  Maybe they exist, but almost certainly not cost-
effectively.  We try to bring you the max entertainment with the part
you play:  The Playfield.  I cannot trade away a toy or device to make
room for a new, expensive, dim display.

Green Goblin is a mover and a shaker and says some great stuff when
hit.  Yes, it's actually Willem Defoe doing the talking.  And
cackling. Wait and see.

Here are some more killer ingredients:

ALL the actors' lines and all the sound effects in ALL 3 MOVIES were
made available to us!!  You will hear all of the characters in the
coming weeks!  This has been a great opportunity, and a first, as far
as I know.  I am still blown away, and every time Lyman throws in
another call it is a whole new thrill.  Wait and see.

The voice of JK Simmons as the "pinball narrator" brings a lot to the
game and there was a great synergy at the recording session.  He is a
professional and a great guy.  David Thiel and I directed him.  JJ
Jameson can be very ascetic, but the humor generated is hilarious.
Some of it will be at your expense!  Wait and see!

The game has a great music package that rocks with high energy from
the first moment, and it's about time a pinball machine got our
collective feet tapping again!  I directed the music, but the
excellent tunes were all written by the masterful David Thiel.  He is
a gifted musician, composer and sound effects guy.  Thank you, David.
I know I am hell to work with, but you delivered anyway.  Wait and
see.

You'll have to wait and see the other devices in the game.  They were
designed by John Rotharmel, Oleg Korepanov, Robb Blakeman, Mike
Redoble & Mike Koch.

John Rotharmel designed and re-worked some great mechanicals.  He is a
French American, but I like him anyway! :<)) He is also a "Testing
Nazi" (Wait! A French Nazi? Please don't beat me up on this.  It is a
JOKE and only a JOKE!!) meaning that he wants all the mechs at Stern
to be tested thoroughly and correct problems and weaknesses.  Thanks
John for good work all along our working relationship.

Mike Redoble did a lot of our ramp and wire form work, but left Stern
for a new job.  I wish he was back because he was a very good
mechanical engineer, a good guy, and a Spider-Man comics historian.
Thanks Mike.

Mike Koch is our new-guy ME and he is good also.  Thanks for helping
us out Mike.

Oleg did our GG device.  It works well.  Thanks, Oleg.

Robb Blakeman is a SolidWorks and AutoCAD guru.  He designed some
stuff on Spider-Man, but more importantly solved problems and answered
hundreds of questions.  His work is tedious, organized, and he makes
Spider-Man (and me, but don't tell anyone) look good.  At one point he
saved my ass when my AutoCAD dwg crashed.  He got it all back.  I took
him to lunch!

These guys are all headed up by one of the most dedicated veteran
pinball masters I have ever met: Ray Tanzer.  Ray helped us with
everything everywhere and in every way.  Ray and I made the game cost
effective and Ray's inventive talent and drive were very helpful very
often.  He saw what we needed, got it for us, and he was as excited
for the game as Lyman and I.  He is also one of the nicest and most
patient people I have ever met, and I want to say a big thanks.  His
people love him and will go the extra mile to make things happen.
Ray's leadership is strong but loving, and we love you back, dude!

She wants to kill me, but I also want to thank Phillis Rosenthal for
her tireless work in keeping all of the drawings and parts and changes
and the BOM in order.  She has done this for years, but on this game I
drove her (and most everyone else in engineering) nuts with my
changes, requests and shoddy numberless drawings.  Thanks, sweetie.
And ya are.

I want to say thanks to Sheridan Oursler for helping us out on many
fronts.  Sometimes he was a tech, but he also designed the wiring
harnesses.  He is very smart, and takes care of business like a pro,
because he is a pro.

I want to thank Roberto, Christian, Jorge and Erasmo.  I never knew
their last names, but they are killer good at putting games together,
and they helped us a lot with the many prototypes, white woods, and
test fixtures.

No game designer can do without Jay Alfer's masterpiece, The Manual.
It is hard to believe that one guy creates the manual, but he does.
It is the best manual ever by any pinball company ever.  He works like
a dog and we don't help him enough.  Thanks a lot, Jay.

Thanks to Lonnie Ropp for doing all the Spider-Man language
translations, liaison with David Thiel, and code-oriented grunt work
for the betterment of Spider-Man and all games at Stern.

My personal thanks to some ladies at Stern that take care of me:
Shelley Sax sets me up with flights, cars, and hotel every trip to
Stern.  I am Gyro Gearloose, and would forget everything if it weren't
for her.  I also want to thank the girls in "my office" (which is
really in the accounting department and it's "their office"):  Jackie
Niehus, Shirley Zebro, and daughter Andrea Zebro, along with Dorothy
Brown and Marcia Rosenthal.

I am nearly deaf.  These girls have made and taken calls for me,
listened and interpreted messages, tell me my phone is ringing, remind
me to go to meetings and lots of other stuff, and always offer me
their moral support and hugs.  They played Spider-Man and gave me the
newbie's perspective.  They are all fun to work with.  I want to say
thanks and love to all of them.

I would be a jerk not to thank Joe Blackwell, Chas Siddiqi, and Pat
Powers for the great work they do in letting us know how we can design
our games to be easier to service.  I haven't always been able to
accommodate them, mostly because my designs are controlled by the
parameters of FUN and real estate management FIRST.  These guys are
the ones you talk to when your game breaks, and they are the best I
have ever seen at handling Customer Service.  Joe also runs the test
program, and has been very helpful at reporting every nuance of our
tests in the field.  Thanks you guys.

  INTERESTING FACT:  The "arches" are called Webslingers.  Wait and see.

Since Lyman was on our team and Brian Eddy also a respected friend, I
wanted to pay tribute to AFM, one of my all-time favorite pinball
machines.  The motor 3-bank Sandman Area is somewhat like AFM but used
completely differently.  Wait and see.  That is the only similarity to
AFM other than rule nuances that Lyman MIGHT write.  He is not
finished yet.

  INTERESTING FACT: Magnets in some uses were patented by Williams.  My
  Williams patent for Magna-Save ran out a few years ago.  It is legal
  for us to do as we please with magnets.  Wait and see.

Lyman Sheats is a superstar pinball player and programmer, and his
code is spectacular and clean.  The rules of Spider-Man are simple and
elegant, as his always are.  We loved making this game together, and
respected each other's designs and thoughts as we went along, making
them mesh together.   We both have a showmanship/entertainment gene,
and together we went hog wild.  We are far from done adding more of
everything in the coming weeks.

I believe that Spider-Man will contain one of the great pinball
rulesets of all time, and I have seen a few.  I am pretty sure you
will agree.  Time will tell.  I am proud to have worked with Lyman,
and he is also a good friend.  I have had the most fun working pinball
designs with Eugene Jarvis and Lyman because they both have excellent
creative abilities and other talents, as well as work ethics that go
far beyond most people's limits.  They understand games supremely, and
can analyze what a game might need in a heart beat.

Lyman operates with a give-and-take attitude, and that's where the
best collaborative games have come from.  I loved collaborating with
Lyman on this game, and when game designers/programmers enjoy
themselves at work on an exciting project, the resulting machine will
be something special.  I want to say Thank You to you, Lyman, here,
loudest of all!  It was a great experience working with you, and you,
like Spider-Man, are AMAZING.

I want to dedicate Spider-Man pinball to my father Ted, who passed
away during Spider-Man development.  He was a great, fun-oriented
father, and he loved pinball.  He let me play my first pinball at
Playland at the Beach in San Francisco when I was only about 3 or 4
years old.  All the legs were taken off the games and they were bolted
onto a wooden platform so they couldn't be shaken or lifted!  Pinball
cheats abounded in those days, and my father was one of them when he
was a teen.  But that's another very funny story.  I miss him.

I also have to thank my significant other, Dianna.  I love her
dearly.  She has supported me while I make my long trips to Stern, and
is a sweetheart of a person.  I could write a book about her, but I'll
save the mush for myself and my inner smile.  She has to repeat
everything she says to me twice.  (I mean, c'mon, she's married to
me!!!...COOK BETTER!)

That's all for now.  I hope that Spider-Man is what you expected, and
more.  I want to say thanks to the guys at RGP for supporting and
enjoying pinball.  Everybody counts.  Without enthusiasts,
competitors, operators, (like Lloyd!) distributors, (like Jack!)
players, collectors, and restorers, there would be no pinball
machines.  I don't ever forget this.

Best Regards,

Steve Ritchie