(Topic ID: 300716)

Jerry Armstrong, pinball designer - What's his story?

By roffels

2 years ago


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  • 14 posts
  • 5 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 2 years ago by Tsskinne
  • Topic is favorited by 4 Pinsiders

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    #1 2 years ago

    Jerry Armstrong has one credit at Williams Pinball, designing Millionaire. His next game was at Data East, King Kong, which as we know did not make it out of the prototype stage. Regardless of the license popularity, it looks like a solid layout - any reason they couldn't have reused it for a separate license?

    Beyond that, he has one unreleased game at Alvin G, along with the head to head football/soccer games and Al's Garage Band. What got him into pinball? And was the industry just too difficult to stay in? Did he move on to other coin-op design, or leave the entire industry?

    #2 2 years ago

    He was pleasant. He was our tour guide on Pinball Expo 1988 when Taxi was being built. Maybe 12 or so in our group.That was my first expo. Millionnaire was a good game and I was surprised not to see more from him. Unique layout on Millionnaire. Not a bad game.

    #3 2 years ago
    Quoted from pinballplusMN:

    He was pleasant. He was our tour guide on Pinball Expo 1988 when Taxi was being built. Maybe 12 or so in our group.That was my first expo. Millionnaire was a good game and I was surprised not to see more from him. Unique layout on Millionnaire. Not a bad game.

    Millionaire is what inspired my interest - I bought an as-is basket case game from Pinball Warehouse years back, and finally trying to get it up and going. It's certainly unique in its design when compared to other games of the era.

    #4 2 years ago

    One of my very good friends (and pinballplusMN s too) got pulled into pinball by playing Millionaire while in college. Many years later and yet many years ago I first met him sitting on a bar stool at SS Billiards.

    Very underrated game. If you are good at making the two shots to lock your balls you can get back on top fast if you have a crappy multi ball. The skill shot with the 3rd flipper is very satisfying too.

    Even if there wasn’t a wheel in the middle of the game I’d still enjoy.

    #5 2 years ago
    Quoted from roffels:

    I bought an as-is basket case game from Pinball Warehouse

    My first as is game I bought was also my first buy from Big Al. High Speed for $400. Was missing the topper. Aaron spent half an hour finding me one. I didn’t know anything about pinball and brought the CPU in for him to fix the adjustment failure I was getting. I paid $40 for 3 AA Batteries basically. But I learned a lot in the process so it was all worth it. Back then internet was hardly a thing.

    #6 2 years ago
    Quoted from EJS:

    My first as is game I bought was also my first buy from Big Al. High Speed for $400. Was missing the topper. Aaron spent half an hour finding me one. I didn’t know anything about pinball and brought the CPU in for him to fix the adjustment failure I was getting. I paid $40 for 3 AA Batteries basically. But I learned a lot in the process so it was all worth it. Back then internet was hardly a thing.

    It happens to all of us! My first purchase from Pinball Warehouse was T3 - the balls wouldn't eject out of the ball trough, and Pinball Warehouse sent out a tech. It ended up being something really simple, the balls were magnetized. But if you had no frame of reference, how would you know it was something so simple?

    #7 2 years ago
    Quoted from roffels:

    Jerry Armstrong has one credit at Williams Pinball, designing Millionaire. His next game was at Data East, King Kong, which as we know did not make it out of the prototype stage. Regardless of the license popularity, it looks like a solid layout - any reason they couldn't have reused it for a separate license?
    Beyond that, he has one unreleased game at Alvin G, along with the head to head football/soccer games and Al's Garage Band. What got him into pinball? And was the industry just too difficult to stay in? Did he move on to other coin-op design, or leave the entire industry?

    I've had many conversations with Jerry over the years as part of my Alvin G & Co. employee interviews and just general chit chat about various things. I can fill in some of the blanks and add additional info when I have more time to write. Stay tuned.

    1 week later
    #8 2 years ago
    Quoted from MattElder:

    I've had many conversations with Jerry over the years as part of my Alvin G & Co. employee interviews and just general chit chat about various things. I can fill in some of the blanks and add additional info when I have more time to write. Stay tuned.

    Okay, so I finally have a little bit of time to answer some of the OPs questions about Jerry, and add some misc. info about what he did before and after his time with Alvin G. & Co.

    Jerry said he started out in gaming at Taito in ‘81. In ‘85 he had a short stint at Bally, where he was trained by future Alvin G & Co. designer Wally Welch. He then moved on to design at Williams, also in ‘85. In ‘89 he went to Data East where he would later meet Michael Gottlieb. In ‘90 he was approached by Alvin Gottlieb to work with him at what was originally A. Gottlieb & Co. Early on the plan was just to be a design firm, with games being built by Gottlieb. Gottlieb being too busy with their own games, declined, and soon Jerry was helping set up a factory in part of the Gottlieb Memorial Hospital complex in Melrose Park.

    He was hired by Alvin in March of ‘90 and signed a 3 year contract as designer and General Manager. For the first year and a half it was basically just him and Alvin. As the company eventually grew to around 150 employees, Jerry was in charge of hiring among many other duties.

    His games that went into production at Alvin G were A.G. Soccer-Ball (and the export version A.G. Football), Al’s Garage Band Goes On A World Tour, and USA Football (the Head-to-head version). He also designed 2 unreleased prototypes that I own; Dual Pool and Slapshot.

    In March of ‘93 his contract with Alvin G & Co. was up, and he left the coin-op industry. In Jerry’s words, he then held “Odd jobs throughout the 90’s”. Soon though he would enter his new line of business where he still is today….a singer and impressionist for hire.

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    #9 2 years ago

    That's fantastic history. Thanks for sharing. Now if we can find what Jose Delgado is up to. Another class act.

    #10 2 years ago

    Thank you Matt! What an eclectic career.

    And wow, I never realized how prolific the Gottlieb family were - hospitals and pinball?!

    #11 2 years ago
    Quoted from roffels:

    Thank you Matt! What an eclectic career.
    And wow, I never realized how prolific the Gottlieb family were - hospitals and pinball?!

    You're welcome. And yes, the Gottlieb family were a big thing in the area. The hospital was founded by David Gottlieb in '61.

    #12 2 years ago
    Quoted from MattElder:

    You're welcome. And yes, the Gottlieb family were a big thing in the area. The hospital was founded by David Gottlieb in '61.

    Got any pictures of the Slapshot I can't find anything on that one.

    #13 2 years ago
    Quoted from Tsskinne:

    Got any pictures of the Slapshot I can't find anything on that one.

    I have a few on my phone here.

    It now resides on the museum building ceiling. It's a rough and super basic game and very similar to the layout of A.G Soccer-Ball, A.G. Football, and USA Football head-to-head games. It was to be a tabletop game with no displays that connected to your tv via Super Nintendo or other video game console to display the score (and possibly other graphics I'm guessing).

    When I got it it was piled high with raccoon turds and other stuff. I cleaned it up a bunch and had the hand drawn paper artwork (much of it was gone due to years of poor storage) recreated on decals. It's another neat piece of history that I'm glad that I could save.

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    #14 2 years ago
    Quoted from MattElder:

    I have a few on my phone here.
    It now resides on the museum building ceiling. It's a rough and super basic game and very similar to the layout of A.G Soccer-Ball, A.G. Football, and USA Football head-to-head games. It was to be a tabletop game with no displays that connected to your tv via Super Nintendo or other video game console to display the score (and possibly other graphics I'm guessing).
    When I got it it was piled high with raccoon turds and other stuff. I cleaned it up a bunch and had the hand drawn paper artwork (much of it was gone due to years of poor storage) recreated on decals. It's another neat piece of history that I'm glad that I could save.
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    Very cool, thank you for sharing!

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