Dang! I had hoped to meet him one day. I will play my Maverick a lot this weekend in his memory.

He was found in his home unresponsive.

love the ones you're with while you can.

Sad news!!!!

Playing his games brought a lot of smiles to a lot of people for a lot of years, and that will continue to live on. RIP Lyman, thoughts and condolences to his loved ones.

Absolute one of a kind. Thoughts are with Penni and her family. Damn.

So very very sad! The nicest guy ever! I was fortunate to have gotten to know him over the years. Here is a picture that I took many years ago of Lyman competing at PAPA with that unique playing stance. Next to him is another person we lost too soon (John "Koz" Kosmal). I was also fortunate to have not only one great Stern Tour Guide BUT two. RIP Lyman. My prayers go out to Penni and family!

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I first saw Lyman at the 1994 AMOA? Show in Chicago. Wearing a suit and cameras filming, he tore up Star Trek The Next Generation. 13 Billion points plus. A great person indeed.
Rest In Peace

Well this is just awful. So unfair. My heart goes out to Penni and his family.

Condolences to his friends, family, and loved ones. Losing such a brilliant human being hurts. A creative genius with a great sense of humor, Lyman will be missed. Rest In Peace.

Peace in your eternal rest. Love to his family.

Big loss for the whole pinball community, RIP Lyman.

Really really sad news. Pinball world have lost a legend....

https://www.slamtiltpodcast.com/2018/07/18/episode-100-lyman-laments/

Another great Lyman interview.

Sad day RIP

One of the nicest people in pinball I ever met. An incredible generational talent.

This may be remembered as the night that Chicago died.

very sad I'm heartbroken for Penni and his family.

RIP Lyman - In Lyman we trusted and you never ever let us down.

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What an incredible loss! I am at a loss for words right now.

I'll always remember the kind of person he was. Back at Expo 2004, my son Josh (12 at the time standing to the left of Lyman) absolutely worshiped Lyman and Lyman just happened to be walking by us. Josh ran up to him and started talking to him. Most people would just have kept on going but Lyman stopped to chat with him for a while. Josh really wanted to play Lyman on a game. There just so happened to be a HS2 right there so they started up a 2-player game. I was thinking Lyman may go easy on Josh to make it seem close. NOPE! Lyman annihilated Josh like 24 billion to 8 million! It wasn't close at all. But Josh thought that was the greatest thing ever and I'm glad Lyman stopped to talk to my son. Truly a class act!

RIP Lyman.

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This is awful news. Lyman was one of my pinball heroes. Such a gracious guy when I asked to have my pic taken with him back in 2014. I’m just, speechless… and so so sad today hearing this news.
This pinball community lost a great one this morning.
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WTF?! Terrible news... RIP. A true talent.

Horrible. So sorry for him and his loved ones.

Though I never met the man, from interviews and broadcasts and such I always appreciated his manner. He came off as very thoughtful, kind, intelligent, dedicated, and humble. His contributions to and influence on pinball programming are extraordinary. He will be very missed.

Oh no!

I've told the story before, but on my first visit to Pinburg I was playing a casual game on Baywatch when I got distracted by the guy next to me - a wild-haired maniac who was taking his game of Comet entirely too seriously. His body was hunched down, parallel to the glass, nose inches away from the lockdown bar. His body was extended way out into the aisle and I thought for sure someone would knock into him in the crowded hall. Every flip was a deliberate and forceful move, like a cobra strike. It was so mesmerizing to watch him work that I gave up on my game just to watch him. Later, I realized that it was Lyman Sheats and looked up his list of credits - such an impressive career and such a huge loss for pinball.

Awful news.

He was a true Legend.

R.I.P

I played Lyman’s own Getaway in his basement years ago - and somehow got 1st place score (not Grand Champ)…the batteries must had been changed recently

Thank you for sharing. Great story!

“The key to the Immortality is first living a life worth remembering“
- Bruce Lee

Rest in peace Lyman, you are legend here now!

I'm in shock……. He was young and I never expected it. He coded my favorite pins. He looked like a very nice guy who would go the extra mile on his free time to stand behind his work. What a sad news.

Wow f**k

Condolences to all those around him.

Even high up in the swiss mountains we cherished the work he did on all those machines

RIP Lyman.

Tough day for pop culture as Louie Anderson and Meatloaf left the coil too. The older we all get the more folks who influenced our lives will pass beyond and leave us with their magnificent work.

Wow I can't believe it Lyman was one of the greatest pinball programmers ever in the history of this hobby. Just speechless. His memory will live on for decades with thousands of people playing the games he did code for.

What a sad day in pinball history !!
All the best to his family and friends !!

Sad sad news. A true giant of pinball. Condolences to his family and friends. RIP Lyman.

There is no musician, band, writer, poet, director, or creative person in any field that has given me as many hours of entertainment as Lyman Sheats. My heart goes out to all who loved him. I feel grateful to have been able to let him know how much I appreciate his work. He was a Master.

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and that was Lyman - thank you so much for sharing.

Wow , terrible news today. Very saddened by this. I had the pleasure to meet him and have a brief chat with him and he was a super nice guy. Very sad day.

This is just like loosing a sports hero or music legend for Pinball.
World of pinball won't be the same without him.
Thoughts and prayers to his family. Hope everyone is taken care of.

This is just awful, I feel sick.... There will never be another, he was truly the best, a master of the craft. RIP, you will be missed!

Lyman was the greatest

I don't think we will ever see the likes of Lyman in this hobby again. His dedication to his craft was truly unrivaled. You would think a game of his was done, and then years later a code update would come out of nowhere just to tweak a few things that had always bothered him. People would literally pre-order games sight unseen solely because they knew Lyman was coding it and they had the utmost confidence in him.

Lyman was a great guy and will be missed. He helped me with some pretty technical inside stuff with the SAM pinball system. He didn't have to but went out of his way to help. Talked tech with him at several shows and he was always attentive and gracious.

Worked with him to test the Stern Pinball Ticket Dispenser system and I could tell he really know his stuff and was really passionate about pinball.

A big loss to pinball and a great person gone too soon.

What a shock. Lyman was quite obviously one of the greats in pinball history-- as a coder, as a player, and as a friend to many.

I met him only once at a Florida pinball show. I was playing Heavy Metal Meltdown with the intention of possibly purchasing the game which was for sale at the show. As I was playing I heard someone behind me say something like "Look at that. I've never seen that game before...." I turned around and it was Lyman and his girlfriend Penni. I was a little awestruck, but had the gumption to say "Since you've never played it, let's play a game together, OK?"

Not surprisingly Lyman totally blew the game up, very first game. He locked all 5 balls, and got the MELTDOWN! He was very nice, genuine, and truly amazing to watch play up close.

I bought the game because I did love it, but also to preserve that moment. I still own the game and think of Lyman every time I play it.

RIP, Lyman. As long as people flip a pinball you'll be remembered as the legend you were.

What a massive loss. He was a genuine legend. But what a legacy he's left behind.

Man -- not many deaths of people I don't know can depress me, but this one does. Loved the way he played pinball, his code made BM66 my grail game and on top of this he seemed like an incredibly nice, humble guy who put an enormous amount of work into making his games the best they could be. He just seemed like an amazing human.

I've never written anybody fan mail before but I thought about it on more than one occasion in regards to Lyman -- a part of what stopped me is I figured he'd feel obligated to write me back as that just seemed like the type of guy he was so I settled on starting a thread about my appreciation for him. Weird that that was only six months ago or so . . . so sad.

Shocked to hear this...

I played against Lyman during PAPA3 way back when. He was this guy playing in his socks with one foot on top of the other and swaying back and forth on each shot. I was amazed to see how the ball never seemed to be out of his control. No matter what target he hit, the ball would return right back to the flipper, like the ball was on a string or something. This was before he even started working for Williams.

I never really new him, but always admired him. RIP

Just terrible news. Terrible. Condolences to his family.

Lyman was Master of the Code as someone else mentioned.

Meatloaf, Louie Anderson, Lyman.... death is sadly all around us today. RIP

TRAGIC, ABSOLUTELY TRAGIC!!! OMG. My heart is broken! While I don't know Lyman personally, I have admired his work as the absolute top of what he did.

I was very shocked to hear he had left Stern and when someone dies this young, you think it must have been something more, such as cancer or an accident... no matter what it was, it feels so wrong and hurts so bad.

RIP Lyman. Your legendary programming will live on forever and I will never forget how you have impacted my life in such a positive, fun way.

This one really sucks. Way to young. Enjoy the time you've got.

This is absolutely heartbreaking.
My thoughts and prayers are with his family.
The world just lost a true artist.

RIP Lyman you will be missed