Similar story. Just wanted to say hi and tell him how much I enjoyed AC/DC that I had just bought. Made a joke about how bad I was at it and trying to figure out scoring strategies. He then spent 5 minutes giving me tips and asking about what I was doing. He did it in a way where he didn't want to spoil the game but instead nudge me in certain directions.

Just seemed so kind and passionate about it. Tremendously sad day for the hobby. But as you said, his legacy will live on in the games he worked on and all the people who were inspired by his work.

.

Unbelievable...So young. Condolences to his friends and family.

Fairly new (4 years) to the hobby, but totally gutted on this news. Didn't matter if you're new or old to the hobby... You knew who Lyman was... The world just lost a legend. RIP man... No words

So sad! My heart goes out to his family!

Such sad news!

I have to share this ...

Only diving headfirst into this hobby in 2018, I didn't know anything of the legendary players, designers or coders in pinball.

Shortly after, while at a pinball show (Pinburgh, I think) I snapped a pic of someone playing with a very unique stance. I had never seen anyone position themselves quite like that and thought my wife would get a kick out of the pic.

Today, after seeing various pics of Lyman posted by other Pinsiders in this thread, I had a strange realization ... could that photo, I took a few years ago, been of Lyman Sheats.

I searched back through my photo archives and there it was in my archives. I showed my wife and said, "I think I took a photo of Lyman Sheats!"

My wife was skeptical at first, since you can't see this man's face, but when I showed her another pic that someone had posted that had a striking resemblance, she took another look. She then spotted that even the sneakers looked the same, not too mention a similar bottle of water by his feet.

Did I take a pic of a true "Pinball Legend" and not even know it at the time ... I think, I did ... but maybe, I'll never know for sure.

One thing I do know, I wish I would have said, "Hello," to that fellow and said, "..that's quite a playing stance!"

(For comparison, I attached my photo of him(?) playing Atlantis and another pic of Lyman previously posted in this thread. )

Screenshot_20220121-171351_Chrome (resized).jpg

Screenshot_20220121-151018_Photos (resized).jpg

Good lord! January has been a rough month already and today seems to be the worst.

RIP Lyman

This is more the stance that I remember him having when I first say him at PAPA3, one foot on top of the other, except he played the whole tourney in just his socks.
pasted_image (resized).png

Same sneakers...

Man. It’s starting to set in. Shock wearing off and sadness taking over. His mastery will certainly live with me and *on* me forever. His impact can’t be overstated. RIP and condolences to all of his family and friends.

C5E5A8D5-A7FE-49E7-8059-2017F1DB997F (resized).jpeg

Great picture. Did you take this?

I remember the first correspondence I had with Lyman back in '92. We were part of a small group of RGPers who had bought TAF new and we were sharing our experiences with the game. Fast forward a few years and I had good memories of many late nights spent at Williams. He was working on AFM and I was working on Safe Cracker. I was in the next hall, but kept hearing the "5 BILLION..." callout for hours as he worked on the RTU winning effect.

RIP didn't know him personally but seemed like a genuinely good dude.

50ish is too young.

Rest In Peace Lyman. Your games brought so much joy and I truly enjoyed watching you play.

People forget how good a player he was besides the amazing code.

What a loss for the hobby.

RIP Lyman, you will be missed big time

Thank you Lyman for your incredible code.

Pinball won’t be the same without you

So sad to see Lyman not with us anymore. His games were genius in coding and super fun to play. We are all going to miss him. I am sure everybody is playing his coded games as we speak. Thank you Lyman for all your hard work that makes life fun for all of us playing pinball. Here is a great interview from The Slam Tilt Podcast. It is hard to listen to this knowing he passed away. Such a great guy!

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

Just played my Mando LE in a Lyman Sheats wide stance and had one of my best games on it. I can see why he got low like that, to easier line up a shot from the playfield level.

Thanks for creating this image - this would make an absolutely awesome tribute t-shirt.

Maybe with some of the proceeds going to his family, from the world's pinball family?
Anyone? Anyone?

RIP

RIP, big big loss for pinball... so so sad

Brilliant at what he did and he will certainly be missed.

RIP

I got to play a game and talk to him in Milwaukee at the show in ‘19
Super nice guy - wasn’t in a rush - took time to talk to some pinball guy he didn’t know.
I feel super lucky to have met him.

9CE33D7E-A22F-46FE-B273-1B94CB58C3D5 (resized).jpeg

F5E00ED3-3FA1-4FE3-BC07-7BF9D29D6F49 (resized).jpeg

RIP Lyman. Sad day.

5F656796-8B10-4678-81C3-38C53FE34742.jpeg

Very sad. Thank you, Lyman, for all you did for pinball.

R.I.P. Someone who truly innovated pinball. You will be missed.

What a very, very sad day. My thoughts are with his family and friends.

We at Chicago Gaming are deeply saddened by the passing of Lyman Sheats. It was nothing less than an honor to have had the opportunity to work with such an exceptional individual. Being huge fans of his work, it’s no coincidence that the first three games we selected to remake were all programmed by Lyman. Through working with Lyman I got to know him personally and grew to consider him a friend. I’m going to miss him. I think everyone here is going to miss him.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Penni, his family and the entire pinball community.

This sucks. 2022 sucks.

A sad day for pinball indeed.

The best way to honor Lyman is to love and enjoy his creations. I know I will.

https://www.facebook.com/sternpinball/posts/10159987983299244?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWb_CmW_5SW0mQiJXuwfnzs7mp0ZurpLV0lTLpLKwoHzWsvwgj16h0CShOdnvVDBmOVwYrr0TeXoDJ3YHSk8VJHCu-krOYzJBFTC2qbxN288w5vrGHLJ30OZJms9rNonflSsKI70zstlo2vbojH1yaFGKz2UqTPClLbk5YAHUV8RA&__tn__=-UK-R

I hope this post is not taken in any other way than which I am posting it as I am a long time software engineer as well. No idea what physical issues if any Lyman Sheats had but I can offer some insight on the rigors of intense software projects and relentless tech support. Most of the time, we sit for hours upon hours and that is very unhealthy. For any pinball companies here, if you do not already, please encourage employees to get up out of that seat and move around.

In the first game of the first tournament I ever played in, I realize as I'm walking up that Lyman is in my group.

We're playing ACDC...a game he coded of course...I make a joke that I'm happy to help if he had any questions about the code. He laughed a bit, and then proceeded to easily crush the other 3 of us in the group. We talked afterwards and he was really nice and friendly.

Lyman is one of the best players of all time, and a code genius. Thank you for all the fun Lyman. You will be greatly missed.

I'm going to go play the games you coded in my lineup, and a raise a glass to your memory.

Lyman was one of the kindest and smartest people I ever had the pleasure of meeting. No matter where our paths would cross, he was always kind enough to talk with me, even if he happened to be destroying me on a game of pinball in a tournament and I just wanted to chat with a hero. He would come out to small local tournaments I ran to support the scene. He would stop and say hi if I was passing by at Stern. He was considerate, sweet, and just a great person to just have been able to meet. It's deeply saddening to think I won't be seeing his smile again.

This is certainly a horrible day for pinball. Even more so though my thoughts are with his family and all of you that knew him on a personal level. I'm truly sorry for your loss.

Truly devastated. The star of “Special when Lit”. Remember watching him play and seeing him interviewed and thinking what a great guy. At the time didn’t even realise the genius he had brought to the world with his game design and coding. We won’t see his like again. RIP.

This is the first time I heard his name.....while watching this documentary. I took notice after this.

No, I copied this from somebody else's post earlier in this thread. I just wanted to show the Lyman stance that I remembered, rather than the other one being shown in other pictures here.

The man who made the difference in the rules. A world champion who made the good games great and showed us how balance and depth could be achieved with a simple layout.

It's the rules man... It's the rules that make the game.

Damn those epic pinball splits... gotta love him.
RIP Lyman

You didn’t have to know him personally to know he actually touched all of us who love pinball.
He is going to be missed.

Lyman PAPA (resized).JPG

PAPA banners (resized).JPG

Just played a game of Metallica in honor of Lyman. What an awesome game. What an enormous loss for pinball. RIP.

I've never talked to the guy personally but have seen him at tournaments here and there. Far too young. Pouring one out for him this weekend!

Wow. I am shocked and saddened to hear about this. Never met Lyman personally, but being in this hobby for many decades and owning several of his games - it's hard not to be stunned by this news.

RIP Lyman - you made your mark and you will be missed.

A true legend, you'll live on forever through the games you designed.

Rest In Paradise

WOW.. this is devastating news. What a cool F'ing guy, taken way too soon..

Quick Lyman story:

The last Herb Silvers show in Vegas (99'?), Lyman, Tony Page (Silverball Amusements) and I played wound up at the same blackjack table. At the start of what must have been a 6-7 hour session, Lyman shows up few hours in..

At the beginning, he was pretty low key; but as the beers went down it was pretty apparent we knew who he was even though we hadn't been introduced. Lyman was super chill, really easy to talk to and a damn good card player (surprise!). The three of us got on great..

There is something magical when you have a group of people who know how to play blackjack at the table at the same time. We were all hitting some insane splits, double-downs giving the house some particularly brutal beats - at which time either Tony or I would bust out "Jackput!!!" in Salah's voice from IJ. We had Lyman rolling, by the end of it. I think we all finally left around 3 am. An especially good night was had by all, and I remember Lyman in particular crushed the house. He must have left the table easily up close to a grand.

The next day I had a chance to witness "The Stance" up close.. The victim: A Dr. Who... I have never seen anything like it before or since, just 1-2-3 combo after combo without a miss. Stunning. The Doctor didn't stand a chance.

I ran into Lyman a few years later at Expo in either 03' or 04'. We had a good chat about how Pinball Fantasy needed to come back and how insane that blackjack session was a few years earlier..Awesome dude.

Lyman was an amazing coder, but just as amazing of a pinball player. He was a pinball legend because of his passion for both.

But after reading what is at present, 7 pages of posts on his passing - It's pretty clear that Lyman was a legendary person. I am very lucky to have met him.

Condolences to all his family and friends, especially Penni.. --- RIP LFS ---

IM002353 (resized).JPG

This ain't right.

2020 sucked. 2021 said hold my beer. And look what we're starting out with now.

I'm going to play some TWD in his honor now.

IMG_20220118_150941996 (resized).jpg

I'm playing a couple of my pins tonight in honor of Lyman.

R.I.P.

You'll be missed.

DSC_6235 (resized).JPG