https://www.pinballnews.com/site/2022/01/21/lyman-sheats-dies/

"Lyman was found unconscious at his Hoffman Estates home on Thursday when his partner, Penni, raised the alarm after being unable to contact him."

Nearly made portal earlier in his honor. RIP sir. Such a rare and awesome talent.

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My goodness. What a horrifying shame.

Lyman was one of the core guys who kept pinball going when it truly could have ended.
He will be missed.

Unbelievable. I can't think of a greater possible loss to the pinball community. An undeniable genius of a human being has been taken from this world far too soon. We are so much poorer for the loss. My heart goes out to his loved ones.

My only personal interaction with Lyman was when he helped me by updating information about rolling #the_walking_dead_le
Old code rolled at 4 billion something and incremented the ones digit. Lyman taught me “The latest version of the code uses 64-bit scoring, so you should be able to score 18,446,744,073,709,551,615‬…”

He will be missed.

I just can't really believe this.....so sad. Huge condolences for all his loved ones....I cant imagine what you're going through.. Sort of in shock...way too young. His legacy will be timeless however. Tough thing to hear....

RIP - definite long time fan here - still remember when he gave me proto code for Iron Man off his usb stick he had at Louisville. You will be missed!

Ditto

Metallica was my first NIB pin. So from the beginning he was 1 of my favorites in pinball. Thank God for every day, you never know what's around the corner in life.

We should head there and have a couple rippers in honor of Lyman.

I played AC/DC next to Lyman at the Fairfax Open 9 or 10 years ago. He was on the machine next to me. I was a total newb, but someone had pointed him out to me. I didn’t know, however, that he had coded AC/DC.

At the end of every ball I ignorantly banged away at the action button. At one point he took notice. Lol. I’m sure he was thinking what you’re thinking now!

It wasn’t until I bought AC/DC did I connect the dots.

I’m a big fan of his work, as we all are. But particularly like all of the stories that confirm his humbleness and kind nature. The world could use a lot more of that.

Lost way too early! RIP Lyman

Oh man....give me some warning. I'm having a few drinks in his honor and can't drive!

Shocker, heart felt wishes to family and friends

That is so sad, I am gutted. He came over to Germany for one of the bigger pinball events as the main speaker. He gave a talk on his work and came across as a humble, but nevertheless brilliant programmer as well as being a really nice guy. He has given many pleasure and excitement with his fantastic coding. RIP Lyman.

This is sad, he was so young.

Sad day indeed. It’s good to hear all the stories and how he impacted so many. He was truly passionate about pinball. Several games that were duds are now some of the best because of the updated code/rules. Lyman did a lot of work on his own time as I understand. We are all grateful for his contributions.

Condolences to all his family and friends.

I don’t have any Lyman games in my lineup yet so I went to the local bowling alley and played a few games of this.

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RIP. Just played Monster Bash yesterday and was thinking about Lyman's Lament.

Thank you Lyman

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We should set up a poll to see what people think his greatest work was!

Thanks. There is a discussion on the enthusiasts page about doing something for either his family or Project Pinball using the "stance" image. Maybe a T-shirt. I wouldn't want any of the proceeds from it. It's been a rough day. I was a huge fan of his and when I approached him at PAPA in 2014 to introduce myself and ask for a picture he couldn't have been more gracious. True class act.

I just explained to my kids who he is .This is they’re vote .

The Indie Pinball Chick team will be writing an article all about how Lyman's approach to code and rules changed the pinball landscape. Never wasting any shots, never breaking up the action, never leaving the player with nothing to do no matter where the ball ends up, making games with more content but accessible to players of all skill levels, and allowing budgets to be trimmed when it started to matter in the 90s by having code make up for mechanical and design cutbacks, allowing more to be done with less in a way you don't really notice.

My bad this one

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.

Gutted for his friends.

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I am also in shock at hearing the news. My condolences to Penni, his Chicago friends, and his many other pinball acquaintances.

I first met him in 2005 at a tournament at SS Billards, the write up of that event is still on Pinball News, with a few pictures of Lyman near the bottom of the story, with other players that are still very active in pinball. https://www.pinballnews.com/shows/mayday2005/index.html

He will be missed.

Ross

I am devastated!! This is like a bad dream. What a great loss!!! RIP Lyman. Condolences to the family…. Dammit!! This is so messed up.

Stunned by the news.

I first met Lyman in 1993 when he was one of the first (if not THE first) internet nerds to step through the looking glass and work for the manufacturers instead of bitch about them on rec.games.pinball. He snuck me into the Data East factory for a tour before I ever thought about joining the business.

We both landed at Williams at exactly the same time in the winter of 1994. Both kind of strangers to the maelstrom that was Williams pinball engineering but he adapted way quicker than I did. We had a lot of good memories both in and out of work during those years. I remember helping him jumpstart his car on California avenue after the blizzard of 1999 and I was pretty sure he had spent the entire weekend in the office working on Revenge From Mars. He never said a thing about it.

He was a quiet, modest genius when it came to pinball engineering and none of us could have ever been able to approach the time, love, and care he put into everything he did. It was one thing to watch him play, it was another to look over his work and how he handled his craft. Both were humbling.

The way he'll live on in my memory is the one afternoon we were playing a game together at the bottom of the stairs at 3401 N California. That was where new games got tested before the street and Lyman would regularly spend hours kicking the shit out of the machines, figuratively and literally. If your game was worth playing the coin door would be dented from Lyman kicking it in frustration to trigger the slam tilt (also known as a 'programmer's reset').

We had finished a game - and it wasn't a great one - and he was entering his initials but messed up the S in LFS. It entered as LFT. Lyman joked that this was "Lefty", his alter ego that sucked at pinball. It became a running joke at some point and when I wrote him into the No Good Gofers HSTD table that's how he wanted to be listed. I'd like to think he wasn't poking fun at the game but at himself.

This has been a devastating shock to all of us that ever knew him or worked with him on a daily basis. Lefty will be sorely missed.

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Thank you sir_tankalot

You were a cornerstone in the pinball community, and will be greatly missed.

This should become the official IFPA logo

that's a really cool piece of trivia. thanks for sharing that!

In shock. What a great, great guy.
RIP LFS

Just finished a few games, sucks.
Didn’t feel much like playing tonight.
RIP Lyman. God bless his family and friends.
What a incredible loss to everyone.

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Great story, thanks for sharing!

My avatar is a pic of me playing a game of Aztec against a friend of mine, Lyman, and Penni.
Meeting Lyman is easily the highpoint of that weekend at Papa. Far and above, my favourite rules programmer.
ACDC was my first pin and it's almost a curse. How do you top that one? With Metallica and Walking Dead, I suppose.
I'm gutted. This is reminiscent of hearing about Gord Downie's brain tumour. So sad.

Yes he was. This news is devastating. RIP Lyman - you left your mark on the world. World’s greatest pinball coder.

Best rules.

Ever!

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Wow, this is so sad. I didn't know Lyman, but I definitely know his work and his reputation, both of which are stellar. He'll be missed!

Gonna go play some AFM.

Man such sad news, rest easy Lyman.
Will certainly be sorely missed among us and I'm sure other circles as well.
What a fantastic legacy left behind.

My wife loves AFM.
My kid love both AFM and Tron.

Everytime I turn one of these on, he runs to see.

And yes... This is my son when he was 15 days old... I took off the glass and he is on the playfield.

Did see Lyman in more than one expo.
But I was too shy to talk to him and say thanks for everything...

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Eh, it will probably devolve... I say Metallica though!

Very sad news. RIP . Thanks for all the smiles you brought to the many pinballers.

Such a sad passing. Rest in peace and my most heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.

Took this pic when I got my remake a year ago.

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Very sad news. Never met him, but his games brought my family together for thousands of balls.
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I appreciate the mention. While I don't think it would need to necessarily be my hastily done graphic, I agree that it would be awesome of the IFPA to adopt an outline of Lyman in one of his several stances as the logo for the state trophies. NBA has their Jerry West, we definitely have our Lyman Sheats.