Steve Kordek, 1911-2012

“At a trade show in Chicago 1948, Mr. Kordek introduced Triple Action, a game that featured just two flippers, both controlled by buttons at the bottom of the table. Mr. Kordek was a designer for Genco, one of more than two dozen pinball manufacturers in Chicago at the time. Not only was Mr. Kordek’s two-flipper game less expensive to produce; it also gave players greater control. For someone concentrating on keeping a chrome-plated ball from dropping into the “drain,” two flippers, one for each hand, were better than six.”
 — Steve Kordek, who invented the modern pinball machine, died Sunday in Park Ridge, Illinois. It’s a nice touch that he lived to be 100, officially turning over the digit counters in the game of life.