Louis Koziarz
@koziarz.com
Embedded systems farmer. Ex WMS, PLD, Stern pinball. Randomly posting wacky stuff I saved from my time in the coin-op business and most likely retold incorrectly.
Stay Strong |✶✶✶✶|
Stay Strong |✶✶✶✶|
If you're a Williams/Bally/Midway pinball or video game buff, I highly recommend Ken's book. I wasn't privy to all of the history that went on in that shop, but his accounts are accurate and fair. It tells the story very well, including the bad times.
www.amazon.com/Pinballs-Pix...
www.amazon.com/Pinballs-Pix...
November 26, 2025 at 5:54 PM
If you're a Williams/Bally/Midway pinball or video game buff, I highly recommend Ken's book. I wasn't privy to all of the history that went on in that shop, but his accounts are accurate and fair. It tells the story very well, including the bad times.
www.amazon.com/Pinballs-Pix...
www.amazon.com/Pinballs-Pix...
Illinois Pin Ball, Part 0: (thanks @heyrocker.com for the reminder).
When pinball was laid off, employees were allowed to come back to the factory for a week or so to clean out their offices. We had decades of stuff that the company didn't want anymore, so we hauled it ALL off. (more)
When pinball was laid off, employees were allowed to come back to the factory for a week or so to clean out their offices. We had decades of stuff that the company didn't want anymore, so we hauled it ALL off. (more)
November 26, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Illinois Pin Ball, Part 0: (thanks @heyrocker.com for the reminder).
When pinball was laid off, employees were allowed to come back to the factory for a week or so to clean out their offices. We had decades of stuff that the company didn't want anymore, so we hauled it ALL off. (more)
When pinball was laid off, employees were allowed to come back to the factory for a week or so to clean out their offices. We had decades of stuff that the company didn't want anymore, so we hauled it ALL off. (more)
Illinois Pin Ball, part 6: In hindsight, it's now pretty clear that we ALL avoided disaster on many levels. A lot of us would have sunk time and money into a project that would go nowhere, or bankrupt us all. And Gene would have gone to the rest of you all to sell shares, which would be worthless.
November 25, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Illinois Pin Ball, part 6: In hindsight, it's now pretty clear that we ALL avoided disaster on many levels. A lot of us would have sunk time and money into a project that would go nowhere, or bankrupt us all. And Gene would have gone to the rest of you all to sell shares, which would be worthless.
Illinois Pin Ball, part 5: With the idea of the resurrected Williams now done, everyone went off in different directions. Dwight and Keith went to Stern, for example. Lawlor, Krutsch, and I decided to give PLD a try but he needed the winter to get ready.
November 25, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Illinois Pin Ball, part 5: With the idea of the resurrected Williams now done, everyone went off in different directions. Dwight and Keith went to Stern, for example. Lawlor, Krutsch, and I decided to give PLD a try but he needed the winter to get ready.
Illinois Pin Ball, part 4: We decided to proceed anyway and figure things out together. But by Thanksgiving most of it had fallen apart. Gene wanted control of the company, and we started getting bad vibes about it all. We all walked away by early December and it was over. Pat decided to start PLD.
November 25, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Illinois Pin Ball, part 4: We decided to proceed anyway and figure things out together. But by Thanksgiving most of it had fallen apart. Gene wanted control of the company, and we started getting bad vibes about it all. We all walked away by early December and it was over. Pat decided to start PLD.
Illinois Pin Ball, part 3. Gene believed that by recruiting a solid group of ex-WMS staff, the company could be revived. There would be some financial input from all of us, and then Gene would go out to the public and try to raise funds. From my notes, he was seriously mistaken on a lot of issues.
November 25, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Illinois Pin Ball, part 3. Gene believed that by recruiting a solid group of ex-WMS staff, the company could be revived. There would be some financial input from all of us, and then Gene would go out to the public and try to raise funds. From my notes, he was seriously mistaken on a lot of issues.
@flylanddesigns.bsky.social feel free to add this contribution to your art. 🤣 #pinballcats
November 14, 2025 at 6:12 PM
@flylanddesigns.bsky.social feel free to add this contribution to your art. 🤣 #pinballcats
The TOTAN artwork is pretty special to me but I don't mind this updated genie at all. Pretty badass. Just keep my cats on the backglass kthxbye.
Genie I drew for a Tales of the Arabian Nights pinball machine mod I worked on
#pinball #pinballmachine #pinballlife #pinballmachines #totan #talesofthearabiannights
#pinball #pinballmachine #pinballlife #pinballmachines #totan #talesofthearabiannights
November 12, 2025 at 6:22 PM
The TOTAN artwork is pretty special to me but I don't mind this updated genie at all. Pretty badass. Just keep my cats on the backglass kthxbye.
Reposted by Louis Koziarz
"I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time." #democracy https://werd.io/i-want-you-to-understand-chicago/
I Want You to Understand Chicago
"I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time."
werd.io
November 10, 2025 at 2:48 PM
"I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time." #democracy https://werd.io/i-want-you-to-understand-chicago/
Reposted by Louis Koziarz
Unexpected meetings with deliberately vague titles (“Sync”, “Chat”, “Check-in”) are almost always bad news.
November 10, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Unexpected meetings with deliberately vague titles (“Sync”, “Chat”, “Check-in”) are almost always bad news.
This Polygon article about Gene Cunningham is good background reading, if you don't know much about him. It's about his ordeal with Big Bang Bar, but that took place AFTER all these events I'm retelling.
www.polygon.com/features/201...
www.polygon.com/features/201...
When pigs flew: The strange history of Capcom's Big Bang Bar
A story of passion, creativity, bankruptcy and pinball’s downfall
www.polygon.com
November 9, 2025 at 10:18 PM
This Polygon article about Gene Cunningham is good background reading, if you don't know much about him. It's about his ordeal with Big Bang Bar, but that took place AFTER all these events I'm retelling.
www.polygon.com/features/201...
www.polygon.com/features/201...
Illinois Pin Ball, part 2: So we got the invite to talk to Gene. A bunch of us drove down and met with him to discuss how this would work. I tried to take photos and notes to record the event.
November 9, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Illinois Pin Ball, part 2: So we got the invite to talk to Gene. A bunch of us drove down and met with him to discuss how this would work. I tried to take photos and notes to record the event.
I think we've covered enough of the #pinball 2000 years, I still have more in the archives to post soon. For now I can try to retell what happened right after we were all fired. Some engineers were going to Midway or WMS Gaming. I got a job offer from Turmell. But then another phone call came in...
November 9, 2025 at 7:46 PM
I think we've covered enough of the #pinball 2000 years, I still have more in the archives to post soon. For now I can try to retell what happened right after we were all fired. Some engineers were going to Midway or WMS Gaming. I got a job offer from Turmell. But then another phone call came in...
Reposted by Louis Koziarz
The documentary with the Mortal Kombat Kollection has a ton of great stuff for arcade/pinball sickos like me, like this delightful photo of Roger Sharpe at his office at Williams/Midway.
October 31, 2025 at 10:11 PM
The documentary with the Mortal Kombat Kollection has a ton of great stuff for arcade/pinball sickos like me, like this delightful photo of Roger Sharpe at his office at Williams/Midway.
Reposted by Louis Koziarz
Concept design for Count Pacula, a canceled video game/pinball hybrid arcade game. The game was developed by Bally Midway, the North American distributor for Pac-Man arcade games in the early 1980s.
#namco #pacman #videogames #retrogaming #halloween
#namco #pacman #videogames #retrogaming #halloween
October 30, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Concept design for Count Pacula, a canceled video game/pinball hybrid arcade game. The game was developed by Bally Midway, the North American distributor for Pac-Man arcade games in the early 1980s.
#namco #pacman #videogames #retrogaming #halloween
#namco #pacman #videogames #retrogaming #halloween
Reposted by Louis Koziarz
Something for the font enthusiasts
October 30, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Something for the font enthusiasts
The dream is real, the PinballArtBot (@backglass.bsky.social) is up and running. Do you like pinball art? Follow the bot!
Thanks to @shaneus.bsky.social for the idea and @hgstrp.com for making a kick-ass database source.
Thanks to @shaneus.bsky.social for the idea and @hgstrp.com for making a kick-ass database source.
October 28, 2025 at 8:42 PM
The dream is real, the PinballArtBot (@backglass.bsky.social) is up and running. Do you like pinball art? Follow the bot!
Thanks to @shaneus.bsky.social for the idea and @hgstrp.com for making a kick-ass database source.
Thanks to @shaneus.bsky.social for the idea and @hgstrp.com for making a kick-ass database source.
So I'm pondering @shaneus.bsky.social 's idea of doing a bot that posts pinball images every hour/day/whatever. Scraping them from IMDB is possible but I'm wary of ownership and copyright issues, either from the photog or the factories.
Am I overthinking this? Any other ideas? Should I ask Duncan?
Am I overthinking this? Any other ideas? Should I ask Duncan?
October 23, 2025 at 9:58 PM
So I'm pondering @shaneus.bsky.social 's idea of doing a bot that posts pinball images every hour/day/whatever. Scraping them from IMDB is possible but I'm wary of ownership and copyright issues, either from the photog or the factories.
Am I overthinking this? Any other ideas? Should I ask Duncan?
Am I overthinking this? Any other ideas? Should I ask Duncan?
Here's an old #pinball programming tip for all you aspiring homebrew developers out there:
Your lamp matrix is probably represented in memory by a few bytes or words. You can write a really cool effect in under a minute by filling it with 0xAA (10101010) and then 0x55 (01010101) back and forth.
Your lamp matrix is probably represented in memory by a few bytes or words. You can write a really cool effect in under a minute by filling it with 0xAA (10101010) and then 0x55 (01010101) back and forth.
October 23, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Here's an old #pinball programming tip for all you aspiring homebrew developers out there:
Your lamp matrix is probably represented in memory by a few bytes or words. You can write a really cool effect in under a minute by filling it with 0xAA (10101010) and then 0x55 (01010101) back and forth.
Your lamp matrix is probably represented in memory by a few bytes or words. You can write a really cool effect in under a minute by filling it with 0xAA (10101010) and then 0x55 (01010101) back and forth.
Fun fact about the aftermath of the Williams #pinball closure:
PLD helped Stern review the P2K IP @ WMS. We looked to see if buying their PC platform could be a cost saving + dev time accelerant.
We joked that it should be named SPIKE (Stern Pinball Industry Killing Engine) since P2K killed WMS.
PLD helped Stern review the P2K IP @ WMS. We looked to see if buying their PC platform could be a cost saving + dev time accelerant.
We joked that it should be named SPIKE (Stern Pinball Industry Killing Engine) since P2K killed WMS.
October 21, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Fun fact about the aftermath of the Williams #pinball closure:
PLD helped Stern review the P2K IP @ WMS. We looked to see if buying their PC platform could be a cost saving + dev time accelerant.
We joked that it should be named SPIKE (Stern Pinball Industry Killing Engine) since P2K killed WMS.
PLD helped Stern review the P2K IP @ WMS. We looked to see if buying their PC platform could be a cost saving + dev time accelerant.
We joked that it should be named SPIKE (Stern Pinball Industry Killing Engine) since P2K killed WMS.
Let's find the lamenting from #pinball players when things went from alphanumeric displays to dot-matrix. Was there any? Was it too early in Internet history to archive?
October 20, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Let's find the lamenting from #pinball players when things went from alphanumeric displays to dot-matrix. Was there any? Was it too early in Internet history to archive?
I can't imagine how many people walked by this group of legends at Expo today and had no clue... (photo credit @playhistory.bsky.social)
October 19, 2025 at 3:16 AM
I can't imagine how many people walked by this group of legends at Expo today and had no clue... (photo credit @playhistory.bsky.social)
Reposted by Louis Koziarz
white house has joined bluesky
click here to block all official us government accounts instantly
bsky.app/profile/did:...
click here to block all official us government accounts instantly
bsky.app/profile/did:...
October 17, 2025 at 10:08 PM
white house has joined bluesky
click here to block all official us government accounts instantly
bsky.app/profile/did:...
click here to block all official us government accounts instantly
bsky.app/profile/did:...
It's nice to know that even virtual machines can be badly adjusted.
October 17, 2025 at 7:57 PM
It's nice to know that even virtual machines can be badly adjusted.