George Gomez
From PinWiki
| George Gomez | |
|---|---|
 George at Expo 2004. | |
| Role | Video, toy, and pinball designer. |
George Gomez (b. 1955) is a video game, toy, and pinball machine designer. He was educated as an industrial designer at the University of Illinois in Chicago.
Contents |
[edit] Video Games and Toys
George began work at Midway in the fall of 1978. For his interview he re-designed elements of Midway's games and presented his ideas to them. Much of his early work involved designing controls, including the joystick for TRON (photo). One of his most famous games is 1983's Spy Hunter.
Unhappy with the cycle of layoffs at Midway, George left for to work at famed toy design firm Marvin Glass and Associates for 5 years. In his appearance on TOPcast he credits the "shark pool" at Marvin Glass with preparing him for work at Bally/Williams. After Marvin Glass was dissolved, Gomez set out as a contract designer, using office space at Grand Products.
[edit] Pinball
After pitching pinball ideas to of Williams for some time, in 1993 Kenny Fedesna and Neil Nicastro of Williams stopped by to see his work, and shortly thereafter he was hired at Williams. While his initial work involved novelty games, he was asked to spend more and more time on pinball, finally getting his own project, Corvette. He would design several more titles at Williams, including his favorite, Monster Bash. While Monster Bash was under development, he and Pat Lawlor worked in secret to create what would become Pinball 2000.
George gave a speech on Pinball 2000 at Pinball Expo 1999, which was said to be very emotional. According to a Pinball News account of the speech, "He ended on a very downbeat note, saying he had great fears for the future of WMS's pinball division and didn't expect it to last much longer."[1] In an interview on TOPcast Gomez confirmed that he had heard "from a little birdie in the executive suite" that Williams' pinball division would be closed. The news was officially given the following Monday.
George designed several games for Stern as a contractor in the early 2000's, and is presently working as a video game design lead at Midway Games, Inc.
He appeared on TOPcast episode #40 on June 10, 2007.
[edit] Titles
- Corvette (IPDB)
- Johnny Mnemonic (IPDB)
- NBA Fastbreak (IPDB)
- Monster Bash (IPDB)
- Revenge From Mars (IPDB)
- Playboy (2002) (IPDB)
- The Lord of the Rings (IPDB)
- The Sopranos (IPDB)
