Mark Ritchie (pinball)
| Mark Ritchie | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 20, 1958 San Francisco, California |
| Occupation | Pinball designer |
| Known for | Taxi, Diner, Fish Tales, Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure |
Mark Ritchie (born August 20, 1958) is an American pinball designer and video game producer. He is best known for his successful pinball designs from 1982-1996. He has continued to work in the coin-operated amusement industry, currently serving as production coordinator for Raw Thrills, Inc. / Play Mechanix, Inc. Mark is the younger brother of fellow pinball designer Steve Ritchie.
Ritchie's first job in the pinball industry was with Atari, Inc. in 1976. While at Atari, he held many jobs. His first position was as an assembler at Atari's Santa Clara, California video game production facility. A few months later, Ritchie was part of a group selected to help start Atari's pinball production facility in Sunnyvale. He served there as a production line lead and in 1978 was promoted to prototype specialist within Atari's pinball engineering group. There, he was responsible for building, cabling and testing prototype pinball machines. It was during this time that he learned the business of pinball design and development. While at that position, Ritchie worked on the pinball titles Hercules, Superman, Space Riders and Monza.
In 1979, Ritchie was hired by Williams Electronics, Inc. in Chicago, Illinois as a prototype specialist, and in 1981, he was given the opportunity to design a game of his own, Thunderball. Ritchie went on to design a total of 12 games for Williams, including Taxi, Diner, Fish Tales and Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure. While at Williams Electronics, Ritchie also designed two "pitch-and-bat" novelty amusement games, Pennant Fever and Slugfest.
Ritchie left Williams Electronics in August, 1993 for a new opportunity at Capcom Coin-Op, Inc. He was hired as director of engineering for Capcom's new pinball division. Capcom made 5 pinball titles under Ritchie's leadership, including Pinball Magic, Big Bang Bar and Kingpin, which was Ritchie's last conventional pinball design to date.
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