Steven Kordek, pinball innovator, dies at 100

In modern-day arcades, pinball machines are widely considered four-legged, glass-topped dinosaurs. They represent portals to an era before Xbox and PlayStation.

Yet there was a time -- starting in the 1930s -- when they were at the forefront of entertainment for millions of people with coins to spare and time to pass.

Along came Steven Frank Kordek, a game designer from Chicago who revolutionized pinball in 1948 when he introduced a pair of flippers at the bottom of the machine. It changed the way the game was played.

Kordek, who died Sunday in Park Ridge, Ill., at age 100, was credited with developing more than 100 pinball games, including the bestsellers Space Mission and Grand Prix. Yet his most enduring contribution was the dual flippers.

Flippers were first introduced on the 1947 Gottlieb game Humpty Dumpty, which had six flippers. Humpty Dumpty was an immediate success and sent other gamemakers into a frenzy to copy it.

Kordek, then working at the Chicago-based pinball company Genco, was tapped to design his firm's entry into the flipper market. Confined to a small budget, Kordek opted for two flippers and placed the pair strategically at the bottom of the play field.

"It changed the game considerably," said David Silverman, curator of the National Pinball Museum in Baltimore.

Kordek's wife of 62 years, Harriet Kordek, died in 2003. His daughter Donna Kordek, of Naples, Fla., confirmed Kordek's death. In addition to his daughter, survivors include three other children; two brothers; one sister; six grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.