Edward Paul Krynski (September 12, 1927November 15, 2004) was a

pinball Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails call ...

game designer and innovator who worked for D. Gottlieb & Co between 1965 and 1984. During this time Krynski designed more than 200 games and innovated new pinball standards such as the laneways to the flipper, carousel targets, vari-targets, multiple drop targets, and the first solid state pinball machine with the speaker in the backbox instead of the bottom cabinet. Krynski is a member of the Pinball Hall of Fame. The first pinball machine designed by Krynski was ''Hi Straight'', released in December 1959, and the last was '' El Dorado City of Gold'', in October 1984. The Internet Pinball Machine Database identifies 225 machines designed by Krynski, including '' "300"'', ''

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

'', '' 4 Square'', ''The Amazing Spider-Man'', '' El Dorado City of Gold'', ''

Genie GEnie (General Electric Network for Information Exchange) was an online service provider, online service created by a General Electric business, GEIS (now GXS Inc., GXS), that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. In 1994, GEnie claimed around ...

'', '' Spirit of 76'', ''

Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...

'', ''Royal Flush'', '' Big Shot'', and ''Sing Along''.

Stan Lee Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book author, writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Comics which later bec ...

, the co-creator of

Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appearance, first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in ...

and public face of

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

, claimed ownership of one of Krynski's first ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' pinball machines off the assembly line in 1980 and kept it in his Marvel office until he auctioned it as part of his "Stan Lee collection". Lee said that "Over the years, I have spent countless frustrating yet perversely enjoyable hours attempting to play on it, as have numerous colleagues, friends and business associates (some quite famous, though a combination of modesty, shame and my legendary bad memory prevents me from divulging their names here) during their unrelenting pilgrimages to my office. In fact, I think many of these scions of arts and industry came over JUST to beat me up at pinball. I hope its new owner will be a better player than I am." Krynski served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Sources

* ''The Pinball Compendium'' by Michael Shalhoub

References

1927 births 2004 deaths Engineers from Chicago United States Navy personnel of World War II American people of Polish descent Pinball game designers Gottlieb {{US-engineer-stub