Pat Lawler is a legendary pinball game designer with a 40+ year career spanning Williams, Jersey Jack Pinball, and Stern. He designed iconic games including The Addams Family, Twilight Zone, Whirlwind, Funhouse, Earthshaker, and numerous others, known for exceptional game feel and innovative design. After his tenure at Williams, he founded Pat Lawler Design consulting and has created contract games for Stern and Jersey Jack, including his final credited game Toy Story 4.
No aliases
Pat Lawler forced removal of the Subway system and drop bank target from Guns N' Roses whitewood, which would have significantly improved the game's playability.
Pat Lawler designed Twilight Zone, released 1993 from Bally
Pat Lawler's design philosophy emphasizes surprise over repeatability
Pat Lawler established a design facility in Chicago rather than relocating to New Jersey where manufacturing occurred
No mentions
No linked glossary terms
Pat Lawler was brought in as head of design at Jersey Jack and established an R&D facility in Chicago rather than relocating to New Jersey manufacturing
Pat Lawler was originally planning to make Expo 2025 his final appearance but agreed to return for one additional year
The original Addams Family pinball was designed by Pat Lawler
Pat Lawler designed NASCAR at the peak of NASCAR sport's popularity in 2005
NASCAR is Pat Lawler's only two-flipper game and only fan layout design
Pat Lawler's career arc from Banzai Run through Toy Story 4 is roughly 27 games with NASCAR at the halfway point
Pat Lawler designed both Shrek and Family Guy pinball machines using the same playfield layout
Pat Lawler claimed Funhouse would have sold 20,000 units if themed as The Simpsons
Pat Lawler said if Funhouse had the Simpsons license instead of Rudy, it would have sold 20,000 units
Williams/Bally Twilight Zone (1993) sold 15,200 units, with Pat Lawler's design driving sales rather than the old license
Pat Lawler pioneered the use of mechanical toys in pinball, starting with Banzai Run
Pat Lawler pitched golf adaptation to Stern because Japan lacks backyards
Pat Lawler's Dialed In did not sell well for Jersey Jack despite being his best game.
Pat Lawler's three Jersey Jack games were underwhelming in sales and had no original mechanical innovations
Pat Lawler is not designing the Harry Potter pinball machine
Pat Lawler worked on Earthshaker and is aware of prototype details including unit numbers
Pat Lawler worked on Earthshaker prototype #3 or #7
Pat Lawler forced Eric Menear to remove a subway system from Guns and Roses playfield
Pat Lawler has retired from pinball design after 34 years with Toy Story 4 (2022) as his final game
Pat Lawler's design philosophy parallels Nintendo's approach to color, wonder, and simple enjoyable mechanics
Pat Lawler's games share design aesthetic with Nintendo: color, wonder, simple rules, thoroughly enjoyable animated entertainment
Pat Lawler retired from JJP or pinball in general
Pat Lawler has decided to retire
Pat Lawler is leaving/has left Jersey Jack Pinball and design will improve under new leadership
Pat Lawler's design legacy at Jersey Jack depends on inherited Bally/Williams engineer talent rather than original innovation
Pat Lawler's three JJP games relied heavily on legacy Bally Williams engineers for mechanical toys, not Lawler's own design talent
Pat Lawler is currently on hiatus and deciding his future role; his retirement status is unconfirmed
Pat Lawler designed Toy Story 4 flippers to maintain strength over extended play sessions
Pat Lawler designed Toy Story 4 as his 24th coin-op machine
Pat Lawler is departing Jersey Jack Pinball after Toy Story 4
Toy Story 4 is likely Pat Lawler's final game at Jersey Jack Pinball
Pat Lawler designed the Toy Story pinball machine
Pat Lawler's Toy Story may be his final game design before potential retirement or oversight transition
Pat Lawler's home workshop was used to develop Pinball 2000 after work hours because Williams office politics would prevent the project
Pat Lawler designed Roller Coaster Tycoon
Larry DeMar had a reputation for coming up with profitable ideas and could freelance designs to Williams while employed there, as long as the ideas made money
Pat Lawler and Larry DeMar built Wrecking Ball by stripping down a new-in-box Road Kings machine and presenting it as a whitewood prototype to Williams
Ken Fedesna knew about the Wrecking Ball whitewood project and allowed it because of Larry DeMar track record of profitable ideas
Banzai Run prototype at 50 cents per play made more money than other games on location but not enough incremental profit to justify production to Williams leadership
Pat Lawler failed to incorporate adjustment capability for outlay posts on Banzai Run, a design mistake from his inexperience
Jersey Jack lowered Willy Wonka pricing to make it available to wider audience and plans to repeat this strategy
Twilight Zone was Pat Lawler's most mechanically difficult game due to extensive injection-molded parts never before attempted
Diamond plate clear coating on Williams games started with Banzai Run in early 1990s
Williams internal debate about whether diamond plate would hurt replacement machine sales
Pat Lawler designed CSI
Pat Lawler also designed The The Addams Family and Twilight Zone
Pat Lawler intentionally designed Willy Wonka to be a tough game by omitting the left out lane post
Pat Lawler designed the Willy Wonka playfield
Pat Lawler designed Willy Wonka's playfield in approximately nine months
Pat Lawler designed Willy Wonka in approximately nine months
Pat Lawler designed Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Pat Lawler said Willy Wonka is the pinnacle of what pinball can be in the 21st century
Pat Lawler believes Willy Wonka is the pinnacle of what pinball can be in the 21st century
Pat Lawler prefers to design standard-width pinball machines
Pat Lawler's 2019 game will be standard width, not wide body
Pat Lawler won the 2016 Modern Era Pinball Designer Tournament with 62.5% of the vote
Pat Lawler received 94.1% of votes in the designer tournament semifinal against Dennis Nordman
Pat Lawler's absence from Stern releases until Dialed In! affects newer player familiarity with his design work
Pat Lawler's games represent higher quality and quantity than Brian Eddy, making the 79.4% voting margin appropriate
Pat Lawler is likely to defeat Dennis Nordman in the designer tournament semifinals