Lyman Sheets stated he did not consider ACDC complete and wanted a mini wizard mode and tighter gameplay

Lyman Sheets stated he doesn't consider AC/DC complete and wanted to add a mini wizard mode

Lyman Sheets left Stern Pinball to start an independent consulting software business and made a deal with Chicago Gaming Company to work on upgrades.

Lyman Sheets left Stern Pinball to start an independent software consulting business

Lyman Sheets designed the code and rules for Batman '66

Lyman Sheets designed the code for The Walking Dead pinball machine

Lyman Sheets coded the original Metallica and is referred to as 'the legend'

Lyman Sheets' coded games are the best in pinball history

Lyman Sheets Jr. wrote the code for Monster Bash

Lyman Sheets programmed Batman 66

The Walking Dead has the best rule set Stern ever created

Lyman Sheets died before this podcast episode (referred to as 'rest in peace')

Lyman Sheets led the rules programming for Elvira's House of Horrors

Lyman Sheets has been programming pinball machines for almost 30 years

1990s Williams coin-op games were designed for approximately 3-minute play experiences for average players

Lyman Sheets has worked in pinball programming for almost 30 years

Many speech calls were recorded in the original Cactus Canyon ROM but never called in the final game

Lyman Sheets designed Medieval Madness, Attack from Mars, Monster Bash, The Walking Dead, Spider-Man, AC/DC, Batman '66, Revenge from Mars, and multiple other pinball games

Lyman Sheets pioneered competitive pinball playing techniques including advanced ball control, footwork adjustments, and posture innovations that revolutionized tournament play

Lyman Sheets maintained a philosophy of continuous game improvement through post-release updates and iterations across his 30+ year career

Lyman designed or co-designed Monster Bash, Medieval Madness, Attack from Mars, The Walking Dead, ACDC, original Batman, Elvira, and numerous other iconic pinball games over 30+ year career

Lyman pioneered modern competitive pinball playing techniques including crouch stance, flipper manipulation, ball control, and precision shot sequencing

Lyman was perfectionist about game quality and would stew over games for years, never hesitating to make improvements even decades after release if he thought it made the game better

Remaster team prioritized preservation of Lyman Sheets' original light choreography and design decisions

Lyman Sheets programmed the code for original Monster Bash

Lyman Sheets designed the software/code for original Metallica

Lyman Sheets was the influential rules/code designer for pinball games from the 1990s until his recent death

Lyman Sheets designed the rule set for Elvira's House of Horrors

Lyman Sheets' Stern Elvira Blood Red Kiss Edition is the best coder's final game

Lyman Sheets is the best coder in the history of pinball and Elvira BRK is his last game ever

Lyman Sheets is deceased (rest in peace)

Lyman Sheets was working on expanded code for Cactus Canyon Remake before his death

Lyman Sheets' code on Elvira House of Horrors creates integrated light, music, and rule depth

Lyman Sheets was one of the world's greatest pinball players with unique stance and unbelievable accuracy, and moved into pinball coding where he created legendary games.

Lyman Sheets' Batman 66 coding is the greatest LCD-coded pinball machine of all time

Lyman Sheets had 30 years of experience coding pinball machines when he worked on Batman 66

Lyman Sheets' work on Elvira represents his final project with Stern Pinball

Lyman Sheets is the designer of Elvira's House of Horrors

Lyman Sheets officially left Stern Pinball in early November 2020 to become an independent contractor

Lyman Sheets has been working from home since 2007 due to the intensive nature of game development

Game design should be separated into dedicated game designer and code lead roles for better outcomes and reduced pressure

The appropriate time to leave a game company is during the two-week window between project completion and next project start

Lyman Sheets officially left Stern Pinball in early November 2020

The transition to contractor status was motivated by business advantages including 401k access, work-from-home deductions, and mileage deductions

Lyman Sheets has been working from home since 2007

Lyman Sheets originally intended to continue doing work for Stern even after becoming a contractor

Modern pinball game development requires separate roles for game designers and programmers due to complexity

Lyman Sheets recently passed away and made significant contributions to pinball code design

Lyman Sheets' death has necessitated Josh Sharp completing the Cactus Canyon 2.0 code refinement work.

Lyman Sheets designed code for Elvira's House of Horrors, Medieval Madness Remake, AC/DC, Attack from Mars Remake, Walking Dead, Batman 66, Tron, Metallica, Avatar, Rolling Stone, Spider-Man, and was working on Cactus Canyon Remake

Lyman Sheets passed away more than one month before February 23rd

Lyman Sheets won the PAPA World Championship at age 26

Sheets has been programming pinball machines for almost 30 years

Each pinball game Sheets worked on consumed at least a year of his life

Pinball is considered a legitimate sport by a select group of dedicated players

Modern pinball design emphasizes story and emotional engagement with players

Lyman Sheets won the 1993 PAPA Championship

High Speed was Steve Ritchie's personal machine that he owned for years before selling to Dwight Sullivan, who then sold to Lyman Sheets

Lyman Sheets barely missed qualifying for top eight at 1991 Pinball Expo in Chicago

Lyman Sheets did not begin playing pinball until college

Lyman Sheets met Pete Townshend and had him sign his Tommy instruction card

Lyman Sheets won three PAPA championships and one EPC championship

The Walking Dead was dramatically improved by Lyman's code revisions after initial player rejection

Lyman Sheets was humble, had no ego, and was easy to talk to with no pretense

Lyman Sheets' code update for Cactus Canyon Remake is sold separately as DLC

Work has been remaining on the Lyman code update despite community rumors of completion

Lyman Sheets' workflow involved iterating between rules, art storyboarding, and sound design

Lyman Sheets has passed away

Lyman Sheets won three Papa championships and the EPC (European Pinball Championships), making him one of only five people to win two or more major tournaments

The Walking Dead was transformed from an unenjoyable game to a masterpiece primarily through Lyman's code improvements in communication rather than rules changes

Metallica is still the standard for the best Stern machine ever made, with no apparent flaws, largely due to Lyman's code

Lyman will have an additional purchasable code version available for the new Cactus Canyon remake, which was in development before his passing

Lyman was one of only two people genuinely loved throughout the entire pinball community, with the other being Roger Sharp

Lyman's core design contribution was making complicated rule sets accessible through subtle communication via lights, sounds, and displays rather than explicit instruction

The fundamental purpose of pinball is to make players want to play one more game, which Lyman understood and executed better than other designers

Lyman Sheets has completed code work on Cactus Canyon remake, representing his final game project

Lyman Sheets died on January 19, 2022 at age 55 by suicide

Lyman Sheets' funeral service was held January 28, 2022 at 11am and streamed on maritzofuneralhome.com/obituaries

Cactus Canyon remake code that Lyman was working on with Josh Sharp may be finished

Lyman Sheets designed or co-created software for over 45 pinball machines

Lyman Sheets died by suicide on January 19, 2022, after a long battle with mental illness

Lyman Sheets passed away in 2021

Lyman Sheets programmed Medieval Madness, Attack from Mars, Batman 66, and Walking Dead

Lyman Sheets' impact on pinball was greater for league players and homeowners than commercial operators

Lyman Sheets recently passed away at approximately 55 years old

Lyman Sheets programmed games ranked #2, #3, #5, #10, and #12 in top pinball games as of January 23, 2022

Lyman Sheets programmed Walking Dead, Monster Bash, Metallica, Spider-Man, Medieval Madness, Attack from Mars, Batman 66, and AC/DC

Lyman Sheets' most important strength was making games accessible to both casual and tournament players through balanced code

Lyman Sheets passed away at age 55, found unresponsive a couple days before this episode

Lyman Sheets was in a long-term relationship with Penny for approximately 15 years

Lyman re-recorded portions of his Episode 100 Slam Tilt interview because he felt he came off as too negative

Lyman Sheets was originally assigned to work on Star Trek but was moved to Metallica instead

Lyman Sheets did a very honest interview with Josh Sharp for Super Awesome Pinball Show in spring of last year where he discussed what had been going on with him

Lyman Sheets recently passed away

Lyman Sheets coded some of the best games of all time

Lyman Sheets worked on Monster Bash at Williams in 1998

Lyman Sheets worked on Metallica at Stern Pinball in 2013

Lyman Sheets worked on The Walking Dead at Stern Pinball in 2014

Lyman Sheets worked on Batman 66 at Stern Pinball in 2016

Lyman Sheets worked on AC/DC at Stern Pinball in 2021

Lyman Sheets brought joy to pinball enthusiasts over the years

Lyman Sheets left Stern months before Steve Ritchie

Lyman Sheets designed or significantly contributed to Monster Bash code

Lyman Sheets was the original programmer for all Williams/CGC remakes being remade by CGC

Lyman Sheets left Stern Pinball and is now developing code for Chicago Gaming's Cactus Canyon remake

Lyman Sheets has left Stern Pinball and is now working with Chicago Gaming on Cactus Canyon Remake

Lyman Sheets is rumored to be leaving Stern and working with Chicago Gaming Company

Lyman Sheets required 100% effort from George Gomez on Monster Bash programming, causing schedule conflicts with Pinball 2000 development

Lyman Sheets has left Stern Pinball after finishing Elvira's House of Horrors

Lyman Sheets has left Stern Pinball for unknown destination

Lyman Sheets was recently finished coding Stern's Elvira's House of Horrors

Lyman Sheets is the 'best guy in the game broadly considered' on rules coding

Lyman Sheets is rumored to be leaving Stern Pinball for another manufacturer

Lyman Sheets is leaving Stern Pinball for another manufacturer

Lyman Sheets designed the rules for Elvira's House of Horrors and Batman 66

Lyman Sheets reduced the number of switch hits required for Gappa Angry mode

The new end-game target in Elvira's House of Horrors (Premium Edition) is very difficult to hit and provides huge payouts, similar to Big Ben mechanic

Lyman Sheets does not implement Midnight Madness modes in his designs

Lyman has created excellent code for Elvira House of Horrors and Batman 66

Lyman Sheets is doing the code for the new Elvira game

Lyman is programming Elvira's House of Horrors

Lyman Sheets designed skill shot enhancement and balance tweaks for new Iron Man code update

Lyman Sheets added a Joker lap to Batman 66 specifically to burn players when ball goes down left lane

The game's code is currently at .85 version with still significant development needed

The game design evolved from generic haunted house concept to B-movie themed after acquiring movie licensing

Six main B-movies are featured as primary haunt modes in the game

The game includes three sequential multiballs tied to different movie groupings

Lyman Sheets has been wanting to design a haunted house themed pinball game for a long time before this project

Lyman Sheets has historically wanted to design a haunted house themed pinball game

The B-movie theme concept emerged after discovering the public domain film compilation, significantly changing the initial design direction

Modes are presented in linear order during the reveal stream for demonstration clarity, but will be randomized/selectable when the game ships

Mode timers reset on successful shot hits, allowing open-ended gameplay where players can continue as long as they hit shots within the timer window

Lyman Sheets designed the code for Elvira's House of Horrors

Lyman Sheets is the programmer for Elvira's House of Horrors

Lyman Sheets worked 36-48 hours straight during the initial six-week push to complete Tommy

The blind modes feature on Tommy (where players cannot see flippers) was a first-time innovation in pinball at the time

Current pinball industry has returned to or is within the golden age that existed in the 1980s-early 1990s

Tommy game's mode timing out mechanics were by design to allow concurrent modes rather than forcing sequential completion

Lyman Sheets provided improved code versions of Tommy to Lonnie Ropp and another friend Dallas after leaving Data East

Lyman Sheets worked 36-48 hours straight to meet the initial six-week deadline

Tommy's commercial performance was partly affected by theme timing and the game might have performed better if released during the Broadway run

Good game design prioritizes player enjoyment over technical complexity; if a mode is timed out, the designer failed to make it engaging

Lyman Sheets made post-release code improvements to Tommy including video mode disable option and Holiday Camp mode adjustments

Lyman Sheets originally studied electrical engineering before switching to programming

Batman 66 took the longest of any game Lyman Sheets has worked on

Sheets reviewed approximately 55 hours of Batman TV series material for the game, selecting over 80% for inclusion

Batman 66 was originally planned as Premium-only, which influenced Sheets' content decisions

AC/DC was developed in a 4-month timeline from whitewood to production shipment in January 2012

Walking Dead featured an intensive 1-2 week design session with John Borg, Sheets, Tino, and Mike Kizavat hammering out the game design before implementation

Sheets intends to preserve old Williams game code updates by distributing free ROMs to friends before company closure

Batman 66 villain select screen design has remained unchanged for approximately two years since initial release

Every Williams game from 1986-1989 featured a progressive jackpot mechanic, creating repetitive design monotony

Sheets is concerned about the possibility of multiple released games feeling too similar to each other

Batman 66's LCD mini-display system was designed to help players track scoring sources during multiball play

Batman '66 v1.0 contains essentially all major features Lyman Sheets wanted in the game from the beginning, though more content is still planned for future updates.

Studio games at Stern (like Batman '66) have no fixed production deadline, unlike cornerstone games which follow a scheduled roadmap.

Modern Spike 2 hardware has essentially no storage or memory constraints, eliminating limitations that plagued older pinball code development.

The major/minor villain system in Batman '66 was designed to serve both casual players (major villains) and advanced players (minor villain stacking strategies).

Batman '66 features three distinct wizard modes, one for each TV season, selectable after completing villains from each season.

AC/DC (Premium) balance issue involving cannon mechanic was discovered in tournament play by Bowen Kerins and required developer adjustments.

Typical pinball designers get 'one chance' to design a game, with Star Wars being exceptional in allowing multiple design iterations.

Lyman Sheets scored only 2 points out of 12 possible on EM games at Pinburgh 2018

I worked at Data East starting as a display programmer, then at Williams as a game programmer, then Midway Games making video games from 2000-2003, and now I work for Stern.

Roger Sharp told me 'if I do it a second time, just make it worth more' which became foundational to my scoring philosophy throughout my career.

I was originally a support programmer on Congo at Williams, but was pulled off to work with Brian Eddy on Attack from Mars because Congo was being redesigned.

Slash from Guns N' Roses came into the Data East engineering facility multiple times during game development and requested Jack Daniels during meetings.

Attack from Mars' billion-point Total Annihilation hurry-up start is the most fulfilling moment in pinball for me.

I had approximately 20 tournament wins across my competitive career, with roughly 5 being major championships.

Working at Midway Games was less creatively fulfilling than pinball because programmers implemented designs rather than contributing creative ideas.

Medieval Madness and Attack from Mars remakes were valuable because the industry recognized these designs were 'decent games' that didn't need major changes.

Lyman Sheets is planning to give AC/DC code updates with mini-Wizard mode rewards after songs 3, 6, and 9

Lyman Sheets is revisiting AC/DC code to balance all 12 modes so no single mode dominates competitive play

AC/DC Pro code update addresses song selection imbalance where Hell's Bells is overpowered

Keith Elwin won Illinois state pinball championship, preventing other top players like Joshua Henderson from competing at Nationals

Lyman Sheets designed the code for Tron Legacy

Lyman Sheets and other programmers contributed code improvements to Walking Dead

Lyman Sheets is competing in the Massachusetts circuit finals as #7 seed because he grew up there

Batman '66 features Bat-Signal multiball as a secondary multiball mode in addition to the main multiball

Mr. Freeze villain mode allows players to extend timer multiplier up to 5x

Bookworm villain mode doubles scores for other levels when selected

Batman '66 features a main multiball and a separate Bat-Signal multiball mode still in development

Mr. Freeze villain mode prevents timer countdown and allows up to 5x multiplier stacking

Approximately 80-85% of Batman '66 audit data shows single-player games

Lyman Sheets' first ruleset at Williams was the home version of Demolition Man

Lyman Sheets programmed Monster Bash, Attack from Mars, Medieval Madness, Stern AC/DC Premium, Tron, and Walking Dead

Lyman Sheets recoded Star Trek pinball to address a timeout dilemma

Lyman Sheets actively watches high-level player videos (e.g., Keith Elwin) to identify overpowered strategies and nerfs them

Spider-Man is my favorite Stern game in the last 25 years

Spider-Man achieves balance between accessibility for novices and challenges for skilled players

Lyman Sheets worked on Spider-Man with Steve Ritchie

Lyman Sheets won PAPA tournament in 1993, which led to Williams hiring him for Vegas show demonstrations

Lyman and friend Mike Teixeira won IFPA doubles tournament in 1992

DataEast Tommy prototype had six bumpers, a shaker motor, and chiming effects that were removed in production

Tommy was developed in just six weeks to premiere games at Dallas stop of Broadway musical touring production

DataEast's system architecture was essentially Williams System 11 with added dot matrix display capability running on separate 6809 processor

Dual-CPU architecture with separate display processor created synchronization challenges that would be easier with single unified processor

Early internet/Usenet (1990s) was more helpful and had higher-quality discussions due to smaller, more educated userbase

Lyman did not spend excessive hours practicing to achieve tournament success, contrary to common assumption

Production version of Tommy plays significantly better than prototype version despite prototype having more features

Fun and Games arcade in Framingham, Massachusetts was still operating at time of this interview