Dwight Sullivan has been involved in the design of some iconic pinball machines including Star Trek: The Next Generation. He's worked on a lot of machines, from Riverboat Gambler in 1990 to the recent Pirates of the Caribbean and possibly one of the defining machines of modern pinball history — The Lord of the Rings. We're pleased to present Dwight Sullivan as the next in our series of Pinball Heroes.
So you're Dwight Sullivan. You've designed some great pinball machines over the years and written the software for others (I guess you knew that). Can you tell us which machine you are most proud of and why?
It has been no secret that I am most proud of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was an excellent project from start to finish. Real quick here are the reasons it was great for me: great team (you cant make a great game without a great team), I am huge sci-fi fan and a fan of Star Trek since I was 5, we got to go out to Paramount to see the Enterprise up close, I got married during the project, Steve and I got fired during the project, I think the final game is lots of fun, and we captured the theme extremely well.
You've written some fascinating stuff with a nice turn of phrase about pinball on your blog. Have you always had a passion for the written word, or was it your accumulating life experiences that you thought perhaps needed to be shared?
I have and both. As I got older I realized that two things were happening. My brain was filling up and my capacity was shrinking. So I found a need to write things down just to help me remember them. Not really to share but I don’t mind if others read it. Also since I was little I have enjoyed making up stories but like many of my hobbies I have never really given writing the proper amount of time to become good at it.
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