[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/steve-ritchie_4919.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The Master of Flow[[note]] \\
''Alternative:'' [[Franchise/MortalKombat "FINISH HIM!"]][[/note]]]]

->''"I get into how the ball moves. I make smooth-playing games. I like every shot to be smooth and fluid. Once you make a shot, it comes back to the flipper and you can make another shot; we call them combos."''
-->--'''Steve Ritchie''' summarizing his design philosophy in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xof3c6jsnGQ a making-of video]] for ''Pinball/StarWarsStern'', 2017

Steven Scott Ritchie (born February 13, 1950) is an American arcade game designer, an industry veteran who is most reknown for his {{Pinball}} games.

Ritchie joined Creator/{{Atari}} in 1974 as an electro-mechanical technician, but soon advanced to their fledgling pinball division and worked with Creator/EugeneJarvis on ''Pinball/AirborneAvenger'' and ''Pinball/{{Superman}}''. Before the latter was released, however, Ritchie moved to Chicago and joined the prominent pinball company Creator/WilliamsElectronics. There, he developed an extensive list of renown [[PhysicalPinballTables pinball machines]], including ''Pinball/{{Flash}}, Pinball/{{Firepower}}, Pinball/BlackKnight, Pinball/HighSpeed, [[Pinball/Terminator2JudgmentDay Terminator 2: Judgement Day]],'' and ''[[Pinball/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Star Trek: The Next Generation]]''.

Ritchie has also helped in the development of many video games for [[Creator/MidwayGames Bally and Midway]], and provided the voice of Shao Kahn in ''VideoGame/MortalKombatII'' and ''VideoGame/MortalKombat3''. During the TurnOfTheMillennium, he returned to the pinball industry to work for Creator/{{Stern}} Pinball, beginning with 2003's ''Pinball/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines''. He was initially a contractor with his own company ([[https://web.archive.org/web/20170901000000/http://steveritchiepinball.com Steve Ritchie Pinball]], or "SRP") before becoming a full-time employee of Stern. On August 2nd, 2021, Creator/JerseyJackPinball [[https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jersey-jack-pinball-announces-iconic-160700739.html announced]] that he had joined the company, with his first game with them (''Pinball/EltonJohn'') being announced in late 2023.

Steve Ritchie is known as "The Master of Flow" by pinball enthusiasts, as his playfield designs heavily favor fast ball speeds, large loops, and associated combos. He is an avid fan of PC gaming, motocross racing, and street motorcycles. He is married to Dianne Ritchie, and is the older brother of fellow pinball designer Creator/MarkRitchie.

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!!Steve Ritchie's games include:
[[index]]
* ''Pinball/AirborneAvenger'' (Atari, 1977)
* ''Pinball/{{Superman}}'' (Atari, 1979)
* ''Pinball/StellarWars'' (Williams, 1979)
* ''Pinball/{{Flash}}'' (Williams, 1979)
* ''Pinball/{{Firepower}}'' (Williams, 1980)
* ''Pinball/BlackKnight'' (Williams, 1980)
* ''Pinball/{{Hyperball}}'' (Williams, 1981)
* ''Pinball/HighSpeed'' (Williams, 1986)
* ''Pinball/F14Tomcat'' (Williams, 1987)
* ''Pinball/BlackKnight 2000'' (Williams, 1989)
* ''Pinball/{{Rollergames}}'' (Williams, 1990)
* ''Pinball/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' (Williams, 1991)
* ''The Getaway: Pinball/HighSpeed II'' (Williams, 1992)
* ''Pinball/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' (Williams, 1993)
* ''Pinball/NoFearDangerousSports'' (Williams, 1995)
* ''VideoGame/CaliforniaSpeed'' (Atari Games, 1996)
* ''Pinball/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines'' (Stern, 2003)
* ''Elvis'' (Stern, 2004)
* ''World Poker Tour'' (Stern, 2006)
* ''[[Pinball/SpiderManStern Spider-Man]]'' (Stern, 2007)
* ''24'' (Stern, 2009)
* ''Pinball/{{ACDC}}'' (Stern, 2012)
* ''Pinball/{{Star Trek|Stern}}'' (Stern, 2013)
* ''Pinball/GameOfThrones'' (Stern, 2015)
* ''Pinball/{{Star Wars|Stern}}'' (Stern, 2017)
* ''Pinball/BlackKnight: Sword of Rage'' (Stern, 2019)
* ''Pinball/LedZeppelin'' (Stern, 2021)
* ''Pinball/EltonJohn'' (Jersey Jack Pinball, 2023)
[[/index]]
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!!Tropes frequently appearing in Steve Ritchie's works include:
* AuthorAppeal: ''Pinball/HighSpeed'', ''Pinball/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', and ''[[Pinball/NoFearDangerousSports No Fear: Dangerous Sports]]'' are but a few examples.
* BreakthroughHit: ''Pinball/{{Flash}}'' is widely regarded as this for Steve.
%%* {{Combo}}s
* ContextSensitiveButton: Many of his Stern-published games feature a button in the center of the lockdown bar that performs different actions depending on what's currently happening. For example, in ''Star Wars'', it can disable the multiplier to allow changing of which shots are affected by the multiplier and then re-enable it or be used in a ButtonMashing minigame where you try to blow up as many TIE Fighters as possible.
* CreatorBacklash:
** Ritchie is not pleased with his work on ''Pinball/StellarWars'', feeling it was rushed to production.
** He also admits in hindsight that spelling A-I-R-B-O-R-N-E-A-V-E-N-G-E-R in ''Pinball/AirborneAvenger'' was not a great idea.
* CreatorCameo: Ritchie provides his own speech in many of his games, like the Black Knight in ''Pinball/BlackKnight'', ''Black Knight 2000'' and ''Black Knight: Sword of Rage'', Car 504 in ''Pinball/HighSpeed'' and ''The Getaway: High Speed II'', General Yagov in ''[[Pinball/F14Tomcat F-14 Tomcat]]'', the male announcer in ''Pinball/{{Rollergames}}'', and Skull the Bone Head in ''Pinball/NoFear''.
* PromotedFanboy: He became a pinball designer after creating ''Pinball/AirborneAvenger'' in his off-hours for a year, then showing his design to Atari president Nolan Bushnell.
* RatedMForManly: Many of his games' themes are either about high-octane subjects, involve {{Excuse Plot}}s with conflict built into them, or both. Examples include speeding on the highway and evading the police afterward (''High Speed''), battling an evil knight (''Black Knight''), fighting a Russian general and his aerial forces while piloting a Tomcat (''F-14 Tomcat''), and participating in extreme sports (''No Fear: Dangerous Sports''). In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIJi0G_2VYA a 1992 promotional video]] for ''The Getaway: High Speed 2'', Ritchie himself mentions this tendency:
--> "My games are never subdued. They're always intense as intense we can make them. I'm not sure why that is, but I don't do cute."
* SignatureStyle: Ritchie's tables tend to have the following:
** An emphasis on combos and non-stop flowing shots.
** A {{Combo}} shot: outer left loop shot to the upper right flipper, for a shot to an upper loop or side ramp.[[note]]Called "The Picard Maneuver" in ''Pinball/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', or the "Devastating" Combo shot in ''Pinball/{{Rollergames}}''[[/note]]
** A wide left outlane, with a kickback to shoot the ball back into play.
** Two sets of three targets, just above the triangle bumpers.
** A preference for adversarial themes, where it's the player vs. the BigBad (''Black Knight'', ''F-14 Tomcat'', ''Terminator 3''). ''Pinball/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' pits the player against three adversaries, and ''Spider-Man'' pits the player against four adversaries.
* TropeMaker: First rollover lane change? ''Pinball/{{Firepower}}''. First progressive jackpot? ''Pinball/HighSpeed''. First autosave? ''[[Pinball/F14Tomcat F-14 Tomcat]]''. First WizardMode? ''Pinball/BlackKnight2000''. First VideoMode? ''Pinball/Terminator2JudgmentDay''. And that's just the gameplay tropes.
* WhyFandomCantHaveNiceThings: Ritchie used to discuss both current and upcoming projects exclusively on the Pinside Forums, but has now since dropped his presence there completely due to Pinside's notorious vitriol.
* XtremeKoolLetterz: He's the reason the ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' does this with many elements in it, including its name, as it was his suggestion to go with the "K" instead of a "C".
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