Line #23 Creator/DennisNordman


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7	Dennis Nordman is a longtime designer of [[PhysicalPinballTables arcade pinball games]] with over twenty years of experience in the field.
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9	Unlike some other pinball luminaries, Dennis Nordman fell into the industry almost by accident. After his divorce in TheEighties, Nordman returned to college and majored in Product Design, where his senior project was to redesign the contemporary pinball cabinet. He received an "A" for his tapered, modernized prototype, but soon injured his back; during his recovery, Nordman built a full-size version of the cabinet in an attempt to get hired by a pinball company. After a presentation at Creator/{{Bally}}, he was hired as a cabinet designer.
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11	His attempts to modernize pinball cabinets (as seen in ''Rapid Fire, [[Pinball/{{Centaur}} Centaur II]],'' and ''[[Pinball/MrAndMrsPacManPinball Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man Pinball]]'') didn't catch on; Nordman was laid off within a year, but got a job almost immediately afterwards with Creator/{{Gottlieb}} to create video games. He developed [[UrExample an early example]] of a RhythmGame, only to get laid off again during a buyout by the Coca-Cola Company. During unemployment, he designed a pinball game based on ''Franchise/{{Rambo}}'' along with a promotional poster; he was rehired by Bally after they saw it, and the game became ''Special Force''.
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13	Nordman subsequently created a memorable series of games for both Bally and Creator/WilliamsElectronics, such as ''Blackwater 100, Pinball/ElviraAndThePartyMonsters, [[Pinball/DrDude Dr. Dude,]] Pinball/WhiteWater, Pinball/DemolitionMan, Pinball/{{Indianapolis 500}}'' and ''Pinball/ScaredStiff''. After leaving Williams in 1996, he went on to design slot machine bonus systems and redemption games. He joined Creator/SternPinball in 2005, only to be let go three years later when the company underwent massive layoffs.
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15	Since then, he has been working semi-independently, forming [=WhizBang=] Pinball with with longtime collaborator Creator/GregFreres in 2009, as well as developing games for Creator/JerseyJackPinball, Creator/HeighwayPinball, and Creator/{{Multimorphic}}.
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17	He is a fan of motocross and dirt bike racing, and creates custom dollhouses and miniatures in his free time.
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20	!!Pinball games designed by Dennis Nordman include:
21	[[index]]
22	* ''Special Force'' (Bally, 1986)
23	* ''Party Animal'' (Bally, 1987)
24	* ''Blackwater 100'' (Bally, 1988)
25	* ''Pinball/ElviraAndThePartyMonsters'' (Bally, 1989)
26	* ''Pinball/DrDude'' (Bally, 1990)
27	* ''Pinball/ThePartyZone'' (Bally, 1991)
28	* ''Pinball/WhiteWater'' (Williams, 1993)
29	* ''Pinball/DemolitionMan'' (Williams, 1994)
30	* ''Pinball/{{Indianapolis 500}}'' (Bally, 1995)
31	* ''Pinball/ScaredStiff'' (Bally, 1996)
32	* ''Pinball/{{Pirates of the Caribbean\|Stern}}'' (Stern, 2006)
33	* ''Wheel of Fortune'' (Stern, 2007)
34	* ''Pinball/WhoaNellieBigJuicyMelons'' ([=WhizBang=] Pinball, 2011)
35	* ''Pinball/{{Alien\|2017}}'' (Heighway Pinball, 2017)[[note]]Initial playfield drawing and toy concepts only -- he left Heighway in late 2014[[/note]]
36	* ''[[Pinball/LexyLightspeed Lexy Lightspeed - Escape From Earth]]'' (Multimorphic, 2017)
37	* ''Pinball/ElvirasHouseOfHorrors'' (Stern, 2019)
38	[[/index]]
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40	!!Tropes associated with Dennis Nordman and his games include:
41	* AuthorAppeal:
42	** ''Blackwater 100'' came from Nordman's own interest in motocross racing.
43	** Monster-related games like ''Elvira'' are related to his childhood fascination with Franchise/UniversalHorror monsters.
44	* {{Motif}}: Nordman's gameography has several repeating themes:
45	** Parties and LifeOfTheParty characters (''Party Animal'', ''Elvira and the Party Monsters'', Captain B. Zarr and ''The Party Zone'').
46	** Lighthearted takes on creatures and [[Franchise/UniversalHorror classic monsters]] (the ''Elvira'' games, ''Party Animal'').
47	** DoubleEntendre and [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything other similar humor]] (''Elvira and the Party Monsters, Scared Stiff, Whoa Nellie! Big Juicy Melons'').
48	** "Comic book" style art (''Dr. Dude'', ''The Party Zone'').
49	* SignatureStyle: Nordman's pinballs frequently exhibit the following:
50	** Wiggling, swirling, and/or rollercoaster-style ramps (the helicopter in ''Special Force'', the "Monster Slide" in ''Elvira and the Party Monsters'', "Insanity Falls" in ''White Water'', the "Rum Ramp" in ''Pirates of the Caribbean'').
51	** At least one vertical up-kicker.
52	** A spinning disc, either to bounce the pinball around a chamber (the Molecular Mixmaster in ''Dr. Dude,'' the Turbo Boost in ''Indianapolis 500'', Port Royal/Tortuga in ''Pirates of the Caribbean'') or as part of a playfield toy (the crane in ''Demolition Man'', the titular wheel in ''Wheel of Fortune'').
53	** Instead of a WizardMode, the player is instead rewarded with a huge jackpot for completing playfield tasks (the Big Bang in ''The Party Zone'', Vacation Jackpot in ''White Water'', Demolition Jackpot in ''Pinball/DemolitionMan'', Victory Lap in ''Indianapolis 500'').
54	** A well-endowed woman either on the backbox or the playfield (the nurse in ''Dr. Dude'', Elvira, one of the tourists in ''White Water'', Melony, Ellen, and Hellen in ''Whoa Nellie!''; Vanna White from ''Wheel of Fortune'' could also count to an extent).
55	** Flippers that look like a row of teeth (''Dr. Dude'', ''Elvira'', ''The Party Zone'' [which are recolored yellow and black]).
56	** The display (or the machine itself) would go on the fritz whenever they enter a special mode (Vacation Jackpot in ''White Water'', Demolition Time in ''Demolition Man'', and maxing out the Stiff-O-Meter in ''Scared Stiff'').

Context Creator / DennisNordman