Joe Cicak's Story
JC: "I set out to build a follow up to Black Hole, now fully supplied with parts galore from Gottlieb. I figured one level was good, 2 levels better, 3 levels would be great. Unfortunately, Gottlieb was now on the same vibe. When I showed them Dragon's Lair, they showed me Haunted House. Too bad. My pinball creation skills were improving. Dragon's Lair, with its 3D molded mountain upper layer (The Forbidden Mountains) with the hidden cave entrance to the clear lit crystals of the Dragon's Lair on the reversed lower level was a far more innovative and mechanically simpler machine. It was also in step with the times, Dungeons and Dragons being the Gameboy of the day and for several years to come." After that, Gerald and I split over a legal dispute regarding the split of royalties. He went back to selling mobile homes for his father, and I went to work at Williams as an outside design consultant for Ken Fedesna under Mike Strohl. I continued to work for Williams, then Midway in an on/off capacity until they killed pinball. Too bad, because I had a design on the drawing board for a game that was quite revolutionary. It may have been just different enough to gain acceptance with a whole new crowd of players and save coin-op pinball. But now we'll never know.
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