PRESS RELEASE 1/25/2021

American Pinball is proud to announce our newest Senior Mechanical Engineer Zofia Bil Ryan. Zofia has been a mechanical design engineer for more than 30 years and has achieved valuable experience in designing plastic parts, sheet metal parts, mechanical components and game mechanisms for the overall gaming industry. She was the first woman to be hired as a mechanical engineer at Williams.  As a valued employee of Williams Bally Midway (WMS Gaming), Zofia created many mechanisms for various pinball games as well as for a casino game and she was awarded six US Patents for these designs. These patented parts include:

• Two-way Kickout Mechanism for pinball (Popeye)
• Roulette Scoring Device (Popeye)
• Magnetic Ball Carrier for Pinball Games - Mist Multiball (Dracula)
• Multilevel Play Feature for a Pinball Game (Doctor Who)
• Multiple Path Ball Ramp for Pinball - Rotating Head (The Machine)
• Machine with Enhanced Re-Shielding Enclosure (for casino game)

Zofia also designed the mechanical parts of many pinball games for WMS. She worked with several game designers in this effort which included: Barry Oursler, Bill Peutzenreuter, Tony Kraemer, Walter Smolucha and Steve Kordek. These games include:

1 Pool Sharks (released 1990)

2 The Machine-Bride of Pin Bot (released 1991)

3 Dr Who (released 1992)

4 Dracula (released 1993)

5 Popeye (released 1994)

6 Dirty Harry (released 1995)

7 Who Dunnit (released 1995)

8 Ticket Tac Toe (released 1996)

9 Junk Yard (released 1996)

We are so proud to have her leading our mechanical engineering team. Zofia loves pinball and has her own pinball collection of all the games that she ever worked on. 

David Fix

Director of Operations and Marketing

American Pinball