Challenger
After the original production run, an additional 100 games were made on special order for sale to one buyer from Canada. We previously credited Ed Krynski as the sole designer of this game. Historian Sam Harvey�s handwritten notes credits three additional people as co-designers: Wayne Neyens, Bob Smith, and Tony Girardo. However, we found Patent 3,675,927 listing four inventors, Alvin Gottlieb, Wayne Neyens, Bob Smith, and Doc Garbark. We contacted Wayne Neyens, who had had the original concept for this game, and he explained how the game ended up being designed by committee, to his dismay:Tony GERARD was our superintendent, he was in charge of everything. Tony became ill and had to leave the company (he passed away shortly after) and Bob Smith became the superintendent and I became the Chief Engineer, We were very fortunate that Ed Krynski had joined the company and so he became the designer. I am not sure of the date that this all happened. It would sure help if I could come up with that date. Challenger must have been in the designing process for some time, I remember Bob, Alvin, Doc, and myself all arguing over the game, how that game ever got built I'll never know. I think Ed had very little if anything to do with Challenger, he was busy with designing our regular games. That period of time with Tony becoming Ill, Bob moving into his job, me moving into the engineering room and Ed coming on board was a very difficult time for all of us. No wonder there is so much confusion concerning the names on the Patent, etc. The earliest of our Gottlieb Engineering Game Cards shows Challenger was in the Engineering Department in August 1970 and by October 1970 had moved into production. Until we find information to support the retention of Krynski�s name as designer, Wayne agreed it is fair to remove Krynski�s name and replace it with the four names shown on the patent. Patent 3,675,927 [TWO-PLAYER PINBALL MACHINE] filed June 10, 1970. Granted July 11, 1972 to Alvin J Gottlieb, Wayne E Neyens, Robert T Smith, and Roman F Garbark, Inventors.
