Python Anghelo
Python Vladimir Anghelo (January 1, 1954 – April 9, 2014) was a graphic artist best known for his work on video games and pinball machines. Anghelo was born in Transylvania, Romania, and moved to the United States when he was 17.[1]
Life
After studying art and animation in Romania and the US, he worked as an animator for Disney until 1979. He then moved to Williams Electronics to create the artwork for Joust, taking a 50% pay cut in the process because he believed video games had more potential than traditional animation.[2]
He continued to work for Williams (and, later, Midway Games after they merged with Williams) for 15 years until 1994, when his most ambitious project, The Pinball Circus, was shelved.[3]
In 1994 he left Williams for Capcom and designed one game for them entitled Flipper Football. He was in the process of designing his second Capcom game, an erotic pinball game entitled Zingy Bingy, when Capcom closed down their pinball division. Python worked for several companies including Bay Tek Games to design novelty games such as Chameleon Paradize after leaving pinball.[3]
Many fund raisers were started up to help him with medical bills from his battle with cancer. Anghelo died on April 9, 2014.[1]
Pinball projects
- Comet (1985, artwork)
- High Speed (1986, backglass artwork)
- Grand Lizard (1986, design and artwork)
- Pin*Bot (1986, concept, design, and artwork)
- Big Guns (1987, design and artwork)
- Cyclone (1988, artwork)
- Taxi (1988, design and artwork)
- Jokerz! (1988, design)
- Police Force (1989, artwork)
- Bad Cats (1989, artwork)
- Bugs Bunny's Birthday Ball (1991, concept and artwork)
- The Machine: Bride of Pin*Bot (1991, concept and design)
- Hurricane (1991, artwork)
- Fish Tales (1992, concept)
- Popeye Saves the Earth (1994, concept, design and artwork)
- The Pinball Circus (1994, design)
- Flipper Football (1996, design)[4]
Video game projects (incomplete)
- Joust
- Bubbles
- Sinistar (sound recordist)[5]
- Star Rider (1983, concept, design, and artwork)
References
- 1 2 [%= data.comment.created_on %]. "Joust artist and Williams pinball machine designer Python Anghelo has died". Polygon. Retrieved 2014-04-10.
- ↑
- 1 2 http://www.pythonanghelo.com/
- ↑ "The Internet Pinball Machine Database". Ipdb.org. Retrieved 2013-10-24.
- ↑ "Python Anghelo". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2013-10-24.