He’s in the Hall! George Petro, the head honcho of Play Mechanix with a string of legendary games to his credit, began his coin-op career in 1981 as an arcade game technician. The experience and knowledge he gained as a tech would serve him well throughout his career.
“It was just a few short years later that he landed a job with Williams Electronics, where his good fortune would see him working alongside numerous legendary game designers,” explained AAMA’s Pete Gustafson in his induction speech.
“His skills continued to grow, leading to his being assigned the role of lead programmer on NARC, Williams’ monumental return to the video game market in 1987. He continued to lead game design teams with Midway from 1991-1995, creating hit games including Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Revolution X.”
In 1995 he ventured out to start his own game design studio, Play Mechanix, beginning a string of hit games that continues to this day. Among those are NBA Superstars, Pulp Fiction Pinball, Halo: Fireteam Raven, Terminator Salvation, and that especially beloved franchise of games called Big Buck Hunter.
“In 2006, he joined forces with one of those legendary game designers he met at Williams, Eugene Jarvis, and together, they’ve become the undisputed world leaders in the design, development and manufacturing of arcade video games.”