# Episode 156 – Sinatra Chicken **Source:** Slam Tilt Podcast **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2020-12-12 **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://www.slamtiltpodcast.com/2020/12/12/episode-156-sinatra-chicken/ --- ## Analysis Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale of Slam Tilt Podcast interview Mark Silk, a voice actor who has worked on pinball games including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Wars, and other titles. The discussion covers Mark's background in voice acting, his experience working with George Lucas on Star Wars Episode I, and an extended conversation about UK tariffs on US-made pinball machines (25% added cost), supply chain impacts, and recent tournament formats like Pin Clash. They also discuss recent pinball industry events including Replay Foundation challenges and upcoming tournaments. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Mark Silk performed voice acting for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball, voicing Splinter, Bebop, Rocksteady, Baxter Stockman, and Casey Jones — _Mark Silk directly stated this in the episode: 'I'm in Turtles on the voice of Splinter, Bebop and Rocksteady... Baxter and Baxter Fly and Casey Jones'_ - [HIGH] Mark Silk worked with George Lucas and was in the same room during Star Wars Episode I voice recording sessions, with Lucas providing direct feedback on voice direction (asking for 'higher' pitches) — _Mark described the recording process in detail: 'he was literally just sat opposite me in the chair with the casting director and rick mccallum... Higher. I would perform the line... That's the keeper'_ - [HIGH] A 25% tariff is currently applied to US-made entertainment products (including pinball machines) being imported to the UK — _Bruce explained: 'if a pinball machine lands from the U.S. to the U.K. right now, we'll pay an extra 25% of the cost on top of the regular price. So over here in the U.K., say a Cern Pro would be £6,600, and with the extra tariff, that takes it to, I think, £8,200'_ - [HIGH] The Guns N' Roses Collector's Edition pinball machine will cost an extra £3,000 due to UK tariffs, bringing the total to approximately £15,000 — _Bruce stated: 'it would add an extra 3,000 pounds onto the price of the game... it would take it to 15,000 pounds'_ - [HIGH] UK distributors are not importing new pinball machines until January 2025 due to tariff uncertainty — _Bruce said: 'the distributors that I get stuff from over here, they are not bringing anything in until next year. They're not doing that. They're just not touching anything'_ - [HIGH] Replay Foundation's closure impacts the Women's Pinball Championships and New York City Pinball Championships, which lose their game supply — _Ron mentioned: 'the women's pinball championships, they're going to have to find a new home, because they were at replay effects... the New York City pinball championships' games were supplied by Papa and are now sold_ - [HIGH] The Multimorphic Star Wars home pinball machine comes with a single mono speaker but has excellent sound design that rivals more expensive setups — _Mark said: 'it comes out of the box with one speaker... that mono speaker sounds way better than it ever deserves to... sound design of the original game was because all the assets were just moved over to this new game and used brilliantly'_ - [HIGH] A new online tournament format called Pin Clash uses tiered time-based scoring rather than simple winner-takes-all to prevent blowouts — _Ron explained: 'between two and three minutes you get this many points... if we both finished say I did it in 45 seconds and he did it in 46 seconds we're still tied it's the same points and that was the nice part so people weren't getting blown out'_ - [HIGH] Escher Lefkoff won the Pin Clash finals, defeating Raymond Davidson 5-0 across 5 challenges for a $1,000 prize — _Ron stated: 'But Raymond had trouble with... the deciding factor. So Ezra wins $1,000'_ - [HIGH] Mark Silk was asked to host a Star Wars symphony live show at the Royal Albert Hall with 5,000 attendees — _Mark said: 'they asked me to host a Star Wars symphony live, at the Royal Albert Hall... There were 5,000 people there'_ ### Notable Quotes > "I'm in Turtles on the voice of Splinter, Bebop and Rocksteady... Baxter and Baxter Fly and Casey Jones. There's six of them." > — **Mark Silk**, Early in episode > _Establishes Mark's primary pinball work on TMNT_ > "George Lucas would go, we're in the same room... he would go, that's great, that's really nice. Can we just try another one? Higher. And it got higher and higher and higher until it was almost Tweety Pie level." > — **Mark Silk**, Mid-episode > _Details the directorial experience with George Lucas on Star Wars voice work_ > "If a pinball machine lands from the U.S. to the U.K. right now, we'll pay an extra 25% of the cost on top of the regular price... a Stern Pro would be £6,600, and with the extra tariff, that takes it to, I think, £8,200." > — **Bruce Nightingale**, Mid-episode > _Key information on tariff impact to UK collectors_ > "It's worth bringing that cassette tape just to be able to do those ads again. No. No, it's all digital now. No more media. Sorry. 8-track is the way to go, baby." > — **Multiple (Mark/Ron/Bruce)**, Late episode > _Humorous tangent about audio media formats_ > "The distributors that I get stuff from over here, they are not bringing anything in until next year. They're not doing that. They're just not touching anything." > — **Bruce Nightingale**, Mid-episode > _Indicates market freeze due to tariff uncertainty_ > "That mono speaker sounds way better than it ever deserves to... It is so much fun. The shots are terrific. And you're in there like a blast." > — **Mark Silk**, Mid-episode > _Positive assessment of Multimorphic Star Wars home pinball_ > "People weren't getting blown out they weren't losing the first two and they're done this is more fun this is a fair way of doing it" > — **Ron Hallett**, Late episode > _Explains the appeal of the new Pin Clash tournament format_ > "Zach qualified... he only lost by five points in the first round. It was the closest first round." > — **Ron Hallett**, Late episode > _Updates on tournament participant performance_ > "So, yeah, he had the closest round. Unfortunately, he lost it. But we're very proud of our own Zach here for qualifying." > — **Ron Hallett**, Late episode > _Shows community support for local participant despite loss_ > "Your country's more screwed up than our country. No, it's not." > — **Ron/Mark Silk**, Mid-episode > _Light joke about UK/US regulatory situations_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Mark Silk | person | Voice actor who has worked on pinball titles including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Wars, and other games; runs a recording studio specializing in audio and sound design; worked directly with George Lucas on Star Wars Episode I voice recording | | Ron Hallett | person | Co-host of Slam Tilt Podcast, based in upstate New York; handles YouTube videos and communication for related projects; passionate pinball community figure | | Bruce Nightingale | person | Co-host of Slam Tilt Podcast from upstate New York; owns approximately 30 pinball machines; knowledgeable about UK tariffs and international trade issues; brings games to tournaments | | Zach Minney | person | Pinball enthusiast who qualified for Pin Clash online tournament despite losing in first round by 5 points; traveling to Pittsburgh to acquire a grail game from Papa Land | | Escher Lefkoff | person | Competitive pinball player who won the Pin Clash finals, defeating Raymond Davidson with a $1,000 prize | | Raymond Davidson | person | Competitive pinball player who reached Pin Clash finals but lost to Escher Lefkoff; struggled with a Jurassic Park challenge in the deciding match | | George Lucas | person | Director/filmmaker who directed Mark Silk's Star Wars Episode I voice recording sessions, providing direct feedback on vocal performance and pitch direction | | John Williams | person | Composer referenced as being 'God' for blockbuster film scores; recorded Star Wars soundtrack in studio adjacent to voice recording location | | Gouliam | person | Collector from Paris who owns Star Wars home pinball, Attack from Mars, Twilight Zone, and other classic machines; first known Star Wars home pin owner in Europe | | Papa | person | Game supplier/operator who previously supplied perfectly tweaked pinball machines for New York City Pinball Championships; now retired from this role | | Carl D'Angelo | person | Background system designer who created the judging/streaming system for Pin Clash online tournament format | | Dennis Creasel | person | Industry figure who commented on Replay Foundation situation; appeared on Eclectic Gamers podcast with critical views | | Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; produces Pro and Premium tier machines subject to UK tariffs; games discussed include Star Wars and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | | Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer; makes Aerosmith Pro game that Mark Silk owns | | Multimorphic | company | Manufacturer of Star Wars home pinball machine; creates single-speaker home format games praised for sound design | | Replay Foundation | organization | Arcade venue that hosted Women's Pinball Championships and provided games for New York City Pinball Championships; closure creates venue/supply shortage for tournaments | | Papa Land | venue | Location in Pittsburgh where Zach Minney is traveling to acquire a grail pinball machine | | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | game | Stern pinball title featuring voice work by Mark Silk (Splinter, Bebop, Rocksteady, Baxter Stockman, Casey Jones); guests discuss ramp strategy | | Star Wars | game | Stern premium pinball title (original version criticized); Multimorphic released highly praised home version praised for sound design and fun factor; Mark Silk involved in film voice work for Episode I | | Guns N' Roses Collector's Edition | game | Recent Stern pinball release facing significant price increases in UK due to 25% tariff (£15,000 total); multi-ball heavy experience-focused game | | Jurassic Park | game | Recently released pinball machine used in Pin Clash online tournament finals; features dinosaur-themed challenges | | Pin Clash | event | New online pinball tournament format using tiered time-based scoring instead of winner-takes-all; Zach Minney and Escher Lefkoff recently competed; finals included $1,000 prize | | Aerosmith Pro | game | Jersey Jack Pinball title; first machine owned by Mark Silk; he purchased it from a friend and describes it as playing exceptionally well | | Slam Tilt Podcast | product | Long-running pinball podcast hosted by Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale from upstate New York; known for casual, meandering format and insider community knowledge | | United Kingdom | organization | Subject of extended discussion regarding 25% tariffs on US-made entertainment products including pinball machines; currently still in transition period post-EU, with tariff status uncertain after January | ### Topics - **Primary:** Voice acting and sound design in pinball, UK tariffs on US-made pinball machines, Online tournament formats and competition - **Secondary:** George Lucas and Star Wars film collaboration, Replay Foundation closure and its impact, Multimorphic Star Wars home pinball machine, UK customs and border procedures post-Brexit - **Mentioned:** Classic pinball ownership and collecting ### Sentiment **Mixed** (0.55) — Positive regarding Mark Silk's work, community participation, and tournament innovations; negative regarding tariff impacts, Replay Foundation closure, and supply chain concerns; mostly neutral/matter-of-fact tone with humorous tangents ### Signals - **[licensing_signal]** 25% tariff on US entertainment products including pinball machines to UK creates significant price increases and freezes distributor imports until January 2025 (confidence: high) — Bruce detailed tariff calculations and distributor decisions to halt imports; specific pricing examples (Stern Pro £6,600→£8,200, Guns N' Roses CE £12,000→£15,000) - **[market_signal]** UK distributors are not importing any pinball machines until January 2025 due to tariff uncertainty and potential post-Brexit regulatory changes (confidence: high) — Bruce stated: 'the distributors that I get stuff from over here, they are not bringing anything in until next year' - **[product_concern]** Replay Foundation closure removes game supply for Women's Pinball Championships and NYC Pinball Championships, forcing venues to find alternative game providers (confidence: high) — Ron stated both tournaments 'are going to have to find a new home' and noted Papa Games were previously 'tweaked to perfection' while replacement games may have lower quality - **[community_signal]** New online Pin Clash tournament format using tiered time-based scoring instead of winner-takes-all reduces blowouts and increases competitiveness (confidence: high) — Ron explained scoring system where matching times within tiers yields equal points, preventing dominance; format was well-received by participants including Zach Minney - **[gameplay_signal]** Guns N' Roses CE pinball machine designed as immersive theater/experience game with heavy multi-ball focus rather than tournament-style rule depth (confidence: medium) — Mark described it as 'experienced immersion game' with 'sensory overload'; Bruce noted 'It's all just flapping the ball around' and confirmed 'Multi-ball heavy, but fun' - **[content_signal]** Mark Silk brings unique industry perspective combining voice acting, George Lucas film collaboration, and pinball game design experience (confidence: high) — Mark detailed work on TMNT, Star Wars Episode I voice direction, and experience as recording studio owner with audio engineering background - **[design_innovation]** Multimorphic Star Wars home pinball achieves exceptional audio quality with single mono speaker, competing favorably with multi-speaker premium machines (confidence: medium) — Mark stated: 'that mono speaker sounds way better than it ever deserves to' and praised the sound design as superior to original premium version - **[regulatory_signal]** UK-EU border procedures remain uncertain with potential tariff changes in January 2025; France conducted test run showing 50-mile queue backups (confidence: high) — Mark and Bruce discussed ongoing system setup issues, French test showing 50-mile tailbacks, and Kent border setup uncertainties - **[competitive_signal]** Pin Clash online tournament successfully executed with video judging and Carl D'Angelo's background system, proving viability of remote competitive play (confidence: high) — Ron detailed judges watching livestreams with VOD backup, tiered scoring system, Zach qualifying despite loss by 5 points, Escher Lefkoff winning $1,000 prize - **[collector_signal]** Zach Minney pursuing specific grail game acquisition at Papa Land (Pittsburgh), indicating active collector market for hard-to-find titles (confidence: medium) — Ron noted Zach traveling to Pittsburgh to pick up 'one of his Grail games' that he 'has been going after for a while'; speculation he'll keep it at least a year - **[operational_signal]** NYC Pinball Championships previously benefited from Papa's perfectly maintained games on route; replacement supply chain will require new operator relationships or venue self-sufficiency (confidence: high) — Ron explained Papa games 'were always tweaked to perfection' and 'plug-and-play' compared to venue-supplied games which required extensive adjustment --- ## Transcript Well, get out, butthead porn! Whoa. Cool. Make a check. Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Phil Podcast, the show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, here with my co-host, Bruce Nightingale. You're wrong again. Please redo the intro now. Why? What am I now? Oh, you're the artist formerly known as Bruce. Yes. You're the middle finger. I am the middle finger. And we have a guest. We do. We have a guest. You're laughing. That's good. I wanted to get a guest who could tell us what ramp to shoot on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. So I decided to go right for the source. So what ramp should we be shooting? Shoot the left ramp. Shoot Ron's ramp. Go up Bruce's ramp. Oh, my. Hello from the UK. Yes. It's Marc Silk. I'm so excited. Oh, in the voice of Shredder? No, not Shredder. No, no. Splinter. Splinter. Yeah. Hi, by the way. Thank you for inviting me on. I'm in Turtles on the voice of Splinter, Bebop and Rocksteady. Bebop and Rocksteady. And then Baxter and Baxter Fly and Casey Jones. There's six of them. Nice. Making your games sound great. I'm more like, can you do like Danger Mouse voices instead? Yeah. Crikey, Chief. Clumsy Danger Mouse. She's the right one. Or Scooby-Doo. Like, man, it's really creepy, Scoob. Right, Scoob? Yeah, creepy. Scooby-dooby-doo. If I didn't ask that, my wife would have kicked my ass. Oh, we should do her a voicemail later. Oh, there you go. There you go. I like that. To people, like, can you do the voice? Can you do the voice? Can you do the voice? Can you do this one? Can you do that one? Can you do the one from Star Wars? Can you do that? Yeah, I love it. Joe, I genuinely love this. I'm a fan of his stuff so if I wasn't working on it I'd probably be knocking on the doors of the studios to do the tours but yeah, I do Comic Cons do you remember back in the days when we could actually be in the room with actual humans? I used to do a lot of Comic Cons and findings and stuff and it's just very very cool you're in a room with a whole bunch of nice people and then you find yourself mixed with movie stars or Dave Prowse or Darth Vader and you wonder how that happened it's kind of cool To me, it was always my dream job. To be Darth Vader? No, to be a voice actor. Oh, me too! And now being the voice of many games, it is a new version of playing with yourself. Hey, Mal. Playing with yourself. Yes. I always love to do that. Yes, I'm sure you do. I'm married. You all need hobbies. I'm married. So how did you get into this pinball thing, Mark? I know you said it on other podcasts, but perhaps they haven't listened to it. Oh, they didn't get the real story, Ron. Oh, yes, yes. No censors here. The real story. For the real story. I was always a big fan of arcades as a kid, so my mom and dad would take us to the seaside here in the UK. And this is the mid-'80s, late-'80s into the early-'90s. And it was a really great time for the big showpiece arcade games like Space Harrier or, oh, God, Outrun or Paperball. The big arcade games I adored. But the thing I was really drawn to was pinball. In fact, the early 90s, with my love of animation as well, my favorite game in the early 90s was Bugs Bunny's Birthday Ball. Ball? Ball. which clearly is probably the worst machine ever made or up there with them so you know I did only better but I loved you know it had decent artwork on the back glass and it was borderline unplayable but that kind of you know it just shows how theme can draw you into a not particularly good game so there's that but then I had a totally atomic pinball machine as a kid and then like with how it would have been in the states I guess over time, all the arcades shut down, people moved to consoles, and you waved goodbye to pinball machines. The only time that you'd really see them would be, say, this beaten-up thing in the back of a bar that was dirty and unloved. But then, with the rise of barcades, probably about two, three years ago, I just got back into love of pinball, and I'm hooked. Absolutely hooked. And Bruce, yes, we have a liker of the pin. I know. The pin version. Yeah Now, let me get this right, Bruce You're not a fan of the regular Star Wars game, is that right? Oh God, it's terrible It's the worst fucking game Worst game in the past ten years Well, have I got good news for you See, I worked on Star Wars So I'm a big Star Wars fan Well, so am I Yeah, oh well Oh, well, in that case, then we're on site I got to work with George Lucas on episode one So, fanboying out recording voice tracks for a character called Axmo. Axmo, the Congress of Mathers has taken care of the right to honourable delegates from the Trade Federation. A commission must be avoided now. Shoot the left ramp. So you were on the Senate? Wow. I was on this Janet. So that was really cool. So I'm a fan of Star Wars, so to get to work with him and be part of that, you know, that was a dream come true. And the fact that I love pinball, if there's anybody that's got a few extra reasons to want a Star Wars machine, and it's probably me. And I found the release from a few years ago of the Star Wars machine tough. It wasn't one that I kind of instantly got into. Whereas when I was over at Expo last year, I played the Star Wars home pin. And, you know, I'd heard things that, frankly, weren't that positive from a lot of people. And I loved it. It is so much fun. You walk up to that Star Wars home game, and it is just instant fun and instant gratification. And do you know what? It comes out of the box with one speaker. Well, do you know what? All the classic arcade games back in the day did as well. And the thing that blew me away, and I'm a sound guy. I run a recording studio. This is my background, audio and sound design. And that mono speaker sounds way better than it ever deserves to. But it is so much fun. The shots are terrific. And you're in there like a blast. You know, the use of assets and film clips, all the Star Wars effects that you know and love are in there. And it's just full-on sort of overloads, you know, sensory overload. If you're a Star Wars fan, it's the thing that you would be drawn to when your friends are over and you would spend all day playing on it. Mm-hmm. I agree. The home pin is great for Star Wars. Oh, so you like the home pin. I've always liked the home pin for, wait, for the Spider-Man one and everything else. I don't like multipliers with freaking changing stuff. You know that. The wrong use of the action button. The wrong use. Bruce will be the determiner of the correct usage of the action button. No, no, no. Mr. Teolis agrees with me. So, I didn't even go there. And Mr. Teolis got his name in a game because of that. He's the action button champion. He is the action button champ. On the Star Wars home game, too, the little lock there, the R2-D2 lock, is a really nice idea. The way, then, if you're playing a two-player, you can steal someone else's ball. Yes. That's kind of like a sweet little idea. The old System 11 style. Yes, I love that. Right, yeah. And it's great. There's a friend in Paris, Gouliam. Bonjour, it's Gouliam. Gouliam, he was the first one to get the Star Wars home pin, as far as I know, in Europe. And he's got a bunch of classic machines. He's got Attack from Mars and Twilight Zone and all these And when friends When friends were able to go over to his The game they were all drawn to was Star Wars They would play Twilight Zone They would play Attack from Mars And they would just play Star Wars Homepion the whole time And that's the same for me It's just good, easy, satisfying fun You know, grab a drink, play for 10 minutes Carry on with your day Now you've just got to get the comic book edition So you can have both of them next to each other Stereo Your collection will be complete. Yes, two monos equal one stereo. That's how that works. That's commitment for you. So I can get stereo speakers, I buy both machines. There you go. Hidden secret, I did. My friend Pinball Phil, Pinball Phil is a sound guy for studios, and he did an epic sound upgrade on my Star Wars game. And, oh my God, you realize just how good sound design of the original game was because all the assets were just moved over to this new game and used brilliantly as well. You see and hear stuff in the home version of the Star Wars game that I don't think I'd ever seen in the premium or the pro version of the original game. But with all those effects, the Star Wars score taken through this new audio system I've got in the home game, it's like IMAX pinball in terms of the audio. It is so immersive now. It's a lot of fun. It's worth it. Here's the force. oh my god it's real yoda when baby yoda starts talking is that is he gonna like how would you do a baby yoda version just make it higher you say that that was pretty much the direction i got from george lucas right when we were recording i would record the line and he would go we're in the same room he was literally just sat opposite me in the chair with the casting director and rick mccallum and these guys from Skywalker's down. You say, well, higher. I would perform the line. And he'd go, that's great. That's really nice. Can we just try another one? Higher. So you'd do it again. The congressman, I can cover the rights. You'd do the line. And that's real. Okay, that's the keeper. That's the keeper. Can you just mark that? Let's go more. Can we try it again? Higher. And it got higher and higher and higher until it was almost Tweety Pie level. He goes, okay, that's great. That's the one. That's the one. That's it. Okay, can we just take a step back now? Let's just take what we had there and can we just do one more version? A little higher. Fuck you, George. Fuck you. And the version that you hear in the film is, the Congress of Malice there can call with the right to honorable delegates of the trade separation. A commission must be appointed. That is the law. But a what? Higher. Did you tell him like your beard is tremendous? I've worshipped your beard since I was a kid Do you know what he actually The cool thing was he actually looked like George Lucas It was the whole kit The beard, the check shirt Oh the check shirt yeah Yeah the whole thing His whole look is like a gimmick now It was It was brilliant And I was fanboying out too Because we got to see the Casting crew premiere of the film in London at the Odeon Leicester Square. It was real showbiz. Almost as showbiz as this. So I wonder why you were recording the voice if in the next room Williams was doing the marketing deal for the pinball machine. That would have been nice. Could have been. Maybe John Papadiuk was in the next room while you were doing those takes. Well, John Williams apparently was downstairs in the big studio because they were moving from the one studio to the other to record the soundtrack. Right. That's a different Williams. It is a different Williams. I just call him God. Yeah, that works. Wow. Come on. Name someone. Come on. When it comes to blockbuster scores that people remember, is there anyone even close? Godfather. Godfather? Not Godfather. You know, the music from the Italian music from The Godfather. you know, Scarface Godfather. Scarface Godfather, same movie, yeah. You know what I mean. While you're saying about really amazing scores, I'm a big, like you were saying, a big John Williams fan. And I got to, because of the connection with the movie and voice acting and bits and pieces, the people that do the live shows of Star Wars, they heard that I was a fan. And they asked me to host a Star Wars symphony live, at the Royal Albert Hall. I mean, you know, I don't pay good money to be there, but I couldn't see the show because I was hosting it. And my mom was very proud that day. She had a box at the back of the Royal Albert Hall. There were 5,000 people there, and I had the best seat in the house. You know, I've probably got ten of us now right at the front of our office room. I was your super showbiz host taking you through the Star Wars universe. It was, oh, my God. If we do it again, please come over. No. My wife would love to go to Robert Englunds. It's just, like, when you have the school band play with the orchestra, and it's like, stop playing all that crap. Get to, like, the movie themes. Like, then they play Star Wars or something. Yeah, all right. But it would invariably suck because they were, you know, it's a school band. Once we had the Navy band showed up and played at our high school, and they're like, oh, God, this is incredible. Showmanship. And they just started playing movie themes. Like, ah. Yeah. It's the best. Did you ever see Prince play live at the Super Bowl with the college-marching bands? Yes. Oh, my God. Goosebumps. Oh, Prince. Queen. Queen? Great sound. Great sound track. They were two for two with the movies. What I would do for a Queen pinball machine right now. Oh, I agree. Yeah. Plain segue here. So if you were to get a Star Wars comic book edition home pin, you have to pay this large 25% tariff. Yeah. Yeah. What's going on? Bruce, explain it to me. You're Mr. International Trade Guy. Yeah, unfortunately, every entertainment form of product that is made in the United States is now getting a tariff to Europe. I don't know about, is the UK included still because of... It is, yeah. Currently, but it won't be in another, what, two or three months? No, it won't be. Well, the truth is we don't actually know. We don't know what it costs. Yeah, quite simply, if a pinball machine lands from the U.S. to the U.K. right now, we'll pay an extra 25% of the cost on top of the regular price. So over here in the U.K., say a Cern Pro would be £6,600, and with the extra tariff, that takes it to, I think, £8,200. Ouch. Yeah. And so it's pretty tricky because everyone's an expert, but the truth is nobody really knows. And officially what happens is once the UK leaves the EU in January, you'd think, well, common sense says that way we're not in the EU, so the tariffs would be lifted. So we go back to regular prices. But the truth is we don't know. Yeah. We really don't know. So at the moment, I know the distributors that I get stuff from over here, they are not bringing anything in until next year. They're not doing that. They're just not touching anything. It could really affect the industry. But it could actually help the English a lot if they get rid of the tariff because then people will start taking the tunnel. They get their pinball machines. Well, yeah, that was my logic too. and I think, I'm not entirely sure whether this is correct, but I get the feeling that actually it's from the point of origin. So I don't know how that, the truth is I don't, we don't, we don't fully know. If you bought a game, let's just say this, if I was in France and I went to Robert Englunds and bought a pinball machine and put it in the back of my van, I wouldn't get tariffed. Yeah, well that's my logic too. Exactly. I heard there was some kind of contrary opinion to that about, depending where it comes from originally. That doesn't, I mean, what you said to me makes sense. Yeah. And if I was in France, that's what I would hope for as well. Do they have like a border patrol, though, or anything? No, there's no border patrol. It's not like going into Canada. Like, you could just drive right in. Yeah, you could. Yeah. Well, I don't know what's going to happen. They talked about this now, and maybe Mark will give us more information. Is there going to be a border patrol now between Robert Englunds and France? Well, in terms of checks and customs. Yeah, I mean, they would do that anyway. The problem that's going to happen is the system... Right now you have free borders. Yeah. The issue that's going to happen is the system that's... The new system that's in place, as Robert Englunds... At the moment, you can kind of go from Robert Englunds to, you know, through the tunnel or onto a ferry, and we're all part of the same... You know, we're part of the EU, so you're okay. The problem now will be we will just be another country. so there'll be all these extra checks that need to be in place and the computer system that should be there to trial isn't even ready yet. Excellent! Hey, what could go wrong? Nothing! Join us for a world of misery. They did, on the French side, a week or so back, they did a little test just to see what would happen with the current setup. And there were 50-mile tailbacks. Oh, God. What could possibly go wrong? And on the border in Kent, hey, welcome to the Fun Pinball Show. On the border in Kent, there's actually, well, there will be a border in Kent where lorries that travel into Kent will have to have their papers ready. It's a shame, but hopefully everything will get sorted out. What the hell, man? Your country's more screwed up than our country. No, it's not. on the plus side yeah on the plus side it could be that there's well it could be there's a massive resurgence in second hand pimple machine sales but yeah the other thing is what if you're a manufacturer over here and you felt that you were being protected by the tariff you know if it was in the EU you might actually not want it to go I mean hopefully what will happen is it'll all just get lifted and we carry on all being happy friends That's what we hope, really. Now, is the tariff towards, is it just U.S. products, or is it other countries besides the U.S.? This particular one is a U.S.-based thing. Okay, I didn't know, because I was worried about if Australia had the same thing, because what else? You said entertainment, so just for entertainment originating in the U.S.? Well, it's more than that. It's more than that, but it was a basic breakdown. Yeah, but they also are tariffing liquor and other stuff like that also, like Jack Daniels went up humongously. Jack Daniels' value, they said, went down 3% because Jack Daniels is one of the most popular imported whiskeys into the EU. Are they tariffing porn? I hope not. It's an entertainment thing, right? It is. Your side career is still safe, Bruce. They have their own. They have the Netherlands. They're good with porn. That's true. That's true. I just looked here, because I'm waiting for Guns N' Roses CE. Oh. CE. Oh. Get it over, sir, and accept your punishment. Oh, my God. Welcome to the jungle, baby. Welcome to the price increase, baby. Yeah. How much is that going to be? Well, it will go from 12 to... Oh! it would add an extra 3,000 pounds onto the price of the game. Wow, that's a heavy game. It would take it to 15,000 pounds. Oh, my God. Now, the distributor over here, they've basically said their customers will have two choices. They will either say, well, you can pay an extra 3,000 pounds for the same thing, or they'll just give you your money back. Wow. Hmm. Have you played Guns N' Roses yet? No. No, I haven't reached here yet. It's good. Are you? Yes. It looks like an absolute showstopper. It's good, but there's always a but. There's no, it's all just flapping the ball around. It really is. It's an experience, Bruce. It's an experience, Gene Simmons. That's right, Bruce. It's the kiss experience. Skip that at kissonline.com. No, it's more of an experienced immersion game. So if you're into your Star Wars sound improvements and IMAX Star Wars, you'll love this game. Yeah, I get the feeling that's what I was hoping for, really. I'm not a tournament player. I'm just a regular pinball guy that wants to spend, say, 10, 15 minutes really being immersed in theater, in this spectacle. And it seems that's what this is. If you love multiball, this is the game for you. That's all I hear. It is. multiball heavy, but fun. I'm looking forward to hearing the sound on the CE, because that's a really nice innovation for the topper coming with an extra sound. The extra wattage in the head. They point it at your head. I get it in my head all the time. blow your face off sound. Yeah. Is it like those, what was the old commercials? Was it Emmerax? What was the one where the guy getting his hair blowed back? The guy in the chair. Yeah, the guy in the chair and his tie is like flat behind him because it's just the power of the sound. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Yeah, right, the Valkyries. And it's a commercial, an old TV commercial, and the idea is that it'll just basically blow your face off. and there was a guy sat in a chair and the louder the sound got, the further back his hair blew. And then the wine glass would slide and he caught the wine glass. Yeah. It was an epic TV commercial. It was. It's worth bringing that cassette tape just to be able to do those ads again. No. No, it's all digital now. No more media. Sorry. 8-track is the way to go, baby. 8-track. Future. That's the way to listen to Kiss. Yeah. Click. I want to rock you on high and party every day. Somebody attracts you and hits a button to go to a certain, like you could skip tracks. Yeah. Yeah. And boom. And there it goes. Like, how does it know? It's magic. It's magic, Ron. So I was a little kid then. It's just like, how does it know? With the cassette, I have to like fast forward, rewind, fast forward, rewind to find the spot. This just knows. It's amazing. It's just incredible. It's technology, Ryan. When I worked at a radio station, when I started out, the radio station there, they played all the commercials and the jingles off tape cartridges. And it worked kind of like an 8-track machine would have worked, I guess. Basically, it's a big loop of tape. But every now and then, a commercial would just go completely down the crapper because the tape would get chewed up in the machine as it's playing out loud. Do it again. Welcome to WKOMA, Koma Radio. All dead artists, all the time. If they're living, we ain't playing them. W-O-L-D. It's old. People are really close. So, too old. Okay, a little follow-up, since we forgot to mention the tariff last week. Yes. So, some more follow-up about Replay Foundation. Go listen to the Eclectic Gamers podcast if you want to hear some of Dennis Creasel's views on what they should have done. The hammering. He hammered down on people. Which was very interesting. And one thing we did mention, that this effect whipped, such as the women's pinball championships, they're going to have to find a new home, because they were at replay effects. And one I didn't hear anyone mention, the New York City pinball championships. Yes. For those who don't know, the first year they had the New York City pinball championships, the games selection was sketchy. A lot of them, they had to bring their own games. A lot of them were just routed games that they pulled and tried to get ready. Most of the newer Sterns were okay, but some of them were kind of rough. And they knew that was an issue. So they addressed it the next year by hiring Papa to basically supply all their games and bring them down, which just made it better. And they could concentrate more on the show because they didn't have to worry about the games. It was beautiful. Perfect arrangement. But now all those games are sold at this point and gone. And one's getting picked up today. And one's getting... Oh, yes, that is true. Good talk about that. I love it. He's in the middle of my thing. He just interrupted. Well, you were talking about beans being sold. Yeah, but he just interrupted it. And that's nice. That's Bruce. Yes, that's Bruce. So New York City Pinball Championships are going to have to find, either they're going to be bringing their own games or get a different supply. I'm afraid the quality may go down off the shelf. They can't get, they're not going to be able to get, because it's not just, we always said the Papa games, they were always tweaked to perfection to start. If you didn't have to do anything, they would just show up, and you literally just maybe adjust the tilt bob, and you're done. It's ready to go. It's like plug-and-play. If there was ever plug-and-play games, they were Papa Games. So I'm curious to see what they're going to do. Almost like Bruce games when you bring them to tournaments. What have you got left, Bruce? Oh, I've got almost 30 games. I've been buying games. Right in the room right now I'm sitting at is there's Attack from Mars, my 9-Ball, my Batman 66, Lord of the Rings is in the house, in the garage. Oh, it's filled now because we finally got rid of our storage bay. So everything is at the house, which is Memory Lane, Big Game, Hot Dog, and Gametron 2. That was the sequel? I was unaware of this person. No, the Gametron 2 is number two. I own fully. ACDC, Metallica, all my games from the bar are still. I did not sell anything. Harlem Globetrotters is still here. I've actually bought games. Ali is now here. Ryan C. Shitsilver is here. So we got a lot. Shitsilver. We got a ton of it. But I've not gotten rid of anything. I know I should, but I can't. I tried to bid on something from last week, Ron, and I'm still dicking around with that. Oh, the thing we edited out that I'm supposed to say what game it is. Yes, I'm still dicking around with that. But Zach, our own Zach, played yesterday in a tournament. You got tournaments happening? Yes. How? Where? An online tournament. Oh. Head-to-head tournament where people play in their own house versus someone else. In their own house. In their own house. Or location. One of them was actually in a location. It was in the location. And basically doing the old heads-up format, but with a twist. Yes. Which I kind of liked. I liked it, too. Just to explain. The heads-up format would be, let's pretend we have no COVID. It would be like me and Bruce are playing stars, and we're standing right next to each other playing two stars machines. And we have a goal of who gets special. Whoever gets special first. And they start a timer, go. And then the person who finishes first, his timer stops. And he wins. doesn't finish until they finish, or if they drain out of their game and end their game, their time stops. And then their times are in whatever tier they were playing in. Their goal was in a tier one, two, three. Was there four? Okay, well, Bruce is explaining his pin Slash with no segue at all. He just went in and said, I was trying to explain the original rules. It would be just whoever finishes first, you win. I'm excited. Yeah, see? See what you're doing, DeMar? And it was usually two out of three, and there would be three challenges. So if you won, like, the first two, they wouldn't bother with the third one. Yes. So what they did in Pain Slash is basically the same thing, but it's hard to sync people up at the exact same time because one's, you know, on the other end of the country than the other one, et cetera. So they each have their own timers, and they go, and they have judges that are watching everything. Yeah, I was going to say you need some kind of system here. Oh, there was. It was very good. Carl D'Python Anghelo's background system. They had a set of judges. And if worst case scenario, they could look at the VOD, the actual video, because everyone was streaming. So this was streamed. So say me and Bruce are playing stars for the same goal, and I get special within two minutes. And then he gets it in two minutes and 30 seconds. Or no, that's not a good thing. Say I get it in under two minutes, and he gets it at 230. They would have different tiers, like zero to two minutes, or you get it, or under two minutes, you get this many points. between two and three minutes you get this many points between three and four minutes like if we both finished say I did it in 45 seconds and he did it in 46 seconds we're still tied it's the same points and that was the nice part so people weren't getting blown out they weren't losing the first two and they're done this is more fun this is a fair way of doing it and Zach qualified Zach qualified and And he only lost by five points in the first round. He lost by five points in the first round. It was the closest first round. Yep. It's close. And it went. What was the game? Was it Stars? No, it was Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park. All right. The new one. Welcome to Jurassic Park. Your body's a blooming dinosaur. They could have used you, too, for the game. The Australian accent in the game is like, oh. It's like something I would do. Crikey. Come on, Mary Poppins, God bless Her Majesty. So, yeah, he had the closest round. Unfortunately, he lost it. But we're very proud of our own Zach here for qualifying. And the finals, to the surprise of absolutely no one, was Escher Lefkoff versus Raymond Davidson. Yes. And instead of three challenges, they went to five for the finals. Yes. And they both had four out of the five challenges were perfect. Meaning they got them under whatever the first tier was of time. But Raymond had trouble with the, I can't even pronounce it. It's one of the dinosaurs. A 50 million pterodactyl. No, I can't remember what it was called. It's impressive so far. But he, and that was the deciding factor. So Ezra wins $1,000. Oh, nice win. Yes. And Zach today is headed down to Papa Land. He's going to Pittsburgh. He's going to Pittsburgh. To pick up one of his Grail games, which we won't spoil it. We'll let him tell us. We'll let him tell us, yes. But it's one of the ones he's been going after for a while. So actually what we should do is let's start a pool on when he'll sell it. No, I think this one will be a keeper. Really? I think he'll keep this one for at least a year. At least a year? Okay. I'll go with that. I'll go with that. I wonder if the tariff applies to secondhand games. I don't know. We'll find out. Yeah. Just stick it in some hand luggage. I'll take it. Yeah, there you go. So, Mark, what pinball machines do you own or have you owned? Oh, well, the first one was Aerosmith. Was Aerosmith Pro? I always loved John Ball games, and there was a friend that had an Aerosmith Pro, and I just went, well, yeah. It played so well, and it looked like new. And it still has, I think, the best toy that I've seen in a pinball machine in recent years. That toy box is so much fun. Yeah, but Aerosmith Pro, then because, well, I work in animation. I wanted an animation-based game, and a Family Guy machine came up. All right. Very good, Peter. So I picked that up. And then the next one was the one that really got me back into pinball at a local barcade, and that was Attack from Mars. So it was the limited edition from Chicago Gaming, which is just so good. It is such a great machine. And that top is a stack of fun. Then an expo The first expo I went to in 2018 That was the one where Chicago Gaming released Monster Bash Their LE version of it And again, my god The version, what they did with that With the LED lighting, the RGB lighting Every element, it's a beautiful game So Eris with Family Guy Attack from Oz Monster Bash Then there was Star Wars Home I picked up a Beatles gold edition which is fun It fun as part of a collection A Batman premium, which, again, oh, my God, Jerry Thompson's sound work on that and Chris Franch's artwork. My God. It's just that even if you never play it, it's an absolute showpiece. It's beautiful. and then for obvious reasons and the fact that it's a really fun game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I've got a pro of that. And that's also had the epic sound upgrade with the stadium grade speakers and amp. It sounds fantastic. And the van upgrades. Yeah, oh yeah. Well, gotta talk about the van. I didn't even know this. I was being discreet, Ryan. The van on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, obviously on the pro version, the balls don't bail out on the side of it, as they do with the premium NGLE. And I was just doing a good bit of gentleman's dusting at the top of the machine and happened to see that the van at the front, which you don't normally get to see when you're playing from the regular standing position of pinball player, the front of the van it has some really nice detail on it it's got some it's got some nice molding and some stickers and things it looks really good and i just thought well can we turn it around to make it just face the player so pinball phil my my pinball guy he uh he basically unscrewed it all turned it around and it looks so good it really elevates it you've seen the pictures, I've finished the pictures wrong, it really elevates that section. For the premium and the LE, it's essential that it's the direction that you get in. But just as a fun mod, and all you're doing is really moving it around a little bit, it looks really nice. And also, it kind of, it feels like that area of the game now breathes a bit more, because instead of the fan being side on, you just see a bit more of that space. It works so well. So now I'm going to see if we can get the lights, the lamps at the front of the van that normally you wouldn't see. See if we can get those lit up, too. I'm getting into mod territory now. But, yeah, it looks really nice. It's a really nice little mod. Like, how many people even realize it has the logo? Yeah. But it looks great. And there's, like, a spare tire at the front of the thing, too. It looks really good. That's right. You said gentleman's gusting. That almost sounds like a porn term. Oh, my. I gave the touch of gentlemen's dusting. Oh, boy. The face of my turtles. Oh, and of course, Family Guy was your favorite game, right? Come on. Come on, admit it. Admit it. Little Stewie here. My play field. I should go. Yeah. But have you played Turtles? I have. Okay. That didn't sound good. No, no, it's not. I like more games. I own two. That one, I don't know. Good old honest Bruce. It's just they're tight. The shots are tight, and the ramp, the right ramp is just not in a sweet place. I understand. He's trying to make everything different, and I appreciate that. Different? Top or left is trying. I know that. I agree. But it just seems like he just went hodgepodge into everything, like the spinner is used from X-Men, which was Twister. and let's, you know, let's reuse my shots and everything. Yeah. He's made a lot of games, Bruce. I know he has. And there's only so many things you can do with that play field. I'm just saying. Well. Well, then explain Keith Elwin, then. All his games are totally different. It's like he's done three games, Bruce. Calm down. And Steve Ritchie's fucked up a pretty good game last time with that Star Wars. So, you know, he could show you that. He could really screw up something. Hey, Steve Ritchie went at least, I counted, almost seven or eight games in before he started copying himself. I know that. I agree. But I'm just stating he really fucked up with Star Wars. Shut up. Shut up. He did. Star Wars is a very serviceable play field. Very nice. Shoots well. That's what you want. Serviceable. Serviceable. Yeah. Not enjoyable. Not fun to play. Serviceable. Well, I am loving my home. genuinely, not trying to be a company boy, but I really am enjoying that Star Wars at home. I don't know, maybe clearly I've got more of a self-interest than most people because I'm in it, but I've had a stack of fun with that title. Yeah, there are some tough shots. There really are some tough shots in it. Do you talk back to yourself when you're playing it? Do you do your own calls back to yourself? Yes, I do. I argue. I always wondered if I would do that. If I was in a game, if I just talked to myself. Choose your turtle. Leonardo, Donatello, Barry Manilow. Yeah, the whole thing. That would have been fun. I would have picked Barry Manilow, definitely. Barry Manilow in a second. For your dear listener that has a turtles at home or on location, would you like to know the super secret flipper code? What's the super secret flipper code? It's an almost exclusive. The super secret flipper code, Make a note, kids, if you stand in front of your machine during the attract mode, if you hold the two flippers together during attract mode, then treat the left flipper as the input button, the right flipper as the confirmation button. So we press the two flippers together, then we press the number one with the left flipper, then right to confirm, then nine flipper touches on the left-hand side, then right to confirm then 7 on the left hand flipper then right to confirm then one more right flipper push to finish it so it's basically 197, that's the flipper code and when you type that in during your track mode it will take you to a super secret video of me in the studio recording the voice track nice what initials are those? I'm doing that in my head A 9 is I A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, N, S, I, and 7 is A, B, C, D, E, F, G. A, I, G. Just so he's done, Bruce, he's turned a simple three numbers into the Da Vinci Code of flippers. Now you see what I have to deal with all the time. Thank you. That's how they usually do it. It's initial. Thank you. Now this is what everyone sees what I deal with. Everyone says I'm the pain in the ass. Oh, you are. I'm the free Madonna. You are. No. You are. We have guests on. George was just enjoyed for the fun that it is. No, he cannot. He just has to... We'll have a guest on, like, what do you think of this game? Oh, it's the most incredible, awesome game. It's an incredible experience. I absolutely love it. What do you think of it, Bruce? I think it lacks texture. So today we have a guest on. I guess that he was in this game. What do you think of it, Bruce? Hey, John Pyle! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! No, I love the sounds. I love the shot. I love the shots on the left. I love it, too. I don't like the shots on the right-hand side. The right-hand side just... Can we just agree the Pro is better and leave it at that? Yeah, the Pro is better. There you go. There you go. The Pro is better. I really love my Pro. I'm also a big fan of Jerry Packers of Zambietti's art. He's done such a great job on that machine. I really love the Pro's art package on that, too. I mean, they're all good, but my favorite is the... I like the cab, actually. Yeah, I love the fact that the logo is on the Pro version. But what Zambietti's done on that thing is terrific. and on the pro version, you see more of the art, because without the glider mark... Glider of Doom. Exactly right. Glider of Doom. Without the glider of joy, without the glider of joy there, the glider basically is on top of some artwork and also on top of the two times playfield target. So without that there, obviously that means you don't have the glider, but you see more artwork, which I really like. As a personal choice, I really enjoy just seeing more of the artwork and seeing the target, too. It's really, it looks so nice. Also, hidden secret, when we did the little move the van mod and took the van off, there's even more art underneath the van, which I guess, yeah, which normally you wouldn't see. And you know what? It looks terrific even without the van. And, of course, it would still function without the van. I'm not suggesting do that, but I was tempted to do that because it looks like an even more open play field. But I was surprised at just how much detail was underneath that. And when you get really up close to it on some of those plastics right in the back, there's even more detail and small little bits of fun that he's put in there. It's a great looking game. So did you have any John Borg stories for us? Oh, me? Oh, really? I was actually talking to him last night, but this is a different John Borg story. Right, for the record, I think John is awesome. But there was a funny moment a few months ago. I noticed that John was online on Facebook, and I thought, you know what, I'm going to send you a message saying just how much I'm enjoying the game. I'm proud as hell that I'm part of this thing. I love his work. I love Turtles. And, you know, I just want to say thanks. So I said, hi, John. He went, oh, hi, how you doing? And I said, I'm really enjoying the game. He said, oh, it's great to hear. I said, yes, I'm very proud to be your voice guy. He went, oh, right, you a voiceover guy? I said, yeah, yeah. He said, oh, I'm the voice of the turtles. It was one of those moments, you know, look, he's a busy guy. And we'd never really spoken in that way before, but it was great. We just started chatting from then and we were talking yesterday about just bits and pieces to do with turtles too. I thought that was quite fun. At first he had no clue that it was me because it was actually in his game. He said, don't you know who I am? Don't you know who I think I am? I did the voice of turtles in carpet commercials in the UK. It's very, very self-important. Carpet commercials? Interesting. Bob's Carpets. Come on down and buy some carpets. Do you know that Brian Johnson did a Hoover ad of ACDC? I did not. Yeah. On the same day he tried out for ACDC. Great story. Hoover. That would be great. Yep. It's the greatest, greatest vacuum song you'll ever hear. Vacuum would be a great theme for a pinball machine. Look up Hoover and Brian Johnson on YouTube. It'll immediately come up. I will. Yes. It's worth the might, by the way. So do you have any future? No, I know we don't want to ask you to give anything away, but are there feelers out there hopefully for another game? Couldn't possibly say. Oh, nice. I'd love to say, but due to non-disclosure agreements, I couldn't say. I know those now. For those at home, he means yes. Did not say that. Didn't say that. Did not say that. But we're just going to do the back sharp. Cannot confirm nor deny. Can't confirm, nor deny I can't say anything in particular I can tell you I'm working on, there's a game I work on a lot of games and animation and TV shows and theme park stuff and all kinds of things, if it's got a voice in it I'm probably part of it somewhere In fact, if you have any kids that grew up with Bob the Builder, I was the voice of Bob the Builder in America for about a decade Did you know that? Did not know that. Why would you know that? I would never watch it. I have no kids. That wouldn't be weird at all. No, not at all. What does Bob build? Anything you need. Okay. I had a guy come up to me at Comic-Con a couple of years ago, and he said to me, don't you think it's kind of weird that the American voice of Bob the Builder is voiced by a guy who is English in Robert Englunds, even though it's for America and he's not American? And I said, that's a really good point. I said, out of interest, did you realize that the voice of Scooby-Doo isn't actually performed by a dog? What? Exactly, yeah. You didn't quite get the nuance. But I was working on a show called Pengu, this penguin that basically goes, no, no, this is not a pengu, this stop motion thing. And they came into the studio and said, if you were going to be the voice of a builder in America called Bob, how would that sound? I said, how about, come on, guys, let's build this thing. I'm a man of cash. Union rules. Hustle. Anyway, that's okay. Could it be like not quite as angry? Yeah, yeah. And we tried, hi, I'm Bob. Let's build a house. Super. Close up. How about somewhere in the middle? And in the end, we went with, hi, Bob the Builder here. Can we fix it? Yes, we can. Come on, Wendy, let's go. Today we're going to build a concrete bridge, which is a real practical skill for a five-year-old, right? Yikes. I like the first voice better. It was angrier. Yeah. Yes, me too. Yeah, that would have gone... Bob might not have lasted so long with that voice. I like that. You bastard kids, get out of my way! It's a surefire children's hit, Bruce. Exactly. Here you go. You want some useless animation trivia? I do. Are you folks familiar with the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit? I actually worked with the guy that was in it. All right. So in that movie, which is awesome, by the way, many of your old-time voice actors were in that, kind of a last to rock, because most of them were like 70 or 80 years old by that time. But you got like May Castell as Betty Boop was in there, and Mel Blanc was in there doing all of his voices, except one. There's one character in there that he normally did the voice for That was done by someone else Can you name it? Oh my word No No And as a kid I watched that and I picked it up immediately Wait a minute That's not right That's not Mel Blanc I could just tell it wasn't him Porky Pig? No, he did Porky Pig Okay It wasn't, was it Tweety? No, he did Tweety Yeah, he also did Bugs and he did Daffy Yeah? Which was hilarious, by the way. Yeah. Oh, it was 70 Sam. Correct. Because he couldn't do that voice as he got older because it killed his throat. Yeah. The great horn he told, you know, when you're talking about dirt. You know, he couldn't. It would hurt him, physically hurt him, so he couldn't. Take your prayers, you lop-eared varmint. You're a blasted smithereens. You are despicable. This is the last time I work with someone with a speaking impediment. Yes. Yes. I love that line. My favorite line. The last time I was on Titan Gale. It was the legend Mel Blanc. He was a massive inspiration. He did everything. He's my hero. I just, just the range. And what, he smoked until like 10 years before he died, which is incredible. Like, how do you, I would think that'd be bad, being a voice actor, smoking. That would not be advisable. Well, I got to, I got to meet Domestic, who was the original voice of Scooby-Doo. He's the guy that created that original character for us at an event in London when I was just starting out. And Don Messick had given up smoking by then. But his smoker's cough, his smoker's kind of cough, he gave me this really wheezy laugh, which really helped him when he was the voice of Muttley. Yeah. So that, I can't do it because I don't smoke. But yeah, he couldn't do it anymore because he stopped smoking. What got you into doing voices? They were always my heroes The people who were my heroes were always the people behind the scenes The people that weren't necessarily the big star names But it was the same names that you'd see at the end or beginning of each of the cartoons Or TV shows that you loved So things like Jim Henson or Mel Blanc or Doors Casey Butler It was Muppets and Flintstones and old Warner Brothers cartoons I thought it was fascinating that there was a guy or a woman that this is what they did. It was so exciting to see the face behind that voice. You know, when you, as a kid, when I saw Don Messick, the voice of Scooby-Doo, appear on a little chat show thing in the UK. And, you know, I'm a huge fan of Scooby-Doo. And they went, today our guest is Don Messick. Tell them what you do, Don. Well, I'm the voice of Scooby-Dooby-Doo. and my jaw kind of hit my knees because you go oh my god it's him and it just seemed like the coolest thing in the world in the same way that i was always fascinated by watching documentaries about brilliant music producers or people in studios or special effects guys or you know jim henson and frank carl's doing you know amazing puppet puppeteering so i was more interested in the people doing the craft behind the scenes. And that's how I got started. I started in a radio station, like filing vinyl away. There's some great bands under the letter K. I was filing all this stuff away in a vinyl library at the radio station, and I would go and hide in the production studio to watch the voice guys and the women come in and just record commercials. And I was fascinated by just learning how they do it and how you make yourself sound different. And then bit by bit, I became a producer and I did a radio show for a few years. I got offered a gig on the national radio station here, the BBC station Radio 1. And I turned it down because it was so early in my career. I didn't mean no good. I was so nervous. It's just the idea of it. And the guy that ran the thing, he went, you're turning me down? because they were bloody idiots i i think i am i said there's a benchmark that i should be at i should there's a there's a benchmark that i consider i should be at to try and do something on on a national level i said it's early in my career this is right at the start so i don't think i'm there yet and he and he said he you know i really appreciated me saying that if i ever wanted to go and work there just saying i never did and long story short i left working at a radio station, and just animation had always been something that I adored. I was getting okay at doing character voices and performing and acting, and I really focused on just getting into cartoons and animation studios and games, and it's gone okay. It's gone alright. That's cool. That's really cool. Happy ending. Oh my! Oh my! I love happy endings. The first The first film I ever got asked to be part of was, did you ever see Chicken Run? Oh, yeah, an old animation movie from... Artman. Yeah, yeah, late 90s, yeah. Yeah. And right at the end of them wrapping up that production, I got a call saying, Artman, they're just finishing up a thing called Chicken Run, they need extra cluckers. Cluck you. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. And they said, could you just send a reel of you clucking? So I said, yes, I can. I thought, well, pretty much anyone that says they do this professionally should be able to do that. So I thought, well, let's show them that I really kind of get this. So I sent them like a variety, like your everyday walking down the street, chicken like, and then nervous chicken because they can hear the farmer. and then, you know, chicken about having its throat slipped. All this stuff. And I thought, well, that was, you know, I sent a whole collection of clocks. What did you do at the office today? And then, well, you know, leave it with something memorable because, again, pretty much most people that say they do this should be able to do that. So I got hold of an instrumental version of Frank Sinatra, New York, New York. and I did five-part chicken clucking over this piece of music. And I got it. And I was in this super-duper London audio movie studio with Mick Park and Peter Lord from Aardman Animation, who, again, are heroes of mine. and any time they wanted me to be a chicken, I would just hear, could you bring the Sinatra chicken in, please? Yeah, get him. He's good. A career sport. Yes, I think we have a title. Sinatra chicken. We do. Sinatra chicken. Start spreading the news. Thank you. Start spreading the feathers. Spread the feathers. Getting plucked today. Oh, God. Again, another porn reference. Stop it. Oh, God. Bruce, did you know we're on Spotify now? Are we on Spotify? We're on Spotify. We've made it to big time. We've made it to big time. Now on Spotify. Yes. See, we're going to be world famous more now. More famous more now. More now. So we had a listener who clued Bruce in. They're like, you guys aren't on Spotify, you know. I'm like, oh, we need to be on Spotify. I asked Mr. Ron who was our IT. Who doesn't pay attention, obviously, to what services we need to be on. Yep. I noticed Skitcher is all screwed up. Oh, really? Yeah, it's like just random episodes don't show up. But if I go under the admin portal, they're all there. So I have no idea what's going on there. When did you go full on YouTube, Ron? We were on YouTube. We were on YouTube. We get like five views per video. That was terrible. When we put the podcast up there, which is a pain because you've got to make it a video to get it, put it on YouTube. So I would just. That's what I mean, though. When do we get full on slam tilt video? Oh, God, no, no. My face was not meant for video. I'm a voice guy. I'm a voice guy. Bruce is on there. He's on our YouTube channel singing. Oh, yeah. Singing his ELO. I watched that last week. I thought, I wonder if they're on YouTube. And I nearly, I lost a lot of sleep. I couldn't sleep after seeing Mad Vision and Bruce singing Jeff Lynne. Oh, there's nothing wrong with Jeff Lynne. No, there's not. I love Jeff Lynne. Just because he is bad. Jeff Lynne grew up 15 minutes drive from where I am now in Birmingham in the UK. Love Jeff Lynne. We know Bruce. Really? We're waiting for that ELO pin. God, I would love that. That actually would be pretty good. That would be sweet. That actually, I mean, that won't do it. It's too niche, but it would be awesome. No, Queen would be the one I'd want to see. If you're going to do another music. They already did. Kind of. Yeah, well, no. Did you ever see Queen live? No. No, I actually had tickets back in 1990, 1991. They were actually selling tickets in the U.S. Hold on, hold on. Before he died. Before he died. The last tour was in 86. Why would they be selling tickets? In U.S., they were actually, the promoters, they were starting to, talk about another tour. And the UK, sorry, they were starting to try to get ticket sales for that. They were. Really? They actually had a ticket. Did you keep it? That just seems crazy because he was near death at that point for them to even try that. They were trying because they knew that it was going to be the last, you know, Yeah, but what were they going to do, wheel him out or something? He was bad. He was really bad. I don't understand. that's the first I through sheer fluke I ended up seeing the last ever Queen show with Freddie Mercury oh wow at that festival 100,000 people or whatever yeah 110,000 people I'm a dot somewhere on the front of the live magic CD was he a dot could you see him you could barely see the screen oh wow it was electric Even though you could barely see the screen, he still owned that gig. You felt like he was singing to you. He felt his power. Yeah, and that's why we need a Queen pinball machine. Well, I heard even New Queen, you know, with Adam Lambert, is really good, too. No. It really is. No, I don't care. It's not Queen. Yeah, well, do you know what? I did wonder about that, and I went to see them live. I've heard the same thing. It's incredible. Yeah, just don't use the name. It just annoys me. Adam Lambert and Queen. I know, that's what I'm saying. That annoys me. It should be Queen with Adam Lambert. What I like about Adam Lambert, he's not trying to be Freddie Mercury. He's not trying to be an impersonator, but he can still rock it. Yeah, yeah. It's still larger than life and campy and theatrical, but he can still rock it when he needs to. Somewhere John Deacon's like, whatever. Yeah, yeah. What a shame. I miss John Deacon. He's got a ton of money. He's all set. Yeah, he's like, I'm retired. He's got the songwriting credits for, what, You're My Best Friend, Kind of Magic, Another One Bites the Dust. He's not doing bad. Can you imagine the music you could have in a Queen pinball? Don't Stop Me Now, I Want It All, Another One Bites the Dust. When he's reigning. Even Flash Gordon. Seaside Rendezvous. No, it would be awesome. I would love a, going back to unproductive speculation, and now unproductive speculation on the Slam-Killed Pindle podcast. I, about a year or so back, there was the rumor of a re-skinned machine, wasn't there, with, as a queen, as a zeppelin machine, a re-skinned machine. I would still be quite happy, you know, if they did that with Queen, but did, say, an all-white cabinet like Unlighted the Opera. Mm, there you go. That could look really epic. Well, supposedly that was one of the highway games. Yes, it was. That Pinball Brothers owns now. Oh, speaking of that. Oh. So is Alien coming out or what, Bruce? They say it is. Pinball Brothers has been speculating. The Super Awesome Pinball Show is pretty much putting a picture of the Alien egg thing on their page. And some people are saying that it's going to be a wide body. Some people say it's going to be redesigned as a narrow body. But the previous designer of the machine says he thinks it's going to be a wide body. Yeah, I heard that interview. In fact, the guy that I – a friend that does my pinball mods actually used to work at Highway. So I – I mean, he doesn't know anything about this, but it was just – yeah, he's got a few stories. Yeah. Oh, really? You're going to paint in two weeks. You're going to paint in two weeks. Because I know what Alistair did Queen for them, and then when they went out of business, I think, who? Is it either Deep Root? Someone tried to buy it. Yes. From Pinball Brothers, and they were like, no. We know what we got. And the unproductive rumor was that Queen was going to be based on their live shows. Yes. Which would have been... Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Which would have been... That would have been terrific. Oh, yeah. Definitely. That would have been incredible. Because the Roses beat them to that punch. Yes, they did. There's room for more than one. We've proven that music pins down. There could be only one. Get it? Highlander, Queen. Yeah. Another classic film. Oh, I love that movie. I love what's-his-face, the bad guy. So, Ron. Yes? We have new products coming out. We have new products coming out? Like ones we're making? No, we don't make it. There's new products on the market for your pinball machine either to upgrade or make it work better, to restore your game and make it work better, or just I got to do this thing and na-na-na-na-na-na. Okay. First, a person in California is making stern cabinets, narrow body, and you can buy one for $795 with no art included. Wow. It's a whole cabinet exactly the way it was made, but instead of with MDF, he's using 14-ply Baltic birch plywood. Oh, Baltic birch. Yes, Baltic birch. So $795, and he also offers the Stargazer and Backbox light insert boards if you need that from scratch also. Nice. You can actually make your Quicksilver or Stargazer even better. Hmm. For $795? Yeah. I'm pretty interested. The only thing that worries me, I sent you a link to the pictures. Mm-hmm. Is the hole for the shooter. The hole for the shooter. Oh, my. Shooter rod. Oh, yes. You're looking? You're looking at it? I'm looking at it. It's a little oval. Yeah, isn't it? Yeah, how does the original one look? It's round. Yeah. Hmm. And it's not that far over. Like, if you look at the edge, it's a little too far to the right. But... Anal Bruce. Anal Bruce is here, as always. Yeah, again. But for $795, and then he will ship if you want that option. So would you or would you not buy that for $795? Not really, I don't need any Actually, maybe for a dragon fist Yes, that's what I was thinking The problem is, I don't know how to do stencils or anything like that Nor do I have interest You have one person I would buy it just because there's no tariff on it And you can make your machine over here I just use it for storage for fruit I don't need one I'm thinking, look, it's a pinball thing I can get from the States, there'll be zero tariff. Right now, it's a happy thing. I'm going to store fruit and vegetables in it. That's a happy thing. So if you bought enough parts from the U.S. to assemble your own game, could you get by without the tariff? Well, that's a happy thought. That's a happy thought, but yeah. But I would buy two of these. I would get one for Dragon Fist, and I'd get one for Shit Silver. Mark's loving that Shit Silver. Poor Shit Silver. I want a shit silver. Shit silver. You only own a shit silver once. The next product out is coming from the guys at Homepin. Oh, no, no, not that one. Yes, Homepin. You're kidding. This is the same company? It's the same company. The Thunderbirds people? The Thunderbirds people. We've always talked about how the Thunderbirds, you know, people always want to get into the secondary market for parts. They can make it cheaper. Hopefully they can sell it to other manufacturers like Lockdown Bars. Yes. Well, he made his first product and is offering it in Australia through the Australian guys that have the Williams parts that bought all the Williams parts from. You mean Wayne? Wayne. Yeah. Well, it's. Yeah. I can't remember the name of his company. Yeah. I forget the name of it. It's something. Pinball something. Yeah. He is selling. they're selling the Transformer with the board on it for Stern Electronic Games from 1977 to it's actually you can use a Bally it's meant for Bally and Stern so they're selling Transformers is this the Autobot or Decepticon version no no no it's a Stern Transformer ok I had to say that sorry I'm going to put it in my cabinet with the fruit There you go. And you can start building your game. It's good for the Bally's up to 84, for the Sterns up to... Well, whatever they saw. The 77, 78, Meteor. Meteor is when they went down below. Oh, it's for the head. Yes, it's for the head. The head. But you can still use it if you wanted to on the newer Stern electronic machines, but you just have to mount it differently. And it's available. You can buy it right now. Now, how much would you pay for a brand-new Transformer and board, Ron? I don't know. How much would I pay for it? I suck at pricing. How much would you pay? Say if you needed one. Okay, the Rector Fire boards are $75 to $85. Really? They're that much? I thought they were... Okay. $62 is the cheapest, but I was just going by average. I don't know. $150. How about $550? What? I swear to God Get out Yes It made in China It should cost like What the hell I agree Is that Australian That Australian but still Well, no, translate that. What is that in American? Okay, it is $550. In U.S., it is $408. Wow, that doesn't help much. That's about, what's that, 350 pounds? Yeah, about 350 to 325 pounds, yes. God. Yeah, for a Transformer and board. How do you think they're going to sell those? Probably not. I mean, you can get the Rectifier boards. How often does a Transformer go bad? They say, you know, think about it. 40-year Transformers are starting to fail a little bit, so it's a possibility, but not for $408. Plus shipping. Don't forget plus shipping. Okay, Bruce, which do you think they'll sell more of, those or Thunderbird's pinball? Probably those. they're more desirable. Wow, that's a good question. I like that question. Even if you don't own a pinball machine, you would just buy the transformer in preference. You would. And the third product from Stern Electronics, we have the little exclusive. We've been testing this for them. It is the VSU-2. Electric Boogaloo? Yes, it is. What is the VSU-2? What is that, Bruce? It is the drop-in replacement for the VSU-100. Well, I could have told you that. Oh, clearly. It's the first replacement speech synthesizer for the VSU-100 boards in 40 years. So every Stern electronic pinball machine that talks. Which would be Flight 2000, Freefall, Lightning, Split Second, Catacomb, Orbiter One. Plus. Ooh. GammaTron. Whoa. This is the guy who made my GammaTron talk. Oh, 8.8 sales tax on New York orders. Bummer. Yes. We know where he's located. We know he's in New York State, but it's $109. Now, everyone who usually has to get these boards repaired or fixed, the chips that are no longer available, that's the S14001A decoder I see, they're now going for like $85-$90 a loan so they are available for sale the website is glodstone.com g-l-o-d s-t-o-n-e dot com and you can order these up we've been testing them for these games the sanctum Jim at the sanctum tested these on his games and we did some tweaks and he's got them down perfect, and they even show some sound samples in the website below from the original to the replacement. The VSU-2 drop and replacement for the VSU-100, now available at Glodstone.com. Glodstone.com, my favorite. And you get power diagnostics, volume control. You can actually adjust your volume for its, you know, you can balance it. The speech independent of the sound. So you can have ridiculously loud speech. speech independent. But for $109 plus tax and shipping, that's a pretty good deal. That's pretty cool. Finally, your machine can sound like speak and spell again. Yes, exactly. Here we go. And we're going to have them, we're going to interview both of them in our next show. Just so Ron knows now. Ron is hearing about this for the first time. That's how you are. It's quite a well-organized machine, this thing. Yeah, well-oiled machine. I love that speech board. It sounds terrific. It just, it's everything you want from a classic retro machine. It's 80s. It's true. Yeah, I love how all their schemes still sounded. It's like, they didn't even try to voice this. No, berserk. All the stern. Coin detected in pocket. Yep. Yes. Most, multiple. Jesus, I'm going to kill myself. Ruin my friend. But if you have a Gamitron, you can also use this on there. He actually has a speaking and saying Gamitron. So that's kind of cool. All right, Bruce, are you ready for the moment we've all been waiting for? Moment? Yeah. Twippy pre-voting! Yes, Twippy pre-voting has now changed. What? Ah, did you know about this? So first to explain, the Twippies are the This Week in Pinball awards that everyone wants to get, including Bruce. Yeah, me too. I just want to be on the show and just like, you know, say I'm accepting this trippy but I'm not and I'll break it right in half. Gosh. Best voice work. So Mark could win that. I have the claim to fame that I was the voice of the trippy announcer the announcer guy last year. Well, this year rather. Nice. I just heard trippies 2020. So you guys are like trippies 2021 pre-voting. Yeah, let me get for free. And now Get ready for action with the Twippy's 2021 pre-voting thing. Pre-voting thing. Vote for Ron. Vote for Bruce. No one else. The pre-voting has now started, so if you go to thisweekinpimp.com. How do you pre-vote? How do you vote before you vote? Well, what you're doing is voting for the pull-down tab. They're narrowing the field. So they're narrowing it. This is to get your nominees. Yes. And you can just put anything in there. Yes. We're hoping that you guys vote for us. I'll clearly vote for you. Absolutely, yes. No one else. I don't know any other people, and you are my premium vote. That's it. All right. Poor guy. Poor guy. But they changed the rules, Ron, for the finals. Okay, what are the rules of the finals? So now it is like the MLB Major League Baseball MVP Awards. So for first place, you get three votes. For second place, you get two votes. And for third place, you get one vote. If you get fourth or below, you get nothing. But now, second place, if you get a ton of second place votes. You could win. You could win still. See, so we're in. This is our year to shine, baby. How do you get to the damn page that has the voting? Am I missing something here? Oh, where it says click here to vote with an exclamation point at the end of it. This is our IT guy. This is the guy who did that on Spotify. Don't forget, this is the guy who did not have us on Spotify. Fight me. I'm impressed by Bruce's aspiration, I want to be a number two. I am a number two. Yeah. I am the middle finger, and then now I'm going to be the number two. The funny thing is, you have to read the, there's a PDF that comes with it of whether they're eligible or not. So even though you see them in the dropdown, it's just someone might have stuck them in there and they're not eligible. Yeah, they are. Like, for a podcast, you must have done, I think, at least five episodes. So you can't, couldn't put, like, you know. One episode out. One episode, yeah. Yeah, I'm a podcaster. And have, like, you know, the most famous, great main guy. Okay, are you ready, Bruce? Oh, yes, I'm ready. Are you ready, Mark? I'm raring. Raring? Yeah. Let's see. Favorite pinball streamer. I'm not going to go through that, because the drop-down has, like, 30,000 things on it. Yeah. We know what that's going to be. Well, it's going to be deadfoot. You're going to win. Yes. I mean, and really, he streams every day. How could you not? I don't know. I would vote for it. I don't know who I'm going to vote for for streaming. Now, is it best Twitch or is it best streamer? Streamer. Okay, I'm going for IE Pinball. Yeah. Because he has the most incredible... Look what he did yesterday. Yeah, that was impressive. That's still counted towards this year. And I've ripped all my equipment off from him. Yep. I just asked him, what do you use? And that's what I used. He's using green screen. He's using everything, you know. Okay, the next one I'm going to skip because I feel I cannot answer it, being that I'm in the category. That would be favorite pinball podcast. Go. Which is us. Or possibly Silver Ball Chronicles. You can vote for that, too. No, no, no, no, no. Don't split the votes. We've been around fucking longer than Silver Ball Chronicles. Okay, vote for Silver Ball Chronicles for third, then, or something. Yes. Okay, you happy? Yes, perfect. I'm voting for King Cromwell. You can get him for number two, yes. Ken's awesome. Oh, Ken is awesome. Yes. Favorite pinball YouTube channel? I don't even know. It has probably been straight down the middle. But they haven't done it lately. Yeah. I mean, but the ones they have done have been entertaining. How many have they done this year? They've done a number of them. Plus, they've done all the stuff for Jersey Jack, which was good. To be fair, Greg's had to sell a lot of houses. Yes. Hey, buddy, you want to buy a house? You want to buy a house? Yeah, I'll buy a house. Okay, good. Comes with a free pinball machine. Yes, it does. Favorite pinball website. We weren't included on that. Did you notice that? What? favorite pinball website? Yeah. You have a website? We have a website. Yeah, but no one's going to go there. It's got to probably be this week in pinball, it should be. Or Pinside. It was Pinside last year. Yeah, I don't know. Jeff deserves it. I think Jeff deserves it. He does a lot more work than Pinside does. Pinside's good for selling and buying. That's it. For fighting, they're the best. Oh, this one's going to be tough. Favorite pinball mod of 2020. It's my Turtles mod. It's the van mod. Turn it left a bit. Spin it left and it's free. It's the best. It's a write-in vote, so I'm going to put Marc Silk Turtle Van Mod. There you go. I'm so proud. There we go. Mother always said I was special. This one is the favorite homebrew pinball machine. There's been no shows. There's been no way to play any of these. I couldn't even tell you. Zach. I could put Zach's, but his isn't out yet to me. His is in progress. I would say maybe Led Zeppelin from what's-his-name down in New Zealand. He finished it this year. Did you get to play Keltz? I know it's already a home position. No, we have not. We were looking for it. I did it. Oh, that's right. Yes, sir. I played the version from last year's Texas. Yeah. And they listened to us. We know they listen to us. Damon's a really good guy. I really enjoy playing that. You know, it's his first stab at a pinball machine, and you think of going from nothing to that. That's a hell of an achievement. And the indestructible play field. And they have a clan named Bruce. I think Bruce, I think Scottish game stuff. Yeah, of course. We should get them on, hopefully, when we can actually play it together. Which, hell. Yeah, hopefully someday. Favorite pinball publication or article? That's very vague. And vague also, because you're like, what am I going to go with? That'd be this week in pinball again. That must be a specific article or publication written in this year. I'm thinking it's more like a print thing. Yeah. Oh, can my Facebook post count when I said how happy I am that I'm the voice of Turtles? There you go. Not all of the titles, the voice of six characters. Can I say that? Can I vote for a Facebook post? Maybe. Maybe it's a really good one. It's not. It's not. The game, the voice, clearly is funny, but, you know, my post. Favorite pinball location? My house. It should be the Silver Ball Saloon. Yeah. Yep, yep. I'm putting Silver Ball Saloon. Name, city, Rochester. Oh, full disclosure, Bruce. I was booked to go on a plane to New York back in April, which was canceled, who'd have thought. And I actually planned to go to Rochester. Oh, wow. I would have loved to have seen you. And I can tell you, that's easy to say now, I thought I was staying in Manhattan around by Union Square. And I thought, well, he's in New York. I'll go there. And I went on Google Maps and went, fly now! Are you kidding me? And then I found I could fly there. So I got so close to even taking a plane just to go to Silver Balls to learn. Well, thank you. Thank you. It was a great place. I loved it. I miss the people. I miss the location because we have no location pinball now. You don't miss the landlord, though. I don't miss the landlord and I don't miss the hours. I got a real job. I get paid. This is the first time I'm actually getting paid weekly in almost four years. How sad is that? But it's nice. I actually enjoy my job. My job hours will be changing, unfortunately. I work from, right now, my hours are 10 to 6.30, which isn't bad. But eventually they go, for the next year, I'll be going from 2 to 10.30 at night. Yeah. So, yeah. But what I'm getting paid for and what I'm doing, I enjoy. 210.30. Yeah. Are you working in an astronomy thing? No, no, no. I'm not allowed to say, but I... Oh, okay. That sounds great. That's where my NDA comes in now, but I do work for Corning, which is the biggest glass manufacturing company in the world for fiber optic and other great things. They make all your Gorilla Glass for all your iPhones. Nice. That's very exciting. So, yes, we do a lot of good things. He's giving us clues, Ron. No, not even my division. Well, then you just gave us a clue. You've narrowed it down. You've already failed with your NDA. Fail. If you look where I live, you can look up the factory I work at, and then you might get a better idea. But you don't know what I'm doing. Favorite pinball virtual event? I would say what it was last night. Pin Slash. Pin Slash. Yeah, it was either that or Expo. Pin Slash. Definitely. The job that everyone did. Now, did you see Jeff Teolis? He looks more and more like George Lucas every day. He's wearing the shirt. He rocks the beard as well now. He rocked the beard, the shirt. He even looked like he gained some weight. So guess what? He is George Lucas. Wow. He's going to have the turkey neck soon. Just when has George Lucas been heavy? George Lucas is looking a little like Jeff right now. Yeah. I'm going to fight for X-Men, by the way. I'm fighting for X-Men. Hey, Jeff. But Steven Bowden's commentary with Snow Glavin was really good last night also. It was nice with all the little mini pinball profiles with each contestant. It was really good. They did a great job last night. Contestant? Is it a game show? It was a game show because you were fighting against another person. No, the competitors. Not contestants. Pinball is not competitive. Not competitive? It's not more fun. It does take more fun to compete, though. So you're right about that. But it's not a sport. It's not a sport. It's not a sport. It's not a sport. So you're a contestant. What do you think, Mark? Is pinball a sport? No. No, it's not. You're going to piss a lot of tournament players off. Maybe it is. You see, that's a tricky one, because it's a game, and football's a game, and football's a sport. So maybe it is. Okay, if you could just sit on a stool, drink beer, and be awesome at it, it's not a sport. Oh, I think that I have some people that used to be at my bar that would just definitely say no. And then some people would say yes. I think it depends what you're going to do with it, doesn't it? If you take it into the realms of being a sport, of being competitive, then I think I would probably vote for the fact that it is a sport. I don't play competitive pinball but I would I think you could probably make a solid argument to say that maybe it is my main thing is it has to be athletic to be a sport okay you have to play on a treadmill no I didn't say you could be non-athletic and be awesome on a treadmill you have to do it like the Adams family that was at California Extreme well where you get on an exercise bike and just pedal you get on an exercise bike and pedaled for your power. Power for the flippers. The faster you pedal, the more power your flippers get. Oh, that's good. Yep. There was an Addams Family over here that someone had. What was it? Oh, that was it. I think every time you, it was basically the player was sat in an electric chair. So every time it hit certain things, you basically were electrocuted. Wow. Little charges. I think it might have just been vibrations, but people seem to be fairly convinced they're being electrified. Wow. No lawsuits there. No. Oh. Favorite pinball topper of 2020. I keep saying Black Knight, but that was last year. It was a good topper. It was. What the hell was, like, the topper? I'll be a chumpety boy. I will say turtles, just because I mean it. But I don't know. What other toppers are there from this year? Actually, wouldn't it, wouldn't it, did Star Wars finally come out this year? Yes, it did, actually. So that would possibly be the one I'd go with. Say what you want about the price. I play it with that thing, and it feels totally part of the game. You hit the mystery hole. Oh, that's interesting. R2 moves his head back and forth. He moves around into track mode. Like, hey, play me. I got so excited. The first tour of Stern I did as a fanboy at X-Flow in 2018, they had the top of their. Yep, sitting there. Yeah, yeah. Everyone takes pictures of it. What's it coming out? Yeah, yeah. It was one of those where we almost felt we shouldn't be acknowledging the fact that this thing we all wanted was there. It was quite a thrill to see this topper. And then it didn't come out for about, what, another year or so? Over two. Over two. Okay. Well, the Star Wars, that topper, apparently, well, not apparently, it works on the home game. Oh, really? Mm-hmm. Oh, then you've got to get it. It's definitely worth it. I would say so. I think I need to make a phone call. If you're... I mean, I don't know if the tariff, though. You're not going to pay a tariff on it. Are you going to pay a tariff? That's an entertainment device, isn't it? It is, and it's pinball related, so maybe... You might want to wait. How can you put a price on happiness, Ryan? Especially R2-D2. Disney did. Oh. Oh. Oh. I hate Disney. I kind of half knew him. Kenny Baker was R2-D2. Yes. We would meet up at the conventions doing signing sessions for Star Wars. And somehow we hit it off and we kept in touch. And this one day, a couple of weeks after I'd done this convention with him, I was with my mom coming back from the shopping mall. And the phone went. And on the phone, it just said R2-D2. And I picked the phone up and I heard, And that mark is Kenny! And I kind of fanboyed out a bit because it's, you know, it's Kenny Baker. it's R2-D2 calling you. I went, oh, hi, Kenny. It's great to hear from you. He went, yes, it's what I really enjoyed meeting you. It's a really nice, fun weekend. And then I left that little pause that you do, kind of finding out why they phoned you, and you realized he just wanted to say hi. So I said, so what are you up to, Kenny? He went, I'm watching a chat show, Olivia Newton-Johnson. She's lovely. I had this vision of R2-D2 sat on a sofa with his feet up just watching Xander do. Featuring music by ELO. Exactly. That's a very good Kenny Baker, by the way. I know that from watching Time Bandits. It was nice. Nice guy. I should get the topper then as a mark of respect. You should. I definitely agree with that. The topper is incredible. That's the one good thing about the Star Wars machine. Oh, wow. He said something good about it. It's so nice to hear that. Because I've never played the game with it on. Oh, I will. I will. Yeah. It is. Okay. I've got to get it. Yep. What else other topics do we have under for Just We Can Pinball? What else is there? That's pretty much it. Okay. So don't forget to vote for Slam Hill Podcast. I'm in. I'm in. And then don't forget to vote again in January. I've got to vote twice? Double voting? You've got to vote twice. Because this is just the pre-voting voting. This is just pre-voting. Not the voting voting. It's the pre-voting. It's like the pre-lube. The pre-lube. Jesus. So classy. Yes, you're used to BBC. You're used to the BBC interviews. You don't get that shit here. No, you do. Are you talking? What are you talking about? You ever watch Monty Python? They have, like, topless women and shit in the 60s, for Christ's sake. Believe me. Come on. Benny Hill, baby. I love that show. Speaking of that show, appropriately, Deep Root, DLC. Is that what they play when they start talking about, and now the Pitbull Company deep brew. And then you get the. Somebody got into their staging server, or it was archived or something, where it basically had the pricing and what they were looking to do going forward. All the other podcasts are just, you know, this was just rumor. I'm not going to say no. It was totally. It was on their server. This is what they were at least planning to do at some point, almost. Unleash your page. Yeah. The arcade version was going to be under 5K. Which is a great deal. Yeah. $49.99. I would get one for $49.95 easily, or $49.99. And their other version was like $6,000 something. Which is another, that's a steal. But the other thing was the DLC. That's the bad part. Pay $50 a month. Yeah, which is BS. I'm sorry. Is it true as well that the license goes to the, or the rumored information is that it goes to the user, not the machine? Yes, not the machine. So if you sold the machine, they wouldn't get your, yeah. It's like, here's this machine, but all the features in it you don't get. Yeah, which is bullshit also, because guess what? I know these guys would be pissed off if they bought a car, and AC was now an option. Oh, your power seats, they don't work anymore. Sorry. That would be interesting. They would be pissed the fuck off, and that's what they're going to get the feedback from me. Oh, from you. I'm sure they're looking. They got Bruce Nightingale feedback is one of their main parameters. Yes. If this is a success. If you go to the fucking Benny Hill fucking music, they're going to be playing when they do this DLC shit. But. A lot of DLC hostility, Bruce. There is. I don't believe in it. Works for video games and has forever. Guess what? If they log in under your name, you still get the same information. You still get the same stuff. Yeah, if I bought that, me personally, I would want to be able to sell it. If I chose to sell a machine, like a table, I wouldn't be able to just sell the table and then get the same experience out of that table. Not a particularly good example, but it's exactly that. The car. The car analogy is that. Yeah, exactly. I bought this car, so all the luxury items. And then it's like, oh, it's a Tesla, and I upgraded the radio and everything like that, but now you don't get that upgrade. It's the same issue we say an iTunes account or Apple TV, that kind of thing. You could sell them the table, just not the legs. Yes. That Ryan Policky is not going to fly. You don't think it's going to fly? But, I mean, Stern is already doing that. Stern's doing it, but guess what? You could sell the topper with the machine and still get the same code. That's the difference. That's true. If you sell the machine and, say, I bought every option. I wanted all the bells and whistles in my Deep Root game, and then I want to sell it. Now it's going to make me harder to sell this game because it's not going to transfer over. It's going to make you hard to sell the game? Yes, it's going to make it harder. Oh, oh. Because guess what? He's already committed to this game. Yes. So guess what? You're screwing yourselves. Whoa, there he goes again. So much porn, Bruce. You need to stop getting hard, screwing. That's what I feel like now. It's all money grab. Okay, how about this then, Bruce? If you get a subscription thing, just as an idea in terms of DLC, downloading this new content, if you buy a machine and you go, it's a code 1.0, and you're really happy with the game, for a whole new pack of levels, new callouts, new animation, new light shows, would you buy that? No. Oh. Because guess what? Then I won't buy the machine until it's completely done. That's the thing. It is completely done. So we're saying this yeah this is the game as this is like say say for the album you buy an album by a band and you go that's the album and you love the album and then say a year later they say you know what we got this we got this EP we got some extra tracks for you. Would you buy it? Yes because it's new stuff. It's new stuff. Yeah, so this is new stuff. The problem is, yeah, okay, I'll buy it, but if I can't transfer it, say if I wanted to sell the album later on, and it's an album, not like an MP3 or anything like that, if I wanted to sell the album, does it go vaporware? Does it disappear when I hand it to the guy? Now you've got to pay them money again to get it back and play it? It's locked to that machine. Yeah. So would you be prepared if you bought the game, is a code 1.0 or above, and then, say, six months later, a year later, they say, we got a whole new pack of stuff for your game. They'll give you new animations, fresh light shows, new call-outs, new music. Really make it feel like a fresh machine. It all depends. It all depends on how good it is. It's really good. It's really good for us. Yeah, but if it's good for me, if I think it's worth it. It is Nightingale-grade good. Oh, that's hard. They've changed all the music to ELO. It's all Jeff Lynn tracks. Okay, but yes, I'll buy that. But then it doesn't transfer to the next person. It does. It's useless. It does. Okay, then I'm fine with that. Happy Bruce. Yes. Guess what? Because then you have the option to go backwards or forwards. Yeah. That's fine. But don't make a game that's cheap and cheesy. No. That's what I'm afraid of. That's what's going to happen. But it's going to be like, you're going to get code like 0.8 or 0.9 when they ship these games. And then, oh, if you want version 1.0, the complete code, here we need $750 more. That's how great it's going to happen. There's a game that I work on with Sega called Two Point Hospital. And it's a terrific game. I need a voice in it. When you're playing the game, you go around creating like this comedy hospital world. and as you play the game, there is a hospital radio station in the background and I'm the voice of these presenters. Every now and then, there are free updates. So you're really taken care of as a player. Same with, you know, same with your Stern updates, same with any manufacturer's free updates. But then every now and then, there is, you know, there might be an option, say, where you can buy a new little pack, which gives you a new little extra side to this world of fun you've been enjoying for the past year. So to me, it's the equivalent of that. You know, it's still a really good, solid game, and you have had updates. And, you know, any game has a lifespan. But the idea that you could spend an amount of money to get a real, you know, boost and refresh the game, I'd actually find that attractive at the right price. The question is, what would you pay? That's the problem. What would you pay? It all depends. What's in it? Lots of really good things. Yeah, I can't. But it all depends. That's the key. It all depends what is in there. For a pinballer, you're used to this point getting a game that is not complete. Yeah. And then they complete it, but you're not paying for it. Yeah. Now, if it's going to be shipped, like, think about it. If you're the first, you know, all these people, they want to be the first person on the machine. Never. They can learn it. Not that way either, but there's a lot of people out there. But if they're not going to get the good game, or if they have to get paid for the extra code to get up to their good game. It's just... Say if you have a bad game. What if Stern releases, like, Ghostbusters with that bad code? Do you mean the game that sold? They sold a shit ton of them with the bad code? They sold a shit ton of them, but now... How is it bad, then? But now that new code that they put out, what, 8, 10 months ago or 12 months ago, they said, hey, for $300, you can get a better code for this. how would you feel spending $8,000 and saying, or 10% of the price you paid for the machine, $800 you get the good code I'd be really fucking pissed because you sold me a machine for $8,000 it's sucked out of the box and now you want to make up your money because it should have been good from out of the box in the beginning instead of later on you bought it, you didn't try it out, that's on you guess what, that's why I didn't buy Ghostbusters so this option then works the ideal world, the way it needs to be, is the game has to be right to begin with. Yes, it should be right to begin with. Yeah, exactly, yes. I can see in the future, it's just going to be, let's get the machine out the door. Look at Guardians. If they actually did that with the Guardians model, you know how many people would have killed somebody where you got this blank, blank, a block. Guardians was a special case. Okay. Due to a certain designer leaving. Guns N' Roses has that right now also. Remember, just basic animation. For some of the, yeah. So now what if they say to you three months from now, hey, if you want the good stuff for $500, would you be pissed? For $500, you'd want a pretty major, you'd want pretty much, you'd set the code for that. Exactly. Now, how would you feel, Ron, if you paid your $8,500 or $9,500 plus shipping? So you put $10,000 in the machine, Ron. and now to get the better code, you have to pay $950, 10%. How would you feel? I would like the code before I got the game. Thank you. I wouldn't get it assuming they're going to fix it later. Like Jurassic Park, that's pretty much done at this point. So if I got Jurassic Park and I'm playing it and maybe they came out with some, we have all these new things, but you've got to pay for it, I'd be like, eh, I don't need to pay for that. I'm happy with what I got. Yeah. You have the option. But if I got a completely broken game, and, like, you have to pay to get code that actually works. So say with Jurassic Park, say that, so it's a complete game, and it shoots terrifically, and it's the game that you love. If in a year's time there's a whole new load of levels, core apps. They put all the animations. They got the licensing options. And you can actually get the factory movie clips. Movie clips and everything like that sounds. Say, yeah, they have, that's a good example. Jurassic Park comes out like it is right now, but Stern is able to make some kind of agreement with Jeff Goldblum, etc., and they get all the actual clips from the movie and put them in instead, but you've got to pay for it. It's $1,000. How would you feel? I think you'd have the option, like I told them. Yeah, that's exactly. I don't mind that part. Yeah. But it has to be worth value. Yeah, that's exactly it. Yeah, it has to be worth the price of admission. And with something like Jurassic Park, I think that's a really good example because there's a game that is just, it's done and it's a terrific game. So then if, I mean, I would love it if it was all new light shows. As a regular player of a game, if you suddenly felt your day-to-day experience was strengthened or opened up so that even things like the music you hear to begin with, the end of, you know, when there's a ball drain, or brand new call-outs, new music, great new light shows, new forms of multiball, all of that stuff, there'd be a value where I'd say, you know what, yeah, I think I would pay that, but what would you pay? I mean, best case scenario, something like, you know, what you gave as an example happened, what would you be comfortable to pay? It all depends. I'm back to that answer, I really am. Because, to me, Jurassic Park, right now, is a great game. Yeah. Is it worth the movie clips and everything like that? I've seen the videos from people doing their own one, and it looks great. But for me, it's not like I didn't need that. Yeah, same here. I actually like what they did. Yeah. Except for the sound clips, which, you know, they know now who to hire. It's a sorry, man. It's a wish. Rex called for me. We've lost another truck. See, Keith? I like it. We got your guy now, Keith. No complaints here But the way I look at it is you know to me it not worth if they go by 10 I think that probably what the benchmark will be the 10 mark Really? I think that's the only way they're going to get there if they get a big upgrade like that. It'd be 10% of what the MSRP would be. So say on a pro machine, it'd be $600. For a premium, maybe $7,500, the LE. Or maybe they'll do $7,500 for the LE slash premium. You might get a little cheaper price on the LE version because it's the same usual code. When you compare it to the price of a Topper, you go what? Toppers are stupid. $1,000. Toppers are stupid. And that's the problem I'm having, where they're selling Toppers for $1,000, and people are going, ooh, ooh, great, great. And is it really worth $1,000? Well, no. It's not. It's not, but, I mean, they're selling it for $1,000. It's good for Stern. It's very tricky. Well, all this goes back to what's it worth to you as the end user. Exactly. It depends how much of a fanboy you are. And, Ron, let's go by your example. You're the biggest Star Wars guy I know besides myself. Hello. Hello. Hello. We lost Mark. Don't worry about that. No. But he owns the Pro. Now, with the R2-D2 Topper, you paid, what, $700, whatever, right? If it was $1,500 but you got extra modes in it, would you pay that? Ooh. Eh. See? This is the problem. What? This is the problem. Yeah. You have to get on an emotional level to get that further great response. And he is one of the biggest Star Wars fans. Ron can recite anything from the first three movies, but I don't see him spending, you know, $750, $800 more for extra mode or two. Am I right? No. I did get the topper. You did get the topper, but would you spend another $800, $900 for another mode or two? Like a Sarlacc mode. Oh, I just figured out the solution. I go around to Ron's, and I just say all my lines from Star Wars as he's playing. And he gives me $1,500. There you go. Ron, you would love Ron's house. If they have the non-specialized version. Oh, yeah. They could get me to pay money. So a proper Death Star explosion without the ring, the pit there without the Audrey 2 coming out of it as they put in, you know, that kind of stuff. Maybe sound equalized. Non-Lucas changes. Well, yeah, the non-specialized edition. And fix some of the sound clips that you'll listen to the sound clips. And then all of a sudden one will be really loud, and then it goes down again. Like, why is that one so much louder? There's some level issues with some of the sound clips in that game. Okay, make it $2,000 and we'll do the Turtles call-outs for you as well, right? But I think Deep Root is going down the wrong path of the DLC. That's where we're going to go. Well, Bruce, what would you do if you had John Rhys-Davies from Lord of the Rings and you could pay him and he would do new custom call-outs, Lord of the Rings for you? Wouldn't mention. Really? You wouldn't want to hear, you know, Check, Pop, One, Bruce! No. No? No. Because it's not the movie. It's not in the movie. It's not in the... Wait a minute. His lines aren't in the movie. They don't say Jackpot 1 in the movie. Well, but you know what I mean? It's the theme behind it. It's the... You know, guess what? It's a pinball machine. It's the theme. He's doing the Gimli voice. I don't need my name in the machine. Oh. It's kind of fun, though. No, it's not. I had a Flintstones machine with pin sound in. And some friends came over. And I did the voice of Barney Rebel for Cartoon Network over here for quite a while. I changed a whole bunch of call outs for the kids names and they thought it was the best thing in the world but the twins were come on Tim let's go and they were Martin said my name they went nuts for it it's like with Batman was it the super duper Ellie super duper Ellie where Adam West said your name well guess what He only said so many names. Yeah. So the problem is, if my name, which I probably is not on there, Bruce, I don't know, does he ever say Bruce Wayne? Because they could fit that in. You sounded a little like Bruce Wayne then. This fear is beyond any of you. Bruce. Run! Run! Bruce. Run, Bruce, run! Let's just pack my bags and go home. I've got a lot of competition in this room. But, yeah, I think it's just a bad thing. I think if you're going to buy it, it should be saved with the machine. You know, well, I agree with that. Absolutely agree with that. But going for the custom, just stepping back to what you said about custom call-outs, if there was a show that I loved, I would absolutely love something to do with me personally in that machine. Family Guy. Family Guy or Rick and Morty. You know, you see what Rick and Morty, it may be not the best player, it's not the most fun, but the call-outs rock in it. They're terrific. But would you pay $1,000 extra or $800 extra for that? More stuff. You might try this. I can buy a pinball machine for $800. Java Service Cameo. It's a, it's like an audio autograph thing. That is a great idea. Exactly. So if you could get, I mean, imagine what, if you could get, if you knew someone that was in Star Wars, just saying, to record custom call-outs at key moments, it's talking to you. You do that. Run, run, run! Run, run, run! Go bloody run! Get the charred, red-nosed, rich, rich, run! See, cameo, I would want to find my favorite wrestlers and have them cut promos on me. and then I'm for WWF that's how we upgrade, that's how we make WWF better oh yeah, we do cameos and then stick them in the game maybe we can sell all those WWF LEs I can probably help my friend Georgia her uncle is Brett the Hitman Hart does that help? that does help I had dinner with him a few years ago did he say he was the best there ever was? the best there ever will be He said Bruce was. A guy with taste. I love it. Hey, that's right, Bruce. You wouldn't pay for more Stewie in your game? For Stewie, I would because I had a good decision. Because the reason why, with Family Guy, they only used the first two to three seasons. Now, if you got all the seasons. Hey, that's right. You could have some Cool Whip in your game. You could have some Cool Whip and you can actually have some other things. And I think that could sell. Yeah. and you can make the game better. And also, a version of it that was just a higher bitrate, because the actual audio quality of that game is... Oh, it's terrible. Yeah. But, I mean, if you can use, instead of 1 through 3, and you can get all 12 or 14 seasons, oh, my God. You probably could make the DLC work. Even maybe, even sell it. That would be a great test market. If you can go back to, you know, Seth MacFarlane and say, hey, guys, we want you to do more animation from our code and then try to sell it. What would you pay for a pack of Family Guy stuff, then, Bruce? Probably $400. $400? Yeah, that's... Which is about 10% of what the game was. Yeah, I'm worth more than that, bitch. But, you know, I'm going still by the 10% mark. If you go by the original price, you know, that's the way I would try to look at it. And would the idea... It doesn't have to be customized. It has to be just more content. How much would you pay for some more KISS material, Bruce? Oh, God, no, because they've already announced their shows. Gene, did you tell everyone about your new shows coming up? No, Bruce, I'm sure you could tell them. I can because they've now announced their 150 last shows, and they're going to the coldest place on the earth and playing a concert at in Antarctica. We're going to melt the polar ice caps, Bruce. Yes, you are. That's how hot Kiss is. Yes, it is. A question from the UK, Gene. When are you coming to the United Kingdom, please, Gene? Europe is in spring, fall. Spring, summer, I mean. I believe there's a Kiss tariff currently over there. 25% extra on face masks. That's right. There's a tariff for entertainment from the US, so. So you might get knocked around with that one. It's worth every penny. How much would you pay to have a Thunderbirds pinball taken off your premises? $1,500. I just remember playing that. Wow, this really is as bad as they say. Yeah, it was bad. Especially, you just lock a ball and every time you drain it, it just gives you the ball back. It's like, man, this game's going to get long. Yes, it does. I could not spell international rescue, though. I couldn't spell it. I'm a big Thunderbirds fan. Thunderbirds in the UK is a big deal. It's a big thing. It's humongous. Huge deal. I love Team America World Police. Yeah, yeah. That's exactly what it was. And I'm a fan of the original show. I grew up watching all the reruns of that. And I'm in the reboot of the show. I'm the voice of Captain Rigby, the guy with the nicest eyebrows on television. And I really wanted this game to be good. And I played it at the Pinball Expo here a couple of years ago. And, you know, you just kind of go, and the sound was stuttering all over the place. It was going Thunderbird 5, Thunderbird 5, Thunderbird 5. And even the bit rate of different call-outs was different, so the sound quality kept changing from bit to bit. The thing I didn't get either was it wasn't consistent in terms of the voices you were hearing doing characters. And what's crazy, I work with an original voice actor from the original show. A guy called David Graham, and he was the voice of Parker in the show. He's the one that he goes, this belady. He's the Casey Butler. And they had clips in this game, in the Thunderbirds pinball game, that clearly were just taken off a, it sounded like a VHS tape. And they could have actually, they could have got that guy to do them custom call-outs for a reasonable rate. And it would have been fun. But it was a real shame. Every now and then, as well be you heard the original theme music from Thunderbirds in that machine which did sound really good and then it went back to low bitrate again and kind of just the whole sort of immersive nature that you wanted from a game like that just was lost for me at least. It was a real shame So not only have they failed from a playfield standpoint, they have failed from a sound standpoint. From a sound standpoint I was heartbroken, Ron it was horrific. Also Having to spell international rescue. Yeah. Was quite an ask. We need to re-theme it as Team America. Yeah. Yeah, that would. God, I would. See, there's a game I'd buy. Ron. Yes. I have something for you. Oh, God. What, what? Yes, I do. Here we go. Just posted two days ago. Uh-huh. I can get you a technical factory position at a pinball company. A technical factory position. Wow. What does that even mean? You have to be competent in CAD. Okay, I've never used it, so good. Okay. Ability to read software and operate a wood CNC as well as a medium-sized laser machine. Okay, never done any of that, but okay. I'll have a go. Small family business means an applicant must be flexible at work and help wherever you're required. So it's spooky. But you need to be able to read Chinese. Oh, wow. Hogan. Yes. Okay. He posted the job. So there you go, Ron. We found your gig. All right. There's another person that got a gig we just found out. I sent it to Ron yesterday. Oh, you did? American Pinball. Oh. Oh, yes. Was that a chuckle I heard at you, Ron? No. No. I was just like, yes, he sent it to me yesterday. I did. A personal friend of mine actually got a job at American Pinball. Yeah. Mr. Dave Fix, who is actually associated with Pinball Expo. Yeah, he's at Expo every year. He's one of the organizers. He was the one with Rob in the stream. Yes, he is now with the hat. Yes, that is Dave Fix. He's been with Expo since I've been going there, and that's a long time. I think 15, 20 years at least. He is now the Director of Operations and Marketing. Congratulations. It was announced yesterday. So, yes, congratulations, Dave. I don't know if he has to move. I would assume he does. So he might be moving to Chicago. Where he lives right now is Buffalo, New York. So congratulations. That's a big – he was working for ICE in Buffalo. That makes sense. It's pretty cold there. It is pretty cold there. There's a lot of losers from New York to Chicago right now. Yeah, there isn't, but I would assume he has to since he is – you know, you think he might be – Well, I think that guy that lived in New Robert Englunds who they hired, I think he moved. Yeah, I think he did, too. I think he's going to have to move, which will be a bad thing for Western New York, but a great thing for, hopefully, Chicago and American Pinball. He'll be used to the Carl Weathers. The Carl Weathers won't be much of a change. He'll be used to the Carl Weathers, definitely. I haven't played Hot Wheels yet. What's that like in the real? I played two versions of it, one at a house and one at a location. Location was, uh. The one I played at the house, I played a lot better. And I like it. It's fun. It's a good, fun game. It's their best game. Is it $6,300 fun? I don't know about that. It's their best game. It's their best game. I keep hearing that. But I don't know if it's worth $6,300. I like the robot chicken animation. Yeah. I do, too. Yeah. Bruce does not. Bruce does not. Why don't you like robot chicken? Robot chicken is awesome. I love robot chicken, but I just don't like that. I don't like that in my pinball machine. It's okay in my pinball machine. Get out. I can't cope with low frame rate stop motion animation in pinball machines. My needs are very specific. Where's my Ray Harryhausen, bitch? You leave Ray's animation out of this. He made Slash of the Titans look beautiful. He did. He did. I love Ray Harryhausen. I love the Kraken. See, when I hear the Kraken, I never thought of the octopus thing. I think of the thing in Slash of the Titans. Like, to me, that's the Kraken. Who sells homepane in North America? I'm asking a question I don't know I don't know I have a question for you Bruce Yes Are you ready for the male ball bag? Oh I am baby I've been practicing He did your line He did it better than you I'm watching Yeah I did it one time Excellent Yeah yeah How's it going? Okay. Welcome to Stories from Single Men. We have Scott. I don't know if this is actually for the ball bag. The rule of thumb for Scott, our Scott, is he doesn't pay over $200 for a game. No. So let's see. Wow, $200. That's it, huh? And we had Greg email us. Hi, Greg, asking about if he should get a Gammatron in Australia. Yes. Yes. What do you think Bruce said? Of course. Anytime. Oh, we have a question. It's the last email. We have a question from David Dennis. Boy. Hi, David Dennis. I hear you're in a really good podcast. He is. Not as good as this one, but it's pretty good. It's third best behind the second best. Yeah. It says, hi, Racy Ron and Bromance Bruce. Racy Ron. Wow. I think she has a bromance with me. Wow. Very exciting. Ah, all right. Oh, let's see. I'm going to get some alcohol gel. I feel dirty. Hey, Bruce, I have a question, which I asked Dennis and Tony from the Collected Gamers podcast, who have a pretty, what is it? Oh, who gave a pretty crap non-answer. So, I figured I'd ask some more intelligent fellas. But they weren't available, so I'm asking you. I added that part. Oh. Hey, so Bruce, if you have a pinball machine, and you slowly replace each component, he He put slowly replace reach component. Wow, so you can make fun of him. Great. I love this. Oh, my God. You should read his show notes. Oh, really? Oh, the spelling is galore. Maybe it's a Canada thing. And he puts the OU, you know, the OU instead of spelling it correctly, like favor and color and stuff. Oh, yes. He's on the French border. That's why. It is unforgivable, but his John Borg profile was excellent. That's true. That's true. Especially that co-host. He was great. If you have a pinball machine and slowly replace each component one by one over ten years until you've replaced all but one single piece, then rebuilt the old machine out of the old replaced parts with one new component, would you technically have two of the exact same machine? No! We're shot. Oh. We got two no's, so there you go. Yeah. No. Well, at least you gave them an answer. Why, they couldn't over there? Well, no, he said they gave him, uh, Eclectic gave him a crap non-answer. Bruce gave you a very direct answer. No! Not at all! All right. How much can be replaced in a game for it to still be the original game? Everything can be replaced, except for... It's sole? Everything. As long as the serial number is associated with that game. Yeah. You can literally replace the cabinet, everything, but if the serial number is still the serial number, that's the one that was authorized by the factory. The serial number is still the serial number. Okay. Yep. Like if you changed it from your old cabinet, and you took out that, and you de-heated that Williams sticker off that machine, and you slapped it back on your new cabinet with that same Williams number. You de-heated it. Yes. Not gooby-gonded. How's that? Do you want that better? I feel like we're in a comic routine here. Who's up first? So you've always been in the comic routine. Yes. I know. That's why we're still on the air. Exactly. But if you're not trying to sell the machine as the same serial number, that was another question I would say to Mr. Dennis. Are they trying to sell the same machine as the same serial, the two machines as the same serial number? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I nearly bought a complete rebuild of a machine this week. Adam's family. and it was this beautiful, epic restoration of this Addams Family machine. And in the end, I did not get it. Good. And it didn't... Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was bad. It was one of those, it looked like a real showpiece, but you know, it didn't feel... It almost looked too shiny. It almost... It didn't feel like the game that I remember playing years ago. It was... Whereas I think that, say, Chicago Gaming, They get it so right with Attack from Mars and Monster Bash and their remakes. I think they do such a good game. It's such a good version of their remakes. But for some reason, this didn't quite feel like I wanted it to feel like. Maybe I didn't want it to feel that clean. It wasn't showtime. Showtime. I just sent you a link, boys. Oh, hello. Along in the chat. Oh, that's disgusting. Oh, wrong link. I'm sorry. Wrong link, sorry. I was looking at something. Ball bag. Fallback. Fallback. It is a Pinball Life's website. Oh. They have a HomePin store? There's a HomePin store. Now, all these boards that are listed in there is about... Thrawn Thunderbirds? They're all reproduced boards now by HomePin. Oh. Oh. So shouldn't they be really cheap? They are. Some are cheap. Yeah. The up-to-reps switch assembly is $34. The Fliptronics 1 and 2 board is $89. It's the cheapest rectifier board for a Ballystern, $59. Remember we were just talking, you thought it was like $62? This is now $59, and it comes with the connectors. That's really cheap. The Dropbench Motor Driver board would break for Medieval Madness $29.95. Did you know they were building and doing boards? Now I do. The more you know. Would you buy these boards since they're made by Holman? Absolutely would. It depends what it is. A fantastic piece of breaking news. That's why you should vote for the Slam Chilled Podcast in the trippies. Yes, see? Would you buy the rectifier board for $59.95? I'd give it a try. Yeah. I mean, it's a rectifier board. Either it's going to rectify or it ain't. Yes. The rectum. I hit rectum. I hardly knew him. I mean, literally, its only job is to output the correct voltages. As long as it can do that, you're all good. Voltage goes in, and it changes to the voltage going out. That's all it does. That's all it does. I figure you can't screw that up. But it does have the – it's pretty cheap when it has the connectors and things. But you're not supporting the local parts makers. But guess what? If he can sell me cheaper stuff, what would you do? Well, but guess what? Most of the local ones who do boards, they probably send – at least the circuit board parts, They send out to China anyway. Yeah, so. Like, I would think the Weebly boards are probably, he designs them, sends them to China, and they come back with the actual circuit board, and then he puts the components on or something like that. I wonder how quickly they can turn these around to send them to the UK. I might get my mom a 7-octone trough emitter board for Williams Valley Widebody pinball machines for Christmas. You can get that from the pinball shop in the Netherlands for Europe and UK. Oh, my. Merry Christmas, Mom. Yep, you know what you're getting, Mom. And they have a whole home pin page. See, Mark, do other podcasts do this? They don't have you on a parts page looking at opto boards, do they? They don't. Normally it's talking about Star Wars or working in movies and games and animation, but I am happy that I can talk about buying my mom a 7-opto trough emitter board for her Bally Williams game, The Kitchen. BBC, you got nothing on us. What do they know? Okay, Bruce. Yes, sir? One last thing on my checklist. Oh, what is that? Games you like, games you hate. We need to know what our guest likes and hates so we can see if he's right or not. Yes. And we will judge you. Do I go? Go for it. Um... Stole his home. You hate? No, he likes. No, love likes. Hang on. Am I supposed to do like first or hate first? You can do either you want. Okay. Oh, my God. It's the only world. Okay. Oh, how about, okay. Aerosmith Pro. Love it. Okay. What do you hate? Can I say politely dislike? You can say politely dislike. Okay, go ahead. Thunderbirds. Oh, God. That doesn't count. At least they're guessing. It doesn't count. Everyone hates that one. No, no, no, no. No. Oh, my God. I've got to put that in the, you know, like in the cartoons where the thing says, this question does not work on Roadrunners? You cannot pick Thunderbirds. What a thing. It is so universally not enjoyed that I can't even choose it as a game I do not enjoy. See? You've got to try another. Jesus. That's really tough then. As a game that I don't like, oh, it's Thunderbirds. There can be only one. No, there can be more. There can be more. Oh, God. All right, all right. Hold on there. You can do one that you politely dislike. I found the first Star Wars game tough, the Star Wars Pro and Premium. I thought, yeah, I wanted to. So guess what? More on my side, Ron. Oh, yeah, I know that. Did you say moron? Moron. Yeah, moron. I really tried to love the pro. I even brought a friend over who, he's a poster artist for Star Wars, this guy Paul Shipper. He did the poster art for Rise of Skywalker and Ready Player One and stuff. And he's a big Star Wars fan. And we went over and played it, and he couldn't really get into it. I really hoped that the premium would be that I'd enjoy it more because of the whole Hyperloop. And I found it just too tough to even get the shot. You don't have to sugarcoat it. I'm sure he looked at it. This game is total shit. Oh, my God. He wasn't that rude. He's a very polite man. But I, yeah, so I politely dislike, I politely dislike the Star Wars release from a few years ago, but I adore the Star Wars home release, which I would guess more people than not don't get to see, because it's a home game. You won't see it on location. Yeah, I would have never seen it if I didn't go to Expo. Yeah, and people, I don't think anyone's going to see it over here, because as far as I know, well, the distributor I got mine from, they had to bring it over from Germany. Germany is Victoria! Yes! The bridge is falling down, isn't it? It is! Blimey! It's a blooming dinosaur! Oh God, it was her that did it. But I think the, um, with uh, yeah, as far as we know, the Star Wars Home Edition is the only one in the UK. I think with the comic book edition, that might change things a little bit. But yeah, It's a real shame that people won't get to see that unless they come for biscuits at my house. Teen biscuits. Teen biscuits. Teen biscuits. I just sent you another link. Oh, were you at the links? Wait, look at it. Look at it now. Open WMS Reset Board with Digital Voltmeter Display. So they totally ripped off the cardboard. Well. See that, Ron? What did they rip off? They probably did. Oh, oh, the one that can prevent the resets. Yeah, that's the resets. Well, did the other one have a display like that? It does. They made a new one with a display. This board is ideal for pinball shows, temporary fixes, or that last-minute problem when a machine starts resetting and there is no time to fault-find and repair the flaky 5-volt rail. Flaky. Oh, isn't that funny how they just... I like the next line. Homeplan doesn't suggest that this board is a fix or repair for this type of resetting, but it certainly can help both to get a machine running in minutes and also for fault-fighting towards a complete repair. Yeah. But no harm would come to the machine if this board was left in place. It's a good electronic practice to eventually fix the original cause of a poor 5-volt display. Flaky, poor, very negative. Yes. Did you know the HomePin version includes a small digital voltmeter so the end user can see at a glance without reaching for multimeters that the voltage supplied to the MPU is correct and stable? Okay, don't tell Mom I'm changing her Christmas gift to this WMS. With a digital felt-me-to-display. Merry Christmas, Mother! So he ripped off the cardboard. Yikes. So when you say that, it sounds like you ripped off the cardboard. Car. Carboard. The car-board. K-A-H-R, I think it is. All right. That was the last thing on my checklist, Brucey. Yeah, me too. I was... Checklist? Checklist. Such sloppy speech on this podcast. I might have to change it. Oh, yes. Totally. This is on us. Mark. Hey! Would you like to plug yourself? Oh, I really would. But I use cushions instead now. It's just so awkward. I use an inflatable rubber ring. Get a foot pump. I know. I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... If you happen to run a pinball company and would like stunning vocal bits for your project, please follow me at Marc Silk. I'm on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. It's at M-A-R-C-S-I-L-K. That's kind of it, really. I do voices for all kinds of stuff, for movies and games, and the voice of turtles. And if I can help you provide vocal work for your new game, or just voicemails for your mom, say the word. Nice. Nice. Remember to vote for your podcast of choice, Slam Tilt Podcast. It's the greatest, don't you know? It is. So does Shaggy like our podcast? Like, he really loves it, Scoob. Right, Scoob? I'll toss some Scooby Snacks your way, man. I had that lunch yet. That would be terrific. I'm running late. Yeah, you're running really late. You're almost to dinner. It's a gift. All right. So this has been episode 156 of the Slamto Podcast. Thanks again to Mark Stoke. Thank you. Thank you, Christian, Dr. and Mrs. Penn, Jeff Parsons of the Pinball Players Podcast, Jeff Patterson, This Week in Pinball, Jeff Teolis of several podcasts. Hey, Jeff. Hi, Jeff. Hi, Jeff. Loser Kid. Josh and Scott. Hi, guys. We love Justin Scott. Justin Scott. Awesome. We got Chris Phil, the Plum. Hello, Marty. Also of the Final Round podcast. Raymond. Raymond Davidson. Hi. Number one player in the world. Ryan C. Hello, Ryan C. We got Steph, the pinball princess. Little Steve Bowne, fun with bonus. Steve McVickers on here. Why is he on here? Because he's a douchebag. He is a douchebag. I hate that guy. A lot of hostility, Bruce. You're welcome to my life So there I think I got everyone that time Don't forget to listen to the Lose a Kid Podcast 50th episode coming up Because we are on it Me too Nice And don't forget to listen to the next Silver Ball Chronicles which will be coming out at some point What's it about Ron? I have no idea he hasn't told me yet So you haven't even recorded it So we're probably up for them Is it more Jumborg? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. No, we're not going to be out before then because I have a very busy week ahead of me and we'll probably not get to edit this. This will probably not be out until next week. Oh, okay. Which I told you that before, Bruce. Yes, I know. Don't force my editing hand. I'm not forcing your editing hand. I'm forcing your recording hand for maybe next week. Uh-huh. I want you to record next week, possibly. Oh, Jesus. He's killing me. You see what he's doing to me, Mark? It's a brutal man to know. We're trying for trippies here, buddy. We're trying for trippies. I'm changing this vote for losers here. There you go. There you go. I would, too. Oh, two professionals. And Scott can actually give you a legally binding anesthetic. Oh, yes, he can. Yeah. Dr. Pin. He's good. How about Shaggy says goodbye, Bruce, this time? Because I'm tired of Bruce. Goodbye, Bruce. That's pretty much it, right? Right, Scoob? Yeah. Whoosh! Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. Shoot the left ramp. Shoot the right ramp. Shoot the center ramp. Shoot the other ramp. Shoot the subway. Shoot Bruce Knight. No, no, no. You have chosen well, my son. Congratulations, Mr. Ron. You have done well. Uh, Ron, could you tell me how I really should have done the turtle's collapse, please? Shoot the side ramp. Shoot the side ramp. That's good. That's good. You got it. Can you give me a middle one? A middle center ramp. Shoot the center ramp. Shoot the center ramp. Ron, you are quite an impressive turtle. Well done, my son. _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 118d1cfb-f1cc-43ee-8e8c-9e115b17c8dc*