# Ep 3 - What's Better Than A Battle? **Source:** Jersey Jack Pinball Podcast **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2020-07-03 **Duration:** 20m 26s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://jjppodcast.libsyn.com/ep-3-whats-better-than-a-battle --- ## Analysis Ken Cromwell hosts Jersey Jack Pinball's third podcast episode (July 2, 2020) featuring Joe Katz (software developer) and Kevin Manning (Buffalo Pinball Streaming co-host). The episode focuses on pinball streaming, the emerging 'Twitch battles' format where players at separate locations compete in real-time rule challenges, and JJP's partnership with Buffalo Pinball. Ken discusses his excitement working at JJP, the company's new facility, and upcoming exclusive video content. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Willy Wonka reveal stream achieved 14,753 concurrent viewers, setting a record for live pinball stream reveals at the time — _Joe Katz confirms this number was embedded in the game as a candy code; Ken notes this was likely the concurrent viewer record for pinball reveals_ - [HIGH] Buffalo Pinball Streaming has been operating since 2013 with leagues and tournaments, starting 'Brodie and Pinball' show in 2015 — _Kevin Manning provides direct timeline of Buffalo Pinball's evolution and streaming history_ - [HIGH] Jersey Jack Pinball and Buffalo Pinball partnership began in July 2016 at the old Lakewood, New Jersey factory — _Kevin Manning recalls visiting the factory and playing The Hobbit with Steve Bowden_ - [HIGH] JJP relocated to a new facility with manufacturing attached directly to offices — _Ken and Joe discuss the new facility as distinct from the old Lakewood location, noting manufacturing proximity as a key advantage_ - [HIGH] Ken Cromwell was hired at Jersey Jack Pinball in early April 2020 — _Ken states 'When I was hired on here in early April' during personal account of his experience_ ### Notable Quotes > "I wake up in the morning and I'm getting ready for work... And I know that I've got a 45-minute drive in. And on that drive in, I'm preparing for my day... the problem is this. When I'm laying down and I'm trying to get to sleep at nighttime, I've got thoughts of pinball going through my head." > — **Ken Cromwell**, ~3:30-5:00 > _Illustrates Ken's passion for his new role at JJP and uses it to encourage job applicants to consider careers in pinball_ > "We went back in July of 2016 to the factory, the old Jersey factory. Rest in peace. Lakewood, New Jersey. It was a good run." > — **Kevin Manning**, ~13:45 > _Nostalgic reference to JJP's former Lakewood facility and marks the beginning of the Buffalo Pinball/JJP partnership_ > "It's an interesting different take on streaming pinball... I think it's a really interesting way for people to learn our games." > — **Joe Katz**, ~21:30 > _Explains the educational value of the Twitch battles format beyond pure entertainment_ > "This was sort of a way to show the games to people, have a new way to sort of watch and interact, and at the same time, I think it's a really interesting way for people to learn our games." > — **Joe Katz**, ~20:15 > _Details JJP's motivation for adopting the Twitch battles format_ > "We spent about four hours one day going through different solutions... what has worked out best for us is Skype, of all things." > — **Joe Katz**, ~29:00 > _Technical insight into the engineering challenges of simultaneous multi-location streaming_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Ken Cromwell | person | Host of Jersey Jack Pinball Podcast, hired at JJP in early April 2020, formerly known as PR/marketing person at JJP | | Joe Katz | person | Software developer at Jersey Jack Pinball, embedded 14,753 (record viewer count) into Willy Wonka as 'candy code,' serves as commentator for Twitch battles | | Kevin Manning | person | Co-host of Buffalo Pinball Streaming, co-founder/operator since 2013 of Buffalo Pinball leagues/tournaments, Twitch partner channel | | Buffalo Pinball Streaming | organization | Twitch-partnered pinball streaming channel founded 2013, flagship show 'Brodie and Pinball' since 2015, hosts multiple streamers including Mix Your Tuna, Rudy Soup, Skip Natty | | Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer relocating from Lakewood, New Jersey to new facility with attached manufacturing, streaming partnership with Buffalo Pinball | | JJP Live | product | Jersey Jack Pinball's official streaming channel launched to show games during POTC manufacturing wait period, currently dormant with plans to restart | | Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory | game | Jersey Jack Pinball title with reveal stream that achieved 14,753 concurrent viewers (record at time) | | Pirates of the Caribbean | game | JJP title acronymed as POTC, featured in reveal stream, JJP was awaiting production start during earlier streaming period | | The Hobbit | game | JJP title played during 2016 Buffalo Pinball factory visit with Steve Bowden, planned for Joe Katz vs Kevin Manning battle in ~3 weeks | | Eric Minier | person | Lead engineer at Jersey Jack Pinball, competed against Buffalo Pinball team members (Kevin Manning, Skip Natty, Mix Your Tuna) in recent Twitch battles | | Mix Your Tuna | person | Buffalo Pinball Streaming team member, competed in Twitch battle against Eric Minier | | Skip Natty | person | Buffalo Pinball Streaming team member, recently brought on to channel, competed in Twitch battle against Eric Minier | | Rudy Soup | person | Buffalo Pinball Streaming team member | | Austin Mackert | person | Former Buffalo Pinball Streaming team member, was with channel for approximately one year | | Steve Bowden | person | Played The Hobbit with Kevin Manning and Mix Your Tuna at JJP factory in July 2016 | | Carl D'Angelo | person | Streamed IFBA heads-up challenges at Ace Gogi in California, inspired Twitch battles format | | Twitch | platform | Live streaming platform where Buffalo Pinball is a partner channel, hosts JJP Twitch battles and pinball content | ### Topics - **Primary:** Pinball streaming and content creation, Twitch battles format (competitive real-time rule challenges), Jersey Jack Pinball company culture and new facility, Buffalo Pinball partnership and history - **Secondary:** Educational pinball content and rules learning, Career opportunities in pinball industry, Technical streaming setup and multi-location broadcasting ### Sentiment **Positive** (0.85) — Ken and guests are enthusiastic about JJP, the streaming partnership, and the Twitch battles innovation. Positive tone regarding company culture, new facility, and community impact. No significant criticism or negative sentiment expressed. ### Signals - **[business_signal]** Jersey Jack Pinball relocated from Lakewood, New Jersey to new facility with integrated manufacturing and office space (confidence: high) — Ken describes new facility as major improvement, Joe notes manufacturing is 'right behind' offices, Kevin references 'old Jersey factory' as former location - **[community_signal]** Jersey Jack Pinball pioneering Twitch battles format with Buffalo Pinball, combining competitive gameplay with educational rules commentary for wider audience reach (confidence: high) — Multiple discussions of battles format, record viewership on Willy Wonka reveal (14,753), planned July 10th battle, Eric Minier participation - **[content_signal]** Jersey Jack Pinball planning exclusive insider video content rollout across social media platforms starting immediately after podcast date (confidence: high) — Ken states 'over the next few weeks, we've got a lot of video content that we've been compiling that's ready to start launching next week' - **[personnel_signal]** Jersey Jack Pinball actively recruiting talent across multiple departments, using podcast and content as recruitment vehicle (confidence: high) — Ken provides careers email address twice, emphasizes rewarding work culture, positions hiring call as part of recruitment strategy - **[business_signal]** Strategic partnership between JJP and Buffalo Pinball Streaming leveraging Twitch partner status to expand pinball visibility and viewership (confidence: high) — Ken credits partnership success, notes Buffalo Pinball's Twitch partner status enabling front-page placement, multiple battle events scheduled - **[technology_signal]** Adoption of Twitch battles as new competitive pinball streaming format distinct from traditional tournament/high-score streaming (confidence: high) — Joe and Kevin describe battles as 'different take on streaming,' inspired by IFBA heads-up challenges, uses Skype for multi-location simultaneous broadcast --- ## Transcript flying through the airwaves and into your podcatcher it's the jersey jack pinball podcast hey what's going on pinball and welcome it's another episode of the jersey jack pinball podcast my name is ken cromwell i am your host so here we are now in july july of 2020 today being July 2nd. This podcast being uploaded most likely on July 3rd. So it's a Friday. We're going into the Independence Day weekend here in the United States of America. So everybody, happy 4th of July. And in a few minutes, we're going to be bringing in Joe Katz, who's a software developer here at Jersey Jack Pinball, and Kevin Manning, who's one of the hosts at Buffalo Pinball and Buffalo Pinball Streaming. We've got a conversation set up that I think you guys are going to find pretty interesting. But before we do that, I wanted to walk you through a couple things that's been happening over here at Jersey Jack Pinball. I want to share with you guys kind of an experience that I've been going through ever since being hired on. And again, if you've just listened to the podcast here for the first time, thank you for joining us. You can email the show at podcast at jerseyjackpinball.com should you have any questions, comments, observations, etc. When I was hired on here in early April, obviously I'm excited because I'm coming into work for a pinball company. What I'm noticing now is that I thought I thought a lot about pinball before. And that was coming over as a pinball enthusiast. But now I can't stop thinking about pinball. And it's got its pros and its cons, mostly pros. Essentially what happens to me is I wake up in the morning and I'm getting ready for work. And I know that I've got a 45-minute drive in. And on that drive in, I'm preparing for my day. And I've got so many thoughts that have carried over from the night prior. And I'm looking to apply some creativity and get some things on paper and start executing some things. So that anticipation getting to work is always exciting, but it's like pregame jitters. Not that I'm nervous, but I'm just anxious to get going. When I'm here, I'm working with such a great team of people throughout the whole building in every aspect. It's just a joy to be here at work. And then driving home, I'm already thinking about what I want to do the next day. The problem is this. When I'm laying down and I'm trying to get to sleep at nighttime, I've got thoughts of pinball going through my head. and I can't fall asleep at night because I'm anxious to get going the next day. So it's like this really strange thing that I'm not used to regarding work. I've never really loved going to work and working for a company as much as I do here at Jersey Jack Pinball. The reason that I'm kind of getting into this story is we are hiring, right? And I think I discussed this in one of the past podcasts, but if you're looking to get involved with a pinball company and you're enthusiastic and it's something that you're passionate about, I would really encourage you to contact us via email at careers at jerseyjackpinball.com and let us know a little bit about yourself. Maybe drop a resume in there. Ladies and gentlemen, outstanding place to work, outstanding company. And the honeymoon phase, I think, would have started wearing off for me by now, and it's only increased. So just something to keep in mind. Now, interestingly enough, if you're following the company on our social media pages, whether it be Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, et cetera. Get ready because over the next few weeks, we've got a lot of video content that we've been compiling that's ready to start launching next week. And that's going to really give you some unique inside looks at some of the team here and some of the responsibilities that are going on on a daily basis. And it's going to give you a little bit of a unique inside look as to what happens on a day-to-day basis at Jersey Jack Pinball. I think when I had originally started the podcast, I said that the one thing or one of the things that I really wanted to do is I wanted to offer some unique access. And I've been working hard with everybody here to kind of compile that so that we can have something out for you as far as access. So be searching for this coming out starting next week. All right. And joining us live on the Jersey Jack Pinball Podcast Hotline, Joe Katz, Kevin Manning. What is going on, gentlemen? How's the day? How are you doing? Thanks for having us on. Yeah, thanks for coming on, Kevin. Joe, you're here, right? Yeah, I'm here. Thanks for having me on. Joe is coming in hot with the microphone. It's interesting because myself and Joe, we're both in the same building here, but we're in separate offices as makeshift recording studios so that we don't get too much of a reverb. But I wanted to thank you guys for joining us. I know it's an afternoon before we get into the holiday. Kevin, if you can start off real quick. I think that the term pinball streaming is something that we're hearing more and more of lately. I mean, it's been around for a few years, I guess predominantly, but like right now it's been hot. Maybe that's due to COVID and people staying home and kind of watching this stuff on TV. But for somebody that may have missed the boat here or late to the party, can you kind of walk us through what pinball streaming is? so uh pinball streaming in simple terms it it broadcasting pinball gameplay and and shows and things like that So if you really into pinball and you want to soak it all in 24 hours a day like you know I remember getting first into the hobby and I was like, I just couldn't get enough of it. I was watching Papa tutorial videos all the time and watching their tournament coverage and stuff like that. Streaming is just basically anybody can create their own video channel, their own video network, and share their gameplay, specifically with pinball. You get a couple cameras, point them at the pinball machine and maybe at yourself, and a microphone so you can talk to people. It's like a casual hangout while you play pinball. Maybe you have a show where you show people how to play games, go over rules and stuff like that, but it's a video presentation of pinball, if that makes sense. Absolutely, and with it being live, it kind of gives you the opportunity to kind of talk to people that are in chat that can ask questions. So there's a lot of interaction going on, right? Yeah, well, that's the fun part of it for me as somebody who does streaming. It's kind of like a way to hang out with like-minded people while you play pinball, talk about pinball, and just share this hobby that we all love so much, right? Yeah, and the channel that you're kind of co-hosting, because you have like a stream team, so to speak, is Buffalo Pinball. Can you kind of walk us through Buffalo Pinball and what is that all about? Yeah, so it's a complicated question because Buffalo Pinball has many things, but we started out in 2013 with leagues and tournaments here locally. And then, you know, that built up over time. We started getting requests from casual folks who wanted to learn how to play. And not everybody could always come together and be together at the same time. So we experimented with doing like presentations. I remember doing a PowerPoint of how to play pinball, basic flipper skills, things like that. And then we eventually looked at doing a live stream where we do a show. So we started up our flagship show, Brodie and Pinball, back in 2015. And we've been doing that pretty much weekly since then. We take the summers off because we don't want to overdo it, but we have all sorts of other streaming content. But long and short of it is, you know, over the years, we've added additional streamers. we got partnered on Twitch, which allowed us to start getting subscriptions where people pay us to watch every month. And we felt like if people were paying us to watch pinball content, we wanted to give them more. So we brought Mix Your Tuna on first. Then we brought Austin Mackert. He's not with us anymore. He's been with us for a year. But then we brought Rudy Soup on. And then most recently we brought Skip Natty on. And those are some of the folks that you've been seeing on the streams we've been doing with Jersey Jack, which we're going to get into here in a little bit. I think it's a great partnership, too, with Jersey Jack Pinball and with Buffalo Pinball Streaming. The hosts are fun. You guys have content, it seems like, every single day. Sometimes in the mornings, afternoons, evenings. It's almost like it's its own pinball television network. Yeah, that was kind of the concept when Nick and I came up with it. It was like, you know, let's make a channel for pinball and have scheduled times when, you know, just like if you were going to tune in and watch a show on TV, except do it for pinball. And the thing with Jersey Jack came about in 2016. Actually, I was prompted by your post on Facebook today. We went back in July of 2016 to the factory, the old Jersey factory. Rest in peace. Lakewood, New Jersey. It was a good run. We played The Hobbit with Steven Bowden. Mixer Tuna joined us out there. And Jersey Jack Guarnieri. So that was kind of the beginning of our relationship. And since then, we've done the Dialed In reveal stream. We've done Pirates of the Caribbean. and most recently Willy Wonka, which was an amazing success. And I look forward to doing more with you here in the future. Yeah, it's amazing. Now, the Willy Wonka stream, and Joe, I know you're still there. I want to get to you in a second because Jersey Jack Pinball, we have our own live streaming channel here at JJP Live, and we've got some sub-channels with some staff. But going back to Willy Wonka for a second, if I remember correctly, I think at the time, and it still might hold a record, wasn't that the most viewed live pinball stream reveal of all time? For a reveal, I believe it was. Joe can correct me on the number because he put it in Willy Wonka as a candy code. It's 14,763, I think, was the concurrent high viewer count. That's amazing. 14,753, I believe. 53, okay. That's amazing. I mean, those are huge numbers. When you think about the pinball public and to have over 10,000 and almost 15,000 viewers at any given time, all focused on pinball is tremendous for the hobby so i congratulate you on that and i appreciate your hard work and your efforts that you guys have been doing uh since you guys have started so thank you for that thanks yeah uh we have we're in a unique position as a twitch partner there are very few partnered twitch channels uh dedicated to pinball and we're able to leverage that relationship to get us put on the front page of twitch which really puts a ton of eyes on pinball and we're happy to do that with our friends at jersey jack because we love what you guys do We love your games and we want to see even more of them Absolutely I know a lot of people want to see more games and that that coming soon But Joe welcome to the show buddy Yeah thanks Let do this Let get into real quick because I want to go into how you guys have been working together with a unique kind of style of streaming But can you talk a little bit about the Jersey Jack Pinball streaming channel, JJP Live, how that came about and where that is right now? You know, we just sort of wanted to get in on the fun of streaming when everyone was doing it. And at the time, we were sort of waiting to start building POTC, and we just sort of wanted to show it to people while we were sort of in this limbo of not building it. Now, POTC is an acronym, correct? Oh, yes. Sorry. Pirates of the Caribbean. So we just kind of wanted to play for people while they were kind of waiting to get their games. and the channel's kind of gone dormant a little bit lately, but we hope to be able to do that some more someday. No, absolutely. I know there's big plans for that channel. But what you guys have done now is you've made a change or you've kind of pivoted and you've created additional interest within the typical pinball stream, which is kind of an overhead view of one pinball machine and either some competitiveness or some tutorials, et cetera. Now you guys have kind of gone into the Twitch battles, and I was hoping you guys could just have a conversation about it. What's a Twitch battle, why is it interesting, and why should anybody care? Well, I think it's interesting because it's a little bit of a different take, like you're saying. I mean, everyone's just streaming gameplay and streaming tournaments. This was sort of a way to show the games to people, have a new way to sort of watch and interact, and at the same time, I think it's a really interesting way for people to learn our games. So essentially all we're doing is we're kind of going through the rules and creating challenges slash races, so to speak, to see who can get to X, Y, Z faster. And then after 15 or 10 of those, we just kind of say, okay, you win. You know, we tally wins for each one, and it's an interesting different take on streaming pinball. I think it's important to point out that when you're having a pinball streaming battle, it's not on the same machine in the same place, right? I mean, so we have two different locations that each have their own machine set up, and you guys are kind of going about the battles in real time simultaneously. Is that kind of accurate, would you say, Kevin? yeah i mean i was inspired uh by the ifba heads up challenges they started a few years ago i remember watching carl d'Python Anghelo stream that i think they were at um ace gogi out in california and so basically you set up two machines side by side and then you race to an objective and that's it's a it's a cool way of playing so typically if you're not familiar with pinball tournaments or leagues you're playing for a high score typically um here it's like get to the multiball get a super jackpot do one specific thing but do it faster than the other person can do it so people who play competitive pinball all the time know all the ins and outs and how to get the high scores and especially on older games how to get exploits and certain things to do this is like you each have all the knowledge going into the to the competition you just have to execute it faster than your opponent. So it kind of levels up the competitive experience into these bite-sized little chunks that are much easier to watch, much more fun to watch. And I think, like Joe said, it's educational. You learn how to play maybe these nuance of the rules that, you know, Kiefer and Joe and the team over at Jersey Jack program so many cool rules into these games that, you know, being able to focus in on them with laser precision a little bit kind of brings them to the forefront, I think. Yeah, we've received some really nice feedback for the streams. What has been happening, at least the last few streams, is we've had Eric Minier, who is one of the lead engineers here at Jersey Jack Pinball, going up against the Buffalo streaming team. And that first night, I believe it was against you, Kevin, and then there was a night against Skip Natty and then Mixer Tuna. So there were three separate nights. You guys were in your own locations, but being able to stream simultaneously on the same screen, The feedback that I had gotten, which I thought was most beneficial for those that are kind of learning their games, is that it is kind of an interactive tutorial. So they're able to kind of exploit things they may not have thought of prior. They're learning different rules that they may not have thought of. And again, being able to execute is ultimately what it's all about. But to know that there's something to execute is such a benefit when you have a pinball machine. Yeah, exactly. And it's just such a fun way to be able to have some competition when we can't get together and do it in person, right? No two pinball machines play the same, as we know. But, you know, we try to do our best to set them up similarly. And it's all about having a good time, hanging out, and showing folks some rules. Right, Joe? Yeah I mean I think that the key also is it kind of just a fun casual way to hang out If you got nothing to do and we doing it it kind of just really relaxing and chill and we just are kind of having a good time doing it Well, I've noticed a growing fan base for some of the commentary that's going on during these streams, and I believe the commentator, the guest commentator, has been a Mr. Joe Katz. Yeah, I have done it for two of them. We didn't do it the first time. We sort of thought of the idea after the first one. And it's kind of a way for me to sort of talk about the challenges and present them to the two players so they don't have to kind of deal with it. And then I could sort of talk through, you know, whatever rule it is. It's been a lot of fun. I get a kick out of it. Now, I've done a little bit of streaming in the past. And to get a normal stream set up, I know, at least for me, can be nerve-wracking at times. Just when you think you have everything set, something goes wrong or there's an update and everything's out of whack. I can imagine that having two streams simultaneously kind of trickled into one stream poses its challenges. Yeah, Eric and I spent about four hours one day going through different solutions to make this happen. Because if you look online, there's guides that folks have put up and there's threads on tilt forums about how to get two head-to-head streams going like this. Because folks have been doing it for a little while. And what has worked out best for us is Skype, of all things. Uh, and it hasn't been flawless, but it's been fun and good enough to watch. I would say. Absolutely. That's, that's fun. When is the next battle? When are you guys going to face off again? So we're going to, our next one is scheduled for July 10th. We've been doing them at 8 30 PM Eastern and they're on the Buffalo pinball Twitch channel at twitch.tv slash Buffalo pinball. Joe, are we going to see you going head to head or are you staying in the commentary booth? Um, I would like to play. The plan is potentially to play Kevin in Hobbit probably in three weeks. Ah, nice. We will see how the setup is. We've got to kind of take the setup of JJP Live from Eric's house and bring it back to the new office and get it all set up. And if we do that, then Kevin and I might play Hobbit together. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. That's all you can do in the land of streaming. But, guys, listen, thanks for taking some time out of your day, talking a little pinball streaming. Joe, I'll see you here in a few minutes. But, Kevin, on a personal note, thank you for everything that you've been doing, you know, in the pinball community with furthering these streams. I think that you're one of the pioneers there for pinball streaming and to see the channel evolve over time and to see what it's doing now is remarkable. So thank you so much. Well, thanks so much. And we appreciate the, the partnership we have with JJP. But before I go, can I ask you guys a question? As a fan of JJP, what's the coolest, what's the coolest part about the new the new facility you guys are in the new, the new factory? Oh, that's an interesting question. That is an interesting question. I'll go first. I, to be honest with you, I'm a kid in a candy store in here because everything is new. And, uh, uh, I think for me, probably the coolest thing is knowing that the heart of this company, which is in the manufacturing is right behind, uh, you know, a couple of doors that divide the offices. And for me, uh, that's kind of unparalleled. Yeah, that's definitely the answer for sure is the fact that the factory is attached to us now. just from a personal note, I, I enjoy the space. We were, we were getting pretty cramped in the old place. So having this space is really nice. All right, guys, we'll wrap it up. Kevin, how can people follow the channel? How can they see what's going on over at Buffalo pinball? Sure. You can check us out on Twitch, just to go to twitch.tv slash Buffalo pinball and hit the follow button and you'll be notified when our streams go live and be sure to stop by on July 10th at 8 30 PM Eastern for the next JJP battle. sounds good i appreciate it guys have a good fourth thank you you too all right we're gonna call it a wrap here on the jersey jack pinball podcast i want to sincerely thank you all for listening taking the time out it means the world i appreciate that uh before i let you go a couple quick reminders okay and that is facebook instagram twitter linkedin youtube follow jersey jack pinball at all of those social media hot spots because that exclusive content that insider access that I've really been wanting to offer and to deliver to you. It's going to be available at all those places. So go ahead, follow somewhere, follow them all, and take part in the fun because it's not going to get any better than what's coming up here pretty soon at Jersey Jack Pinball. If you want to work in pinball, okay, who doesn't want to do that? Careers at jerseyjackpinball.com, C-A-R-E-E-R-S at jerseyjackpinball.com. I highly recommend just ending your career wherever you're at right now and getting into pinball. It's a rewarding experience. I can promise you that. And finally, if you want to contact me or reach out to the show, you can do so by sending an email to podcast at jerseyjackpinball.com. It's the weekend. Everybody be smart. Please be safe. But most importantly, don't forget to take some time out of your day and play some pinball. So long, everybody. you _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 4ec60ac0-d84a-4994-9e69-9b007d7023e9*