# Episode 317: QUEEN Pinball hype with Marc Silk

**Source:** Pinball Profile  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2021-10-03  
**Duration:** 27m 43s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.pinballprofile.com/episode-317-queen-pinball-hype-with-marc-silk/

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## Analysis

Jeff Theols interviews Mark Silk about the Queen pinball machine prototype displayed at Queen the Greatest pop-up shop in London. They discuss the machine's 14 live songs, playfield features (Brian May's guitar upper playfield, piano with drop targets, band member collection mechanics), video quality from Live at Montreal and Wembley footage, and Mark's concerns about artwork compared to recent industry standards set by artists like Christopher Franchi and Zombie Yeti. Mark also discusses his voice work on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball and reveals a flipper code easter egg.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Queen pinball has 14 live songs including Bohemian Rhapsody, Radio Gaga, We Will Rock You, and We Are the Champions — _Mark Silk detailed the tracklist after visiting the Queen the Greatest pop-up shop in London_
- [HIGH] The Queen machine prototype uses live video from Queen Live at Montreal (35mm film, available on Blu-ray HD) and Wembley 1986 — _Mark Silk confirmed video quality and specific concert sources while discussing the prototype at the pop-up shop_
- [HIGH] The playfield features Brian May's Red Special guitar as an upper playfield element and piano keys with drop targets — _Mark identified specific playfield features from photos of the prototype_
- [HIGH] The machine is being developed by Pinball Brothers — _Jeff Theols explicitly states 'let's wait to see what Pinball Brothers does with that'_
- [HIGH] A 3D printed, unpainted Wembley Stadium sits at the back of the playfield as a work-in-progress element — _Mark Silk observed and described the unpainted 3D element during his visit_
- [HIGH] Mark Silk was the voice of Splinter, Bebop, Rocksteady, Baxter Stockman, and Shredder on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball — _Mark confirmed his extensive voice work on TMNT and revealed flipper code 197 activates a video message from him_
- [HIGH] The Queen machine is still a prototype with non-functioning modes and likely to see changes before January release — _Jeff stated 'the machine you saw wasn't even working at this point' and modes 'aren't working yet'_
- [HIGH] Current standards for pinball art have elevated significantly in the past 3-4 years due to artists like Christopher Franchi and Zombie Yeti — _Both Mark and Jeff discussed how modern art standards make the Queen prototype artwork appear below expectations for a game of this stature and price point_

### Notable Quotes

> "I saw the very last ever Queen performance with Freddie Mercury. It was August 1986, and it was a complete fluke. I got invited by a relative, and it was one of those turning points in your life where you just go, this is how it should be. It was incredible. No one could command a crowd of that size. Freddie was the best. There's no one even close."
> — **Mark Silk**, ~8:45
> _Establishes Mark's deep personal connection to Queen and Freddie Mercury, framing his emotional investment in the pinball machine's quality_

> "And the reason we think that is because we just seen how the Zombie Yetis and Christopher Franchise and Randy Martinez and all these wonderful artists have just brought so much to pinball art lately that i think our standards are a lot higher than they once were if this game came out 10 years ago you probably don't blink an eye"
> — **Mark Silk**, ~15:30
> _Core criticism of Queen artwork relative to contemporary industry standards; signals expectation gap between prototype art quality and current market expectations_

> "The standard now that you would see on a movie poster or on the front cover of, you know, Rolling Star magazine or something else that's pretty epic. And if you're going to put art on anything now of this ticket price, but also of this stature, it has to be the best you can give that license, the best you can give the customer, the best you can give the fan of this."
> — **Jeff Theols**, ~16:00
> _Frames minimum acceptable art quality threshold for premium-priced pinball games based on licensing stature and fan expectations_

> "For me as a fan of the band, what i would love to see is artwork that represents that on the playfield i did notice on some of the pictures there was a big guitar an upper playfield i guess yeah so on the playfield on the top uh top right hand side is an upper playfield which is a representation of brian may's classic fireplace guitar"
> — **Mark Silk**, ~19:00
> _Identifies specific design element that works well (Brian May's guitar) while suggesting broader scope for improvement using Queen's rich visual catalog_

> "You know, Mark, they've only got the videos in there and certainly the modes aren't working yet. So they're probably looking for somebody to voice the thing. So I don't know if you've reached out to Pinball Brothers or not, but I would get on that bell right away."
> — **Jeff Theols**, ~28:00
> _Informal suggestion that Mark Silk should pursue voice work on Queen pinball, leveraging his TMNT success and deep Queen fandom_

> "I would love a great Queen pinball machine. I genuinely would love it. That's why I got the train. It went down to Carnaby Street just to see what this thing was like."
> — **Mark Silk**, ~22:45
> _Demonstrates Mark's genuine investment in the machine's quality and his willingness to travel to evaluate it in person_

> "Prototype. That's the key. It's a prototype. Yeah, the cabinet art looks okay, actually."
> — **Mark Silk**, ~23:00
> _Key caveat—Mark emphasizes the prototype status to contextualize criticisms and maintain optimism for final version_

> "And so I got brought in to be Scooby and... Like Shaggy as well, Scoob. And Droopy... But yeah, if they ever create a Scooby-Doo machine, I would love to be involved in that."
> — **Mark Silk**, ~47:30
> _Reveals Mark's extensive cartoon voice work background (Cartoon Network/Warner Bros) and expresses interest in Scooby-Doo pinball voice work_

> "So in attract mode, you hold both flippers in for a second or two. then the code is 197 so the left flipper is for the number the right flipper is enter"
> — **Mark Silk**, ~38:00
> _Reveals Stern's easter egg convention—flipper codes for hidden video messages from voice actors; demonstrates TMNT has mark's personalized easter egg_

> "Pinball Expo ends last day of October. The day we can fly from the UK to America is the 1st of November. So thanks for that."
> — **Mark Silk**, ~55:00
> _Highlights real-world travel constraints preventing UK pinball community members from attending major US events; frustration with timing of UK-US travel restrictions_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Mark Silk | person | UK-based pinball voice actor, enthusiast, and industry professional. Provided voice work for TMNT pinball (Splinter, Bebop, Rocksteady, Baxter Stockman, Shredder). Extensive cartoon voice work background with Cartoon Network/Warner Bros (Scooby-Doo, Droopy, Yosemite Sam). Queen superfan who attended pop-up shop to preview pinball prototype. |
| Jeff Theols | person | Host of Pinball Profile podcast (long-running interview series, ~9 years). Canadian-based. Attending Bulls and Balls tournament in Germany and IFPA 18 World Championship in 2023. |
| Pinball Brothers | company | Boutique pinball manufacturer developing Queen pinball machine. Prototype displayed at Queen the Greatest pop-up shop in London. |
| Queen (band) | organization | Legendary rock band; pinball machine theme. Focus on live performances, particularly Live at Montreal and Wembley 1986. Band members: Freddie Mercury (vocals, deceased), Brian May (guitar), Roger Taylor (drums), John Deacon (bass). |
| Freddie Mercury | person | Queen frontman and ultimate showman. Designed the iconic Queen logo (~1973). Performed final concert in August 1986 at Wembley, which Mark Silk attended. |
| Brian May | person | Queen guitarist. Created the Red Special guitar (built from fireplace by his father); featured on Queen pinball playfield. UK resident; interacted with Pinball Phil. |
| Christopher Franchi | person | Contemporary pinball artist praised for elevating industry art standards in past 3-4 years; sets benchmark for modern game aesthetics |
| Zombie Yeti | person | Contemporary pinball artist praised for elevating industry art standards alongside Christopher Franchi; head of Stern Pinball art department |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball | game | Stern game featuring Mark Silk's voice work. Contains flipper code 197 (attract mode, both flippers) that activates hidden video message from Mark. Praised for sound package and art by Jeff Theols. |
| Queen the Greatest | event | Queen-themed pop-up shop in London featuring exclusive merchandise (special edition vinyl, Queen Rubik's Cubes, teddy bears, Happy Socks collaboration). Displaying Queen pinball prototype for display/preview purposes. |
| Queen Live at Montreal | product | Queen live concert filmed on 35mm, available on Blu-ray HD. Featured in Queen pinball's video content; Mark's favorite Queen live album. |
| Wembley Stadium 1986 | event | Queen's final live performance with Freddie Mercury (August 1986). Video footage featured in Queen pinball prototype. 3D printed representation on playfield (unpainted). |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer. Produced TMNT pinball. Known for easter egg flipper codes with voice actor messages. |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Boutique manufacturer known for Guns N' Roses pinball (21 songs, 2012). Jeff used as comparison point for music licensing and integration approach. |
| Pinball Phil | person | UK-based pinball technician/modifier. Specializes in audio upgrades (new amps, speakers, subs) for pinball machines. Friend of Mark Silk. Reportedly has encountered Brian May socially; may have pitched him on Zeppelin pinball machine. |
| Bulls and Balls | event | Pinball tournament in Fulda, Germany. Jeff attending this week. Scheduled to host IFPA 18 World Championship in 2023. |
| Star Wars home pinball | game | Stern home version of Star Wars pinball. Mark has played this at Expo. Comes with mono speaker but is stereo internally; sounds significantly better with speaker upgrades. Features John Williams score and Ben Birch sound effects. Mark finds it fun for casual play despite complex premium version. |
| John Borg | person | Designer/voice actor. Designed TMNT pinball alongside Mark Silk and others. Creator praised for sound package work. |
| Rosamund Pike | person | Actress; shares same birthday as Jeff Theols (birthday connection). Appeared in Thunderbirds project; Jeff attended Christmas party with her few years ago. |
| Texas Pinball Festival | event | Upcoming pinball event in March (next possible travel opportunity for Mark Silk from UK due to travel restrictions/airport delays). Mark anticipates visiting this event as first significant travel after 18-month period. |
| Dutch Pinball Museum | organization | Pinball museum in Holland. On both Jeff and Mark's travel to-do lists. Jeff considered visiting before Bulls and Balls in Germany. |
| No Time to Die | product | New James Bond movie released in UK one week before US release. Jeff mentioned as reference for UK release date advantage. |
| IFPA 18 World Championship | event | Pinball world championship scheduled for 2023 in Fulda, Germany (Bulls and Balls location). Jeff Theols attending. |
| Guns N' Roses pinball | game | Jersey Jack Pinball game featuring 21 songs. Referenced as successful example of integrating live performances with studio tracks (though Queen prototype uses all live material, making sync easier). |
| Randy Martinez | person | Contemporary pinball artist contributing to elevated industry art standards alongside Christopher Franchi and Zombie Yeti |
| Martin (Pinball News) | person | Pinball News contributor who provided detailed coverage/photos of Queen pinball prototype at pop-up shop; sourced by Jeff for episode preparation |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Queen pinball prototype features and design (playfield, artwork, video content, themes), Mark Silk's voice work on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball and easter egg flipper codes, Industry art standards and expectations for modern pinball games (Christopher Franchi, Zombie Yeti influence)
- **Secondary:** Queen band history, live performances, and Freddie Mercury legacy, UK-US travel restrictions and impact on pinball community participation in major events (Pinball Expo, Texas Pinball Festival), Mark Silk's extensive voice acting background (Cartoon Network, Warner Bros, Scooby-Doo potential)
- **Mentioned:** Pinball audio upgrades and speaker modifications by technicians like Pinball Phil, European pinball tourism and museums (Dutch Pinball Museum, Bulls and Balls tournament)

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.55) — Mark and Jeff are enthusiastically optimistic about the Queen theme and its potential, with genuine fan passion evident. However, there is substantive critical concern about the artwork not meeting contemporary industry standards set by recent releases. The prototype status provides a buffer for criticism, with both acknowledging it's unfinished work. Overall tone is hopeful but cautiously reserved pending final version reveal.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Stern Pinball uses easter egg flipper codes to hide video/audio messages from voice actors, creating collectible discovery moments for players and builders to find cast cameos (confidence: high) — Mark revealed TMNT flipper code 197 for his video message; Jeff mentions Led Zeppelin pinball may have similar easter egg, suggesting this is systematic practice
- **[event_signal]** Mark Silk traveled to London specifically to preview Queen pinball prototype at Queen the Greatest pop-up shop, demonstrating community enthusiasm for major IP licensing announcements (confidence: high) — Mark stated 'I'm taking the rest of the day off. And I got on the train to London and went for an adventure' upon learning of pinball machine at the pop-up
- **[design_philosophy]** Queen pinball artwork falls short of contemporary industry standards established by recent work from Christopher Franchi and Zombie Yeti, raising questions about final version adequacy for licensing stature and fan expectations (confidence: high) — Both Mark and Jeff explicitly discuss how modern art benchmarks make the prototype artwork appear below acceptable standards for a premium-tier game of this IP significance
- **[design_philosophy]** Queen playfield incorporates band member collection mechanics (similar to Monster Bash) and uses Queen album artwork reproductions on targets, suggesting rules complexity exploration still in early prototype phase (confidence: medium) — Mark observes band member collection mechanic and album artwork on targets; notes modes aren't functional yet and they're likely still designing rules complexity
- **[licensing_signal]** Queen pinball leverages exclusive access to live performance video content (Montreal 35mm, Wembley 1986) and merchandise licensing (Happy Socks collaboration), indicating strong official partnership (confidence: high) — Mark confirmed video quality from specific concert sources and official Queen the Greatest merchandise integration; Mark purchased official Queen Happy Socks at pop-up
- **[market_signal]** UK-US travel restrictions creating barriers to UK pinball community participation in major North American events (Pinball Expo late October), pushing enthusiasts toward European tournaments and festivals instead (confidence: high) — Mark unable to attend Pinball Expo due to UK travel ban (ends Oct 31, can fly Nov 1); considering Texas Pinball Festival (March) or European events instead
- **[personnel_signal]** Mark Silk's successful voice work on TMNT pinball (Splinter, Bebop, Rocksteady, Baxter Stockman, Shredder) with easter egg flipper code suggests Stern employs voice actors and creates hidden tributes to cast members (confidence: high) — Mark revealed flipper code 197 in attract mode activates video message from him recorded in studio; Jeff acknowledges this is standard Stern practice
- **[announcement]** Queen pinball machine by Pinball Brothers officially displayed at Queen the Greatest pop-up shop in London with 14 live songs, playfield features (Brian May's Red Special upper playfield, piano drop targets), and video content from Live at Montreal and Wembley 1986 (confidence: high) — Mark Silk visited the pop-up shop and confirmed prototype details; Jeff references expected changes by January reveal
- **[product_concern]** Queen pinball prototype features unpainted 3D Wembley Stadium element and non-functional mode systems, indicating significant work-in-progress state despite public display (confidence: high) — Mark describes seeing unpainted 3D Wembley Stadium at back of playfield; Jeff confirms modes aren't working and machine was display-only
- **[product_strategy]** Queen pinball expected to see changes/refinements before January release, with final version potentially addressing prototype artwork concerns and completing unpainted playfield elements (confidence: medium) — Jeff states 'likely we're going to see a bunch of changes to this machine' and references 'maybe changed a little bit in January'
- **[sentiment_shift]** Community standards for pinball art have elevated significantly in past 3-4 years, raising expectations for games themed around iconic visual properties like Queen (confidence: high) — Both hosts emphasize how recent artist work (Franchi, Zombie Yeti) has set new benchmarks that make older art standards seem unacceptable for premium releases
- **[licensing_signal]** Queen pinball uses 14 live songs from band's catalog, with prototype featuring high-quality video from Live at Montreal (35mm Blu-ray) and Wembley 1986, indicating comprehensive official content licensing (confidence: high) — Mark provided complete tracklist and confirmed video source quality; both hosts discussed how live audio/video sync is simpler than studio+live mix approach used by other manufacturers (GNR)

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## Transcript

 I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now. It's time for another Pinball Profile. I'm your host, Jeff Theols. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com, all your past episodes, subscriptions and more. We're also on Twitter and Instagram at pinballprofile. You can find us on Facebook and email us, pinballprofile at gmail.com. Let's go to the UK right now and talk to our good friend, Marc Silk. Hello, Mark. How are you? I'm good. How are you doing, Jeff? Good to talk to you. I saw you did a little bit of a day trip to London. What was that all about? You've been peaking. I'm a big Queen fan. Queen were always my favorite band growing up. And as soon as I heard they had a pop-up shop in London and there was a pinball machine there, I thought, I'm taking the rest of the day off. And I got on the train to London and went for an adventure. You know what's so great about this Queen pop-up shop, which is called Queen the Greatest, is that it is so hard to find Queen merchandise. I'm going to tell you a story. When I went to the Cleveland Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I went to the store specifically looking for Queen merchandise, my son Brady's favorite band, and they said they don't license it out like other bands may do to Cleveland. So I couldn't buy it. I've seen Queen in concert. I could buy some stuff there, but not really what I wanted. It was very limited. So this pop-up shop is just a dream come true. Yeah, that's kind of why I wanted to go down, because obviously the pinball thing is a real draw. But as a fan, I just wanted to see what they had there. And it was a stack of T-shirts, great posters. They had things like the essential Queen Rubik's Cubes. Why? I don't know, but it was there. Queen Teddy Bears. But things like, if you're a fan, things you might have already got before, but presented in a different way. So there was Queen's Greatest Hits remastered on vinyl, but in a special limited edition of 500 copies of this special Queen the Greatest sleeve. So the new logo for this pop-up shop is exclusive to this event. But there was some cool stuff there. It was just fun as a fan of it to be there and experience it up close. Can you imagine if Queen somehow got the marketing department from KISS and started merchandising everything under the sun, and we could have Queen everything, Queen condoms, Queen caskets, you name it? No, it's cheesy, but that would be a kind of tragic. No. Very nice pun. See, the highlight for me, this is where we're going now, the highlight for me, clearly, as you can see on this audio file, if you look closely, you'll see this Queen The Greatest bag, and inside it, I will pull out for you, Jeff, a pair of Queen socks. Nice. I have a picture of that bag, so I'll post it on our Facebook and our Instagram. Do you know the brand Happy Socks? Yes. Yeah, they're really, really well-made, cool socks. It's Queen's own happy socks. And on it, it says Galileo, Galileo, Figaro, and that's pretty much all you need. So, yeah, I'm happy. I couldn't put the pinball machine in a carrier bag, but the socks worked. My son collects crazy socks. So, yes, I'm always looking for unique socks. So let's talk about this pinball machine. By the way, thanks to Martin from Pinball News for giving kind of a nice detailed spread on that. So this is a theme that means so much to so many people, myself, you. It's your favorite band. You've seen them live. Yeah. I'm going to jump in there. I saw the very last ever Queen performance with Freddie Mercury. It was August 1986, and it was a complete fluke. I got invited by a relative, and it was one of those turning points in your life where you just go, this is how it should be. It was incredible. No one could command a crowd of that size. Freddie was the best. There's no one even close. The ultimate showman. So that's one of the things that's unique about this pinball machine. Again, this is a prototype, so likely we're going to see a bunch of changes to this machine. In fact, the machine you saw wasn't even working at this point. It was just really for display purposes. But with the possibility of seeing something new, maybe changed a little bit in January. So we're looking forward to what Pinball Brothers does with that. But I like that they have all live songs. I thought that was unique because, really, that is the Queen experience. Yeah, Queen, they're very great. I mean, their studio work was incredible and groundbreaking. But Queen live was something else. And something that as a fan, because there's going to be a lot of very mixed opinions about this machine. And again, as it's a prototype, you kind of need to wait to see what the final version is until we really know. But visually and in terms of the audio, it actually sounded really good. There were clips from Queen Live at Montreal, which they originally shot on 35mm film. And you can get that on Blu-ray now in HD. And that really does look a fantastic image. It's my favorite live album of theirs. Yeah, it looks, it's beautifully captured. So there were clips from that show, a whole bunch of songs, and there were also, I'm pretty certain there were clips from the Wembley show as well in 86. So the tracks that are on there, the 14 live songs, are A Kind of Magic, Another One Bites the Dust, Bohemian Rhapsody, Hammer to Fall, I Want to Break Free, Kill a Queen, One Vision, Play the Game, Radio Gaga, Seven Seas of Rye Somebody to Love, We Will Rock You has to be We Are the Champions and Who Wants to Live Forever so those are the 14 live songs that are in there and the quality of the video was excellent and the quality of the sound, the actual reproduction of it was very good so that's at least a good starting point I think you and I could probably name another 10 songs we would like to see included there but still a pretty good list, 14 songs it's not 8, it's not 10, so you're getting a little more than you normally see in pinball machines. I know when Guns N' Roses came out by Jersey Jack, we were all excited. 21 songs, that's incredible. And it looks kind of, I don't know, I mean, I haven't seen it, but what JJP did with GNR, how they incorporated the live performances and used the studio tracks, I thought it worked very well. I mean, this, they don't have to sync up. You've got the live audio and the live video, so it'll probably be an easier sync for Pinball Brothers. Yeah, and as much as I love, as much as I love Queen's studio work, the live albums are absolutely stunning. So, you know, as an experience for a pinball player, that would be very exciting to have live tracks. But yeah, you know, I want to see the final version. I really do. The art is something that it probably caught a lot of people's eye. Again, we're just seeing the thumbnails and pictures from people like yourself, from Martin from Pinball News and others. Yeah, there could be a little more, I think. And the reason we think that is because we just seen how the Zombie Yetis and Christopher Franchise and Randy Martinez and all these wonderful artists have just brought so much to pinball art lately that i think our standards are a lot higher than they once were if this game came out 10 years ago you probably don't blink an eye yeah i totally agree the the standard of arts in pinball over the past even just three or four years has gone to the roof i mean if you look at what christopher franchi and zombie yeti and and you know a bunch of others are doing, but those two in particular have completely elevated the art of pinball. It's the standard now that you would see on a movie poster or on the front cover of, you know, Rolling Star magazine or something else that's pretty epic. And if you're going to put art on anything now of this ticket price, but also of this stature, it has to be the best you can give that license, the best you can give the customer, the best you can give the fan of this. And if you're a fan of Queen especially, you'll know how striking Queen's visual image has always been. They were always so careful and creative in nurturing their image, and it changed throughout the years. I mean, even the iconic Queen logo. Freddie Mercury designed that back in, what was it, about 73, very, very early on. And it's timeless. I mean, that would be an incredible logo. You know, everyone's got an idea, don't they? But I was just going through this book here called 40 Years of Queen. I bought it a few years ago. And every few pages, you just see stunning visual representations of the band. From the iconic shot of the four heads on the Bohemian Rhapsody video to them live, the lighting rigs they used, those in themselves were a show. The album covers. There's so much that you can do with Queen. But when you think of Queen, immediately you'll have your version of Queen or your version of Freddie Mercury that springs to mind. It might be Live Aid. It might be Freddie with his fist in the air and the mic stand in his hand. But that's, for me as a fan of the band, that's the way I would want to see them represented on a pinball machine. I would want to relive every little moment that I love about Queen. That theme should be translated into what you see on the play field on the screen. The good thing that we have, they already have those assets for the screen. We just need to see that represented on the Translight and the rest of it. The great starting point is that they already have the great quality live video and live audio from the screen. so really we need to get art you know for me as a fan what i would love to see is artwork that represents that on the playfield i did notice on some of the pictures there was a big guitar an upper playfield i guess yeah so on the playfield on the top uh top right hand side is an upper playfield which is a representation of brian may's classic fireplace guitar that his dad built for him out of a fireplace so that's that's a nice touch then what else have we got there looking on the playfield here there's a piano on the left hand side there's a piano keys with drop targets and targets behind the drop targets yeah yep and i'm just looking what else we got here on the playfield there's a lot of stand-up targets and there and on a bunch of the targets they have uh little depictions of classic queen albums on them which now that's interesting because on the left hand side there's a stand-up target looks like a drop target which has the queen a kind of magic album cover on it which suggests then that they can use that artwork somehow so can they in a final version could they use a larger version of that somewhere there's there's other like classic queen moments like legit reproductions of albums on there what else we got him to get close up photos they took because i get the feeling they can probably do more than we're seeing just the fact that we've seen the queen a kind of magic stand-up target some artwork on that target. That would be great if more could be done with that. I noticed that, similar to Monster Bash, you're going to have to collect the different members of the band. Yeah. I think that's good that they've included... The band isn't just Freddy, obviously. It's Brian, it's Roger, it's John Deacon. And there's a lot you could do with the rules here. I mean, there are only four of them, so I wonder if this is going to be a complex game or is this going to be a simple wizard mode game? Are you going to have to explore the songs like in ACDC to get to something like an encore jackpot? There's a lot you can do. There's a stack you can do. There's lots of little, you know, ticks and nods and winks to classic wee moments. Like for the Radio Gaga video, there's an old time radio in the background. You know, the fact that you mentioned this Brian Mays guitar there. There's a keyboard there. For me, it would just be great to see what they do with the final version of it. Because I would love to see something that just, well, clearly it's not finished. because at the back, there is a 3D print of Wembley Stadium at the back, which isn't painted yet. So that's something else, obviously, that's a work in progress. So, you know, there's still potential. I've seen a bunch of people, you know, point out issues that could be tidied, and that happens with any prototype. Prototype. That's the key. It's a prototype. Yeah, the cabinet art looks okay, actually. From the one side, you see Wembley Stadium in silhouette and the Queen logo there. That's okay. It's, you know, it's actually okay. But there's a bunch of stuff that, you know, as a prototype, you'd go back and you'd probably have a tweak. But I would love a great Queen pinball machine. I genuinely would love it. That's why I got the train. It went down to Carnaby Street just to see what this thing was like. But, you know, I think realistically, you just, to be fair to anyone, if someone says this is a prototype, you have to go, okay, well, let's wait. because you don't know what point of the process this is or creatively where somebody has got to yet. You know, Mark, they've only got the videos in there and certainly the modes aren't working yet. So they're probably looking for somebody to voice the thing. So I don't know if you've reached out to Pinball Brothers or not, but I would get on that bell right away. I think I should tell them we know this guy called Jeff. He's unbelievable. Marc Silk, I saw Queen live. Oh, you might recognize me from ABCD and great pinball machines like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and who knows what else. You might know I'm the guy that brought those Queen socks out of the building. Yeah, well, clearly, Joe, I'm still so proud that I worked on Turtles, Jeff. Still, I have so much fun working on that. Have you played it? I finally have played it, and I do enjoy playing it, so kudos to John Borg, to Dwight Sullivan, to yourself. Great sound package, love the art, and still learning it a little bit, but there's a lot there. and I know you got the game and you enjoyed it as well Yeah is there a version near version where you can get a chance to get in deep with it Have you found this My Secret Flipper Code No. Give it. Oh, you've got to tell us. Ladies and gentlemen, in attract mode, if you go up in attract mode and hold both flippers in together, that activates the ability for you to type in this flipper code. So in attract mode, you hold both flippers in for a second or two. then the code is 197 so the left flipper is for the number the right flipper is enter so it's hold both flippers in at the same time then we go left one and then right flipper enter then we type in the number nine which is left flipper nine times then right flipper for enter then seven with the left flipper sometimes enter on the right flipper and then right flipper one more time to say, okay, we're done. So 197. If you do that on any Turtles machine in the tracked mode, you will then get a video message from me in the studio where I was recording the voice tracks for Turtles. Oh, very cool. Saying hi. I like that. I love that Stern does that. It's kind of fun. Kind of cool. That is very neat. You know, I have never said this before, but there may have been a flipper code for yours truly on a certain Led Zeppelin game. so when i was told about this i was quite excited i'm not sure if i'm allowed to promote it or not but let's just say uh oh you type in red the same way for code something might happen that's i'll just leave it at that what you're doing is it video or audio it's video oh is it you dressed as robin plant no no no they want to sell the games what are you thinking no no no if you are a fan of zeppelin robin plant is spotted every now and then at a pub in my hometown of my home city of Birmingham every now and then. My friend Pinball Phil, who is my pinball tweaker and does all my audio upgrades on my pinball games and keeps my rubbers shiny. Every now and then, I just keep on hearing stories of him like he'll bump into Robert Plant in a place. And yeah, I mean, he, I'm pretty sure he'd mentioned to Robert Plant a good while ago about getting a Zeppelin pinball machine. But yeah, so the next time you're over, we should have a word with Pinball Phil. Oh, I'll be there. You have no idea. I'll be at that pub 24-7. Is Percy here yet? I had another thing with Pinball Phil. Pinball Phil, he told me a story about how he ended up in Brian May in his house, Brian May from Queen's house. There was a story to do with Brian May's guitar, and somehow he ended up in Brian May's house having a cup of tea. So it's all very exciting. It's all happening in the UK. What am I doing here in Canada? You need to speak to Pinball Phil. Yeah. And if you need your machine to sound truly epic, he has basically changed all my amps and speakers in my machines to sound truly cinematic. So in my Turtles machine, he put a new amp in, new sub, new speakers. This thing sounds like a movie now. And even on my Star Wars machine. Good God. that with the the new amp and the speakers and the the sub this thing is it just blows the roof of the place you have the star wars home pin which is a very fun machine yeah and it's very it seems pretty rare over here a lot of people really kind of weren't happy with this when it first came out we're saying pretty nasty stuff about it this star wars i didn't really get on with with the star wars the first version that came out i just i found it too hard maybe that say is more about me but i found it too hard and then when i heard they were doing this home version i played it at expo you know expecting it to be you know you know straight back and homie oh my god it's fun it's fun and there's some really great shots in there there is a terrific orbit shot but the thing i really love about it is if you just want to if there's friends over and you want to grab a drink and have a like a quick little game of pinball it is such a fun instant way of just getting in there and having a blast and with the audio upgrade of our delanet it comes with a mono speaker which is a bit of a shame but you know what a lot of classic arcade games came with one speaker and it sounds and i you know i i was loathe to admit this it sounds way better than it ever should for a one speaker mono game anyway luckily the game is actually a stereo the guts of the machine a stereo so if you upgrade the speakers in your home machine this thing sounds absolutely epic you press go and you plunge that ball and oh my god with john williams score blasting through the upgraded speakers and all those ben birch sound effects the light the laser blasters and the lightsaber and there's there is such a there's also such a great use of assets in the home game. I've got friends with the premium version of the Star Wars game that came out a few years ago. And they've said they've seen assets and hearing stuff on the home version they never heard on their premium. It's just a lot of fun. Really good fun. I agree completely. I have had so much fun playing that game on location, not so much location, but at a distributor and then, of course, at Expo too, which I'm sorry I had to bring up because I know how much you love Chicago Expo. I do. I really do. You and I have the same kind of problem. It's a little bit different. I used to be able to drive across to the United States. Can't do so right now. Right. I'm not sure if I can for Expo. So I can fly. At least I have that option. You in the dirty UK, apparently. Dirty UK. Which is not true. That's a dirty, dirty, filthy, dirty UK. You can't fly to the US. We can't, no. And so am I right thinking, does Expo end kind of like last day in October? Yes. Yeah, I haven't looked too closely because it'll make me cry. So Expo ends last day of October. The day we can fly from the UK to America is the 1st of November. So thanks for that. I was really, it really is wrong, Jeff. I was really hoping that I could get out to Expo because I would have loved to have seen the bunch of pinball friends and the crowd again and meet a whole bunch of new people that I got to know over the last couple of years. And it'd be so great to be in the room with all the people behind Turtles because we kind of did that remotely. It was the most unusual way of doing this, and it worked so well. But one thing I'd love to do, I would love to do at whatever event we can do it next, for us to get together and me do live call-outs on Turtles. Nice. Choose your turtle. You're chosen. Jeffrey. You're chosen. Gevenado. It would be so much fun to do that stuff, because for Turtles, I was the voice of Splinter. So it's me going, shoot, the right ramp. No, that one. I was the voice of Bebop and Ragnsteady I get you Toadles That stuff I am Baxter and Baxterfly Master Shredder They come to get you again There's a whole stack of them. And there was Casey Jones and a couple of other bits. You have such a talent, Mark, and those are just some of the many voices you do. And I know we've been hearing people for quite some time say, you know what would be a great theme? It would be Scooby-Doo. And boy, if they ever do that, Marc Silk, somebody get his number, because there's your voice for Scooby-Doo. Like that'll be really creepy, Scoob. Right, Scoob? Yeah. Scooby-Dooby-Doo. Jeff. Teolis. Hey. Not an easy word to say. Well, you know, like, man, with a little practice, we'll get there, Scoob. No, I've been, early on, I started working with Cartoon Network in the UK, and I was fortunate enough to be brought in to do any kind of Warner Brothers or Hannibal Bearer character voices for any projects for the UK and Europe. And so I got brought in to be Scooby and... Like Shaggy as well, Scoob. And Droopy. Hello, you happy people. You know what? I'm happy. Love that character. Yeah, Droopy was awesome. You are despicable. This is the last time I work with someone with a speech impediment. And Yosemite Sam and dozens of them. But yeah, if they ever create a Scooby-Doo machine, I would love to be involved in that. I'm a big, I mean, I love pinball, but I'm a fan. I'm really a fan of this stuff. I will sit there and happily dissect and fanboy out over any machine along with you, Jeff. No kidding. So, okay, I'm sorry you can't come to the U.S. Yeah, thanks for that. I'm sorry about that. Are there any shows there that are in Europe that are upcoming that you can check out? I know I'm going to be in Germany this week and going to Fulda to Bulls and Balls and checking out that wonderful tournament. Bulls and Balls? Bulls and Balls. And are you also going to a pinball expo? Ba-dum-bum. Finally, we get to see Jeff in Salute Horsen. Hanging out with Jim and Dina Lindsay from JBL Pinball and Tobias, who runs great tournaments in Germany and just a wonderful community. So I've always wanted to go there. It's going to be the home of the IFPA 18 in right now scheduled for 2023, the World Championship. So this is a place I've always wanted to go to. And what is there for you to do in the UK or in Europe for shows? Pinball wise, I don't actually know. I purposely haven't got too excited and explored it too much until everything is calmed down a little bit. As you call it, dirty, dirty Robert Englunds. So a place I really want to go to. Now, where is it in Holland? There's an amazing pinball museum. The Dutch Pinball Museum. Yeah, I would love to go there. There's a couple of friends that would have shown an interest in going there. That would be great. I haven't been to Holland in years. In fact, that was the first country outside the UK I ever worked. I did, early when I was a producer in radio, I was asked to go and work for a week at the Radio Netherlands in Schiphol. It was very exciting. So the idea of being able to revisit Holland would be extra cool. Have you been there? Have you been to that museum? No. When I booked my flight to Germany, I actually thought about going to Holland first. And if timing worked out a little better, I was going to go there for three or four days and then go to Germany. But it is on my to-do list. It'll happen soon, for sure. Yeah, I'd love to travel out there. If you ever do go, do say I will do everything I can to join you, Jeff. Of course. Yeah, that would be so much fun. I think what I want to do is just wait until even just the experience at an airport is nice again. Well, nice, who am I kidding? But better. Because every couple of weeks you'll hear about, you know, like four-hour waits and security checks, that kind of thing. So I really do want to go back over. I'm guessing I might end up going to Texas Pinball Festival maybe. Is it March, April? It would be March. March, yeah. That will probably be the first time I imagine it'll kind of be calming down again. and systems will be back in place. And we can be talking about how great Queen Pinball will be. Yeah, fingers crossed. Now, here, I'll put a positive spin. Yeah. Please do. On things because, yeah, it's unfortunate we can't go places. You talked about the airport nightmares. This will be my first experience in, you know, 18 months. So we'll see how that goes. But you know what you do have in the U.K.? And I'm jealous. Jelly, big time. You got the new James Bond movie a week before everyone else. So I thought you should be going to check out No Time to Die. Well, I actually found, and now I've got a picture of this hanging on. Let me just show you this picture down the microphone. Yeah, I went past a high-end shoe seller in the city earlier, and I found the official Crockett & Jones 007 James Bond shoes. So if you want to walk like Bond, if you can talk the talk, you should walk the walk and wear these James Bond shoes. They're very high-end. And they go very nice with happy socks from Queen. I'm just letting you know. That wouldn't look weird at all. Yeah, I do want to see that. That would go very well with the new screen in the studio. There's a ridiculously new OLED that just landed. So we should do that. When you finally come over, we'll go to the shoe shop, get yourself some nice James Bond shoes, put on the happy socks, and we'll watch Bond in the studio whilst playing a version of the perfected Queen pinball. Fingers crossed. Done and done. consider it a future date i hope to see you soon if it's texas so be it but i also hope to hear your voice again on pinball machines because of the great work you did on thanks jeff bt mnt and i know that who knows i mean the sky's the limit with you and uh i hope to hear and see you soon well thanks jeff you too that'll be uh that'll be immense fun coffee on me by the way say hi and give my love to Rosamund Pike, please. I will. I absolutely will. The last time I saw her was during, there was a Christmas party a couple of years ago for Thunderbirds. Nothing to do with Thunderbirds pinball. We share the same birthday, so I think we have some sort of connection. She just doesn't know it yet. Oh, I'm sure she does. I'm sure the restraining order is in place. It should be. Mark, thank you very much, buddy. Good to talk to you. You too, Jeff. Thanks a lot. This has been your pinball profile. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com. Check us out on Instagram and Twitter at pinball profile emails pinball profile at gmail.com i'm jeff teals one voice one hope one real decision give me one life yeah give me one hope hey just give me that one man one more life just give me give me give me give me one chicken

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 7237aa38-f5de-4da5-8edb-a1187cd79167*