# Episode 203: Pintastic in Sturbridge, Massachusetts

**Source:** Pinball Profile  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2019-06-24  
**Duration:** 17m 29s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.pinballprofile.com/episode-203-pintastic-in-sturbridge-massachusetts/

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## Analysis

Jeff Teolis hosts interviews with Pintastic organizers Gabe DiNunzio, Derek Karaminian, and Dave Marsden about the fifth annual Pintastic expo in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. The show features 200+ free-play games, prestigious seminars with renowned designers and technicians, special guests including Willie Wonka child actors, multiple tournaments, and family-oriented activities. Pintastic positions itself as a premier regional pinball event comparable to major gaming conventions.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Pintastic is in its fifth year and is described as one of the best seminar programs in the country — _Gabe DiNunzio opening statement; Jeff Teolis repeating organizers' claims_
- [HIGH] The event features 200+ games on free play — _Jeff Teolis describing highlights of the show_
- [HIGH] Extra Ball Lounge provides access to premium games from the organizers' personal collections in a quieter setting without lines — _Gabe DiNunzio explaining the lounge concept and access tiers_
- [HIGH] Derek Karaminian records all panels at Pintastic in a professional multi-camera setup with GoPro cameras, inspired by PAX East's archival approach — _Derek explaining the panel recording initiative and motivation_
- [HIGH] Willie Wonka child actors (Veruca Salt, Charlie Bucket, Mike TV) will appear for signings and meet-and-greet packages at Pintastic — _Gabe detailing the guest appearance logistics and package details_
- [HIGH] Christopher Franchi is the featured artist at Pintastic this year and will conduct a seminar on game development and art — _Jeff Teolis and Gabe discussing Franchi's participation_
- [HIGH] Pintastic partnered with Project Pinball in its first year to place a pinball machine in a Boston children's hospital — _Gabe describing the charity initiative from year one_

### Notable Quotes

> "It's just a big four-day party. That's the way I feel."
> — **Gabe DiNunzio**, ~06:30
> _Captures the organizer's philosophy of Pintastic as an immersive, all-encompassing community experience_

> "I want to be like, well, make Pintastic at least like a Comic-Con or a PAX East. Every panel is recorded, and you can view it at your leisure at home."
> — **Derek Karamanian**, ~09:45
> _Reveals ambition to position Pintastic as a major convention-style event with professional archival standards_

> "Their podcasts do nothing. But anyway, go on."
> — **Dave Marsden**, ~12:00
> _Humorous callback to community drama about podcast oversaturation; indicates self-aware humor among organizers_

> "You can't do everything in one year, you know, that's why you want to come back for the second year and the third, four amazing days of pinball."
> — **Gabe DiNunzio**, ~28:30
> _Marketing positioning of Pintastic as requiring multi-year attendance to experience fully; emphasizes value proposition_

> "I heard at 4 or 5 in the morning there was still, you know, 30 people in there. So people never stop."
> — **Gabe DiNunzio**, ~32:00
> _Demonstrates the round-the-clock nature of the event and dedicated player community participation_

> "This is the last big hurrah in Sturbridge because, you know, we have the biggest liquor store in New England right next to the show, so that's, like, dangerous."
> — **Gabe DiNunzio**, ~40:15
> _Suggests potential venue change for future Pintastic events; indicates local geography advantage_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Pintastic | event | Annual pinball expo in Sturbridge, Massachusetts; fifth year in 2024; features 200+ free-play machines, seminars, tournaments, special guests, and family activities |
| Gabe DiNunzio | person | Co-organizer of Pintastic; founder with goal to expand pinball hobby to families and children; handles overall show vision |
| Derek Karamanian | person | Co-organizer of Pintastic; manages panel recording infrastructure with multi-camera professional setup; inspired by PAX East convention model |
| Dave Marsden | person | Co-organizer of Pintastic; oversees seminar program with panel curation; asks substantive questions to panelists |
| Jeff Teolis | person | Host of Pinball Profile podcast; attending Pintastic for first time; participating in podcaster panel; conducting live interviews at event |
| Christopher Franchi | person | Featured artist at Pintastic; conducting seminar on game development and art; known for quality work in pinball |
| Steve Ritchie | person | Legendary pinball designer; 'king of pinball'; speaking at Pintastic seminars |
| Pat Lawlor | person | Legendary pinball designer; involved with Jersey Jack Pinball poster design for Willie Wonka meet-and-greet package |
| Eric Murnier | person | Designer at Jersey Jack Pinball; speaking at Pintastic as an up-and-comer in the industry |
| Bowen Kerins | person | Expert pinball player; conducting Alice Cooper game tutorial at Pintastic; demonstrating deep gameplay mechanics |
| Tim Sexton | person | Software developer for Black Knight; speaking at Pintastic on technical game development |
| Butch Peel | person | Technical expert at Jersey Jack Pinball; showing game internals and development history at Pintastic |
| Chris Granner | person | Sound designer for pinball games; speaking at Pintastic on sound and mechanics |
| Joe Balser | person | Designer at American Pinball; created Oktoberfest; speaking at Pintastic |
| Eric Stone | person | Pinball expert; conducting skill-upgrade demonstrations at Pintastic |
| Mrs. Pinn | person | Pinball podcaster; participating in podcaster panel at Pintastic |
| Slam Tilt Podcast | organization | Pinball podcast; hosts Bruce and Ron participating in podcaster panel at Pintastic |
| Pinball Players Podcast | organization | Pinball podcast; Jeff Parsons new host participating in podcaster panel at Pintastic |
| Project Pinball | organization | Charity organization; partnership with Pintastic to place pinball machines in children's hospitals |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer; John Yossi designed Willie Wonka meet-and-greet poster; multiple designers presenting at Pintastic |
| American Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer; Joe Balser designer participating in Pintastic |
| Willie Wonka pinball game | game | Jersey Jack Pinball title; featured at Pintastic with special guest appearances; central to meet-and-greet package |
| Alice Cooper pinball game | game | Game featured with Bowen Kerins tutorial; deep gameplay demonstration scheduled for Friday night |
| Black Knight pinball game | game | Game featuring software by Tim Sexton; designed by Steve Ritchie; seminar at Pintastic |
| Sturbridge, Massachusetts | location | Location of Pintastic expo; adjacent to major liquor distributor; potential venue for future relocations |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Pintastic expo event details and organization, Pinball industry seminars and designer participation, Family-oriented expansion of pinball hobby
- **Secondary:** Professional panel recording and archival standards, Special guest appearances and celebrity tie-ins, Podcaster community and role in pinball culture
- **Mentioned:** Regional pinball tournament infrastructure

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.92) — Overwhelmingly enthusiastic coverage of Pintastic with genuine excitement from both organizers and host. Jeff Teolis expresses long-standing desire to attend. Organizers demonstrate passion for community building and growth. No criticisms or negative sentiment expressed. Humorous banter adds warmth to conversation.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Potential venue change for future Pintastic events; current Sturbridge location noted as 'last big hurrah' due to adjacent liquor store advantage becoming liability (confidence: medium) — Gabe DiNunzio: 'This is the last big hurrah in Sturbridge because... we have the biggest liquor store in New England right next to the show'
- **[community_signal]** Significant industry participation from major designers and manufacturers (Stern, Jersey Jack, American Pinball) indicating event has become key gathering point (confidence: high) — Presence of Steve Ritchie, Pat Lawlor, Eric Murnier, Bowen Kerins, Tim Sexton, Butch Peel, Chris Granner, Joe Balser
- **[community_signal]** Project Pinball charity partnership with Pintastic placing machines in children's hospitals demonstrates event's commitment to expanding pinball access (confidence: high) — Gabe DiNunzio: 'First year we did Pintastic we actually teamed up with Project Pinball and we put a pinball machine in one of the children hospitals in Boston'
- **[event_signal]** Expansion of Pintastic from competitive/adult focus to family-inclusive event with dedicated children's programming, clowns, magicians, face painters (confidence: high) — Gabe DiNunzio describing kids' tournaments, entertainment, and free character artistry; stated goal to 'expand the hobby and expand pinball to not just tournament players'
- **[event_signal]** Pintastic positioning itself as major regional pinball convention comparable to PAX East and Comic-Con with professional multi-camera panel archival system (confidence: high) — Derek Karamanian: 'I want to be like, well, make Pintastic at least like a Comic-Con or a PAX East... every panel is recorded' and description of three GoPro cameras per seminar
- **[market_signal]** Integration of pop culture IP via Willie Wonka child actors to attract families and new audience segments beyond traditional pinball community (confidence: high) — Gabe DiNunzio: 'I figured, you know, Ed kind of talked me into trying it and we'll see how it goes... I think everybody really got a great response from that so far'
- **[personnel_signal]** Christopher Franchi featured as primary artist at Pintastic with dedicated seminar on game development and art practices (confidence: high) — Jeff Teolis: 'Christopher Franchi is your artist this year, and I love the work that he does' and 'He is going to be doing a seminar on his game development for his art'

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## Transcript

 It has been a long time. It's time for another Pinball Profile. I'm your host, Jeff Teels. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter, at Pinball Profile. Email us, pinballprofile, at gmail.com. And please subscribe on your favorite podcatcher. I've been away for a little while. Been busy this month of June. Some things, unfortunately, not so great. Dealing with some tragedies and whatnot, but such is life, right? But you know the great thing about when things are not always the greatest? Sometimes you get a nice gift and you get a chance to go and see a bunch of great friends and visit a place you've never been before. And that's what this weekend is going to be all about for me. When I head to Pintastic, I wanted to get the word out about this fantastic expo that's on all this weekend. And three of the organizers joined me earlier. Now, I wasn't, unfortunately, on a proper microphone, but they sound fantastic. So have a listen to what they had to say when I talked to Gabe DiNunzio, Derek Karaminian, and Dave Marsden. How are you doing, Jeff? So this is the fifth year of Pintastic. and looking at this show, and I have lots of friends that have been to this show, and they can't say enough good things about what you do there. It's so nice to have this massive game expo, 200 plus games on free play, great seminars, a cool tournament, and some of the world's best players. It's really something I've wanted to go to for so many years, but for whatever reason, June has never worked out. I made sure this June I'm going to Pintastic. So what am I going to be seeing now? What are some of the big highlights you think, Gabe, that makes this fifth year of Pintastic the best one ever? First of all, we're very excited to have you coming, Jeff. So Pintastic is, it's always been a dream of mine to do a show and to get everybody involved, not just the tournament players and the adults, but the kids as well, and to make it a family event. My goal was to expand the hobby and expand pinball to not just, it's got to grow, you've got to bring the kids in. We bring in a lot of stuff for kids to enjoy the show. It's just a big four-day party. That's the way I feel. Party is a good word because you've got things like the Extra Ball Lounge and the Special Unlit Party. So explain to those that have never been, what are these big events? Well, we have the After Party on Friday night, and that's for sponsors. We wanted to put a party together for the sponsors, the vendors, and the guests, all the special guests they bring in, and then the LE buyers and the premium buyers, which are the multi-day ticket package buyers. And we do buy about $3,000 worth of food. And everybody comes in and gets food and has a good time, and that's the Friday night after party. And then the Extra Ball Lounge is something I started a few years ago. You get access during different times of the day for, say, like a premium buyer, four-day ticket buyer. They get access from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. And the LE package buyers get access 24 hours. And our special guests get in there and sponsors get in there. But the Extra Ball Lounge is a lot of those games are my games from my collection. And they're really nice games. That doesn't mean that there's not nice games on the floor as well in free play, but it's a more quiet setting, no lines, something like a getaway area for people. Derek, I saw you and Gabe at the Texas Pinball Festival, the show of shows, as they say, but from what I hear from Pintastic, boy, it just keeps growing and really something to see in the Northeast. Yeah, it really is. Got started, I believe, in the second year. I just brought my camcorder along to record all the panels because I never seen any of the fantastic Stern employees or Jersey Jack employees or any of the other Stern pinball manufacturers out there And I just wanted to record all the panels really Well it nice to archive that too because first of all it would be better to see it live and in person and maybe ask some questions to some of the designers and the people on the panels. But that's not always the case for everybody. So with what you're doing, Derek, it's a nice keepsake. Yeah. I want to be like, well, make Pintastic at least like a Comic-Con or a PAX East. We have a video game convention here in the Northeast called PAX East. And every panel is recorded, and you can view it at your leisure at home. It's not like a cell phone video. I really love what Steven Bowden did originally with the Dialed In launch. But you can't find that anymore, that video showing off Dialed In with Pat Lawler. And I want to record those memories. So, Dave, you're in charge of the panels, and there's a special podcaster panel. I'm looking forward to being with Mrs. Pinn, Dr. Pinn. the two guys from Slam Tilt Podcast and Bruce and Ron and Jeff Parsons, a new in-litter himself from the Pinball Players Podcast. So what do you have in store for us? Well, I have a couple rather controversial topics I hope to bring up if there's lack of controversy. I don't want this to be just a simple rundown of my podcast does this and my podcast does that. I'll make it simple for you. Their podcasts do nothing. But anyway, go on. Well, see, there you go. We're going to have some of that, I'm sure. But there are pressing questions in the world of pinball other than the question of why are there so many podcasts. The truth is I love all three of those podcasts. And I think we're all good friends. And it's going to be a pleasure to be together. In fact, we were all last together, I believe, at Pinbird. So it'll be nice to be at Pintastic my first time too. Yes, and we like to have the New Englanders there but also get the word around. And we have a lot of friends in Canada who come down. So I want to make sure to get the Canadian content. I was just recently in New York City and so many different people, including Canadians, including New Yorkers, were all saying, are you going to go to Pintastic? I said, yes, I'm going to be part of this panel that Dave's putting together. I'm looking forward to it. Everyone said you're going to have a great time. So, all right, Dave, I'm looking forward to seeing what you've got for us. Right. I don't want to spoil the surprises. I want you to give your ad hoc answers when you hear the questions as we get to that panel. But not only that panel, there's other panels going on, and you've got a lot of special guests. What else will we be looking after, David? Well, the best pinball designers, and, you know, you take your pick. If you like Joe Balcer and what he's been doing, he's had a couple dozen games. Steve Ritchie, the famous king of pinball. Some of the up-and-comers, like Eric Murnier of Jersey Jack Pinball. And then sound and mechanics, Chris Granner. And not just factory people. We have technicians. We have experts on playing. Eric Stone's going to be there to show his skills to people who need to upgrade their skills. And then Bowen Kerins is going to be there giving a demo on the Alice Cooper game to show you how to get deep, deep into that game. Also on the technical side, Tim Sexton and Butch Peel will be showing the deep innards of their respective games and give some development history. David, look forward to seeing you at Pintastic at the end of June. Yes, and we certainly look forward to seeing you and hearing you and hearing your opinions compared to the opinions of the other podcasters. Well, you get the wide spectrum. You'll be getting the intelligent answers from yours truly, and then what the common folk would be thinking with the others. So, yeah, it is a wide spectrum. Got to have that common touch, you know. Okay, thanks, David. Okay. Our seminar program has really become one of the best ones in the country, I think. by all the special guests we bring in, by the job that we do in the seminar room. A lot of work goes into that. We have a surround sound in that room, very good audio system. Everything is very well planned out by Derek and Dave. They have multiple cameras going at one time, and they have GoPro cameras. This year, I think we have three cameras going for each seminar. We have handheld cameras on some of the game tutorial seminars, And there we have Bowen doing his Alice Cooper tutorial on Friday night There a lot of stuff going on this year And it just a packed seminar schedule it can really fit much more into there in the two days so we had to move some stuff to thursday this year right dave marston i mean he really asked some really good questions um really great questions to the to the panelists that really make them think and uh last year was uh our first really big um thing for the show because i was actually uh brawn to the team for the staff but uh that was a little bit sketchy last year setting everything up but uh this year we have a lot more help and uh this year should be really good yes there are definitely a lot of guests and exhibitors as well but when i look at the guests here at pentastic gabe you talked about wanting to have something for the kids not only do you have all these great free play area and and things to do for the kids but you're actually bringing in kids the kids from Willie Wonka are going to be there, Veruca Salt, Charlie Bucket, and Mike TV appearing on Friday and Saturday. That's very good, especially with the wonderful Juicy Jack game. Yeah, the Wonka kids are going to be there in the vendor hall near the Wonka games, and they're going to be doing signings. They'll sign anything you bring for $25, and they'll take a selfie with you for $10. We are selling a special package. Only 100 of those are available. 50 on Friday and 50 on Saturday. They're a meet-and-greet package where you'll get some quiet time with the kids, and you'll get a group selfie. The only way to get a group selfie is to buy one of these packages. I've seen the poster. Jersey Jack, John Yousi designed the poster, and it's got the game on there and the Willy Wonka art, and it's got the signature boxes on the bottom. Everybody's going to sign it, Pat Lawler, Jersey Jack, John Yousi, the three kids, and you're going to get a Wonka glass and everything. It's going to be, that's a cool package. So those are only, there's only about 60 of those available now left, left. So hopefully those will go quickly. And, you know, the Walker kids are something we're trying. We're trying to bring in a special guest like that, like Texas does it every year. And I figured, you know, Ed kind of talked me into trying it. So I bit the bullet and tried it and we'll see how it goes. I mean, if it works out, we'll keep doing something like that. And I think, I think everybody, everybody really got a great response from that so far. And I think that'll bring in a lot of new people to pinball. And that's my goal is to, you know, grow the hobby and new people fall in love with pinball. If they go there for the kids, maybe they'll see all the games. They'll start playing and, you know, it'll explode from there and they'll buy a game and share it with their family. Dave mentioned some of the people that are going to be speaking. He talked about, you know, Tim Sexton and his software development for Black Knight. He'll be there along with the designer, Steve Ritchie. Joe Balcer will be there, the guy who created Oktoberfest most recently for American Pinball. You've got Jersey Jack there. You've got Chris Granner, sound designer. You've got Eric there from Jersey Jack. Christopher Franchi is your artist this year, and I love the work that he does. So I've seen what he has created for Pintastic. Pretty impressive. He's doing a seminar as well on his game development for his art. He is going to be doing a seminar. and I think you may be joining the podcaster seminar as well as a special guest. So that'll be interesting. Not on his own podcast because that's never, ever going to happen. He had to slip in with the guys from Slap Save, but I enjoy what he does there. And you've also got the guys from TNT Amusements in Todd and Frank. That'll be nice. Yeah, Todd and Frank. It took me quite a while to get them to finally come to the show, but when they did, they really fell in love with it. Now they come every year and they have a big presence at the show. Their seminar is going to be a question and answer, but you've got to send them your question pre-show so that they can plan for answers of your questions. And you have to be at the show, and they'll bring your question up, and they'll answer it because they'll have had some time to think about it and to come up with an answer. So that's something interesting. If you're having an issue with your game, send them a question, and they'll answer it at the show. So that'll be awesome. You know, Gabe, anytime you do things for kids, it means a lot to me, and I'll be there to help. And I see you doing that as well with Project Pinball going to be at Pintastic The first year we did Pintastic we actually teamed up with Project Pinball and we put a pinball machine in one of the children hospitals in Boston That was a really big experience for me and really touched my heart doing that for the kids that was there. It was amazing. We have Dan back every year, Pentastic, and he usually does a little update on his charity in the seminar room as well. but you know he'll be in the bender hall all weekend he'll have a game in his booth and we do a lot of stuff for kids so we have you know we have the charity part then we have uh the two tournaments for the younger kids and then we have uh we have we bring in clowns for the kids we bring in magicians and face painters and balloon animal artists and then all that stuff is free with your admission so you can get your face painted even you jeff can get your face man if you want and we have a we have a character we have a character artist there that does free characters all day you know where can you go to just to just to get a character at a anywhere you're going to pay you know 15 20 bucks and you can pay 25 at the door and you can go free inside so it's there's a lot of value in fantastic we give people a lot of stuff it's like almost like disney world you can't do everything in one year you know that's why you want to come back for the second year and the third four amazing days of pinball and some long hours but boy you're going to get your pinball fix aren't you for sure game yeah pintastic is four days you know you can you start the day and then you go into the night and a lot of people they just during the day during the busy times they go up in the room and they sleep sleep for a while and then they come down and they they play pinball at you know four or five in the morning because they can play all night when you have a one of the multi-day packages and uh you know we even have tournaments in the southern hampshire pinball room that start at like 1 1 a.m so these those guys go way late and they have their own special room. So it just never ends. The 24-hour extra ball lounge is, you know, last year, I can't make it much past 3 in the morning, but, you know, I heard at 4 or 5 in the morning there was still, you know, 30 people in there. So people never stop. Derek, have you ever done any late-night pinball? Oh, yeah. I remember last year I was playing 1 in the morning on Batman 66 at 1 in the morning, and I had one of my best games ever on. It was like over 1 billion points on it. So I'm a total fan for late-night gaming. Yeah, last time I was in your neck of the woods, it was, in fact, with Jim Swain's 24-Hour Sanctum. And that was a lot of fun. I thought I would be able to do it. I was more worried about the day after. And, yeah, it was a little rough, sure, but it was exciting. And, you know, I should probably pace myself, but I bet I'll be doing a lot of 24-hour pinball at Pintastic. Why not? with all the great games there, what you've got, free play, and, again, the excellent parties that you're putting on. I can't thank you enough for inviting me. Jeff, do you plan on doing some live interview stuff? Non-stop, of course. Come see me because I'll be recording all kinds of people at Pintastic and playing it back on Pinball Profile, as I like to do at different events. Awesome. I know there's going to be a lot of excited people there. I might have to do some late-night stuff too, Gabe. That's excellent, yeah. Why not? People will be buying you drinks, I'm sure. Oh, that could be messy. They have some craft distilleries around here, too, so. Well, I'm not driving. Ah, what the heck. Went in Sturbridge, as they say, right? Yeah, you know, this is the last big hurrah in Sturbridge because, you know, we have the biggest liquor store in New Robert Englunds right next to the show, so that's, like, dangerous, and that causes a lot of heavy drinking. That explains Chuck Webster. Okay, thanks, guys. I appreciate this. I'll see you at the end of June. Cool. Thanks, Jeff. Thanks for everything you do for pinball, man. Okay, guys. Thanks a lot. Great. Thank you. Thanks, Jeff. Okay, take care. Have a good night. Okay, now I'm excited. This is going to be a lot of fun. PintasticNewEngland.com for all the information. Please join us this weekend. It's going to be so much fun in Sturbridge. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at Pinball Profile. Email us pinballprofile at gmail.com. And please subscribe on your favorite podcatcher. I'm Jeff Teolas. Come together Come together

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: a8a02d72-093a-4172-94a9-4ed292d05041*