# Ep 39: The Voice of Silk, Marc Silk! **Source:** LoserKid Pinball Podcast **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2020-07-17 **Duration:** 86m 23s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://zencastr.com/z/HDP_aht3 --- ## Analysis Mark Silk, a prolific British voice actor known for work on cartoons, films, and games, discusses his career path from radio production to voice performance, and his transition into pinball voice work on the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles machine. The episode covers Silk's influences (Mel Blanc, Jim Henson, Frank Oz), his self-taught approach to voice acting, and how his pinball hobby naturally intersected with his professional skills through relationships built at pinball expos. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Mark Silk provided six voice characters for the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball machine, including Splinter and Casey Jones — _Josh and Mark confirm six voices total for TMNT; Casey Jones callout specifically mentioned ('Loser kid, you have been chosen')_ - [HIGH] Mark Silk first attended pinball Expo in Chicago in 2018 as a fan, before any professional involvement — _Mark states directly: 'in 2018 i went out to expo just as a fan'_ - [HIGH] Dwight Sullivan at Stern approached Mark Silk for voice work after hearing him mentioned on Ken Cromwell's podcast — _Mark describes hearing Ken's show where Dwight Sullivan mentioned wanting to work with Mark, saying 'I just started to my tracks' when he heard this_ - [HIGH] Mark Silk has voiced 30-31 characters in the first season of the Danger Mouse reboot, with an additional 12 in season two — _Mark states: 'I'm the voice of it's 30, 31 characters on the first season of Danger Mouse and then on the second season it's an additional 12'_ - [HIGH] Mark Silk was the voice of Bob the Builder for approximately a decade in the United States and Canada — _Mark states: 'i was the voice of bob the builder in the states for about a decade america and canada'_ ### Notable Quotes > "Loser kid, you have been chosen." > — **Mark Silk (as Casey Jones)**, ~11:30 > _Demonstration of one of his TMNT voice characters in the podcast itself_ > "I'm a hobbyist but i love what you do so...I need to just like put a tent up in the middle and just hope that people will just come past and go do you need some voices for your machine i'll do it for you it's really i'm a bargain" > — **Mark Silk**, ~22:00 > _Shows genuine passion for pinball and willingness to work on pinball projects despite being an established professional_ > "I bumped into a bunch of people, and we just kind of kept in touch. But I didn't really push for any work or anything. I was just happy to enjoy what they do." > — **Mark Silk**, ~59:30 > _Explains organic, non-pushy approach to networking within pinball community_ > "The thing that was great with [Don LaFontaine] is he also was a brilliant performer. He had a great voice, but it's more than just having a good voice...there's the acting ability, the ability to just bring that character to life." > — **Mark Silk**, ~26:00 > _Articulates philosophy that voice acting is fundamentally about performance and character work, not just vocal ability_ > "You get the the best of both worlds so you get to work with the the some of the you know the the most talented people in the in that field of their industry and yet you can walk down the street and not get bothered you know you can still have a regular life" > — **Mark Silk**, ~47:00 > _Explains appeal of voice acting as profession: prestige and creative fulfillment without celebrity downsides_ > "My heroes just as a kid my heroes were always the people behind the scenes so i loved the craftsman and the the artistry behind it all" > — **Mark Silk**, ~13:30 > _Explains formative influence that drove his career toward voice work and production_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Mark Silk | person | British voice actor; performed six voice characters (including Splinter and Casey Jones) for new TMNT pinball; extensive career in animation (Bob the Builder, Danger Mouse, Thunderbirds Are Go), films (Chicken Run), and games; based in Birmingham, UK | | Dwight Sullivan | person | Stern Pinball code designer/programmer; involved in recruiting Mark Silk for TMNT voice work after hearing about him on Ken Cromwell's podcast | | Ken Cromwell | person | Podcast host (mentioned as having show where Dwight Sullivan discussed Mark Silk); previous association with Jersey Jack Pinball | | Greg Bone | person | Pinball content creator; posted video of Star Wars machine; initiated direct contact with Mark Silk | | Josh Roop | person | Co-host of Loser Kid Pinball Podcast | | Scott Larson | person | Co-host of Loser Kid Pinball Podcast | | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball | game | New Stern Pinball release featuring voice work by Mark Silk (six characters) | | Flipping Out Pinball | company | Pinball distributor/retailer; podcast sponsors; owned by Zach and Nicole | | This Week in Pinball | media | Weekly pinball news podcast; mentioned as podcast sponsor/friend | | Lit Frames | company | Translight frame/display product company; owned by Brad; podcast sponsor | | Flyland Designs | company | Alternative translight/artwork producer; podcast sponsor | | Pinball Expo Chicago | event | Annual pinball convention where Mark Silk first attended as fan in 2018 and met Stern Pinball creators | | Mel Blanc | person | Legendary voice actor; cited as Mark Silk's hero and influence | | Jim Henson | person | Puppeteer and performer; cited as Mark Silk's influence for character performance philosophy | | Frank Oz | person | Puppeteer/performer (Miss Piggy, Yoda); cited as major influence on Mark Silk's approach to character work | | Don LaFontaine | person | Legendary movie trailer voice actor; discussed as example of transcendent voice talent | | Danger Mouse | game | Animation series rebooted; Mark Silk voiced 30-31 characters in season one, additional 12 in season two | | Bob the Builder | game | Children's animated series; Mark Silk was primary voice actor for approximately a decade (US/Canada) | | Thunderbirds Are Go | game | CGI reboot of classic series featuring Weta Studios; Mark Silk worked alongside Rosamund Pike and David Graham | | Chicken Run | game | Aardman Animation film; Mark Silk's first film role doing chicken voices and harmony parts | ### Topics - **Primary:** Voice acting as craft and performance art, Mark Silk's career path and influences, Transition from fan to professional in pinball industry, TMNT pinball voice work - **Secondary:** Character performance vs. vocal ability, Networking and relationship-building in pinball community, Music training and performance background - **Mentioned:** Privacy/anonymity benefits of voice acting ### Sentiment **Positive** (0.92) — Genuinely warm and enthusiastic conversation throughout. Mark Silk is articulate, engaging, and shows authentic passion for both voice acting and pinball. Hosts express gratitude and admiration. No critical or negative statements. Tone is celebratory about his career and involvement in pinball community. ### Signals - **[community_signal]** Mark Silk's organic entry into pinball community as fan-first, then professional, models authentic community integration approach; suggests healthy ecosystem where fans can transition to professional roles (confidence: high) — Attended Expo 2018 as fan; built relationships through multiple podcast appearances before professional ask; describes 'accidental on purpose' approach - **[community_signal]** Stern Pinball's outreach to established voice talent and engagement with podcast community (Ken Cromwell connection) demonstrates strategic investment in quality voice acting and podcast relationships (confidence: high) — Dwight Sullivan discussing Mark Silk on Ken Cromwell's podcast; multiple podcast sponsors mentioned (Flipping Out, TWIP, Lit Frames, Flyland) - **[community_signal]** Mark Silk's transition from established voice actor (multi-decade career in animation, film, games) to pinball voice work demonstrates organic cross-pollination between adjacent creative industries; suggests Stern actively recruiting experienced talent from broader entertainment sector (confidence: high) — Dwight Sullivan recruitment after hearing Mark mentioned on podcast; Greg Bone direct outreach after recognizing Star Wars voice work - **[personnel_signal]** Mark Silk's engagement with Stern Pinball on TMNT represents recruitment of A-list voice talent from major entertainment industry (animation, film) into pinball production (confidence: medium) — Mark Silk's extensive resume (Bob the Builder, Danger Mouse, Thunderbirds, Star Wars, etc.) demonstrates caliber of talent now working on pinball - **[announcement]** Confirmation of voice work scope for TMNT pinball (6 characters including Splinter, Casey Jones) provides details on game's production quality and feature set (confidence: high) — Direct confirmation from Mark Silk of six voice characters with specific character names mentioned --- ## Transcript hey thanks for tuning in to the loser kid pinball podcast we are on episode number 39 i know it's been three weeks i'm sorry guys we we had some stuff come up i also want to apologize about the quality of my microphone it's it's not top-notch like it usually is but we have a gentleman on today that uh we we just couldn't say no to and we're so excited about this but before we get to him. We're going to go through our friends of the podcast. Scott, do you want to do it? You want me to do it? You know what? I'll give it a shot and then you fill in who we forgot about. First off, flipping out pinball. If you are looking at any sort of pinball machine, hit up Zach and Nicole. They are easy to work with. And the nice thing is they give you a personalized service. I have a premium turtles coming in through them. And I also upgraded to the blades and the shaker motor. and Josh, you have a pro coming in through them. So that's always a good option. Next, This Week in Pinball. Please check out This Week in Pinball for your updated weekly news in pinball. Jeff's always a great guy to keep you abreast of the situation without having to go through a lot of the drama on some of the other forums. So check him out. Another thing, Lit Frames. Please check it out. If you're looking for a way of spicing up your arcade room, please consider Brad at Lit Frames and a great way of illuminating those translights that are collecting dust under your bed. Also, we have Flyland Designs. Please check him out. I bought the Medieval Madness alternative translight. I think the original is great, too. This just spices it up a little bit, and it's been a lot of fun to have it in my machine. And who else am I forgetting, Josh? You got it all spot on. And I just want to say thank you to Brad Hunter really quick, man. He got my lit frame was to me within like three days from me ordering it. And it's fantastic. My kiddos keep playing with the buttons. They love the lights. It's very simple. I'm one of those guys that sometimes doesn't read the instructions. So I was like, how do I get the plastic film off? The frame itself just flips open. I mean, there's no using screwdrivers. There's no using any of that stuff. You just seriously just flip the edges open, pull out your old Translight, put a new one in. You're done in 30 seconds. I mean, it's a wonderful product. I've been very happy with it. I can't complain. Yeah, and you can put it on static or dynamic. And it's fun to have. I like the Monster Bash that's on dynamic because it cycles through all of them, and it really brings out the different colors. But, hey, you know what? Pick your poison. Yep. So, Josh, today, who do we have on the show? So, you know, we talk about the velvet voice, Jeff Toulas, but I figured maybe we should get the Marc Silk voice. So this man is the voice of very many different voices. He has done some wonderful work in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball machine. And he's going to have to remind me because I can't remember. He did an amazing amount of voices in this pinball machine. So we have with us Marc Silk. It was six. Six voices. I always remember Splinter because he's the one that's like telling you what to do. And so he's very, very important. And then I remember Casey Jones because Casey Jones is one of my favorites. Loser kid, you have been chosen. So Marc Silk, welcome to the show, man. Thanks for the invite. Nice to meet you finally. Yeah. I like your podcast. I'm a listener as well. just for the record, I listen. And you mentioned Brian Allen earlier. I've got the monster bash, uh, alternate translate. Oh, isn't it great. It's beautiful. Really like it. Yeah. That is a significant upgrade from the original. I will say. I, I, yeah, I really, uh, love it. And the attack from Mars as well. Beautiful piece of hard work. And I think he's coming out. I know that he has talked about other, uh, Valley Williams, the licensed product that he's re-imagining. And I think that Whitewater is either next or on the list. And so I'm really excited to see what that one is. Well, I got chatting with Brian at Chicago Expo last year, and I picked that up from him. But I just grabbed a load of sketches from him, too. I mean, some of his just other little sketches and just his other art bits of inspiration that he was putting out there. I bought a stack of the stuff. So, yeah, that's one for the framers. Hugely recommended. Meanwhile, thanks for having me on the show. No problem. Thanks for coming all the way over from the land of Robert Englunds. It was a hell of a bus ride. Jeez. Do you remember back in the Google days, in the early days of actually getting directions? Before you'd type up map, I don't know if you had MapQuest over there, but you'd have to type it in and then you would hit print. And so you'd be driving around everywhere with this printed off sheet of directions when people were trying to graduate from just following a map. Do you remember back in the days when we actually could meet people? Oh, geez. Holy cow. We'd have plexiglass in the back of our head. Oh, geez. I'm currently dressed as a beekeeper in an astronaut outfit. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I'm at home, so I'm dressed in the Borat swimsuit. And so, I mean, nice. It's just comfortable. Thank you for the video, Nick. It's beautiful. Yeah, it's beautiful. But you would type in, like, from Utah and talk about how do I get to Paris or London or something. And it would give you directions all the way to New York and it would take you to the pier and then it would say jump in the ocean and swim 2000 miles. And why wouldn't you? Yeah, it's healthy, right? If you try to find where I am right now, by the way, I'm in a place called Birmingham, Birmingham in Birmingham in the heart of the UK. So if you put a pin in the middle of Robert Englunds, that's where I am, the heart of Robert Englunds. It's very accessible. see most of my Robert Englunds uh geography i guess is based on the book good omens and so when i listen to good omens i'm like okay i think i kind of know where that is most of my chicago geography is based around pimble factories yeah yeah elk grove is the center of chicago and now there's like there's basically four there now and there's american you got jjp that moved there you have stern and chicago gaming company and so i mean it's it really has become a re-emerged as a mecca of pinball i need to just like put a tent up in the middle and just hope that people will just come past and go do you need some voices for your machine i'll do it for you it's really i'm a bargain i'm i'm a hobbyist but i love what you do so that actually brings up an interesting question is that like um obviously you've been in voice acting for ever. Um, and we're in the, yeah. And we're in the same age group. And that seems like one, a really interesting, uh, I don't want to say hobby, but an interesting career choice. Like I want a quick summary on how did you even get involved? And I know you talked to, with, uh, Jeff Teolis about this, but do a quick recap of how you got involved in that. And the second question is, okay, then getting involved in pinball, like how did that transition go from niche to super niche uh my heroes just as a kid my heroes were always the people behind the scenes so i loved the craftsman and the the artistry behind it all and i always loved the fact that there were these people that were voices of my favorite cartoons people like mel blank and doris Casey Butler and don messican and people like jim henson and frank ars and it was those it was those kind of people in terms of performers that i liked who are more behind the scenes rather than on camera and then people like ben burke the sound designer you know mr star wars sound effects him um so i was heavily influenced by people that weren't necessarily other people's heroes and very early on i worked in radio i taught myself how to produce things by watching other people who i thought were you know terrific i went from i learned from watching other people and then um bit by bit i needed voices for what i was doing at a local radio station and it's one of these things where I just I kind of knew it was always in me but never had an outlet for it and so I would sneak into a radio studio very late at night when it wasn't being used and so try and then um bought kit for on my mom and dad's dining table the dining studio uh and just learn sort of honed my craft really so bottom line is I it's self-taught um I worked on radio for a while and then started a production company and focused on voice performance it was something that i got good at and because i was so heavily influenced by these other people it was a sort of a natural progression so i went from i suppose emulating my heroes to finding my own voice and then creating new characters so um yeah i mean ever since then i i because i had the i had the production skills very early on to make other people sound good so i could make like an audio movie trailer and it sounded like hollywood it really sounded great and that's what you were hearing over here on the radio a lot and then when i decided i wanted to get voice work i used those skills to sort of showcase my own work and it was it was cool and my very first voice showreel um it was just me really just emulating my heroes with a few extra characters that i'd kind of created myself and you heard this really big kind of like warner brothers looney tunes familiar sounding music and then you heard hi i'm Marc Silk i do cartoon voices and then like a mallet to the skull about 20 voices in 20 seconds and um and then that that was the start of i sent this showreel off to a bunch of people and it got a great response and i started working on movies and games and um i was I was very fortunate that it seemed to hit a nerve right at the start of my career with some big projects. And, yeah, I mean, does that answer in a kind of wibbly-wobbly, lots of words way? No, absolutely. I want the 10-minute answer for the 30-second question. It works really well. In all seriousness, I will say that it's a talent that people don't appreciate how difficult it is. when you I think of back in the 80s and I wish I knew what this guy's name was, but he did all of the movie trailers. Don LaFontaine. Yes, that guy. And he basically he was known because he was that guy was like back in the era of, you know, like I think he did all of them. And so he would just show up and he'd read them. And he had that amazing voice. And the reason why they kept hiring him is because he had a talent that other people did not have. And I think people don't recognize that being a voice actor is it is a talent unto itself. And there are all these people who do the voice acting, but there are people who really stick out and say, that's an amazing talent. And for you to be able to take what you do and to break out into it's a it's a faceless medium. Like you're successful as a voice actor if you're able to be a chameleon and be able to do so many different options that people are like, oh, well, that's Marc Silk too? Yeah. Well, you mentioned Donald Fontaine. The thing that was great with him is he also was a brilliant performer. He had a great voice, but it's more than just having a good voice. I think most people can do a party piece and go, in a world. I mean Donald Fontaine was actually the guy that wrote that line. He actually he started off writing copy for promos and trailers. He was a brilliant performer. But but, yeah, there's now for what I do, I variety is a big part of what I do. So there's a great show that I grew up with called Danger Mouse, and it was rebooted a few years ago. And they were nice enough to bring me in on that show. And I'm the voice of it's 30, 31 characters on the first season of Danger Mouse. and then on the second season it's an additional 12 i'm usually you're kind of doubling up or doing at least a handful of characters for bits and pieces but there's it's everything from um star wars i i worked with george lucas on episode one of that performing a character in the uk i get brought in to be um every now and then scooby-doo and shaggy like man it's really creepy scoob right Scoob. Yeah. Creepy. And the stack of stuff of Lego and... Bob the Builder. I was working on a show called Pingu over here. This animation show. It's stop motion animation. And the people came in the booth and around the studio and they said, if you were to be the voice of a builder named Bob in the States for the States, how would that sound? And I said, well, you could go, come on guys let's hustle we gotta build this wall i'm not made of cash union rules let's go and they said uh maybe a little friendlier i said okay how about hi i'm gonna build a house this is somewhere somewhere in the middle and i i kind of i tried hi i'm bob the builder how you doing can we fix it yes we can come on wendy let's go scoop mug dizzy let's listen to loser kid and um i got it and uh i was the voice of bob the builder in the states for about a decade america and canada if you grew up with bob the builder you probably heard me yeah no i absolutely i what amazes me is that this always surprised me when star wars was rebooted for the prequels how they went to to frank oz and they said and he had forgotten how to create the Yoda voice, which is funny because everybody makes, I don't want to say makes fun of, but they emulate it. It's such a stereotype, right? Yeah. And so when you have voiced hundreds of actors, how do you say, oh, that's how I make the sounds to sound like that? Because you're really trying to say, okay, I'm going to say this line in this character, this line in that character. And it's the same thing as audio books. like really talented audio book narrators, they're able to go through and do the different character voices. And I believe like Harry Potter, the last book, had like over 150 characters. And so that guy was – Oh, it's a real – it's an art form. What you said is so true. And when we're doing animation, we tend to – my favorite shows that we work on, there's a great one called Go Jettas, which is on Universal Kids in the States and on the BBC over here. And I'm the voice of Grandmaster Glitch, the naughty person, the bad guy. Yeah. Him. And we do it lined up in the studio like a like like you perform a radio show. You know, it's a full cast. And we in that we each perform one character each. But in lots of other shows, we perform multiple characters. And so we're kind of, you know, sometimes we'll have a scene performing to ourselves doing it that way. But it really is a huge – you said about Frank Oz. That's a really interesting name to bring up because Frank Oz totally gets it. I've got such respect for Frank Oz. And I learned so much from watching the work of him and Jim Henson. And they were just brilliant character performers. This is – the thing that you can hear a lot of people say in interviews when they're talking about his performances are he's the voice of Miss Piggy or he's the voice of Yoda. And it's more than that. He's the performer of Yoda. He's the puppeteer and the voice. It's all in one. It's not just the voice. And he's very particular on that. And most people, I would imagine, can do a decent little party piece of Miss Piggy or Yoda. But it's the acting ability, the ability to just bring that character to life. And the people who I adore watching their work are people really who you forget that it's them doing it because you totally believe in that character. you lose yourself in just enjoying enjoying the story they get out of the way and they let that character live and that's what's terrific about what Jim Henson did and what Frank Oz does and the best the best people you can be in the room and I love being in just it's a privilege sometimes just to be in the room with these people there's a show working called Thunderbirds not the paintball machine the international rescue international put it in a skip the the five four three twelve one that one so i grew up as a i'm a massive fan of the original thunderbirds show the one from the 60s i watched on repeats by the way for the record in the 80s thank you and um when you watch those shows back now it was big big in the uk huge in i think japan as well and uh it went to america but it wasn't as big as in the uk it's a really big iconic show in the uk still and um when you look at the restored you know they they remastered everything a few years ago in hd from the original 35 mil negatives and the quality of some of the the uh the special effects and everything it still looks really cool now massive um massive orchestral scores special effects done by a guy called derrick meddings who went on to do the work on Bond and brilliant voice acting. Well, I got brought in to work on the reboot of Thunderbirds called Thunderbirds Are Go. And again, just the production standards of what they do. You've got Weta Studios, Peter Jackson Studio doing all the massive models for this thing. And then the CGI characters on top of that. And then I work with Rosamund Pike and a guy called David Graham, who's a brilliant voice actor and and the voice of jeff tracy in uh in this new series is lee magis you know wow this is this is a great christmas party but yeah it's it's a real thrill to be part of that okay it is funny you you did bring up the muppets and ironically my wife was playing this yesterday it's uh the hamilton soundtrack that's sung by the muppets that's genius it's one of the funniest things especially uh there was one song that was just a chicken singing and the great thing is like i knew the song and so it was just hilarious to it took about uh five minutes to get into it and you're like i don't know if i can deal with this After 30 minutes, you're like, this is brilliant. This is hilarious. The first film I ever worked on, I got it because of an audition I did as a chicken. Back when they did the first chicken run, this is right at the very beginning of my career in voice acting. Aardman Animation, who I loved their work, they needed extra chickens. They did the Wallace and Gromit thing, right? Exactly, yes. So, in fact, I have an actual Wallace puppet here in the studio. Um, so, so they needed, they needed extra chickens to just flesh out the soundtrack because they needed just extra layering for additional dialogue recording. So I got a phone call saying, look, I'd want to do this film called Chicken Run. Uh, they need extra chickens. Can you just send in, uh, some recordings of you being a chicken, please? So I thought, well, I want to do something good. So I, I, I put this thing together showing that I understood like the acting side of what they'd need. So I did chicken waking up, chicken walking down the street, nervous chicken because the farmers come out of the farmhouse. And then chicken being picked up by the farmer. Yeah, that kind of thing. And so, to be honest, anyone that does kind of good chicken performances should be able to do that. So I thought, I want them to see that I get kind of their comedy sensibility as well. So I got a hold of an instrumental version of Frank Sinatra's New York, New York, and did five part harmonies of going. And I got it. And any time they wanted me to step up to the mic to do a character for Chicken Run, they would just shout. could have a sinatra chicken in place and it got me the gig okay as a kid were you that that guy who was hanging out with your buddies and trying to make everybody laugh by making different voices no i wasn't i was i think i was i was a quiet one taking it all in i was i was the studious one um i was kind of the the teenager that was kind of just taking it all in watching the others letting other people be noisy but then go and learn how to play the piano by myself or learn how to edit by myself or perform or do that. You know, that wasn't me. No. Um, so I, I kind of, I, I, I started quiet and got louder. You know, I think that's a very common theme with people is that it, it really seems that the, The people that I've met that I consider exceptional at their trade, they tend to be, I guess, not your stereotypical teenager. They tend to be a little more introverted, a little more observing teenage life as opposed to experiencing it. Now, I don't know if that's the best way of describing it, but I think it captures it that they're thinking differently than other kids. My mom always said I was special. Oh, I know. So good. But I just think it translates a little bit to approaching their career a different way than what would be considered a stereotype. It is interesting. You tend to find that in a whole bunch of people that usually the people who are, well, I really love their work or just being around them as friends. They're people who you can be in a room and you can just own that space in what you're performing. but also sometimes you need to have a conversation too you know if you always turn up to a level it gets a bit it gets a bit tedious after a while it's exhausting yeah yeah yeah you know there's a point where you go okay can we just bring it down a little now but um no there's a good balance to be had but i look at um i look at so many heroes and um it's interesting as well how over time you find your voice there's a big i think there's a massive connection between if you're Do you play a musical instrument? Are you musical? So I actually – I started college as a music major in voice performance. And so I did – Yeah, yeah. I did. Really? Yeah, yeah. That's interesting. Oh, well. Okay. Now, that being said, I was competent enough. I was never – I realized very quickly that I was good, but I was never going to be great. and then I, so, you know, I, I served a mission for my church and that was two, that took two years out. So I went to college for a year and I was always in performing like joke, you know, a show choir and that kind of stuff. And then I did college for a year and then I went on a mission for two years, uh, uh, teaching people. And I started thinking about, okay, so I, I enjoy it enough, but I'm never going to be exceptional at it. So what should I start looking at. And that's when I came home and I was always good at math. And so I actually decided to be an engineer, which is a completely linear transition. So I started over and I took a lot of classes that I needed to for engineering. And then I decided to go to medical school. So I basically didn't have a straightforward loop on anything. Okay. That's interesting you say that. I I nearly didn't do a media class at school. I did one. But the reason that I nearly didn't do a media class at school was I was kind of shy-ish. You know, you're at that point as a teenager where you don't want to make a dope of yourself in front of your friends. And to go out there and go, look, aren't I wonderful? People might go, no, no, you're not. and so there was there was this media course that involved um production and being on the mixing desk and being a camera guy and editing and that really appealed to me but part of it too part of this course i went on also involved a performance side and at that point i thought no it's not me no no it's not me even though i think i kind of knew i could do it i i didn't feel comfortable doing that anyway i chose to do it and it changed my life genuinely because it's like that thing where you you're pushed in the pool and you realize you can swim really well and this this media course i did i i found out it was everything that i love it was music and uh like like um technology uh you know uh storytelling characters uh production all of that all in one and it genuinely it was one of those moments in your life where you go oh hang on yeah that's what i'm about this this is what i this is what i should be doing um and then um i'd always been musical as well i played the piano ever since i was seven and um i've i've recorded you know production music libraries for broadcasting games and and commercials and all that kind of thing um and then you know bit by bit you you find you find your voice and that sounds a little bit arty But kind of any performer, eventually you start off when you're learning how to play an instrument, like basically copying your heroes. You know, I was a massive Billy Joel fan. I still am. And when I started playing the piano, you just kind of I just want to play all these Billy Joel tracks. And then eventually, after a while, you start creating your own tunes and you become your own thing. You go from being the cover band to the band. But you can still do a few covers every now and then. Yeah. And and it took I'd say it took me about 10 years to find my voice as like a just like just talking like myself on a on as a performer for TV commercials or movie trailers or even just like this, just talking like me, because it takes a while to figure out who you are as a voice in this kind of thing. as a as an angry as an angry guy from the from new york i could do that fine i know what he sounded like but didn't know what i sounded like and so um yeah and then it kind of it all kind of kind of all distills down into you really do you is it nice because you get to do voices and stuff like that and there's still some like i look at like johnny depp and them like you know who johnny depp is because you see his face yeah but you kind of get the luxury of like you get to do some of famous parts but you still get to live a live somewhat a private life correct listen to my famous parts it's no that's a really astute thing to say um genuinely josh because i had someone asked me recently you know it must be awful people not knowing who you are uh you know in terms of like you walk down the street no one would know that you might be the voice of their favorite tv character or game character i said no it's fantastic because it what you said is so true you can have you get the the best of both worlds so you get to work with the the some of the you know the the most talented people in the in that field of their industry and yet you can walk down the street and not get bothered you know you can still have a regular life and then the other side of that is i'll get us to do comic cons and things we're doing you know these big signing sessions and so you get to meet people who do enjoy your work and also it's lovely for me to just I meet other people that we all love the same stuff. So, yeah, it's a really nice, it's a really lovely balance. And then, you know, like the pinball side of stuff. I love this as a hobby. You know, what brought us together is basically I have a love of pinball. The fact that I now work, the fact that I'm now in, my voice is in a pinball machine now is just a lovely bonus. But yeah, I mean, it's driven by just something that I happen to love. Now, you brought that up. So we – that was our intention when we got you on was to actually talk about that. But we were talking about a lot of interesting stuff in your life. You just cut the other stuff out. Yeah. Where did that transition start? Like did you approach any of the companies or did they say, hey, there's this guy who really likes pinball and he has a great voice acting talent. it maybe we can get them in how did that uh how did how did that turn from a niche to a niche niche it was it was kind of um accidental on purpose sort of thing i i i got back i've always loved pinball as a kid i had a little tomy atomic pinball machine uh on the commodore amiga computer i played pinball fantasies this game which was stunning uh i'd go to arcades here in the uk and and love playing pinball and then it all went away and then i kind of got back into it a couple of years ago with the rise of barcades here in the uk and in the states and um i found out about expo in chicago and in 2018 i went out to expo just as a fan and um i just i loved it i brought the guy that works with me over there as well and it was just it was great to just go and watch people whose work I love talk about how they do it. And bit by bit, I didn't go around kind of going, do you know who I think I am? I'm marvelous. I bumped into a bunch of people, and we just kind of kept in touch. But I didn't really push for any work or anything. I was just happy to enjoy what they do. And then over time, I did stuff for Ken Cromwell on his podcast, and I really respect what Jason Fowler was doing and a bunch of others and they were very nice and sort of spread the word about what I do and this one day Greg Bone put a video out of him blowing up the Star Wars machine that he had. A huge Star Wars fan. And I just sent him a note saying, nice job beautiful work sir and he got back in touch with me saying something along the lines of, hang on, were you in Star Wars? I went, yeah and the conversation went something like you never said and i said well you never asked and it kind of then grew that there was someone that loved pinball which just as a hobby which is me who happened to do this kind of work on a bigger scale and then um down the line i was listening to uh ken's show uh special when lit i had the t-shirt and uh i think he was taught i I think he was talking to Dwight. I think he was talking to Dwight Sullivan. And they happened to be just talking about creativity and projects from the future. And I was walking my little dog in the city center. And they started talking about me. And that was that. I just started to my tracks. What? Because I was happy to hear Dwight Sullivan talk about how talented he was and projects that he adored. and people he wanted to work with mentioned my name. And he goes, yeah, I'm up for that. Yes, please. And then over time, they were nice enough to invite me to work on this project. And I went out back to Expo again in 2019 and just had a really good chat with everyone. And bit by bit, I've been working on Turtles since the end of last year. And, Matt, I'm so proud of the work we've done. And it was a thrill for me as well, because you hear people from the fan side talk about what they think is going on and how they think it works. And inevitably, it is noise that way. And what you realize is the people that are the creative minds behind this, they genuinely care like hell and just want to make the best possible game they can. And it was lovely for me to get to work with them, too, because, you know, I enjoy their work. I'm a fan too. I want to get the games as much as you do. So my question was, when you record for a pinball machine, the code is evolving. They have probably some parameters of what they're trying to do to tell the story. Sure. So they'll give you, I don't know, how many lines they would actually give you to record. And then they, I'm sure, slice and dice and try to integrate them into the code and the story. so like how much uh how much recording is there that you do versus how much ends up in the game and and maybe this is you may not even know at this point but i believe the the code is almost complete or at least code complete uh now that it's shipping well we recorded there's a lot of dialogue in this machine there's a stack of characters but also there's a lot of dialogue so um i'm looking forward to hearing me i'm looking forward to playing with myself it's going to be quite a thrill but the um with with any it really it's the same as any computer game that i would work on um i've worked on um computer games for years now and um with this we got a very clear we've got pages and pages and pages of dialogue so you've got obvious things in terms of uh you know there's a beginning middle and an end so right at the beginning of turtles you'll hear you know, choose your turtle, you know, Leonardo, you have been chosen, you know, this kind of thing. And even down to there's a whole stack of stuff that you have to bear in mind when you're performing any character for anything, whether it's a game or a movie or a pinball machine. And one of them is sustaining that character. It might sound like a really obvious thing, but you've got to make sure that character sounds the same throughout the entire game, because if you go off character, it'll just sound weird. And, you know, you've heard that in TV shows. And also, you've got to make sure it sounds like the character. Sometimes you'll watch a show and you can hear the guy reading it. You want to make it sound like the actual character. And one of the things with, I'm the voice of Splinter in the Turtles machine. And by the way, the animation in this thing is amazing. I've been so blown away with what a great job they've done. It looks better than the original series. But with Splinter, we made a conscious choice of sort of almost doing a mix of – it was very clearly grounded in the original series of Turtles. But also the voice of Splinter changed pretty much season to season. So we kind of kept a nice kind of mystical side of him. So it still sounds like Splinter. But the other thing as well, as the character is leading you around the game, the temptation is to shout, you know, multiball, you know, or go nuts. And of course, if you do that, that no longer sounds like Splinter. So you have to find a way of expressing the thought, but still staying in character for a really exciting moment. And there's a stack of them in the Turtles game. But it was that they they've been really clever how they've used each of the characters to help tell the story and still keep it exciting as you're going around the play field. So which characters? I know you voice you said six of them. Which which six characters do you voice? Yeah, I'm Splinter, Bebop, Rocksteady, Baxter, Baxter Fly and Casey Jones. and Casey Jones I think is kind of dovetailed into a wizard mode is that correct? oh I haven't played it yet I don't want to spoil the surprise I think that would make a great deal of sense but I Dwight actually talked about this and he talked about the challenge of doing the storyboard of the story and saying that he had so much Casey Jones but eventually there's only so much you can put in the game so they had to narrow it down yeah yeah yeah i remember him saying how he would have liked more uh yeah i think the way they've used each of the characters was pretty clever and it's kind of i like the fact that they they were true to the original show by using splinter to be your guide throughout the whole thing because it could have been tempting to use the turtles but to have the turtles be the action-packed voices and characters for these you key moments and to lead you into certain uh spaces i think is great but but to have splinter as the narrator and the guide that's just a bit more grounded works really well it uh it takes you through it and you you're not going to get tired of that it's something that you're happy to just sit along and take you for that journey it's um it's it's a nice start and um i'm over the i'm over the moon to just i've been watching all the feeds like you have i just want to get that multiball yeah no it's great so uh when are they going to be able to get one to you when are you going to have one in your recording studio i've got an le on its way and it should be here by the end of this month fingers crossed nice so you will jump on a boat and you can come and have a go you have to wear a mask and gloves but you're in yeah well i have a premium coming so when that comes i So, however, I had to buy the Artblade separate and the Shaker motor, but you get those stocks. I went to one of the reasons I wanted it was for the upgraded audio. Yeah. Yeah. Obviously. Yeah. When's yours due? You know what? They don't know. I was talking with Josh about this earlier because he's getting a pro and I'm getting a premium. Yes. And we're trying to figure out that in the past they have done the LEs, then the pros, and then they've done the premiums last. but it sounds like they're planning on mixing this up a little bit and so they're alternating pros and premiums so depending on where we are in the pecking order i actually may get my premium before him oh my i i i must ask somebody at stern if there's any way of me getting a translate a separate translate because i i am blown away with the the artwork that uh jeremy pack has done for this thing it's absolutely gorgeous even on every machine totally shines the the artwork on And the pro is terrific on the back glass, on the translate. And every single cabinet, you'd be happy with any one of them. And Zombie Yeti talked about that. And he said the pro was the first one he did. And that's the one that he tends to like the most just because of the centralization of the turtles. I really love the pro artwork. Seriously. it is it is uh i was about to say the word simple but that's almost um not complimentary enough for it but what he's done with it it's there's real there's a great focal point on that uh on that pro backlash on the on the translate for the pro same with the you know the play field too and the same with the cabinets it just kind of it does what it says in the tin it's everything that you'd want as a fan of the show and if you collected the toys the uh the the le artwork it's it's great it's full-on so i'm looking forward to that but you know i i would be i was very tempted by the pro artwork and i thought well if i'm in the game i've got to get the le but if i if i had a pro i'd be happy well and i think it looks great and the good thing is really translates aren't that expensive they're you know they're 100 bucks or something so you can buy them and swap them out maybe i should get a pro translate for my le yeah well you could swap have it on rotation they're not hard to swap out yeah uh i the only challenge is i year since it's a a back glass you'd have to get a an extra glass and so you could put the translate behind that but uh yeah but absolutely you guys have distributors there you can totally go yeah oh we got a really good one here yeah he's taking good care of us so what uh which character was the most fun to voice oh uh let's uh i like deep up and rock steady i mean it were they're great fun when you start going uh when you start talking like this the whole time it just goes nuts but frankly the the calm nature of splinter was a nice change because a lot of the time I'm going nuts doing game voices and animation voices. So to have the calmness of Splinter, which is more like a kind of mystical version of my own voice, was really quite calming. So I'm going to go with Splinter. I think I'm going to go with Splinter. I think I need to say, if you need any birthday messages or voicemails, we can do them as Splinter. There you go. Yeah, he will take you there. He'd be a good GPS voice. Yeah, he would be. Yeah, well, back in the day when you buy the Garmin was big here, you could buy the alternative voices and you could get one of those Yoda, like, turn here, you will. I did a lot of those. Yeah. Take the left turn. Now go straight ahead. Yeah, and I wish you could do that easily on, because everybody's basically defaulted their phone for GPS. And so it'd be easy if you could pay a few bucks and get an alternate voice on there. But I just don't think it's worth their headache. dealing with licensing for that and now you know what you you you're not going to need it this thing is so packed also with um with what jerry thompson has done for the sound on this game it is it is so true to the original it is full-on 80s all those big stings and hits and whooshes and bangs and all the iconic synth sounds that you love from your favorite 80s bands they are all in this machine Jerry's a master See you making me Regret to not getting the LE now maybe I need to upgrade my sound package so I can actually hear everything better I had a major sound upgrade on a machine of mine a couple of weeks ago And oh my God, it is shaking the floor now. It sounds absolutely stunning. And it's one, I listened to your podcast about this. and it's the game that I don't think has got the love that it really deserves. And if you had to guess, which one would you guess it would be? Okay. I'm going to narrow it down. I'm going to play five questions. Okay. So is it in the last 10 years? Yeah. Okay. And is it Stern? Yes. Okay. And hasn't got the love that it deserves. so you know what i would say i would narrow it down to two choices and i'm just gonna oh so i'm gonna guess final answer it's either monsters or stranger things oh man really star wars home oh you know what actually yeah that okay the challenge is i've never actually played one of those because there just haven't been any here however i mean uh Gomez. He designed it, and really, from everything I've heard about it, they're like, you know, it's actually a pretty fun game. I think people in the hobby feel kind of snobbish about it. It's like, oh, it's not a real pro game, but I'm just like, actually, it looks pretty good to me. Well, I absolutely, I've been blown away by it, and there's the way a whole bunch of fans were talking quite negatively about it last year and i kind of kept a very open mind and played it at expo by the way i'm probably an i'm probably in an unusual situation whereas um i love star wars i love pinball and i was in star wars so there's a there's a few niche things to tick on the list i played it at expo it was so much fun and there's a i had an open mind and i was ready to go no the fanboys were right. Seriously, you know, it's a stack of fun. It's just instant gratification. This is not a deep rule set or anything like that, but there's still enough to do. It was right next to a Beatles machine, which I also have and love. But this is it sounds terrific. The sound design in it is great. They've used the same palette of audio and video that are in the other game, which is the Pro Premium and LE from the other game from a few years ago. But this is a different game. And the one thing that I thought was interesting was hearing people that own, say, the Pro or the Premium say they are seeing media on the home game that they never saw in their own game. And what's great is it is quick and easy. And if you're not a huge pinball player, or even if you are, it is a step up, 10 minutes, have a go, blast the thing out the roof, and you'll just be smiling the whole time. by default it comes with one speaker which is a sound guy i want the biggest speaker system you can get so a few days ago a couple of weeks ago i had it upgraded to uh the uh stereo speakers a new amp and there's even a hole cut in the bottom for the subwoofer and oh my god with that sound system now it is it's incredible so i had a musician friend who's not big pinhead but he likes pinball and he's played on my machines in the past and he came over a couple weeks ago and he played beatles monster bash attack from mars um batman 66 and star wars home his two favorite games were in second place monster bash in first place star wars seriously yeah because he stepped up to it plunged the thing and straight away you've got the john williams score c3po r2d2 all the all the sound effects you know i love and within like 30 seconds he's got a multiball and he feels like he's just blown the thing up and was just just in absolute hysterics and seriously it's a it is such an underrated game it it and it's you know a full size play field um and i was expecting it to maybe not feel quite as good as a regular machine you know what it feel it feels fine it really feels good so yeah um for pinball santa i highly recommend it seriously after you've got your turtles absolutely okay actually i i do want to get a little bit more into the sound and really um i i listened to scott denisi and he talked about this that how sound is such a a necessary part of the of the experience and sure he pointed out that that's one of the things that took TNA to the, I guess the recognition that it had is because the Whitewood he had had this premium quality sound system. And it's a great soundtrack. And so it really brought him in. And I have always argued that the most important part of Star Wars for its success was actually the John Williams soundtrack. I totally agree. Yep. Yeah, and if you've seen the video of them walking in the very end of Star Wars where they're going to get their medallions and everything, and when they jip Chewbacca out of getting a medallion because he's a dog for some reason. But you can watch the video without any sound, and it looks ridiculous. But it's the same thing as when you have Darth Vader and you have the actor who's doing it, and he has a very high voice. And when you swap it out for – oh, I'm blanking on his name. James Earl Jones. Yes. Yes. And when you swap it out, it makes it different, and it's a complete different experience when you have the right voice with the actor. Yeah. Well, what you mentioned is Star Wars the movie. Imagine that movie without that soundtrack. Imagine Star Wars. Imagine C-3PO and it didn't sound like C-3PO or R2-D2 without those sound effects. And that's a testament to Ben Burtt's amazing sound design. With sound, it's 50% of the experience, and anyone that doesn't hear a game with the full sound blasted to the speakers, they're missing out on a huge part of the experience. Of course, the shots have got to be good. Of course, the rules have got to be good. But when you hear that with that soundtrack, the difference between me playing the Star Wars home game with just the one speaker to the upgrade that it was given, it's astonishing. Do you know what? Actually, to be fair to it, it sounded way better than I ever expected it to be with the one speaker. It still sounded good. But with a stunning audio system, oh, my God, it sends you to the roof. I mean, what we're going to get on Turtles Ellie is going to sound great as well. But seriously, the sound design in any machine for the music, the call outs, just all of the effects, every pop bumper, every slingshot, every hit, every drop target. That's what creates these key moments. You know, you look at something like Adam's Family for just before the multiball happens. It stops and there is a moment. It's theater. It's a roller coaster. And that's the stuff that's exciting. You know, it's it's it's light and shade. If you look at your favorite films, how music and sound effects and voices are used, it's creating it's it's creating anticipation or absolute roller coaster thrills or the sense of tension. Get ready. Something massive is about to happen. and then when you when you do something incredible when you get a high score to have that fanfare that you feel like you've really achieved something you know this is this is so much a part of the of the audio and the light show too you know you mentioned tna with what he did on that it was um the sound on that thing um when that would that would when that would play in our local barcade you know it was blowing away all the other machines there because it just sounded so good but um yeah i mean the the i i come from a sound background so i i love it as a fan but i appreciate it as someone that works in it too do you okay here's a question do you have a pinball machine that you absolutely adore uh that you would love to hear completely restored audio where at the moment the audio isn't great in terms of say call outs but you'd love to hear a fully restored version from the original recording tape? You know, my oldest machine is Black Rose. Oh. And it sounds very late 80s, early 90s. Sure. It does not have any modern sort of sounding. I'm surprised, Scott, you didn't go with X-Men, because X-Men... Oh, well, that whole sound package just needs to be replaced. I'm sorry. I wish I loved the game more than – because I have a beautiful X-Men, but it's right next to Tron, and I just, for the life of me, have a hard time enjoying X-Men. And I think the sound has always been detracting, and I'm not the only one who thinks that on that game. I'll tell you what mine is. I'm considering – I've never owned an Addams Family, and it's one of those where I kind of – I feel I should have it. but a beautiful restored, you know, completely beautiful restoration of the game. But what I would love is I would love it. If Chris Granner, the sound designer of, of Adam's family has the original recording sessions in high quality on a reel to reel or a dat tape somewhere that he did back in, what would it be? 92. Yeah. Because the, the only, the only version of those call outs we've ever heard is really low bit rate crunchy. You know, it's, it's what we're used to. And you get people to play around with things like pin sound that we'll do an alternate version, but of, of those call outs and the music. But the thing that makes Adam's family, Adam's family is that, that sounding soundtrack and those performance of, of those call outs. But, um, I would, I would love it if somewhere in a drawer, He's got that original recording session, and they did a remake of Adam's Family, but with beautiful, brand new, sounds like they were recorded today, callouts from Rel Julia. I think that Lord of the Rings falls into that category too, where everyone – they love the game, but the sound is – it's still not quite what they would want. and the art package is, well, if there were a high-res version of it, it would be so much better, but the gameplay is still so much more fun. But that is one of the, the evolution slash revolution of pinball over the last 10 years is the upgrading of the sound packages, where before they were just kind of junk. Yeah, and then there's a fine line too, because as somebody that loves the game for what it is, one of the reasons why we do love it is because of that 8-bit quality sometimes of the you know you look and say you look at pac-man and well yes of course you could do it now with much higher you know res graphics but it wouldn't be pac-man you know the same with synthesizers and the sound you hear in turtles the certain drum noises and synth sounds that make it um that make it authentic to that period in time and same with same with adam so you'd you'd still want to hear that music kind of sound like that but it's just with the call outs for me if i if we could get those call outs in a remake or uh uh we need to we need to uh we need to find it we need to find a friend of chris granner and start digging through his studio drawers yeah that's always the challenge of restoration right you want it to be updated but retro at the same time you're trying to capture You're trying to capture the spirit of the moment because it wouldn't be the same. Yeah, yeah. Because you can get – have you ever played around with pin sound? You know, I haven't because I am not that technical when it comes to computers. I have. I bought a Flintstones machine last year. Really? Yeah, just because I wanted an animation theme. and it was a really nice restoration with brand new decals and it was the animation overlay, so it didn't look like the movie version. It looked like an old-school cartoon version of the game. Okay. And it was the classy version of the Translight as well. Right. I know the alternate, yeah. Yeah, I've got it. So it was that. And you know what? It's actually quite a fun game for what it is. And I don't have it anymore, but I really enjoy it. I got a pin sound. And just hearing the same audio but in a better ramp, it sounded good to begin with. But then if you like tinkering around as well, it allowed you to go and change callouts. And I didn't really want to do much with it because it kind of worked. It sounded pretty good. And also a good game. It's just really a good game. You shouldn't want to go and change it. It's like you listen to Turtles. You don't want to change it. Sounds good. But you listen to Flintstones. When I worked with Cartoon Network, I get brought in every now and then to be the voice of Barney Rubble. And so I had a friend and her kids coming over to just visit around the time just after I bought this machine. So I recorded some custom call-outs for the kids as Barney Rubble. And it was like, you know, come on, Tim, it's your turn. Don't feel afraid. it was always, you know, you got a multiball and slammed a load of those in. And the look on their face as they're playing this game and it's saying their name. Oh, man. It's custom call-outs as part of downloads. That's the future. There you go. That's the DLC. Yes. I would do that. So, Mark, I've got an app, though. Like, with Ninja Turtles and stuff like that, when you come up upon a project that you're doing voices for and whatnot, how do you do you research is there a certain approach you have to it how do you get inspiration for that oh yeah it depends uh it depends on what it is if it's a brand new thing if it's a brand new show or say like with star wars they showed us uh they told us about the characters and and talked about the kind of uh sound characteristics of that and we'll come up with voices that we think will represent that well um with with titles this is something that's already there and you know the you know what in the the actors are not all them if you bring original actors back in they don't always sound the same um and well they've aged yeah yeah their voice timber is going to be different yeah and um you know same with singers you'll have singers that um they'll bring the key down where they perform it live now 20 years on because they can't do the high notes so uh but with turtles i watched everything i bought all the episodes and just watched them all again i went through everything from season one again and um and looked at the bigger picture of turtles as well and if i'm a fan you know i watched these back then and loved them and my brother was a massive turtles fan but um i wanted to make sure that what i thought it sounded like in my head was what it actually sounded like and it's funny even going back to the original animation of turtles from from the late 80s um this is one of those shows that they that they've never restored it they've never gone back to the original film and made it look pretty and some of it just because the nature of the beast it was a little rough around the edges some of the animation um you know we were talking about the animation earlier and what they've done within the game i actually think it's the best representation it's had in animation and especially for this, just the graphic artwork that Jeremy's done from the play field. Honestly, it is, I collect animation art going right back to the 40s for like Pinocchio and stuff and the work that he's done representing these characters, it is so good, it is so true to the time and you feel that it is, you know, you're playing with that turtles that you grew up and loved but going back to what you said i i watched every single episode and made sure that what i was doing was true to the intention that they were doing so you kind of yes you have to to a point you're emulating the sound of what they what they sounded like you have to to a point but also to create a new performance you have to understand the intention of why they were doing it that way because otherwise you're just copying someone else all the time you know and and we're looking to take it to a whole new level something new and something fresh for for this game so yeah i i did a stack of research i spent a lot of time um watching it and then of course you you know you've never heard splinter guide guide a player around a playfield so you know it's interpreting how do you take that character and how do you make it work and sound authentic and a stack of fun as well for when you're playing the game but yeah it took uh it took a good while but i it i i think you're gonna be happy okay so mark what uh how long have you been collecting games what was your first game and what is in your collection right now my first game was tomy atomic pinball when i was about 80 years old and then when i got back into pinball through the the um through local barcades here in the uk my first game was meant to be attack from mars because i fell in love with that uh and in the end i found um i found an aerosmith game actually aerosmith was my first game i love john borg's um work and um obviously he's mr turtles as well but i i played this Aerosmith game and it was just a load of fun and I got a hold of this Aerosmith game and again it's a great shooter and that toy, the toy box has a piece of theatre in that thing the scoop shoots it into this toy box and there's a massive multiball is it five or six balls you get in there? I think it's five but you can delay it you can actually say no I'm going to wait and stack it up Exactly, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a gamble. Yeah, so my first game was Aerosmith, and when I went to Chicago Expo, I brought back with me the Aerosmith topper by Stern. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. Have you seen it in the flesh? It's pretty. No, it's a good job. It is really good. And where they were clever, the Aerosmith logo, whether or not you like the band, the Aerosmith logo, they'd isolated each of the areas of the logo so that each little part of that could separately light up depending on what was going on musically. So the logo would basically move in time with the song that was playing. And it was a hell of a light show. It was more than just reproducing what you're seeing in the game. It's a really good topper. But that thing, I had to buy separate luggage to get it back to the UK. It cost me an extra $100 just in shipping to get it on the plane. So my first game was Aerosmith. The next one was Attack from Mars Ellie, which is terrific, and it's a great showpiece. And then what was after that? Oh, a friend, my pinball tweaker friend had a family guy, and I wanted a Pat Lawler game plus also an animation based game so that sat around for a while then Flintstones arrived then I got what else did we do oh yeah then there was Monster Bash Ellie from Chicago Gaming which I saw at Expo and I was just blown away with the great job they did of that and then after that Beatles which you know again what they What they did with that the the soundtrack on that game is it have you played Beatles? You know, it's actually on my list so right after turtles I am planning on buying a Beatles and so I ordered the topper and so the toppers coming here And so I just gonna have it on retainer until i get the game hang on didn you get the jurassic park topper too yes i did yeah yeah i heard i heard that you did that i heard you got the jurassic park topper but you got the you got the the beatles one just in case you bought the beatles well it's it no i'm planning on getting a beatles and i also said i want the black knight topper because at some point yeah yeah that's a great topper no i i'm I'm just a topper guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, the Attack from Mars topper is a lot of fun. And the topper of the sculpture that Christopher Franchi did for Monster Bash, Ellie, as well, that's really nice. But honestly, what Jerry Thompson has done with the sound design on Beatles, it's just terrific because he's got – first of all, in terms of the quality of it, it sounds great. The sound is used for all the pop bumpers and the hits and all that kind of stuff is also inspired. But for him to use cousin Brucey, Bruce Morrow, the radio DJ that introduced the Beatles in the mid-60s in New York at Shea Stadium, it's such a clever move because it makes it sound so authentic. You know, it's moments like that, if you're a fan of that particular theme, that really resonate and you really make it more immersive to play. The Beatles, it's a really fun game. but um yeah so i the current lineup is beatles attack from mars monster bashley batman 66 and um star wars home version which i i even after i played that star wars game in in chicago that's the sound of my pup by the way shaking her ears good girl um she had a bath earlier she smells beautiful. Oh, great. Yeah. She, yeah, even if I played that Star Wars game in Chicago, just because of what I kind of, because of all the kind of word around it, I still waited a little bit until I got it, even though I knew it was a good game. A friend in Paris bought it. I just absolutely fell in love with it. And he's actually said recently he has friends that go over to his place in Paris and he's got Twilight Zone and he has Attack from Mars. What else did he have? But he's got the Star Wars home game. And friends that go over there, their favorite game of the lot is the Star Wars home game. Isn't that interesting? Yeah, that doesn't surprise me, actually. Because it was intentionally made for an easy accessibility. Yep. And you can have a tournament on it because it's still a good game. Yeah. But people just don't see it that way. But really, it's a fun game. Like a stack of fun. And Josh and I were talking about this. I was saying that this is actually a brilliant game because if you have grandpa who's trying to get his fun cave downstairs where he has billiards or he gets all that kind of stuff. And then he's like, well, I want a pinball machine. How much are they? Well, they're $6,000 to $10,000. Really? You got anything cheaper? You kidding me? Yeah, yeah, exactly. I'm not doing that for my kids. and then it's like, oh, well, there's the Star Wars. Wait, Star Wars? I can get that for four something? Sure, give me that. And it's perfect. Here's an admission. For whatever reason, this one, I just find more fun than the other one. These things are so individual. Yeah, that's actually a common feel. One thing, with all respect to everyone that was involved in the other machine, they're just different games for different people. But I was offered a pro of the other game for the same price is the new in-box home version and i wanted the new in-box home version i think the other one's more ambitious in that and the code is is crazy deep it's a harder game and so it's more difficult to do all that uh on that game so the home edition you know it's it's uh so my wife has a mini and she it's it's a convertible mini and there are cars out there that are faster and stronger, but it's just a fun car to drive. You hop in, you put the top down, and it's like a go-kart with steroids. It's a great... Yeah, and I feel that that's how this home machine... It's just a fun game. And yeah, are there deeper games? Absolutely. But that's not what you're looking for. And what's great with the Star Wars home game, there are moments when you don't have a multiball. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, but even some little things where you go, hang on, that's a really nice idea. The way the shooter rod is attached to the play field. So when you lift it up, the whole thing comes together. That's a really innovative idea. The R2-D2 ball log, too. That's really nice. So the way you can steal that away from somebody else if you wanted to. And even the Orbit, it's such a cool, smooth shooter. It's really good. Well, it's a Gomez design. So it makes it it's not like it's a he should go professional. Yeah. Yeah. He's really good. This this kid's going to do something in video games. Well, I said George Gomez a note straight after I played it in Chicago, because after a few people had been not not as positive as I think it probably deserved to be reviewed. I just got in touch with him and just say congratulations. I really love the look of this. I played it and it just seems terrific. And he sent me back a whole bunch of information that hadn't been released publicly about this. And I said, can I share this? He said, sure. I got in touch with my friend Ken and he had him on a special when lit, you know, within like 24 hours revealing this information on the podcast. And it was they they they were talking about having he described it as a kick ass sound upgrade. and the, I think, Art Blades, potentially. There was a shoot-a-rod. There was a Millennium Falcon toy. But he gets it. He gets... The thing that I'm really drawn to as well with George Gomez games is just the sense of fun. The understanding of you walk up to the thing and you just have a stack of fun. Because you look at what he did in terms of his version of the playfield for Beatles. you know this isn't just a copy of the of the other games play field this is he moved stuff he added things this is it's a terrific game then you look at what he did with monster bash and again it's it's theater and sheer fun you could use it in a tournament but it's still fun and and also what a lovely moment for him that he was celebrating the launch of deadpool another great game at the same time as as monster bash le was being released plus Batman plus Batman as well the tweaks he did on that to make it what it was and you know I'm very drawn to his stuff but I mean John Borg as well the Shunsen Erisons were great fun but I really want to get my hands on these Turtles well the one thing I really appreciate about Gomez too is I feel like some of his codes reward you for completing a mode where some games it's just like you played the mode here you go but it's like with Gomez it's like here's a basic wizard mode, but if you're able to complete the modes and do what you're supposed to do, we'll give you an extra special wizard mode on top of that. Yeah, exactly. And I like the fact that you feel like, well, I'm just really saying what you were saying, Josh, but the idea, though, that he understands the importance of feeling rewarded or these key pinball moments, you know, it's real theater. It's a rollercoaster. And if you play some games where it's all about speed and it's all turned up to 11, but you kind of go you gotta have a break every now and then you know let's let's you think of just great storytelling in any in any movie or tv show or game any other game and it's those key moments that that stay with you you know with um with aerosmith the first game i got the light show on that when you get the the toy box the multiball it is so good and then when you get elevated multiball again it's this beautiful exciting build-up where it stops and there's a great light show the the sound goes nuts and then you know you get a gajillion balls coming down the playfield that year but that's the stuff that you look forward to rather than just it happens and it just carries on you know it's it's it's a proper show that's what i really enjoy totally By the way, would you – okay, I've had an offer of swapping my Batman 66 premium for a fully, beautifully restored high-end Addams Family. Would you do that? I'm not the guy to ask. Actually, I would say no because I don't have that nostalgic connection to Addams Family. I know everybody loves it. I actually bought Adam's Family and I had it a little bit and I just I never had that connection that I liked it more than other games. I actually sold my Adam's Family to Josh and Josh kept it for a couple of months and he sold it on, too. And it just it just feels like now my friend, that is his that is his favorite game. He actually wants a fully restored. He sold his gold version and he wants to get a fully restored one. And I just look at it, I was like, it's not, you know, it doesn't charge my batteries like other people's. Other people really have that nostalgic feel for it. It just, it's not me. So I would keep Batman 66. Well, I'm kind of right there with Scott. Like, I don't know, I had Adam's family for six months and it felt too repetitious. I could easily get to Tor Mansion, get through Tor the Mansion. Yeah. and I just I don't know there's so much more depth to Batman 66 I would probably hold on to Batman 66 just because like Scott said I'm not the one with the nostalgia like it doesn't appeal to that part of me and so Adam's Family is just another game I guess also it's worth us remembering the point in time that it came from you know these were created for in an arcade they were created for on location you know you put your money in and they wanted to give you three minutes to play so you put your money in again and have another three minutes to play. I guess the intention originally wasn't to make them particularly deep necessarily because they're there to take money. Whereas now, if you're a home buyer, you're looking for something much deeper more than likely. Yeah. Exactly. Before, the home market just was non-existent, so it didn't matter. You had to have something that was very accessible within 10 minutes and now you get like monster bash where it's a fun game it's in that same category of hey this is just a fun ride a tournament player will be able to boss it around but you know what i still have fun because i stink that much well i look at some of my favorite arcade games look at ghosts and goblins it's impossible paperboy it's great fun but again not the most controllable game you look at um you look at uh say oh i love space harrier still that's a great game uh from from sega uh but then you look and say something that was beautiful and revolutionary in the okay at the time uh dragon's lair and space ace well these aren't really games five minutes yeah yeah you can beat it if you played for five minutes you were better than me you know i but again that was again pure theater you you know you're playing a video disc but again this is it's down to these were built for a very specific experience in an arcade on on location and you know when i go i've got a bunch of games here and you know you you go back in and you you see they coded for a different reason and it's funny I was a big gamer at school, and then as I started to work in games, I've done the voice for a stack of games. There was a big game called Black and White from EA years ago, and I was the voice of good and evil in Black and White. And there's a game called Overlord on Xbox and PlayStation. There's a big game from Sega right now called Two Point Hospital. I'm the voice of the radio station. that there's a very there's a guy called ricky hawthorne your hospital radio uh voice guy who who sits and talks along with you as you're playing the thing the whole thing's marvelous and there's a whole bunch of these characters in this game but the um the the point being games now to play at home they are by the nature of you playing them at home they're movies you know you can play them for months and maybe not get to the end of them but i don't have that time now and I'm really enjoying, not even necessarily for the nostalgia thing of it, although that's probably part of it, I really enjoy just being able to step up with a coffee and play a game for 10 minutes. And that's what's so, I don't know, enjoyable for me about pinball. It's not about a tournament for me. It's about, it's the theater, it's the show of it. I love it, the artwork, the creative, you know, the bigger creative picture of it. but it's better to just step up, play for 10 minutes and go, that was a stack of fun and share that with friends. That's to me, that's what I get out of it. I agree with you. I think that you have to have a special balance. It's just not about the gameplay. It's just not about the code and the layout. The games that are coveted as some of the best games are theater, like you said. And I think that sometimes people lose sight of that, especially when certain companies are making pinball machines. I guess we can go with Thunderbirds since that's the easiest one to pick on. No! Make it stop, please! Make it stop! I love that show! I'm in the new show! It's the only... It is so rare that I ever want to say anything negative about any pinball machine. It's very rare that you find a pinball machine where the best mod available is a hammer yeah yeah yeah that's true or lighter fluid you know i i so wanted to love that machine but you know you know the funny thing is thunderbirds was never i had never even heard of thunderbirds until the game came out and i'm like what are you guys talking about yeah so and i'm in i'm in your age so i like it just wasn't a big thing here so yeah well it's it would for me it was a dream theme you know you just think of your your favorite you know show as a kid that was one of those and you know i i work with some of the people that worked on the original series in the reboot of it over here in the uk and um yeah you know you win some you lose some but the uh the the rebooted show is cool at least at least at least we have turtles it's okay josh it'll be fine so do you think do you think if they re-theme Thunderbirds to the American version Team America. Do you think they'll sell more? Well, I think you need to speak to Matt and Trey about that one. That's a whole different game. Okay, but instead of spelling International Rescue, I'd have to spell Team America F. Yeah. There's a family pinball machine if you need one. Exactly. Absolutely. Okay. We'll wrap it up a little over an hour, but I do have to point out that someone did, I listened to a comedian about 20 years ago and he was talking about Scooby-Doo and since you're involved in Scooby-Doo, he pointed this out and I didn't know if you had a take on it. He said, one, that Shaggy is a total druggie because he eats all the time and never gains weight. He also talks to a dog and he understands the dog coming back. And also Fred is the genius of the group because he says, Hey, Thelma, Shaggy, and Scooby, why don't you go search for clues? And Daphne and I are going to hang out over here. I think he's overanalyzing his life. He needs to go restore Adam's family and get on with it. Okay, but Shaggy does anything for a dog treat. Like I'll do anything for a treat, Scoob. Right, Scoob? Oh, my God. Well, I got it where at a Comic-Con, I got asked about being the voice of Bob the Builder in America. And this guy came up to me and said, don't you think it's weird that the American voice of Bob the Builder is performed by a guy in Robert Englunds who's not American, even though what he's performing is for America? And I said, that's a really interesting point. Did you know that the voice of Scooby-Doo isn't actually performed by a dog? well it's just like that point of um the the producers of the people that made house md were like we need a really american voice went real just solid american person and the gentleman that walked in you know did his his bill and they're like that's it and then he started talking his british accent they're like wait you're not american but it just goes to show is that this all of this it's acting it's acting and it goes back to whether it's just another kind of artist whether it's Jeremy Packer (Zombie Yeti) whether it's me as a voice performer whether you're a musician this is all about people creating this thing it's all about creativity and creating performance that's what this is about it doesn't matter where you're from or what your background is if you can perform the character that's needed then it should go to the best performer hopefully totally agree did you know that BoJack Horseman Will Arnett is actually not a horseman you're ruining these man another one cancelled they should also get Batman to voice Batman and it seems kind of seems kind of ridiculous I'm just glad that James Earl Jones is still Darth Vader because in terms of a voice now that's what you wanted to rewrite your life although if you want me to when the pandemic is over and we're out of the apocalypse bunker I will happily just walk around. I'll just follow Scott and follow you both, actually, with your dribble and just narrate your day. He's walking on the left ramp. Now take a left. Buy a cappuccino. Now have a donut. That would be so fantastic. Either that or you can just walk behind me doing the breathing of Darth Vader. The caw, caw, caw, caw. just sound like someone that needs an inhaler yeah exactly if you followed me around I'd want it more like a golf announcer or like a soccer announcer you know what I'm saying really quiet oh and he's going for the hole he's stepping up to the air conditioner right now there's a game show announcer ladies and gentlemen you know him you love him you can't live without him here he is Captain Dribbly yeah come on Josh dribble some more you know it alright Mark well we really appreciate you coming on we appreciate you staying staying up and hanging out in your apocalypse bumper in Robert Englunds and I hope you really enjoy that fish pie it sounds interesting I think my mom might be at the door right now this is the best way to wrap up any podcast I've ever been a part of thanks so much for chatting I really enjoy the podcast and I hope you enjoy Turtles uh thank you thanks mark i hope you enjoy turtles as much as i enjoy my fish pie i was gonna say i guess we need to our typical wrap-up right scott yeah you can go ahead and do it it's time for a typical wrap-up and now the wrap-up if you want to get a hold of us we are loser kid pinball podcast at gmail.com i have shortened the name now so if you're looking for us on facebook you just have to go at loser kid pinball and not only are we on instagram we started up a Twitter a week or two ago because we figured if the Poor Man's Pinball podcast was cool enough to have a Twitter, we better be as cool as them and get one for ourselves. So if you want to contact us, those are the ways to get a hold of us. Gmail or Facebook is probably the best way. Send us off, Scott. You know what? Also, check us out on any of your favorite podcaster catchers, and if you're on iTunes, please give us a review. It actually helps our searchability rating. So be excellent to each other and party on dudes party on shut up and sit down Bye. _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: af3fc33c-dbd7-4818-add8-420153fe01a7*