# The Super Awesome Pinball Show - Ep. 27.5 Bonus **Source:** The Super Awesome Pinball Show **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2021-09-01 **Duration:** 67m 38s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://superawesomepinballshow.libsyn.com/the-super-awesome-pinball-show-ep-275-bonus --- ## Analysis Christopher Franchi and Christian Line discuss their recent activities over the past two months, including Franchi's basement renovation and his freelance art work for multiple pinball companies. The episode covers two major news items: the Deep Root fraud scandal involving Robert Mueller, and Stern's newly announced Insider Connected program featuring internet connectivity, achievements, leaderboards, and operator analytics. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Christopher Franchi completed one art package for a pinball machine and is three-quarters done with another, with a third in progress — _Direct statement from Franchi about current freelance work; one project (Cactus Canyon art blades) confirmed shipping in 'a few weeks'_ - [HIGH] Cactus Canyon will receive new art blades, plastics, and topper artwork from Franchi within a few weeks — _Franchi explicitly states: 'If you want to say any Franchi art, you'll be seeing one in a few weeks because I did some work for Cactus Canyon'_ - [HIGH] The other two major art projects Franchi is working on will not be visible until next year — _Franchi: 'the game that's already in the can you will not see until next year okay and i'm pretty sure these other two you will not see until next year either'_ - [HIGH] Deep Root's Robert Mueller is facing SEC investigation and fraud charges related to stolen customer funds — _Discussed as major news event; hosts confirm government investigation and theft from customers_ - [HIGH] Stern's Insider Connected program adds achievements, experience points, location-verified scores, and operator analytics to new and past LCD games — _George Gomez announcement discussed; described as system for achievements, quests, experience points, and operator performance monitoring_ - [HIGH] Stern Insider Connected may cannibalize Score Bit and PinQuest businesses through integrated leaderboards and quest systems — _Franchi and Line explicitly discuss potential loss for Score Bit and PinQuest as Stern integrates these features into all games_ - [HIGH] Jersey Jack Pinball already has internet connectivity in their games, making them earlier to market than Stern — _Line: 'I mean jersey jack has already had internet connectivity for a while but they're doing it sounds like stern is doing a lot more'_ - [HIGH] Franchi's new Stern art print will be available at Expo on holographic foil stock and will also become a t-shirt — _Franchi: 'i just finished an art print for stern it's an illustration that's going to be an art print a special limited edition art print at expo uh that i will be on hand to sign it's really cool it's going to be this like holographic foil sort of stock'_ ### Notable Quotes > "I did some work for Cactus Canyon. Oh, cool. I did art blades for the side. They added a couple of plastics and things on the inside, and I did the artwork for that." > — **Christopher Franchi**, ~15:30 > _First concrete confirmation of upcoming Cactus Canyon art update with estimated 'few weeks' release timeline_ > "and now robert mueller i mean they're they're all like barnum's of pinball yeah yeah it's uh we have to be wiser to that i think as a pinball community" > — **Christian Line**, ~37:00 > _Frames Deep Root/Mueller fraud as part of pattern of showmen making unrealistic promises in pinball industry_ > "if there are any good things that came from this, where all of them... Pin pod! Well, the pin pod, of course." > — **Christopher Franchi**, ~43:00 > _Dark humor acknowledgment of Deep Root's only lasting legacy being the 'pin pod' meme_ > "both the player and i guess the operator as well has a lot of you know perks that will really enhance things" > — **Christian Line**, ~51:30 > _Describes dual-sided value proposition of Stern Insider Connected for both home and commercial operators_ > "So there might be a conflict of interest as far as score bit's concerned there" > — **Christopher Franchi**, ~54:00 > _Identifies potential negative impact of Stern Insider Connected on Score Bit leaderboard service_ > "what's interesting is that at locations, you will get full experience points for doing certain things. But then at home play, you won't get quite as many for doing the same things. And that's because they're trying to discourage people from cheating" > — **Christian Line**, ~59:30 > _Explains Stern's anti-cheating mechanism using location-based experience point weighting_ > "gomez is really hot on this... he said that there's going to be even potential for game design decisions being made from this internet connectivity because they can see what modes are getting gotten to the most" > — **Christian Line**, ~68:00 > _Indicates data analytics from connectivity will inform future Stern game design decisions_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Christopher Franchi | person | Pinball artist; co-host of The Super Awesome Pinball Show; recently left Stern to freelance; working on multiple pinball art projects for unspecified companies | | Christian Line (Dr. Pin) | person | Co-host of The Super Awesome Pinball Show; pinball enthusiast and community figure | | Robert Mueller | person | Founder of Deep Root Pinball; under SEC investigation for fraud and theft; allegedly stole customer funds | | George Gomez | person | Senior designer at Stern Pinball; architect of Insider Connected program; scheduled for future interview | | Deep Root Pinball | company | Defunct pinball company; founder Robert Mueller facing fraud charges; company collapsed due to financial scandal | | Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; announced Insider Connected internet connectivity platform for games | | Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer; already has internet connectivity in games; ahead of Stern in this feature | | Cactus Canyon | game | Pinball game receiving new art blades, plastics, and topper artwork from Franchi; shipping in 'a few weeks' | | American Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer; toured by Franchi and Line in Chicago trip | | Score Bit | product | High score leaderboard service for Stern pinball games; potentially threatened by Stern Insider Connected | | PinQuest | product | Quest/achievement system for pinball locations; features now incorporated into Stern Insider Connected | | Mrs. Pin's Pinball Podcast | media | Podcast hosted by Mrs. Line (wife of Christian Line); covered Chicago factory tour episode | | The Super Awesome Pinball Show | media | Pinball podcast hosted by Christopher Franchi and Christian Line; bonus/throwback format episode | | Stern Insider Connected | product | New internet connectivity platform from Stern; features achievements, experience points, location-verified leaderboards, operator analytics, and location-based quests | | Stern Expo | event | Upcoming event where Franchi will sell limited edition holographic foil art print of his custom artwork | ### Topics - **Primary:** Christopher Franchi freelance work and career transition, Deep Root Pinball fraud scandal and Robert Mueller, Stern Insider Connected platform announcement, Internet connectivity and data analytics in pinball game design - **Secondary:** Basement renovation and home entertainment setup, Arcade One-Ups collectibles and casual gaming, Chicago factory tours of pinball manufacturers, Community scams and fly-by-night pinball companies ### Sentiment **Mixed** (0.35) — Episode is celebratory about personal/creative achievements (Franchi's career diversification, basement completion, Stern's technical innovation) but heavily negative regarding Deep Root scandal. Hosts balance humor/memes about Mueller's downfall with sympathy for victims and affected employees. Overall tone is optimistic about pinball's future technical capabilities while cautionary about trust in new companies. ### Signals - **[business_signal]** Deep Root Pinball has collapsed due to SEC fraud investigation against founder Robert Mueller for theft of customer funds; company dissolution underway (confidence: high) — First item in news segment; described as confirmed investigation with theft allegations; discussed as industry scandal comparable to Enron - **[community_signal]** Hosts and community expressing wariness about new pinball companies making grand promises; recommend wait-and-verify approach before funding new ventures (confidence: high) — Line: 'can everyone in pinball just make a general pact right now that if a new company comes out on the scene with unreasonable claims... we just shouldn't throw our money at them like wait until we actually seen some manufacturing' - **[community_signal]** George Gomez scheduled for future interview on Super Awesome Pinball Show to provide deeper technical details about Insider Connected platform implementation (confidence: high) — Line: 'keep in mind that we are going to have George Gomez on in the coming weeks to talk more about this' - **[market_signal]** Stern Insider Connected feature set may cannibalize separate third-party services (Score Bit, PinQuest) by integrating leaderboard and quest functionality directly into manufacturer ecosystem (confidence: high) — Franchi: 'There might be a conflict of interest as far as score bit's concerned' and Line: 'PinQuest has been trying to do... now that is completely all over every Stern game' - **[personnel_signal]** Christopher Franchi has transitioned from Stern employment to freelance art work for multiple pinball manufacturers; planning to return to Stern for future projects 'when the right title comes along' (confidence: high) — Franchi: 'leaving Stern helped to diversify you a little bit right because you've kind of branched out and have done little things or big things for a lot of different pinball companies now' and 'I'm supposed to be back at stern soon doing games' - **[announcement]** Stern officially announced Insider Connected internet connectivity platform featuring achievements, experience points, location-verified leaderboards, and operator analytics across new and legacy LCD games (confidence: high) — Discussed as major news announcement; George Gomez confirmed as architect of system; additional interview planned - **[sentiment_shift]** Community moving from early skepticism of new pinball startups to more cautious wait-and-verify stance following Deep Root collapse; pattern recognition of 'showman' entrepreneurs making unrealistic promises (confidence: high) — Hosts framing Mueller, Highway, J-Pop as consistent pattern of 'Barnum's of pinball' using impressive promises to obscure fraudulent/incompetent operations - **[technology_signal]** Internet connectivity and data analytics becoming central to pinball game design and operator management; Stern following Jersey Jack's precedent but with more extensive feature set (confidence: high) — Gomez emphasizing design decisions will be informed by connectivity data; operator notifications for machine failures; location-verified scores; achievement systems modeled on video game standards --- ## Transcript Sometimes we're funny, sometimes we suck This program contains dirty potty mouth Cause we like to swear Hey! The following is an ad-hoc radio production Meow It's time for the Super Awesome Pinball Show With Pinball Artist Christopher Frangie And Dr. Ben Christian Lai Super awesome, yeah No one can do it like we do it, like we do it, like we do it Cause no one can do it like we do it, like we do it, like we do it We got the right stuff, we put the hammer right down Wanna be like us, you better stick around If you want it, you gotta prove it Like we do it. Like we do it. Super awesome. Yeah, cause no one can do it like we do it, like we do it, like we do it. Cause no one can do it like we do it, like we do it, like we do it. are in for a treat because we kind of got sort of a throwback show we're going to be talking about our past couple of months in pinball we got a couple of quick news points and then we've got an exciting event to tell you about but first the sexy part of the show my glorious co-host dr pin christian line how you doing buddy hey yo i'm good man it's been a minute right since we've been uh on the air for the halloween and the ultra man reveal yeah um it's been two months miss talking pinball with you it's uh it's been it's been too long so today's show we're kind of mixing up and jumping back to our old format, which should be fun. Well, yeah, we wanted to jump on and tell you about a special event coming up. And at the same time, we just figured, like, it's been two months. We need to make a podcast. So let's make a podcast. So, yeah, geez, all kinds of things going on. You want to start to – what have you been doing? Well, I know what you've been doing for the past couple of months. Why don't you tell the listeners what you've got going on downstairs, if you know what I'm saying? Oh, are you talking about the basement? Yeah. our past few months you know when we first moved into our house our basement had two sides we had the one side that was our daughter's princess fairyland which had a bounce house and a ball pit and a car track painted on the cement floor and other stuff but the other side was a shop and it had tool benches and a four-wheeler parking spot for the previous owners and none of that stuff jived with us so we totally redid that but holy crap man it's expensive and it takes a long time to finish a basement, I have learned. But we did it in parts. We wanted our kids to grow out of their side of the basement and be okay with us kind of taking away the bounce house area. And they finally are at that age. So it's finished, man. It's happened. We've converted it into the dream man cave. There's pinball machines on both sides. There's a brand new bar with these amazing kind of zinc-wrapped countertops. We've got coin taker LED strips on the bar shelves and giant TV with surround sound for movie nights. It's just, it's pretty epic. Well, hello, Mr. Fancy Pants. Including a slushie machine that we also got from the Cointaker crew. And it makes some adult slushies every weekend. So we've got Christopher Franchi art on the walls everywhere. And it just, it looks amazing, man. So anyone in the Hershey, Pennsylvania area who wants to come and play some pinball, please let us know. We'll have you over. We'll drink some beers. We'll have some gin and tonics. and yeah man it's finally done notice how he didn't mention the expensive martini neon that I bought in the first basement that is the piece de resistance that is on the bar and it looks sexy did you hang it up? that was an early stage that was draft one of the basement things have evolved since then I thought it was literally like a piece of resistance like your wife's like you are not hanging it don't you do that no it looks good man it definitely complements the area so it's just it's in my defense it's just a martini glass there's no naked ladies swimming in it or anything like that we know you are franchi just uh i know i know i had to try and be i had to be you know force myself to be classy yes well and you you have a couple soirees since then right you had some people what's the verdict what's the verdict on the basement uh the verdict is that it is a a great time man we have we have tons of uh tons of friends who have come over and they've been like this place is basically like the best bar in the area. Awesome! Totally awesome! We're not binning your area. That's not saying a whole lot. We're the only house in the area. In fact, it's a dry town, so it's not really not saying much. But yeah, the fact that we have pinball and we have people coming over to check out the basement and then they get into the pinball world and I can kind of try to recruit people into the hobby. It's been fun. It's been fun to have people over and check everything out. How about you, man? What have you been up to? Well, geez, I finished one art package for one pinball machine for one company. I am three quarters of the way done on another art package for another pinball game for another company. And I'm underway on a third for yet another game for another pinball company. Hey, are you the horror bangs, everybody? You're staying busy, man. I know that we can't go into details, but when might we see some of these things? Well, let's see. If you want to say any Franchi art, you'll be seeing one in a few weeks because I did some work for Cactus Canyon. Oh, cool. I did art blades for the side. They added a couple of plastics and things on the inside, and I did the artwork for that. It's all, you know, it's nothing. It's not like I want second billing on the artwork. I did it in the original artist style, and I also did a piece of art for the topper. so i mean if you're just talking franchise art in general that will be out in a couple of weeks and then after that the game that's already in the can you will not see until next year okay and i'm pretty sure these other two you will not see until next year either so hey i got a pretty good shot at a twippy in 22 do you know because i'm not sure twippies will be around in 2022 but we'll get to that later that's true that's true so other than that i started collecting um not seriously but arcade one-ups i've got a uh a tempest multi-cade game that's got a bunch of crap in it the galaga and some other stuff and uh i have a space invaders so those are fun they're just like they're a little bit smaller you know they're about two-thirds the size of a regular arcade game so i had no idea that you were into arcade one-ups there's a huge subculture just like for pinball machines oh yeah one-up games so how many do you have now i'm not getting into i i just have the two and that i know that uh there's a third one coming that i really want which actually is tied to our pal mr george gomez who designed the cabinet and the handle for this is the tron game they're making an arcade one-up of that game and i am really excited to get that that's the one that i've always wanted so and i'll probably end my collection there that's cool i mean i'm surprised that you don't have any of the arcade one-up pinball machines you know there's a few of those yeah well i like real pinballs okay that's fair we got that yes yes um and then i just finished an art print for stern it's an illustration that's going to be an art print a special limited edition art print at expo uh that i will be on hand to sign it's really cool it's going to be this like holographic foil sort of stock so it's going to be reflective and nifty and then it's also going to be a t-shirt down the road so there's that and um you know just some other little things here and there that's that's about it you've done you've done two expo posters now i know you've done some tpf stuff and and others do you do you just generally draw what you want and you think is cool for the show or do you get you know specific requests from the people behind the show who are running it and say hey i want this spoiler alert to be honest in this situation what happened was i was kind of tired of people thinking that all I could do is draw realistic, you know, super polished artwork. I can do, you know, many different styles. And so I thought I would quote unquote flex nuts and do something that I always wanted to do, which is like those old rat think, you know, monsters in cars and stuff like that. I wanted to do a car that was basically a pinball machine with no play field in it. And this big monster creature sitting inside that cabinet with a steering wheel and a big stick shift coming out. And I thought it'd make a cool stern shirt. So I made a the topper on the pinball machine is uh the stern logo and uh the pinball machine itself is lightning which is an old stern game so people might recognize the cabinet you did i know i showed it to you and you knew exactly what it was yeah no it's a really cool design so people are going to love this thing when you when you come out with it so you're going to make a print and a t-shirt right yeah yeah it's stern's going to be doing that it's going to be all through stern this shirt's going to come later on down the road and that's really it i just you know i i did the artwork and I sent it into Stern and I just said, is there anything you can use this for? And they said, oh, you know, we'd love to make a sure out of this. And then they said, hey, you know, Expo's coming up. Are you going to be there? And I said, yeah. And they said, why don't we make a print of this too, do a limited edition print. You can sign it right there. And I said, cool, sounds good. So that's your show. A little bit of tenacity pays off, you know, you do some work, you know, it might end up, you know, in the garbage can, you never know, but put forth the effort and voila. Yeah, man, it's great. I think that leaving Stern helped to diversify you a little bit right because you've you've kind of branched out and have done little things or big things for a lot of different pinball companies now yeah and that's cool because i think in in 2022 it's going to be the year of franchi yeah there's there's definitely definitely challenges uh in the stuff that i took on these three projects so three entirely different types of challenges and um i think so far i've met the task you know head on and and uh has been successful with it so i'm just you know of course you just have to wait to see what all the people think but uh i'm very pleased with the results so far so i think uh paid off and and yeah i'm supposed to be back at stern soon doing games So I'm looking forward to that. Just waiting for a title that suits me proper and we'll take it from there. So should we get into the news? Heck yeah, man. And before we hit the news, one thing that we did together and my family actually joined us for this was we went down to Chicago and we toured American Pinball and we toured Jersey Jack Pinball. We hung out with a lot of the guys from Stern. It was probably the most epic pinball trip that I've taken with my family. And it was so cool to be there with you and check out all of these different places. Yeah, it was a good time. And as a matter of fact, you and your wife, Mrs. Penn, discussed it on her show, Mrs. Penn's Pinball Podcast. So rather than go over that all again, actually, I enjoy the way she went through it in her own unique style. So search out Mrs. Penn's Pinball Podcast and check out that episode. And you can hear all about our shenanigans in Chicago. Absolutely. Check it out. It was a good show. All right. Now to the news. And now, Pinball in the News with your super awesome eyewitness news crew. Well, Dr. Pin, I feel funny calling you that. I feel weird having people call me that. Well, I feel like I'm not your friend. Like I'm saying, hey, Dr. Pin, can I have an autograph? Right, right, right. So, Christian, yes. The first thing on the news, you know, I can't wait. You'll notice on the notes it's number one. Deep Root is fucked. You lose. Good day, sir. You have been waiting for this day with anticipation. You knew it was coming, Chris, and you were so excited about this because you have some strong feelings about Robert Mueller, I know. My mouth has been foaming for a week. Yeah, because, you know, allegedly, Robert Mueller is a piece of shit. I said allegedly. It's not been proven yet, but it will be. But, yeah, my opinion, I do not like the guy whatsoever. I didn't like him from day one. I kind of had foreseen this coming since day one because I knew a guy with his shit attitude wasn't going to last in this hobby. I don't want some kind of credit like, yeah, he burned and crashed and I knew it. I knew that was the first one to say, you know, that's not it. I just never liked this guy. And now I know why. It's like maybe I've got a better nose for crime than McGruff the crime dog. Because, wow, what a hunk of shit. Stealing from all of these people. God. When they came on the scene, man, you, I don't know, a lot of people said this. I mean, you weren't the only guy who was like, you know, this company is either going to be the most incredible breakthrough and, you know, advance pinball in lots of different ways. Or it's going to be a spectacular catastrophe. And it looks like an unfortunately was the latter. Yeah. The Titanic part two. Yeah. Wah, wah. You know, and I feel sorry for the people that were there. I know some people think that they're partially to blame and that they may have had knowledge of this, but I don't. I don't believe so. The people that I know that are there have more scruples than to go, oh, you're stealing money from old people to pay us? That's cool. You know, whatever. So I don't think that's necessarily the case. So while I laugh and revel at Mr. Mueller about getting slammed in the ass when he goes to jail, I do not feel happy for the people who got ripped off by him. I do not feel happy for the people that work there. It's an unfortunate situation. Another unfortunate situation caused by Mr. John Pompidou. Yeah, no, I know. For the people who are blaming guys like Barry Osler and Steve Ballard and for not speaking up sooner, I think you're kind of being unfair for a few reasons. I'm sure there were plenty of red flags and we saw it and I know that they saw it. But, you know, Robert was still dumping a ton of money every month. You know, not his money to use, of course, that we found out now into the company and its salaries. But I think it would be easy to chalk it up to, you know, growing pains or Robert's poor business decisions if you're in the company looking at this from the inside and not necessarily know that there was something criminal going on. I mean, how much does an employee of a company really know about what's happening at the highest levels of that company? Well, you know, to solidify what you said, think about this. When we got the news of what happened, everybody was surprised. Everybody was like, holy shit, we didn't expect that. Yeah, we knew it could be bad, but we didn't think it would be that bad. I had no idea something like that was coming. I thought I'd be like, well, I ran out of money and you're not getting your game. Sorry, which would have sucked. But to be like, you know, oh, we're being investigated by the government. We stole money from all, you know, I never expected any of that. Right. So why would anybody that works there, you know, have any idea what kind of personal crap, you know, was going on behind their backs? You know, they were getting paychecks and that's all they knew. You know, I mean, what was the last time you went up to your boss and said, hey, we get all this money from, you know, you just take the check and go home. Dude, I'm I'm on a five person executive committee for my practice of like 50 physicians. And I don't always have insight as to what's happening at like every level of the company. So I just think it's you're fired. Yeah, right. But I just think it's unfair to expect that someone on the staff as a game designer or anyone else would necessarily know the finer details of how bad the fraud was there. Right. And what do you I mean, if you start to smell, you know, smoke, what do you do? Run out to Pinside and go, hey, everybody, you better, you know, no, you just like you may like raise one eyebrow and go, what's going on? You may look into it, but you don't as soon as you think something ain't right. You don't just run out to the public and start because what if you're wrong? You lose your job, you get thrown out on your ass. So, yeah, it's ludicrous to blame anybody there other than Mr. Mueller for any of this bullshit. But everyone has NDAs, right? No one is going to no one is going to say anything, even if they could, because Robert was so litigious and he probably still is. But I don't know, man, having seen all of the failed pinball companies and basically outright scams over the last few years with these guys, like, can everyone in pinball just make a general pact right now? that if a new company comes out on the scene with unreasonable claims you know setting expectations that we know would be difficult to achieve maybe throwing shade at other companies we just shouldn't throw our money at them like wait until we actually seen some manufacturing a game that actually works before we you know we trust that they can do what they say they can do Right Yeah Yeah Definitely Just with new companies I mean I the same way Like when I when I do work if I never dealt with a company before I charge them a deposit and once they prove that, you know, that they make payments on time and all that, then next time we forego the deposit, we don't worry about it. But yeah, you don't automatically, you know, no one should automatically get, you know, free trust these days. When it comes to this stuff, when you're going to put your money on the line, you know, And money's getting harder and harder to come by, and you're getting a lot less for it these days. So we don't need to be throwing it away and setting it on fire with these fly-by-night charlatans who have grand illusions. That's it, though. It's the loudest, it's the most energetic, you know, the showmen, basically, that come out and they give all of these promises. It's an impressive skill. I mean, they say, you know, look at all these shiny, exciting things in one hand, and then they're taking your wallet with the other hand. um you know andrew highway j-pop skit b and now robert mueller i mean they're they're all like barnum's of pinball yeah yeah it's uh we have to be wiser to that i think as a pinball community but it is hard when they're offering all of these amazing new things that you you've been hoping for like pin pod the pin pod that thing was amazing just fucking put mueller in a pin pod that's the warehouse where the uh raiders of the lost dark thing is yeah i mean he's up in a couple of years he's in a world of hurt right now i've talked to a few people who have knowledge of how sec suits like this generally go and it looks like he's going to be hit with a massive fine on top of having to repay all the money he's stolen and you know he certainly will potentially lose his license to practice law um so you know for anyone dying to see robert unfortunately you know go to a jail cell i don't think that's going to happen because suits like this according to the people i've talked to rarely end up in jail time uh it could be a you know it could be a good thing though that he doesn't because he needs to generate money to pay these people back and he can't do that from a jail cell but yeah and if he's yeah if he's getting a fine heads up retirees in florida don't invest in deep root he's looking for more money now i gotta pay these fines uh hey i want that insurance Ryan Policky there uh so yeah what a pile of crap couldn't happen a nicer guy see ya yeah buddy i mean someone on the outside of this hobby can you do you think they could believe like how much drama and how many just absolute crazy ass stories come from pinball i've told my friends some some of these stories and they get that look on their face like it's just pinball how does this happen you know exactly i mean this is like our enron this this this event this deeper thing is as close to it as we've ever gotten we need like a true crime pinball podcast there's there's a podcast out there for everything else in the pinball world let's get someone to start a uh you know cover all the crazy drama that's going on in the industry over the years there will definitely be people logging in to to listen to that and this will be one of the best shows right yeah yeah it's midnight in the city my name's kaneda j-pop his name was j-pop well you know one of the good things that came from this was if there are any good things that came from this, where all of them... Pin pod! Well, the pin pod, of course. But all of the memes that came out of this, I mean, I was laughing pretty much nonstop at some of the shit. I mean, you made at least three of them and posted them on our site, but go on the Deep Root thread and read through the last maybe 20 pages and you'll see some pretty funny stuff in there. People have turned this around to make it some comedy. My favorite is the one I did with Andrew Highway in the background on his hydrofoil pulling up, saying hop in and robert's like well gotta go my ride's here and there's money flying out the back of the boat and shit oh man so good man let's get on let's get on to some good news all right stern announced something that people have been waiting for for a long time would you care to explain to our listeners who i'm sure haven't heard by now yeah right no you know we've talked about internet connectivity with uh with gary stern and george gomez on the show in the past and we finally have some idea of what they've been hinting at when they've said something big is coming and that is their stern's insider connected program it seems pretty freaking cool man and this is a a system they've set up that is going to be uh throughout all of their new games coming out and also retroactive to the games the lcd games they've put out in the past we've just heard a little bit about what it is. Gomez says this is just a small glimpse of what's coming, but let's talk about it because there's some really cool things in the mix. Well, first of all, keep in mind that we are going to have George Gomez on in the coming weeks to talk more about this and explain how it works and everything else. So I look forward to that because we're almost as in the dark as everybody else is right now, so we haven't got a whole lot to cover. But I got to say i gotta say right up front the funniest thing i heard was that i mean how long have people been going you know you know we need internet connector blah blah blah you know they've been begging for this and they finally get it and some guy goes oh man now we gotta sacrifice our artwork on the right apron plastic it's like are you kidding me i know there's always something you complain about right you're never gonna make everyone happy but this is this is cool man they're they're late to the party a little bit i mean jersey jack has already had internet connectivity for a while but they're doing it sounds like stern is doing a lot more than just you know code updates and leaderboards they're trying to make it go like way beyond that into a system that that adds depth to the game so both the player and i guess the operator as well has a lot of you know perks that will really enhance things yeah they're even the designers are going back and you know creating special awards and things like that yeah yeah so you're talking about achievements right so so now you can pull up your your stats you can collect trophies or achievements for doing certain challenges, which is very similar to video games. So PlayStation and Xbox have had this capability for a long time. And what's cool about it is that it just adds a new layer to the game. So it extends the shelf life of that game. So if you own the game at home and you've gotten to the wizard mode, which takes most of us, you know, most of us never get there, but if you have, you might not sell it now because there are tons of achievements to get. There are game specific achievements. So, you know, getting to different modes or scoring a certain score or, you know, all of these things are now points that you can try and go for. Yeah, now the only bummer in this, if you want to look at it that way, is that there may be two casualties, and that is one would be score bit, which is like a high score leaderboard sort of thing. And this really, at least for Stern Games, does kind of take that away. And let's face it, Stern Games is a pretty big chunk of the marketplace. So there might be a conflict of interest as far as score bit's concerned there, but there's another one. Yeah, yeah. So you can also have these quests, right, that are either location specific or, you know, you can do them at home and potentially win swag through Stern or you can win badges and that sort of thing online. But it's basically a, you know, here's an objective, try to achieve it. If you achieve it, then you'll get, you know, maybe a beer at a bar or maybe Stern will send you a free t-shirt. And that's almost exactly what PinQuest has been trying to do and trying to get off the ground. And now that is completely all over every Stern game. And, you know, most location games are Stern. So that is going to be definitely a loss for them, too. Yeah. And I have a friend who owns a bar. So I'm going to tell you right now, Stern and PinQuest, do not offer free beer as a prize. You will get in trouble by the liquor commission. That's right. Maybe some free wings or something. Five cent beer. Let's do that. Yeah. I think this is cool, right? Because you're looking at bringing a different layer of gameplay to a Stern pinball machine. And they're incorporating a lot of things from video games that have been really popular. And they're trying to kind of make them relevant to pinball, which will only bring more people to the table. You know, pun intended. So, you know, experience points are another thing that you might be able to get. So as you achieve these badges, video game players know what experience points are. As you get more points, you level up and you get to higher levels and you get more, you know, you get more stuff. And I think that Stern Pinball is trying to do that as well. And what's interesting is that at locations, you will get full experience points for doing certain things. But then at home play, you won't get quite as many for doing the same things. And that's because they're trying to discourage people from cheating and taking the class off and just hitting all the targets. Right. And so there will be verified scores that they know are being played on games that are at location play. And it seems like a relatively complicated system, but I think they're going about it the right way. Like we've talked about how do you avoid cheating in a system where, you know, there's leaderboards and that sort of thing. And now if you get a score at a known location where they know you're not taking the glass off, now you have a verified checkmark by that score. And you can believe, you know, a little bit better that that was achieved legally with no cheats. Unless it's after hours and people who work there are pulling the glass off. Yeah. And every game is set up differently, right? Like, you know, some games might be on an eight degree grade. Other games might be at six. So in every game plays differently. You're going to have it's impossible to standardize everything, but they're trying, which I respect. Well, and on top of that, you know, if someone was at let's say you're playing at Logan Arcade and you get this high score, anybody else can go to Logan Arcade and play that same machine if they want. Right. If you can say if there's unfair advantage, go to the same arcade and play it. Yeah, no, absolutely. And when you when you log in and you show your little QR code to the scanner, it's going to pull up all of your stats. So it will show where you play the most, what your scores have been. It's kind of like an endless amount of possibilities to how much they can customize this to you. But it kind of remains to be seen how easy this will be to log in and how user-friendly it will be. That will be really the trick. And I do recommend if you do go to another bar to play a game that you think is set up better, once you're done racking up a sweet score, slide some cardboard underneath the back legs. and make it a little more difficult for the people after you nice sabotage but you know that that's that's a player standpoint there's operator perks too so you can um you can analyze performance of your games that are on location you can basically find out if there's something wrong with the game so you can immediately be notified if something broke so you can go out and fix it that's that's a game changer for operators i mean a lot of times guys or girls have no idea that their machines are broken on location and they have to you know they have to find out through someone texting them or just you know showing up eventually and realizing a game has been down not collecting money for days um and now now they can they can fix that so a lot of cool possibilities man and and gomez you know gomez is really is really hot on this i listened to the stern insider podcast and um and he said that there's going to be even potential for game design decisions being made from this internet connectivity because they can see what modes are getting gotten to the most and uh how games are being played and and what games are are popular and what games are not so this could help shape you know pinball moving forward it'll be interesting to see how that plays out yeah definitely look up that that uh interview uh through stern's website and by the way when i spoke to george today i did pass along your message to him that you were really impressed with that uh podcast and he's great that's cool yeah he's always honestly he is one of the best podcast interviews ever he's just one of the best dudes I called him up today. He goes, hello and welcome to Franchetti's. Can I take your order? And I'm like, and I didn't miss a beat. I'm like, yeah, I'll have a large order of gnocchi with extra Parmesan and a panipasta salad with no ham but extra salami. And the whole time he's just laughing and laughing. He just loves that. Thank you, Joe Camenco, for that fine, fine nickname. Franchetti. Anyway, okay, let's move on. Speaking of George Gomez, he also brought up a little bit about a stern price increase on games coming up. And I know he did say that parts and supply chain issues are still a major headache. And despite COVID, they have actually been able to pump out more games, but they're backlogged. And it makes sense to me that they would increase their price because it's just economics 101, right? I mean, supply is down, demand is way up. And unfortunately for pinheads, it's the perfect time for a business to crank up their prices. and start as a business first. Yeah, if you look at what's going on in the docks in California right now, George just told me today that they've had to air in parts. That's not cheap. And you're not talking about like, you know, a box of 12 plungers. You know, you're talking about super heavy, massive boxes full of thousands of parts. And that's going to add costs. You know, everything's gone up. So, you know, pretty soon all your groceries are going to go sky high too. Just, you know, just watch. So if you think something's unfair, don't because that's the way the world's going. Have you seen the prices on Pinside and how crazy they've gotten lately? I haven't told you this, but you know how I sold my Indiana Jones, right? I mean, this is a game that I bought in 2019 when I turned 40. And I sold it for like $1,000 or $2,000 more than I bought it for. I didn't make a killing on it because I didn't really try to make a killing on it. But the guy who bought it from me just posted it for sale on Pinside. and he marked it up about six thousand dollars more than i sold it to him like two months to go so i mean he hasn't sold it yet but i've been watching it's only been up there for a day but this is yeah he's a flipper i mean this is this is what we're seeing i mean we've got pirates of the caribbean selling for 30 plus k and this indiana jones that he put up there is uh is $16,000 and this is for a game that is you know decades old so pimple hole's going a little crazy right now and i'm not sure when the bubble will burst if it will burst but uh you know it's it's not cheap to get into the hobby these vultures are fucking nuts these fucking scavengers that pick the shit up and and uh you know in my little hobby of toy collecting you know all these companies are getting wise now and they're putting out all these limited edition things and i go on the website it's like okay at uh you know 9 a.m this thing's gonna go for sale and so i run in and i'm sitting there i'm waiting i'm hovering hit refresh hit refresh hit refresh go in to buy it boom sold out come on it's been like 30 seconds and they're all gone and then you can you can pretty much go if you wait about five minutes and then you go to ebay there's people using the photo from the website and it says sold out and they want five times the amount for it it's like you know all right maybe twice you know something 20 bucks charge 40 make a nice 20 profit do you really have to gouge people at going like 500 you know this yeah this whole no matter what market is this whole scalper market has gotten out of hand and i don't i don't want to talk about anymore yeah fair enough we'll be right back guess what i got a fever and the only prescription is the super awesome pinball show this show sponsored by coin taker distributor of brand new full-size authentic stern pinball chicago gaming raw thrills arcade games and much more also a full line of dramatic pinball mods LED flipper kits, speaker lights, custom laser LED toppers, playfield protectors, Valley Williams parts, pinball apparel, and much more. Get the latest releases and glam out your game room with Cointaker. Everything at your fingertips at Cointaker.com. Get your game on. Hey, this is Dennis Nordman, and you're listening to the semi-awesome... Uh, not semi-awesome, super-awesome. What? Super-awesome? Yep. Are you sure? Because I listen to it, and it's not that good. Yes, I'm sure. Would you just say super? Okay. Hey, this is Dennis Nordman, and you're listening to the Super Awesome Pinball Show. Perfect. All right, that'll work. Okay, okay. Fork over my 20 bucks now. Yeah, yeah, it's coming. God, you pinball guys. Now, back to our program. Well, it's about frickin' time. I am the God of Hellfire, and I bring you... The Super Awesome Pinball Show. It's a cool show. All right, so moving on. Let's talk about some upcoming games and the expo schedule that came out that kind of hinted at what might be coming in the next few months. Well here read between the lines I give you the headlines You tell me what you think Here seminar number one Keith Elwin and the team new game Hmm I wonder what that going to be Are they just going to talk about it like, you know, well, my new game is very exciting. Yes, the new game is going to be great when it comes out. No. So obviously we know there's a reveal coming up. Next one would be what's happening at Chicago Gaming. Well, we know what's happening. they're going to be revealing cactus canyon so you got that right next one's american pinball update and special announcement with david fix well the announcement isn't that they have very nice toilets in the american pinball building the announcement is we got a new game and then finally an evening with jersey jack with jack when are in staff that's the only one that i'm just like well it could be could not be because jack likes to talk so he might just say hey give me an hour and we'll just give away some pizza and talk about pinball yeah i mean that's he's he's done that many times i mean it wouldn't be totally unheard of for that just to be a routine conversation with jersey jack and the team members there but definitely Keith Elwin i mean he's he's been rumored to have a new game coming out in september and it sounds like that's going to happen gomez has said that he is you know crazy excited about the game he said it's going to knock you on your ass that is a direct quote so uh i can't wait to see it man it's it sounds you know from the rumors out there that there has been more bomb put into this next Keith Elwin game than any Stern game before it. And we think that Zombie Yeti's on art. That's the rumor. And it's rumored to be Godzilla. So if he does put a lot of money into this and there are some really cool mechs in there, this could be a freaking amazing game. And knowing that Keith Elwin is designing it, I mean, the theme doesn't really do much for me, but if it was a theme I wanted, I would be on a list right now because, you know, Keith Elwin, larger bomb. Gomez is losing his mind about it. It's it's going to be special. Yeah. And Jeremy artwork. Yeah. You know, I love Godzilla. So that four banger right there between Elwin, Zombie Yeti, Godzilla and Gomez. That's good enough for me. I want one. Yeah, exactly. I mean, the hype is already real and we just talked about it for a second. But yeah, I cannot wait to see that. And that's that's going to come early in September, I think. So we may actually have that for the tailgate party. Yeah, it's going to be a hell of a fall. I can say that. So Cactus Canyon, we know about. It's official. Ryan said very little outside of a logo, but we know some things we can't talk about yet. I'm super excited about this game, and we should be doing a show coming up about this one in the near future. And then American Pinball update and special announcement. I mean, dude, that could be a lot of things because we know of a few things coming. But this will be a fun show. This will be a really fun one. And I think we'll probably know a lot more about this before Expo goes live. So we're on the look forward to that. Yeah, we've seen some stuff. It's good to be the king. It's good. It's good to know. It's good to know people for sure. But yeah. So over the next few weeks to months, we are going to have some great new pinball games. It's going to be fun. And just enough time to lift the mask and get out there and play them, too. Hopefully. Can we contain this Daytona virus or whatever the hell? What do they call it? The Daytona virus. I don't know. What's the new, what do they call it? The Delta variant. Variant, yeah. Delta variant. It sounds like a cheap airline. It's a Delta variant. It's like Delta, but it's a lot crappier. Right. Yeah. No, it is definitely a lot crappier. All right. I think we can leave it at that. I think we got everything. In a sad piece of news, we need to touch on this. TWIP revealed today, this week in pinball, that it's closing its doors, possibly only temporarily, hopefully only temporarily. But possibly not. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure that Jeff will be involved in pinball for years to come, but you know, I talked to him today and I'm really glad he's taking some time off. You and I changed our format and slowed our show release schedule down because, you know, no one's getting paid for this. We do it primarily just for fun. And, you know, very few people in the pinball media have put in the time and energy that Jeff has done for the last number of years. He's created a consistently awesome weekly update for years now, and he's given pretty much the gold standard in pinball awards with the Twippies. And that's in addition to all of his other side projects, like Pinball University and coordinating guest articles and Silver Ball Swag, the Twip podcast, and a million other things that I'm forgetting. But I just wanted to publicly thank him for providing pinheads and all of this content for free, by the way, and staying ridiculously grounded through all of it. And he's just a generally awesome guy. And I'm sorry that he feels the need to close shop because of some of the heat that he's getting and some of the external pressure that he's under through the Deep Root debacle and lots of other things. I know there's a lot of reasons why he's leaving, but I feel bad that he's getting discouraged. Yeah, douchebags. I'll say it the way it should be said. I'll take the low road. douchebags are uh are giving him shit like somehow he was in the know on a lot of what was going on prior to any other people finding out which then caused people to lose money because he didn't open his mouth which is all untrue he was blindsided just like any of us were and to blame him i don't you know hey i'm sorry you know if these are people who lost money deep root you know look in the mirror you know you gave your money to a loud mouth who just busted into this hobby and insulted all the other companies and said he was going to do this and he was going to do that and you bit you're the idiot you're the one sorry you lost money but let's call a spade a spade you're the idiot who gave the guy money and after three and a half years of showing nothing he then says hey we're going to put this game for sale and 120 people went out and bought it after three years a nothing other than oh remember that three years or three months of deep root yeah we're gonna do that later uh you remember that one yeah we're gonna do that later um oh sorry we're postponing that yeah yeah yeah you're right i mean jeff is not yeah sorry i'm just i'm getting worked up you know how i get worked up i hear you jeff is not jeff is i'm gonna say this between george gomez the marquettes at coin takers chris and melissa marquette and then there's jeff and then there's you, Christian, four of the nicest guys I've ever met, most genuine guys that I've ever met in pinball that I would trust my life with. And for someone to go after Jeff and accuse him of something, it pisses me off because now we lose something great. Absolutely. Don't run the good guys out with the bad. That's the bottom line. I mean, Jeff was given more access than most, but he can only report on what he saw. And I felt like he always did that objectively. He spoke about the good and the bad, you know, and I'm seeing people targeting him online and saying he somehow didn't reveal the truth behind the company. And that's just, you know, it's BS. He was as skeptical as everyone else in the media. He tries to leave his opinions and personal feelings out of his articles. You have to. To be a good journalist, you have to, yeah. Absolutely. And there were a few times where he was open about how he felt. And I think he spoke very honestly about the good and the bad of Deep Root. So, you know, give the guy a break, let him enjoy his uh his time away from uh the madness and you know i encouraged him when i talked to him today to take as much time as he possibly could could take i mean the guy does everything he does for free uh he makes very little money off of twip and he puts in countless hours and he's been doing it for a really long time regularly as you and i know that is really hard yeah if you think just because he has a show once a week means he's only working one day a week wrong. It's a full-time job. And what he does, honestly, what he does is much worse as far as workload goes than what I've done. And even I couldn't take it to the frequency that we were doing and had to back off. He's got a family, he's got a wife, he's got a job. He puts in so much time into this. All the things I listed off earlier. He's very committed to giving us content and he has for many years. Pinball podcasts are basically hosed right now because there's no one who compiled the pinball information on a weekly basis like Jeff Patterson. Yeah, so if you want to do something good, why don't you reach out to Jeff, send him an email, put a post on his Facebook page, let him know how much you've appreciated, even if he doesn't come back, the time that he's put in and what he's given us to this point. I'm sure that would really help him to feel a lot better about this situation, and he deserves it. He does. He does. I mean, he has basically legitimized pinball in a lot of ways. I mean, he was the CNN of pinball with Twip. He was the Academy Awards of pinball with the Twippy Awards. He has brought pinball into the spotlight more than a lot of other people have, companies included. So he really needs to go down in the Hall of Fame as somebody who has who's really contributed a lot. And we hope that he's not gone for good. Yeah, because if he goes for good and the Twippies go for good, we're never going to win one of those awards. I mean, there's only so many awards to go around, and we know that, you know. We ain't getting one of those industry awards. We ain't getting anything else. No crystals for us or whatever the hell they're called. Who knows? Yeah, please reach out to Jeff and let him know that you appreciate what he's done. Or just say hi and say, hey, you know, you're really handsome. You look just like that dad on Family Ties. He is as wholesome as that guy, for sure. Yeah. He's just a good dude all around. So, Jeff, enjoy your time off. recalibrate you know get get some time to relax and uh avoid the trolls avoid the haters it's easier said than done but we will be ready for you to return in any capacity that you want to moving forward and we love you man we're really thankful for your time in pinball we love you and we're in love with you flippers and butts up oh you always gonna make it weird franchi you always gonna make it weird Well, I guess so. I have no excuse. I feel shame. Let's let's talk about a big event, shall we? Let's do it, man. All right. So with the news behind us, now we get to the meat of this show, which is hyping what's coming up in the next couple of weeks, which is our super awesome tailgate party. We have been planning this since our last tailgate party, and it's going to be even bigger and better. We're calling it 2.0 because it really is a improvement on last year, even though last year was freaking awesome. Christopher Franchi, can you believe that like last year at this time we were outside playing Guns N' Roses? There was, you know, pretty solid turnouts. But this year it's going to be so much more. Oh, yeah, it was a crazy turnout because like I remember talking to a guy who drove up from Texas and we only gave people like maybe at best like a week and a half notice because we didn't intend on making a party of it. Like I was driving out there to see you and the Marquette's at the last minute. It was like, hey, let's make a party, you know. So they had Zach, the meat guy, come out and cook a bunch of stuff, you know. So it was it was really a last minute thing. But we had at least to my expectations, we had more people that I thought would have showed up for such a last minute thing. Yeah, absolutely. And we had just done our Guns N' Roses show. So it was really cool to get everyone out there to play play GNR for the first time. And yeah, I mean, the coin takers don't do anything small. Like when they throw a party, it is incredibly huge. They bring all the bells and whistles. And yeah, I mean, this year it's going to be significantly bigger. We've got some time to actually sit down and plan what we're going to do. So expect giveaways. We've got door prizes. We have Zach on the grill again. He's going to be making amazing food throughout the entire night. Oh, this dude. Yeah, this dude comes in with a truck with this massive grill trailer thing that he hitches up in the back of his truck. And it's like it's almost like when you go to one of those rock concerts where the keyboardist has like keyboards all around him, like wherever he's got like this, like, you know, grill situation where wherever he turns, there's another grill for, you know, a different cooking type situation. and the dude is just a madman on the grill he is he he's the ted nugent of pinball grilling pinball tailgate grilling if you have never had this type of food before like incredibly good steak on the grill a chicken he does vegetables on the grill he does all sorts of stuff some of the best food i've ever had i actually for christmas he gave me his seasoning mix because it was the best steak i think i've ever eaten uh at the coin taker event last year so now i make them at home and it's still not as good but at least i know the secret the secret ingredients you guys are gonna love this food yeah so there's free food all day all night free drinks all day all night and there's beer and the famous coin taker slushy boozy alcoholic slurpy uh drinks that will be uh available that stuff's for purchase because we don't want it to turn into a shit show hey everybody free alcohol so there's that yeah they they roll out the snacks they're going to have a bunch of games chris is even bringing in some extra games yeah i have a big collection to begin with right and now all of it is going to be on free play and any game that comes out between now and then which hopefully there will be a few uh they will all be on free play at the event so you've got maybe your first chance at playing some of the new games that are coming out yeah and there's going to be a cool merch i'm going to be bringing some cool stuff there's going to be tons of prizes like we talked about and there's going to be some special guests There are going to be some seriously special guests. I mean, the fact that this small party has turned into basically a pinball show with, you know, people coming in and mingling, you know, with the pinball elite game programmers and game designers. And it's just it's so cool, man. It's this is more than just like a hangout, which would be awesome in and of itself. We have, you know, true pinball celebrities coming to this thing. Should we bring them in right about now? Yeah, man, let's get our celebrity guests. So our first guest is John Borg. He's been involved in pinball for like 30 years now. And he's started a premiere in Gottlieb, Data East, Sega, and now he's at Stern. And his latest is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But he has worked on a ton of what are considered to be some of the best games of all time, like Star Wars and Jurassic Park, Metallica, The Walking Dead. Guardians. Guardians of the Galaxy, Monsters. so we are really really psyched that he's coming to the tailgate party with us and hang out with us tonight and also this guy has been involved in every game that jersey jack has made but is most known for pirates of the caribbean and guns and roses ladies and gentlemen mr eric minyer and john borg hey thank you very much hey thank you we're really excited to have you guys out at the tailgate party i'm really excited for this one uh a couple years ago i uh asked um coin taker for an Aerosmith LE because the number that I normally would pick was not available. And Miss said, you're going to owe me. You got to come to our open house. And that was during COVID. So I never got to go to that. So now I finally get to go and see the new place. Awesome. Should be awesome. You're going to love it. They have done some serious upgrades to the place. If you've ever been there, it's going to be one hell of a party venue. Awesome. But yeah, so last year at this time, we had a show with Eric and we revealed GNR with him. And that's kind of where we first got to play. It was at the last year's tailgate party. And also where I got my wife liquored up enough to convince her to buy one in which we currently have in the house, which is awesome. So who knows what's coming up this year. Nice. But, you know, it's been a year since GNR is released, Eric. Like how, how have things been, you know, for you, is it surreal that it's been that long? It feels like a lot longer than that. Some days, you know, I think I said about a year ago, I've been done with the game for, for quite a while, but because of COVID and moving our entire manufacturing facility, like it took a lot longer to get to the line than I expected. Right. So I've been done with the scheme for, for quite a while. it's not easy to move a factory right oh man and john um you you should be coming up pretty soon no on a new game yeah i'm i'm getting there you're you're not next well you might be next for all we don't know i'm allowed to tell but yeah let's not it's coming soon i'll do it well we have a board game before the end of the year correct okay all right good all right and you're We're going to be coming out. That narrows it down. Yeah, we know it's within not too many months. Yes, yeah. You and Eric hanging out together is going to be epic because you guys... Oh, yeah, we're going to have a blast. You both have something really awesome in common Do you know what that is It starts being designers uh we both hung out with slash yes you both worked on guns and roses games the two that are out there so i i can't wait to compare stories between you and eric because you you know boy you've told some really good stories about uh working with slash like his pet cougar story oh the pet cougar story yeah i don't know i don't think eric i don't think i don't think he had a cougar at the time I did not get to meet Chester. Is that his name? Curtis. Curtis. Yeah. So you didn't get to get eaten by a tiger. But I'm sure there's all kinds of stuff. We're going to compare notes. Oh, yeah. Slash is a great guy. He is just so approachable and just such a nice, you know, everyday, average, run-of-the-mill guy. I mean, if you met him on the street and you didn't know he was Slash and you sat and chatted with him, you'd be like, wow, he's a really nice guy. Yep. Absolutely. Really liked working with him. He was a lot of fun. That's very cool. To bring everybody in the loop, John, like it came pretty close to this cougar like eating you, right? I mean, that's the story that I've read in the past. Yes. Yeah. What happened? Well, the thing walked out into the room and it was like rubbing up against me like a house cat. And I'm petting this thing. I'm like, you know, about the size of a German shepherd, a large German shepherd. And so I'm sitting here petting it. And then it laid down next to me and it just rolled over on its back and put its legs up like petting my belly. so don't ever forget this don't pet a cougar on its belly because you know how like when you pet a house cat on its belly sometimes it just goes and he gets it well that's what he did to me and then he had his mouth on my neck before I could even open up my eyes back again and I just laid there I didn't try to fight it or push it or anything I thought wow boy it could be over in just a second so I laid there and then Slash comes walking through and he goes Curtis get off and walked away from me like he's nipping at your plate of food he was playing with me he was well fed I wouldn't be much of a meal yeah that's true Curtis is such a nerdy name for such a badass cat I love it Curtis Well, John, you've been at Stern since, I think, 2007, and most people know you as a game designer. But you and Eric both kind of have played a lot of roles where you are. And as I understand it, you've worked on mechs before. You've done voice work. You're writing speech and drafting and purchasing and all that stuff. How would you describe your role at Stern now for people who may not be very familiar? I'm still doing a lot of the same things. You know, it's moved around a little bit. We've got a lot more people working there right now. Um, so like, you know, back in the day, like when I worked there in the nineties, I was, you know, my own designer and mechanical engineer and guide worked in the lab and built the prototypes and, you know, the whole nine yards. And I still do a lot of that, but I don't have to do as much as I used to. And I can work on game rules and I can do other things and go into other areas a little more, uh, a little more hard than I, than I did in the nineties. That's cool. We know that you, you know, you, you spent a lot of time on the line and Eric, when we were at Jersey Jack pinball. When Chris and I were there, we were kind of touring things, and it was obvious that part of game designers' job is to work the line and make sure that it's running smoothly. How much time do you guys think you spend on the line tweaking things when you have games coming out compared to working on other stuff percentage-wise? I mean, when the game is hitting the line for the first time, I'm out there every minute of the day. Yeah. You know, with Guns N' Roses, I was there all day, every day. Just nobody knows the game like the game designer. Right. We draw it, and we're just like, okay, there, it's obvious what I was trying to do. And then you see someone building it, and you're like, ah, shit, that's not at all how it's supposed to go together. You've got to do it this way. You weren't obvious enough. Right. So it comes with the territory. You have to get everything that's in your brain out there so everyone understands who's building this, what the intention was. is because as clear as you can be in an engineering drawing, somehow someone still finds a way of interpreting it wrong. A typo in the length of a screw, like if you start putting your play field together and you start working on the bottom and you put in three-quarter-inch screws on all your light sockets and then you turn it upside down, you've got a pachinko game. And I have seen that happen. I wanted to ask you too, Jami, because this is kind of, it's current because Gomez just came out with the internet connected game reveal, which I know Jersey Jack has been connected for a little bit. And now Stern is also in the sandbox with this insider connected program. So are you excited about this? It sounds like you're going to be setting up achievements for the games you've made in the past and badges for your games. Is that fun for you? Are you in the thick of that now? I'm not too terribly, heavily into the thick of it right now but um i will be more soon you know i mean i will be soon you know as like when the next game is developed and you know we're going to go back and you know look at some other product and see what we can do you know in those areas but uh you know right now i'm just concentrating on what i'm working on and that's like number one priority right now but uh you know i'm picking away at it and you know kind of getting getting used to it it's it's very it's interesting it's going to open a lot open a lot of doors and how are you enjoying working on Back to the Future. Oh, you mean On Golden Pond? Golden Girls? Well, there's a speculation. Speculation is a brush, right? You can't bring up you can't try to catch them in a trap. I'm not asking. Have you heard the Lawrence Welk No, sometimes I'm just surprised at how sheltered these guys are and they're like Oh, I didn't know that rumor was going around. So for John's benefit, I'm letting him know that Russian Back to the Future, I have rumors going around for your game. They gave me Lawrence Welk, but I'll just let you guys know. I'm breaking the ice right now. They gave me Lawrence Welk. I really wanted Frank Sinatra. Exclusive, exclusive. Why don't we get super, super vague and just ask you guys if you can answer this. How far along are you guys in your next games? I'm working on the one after the next. Oh, wow. All right. I'm just picking at it. I'm not very tired yet. Which one is Engelbert Humperdinck, the one that's coming out next or the one you're working on now? Yeah, that'll be the one after. Okay. How about you, Eric? Are you finished with your next title as well? Not finished necessarily, but very far. They're never finished. Right. Yeah. Well, how much time do you guys spend, like, let's say a game like Guns N' Roses or Turtles that have been released. How much time do you guys spend working on kind of revamping and fixing bugs and that sort of stuff versus working on your next game? What's like the breakdown percentage wise? I'll be doing that now from now until the game hits the line. I'll still be working on, you know, this game while I'm picking away at, you know, whatever I'm going to be working on next. Gotcha. And again, it all depends on if it's just hitting the line or if it's, you know, leading up to it. I mean, there is nothing more important than getting the line fed. And so if there's anything that's going to stop the line, it is 100% your entire focus. Right. You know, it's hard to go out to the line and say, hey, you know what? I'm just not ready yet. So you guys all go home for a month. And when I'm ready, I'll stop the line. Right. Yeah. Don't worry about feeding your family for the next month. But it's going to be great. It's going to be great. Yeah. Sorry, I'm going to add an additional mode. You're really going to love this game. No, never want to do that. So, you know, from Stern, one of the biggest things that's happened lately is that Steve Ritchie, you know, legendary game designer, has moved over to Jersey Jack. So I wanted to ask Eric, you know, how is that for you guys? And how has that changed your day-to-day and maybe even game release schedules? So Steve coming on board hasn't really changed my day-to-day all that much. Helping him get accustomed to the way we do things, our parts library, you know, slightly different than Stern's part library. And then, you know, working with him, getting him set up with programmers and mechanical engineers and all that stuff. I think having another game designer on staff is going to make my life a lot easier because it means I don't have to do multiple games back-to-back, knock on wood. Right. So that'll be great, personality-wise. Steve's a blast to hang out with. He likes to go out to lunch, like, every day. Have you taken him to the heavy metal burger joint that we went to when we were at Coomis? He would love that. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it'll be fun. But no, I mean, it's all good. Steve and I seem to get along pretty well. No issues. All in all, I see it as a positive thing. That's awesome. Everything was great until you told him his bomb was $50 less than Stern. Oh, God! Damn it! What? What? Well, that's cool. We're looking forward to seeing what he's coming up with over there. He changed my work day, too, because I don't have him coming in and hassling me. Coming into my office and going, what are you doing? In that Mortal Kombat voice. Steve's a lot of fun to work with. Designed harder. Right. We are so stoked that you guys are going to come join us in a few weeks. And hopefully you're up for playing a few four-player games with some of the attendees on Guns N' Roses. and turtles and sharing some stories and having some drinks with with everyone who's going to be there it's going to be a lot of fun can't wait to have you guys out here really yeah we're looking forward to it yeah bring your stuff bring your bring your translates your aprons your uh whatever your cabinets whatever you want to sign bring all your crap to get signed and yeah yeah we're gonna have we're gonna have a little bit of a tournament with you guys where you know people are going to be playing you and then playing each other in a four player game for fabulous prizes so So it's going to be a lot of pinball going on, and we're going to try to involve the games that you guys have designed to make it extra fun and give you guys a little bit of an advantage. Did you get point spotted when Keith Owen walked up and played with you? Yeah. Having hung out with both of these guys in Chicago, I know they're a hell of a lot of fun, just as cool in person as they are on podcasts and on seminars. So, you know, look forward to hanging out with them, and we will see you guys in a few weeks at the Super Awesome Tailgate Party. Sounds good. Can't wait. Hell yeah. Thanks for coming on, guys. We'll see you in a few. Yep. Franchi Road Trip. See you guys. Road Trip. So that was Stern Pinball's John Borg and Jersey Jack Pinball's Eric Minier. Don't forget the Super Awesome Pinball Tailgate Party 2.0 takes place Saturday, September 25th, starting at 10 a.m. at the Cointaker Grounds in Sunbury, Pennsylvania. As we said, free food, free drink, alcohol will be available, free play all day on all the pinball machines, prizes, special guests, outdoor events, exclusive merch and swag and everything else. Now, what we want you to do is get your tickets early so that we can get a head count, and you'll save a couple bucks if you go to Eventbrite, which is E-V-E-N-T-B-R-I-T-E.com, eventbrite.com. If you do a search for super awesome tailgate party in there, you can get your tickets right there. You save yourself a couple of bucks and you're sure to get in. And that will help the Marquettes with their head count. So we hope to see all you guys there. It's going to be a blast. Yeah, man, if next year is any bigger than this, we're going to have basically the bare naked ladies have to come out and play, right? We know that Ed is good friends with the coin takers. Let's make it happen. We have amazing guests this year. Let's go see them next year. I like how you keep calling the Marquettes the coin takers. you know who i'm talking about some podcasts win twippies we have our own freaking tailgate party and it's gonna be epic i will take that any day so i just wanted to also bring up one one important point for people who might be on the fence from a safety standpoint like this facility is really really big they have two large doors in the main areas that are open to the outside and you can spend basically the whole event outside if you want to last year we had some games in the parking lot and I'm sure we're going to do something similar this year. It's very easy to maintain social distance when you're there. Plenty of people will be rocking masks. Plus Christian and I will be in Ziploc bags. 100% full hot zone one pieces with respirators. So don't feel weird if you need to come out. Oh my God, they got Devo. That's French in line. I'm so excited for this. I can't wait to see everybody. It'll be a great family reunion in addition to an awesome party so we'll see you there at the tailgate party 2021 hell yeah okay just a couple more things before we end the show ian from the poor man's pinball podcast is leaving the show yeah we love you bud we hope all is well uh thanks for all the laughs thanks for all the great podcasts over the you know the last year or two uh we will miss you on the air and uh we're looking forward to seeing what drew can bring to the table and if things change moving forward with the poor man's but But, you know, it's sad to see podcasts end, man. I mean, some podcasts evolve like ours did and some just go completely off the air. And it sounds like poor man's is kind of evolving into something else. So I didn't tell you, but, you know, Steve Ritchie really inspired me. And so I think I'm jumping ship and me and you are going to start the new super awesome poor man's podcast. That actually would be a really awesome podcast. I would I would step down and listen to that just for the fireworks. All right. So good luck, Ian. I know he'll be back. He did say that he wasn't just going to be gone forever. He'll come back when he can. So we've got that to look forward to. Well, it's been it's been awesome hanging out with you, man, and recording again. It's been too long. I looked over my calendar and it looks like we're going to be getting together again sooner rather than later because there's some September and October fun pinball reveals coming up, I think. Well, we've got Cactus Canyon. We're doing a show for Chicago Gaming. We're going to go through all the details of that game with Ryan White, and we'll have all the information on that release. Basically, the same day it releases, and we've got a couple more that we can't talk about that are in the works. And one of our favorite interviewees, Mr. George Gomez, is going to be coming back on the show very soon. That's going to be awesome. He is probably my favorite guest of all time because he always has the best stories. And we're his favorite podcast. Oh, well. He basically told me that he loves us and he would do anything for us. And you can take that to the bank. Yeah. So, yeah, outside of new games, we've got upcoming shows like Expo in Chicago, we've got the White Rose Game Room show in York, Pennsylvania, we have Pentastic in New Robert Englunds, and more than I'm probably forgetting. So there's a lot of fun stuff coming up in the next few months. Yeah, don't forget to come see me out in Chicago. I will be at the Stern table signing a very special limited edition art print that I can't really talk about. So there's that. Awesome, man. All right. This felt like an old show. It was like old school super awesome. It was. Yeah, it was. It was a great, great time, man. Nothing I'm looking forward to more than just hanging out with you and Eric and John and Melissa and Chris and everyone else who's going to come out on the 25th of September for the tailgate party. So we will see you guys there. Yep. And don't forget, you can get your tickets at Eventbrite. That's B-R-I-T-E dot com. Just search super awesome tailgate party and get your tickets there. you'll save a couple of bucks and help chris and melissa on the head count so we hope to see you guys there and until next episode and that's going to do until next time guys see you later it's been swell christian have a good evening goodbye everybody you too sir good night everybody the original content of this show is copyright 2021 asshat radio productions the sponsors of the show coin taker do not necessarily subscribe to the commentary and critical suggestions made by this show if you want to reach us here at the super awesome pinball show simply email us at superawesomepinball at gmail.com Hey, hey you, buddy. How about a couple of bloopers, eh? Yeah, that's the ticket. Now would be a good time to try to bum a ride from John. Yeah, yeah. You guys want to work that out. Yeah, Chris started telling me about it today, and I'm like, I haven't heard from Eric yet. I told Chris, I'm like, yeah, I got to send you out a text. Yeah, yeah, no problem. Hey, you know what I just saw? For our road trip out there, we can use the super awesome pinball show air fresheners. Oh, very nice. It's going to smell like green linen the whole time. Yeah, well, if we fart in the car, we're going to have to get one of those. _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: b49e86d2-3e3d-4397-9aa2-1626708cde06*