# The Super Awesome Pinball Show #25 - Roger Sharpe Pt. 2

**Source:** The Super Awesome Pinball Show  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2021-02-12  
**Duration:** 121m 17s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://superawesomepinballshow.libsyn.com/the-super-awesome-pinball-show-25-roger-sharpe-pt-2

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## Analysis

Episode 25 of The Super Awesome Pinball Show features part two of a Roger Sharpe interview and the second half of the game show segment Stump the Stash. The hosts discuss personal updates including basement renovations, Walter Day trading cards, and Christopher Franchi's art projects (Beetlejuice translight re-release, James Bond car screen animations). Pinball news covers awards, John Borg's Facebook trolling about potential game licenses, and criticism of the Pony Factory rules/gameplay video production quality.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] The Super Awesome Pinball Show won 'Best Pinball Podcast' award according to Albert Agar's annual Nerdies awards — _Christian reports Albert Agar listened to their holiday special four times and named their show his favorite podcast of the year_
- [HIGH] Christopher Franchi is re-releasing his Beetlejuice translight design with 50 units this time (up from ~10-15 original 2019 release) — _Franchi states the original sold out in 5 minutes at Chicago Expo 2019 and people have been requesting re-release for 1.5 years_
- [MEDIUM] Roger Sharpe appeared in an unreleased MLB Jam-like baseball video game called 'Power of Baseball' with trading cards featuring him — _Mitch Curtis (2019 Massachusetts State pinball champion) sent message about this unknown video game appearance after first Roger Sharpe episode_
- [MEDIUM] John Borg is strategically avoiding coming on the podcast due to fear of saying something that irritates Stern management — _Hosts speculate Borg is 'afraid of saying something that might irritate somebody at Stern and rub them the wrong way' which is why he only participates in the trivia game segment_
- [HIGH] The Pony Factory rules/gameplay video on TWIP was poorly edited and presented unexciting footage — _Christian describes it as 'the worst gameplay video I've ever seen' and notes the editing choices focused on uninteresting shots like a turtle crawling around_
- [HIGH] Christopher Franchi is working on screen animations for his mentor's James Bond car project that will include Bond girls, villains, cars, drinks, and locations from Sean Connery films — _Franchi describes the DB5 gadget car project in detail, including machine guns, oil slick sprays, ejector seat button, and interactive screen interface_
- [HIGH] Matt from Back Alley Creations (show sponsor) had a recent health scare but has recovered — _Hosts send get-well wishes and note he is 'out of the woods now for the time being'_
- [MEDIUM] John Borg posted a Gamera image on Facebook that was interpreted by the community as a tease for a Godzilla pinball machine, prompting him to post random movie images to throw off speculation — _Hosts discuss Borg's trolling behavior posting Gamera, Back to the Future, Adam Sandler, and Saved by the Bell images in response to Godzilla speculation_

### Notable Quotes

> "This is the only podcast you need. This is the only podcast you should listen to. Pay no attention to that other podcast behind the curtain over there."
> — **Cold open intro (satirical)**, Opening
> _Self-aware meta-commentary satirizing the crowded pinball podcast market; sets comedic tone_

> "Holy shit, this is the worst gameplay video I've ever seen. I don't like crapping on companies that are trying to break into pinball, right? But I really think that the Pony Factory could have been done more justice in this video."
> — **Christian Lyne**, News segment
> _Balanced criticism of Pony Factory video production quality while respecting new manufacturer efforts_

> "I said, well, first off, I never got my $50 check from the last one. So let's cough that up first."
> — **Christopher Franchi**, Personal updates
> _Humorous but pointed response to book publisher about compensation for artwork in Art of Pulp Horror anthology_

> "Dude, can I just say, like, I would love to be so wealthy that I could just have a fun side project like that where you can just make your own freaking bond car. That is so badass."
> — **Christian Lyne**, Personal updates
> _Expression of admiration for mentor's James Bond car customization project_

> "If my job was pinball, I would be exactly the same way. You don't mess with that. You don't go out there and say stuff that can get you in trouble."
> — **Christian Lyne**, News segment (Borg discussion)
> _Acknowledges John Borg's professional caution about public statements that could affect his Stern position_

> "I'm going to do a rerun of those, 50 translights this time. Hopefully that will be enough. So when they go up for sale, please order right away if you've been begging me, because I don't want anyone to get left out on this one."
> — **Christopher Franchi**, Personal updates
> _Clear statement of production run size and urgency for collectors interested in Beetlejuice translight_

> "Roger Sharp had his own card. And there's a picture of him with, like, you know, this giant stash and a baseball hat on. And so no one knows about that video game thing."
> — **Christian Lyne**, News segment
> _References Roger Sharpe's obscure appearance in unreleased baseball game with trading cards_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Christopher Franchi | person | Co-host of The Super Awesome Pinball Show; pinball artist working on Beetlejuice translight re-release and James Bond car screen animations; formerly worked at Stern, now at Spooky Pinball |
| Christian Lyne | person | Co-host of The Super Awesome Pinball Show (also called 'Dr. Pin'); community figure and podcast host |
| Roger Sharpe | person | Legendary pinball figure; subject of two-part interview on show; has appeared in multiple video games including unreleased Power of Baseball |
| David Fix | person | Guest co-host on episode; from American Pinball; sent promotional steins to show hosts |
| John Borg | person | Pinball designer; friend of show; known for posting on Facebook; strategically avoids podcast appearances due to Stern employment concerns |
| Walter Day | person | Trading card creator known for arcade/gaming celebrity cards; expanding into pinball card series; inspired character Mr. Litwack in Wreck-It Ralph |
| Albert Agar | person | Host of Pinball Nerds Podcast; creator of annual Nerdies awards; named SAAPS best pinball podcast of the year |
| Mitch Curtis | person | 2019 Massachusetts State Pinball Championships winner; contributed intel about Roger Sharpe's Power of Baseball video game appearance |
| Kimiko/Joe Kimiko | person | Christopher Franchi's mentor; undertaking customized James Bond DB5 project with gadgets and screen interface; wealthy collector funding ambitious side project |
| Matt | person | Founder/owner of Back Alley Creations (podcast sponsor); recently experienced health scare but recovered |
| Todd Tucky | person | Owner of TNT Amusements; gifted rare Roger Sharpe pinball book to Christopher Franchi gratis |
| The Super Awesome Pinball Show | podcast | Hosts Christopher Franchi and Christian Lyne; won best pinball podcast award from Albert Agar; Episode 25 features Roger Sharpe Pt. 2 interview |
| Pinball Nerds Podcast | podcast | Hosted by Albert Agar; produces annual Nerdies awards for pinball content |
| This Week in Pinball (TWIP) | organization | Pinball news publication; featured Pony Factory rules/gameplay video that received criticism for poor editing |
| American Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer; David Fix works for company; sent promotional Oktoberfest steins to show hosts |
| Back Alley Creations | company | Podcast sponsor; owned by Matt; produces custom pinball parts/artwork |
| Pony Factory | game | Pinball machine with rules/gameplay video published on TWIP; criticized by hosts for poor video production quality and unexciting shot selection |
| Beetlejuice | game | Pinball machine; Christopher Franchi created original translight artwork (2019, limited ~10-15 units); now re-releasing redesigned version with 50 units |
| Guns N' Roses | game | Pinball machine in Christopher Franchi's collection; featured on Walter Day trading card; subject of 150-200 word write-up by Franchi and Sarah |
| CoinTaker.com | company | Podcast sponsor; will carry some units of Christopher Franchi's Beetlejuice translight re-release |
| Chicago-Gaming.com | company | Podcast sponsor |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; John Borg works for company as designer; mentioned in context of professional discretion regarding public statements |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer; Christopher Franchi works for company as artist/designer |
| Power of Baseball | game | Unreleased video game; MLB Jam-style baseball game; featured Roger Sharpe trading card with distinctive mustache photo |
| Wreck-It Ralph | movie | Film inspired by Walter Day; features arcade character Mr. Litwack based on Day; hosts discuss quality and relevance to pinball culture |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Podcast awards and community recognition, Christopher Franchi's Beetlejuice translight re-release, Walter Day trading cards expansion into pinball, John Borg professional discretion and Stern relations, Pony Factory video production quality
- **Secondary:** James Bond car customization project, Roger Sharpe video game appearances, Host personal/basement renovation projects

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.72) — Predominantly positive episode with celebratory tone about awards, personal achievements, and community engagement. Some critical moments regarding Pony Factory video quality and Walter Day snub, but framed constructively. Dark/irreverent humor throughout maintains levity.

### Signals

- **[event_signal]** Walter Day expanding trading card series into pinball; Christopher Franchi and wife featured on Guns N' Roses card; very few pinballers currently on cards despite growing interest (confidence: high) — Franchi notes Walter Day only included ~10-15 cards for pinballers and completed new Guns N' Roses card with 150-200 word write-up
- **[community_signal]** SAAPS won 'Best Pinball Podcast' award from Albert Agar's annual Nerdies awards; Albert reportedly listened to holiday special four times and made it a tradition (confidence: high) — Christian states Albert Agar voted their show as favorite podcast of the year and listens to holiday special repeatedly
- **[sentiment_shift]** Positive reception of Roger Sharpe interview Part 1; Sharpe reported listening to show and expressing genuine enjoyment despite normally not listening to himself (confidence: high) — Christian notes Roger Sharpe listened to Part 1 and 'thoroughly enjoyed it' and will return for Part 2
- **[community_signal]** Strong support network for show sponsors; Back Alley Creations' health issue met with community care and well-wishes (confidence: high) — Hosts explicitly ask listeners to reach out to Matt from Back Alley Creations and send well-wishes after health scare
- **[design_philosophy]** Pony Factory rules/gameplay video criticized for poor editing choices and unexciting shot selection rather than inherent game quality; concerned about marketing execution by new manufacturer (confidence: high) — Christian calls it 'worst gameplay video I've ever seen' due to editing focusing on turtle movements rather than substantive gameplay
- **[leak_detection]** Roger Sharpe's unreleased video game appearance (Power of Baseball) discovered and reported by community member Mitch Curtis; significant pinball history detail previously unknown (confidence: medium) — Mitch Curtis contacted show with information about unreleased MLB Jam-style game featuring Roger Sharpe trading card
- **[personnel_signal]** John Borg actively managing public communications and avoiding podcast appearances due to professional concerns at Stern; strategic use of social media trolling to deflect speculation (confidence: medium) — Hosts speculate Borg fears consequences and only participates in trivia-based segments; note his Facebook posts appear deliberately designed to throw off speculation
- **[announcement]** Christopher Franchi re-releasing Beetlejuice translight with significant redesign; 50 units this release vs ~10-15 original 2019 release; planned contest for identifying changes (confidence: high) — Franchi explicitly states '50 translights this time' and details specific artwork changes (mother's arms, shrunken head, handbook additions)

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## Transcript

 This is the only podcast you need. This is the only podcast you should listen to. Pay no attention to that other podcast behind the curtain over there. Or those 26 other podcasts behind those 26 other curtains over there. Whatever. You only need one brand of entertainment. Our brand. You only need our opinion on things. Who needs choice? Who needs variety? Those things are for idiots. We're going to run all the other guys out of town. Because this town ain't big enough for the 28 of us. Sometimes we're funny, sometimes we're dark. Gotta hit the road again. Don't stop that no more, no more. This program contains three potty mouth. Because we like to swear. Hey! The following is an ad-hoc radio production. Welcome to the super, super awesome pinball show. With your host, pinball artist Christopher Franchi. And Dr. In-N-Cell Christian Lyne. Sponsored by Cointaker.com, Chicago-Gaming.com, and BackAlleyCreations.com. Hey all you pinball rock stars out there, welcome to episode number 25 of Satan's Pinball Podcast. I'm Christopher Franchi and today on our show we've got our second half of our interview with Mr. Roger Sharp and also the second half of our game show Stump the Stash. Pinball news, rumors, all that and more on the Super Awesome Pinball Show. And everybody say hello to the world's best co-host, the man on the front line who was singled out on the Super Bowl with about 8 billion other people who have also put their lives on the line, our favorite doctor, Dr. Penn, Christian Lyme. How are you doing, buddy? Hey, Dr. Lyme. All right, man. Thank you, Chris. That was super sweet. It is good to be back, and we've got part two of Roger Sharp, man. It's going to be a really good episode. He talks about a lot of great stuff, and we, of course, have the Stump the Stash Part 2 as well. Yeah, and we'll find out how many bags of dog food that the puppies are going to get. Yes, sir. And we have a special co-host this episode. You know him well. He is a great addition to the show, Mr. David Fix. Hey, great to be with you guys again. It's always good to be on the Super Awful Pinball Show. I'm looking forward to it. Ah, just kidding. I think we've had our fix, David. Yeah, that was just a joke. He's been on so much over the last few episodes, but we do love the guy. and we appreciate that he's been on. But we're going to go a little bit David Fix-free for this episode. Why don't we head into our last two weeks in pinball? All right. Hello, and welcome to Francie and Chris' first two weeks in pinball. I would really love to get my mouth around a nice big Italian sausage right about now. Maybe a couple of meatballs, too. Mamma mia. All right, man. Well, the last two weeks have been pretty exciting for us because we are renovating the other half of our basement. I know we've talked about that a little bit, but we're finally getting it actually done. When you run out of places to put pinball machines in your basement, there's only one option, and that's to expand. More space. Yeah, so we're going to have space for another six to eight pinball machines, and Sarah's going to get a Murphy bed that kind of is going to slide into the wall, and so her parents and family can stay in the basement when they come to visit, and we'll have a nice full bar over there. So it's really cool. They just started to frame it out. But every day we run downstairs and see what they've done when we get home from work. So that's been a lot of fun. The martini glass that you sent me, the light, is definitely going to find a place over there at some point. Got to find a good place to show that thing off. That's what she said. And then I texted you earlier in this week to let you know about this guy, Walter Day, and his trading cards. And I know you knew about him. He's known for making a series of trading cards that basically features some of the biggest names in gaming. And it's like the ultimate gamer award to be recognized by him on a trading card. So I actually get a really nice card from Jack Guarnieri about a week ago, and he had included his signed Walter Day trading card. And so I was just thinking to myself, man, it would be so freaking cool if you were on this thing. And then he comes out with this new plan, which is a whole series of pinball cards to show off pinball machines and also gamers that play pinball. So when I heard about this, I was all over it. I texted him right away, sent him a list of our games, and he asked Sarah and I to do a 150 to 200-word write-up. It's kind of like a homework assignment on Guns N' Roses, and he was going to put that on the back of the card. So we spent about an hour or so on a post-call day this week doing a write-up for it. We took a picture by the machine and sent it all to him. But, man, we're going to get our own freaking Walter Day trading card. We're so stoked about it. I think we did justice to Guns N' Roses with the write-up that we did, but it's really hard to kind of do a full summary of the game in 150 words. But we definitely thought it up. But, yeah, man, I know guys like Marty and Jeff Teolas already have a card, but there are very few pinballers who are on these cards. So it's cool to actually get on one, and he's still doing this. So if anyone out there is interested in joining me and geeking out over this, shoot Walter Day a message on Facebook and get on the card. Oh, good for you! Yeah, Walter Day I'm pretty sure hates my ass because, well, there isn't a card with me on it, and he had an opportunity down at Freeplay Florida a year and a half ago. And I was down there, and I had a table right next to Butch Patrick, Eddie Munster from the Munsters, right? And we were shooting the shit and all that. And then he gets up on this podium and starts his trading card shenanigans about, you know, he says, well, we're wondering who's going to be next. And he pretty much had, like, the hot dog vendors and different people coming out to get their card and completely ignored me. He even gave Butch Patrick a card. He's not even in pinball. He's on a pinball machine, but he has nothing to do with pinball. So I'm pretty sure he hates me for something. I don't know what I did. It was probably my comments that I'd made in the past about his buddy, the Donkey Kong guy, cheating or whatever, which isn't some revelation that I exposed. I was just making comments on what everyone else was saying. If that gets you shunned from pinball cards, then so be it, whatever. See what I care. I think he has a really robust pinball knowledge. His focus is mostly on video games. So I think he may not be aware of you or, you know, kind of what you are all about. I wasn't just walking down the hallway there. I was, like, advertised as a get-go. It would be very easy for him to look and go, oh, he's going to be there? Oh, okay. Well, hey, we'll make a card for that guy. Do you know who I am? Have you any idea who I am? And so Susie, the wristband provider at the door, gets her own trading card. And it was almost like he kept on looking at me because my table was almost right next to the podium. It was almost like he was looking at me every time, like, you think it's going to be you? It's Chuck, the guy over there who restores the Donkey Kong games. Chuck, come on up here and get your cards. Yeah, well, listen, the fact that I'm on a card has nothing to do with the fact that I have a podcast or Sarah has a podcast. It was completely me volunteering to do it. So it's only special to me because I've always wanted to have a card. I think that's so freaking cool. What shirt were you wearing in that card? Oh, yeah, buddy. The Super Awesome Pinball Show. And you are on that card by default because I talk about the show on the back of the card, and I throw your name in there. So you are officially on a card. Don't edit that out. I'm taking it off. Yeah, right. I'm glad that you're on your card, Noel. Thanks, man. That's wonderful. Thank you. It's a bucket list of my nerd bucket list items. But he is, Walter's such a good dude. I mean, I don't think he's got a bad bone in his bottoms. His bottoms. he's got a bone in his bottom I don't think and here's the part where Christian repeats himself because he thinks I'm going to be a good producer and edit that shit out nope Walter's such a good guy I don't think he has a bad bone in his body he's just a good dude did you know he was in Wreck-It Ralph he's the inspiration for Mr. Litwack the guy who runs the arcade there have you seen that movie? bought it but I have not watched it yet. Oh, it's such a good movie. It's one of my faves. My mom said that I'm Wreck-It Ralph so I don't know what that means but does that seem like to you? Does that seem logical? No, I mean I don't know. I guess I could see that but not really. Is he some big doof or something? Like what? He's a big guy. His catchphrase is I'm gonna wreck it. I'm gonna wreck it! And he goes around and wrecks stuff basically in his game. I don't wreck anything. I hate you mom. But he is a big softy at heart, even though people think he's got this gruff exterior, so that could be, I could see that. Ah. Maybe that's what she was going for. I'll have to watch that. You'll like it. But then, dude, speaking of David Fix and how good of a guy he is, you and I received a package in the mail from American Pinball. After all the moaning and groaning we've done about not getting anything from them after our last year, he came through. He hooked us up. You want to tell everybody what we got? 20 pounds of glass. I know, man. We've got these big-ass steins that have the Oktoberfest logo on one side and some clanging beer mugs and American Pinball logo on the other side. Really cool. So sort of a special promotional item for Oktoberfest and a beer-related item to which I would like to fill with beer and enjoy. Cheers, butchers. Absolutely. Thank you, Dave. Thank you, David, and American Pinball. I was blown away by the quality of this thing. Do you remember that store, Things Remembered, where you could go and you could get your draft? So Sarah looked at this sign and she goes, that's no things remembered sign. That thing is nice. That's heavy. That's what she said. Yeah, it's a good drinking glass. Had a couple beers in that the other night. Thank you, David. How about you, man? What have you been up to? Lots of stuff going on in the Franchi camp. I am re-releasing due to intense popular demand. I don't feel like I'm answering anybody's prayers by doing this. I just feel like I'm getting people off my back. Get lots of requests. Everybody for a year and a half has been begging me to re-release the Beetlejuice Translight that I did. Because I only did like 10, I don't know, 10 or 15, a really small number. And they were only available at the Chicago Expo in 2019. And they were gone in like five minutes. And ever since then, people have been barking about it. Well, like I'm prone to do, I started picking around at it. Like, eh, well, I wanted to add this. Well, I could put this in here. Well, let's add that. Like, what did I forget? Like, oh, how could I forget? I've got to put this in here. So the whole thing's being redone. It's actually done already, but there's a lot of different things. And I might have a contest if somebody can tell me every single change that I made. That's cool. What's the difference between the new and the old one? They'll win a new one. So I'm going to do a rerun of those, 50 translights this time. Hopefully that will be enough. So when they go up for sale, please order right away if you've been begging me, because I don't want anyone to get left out on this one and have to deal with this again. This is the last time I'm doing it. I was one of the guys who was bugging you for one. I've always wanted that, and I think you had sold out, like you said, right away. So very few people got their hands on these. So put me down for at least one of those. Okay. I think CoinTaker is going to be selling a handful of them, too. Nice. So look for that there. So I've been doing that. I have been working on two of him all packages. Before you move on. All right. I know you're going to do a contest about this, but can you tell us a few things you've changed? Like how have you tweaked this thing? Yeah. Well, down in the bottom right corner were the parents, you know, the artsy-fartsy mom and the dad who just wanted to be in the middle of nowhere. It's a scene from The Dinner Table where, you know, they do the little dance and the shrimp hands come out of the shrimp cocktail bowls and stuff and grab their faces. It always bugged me. The mom had this expression. She was looking to the side. She's like, yikes, but she had no arms. Like, her arms just went down her side. Like, it was just her shoulders and her neck and her head. You know, I thought her hands should be up in her face. Like, yikes, you know. So, and what's cool is she only wore one arm-length leather glove, and the other hand had nothing on it. So, I drew a hand, you know, and the leather glove was really fun to draw. It looks cool. And then there's a hand coming out of the bowl and little shrimp cocktails flying through the air. Nice. So, I added that. I added the shrunken head guy, the hunter that Beetlejuice was talking to in the lobby, Juno's lobby. Absolutely. I added the book, the handbook for the recently deceased is now in there. I don't feel too much. I'm going to leave it at that. How much more have you added beyond that? Lots more. Okay, cool. Can't wait to see it, man. Yeah. And actually, I just got hit up. I don't know if you remember or listeners remember, but I talked about this a couple months ago, that I was in a book called The Art of Pulp Horror, and some of my artwork was in there. And they just reached out to me, and they're doing a new expanded version, and they want to include my Beetlejuice artwork and my Exorcist artwork. That's really cool, man. they already had like two or three full page pictures of your stuff, right? Yeah. And the first thing they asked is, would you like to be in it again and participate and blah, blah, blah, blah. And I said, well, first off, I never got my $50 check from the last one. So let's cough that up first. Nice. I said, it's not a big deal, but yeah, I got the book. They just never sent the check. But anyway, so yeah, doing that. Excited about that. That's cool. I'm working on two art packages for two different companies right now that I can't talk about. That's a nice package. I'm doing a fun project with my mentor, Mr. Kamenko. He is renovating a DB5, I think it's a DB5, Austin Martin. It's the James Bond car. And he's having it all done, and he's actually having the James Bond gadgets put into the car. Dude, we've talked about this off air, and this is the most insane thing ever. You have to go through the car and just explain to the listeners of the show what he's doing and all the shit he's putting into this thing. Well, there's the parking lights in the front underneath the headlights fold down and machine guns come out. And I saw a video of the guys in the shop testing the machine guns. Holy crap, is this thing loud. The following is actual audio of the guns being fired at the shop where the car is being outfitted with the gadgets. And it blows out a muzzle flash. He's going to get in trouble, I think, with this. He fires this thing off in, like, traffic or something like that. It just blanks. You know, there's no bullets. But still, I think that's enough to warrant getting into trouble about something. So there's that. There's a wall that comes up behind the back window, like a metal wall, so they can't shoot out the windows or shoot, you know, the driver. There are little oil slick sprays that come out the back end. Oh, my gosh. There's an ejector seat. And I told him, I said, like, you're putting an injector seat? He goes, no, but he goes, I'm going to put an injector seat button in there, and then when you hit it, it's just going to kind of rumble and vibrate, you know? It's going to kind of freak out the passenger seat a little bit. Yeah, and there's some other stuff. I don't remember everything right now, but what I'm working on is a screen, like animations for a screen. The car has a little, down in the console area, there's a little screen, like a radar screen that he wants to expand out so that there are all of the Bond girls, like little drawings of them with a little bio, all the villains, all the different cars, all the drinks, all the locations. And then there's going to be like sort of a grid side view of the car. And when you activate like the headlight machine guns, that area of the blueprint of the car will sort of flash and sort of zoom in on that. You know, it'll blink in red and it'll say, you know, headlight machine gun or whatever. So when they click on, let's say, a Bond girl, does it just open up a bio of what they've been in and their history and all that stuff? Yeah, there'll be a different, probably a logo for each movie. It's just the Sean Connery movies. So there might be a logo that says, like, Dr. No, Goldfinger, et cetera, et cetera. And you click on that, and it'll say Bond girls, drinks, locations. And you click on Bond girls, and it'll show you the girls that were featured in that movie, in that particular movie. And then there'll be a little bio about them. So I have all the Bond girls, Don, I'm working on the villains. I have most of the villains. He keeps throwing in these villains. Like, remember the old lady with the machine gun and gold finger? Let's put her in there. Ah, ha, ha. Well, listen, if you guys ever do a Bond pin together, you're going to have half the artwork done. You know, all this stuff you can incorporate into modes and all the screens and stuff. I mean, this is work that has many purposes, hopefully. There you go. We'll see. Yeah. But anyway, so yeah, working on that. Dude, can I just say, like, I would love to be so wealthy that I could just have a fun side project like that where you can make your own freaking bond car. That is so badass. I mean, Kimiko didn't have badass status before this. Like, he's officially got it now. I told him. I said, Joe, this is why I love you because, you know, you're well off and you know how to spend your money. Like, you just come up with a kooky project like this. Because literally, he called me up one day and it was in the middle of COVID. He's like, I'm bored. Let's make a James Bond car. like when I'm bored I eat a croissant you know he just needs he needs to do this for Batman too like you guys are such Batman geeks that you would freaking kill this he has a Batmobile I know I know but he's got to incorporate all this stuff into that that would be really cool like to have make a screen with all the bat stuff in it yeah absolutely like when you're maybe have Alfred pop up and talk to you while you're driving that would be so cool. So you forgot your diet coke. Anyway, Kim and co bond car. Cannot wait to see this when it actually comes together. I'm sure he'll post videos on Facebook. Yeah, that's going to be fun. And then, uh, I think, yeah. Oh, uh, one other thing in pinball, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, at TNT Amusements who had mentioned he was going to be selling a Roger Sharp pinball book. And I don't know which one it was. I wasn't really sure if he wrote more than one book or if there was like revised versions of it or what. He just said Roger Sharp pinball book. And I instantly texted him and I said, don't put that in your sale. I'll buy it. And then next thing I know, he sent it to me. And he said, you know, for all the nice stuff you've done for us, you know, I couldn't charge you for this. So enjoy. So he just sent it to me. And then in that same batch of mail I received from Mr. Roger Sharp, a couple of sheets of that original pad that had the pinball layout on it. Yes. You know, so I just neatly tucked that into the book. And so now I have those, and I can get those signed next time I see Roger. Yeah, we've got a plan for those, hopefully. We do. We do. Should we tell people? I know Roger's going to listen because he listened to the first show. He was really excited because he said he never listens to himself, but he listened to that and said that he thoroughly enjoyed it. That is very cool. That is very, very cool. But, no, I don't think we should spoil it yet. Let's talk about it when we actually do it. But good on Todd Tucky. And the book that you got, I mean, is extremely, extremely rare. It's, like, unobtainium. You cannot find this book anywhere. And if you do find it, it's incredibly expensive. So the fact that he sent it to you, Gratis, is super, super nice. Yeah, yeah, definitely. So thank you, Todd. I very much appreciate it. And that's it for my week's on pinball. Let's transition into the news while it's going on there. And now, pinball in the news with your super awesome eyewitness news crew. Don't fucking just read news up here, you fat piece of shit. Doctor, doctor, give me the news. All right, pinball in the news. So first up, let's talk about an award that we got the other day, which was pretty freaking awesome. orbital albert or albert agar does the pinball nerds podcast and every year he does a series of awards called the nerdies that he gives out and they're just his personal preferences you know things that he likes and uh he likes to give out awards and you know pinball and award shows kind of go together we found out this year but anyway what's cool about this is that the best pinball podcast according to albert agar is our show so thank you very much man that was really Thank you to you and Drop Target, Danielle, your wife. You guys put on a good show, and I appreciate the love. Definitely, yeah. He told me that he listened to the holiday show about four times or something like that, like all the way through, and he said he's not done. He just absolutely loves it. He says it's a new tradition in the pinball nerd home to listen to the holiday special every holiday. That's cool. So not only has he listened to it four times now, but he's going to bust it back out next year for the holidays and listen to it again. He said that that was the best podcast ever made. Wow, man, that's saying something because I know he listens to everything out there. So thank you, man. That was really cool. We went from like his seventh or eighth favorite podcast to his favorite of the year. So that's moving on up. Yep, definitely. So, yep, thanks, Albie. And our friend of the show, as everyone likes to say, friend of the show Borg is being a little sassy on Facebook these days. Oh, my God, dude. Listen, I've said this on the show before, but if you aren't friends with John Borg on Facebook, you've got to fix that mistake. He posts the most randomly awesome stuff. You never know what to expect. Sometimes he's jamming out on a guitar. He's got BMX pictures. Him rocking out to karaoke. Dude, the guy can sing. He's got a really good voice. Just like today, he posted a compilation of Skeletor from He-Man laughing over and over again. And a giant bass with a caption thinking of spring. It's just random stuff, but it's always hilarious, and it just makes you love the guy even more. Yeah, and everyone flipped out because he posted a picture of Gamera, the flying turtle. It's like, oh, boy, are you choosing Godzilla? No, Gamera is part of a company called Daiei Studios. It's not Toho. Gamera was actually designed to compete with Godzilla in the Japanese market. So it's a different company altogether. It has nothing to do with Godzilla. So Gamera won't be on a Godzilla pinball machine. I don't know if they actually ever make one. But, yeah, all the other stuff, the Back to the Future. What else was he up to? I picture the DeLorean, but it put Fast and Furious underneath it. He's trying to get as many little troll jobs on each post as possible. Well, once he posted Gamera, I guess is how you say it, which I thought it was Godzilla myself. But as soon as he posted that, everybody was like, Oh, you're making Godzilla. And just saying, Oh, it's the next pinball machine. And so he grabbed that and he went crazy. He started a post, Back to the Future stuff with Marty McFly. He posted Adam Sandler picture, and he's like, oh, the next Stern pinball machine is going to be Adam Sandler. Guess which one? And then he has a Saved by the Bell post, so he's crazy. Anyway, if you're thinking that the Gamora post that he put up there was... Gamora. Gamora. Gamora is Guardians of the Galaxy. Yeah, that's right. If you're thinking that is a tease to an actual game, it may be, but he wasn't going for that when he posted that. yeah if they had that license too that that'd be it'd be impressive i kind of see gary calling john and saying you know dude what are you posting you know this stuff on on godzilla on your facebook page and so he just rushes out and posts a bunch of other random shit to throw off the scent that was what i was thinking when he did that but maybe he was right probably that's why we haven't had our pal borghi on the show is because john is definitely afraid of saying something that might irritate somebody at stern and rub them the wrong way and he'll get in trouble so he's just like i I just don't want to come on. That's why we had him on for the game show, because we knew we couldn't get in trouble. If he's just answering pinball trivia and stuff and trying to help somebody win something, he's not going to get in trouble. So we have to use him in that capacity, and we will. We have to have him back on. I totally respect that, too. If my job was pinball, I would be exactly the same way. You don't mess with that. You don't go out there and say stuff that can get you in trouble. Exactly. And next up, what's our old pal Mr. Stash? No, I do know. Yeah, so after our first Roger Sharp episode, we got a really nice message from Mitch Curtis. He's a great dude. He won the Massachusetts State Championships in 2019, so he's a really good pinball player. But he wrote us and said that there was another video game that Roger Sharp has been in that no one knows about because we had asked him about that on Stomp the Stash. And apparently there was a baseball game that was supposed to be very similar to NBA Jam. It was like, I think it was called MLB Jam or, let's see if I'm right. Power of Baseball. Yeah, Power of Baseball. But it was essentially MLB Jam. And they never released this game. But in the game, they had these trading cards that showed pictures of all the players. And Roger Sharp had his own card. And there's a picture of him with, like, you know, this giant stash and a baseball hat on. And so no one knows about that video game thing. But he's been in a ton of games. So thank you, Mitch Curtis, for bringing our attention to that, because I would have never known about this game. Yeah, definitely. I'm looking at that picture of him right now. Roger Sharp. Has he even got his real name on there? That is the stash. That is the official stash of pinball right there. And in sadder news, one of our sponsors, Matt, from Back Alley Creations, had a bit of a health scare recently. He's already come out of the woods, and he's good so far. But we definitely wanted to send our get-well wishes to Matt, I hope that he's doing well and ask that you do the same. If you could, reach out to him if you know Matt. If not, you know, find him on Facebook and just send him a message. Let him know that you're thinking about him and that, you know, I hope he's doing well. I think he's out of the woods now for the time being. Hopefully it stays that way, most definitely. But, you know, he's family because he's one of our sponsors. So, Matt, if you're hearing us now, please take care of yourself. Do well. Hope your family's well and everybody's staying safe. Yeah, absolutely, man. Cancer is really scary. We've all likely been affected by someone we know having it. So, you know, Matt's young and healthy. He'll get through this. I'm glad he's fought through it so far, and we love you, bud. Yep, definitely. And speaking of something horrible, next up, the Plenty Factory rules and gameplay video. Oh, my God. All right, so I texted Chris earlier today, and I'm like, hey, man, listen, if you haven't seen Twit today, you have to check it out, because there's a video on the page today about Puny Factory that goes through the rules and some of the gameplay and you just watch it and tell me what you think. And so he watches it and he writes back and he goes holy shit, this is the worst gameplay video I've ever seen. I don't like crapping on companies that are trying to break into pinball, right? But I really think that the Puny Factory could have been done more justice in this video because even though the game looks like it could shoot okay and they just focused on shots that were completely It was unexciting. Yeah, it was like they said, let's pull out the glass. Let's take the balls out and let's put a turtle in here. And we'll just try to get the most action possible out of this game by watching the turtle crawl around. Yeah, it was the choice of editing that is where it was at. It wasn't like, you know, this is the worst game ever. It's not that. It's that they just picked the footage up off the floor that somebody discarded and went, let's just use this. I need to watch the Jersey Jack teaser video for guns. I think that would really highlight some of the ways to do this. But you said weird choices in the shots they picked. You know what it reminds me of? You've had those games where you hit the ball and it's not hit anything, and it starts bouncing off the tops of the slingshots, and then it hits something, and it's just kind of slowly moving around, and you're like, just give me that damn ball, and then it just hits something and goes down the middle. It seems like it was going in slow motion for like 30 seconds, and you just couldn't get a hold of that ball. That's the clip that they chose to use. That is exactly right. It was the ball literally rolling to the top of the play field and just kind of rolling back down to the flippers. There was no flashing lights. There were no quick cuts. It showed. I think there was one cool shot where the ball went into the factory scoop in the middle, and then it showed like they collected a punny, which is what you collect in this game. There was a shot where it showed you how to collect multipliers by spelling, I shit you not, gag on the upper rollovers. So you have to go through those three nights to get gag. But outside of those two shots, it was literally the ball going up to the top of the play field and then just trickling back down to the flipper. There was no excitement at all. So anyway, I hope they come back with another video and they kind of show the game off a little bit better than they did. But I don't think people are going to be grabbing for their wallets after watching that video. Yeah, yeah, not that one. And speaking of grabbing your wallet, you're going to hang on to your wallet for dear life on this next one. You're crushing these. You're crushing these. It's a Segway King. JJP has announced a scary $1,000 price hike, only for new orders, however. We want to stress this. It wasn't like what Stern did a couple months back where they raised the price, then they just canceled all orders, and you had to reorder and then pay the higher price. This is only for new orders, but it's $1,000, man. And I'm telling you, some of the stuff that I've been hearing around the hobby is that people are getting ready to pack it in. Like everything is just going up. People are like, oh, people are buying. You know, it's, you know, COVID and everyone, blah, blah, just raise the prices, raise the prices. That's a great way to kill the progress of trying to grow a hobby. I know, man. By pricing people right out of it, you know. If you read Pinside, it's like the sky is falling and people are going to stop buying pinball machines. That's it. I quit. I'm moving on. We've heard that before, and no one has put their wallet away. Like, technically, you know, all three models went up in price, but since they aren't making any SEs at this point, and all the SEs are sold out, this really only impacts the LE buyers. And if you're already in on an order and you have your deposit in, this isn't going to impact you either. So it really I think the group of people this is going to affect or burn is very small Like it still sucks if this now prices you out of the game but it only going to be the people who are new to buying a LE And I don even know how many of those are available I mean, they're limited. And I heard a rumor they're pretty close to selling out of their LE allotment. So I don't know how many people are actually going to get burned by this, but we'll see what happens with Toy Story and if these prices stay high, because that could be a factor. Was there any reason given? Because I didn't see one, but I'm not going to say that there wasn't because I didn't see it. Did you see anything, like, explaining why? No, I didn't. There are people trying to justify it, saying the prices have gone up on everything, electronics and COVID, you know, manufacturing has been slowed, so the cost of these parts are going up. It's all here. Well, yeah, but I don't want Joe Schmoe's speculation on why. I want to hear from the horse's mouth why. I mean, that's a considerable amount of money. You know, that's not like just a couple hundred bucks. So what was the problem, you know? I'd love to hear why this happened. Tell me why! Yeah, I would guess supply and demand. You know, who knows what's going to happen with Guns N' Roses. If they do the Woz route and they make the Ruby Reds or Yellow Brick Road equivalents and they come out with new versions of this game, then this price could be pretty high for a lot of people who want to get into this game and might price people out. And with Toy Story, I would guess that these prices are going to stick because that's a pretty sought-after game. so the next couple of runs of Jersey Jack games could be a little bit more expensive so we'll see if this actually causes people to pause and say it's gotten too high or if they just buy because that's always been the way so far like no one has ever bought at the $1,000 topper they've said no, they've said well that's a lot of money but they've sold out so we haven't gotten to the point where we've gotten too high what I'm finding is that all the rich dudes you know with the deep pockets They don't care. They'll just buy it, whatever. Like, yeah, cool, it looks great. It's the people who are barely hanging on to this hobby being able to afford it that are getting priced out of this stuff that aren't able to buy it anymore. And that's, you know, those are people you need to pay attention to as well. You can't just say, like, well, the rich guys are all buying it, so fuck it. You know, it's... Yeah. It goes deeper than that. It depends on your business model, right? If you are the Gucci and you want to just sell fewer products but price them really high and be limited, then that's one thing. Or if you want to be the Sam's Club and sell economies of scale and you just make your money by selling a ton of the games, that's another model too. So it depends on which way that these companies are going to go. And right now it looks like they're going the Gucci model where they're going to get more and more expensive. Gucci, Gucci. And just make fewer and fewer products. You want more crap in the play field, you got it. Yeah. You got the price tag to go with it. That's right. Yeah, we'll definitely see on that one. I don't know. I don't know. I wish they would come out and be more transparent about why they chose to do this because, you know, to just ask for more money, that just implies greed. If there's no reason given, you're just thinking it's like you said, supply and demand. Well, you know, people really want our game. Let's charge more. Well, that doesn't seem fair. You know, people love our cupcakes. Let's charge more. Like, no, just be thankful that they enjoy it and then they'll keep buying it. Don't raise the price because people love it. Wow. I hear you. You know that new CD that came out was sold a million copies. Let's sell another million for a dollar more. I mean, it's shady, but that is exactly how businesses work. Once you get to the point where people say, you know, that that's too much, then they should hit the brakes and go back a little bit. But you're right. They should come out and say, here's the reason why we did this because the pinball buying community is very accepting of that stuff. As long as you're transparent. As you said, if you don't do that, then people are going to assume the worst when really it could be something as simple as, hey, the price of these parts have gone up. Right. Yeah, exactly. There's justifiable reasons for it as long as we know what they are. It's a tight-knit community. Certainly there's the little factions here and there, but mostly it's one of those situations where a lot of the hobbyists or pinball players or fans or whatever you want to call them are in touch with the people who create these things because they make themselves available. and so, you know, to have, you know, oh, we're going to ask for a thousand dollars more. We're not telling you why. You know, that kind of echoes bad within the community because these things are always explained and when you don't give a reason, it just, you kind of feel like you got the door shut in your face. It's true. It's true. And even if it was strictly for a profit, you can't go wrong PR-wise going out there and saying, hey, there's a couple of reasons why we've done this, you know, X, Y, or Z, and just showing some sort of transparency. People will respond well to that. Sure. Yeah, exactly, exactly. But, hey, congratulations to Jersey Jack Pinball for all of their fine industry awards that they won for Guns N' Roses. So maybe that's what it was. Thanks, Pinball Industry Awards. Well, we won the best game. Now we can charge more. Let's get some more cash from you. I'm wealthy! I'm comfortably well off! I don't think that's what it was, but, yeah, congratulations. nonetheless to those guys. I know Eric is really excited that they won Game of the Year. And hey, man, I think it's well-deserved. I voted for that as well. So they threw us a nice bone by having us release the game podcast focusing on it. So thank you, Jersey Jack, for that. Definitely fun, fun, fun. All right. Let's get into this game show and this interview. Roger's coming back as our returning champ for Stump the Stash, so we'll find out what he ends up winning for the puppies of the Military Canine Dog Rescue in Pennsylvania. Excited to hear about that. and the rest of the interview. Yep, you guys are going to like this a lot. This is a really fun interview, and I can't wait to hear it. Whatever, just commercial. All right. I'll call it a commercial break. Whatever, fuck it. Just go. We'll be right back. Guess what? I got a fever. I got a fever. And the only prescription is the super awesome pinball show. Oh, yeah! Super Cat! This show is sponsored by Cointaker, distributor of brand new full-size authentic stern pinball, Chicago game, 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. Emergency. Batman speaking. Warning all of you to brace yourselves for big news. The biggest. Tell them, Robin. Holy supposers, Batman. It's really exciting. Soon, very soon, Batman and I will be batapulking right out of your TV sets and onto your theater screens. That's right, Robin. Our first full-length motion picture feature in color opens a whole new world of thrills. Holy memoranda, folks. Make a note not to miss it Good thinking Probably Hey everybody This is John Borg And you're listening to the Knuckleheads On the super awesome Mega Fantastic Best ever Pinball show Rock on 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! And now it's time for Stump the Stash! A pinball trivia game where pinball celebrities try to pull one over on the man who said pinball, Roger Sharp! Hey! Please welcome your hosts, Dick Chartendale and Jim Twitski! Hello everybody and welcome back to Stump the Stash. My name is Dink Chartendale. Johnny, can you remind our audience what our returning champ will be playing for today? Sure thing, Dink. Today's contestant will be playing for the Patriot Canine Rescue in Ellesburg, Pennsylvania. Every correct answer the contestant gives will earn a 20-pound bag of dog food donated to the rescue on behalf of Coin Taker and Stump the Stash. Back to you, Dink. And to introduce our returning champ, everybody say hello to the world's most handsome co-host, Jip Whiskey. Aw, thanks, Dink. That's awfully nice. Our returning champ has already won a truckload of dog food from the military canine dog rescue. And today, he hopes to add to that. From Arlington Heights, Illinois, the man who saved pinball, please give a warm welcome to Mr. Roger Sharp. Hey. Hey, all right. Welcome to the show, Roger. Okay, Roger, you know how this goes. Okay. First question. Our first question is from Charlie Emery of Spooky Pinball. and he asks how many reactors must be destroyed to achieve total nuclear annihilation, and what does the game do when you get there? Seriously? Well, you knew it would be a spooky question. Yeah, it was a spooky question. I thought it might have been, well, no, what I was going to say. I can't say because it's a product that's still in development and hasn't come out yet. Have you played this game, Roger? I've only played it a few times, and truthfully, the first times were at, I think it was Louisville, where the game was first on the floor. I had a chance to play it as a whitewood. There was no artwork. Need an answer! I want to say that there's nine, but I'm probably wrong. You got it right. You got it right. I assume at that point in time, everything kind of blows up and there's a light show or whatever else, extravaganza. Once you've done that, and then you get to go back to the beginning, it's more difficult and more whatever. You got three quarters of the question right. It shuts down after you beat it. The game just stops. But there is an explosion. There is light shows. So it just ends. The whole game ends. Yep. Well, I take exception to that. You said it starts over, which means it can't start over without ending. So I'm taking that as the right answer. Absolutely. That's the right answer. Jay Puppies. Alright, next question From your pal Dennis Nordman What was the first game To ever have a funnel? We'll give you a hint It's a Nordman design Need an answer Special force Nice work Nice work That was actually Dennis' first game And had a lot of plastic. Yep. All right. Good job. Now, Joe Balcer asks, who co-designed Barracora and who built the Whitewood? Two different people. Yeah, it was my dear, sweet, departed friend, Steve Epstein. That's correct. I miss him dearly. Well, sorry, I get a little choked up just thinking about it. Barry Osler was given the task of actually building the thing. Oh, he's absolutely right. That was the task. Which I know he didn't want to do. Really? Yeah. No, because Barry was working on his own stuff, but he got the shortest straw. So he was given what was affectionately called Las Bogas. Thank you, Steve Richard. Because it was Las Vegas. Underneath the center of the play field, there was going to be a mini roulette wheel. Cool. So we had to make some changes. And, yeah, so Barracora, I remember flying out, and Steve Kordak took me into the factory, and we walked down the line and made a turn, and I see this game in the distance, because we're still trying to work out seven-letter names. Las Vegas. Okay, I need seven letters because I have a bank here and I have a bank here. I have three and four. Need to be seven. Need to be seven. And I see this woman's face looking at me and there's fish and stuff coming out of her head. And we're walking closer and closer and I look down and it's like I remember turning to Steve who was just standing there with a big smile and says, that's my game. What the heck? And my first reaction was I saw the job target and it had the double R. And it was like, if we knew that we could have gone to, you know, a double letter, Steve and I would have worked on other things other than cowgirls. And we had a whole slew of other stuff. And lo and behold, it was Baracora. And actually made some changes when we lost the roulette wheel in terms of the center and what we wound up doing. But, yeah, it was Stevie and I who had helped me a little bit with the sound calls on the sharpshooter. Cool. Okay, next up, Rob Burke of Chicago Pinball Expo asks, what happened to Harvey Heiss that allowed Steve Kordek to step up and design his first game for Genco I forget if he got sick if he retired or if he left to work somewhere else because I know that Harvey was a special legend that was venerated by Rob well we're going to have to go with your first answer which was he got sick which is true Harvey got acute appendicitis you pronounced that perfectly Chris I'm impressed thank you yeah Chris is actually a doctor I wrote that and I was like I wonder if French is going to be able to say that and he did we got through it I survived you did it those were not easy questions Roger so I'm impressed we happily like to announce that In-N-Rescue for the Military Dogs will be receiving 10 20 pound bags of dog food on behalf of Roger Sharp and our sponsor Cointaper hey great job great job Roger Thank you. Good job. And that's gonna do it for today. Bye-bye. Good night everybody. This is Johnny Crumple-Nugent saying goodnight, everybody. Oh, dude, your microphone's still on. That smells. You've got to look sharp. You've got to look sharp, sharp. And now the conclusion to our interview with Mr. Roger Sharp, pinball licensing and beyond. Thank you. What do you think the future holds for licensing? You know, as far as what people are doing in digging up old licensing and stuff that's going on new, I mean, it's difficult to predict what's coming down the road. But people are going to, you know, pick the barrel of what's been done before. What do you think is ripe to revisit in the future? Well, I think the challenge is that as a society, we're going to be in a time out. We already are. And the problem that you have, let's look at what have been the most enduring and successful licenses during that period of time where we had multiple companies producing arguably massively more games than currently. We were looking at things, at least I was, what's the development lead times? When does the movie come out? Christopher, I shared a picture with you before. A lot of the stuff that you saw in that office were scripts. I'd get a script. It was a year and a half out or so. The timing was okay. I can be there. during filming. I can get access to the talent right there and then. So everything worked out according to what our schedules were in releasing a game, developing a game, and being there kind of like day and date, or if not day and date, knowing that there was going to be a follow-up, a second movie, or that the sports season was going to happen. So we can kind of tailor our marketing approach to everything, and more importantly, the accessibility to athletes or talent. NBA is going to have all the rookies coming in and the pros because they're doing headshots for trading cards. Awesome. Thank you. We can use that for, you know, NBA Jam. That's great. You know, the other derivatives. And I think that going back to it, we have a situation now where there hasn't been a heck of a lot done in the last few years with what I call contemporarily themed content. We talked before, mentioned about Stranger Things still on the air, Rick and Morty still on the air. The big budget movies nobody has really kind of looked at and I think that the hesitancy has been some of them have just been one time only forgetting about superhero movies and whatever else I'm just talking about looking at the range of content that potentially could be out there nobody jumped and did a Bourne Identity it's like wow I don't need James Bond I got the Bourne Identity are you kidding me? and now we have these multiple movies and it's kick ass nobody's done Fast and Furious and now there's the last movie that's coming and it's going to be dead per se but not really because somebody will do it. Ultimately, I'm sure. And I think that the problem that we have now is, and we touched upon this before, we are as much a victim as well as an ally in what is happening in the world of entertainment. And in the world of entertainment, we have Warner Brothers that is saying, hi, we're going to release stuff on HBO Max and the theaters. And sorry if you didn't see Tenet, which is going to be our huge best movie, but, you know, did 300 million. supposed to do a billion, but hey, what the heck, and we're taking it somewhere in the tushy with Wonder Woman. You know, what is going to be that opportunity for people to head back into movie theaters and have a population out there that winds up in some ways resurrecting that category? Because if everything is going to be insulated within the home, and people watching through whatever the services that they have or premium channels or whatever else, it is going to be much more difficult to differentiate what would be appropriate for your target audience and whatever that shifting is of that target audience. So in looking ahead, I think that, yes, there are going to be opportunities to go back and, I won't say dredge the well, but go back and take a look at evergreens. I mean, the monsters, okay, but the monsters were never the Ennis family. I mean, whatever the rationale and justification was in terms of doing that, and I thought the game was a very nice game. Don't get me wrong, and I know that... It looked pretty. Yeah, it did. It was beautiful. But I don't think that it measured up to whatever the expectation was at Stern, thinking that, okay, we have this rich, rich, wonderful thing, and by the way, some of the talents are still alive, they're growing up, but we can get them to participate. I mean, it was all of the right ingredients absolutely put together. And I think that, you know, it missed the mark because it wasn't something that people were dying to have. And more importantly, and this becomes really interesting, and maybe it's something that you guys have thought of or haven't or the listeners have, you don't have the ability to pre-sell anything. You know, part of the success of the Adams family, not only the timing and the wonder of the game and what Larry and Pat and the rest of the team were able to do, we had machines on commercial locations that people could touch and feel. We're talking about thousands of locations, not hundreds. For the Munsters, using that as an example, you maybe had dozens of locations where people could be exposed to it, and you're hoping that you can get people to jump up and down because it's this designer, this artist, this person, this commodity, this theme, and it's automatically going to sell itself. So the problem becomes, going forward, how do I work within the context of what the new world order is going to be? I'll be here right now to say something that probably is not the most politically correct thing to say. I don't think we're going to be back to a semblance of normalcy until 2023. Next year? No, I'm sorry. And I know Texas is already canceled until whatever. And I just got notification of another particular event that was going to take place sometime in May that's now been postponed until 2022. I think until we get a handle on everything societally, world, globally. And it's not just the pandemic. It's all of the repercussions and aftermath. and that goes to the heart of where we are with commercial locations. I still think that commercial locations are the future for the industry. There's only so many home people that you can sell to. That's finite space. And yes, there's a new generation that comes and whatever else, but if those people are not employed anymore, if they've had to cut back on expenses, if the schooling for their children isn't what it used to be, I mean, if the cost of living has changed fundamentally and the career path has changed fundamentally, Well, then what happens with discretionary income? So the lifeblood for the industry has been the home. Let's face it, that's been about 85%, 95% of all the market for the past 20 years. Well, you need to have, and I know that at least locally here, and I haven't been out and about, I guess finally, and I take my hat off to Stern in particular, they got Dave & Buster's to open up their doors again to pinball. Dave & Buster's used to be a thriving test location for us as an industry 25, 30 years ago. when they were first opening up. We did gala events at Williams Valley at Dave and Buster's out on Lake. Wow. And Dave and Buster's that was in the city. And then suddenly there was, oh, sorry, there's this mandate, this edict, no pinball. Are you kidding? That's your audience. Oh, my God. That is the prime audience to expose people to pinball. Right. And it was gone. And now we're looking at locations that have folded their tent, that may never come back, others that might. I took my hat off, truthfully, to the commercial locations out there who created an incredible business model. I will lease you. I'll rent you my games. They're just sitting here. My store is closed. Do you want that? Are you kidding? Can you give me like $25 a week? Sure. Can you give me a hundred? Whatever it is. I don't care if it's a video game, pinball machine, whatever it is. They have managed to create some kind of a lifeline. Well, there's going to be a period of time where we have to get people comfortable again, not only in traveling, but also going out socially. And I'm not just talking about going to the bar or the local restaurant or the bowling alley or even the movie theater. It's a question of, you know, what's going to happen. And I guess I'm saying this in the context of how will it influence what content you pursue as a manufacturer for a particular scene. and if that movie never hits to the extent that you wanted it to, is it so that it's fine? Right. I think a lesson to learn there is, like, you know, you mentioned Wonder Woman earlier. Here you have a case where, like, I did some artwork based on the original Linda Carter Wonder Woman, which I love, and everyone always says, if you did Wonder Woman, which one would you do? And I'd say Linda Carter. A very successful slot machine, by the way. Yeah. Some people are like, you know, oh, yeah, but that Wonder Woman movie, you know, and Gal Gadot, it was so great and all that. Imagine if somebody came along and said, okay, well, you know, Wonder Woman 84 is coming out. First movie was awesome. And, you know, you got the TV show as sort of like a minor support role in there. Yeah, let's do a Wonder Woman, you know, current Wonder Woman movie theme game based on the new movie. The new movie tanked, you know. It didn't roll, right? Yeah, you know. You're rolling the dice. You're saying like, well, it hasn't come out yet. It's not proven to be successful. But based on its past, we're going to buy into it. If anybody bought into it and made a Wonder Woman 1984 pinball machine, it would have tanked, you know. That's why it seemed so attractive to go with the tried and true. You know, Linda Carter was out. It was successful. It was a big hit. It's nostalgia now. That's not going to change. So you've got a guaranteed audience for that. I think that's why, you know, people like Stern and whatnot, they look at these classic games and say, well, maybe there was a, you know, Star Wars before, but let's make a new one. You know, maybe there was a Batman game or let's make a new one, you know, whatever. All these different things. When you see the failure of something, and lately, with the way society is, there's more failures than there are successes. Because nobody's got money, everybody's staying in. To your point, you made a comment, and I haven't seen it because I haven't signed on. I forget what the numbers were, but the amount of subscribers to HBO Max has been massive. And I know that you said that the new movie has been a failure. It actually hasn't. It's helped launch HBO Max. I think to the extent that we are going to be living, again, in this fractured society going forward, anything that's new that's going to be coming out. I mean, there's a new James Bond movie for next year. I mean, do we really think it's going to be as big a blockbuster as it was before if I'm only at 40% capacity in the theaters? Or if I'm relying on some type of a service to kind of bring it home for me? How much Disney Plus do you really want to spend? Do you want to spend $50 or $100 a month to get every freaking service so that you can be right there, front and center, watching on your 80-screen TV? I mean, that becomes, I think that becomes the serious thing. And I understand what you're saying. And I don't disagree. I think that there is absolutely fertile content. Look, it's no secret that, yes, I did do the license for Hot Wheels. I think the game has been well-received. I think it could have been done differently. but Hot Wheels was something I was ready to do 30 years ago, and nobody wanted to step up. Oh, Roger, it's a toy. Are you serious? Are you kidding me? It was the same resistance that I had, other than John, to wanting to do the Beatles 25 years ago before they made their comeback with a new album and before Cirque du Soleil started. It was like, are you kidding me? I mean, let me just have my mind just explode. So I think that there are some things that you can absolutely look at that are past and present. It's not a question of going back and saying, well, let's be Charlie's Angels with a new cast and not do it based on, you know, the original. I mean, sometimes you have to really kind of look and say, all right, is this going to be worthwhile for us? Does it show its age or has it timed nicely? And we've all lived through, look, we talked before very briefly about Harry Potter. We lived through the change of some of the talents. Some people passed away and got replaced and grew long white beards. And it was like you didn't care all that much. Yes, really, or even knew. I'm thinking like what a chip why is mine whiter than yours I think I'm a few years younger so I guess what I'm saying is there's going to be some challenges going forward and I think that what is going to be a necessity what I'm about to say I absolutely agree and believe with my heart of hearts I want every license to be as successful as it can be unconditionally unequivocally whether it was back in the day and it was Premier doing something I wanted Stargate to be the best I want everybody to be as successful as possible. Why? Because once you have a hiccup, once something isn't successful, it casts a pallor on anybody else coming in. And I lived through a period of time specifically with slot machines where almost every casino out in that world pulled off their license games. Other than Monopoly, other than Wheel of Fortune, they didn't want anything. Why? Because there were some failures. There were some unmitigated disasters that should never have seen the light of day. Unfortunately, they did. The marketplace soured on them. Players were turned off. And effectively, a lot of it was math models and all of those. We don't have to get into that. But effectively, anything with a license suddenly was tainted. I'm not going to go play that because I know that's not good. I want to go back and play black and white. Right. Go back and play Wonderful Sevens, whatever it was. I don't want this other stuff because this is just going to take my money and screw me. Huh. That's interesting. What winds up happening specifically in pinball is pinball is so fragile right now. It really is. We can talk about how successful everything is and all the companies coming in and whatever. It's very fragile. We can't afford anybody to have a misstep where it's not only a black mark on them, but it's on everybody else. And that goes for, forget about the thing, it goes to play field shipping. It goes to all these other issues of things as to the reliability, the functionality, the durability of things. Everybody has to step up and do the best that they possibly can because it not only enforces them successfully and profitably, but it also helps everybody else to become that much better and to achieve what they possibly can. And so, again, not wanting to stray too far from the question and the answer, I think it's going to be a daunting task going forward when it comes to looking at licensed content. And a corollary to that is the relative acceptance or not of original content and whether or not that is seen as a deficiency. It's not a license? Oh, forget it. I don't care who designed it. It's not a license? No, no, no, no, no. Some of this slow burns. You need some herb appeal. Anyway, yeah, go ahead. Like, Medieval Madness and Attack from Mars weren't licensed properties, but they have been the most celebrated pinball machines probably of all time. So do you feel like you were there when these machines were being sold? Were they huge commercial successes? Or is the nostalgia for the games bigger than the launch of the games? They were very successful as a matter of fact. Extremely so. In terms of quantity and numbers, relative to games that had come out three or five years earlier, no, because the market had diminished. Okay. So we can say, did we not sell as many or produce as many as we might have? For that period of time, where businesses were, with many of them that were cresting and closing down, with the DUIs increasing and bars not doing happy hours and no longer wanting to have a pinball machine in there, we're going to do a countertop video game instead because it doesn't take room. we wound up losing a lot of flexes. You know, there was a period of time back in prehistory where there were about 2.5 to 3 million pinball machines in active operation worldwide. Right now, I think, well, right now, pre-COVID, you're probably at about 150,000. That too old or whatever worldwide There used to be over 2 million video games in active operation and that number shrunk Why Because most commercial locations that were family entertainment centers strayed away from games that needed maintenance and went to novelty redemption games, ticket spitters, swats for tots, as we called them. That being said, because that's where the money was. It was a quick coin. You know, with pinball, commercially, you're looking at serial monogamy. I play, then you play, then I play, then you play, or whatever else. It's not two people competing at once on the video game or eight people sitting down at once on the sit-down driver generating that volume of revenue for a 90-second race. Right. Do you see the trend continuing to go up for pinball? Or do you see that it's kind of plateaued? Or do you feel like it may be on the downturn due to COVID? What's your general feeling? I'll answer it the way that I've been asked the question in the past. Until somebody creates a product that hits all of my senses the way that pinball does. Tactile, my sense of sight and feel and sound, that immersion that I feel, that sense of being able to explore whatever anybody has created under that glass, however unique it might be, however the same it might be, until somebody can give me that sense of discovery, that sense of satisfaction, pinball will stay around. Having said that, I think that the future is incredibly right for pinball. And I say that despite what we've been talking about and talking about the fact that the market isn't as big and everything else is the fact that it's still a physical, interactive device. It is still something that cannot be replicated, taking enough in away from Zen or Fireside. It can't be replicated. I mean, it exists unto itself in its own skin, and each game has its own unique personality, good, bad, or indifferent. And I think when people wind up discovering that, there is something that is compelling and captivating that allows them that sensation, whether they know it consciously or not, to want to do it again. So I think that, you know, if there is a world and a role for pinball, I think that the growth is going to be somewhat staggered. I don't think that you're going to still see an upward climb for everybody individually. I think some of it has to do with development lead times. I think of it as being the overall expense to building and creating and manufacturing and selling through a pinball machine. I think some of it's going to be interdependent upon the accessibility it's one thing to sell to the community based on the fact that it's this designer oh my god I have to get his game or it's this theme oh my god I don't care who designed it I have to get that theme for my collection and you will put down money sight unseen and get it now that's not to say that people don't put it down sight unseen and then flip it that happens but talking by and large I think for the aggregate for the broader audience I need to have a place where I can go to experience it. I think it's very rare. Maybe I'm just too old and old-fashioned. If I'm going to buy a car, I want to test drive it. Of course. I mean, I may see a nice picture online of it, and it's available, and it's within my price point, but I just want to be able to drive it. I want to touch it. I mean, my wife, taking everything away from Ellen, please, for anybody listening, buys a lot of stuff online in terms of clothing. And then she gets it, and it's like, so what do you think? I don't know. Yeah, I'm not really sure anything. I'm going to return it. Well, you can do that with a blouse or a pair of shoes or a coat or a sweater. I think when you're looking at a pinball machine, unless I'm from another planet, I don't know of a lot of places that are going to sell you the pinball, ship it to you, and let you try it for an afternoon and say, yeah, I thought it was going to be a little bit different. Right. Like, you can come and pick it up and bring it, you know, take it back. I like my money back. So I think that the challenge, and I talked about it before, is when we get to a new normal and people can get out to that amusement area, amusement park, theme park, family entertainment center, bowling alley, restaurant, bar, and touch and feel a pinball machine, whether it's new or old is immaterial to me. Until they can actually touch and feel a pinball machine, it's not something that's going to be top of mind to say, what can I get for the family room? What can I get for the basement? You know, it's not as if everybody has the ability to have a game room with something like Jurassic over there and looks like Terminator and some other cuties, looks like the Jokers and whatever else to say, here, I have my collection of games. That's the rarity. So I think that I'm feeling positive. I'm hoping that for those companies that maybe stretch a little bit thin now that they will endure and be able to ride it out. I think for others that are still trying to create a persona for themselves, I'm going to be curious to see what they do and how they do it and whether or not they not only stubbed their toe but their entire foot. Right. And maybe they could have done it better and different, and maybe they thought they had all the answers. And how difficult is this? And that whatever their missteps are, don't hurt everybody else. Right. Well, but let me ask you guys, because I haven't had the chance. So what do you think about the current state of pinball and where it's going? Am I off target, or you guys are closer to it than I am? Chris, you take it. You're the professional here. Oh. I can tell you about the current state of pinball artwork. The current state. I find it interesting and confusing. You've got the people who say, why does everything have to be licensed? Why can't we have a generic theme? And then someone comes out with a generic theme and they go, I don't want that. So it's like, well, you know, I thought you wanted, you know. So there's that. Spooky comes out with Rick and Morty and no one even sees the game and it sells out, you know. And God bless them. I love Charlie and those guys. But, like, to me, it's like I would never buy a game unless I played it. Because there's been games that I've been drawn to, like, from a visual standpoint, seeing pictures online or whatever. And then I go and play it, and it sucks ass. Like, I mean, it's just a drain monster or whatever. I'm like, oh, thank God I didn't buy this because I hate this game. I would never buy one without playing it first. So when things like that happen, it just confounds me. Like, just by name only, they're just buying it. So how do you judge what's going on out there these days? It's just like no-thought pinball. People are just reacting by the seat of their pants. There's always the afraid of missing out on something. I better order that because they're flying off the shelves or whatever. Let me interrupt you for one second because what you just said is interesting. I will tell you guys, back in the day, if it was Steve Ritchie or Pat Lawler, and Pat Lawler needed to get to that point after Banzai Run, distributors were automatically on board. Let's see, Rich again? Boom, done. Yes, we want it. Whatever it is. We don't care. No fear? Fine. We don't care. Black Knight? Okay. Black Knight, too? Sure. Cal Dollar? Yeah, he's going to have Earthshaker. Oh, okay, great. Addams Family, Twilight Zone, Roadshow. I mean, those were instantaneously sold by name alone. What I find fascinating, because you just kind of pointed it out when you said name only. I know what you're saying, name only in terms of Rick and Morty. My thing is that we have gotten to the point as a community, oh, it's Scott Dinesy? He's one of us. We're going to support him. And we like Charlie, too. It's a Scott game, we're buying it. It's a Keith Elwin game, we're buying it. So we've become much more, in quotes, celebrity-driven, in the same way that the world was before. And unfortunately, in terms of, again, having the lion's share of the marketplace at Williams Valley, there wasn't the same notoriety for Joe Kamenkow and others, Joe Balcer or whatever else within Data East, Stern, Sega. Okay, that was relying more on the brand, not them. And with Jon Norris and others within Premier Gottlieb, it was the same. It had to be the game had to prove itself as opposed to we put pre-sales. Mark Ritchie. Okay. Yeah, we'll take. We got it. It's Dennis. Oh, yeah. We love Dennis. I mean, those were the celebrities. And I think what you find now, excuse the phone ringing, I think what you have now is much the same. I mean, look, Brian Eddy could have come out with Attack from Mars now with the same kind of feeling that people had 20-some-odd years ago and have now, to the tune of multiple thousands of machines, it would have faltered. Because the expectation was so great for his comeback that there was nothing that he could have done. Give him Harry Potter and he would have failed. Give him anything and he would have failed. I mean, the albatross that was on his neck, and I love Brian. Great guy. We did some great stuff together. He did not deserve that type of expectation. And it wasn't as if anybody tried to tamp it down. I mean, it was like, God. You know, when Pat Lawler came back into the world after an absence, it was kind of done a little bit below the radar. You know, whether Donald Inn was successful or not, it was, you know, okay, he's back. And it wasn't as if there wasn't a certain reverence for Pat. There was, but it wasn't the same kind of massive expectation of like, oh, my God. You know, if Mark Spitz is going to go back and do more swimming, Is the expectation going to be that he's going to win another eight gold medals? No. Freaking no. Are you kidding me? You know, I think that that becomes the issue, and more so we have these new celebrities. People are going to, and we already know the numbers, anywhere from 500 to 750 are going to support Charlie come hell or high water. We don't care if the game is good, bad, or whatever. We support him because he's one of us. And thank God he has Bowen helping him, so the rules are going to be good and everything else, and we don't mind that all these games have a similar design, that the feel might not be the best, the rules are not great, but it's Charlie, so yeah, let me give him money. And you hope and pray that it all works out. I mean, the expectation for John Borg. You know, some of his games tend to be somewhat similar in terms of geometry, but nobody cares because, and you made the comment before, it's a John Borg game. Yeah, and I'm kind of familiar and kind of comfortable. I kind of know what Johnny can do. So yeah, I'm going to go play that first and make the decision potentially to buy it because I don't know if John actually gets the pre-sale off of him alone as opposed to just whatever the theme might be and hopefully I've given him a good solid theme so I think that there's something to be said for that as being an indicator for the business but I didn't mean to interrupt you it was just what you said kind of triggered something so I'm going to ask again and hopefully for you as well yes the current state and where are we heading to Roger I think that we are in I mean I'm newer are much, much newer to the hobby, obviously, than both of you, but I feel like we are in a place now that's great for the hobbyists because we have so many different companies, all with a different approach to the game, new companies popping up all the time. How successful they are is still to be seen, but everyone's offering something that's a little bit new. I mean, everyone loves Stern, they love Jersey Jack, they're very different approaches to the game, but they're both a lot of fun. So for me as a collector and a hobbyist, I'm really happy where we are. My biggest concern with looking to the future is that we maintain this kind of status and progress and we continue to get these games because I would hate to have a dip like there was in the 90s or, you know, multiple times in the past. But for the future, I am really excited to see the innovations that are coming out now. There are so many different ideas out there of what might work and what might not, whether it's P3 to a pin bar, you know, just sort of to a Jersey Jack big LCD with all the lights that they put into Guns N' Roses. I mean, there's some really good new things coming out in pinball that are exciting to me. And I still think that we're keeping the essence of what pinball is. Do flipper buttons, you know, and the Italian bottom and the fan layout. I mean, all of these things that we're used to are still there, but it's done in a different way. And so that's exciting. I hope that continues and that we don't delve so far into new technology and playing an iPhone game on your pin bar instead of playing pinball. You know, I'm not excited about that per se. I'd love to keep it, keep the essence, but continue to innovate. And I think we're doing that. I see a lot of that in what's coming. Looking at what Eric Meunier did with Guns N' Roses, that's really exciting to me to see somebody who's just kind of breaking the rules. No one's ever used drumsticks for a wire form ramp. You know, have the ball roll down an actual musical instrument item like that. To see stuff like that, that's what really interests me in pinball, is that world under glass and how well you integrate the theme into the game and all the visuals and stuff like that. that's, you know, I mean, I guess being an artist, you know, I'm visually driven, you know, I don't care about flow as much, and like, you know, I need the whole play field to be empty, so this shot can zip up there and can zip back here. That doesn't matter to me as much, so when you have this younger group coming in and sort of rolling the dice and taking chances on different things, you know, creatively, that's something that I'm looking forward to seeing, because I know American Pinball, they just hired, what, three or four new young guys, like junior designers, they call them. So I'm really interested to see what the new guard is going to do with what we've got. And hopefully, as Christian says, it's not going to get carried away into using your cell phone and those electronic horseshit, you know, just what's on the play. To your point, Chris, I think what's really nice is we have a lot of new blood, but we also have the old guard. We still have the Dennis Nordmans. We have Steve Richies and the Pat Lawlers and everyone that You know, if you're into pinball, you know the names. But then we have new ideas. And so we have a really nice mix of those things. Stern Pinball, three to four titles a year. At least one of those titles is way before my time, almost 100% of the time. You're going to see like the Led Zeppelins or the Munsters. I mean, I know these brands. I know these bands, but I didn't grow up with them. They're not targeted at me per se. I may still buy it because I love the game, but then they also have the Deadpools And they have other Hot Wheels or other titles that I did grow up with. So it's a good mix of everything. It's not so focused in on. I absolutely agree. And I think that it is good to know, I believe, that everybody is going to stray creatively. But that fundamentally, the essentials of what comprises a pinball will still remain. And, you know, from time to time, you have another additive device of something, whether it's an iPhone or anything else. as long as it is not something that is a necessity and it becomes a novelty part of enjoying the game experience, then yeah. And if there's going to be hidden stuff or whatever, I mean, I'm intrigued by what I call the new design philosophy. And the new design philosophy are literally these mini games that are in a game. Oh my God, I can do this and suddenly I can play this advanced mode and nothing else. Oh, I have this challenge and I can do this. It is taking a game and the logic of that game and the personality of that game and not really straying from it so much as it is focusing on it. Highlighting. Allowing you almost to take a test drive into the very essence, I was going to say follows, but in terms of the real character and soul of the game. And I think that that is going to open up, and it already has for those who have an understanding and appreciation of it, a whole new approach. And some programmers are going to get hammered because, oh, my God, look what they did, and it's this and it's that and whatever else. And hopefully all of them will achieve the recognition of the elegance of what it is that they're doing. I mean, come on, guys. I come from a world where it's like hit the blue targets, hit the red ones, hit the ABC, one, two, three. I mean, seriously? Hit the ball and the sensor. Look at how far we've come. And it's not now just only what you are seeing on the play field or what comes up as a rule set so much as it is, hi, I have this other separate thing for you. It leaves the experience infinite, which I've always loved about pinball and how I approach it as a designer. But yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry. Well, Steven Bowden has recently talked about his design philosophy and his rules possibly coming out as a separate entity to the same game. So, for instance, with Deep Root, they were saying that they could possibly, in the future, you could download a whole new set of rules for a game. So you actually create an entirely different experience based on the same game as downloadable content or something you would pay additional monies for. Do you think you lose some of the soul of the game by doing that, or do you think that that's something you could see as a possible exciting feature in the future? All right, so I don't mean to take a pot shot ever at anybody wanting to innovate. The challenge and the problem that I have personally is the release of games that aren't complete. Back in the day, we would never ever show anything unless it was ready to be shipped in four to six weeks. Every game that was on that floor, some exceptions in terms of some video games that come instantly to mind, were not necessarily all the way to the finish line. But it wasn't as if that late two months, late six months, everything that we showed was ready. And we are seeing some things, at least we did back then for some of our competitors, where there were placeholders in the dot matrix. Oh, this particular feature yet to come or whatever else. I mean, they were selling stuff that was incomplete just because there was a trade show and they wanted to be there. And again, it was a different dynamic back then. The state shows and what have you were done really for commercial operators. It wasn't for the public. And I think what has happened now is that games are never done. Oh, wait, there's a new code. bug fixes and everything else, I get that but the level of urgency based on whatever the demands are, corporately, to have something be unveiled and released where it's 50% oh no, we're going to come back and do more or whatever, I find that abysmal, how terrible you're short changing your market, your audience so I say that as a baseline to this concept of hi, we can develop a whole new game My fear would be that we would go even farther into the lack of completeness in order to say to somebody, yes, but we're working on this other thing that's going to be ready in six months or a year. You're not going to believe what we're doing. Well, why didn't you do it the first time around? Right. If you want to offer an enhancement, and we have that ability now to do it much more succinctly and directly, just because of people being able to download stuff and whatever else in their computer, so that, okay, now you can get that high-end wizard mode in because it's finally complete. Right. That kind of stuff I don't have problems with, kind of, because I think that there should be an absolute where-on date, if you will, for a game, and the improvements and everything else in the hand, fine. I understand that. But if what you're doing is you are going to come out with a 50% done game because you're working on all this other great stuff, that's going to comprise a whole different thing. Yeah. The targets now give you this, but you're not going to believe what those targets are going to give you in game 1.2. Well, the argument is just to be fair. We have this hidden world in this hidden mode where we're going to be delivering X, Y, and Z. Yeah. That to me, I don't know, it seems a little bit more homebrewish. They would say that they're going to come out with a 1.0 game, so the game will be completely done. But then, a couple months down the road, they will come out with new code that you can buy if you wish. That's not to enhance what you own. It's an entirely new game for the same machine that you're playing. So all of the rules are different. Maybe the theme is different. The images on the back are different. So you don't have to necessarily buy a new game. But the game itself is the same, which is the old way of thinking, is there a way to do a pinball kit? Right. It's essentially a kit, but all based on a lot. It is. It's a software upgrade. Correct. Follow what happens with video games. Oh, you want Super Pac-Man? Here, here's the chips, here's the ROM, it's in the cabinet. So from that context, if that's what they're thinking of doing, the ideal approach that I would think would be imperative, do you have enough depth of subject matter to give you two or three or four distinct different game objective rule sets? Mm-hmm. Where it's like, this time around, you have to shoot the ramp five times instead of three, because that's going to start multiball, and it's a different kind of multiball. It's a 14-ball multiball where the other one is a one-ball. I'm just saying, if you start looking at it from that context, now the beauty of this approach for them, if I am to believe some of the stuff that's been posted, speculated, or whatever else, is that the majority of themes that they have coming out are going to be original themes. So they're creating their own storyline for that theme park or that medieval type of thing. thought process approach. And if that's the case, then yes, then they can create their own amorphous universe where they can do that. The question then becomes whether or not the essence of the physical layout and geometry of the game is satisfying enough the first go-around, let alone the second or the third. Right, right. Because what you're saying is that the features and functionality and geometry on Medieval Madness and Attack from Mars are basically the same. Mm-hmm. That's right. But they're done in a different way, with different artwork, different, different, different. So you don't mind it. You know, we talked before in terms of my quiz show where I was thinking of John Borg layouts. Right. So, I mean, I look at things as being those types of ingredients that are the signature elements of a particular designer. And every designer, even if they want to try to spray a particular signature, Steve Ritchie has a signature. We know what it is. We may not be able to verbalize it, but we can feel it and sense it when we play his games, whether we like his games or not. That is Steve, and I appreciate it truly and distinctively, and I never tire of it, regardless of however it is proportioned in its methodology. So I think that that really becomes the critical part to it. I'll be curious to see when they attempt to execute that the first time around. Yeah. And if it's going to be with, I don't know, Retro Atomic whatever, and, hi, we're going to give Zed or Ned all new adventures, it's going to be the same game, but it's all new adventures, and you're not going to believe what those adventures are, okay. But then the wear and tear on the physical game is going to be something that I think becomes incumbent upon the manufacturer to ensure that the issues we used to have commercially with pinball, the ability to maintain a game, because we all know this. I'm not going to say something that people don't know. There are no two pinball machines of the same model that play the same. Can I still make the ramp? Is the flipper strength still there? Have I gummed it up or I haven't kept it clean enough where I can't make that loop? Because now with all the new rules and everything else in an older game, just a fresh coat of paint, if you will. Mechanically, the game is going to be the same. And until you come up with a machine, God forbid, that is just going to be a virtual one in a pinball cabinet, I am dependent upon the condition of that game to realize what it is that I have now built in for this whole new rule set. I'll be curious, but I think that there are going to be certain considerations that may be on the surface or not thought of. And potentially, if they are thought of, it may result in looking at a new approach to game design, a la Scott Danesi coming out with a single-level playfield, or what Premiere did years ago with Silver Slugger. Do you think it's all right that people may charge for these different game options rather than just offer them for free a year later? Like, oh, here's a new thing. Try this out. I think that if you play video games, and obviously Steve is from a world of loot boxes, you know, I'm buying my game for $39. But if I want different cars and different power-ups, or if I want to do this in terms of my character set, I'm playing Halo or I'm playing anything else that's out there. and there are some that just don't come logically to mind. Fortnite. Fortnite, thank you. That was the one I was actually thinking of. And it's going to cost me $9 more, $4 more. Oh, wow. Yeah, I'm on board. I'm already in. Let's do this. So I think that that is a mentality that is taking, I'll call it, a video game mentality and trying to apply it to pinball to allow a pinball to achieve a certain level of financial opportunity that might not have been successfully executed by going with an entirely new game. So you're taking the same stuff and you're changing it from Daytona 1 to Daytona 2. Pole position 1 to pole position 2. But rather than add just a simple new wizard mode, if they redid the whole game, what do you think is a fair price to charge for a downloadable upgrade like that where the whole game changes? I'm terrible to ask when it comes to the price of stuff. That's a hard question. And I would, is that a $5 thing? Is that a $50 thing? What I'm going to say is it's hard for me because my sons give me grief when I cannot fathom what the cost is for new games. Dad, you don't know how much it costs now to build a game. You got away when it was like $29.95, $32.95. Yes, it is going to be $12,000. Do I buy a house for the down payment? Do I buy a car? Do I send my children to school? I mean, this is not like an afterthought. And when I look at the price of used games, I go even crazier. Dad, do you know how much, you know, a sharpshooter is going for on the market? Like $300, $500? No. You can find it for like $6,000. Are you crazy? No, no, no, no, no, no. So when you ask about what the cost would be, in my mindset, I would think that for an upgrade like that, that has all new rules and whatever else, it would potentially be a fraction of the price of the game. Now, again, I'm going off of the reality that games are now $6,000 or $7,000 or $8,000. so potentially for new rules is it going to be a few thousand dollars you know you mentioned before about toppers toppers are going for like a thousand to me it's insane but people are spending and charging and upgrading and whatever else my mentality is maybe it's like 20% big new charge for the game maybe it's you know 1200 for this whole new rule set now I'm saying that but I don't believe it because I think it should only be a couple hundred but I'm trying to be as modern I can't see anybody paying more than like $50. I don't know, it's a video game right? A video game is $60 so can you get away with a few thousand for, or a thousand bucks for a whole new rule set? If you're paying that for a topper, you would have to imagine that people would pay it for a whole new game, right? I mean that's the Well that's the reason It's a topper It's a topper that has no interactivity in terms of the game other than a flashing light or a moving part And granted, there's now some that have some software where there's game rules attached to them. Okay, that's an add-on as opposed to just a nice accoutrement. Right. Well, Roger, let's get into a couple of the random ones because I know we're getting long, and you have been so kind to hang out with us. You founded the Professional and Amateur Pinball Association together with Steve Epstein, and we recently talked to your sons about replay and pinball closing down, and they had mentioned that you had found out kind of at the same time as everyone else had. I'm sure it was difficult for you to see this all happen. Do you feel like something on this scale will ever happen again in the future? Yes. That's good news. So in my wildest dreams, and I understand that the gestation, if you will, the conception of Papa was my experience with Valley Super Shooter. And I've talked about this in the past and whatever else. Ken Lunsford won a car, a Datsun 280Z, and all sorts of other wonderful stuff. and it was picked up globally. I always thought that the wrong person won. It should have been a fellow by the name of Joe Grillo. We won't go into his details, but the fact that I still remember these names. And fortunately, I had my dear friend who was willing to be a guinea pig with me, and I thought that I could come up with a scoring system, and ultimately we did. At some point in time, Steve and I had talked about it, and I really believed that I guess it was more me because I bowled in a league when I was a little young person. I really thought that there could be an opportunity for pinball to be done on a grand scale. And what Ballet Super Shooter was supposed to be was the first annual. It became the only annual. But I thought, God, if I can come up with a scoring system, if we can do something, we can start leagues. And those leagues can turn into tournaments locally. And then we can do things regionally. And then we can do things nationally. And then we can do things worldwide. I mean, I believed in my heart of hearts that that was a possibility. And when I saw what happened with Pinbird, I felt, God, in my lifetime, And what the boys have done with IFPA and having me help them resurrect it. We created something that I envisioned and imagined back in 1976. So when you ask, is there going to be something on that scale again? Yeah, I believe that. I believe that we are going to have, whether it's in my lifetime or not, we're going to have corporate sponsors, which is the big thing. We're going to have television coverage. Look, video games are going to be coming into the Olympics. Wow. Through eSports. Is there going to be an opportunity for the physical, and we know how I play pinball, the physical nature of playing a pinball machine? That is the sport. Thank you. I can do break out in a sweat. You have people that wear different bandages and things on their bodies because of the physical nature of the interactivity. Yeah, I think it can happen. I think that we've been put in a position now, along with everything else because of the pandemic, where it's going to take a little bit longer to rebuild that momentum. But I think that there is a world out there where pinball is going to be seen in a totally different light. And I think it's going to be the context of people saying, really? It was only like in the back room of a bar? It was outlawed and banned? This? This sport? We have these professionals. Oh, my God. Are you kidding me? And we have these events massively around the world that are gathering literally tens of thousands of players. I mean, the way that, and probably aren't aware of it, other than maybe seeing movies like The Color of Money, there are pool tournaments with literally thousands of people. There are dart tournaments with thousands of people. Some of that has actually picked up on ESPN in off hours. I think, yes, I think absolutely. Pinball has that opportunity to be in the limelight again. It was sad to see. But I will tell you something I had never gone out to I guess what was Pembert before in the barn or whatever that Kevin had I had never When they shifted to go to the convention center and the boys talked me into going Yeah, right. Okay, fine. And I had gone to other events, IFPA stuff and whatever else. And some of them were very nice. When they took, and I guess it wasn't now having gone a few years. It wasn't the shortcut. They took me, and if you guys had ever gone, they took me into the parking lot. Okay. And the parking lot took me up like a bridge and elevators and whatever else. And I remember walking and this quintessential picture of looking down and it was like, oh, my God, look at that. Yeah. Oh, well, we want you to see that this, I mean, this is what it is. That's cool. And that experience, I mean, I got to tell you something, got my heart beating and felt, you know, we've come such a long way in such a short period of time. And God, there's so much farther to go. So sorry for the long winded way of answering it. But yes, I think that there is a future. How it's going to be done, in all honesty, is going to be much more difficult because Alicia and Kevin, who had this collection, and working with Mark and everybody else to get the place, how it's going to be done on the same scope, Dan, I don't know. But it's going to need to be this community of folks kind of getting together and energizing to the extent that you take the multiples of each and every collector show that has a side tournament with 20 machines or 30 machines or whatever else. And so, yeah, we're going to put them all together because we absolutely need like 14,000 machines. So, hi, everybody. Let's ship them. Let's truck them. Let's fly them. So, yeah. I like it. Well, Roger, we obviously have to talk about you and a little bit about the movie that is potentially being made about you. It's being made by MPI, and it's billed as a dramatic comedy based on the true story of your life. Can you tell us about this movie and where it's at in production? Sure. So I was approached by Austin and Meredith Bragg, who knew about me. I think Meredith and I had had some conversations in the past. He'd gone to a pinball event and kind of knew who I was. And said he wanted to do a movie based on my life. And it's just like, yeah, right. Seriously? No, no, no, no, no. And MPI was, Moving Picture Institute was behind the project. I was skeptical, to say the least. They had wanted to share with me, and whether or not anybody has any curiosity, a film called Miss Virginia, which is a life story of a lady in the South who fought for new school opportunities, specifically for her son, but really something that was a benchmark in the community. Saying, no, no, no, they wanted to do a real movie. It's like, no, I can't see this. But that was a way to kind of offer to me that, number one, it's a legitimate company. Because, look, I mean, I've been in a lot of documentaries and other things. The idea of something that's totally focused on me, no, that was like a mind-blowing thing. So anyway, fast forward, yes, we have spent countless hours zooming, talking, researching, referencing. They have tapped into my immediate circle of people. Fortunately, Steve, before he passed away, and my family members and others, to try to get a sense and a handle on things, sharing a voluminous amount of photographs. another memorabilia, if you will. So with COVID and everything else, we've gone through scripts. A script has been submitted and the plan hopefully is that we'll start looking at casting because it's actually going to be like a real movie. I get to have some input as to who's going to be portraying me. Brad Pitt, of course, right? Yeah, right. Now I have to find a young me because it's only for a finite period of time. Nobody cares about an old person. You're going to have to have the ability to grow the stache. Yeah, right. It's the truth. So yeah, whether or not we get to filming this year or the beginning of next, depending on how things sort out with COVID and everything else. The two brothers are remarkable individuals. They've won some awards. There's a short film that has taken a whole bunch of kudos called A Piece of Cake that I think people can look at online and see what their approach is. And my comment to them was, I never thought of my life as being a comedy. And it was truthfully, and it's interesting because in some ways I'll bring this back to pinball. It's a question of how you approach and position things. For the movie people industry out there and whatever else, there are certain buzzwords, horror film, sci-fi, future, where they said, you know, to have it be a real life, we're going to call it a dramedy. So it's a drama and a comedy, but we're trying to give them something so at least they come in on it and understand that there's something here. Will there be some light moments? Yes. But because we got into talking and I tend to be somewhat of a film person as to various films. So would you think of that as being a comedy? Well, no. I just think of that as a dramedy. No, no, no. That's a serious period piece. That's whatever. So yes, the movie is going to be happening. I'm the executive producer on it. I get some final say on script, casting, and what have you, and I think that if things were under different conditions, I would have been meeting with them face-to-face over these past many months that we've been working on it. You'll have to have a cameo, correct, in this movie? I'm hoping that there may be some something. I was supposed to be in the Mortal Kombat movie, but I never made it out in time. No, no. I think that was screen credit. Do you like the author of Hitchcock and the Birds and just walk down a street corner with two poodles? I think you should be the guy in the gray suit giving out the Acarajer. It kills me as that. It's true. I'm sort of imagining, even though this guy's life was like sort of a bumbling mess, which I would not equate to you, but the movie Ed Wood, have you seen that? Sure, yep. Biopic, you know, about a guy, but funny as hell, you know. I love that movie. I watch that movie five times a year. It's a great film. Yeah, so definitely sounds interesting. And stick it by surprise. And stick it to your kids because they told me, oh, yeah, he gets offered this crap all the time and nothing ever happens. there have been truthfully there have been other occasions with people coming back and talking about different business opportunities or film ventures or whatever else and it's like yeah right and i've shared you know with the boys guess what do you know this person heard about this or whatever else and it's like yeah call us and tell us later and i think in this particular instance as shocked as i was they were probably equally if not more you've written a lot of articles for industry magazines and newspapers, you've written an extremely collectible book amongst the pinball community called Pinball. Are there any recent pinball books that you consider to be must-buys for pinheads? Well, I won't call it a book. Obviously, Jonathan has done incredibly well with Pinball Magazine. And looking at a single subject, I think if anybody ever wants to know about Wayne Nine's life, it's right there in 190 pages or whatever the number was. Myself, obviously with the first issue. You know, I think that Mr. Shalhoub has done very nicely with his series of books. I know that I just got, and I'm very appreciative, the Taito book that kind of recounts their pinball machines that were made in South America. I don't know what else is out there that has come out of the woodwork. I mean, I hate to admit the fact because it troubles me so much. The last pinball machines I played were in March in New Orleans. I mean, there's a whole slew of games I've never played, and I've always been so proud of the fact that every game that had been manufactured from 1966 till March of this year, I had played in some way, shape, or form. And not only that, that I had all the brochures. The flyers, yeah. So when you talk about, you know, what are the new books, I am a collector. Look, I went back. I didn't realize I did not have it in my collection. I went and got volume two of Richard Buchel's book. I've always thought that Richard Buchel, an incredible historian. I thought of myself as not necessarily being a historian on the level that he was. So much as it was, I provided more of a populist look at the history of pinball. I didn't get into the depth and depth and dimensionality of Montague Redgrave's life and his family and everything else. Richard Buchel does that. And he's an incredible historian, the late great. I highly recommend if anybody wants to read anything about the history of pinball, his two books are must-haves in the library. You know, again, Michael Salu's books, I think, are great, although they tend to be much more visual. And it tends to be various people like myself writing things as opposed to Michael doing the work himself and the research. I really like that, though, because it lets you into the world a little bit more and to hear from the people directly as opposed to just Michael talking secondhand or thirdhand about things. You know, people directly write about that. But there were a few books that you wrote that I never knew. I reached out to a buddy of mine, Joe Cherovino. He is your biggest fan, I would have to say. I know a lot of people love you, but he really loves you. And he started a petition on Change.org to make August 1st, your birthday, a national pinball day in your honor. And he's got 1,500-plus signatures on there. So I asked him a question because I felt like it was only appropriate to have him ask you a question as well. And he said that you had written a book, and he's collecting everything you've written, one of which is called ACT, Attention Control Training, How to Get Control of Your Mind Through Total Concentration. You come under my spell. Now I know why you're so good at pinball, because you're able to totally concentrate on what you're doing. But he also said you wrote a book on parenting. Is that true? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, the Attention Control Training was one of the two books I did with a clinical psychologist, Bob Niderford. The other one was How to Put Anxiety Behind You. Okay, cool. The Father's Book, I was a contributor to that. A series of computer books, user guides, and my suntanning book, which will live in infamy. No, really? Yeah. That's fantastic. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. How to get a great tan without frying? Come on. How better to spend $1.79? I knew nothing about it because I can't tan. I pretty much just burn. You can tell by my skin tone. but he's going to write a book called how to be more selective when you choose which podcast to go on no but but but his uh his actual question for you was i've always wanted to ask roger as a father raising two young boys what lessons about being a good father do you hope you have passed on to your two sons josh and zach wow we're getting all bushy and stuff be true to yourself and your values. Ellen knows this. We've been together now 47 years, 42 of them married. My priority is my boys, then Ellen, and then work. Having said that, I've always believed, and it is mushy, sorry. I've always believed that if you're not really satisfied with the career that you have and the work that you're doing, it's going to be very difficult, if not impossible, to be the kind of person that you want to be personally. I always thought that professionally, you got to get there wherever there is and I think in terms of the boys I'd like to hope that my legacy is that you deal with integrity uh morality you're honest even to a fault and your word is your bond and if you can be that in any matter of way then hopefully the blessing to you as a father and as a human being is that you've lived a good life. Look, I'll be the first one to say that there are aspects of my life that could have been better if I would have taken shortcuts and been a different person than I am. Financially and otherwise, but I have no complaints. I never have lived in would have, should have, or could have. You do everything to the best of your ability at that particular moment in time and you don't question it and you keep on moving forward. So I'm hoping that the boys feel that way. And more importantly, and I guess in terms of Joe reading the father's book section, in that my philosophy is put down in print as to the sacrifices I made back then as a parent. And I was willing to make them. I was willing to put everything on the back seat. So I'm hopeful that my sons feel the same way as fathers and as husbands in terms of how they live their lives, as well as how they are as professionals. so sorry to be so maudlin and down oh my god that was a great answer that was a great answer can we also add though as part of being a great dad you had mentioned earlier that even back when you just had a small studio apartment in New York you still were able to provide for your children five pinball machines somehow fit inside that apartment for them to enjoy yeah but as the boys might have recounted there were certain games they were never allowed to play and there are games still today in the collections they have never played for whatever the reasons but back then it was like I was very protective you know I've had questions being asked of me when we've been at different events I remember one time at Pinball Expo a number of years back and the boys were playing this woman saw me and saw that I was rooting you know for either Josh or Zach or both and it was like oh are those your sons? Yeah they are oh now do you have anything to do with pinball? I mean she didn't know anything about me or whoever I was Just a little bit. But I think that, you know, really the key is, other than the language choices that Joshua has made, that there's a lot of pride in terms of how they carry themselves and the fact that another time somebody asked if, and this was interesting, so your sons are really, really good. Thank you. Now, when they came home from school, were they forced to play after they finished their homework? Like they had to play pinball for like an hour every day or two? No. So if anything, and I know the boys have revealed this, I didn't want them to play. I didn't have them playing the games. That was like a special treat. Which one's your favorite? It's just going to rip on the other one. No, it's okay. I'm trying to think who Meryl Streep picked and Sophie's choice. Roger, my wife, Sarah, also has a podcast. Her podcast is Mrs. Penn's Fanball Podcast. and she sometimes will give me a question to ask when she's really excited about a guest who's coming on. And she has said that if there was one person that she could pick in all of pinball to meet that she would geek out about the hardest, it would be your wife, Ellen, just because she has been, you know, the rock that has held down the Sharp family boys, you know, for so long. So she wanted me to ask you, how did you find such an amazing wife in Ellen Sharp, and when are you and Ellen coming over to Hershey, Pennsylvania to have dinner with us? Hell. How did I find her? I found her in an elevator. True story. You'll see the movie and see what the story is as the love affair. What? When are we going to go to Hershey, Pennsylvania for dinner? How? I don't know. You know, you just get lucky sometimes. And, you know, the things that I was just saying in terms of the boys, it's just kind of put it out there. I am what I am. I mean, in some ways I'm an open book, faults and all. And I met somebody who had curly hair, these big eyes, and I was just caught and taken. She wouldn't let go of your shin, right? Yeah, right. Yep. And I knew that, you know, at that point in time, pinball was just kind of starting in terms of where I was in my life. And Ellen kind of came along for the ride and embraced it. It's not everybody when you go looking for a house after we moved out of New York and apartments and you're telling a realtor, I need room for pinball machines. Right. Oh, okay. Well, here's the statement. No, no, no, you don't understand. And the house we wound up getting, just to share with you, and I think it's emblematic of Ellen, actually embracing all of it. The house we wound up getting in Cheshire, Connecticut, I was at work and Ellen was with the boys. It was like a Monday afternoon. We didn't get a chance to see the house on Sunday when we were looking to move. And Ellen called me saying, when you're done with work, you got to come over and meet with the realtor. We found the house. Okay. So I drive and it's like, that's not the house that I thought we were going to be seeing. And I go in. And my first thing is I look on the right and say, oh, that's where the pinball machine is going to go. Josh said that. Right, Ellen just said, that is what your son said. I told you before, the pinball machines are part of our life. This is where they go. And the collection wound up growing there. But it was interesting because Ellen accepted it up to a point. I am sitting here in a room that is a dining room, and I'm looking at two antique pinball machines. I can look at these seven pinball machines that are in the living room. Both of the boys had two pinball machines each in their bedroom. And I do have a finished basement downstairs with games as well. But, yeah, Ellen has kind of taken it all in stride. And when the boys left, I allowed Ellen. I'm saying allowed. Don't kill me. She wanted one room that was her own meditation room. So we took the games out of there because I figured, wow, I have all this new space. Oh, my God. I only have two games in there now. I think I can probably do like six if I started in the right way. Right. I count out to Ellen. So, yeah, I have somebody that is special that has been there who, and your wife may or may not know this, who took the time to actually type up the pinball book manuscript. Wow. One page at a time. I wrote it out by hand. 300 pages. 300 plus pages. Wow. Good for her. So, yeah, we've been partners in crime with this. And I actually got Ellen, I have to say it, because she started playing a little bit here in the monthly tournaments so that she could kind of bond with the boys. I wasn't able to make the commitment to play in the pinball league that we have or had and will have again. But when I got invited down to Atlanta the first time and I said, come on, Elle. And she had friends down there. So she was willing to go. I said, well, you're going to stay and listen to my talk, right? Well, you're going to play in the tournament, right? And she actually played in the tournament. and the last ball from the player knocked her out of being in the top eight. She didn't want to play, felt a little self-conscious, and it was just like, come on. We used to play all the time at the Broadway Arcade. Ellen was pretty good, but she didn't have a sleepy hand, as I used to call it. Come on, keep focused. And she came close, and then we went to Denver, and she competed in that tournament as well. So I got her to come out of her shell a little bit to play. So, yeah, that becomes a part of our life experience together. How's her body English when she plays? Did she do the kick, the Josh Sharpe kick? No, she's much more Zachary Zun like. Okay. Just saying. The one who was a little bit more physical was actually my stepson, Seth. So there's one more question that we have to pose, and since we already got one from Zach to use for the game show, we're just going to throw this one out there. But Zach did ask us to ask you, over the years, How many sheets of playfield glass have you busted in your son's homes? I can't wait to hear the answer. Does he have an answer to that? No, he didn't tell me. Apparently it's more than one. I was just going to say, I think it's only two. Oh, really? Yep. I know the first one I ever broke was at Segasta in Spain, where I put it on my sneaker and literally it just kind of crashed. I felt so terrible because James was taking pictures of games for the book and it was like, oh my God, what have I done? But I think, yeah, I think Josh, in his place, I don't think, and we can ask Zachary, and I will ask him, I do not think that in his old place or his new place, his new house, that I have broken any glass there. Just kidding. He's referring to mishandling and not somehow breaking it during play then? Oh, mishandling? Yeah. I don't know. That's what I'm asking. No, I'm saying, I have practical. They get on me because there are times where I have problems lining it up. You take the glass out. Oh, you put it. Trying to put it back in and maneuvering. Dad, wait, I can get this. I can do this. Right. Me alone, I can get it. There have been occasions, yes, where I'm coming in either too steep, too low, off to a side. so I think that's probably what he meant, more so than actually just breakage. Well, it's been an absolute honor, Roger. I can't thank you enough for taking this much time. I was telling Chris on the last episode that we've interviewed some of the greats, and I've always had you at the top of my bucket list to interview, so I really appreciate you spending your time. Thank you. Hey, it's my pleasure. Hopefully I wasn't too boring. Absolutely not. But, you know, thanks for thinking of me and having enough interest and curiosity to create not only a quiz show, but thankfully at least I wasn't totally terrible, so dogs are going to get to eat, which is pleasing to me as well. I wish you guys well, and you guys come out for anything when the time is right. Dinner? Absolutely. And Chris, hopefully we'll get a chance to work together on a project or two down the road. We're kind of doing that now, sort of. Yep, I'm looking forward to that. And, again, I thank you guys for having the interest, the patience, the indulgence. So last year on all of this. It was our pleasure. Stay safe. We'll get through this. And I look forward to the time where maybe we can play some pinball together. That sounds great, Roger. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Thank you, Roger. Thank you. All right. Well, that does it for part two. That was awesome. I got off of that interview and told my wife it was like pinball fantasy camp talking to Roger Sharp. It was so much fun. He's such a good dude, and he's just hearing his thoughts on pinball in general. So thank you, Roger, for coming on. It was really an honor, and I know that Chris and I don't take that for granted. We've had some emails back and forth with him. It's been a little surreal talking to him, and hopefully we'll get him back on at some point. Yeah, and such a great interview. We've got a lot of response from people just on the first half on saying how there's some of the stories they've heard before, but he tells them differently. And so even if they're familiar with some of the things that we've talked about, it was just entertaining top to bottom just to hear him talk and tell his stories. And also that if somebody heard something, a topic prior, if he had a different story to tell about it as well. So people just got a lot of entertainment out of that first part of the interview, and we hope the second part you did as well. Yeah, I feel like, believe it or not, we actually edited a ton out of that. How long were we actually on the phone with him when we were talking? five hours, six hours. Yeah, we got on the phone at, what, 1230 in the afternoon, and it was dark out when we hung up with him. It was like quarter to six or something like that. But it went by fast. That's the thing about Roger is that it's just all, it doesn't matter what you're talking about, it's interesting. Well, yeah, and he had stories to tell that were airable, and then he would tell the reply that we could air in the interview, and then he goes, okay, and now off the record, and then we get all these other stories. So, yeah, it was much more fun for us. Yeah. So if you wrote the real story behind stuff, you kind of have to have your own podcast. We've edited out probably, I don't know, man, how many hours of un-airable stuff do you think that we've done? Two and a half. Two and a half hours. With Roger himself. But then across all of our interviews, I would say 20 hours of stuff that we couldn't air. We could put all those. Like, if we ever get in trouble, you know, like, and we're outcast from the hobby, we could just put out a CD, you know, collection. No. I kid, of course. We keep that in our personal stash. So we just had a contest and gave away a Houdini Translate from American Pinball. David Ficks was gracious enough to donate that. And the trivia question was, what's the official name of the Hot Wheels Collectors Club? And Christian, what was the correct answer and who got it right? Okay, the official answer was the Red Line Collectors Club. And congratulations to Scott Solomon, who won the random draw. So we got some really cool emails from this contest, including one from Tony Scudero, a.k.a. Tony Scoots, who showed off his kick-ass collection of Hot Wheels. It was so cool. I love these contests because people write in and tell us stories and talk about our show. So it's really cool to have that communication back and forth. Thanks to everybody who wrote in and to David and American Pinball for the prize. Definitely. And the reason why, if you guys are wondering, why would they call it the Redline Collectors Club and not the Hot Wheels Collectors Club or whatever? A redline is what they used to call the old cars because, like, I'm sure you've seen what they call a white wall wheel for a car. It has a little white stripe just on the outside of the rim on the black wall of the tire. They used to have little red lines on the tires of their cars. And they were affectionately known as red lines. So that's what they named the Collectors Club. So there's a little bit of Hot Wheels trivia for you. And I knew that because I'm a toy geek. I did not have to look that up, and I did not have to ask American Pinball about that. In fact, I came up with the trivia question because I knew the answer. Oh, very cool. And thank you to Cointaker as well for all of the dog food they are donating to the military rescue dog charity through Barlow's Pin Pets charity. So thank you very much to Cointaker. Yes, that was the official Barlow's Pin Pets shelter drive for 2021. But I think we're going to do something else for the puppies and the kitties come Christmas time. Okay. I can't get enough of trying to help out the puppies and kitties who can't help themselves. It's been an absolute blast this year, man, doing the show with you. I know we both have a lot of stuff outside of this podcast we have to focus on in life, and we've got a lot of work stuff going on. So I think we both agreed we're going to take some time off from the show to focus on those other life obligations for a little while. We're not really sure how long it's going to be. But we'll be back when the time is right. And we just wanted to thank everyone who's listened consistently, shown us so much support. We love hanging out with you guys for a few hours every show. And we're looking forward to doing more episodes this year for sure. We're just not sure exactly when it's going to be. And when we come back, it might sound a little bit different. We might have some new segments. We're going to take some time to kind of figure out where we want to go from here. Well, that's a nice way of putting it. And I would say that for the past couple of months, we've killed ourselves with trying to put out the product that we had. some very high-profile interviews that were not easy to do, that were not easy to edit. There were some very extraordinary shows that were extraordinary to edit that took days and weeks. And, you know, honestly, just with the end of the year and the holidays and all that, I think we're old and tired. We're old and tired, man. We're definitely tired. We're old and tired, and we just need some time off. So we're going to do that while it seems like not a whole lot of anything is going on. But we do appreciate the past year of support that you guys have given us. That's what keeps us raising the bar and trying to re-reach that and come up with new ideas and new fun things to do. As far as interviews, we have to re-approach it this year with some real fresh new ideas. Over the past year, we've done a lot of great interviews, and we want to revisit our friends again this year. But we want to obviously bring a new approach to these interviews because we've heard the life stories already. And we have a couple ideas that we've come up with that we think are going to be really exciting and really entertaining and fun to listen to. It's sort of an interview that you guys probably most likely haven't heard before. So we're really excited to do that. We're going to start setting all that up. We're definitely going to be on duty while we're off, you know, getting things together and changing some things up. Shit's still going to be happening in the Super Awesome Camp. Got some great stuff coming. Definitely. So thank you again for the past year, and we will see you guys very soon. Until then, bye-bye. See you next time, guys. Thank you. If you'd like to drop us a line or ask a question, we can be reached at superawesomepinball at gmail.com. Questions or comments may be read on the air. The original content of this show is copyright 2021 Asshat Radio Productions. No part of this show may be reproduced or rebroadcast without written permission. That means you don't play it on your show. The comments and opinions shared by the cast and guests do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the sponsors, Cointaker, Chicago Gaming Company, and Back Valley Creations. Their sponsorships of this show only serve to add to their continuing support of the pinball community. Cause we're gonna be legend! Gonna get better and better! That's what we're doing here in ancient Derry. It's about to be legend day! Okay, okay, show's over. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Hey, you fucking chalupa suck, dude! It was very satisfying. Now it's time for some super secret ninja bonus bloopers. Yeah, I'm working on two new pinball heart packages right now. Wait, dude, dude, are you allowed to talk about the, um... No, yeah, this is a special game where everyone's allowed to know and I can talk about it. No, why the fuck would I talk about it, dude? I forgot that that game hasn't even released yet. We talk about so many games and it's hard to... It's already been released and I'm working on it. Shit. So you cut this out of the last episode because you thought I was kissing too much Roger Sharp ass, so I'm going to use it this episode. What? My little spiel here. Hold on. All right, well, that does it for part two. That was awesome. I got off of that interview and told my wife it was like pinball fantasy. God, what a suck ass.

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: dea36387-ef3c-47c1-a4fa-2e69fae08410*