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Funhouse Reimagined - Pinball Expo 2024 - Nic Parks, Dominic Kacich, Travis Murie & Brian Allen

Pinball News (Pinball Expo 2024)·video·43m 31s·analyzed·Oct 18, 2024
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.037

TL;DR

Pinball Company reveals Funhouse Reimagined strategy: licensing deal, Brian Allen artwork, Pedretti manufacturing, quality control focus.

Summary

Nic Parks of The Pinball Company discusses the Funhouse Reimagined project at Pinball Expo 2024, detailing the company's 18-year history in pinball distribution, the decision to remake Funhouse, and collaboration with artist Brian Allen and manufacturer Pedretti. The session covers the game's artwork reimagining, code improvements (1.0/1.5/2.0 versions), quality control measures, warranty details, and pricing strategy positioning the LE at under $10,000.

Key Claims

  • The Pinball Company has been operating for 18 years (since 2006) as a major pinball distributor and refurbisher

    high confidence · Nic Parks: 'we've been operating for 18 years now'

  • Funhouse was manufactured approximately 11,000 units originally and is one of the most popular machines by production volume

    high confidence · Audience member asks how many Funhouses exist; Parks responds '10,000? Yeah. 11,000.'

  • The Pinball Company sold over 100-200 used Funhouse machines over its history and consistently kept them in stock due to high demand

    medium confidence · Parks: 'we had already moved through meaning but we bought it used refurbished and sold it to a new home... we had to have fun house in stock almost all the time'

  • Funhouse Reimagined has limited edition production capped at 750 units globally with approximately 45-60 sold/shipped in US and over 100 sold in Europe, Australia, and Canada as of the talk date

    high confidence · Parks: 'Limited edition is limited to 750 units globally... We've sold about 45 to 60 so far and shipped in the U.S. and then probably over in Europe... over 100 sold'

  • The game is manufactured by Pedretti in Italy with production approximately 1-2 months delayed from initial timeline

    high confidence · Parks: 'Production has been, for the most part, hitting pretty good. I'd say about a month or two delayed from what our initial timeline was.'

  • Brian Allen had previously redone artwork for Williams titles including Medieval Madness and Monster Bash before taking on Funhouse Reimagined

    high confidence · Parks: 'he has actually redone Medieval Madness, Monster Bash. I mean, so many different Williams titles'

  • The Funhouse Reimagined LE edition is priced under $10,000, compared to used original Funhouses selling for $8,000-$10,000

    high confidence · Parks: 'could also have at a price point for a limited edition under $10,000' and earlier 'we are selling fun houses for like eight nine ten thousand dollars used'

Notable Quotes

  • “I walked her up to Gary Stern and he had his nice white Ray-Bans on he was all spiffy and I said hey Nick Park's Pinball Company this is my wife Brooke he kind of gave her this little once over and boom we were distributors”

    Nic Parks@ 6:34 — Humorous origin story of Pinball Company becoming a Stern distributor in 2008, illustrating how personal charisma and relationship-building secured early business partnerships

  • “I think Funhaus, we probably sold over 100, maybe 200... we had to have fun house in stock almost all the time because it was one of those that was asked about so much”

    Nic Parks@ 9:03 — Demonstrates sustained demand for Funhouse in secondary market, validating the remake decision and explaining the game's cultural significance

  • “It's not remaking a game I'm when it's remaking this theme using the same layout and making it as if it was made today”

    Nic Parks@ 24:09 — Core philosophy distinction: 'reimagining' vs 'remaking' — preserves iconic layout while modernizing art and code, positioning as creative evolution rather than mere reproduction

  • “To buy a completely redone game with the 2.0 code and the original classic artwork for $74.99, I think, is underpricing it. So when we speak to how many we expect to sell, I think it's going to be popular.”

    Nic Parks@ 25:18 — Pricing strategy and confidence signal: base model at $74.99 perceived as undervalued relative to used originals, suggesting high sales expectations

  • “If you think he's creepy now, he actually was even creepier in earlier earlier drafts, if you can believe that.”

    Brian Allen@ 15:30 — Reveals iterative design process and manufacturer feedback loop — Pedretti requested toning down Rudy's creepy aesthetic, showing creative constraints

Entities

Nic ParkspersonDominic KasichpersonBrian AllenpersonTravis MuriepersonThe Pinball CompanycompanyPedretticompanyPlanetary Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Pinball Company operates 300-technician service network nationwide; distributes for Stern since 2008; positioned as leading pinball distributor/refurbisher with 18-year track record; secured multiple sub-dealer partners (Pinball Star confirmed)

    high · Parks: 'now we have about 300 technicians that do service for our customers' and 'We are the master distributor for the U.S. We have three authorized sub-dealers as well'

  • ?

    community_signal: Artist Brian Allen emphasizes supportive pinball community enabling independent creative practice; festival/event poster work (Metallica, cannabis/music festivals) shows cross-industry presence

    medium · Allen: 'I've worked with a lot of a lot of clients... concert posters for Metallica... Harley Davidson... I also just work with a lot of just small businesses'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Stern opposed remakes; Chicago Gaming succeeded with Medieval Madness remakes; Funhouse Reimagined positioned as premium alternative combining old layout + modern art/code at competitive price

    high · Parks: 'Stern was adamantly against remaking games... But I think it's a great value. It's a great game historically. We haven't changed the game, but bringing it to new life and reimagining it.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Brian Allen's creepy aesthetic for Rudy character was toned down by Pedretti feedback; iterative design process between artist and manufacturer shaped final product

    high · Allen: 'There were a couple of times where Pedretti told me to make it make him less creepy. So if you think he's creepy now, he actually was even creepier in earlier earlier drafts'

  • ?

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.131

0:00
Thank you guys for all being here. I'm going to take this mic off probably to learn about the Funhaus remake. I'm going to tell you a little bit about the history of the pinball company, why we took on the project before getting to that. Let me introduce my team here. My name is Nick Parks. I'm the founder of the pinball company. we've been operating for 18 years now and how long have you been with the company now? Four years. This is Dominic Kasich he's the current CFO he's the future CEO he's just a younger version of me who is much better pinball player probably the best hire that I've had to date he's super a smart guy he was a practicing accountant when he joined the team, but his passion was in pinball, and I just thought it was a really good fit. He's done a really great job the last four years. And then Brian Allen, who I met at the pinball show probably five or six years ago. If you've been by his booth or know about Brian, he is a brilliant artist.
1:08
When I first saw his booth, I was impressed by his take on some of the Williams titles, so he has actually redone Medieval Madness, Monster Bash. I mean, so many different Williams titles, and it's just amazing artwork. And in my opinion, it's some of these titles that didn't have very colorful art. It's interesting to see his take, and it's more like you would imagine those games being made today. So he's great and been great to work with. You're going to see these slides going through.
1:37
There's a set of slides that Brian supplied, and you're kind of seeing him putting ink to paper or pinned iPad or however you use it to create this beautiful artwork digitally. And then you're going to see some pictures that Dominic supplied who's been integral in kind of the quality control phase of when we started getting prototypes and like going through and fixing some of the issues. So you're going to see a white wood and some of the things we've been through. So let me just briefly talk about kind of the modern history of pinball. Some of you guys remember pinball going back to like alphanumeric displays and electromechanical. And when I started my website in 2006, it was like, no, we don't sell those machines. We only sell modern. And I had to identify what modern pinball was. And that was solid state games that were using circuit boards and whatnot. And we kind of always said Funhaus. Funhaus from 1990 was always like when we said, hey, we sell modern pinball starting with 1990. And why we said 1990 was because we thought Funhaus was kind of like turning the page into some of the modern features that you see at pinball today.

The game includes three code versions: 1.0 (original), 1.5 (with modern features like ball save and auto-plunger), and 2.0 (new reimagined code based on a previous update kit sold about 5 years ago with ~500 units)

high confidence · Dominic Kasich explains code versions and Travis Murie notes the 2.0 kit was announced '2, 3, 4 years ago' with about 500 kits sold

  • Pedretti is responsive to warranty issues, with one example resolved within 7 days

    high confidence · Travis Murie: 'one of our sub dealers here, Pinball Star, One of their customers got an Ellie Legs powder coat on a classic game... It's been taken care of in seven days'

  • The Pinball Company operates with approximately 300 technicians across the country for customer service and repairs

    high confidence · Parks: 'now we have about 300 technicians that do service for our customers'

  • “I came onto the scene here, I think about maybe six years ago. I redid the Monster Bash back glass. And then I linked up with Rick at Planetary Pinball and just started remaking title after title of Williams Valley Games.”

    Brian Allen@ 13:45 — Establishes Brian Allen's art career trajectory and connection to Planetary Pinball as springboard to Funhouse project

  • “When I visited them in Italy, they have a great understanding and good base knowledge of pinball. They have been a manufacturing company since, you know, I think the 70s and 80s.”

    Travis Murie@ 30:32 — Validates Pedretti selection: manufacturing experience and institutional knowledge of pinball production reduces risk vs. untested manufacturers

  • “Stern was adamantly against remaking games interestingly”

    Nic Parks@ 24:02 — Reveals Stern's philosophical opposition to remakes, contrasting with Chicago Gaming's success, and explains why Funhouse Reimagined required external manufacturing partner

  • “You don't depress anything it's brooke pinball company i'll be she'll be making dinner at my house on her cell phone brooke pinball company”

    Nic Parks@ 26:49 — Illustrates hands-on customer service commitment and founder accessibility, building trust through direct founder/team availability for warranty and support

  • “Having something like this, like a supportive community really gives me and my wife a ton of freedom because I don't need to work with, I can choose which clients I want to work with”

    Brian Allen@ 14:14 — Artist perspective on community support enabling selective project curation and creative autonomy

    • Funhouse Reimagined
    game
    Gary Sternperson
    Rickperson
    Brookeperson
    Doug Duboisperson
    Chicago Gaming Companycompany
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Nathanperson
    Pinball Starcompany
    Pinball Brotherscompany
    Brian Austin Greenperson

    licensing_signal: Funhouse IP licensing acquired by Pinball Company from Rick (claimed owner); licensing negotiations required before manufacturing partnership with Pedretti could proceed

    medium · Parks: 'I honestly just reached out to Rick, who is the claimed ownership of that license. And I said, okay, you're the guy I want to work with. And we worked a deal.'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Manufacturing in Italy raises shipping/logistics questions; Pinball Company emphasizes Pedretti's manufacturing history (since 1970s-80s) and quality control expertise to justify choice over domestic manufacturers

    medium · Audience Q: 'isn't that a challenge a problem' about Italy manufacturing; Murie responds by defending manufacturer experience and production knowledge

  • $

    market_signal: Original Funhouse machines commanding $8,000-$10,000 in secondary market; Funhouse Reimagined LE priced under $10,000 with new art/code perceived as underpriced value proposition; high sales expected

    high · Parks: 'we are selling fun houses for like eight nine ten thousand dollars used... To buy a completely redone game with the 2.0 code... for $74.99, I think, is underpricing it'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Brian Allen established as primary artist for Williams remakes through Planetary Pinball partnership (~6 years prior); exclusive future collaboration planned for Funhouse Reimagined and potential future projects

    high · Parks: 'I would do want to make a comment... I would and absolutely involve people like uh brian allen and probably exclusively at brian if he'll always work with us'

  • ?

    announcement: Funhouse Reimagined officially announced with 750 LE unit cap, ~45-60 units shipped in US, 100+ in EU/AU/Canada as of talk date; base model $74.99, LE under $10,000

    high · Parks: 'Limited edition is limited to 750 units globally... We've sold about 45 to 60 so far and shipped in the U.S.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Funhouse Reimagined differentiates from Chicago Gaming remakes by completely reimagining artwork (Brian Allen design), implementing modern code versions (1.5 with ball save/auto-launch, 2.0 with new content), while preserving original layout — 'not a remake, a reimagining'

    high · Parks: 'It's not remaking a game... I'm when it's remaking this theme using the same layout and making it as if it was made today'

  • ?

    product_concern: Systematic quality improvements implemented based on original Funhouse mechanical issues: lock mechanism washer/spring assembly, trap door bracket reinforcement, opto flipper switches for reliability

    high · Murie: 'Nathan... adds an extra washer and spring assembly to basically... eliminate that problem... Trap door mech... adding a you know a metal support bracket underneath there'

    • 2:48
    Going back to 2006, I was 27 years old, recent graduate of – I got my master's degree in business at the University of Missouri. And my goal was to be a college professor. So I applied to great PhD programs so that ultimately I would end up back at my alma mater and be a tenured professor. So I applied to like Northwestern, two schools here in Chicago, University of Chicago and Northwestern, some other great schools. I didn't get into any of those. And so I had to think, what do I do with my life? So my buddy worked at a game room retailer in St. Louis where they sold pool tables, pinball machines, rugs, all that kind of stuff. And people always ask me, how did you get into pinball? You must love pinball. And I did always love pinball. I liked playing pinball, but not to the degree that I wanted to get into business. I just recognized that they sold so many pinball machines in that little corner of the store. And I reckon, who sells pinball machines online?
    3:52
    So kind of get into the discussion of modern pinball. If you go back to 2006, and I know some of these guys had reached out to you. Who did I just talk to?
    4:04
    I'm losing my train of thought, but I asked Gary Stern if he would sell me – if I could be a Stern distributor because I thought there was a huge opportunity to sell pinball machines to homes. And he said home sales as single-digit percentages seemed like he didn't disagree. He's like, who are you?
    4:22
    And so the push – go back to 2006. The push on selling pinball machines was to put them in locations for people to play, arcades, bowling alleys, and they were losing that fight. They've been losing that fight for a decade, which is why Stern was the only manufacturer at that time.
    4:38
    And it was getting beat out by video games and other modern era things that don't break as much. So I kind of thought I was on to something because I thought, well, that would be cool to own a pinball machine. I think a lot of people who have finished basements would love to put a pinball machine in there. And so we came up with the name Pinball Company. We launched the website in 2006, created a Google AdWords campaign, started advertising keywords like buy a pinball machine. And lo and behold, within months, we became the number one visited pinball website focusing on selling pinball machines.
    5:15
    And our focus has always been over the last 18 years or what sets us apart is the fact that we refurbish used pinball machines and resell them for the whole market. and we're still kind of leader in that space because it's a very difficult space to operate in, you have to find technicians all across the country who will do work for your customers. And that takes time. And now we have about 300 technicians that do service for our customers.
    5:39
    But it is interesting to see where pinball has come from 2006 to now and how many pinball machines are now going directly from homes. And shows like this that are directed towards marketing pinball machines to people who are first-time homebuyers. and I like to think that we played a role in that. JerseyJack, pinballsales.com in 2004, there were other people around, but we're the ones that really put a bunch of money into marketing and trying to, and cast a really big net and try to get more people to the pinball market. So over the years, as we've been, we sell Stearns now, of course we've been selling Stearns since 2008. There's an interesting story. Should I tell that story?
    6:17
    Gary's not here. So Gary wouldn't sell me machines direct. so I made it a goal to go to the show and I brought my wife Brooke with me and she's a very beautiful woman so I walked her up to Gary Stern and he had his nice white Ray-Bans on he was all spiffy and I said hey Nick Park's Pinball Company this is my wife Brooke he kind of gave her this little once over and boom we were distributors so I'm glad I did bring Brooke to the show because I don't know if I'd become a distributor without her being there So and it's been it's been a good, you know, I've been to a lot of shows over the years and you kind of see the same people. I haven't been to a show in four years, but you see the same people. They're just, you know, a little bit older. We have definitely have our core community of people who I see here in the pinball world. But it's also great to see people, new people to the pinball community. So why Funhaus?
    7:12
    You know, I thought remakes were brilliant when Doug Dubois, Chicago Gaming, decided he wanted to remake pinball machines. I was like, that's brilliant. We're selling Medieval Madnesses for $12,000, $15,000, $20,000 for what we call high-end restorations. We rebuild to make them look new, which most people can't afford. And so when Chicago Gaming came out and they launched Medieval Madness at $79.99 for a brand-new Medieval Madness, it was amazing. And they sold out that day. I don't know if people have been at that show. So it was a pivotal day in remakes and saying, yes, people will buy old titles that have been remade. And just like they were. You don't have to change the technology at all. I mean, that wasn't their goal. They didn't have to change the artwork or anything. And I think they underpriced it, but it also showed that there was a desire for some of these old 90s pins that honestly didn't get made enough. They didn't make enough to meet up with the current demand for pinball, at least at that point. So they made Monster Bash. They did a great job on all those titles, but they didn't make some titles that I thought, hey, why don't they make these games too? And we've been selling pinball machines for many, many years. We had a whole spreadsheet of how many machines we've sold, different titles, Adam's family, hundreds of them. And I think Funhaus, we probably sold over 100, maybe 200. I don't know. How many Funhaus are there? 20, 10,000? Yeah. 11,000. So it's one of the more popular by how many were made originally. but we had already moved through meaning but we bought it used refurbished and sold it to a new home because there's people call say hey you got a fun house they played fun house with their girlfriend at the local bowling alley and that's the one that they wanted we learned that very early on selling pinball machines that you can have all these great pinball machines but they want the one that they played with their girlfriend back in college or whatever and fun house was one of those that always came up as a very iconic machine i see you nudging him you know so you understand you get you get the whole thing so so we we had to have fun house in stock almost all the time because it was one of those that was asked about so much and it's featured on desperate housewives in the creepy guys basement it was on the peach pit 90210 and we sold one to brian austin green um that was really cool um it's it's one of those it's in the background of friends in the ping pong episode when they're playing ping pong and monica has the crazy hair That's a fun house in the background. There's a couple others. So I was like, why isn't it being made? So I honestly just reached out to Rick, who is the claimed ownership of that license. And I said, okay, you're the guy I want to work with. And we worked a deal. And I wanted somebody to make it. And Gary's not in the room. Jack's not in the room. I got turned down by some manufacturers who didn't think it was a good idea. but ultimately we did find a good manufacturing partner in Progetti in Italy and they're doing a great job you guys can go play the games out there at the booth and they're holding up really well it's beautiful artwork Brian was the guy I went to. Brian immediately was like if someone's going to do this Funhouse artwork it's going to be Brian because he already likes remaking these Williams art pieces so I reached out to him he was open to doing it. And then I had to convince Padretti to say yes, he's the guy I want to do it. It's now your game to manufacture. And, and after they saw his artwork, they kind of agreed. So you can kind of see now we're kind of in the section where you see Brian beautiful artwork And it so detailed Back you know the original funhouse artwork was just blue yellow it like three four colors right And that when you look at a modern pinball machine I always praise Jersey Jack for Wizard of Oz and it was really like wow what could you do with an art package And he led the way. He showed Stern, which we told Stern because we had a lot of fluent customers, they will buy 10, 12, 15,000 of their machines. They're beautiful art pieces that they play.
    11:13
    And Jersey Jack proved that. And we were the first – the pinball company was the first U.S. distributor for Jack. I bought in right away believing that pinball could be more than what was being produced. And I've got to thank Gary Stern for keeping pinball alive for all those years and for still staying at it. But I'm so glad that there has been more innovators into the manufacturing space because look at all the choices we have just this year. Avatar and – I mean there's a new title it seems like every month, which I think is great for pinball. It makes it more competitive but also still good for pinball overall. Is it still cycling through or did it stop? It stopped. Do I have to do something?
    11:54
    I'm trying space bar. Not working. Maybe, maybe it's going again. Let's see. Yeah, maybe. Hopefully you guys saw it. It's beautiful artwork. And we can, while Brian is talking, I'll definitely try to show more of it. But the game is in production in Italy by Prodretti. They're doing a great job, very good quality. There has been some hiccups. I imagine with every new pinball project, you know, it doesn't come out the line or come out – the prototypes don't come out exactly the way you want it. And we've been pushing back really hard to make sure that those things get fixed. And every iteration is better and better, and I think the game in its current state is great. But I do want to bring Brian up just for a little bit about, like, some of the choices he made on the artwork.
    12:43
    And then for the Q&A, if there's questions about how certain things came to be or the quality control side of things, Dominic and Travis actually went to Italy for a week to sit – I mean the night and day work on issues that they saw. And it was a whole list, spreadsheet of things that they wanted to see improved upon. So he's very knowledgeable on that side. So, Brian, you can stay seated if you want.
    13:09
    Come on up. You can stay if you want. Well, thank you so much for bringing me onto the project. And thank you everybody in the room. Everybody in the pinball community has been so supportive of my artwork. I came onto the scene here, I think about maybe six years ago. I redid the Monster Bash back glass. I had always been a fan of pinball artwork and retro arcade artwork. And a friend of mine recommended that I do that. And then I linked up with Rick at Planetary Pinball and just started remaking title after title of Williams Valley Games. And people just kept requesting new titles for me and it just – it grew into something that I just could never have planned for. And I've been an artist full time for about 20 years, independent for about 12 years. But having something like this, like a supportive community really gives me and my wife a ton of freedom because I don't need to work with, I can choose which clients I want to work with because I have the support of just awesome customers. So I just wanted to say thank you for that and thank you so much for going with me on this pinball package because that's always been a bucket list thing for me is to have something that you can actually play. And Funhaus was perfect because it's one of the first machines I remember, and if you're familiar with my artwork, I like taking things that are supposed to be nice and cuddly and kind of making them creepy. And Rudy, to me, is incredibly creepy. I think that's what makes him unique and cool and not so safe. Because to me, a funhouse, at least my memories as a kid of going into a funhouse, is just like very creepy, very edgy, but that's the fun of it. You know, there were a couple of times where Pedretti told me to make it make him less creepy. So if you think he's creepy now, he actually was even creepier in earlier earlier drafts, if you can believe that. But but anyway. If just to say a little more about me, I I've worked with a lot of a lot of clients that I'm really proud of. like I've done concert posters for Metallica. I've worked with Harley Davidson and Hulk Hogan.
    15:59
    I don't know if Hulk Hogan belongs in my top five anymore, but it was fun at the time. But other than that, I also just work with a lot of just small businesses and just any opportunity that I can find to just draw what I love. And I'm very fortunate to be able to do that. and I hope to do more pinball machines with these guys in the future.
    16:24
    I'll just piggyback on that. If you go to his website, another thing you'll see, and I don't know if it's just a niche that you kind of got into by chance and it's expanded upon, but if you do a festival or a concert, cannabis festival, movie festival, music festival, he's done posters for those events and they're just incredible i mean the vivid you know you can see from what he's done with our pinball machine but like the vivid colors and his take on some of these concepts and his versions of zombies are um also notorious right we won't get into the nft thing but um he's it just just trust me any and if you have a project i know there's not a ton of people in the room but this is being videotaped so anybody watches this on youtube If you have a major event that you're going to do festival-related, this is your guy, and he'll make an incredible poster for it. He did the art for the Expo show, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. You got a brother. Yeah, the Expo poster artwork already sold out. I think they sold out the shirts too. It's nuts. A lot of people here. You hire him, and your shirts will sell out for your festival.
    17:40
    Yeah, I think we'll just turn it on to Q&A. It'd be interesting to see if there's any questions about the Funhouse project. Questions about the games, the different models, how it came to be, Brian's artwork, quality control, other suppliers involved. Now's the time to ask.
    18:04
    Are you producing these to order? Or, I mean, you have a retail establishment where you know you're going to sell a certain number over time. So are you ordering more than you have committed orders right now just to – Yeah, so we have a committed amount with Pedre, the manufacturer, as to how many they're going to make. Limited edition is limited to 750 units globally. We are the master distributor for the U.S. We have three authorized sub-dealers as well who you can buy the game from. So we're getting containers and shipments in of games. We're allocating them across our direct sales orders as well as our sub-dealer orders as well. So that timeline has been communicated. Production has been, for the most part, hitting pretty good. I'd say about a month or two delayed from what our initial timeline was. We've sold about 45 to 60 so far and shipped in the U.S. and then probably over in Europe, which is where a lot of the earlier games went, we're probably at over 100 sold through Europe and Australia and Canada as well. But we're focused solely on sales in the U.S.
    19:25
    So one thing I noticed, I only played it once downstairs so far, but came into it blind. I haven't read anything about it. I just knew that there was a remake coming out. And I noticed the rules were different. I saw it's a game code 2.0, I think it was called. Yeah.
    19:43
    So it was very – I can expand on that if you want. Yeah, it was very cool, and I just wanted to comment too. It's almost – it's not a remake. It's a reimagination, and that's something I haven't seen yet with all these remake games. Yeah, that was always Nick's idea when this whole project, when I first was brought on, is, hey, I have these remakes. and you know you know cgc did a great job with the remakes on medieval monster bash things like that but there was never really a reimagined version as nick noted the goal was really you know and you know for for brian's artwork the goal and his task was make funhouse reimagined in 2024 what would it look like with modern art and what's your take on that so that's kind of where the limited edition version came to be and that yeah this is the first remake to have different artwork and and the response to that has been very positive um you know obviously with with brian's amazing art um but yeah i mean he did all new artwork on on the decals the play field even the plastics inner art everything uh was reimagined from an art standpoint um the 2.0 code was something that pedretti had already had uh with the uh with the uh there's a 2.0 kit so that was sold you know probably two, three, four years ago was when it was first announced. And they probably sold about 500 kits to 2.0, which is basically the option for original Funhaus owners of the 1990 game to update their board set with Fast Pinball board set. And I think the LCD, it was a bigger LCD. You got the mini LCD display in the game. But then more importantly, you have a new reimagined code. That's the updated 2.0 code. So that's kind of where that came from. And then having Pedretti already having that code there, naturally it made sense in this project that we should include that on the highest end model and no extra charge for that. So that kind of where the 2 came along Pedretti so the original 1 code is what we call it That just the base code that we all know and love That's an option on the game in the settings. You can do the 1.5, which is what it ships with, the 1.5, which is basically original code that we all know and love. But Funhaus, when it came out, had a lot of limitations that we expect in modern pinball today, such as auto plunger auto launch doesn't have that on that game so we they the 1.5 code adds that um ball save a lot of people play funhouse um growing up and you know even adam's family it's like you know i plunge the ball but now today we're used to ball save we drain you know we want the ball back if you have an initial drain when funhouse and adam's family and those games came out if you if you plunge and drained um with hitting a switch you're you lost your ball So bringing it to more modern feel and stuff, we added the ball save feature into the 1.5, and it can also be added to the 1.0 code too if you really want. That's an easy setting adjustment. Some other good setting adjustments that probably weren't on the original game is coil adjustments. So the game ships with a certain coil set and recommended default settings for the lower and upper flippers. but if a customer feels like my flipper power needs to be higher, there's four or five different levels in the coil adjustments that can add to the flipper strength, kick outs, auto plungers, stuff like that. So that's a nice added upgrade as well.
    23:22
    And then the last thing, the 1.5 you see on the floor, it's just got enhanced animations. So it's basically the original game with enhanced animations. is kind of what I kind of always call it.
    23:35
    Hopefully that answered your question on that side. I'll just expand on that briefly, that you'll see that it says Funhaus Remake on the brochure, and it's going to be widely advertised as Funhaus Remake, and that was kind of against what my desire would be. And that's why if you look at the name of the seminar, it's Funhaus Reimagined. so when i pitched this to jersey jersey jack and stern it's potentially bringing funhouse back and then manufacturing it that's how i pitched it to them stern was adamantly against remaking games interestingly um but but um but i said it's not remaking a game i'm when it's remaking this theme using the same layout and making it as if it was made today so you still have the liberties with art and code okay because the layout there's nothing wrong with the layout and rudy's iconic so why would you get rid of that feature on the game um so i'm over it you know it's it's called it's like it says remake and that's fine but the games that i would like to take on uh going forward if i do more projects like this um it's to do to do it is to reimagine the game and i would and absolutely involve people like uh brian allen and probably exclusively at brian if he'll always work with us and um to to have new code in the game so uh and i think that's not a remake that's reimagining and i would do want to make a comment on pricing because i mentioned medieval madness coming out uh 2012 but 12 years ago at 79.99 how great a value is see we are selling fun houses for like eight nine ten thousand dollars used you know 30 almost 35 year old games leading up into this. So to buy a completely redone game with the 2.0 code and the original classic artwork for $74.99, I think, is underpricing it. So when we speak to how many we expect to sell, I think it's going to be popular. There's a lot of choices that we discussed, but the goal is to get this great classic game in people's hands, but also for the people who do want to see that reimagined version with all that new artwork, could also have at a price point for a limited edition under $10,000. And we've been able to accomplish that. So I think it's a great value. It's a great game historically. We haven't changed the game, but bringing it to new life and reimagining it. So I know there's a question in the back. I have a warranty and I lost one in the year of the movie and had problems with it. And I had to translate and go back and forth with that. What type of warranty is there with the game? And who do I deal with? A Pedretti or – company you know during normal hours let's say 8 a.m to 8 p.m monday through friday and dominic or brooke will answer the phone immediately you don't depress anything it's brooke pinball company i'll be she'll be making dinner at my house on her cell phone brooke pinball company or the phones will be to go into dominic same thing and we're like you know we know he's taking calls um so when your kids are uh you have a super bowl party uh or a birthday party 12 year old birthday party and all his friends who ever want to play the game and it's not working how important is it for you to be able to reach somebody call 1-800 pinball text me which is 1-800 pinball or one of our other numbers i think 100 people still works but call our number and you'll reach us and then a lot of times in the past when i was more integral to the that side of the business um i uh i would facetime with customers on the spot just say hey you're on an iphone let's facetime and i would go to go to a machine and have them go to the machine walk it through it so but i would tell him what the warranty is. Dominic can tell you what the warranty is. Mechanical, 12 months for the Classic,
    27:46
    24 months for the LE. Electronics, six months I think on the Classic and 12 months on the LE. And if you buy from the pinball company, the labor? Yeah, our normal warranty is one year parts, labor for 30 days, lifetime phone support. So I mean a lot of times when you're ship and pinball machines nationwide.
    28:10
    They move around a lot. Things can come loose, stuff like that. Most of the time, I can FaceTime with the customer, and we can get it resolved right away.
    28:20
    Sometimes we sell to people who have no idea how to take the glass off a machine. So we have technicians, as Nick said, across the country, probably close to 300 now we've used, who can go out to people's houses, and we cover that call for the first 30 days. of purchase as well. You asked about like parts and warranty and kind of getting them out quickly. So Pedretti sent us a small batch of extra parts that commonly break. So we have those in my warehouse in St. Louis. Pedretti is also very responsive to any online support questions and tickets. For example, hiccups happen, the guy got, one of our sub dealers here, Pinball Star, One of their customers got an Ellie Legs powder coat on a classic game. So obviously, hiccup at the factory. It's been taken care of in seven days, taken care of. So Pedretti is very responsive. They've been great to work with. So on that side, they're doing a good job.
    29:26
    Rick at Planetary supplies most of the parts for the game. So even if you have an original funhouse, you can go to Planetary, and they'll probably have parts now available, which is great. But Rick has a lot of the parts as well. And Pedretti has a warehouse associated with, you know, the Pinball Brothers stuff in the U.S. as well. So, you know, some parts will ship from there. So really no concern on getting parts, replacing parts under warranty time away to customers. It's been fine so far.
    29:59
    Yep. It's about my battery. my question is about shipping from europe manufacturing in europe isn't that a challenge a problem uh yeah i mean manufacturing pinball no matter where it is it's going to be a challenge if you you go into any any factory tour you'll quickly realize how many parts how much labor is involved how much r&d is involved how much attention to detail is involved um so that's That's no different no matter where you go. When I visited them in Italy, they have a great understanding and good base knowledge of pinball. They have been a manufacturing company since, you know, I think the 70s and 80s. Not always pinball, obviously, but arcades and stuff. So when we were looking at manufacturers and stuff, you know, having that manufacturing history is very important. We've seen in pinball, obviously, even as of recently, you know, a lot of times, you know, we have all these grandiose ideas. these things look amazing but you know if you don't have a production and assembly and that experience that that's what ultimately typically harms a lot of these these things so um when i was there uh the focus was on quality control you know we have some of the best techs in the world nathan over there dan uh he's he's refurbished 150 fun houses in his career so he knows that game inside and out so when we get it in we were able to give them immediate feedback um just simple things like, you know, the locking mechanism, you know, it's a very important shot in the game, probably the most important shot. But on the original, sometimes it'll, the ball, it'll blow through that lock sometimes. So, you know, Nathan's, or all of our games he's done, he adds an extra washer and spring assembly to basically, you know, it eliminates that problem altogether. So they've made those adjustments, you know, from the original Funhouse to this remake. Trap door mech, a very common issue on that, you know, that ram flap that sits there, as it goes up and down over time that ramp flap will start to bend look a little bit off um you know easy fix on that's just adding a you know a metal support bracket underneath there so like stuff like that's been done um rick at planetary is very big on opto switches or for the flippers um so he um you know he says that that's that's a lot more reliable than than the the the leaf switches on some games, so it does have the opto flippers on there. And then yeah just from a quality control standpoint you know understanding the processes of how you know play fields are built how you know how the you know how they being you know looked over approved stuff like that all the way to the cabinet building, mechanical, all that stuff. There's checklists there that are being followed. The shipping, the shipping doesn't become expensive?
    32:54
    Shipping's, yeah, it's expensive. It's all, it's all part of, you know, the build out of the project and stuff and um yeah but it's it's nothing uh it's nothing crazy i think if you're choosing to manufacture machines to be sold here in the u.s it's obviously desirable to have them made here um but early on we discussed shipping prices with progetti because they had experienced shipping containers of their other games here and um when you ship a full container you're looking at around uh 250 per game so relative to the price point not not incredibly uh terrible and kind of built into our price point if you're air freighting um five at a time you know you're air freighting can get expensive you know 500 to 750 depending on how quickly you need it here yeah so that on a per game basis doesn't work on the long term but when we plan on selling through you know a machines, say, in the U.S. We hope that most of the machines, the prototypes that you see here at the show, were air freighted, I believe, right? These are production games at the show. But yeah, air freight so far, we have paid in full, or sorry, we have paid our initial deposit on the first half container of games. So we are moving to container shipping. So now we're half containers. So we're getting five at a time for the show. Now we've got a half container on the way And then hopefully really quickly we'll be doing full containers at a time. And so the cost per unit for the bulk of the games coming to the U.S. will be around $200 to $250 per game. So, yeah, preferably that would be a factory right here in the U.S. And maybe the next game will be. But for now, you know, it's a cost that we can deal with.
    34:37
    Other questions? Yes, sir. Yeah, I had another question specifically about the art when taking on this project. what were the conversations in the beginning about the direction of the way the art was going to go and then were there any restrictions with the ip at all in terms of you know keeping original at all or did they give you like full reign to do whatever you want go at it or how did that kind of come about um they did give me a lot of flexibility uh i i was required to add a lot of the 2.0 code characters so if you're unfamiliar with that 2.0 expansion pack rudy's nightmare that's the uh the the hot dog character that i had to draw him so he's he's all over the place he's he was fun to draw um and and the the crazy monkey also fun to draw um other than that uh I did have some previous sketches that Pedretti had already approved, but he really did give me free reign. Whenever I approach any of these remakes, it's very challenging because the original artists, many of whom are still around, were masters.
    35:53
    All of these pinball machines are true works of art. So it's really challenging to take something that's already great and then try to figure out how can I inject something new into it. And anytime you try to change something that people are already familiar with, there is the risk of it – of people not liking it. Or if you don't change it enough, it just looks like a copy. So it's sort of a delicate balance in that way. Um, so I just tried to, my, my fail safe is just a jam as much stuff in it as I possibly can, which is, is what I did. And I, I also like to inject some Easter eggs of other Williams titles. So, so I, I dropped in, um, like the Ferris wheel is, is the bride of pin bots face and a pin bot is lurking back there. Um, com comet is in there. Yeah. The creature, you got to put the creature in there but uh i strongly encourage everyone to go and look at you know the actual trans light in good detail and um yeah the easter eggs in there are really cool and a good throwback and mention of some of these classic uh other games in that bally williams era yeah i always loved like the where's waldo books you know i would check those out at the library when i was a kid so i love just Just pumping it. I want to draw something so that every time you see it, you see something new. That's the goal anyway. Does that answer your question? Okay, great. um it's gonna sound so odd but i love on the playfield i don't know if we get well on the playfield there's a uh a slide with like uh a lady holding a little umbrella going down the slide and i don't know that just cracks me up like i like drawing stuff where if it makes me laugh then uh i know i'm on the right track um but uh and i love the uh i love drawing the monkey with the symbols is so much fun to draw and and clowns if i can put in a creepy clown then i'm pretty happy and there's there's probably at least eight what's the back what's the back story on this woman i feel like a lot of your art pieces i see i see her uh she just she's my uh Imaginary girlfriend, I guess. That's mine.
    38:31
    Yeah, that was sort of inspired by the Theater of Magic character. But I was just looking for a way to just, like I said, build on something that was already a great work of art. And then how can I add some more characters and just – I forgot that I was on the back of that. Yeah, yeah, that's right. I forgot about that. It's really cool. Yeah, Nick is right there eating popcorn. He has a cool Pac-Man suit coat. I did that. When I reached out to Brian, and I think one of your early questions was like alluding to how much leeway you were going to have. Like how hard is it going to be working with Nick Parks? And I basically said, dude, I trust you. Go to his website and look at like Whitewater or Fishtails or just go to his booth and look at his artwork. when you see his artwork and you say you hire this guy to be your designer you're not going to like give him any parameters you're like you let this guy's brain go to work and let him do it so i'm so glad that we were able to do that because it wasn't like you're remaking pirates of the caribbean and you got to suffice you know disney it was like funhouse and it was you know it was already a pretty generic theme and so he gave him obviously wanted it to be kind of true to the original game in terms of those characters and rudy and and whatnot and i think he stuck to the collar scheme if you just put them side by side we have brochures up here so grab one of each if you want um they'll be collectible someday and i was just googling like pinball flyers and like any pinball flyers like five bucks today like they're all collectibles but um i mean you just you can see side by side or go to the booth and see them side by side and like he uh if my expectations were a 10 he got a 12 he did such a great job which we're we just want to work with him on every pinball project we do if we can if we can make it work any other questions uh yeah i have a quick question for you um and apologies for not knowing this is this is already common knowledge but how did the engineering process work and you know is this built on the fast platform uh yeah so you had foundation with what pedretti already done yeah so when nick you know we had the funhouse license and then we you know pedretti agreed to take on the project they did most of the R&D and prototyping of it. Obviously, we have expertise in online retail sales, customer support, stuff like that. We have amazing techs, but we don't have, you know, they're working on their own machines for our used sales. So thankfully, Pedretti and their team took on the project of, you know, the prototyping. You've seen some of the prototyping. That's all done in Italy. And, you know, they took on that relationship working with Aaron at Fast Pinball. the imitation or the integration of the code between the original and all that. All that was done by Aaron FS and then Pedretti. So they worked hand-in-hand kind of behind the scenes. And we were, myself and Travis and Nick, we would provide our feedback on art stuff. Once we got our prototypes, obviously we were providing feedback on quality control, things that we had seen. because in Italy, if you tell them what to do, and they're very good at manufacturing, but this is their first time manufacturing a Bally Williams pinball machine and using those parts. So things like rollover switches that we're all knowing love for all these games, and they're used to doing, if you look at the Alien and Queen on the pinball brother's side, which is what they also help manufacture those, it's not those type of parts. So knowing and having the Bally Williams parts and stuff was a learning process and small things like screws should be here. I think at one point the coil was mounted upside down. There's better ways to mount a coil that we've learned over the years. So things like that was where the pinball company and all my team gave that feedback.
    42:32
    Nick mentioned I have a competitive background in pinball. Travis, our other marketing guy, and he has our YouTube content, which I highly recommend you guys check that out. He's a top 25 player in the world. So, you know, having that feedback, I think, was hopefully valuable to Pedretti. And, yeah, I mean, they're in a good spot. I think they're comfortable now with the Valley Williams mechs, the parts, and stuff like that. So I would expect, you know, any future projects or games from them to kind of utilize those parts that are reliable and have been tested with all these other games over the last 30 to 40 years.
    43:10
    Great. Thank you so much. Yep. Thank you. Thank you guys all for coming. Appreciate all your support. Yep.