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BDYETP 54: TMNT Pinball Voice Actor Marc Silk

Bro, Do you Even Talk Pinball·podcast_episode·2h 15m·analyzed·Dec 13, 2020
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

TMNT voice actor Mark Silk discusses pinball collecting journey and voice acting career.

Summary

Mark Silk, voice actor for TMNT Pinball and numerous entertainment projects, discusses his journey into pinball collecting and voice acting on the Bro, Do You Even Talk Pinball podcast. He shares his personal pinball collection (Aerosmith, Family Guy, Attack from Mars, Star Wars, Beatles Gold, Batman Premium, Theatre of Magic, TMNT, and upcoming Guns N' Roses), his early exposure to pinball as a child, and his creative process in voice acting and character creation. The episode covers his entry into the voice acting industry through radio and his focus on character performance.

Key Claims

  • Mark Silk voices Splinter, Bebop, Rocksteady, Baxter Stockman, and Casey Jones in Stern's TMNT Pinball

    high confidence · Formal introduction at beginning of episode explicitly listing his voice roles

  • Mark's first home pinball machine acquisition was Aerosmith

    high confidence · Direct statement: 'That was Aerosmith. That was, it was, there was a game that was in a shopping mall...I found it again in a more near here.'

  • Mark has a collection including Aerosmith, Family Guy, Attack from Mars, Monster Bash LE, Star Wars home edition, Beatles Gold, Batman Premium, Theatre of Magic, TMNT, Flintstones with PinSound, and plans to acquire Guns N' Roses CE

    high confidence · Mark explicitly lists his collection during the interview

  • Mark re-recorded Barney Rubble voice-overs into a PinSound Flintstones machine for visiting children

    high confidence · Mark describes: 'I re-recorded a whole load of call-outs in this Flintstones game, and threw them into Pin Sound'

  • Mark started in radio before transitioning to voice acting and character creation

    high confidence · Direct statement: 'I worked in radio. I became a producer. I was a decent music producer.'

  • Mark created an audio portfolio/reel when starting voice acting career to demonstrate his work

    high confidence · Mark describes creating initial portfolio: 'I kind of honed the skills of creating character voices, and I put together like an audio movie trailer'

Notable Quotes

  • “It's this showmanship. It's like going on a roller coaster. It's the mechanical side. It's what makes it. It's the audio. It's the visual. It's like a roller coaster that you control. It's this immersive event that you are part of.”

    Mark Silk @ Early in interview — Core philosophy about why pinball appeals to him; emphasizes multi-sensory, theatrical experience

  • “There was something magical about Pinball that I just fell in love with. And obviously when arcades all shut down because consoles took over, there was nowhere else really to play that I found.”

    Mark Silk @ During origin story section — Explains how arcade closure disrupted his pinball engagement, setting up later rekindling of interest

  • “Attack from Mars arrived. So I made a note here. I'm guessing you might ask me. So, yeah, Aerosmith, Family Guy, Attack from Mars, Monster Bash LE from Chicago Gaming, which is beautiful what they've done to that game.”

    Mark Silk @ Collection discussion — Shows intentional engagement with conversation; demonstrates appreciation for modern boutique manufacturers

  • “It's everybody. It's every element of that machine. There are all these different components that go into making a real masterpiece of a game. And it's the same with, I think, anything creative.”

    Mark Silk @ Voice acting origin discussion — Draws parallel between appreciation for pinball design complexity and creative work more broadly

  • “Because you're seeing how this magic trick is done. As a kid, I loved magic, but what I loved even more was finding out how they did that.”

    Mark Silk @ Discussing Don Messick/voice acting inspiration — Reveals formative philosophy of appreciating craft and process, not just finished product

  • “With character creation, that's kind of, that's up to your own imagination. You know, the world's as big as you want it to be.”

    Mark Silk @ Voice acting career choice discussion — Explains decision to focus on voice acting over audio production; emphasizes creative freedom

Entities

Mark SilkpersonTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles PinballgameAerosmith PinballgameAttack from MarsgameStern PinballcompanyPinball PhilpersonChicago GamingcompanyFamily Guy PinballgameStar Wars Pinball (Home Edition)gameBatman Premium Pinballgame

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Voice actor with mainstream entertainment portfolio actively collecting modern pinball and engaging with pinball community through podcast appearances and arcade play

    high · Mark discusses regular arcade play with dog, attending Expo events, acquiring machines, and appearing on pinball podcasts

  • ?

    community_signal: Mainstream entertainment figure lending credibility to TMNT Pinball through enthusiastic endorsement and personal collection ownership

    medium · Mark acquired TMNT machine partly because 'I'm in it' and speaks positively about the game in his collection context

  • $

    market_signal: Home edition pinball machines gaining traction with mainstream users despite initial negative reception; Mark acquired Star Wars home edition and praises it

    low · Mark notes: 'Star Wars, the home edition, which I know a lot of people didn't like at the time, but often you found out that they hadn't played it'

  • ?

    community_signal: Voice actor approaching character creation with systematic, iterative process similar to pinball design craft emphasis; values understanding creative mechanics and process

    medium · Mark discusses teaching himself voice acting, creating portfolio reels, studying behind-the-scenes craft, and appreciating how magic tricks work

  • ?

    product_strategy: Audio design and voice acting quality highlighted as differentiator in pinball machines; Mark specifically praising Jerry Thompson's audio work on Star Wars and Beatles Gold

    medium · Mark states: 'The sound design in that game is so well used. Those assets, every time a pop bumper is whacked or hit, the kick, the crunch, the room explodes with audio'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.408

0:00
Coming up on this episode of Bro, Do You Even Talk Pinball, we're talking pinball with Mark Silk, voice actor from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, many other TV shows and movies that you know. Led Zeppelin, the end of Replay FX and Papa, and some Raza commentary for your Christmas gift from us. All that and more coming right up. Devil's Super Jet Pod!
0:30
I need a ramp. I need a roof. I want targets I can hit. I need to shoot. I need to go with you. I'm Jack Kahn. That's my life.
0:47
That's right. And now, the Hall & Oates of Pinball Podcasting, Nick Lane and Kevin Manning of Buffalo Pinball. Boom shakalaka. Oh, it's us. What's going on? And it's December, and we're doing another episode of Brody Even Talk Pinball. Nick Lane, how's it going? It's going. How are you doing? I'm doing all right. I mean, we got a vaccine on the horizon here, and there's light at the end of the tunnel. That's right. I'm excited about that. Who can't be?
1:19
What else is going on in your life? Oh, my God. I don't know. I have to remind myself every day what day, what month it is, what's going on. working on keeping my sanity, but I'm safe, I'm healthy, and that's all I can ask for these days. And we both have cool new chairs, so we're doing alright. You've got a GT Racing, I've got a Titan, a Secret Lab Titan, so. That's right. I'm a pro gamer. Obviously. You're not a pro gamer, unless you've got a chair that looks like you're driving a race car. That's right. It should be the same as yours, yeah. That's right. You've got a little race car. Exactly.
1:55
Beatles Gold Edition Pinball
game
Theatre of Magic Pinballgame
Guns N' Roses Collector's Edition Pinballgame
Flintstones Pinball with PinSoundgame
Monster Bash LEgame
Honeyperson
Two Point Hospitalgame
Jerry Thompsonperson
Chris Frenchperson
Nick Laneperson
Kevin Manningperson
  • ?

    technology_signal: PinSound aftermarket audio platform enabling custom voice work integration; Mark creating personalized voice content for Flintstones machine

    medium · Mark describes custom re-recording Barney Rubble lines into Flintstones PinSound installation with friend Romain

    • That's right. Do you do any gaming in that chair, Kevin? I have, yeah. My PS5's out in my living room, but I play some of my retro consoles and stuff out here. And it's definitely, like, my game's way more improved when I sit in this chair. Oh, absolutely. No doubt.
    2:14
    Awesome. So, why don't we get into it and thank some of our sponsors here. And why don't you lead the way? Alright. Oh, I can't see the sponsors. Hold on. You should have memorized by now, Nick. yeah i uh i totally should let me uh hold on let me uncheck it i should okay kevin this is uh pressure time well i'll start out pin stadium the premier partner buffalo pinball is here at pinstadium.com you can light up your pinball machines make them look beautiful control them with an app from your phone to uh choose the brightness as bright or as dim as you want you can change the colors on them all sorts of different um uh features you can add flashers And if you're a streamer, you can get lights that attach to the side of the machine. So tons of different options, tons of customization you can do with your PIN Stadium lights. Check them out. Don't forget to use coupon code BUFFALO to save yourself 10% on PIN Stadium lights. All right, Double Danger Pinball, ddpinball.com. Go to Double Danger Pinball for all your pinball merchandise swag needs. You can use the code BUFFALO to take 15% off. Mod Couple Pinball, modcouplepinball.com. that's my personal choice for modding out pinball machines. As I said a million times, I don't even care about mods for pinball machines, but I like theirs so much that I own some. There you go. Check it out. Flippin' Out Pinball. If you're in the market for a brand-new pinball machine, look no further than Flippin' Out Pinball. That's Zach Menne. He'll take care of you. He sells basically every new pinball machine on the market. One-stop shopping for that. Pinside.com. I like to joke around that you go to pinside.com to argue with other adults about the pinball hobby. But, honestly, it is a fantastic source for pinball discussions, learning about pinball news, going to the marketplace for buying and selling machines, rating machines, finding out, you know, the top 100, the top 200. You learn that, sadly, Bad Girls is way underrated. So go there and fix that. Let's get the Bad Girls number one. All right, that's pinside.com. Jersey Jack Pinball Makers are the most beautiful pinball machines on the planet. Pinball.edu, go to pinballraffle.org for your chance to win just about every month a pinball machine. Got a one in 250 chance of winning. Of course, you can buy multiple tickets. The $40 that you use to get into that raffle goes to charity to support kids with autism through playing pinball. Joe Said, very good work that he does. Community Beer Works, the choice for Buffalo Pinball when we want to drink beer. Kevin likes them. He doesn't even drink beer. That's right. They're just nice guys. They are nice guys. Good guys, good people, good pinball, good beer. Tilt Cycle, tiltcycle.com. Our friend Dan Burfield, what a great time. If you're looking for a Christmas gift, holiday gift, whatever excuse you need to go over and buy some pinball art, go to Dan Burfield at tiltcycle.com. He'll take care of you. Custom pinball art. Upcycled pinball art. Count that pinball, count that pinball.com for your LED lighting needs, your pinball machine. I actually need to put an order in. I got some work to do. What are you going to get?
    5:23
    So for my Jungle Lord, that game is really dark, especially on the lower play field. So he makes LEDs that you can kind of screw in that are angled a little bit. So I'm going to put them, like, underneath the slings on the lower GI.
    5:39
    Because we had a viewer send it to me, what he did, and I was like, oh, my God, that looks so much better. because the game is super dark. I just got to stop being lazy. I got to get an order in. Pinballmix.com. Pinballmix.com is your choice. If you want custom music in your pinball machine, go to pinballmix.com. He will make a professionally mixed, remixed version for your pinball machine. I've done it on mine with Collective Soul Metallica. Kevin's done it on a number of his, and it sounds as good as what Stern will do, if not better, honestly. That's why I look for it, right, in a mod. I sort of hate modding machines because sometimes it's not as good from the factory and it stands out like something's just not right. But he does such a fantastic job. He's also got a keep on code. And if I forget to mention keep on code, just type in Buffalo and see what happens. But you can take 10% off, and you also get a free Easter egg in your mix when you use that. So pinballmix.com. Last but not least, Titan Pinball, titanpinball.com. for when you need to replace your rings or ring kits on your pinball machine. I actually just ordered a ring kit for Bad Girls, and believe it or not, Kevin, they didn't have a pre-configured ring kit in their database for Bad Girls. Did you put it in there? Yes. Oh, I saw on Twitter that somebody bought it. So you made a little money off of that.
    6:59
    I probably bought it, and I made money. You were probably it. Oh, so any time a ring kit gets bought, it gets posted on Twitter? Yeah. How does that work? It's just like somebody bought this ring kit for bad girls, and I gave it a like because it was bad girls. That's right. So it's done by Nicholas L. He's the artist behind that configuration. So it's all pink silicone rings for bad girls. I mean, what else would you want? I asked the chat. I was like, what color should we go with? Everybody said pink. I was like, that's the right answer. I knew what the right answer was. I wanted to see if you knew the right answer. That is the right answer. And also, I can't recommend enough their pinball mat that they have, which is, I've said this a million times, it seems expensive. I think it's like $80 last I checked, but it is the most comfortable pinball mat you'll ever stand on. It, like, ruins people when they stand on it. Like, they'll go and they'll look at it and they'll stand on it and be like, oh, shit, now I've got to buy one. All right, I've got a story about the Titan mat. Can I share this Titan mat story? I think so. We'll allow it. So, Joel from Just Another Pinball Podcast, we message on Discord a little bit. And so, everyone probably has to do, too. People are like, is that mat really that much better than the one I can just get on Amazon for $30? And I feel like people don't believe us because they're a sponsor. But I'm like, here's the thing. Get it. You're going to love it. You'll see exactly how amazing it is. And then you'll have to answer all those questions. And nobody will believe you. And so he went ahead. He got one. And he's like, you're right. This is amazing. because he streams. And he's on concrete like me. It's like if you're on a concrete floor, you too, like in your basement, streaming for like two hours at a time, it's like your legs start to hurt. The Titan mat's amazing. Yeah, I actually just bought a $30 mat from Amazon so I can stand up on my kitchen counter to work from home. And it's okay, but it's not even close to the Titan pinball mat, right? So, yeah, I mean, looking up for that, that's worth it. And, you know, you get one, you just move it around to every game. Sometimes people get mats for every game. I mean, look, if you're a rich kid and you want to do that and really flex on your pinball mat, go ahead. But grab one and move it to every game that you got. There you go.
    9:12
    All right. Can we get into it, Kev? Let's do it. The main event. Let me try to do justice to Mark and give him a proper introduction. So his voice is heard across the planet in Stern Pinball's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Mark Silk is the voice of Splinter, Bebop, Rocksteady, Baxter, Baxter Fly, and Casey Jones.
    9:33
    That's it. That's a lot. I'm editorializing as we go. All right. Get those footnotes in. That's right. In Star Wars Episode I, Mark Silk performed the voice of Axmo. I don't know who that is. We'll get into that with Mark. But then again, I don't. We won't talk about my. Yeah, I don't want to get people riled up yet.
    9:51
    His grandmaster glitch in BBC Universal Kids BAFTA-nominated Go-Jetters voices over 50 characters in the new Danger Mouse. He stars in Thunderbirds Are Go as action hero Captain Rigby. Mark has voiced Scooby-Doo and Shaggy for Cartoon Network UK, CITV, Toys and Games. Hear him in Lego mini-movies in Fifi and the Flower Tots as Bumble and Slugsy, and many more characters in the Emmy-nominated Strange Hill High. Mark performs with Peter Kay, Sterling Moss, and Murray Walker in Rory the Racing Car. That's definitely a UK. Rory. There's no Rory the Racing Car in the U.S., I'm pretty sure.
    10:30
    And was the voice of Johnny Bravo for Cartoon Network UK, CBVO. Games include Sega's BAFTA-nominated Two-Point Hospital, BAFTA-winning Black and White, Overlord, Chicken Run, and many, many more. Mark Silk is the host of Symphonic Star Wars at the Royal Albert Hall. He's a regular celebrity guest at Comic-Cons and gaming events across the country. Topps Cards New York feature Mark in his own official collectible Star Wars trading card. Impressive. Each are hand-signed and collected by Star Wars fans around the world. Mark is in demand as a speaker for universities, acting schools, and creative interview shows in the U.K. and America. Mark and his little dog, Honey, have regular invitations to Birmingham Children's Hospital, spend time with patients, their families, and carers. Sometimes laughter can be the best medicine. He's also a patron for the Brain Tumor Parody.
    11:25
    Welcome, Mark Silk. Hey, how you doing? I'm impressed with me now. I figured he's kind of good. I can't wait for him to come on. Oh, never mind. There you go, man. Well, thanks for joining us. You're five hours ahead, and you're spending time on a Saturday with us, so Kevin and I are certainly grateful for that. It's a thrill, Nick. It's good to finally chat in the vision and good to finally see you, Kevin. How are you doing? It's great to have you on the show. I appreciate you making time. And I can't wait to hear more of you and your story here. Well, I'm just a pinball fan. I do what I do for a living, but I'm just a fan of pinball. So I'm looking forward to just chatting with you guys. That's right. I was chatting with Mark a week or two ago about something not related to coming on the podcast, and I really enjoyed that conversation with Mark. So I was like, you've got to have this guy on. And I think that you've been on some other podcasts. So normally, here's the thing. I don't really pay attention to what's going on in the podcast world, for better or for worse, in pinball, because I like to do kind of an authentic show, right, where we have on a guest whether somebody else has had them on or they haven't and ask questions that we come up with. So if this is a duplicate for some people, that might be why. But I think we're going to have a really good time. And one of the ones I enjoyed the most was having David Thiel on it. And I really enjoy the sound, audio, music in a pinball machine. So this is going to be a really fun interview. I want to start out, Mark, let's talk about you and pinball, because I think everybody likes to hear a person's origin story of how did you get into pinball? How long ago did you get into pinball? Tell us about that journey. It was right ever since I was a kid. My mom and dad bought me a Tomeat or Tumball. I fell in love with it in fact I found another one at Expo a couple of years ago I go into it with Tommy Atomic Penball and then we go to the seaside and I play Penball there I know it's a little of a game but I loved Bugs Bunny's Birthday Ball I didn't know any better I know I didn't know any better but I loved the art of it but in terms of Penball the thing I always loved it didn't matter what machine it was it's this showmanship It's like going on a roller coaster. It's the mechanical side. It's what makes it. It's the audio. It's the visual. It's like a roller coaster that you control. It's this immersive event that you are part of. It's not like any other game that's out there. I love the big showpiece theatrical arcade games. There was something magical about Pinball that I just fell in love with. And obviously when arcades all shut down because consoles took over, There was nowhere else really to play that I found. And then with the resurgence of pinball in book page, that love was rekindled. And probably about three years later, I kind of got back into it. Nice. What was the first game that you got for your collection? And then tell us about your collection. That was Aerosmith. That was, it was, there was a game that was in a shopping mall. here.
    14:39
    The heart of the place. And there was just an Aerosmith pinball machine in the middle of nowhere for good reason. It didn't work at the time, but it looked just stunning, this thing. There was so much going on with this game, and you know, with I fell in love with the thing. I went to, I found it again in a more near here.
    15:04
    And it shoots so well, that game. And Aerosmith has got a toy in it, the Toy Box toy, the multiple. It's one of those amazing pinball moments. The first time you see it, your jaw drops to the floor because it's just kind of cool. But it was Aerosmith, then a guy who's a good friend now, Pinball Phil. Hi, Pinball Phil. he's kind of turned into my tech guy but he's the all-seeing all-knowing guy to get a family guy with working in animation I wanted an animation based him and again, terrific call-outs it's just packed full of call-outs whether or not the game is your thing there is so much and so much variety in there that you could be playing it for months and every now and then you'd still hear something new So there was that, and then, yeah, Attack from Mars. There was a barcade that I would go to regularly with Honey, my little dog, who was asleep on the studio sofa here under a blanket. So she's been... But we would go and play Attack from Mars, and it was everything that just seemed right about pinball. It was... You didn't need a book of instructions to play it. You would walk up to the thing, and it just made sense. You press the button, and this world happens in front of you. And it was funny. It was a sensory overload. You know, when you grab that, when you destroy the UFO, it's exciting for the first time. It's that. So Attack from Mars arrived. So I made a note here. I'm guessing you might ask me. So, yeah, Aerosmith, Family Guy, Attack from Mars, Monster Bash LE from Chicago Gaming, which is beautiful what they've done to that game. The lighting in that still stands out great. The next one was Star Wars, the home edition, which I know a lot of people didn't like at the time, but often you found out that they hadn't played it because it was just for the home. I played it at Expo, and that thing shoots so well.
    17:12
    And people feel did an epic audio upgrade on that from just the regular sound system that you get with it to, you know, IMAX grade speakers coming out of your Star Wars home pin. And that thing really rocks. The sound design, you mentioned sound design earlier, Kevin. The sound design in that game is so well used. Those assets, every time a pop bumper is whacked or hit, the kick, the crunch, the room explodes with audio. So the Star Wars thing, again, it's really, it's just easy. You stick the coffee on, spend 10 minutes just playing pinball. then there was Beatles Gold Edition which is I love that game, it's so well put together and what Jerry Thompson did with audio, we can talk about that later but with what Jerry did with audio on that game was so inspired his use of voices and effects, everything was so authentic same with Batman Premium which was the next game and again Chris French's art on that thing even if you never played that game Batman Premium is a stunning looker. Just to have that in the room, that's the conversation piece right there. Do you remember when you could have friends in the same building as you? Do you remember that? What's that like? I have no idea. This is the closest I can get. Go around with cameras and start your own YouTube show. Just do a... I'm going to start a whole new channel on Twitch just to show people... just to show them my coffee machine. That would be good. But there was Beatles, Gold, Batman Premium, Theatre of Magic.
    18:50
    That's pinball film. got hold of, which he did a nice little restoration on that. And that, again, it's a great-looking game. And Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, because it's a fun game, and I'm in it. So that seems a good reason to get a game. You go, you're in it. You should have this thing. But also, I've had a lot of fun with it. And then during lockdown, there was a rental. I borrowed two games. I borrowed Jurassic Park and Deadpool, which I had a lot of fun with. and um oh there's a flintstones too in there somewhere i bought a flintstones game oh nice it was with pin sound a friend romain in uh in france he helped co create that and uh i got a flintstones pinball with pin sound and a friend came over with her kids like just after a minute and i used to i i would be the voice of barney rubble for cartoon network over here. So, for extras and things. So, you'd hear me go, Detroit, come on, let's go. Don't tell Mr. Slate. So, I was doing all that stuff for TV. So, when her kids came over, I re-recorded a whole load of call-outs in this Flintstones game, and threw them into Pin Sound. So, they would play the game, and every now and then, the pinball machine would talk to them directly, and they thought this was the coolest thing in the world. And you don't get that with your regular computer game. And then, At some point next year, assuming tariffs change and things happen the right way, I have a Guns N' Roses CE after seeing Kev's stream. Oh, nice. Yep. So that's the plan. Awesome. Do I win? Is that enough? You've got to win. That's remarkable. Maybe I missed this, Mark, but when you got Aerosmith as your first game, what was that moment where you're like, it's totally normal to have a pinball machine in my home? Or like, I should have a pinball machine in my home, right? Because that is not a normal thing to do, even though everybody listening to this podcast, it's perfectly normal. But when you go into the outside world and you talk to people or people discover you have a pinball machine, they don't know what to say. So where was that? What clicked? Were you, do you see another collector? Like, I can put this in my house. What happened? Yeah, well, it's kind of like if you went to a neighbor and they had a roller coaster in their back garden, you kind of go, that's not the norm. So it kind of felt a little like that. It just felt cool, really. It was just cool. I didn't really even think of it like that. It just seemed a natural thing to have. Because in the same way that I think we're so used now to big screen TVs and epic sound systems. I mean, I've got neighbors that their speakers in their movie room are probably bigger than your average pinball machine. But that's Bowers and Wilkins for you. To have a pinball machine was just a stack of fun. And, again, it was unlike any other game-playing experience because it makes you stand up. It's a sociable thing. You put your phone down, and you focus on this real physical thing. It was just cool, Kev. That's it. It was cool, Nick. Really cool. Very nice. And I just want to let our viewers, listeners know who are watching this live. We're going to have kind of a viewer-listener Q&A with Mark after we get through our questions. So by all means, stick around for that. Save the questions for that. I see some questions in chat. That will be the time to kind of throw them in there, and we'll do our best to go through all of them.
    22:23
    All right, that's fantastic. Thanks for sharing the history. It's always a fun question for me to ask somebody, you know, how did you get into it? What are your games? It's fun to talk shop. It's usually an interesting story, so thanks for sharing that. Let's talk about how did you get into voice acting? I've never met another voice actor in my life. I don't think Kevin has. Kevin, did you hold back on me? Well, I mean, I know you, and you're in the Domino's game, so I think that counts. Oh, shit, that's right. You could just interview me. I don't know why we've got Mark on. We'll do that next time. How did you get into voice acting, Nick? When did you first realize it was really cool? Wow, I just realized how desperate Domino's was to fill up that pinball machine that maybe a hundred people played.
    23:04
    I hope you got a free pizza. Broke into the industry. We did, actually. We made our own pizzas at the headquarters. It was a pretty amazing time. That's right. Yep. Well, to answer your question, how I got into it, I was in radio. So my heroes growing up were always people behind the scenes. It was really the craftsmen behind the scenes of movies and games and TV shows. So as a kid, I was fascinated by special effects. People like Ben Burtt, the sound designer. People like Derek Meddings, who was the special effects guy for James Bond. But he also did stuff for Thunderbirds, the puppet show that was big in the U.K. over here. It was people like Jim Henson, Don Messick, Doris Butler, Mel Blanc, just a stack of people that really might, some would be famous, but others really were behind the scenes, so you wouldn't really know them. But I started in radio, and whenever possible, I would sneak into the production studio and watch them recording commercials, which I found fascinating because you'd see those voice guys in there doing that thing, and you'd go, oh my God, that's what they look like. And then, you know, there was a TV show over here called Blue Peter. And this one day, the guest was this sort of middle-aged guy in a sweater. And they said, tell us what you do, Don. And I'm the voice of Scooby-Dooby-Doo.
    24:26
    Like, man, it's really creeping me out, Scoob. And I was going to look at this thing and, oh, my God, that's the guy. Oh, my God. And to me, that was the coolest thing in the world. because you're seeing how this magic trick is done. As a kid, I loved magic, but what I loved even more was finding out how they did that. The VHS tape that I hired out the most as a kid, that doesn't date me at all. The VHS tape that I watched the most as a kid was the making of Star Wars. And just to see those puppeteers and the model makers and the sculptors and the artists, all of that kind of rolled into what I like. So it's like with pinball, coincidentally, it's not just one thing you tend to like. It's everything. It's every element of that machine. There are all these different components that go into making a real masterpiece of a game. And it's the same with, I think, anything creative. But I worked in radio. I became a producer. I was a decent music producer. And I was working with other people's voices. Then eventually I was writing stuff myself. And I needed voices. And there was no one else around. I kind of taught myself. And I think I've always been pretty musical. I played the piano since I was seven. I'm rusty as hell. But I kind of knew I could do it. But I was kind of, shall I? It's probably the wrong word. I didn't have the confidence to begin with to let anyone else hear it. So, you know, it takes a while for somebody that's doing something creative to go, look at this. Isn't this great? Because they might go, no. and then you kind of you know it's it's a very people can take things very personally when you're creating something from the heart that's you know whether it's music or art or whatever that might be so um i taught myself how to do it i got over that i ended up doing a radio show for a while and then eventually i focused on doing something that i just truly adore and creatively this kind of path led me down to production actually producing you know like kind of like hollywood movie trailer kind of audio and then character creation and i had i wanted to focus on one thing to really make a instead of just doing bits of stuff that i was okay at focus on one thing and become as good as i could possibly be at that and the two things i was best at the time were audio production and I was getting decent at character performance. And, you know, I thought there's probably audio producers, engineers that are better than me, frankly, you know, people that have probably read the instructions. Whereas with character creation, that's kind of, that's up to your own imagination. You know, the world's as big as you want it to be. And I focused on that and bit by bit, I created the first thing that you need, you know, in ain't anything creative is to let other people know what you do. You need a show, really. You need a portfolio. So I kind of honed the skills of creating character voices, and I put together like an audio movie trailer. It sounded really good. It sounded good. And even if you'd never heard of me, which you wouldn't have done, because why would you? It started off, you heard this little bit of Warner Brothers music. It sounded kind of like familiar. And then you just heard, hi, I'm Mark Silk. I do cartoon voices. And then like a mallet to the skull for 20 seconds, you just like heard a whole load of stuff. It kind of sounded familiar. So it was me like doing my version of my heroes, really. Like, you are despicable. The last time I worked with someone with a speech impediment. And he went through all these different cartoon characters. And then my own creations. And bit by bit, people got to hear what I do. and it was word of mouth, really, that kind of got me started. But that's the beginning. In fact, Kev, you've set up a little proof. I can show you a thing just for 25 seconds that is like an updated version of what I did when I started out. So here's a video version of what I created back when I first started out. See what you think of this. This might help. Okay.
    28:49
    So that's what I get up to. And also, I'm kind of proud of that, because I'm aware that on social media, a great deal of the time, you'll be scrolling through stuff, and sound will be off. So as far as I know, that's the first voice show reel that doesn't feature a voice.
    29:26
    We got a comment in chat here. Chris the Pinter says he bought Two Point Hospital because he worked on it. I will say, Mark told me that he did voices for the radio announcers in that game, right?
    29:40
    I'll show you. Let me just show you. Where is it? Oh, put it in the other room. Yeah, here's the thing. Well, Sega released a fantastic game called Two Point Hospital, and there is still new stuff coming out for it. I mean, right now, downloadable content is a pretty big talking point within pinball. But for games, it's been around for a long time, and done well, done right, it's a real asset for any game player. Well, Two Point, there's still updates coming out. The game was finished a good while ago, but just taking care of its players, we keep doing regular stuff. And when it first came out, they said, we want to send you a copy. I said, yeah, thank you very much. They said, what format would you like it on? This is when it came out on console. I was thinking, well, I could do PS or Xbox and Nintendo Switch. And I thought, well, hang on.
    30:31
    Pinball's pretty good on Nintendo Switch. So I thought, Nintendo Switch, please. Then I thought, well, I better buy Nintendo Switch.
    30:39
    So my entry into Pinball on Nintendo Switch was driven by me wanting a copy of the game I'm in from Sega just so I can play pinball on it. It's a very convoluted story. That's great. Let me just add that I have a 13-year-old son who, you know, I'm a dad and he's 13. There's only so much cool to go around when you're a dad of a 13-year-old. But I told him that you worked at a two-point hospital and I saw him light up. He's like, all right. It was like, all right. So I got some cool dad points out of the interview. Oh, man. Well, okay, if you haven't played Two Point Hospital, or even if you have, it's basically a big, epic sort of god game where you're creating this world, and you're creating this comedy hospital, and there's all kinds of comedy diseases. Hospitals are wacky, right, guys? It's really cool. And there's people there with a syndrome called Mockstar, and they all look like Freddie Mercury, and there's loads of good stuff. But when you're playing the game, in the background, there is a radio station. And I'm the voice of these three radio DJs, these three presenters. And there's a guy called Ricky Hawthorne in the morning who's absolutely marvellous. Good morning and good luck if you're getting your spleen removed this morning. So there's him and his absolute joy. It doesn't matter how bad the day is, he's always full of cheer. So there's him. For some reason, he's Scottish, but it just works. And then there's a chap called Nigel Bickleworth. who is on, he follows Ricky Hawthorne and frankly he finds everything other than himself all the others are nothing other than total scum. So there's him and then following him there is Harrison Wolfe, the conspiracy theorist. So Area 51 is real. The aliens are here. They're watching you Nick. I can see your curtains. You have nice curtains Nick. But beware. So there's a whole bunch of different people and it's just a really great game and some of the team behind that worked on a game that we worked on together oh nearly 20 years ago called Black and White and that is an epic game, this epic PC game and that was by EA and we worked on it for just the audio I did for that we worked on that for months and I was the voice of the consciences when you're playing this game, you make these decisions and depending on what happens, this world evolves. And so I was the voice of good and master. You do this thing and help the villagers. Everything will be fine. And then you'd hear, no, go throw a rock at them. Doesn't matter. They'll grow a new one.
    33:18
    You know, it was kind of like these two opposites. But some of the same team are behind that. In fact, I had a very nice hamper, Christmas hamper, arrive a couple of days ago from the nice people at Saga. So thank you very much for that. Mark, I've got to say, I went through your IMDB or Wikipedia page and saw all the work that you did. And Black and White, I think, resonated with me the most because I remember playing the Amiga and Populous when I was a kid. Wow. And I have a distinct memory of just waiting for Black and White to come out. I was a sophomore in college. I left my dorm came back and popped it in So never did I think I be talking to the voice of the consciousness from A Black and White So very cool very awesome Thanks. In fact, if you go on YouTube and type in black and white outtakes, a couple of years ago I shared these outtakes of all kinds of stuff that was never heard back in the day. And so it's us in the studio playing. In fact, it's something that I need to release at some time. I've kind of kept it wanting to find the right moment for it. But I was the only person to film behind-the-scenes footage of one of those recording sessions and
    34:32
    the the recording studio at EA Over here in England was absolutely stunning. It was like a James Bond villains lair so it was in the middle of the countryside in Chertsey in the in England and
    34:49
    You went to a country nothing here. There's a lot of trees You go around this corner, and there is this huge glass building with a track all across the front of it. And during the summer months, the entire front of the building went... The whole front of the building would open up. But we recorded in there, and the studio was just cool. I've recorded in some of the most magnificent recording studios in this country, at Abbey Road Studios. I worked with George Lucas on Star Wars at Abbey Road. in Soho in the heart of London there is Soho Square Studios which is kind of like the place to record but this recording studio they had this epic old school vintage patch based synthesizer that they were using for effects and things full of patch cables and you know even if they didn't turn it on it was a masterpiece that was in the corner of this room one day they did turn it on and to get it working they'd have to give it a kick but it was a cool place to record but we worked on black and white for months and the very final recording session black and white I actually stayed around the corner from there in a hotel for a week and I was in there for a full working day every day for five days recording like a phone book of voice work for different characters I ended up doing 30 characters on that game. Wow and this just goes to show how important voice work is in a game. I mean, I have not played black and white for 20 years now,
    36:27
    and yet those voices, when you did it, I mean, they stay with you, right? When the voice is done right, for a good way, I can hear those voices, and it just brought me right back. That's very good. And also, I think we all heard bad voice work. I won't say what football game in particular, because that's not what we're about in this show. We never do that. Yeah, it's the kind of thing that good voice work will stay with you, and you don't want to focus on it in a negative way. So very, very impressive. I wanted to ask you sort of – Just jump in. I just want to jump in. I mean, just look at Adam's family. When you hear Raoul Juliet scream Showtime, that's one of the most epic call-outs in pinball.
    37:06
    And it's, like you said, these moments stay with you. And it's that kind of stuff that matters when you're creating new shows. Sorry, back to you, Nick. Sorry, I jumped in. Well, no, I have some non sequiturs. Well, first of all, a lot of people I know, I think more people actually listen to this podcast. So I would encourage them to hop on and also check out the video because I think it's really cool to see the voice actor behind the voices. That's always really interesting to kind of see the person behind the magic. But also, Mark is a dead ringer as a stunt double for Mixer Tuna. So maybe one day we can get them both in the same room. I would love to see Mark do a Mixer Tuna impression because I try. I dress up as him for Halloween sometimes. Mixer Tuna? Yeah. He streams on Saturday nights here.
    37:52
    Kevin, should I be worried? I think if we got you, Nick, and Tuna all in the same room with some glasses on, there'd be mass confusion. Do I take him off? Is that better? Is that much better? I'm going to do that. You look more like Tuna. Oh, Tuna's here. Uh-oh. Is he here? Is he in chat? He's in chat with us. I can get one better. So there was somebody that wanted my attention. I'll just bring her in. Here we go. There you go. This is Honey. Oh, yeah. There's Honey. This is Kevin. Honey, there you go. There you go, Honey. This is Honey the she-gull. Good girl. Want to get back over there? That's for Chris. Chris, don't say we never came through for you. Good girl. There you go. Under your blankets. Good girl. There you are.
    38:36
    How old is Honey? She is five and a half. Excellent. She never asked your age. Mark, has the pandemic, I mean, do you work out of your home for the most part anyways? And has this not been affecting you much? Or what's that like? I know you mentioned the studio black and white, but is there a difference now in the year 2020? Welcome to the apocalypse, Nick. Yeah. I tend to work this way probably about 80% of the time, 85% of the time anyway. Because you'll hear people talk about this whole new way of working since lockdown. and I actually had digital lines put into my mom and dad's loft back in 1996, so I was able to work remotely from there. So I tend to work this way remotely most of the time anyway. But, you know, I really do miss going down and doing full cast sessions when you're with the rest of the cast for an animation show. I'm so glad that, well, there's a show called Go Jettas, which is on Universal Kids in the States and on BBC over here in the UK. And it's just an epic show. It's about a bunch of explorers in search of adventure, and there's a disco unicorn, and I'm the crazy bad guy in that Grandmaster Glitch. Grandmaster Glitch! I'll get you no jetties!
    40:00
    You come on and eat the furniture. But we record that as a full cast. And you were saying, you know, how does it affect you, Nick? the joy of all being together in that room when we're recording that. You feed off each other. And do you know what? I do work remotely. We're recording animations right now. I'm doing six episodes of a new show on Monday. I nearly said it was then. Whoops. So we're doing new recordings on Monday, and that is using this microphone in this studio, linking live to my favorite studio in London. and it will be a really fun, enjoyable recording session and the show, once it's all cut together, will sound great. There is something, though, that you can't emulate. You can only get if you're all together. When there's a bunch of friends all working together for the same end, when we're recording those shows as a cast, you hear that vibe in the room and you do feed off each other. So I do miss being able to do that. I mean, it's just me and my girlfriend coffee. So, you know, I'm being good and staying here. I mean, are you staying where you are, Nick, right now? I'm being super good, like maybe beyond good. So I've been hunkered down. I've missed out on a lot this year. But, you know, it's important to be safe. And I try to focus on the positive. And what I've always said is this is going to happen. 2020 is a great year to happen because you've got just so many entertainment options. You can kind of weather the storm. Thank God that we've been building up our pinball collection. We have games to play. So even though I've got four broken games that I can't fix, I've got more games. So God willing, we're going to make it through this. You know, I'm going to just hang on one second. I'm going to just change cameras here because that one just overheated because it's just that damn exciting. You're bringing the heat, dude. I do. Now, hopefully, this will not make a clicky sound. It might do, but I'm going to try it anyway. Here we go.
    41:58
    Okay. Very good. Look at that. Multiple cameras. The two-camera kind of guy over here. I see the stern hat placed there strategically on your – Oh, that was not intentional. Oh, product placement. I'm a company boy. There you go. Yeah. Okay. Well, yeah, I mean, with the lockdown, something else that has happened, and I don't think it would have done if we weren't in this apocalypse, is the amount of communication and just chats that I have with friends over Zoom and other, you know, whatever, that I might not have had otherwise. Now, I'm having, you know, I'm just a guy that likes pinball. I do what I do. You know, you know this inside out, and I quite a bit. And also, I love the fact that I'm working with these guys now. But the amount of friendships that have come out of this hobby is terrific. and there's people that you end up just chatting with that you would never normally bump into. And I don't think that would have happened in the same way if we weren't in this situation right now. You know, I was just chatting with Raymond Davidson yesterday. Now, you know, he would probably beat me to just starting a game, let alone playing a game. And he's the guy right now. and just the fact that there's people it doesn't matter what level you're into these these games it's just new friendships when i was at expo over three days chicago pinball expo um last year i think over three days i probably played pinball for about an hour because the thing that mattered more was just hanging out with with friends that was it yeah for sure i i I miss that. And we're going to talk about later in our show replay effects. But, you know, pinball is a niche and it's a niche community. And, you know, people start to feel like a pinball family in many ways and these people that you meet. And we're all united under our love and passion for pinball. One of my favorite things about pinball is that our country is a little divided right now in the U.S. with politics, which is unfortunate. But pinball is the great thing that can just bring everybody together. And I think that you need to have those things in life where you just can connect with people and leave all the baggage behind. So that's what I love. I've met so many people through pinball that I never would have met but who also might be radically different than myself, and I think that's fantastic because I want to not just meet, you know, people that I naturally click with and become best friends with, but people who are a little bit different, come from a different place, have a different perspective, and just find that commonality of pinball. And I greatly miss that. And I put a post up a couple months ago on Facebook and saying, you know, pinball to me I've realized, and I think I've always known this, but it's a very social thing. You know, I've been playing my machines certainly here and there and trying to get some streams out, but it's not the same, and I just miss seeing people in the hobby and talking, shop, talking pinball, getting to know them, and just sharing my love for pinball with other people and finding other people who are passionate about it. That is incredibly important. Yeah, it is. That's the stuff that actually matters. I was talking to a friend yesterday for about two hours. We were just having a Zoom call, just having coffees, a virtual coffee. And we got to know each other through a love of pinball. But we would just play music tracks to each other. Have you heard this thing? And it was just two hours of nonsense and sharing videos and going, have you heard about Zeppelin? And he actually kind of half knows Robert Plant.
    45:35
    Because Robert Plant's from the West Midlands, which is where I am right now. so you would he's you know rubber playing from Led Zeppelin you'd kind of see him in a pub every now and then so it's this kind of Jeff Lynn from ELO too he's from the area Jeff Lynn from ELO he's from about 15 minutes down the road again yeah but it's that would be an epic pinball machine just in terms of they'd never make it because it'd be too niche yeah what's your dream team have you got a dream team well my dream team's been broken I probably would have said Lebowski, but that's an open wound with the debacle that happened with Big Lebowski. So maybe backup would be Curb Your Enthusiasm. I would love Curb Your Enthusiasm. Yeah, yeah.
    46:23
    Maybe I would love to see Jersey Jack also do Indiana Jones. Not that there's – you know, there have been a couple Indiana Jones, but I think that's such an iconic theme, and that's like my favorite movies from the 80s is Indiana Jones. So I'd love to see Jersey Jack, get the Jersey Jack treatment for that theme. I saw some artwork for Indiana Jones by a friend of mine.
    46:44
    There's a, you know, that's something else that I adore about pinball, just the artwork. You go right back to real, you know, like 50s and 60s machines.
    46:55
    And there's such snapshots of Americana at that point in time in terms of art and design style. but you look at the art we are in this golden age of pinball in terms of artistry, you look at Christopher French you look at Zombietti the cabinet of monsters and the playfield of monsters is an absolute work of art same with Batman, and then you look at what Jeremy's done, Zombietti, what he's done in Turtles is stunning, you look at the other stuff he's done, it's absolutely epic my friend Paul Schipper, he's a movie poster artist he did the movie poster for Ready Player One and he does a lot of stuff for Lucasfilm and stacks of movie posters and um you were saying indiana jones he's just he's well he's done a whole bunch of indiana jones um illustrations or movie posters style stuff rather new releases over here re-releases and uh you know magazines about indiana jones but his work's absolutely incredible but um yeah gotta get him into pinball that'd be good i'm just thinking about what i uh i'd love a muppet show pinball machine nice um you know a muppet show pinball machine would be absolutely epic. Now, whether it's too niche, I don't know. But you know what? If they did it right, this could be an absolute family winner because the buying age of a pinball machine is kind of us.
    48:16
    Kids love Muppets. I don't want a Muppets machine now. So here's my idea for a Muppets machine. You've got to have the old guys from the balcony on the top taunting you as you play. Scatter them wall dogs. Yeah, that's your topper. that would be pretty epic yeah man or Scooby Doo machine I know a good voice guy for that one if only we knew somebody that might be able to do that like if only we knew someone Scoob right Scoob pinball Lego did you see the Lego machine the guy did at Expo last year no I didn't see that god it was in the lobby there as you walked in It was a huge thing. It was an actual working Lego pinball machine with toys and all kinds of stuff. It was a mechanical marvel. This thing actually worked. Because I work for Lego. I do a stack of character voices for their mini movies that they show on YouTube. And I do stuff for Legoland in the U.K. here. In the U.K. here, there's their theme parks. I'm the voice of a whole bunch of attractions. That's kind of cool. I'm a big theme park fan. I would love to see you do the voice work for the Deep Roots Old Testament pinball machine.
    49:37
    Oh, my. Voice of God. I could see that. Yeah? What about food drug, though? Shoot the left ramp, my son. Or I'll burn your first child.
    49:50
    Oh, golly. The Old Testament. It's a family-friendly one, kids. Come on down. They went with the dark theme. Oh, good grief. Not the New Testament. No lie. Just saying, Deep Root. He's here. You know, reach out to him. Can we find another one, please?
    50:07
    What about that food truck thing? Just try that one. Oh, I got the munchies. Munchie multiball. That could be, you know, Shaggy, right? That's his deal, right? Yeah, that would be great. That would be a great call. Munchie multiball. That's the one. There you go. I'm in.
    50:26
    All right. Tell us about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This is the first, but hopefully not last, pinball machine that you worked on. How did you land the gig? How did you get this?
    50:36
    They asked me. I mean, I kind of, I got chatting to them at Expo to, I was watching a keynote, because I went there as a fan. I'm not kidding anyone. I went there as a fan, because I wanted to hear how they make these machines. I'm fascinated by the mechanics of it, the artwork, the audio.
    50:56
    You know, you look at what David's done, you look at what Jerry Thompson does. It fascinates me. And at the end of it, somebody name-checked a sound designer, and I went up to them, and I said, I would love to work with you. I introduced myself, and I kind of said, I would absolutely love to work with you. I said, that was fascinating. I do this thing. And interestingly, I one of the reasons I went over there in the first place, I was just getting back into pinball as a fan of the hobby. So I'm just fussing honey in the background. Good girl. Yeah, good girl. As a fan of the hobby. And I heard Jeff Teolis mention this thing called Expo in Chicago. And I said to the guy that works with me here in my office, I said, And I go to Chicago for an essential business trip.
    51:49
    And he said, yes. So I took us over there. And that was kind of what got me over to Expo, thanks to Jeff, also watching Tucky video. And I went over to say hi to Jeff. And somehow he knew me. He knew of me, which I don't expect. Because, you know, I just do what I do. And, you know, so anyway. I went up to X-Bone just as a fan to watch that and then we kind of got chatting and it seems I think people found out what I did which is really nice so the next time I went to X-Bone last year a whole bunch of people were like shouting out and saying hi which is kind of nice kind of you know it's nice to know that there's people that like what you do and I went to Stern and you know was taking a look around Stern And then out of the blue, this thing happened again where someone that I've never met, although I'm aware of them, shouted my name. And I heard Mark Silk. And I turned around and this Yeti-sized man with a very well-kept beard was standing in front of me. And I said, yes. And I said, hello. And he went, he said, Mark Silk. He said, zombie Yeti. I said, Jeremy! And I love his work. And he's such a cool guy. And it was just a treat to meet him. And I spoke to him. And over at Expo, I spent time with Dwight Sullivan and a whole bunch of them. And, again, just through sheer interest in what they do. You know, I do what I do, and I love to share what I do. But it was a real thrill to just hear them talk about what they do as well and just hang out and make a whole bunch of new friends. But basically, they asked, once they knew I was interested and they liked what I did, they invited me to be part of this. And so there was then the casting process.
    53:48
    So the way this worked is, I work on a lot of projects that are, you know, there are non-disclosure agreements. You can't tell people what you're part of. So, you know, it was exciting to be working on a project that you're a fan of. It was when I worked on Star Wars. To know that you were part of this thing, that you as a fan would queue up to play all of. And that's how I felt about Turtles. So to know that I was going to be part of it was a thrill. And they took me through what they were doing with it and the characters they would need for this. And I kind of said, well, look, here's what I would do with those characters. They sent me how they... It's obviously based on the first season. of Turtles. So the idea is to, you know, we are recreating those characters. But, you know, not all of that cast are even still alive. And Turtles over time, did you watch Turtles, Kevin, when it was originally out? I did. I did too, yeah. Yeah. Well, as the seasons progressed, the cast changed. You know, kind of, there were so many different versions of Turtles where the cast have changed. I mean, even in one of the series, the one voice performer ended up performing a different character. So they changed quite a bit. So the important thing from what we were doing was to create something that sounded authentic, that you believed it's those characters that you were hearing. You've got to be true to those characters. And the main one that I was part of with, I'm Splinter, Bebop, Rocksteady. So, Splinter, shoot the left ramp. Shoot the right ramp. No, Nick, the right ramp. So, Splinter, beam up and ride steady. I'll get you titles of that. There's Baxter and Baxter Fly. Or Master Shredder. You know, all this stuff. And Casey Jones. And I got a load of clips. I watched every episode of that first series. Of that first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. I watched everything. and you get into the beats and the rhythms because often you think a thing sounds like you think it does and then you watch it back and go no it's very different to how I thought it would so I did a whole bunch of auditions basically which were all we went to a bunch of them that were eventually all signed off by Nickelodeon and then I ended up being the voice of these six characters I think it's, I don't know if this is me in the way I think, but I think it's remarkable and really cool, and I'm a fan of efficiency, but that they certainly got to hire one voice actor to do six parts. That's remarkable. I love the efficiency. I like that, too.
    56:43
    That's pretty awesome, Mark. I'm a huge fan of my work. I remember hearing something similar about the Simpsons pinball party, right? They hired the voice actors that could do multiple characters. so they could get the most mileage out of the actors they were hiring. Is that something that commonly happens in the industry that you're familiar with? Well, it can do. I mean, in the end, there's economics involved in this too. But the only thing that actually matters is who's right for that role. It might be that you do need six different people. It might be that actually if one person can perform six different characters and they sound completely different, hopefully there's really good separation with what I've created for the Sandside of Turtles, for my characters in Turtles. So when you're hearing, you know, choose your title. Leonardo. Donatello. Barry Manilow. You have chosen. You know, good choice, my son. You know, choose the right one. You know, it's all that stuff. So that's kind of how he sounds. And we, he was originally a little bit more kind of slightly oriental sounding. So Eastern Asian sounding. And we kind of brought it back to just sounding overall a sense of being mystical. So it still sounded authentic, but it's still got its own unique step on that particular performance.
    58:03
    And so that's the sound and that's the kind of attitude behind how we are bringing Splendor to life. And then with Bebop and Rocksteady, it's kind of, you know, you're chewing the furniture. Bebop and Rocksteady.
    58:19
    It's turtle bass in time. You know, it's all that kind of stuff. And, you know, it's the same kind of principle for each of them. All we try to do is make it sound as authentic as possible.
    58:30
    Is the process of working on the voiceovers for Pinball Machine any different than working on another project like a cartoon or a movie voice or a commercial or anything like that? Only in the way that it is you're recording. It's a game. It's the same kind of process as recording a game. So you've got, say with Black and White or with Two Point Hospital, with a game, you're recording lots of short lines.
    59:01
    And ideally, you want to have as many versions of those lines as possible so that as a player of the game, you're not just doing the same thing again, again, again. So we've recorded multiple versions of kind of most things, really. But yeah, it's very similar to recording. In the end, it's a game. So it's the same process as recording any game. And with an animation, you tend to record scenes.
    59:30
    So you can record, my pup needs to go for a little ladies moment. Can you give me 90 seconds? All right, Nick and I will have a little sidebar. Yeah, a sidebar with me and Nick. Sidebar? Well, I just take honey just for a little ladies moment. I mean, absolutely. You've got to take care of your dog. What? You've got to go. One of you is right there. And go. I'll be right back.
    59:55
    Oh, honey. I'll look out for you. Hi, Kevin. You got some good jokes? No. I don't have any good jokes. Let's see. What's going on in chat? I had to ban somebody. That was pretty good. Oh, you did? Yeah. Tell me about that later. I missed it. Dropping words. You know, the auto mod picked it up, so that's good. Oh, that's good.
    60:13
    So, Chris got to feed Mark. Yeah, we've got a couple questions for Mark and Chad here. Yeah, we'll try to save those. By the way, guys, save those.
    60:23
    We're getting close to the viewer Q&A, so mentally save those because I might not be able to scroll back and remember them. And we'll ask that to Mark.
    60:31
    Why don't you talk about your game room update, Kev? Okay. Let's talk that out. Well, the most visible thing is behind me. I rearranged some games. So I decided that I finally needed to put all four of my J.J.P. games together. So I put Guns N' Roses next to me now. I get to spend quality time with GNR every day. And then I moved my Neo Geo back there. So it's kind of cool. I like having all three of the video games kind of right next to each other like that. It's pretty neat. And then I didn't have to, so I just, like, shoved everything else down over here.
    61:02
    I used to move down, and then everything else stayed the same. So that was the big change. There you go. All right.
    61:10
    They're not in chronological order. No, they are not. You know what? Kevin and Nick have been so good. I think they've earned one of your treats, too.
    61:18
    I'm putting my ear holes back in. I'm so sorry about that, kids. That's okay. No worries. That's the joy of doing it live, you know. No one's going to get cut out. We're just going to go with it. I would leave all that in. I've got to watch the stream back there to find out what you said. These are her favorite treats. But they're not any treats. They are toothbrush treats. Look at that.
    61:41
    Ready? Honey? Ready? Good girl? Good girl. And we're back. We're back. So how did it go with Charles? Well, my honey, my little dog needs a pee.
    61:54
    Mark, did you get to influence the script? Did you write any of the voice lines or ad lib? What's that like?
    62:03
    It's kind of my role. The answer is no. but they really with Blint taking you through the game there were very specific things that had to be said to get you there and you didn't need to change anything they've done you know kind of shoot to the left ramp kind of does what it says in the tin really there's a whole stack of stuff that we did in fact there is a there is do you want to know the secret flipper code well that was actually a question so I'm glad you brought that up yes we would love to know this secret flipper code, and I'm glad you're on, so I'm not having to try to explain it to people. This is all you. This is good. Now, let's see here. Let me just see. I'm looking at the chat, too.
    62:49
    I wish the turtles would first come out, like, getting candy. Yeah, right. If you have the turtles game, which I hope you do, and if you don't, go on Bites. You can use this flipper code. Do you have it, Kevin? I don't. There's so many games that I haven't played this year because, you know, most of the times I like to get my hands on a game before I drop five or six grand on it, right?
    63:11
    Make your own pinball Santa. Okay, for your Teenage Mutants and Ninja Turtles pinball machine, there is a secret flipper code. The way this works, it's kind of cool. I got very excited when I first saw it work. And thank you, Dwight, for making this happen. So in attract mode, you press both flippers at the same time. You then use the left flipper as the selection button, the right flipper to enter. So the flipper code is 197.
    63:44
    So you press the two together during attract mode. Then you go one on the left one, and then right to enter. You then do nine taps of the left flipper, right to enter, and then seven taps of the left flipper, right to enter. Then write one more time to confirm. So, 197.
    64:05
    Once you've done that, it will then bring you up a super secret video on your screen of the game showing me right here in the studio recording the Turtles' audio.
    64:17
    Nice. There you go. I have one last question that I had written down here. And then if you have time, Mark, we've got some viewer Q&A. Yeah, I'd love to. If you're running up against anything. No, I'm fine.
    64:30
    If you need. So you tell me you did a mod on your Turtles pinball machine. So this is a process that you can give to, I think it applies to the pro model only, I believe, right? Yes, unless you want to destroy your Turtles pinball machine. Okay. What's your mod? Okay, the mod is really simple. It's on the van. Now, when you look at the van, the van, obviously, on the pro version does not open up to dump the balls into the play field, whereas on the premium and the LE, it does. I was just dusting down, cleaning the glass on the machine, standing right at the top by the back box. And I noticed the front of the van, because normally you only see it side on, normally. When you're around right at the top, you take a look at the front of the van. There's all this detail on it that you don't normally see, because it's hidden away. And you've got the Turtles logo, you've got a spare wheel at the front of this thing. And I kind of thought, this looks really good. why aren't we seeing this? I want to see this well knowing that no balls come out of it on the pro version I thought hang on can we just turn this around so the van faces us and I asked Pinball Phil can he do this thing for me and he did he took the van off and the first thing that really blew me away was again just how good Jeremy Packer's art is because underneath that van is all this artwork that you wouldn't normally see, and all these little hidden bits of treasure. Same with the plastics that are normally covered up. So we put the van back on. He did this little thing to make sure that it wouldn't move. And basically, you've got the van facing you now, and it looks so good. It is terrific. You couldn't do it on the Premium or the LE because, well, you wouldn't want to. You've got the balls coming your way. But really, as a mod on the Pro, I think it looks really terrific. And it also allows that little space to breathe even more. So you can see all this extra stuff. You can see the ball going around the back of it. But it looks really nice. And I kind of fanboyed a little bit, so I put a picture of that up on Pinside, and I noticed that a few other people have done this now. So that's my... Yeah, so I'm in the game, but I thought, you know what? Just for me, and if anyone else likes that, it's something that it doesn't affect gameplay in any way. It's just a little detail you can do to see more of the detail that's hidden away there anyway. That's a little clear tip. Yeah.
    67:07
    Kev, I'm going to step away for a minute or two. Can you handle the listener Q&A? I can. Do you need a puppetry to really come back? Listen, I wouldn't say no.
    67:19
    I got a question for Mark, for myself. Sure. So, you said when you were talking about all the machines you had in your collection and things like that, that you had loaned a Deadpool and a Jurassic Park. Yeah, I borrowed those two during a lockdown, yeah. So, between those two, which one gets your vote? Like, which one's number one in your eyes? Because that's two of the best games CERN has done recently, in my mind. Yeah, I mean, they both shoot so well. I like games with with humor in and for me that was so it Deadpool Okay I love games with really great character and and sound design and I really love what Jerry I love what I a fan of Jerry Thompson sound design and audio work and what he did in Deadpool was spectacular. I like Deadpool anyway. The voice actor in that's terrific, but the choices in terms of music... You know, you've almost got, like, game show music in there and elevator music in there. It's funny. It's the first time I think I remember ever laughing out loud playing a pinball machine. Yeah. So I really enjoyed Deadpool. I love the sound packaging, the music in particular. Like, all these genres of music. Never, ever get in one pinball machine like that. They just did an amazing job of bringing all these, you know, there's hip-hop, there's ska, there's, like, it's crazy. Yeah. And it all works. That's what's so clever with this. There's a whole stack of machines that every now and then you kind of go, that might not seem a good fit within that theme. With this, you could throw anything at it, and it just works. But the skill is understanding how to do it right. And Jerry totally gets that. I mean, the other thing is, well, with what Jerry did for the Beatles, if you think of what a versatile sound designer Jerry Thompson is, if you think of the same guy that did the sound package for Deadpool did Beatles. and again where he takes he took a really good idea but he elevated it into a place that if you know the little details you'll get just how good the stamp package is because he used cousin Brucey, Bruce Morrow as the call out guy on Beatles and of course he was the guy that introduced the Beatles at Shea Stadium back in that time period so to go back and get that guy to be the voice. If you're a fan of the Beatles, that's treasure.
    69:48
    You know, so it's all those things. If you're a fan, if you're buying, if you're investing in something as big as a pinball machine, chances are you're a fan of that theme. You're a fan of that band. And so you're going to get all these references. So if the person behind it gets it, you know, that's a bit special. Yeah. So I'm always curious. So, like, I have a background in, like, graphic design and things like that. So, like, I pay attention to fonts and, like, kerning and weird stuff like that. So I'm always curious what, from an expert's point of view, somebody who's in the industry who does this for a living, are there particular – what would you say, like, you mentioned Adam's Family earlier as, like, a game with amazing calls. Is there a game that you're, like, the calls on this game are just, like, amazing?
    70:39
    Well, you mentioned Adam's Family. And something I would, just as a sidetrack, if there was, it probably wouldn't get made because of licensing. I don't know for sure. But I would love to see an Addams Family remake where they go back and knock on Chris Granner's door and see, does he have the original recording session of Raoul Julia doing those call-outs? Because we've only ever heard those call-outs in really crunchy, low-bitrate quality. but I would love to hear those epic, iconic call-outs that are only in that Adams family machine in super high quality, like the dust and all the grime has been taken off them. They're still great as they are, but to hear them in super duper quality would be truly epic so that's something I'd love to hear I'm trying to think, that Turtles machine is pretty good Besides that one You know something that I really thought was clever, was on Aerosmith. Just the use of, it was the same voice guys on Metallica. But it was fairly sparing how the callouts were used. But they worked. And the thing of, you're going to start scoring points now? And all that kind of stuff. And elevate a multi-ball! You know, this kind of stuff. And it was really harsh, and he would mock you. But it worked. And it was kind of clever, too, because instead of having, you know, I'd have loved to have heard Steven Tyler in the machine. I would have loved to. But they created this character that didn't exist before the machine, and you loved it. You know, you look forward to these call-ups. These are special moments.
    72:23
    I'm trying to think of... I really enjoyed... I mean, it's classic stuff. I mean, you know, Attack from Mars is still kind of fun It's still a champion B-movie What about you? I like the Stern's Spider-Man, the original Sound package with J. Jonah Jameson Taunting you You know, I haven't had his family That's one of my all-time favorite games So, you know, that's another one that stands out But, you know, I like having the antagonist Kind of like taunting you along the way Yeah, yeah, yeah Even down to, again, it's fairly straightforward but it's done in a very elegant way with theater of magic. You know, you think, what year is that? Late, is it late 90s? Late 90s, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, but again, that's one of the, you're into the realm now of high-quality audio recording. And when you hear the female voice go, you have the magic. I do have the magic, that's right. I got the magic. It's so over the top. But it's these two characters. There's the woman, then there's the showman, The announcer guy, the guy who's leading the way.
    73:33
    It's really simple and probably not really thought of in terms of, you know, headline iconic pinball call-outs. But I really like Sage of Magic. I mean, Batman's a really obvious one, too, because it's just great clips of the show. And, again, there's a really good example of Jerry Thompson's choices, too. What do you think of reusing original audio from a theme versus re-recording new pinball-specific call-outs or using sound-alikes? I think you do whatever is right for that moment. Like with Monsters, you've got that guy who is the impersonator of Paul Lynde, and he did a good job on the voice side of it, really. But with Batman, you didn't need anyone to do sound-alikes. They were lucky enough to get Adam West and Burt Ward, plus mix that in with those great clips from the original show. And something else that's really special about Batman, all of the video elements were from the remastered film elements. So they went back and, you know, for the Blu-rays, they went back and restored everything from those original negatives and made them look gorgeous. So you don't need anyone to do anything else from that. I think with anything, when there's somebody else, like with what I'm doing, there'll be people that wanted the original character voices. Well, one of them was dead, so that would be tough. And also people's voices change too.
    75:08
    And also sometimes there are specifics that are nice to hear. for that game. And I kind of, I'm able to sort of separate myself. I've worked in games for a long time, and I'm able to separate myself now from being the guy that's the voice in them, or a voice in them, to I just want to play the game and enjoy the game. And I'm really pleased with how it works. And the guys as well who perform, Krang and Shredder, that kind of sounds fun. The guy who's performing the turtles, that sounds really good. It's a good mix. I think it's a really nice mix, especially that flipper code. That's great. All right, we've got a couple questions in chat for you. Can I just say one thing on the pinball call-outs from other voice actors? I think the one thing that is super important is to get good jackpot call-outs. Yeah. I'm going to go from two examples. You've got Chloe in 24, which is terrible. Jackpot. Oh, Chloe. And we'll just blame the Who's ever directing that Or directing the voice actor I don't know what the hell happened Versus like Stephen Lang In Avatar Ampsu Jackpot Dude he goes nuts on there And the Jackpot call outs in Avatar Are so good How did that go again Nick? I'm not doing it again Alright so Let's hear the Professional do it What was the cool app? Absolute Jackpot. Have you ever played Avatar? No.
    76:46
    You've got to play it just to hear Stephen Lang's voice work on it, because he does a good job. It's like maybe one of the best jackpot call-outs in the game, I would say, at least in Stern that I can think of. Nick Lang jackpot! It should be that. Really good stuff. Clip that and put it in your Metallica. I didn't end up asking any questions from the chat, because I asked some questions for myself.
    77:09
    selfish. Yeah, I know. It's like a third show or something. How dare you? I've just found a question in the chat from Kylo Vassa. No, Kyle Vassa. Kyle Vassa. Mark, your mic audio sounds great. Thank you. He or she says, is that a Neumann TLM 103 microphone? What's the rest of your audio signal chain? It is a Neumann, and I love it. It's a TLM 49. I used to have a TLM 103. They're terrific workhorse microphones. You can put those in front of a gentle female voice or a gentle male voice, or you can scream at the thing, this TLM-103. It's great. This is kind of like the size of your face. This is bigger than a TLM-103. It's a Neumann TLM-49. It goes into a Rupert Neve mic preamp,
    78:02
    which is like it is a metal beauty. You've got a button on it by default, nothing to do with me that actually says silk so if you want extra smooth setting it actually says silk on this thing just as a sidetrack have you ever seen a documentary called sound city i have not it's really good it's uh it's by dave grohl and it's uh it's a documentary about a studio in california called sound city where um it's those albums were recorded so it's things like Tom Petty and Fleetwood Mac and it's it's that kind of generation of music from and it was a dump real dump and you see some of the reactions of the bands actually going in there we're creating this don't fall but the thing that made people want to go there it had this mixing desk in the studio that made everything just sound like gold and it was a hand-built mixing desk by an English guy called Rupert Neve and after watching this documentary I thought I gotta get a Rupert Neve mic preamp I got one I want a new Rupert Neve something in the studio so over here is this little box and basically you plug the mic into that and it basically gets the absolute best sweet spot out of your mic it then goes into a mic preamp if you just want if If you just came for pinball, I'm so sorry. This is like studio geeky stuff. This is for all the podcasters out there.
    79:38
    Mic preamp, then into your audio interface. I have an audio interface by RME, and they make big, beautiful mixing desks. But it's called the Babyface Pro. And the guts in this audio interface are the same guts that you'd have in one of their epic studio mixing desks. So basically when I link up from here live to a studio in you know anywhere It kind of sounds as good as it would do if I was in that room Another thing too that Nick's already got going on there. Just see Nick's beautiful curtains Well, he's got some nice acoustics there because of his curtains are helping deaden the sound well around me here. Let me see You can see a little bit of audio acoustic tiles and panels on the wall and, oh, actually, if I do this, can I do this without destroying the studio? Hang on, hang on. If I do this, you won't even see Honey having a lie down.
    80:37
    There's her back leg. There you are, yeah. Yeah, there you are. So, but the room is also a major part of making what you do sound good. Also, above me here, I've got a lot of honeycomb-shaped audio panels on the ceiling, too. so you could have the best microphone in the world but it could sound like junk if your room is really echoey i've listened to podcasts from i remember when i first got back into pinball podcasts a couple years ago there was something i was listening to and the content was interesting but i couldn't listen to it because it just sounded so harsh and off-putting but you know like with what you've got there nick it's uh with your helicopter is that with your headphones you The fact you've got a mic there and it's by your mouth, that's a good start. Kevin, what you've got sounds good.
    81:28
    And also, here's the dirty secret that nobody wants to let you know. Initially, you don't have to spend a lot of money either.
    81:39
    So a friend of mine, I mean, if you do, it helps. It really does help. This wasn't cheap, but it's an absolute beauty. This will set you up for life. but when I travel, in fact, at Expo in Chicago, at Pinball Expo, I recorded a couple of national TV commercials in the hotel room. I got a thing, like an email, I was thinking, do this thing for us, and I take with me a tiny little microphone. It was, oh, what's it called? I think it was an iRig Pro. This is not an expensive microphone, but it's enough to get you there. It was about 120 pounds, and you plug it in your iPhone or your iPad. and what I did it was a quick TV commercial and I got the pillows in the hotel room I built a pillow fort like you know you shape I put the microphone in the middle of them so the acoustics were good and I kind of like you know ducked down I was going get ready for action and adventure you know and for this new TV commercial and I started off and it was on TV the next day and I didn't know that it was recorded in a hotel room in Chicago above a load of paintball machines with me on the floor talking into some pillows.
    82:56
    Dreams do come true. That's the magic. It's Hollywood magic. You have the magic. That's right. Did we ask the most important question so far? That was going to be the next question. Have you gotten into voice work, Nick?
    83:11
    Let me ask. Well, I'm going to say who this is from. Let the viewers guess. This viewer asked, what's your favorite pinball topper?
    83:26
    Who's that from? Do I know that person? I don't know if you know. Our audience will know. Yeah. Armand Gorin. I said the other day in our Discord, why doesn't he just get a room full of pinball toppers and just forget about the pinball machines? That's all he gives a shit about. He doesn't need a machine. You just fill it on top of it. It's fine. That's right. My favorite pinball topper. The first machine I got with a pinball topper was Attack from Mars, the Chicago Gaming Ellie, which is a big stack of fun. And actually, that scared the hell out of little honey here. So every time that thing went, you shoelaces are tied, and jumped up and down, the alien on the top of this machine jumps up and down. She went nuts. But let's think. What have I got? Actually, the topper, it's the topper on top of Monster Bash. was kind of nice.
    84:17
    And, you know what, I haven't played a game with it on it, and I know it kind of, it took a long time to come out, but I've heard from a number of people that the Star Wars, the R2-D2 topper is kind of fun.
    84:30
    What's your favorite topper? My favorite topper? I mean, the Black Knight topper is kind of impressive. It is impressive. I have not seen it in person, but I would say that's impressive. The only other one I... It looked pretty good. Well, the ship, on Pirates is really cool, the ship in the bottle. Okay. They're kind of cool mods that... Right. That would do. I'm not a huge topper guy. Gavin, what about you? You know which one I like a lot is the whitewater one with the little... That's good, yeah. Yeah.
    84:58
    I did have a whitewater for a while as well. I think I'm glad. That's a great game. That's a hell of a left ramp. Oh, yeah. And the hot tastic glass when it's coming back. It's so good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's good.
    85:10
    Let's see. I think that answers your topic question. I hope you're over the moon. I wonder what his favorite tupperware is. Well, don't leave Pandora's box, Mark. I can – don't do that.
    85:23
    All right. Any other questions from chat? This is where you guys' time to shine. This is the segment you've asked for. It's your time to shine. Now on Bro, do you even talk? All right. So Chris the Pintern asks, do you have a favorite pinball event slash show? Are you interested in competitive play? I would be interested in competitive play if I was good enough to be in competitive play you know I'm not really into competitive play I just like playing pinball I'm not that guy I really enjoy stepping up and exploring and enjoying the game you know it's a rollercoaster for me I'm not looking to do an endurance test of that I just I'm in it for the fun of the game yeah so in some in terms of pinball event I haven't been to that many I've been to Expo twice and I enjoyed it massively so you know when we can be back in the room again with with real people or even pinball players then that would be that would be epic I'd love to be back there I mean I wanted to go to um I wanted to go to TPF I wanted to be over in Texas in April I was booked to go to New York in April, and then I was going to fly from there to Texas to experience that for the first time. But, you know, apocalypse. So that didn't happen.
    86:46
    But, yeah, I mean, I think probably, just because it's the only one I've been to would be Chicago Expo.
    86:54
    All right. We had one more question from Chris earlier in the day when we were chatting about other things. He says, do you find sourcing games where you live hard? Is it hard to find games in central England? No, not at all. We're very lucky here. There's a good distributor here.
    87:13
    There's probably two, maybe three main places that you can get them from, but there's kind of one main guy that he's very good at getting stuff. I mean, also England, the secondhand market is pretty good too. and like with any hobby people that are die hard nuts about the hobby on the forums there's always you know the people that are always turning their machines around or there'll be people that know my friend Phil is like the go to guy I'm going this is what I'm saying would you like to have a look would you like to play it's pretty straight forward and it's a nice bunch of people too for sure the overall Well, like anything.
    87:56
    Are there any pinball owners who want to know, are there many pinball shows in Europe worth checking out?
    88:04
    Oh, God, there's one in, where's the place where there's an epic pinball museum? I remember seeing pictures of this thing, and it had the pinball machines lined up around in a curved kind of manner. Do you know what? Just because I know that I can't go there for a while, I didn't even bother investigating too much, but I know there's an incredible place in Europe.
    88:26
    There's places in... It's not a big event, but there are a couple. There was one in Manchester, and there's one in a place called Daventry, which is about an hour away from where I am. I'm in Birmingham, which is if you put a pin in the middle of the country of the UK, they call it the heart of England, so in the West Midlands. So I'm there. So it's about an hour away from where I am. And it's, you know, it's in a big room in a hotel. But really, in terms of spectacle, you know, it'll be, I really hope that the apocalypse ends soon. He said a really obvious thing of the day. But, you know, I met so many really nice people at Expo. and the idea that this year, if Expo happens, it's going to be in this big new place so that it'll be safe. The potential for more going on there is great. I just want to level that to get back to normal again. I know. We have this. We have each other. We got Twitch. We can get online and chat. Yeah. If you've got a mission at home, it's a good time to put some games on those at least. But there's nothing quite like getting together and playing, And I feel like when it happens, it's going to be huge, like, because there's going to be all this pent up demand from like, let's just go. Like, not, well, and we're. We're going to need a lot of alcohol, Jack. Nick and I are going to get into the replay of X-Ling later, which is a huge bummer, but. Oh, my God. Yeah. I mean, by the way, I've got to ask this because this, again, this is something that I'm aware that there are friends that they're kind of discovering pinball. they don't have the space or even like finance to do it to do it normal in normal ways but i've got friends that are really into it on nintendo switch and they're kind of building little cardboard boxes to make it a little bit more real where do you stand on vpns i so i used to own one um early in the hobby when so this is actually in addition to my house that we built it's behind my garage you know we it's like all right that's gonna be the dream kevin yeah um but before that I had a terrible garage and it was not very big and it filled up really quick. So I was like, well, here's a way that I can play a whole bunch of games and learn them. The rule sets and things like that. It's not like playing real pinball, but you get a pinball-ish experience out of it. And when it's in a cabinet, it feels more authentic. So I like them. And actually, Nick and I have a very similar story in that getting into pinball came through playing things like the pinball arcade and pinball effects where it's like, oh, that's cool. it, it kind of leads you through the fact that it's not just flipping the flippers and trying not to die. There's objectives, and it's video game-ish, and you're trying to get to the wizard mode to beat that big final boss like you would in a video game. Nick mentioned the early computer years to give a pinball fantasy on the Amiga. I never played it back in the day. I've seen it, like, you know, I've heard people talk about it. I've checked out YouTube videos, and the Amiga was way ahead of its time and really cool. So I have a port of that on my Atari Jaguar right behind me. I can play it at any point right there.
    91:38
    It's just the standard of what's coming out now that I've seen on the Nintendo Switch. You know, look, I want this real pinball machine. That's what I love. But again, to open up the hobby to people that can't do that or just want a different way of experiencing that, you look at the standard of what they're doing with Pinball FX3 now.
    91:58
    It's quite amazing. I mean, Attack from Mars now, it looks so good. The physics and just every other element, it's as good as you're going to get. The only reason I asked was at CES this year, they announced Arcade 1-Up doing virtual pinball machines. Did you see the Attack from Mars cabinet? Yeah, I did. They're like in a three-quarter size cabinet or whatever, yeah. For like $600. Mm-hmm. And the thing is, it's one of those when I've got the real deal, but I really look kind of cool. Yeah. And it's like, well, maybe I can't fit six more pinball machines in here, but this would be kind of fun, right? And ten games in it. Right. And you've got forced feedback. You've got – it looked kind of fun. All is they've pushed it back, I think, to March next year now. Yeah. And I don't know when we'll ever get to see them in the U.K. if at all. But I would put one of those in somewhere. I can't help myself from interjecting about the virtual pinball. When we talk about virtual pinball, people have taken shells of a pinball machine and put a flat screen TV in there, and they're standing up so the flipper buttons are where they are because it's maybe a real cabinet and all that. What sort of intrigues me right now is that there's virtual reality pinball, which I think is even better because you can move your head around. You can really get down and look at the game. Like, Zachariah Pinball has a virtual reality kind of component to it, and when we've done that and streamed that, I've been really impressed with it because I can just really move my head down, zoom in, and see the artwork on some of these old games. And there's actually a VR – it's called VR Pinball-Virtual Reality Pinball Group on Facebook, and what these guys have done is they've taken it a step further they've made sort of a pinball camera, or maybe just like where the buttons would be, right? So they can stand up and like hold where the buttons would be, put on their VR headset. So now they've got that tactile element of it, but they're in VR, so they might be in an arcade, right? Like the arcade setting, and they can just move their head. That's really cool, especially if you have limitations on your setup. Maybe you can't afford a real pinball machine. Maybe you just don't have a lot of space, so this is your way of accessing a lot of games. and it's also a great way to learn all the different rules on the pinball machines. There's no replacing real pinball. Real pinball to me is not looking at a screen, but it definitely has a place in the hobby.
    94:31
    I was watching some videos on YouTube earlier on this week with some V-pins, and just – have you seen the Flintstones recreation that's being done? I have not. It's astonishing. You kind of go, you know, I'm sure it's not legit, but the work these people have done on this machine is absolutely jaw-dropping.
    94:52
    You kind of go, well, you see the potential for what can be done. And, you know, that on a 4K screen, again, you said about just in terms of accessibility to people, it also might be that people don't have the space or even just availability of machines. There might be a classic game that not many were made or just maintaining a machine for some people. They don't want to get into that. So I think what Arcade went up and doing with this is it really could open up a lot of new fans of pinball, bring a lot of new people into the hobby that normally wouldn't go anywhere near a pinball machine. Yeah, it's like planting that seed. Like, say you have one in your house and you have kids and the kids play it once in a while and they're like, oh, that's cool. but like when they're in their 20s and they're going out and hanging out and there's a pinball machine, it's like, oh, I remember pinball. It's like making that connection like, oh, I know what this is. I'm going to give it a shot and it'll spread the interest later. I just remembered how I got to know my friend Pinball Phil. Hey, Phil. Hey, Pinball Phil. Phil's getting his quality airtime today. He really is, yeah. Well, because originally I thought about getting a virtual pinball machine. Before I actually bought an actual real thing, I thought, well, hang on, maybe a virtual one would be better because you get more games in it. And I played one, and this was like three years ago, that he built. And it was a really good build. But back then, they weren't at the level they are now. If you look at the standard, you know, in terms of graphics and physics and everything else, then they weren't where they are now.
    96:21
    And that's when I ended up getting the bug and going down that rabbit hole. but yeah it's just the idea that it was the idea of a virtual pinball machine that got me into real pinball and so it could be it really we hear about people wanting to bring more people into the hobby this really could for sure well Mark let me just say that I'm really grateful for your time today and we're happy to have you in the hobby I hope this is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the first of many pinball machines that you're going to do the voice work for. You're immensely talented. Thank you so much for sharing some of the magic that goes into creating voiceovers for games and for pinball.
    97:12
    Well, thanks for having me on. It's just great to hang out with you guys. I watch the show. It's nice to get a chance to chat, but thanks for the invite. It's good to be part of this. Thank you. Looking forward to hopefully meeting you in person in the future at a pinball show, for sure. I will stand by your shoulder and tell you to shoot the left rep. Perfect. Sounds good. All right. Take care. Thanks, Mark. Thanks a lot. You too. Bye.
    97:38
    All right, Kev, let's do some news and updates. Here we got, speaking of voice work, Tim Kitzrow. Oh, yeah. I got to play him. I got him right here. Here's the tip.
    97:50
    Pinball news. So hot. It's on fire. All right. It's on fire. So I didn't get any pictures together because I was feeling lazy. So we're just going to talk about things. The first thing up is a stern tease that Led Zeppelin is going to be their next game. And to which Nick Lane says, I'm interested in buying a brand-new pinball machine. After last month, talking about how he's not buying new pinball machines anymore. So lay it on the line, Nick. What's going on here?
    98:16
    So about Led Zeppelin and me buying pinball machines. Yeah. All right. Whatever. I'll just try to tackle it all in one fell swoop. So, yeah, it's not like I'm a Led Zeppelin fan per se, but I really do like music pin games. And for whatever reason, I think out of all the artists that are currently out on pinball machines, Led Zeppelin would be towards the top. You know, Rolling Stones might be up there too. Unfortunately, that game was meh, so I don't want to own it. But, yeah, I even mentioned it to Martha, and she's not like a Zeppelin fan in particular, but she's like, oh, really? So, yeah, it intrigues me. It certainly intrigues me. And, you know, I went on a whole rant, if you will, or I prefer discussion or a critique of the current commentary, if you will, of the current situation with buying games and chipping and pooling. And I said, look, I'm not buying it right now. I'm not buying new pinball machines.
    99:16
    And I feel like some people interpreted that as I will never again buy new and boxed pinball machines, which is not even remotely what I said. I just said until kind of these play field issues are resolved, I'm not buying it. And that's true. I would not buy a Led Zeppelin, no matter how good the game is, if there's shipping issues with it or if there's pooling issues. There's no way in hell I'm buying a damaged game. So what I said, I said I would be interested in a new Unboxed Zeppelin, obviously, if those issues are resolved and the game's obviously really good.
    99:46
    Yeah, and again, I'm going to go back to what I said at the end of last or the October episode is that when buying a game, follow the following strategy. Don't play the first one to buy a new game. Let it be out for a few months. Don't be the beta tester. You know, see if there's any issues with the game. Go on forums and look into it. Make sure that there's no chipping or quality control issues, right? Ask your distributor, what happens if there's an issue with my game, right?
    100:16
    What's the remedy to it? How will you help me with this? So I will do all those things, and I typically wait to buy a new game. So, again, those conditions have to be met. Nothing's changed in that context.
    100:27
    Now, yeah, I don't know. We haven't seen any of the gameplay or anything of Led Zeppelin. It's just been announced that that's a title that's going to be coming out. I don't know how soon we'll see anything from that. I guess Steve Ritchie is supposed to be the designer on it. Yeah, I've heard two things. It could either be a re-theme of an old game a la Beatles, or it's going to be a new Steve Ritchie game with probably Tim Balls on code. So we don't know for sure yet. I'm sure everybody in chat absolutely knows what it's going to be. But, yeah, we've got to wait. It'll probably be next week, I would guess, based on their release schedule in the past. They typically, like, will tease it on Friday, then announce it on Monday, and then you'll see, you know, videos and the IGN article and all that stuff. So it'll probably roll out next week. So, again, I mean, the chess trying to get me going, it's working.
    101:24
    Serenex says, Nick will flip his position on new in box. All takes is a title you want. Happens over and over again. Happens over and over to me. I mean, I don't know if you're projecting on my personality or my choices, but, no, again, I outline what it will take. I am tired of buying damage games. I will never buy a game knowing that on the production line there's quality issues. Period. I'll wait until they get resolved. There you go.
    101:48
    Because what the smart thing to do in that context is you buy used. You let somebody else be the test dummy and you go and buy the game for cheaper and you ensure that there no issues with it Yeah give you a chance to make it over Now if a game been on the line for six months and you go into the on Pinside this is a plug for Pinside, go on Pinside, and there's always forum topics for a particular game, and you ask all the owners, is there any known issues on the line with pooling or chipping? And they say, nope, there's no issues. Then I'd buy the game. I mean, there's probably a really good chance that there's no issues with it. It's fine. So, not flipping, not changing. It doesn't matter. I'm not spending that kind of money, though, on a broken game. I would never do that. If a game is on the line and there's issues, I will wait. Games usually are made on a two-year cycle. You have a lot of time, typically, to get a game unless you're trying to get the, you know, limited edition, collector's edition. But I never buy those games anyway, so I can wait.
    102:48
    There you go. I'll probably be saying this for the rest of my life and never leave it coming up because people don't listen, they hear what they want to hear and that's it so I get it there's a lot of nuance and discussion and people pick out the little piece that they're like yeah, people don't like nuance yeah, yeah Nick's never buying a new unboxing, he's always buying a new unboxing I got 20, 30 more 40 more years of my life, well 20 years I'm going to be buying pinball machines for many years to come there you go So what do you think? So Led Zeppelin's a theme you like, obviously, if you would consider it.
    103:24
    What do you think about just, like, rock band themes in general? Do you think we're, like, getting played out? Do you think we're getting to – do you think there's a long runway ahead with the rock band themes? There's more. I mean, like, I feel like they could do U2. I would love a U2. Again, I'm not, like, a huge U2 fan, but out of all the themes you can do of, like, artists that have been around for decades and have a huge catalog of work and just, you know, world-renowned, you two would be a great band. I think that would be fantastic. So, yeah, there's more artists. And always, again, you hear people on Facebook say, oh, another dad rocked me. Dude, it's Led Zeppelin. I mean, you're not going to pick a modern-day artist that could be forgotten about in five or ten years, right? You want to pick an artist that's been around for decades or their catalog of work is just well-known and they've really established themselves. So it's a business. You want to be able to market to the largest customer base possible. So I don't think it's played out. I think games are a lot of fun. They're like jukeboxes that you can play. You know, I was never a Metallica fan, but I own a Metallica pinball machine, and it helped me get into their music just because it's such a good integration between what pinball is and music is incredibly important in a pinball machine. So it's a nice natural fit. And obviously they're selling because they keep making them. So it's a winning formula, right? Like, they wouldn't keep making them if they weren't selling. Same with, like, the Marvel themes and things like that and movie themes.
    104:51
    You know, look at Guns N' Roses sold out, like, in a couple hours. They're $1,200 or $12,000 machines sold out like that, you know, and people hadn't played them because they had just gotten announced. But, you know, people resonate with a certain theme. They're like, I remember that band. Looks amazing. Video looks good. Let's go. I'm buying it. I still claim that I think it would be incredibly smart for somebody to do, like, an EDM pinball machine because you can probably license a ton of tracks. So there could be, I mean, it could be 100 tracks in the machine where you're sort of doing this rock band-esque thing by completing the track. You know, it starts off with a basic beat. You hit, like, the right ramp, and that adds another layer into the music until finally you complete the song, and you're like a DJ performing a set list or something like that. That can just be a ton of different combinations. You need to learn programming real quick and then make it for the P3. I'm an ideas guy. That's what you hire me for. I'm the architect ideas. I know my lane. I know my nickname. There you go. Boom. Yeah, thank you, Kev. Nicely done. All right, so what do you think about Led Zeppelin? What does that do for you? If it's good. It's not a band I would run out and buy. But if the game's amazing, then, you know, I've owned terrible themed games that were really good. like Congo and things like that. So, you know, if it ends up being one of the best pinball machines of all time, now we're talking. If it ends up being a Quicksilver at $12,000, then I'm out. Right. Yeah, I don't like that. You know, I think it would be, I was saying in Discord the other day, if they do like a re-theme of Quicksilver or whatever classic Stern, just price it in a way where you're not putting on a ridiculous price for an old solid-state game. do that? Probably not. But my argument would be, look, you're competing against a lot of different pinball manufacturers now. So you've got to be competitive, and you can steal away a lot of business from these other pinball manufacturers if you put it at a price point where it's hard to resist, but you're still making money. Now, I think it was Attack that pointed out in Discord, well, you know, maybe there's the licensing for Led Zeppelin might be really expensive. I have no idea. This is just speculation. But, yeah, if you have a game that's like Led Zeppelin, it's a re-theme of an early solid state and it's $4,000, $4,500. I know I'm dreaming. Then that becomes, yeah, maybe I would do that. Maybe I would do that. If you're charging like Beatles prices or something stupid, no way in hell.
    107:20
    So, there you go. There you go. I see what you're nice and wants to know what my game of the year pick is. It's hard because I haven't played all the games that came out this year. It's such a weird year. Normally we play all the new games as they come out because your company would get them, we would go stream them.
    107:40
    So I can't really fairly pick out of all the games. I haven't played any of the CERN games that came out this year. I have a Heist and I have a GNR and they're both amazing.
    107:53
    I would highly recommend either one of those. Yeah, I've played no new games. I've got nothing. Unfortunately. It's going to be a weird year. And that's, you know, you're going ahead and having people pick their game of the year. It's like, how many of these games have you people actually played? Or are you just picking it based on what you think it's about? Yeah, honestly, they should not do that this year. I don't know. It's weird not to do it, but come on. People aren't really playing the games. I know. It's very limited, if nothing else. Yeah. But they probably, you know, everybody probably bought one game, you know, who's voting, and that's the game they're going to vote for as game of the year. Yeah. All right. So let's move on to some sad news. The end of the Replay Foundation, which means the end of Replay FX, which means the end of Pinberg, which means the end of Papa.
    108:43
    Man, this is like, this year sucked, right? But this news came out, and I was like, it really bummed me out. It freaking sucked.
    108:53
    I don't know. Wait, you know. For us, we've always talked about it as pinball summer camp. It's a great way to get away. the Pinburger experience specifically was it's this huge like let's all go out do this thing we love in the city that's super fun we can go play games all day and then go out down their main strip and get good food at night and hang out and see people like Tuna and Skip and Rudy who I only see like once or twice a year yeah so all that's gone it sucks yeah I When the news came out, it sort of hasn't emotionally totally registered yet because this is just kind of the year of disappointment and things getting canceled that I'm sort of numb feeling-wise. So I'm just waiting for it to kind of really hit me. It's kind of how I am. It takes a while.
    109:49
    I've gone to all the Pinbergs. There was a couple of Pinbergs in the 2000s, and they were kind of like a different iteration. but in the modern iteration since 2011, I've been to all of them.
    110:01
    And, you know, going back to the original Papa facility, which is just a magical place, and I'm really, really sorry, and this bums me out to think about this. I'm really sorry for all the people who came later in the hobby and never got to go to the original Papa facility because that place is like shanker law. I will never forget the first time walking into just the original PAPA facility for Pinberg in March or April 2011.
    110:32
    And just being in awe, like just having this experience of walking into this building and just like trying to register what I'm seeing. The sights, the sounds, all these pinball machines under one roof. I had just been in pinball for a few months at that point. And it's just, I cannot put into words how amazing it is. And I would get that experience every time I went to the Papa facility, you know, for Pimberg and Papa and all the people that I met and the friends I made in the pinball community. And, you know, I met Dan Burfield in, like, the parking lot where he just, like, didn't know who the hell I was. It was probably 2011. He's like, hey, you want a beer, dude? And just super nice guy. And, you know, now we're friends. He's a sponsor. It's just, like, there's so many stories like that. So the pop-up facility was absolutely magic. You know, and then replay effects and Pinberg, when it moved to the convention center, was just sort of special on a different level.
    111:32
    Yeah, I never thought that that would go away because the fact that it was selling out, like, in less than a minute, just the demand for it, I just never thought in my mind that this thing would stop. So I think it's not registering with me totally that it is gone away. And we're trying to get Doug Polka to come on the stream. I know he's busy and we want to talk to him about all that. And, my God, I hope that there's some good news to come. I hope that something comes out bigger and better. You know, pinball shows are great and all, but they're going into like a hotel banquet room and just kind of playing games for a couple days it's not the same it's not even close to the magic of the original Pabot facility I really hope that you know there's some very well to do people in this hobby and I think that's just what it's going to take to have somebody who's really passionate and can kind of carry that torch right of taking over for that and having a destination like that or some just special place where machines are preserved and taken care of and uh you know uh us kind of uh people are passionate about pinball can get together i don't know man thank god we got shows but it's uh it's it's it's hard it's it's gonna be processing this for a long time yeah i i'm i'm eyeing up uh in disc is probably the thing that I do in place of Pinnberg whenever we're able to come back, probably 2022, hopefully.
    113:09
    You know, that banning museum looks amazing. I feel like it would have a similar feel when you go in there, just like a cool place that's packed with pinball machines of all eras and also an awesome tournament. So it's not going to be like a Pinnberg-style tournament. It would be more like a Papa tournament, which is different. I don't enjoy it as much, but it's still really fun to play in those tournaments and to have something that high quality. You know, Carl's going to do a good job and run a great tournament. So that and probably the VFW show if that ends up sticking around, I definitely want to do that. That was the thing we were all going to do that got canceled because it was going to happen right after everything got shut down. So, yeah, maybe one of these years. We'll try to hit up, you know, more maybe. You and I were going to do like one pinball show a year, right, and try to vary and mix them up. Maybe we'll do two or something like that. And I think also the other thing that Pinberg did was it's an excuse for us, you know, us kind of good friends in Buffalo to hop in Rob's van or whatever and travel down and spend, you know, several days hanging out and shooting the shit. And that kind of stuff's important. And, you know, it's hard to get families and stuff. You've got your careers. And that was a good excuse to do that. So I hope that, you know, we recognize that as a group. And so many groups did that together. So many groups traveled together, you know, having that excuse to get away. That is super important. You know, just kind of I've been reflecting on all the social aspects. So I just want to say one thing.
    114:47
    Serena, my God, you and I are coming to a head in this. So I just want to call this out a little bit. He or she writes, classic poorly run business, hard to keep afloat when business essentials are not followed. So let me just parse that out a little bit.
    115:03
    In some ways, you're not wrong, but this was something that was not a business, okay? It was a foundation. It was a not-for-profit. So they did a good job for a number of years of keeping it going, right, like as a nonprofit and a model. So I will say in being charitable to what you're writing, this goes to my case, and we've talked about this before, fire tournament. This has got to be run like an event planning going forward. There's this expectations of like running pinball as charity and running pinball tournaments as charity and goodwill, but it needs to be run more like a business, and you need to be profitable, and you need to bank money to be sustainable. And listen, people in pinball have money, and they will pay for it. So if any lesson is learned from this, and whoever kind of takes up the banner, is make money off this in a way that's sustainable and planning for the future. Now, the folks at ReplayFX in Pembroke ran those events remarkably well. Like, it is mind-blowing what they were able to pull off. And it is a pain in the ass to be moving these machines around, to be fixing. It's like I can't imagine anything more difficult. This is an extremely difficult thing to pull off, and you're going on people's kind of passion and goodwill. And God knows there's a lot of that.
    116:29
    So hopefully we can combine passion and goodwill with sort of the event planning or, you know, just kind of what this can bring in so we can sustain it. I don't know. I feel like this is a little rambling, but I just want events like this to continue. So let's make that happen somehow. Yeah. So even then, it's like there could end up being like two kinds of shows, like more expensive shows where you're doing stuff like this, and then also like the more homebrew, like the smaller stuff where everybody can just bring a game and we can hang out and stuff like that. So I think there's room for both. But if you want to do something on the scale of Pinnberg, it's a massive undertaking. They work a full year to pull off an event like that with a huge staff. So there's tons of expenses that come along with it.
    117:19
    And to Nick's point, there's this mindset in pinball where all the money that goes into the tournament has to get paid out to the players. And it's like, you can't do that. what business do you go to and you're like, well, 100% of this money has to go to the person serving my meal, gets all this money. No money goes to buy the food or to market or anything like that. Yeah. That mentality destroys the future of large-scale tournaments and events. It absolutely will destroy it. It needs to change. And if somebody says that, my only question is why?
    118:04
    Why is pinball different or special? And I think we're seeing that, you know, from our experience, Kevin. You know, it's not like we do it for the money, but at some point you don't want to be sort of this indentured servant to pinball. Right? You don't want to be taken advantage of because of your passion for it. New events, Newman's own 100% of profits go to charity. And that's fine. There could still be events like that. I'm talking about running a pinberg, you know, running massive events that take years of time. Event planning is a talent, it's a skill, and it's a lot of work.
    118:39
    Okay? And I've seen poorly run events. You want people who have event planning expertise to put on a good event, and that's worth money. It's worth compensating them for that talent and that time. Yeah, and there's multiple levels of knowledge you're going to need to do a good pinball tournament, right? You're going to need to know pinball. You're going to need to know, like, maintenance and setup and all that stuff. You're going to need tournament experience, which only comes with time and expertise and practice and playing in them. And then you're going to need to know just, like, general event planning skills, like running a website, you know, coordinating with hotels to get room block deals, marketing the event, you know, managing the people to make it all happen. So there's multiple levels of skill sets that you're going to need to pull off in a pinball event like this. 100%. All right.
    119:33
    So, yeah, I think that kind of says it. Nick, you want to talk about Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland? Well, there was some news, right? Did they post pricing, and are they selling it now officially? Yeah, you can preorder. You can preorder. It's from the company that said there would be no preorders. You can preorder. And how much are they asking for it? So the arcade edition is just under $6,000. The extra edition is more like $10,000. Oh, Jesus. That's a big gulf of difference. Yeah. And then there's all these different add-ons and things.
    120:05
    Sounds complicated. The extra edition doesn't come with GI. It's an add-on. Well, I mean, the only thing I'd say about Razzo right now is just they did a stream. There was a stream a month ago where I think this is the first time really it's been streamed, right, the debut stream. Now, I wouldn't say it's an official stream, but my understanding is that this is on maybe like a test location at a brewery or a coffee place. And some streamers, I think they're in Texas, went down and, you know, they were posting that they're going to show gameplay of it and stream it. So, of course, if this is the first stream of Raza, everyone's going to be interested and check it out. And I tried to watch it. And listen, this is who I am. I'm not out to shit on another streamer or anything like that. But it wasn't a good stream.
    121:01
    And this is more so on DeepRoot than it is on the streamers. I'm not picking on them. The stream was very kind of confusing. You couldn't hear the game music well. There were people talking over people, weird camera angle. It's just not a good representation of your first game from a brand-new pinball company. So why the hell did Deep Root allow this in any way? I mean, yeah, maybe they want the game out on test location, but they should have said to this company where the game is, hey, no one is allowed to stream it, no video, nothing. You want to keep that thing tightly under wraps because, again, this just shows poor decision-making. And they need a marketer and a PR person yesterday. because the game was resetting. It was just a very bad representation of the game. I couldn't get through five minutes of it. And I will say, as, you know, we've done reveal streams, and no matter what you do, you get criticized, right? Because you didn't show something in a certain way, or, you know, people freaked out because my reveal stream of GNR, like I had the volume of the game down at the start because I had Kiefer and Joe Katz on, and we were talking and explaining the game. and later in the game, later in the stream, I had a whole section where it was just gameplay, no mic, all audio of the game, but people turned it on, and they're like, well, it's not exactly what I want right now, therefore I'm going to run to Pinside and bitch about it.
    122:32
    So, yeah, I will say it's tough. It's tough doing a first showing of a game like this, but to your point, you know when we do like for Guns N' Roses I plan weeks in advance for something like that and put a lot of thought into how I'm going to present it so to for Deep Root to say yeah come out and throw a stream rig on this and we'll see how it goes for it's first impression is not a good look for the game no matter who's doing it yeah and I'm going to be very clear again because people want to hear what they want to hear this is not the streamers fault this is Deep Root's fault for allowing this to happen. I mean, honestly, at this point, Deep Root's best bet is to just not even do a live stream, is to showcase that game, do a promo video, or to do a pre-recorded video gameplay stream, walk through, have Steve Bowden talk, somebody hire a fucking actor to read a script and go over, do voiceovers, explain the game. Okay, that's what they need now. They need a really good representation in the game, not to throw it out in the wild and have somebody just randomly kind of stream it. And the game was resetting. The game has problems. So not good. I think somebody in chat said,
    123:47
    up the geek says, I think it was a fine representation of the soul of Deep Root so far. So it's like, you know.
    123:54
    Kind of got a point. I try not to derive sick pleasure in picking on Deep Root, but it is absolutely kind of fascinating for me, this company.
    124:03
    I hope they pull out. I hope they have a really good game at the end of the day. I hope that they can be a pinball company that's innovating and making new games because who doesn't want to see more pinball? It's just kind of mind-blowing. Listen, you guys got to get a fucking marketing person in there. You've got to hire, if you're spending money, hire a marketing person, hire a communication person, hire a PR person. My God, Kevin, you throw us some money or something, Kevin and I will just tell you that these are bad ideas. You're thinking of something, reach out to me and Kevin, we can negotiate a price and we'll tell you if it's a terrible idea. You'll save yourself money in the end. something, just do something for God's sakes. It just kills me. All right. Yeah. All right. There you go. That's the Christmas present is getting in one more Deep Root Raza commentary before the end of the year. There you go. All right. So, Nick, you put this last bullet on there. Why don't you talk about it?
    124:58
    I'll take the plate field chipping. So I thought that that was a good podcast that we had last month. I think I was going back and looking at the YouTube videos, It's one of the most kind of thumbs-up podcasts we've done in quite some time. And I've had people reach out to me and say that they really appreciate it. It was helpful and all that good stuff. So pat myself on the back a little bit.
    125:19
    I want to provide an update on that podcast without saying too much. So two days after that podcast, I was put in touch with someone high up in Stern. I'm not going to say who it was. and it was an off-the-record conversation, so I cannot talk about details of the conversation. I'm only mentioning this because one thing that I've highlighted and said when I'm talking about that is it seems like we don't get any communication on this issue from, you know, any of the pinball companies that it's happening with. And that can seem like they don't care, right? I'm not saying, and I think I explicitly said, I'm not saying that they don't care. That's just how it can feel and seem sometimes, right, when we don't hear anything about it and the problem keeps on happening. So my distributor said, I think you should talk to this person at Stern. This person spent an hour and 15 minutes with me on a Saturday talking about things and was very gracious and was very understanding and very nice. And this person didn't change my situation. It's not like they gave me a new Deadpool play field or anything like that. It was just kind of explaining what's going on. But what I want, and again, I can't go into details, but all I can say is for people following along in this is I left with the impression that Stern does care.
    126:43
    I definitely was conveyed to me that they do care about the issue. So that was nice, and hopefully me communicating that to everybody helps a little bit. I'm still sticking with everything I said is valid in terms of protecting yourself and waiting and making sure and checking forums.
    127:01
    But I wanted to share that messaging with everybody. That's good. That's encouraging, man, that, you know, somebody would take the time out to sit down and explain it like that. And hopefully more companies that are willing to do something like that. Yeah, absolutely. So there you go. Excellent. So there's your updates for the week. Oh, you know, one more thing I will say and I can say, because this was communicated into, I don't think I mentioned this on the last podcast. this was not the off the record conversation this was in an email with Stern and you know the folks that you reach out to and support and when I was going to get my play field issue remedied back in February maybe the way that Stern does this for those not aware is they basically have a committee that takes a look at the pictures and they have some criteria and then they decide like if you get nothing or a blank play field or a populated play field. So I just want to bring that up.
    128:00
    I think that's one thing that was left off from that conversation. For sure. Yeah, I remember when I had my Ghostbusters, I had one that just had a few, like, little sliver kind of insert ghost sections, and I sent in some pictures, and they're like, yeah, we can't do anything to that. And I don't blame them at all. It's like I wouldn't have really expected it, but it was such a huge thing with Ghostbusters that I sent it in just to see what would happen. And, yeah, you needed to have a certain number of issues on the play field for them to consider. Yeah, I mean, it's nice that it's not done arbitrarily.
    128:40
    So that's good. I mean, I think people like to know that there's some fairness in place. Sure, for sure. All right, so we got into game room updates a little bit during the Mark interview with when his dog needed to go out. But so, yeah, I rearranged my room a little bit. Two other things. I got some video game stuff to talk about. So I got, there's a new thing for the Jaguar, because I know everybody loves talking about the Jaguar. So a new cart for the Jaguar, the Jaguar GD, that lets you load the whole library onto one cartridge, so I can have, like, my whole collection in there at all times, at the ready, drop of a hat, I can play whatever the heck I want. It's really cool. And shout out to the Girl Geek for hooking me up with that, because they're kind of hard to find right now, but she was able to track one down for me. So that's been fun. I've been dumping carts on an old PC through a parallel port.
    129:31
    Another fun pandemic project, so that's been good. But those are supposed to be coming out relatively soon through, if you're in the U.S., through Atari Age. You can get on a mailing list if that's something you're interested in. The other thing, if we want to go even further down the weird video game of to your rabbit hole is a system called the Nuon, which is, I ran a Nuon fan site back in like 2000. Third. Still the- Oh shit, it's not muted. It's the authoritative site for all things Nuon. It had like eight games came out for this platform. One of them was, so Cliff's Notes version, it's a chip in DVD players that played video games. They hoped that it would replace the MPEG encoder in all of the DVD players and eventually they would be ubiquitous and they would charge in horse and you'd have video games on every DVD player. It never played out because PlayStation two came and said, Hey, we play DVDs too. And then everybody just bought that. Um, but one of the games that came out on it was iron soldier three, which never really saw a mass release. So I've been helping with songbird productions to put this out. Um, I provided them with the file so they could create the new masters. They're going to re-release this game. So if anybody out there has any interest in this, It's probably like maybe one person, if that.
    130:45
    Keep an eye out. He's going to be putting a preorder list up, and you can get in on that. And so there you go. So there's a weird, obscure video game game room update for me. All right. Well, I don't have much other than my pinball struggles are real.
    131:02
    I've got four games down. Now, Iron Man's gone down. The optos aren't working. I tried to just unplug, replug, and I didn't do it, so I've got to figure that out. But, again, I can't even raise my play fields up to work on games, so I've got to wait until the pandemic's over. I thought about – I'm getting desperate, Kevin. So I thought about, like, getting that lift from Harbor Freight that everybody loves. It's like $108. Right. I have one. Yeah. And, you know, what I thought about could do is, like, oh, I can get that lift, jack my pinball machine up, take the legs off and lower it a little bit. Now, you know, most people are using that not for that purpose, but just to move games around. I'm definitely not – I thought about it more. I was like, man, I'm just not going to do that. I'm not comfortable with relying on that lift to take the legs off. It's one thing moving it around with the legs on because if that lift breaks or something like that, the hydraulic thing shuts down, then it will just fall on the legs and you should be okay. But to have the whole pinball machine just supported by that, possibly tipping over, possibly the – it's just – knowing my luck, my pinball machine will go crashing to the floor and just be, you know, I'd have a bigger problem than just waiting. So the struggle goes on. It's a little depressing, but, you know, that's where I'm at. I would recommend if you do that, like take the legs off and then just lower it all the way down and work on it like that so then you're not relying on the hydraulic to hold it. It would be all the way down. Sure. And then just jack it back up when you're done working on the game. Sure. Maybe that could work. And then as far as, like, getting under the games, the trick with that Harbor Freight car is you can't, without modifying it, you can't put it under the front of the games and move them. So you either have to get at it from the side or, like, pull your game out and do it that way. Have you lifted those up with, like, a Jersey Jack game? Oh, yeah. Because they're so heavy. The P3 is the heaviest thing I have. And you jacked it up. That's how I set up all my games is I lower them onto that and jack it up. But then it's not on there for an extended period of time when I'm doing that. I'm just putting the legs on it. Yeah, that's the thing. I'm really scared of sometimes when you try to solve one problem, you cause a bigger one. For you, I could see, yeah. I would recommend not doing that. I know. I have to take a step back, and it's not worth it. So I'll just wait. Zachariah Pinball is in the chat with stuff. Speaking of which, I think this Thursday we're going to play some Zachariah Pinball with the bros. I think me, you, Martha, she's going to plan a computer. Wow. Yeah, Martha's playing video games. And then maybe Jeffrey. Nice. Jeff can handle it. He's an IT professional. Yeah, yeah. So we're looking forward to that. We haven't done that since the springtime. So I want to thank Zachariah for hooking us up with some tables so we can bring that to you guys. Heck, yeah. That'll be fun. And they said we got some giveaways. Ooh. So this Thursday. We'll make it with some tables Thursday. That's the plan, Thursday, 8 o'clock Eastern. It'll be like old school bro, except on Zoom and stuff. Yeah, yeah. As close as we can get right now. All right, close us out, Kevin. Do the social media stuff. That's right. If you want to learn more and stay in touch between shows, check us out on social media. We're on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube. If you want to see old streams and Tuna put up a new tutorial video for Stern Star Trek. So he shot a tutorial video before he sold it. So check that out on YouTube.
    134:26
    Yeah. you can email us talkpinball at gmail.com if you want your comments, questions, feedback to get to us that's a good way to do it if you want to support the channel you can subscribe right here on Twitch if you're watching live or use your Twitch Prime or it's Prime Gaming now I think they call it to support the channel at no extra cost if you got Amazon Prime you can send us some PayPal we got a PayPal link or you can drop us a review for a holiday cheer you want to do something nice for the bros that review the podcast. Tell a friend. The spirit of giving. They talk to the smart guy who does all these awesome voices and then they talk about it deeper. Who wouldn't want to hear that? The highs and the lows. That's right.
    135:15
    This is probably our last podcast of 2020. We'll see you guys in 2021. You can join us again for a virtual bro on Thursday. but everybody continue to stay safe. It's really tough. You never know what somebody is going through in life in general, especially during a pandemic. So be nice to people. And thanks again to Mark Silk for coming on. That was a lot of fun, man. And we'll catch you next time. Yeah, maybe in 2021 we'll have a real in-life for Ojo. Maybe. I'm hoping. I think so. I think in fall 2021 we'll be back in action. All right. Stay tuned. Take care. Happy holidays. Happy New Year. And we'll see you next time.