Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

Jersey Jack Pinball - Dutch Pinball Open Expo 2024 - Pinball News

Pinball News (Dutch Pinball Open Expo 2024)·video·53m 31s·analyzed·Nov 5, 2024
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Jersey Jack founder shares pinball history, design philosophy, manufacturing challenges, and licensing strategy.

Summary

Jersey Jack Pinball founder Jack Guarnieri presents a personal and professional history at Dutch Pinball Open Expo 2024, spanning from his 1970s entry into pinball service through the founding and growth of Jersey Jack Pinball. He emphasizes design philosophy (ease of learning, difficulty of mastery via Nolan Bushnell's principles), manufacturing challenges (supply chain dependencies, fixture design), and the importance of licensing partnerships and asset quality for game development. Key themes include building a company culture of excellence, attention to detail in playfield artwork and mechanics, and leveraging celebrity partnerships (Slash, Elton John, Al Pacino) to enhance game authenticity.

Key Claims

  • Wizard of Oz pinball was displayed at the Smithsonian museum for two years and was played constantly by visitors and security guards

    high confidence · Jack Guarnieri personal account with specific date (December 2013) and detail about customer maintenance

  • Jersey Jack Pinball philosophy is based on Nolan Bushnell's law: 'all the best games are easy to learn and difficult to master'

    high confidence · Jack explicitly states this principle and attributes it to Bushnell's experience with Computer Space and Pong

  • Wizard of Oz featured 139 RGB LEDs; Elton John features approximately 1,600 RGB LEDs

    high confidence · Jack provides specific numbers and notes cost reduction from $2.65 per LED to approximately $0.70 due to Moore's Law

  • The Hobbit required a complete redesign and additional $1 million investment due to Paramount withholding assets before movie release

    high confidence · Jack describes licensing live movies and learning licensing constraints, stating redesign took 'a year later'

  • Jersey Jack negotiated separately with Al Pacino's representatives to include Michael Corleone character in Godfather pinball, which was his first consumer product image licensing

    high confidence · Jack describes negotiation process, mentions initial offer of pinball machine, lawyer counterproposal, and states this was 'first time his image and likeness has been on a consumer product'

  • Jack personally handles most licensing negotiations at Jersey Jack, whereas larger companies have five or six people dedicated to this

    high confidence · Jack states: 'Other companies have five or six people. They just have me working part-time on licenses.'

  • Dutch Pinball Open Expo is superior to Pinball Expo in venue quality, citing food/drink integration and carpeted floors

    medium confidence · Jack offers personal opinion comparing shows, addresses Rob Burke from Pinball Expo

  • First Jersey Jack game shipped April 29, 2013 via R&L carriers

Notable Quotes

  • “Don't go where the path leads you, but go where there's no path and leave a trail.”

    Ralph Waldo Emerson (quoted by Jack Guarnieri)@ 2:14 — Jack cites this as his foundational philosophy when starting Jersey Jack Pinball; explains his motivation to innovate rather than follow market trends

  • “What is the most important part of a pinball machine? The part you're missing.”

    Jack Guarnieri@ 18:33 — Illustrates manufacturing supply chain challenges; critical components that are absent hold up entire production

  • “I just wanted to make games. I oversimplified everything to myself.”

    Jack Guarnieri@ 24:43 — Reflects on underestimating the scope of starting a pinball company beyond just game design

  • “We don't have a bolt going through somebody's chin or a chief in the artwork. We actually know where the bolts are.”

    Jack Guarnieri@ 33:29 — Emphasizes Jersey Jack attention to detail in playfield artwork and mechanical design quality

  • “You're a really great people designer, but you're a really crappy roofer.”

    Jack Guarnieri (to Pat Waller)@ 28:33 — Humorous account of recruitment of Pat Lawlor to Jersey Jack after meeting during office roof repair crisis

  • “To Jersey Jack, thanks for so many hours of fun in the pinball galaxy. Hope you like my work half as much as I do yours.”

    Mitch Albom (quoted by Jack)@ 31:24 — Example of celebrity appreciation for Jersey Jack games; demonstrates industry reach beyond traditional arcade/collector circles

Entities

Jack GuarnieripersonJersey Jack PinballcompanyPat LawlorpersonHeinz MagdalenskypersonNolan BushnellpersonWizard of OzgameThe Hobbitgame

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Jersey Jack handles licensing negotiations internally (one person part-time) whereas competitors employ 5-6 dedicated licensing staff; suggests different business model priority

    high · Jack directly states: 'Other companies have five or six people. They just have me working part-time on licenses.'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Jack emphasizes pinball's cultural unifying power across political/social divisions; sees industry as bridge-building community

    medium · Jack states 'Pinball can bridge a big gap...we can all believe all kinds of different things, but we're all pinball nuts'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Jersey Jack differentiates via high-quality playfield artwork, detailed mechanical implementation, and premium licensing partnerships rather than competing on price

    high · Jack emphasizes detail work, celebrity partnerships (Slash, Elton John, Al Pacino), and describes games as artistic experiences rather than mechanical commodities

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Jersey Jack adopts Nolan Bushnell principle 'easy to learn, difficult to master' as foundational design approach to avoid frustrating casual players

    high · Jack explicitly states this principle guides game design and mentions wanting players to learn and enjoy games rather than abandon them as too difficult

  • ?

    event_signal: Smithsonian Museum displayed Wizard of Oz pinball for two years (from December 2013) as part of permanent exhibit; game received heavy daily play from visitors and security

    high · Jack provides museum name, duration, and account of customer performing maintenance

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.161

0:00
This is a Pinball News Production. You'll have to suffer with me today because I'll be giving this presentation in English, the only language I know, barely. Growing up in Brooklyn, it wasn't always spoken in the King's English. It's a lot of slang.
0:49
Who's here for the first time at this show? I'm curious. That's a lot. because I haven't been here for 10 years and I'm really sorry you know the organizers of the show they do a really great job and I'll tell you what I was at Pinball Expo what was it a couple weeks ago? two weeks I don't think the show I don't think Pinball Expo has anything on this show I think this is a great venue I love that you have food and drink right in with the games I love that the room has carpet I think Rob if you're listening Rob and you watch the video of this come check the show out, see what they're doing. You'll find out some secrets that you can use. Take a strike.
1:32
So listening to JP and Olaf, I was kind of saying to myself, what did I create when I put the screen into a game? And what did I create? I knew that it was going to be more involved. I knew there was going to be more assets that you needed from licensed people and more work that has to become more choreography. But I felt that's what people needed. They needed to be brought into the 21st century kicking and screaming. And I did what I did. Who could read that for me and translate it for what it means?
2:10

high confidence · Jack provides exact date and carrier name

  • “Pinball can bridge a big gap. It really can. I think that we're all together. We can all believe all kinds of different things, but we're all pinball nuts, right?”

    Jack Guarnieri@ 31:54 — Philosophical statement about pinball's unifying cultural impact transcending political/social divisions

  • “Our games would not be what they are without JP and the team.”

    Jack Guarnieri (crediting JP/Olaf's presentation)@ 33:57 — Public acknowledgment of technical/artistic contributions from Jersey Jack team members

    • Elton Johngame
    Godfathergame
    Guns N' Rosesgame
    Slashperson
    Elton Johnperson
    Al Pacinoperson
    Mitch Albomperson
    JPperson
    Keith Johnsonperson
    Greg Ferrisperson
    Chris Grangerperson
    Ericperson
    Steve Ritchieperson
    Smithsonian Museumorganization
    Pinball Expoevent
    Dutch Pinball Open Expo 2024event
    Rob Burkeperson
  • ?

    licensing_signal: Licensing unreleased movies (The Hobbit) creates production delays and cost overruns; studios withhold assets until after release, requiring complete game redesigns

    high · Jack describes $1 million additional cost and year-long redesign due to Paramount withholding assets; contrast with Wizard of Oz where all assets were known

  • $

    market_signal: Jersey Jack games attract celebrity ownership (Slash, Mitch Albom) and mainstream media coverage (CNN Money front page, Replay Magazine); indicates penetration beyond niche hobbyist market

    high · Jack describes CNN Money front page feature, Replay Magazine covers, celebrities purchasing and praising games

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Pat Lawlor joined Jersey Jack September 16, 2013 after roof repair meeting with founder Jack; designed Dialed In, Willy Wonka, Toy Story 4 before retiring

    high · Jack describes specific recruitment anecdote and lists Lawlor's game credits

  • ?

    product_concern: Jersey Jack emphasizes meticulous attention to detail in artwork/mechanics as differentiator; criticizes industry standard of poor bolt placement and mismatched artwork

    high · Jack states 'We don't have a bolt going through somebody's chin...We take a lot of time in looking at those details' and describes games as 'playable artwork'

  • ?

    supply_chain_signal: Manufacturing dependencies on single-source component suppliers create critical bottlenecks; vendor failures to deliver complete component sets halt production

    high · Jack describes example of light board supplier making 500 of component #1 but 200 of #2, preventing assembly; April delivery promised became January actual delivery

  • ?

    technology_signal: RGB LED cost reduction from $2.65 to ~$0.70 per unit following Moore's Law; enables dramatic increase from 139 LEDs (Wizard of Oz) to 1,600 (Elton John)

    high · Jack provides specific numbers and attributes cost reduction to technology maturation over time

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Godfather licensing required separate negotiation with Al Pacino representatives; first time Pacino image appeared on consumer product; unusual achievement for pinball

    high · Jack describes negotiation details, lawyer response to initial offer, and milestone status of licensing

    • Yes? It says, it's a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson. It says, don't go where the path leads you, but go where there's no path and leave a trail. Yes. Everybody hear that? Okay, good. That's what my thought process was when I started Jersey Jack Kimball. So the other day I said, what am I going to do with the seminar? I don't want to do the usual, you know, talk about whatever. I try to always change it up. I picked a bunch of pictures and I threw them into a PowerPoint and put it on my iPad. and it's kind of a little bit of a story about my life and my fun time that I've had with people. So here I am in 1971, I'm a 14 year old kid and I'm on CB radio. Anybody know what CB radio is? No? Oh yes. Okay, so that's social media. Alright, so that was the social media of the 70s for CB radio. to the presentation. Really? Yeah. OK, well, let's see what happened here. What was it? It was doing its report, too, right? It wasn't following along. Thanks for telling me that. I would have gone through the whole presentation .
    3:29
    There you go. That's a little different. So there I am. And the radio, if anyone notices, it's open. The cover is off of it. Because I was into electronics and I got in with a bunch of friends that I met through CB. And we'd walk around Brooklyn in the neighborhood and pick up TVs and stereos, all kinds of radios, and then build things out of them.
    3:55
    And I got knocked on my ass more than one time. So this is probably some brain damage from experimenting with electronics, but it was a lot of fun. And I actually met my wife through CB, One of my friends, Russ, he was gone out with a girl named Jill, and her best friend was Joanne. And I met her when I was 15, and we started going out when I was 19, and we married 41 years. So I had a rat this evening, too, I guess.
    4:23
    So this is the guy that hired me in the industry. It's his fault that I'm here. So his name was Heinz Magdalensky. He was an old German guy. Okay, I'll say that. I was 17 and he was old, like 45. So he was old. And I went on an interview. I'm not going to go through the whole thing, but I wanted to take six months off before I went to college for electrical engineering.
    4:52
    That was my plan. And my electronics teacher told me, don't go to work because you're never going to go back to school. And I said, no, that's not true. Well, he was right. I went on an interview in New York City and Heinz interviewed me and he asked me really important questions like, you know how to solder?
    5:21
    Yeah. You know how to do the schematic? Yeah. Okay, I like you, you're hot. And the first day that we worked together, the company had arcades in all the major colleges and universities in the New York City metropolitan area. So it was kind of weird. I was supposed to be in college, and I was going to college. I was going to Columbia University, and seeing the other posts, New York Tech, LIU, and Brooklyn College, and fixing games. And I met some of my friends in school, and they're like, what the hell are you doing? I'm fixing pinball machines. Really? So the first day, we were together, he was taking me back to the train, and the next day I was getting my company caught. And he said, alright, I'll take you to the train, I'll see you tomorrow. It was like 5 o'clock. And I said, no, where are you going? What else do you have to do? Oh, I gotta go here, I gotta go there. I said, well, let's go. No, no, you work till 5 o'clock. I said, no, I don't work till 5 o'clock, I work till the job is done. He looked over at Glass and he must have thought, I can't imagine what he thought. He said, this guy is either the greatest thing in the world or he's just stupid.
    6:33
    I wanted to learn. I live with my parents. I'm single, right? What am I going home for? I'm going to do this. And the first time Hines opened a pinball machine that day, it was an EM. I don't remember the game. It was probably like a high-low race or something like that. And I saw all those relays and all the motors and everything. I wanted to cry. I had the same feeling when my mom left me in kindergarten and all the kids were crying in class and I said, I'm not going to cry and when he opened the game I just looked at it like it was nothing and it's kind of funny one other behind the story I'll just tell you as I got better at doing it there were two other people that were pinball mechanics working for the company and they let them go because I guess I picked up the slack and I was working I would go to work early and I would come home late and I would do a lot. I would do preventative meetings and things like that.
    7:28
    So that did advance. There you go. So he gets me on a Saturday in 1975 at CW Post College, which is in Long Island.
    7:37
    And there was a school, they were doing this story about something in school, and the school photographer took some pictures of me. And I don't know what the hell I'm looking at when I'm working on this card list. And I was really proud of my tool case. I was getting paid maybe 200 bucks a week in 1975 money. When they let the other two people go in the company, I got $25. I thought that was the best thing in the world. I was like, wow, I got an extra 25 bucks with that. But I spent maybe, I want to say about $300 on this tool case. And it was made by Jensen. They're still in business and I still have multiple tool cases over the years. They're indestructible. And what the tool case did for me was it organized me and helped me do my job better. Because if anything you do, I had a shop teacher in electronics that always said, Mr. Soutain, a proper tool for a proper job. So if you don't have tools, you're not able to perform. Here's a couple more pictures. I don't know. Sometimes my daughter, Jen, finds these things, and I don't know how the hell she finds them.
    8:54
    There I am at a show, AMR, Amusement Music Operators of America, 1977. That was at the Conrad Helden Hotel in Chicago, where thousands of people were congregating. You couldn't walk in those shows. And if anybody notices what's behind me, Yeah, I should probably take you to a Bigfoot.
    9:19
    I don't know where that game went. So here it is, I'm living in Brooklyn, right? You gotta remember I grew up in Brooklyn, even though I'm Jersey Jack.
    9:30
    Here I am on New Year's Eve party, leaning on a pinball machine, and that's become a bar stool, it's become all kinds of artwork, and it's all over the place. I probably weighed 120 pounds then. I weigh 160 pounds now, so picture me 40 pounds less in polyester. And a little bit more hair and a wacky mustache.
    9:51
    And the other picture of me is, interestingly, Easter of 1977. Saturday Night Fever, the movie, didn't come out until November that year. So I don't know who John Travolta took his style from.
    10:06
    This is Steve Shulman. Steve was the owner, his uncle owned the first company I worked for, Jeffco Amusements. And Steve was one of the people that interviewed me before Heinz interviewed me. And Steve just retired from the industry. I've been friends with him all these years.
    10:25
    And it's always good. I try not to ever burn a bridge. But anyway, if the relationship didn't go perfectly, you know, it's two sides of the story. But Steve's a great guy and I still talk to him. So, it all comes January 1st, 2011, and for about a year I was thinking of starting a pinball company. I had pinballsales.com. I was Stern's biggest distributor for a while. I sold thousands of Stern pinball machines. I think they're great, you know, they were great when I sold them. But, you know, we were in a recession, started about 2008, and sales were down and a lot of people thought sales were down because people didn't have money.
    11:10
    But PitBallSales.com has a trademark saying. The saying is, we sell everything nobody needs. That's what you guys buy. PitBall machines. God bless you all.
    11:22
    So I said to myself, you know what? It's not about that there's no money. It's about the games aren't keeping up with the times.
    11:33
    Okay, is anybody sleeping? Now hopefully you're okay. So when I announced this on the first day of January 2011, some people went nuts. I mean, Jason Ruffer got a tattoo. You know, I don't have a Jersey Jack tattoo. Okay, and I'm not getting a Jersey Jack tattoo. So I hired some really great people that were industry seasoned people. Look, at the time I was doing it about 35 years I was in the industry at the time. So I knew enough to know that I really didn't want a pinball factory. It was not a dream, it was not on the bucket list. I remember being in the factory with Gary starting at 10 o'clock at night, picking up nuts and bolts and throwing them back into the pit. It's a crazy, how many people here own a pinball company? No? Well, you know, there's still time. Everybody's got a pinball company.
    12:43
    So, making it real, the lines and circles that our designer drew, they become a white wood, as you saw some pictures before. Wizard of Oz was one of those games where I haven't talked about it in public for years and years now. But looking back at it, I knew at the time it was going to change the world. And now, 13 years later, whatever it is, it did change the world. It did change the pinball world.
    13:12
    Whenever we wanted to put something in the game I just said yes let put it in the game And Nolan Bushnell who was a friend everybody knows Nolan right He started Atari he started Chuck E Cheese brilliant guy He has a law it a law in quotes and it is all the best games are easy to learn and difficult to master. They should reward the first quarter and the hundredth. And that was based on his experience with Computer Space, a game that was created, he was involved in creating. He had a pond that he put in a bar and it went out of water because it filled up with money.
    13:51
    I mean, that's a problem to have. So, we still work today on the philosophy of Nolan Bushnell. I don't want you going up to a Jersey Jack game and being frustrated when you put your money in and you say, this game's too hard. God bless you. This game's too hard. I'm not going to play it again. I'd rather you learn it, be able to And some of them are intimidating, let's face it. You go up to pirates, I don't know what that would do. I gotta pick a character, I gotta go, the dude's yelling at me and all that stuff. But you know, it's a great game. It's a great game, and it's different.
    14:28
    So in the beginning, I hired people that I believe in, they're very talented, you see Chris Granner doing sound, Keith Johnson, software, Greg Ferris, artwork, Dennis Vordman on design, and Matt Rice, So Matt, this guy here, he was a customer who was working in a different industry. And he told me he could sculpt things and everything like that. And I said, sure, go ahead, do it.
    14:56
    I believe Greg didn't have a job at the time at Pinball. Chris Granger was not working at Pinball. Keith Johnson was working for a company other than a pinball company doing software. and that was doing like something else altogether. Not in this. So in the course of all these years of having Jersey Jack Pitbull, I can't even count the amount of people that are involved directly, indirectly,
    15:26
    but it's great to see things grow. March of 2011 we had a design meeting. the first time the team from all over could get together. It was actually at a hotel in
    15:43
    Schaumburg, Chicago, and we didn't have backlit lighting to see the, so they hung the drawings on the window
    15:54
    and reviewed them, okay? So you know, you make do with what you have, and we did. The RGB LEDs. A lot of people didn't understand this. When I went to go get the inserts for the play fields,
    16:13
    the guy that made the inserts told me, well, on the shelf I have yellow stars and green arrows and red circles. Use those things and put them in your game. I'll charge you less. And I said to this guy, Steve, I said,
    16:29
    they're all going to be clear. What are you, stupid? You can drive old lights and you gave it to the people. White lights? Like what kind of game are you making? No, I'm using RGB LEDs. What is that? People didn't know, but there's 139 RGB LEDs on Wizard of Oz, 139. Keep that number in mind.
    16:50
    King Black LEDs at the time were $2.65 each. You needed one Allegro controller chip to drive one RGB LED. It was a dollar each.
    17:03
    About 600 bucks a game, just for the lighting in Wizard of Oz. So 139 RGB LEDs in Wizard of Oz. You got how many in Elton John? 1,600. Come a long way. And I think, I'm not exactly sure, don't pull me on it, but I think the RGB LEDs are about $0.70 each now. So that's what happened. There's a thing called Moore's Law. And over time, things get less expensive.
    17:34
    Wizard of Oz had a topper, which wasn't really a big deal. It was a light strip, and it was some etched plastic. But it was the first topper in 15 years in South Park. Anybody see any toppers on pinball machines lately?
    17:51
    So we actually revised the idea of having a topper. And I can't even keep up with all the mods for pinball machines these days. Lighting and cup holders and somebody's got a helicopter to play against the game flying around the room. This was a design team at Pinball Expo 2011. And they bought into my dream and they helped make it come true. The interesting thing about getting vendors for pinball, You know, we see companies today, and they announce a game, and then they can't build the game.
    18:30
    Or they can't ship the game. Does anybody know what the most important part of a pinball machine is?
    18:38
    Come on. The part you're missing. That's the most important part of the game. So when you look at these whiteboards that I have made, we had a company. And what the hell do I know? You know, you vet these companies, they say they're going to be able to make it, the guy's punching out all kinds of stuff for everybody else. Yeah, sure, you might invent it to do light boards. Well, let's say there's ten light boards in the game. The guy made like 500 of number one, and 200 of number two.
    19:10
    What am I supposed to do with that? I can't do anything until I have sets. You've got to make a set. So when they set up a machine, they set it up for one board. And then they run that one board. So when he told me I was getting light boards like in April, I think the light board's still filing in January. How would you like that? How does that carry your company through that? Not fun. And then these are fixtures that we had to figure out how to make them to hold the work that you're doing. This is for a Wazer or a Playfield, and the Playfield would snap in there and you'd be able to turn it upside down and work on it and everything You can't just work on it with your hands like that and have all kinds of fixtures when you're setting up the factory.
    20:01
    So we set up the factory first in Lakewood, New Jersey. It was a great building. I paid the landlord a whole year's rent in advance. So I got rid of him. I got a big discount. And anybody can visit us. This happens to be Joe Newhart, long time customer of PinballSales.com and he owns Pinball Star. He's one of our distributors today. Does anybody know what's missing from the playfields by the way? See any light boards on the playfields? No. Joe was wondering if I was still alive and I was running a Ponzi scheme or something like that. He didn't admit that two years later, but he just wanted to come to the building to see what was going on. Here's what's going on, and here's the truth, and here's what we're waiting for, and welcome to making pinball machines. And then there's a picture of me on the first day that we punched out like a dozen games. and me looking at that picture right now, I'm really happy.
    21:04
    Really happy. You know, if you don't go through some difficult times, and we all go through some difficult times in our lives, you know,
    21:17
    people will say, well, that builds character, you know, or you rise up to a challenge and it makes you stronger. it's crappy going through it but when you get through it you feel like you could knock down a building if you wanted to so we went and knocked down a building this is Iapa which is November of 2012 Superstorm Sandy hit New Jersey a few days before as we were building these games we had 8 games at the show in Orlando and we had power and half of the building and the building would get flooded but I had people that came to work and built those games when their own homes were flooded and they didn't have power we had amazing people over the years that worked for Jersey Jack and Boys gave their blood, sweat, everything so we went to the show and you could see Keith is knocked out that's my dad and my daughter playing the game here's Roger Sharp and there's me and Jen she ordered this yellow brick road carpet for the booth and we won a brass ring award best new product that doesn't happen to the pinball machine in my industry the other side of my industry this is my consumer side of my life that's the commercial side of my life pinball doesn't get won And I don't want to say that it wasn't appreciated. We really appreciated it. Most of my family was there. My wife, my nieces, my sister, my cousins. Everybody celebrated. It was a great reaction. Here we are at the first pinball expo we've run since 2013. Where's JP? Is he still here? Look at this guy.
    23:24
    What were you, 15? And Keith, God bless him, he's had the show, programming. I got him a bag of popcorn,
    23:38
    and I wrote, do not disturb genius at work. No lie. Yeah, I know. I mean, the dedication that the people in the company had to make things happen was just amazing. Just amazing. Gerard's not here, right? He's probably out wearing his Pac-Man suit somewhere, right? Okay. Well, he was there from the beginning.
    24:02
    And everywhere we went with the game, we got an amazing response. This is a comic show. This is a comic book show. Comic-Con in New York City.
    24:12
    San Diego, 2013. I mean, literally, thousands of people. this was like showing somebody fire for the first time with a wheel they looked at it and they just couldn't believe what they were looking at whether they knew him or not and everywhere we went Martin will tell you because he took all the pictures rooms were packed with people it was crazy you know I said to somebody today I was talking about looking back a little bit I just wanted to make games I oversimplified everything to myself and I think entrepreneurs and people that create things do that to themselves, they convince themselves I had to sell myself on this idea first and believe in it but I didn't expect all the other things that went with it I just thought we were going to make games in a vacuum that's not how it works it's been great, why do you think you are? is that you? that's not you I don't know who you are But one was everywhere. And I tell you, one, you're just amazing through all these seminars and all the time you spend and everything, chronicling history. I appreciate it.
    25:35
    So with that notoriety came a magazine cover on Replay Magazine, our industry magazine January of 2013, but it's not just the monthly magazine,
    25:49
    and I wait for it, I've been writing for it, I have a column in there called Jersey Jack, and that's how the company got its name. I hated Jersey Jack, I hated the name, because I'm from Brooklyn. But Eddie Adler from Reefline Magazine said, well you live in Jersey, and you're Jersey Jack, and you're gonna like it. So I said okay, because I like it. So we named the company, we landed a customer, So I told the company, Jersey Jack. So that's what it was. So now I'm Jersey Jack. So that magazine cover was not just a month, that was the directory. That book sits on people's desks all year. And I can imagine some other people in the industry probably wrote the cover off. We went to the London show And there some familiar Dutchie faces in the picture on one side And there JP again
    26:50
    Adult. Yep. So, a lot of support from the beginning. Phil Palmer. Who's this guy? Jonathan? Jonathan was there all right, Jonathan. He's not in Rome. He's running around somewhere.
    27:10
    We shipped the first game, it seemed like forever, we shipped the first game on April 29, 2013 and R&L carriers came and I did a half assed cartwheel on the front line like I used to do. Some customer that's a bone doctor called me up after one of my cartwheels and said, listen you're going to break your head so don't do that anymore. So I stopped I actually listened to the guy. I don't think I broke my hip. I could do a call right now in my dreams. So there was this guy, Pat Waller, right? And we rented a building from him. He had a building in Harvard, Illinois, in the middle of cow country, speaking of cows, and cornfields. And I rented the building from him for $2,000 a month, and we put a development office there, and everybody would go there to work. And one day there was a roof leak and there was water dripping inside the building and I went to the building I got there about 10 o'clock and the guys were there already and it was a big bucket full of water and I said
    28:16
    Where's the landlord? And I think Eric said to me, he's on the roof So I went outside and there wasn't a high building and it had a peak
    28:27
    There was Pat I said, you know Pat You're a really great people designer, but you're a really crappy roofer. And we had a talk and Pat joined the company on September 16, 2013. And, you know, it's kind of been chronicled. I let him do what he wanted to do with Dialed In. But first we had to finish The Hobbit. If anybody remembers when we revealed The Hobbit, it was kind of half-assed. They didn't give us all the assets because it was a secret. I learned something about licensing a live license where you have a movie that hasn't been released yet. See, everybody knew what the Wizard of Oz, the witch looked like and everything like that. Nobody knew what the dragon would like or other assets because they were protecting everything. So we released the game and it looked good until we saw the assets. And we said, no, we can't release that game. We have to do it over again. It's another million plus to redo it and a year later the Harlot was born. Who has a Harlot?
    29:35
    Do you love that game? Yeah, it's an amazing game. I remember in 2015 we visited your company in New Jersey. We drink coffee in your office. That's right. And you wait for the pass of COVID.
    29:54
    That's right. And that's what I was here with in 2014. I had that album ten years ago. So Pat created Dialed In, Willy Wonka, Toy Story 4, and Pat retired. He was at Pimblewell Expo, if anybody saw him there. Great guy. December of 2013, the Smithsonian called us, the famous museum in Washington, D.C. They had a Wizard of Oz display and they heard about our pinball machine and they wanted it on display. So the Wizard of Oz pinball machine was on display at the Smithsonian for two years straight on free play.
    30:34
    And the game got the crap beat out of it. Thank goodness for one of our customers who lived down that way. He used to go there almost every week and wax it and clean it and change rubber rings and all kinds of stuff. Because all during the day, the people that went to the Smithsonian would play it. and all night the security guards were playing.
    30:56
    So, you know, we know who's god and it's been something. So if you hear it like the ruby slippers are missing again, you know why.
    31:04
    The monkey's flying. Yeah, exactly. And you know what started happening? People that were famous, quote unquote, started buying our games and loving them. This is Mitch Albon, if anybody knows who he is, he's a really great author. and he wrote me a note. Christmas Eve he sent me one of his books that I got and said, to Jersey Jack, thanks for so many hours of fun in the pinball galaxy. Hope you like my work half as much as I do yours. And it's really humbling to hear that. You know, when people tell me how we've changed their life or how much they love our games or how much it's become part of the family and we're just trying to create some fun. That's what we're trying to do. bring some more smiles and happiness into this world that really needs it. A divided world, a divided country. And pinball can bridge a big gap. It really can. I think that we're all together. We can all believe all kinds of different things, but we're all pinball nuts, right? You know, you start to see locations with the game and kids actually playing it, responding to the screen, responding to the colors, responding to the sound, responding mechanical action. You got a winged monkey bringing the ball up. You have a melting witch. You have a spinning house with legs coming out of it. You got a lot of stuff going on. And we had a lot of press come to the factory too. We had a lot of audibles written about the company. We were on the front page of CNN Money one day. I got up in the morning and flipped my computer and I went to CNN Money and I saw pictures of my factory on the front page you'll see another one. Industry kind of recognition, it's always nice, but I don't really look for it. This was the design redo of The Hobbit. I don't really get into it because it's kind of painful, but the point of this is that we're not gonna let something out of the building that's not right. If it's not fun, if it doesn't look right, you can look at Avatar. You can look at Elton John with a microscope. Every detail of that game was thought of. Everything. Everything outside the game, everything inside the game, everything that went into the game.
    33:23
    And I believe it shows. You know, I believe it shows. Jersey Jack games are a lot different than anybody's games. You know, we don't have a bolt going through somebody's chin or a chief in the artwork. We actually know where the bolts are and where the artwork is and all that kind of stuff. pay attention to that stuff. I don't know, mismatch hardware. We take a lot of time in looking at those details. We want to make playable artwork for you. That's what it is, playable artwork. And I have to say that JP and his team, as I listened to that presentation for an hour, I mean, our games would not be what they are without JP and the team. So thank you. I appreciate it. You're welcome.
    34:09
    This was a picture of Slash loving Wizard of Oz. There were people saying, oh, Wizard of Oz is a girl game. No guys want Wizard of Oz. Well, this kind of proved that wrong. Slash has multiple Wizard of Oz games. He's been a good friend for about 18 years, custom work, and we know guns and rules. This picture of me as the mayor, Greg drew that out of me. I guess my hair, it still does that. I guess so. But I don't have a mustache, so maybe I'll have to grow that back.
    34:49
    Guns N' Roses was a game I didn't want to do. It was already a Guns N' Roses game. I don't want to do another remake game at the time. Slash calls me up and invites me to a show in the Meadowlands. I go to the Meadowlands and I see the show and I say, holy shit, I gotta do Guns N' Roses. and the rest is history.
    35:11
    Great game. This is during COVID. This is October 6th, 2020, the day after we released the game. I went to the factory for the day and slashed the door for the day.
    35:28
    And he's a caliber. He loves pinball. He's a great guy. Does a lot of charity work with us too. And we got everything on that game. The more assets I could get, I'm responsible for licensing the company. Other companies have five or six people. They just have me working part-time on licenses.
    35:49
    But I need to get all the assets. I need video, I need audio, I need cooperation from the person. Maybe like Elton John did speech calls for us.
    36:00
    So we need buy-in. The more assets we get, the better game we make. and Slash really made sure that we got everything really good Godfather it's not me, but it's me I wanted to do that game and we did the game and God bless you, it was a lot of fun doing it really was, it was a lot of fun and the game came out beautiful I had to negotiate for different characters that weren't part of the license original Paramount did not have Michael Corleone also known as Al Pacino so I had to negotiate with his people to get him on this game and I wasn't going to do the game without Michael Corleone in the game. He's the godfather. So I offered him, generously I offered him, my first offer was a pinball machine and his lawyer came back and said it's been a long time since Al worked for pinball machines.
    37:04
    So I came up with some money and this is the first time his image and likeness has been on a consumer product. So that was a big deal. Eric did a great job on the game too. Here's my friend Steve Ritchie, April 1st, April Fool's Day, 2008, Monterey Bay. I was in California with my wife and we met for lunch and we were driving up to San Francisco and I think three bottles of wine later we made it to San Francisco about 3 in the morning. Steve joins Jersey Jack pinball. That was a great day. I think it was really something. You know, if you think about this, I was a street operator operating games in Brooklyn. You know, I had pinball machines on location and video games and all that stuff. And I would open up a box, like when Funhouse came out, I would always get my games in box from the distributor. I wouldn't let the distributor open them because I don't want to open a box. Not that open box one, I want to make sure nothing happened to the game before, right? So I would unbox games like, you know, Black Knight. I had a Black Knight in a location for like 15 years without moving it. It's ridiculous. A flash at a bowling alley in Brooklyn,
    38:32
    like a fun house. I had a whirlwind candy store in Brooklyn and the game said, the storm is coming, return to your home. And people ran out of the freaking place. I saw it. They ran out. I just set the game up. What are you doing? I had a straddle box at this place called Cafe Europa in Queens. And it was in the back room where people used to play cards. All the accounting guys used to go for their coffee and play cards. Prish, prish.
    39:03
    And the king would say, help me. Help me. Cops were in the back. Cops were getting coffee. They heard the king say, help me. They were in the back. It was crazy. Gorgos spoke. I mean, it was a different time. But my point is this. I never imagined that Pat Willard would come to work for my company. I never imagined that Steve Richards would come to work for my company. And you know, Pat retired from Jersey Jack Pinball. And he made some great games with us. Steve is making his second great game for Jersey Jack Pinball. I'm really proud of that. And I'm happy that we're able to do that.
    39:41
    Steve's a good friend. You know, he wanted to do things with Elton John. Some of the people in the building were skeptical about it. like he had to make these little tiny coils and things to make Ellen John's hands move, magnets, and turn his head. And I had people call me up, because I'm not at the factory every day. I in Jersey the factories and Elk Grove Village They call me up and say listen can you convince Steve because I like the Steve whisperer apparently Can you convince Steve that he doesn have to have a head turning and hands moving Yeah, you know what, I'll talk to Steve. Hello, Steve? Yeah. How's it going? Good? Yeah? What's the matter? Nothing's the matter. Everything's fine. Just keep doing what you're doing. Don't let anybody bother you. That was it. You hire Steve Ritchie, you hire Michelangelo, you're not teaching him how to paint the Sistine Chapel.
    40:36
    Leave him alone, give him a budget, and a little bit more, give him time, and a little bit more, and you get a game like Elton John. You don't get games like he was making before for somebody else. Leave him alone. He's a lot happier, and you get a better product. That's what I think, anyway.
    40:56
    I'm happy about that. The picture would be standing with the game. That was at Christie's in New York City. One of the games we donated, that went for like $90,000 to benefit the AIDS foundation. So that was nice. When I gave Steve the license to help John, he famously said, I don't want to do that. You know, JP wasn't the only one. Um, Steve didn't want to do it. Steve wanted to do like blowing crap up, airplanes and all kinds of stuff, cars racing off a mountain into the blizzard and all kinds of shit. You know, that's Steve. I can't blame him. But next up was Alton John. I'm like, Steve, you're going to do Alton John? Really? Yeah, he'll get to love it. And he did get to love it. Because we had a licensed person that we had meetings with every other week and then every week.
    41:57
    His name was Ben. And he made that so much fun to do that project. Alton John himself and his husband, David Furnish, they looked at everything.
    42:07
    And I could just imagine. Sadly, I didn't see his face when the game was delivered because he wasn't home. But I could just imagine him playing that game. and maybe one of these days he'll actually tweet a picture. And one of the first things I said to Steve was an old bumper cap that I had on my desk from Captain Fantastic. And I said, Steve, on the game somewhere, you've got to talk to whoever, you know, French, whoever's working on the game, Yossi, and incorporate that in the game. And that's my homage to Captain Fantastic. And I got my Elton CD and Steve wrote on it, Jack great working with you on Elton, love you. Steve Richie. And he's a character. JP look, not crumbed, not crumbed. I was here just in August actually in Amsterdam and spent a nice day with JP. We went to the Anne Frank Museum and we went to Rango and we had a great Same day I arrived, I went to Rotterdam, I finally made it to the Pinball Museum. And they do an amazing job there. Has everybody been to the Pinball Museum? Yeah. I have. At least five times. Five times? Well, I'll get you a medal. Oh, I'll be honored. Or a chest to pin it on, one or the other.
    43:45
    This is just the Pinball Expo a couple weeks ago. of course Martin's in the front, leading the charge with Jonathan. It was great. It was great to see the response of the avatar. We had a great show and we sold everything off the floor that we could sell. All the games are gone. This was, this is the chronological order of the game releases we had. We know Wizard of Oz, The Hobbit, even though it's a T-Hobbit. Spider-Man, Pirates, Willy Wonka, Guns N' Roses, Toy Story 4, Godfather, Help John, Avatar, Mal, and Game of Legends. I'm going to tell you what that is.
    44:29
    It's a pinball machine. It's a white body? I'll give you that. No. Yeah, you got something out of it.
    44:42
    That'd be white bodies. At my office at the factory, when I had an office there and I had a factory in Jersey.
    44:50
    You can see my desk, you know, it's crowded with all kinds of chachis that people give me or I trade things for or whatever.
    45:00
    And there wouldn't be a week that went by that people wouldn't visit us, just drop in on us. And what I probably miss from that place that now happens in Elk Grove Village is that a lot of kids are really curious about pinball. We had schools, we had from high school to college courses, they teach science courses that pinball technology actually is relevant to. And they want to go study how a pinball machine works. You know, magnetics, geometry, all the things that are in pinball machines. So the future of pinball, I think it's a pretty good answer, really. I feel pretty good about it. I see, you know, when I went to pinball shows 20 years ago, there was nobody at the show. Rob Brooks said something to me last week, two weeks ago, that I felt strange not hearing. He said, you know, Jack, if you didn't do what you did with Wizard of Oz, we could have the show in the broom closet.
    46:01
    So that's Rob Brooks saying that. And I said, yeah, if I didn't start a company, some other idiot would have started a company.
    46:10
    So that's kind of what I did. Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave the tunnel.
    46:32
    So we've got a couple minutes for questions if anybody's got a question. When you have a question, please wait. The microphone is there because then everybody can hear you.
    46:45
    Will you be making any white bodies in the future? Or is that possible? It's possible. I mean, you know, I never say never. It's possible. I mean, we're set up for it. It certainly could happen.
    47:01
    We all have more seats than you are. Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. She asked if there are more seats in your office. Do you have more seats in your office? I remember for 2015, and you make more games this year, and your office is full of them? Full of us?
    47:23
    More things in your office? Oh, more stuff? I've been giving it away. It just keeps coming up. It just, I don't know, it multiplies. I don't know how sometimes. You know, if you make it a game and you have a plot that turns out to be a reject, it's garbage. But if I go like this, if I take that piece of garbage and I go like this, now it's a collectible. So that's what happens.
    47:55
    Yes. You were the first to introduce this place in Machines. Everyone in the industry took it over from you? guilty as charged. Do you think there will be some new mechanic in the future that could also have such an effect upon the whole industry? Yeah, I think Elon Musk is going to put something in your brain and you're going to be able to play pinball with your mind and you won't need troopers with your finger. You can eat potato chips while you're playing pinball. That's what I'm going to do. I barely can remember. How does it feel to be the man who single-handedly revived the pinball industry back in 2011 or 2013? I mean, for more than a decade, the only pinball manufacturer was Stone Pinball. But after you've made Wizard of Oz, more companies started to spread up. How does it feel to have such a massive impact on the industry that was once struggling to survive? You know, that's what I was saying today. I just wanted to make some changes. I didn't set out to be vilified or crucified or made a hero or all that stuff. So it feels very humbling is how it feels. I look back at it and I'm very grateful and thankful for it. I think a lot of people have come into the industry and they've started businesses and they're doing well and I'm happy to see that. So it makes me feel good. That's what makes me feel good. Any further questions?
    49:43
    Will we see any more non-licensed, original themed games like Dial-In in the future? You might. There are a couple of things that are interesting to us that we're pursuing. You know, a lot of people feel that if it's not a license, you can't sell a game. Who has a Dial-In?
    50:09
    Okay, what do you think about that game? I love it. It got me a Jewish ejection. Right. You know, when I was an operator and I went to shows like the one I showed before the AMA, I remember going downstairs into the show and playing Pac-Man for the first time. And Pac-Man, what kind of stupid name is that? I remember playing Donkey Kong. What kind of stupid name is that? But you know what?
    50:35
    It stuck. It was me. We called me and dialed in. we could have called the game anything. Sunny day at the beach. And everybody went nuts. Oh my God! Look what they called the game. Like, oh my God. Okay, well, I said, we'll have Quantum City. The battle to say Quantum City. I got people calling me up like the next day and said, don't change the name of the game.
    51:00
    Why? Well, they got used to it already. I don't know. Okay. Yeah. I mean, you know, pinball is a time, is a snapshot of a period of time. Like, you see old games. They have, like, cowboys playing cards, you know, or they have space travel, like space mission games like that. Or they have actually people bowling. Who bowls? Nobody. Exactly.
    51:26
    Right. But, you know, we have bowling games and all that stuff. So that's what it is. It's louder than the snapshot. Yes?
    51:36
    He turned the mic off. . I'll try to . Do you have advice for people that want to create their own pinball machine, like the project? JOHN W. Yeah, well, I saw some pinball machines here that are out there, homebrews. One heavy metal game, and the other one is like a space themed game. The guys were all wearing the same hats and shirts.
    52:09
    What's the name of that game? Space Seen Good Everything. What is it? Space Seen Good Everything. Yeah, I played it. You know, I think today with 3D printers and technology and everybody interested, make the one game, make one game, you know, anybody can make one game. In quotes, you know. The guys that were doing the heavy metal game, They started in 2010. So it's a labor of love, really. And maybe if you want to do it, there's so much resources online. There's guys on eBay and Facebook selling kits to make your own home cam. Board system and plywood and everything. You know? It's, yeah, make the music.
    52:59
    Anybody else? So my question to everybody is, you guys all having fun with the show? Yes. Yes, okay. You got a whole day tomorrow too, right? Yeah, of course. You did a great job with the show. Thank you.