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Nick Neitzel - Tony Hawk’s Pro Pinball - Episode 54

JBS Show·podcast_episode·44m 40s·analyzed·Feb 7, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater homebrew creator Nick Neitzel joins Electric Playground as Product Engineer.

Summary

Nick Neitzel, creator of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater homebrew pinball machine, discusses his engineering background, the design and build process for his game that debuted at Chicago Expo, and his new role as Product Engineer at Electric Playground, where he's developing a Pulp Fiction topper set to reveal at TPF in March.

Key Claims

  • Tony Hawk's Pro Skater video game franchise has generated over $1 billion in sales worldwide

    high confidence · Jamie provides historical context about the IP value

  • Tony Hawk turned down $500,000 for likeness rights and negotiated royalties instead, earning $4 million from the first three games

    high confidence · Jamie cites specific financial details about the original deal

  • Tony Hawk's Pro Skater homebrew debuted at Chicago Expo and started working 30 minutes before doors opened

    high confidence · Nick states this directly in the interview

  • The game's only mechanical issue at Expo was 3D-printed stand-ups taking a beating; only one had to be replaced

    high confidence · Nick describes the durability testing and post-Expo fixes

  • Nick is now working for Electric Playground as a Product Engineer after leaving aviation industry

    high confidence · Nick confirms this employment change in the interview

  • Electric Playground Pulp Fiction topper will be revealed at Texas Pinball Festival in March

    high confidence · Nick provides specific reveal timeline

  • Nick has patented two novel technologies being developed for his next original-license homebrew game

    high confidence · Nick states he has patented two things and hints at unreleased tech

  • Electric Playground received over 300 survey responses for topper ideas

    high confidence · Nick cites the survey data and lists top requested games

  • Atomic Pinball Now in Wood River, Illinois hosted Tony Hawk and raised over $250 in donations for the skate park project

    high confidence · Nick describes the location testing and fundraising

  • Nick designed the Tony Hawk playfield exclusively based on the Warehouse level from the original PS1 game with some Hangar elements from THPS2

Notable Quotes

  • “The number one complaint about a game there is that the line was long. I mean, that's the best kind of complaint you can get.”

    Nick Neitzel @ mid-show — Demonstrates the strong community reception and demand for his homebrew at Expo

  • “I'm very much preferring working on machines than I would play them. I still like playing them. So that tells you how much I like working on them.”

    Nick Neitzel @ mid-show — Reveals his core motivation and passion is engineering/building rather than competitive play

  • “I got that tattoo... as my, you are going to make this pinball machine promise to myself and her and my friends and everything.”

    Nick Neitzel @ mid-show — Shows personal commitment and the motivational journey behind the Tony Hawk's project

  • “Everything clicked. This is okay. So not only is this going to be my personality now, this is what I'm going to be focusing on forever.”

    Nick Neitzel @ mid-show — Marks the moment he discovered pinball as his life's passion after visiting Atomic Pinball

  • “I would come home and I would walk into my basement and I would come back upstairs 10:30 at night, get up the next morning at 5:30, and it was like that for almost a year.”

    Nick Neitzel @ mid-show — Illustrates the intensive work schedule required to complete the homebrew in one year

  • “I figured out that RC car motors are the same size as flipper coils and they make heat sinks for those. So I have aluminum heat sinks in there with fans on them. And those coils will be ice cold forever.”

    Nick Neitzel @ late-show — Demonstrates innovative engineering solutions to performance issues discovered during field testing

  • “There's two pieces of tech that I'm developing right now inside of my next game that are... that have never been done in pinball and when people play it they are going to go holy smokes.”

    Nick Neitzel @ late-show — Signals upcoming innovation in homebrew pinball technology with patent protection

Entities

Nick NeitzelpersonTony Hawk's Pro Skater (pinball)gameJamie BurchillpersonElectric PlaygroundcompanyAtomic Pinball NoworganizationRobin and AlecpersonPulp Fiction (pinball topper)productChicago ExpoeventTexas Pinball Festival (TPF)event

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Electric Playground conducted survey with 300+ responses requesting specific toppers; Lord of the Rings, Jaws, Theater of Magic, Indiana Jones, Star Trek: TNG most requested; informs product roadmap

    high · Nick states: 'There was over 300 responses' and lists specific games with high engagement

  • ?

    event_signal: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater debuted at Chicago Expo in Electric Playground booth; high-traffic exhibit with sustained player interest despite long waits; location-based fundraising component for skateboard park project

    high · Jamie notes: 'The line was always long. Yeah. That was the number one complaint, which I'll take.' Nick states game raised donations for skate park project.

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Nick deliberately chose singular iconic level (Warehouse from THPS1) rather than amalgamating multiple levels; coherent design approach prioritizing recognizability and playfield functionality over variety

    high · Nick explains: 'I originally was like, okay, I can sprinkle in stuff from different levels. And then I was thinking about it. I was like, well, that wouldn't make sense... needs to be cohesively one of the levels'

  • $

    market_signal: Homebrew pinball games generating significant location interest; Tony Hawk received sustained play at Atomic Pinball and raised community donations ($250+); multiple St. Louis locations requesting the game

    high · Nick states: 'there's two more places in St. Louis... that really want it' and 'At Atomic, I was taking donations for the skate park project... raised over $250'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Nick Neitzel hired as Product Engineer by Electric Playground after leaving aviation industry; transition from homebrew creator to commercial pinball accessory industry

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.134

0:00
Hello, my name is Jamie Burchill, and you are listening to and or watching our podcast called Wormhole Pinball Presents.
0:10
Today, I'm very, very excited to be joined by two great individuals. Today, I'm really excited to be joined by a very special guest. And today, I'm very excited to be joined by two awesome guests all the way from Arizona. Hello and welcome to another episode of Wormhole Pinball Presents, episode 54 to be exact. And this week I bullied someone, ladies and gentlemen, through this podcast. I did. I really did. Before we start this interview, I'm going to give a shout out to a Discord channel created by my friend Colin Alshimer from This Week in Pinball on the Kineticist. Colin created a Discord channel for pinball media and content creators. The channel just recently started, and it's been a lot of fun. On Thursdays, a few of us get together at 12 o'clock p.m. Central Standard Time on voice Discord chat to discuss all things pinball. And it's been a lot of fun. Joe from Pinball Degenerates, Rob from Electric Playground, Don's Pinball Podcast, Alan, Alzheimer, just to name a few. I'm name dropping a few, right? It's called the Pinball Hour – what is it? The Pinball Power Hour Weekly Chat. It's a terrible name, but don't worry about that. Long buildup here. Stay with me, folks, okay? A few weeks ago, Nick Netzel joined. Nitzel joined. There you go. Nick Nitzel. Good. I usually just tell people when they guess, like, how do you pronounce it? I just say – I practice it, too. It's fine. He joined the lunch hour, and he talked about starting his homebrew, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. and three minutes in i went into podcast jamie mode right and i said that's it stop talking you're telling this on the podcast so that's how this happened ladies and gentlemen so shout out to colin uh for for this that was a long build-up but here we go nick welcome to the wormhole virtually yeah thank you for having me i hope i can see it in person one day it's it's a pretty rad place you got yeah well your buddy well we'll talk about that later okay okay 20 years joined It came over here. And when we talk about that, I have the setup a little differently because we're going to be doing the Twippies, which we'll talk about later. And I've got this thing wired for sound. So it's just wired to the T's. So, all right. You made a serious splash at the Chicago Expo. And you were actually in the Electric Playgrounds booth. Yeah. And you showed off your home booth Tony Hawk. Was this the first time you showed it off or did you show it off at TPF? No. So it was it debuted at Expo and it started working 30 minutes before the doors opened. So it was it was a it was a sprint to the finish for sure.

high confidence · Nick explains the deliberate level selection and design rationale

  • “Robin is such a cool dude. I mean, from the second I met him, all he wanted to do was help. All he wanted to do was make sure that like, I achieved my dream.”

    Nick Neitzel @ late-show — Highlights the collaborative and supportive nature of the Electric Playground partnership

    • Alisonperson
    Wesperson
    Colin Alshimerperson
    This Week in Pinballorganization
    Mission Pinball Framework (MPF)product
    Pinball FX Threeproduct
    teppinball.comorganization

    high · Nick confirms: 'I am now working for and with the electric playgrounds' and 'leaving my job working in the aviation industry and work for them as a product engineer is a dream come true'

  • ?

    announcement: Electric Playground Pulp Fiction topper officially announced for reveal at TPF in March 2025; interactive light show design with novel creative features

    high · Nick states: 'We are revealing it in March... at TPF and the topper should be there as well'

  • ?

    product_concern: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater homebrew demonstrated durability; 3D-printed stand-ups required replacement due to center shot design impact; post-Expo thermal management solution implemented using RC car heat sinks

    high · Nick describes: 'the stand-ups in the center take a beating... only had to replace one of them... figured out how to mount like heat sinks to them with fans'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Nick has patented two novel technologies for his next original-license homebrew game that represent innovations never before done in pinball; indicates advancement in homebrew engineering capabilities

    high · Nick states: 'I have patented two things' and 'two pieces of tech that I'm developing right now inside of my next game that have never been done in pinball'

    • 3:00
    But, yeah, that was that was the first time anybody had seen it. Rob from the electric playground had seen it. He's another St. Louis guy. And he was like, we have to have you in the booth. um you know we'll have a a pop-up tent above you and um we really want to feature it in our booth to show you know like this is what st louis is bringing to chicago um so it's really cool of them to to have that game in there you know it was super cool it was confusing at first right we're like where's 20 hawk where's yeah yeah we thought it would be in the homebrew section uh But no, you guys were in the electric playground and I got to play the hell out of it. I played it, I think, four or five times. But the line was always long. Yeah. That was the number one complaint, which I'll take. Right. Like the number one complaint about a game there is that the line was long. I mean, that's the best kind of complaint you can get. But I had to wait in line for my own game, which was something that was interesting. because if I had to service it or check on something, I was like, well, I guess I better just get in line because I didn't want to just cut people off. But yeah, a lot of people enjoyed it. I'm glad they did. Oh, a lot of people enjoyed it.
    4:16
    When I first played it, I said, this had to be designed by an engineer. Not knowing you, not having spoken to you on Discord before.
    4:27
    Let's start there, right? Let's start a little bit with your STEM background. Okay. Um, so, uh, I originally went to school because I wanted to design roller coasters. Um, I was absolutely obsessed with roller coasters as a kid. Um, I grew up 10 minutes from Six Flags. Uh, it was my first job. Uh, was it Six Flags? I would say Six Flags, which, what, what was it called? I'm sorry. Yeah, it was, so it was Six Flags, uh, Great Adventure. It was in New Jersey. Get the hell out of here. Yeah. Well, uh, I, I mean, I'm from Long Island, New York. Oh, cool. All right. I'm from Long Island, New York, and I moved to Jersey for a few grades. Right. Great Adventure was right there. Yeah. Yeah. It was. So I grew up on the Air Force base there. I'm an Air Force brat. And it was like 10 minutes up the road in Jackson, New Jersey. So I remember the the bobsled. So that was a little bit before my time. that was out by the time I got there it was dangerous as shit I'm sure the demon drop was there though remember that the one that just dropped you and then came down on your back no way I was going on that well either way that was my you know foray I guess into engineering and I was obsessed with Rollercoaster Tycoon I had all the expansions I played No Limits if anybody out there is a coaster nerd. They know what that is. It's a, it's a, uh, essentially like a CAD program to design roller coasters. Um, so that was what I wanted to do. And then I got to college and I was like, man, physics and calculus is hard. So, um, and I had other, you know, I also was in the military as well. So I had other things going on, um, and was pulled out of school to go overseas a few times and, um, but eventually, uh, you know, continually working towards, uh, the things that I love doing, um, ended up making a pinball machine. Uh, there was, there was some, uh, some race car stuff in there too. So, so your race car, you were doing a lot of race car things. You're always working with your hands, right? You're always doing something. I was begging my dad for a soldering iron when I, you know, like, I think I was like seven years old or something. Just when I figured out what one was, I was like, that's what I need to, you know, fix the RC car that I took apart and broke. Um, but, uh, yeah, I mean, after, um, uh, college and, um, uh, a little bit during the military and afterwards I got into drifting and I built a few drift cars and me and my buddy, uh, raced those around the Midwest. And, um, uh, that was a money pit and then I picked pinball so I didn't really I didn't really get out from one pit to another yeah yeah yeah do you like fixing machines and building machines more than playing absolutely I um I am not a great player um I'm very um uh what's the word I'm looking for um not in awe but you know the guys who were are really good uh it's like oh that's how that game supposed to be played, you know, not just slingshot into the out lane and, well, I guess my turn's over. I go to league. Sometimes I had to stop going when I was building Tony Hawk because it was just, you know, that took all of my time. But yeah, I would much rather work on them than I would play them. But I still like playing them. So that tells you how much I like working on them. Our lead tech here at the Wormhole said to me once, because he never plays, and I was busting his balls like, why don't you play? And he goes, you pinball players get a rush when you put up a high score. I get a rush when I diagnose and fix an issue. Yeah. He's dead on. Because that's my high score. Yeah.
    8:26
    Right. And, you know, he takes these games from the dead that we have, like a future queen or these really rare titles, and he brings them from the dead. It's just that's his rush. Yeah. I mean, I do feel the rush like when I'm, you know, doing really great on a ball and I'm up a little bit and like that is an insane feeling. But I get it so sparsely that I got to work hard for it. Me too. But I'm just keep chasing it. Right. I'm just chasing it. And I like to be honest with you, I love doing this better. Oh, really? Yeah, I love being on, you know, the face of the wormhole, if you will, and doing podcasts and all that shit. Much better than playing pinball. Well, it's pinball adjacent, too, which is cool. Yeah, I get to commentate on pinball. I get to talk about pinball. I get to love on pinball. But I don't have to get pissed off when I drain. It's pretty great. Yeah, I mean, I have games at home. But they're worked on more than they're played. You know, and when one gets done, I'm like, well, that just looks great. You know what else looks great? This Electra on the marketplace sure could use some love, you know. Yeah, you're addicted. You're addicted to that. And I totally get it. Was there a moment when you maybe you played pinball growing up or you said I can build one of these?
    9:53
    You know what? No. So growing up, I was racing. I wasn't roller coasters, but I was racing motocross. motocross so i've always been kind of like an extreme kid and then guy you know and uh i would go to uh a movie theater in town um it was an amc i don't know where in new jersey it was i couldn't tell you but they had a south park machine and uh my my mom was very strict so like getting the opportunity to play the south park pinball machine was like oh yeah i'm doing something I'm not supposed to. Right. Cause I had shit and I had all these words. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, so, uh, fast forward to about like three and a half years ago. Um, I, I was into arcade machines and I was building like custom arcade machines just for fun. And I sold a few of them. And, um, again, I like building them more than I like playing them. And then I checked out a place in Wood River, Illinois. It's called Atomic Pinball Now.
    10:57
    If anybody is within 100 miles or more, I recommend it. It one of the best treasures of the Midwest and especially in the St Louis area But I just checked it out on a whim and I had played pinball virtually I built like a virtual like pinball effects three cabinet And then I get there and everything clicked. I was just like, Oh, this is okay. So not only is this going to be my personality now, this is what I'm going to be focusing on forever. I just, I instantly knew the people there were so nice. James and Chuck were there and they've been super supportive of me since the very first night I was there like I got to meet the owners and then James and Chuck both knew about this game they hosted it at their arcade for the past month and that was incredible having people show up and message me on Instagram and And just like, you know, this game is incredible. And just like it's been awesome. So shout out to Atomic Pinball. Thank you so much. And thank you for putting this piece of art on location. Yeah. Were you surprised when you started researching this machine that no one had done Tony Hawk's Pro Skater video game before?
    12:21
    Yeah. Yeah, because I searched Pinside and I found a couple threads. And like, it was just like, hey, Tony Hawk would make a great game. And there were like rumors floating around about that. Maybe they had it or, you know, that it was in production. Maybe it wasn't. Nobody really has a solid answer. If somebody wants to reach out to me and let me know if that ever was a real thing, that would be awesome. But I was like, oh, my gosh, how how has this never been done? I mean, it's an arcade game where you're navigating a map, you know, essentially rolling over things and making ramps. And, you know, it like translates so perfectly to pinball. So it really blew my mind. And I just had to do it. So here's some stats for you, Nick. right okay okay on tony hawk okay and a quick short story tony hawk pro skater video game franchise has over one billion dollars in sales worldwide one billion okay okay he was offered tony hawk was offered five hundred thousand dollars for his likeness for the video game and he turned it down and instead he said i want royalties and over the first three he was broke because skating was like hurting and he wasn't really making any money. He was getting older and he made $4 million off the first three games alone. Oh, my gosh.
    13:52
    And $4 million 25 years ago is a hell of a lot different, you know. And so just awesome. Yeah. It's just an awesome, you know. When did you start? Like when did you say, all right, I'm going? uh so um i i had kicked the idea around to uh another buddy of mine we were um we were working for uh travis pastrana do you know who that is no uh he so he's like a extreme sports guy uh and we volunteered to work uh this rally race event that he was putting on and we were driving up and I told him my idea. I said, hey, you know, I've been kicking this idea around. You know, I I'm not really happy at my job and I think this might be something I want to do in the future. Here's my idea for the game. And I told it to him and he was like, without a doubt, you have to have to do this. And he was the first person I told.
    14:54
    So then a little bit later, my fiance and I were in Chicago and I said, you know what, I'm going to make that game. It was a year before Expo that we were in Chicago, and I said, okay, this has to be destiny, right? We're in Chicago, the birthplace of pinball. It's a year before Expo. I need to make sure that I make this game. So I got this. Oh my gosh. Can you see this tattoo? Yeah, I can see it. Oh, geez. I need to turn. Okay. Yeah, so I got that tattoo. So it's the coil with the EOS switch, flipper ball, and that was like my, you are going to make this pinball machine promise to myself and her and my friends and everything. So that was why I got that tattoo. And I've used it to explain why people's machines are broken when I go to fix them at their house. So that's been really cool too.
    15:50
    The ramps are so unique. How do you design and build these wild ramps? because you're going skateboarding. Yeah. The geometry was tough. Just figuring out how to get a ball to act like a skateboard, you know, on a play field that's, you know, at six and a half, seven degrees, and then make those shots make sense on a play field, but also make them look like they do in the game, because the layout is based off of Warehouse from the very first game. And there's a sprinkling of Hangar in there, too, for people who are big fans of the game.
    16:34
    They'll notice the grinding over the half-pipe and the barrels. That's from Hangar on THPS 2. But the rest of it is just straight-up Warehouse. That was what blew me away, I tell you, was the fact that this Warehouse. Yeah, thank you. And that was not missed on me. OK, cool. Yeah. As an original PS1 guy who played the Tony Hawk's pro skater, I was like transformed to almost a kid. It wasn't that or I wasn't that young, but unfortunately, but just the warehouse, I was just transformed to a PS1. Yeah. Thank you. That was a decision because it's so iconic and it's so easily recognizable. I mean, if anybody has played Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1, they would have played the first level, right? And then even like advertising campaigns for the game, that level was shown off. And as far as stuff that's just easily recognizable, because I originally was like, okay, I can sprinkle in stuff from different levels. And then I was thinking about it. I was like, well, that wouldn't make sense. It's just, it would be a hodgepodge of all this stuff. So it needs to be cohesively you know one of the levels from the game and then okay how can i move this stuff around instead of what's there in the level to make sense on a pinball play field well done you did it you did it and i i didn't get a chance to meet you to tell you that because i you know i don't want to bother anybody and the line was really long but i was like the minute the music started and I got into the warehouse, I was like, this is badass. Okay. Thank you. Um, yeah. Uh, I'm, I'm glad you had that reaction. A lot of people had that reaction. Uh, I'm glad that it worked. Um, I had, um, my fiance was with me, Alison. Um, and she helped out a lot in like so, so much. It helps so much having somebody that supportive, of with me there, as well as managing the project up until Expo. She was in the shop every single day, probably for like the last three months, just going down my checklist of, did you order this? Did you build this? Is the geometry done for this? Did you, like, it was incredible. And then the other big help I had was my best friend, Wes. I had to give a shout out to him. He reached out to me probably around the same time and he he saw the writing on the walls and he was like do you need help and I was like dude I'm I'm I'm drowning here man because I was working a full-time job um and then going home and working on the game I mean I would come home and I I would walk into my basement and I would come back upstairs you know 10 30 at night get up the next morning at 5 30 just and it was like that for almost a year um and um he coded the game for me i typed out what i wanted in english and he translated it into uh what mpf could understand and uh i i the game would not have been in the state that it's in if i didn't have the help from from both of them so thank you you can't go it's it's it's almost impossible to go at it alone dude it's impossible People do it, but not on that timeline. Not in a year. No. And to put that product out. Yeah.
    20:07
    And it held up, right? You didn't have his – you didn't have – The only thing that happened, like, the stand-ups in the center take a beating because the center shots are tight, kind of on purpose, and also to make just everything work. But the stand-ups are 3D printed. They had to be because nobody makes the shape that I needed. But even those, I only had to replace one of them, and the game was beat up the entire weekend. Oh, it just got hammered. Yeah.
    20:39
    I don't know what got played more. That got played a ton. Alice got played a ton because those took a beating.
    20:48
    All the X-Men got beat up pretty good. Saw got beat up. I mean, all those in the homebrews, they just got played. Yeah. Yeah, it was it. It got played so much that I was immediately motivated to figure out how to cool flippers more efficiently. And like two days after we got home, I figured out how to mount like heat sinks to them with fans. So most most of the time it just has fans blowing on them. I figured out that RC car motors are the same size as flipper coils and they make like heat sinks for those. So I have aluminum heat sinks in there with fans on them. And those, those coils will be ice cold forever. Unbelievable. Never going to happen again. Never happening. Yeah. That is awesome. Thanks. How do I get that to the wormhole? I'll send you the link on Amazon. It's literally just RC car. No, no, no. I want that at the wormhole. Oh, that? Oh, well it, okay. So it was at Atomic and there's two more places in St. Louis. I know that really want it. So I'll, you know, I'll drop it off. It does fine on location and at Atomic, I was taking donations for the skate park project. So I put a QR code on there and I have like a drop box too. So people can donate to that. And we raised, I think over $250 at Atomic for that.
    22:14
    And the skate park project they build skate parks in underserved communities And then also the field testing was really valuable too and just seeing if anything needed to be fixed.
    22:31
    Can I ask you a question? Has anyone approached you about building this? So far, there's nothing in the works. I would love for something to be in the works. Um, but so far, um,
    22:49
    it's, I just don't get it. I don't get it. I, you know, I, we'll see. I love for it to happen. I mean, everything in due time. Right. I mean, uh, I'm sure that the big companies probably have a lot going on with the stuff that's already in the pipeline. Right. Uh, and then injecting something into that with somebody who doesn't work, you know, for their company. And, um, I get it, but it can happen. I, Hey, you and me both, man. I, I, I want to see it out in the world too. Um, after the success of Tony Hawk, what's, what is next for, for you, Nick? Um, I, uh, I am working on my next game. Um, it is it, uh, I can give some details about it. I can't give, I can't give a lot away. I'll take everything you can give okay uh it is it is going to be an original license uh because the big draw of the game is the tech that's inside of it um i did a few things inside of that game that have never been done but the tech that i'm there's two pieces of tech that i'm developing right now inside of my next game that are uh i wish i could say i can't uh don't even say it that have never been done in pinball and when people play it they are going to go holy smokes how a how has this never been done and b how do we get this into more games so i hope you patent it i i i patented two things on that so keep doing it yeah yeah protect yourself Yeah. Yeah. So that's in the works.
    24:35
    There is some other developments professionally as well. I guess now would be a good time to talk about that. Right. Let's talk about it. OK. So I was in the electric playground booth.
    24:49
    Robin and Alec, the guys that run the electric playground, were excited to have me there. And I had been talking to them prior to Tony Hawk being finished about working with them. And I told them, I said, guys, you know, that would be incredible. That would be a dream come true for me to work in the industry, because I had asked him that question years prior and said, you know, like, how do I get into the industry when we were first kicking idea around of this? and they approached me and I was like, look, I'm working on this game. I really wish I could, but I've got enough going on. But after Expo, let's talk. And I am happy to say that I am now working for and with the electric playgrounds. Oh, you know what? I did not plan this. Check that out. Yeah, you did.
    25:47
    I didn't. I was at work today, so I wore the hat. So how I mean, how long have you been talking to them? It seems a while, right? Yeah. So I originally, when I knew I wanted to build a game, I built a virtual machine first. So I built a virtual cabinet based on Doom, which is my absolute favorite first-person shooter of all time, all the way from the first one to Eternal. I'm so excited about the new one that's coming out. the love the game and the table on FX three is really good. So I don't know if you, if you like virtual stuff at all, but the doom table on pinball FX three is fantastic. So I built it around that. And then he, he had reached out to me originally then and was like, Hey, you know, let's meet up in an arcade. I, you know, because you're both in St. Louis, right? I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. He just wanted to meet somebody else who was making, you know, pinball stuff in St. Louis. so we were just chit-chatting and he just wanted to introduce himself and thought my, my, my doom machine was cool. And I, I told him the idea about Tony Hawk and he was like, Hey man, you know, keep me posted on that. Let me know, you know if I can help in any way. And I mean, Robin is such a cool dude. I mean, from the second I met him, all he wanted to do was help. All he wanted to do was make sure that like, I achieved my dream and got that game done and, you know, offered to laser cut stuff and I sent him you know progress pictures and the the electric playground guys are just the coolest nicest group of guys um and just being able to work with them is is uh an honor I mean they're they're great so being able to leave my job working in the aviation industry um and work for them as a as a product engineer is a dream come true yeah what's your role I mean what is a product engineer what are you doing for them so um they they obviously have incredible toppers right they have they have a lot of great engineering going on there already um so uh alex orier uh has done some fantastic work uh doing their arduino code and in programming and um the the what they can accomplish uh with those toppers with their own um systems in place is just amazing. So I'm just coming in and adding to that, you know, just working off of the work that has already been done, bringing in some experience that I have and bringing some new ideas to the table and just hopefully getting some more some more products out, too. So.
    28:34
    All right. I mean, I will. Right. That's my job. So, yeah, I hope so. Yeah. So what's your first project what are you working on first uh so uh this is really really cool um right now i am working on pulp fiction so we're doing a topper for pulp fiction and uh yeah yeah yeah it's it's sick uh they um they had a lot of stuff done um the art looks incredible um i'm coming in and doing some of the programming and lighting and adding some more creative input and engineering. We are revealing it in March. Oh, wow. At TPF? Yeah. So we're going to be there. We won't have a booth, but we will be at TPF and the topper should be there as well. We got a Pulp Fiction. You want us to put it on there yeah you want to bring it and put it on there let me talk to my boss i don't want to because we have a huge booth there dude okay okay yeah that'd be sick yeah we'll talk yeah i mean it's going to be it's going to be highly interactive um the the light shows on this one are great uh we we had to compliment the light shows on pulp fiction i mean it's sitting right behind you so you're very familiar with the game the the theme integration the light the sound like everything is just so crisp on that game so we couldn't not do it justice but there's some new ideas on that topper that uh i'm i'm excited to show off so so when are we going to first get a glimpse of this puppy because you're kind of coming in halfway through right yeah yeah um that that will probably be tpf uh we'll see we'll see maybe uh robin and alec will reveal something uh prior to tpf but we'll see so do you have any ideas on your own that you're working on for electric playground uh so we did this well robin and alec did a survey um and there is uh there was a lot of responses uh which gave us a lot of great ideas um the the i think i have it over here um and i'm not i'm not going to say what we're working on next okay don't uh but the we had look over 300 responses um and so going through that like when i came on i got to see all that and going through that like some of the ones that stood out were Lord of the Rings, Jaws, Theater of Magic, Indiana Jones, Star Trek, Next Generation. There was a lot of comments on that.
    31:31
    So the feedback has been great because that kind of tells us like what the customers want, but then also kind of inspires us to and says, OK, people are very passionate about this. Why are they passionate about it? Let's get more into that game. Let's figure out, oh, wow, this is really cool. This is unique.
    31:51
    That is just fantastic. If anyone has not seen the Electric Pregance toppers, first of all, we're getting one because we have an original attack from Mars that's coming. So we cannot wait for that. That topper is unbelievable. I'm not really a topper guy, and that one's unbelievable. Yeah. One of the wormholers, John Spates, him and his partner Taylor at Eureka Heights have the Godzilla one. Yeah. And that one comes in multiple trims, too. That one is like, oh, my gosh. Yeah. So where can people learn more about, you know, the Pulp Fiction topper? Okay. So you can learn about all of the Electric Playground stuff, teppinball.com. So the electricplaygroundpinball.com. Excuse me. it's just TEP pinball.com, but that's what it stands for. There's a, there's going to be a wait list too. Oh, okay. That makes sense. Yeah. Well, so people can get on the wait list and, uh, have their topper reserve when we start. You have to have a wait list because this is going to be, I think it's going to be a very popular topper that you guys are going to sell here. I think it's fantastic. I, I'm, I came up with an idea for it like two days ago that I'm, I'm like inside just cheesing about because it's so cool. That's so cool. That's great. Yeah, we got the parts coming. They made a fantastic hire. I got to hang out with Alec a couple of months, a couple of days ago, actually. Yeah. And we were talking a little bit about this, but he wouldn't give me anything. Oh, well, I'll give you a little more. This is very exciting I didn really know what was going on here So I didn know it was pulp so this is fantastic i so happy for you uh that going to be a fantastic topper and i can wait to see it you know and i'll talk to the boys about tpf and see what maybe we can work something out yeah yeah i i can't wait to show it off um what we have done so far is is really really great and what's coming up is going to be even better. All right. Are you ready? Okay. Yes, yeah. Okay. We have a game that we play with everyone, Nick. It's called the Hurry Up. And at the end of the interview, it's just stupid questions. Okay. And it's a hurry up rapid fire game. And I think we have some fun on some of these. All right. You ready?
    34:13
    Wait, wait, wait. I'm going to hydrate. Get some hydrate. I'm going to get some Diet Coke. And if you can't answer the question, it's too much. No worries. You just say pass. Okay.
    34:26
    That's good water. All right. Describe the Pulp Fiction topper in grave detail. I'm kidding. Almost got me there. All right. Favorite fighter jet you have worked on for the U.S. military? Oh, man.
    34:43
    Oh, my gosh. The F-15. Incredible airplane. It's been around since the 60s, believe it or not, and it's still an incredible airplane. Have you ever been to Area 51 and is the government in possession of alien craft? I couldn't tell you. That's disappointing.
    35:03
    Favorite pinball designer of all time? Oh, my gosh. Oh, you're really putting me on the spot here. I know. I will say Oh my gosh I'll say this Because I don't want to name anybody specifically Okay I'll give you a cop out Go ahead I am copying a little bit You gave me a lot of information today It was a really good interview So I'm going to give you a slack on the hurry up I will say the homebrewers And here's why Here's why. Because if you want to see really unique ideas that mainstream, you know, pinball companies aren't going to take the risk to do or have decided that, well, you know, this I don't really like this or, you know, this isn't going to work in an arcade setting. this isn't going to last 10,000 hits or whatever. Walk into the homebrew area and see the creativity coming out of these guys' basements and garages and the stuff that they can pull off with base level Tinkercad stuff.
    36:23
    That's where it's at. Pinball fandom, I get really excited about every new game that comes out. Every single game, I've never seen one. and I've only been in it for a few years, that I'm not excited about. But I get really excited to see the stuff that the homebrew guys put out. All right. Not a cop-out. That wasn't a really good answer. No, it wasn't a cop-out. It was a damn good answer, damn it. All right. I wanted to give you crap about it. All right. Newer pinball machines have the action button. Yes or no? Thumbs up or thumbs down for the action button? Thumbs up. Here's why. This is in my basement right now because I'm adding an action button for TPF.
    36:58
    Awesome. Look at that info, ladies and gentlemen. What are you going to do with the action button? So the only way to activate the ollie save, so you know when you drop in and then it jumps off of the scoop and then that ramp comes up, the only way to activate that is with that shot. So I want to give the player an opportunity once per ball, if you drain, that you can save the ball by pressing that. because the way the lower third is designed, if you drain on the right-hand side, it'll actually come up on the left like a half pipe, and then you can ollie up out of that and save your ball with the action button.
    37:39
    That's pretty cool. All right. I can never do an ollie, by the way. I suck at skating. I snap my Achilles at 30, so I'm done skating. I did ride my topper around Expo, the Expo floor, on Sunday when we were packing up. We were disassembling it, and I was like, you know what? My topper's a legit skateboard. I think I'm just going to take this thing for a second. So I was skating around Expo. That's very cool.
    38:08
    You were hired by a major pinball company. You have to design one of these three video game franchises. Okay. Grand Theft Auto, Minecraft, or Legend of Zelda. What do you choose?
    38:20
    Grand Theft Auto, Minecraft, or Legend of Zelda? Yes. I almost threw Mario in, but... I'm a car guy, so I'm going to say Grand Theft Auto. It'd be a pretty cool pinball machine. All right, last question for you in the hurry up, which wasn't very hurried, by the way. Sorry. On February 22nd, live at the Twippies here at the Wormhole, If your machine, Tony Hawk Pro Skater, wins a Twippy for Home Brewer of the Year, who will you thank first in your acceptance speech? Oh, gosh. I told you they're tough sometimes. It's going to be a tie between my fiancée, Allison, and my best friend, Wes. The contributions they made to that game, they're listed in the credits of the game because they were such a big help. But everybody out there who helped me out, the electric playground, atomic pinball, my buddy James Elterman, he was a huge help as well. You didn't win yet, Nick, okay? No, sorry. I didn't say you officially won. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm just saying. I have a lot of people to thank because I didn't do it on my own. So, yes, I put the work in, but it was a group effort. Nick, this was a lot of fun. Congratulations on working with the Electric Playground. Those guys are absolutely fantastic. This is some really exciting stuff that you divulged on here. Tell us again the website. It's teppinball.com. And people can join the wait list for the Pulp Fiction Topper. This comes out Friday. Okay. So we're going to break the news, I think.
    40:17
    So we're going to break the news. I think so, too. Yeah, we haven't said anything. So I'm the first person to kind of spill the beans. Well, that's awesome. And thank you for doing it here at the Wormhole. I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me, man. You want to see the Wormhole real quick? Yeah. I mean, I've seen it, but I'd like to see your – I've got – Alec was here. Yeah. And I could show you the Wormhole room cams. Let's see. Ooh.
    40:41
    All right. So there's the wormhole. It's smaller than you think, right? It's only like 1,400, 1,500 square feet. But it's just fun. You know, we've got all these signs, and Tim is such a collector of signs, and Christine, and then we put all these stickers up. It's just a really cool vibe. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I love the punk vibe from all the stickers. Well, Tim was a big skateboarder. Yeah. And so he he loves the punk rock and he loves all that crap. So and so he was really excited when I told him I was going to be talking here. He's like, man, I spent a lot of time in their booth at Expo, too. So good. I'm flattered. That's that's that's great to hear. Really appreciate you, sir. Thank you so much, Nick. Congratulations and continued success. And I can't wait to see your second machine. I can't wait. I can't wait to see it either. I want it to be done already. you're kicking ass and taking names congratulations well that was fun it really was I had a great time on that interview and I knew it the minute he went on that discord chat I was like Don's not here all the other podcasters aren't here I'm swooping in and I'm grabbing Nick because it was a good podcast so I really had a lot of fun how about the new camera not bad getting ready for the Twippies, right? It's starting to look good. I'll keep this short tonight because I've been here way too often lately, and I miss my home, even though I only live a mile and a half away. Don't get me wrong. I'm very, very happy to be hosting the Twippies here in a few weeks, but I'm busting my ass, and so is the entire team. So from Colin to Aaron to the other Aaron to Ralph to Donovan Glenn, Too many to mention, they're busting their ass to put on an incredible evening and weekend. So there are a few tickets left. I think there's like a handful. So it's an awesome event. You've got to come. I'm going to do the Wormhole Vault, show you all, not all, but a great taste of the rare machines that we have and our tech center, if you will. Then we're going to Eureka Heights. Eureka Heights is right down the street. We're doing a tournament at Eureka Heights as well as a D&D launch party. So that's going to be pretty great. And then, of course, Saturday is Barrels of Fun Tour. We're actually starting with a breakfast at a private collections house that we're working on. Then the Barrels of Fun Tour. Then you come here, play some games with Wormhole, and then we'll record the Twippies. Then Sunday is a tournament here as well. So forget it. I mean, we're putting a hell of a show for you. Also, the multicasting that we're doing was a big, big hit.
    43:41
    I'm seriously considering doing the Pinball Community Awards on both Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube. Let me know what you think in the comments or send me an email at warmupinball at gmail.com. And then click on those so that you're following us and that you know, hey, these guys went live. if you're a content creator and want to join that discord channel that colin put together email colin or hit him up on facebook or email us at wormholepinball at gmail.com i'll keep a call uh and don't get sick of us yet right because next week i'm taking i have a podcast next week and then i'm taking the rest off for the twippies uh to really focus on it and go from there all All right, that's it. You know my outro. Be good to your fellow pinballers. We'll talk to you soon.