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The Super Awesome Pinball Show S1 E6

The Super Awesome Pinball Show·podcast_episode·1h 58m·analyzed·Mar 28, 2020
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

Spooky's Rick and Morty sold out 750 units in 4 hours; expansion underway amid pandemic.

Summary

Charlie Emery from Spooky Pinball discusses the Rick and Morty machine's surprise reveal, successful 4-hour sellout of 750 units, content-heavy script with 40+ pages, and production expansion into a new facility. The hosts also address the Texas Pinball Festival cancellation and related community fundraising efforts.

Key Claims

  • Rick and Morty pinball sold out entire run of 750 games in under four hours

    high confidence · Charlie Emery directly states this achievement and its significance to Spooky's business model

  • Rick and Morty script was approximately 40-47 pages, comparable to Alice Cooper's 700+ speech calls

    high confidence · Charlie Emery: 'The script that we wrote for Justin was right in the same wheelhouse for page number. I think it was 40-something. I can't remember, 45, 47.'

  • All audio/video content for Rick and Morty requires approval from Adult Swim/Warner Brothers panel

    high confidence · Charlie Emery describes licensing constraints on content approval

  • Spooky has produced 70-80 Rick and Morty machines to date during the pandemic

    high confidence · Charlie Emery: 'I'm guessing we're between 70 and 80 games out the door at this stage'

  • Spooky maintained secrecy on Rick and Morty reveal by instructing team to tell no one unless working on the game

    high confidence · Charlie Emery: 'We didn't talk about it, period. Unless you were on the team working on that game, nobody knew.'

  • Texas Pinball Festival was canceled; GoFundMe established to help organizers Ed and Kim recover financial losses, approaching $10,000 in donations

    high confidence · Christian Lyne and Christopher Franchi discuss TPF cancellation and community fundraising response

  • Spooky's podcast has reached as many as 15,000 downloads with celebrity guests like Elvira

    high confidence · Charlie Emery: 'We've had as many as 15,000 downloads with Elvira and stuff. and various other celebrities.'

  • Spooky is expanding into a new facility with thermal press, powder coating, larger printing press, and CNC equipment

    high confidence · Charlie Emery describes new shop capabilities being consolidated

Notable Quotes

  • “We didn't talk about it, period. Unless you were on the team working on that game, nobody knew.”

    Charlie Emery (Spooky Pinball) @ ~22:00 — Explains how Spooky maintained complete secrecy on Rick and Morty announcement despite pinball community's aggressive intel gathering

  • “750 games gone in less than four hours? No. No idea it was going to go that fast.”

    Charlie Emery @ ~24:45 — Reveals that even Spooky was shocked by the demand velocity, distinguishing their business model from larger manufacturers

  • “We're a lot smaller company, and we're happy there. We like that. We don't want to be that giant pinball company.”

    Charlie Emery @ ~25:30 — Articulates Spooky's intentional positioning as boutique manufacturer prioritizing creative control over scale

  • “Everything has to be approved. Every audio clip, every video clip, everything that goes into that game has to be run past an entire panel of people at Adult Swim slash Warner Brothers.”

    Charlie Emery @ ~18:15 — Highlights major licensing constraint on content approval that differentiates Rick and Morty production complexity

  • “It's been a godsend. It's been absolutely a blessing... there's some luck in there, too.”

    Charlie Emery @ ~26:30 — Charlie acknowledges both skill and serendipity in Rick and Morty's commercial success during pandemic

  • “Ed and Kim have put a ton of time and effort into this show, and many other people have as well. And I know this is incredibly hard for them.”

    Christopher Franchi @ ~4:15 — Expresses community support for TPF organizers dealing with event cancellation fallout

  • “If it were like, I mean, if it was J.J.P. or Stern, yeah, that happens all the time there.”

    Charlie Emery @ ~24:45 — Distinguishes Spooky's manufacturing capacity and sellout patterns from larger competitors JJP and Stern

Entities

Charlie EmerypersonSpooky PinballcompanyRick and MortygameChristopher FranchipersonChristian LynepersonEd VanderbeekpersonTexas Pinball FestivaleventScott Deniseyperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Spooky expanded manufacturing facility with consolidated production infrastructure (CNC, thermal press, powder coating, printing press)

    high · Charlie Emery describes acquisition of new shop with freight dock and equipment consolidation from multiple locations

  • ?

    event_signal: Texas Pinball Festival canceled with significant financial losses to organizers; community-wide fundraising response initiated with GoFundMe approaching $10,000

    high · Christopher Franchi and Christian Lyne discuss cancellation, organizer struggles, and ongoing fundraising campaign

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Spooky deliberately positioned as boutique manufacturer; Rick and Morty success validates niche licensing strategy versus JJP/Stern high-volume approach

    high · Charlie Emery: 'We're a lot smaller company, and we're happy there... We don't want to be that giant pinball company'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Spooky intentionally maintains creative control through small-batch production model; rejects scaling to volume manufacturing competitor level

    high · Charlie Emery articulates Spooky's business philosophy prioritizing 'weird, quirky titles' over mass-market volume

  • ?

    leak_detection: Rick and Morty trademark leak appeared on This Week in Pinball approximately one week before official reveal

    high · Charlie Emery: 'there was that leak that kind of made it out to This Week in Pinball. and it was like, oh, God, we're so close'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.354

0:00
It's the end of the world as we know it. I feel fine It's me, I'm the loser Tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Players Podcast A special whim I know I'm drunk The slapstick The following is an ad And now, ladies and gentlemen, time for the show.
0:59
Sit down, kick your feet up, grab a cold one, get ready for... The Super Awesome Pinball Show! That's right, it's time for everybody's favorite pinball show! With your host, pinball artist Christopher Franchi. Texas Pinball Festival's Ed Vanderbeek. And Dr. Pin himself, Christian Lyne. Sponsored by Chicago Gaming Company, the home of your favorite top quality pinball remakes like Medieval Madness, Monster Bash, and more. Visit ChicagoGaming.com. And by Cointaker, distributors of new in-box pinball machines, mods, accessories, and Franchi pinball wear. That's Cointaker.com. Also by BackAlleyCreations.com, creators of the most badass pinball mods, black pearl pinballs, and the easiest five playfield support bracket set. That's BackAlleyCreations.com. I like Franchi. I like Franchi. I like Franchi, the great guy. How do you like that? Thanks.
2:02
Hello, Legion of Silver Ball. It's episode number six of the Super Awesome Pinball Show. We are still alive. How are you doing, Christian? I'm doing great, Chris. How are you? Good. How do I sound? You sound amazing. You don't sound sick. That's a plus.
2:21
All right, cool. And my temperature's only 107, so I'm good then? Oh, you're fine. Take some Tylenol, you're good. Nice. Take some Flintstones Chewables and you'll feel much better. Anyway, yes, this is episode number six of the Super Awesome Pinball Show. Yeah, if you notice, there's a little hole in our lineup. Me and Christian, Ed is not here due to complications of TPF being canceled. Yeah, we're missing our partner in crime. He's still exceedingly busy with all the details of TPF not happening and dealing with the fallout from that. He's obviously been through a lot the last couple of weeks, and it's obviously been really hard on him. He and Kim have put a ton of time and effort into this show, and many other people have as well. And I know this is incredibly hard for them and all the pinball people out there who are really excited to go to this show, which is the best show out there. Let's not beat around the bush. It's a really good time, and we're sad that it's not happening. But it was definitely the right decision. Ed and Kim struggled with it for a really long time. I don't want to speak for Ed. I'm sure he'll go into it when he comes back on. But Chris and I have been in contact with him, and he's doing well. He's just really busy. He's bogged down with all the nuances of not throwing the show and the finances of that and all the nitty-gritty. So he'll be back next episode. Also, if you go to the Super Awesome Facebook page or our personal pages, you'll find a link for a GoFundMe where we're trying to earn some money to help those guys out. because, believe it or not, even though the show didn't happen, there were still a lot of financial losses due to canceling the show. So we're trying to make that up because if we don't, there possibly couldn't be a TPF next year. And I can't think of anybody in the pinball community that doesn't want that to happen because we're all still dealing with the blow of not being able to go to this one. So hopefully you guys can spare some change, whatever you can do to help out that cause. The pinball community through this has been amazing. We set up a GoFundMe through Melissa with Cointaker. She's helped set this up, and it has done a ton to help support Ed and Kim and all of TPF. I think right now we're pretty close to $10,000. So thank you to everyone who's donated to this. It's going to help ensure that we can make them whole and have this next year. Definitely, definitely. And we miss you, Ed. All right, so this week on the show, we're going to talk about what we've done in the past couple of weeks in pinball and what we haven't done. We also have a special segment for our pinball news, the Pindemic Special Report. We've got our 2020 Twippy Awards Preview, our thoughts on American Pinball's Hot Wheels, and we've got our Pin Pets winner, our TPF winner, and news about our new contest we're going to have this week. All right, but before we get into all of that, let's reveal who won all of the prizes from the last two contests. That would be a fine idea. We have our Pin Pets winner. Well, the full name is the Barlow's Pin Pets Shelter Drive. That's what it was. Yeah. So we had people donating money and supplies to local animal shelters, which was awesome because, like, we got, you know, one guy donated $500. Yeah. And that's not, you know, we're not trying to shame anybody else. That was just way more than we expected. But, look, everybody did their part. We had a great response. Tons of supplies went in. And, actually, I think two people ended up adopting pets, which is even better because, you know, the less mouths you have to feed. So anyway, I want to thank everybody for taking part in that. That really meant a lot to me. It was a very personal contest for me, and I'm glad you guys were into the spirit of the thing and did what you did. But we'd like to congratulate Ryan Wood. He is the big winner. Yay, Ryan. Yeah, he won the Monster Bash Playfield and a lot of others to set off, actually. A T-shirt? A super awesome pinball show T-shirt. Hell yeah. He won a sheet of Invisiglass and a Jaws Translight. Okay, so, and then on to our TPF winner, which ends sort of in a sour no, but anyway, congrats, Gilbert Herrera, for winning that. Unfortunately, that prize was taken away, so he gets nothing. Just kidding. That's true. Gilbert, this honestly hurt my heart, man. It was such a good prize. We were so excited for you, and then TPF, of course, was canceled, and you, amongst many other people, were kind of on the high of highs and then low of lows. So we apologize that that didn't come to fruition, and we'll make it up to you. We'll make it right. We're definitely going to make it right because we're going to send you out an art print of mine, which will be signed and personalized to you. And we're also going to send you out a Super Awesome Pinball Show T-shirt and a swag bag of fun stuff. What? And whatever else I decide to throw in there, but there will be more, young man. So you'll be plenty happy. All right, yeah, and we're going to talk about new contests later on. We'll save that for the end. But that's going to be pretty cool, too. We've got a really neat prize for that. And this show is going to be great. So let's cut right into it because we have a really special guest with us tonight. Yes, we do. Should we introduce him now? Let's do it. Christian, we have a very special co-host today. Can you tell us about this mysterious guest? This guest has been in the pinball industry since 2013. He started off as a small-time pinball manufacturer and is currently selling out an entire run of games in under four hours. Really? Hmm. I wonder who this could be. Spooky.
Adult Swim
company
Alice Coopergame
Spooky Pinball Podcastproduct
David Van Nessperson
Kanedaperson
Squirrelperson
Stern Pinballcompany
Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
Cointakercompany
This Week in Pinballproduct
Bugperson
KTperson
?

licensing_signal: Adult Swim/Warner Brothers maintains strict content approval process for all game assets; licensing negotiation took significant time due to IP magnitude

high · Charlie Emery: 'Every audio clip, every video clip, everything that goes into that game has to be run past an entire panel of people at Adult Swim slash Warner Brothers'

  • $

    market_signal: Rick and Morty secondary market inflation observed immediately post-release with games reselling at 'ridiculous money' on eBay

    medium · Charlie Emery: 'to watch games selling for ridiculous money on eBay and stuff like that' and predicts market normalization

  • $

    market_signal: Spooky executed near-perfect product reveal through coordinated secrecy, rapid online sales launch, and intentional limited availability strategy

    high · Charlie Emery: 'say nothing, show nothing, don't do anything until we're all on the same page, get it done and then get it out quick'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Christopher Franchi collaborating with Spooky Pinball on horror movie podcast content creation alongside internal team members

    medium · Charlie Emery discusses Franchi inspiring horror podcast idea; ongoing collaboration described

  • ?

    announcement: Rick and Morty pinball officially revealed with 750-unit presale sellout in under 4 hours

    high · Charlie Emery: '750 games gone in less than four hours' and describes successful launch strategy

  • ?

    product_strategy: Rick and Morty game receiving ongoing content additions tied to new seasons as long as licensing permits; Adult Swim pushing for creative boundaries

    high · Charlie Emery: 'we're still throwing modes and stuff at them, and they're like, oh, we thought this would be done by now'

  • ?

    supply_chain_signal: Pandemic supply chain vulnerability identified for Illinois-sourced parts; Spooky maintaining production buffer but anticipating eventual disruption

    high · Charlie Emery: 'a lot of our parts come from Illinois, not all of them, but the ones that do are definitely, it's going to bite us eventually'

    • 7:18
    Spooky Pinball Zone, Charlie Emery. Hello. Hey, how are you, man? Wonderful. Excellent. Thank you for joining us. We really appreciate it. It's the all-C edition, apparently. Christian, Christopher, and Trevor. There you go. This guy knows how to podcast. Ten years of podcasting, he puts every other podcast out there to shame. Shame!
    7:39
    Holy crap. Did people even listen to podcasts ten years ago, Charlie? Believe it or not, they did, yeah. We were the only option, and there was nothing else to listen to. So, hey, in those circumstances, we're pretty good. Tell me, were you the first pinball podcast? Were you the guy? No, no, no, no. Okay. Was it Clay Hill? Well, actually, Al Warner, if you go way back, was doing some kind of pinball and video game podcasting. And then, yes, of course, Clay from TopCast jumped in, did a phenomenal job, you know, and he was all technical and beautiful and did all that kind of stuff and had every major player, you know, on his show. and then Rob Craig and Steve from a little bit south of Benton anyway, down in Missouri.
    8:24
    They had a show, and then when they left, I talked my wife into joining me on the air because it was better than listening to just me talk. Now, it won't be embarrassing to answer this question now because we can just assume there's thousands and thousands of listeners now. But 10 years ago, like when you went and checked your stats, like how many people listened, what was your average per show? You're assuming I was smart enough to check stats back then?
    8:50
    It was an incredibly janky website, and our lab technician, so to speak, was a young man from the Benton State Bank. We were getting about 1,500, maybe 2,000. Wow. And, you know, it's been up and down over the last 10 years. We've had as many as 15,000 downloads with Elvira and stuff. and various other celebrities. And, you know, like Rob Zombie, I think, hit seven or eight. Yeah!
    9:22
    But I don't know. All my stats got wiped out like a year ago when we redid the website to make it more professional again. That's impressive, man. A lot of the pinball podcasters out there are bragging about 2,000 or 3,000. So 15,000 is putting that to shame. Yeah, I quit.
    9:39
    It's on fire. You get Elvira on and have her do a whole pinball thing, and, yeah, that'll blow up here and there. I think you drag in, you know, some outside forces and stuff, obviously. Well, here's a true test of your celebrity. We're going to see what our ratings are like with you on. That's right. And we're only three people listening to you, fucker.
    9:58
    We have our viewers on your podcast? Yes, we are. Oh, yes, we're on. Oh, shit. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, I insisted on swearing. So how many episodes are you into of 10 years in? It's a once-a-month podcast, right? So 120, is that about where you are now? I think we've actually done like 122. Bug is the editor slash host. Now I co-host with him. But, yeah, we had a couple special episodes. I think one was Steve Ritchie when he first announced that he was getting back into pinball.
    10:33
    And then Elvira, she's actually been on our podcast twice. But the first one she did, we ran it as a special in the middle of the month. So other than that, it's always first of the month every month, and that's kind of what it is. Nice. And then we're doing a movie podcast, right, a horror movie podcast. Yeah, because we didn't have anything else to do, apparently, you know, working in the pinball.
    10:56
    Now, I mean, the movie podcast, actually, the seed was planted a little over a year ago by Mr. I don't know if you've heard of this guy, Christopher Franchi. Who's that guy? Really? he's like, oh, we were just bouncing back and forth, and he's a horror movie nerd, and so am I. And he's like, we should do something like that at some point. And my son and I, my son is 17, I'm 51, and our next-door neighbor now, who is also the animator at Spooky Pinball, David Van Ness, from Australia, mate. Also known as some bunion. He's a hardcore horror nerd, too. So the three of us kind of just, you know, we're talking about this stuff all the time anyway, so why not just record it? What's his nickname? Because I said bunion, but that's like something you get on your foot. Is it something like that? Bunyip is kind of like a ghosty, beastly creature thing that pulls you into the swamp in Australia and eats you.
    11:52
    It's like an Australian Loch Ness Monster sort of thing? Kind of, yeah. He could explain it better. I saw that on his email one time, you know, delivered by a bunyip, and we've just been calling him bunyip ever since. Now, is that a prereq? Do you have to be really into horror films to work there? Like, is your Scott Denisey and Bo and Karen, are they horror fans? Or have they become more of horror fans since they started working with you guys? I think if you take all the horror fans at Spooky Pinball and put us in a room together, it's me, Bug, and Bunyip. Everybody else is like, what the hell is wrong with you? Why would you watch that crap? Not KT, not Squirrel. They're not into it. KT tolerates it. She doesn't like the super gory stuff. She loves the classics. Squirrel likes some of the slasher stuff She loves Halloween But other than that No she's not going to sit there and watch like Dawn of the Dead with Dad or you know Any of that kind of stuff So Rick and Morty is kind of more in their wheelhouse Oh definitely Rick and Morty took over the shop Like a virus No pun intended and maybe that's a bad choice of words Right now When the show first hit One of our we call them affectionately The Minions AJ like three episodes in on Rick and Morty just was addicted and he turned my son on to it and we were on a road trip and I think it was at mid-season and my son was watching the show in the back of the car and I could hear it and I couldn't see it and I was like, what the hell is he watching? It sounds freaking funnier than hell. And when we got back, I got through the first episode and I was like, oh, that's pretty interesting and then by the third episode in I was completely addicted just with everybody else. Is that what kind of started the pursuit of the license? How did that work? Did you seek that out or did they come to you? No, man, we went after them. All right. We really wanted to do that game. Like I said, it didn't take us long to get addicted, and it was probably towards the end of the first, maybe middle of the second, that we started negotiating with them and talking to them. And, yeah, it took a while to get it put together. I think it took them a little bit because it is a big license. It took them a little bit to kind of look at Spooky and go, oh, you've worked with Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper, and you've done some cool things, and this is, you know, we expect this to be a bit bigger. That's what she said.
    14:15
    They were right. They were. And, you know, they needed to know that we were capable of doing the job and making a quality product. And now I think that table has kind of flipped a little bit. Like, we're still throwing modes and stuff at them, and they're like, oh, we thought this would be done by now. That's right.
    14:31
    Yeah, there is. And talking to Scott, I mean, it doesn't sound like it will end anytime soon. I mean, you guys are planning on incorporating things that are relevant to every season into the gameplay. At least that's the goal, it sounds like. We're doing everything we can, man, as long as they're going to let us keep adding content. And there are some, you know, limitations as to how long we can go with that. They do want us to kind of start cramming it all into the one shoebox and saying, okay, this is, you know, because everything has to be approved. Every audio clip, every video clip, everything that goes into that game has to be run past an entire panel of people at Adult Swim slash Warner Brothers. So it's a challenge for sure. This is definitely the most content-heavy game we've ever done. You know, Alice Cooper for his game did over 700 speech calls. The script that we wrote for Justin was right in the same wheelhouse for page number. I think it was 40-something. I can't remember, 45, 47. Evan and Justin I wouldn't say he doubled it but he came close like he took our cues and would say those and then be like now let me try this and you'd hear him like you know with these big master files just doing like five other variants and just doing things completely in the style of Rick and or Morty and uh some of them were wow way out there like the the we thought we had written some fairly vulgar stuff, but we just came up with way more. So, I mean, I know you guys have a setting where you can have it as extreme or as family-friendly as you can possibly make it, but did you have to edit anything out? Was something so extreme that you couldn't even put it in there? No. No, if he said it, then he said it, and we're going to run with it. So, you set the percentage of curfewing you want in the game from 0 to 100. Right. So, ours is on 100 in the shop, by the way. Fuck me, pal. Fuck you. No, no, no, no, no. Fuck me. Now, before that licensing door gets closed, any chance for a Pickle Rick shooter knob?
    16:30
    No, because it's got a launch button. Oh, yeah. Shoot. So there's that. Yeah, well, you could have had a Plumbus there, a Pickle Rick. I mean, the opportunities would be endless. Well, the Plumbus is the tilt bob, and Pickle Rick is hidden in the game somewhere. And there is a complete Pickle Rick mode, so there's plenty of pickle to go around. That's what she said.
    16:52
    Well, don't tease. We can't have one because we didn't get in at the magical time. Chris, you don't live that far from me, man. I know Illinois is on lockdown right now, but as soon as it clears up, you come over and play with us. We're okay with that. We're all on lockdown. Well, good, because I never get a chance to play. I think I played Alice Cooper, like, for one ball, and that was it. It was that bad? No, no, no. Oh, no. No. It's just when I go to these shows, I don't ever have time. Like, I'm late getting to my table. I'm not one of those guys that's, you know, going to go fuck off and, you know, someone's paying for me to be there and paying for my hotel and my flight, and I'm not at my table. So I make it a point to always be there. And by the time I'm done, you know, number one, in the morning I'm rushing because I'm always late. And by the time I'm done, I'm just so whipped. I'm like, I just want to go up and lay down for a while. And then I end up falling asleep. So I never get to play pinball. So I would love to come out there and just play all your games. I'm with you, man. It's like playing pinball at shows for me is the hardest thing to do. You're just constantly in the booth, constantly talking to people. And while I'm there, we can watch some shitty horror movies. Oh, yeah. Do you know what I watched today? I watched Death Dream. Do you know that one? Bob Clark's film. Hell, yeah. It's Tom Savini effects. It just kills me because I always wonder, like, why whenever they show the, I just watch it and I forget his name. What's the main character? I can't remember his name off the top of my head at this point, Chris. Whatever his name is, they have, like, the camera point of view of him, like when he attacked the trucker and all that stuff. And in the background they have this.
    18:25
    It sounds like a female snake or something. I'm like. He doesn't make that sound when he's sitting around in a house, you know, or, you know, yelling at the mailman or whatever he does in that movie. Like, why is it just when we have the special camera view do we get this weird sound effect? But that, wow, what a hunk of crap. I mean, I love that movie, but it's a hunk of crap. You know, there's so bad it's good, and that one's kind of somewhere not quite there. It's just interesting enough to be interesting, but not great. And it's not so bad that it's like, you know, you get into it from that aspect either. They just don't explain what the hell is happening in that movie. He's the Vietnam zombie. I mean, I don't know what to bring him. He comes home and he's dead. He doesn't want to talk to his parents. He just sits there. Then he goes around starting to kill random people. Why does he kill his doctor? Nothing was his doctor's fault, but he set out to kill his doctor, kills his ex-girlfriend, causes this big scene at the drive-in. I'm like, what the hell? And then that weird ending, and I'm just like, what did I just watch? I loved it, whatever the fuck it was. I haven't heard. I have no idea what the fuck you guys are talking about, But you guys should do a Mystery Science Theater 3000 horror movie edition, like where you only watch horror movies and then you talk about it during the movie. That would be hilarious. We can do guest commentary with Chris and Bug and Charlie and Bunyip. It'll be great. Mystery Spooky Theater 2000 and a half.
    19:59
    So jumping back to Rick and Morty, because I've got to redirect back to pinball, guys. I know. I'm going to be the buzzkill. So how the heck did you guys keep Rick and Morty a secret? I got to know because Scott Fenisi loves to drop little hints. You guys have lots of seminars where you talked about Haunted House Party. Everything in pinball gets leaked. You guys somehow managed to have a perfect reveal where nobody knew anything except for some rumors about a Rick and Morty pinball machine being out there. It wasn't linked to any manufacturer. It was just very much out there as a very soft rumor. So how did you do that? Because it was impressive. It was, this is going to be, follow me on this. It was really hard. That's what she said.
    20:43
    We didn't talk about it, period. Unless you were on the team working on that game, nobody knew. We didn't say a word.
    20:52
    It's really, really hard to keep secrets in pinball. And as you mentioned, it was funny because like a week before the official reveal was done, there was that leak that kind of made it out to This Week in Pinball. and it was like, oh, God, we're so close, and, you know, we're just not quite going to get there. And it was, and again, I don't even know, who the hell does this shit? I'm sorry, I shouldn't curse. No, you're still here. Who the hell is so bored? They're sitting at home going, I'm going to look up trademark pinball, everything, and then throw it on the Internet. I mean, come on. Have you seen these people? The hunger is real. I mean, we have people who are searching patents for every major company to try and find out what's new, what's hot, because, you know, everyone wants to know what the next thing is, and you guys are a major player. I'm pretty excited, too. I'm a pinball fanboy as well. I'm always curious what, you know, the next game's going to be, and I get it, but sometimes I think it just gets a little out of hand. For sure, for sure. So, I mean, not only was that an awesome feat to keep that under wraps, but you also, you know, you pulled off the reveal in a way that everyone kind of said, this is marketing the way pinball marketing should be. I mean, you came out with a video, it was for sale very shortly after that. It sold out on in four hours, your entire allotment. I mean, it was pretty much rolled out as perfectly as it possibly could have been. And how much of that was planned versus just serendipitous that just it all worked out and you felt like it was a bit of luck or did you feel like this is exactly how it should have gone because you would work so hard to make it that way. Serendipitous being French word meaning dumb luck.
    22:33
    Check out the big brain on the ground. I didn't know it was going to be this intellectual. I'm going to give Scott Denise a lot of the credit for this staying quiet too as well. His diversionary tactics with Haunted House Party and his never-ending storylines Is that his idea? He had the whole thing in his head and he was just happy to view about it and yeah that definitely helped but honestly when it came down to releasing the game it was a lot of back and forth with Adult Swim. We were kind of following their lead on some of this stuff so we were just under the mindset of say nothing, show nothing, don't do anything until we're all on the same page, get it done and then get it out quick. Did you know it was going to be as huge as it was? The response, the hunger for the game? We knew it would be big but come on, I mean, 750 games gone in less than four hours? No. No idea it was going to go that fast. If it were like, I mean, if it was J.J.P. or Stern, yeah, that happens all the time there. Our business model is completely different than those guys. We're only capable of producing so many games so fast. We're a lot smaller company, and we're happy there. We like that. We don't want to be that giant pinball company. We enjoy being able to do what we like to do, pick the weird, quirky titles, and if we don't sell 2,000, 3,000, 5,000 of them like those other companies need to do, then so be it. We still have fun and enjoy what we're doing. But no, I mean, we were completely blown away. And then to watch games selling for ridiculous money on eBay and stuff like that, it's just like, give it a year, people.
    24:12
    Just wait. Be patient. These games are going to change hands. They always do. People are going to get it and be like, oh, I love it. It's the greatest thing ever. And then the other half are going to be like, oh, this game sucks. I like my other, you know, whatever the latest turn thing is now better. And they're going to change hands. And I believe that's all going to level out. But, you know, it's everything you could ask for as a small pinball company trying to make a living to have 750 units, 18 months worth of work, you're booked.
    24:40
    And, you know, judging from the way things have gone this year and the unexpected events that we've seen, it's been a godsend. It's been absolutely a blessing. We work really hard, but we're also, there's some luck in there, too. I get that. And we're in a really good position right now. That's great. This question just came in from our fan hotline. Joe Pinball wants to know, oh, how come Kaneda got number 50?
    25:06
    He's really excited. He's been talking all about it. He's ready for his game. Yeah, and we all know he's one of the biggest voices out there in pinball. the day we launched i mean after obviously it was out that that's what the game was going to be he was incredibly excited about it beforehand and he just literally called in that morning like and it was weird because everybody was going through the website or emails and he was one of just a handful and i shouldn't say this because the girls are going to get absolutely pissed off at me. Normally, the bulk of our games are about 50-50. We didn't have a web store set up to the level that we do now that we can do this stuff. Thank you, Brian Savage down in Texas for helping us. So everything used to come in kind of 50-50 emails and phone all at the same time when we would do a sales launch. And this time, everybody went to the website and there was just a handful of people that called in and he was one of them. So that's how we managed to get in. Yeah, there you go. Now you know the secret. That's easy. Once you know the secret. So Squirrel handles the calls and stuff, right? So she's going to not be happy that now people know the secret. Yeah, between Squirrel and KT. But Squirrel, she's the one in the shop every day doing the bulk of all that stuff now. She's our inventory management specialist. She went to school for that. We're all really proud of her. She sets the web store, and she will also box up your game and occasionally wire a play field. So she can do anything and everything. That's awesome. So can you give us an update on Rick and Morty? I know you posted on Facebook that things were slowing down due to coronavirus, and you guys weren't manufacturing at the same level, if at all, right, at this point? No. Yeah. Again, it's a curse and a blessing. I tend to be, like, upfront and extremely honest, and sometimes maybe I should bite my own tongue. We're still in full production right now. Okay. It's not a problem right now. I'm guessing we're between 70 and 80 games out the door at this stage, Which is pretty good for us. We're doing all right. And when I put that on Facebook, it was just obviously, as Chris knows, the state of Illinois is kind of on lockdown right now. So a lot of our parts come from Illinois, not all of them, but the ones that do are definitely, it's going to bite us eventually. We're not there yet. We've got an abundance in house right now. So we're going to keep building until they start to run out. And hopefully by then the quarantine is over and we'll be, you know, we won't miss a beat. but odds of that happening right now are pretty slim. Do you have any idea where that number will fall, like in the 750 range? I honestly don't. It'll be mid-100s probably.
    27:49
    But, you know, we'll find a way to get through it one way or another. Yeah, absolutely. It's not like we're going to stop working. We just bought the shop across the street from ours because it was bigger. It had a freight dock. It had some really nice capability. I mean, there's thermal press in there, powder coating, our bigger printing press, all the stuff is being consolidated into one room. So it's nice, neat, organized, clean things the old shop wasn't. The old shop was literally just a pole barn that we threw up, insulated, and put heat in there, and off we went. So we actually have offices and stuff now, and we're, you know, trying to get a little bit more professional, do things better. We're always trying to improve. But, you know, when some of the parts run out, we're going to keep everybody busy and working, and we'll just keep assembling cabinets or doing, you know, everything that we can do until the shortages get cleared up again. And then, you know, hopefully it'll all balance out. But we're going to keep everybody moving. We're doing just fine. There's really no concern on our end right now, you know, but what the world does is what the world is going to do. Right. Did the building across the street cost you $2? $2!
    28:57
    It was a little more expensive than that. Our first lot, which was an acre of land in the industrial park for a buck. One dollar. Thank you, Louis.
    29:08
    So, yeah, this one was a little bit more than that. Three dollars. Yeah. The shop already existed, so we had to buy the whole building. Tell us about the new building. So, I mean, you touched on it a little bit, but is this going to impact your manufacturing capabilities, or is it just more of an office space so that it's a more formal base for you to work out of? Well we used to hire out powder coating and the ramp making and some of the higher end digital printing All of that is done in now We have two CNC a thermal press the full powder coat booth set up everything We have spray booths. We're literally going to be the most self-contained pinball company I think that's ever existed at this point. Everything we need is pretty much in-house. That's awesome. You guys started at such a small, I mean, I've seen the movie. You're one of the few pinball companies, if not the only pinball company, that has a movie made about them. And, I mean, you guys were super small when you started. You worked for a printing company, right, to start. And then in 2013, you kind of went into the pinball world. You were all in. And now you sold out 750 games in four hours. So, I mean, where do you see the end game for you guys? Is there one? Are you just rolling with it as it goes? Or do you have some ideal of where you'd like to end up? I can tell you after moving shops for the third time in seven years, this is the end game. This shop, it's a little bit, our old shop was 60 by 90. This one is 60 by like 109, but it's much higher, so it has two floors. The old one was a single level. The old one had, we had to build a warehouse like two years after we built the main shop because we had nowhere to put games because we had grown that much. Now we actually have, you know, full divided production areas, a freight dock, like a real freight dock, like a real company. Just a quick editor's note. If you can't tell, Charlie is extremely proud of his loading dock. So we suggest if you see him at an upcoming show, please compliment him on it. He'll really appreciate it. It's not that everybody else takes for granted, but, you know, at Spooky, you drive a 1952 Yale forklift and, you know, you make do with what we had in the old place. But, yeah, this is, honestly, it's as big as we want to get. It's not really going to increase the number of games. It's going to increase the quality and the way that we handle everything so everything is more cohesive and coherent and flows better from one end of the building to the other. And, yeah, we're good at 500 games a year. I mean, if you can make a living at that number, then the bigger you go, I've said this a thousand times, the bigger you go, the more people you have to hire. And if things, something like what's happening in the world right now start to happen, I never, ever want to go in that building and tell somebody they don't have a job because we either didn't sell enough games or whatever the case may be. So we're very content. We're happy with our spot in the market. I think we're the only ones that don't go into pinball saying, we're going to knock Stern out. Everybody says, we're going to go big. We're going to be better.
    32:04
    Good luck to you. You do it. But it ain't me. That's not who you want to be. That's a healthy attitude. Well, that's huge. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, Stern is what they are. There's a big fish in this tiny little pond of pinball. And I think it's a bit crazy to think you're going to just go in there and knock them out. But everybody seems to try. Everyone does. But to your point, I mean, right now you guys are being hit by, you know, pinball life's ability to supply you with parts, which is completely understandably slowed down at the moment due to the coronavirus pandemic. But you have to think that a company like Stern that hasn't put out necessarily a press release yet saying that they're stopping production, they're going to be vastly more effective than you guys are in the grand scheme. So I respect that. You're a small-town company. You're hiring people, I think, I guess, that are local and trying to make it work and not have to worry about ever laying people off because of stuff like this. Yeah, the only part-time employees we have are, like, well, my daughter's friends come home from college every summer and help us out. My son is still, well, he was supposed to be graduating high school here in a couple of months, but I guess he's going to be doing that on Skype now. I'm not sure. Yeah, so I asked a lot of people, I told people you were coming on, and I said, hey, if you could ask Charlie Emery a question, what would you ask? And my wife, who is a pinball podcaster, but she's also a third-grade teacher, said, I really want to know how Bug is doing with online classes now. That was her one question.
    33:36
    They haven't really hit that in full swing for high school. He's technically in trade school right now learning computer-assisted design, and he's already been doing that there. Okay. They are going to have some classes, but the classrooms are limited to like 10 people or less for college. But high school, yeah, they're still kind of getting that together right now. And Benton, he's been out for almost two weeks. And what do you do? The last semester in high school is all shit anyway. He's got senioritis right now. Yeah, he just pulled up a woodworking class and all this other dumb shit. He's like, dude, I make playfields and cabinets all day, every day. I don't need that. He's working full-time for us right now because he's got nowhere else to go. So he comes in, and like I said, the last week we've been moving from the old shop to the new shop and doing it in stages. So I had a couple people hit me, oh, this is going to slow Rick and Morty down. No, it isn't. We had all our playfield and cabinet guys get ahead, so they started moving while all the final assembly and inspection guys kept right on working. So my playfield guys are already back to assembling playfields in the new shop while the final inspection guys are still finishing all that stuff in the old. And then probably by the end of this week, it'll all be in the new shop. So we didn't really lose much time at all there. But yeah, obviously the pandemic crisis is a much bigger nut to crack, But we'll keep doing what we're doing until somebody tells us we need to stop. You are obviously neck deep in Rick and Morty production, but recently you announced that you're going to be going into a partnership with Ben Heck and CGC to make a new game. So you're already kind of looking forward to the next thing. So what can you tell us about that, and what are the benefits of linking up with a company like CGC to make something new? That's a very big question. Yes, it is. All right, so everybody that knows anything about the spooky history knows that Ben was incredibly important to helping us get off the ground. His game was the very first. While I was working on Rob Zombie and way behind, he was farther ahead on America's Most Haunted. You know, he's a huge part of our history. And he's kind of put it out there as to sort of what this game is. It started as a spooky project a few years ago. And he got a little frustrated with us because we couldn't tie up the license that he wanted at the time. And we were doing everything we could. And we just, to be blunt, couldn't afford it. And it never sat well with me. I always felt like we let Ben down in that regard. And when he kind of decided, okay, I'm going to take a break. And he walked away. And he just kind of publicly announced, look, I'm not working with Spooky right now. We just parked the game. And I'm like, all right, we're going to wait until we get this right. We're going to wait until an opportunity presents itself. We can either squeeze it in our production or whatever the case may be. And at the same time, Doug Duba and I at CGC and Ryan White and some other really good people that work there, we'd kind of been talking and just helping each other out. I mean, there's no reason on earth, in my opinion, and I know Doug feels exactly the same way, that like pinball companies should be butting heads or fighting against each other. It's, we're not, this isn't like military grade equipment we're making here. We're making toys. and Doug and I had kind of been helping each other and I was taking monster bashes to horror conventions and stuff and people were playing it and we were selling a few games for Doug and he was happy to do it. And if there's a show that we can't make it to, well, you know, hey, throw an Alice Cooper on the truck. We'll take it over. Oh, great. Thanks. This is the way it should be. And it got to the point that Doug was, you know, hey, we don't have a full-on design team, you know, with all the retamed games and stuff. We should work on something together. Do you have anything? And boom, as soon as he said it, yes, I do, sir. And it was a really, really good game, and it really deserves to be made, and could not be happier or more proud of the relationship. And I cannot wait to see where it goes, and I think everybody's really going to freak out when they see what it is and don't want to say any more. Well, I've got a question. It's great to have Ben back. It's great to be working with CGC. Love and respect the hell out of them. Guys, their factory is amazing. They have a lot more capability than we do as far as production, so let's see where it goes. Let's have some fun with it. It's a great way to kind of grow Spooky as a company without having to physically do that. How's that? Right. Even though you are, you are getting a bigger building. Yeah, we are. I got a couple questions on that. Number one, who's going to be doing the art for that game?
    38:03
    That's a great question. And is it actually a dream come true? Is it actually a dream come true? It is actually a dream come true to be a part of this. And, geez, I don't know, Chris. Do you know anybody that's available? Somebody good. I mean, you've got to get somebody good. Yeah, that might be me. Oh, yeah. I did not say Chris is the artist. I just said he's very good and available. Yeah, so that was the cheesy question. But the real question is, I was going to say somebody has said, but I'm not going to do that because whenever this person references when they were mentioned in another podcast, they always go, oh, yeah, that somebody was me, so I'll just say his name. Kaneda said, as far as taking a game that was originally supposed to be Evil Dead and re-theming it, He says he might be a little disappointed that the game was not designed for that particular property. It was designed for Evil Dead. So are there going to be any changes made to the game, or does it really matter as far as fitting this game design into a new IP? As far as what the license was and what it is, it absolutely is going to work 100%. If you saw the layout and knew what I know, you would be like, oh, hell, why was I even worried about that? Yes, changes are being made. Changes are constantly being made. We have access to their engineering department now, so we can focus on the other things. And Ben is going to program the game. Our team is going to animate the game. We're all helping with kind of ironing out the mechanics and then adding more to it now. Really nothing to worry about as far as what it was and what it is. Not even a small hiccup in the themes as far as I'm concerned going from one to the other. It's still going to work like you would not believe. And again, I don't want to get myself in trouble, so I'm not going to say anything. Well, I heard, like, as far as the call-outs. This is what it was and this is what it is. You'd be like, oh, shit, no. As far as the call-outs go, I was told that Bruce Campbell for $10,000 would be happy to do the call-outs, even though it's not Evil Dead.
    40:01
    Never mind. Can I get a contract for that number? Is that a deal? If you've got Bruce's number for $10,000, I'll do that game tomorrow. I do have Bruce's number. I don't have the 10 grand part, but I can hook you up if you want to talk to him. Shoot him a text. Not my experience, but that is the hard part. Actually, do you know who comments on my Facebook page at least once a week? Not Bruce Campbell. Betsy Baker. You know Betsy Baker, right? She was one of the females from Evil Dead, right? Yeah, she was the QB doll. Yes, yes. Hey, Tony. Yeah, yeah. They're all from Michigan, and we're pals. So I think she said once that if she ever got a divorce, she'd marry me. Whoa. So I got that going for me. Yeah. Have you gone to a horror convention and seen the line for Bruce Campbell? Yeah, I stood in it once.
    40:54
    Insane. That man is apparently able to draw a crowd like he's the crew or something. Yeah, I was at a show out there by the airport in Chicago. There was a big Evil Dead reunion where they were showing the movie in the parking lot on a drive-in screen. And the whole cast was there. including Scotty and Ted. Ted Ramey was there, too. So, of course, you know, Bruce was, I think that was right when his first book came out, something about his chin. Yeah. I forget the title of it now, but so, yeah, I waited in line to get his book signed. It was brutal. That's pretty amazing, actually. I would drive in, yeah. Okay. But, yeah, we were at Monsterpalooza out in California on another licensing adventure, and me, Bunyip, and Bugger there, so we're going to Monsterpalooza. And the line for him and Pee Wee Herman were definitely the same thing that I could not have imagined when I walked in there. It was ridiculous. Why was Paul Reubens at a monster con? I don't get that. There's a monster in the playhouse!
    41:57
    A lot of the horror conventions are kind of drawing in more and more pop culture people, because otherwise you get the same people over and over again. So, like, Days of the Dead, we've seen Kathleen Turner there a couple of times now, you know, just stuff like that. John Cusack was supposed to be at the last one, and he stayed in his room and just wouldn't come out. Apparently, we scared him. I don't know.
    42:18
    I can get people. I am not going down there. They are all wearing horror T-shirts and have black hair. What the hell? So, I mean, you guys go to these shows because you're interested in the licenses, right? So you want to try and get a hold of some of these things, which brings me to a question of with Rick and Morty and whatever you're doing with CTC, which I've been told is a commercial license, something that's a big thing. What's your philosophy moving forward? Because I know when you started out, it was it was all horror themes. And now you've kind of worked your way into Domino's and Jetsons and Rick and Morty. Are you going to interspace with with the horror stuff and then do, you know, more more popular themes for lack of a better term? or are you going to just try and, you know, is your philosophy still spooky all the way? You know, it's just running down the list. I mean, America's Most Haunted, we did that because we couldn't afford a license. So Ben came up with this spooky ghost hunter mockumentary kind of thing. It was a blast. I'm a big heavy metal horror, I'm that guy. So Rob Zombie was a no-brainer. I knew he was a pinball guy. I found his licensing agent on the Internet and shot her an email, and within 24 hours he personally called. He's like, yeah, we need to, I want a game, yeah! Sounds like a lot of fun. Yeah! I was like, damn, that worked a little too well. And then as soon as we made the deal with Rob Zombie, he had the same licensing agent as Alice Cooper, and they're like, oh my God, how could you, you know, if you're doing a game for Rob, then Alice is a no-brainer, and I completely agreed. Right. And in between there, it was Adam Gasek, who was one of the guys in the legal department at Domino's. He was the one that wanted to get the Domino's game going, It was for a charity event. We were just kind of starting to get a little bit of traction. So for him to put that much faith in and come in and, I mean, they're basically, he threw a kind of a rough sketch of what he wanted on the play field at me and let us kind of finish it. And again, I mean, guaranteed jobs in this industry are rare. Right. At that point in our lives, it was like, are you kidding? Domino's is going to hire little tiny spooky pinball and Ben Wisconsin to make a game for them. And so, you know, it was guaranteed that we were going to do at least a hundred. and I was like, yeah, let's do it. So off we went. And then from that, Nick Parks at the pinball company kind of had picked up the license for the Jetsons, so he came in and asked us if we would contract manufacture those games for him. We wound up hiring the artist. I had to do the actual, all the CAD work and everything for the play field because they just had assembled one the best they could and brought it up to us. So, and there was no code, there was no anything, so we had to run with all of that. Got through the Jetsons and then I was working on Alice Cooper at the same time, which is, you should never do this, especially with a team that small. That many games that fast is really, really hard. Scott was working on Total Nuclear, and you know, I'd seen it in his garage. I'd played it. It was fun. First time he took it to Expo was a Whitewood. I wish I could. I'm terrible with dates. There was about 15, 20 of us just gathered around playing it, and I started joking with him that night. It was the first time anybody in public had seen it. We should really do this game. And he's like, no, it's single level. Nobody's going to want it. It's just, I made it for me, and it took like three shows of him hauling the whitewood around and just playing it before he's like you know people are really getting fired up about this maybe we should make it i'm like yeah that completely blew up uh wound up doing 550 units being the biggest game we'd ever done and at the same time alice cooper was kind of getting pushed back which bought us more time to get it better kind of polish it up and get it where it needed to be but it was kind of upsetting the Alice Cooper crowd because we had announced it at TPF and then it was almost a year before we actually got to make it. So Alice did fantastic. It's technically sold out at 500 units and then you saw what Rick and Morty did. But other than like Domino's, which obviously is a, it's a game designed for a company, everything is either sci-fi or horror in that lot. Even TNA is kind of a, you know, a futuristic 80s theme. That's where our heart lies. I mean, if you give me a choice of doing the biggest license on the planet or something that I'm completely passionate about. And I know the big game is going to sell tons and the small one is more fun and interesting, but it'll keep us in business and still do okay. I'm going with the one I like. Nice. Because dumb as hell is a business owner. No, but I think your passion and what's guided you has gotten you this far, so why change? Yeah, well, I appreciate that. And Rick and Morty is kind of, that's a no-brainer. It's both. It's science fiction. and it's got great lighting, and it's very funny, and it also has massive appeal to a big, big crowd. So if you can find those, then, you know, I mean, that's obviously great, but how many more licenses are out there like that right now? Beavis and Butthead. I'm talking current, Chris. Hey. Ow. You know, it's just those licenses are hard to find. Me and Chris from Cointaker will pay $10 more than regular price if you make a Beavis and Butthead. Cool. Yeah. I mean, who is in charge of, obviously you're heavily involved, but are you the guy who makes the theme decisions, or is it more of a company decision? Do you just run with what is really interesting to you, or do you throw out some ideas and see what clicks? Man, I don't want to ever be so bad that I'm the guy telling everybody what to do. I can tell you the game after Rick and Morty, I did not choose. Okay. And it's, again, I'm going to get myself in trouble. So it's another new person coming in, helping us out, doing some stuff, somebody that deserves a shot. And I've always said from day one that you all need some new talent, man. We do. And it's kind of a proving ground for that. I'd be completely thrilled with that in the next decade. But, yeah, I did not pick the next license. It was something that I was talked into. And, you know, this person felt extremely passionate about it. So, yeah. Another hot scoop. Yeah. Yeah, so, I mean, you've had great success with that in the past, that philosophy with Scott Denise. I mean, he has done amazing things with TNA, so you're kind of, yeah. So there's someone new who might be coming in with an idea that's similar, or is this a original theme or a licensed theme, or are you not able to say? It's an original license. Yeah, that's a thing. Sure. No, no.
    48:36
    You'll find out eventually. Again, I try not to say too much. That's right. He said it was a license he didn't pick, so right there, the word license. Oh, that's true, man. That's some detective work right there, Franchi. Thank you. There you go. Chris is nice. But, yeah, I mean, it wasn't something that I picked, but I'm glad we're doing it. Very, very glad we're doing it. And this is the CGCE title or something that you're going to do after that? No. Oh, CGCE is the Ben Heck title. Oh, yes. Yes. That's true. And they with all the titles. Sorry, man. You've got to juggle all these titles. Charlie's got so much going on here. My point is that, yeah, I mean, it's technically, it's the company's owned by myself and my wife, but if you don't trust and listen to good people, what's the point? Sure. Now, does KT put her iron in the fire, so to speak, with licenses? Does she help guide any of the production of the games, or is she more on the business side of things? KT was the one who said, you know what we should do for Rick and Morty, because everybody was so good to us? We should put a topper on there. Yeah, KT. So she does get her input here and there, and she does throw licenses at us. she has things that she enjoys and wants to see. More and more these days, KT is working from home and staying out of the noise and the insanity and doing all the book work and the payroll and all that kind of stuff. And Squirrel is, you know, she's, I don't want to say she's younger than her mom, but she is. And she's got that young enthusiasm and she's diving into, like I said, you know, doing the web store and, you know, reorganizing our inventory system to make it better. and hopefully Bug will come along here one of these days and help Dad in the same way and just keeping in the family and the friends and just keep doing what we're doing. Now you've got to bring Ladybug in. Ladybug. She's on the podcast every now and then on the movie site. Bug found the only other girl in southwestern Wisconsin that is as into horror movies as he is. Nice.
    50:26
    Spooky is a company that's very rare in the pinball world in the sense that, you know, So you've always stood out to me as a company that has little drama out there, whereas other companies are always in the news. You guys just kind of go your own speed, and you're always looked at as a company that is full of good people, and you've made great games, and you've just stayed the course with your business and done really, really well over the last couple of years where you started off very small and grown up into a really big company now that is up there with the major players. So that's awesome. Nowadays, after the last year that you've had, nowadays when people kind of run down the ranks of pinball, you guys fall in right under Stern, which is impressive if you consider what's out there. Thanks, guys. I mean, it's very flattering. I never take any of this stuff for granted. If you can see inside my head, I still don't kind of see us as being in that position, but I hope to earn that position one day and really be that good. I think we're getting there. Every game we make gets better. There's still a list of 100 things that we want to improve upon from where we're at now. And you either go into this as a new company with millions of dollars or you do what we did. And, I mean, we started with almost nothing. I mean, literally nothing. And just kind of kill yourself until you get to the point where you get a little bit of traction and then just keep rolling it back in. And that's all we've ever done. We haven't gone crazy. We don't have a guest house in Florida. But, you know, we don't do that kind of stuff. We just keep putting it all back into the business. And we're trying to make sure that we're here for the long haul, first off, make sure that we're as stable as we can possibly be, take care of our employees, take care of our customers, and just, you know, get better at this. Yeah, everything you just said is what endears Spooky Pinball to the pinball community so much, and will keep you guys in business with fans for a really long time. So that's awesome. Know your capabilities. Be honest with people. Right. You'd be surprised these days Okay, now it's time for our past few weeks in pinball Where we tell you guys what we've been up to Our past few weeks in pinball And we'll start off with you Since you are our special guest, Charlie How have your past few weeks been? Yeah, Charlie's last few weeks in pinball Let's see Bought a new shop and started moving Nice Kept me busy Let's see I drywalled Framed Painted Put down some flooring getting rid of some office equipment. It's pretty cool. No, let's see. I playtested the hell out of Rick and Morty nonstop, and when I come home, honestly, I've been, I'll just say it, I've been playing the new Elvira game. I like it. Yeah. Nice. My Star Trek LE for the new Elvira premium, and because it's Elvira and it's spooky and it's weird. Who doesn't want to play Manos, Hands of Fate, in it?
    53:21
    Nice. Where would you rank the Elvira games? What's your favorite of the three, and why? I'm not going to be a dick, man. I honestly think it's fun. I enjoy it. I really like it. If I had to rank them in order, I would say the new one, House of Horrors, and then Scared Stiff, and Party Monsters. And all three of them, I'm looking right at them. They're sitting right in front of me. Oh, that's cool. I think most people would say the same. It's full of spooky pinball machines. Ah.
    53:49
    It really is. Oh, wait, do you have a Monsters? I do not have a Monsters. I'm sorry, Chris. You dick.
    53:59
    The Monsters isn't really... I mean, it's kitschy. It's the code. I know, I know. No, no, no. I'm not saying there's a damn thing wrong with the game whatsoever. Obviously, the art looks beautiful. Yes, thank you. Just, I don't get a lot of new in-box games, dudes. I mean, the last... I've owned three. Spider-Man. I bought a Monster Bash from CGC, and I replaced my Monster Bash original with the remake, and then Elvira here, like I said, I traded my Star Trek LE for a premium straight-up, good friend of mine had it new in box, and said he really wanted my Star Trek, and I really wanted an Elvira. What's Spider-Man? The original start. Okay. I played, well, I mean, the vault and the artwork's changed, but the game's the same, right? Yeah, the layout's the same, but... I love that fucking game so much. Like, I don't know why, but I kick ass on that fucking game. Because it's a Steve Ritchie game, and he knows how to make it feel. Yeah.
    54:55
    Oh, man. I just, like, I could beat Keith Elwin on that fucking game. I'd like to see that, Chris. I cannot. So would I.
    55:04
    But I feel like I could. The Stern game with J.K. Simmons in there doing the voices and stuff, the thing is freaking amazing. I love playing that game. All right, Chris, so tell us about your last two weeks in pinball. What'd you do? You know what? You know, as sucky as it is, you know, with the quarantine and all that kind of crap, the only thing it's prevented me from doing is going shopping because I'm like a shopaholic. I'm my mother's son. You know, my dad's a stingy dude. He doesn't like shopping. He doesn't like spending money at all. My mom's just the opposite, and that's who I spent most of my time with as a kid. So I do miss my every other day trips to Target, But I've had a chance to actually play my pinball games, which is nice. I kicked ass. I got $1,300,000,000 on Batman. I got a grand champion score. I've never rolled a billion on any game before. And that's not an easy game to roll a billion on. Yeah. And I don't have the latest code. I think it's like .88 something.
    56:02
    It's close, but it's not the latest code. But nonetheless, yeah, I figured out a few things. and I watched one of Jack Daniel's streams about it. You know, he usually goes over the rules, especially if you get one of the first ones he does on a game. And I learned a few tips. And, yeah, I just learned to control my game a little bit more. Like, usually I won't spend a lot of time trying to trap the ball or, you know, live catches or anything like that, and I've been practicing a lot of that stuff. So my game has really improved. It's, you know, it's good. It feels good to have something good come out of this shitty, you know, situation. So what's your strat, man? What's your shot? I have to know because I've played Batman 66 in a few tournaments, and the only strategy I know is you pick Shane for the two-ball multi-ball. I know how to get the skill shot pretty consistently. But outside of that, I don't really know a whole lot. So how did you get a billion? Well, what you do is the first thing you do is you roll your jackpots. So when you complete a mode, like let's say you complete Catwoman, once you get it in the scoop, it'll say, you know, okay, here's your jackpot. left flipper if you want to take it, right flipper if you want to roll it. So you hang on to your jackpot. That's number one key. And then, well, there's different ways you can do it, but you can multiply that jackpot while you're continuing to play the ball, and then they're going to ask you, if you get it up in the scoop way up at the top, at the top of the orbit, they're going to ask you to pick a secondary villain. The first one you go for is Mr. Freeze because he's got multipliers and everything, and those multipliers last the entire game, not just that ball. So then you start rolling on top of that. So you pick Mr. Freeze and you clean that out. And then once you start cashing in your jackpots, you know, for capturing Catwoman, they're going to be upwards of about $700 million. They're huge because not only have they been building since you've been playing without taking a jackpot, but they've been multiplying because of Mr. Freeze. So I would go Mr. Freeze and then I'd go Shane and then just kind of pick from there. I don't know. I think I went like Egghead and then Bookworm or whatever. But that's really the only tip I used so far. But that's made a world of difference, you know, hanging on to your jackpots and going to Mr. Freeze first. So, Charlie, what is your non-spooky favorite game? Is there one game out there that is like your dream game?
    58:26
    I've always said that Monster Bash is still my favorite, even though I've made it to Monsters of Rock more times than I can remember. It's not that complicated of a game, but if you're a dude that likes universal monsters, that's kind of, you know, that and Creature from the Black Lagoon. I've got those sitting right next to each other.
    58:43
    Nice. That's one of Chris's dream themes. Are you tired? I love it. It was the first DMD game I ever bought was Creature from the Black Lagoon, and, yeah.
    58:56
    Charlie let do that one I bought that for like and thought What kind of an idiot idiot pays that kind of money for a creature I would pay that now Anyone would. That's a great price for a creature. That was a long time ago. I know I've told this story before, but I was in a bowling league with my dad back in the late 90s, and they literally wheeled one of those into the bowling alley, and I didn't know it existed. And I couldn't even bowl that night because we're in the first game, and this guy's setting up a Creature from the Black Lagoon right behind me. And I'm like, oh, my God, it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Oh, I know. I have like 10 bucks in my pocket, and I'm like, someday I'm going to get enough money, I'm going to buy one. Oh, that's awesome. If this TGC thing goes well, let's do Creature from the Black Lagoon after that, because I want to do the artwork for a Creature from the Black Lagoon game. Do another version of it? Well, I think it's kind of tainted now, considering who designed it. An adult's engagement in sexual behavior with a child is pedophilia. I mean, it's still a beautiful game, but, you know. It is. Let's do a new one. Why not? Right. Thank you. What's your reasoning, cuz? All right. I can buy into that.
    60:13
    I know a lot of people that would want one, though. I can tell you that now. People have asked me, hey, would you be interested in, like, redoing artwork for Cushion Pearl and Black Lagoon?
    60:23
    Somebody just asked me that in this past week, but they asked me if I would do, like, a one-off. And I said, no, because you couldn't pay me enough. It's an expensive job to do, and if you're only doing a one-off, you're rolling all that money into one game. And that's like saying, well, you got 20 grand? You should do kind of what Brian Allen is doing with his translates of games that have already been made and really popular games, and he does alternate translates. I think you would kill a creature from the Black Lagoon alternate translate. That might be the only one I do, but I kind of have a rule against doing that, And I just talked to somebody else about this this week, too. I spent a lot of time talking to people in this quarantine, which is actually kind of nice, getting to talk pinball and stuff with people. And I told them, I said, I personally feel like if I redid a back glass of something that already existed. Oh, they asked me to do Elvira because they really liked the way I drew Elvira. And they said, you know, would you redo it? And I said, no, because to me, it's like a slap in the face to Greg Freres. Right. It's like saying, yours wasn't good enough. I think I can do better. That may not be my intention, but that's the way I feel like I would come off. Like, you know, what a prick this guy is. He's like, you're redoing it. It's better than yours. You know, so I don't want anyone thinking that, so I just kind of tend to avoid it. But Creature from the Black Lagoon is really tempting because I would just play up the whole 3D thing and, you know, man, you know what would be really sharp is a Creature from the Black Lagoon lenticular 3D backlight. Yeah, that would be really cool. But it doesn't have to be a, you know, I'm making this better than yours. I mean, think about how many songs have been covered by other artists. It's just a cover of that translation. I know. Think about it that way. You know, and I'm not saying the reason why I do it is because I think I could do it better. I'm saying I don't want anyone to think that's what I'm doing. That's certainly not my intention. And a lot of it might even be a tribute to somebody. You know, I've done tributes to people in my pinball heart. Like on Guardians of the Galaxy, down at the bottom where the inlanes are, the right and left inlane, And on the left side, there's like the good guy spaceship coming towards the flipper. And on the right side, the bad guys. I don't know. There's a good guy and bad guy spaceship, and they're both coming down the in lanes towards the flipper. And that's a tribute to Paul Ferris because on the Batman 89 game, he had the Batmobile and some other vehicle coming down in the same area. So it's just like my way of like a little call out to like, you know, people that I like. You know, and I'm cool with that kind of stuff, but I'm just, I don't know. If I could put out a back glass with a disclaimer printed right on the back glass, dear artist, this is not meant to offend you. I'm not assuming that mine's better than yours. I just wanted to have some fun with a cool creature from the Black Lagoon or whatever. Sure. We'll see, maybe. There's a reason that Spooky Pinball doesn't review games. It's because we know all these people, and the last thing you want to do is piss off a good person because you don't know why you're slagging on my stuff or why you think you're making better art or whatever. You just want to do that. Well, because, yeah, it's not whether I'm right or wrong, but if somebody redid mine, I'd be like, fuck you. You know? I understand that. What the fuck is wrong with mine, you asshole? You know?
    63:29
    No, it's cool. It's cool that you can see that side of it. The best solution here, Chris, we'll just do another one. Yes, please and thank you. No hologram, though. There you go. We'll just go straight to the second. Oh, man, I would love to. And we'll get Matt from Back Alley on board to sculpt us in this cool black lagoon. And don't forget, second movie is John Ager. What more do you need? Oh, wait. But, yeah, Matt's good with all the rocks and stuff, right? He's the rock man, the castle wall man. So we need to make some lagoon rock formations and stuff. God damn it. I'm getting all excited, and it's not even going to happen. He's good at everything. So, yeah, he can do whatever we need. Yeah. So, anyway, back to my weekend pinball. doing it yeah just happened that's right live on air it's going to be on the pin side in a matter of hours so yeah so to finish up my week my weeks in pinball uh done that like i said talked to some people and all that which was nice and i'm really afraid i'm going to come out of the back end of this thing if i come out of the back end of this thing and i don't catch these cooties uh i'm going to weigh about 150 pounds more because i'm telling you all i've been doing is like walk around the Now it's like, I'm bored. Oh, I'll make something to eat. I've just been eating like insane. I'm going to eat up all my supplies, damn it. Yeah, that's tough, man. You know, one trick that I think is nice is caffeine. Drink a ton of coffee. It's an appetite suppressant, and you have energy, and you're not hungry. It's kind of a win-win. Now you have to drink a lot of water with that so you don't dehydrate. But yeah, coffee. I like liquids with flavor. There you go. All right, so that's my week. What have you done? Well, it's not nearly as exciting as you guys. Just a lot of playing pinball.
    65:14
    Last night was my 11th wedding anniversary, so Mr. Pin and I got dressed up. Happy anniversary, happy anniversary, happy anniversary, happy anniversary. Thank you, thank you. We got dressed up in our finest garb and hung out at home and had some champagne. You dressed up in our finest bio suit. That's right. We had our N95 masks on. We looked great. And then we actually taped our presentation for the Twippies for Jeff Patterson and Emoto and Carrie, and we did our little bit for that, which was a lot of fun to do. I actually forgot to mention that. I did mine as well. Bug and Scott Denise are doing one together, I think.
    65:57
    You're in on that, Charlie? You didn't get in on that? I slid that duty over to Bug and Scott Denise. Nice. You said slid that duty. so we had a good night it was a nice wedding anniversary we actually because of the social distancing that everyone's been doing we decided that 11th anniversary right but we made it special it was fun we we said that because everyone is social distancing we don't want to and we don't really need for anything we decided to bring our kids into it we went out to Rite Aid we each had I had one kid and my wife had the other and we each had 20 bucks and we said okay we're gonna go out and we're just going to get random stuff for presents for the other person. So we picked a bunch of really cool stuff for each other. Cool in quotations, you know, silly things. Wrapped it up. Came home and unwrapped some pretty awesome anniversary presents. I got some chocolate dipped peeps. We got some starbursts and a few other things that were, you know, it made it special. It was an anniversary to remember. It was definitely a unique one. Sounds like the pin kids did a little more of the picking out. They definitely did. My wife ended up with a duck loofah for the shower. So that tells you everything you need to know. I want one. That's right.
    67:14
    Oh, man. That's funny. Yeah. Coronavirus definitely changes your life. But, you know, you can make lemonade out of lemons, right? Yeah. Well, you know, I find it gives you the ability to appreciate the simpler things, if that makes sense. Just like you said, like what you get, one hour, 20 bucks, you get some fun with your kids and all that. You know, it's not all about, you know, I'm sitting here enjoying all this crap that I bought over the years that I don't know why I bought it, but I now have a chance to enjoy it. And I'm just like, wow, you know, I don't need to keep on going out and buying crap. I got a lot of cool stuff here, you know, to have fun with. Definitely slows the pace of life down, which is for the better, I think, for the most part. And then what do you do? Off to the kitchen.
    67:52
    I did make a chocolate cake last night, actually. That is great! Give us a chocolate cake! I'm telling you right now, if this gets to the point where, like, you know, the governor of Wisconsin steps in and Mr. Evers is like, okay, you're shut down for two weeks, I've got, like, 60 horror model kits, and I haven't touched one since I started a pinball company, and I'm dying to get back to them. Actually, that's not true. I've done a couple, but, I mean, it was always just no time to be had. So I want to unleash my Chris Franchi nerdism and just start making a level kit and get back to that one these days. That's funny you mention that because I'm doing the same thing. I don't have kits, but I have a friend who's, like, very well tied into the garage kit market. And they made somebody, Kevin Yeager, sculpted this amazing Vincent Price from Pit in the Pendulum. And it's just his head, but his shoulders go down, and they kind of form that little bricked-in area where his wife, he eventually put his wife into that Iron Maiden sort of a thing. and her face is peeking through the grill at the bottom of the base. It's just amazing. And I'm like, you know what? I've really enjoyed painting kits and doing stuff like that because it was so peaceful and relaxing and it's still creative and fun, but I'm painting somebody else's sculpture, so I don't have to think as hard, which I think makes it more relaxing because you're just painting something rather than having to create it. But, yeah, it's funny you mention that because I was thinking the same thing. Like, I'm going to go out and get a new airbrush and, like, all this stuff. I'm all excited. Yeah, man. I just got into airbrushing a few years ago because of pinball and doing touch-ups and repairs and things and started translating that over to making my model kits look better so they didn't look like they did when I was 12.
    69:41
    Charlie, you started off in the printing world, right? I mean, that was what you did before 2013. So how much of that have you used in your pinball designs? I mean, have you translated that into your work now? Honestly, yeah, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now had my career path not been in the print industry. It's what got me. I started taking what I knew how to do as a graphic artist, and I use the word artist not in the Chris Franchi sense because guys like him and Greg Ferris are just ridiculous to me. I don't know how they do what they do. But, you know, the physical vector, setting, layering, separating, all that kind of stuff, I can do all that all day long. Taking that, and for those who might not know, Um, my first professional pinball work was basically printing back glasses, cabinets, and playfields for Jersey Jack at my old day job. And that's kind of what Ben Heck and I at that time were talking, still doing the kind of custom stuff and doing our own thing. And then, you know, hey, it was like doing all this work. We could use this for commercial production stuff. JGP had hired me to kind of do some work for them through my old job. And the more we started seeing it, it was like, holy hell, we can do this. We can make our own games And so that's kind of how that all started But, you know, I don't regret any of it Yeah, I was fortunate that I was in that industry And between what Ben knew and what I knew We could actually take, you know, physical things And make them look good, so That's really cool I had no idea that Jersey Jack was somehow involved In the origin story of Spooky Pinball Yeah, man, I still have a Wizard of Oz playfield in our shop And everybody that sees it is like, why is that here? And I'm like, well, it's the first playfield I ever got to work on, so Would that be the reason why you and Jersey Jack are the only two people who have butter cabinets? Butter.
    71:29
    I honestly had made a couple of headsides in a smaller scale with the original art because I had access to the art, obviously, before anybody had even seen it because we were getting ready to do the decals. And we had digitally printed them with really, really, really good results and then automotive clear-coated it. and I took it to, I was sitting in a hotel room at Expo with all this stuff hidden under blankets and showing it to everybody, and Jack's like, can we do this? And he's not wrong. It's a giant pain in the ass. It's really expensive.
    72:03
    It's insanity to try to pull that off. So they did it on the original Wizard of Oz games, and they haven't done it since. And I'm like, by the time we got to our second game, actually it kind of came back in a conversation that Terry, Terry does work from Pinball Life and I were having one night and he's like, you want to do some Rob Zombie's cabinet art on that game? It's beautiful. And I'm like, oh man, we should do some butter cabinets. So we did five and they went to me, Rob Zombie, and Terry, who obviously biggest parts supplier, you know, he bought a game and he was going to get something special on his. So we did five of them and they just looked stunning and then that's kind of what brought that back. So now we just offer a really stupidly expensive of upgrading. So my dumb question was actually realistic.
    72:49
    Yeah, there's no reason for these things to exist. They're ridiculous. They're so hard to, you know, we've got to be careful handling them. My guys have to put blankets and everything over the sides and, you know, it's not that they're that fragile, but you've just got to be so careful and just let they are what they are. I'm going to splice all of that back into the interview.
    73:08
    It'll keep people interested, man. You've got a little tidbit here and there about spooky history. Don't edit anything. It's too hard. Who does the editing of your podcast? Because that seems to be the most painful part. And Chris jumps on a grenade for all of that. Is it Bug? Yeah, it's all Bug. He does a little bit of that now. He really enjoys, like, he's getting into video production and stuff through David Van Aspun. He built a house right next to ours. For a book. I'd buy that for a dollar. Yeah.
    73:34
    Well, lots of little more stuff. In the residential section. But, yeah, he's really getting into that end of it. He loves to do the audio and video editing and stuff. He has aspirations of one day making a horror movie with Bunyip. Yeah. Yeah, who knows? That's really cool. We'll be right back. Fuck! Oh! Fuck! Oh!
    74:03
    Guess what? I got a fever. And the only prescription is the super awesome pen. Pinball Show. This show is sponsored by Cointaker, distributor of brand new full-size authentic Stern pinball, Chicago gaming, raw thrills, arcade games, and much more. Also, a full line of dramatic pinball mods, LED flipper kits, speaker lights, custom laser LED toppers, playfield protectors, Valley Williams parts, pinball apparel, and much more. Get the latest releases and glam out your game room with Cointaker. Everything at your fingertips at Cointaker.com.
    74:51
    Get your game on. K-Town presents Pinball Rock. 20s, no push-ups. That's your secret. In the shoes I wore to your court, I see the school flag The dot, dot, dot of the calendar And Bob DeMari, he broke your heart You won't forget The little red shirt Beyond the guess who, Keith Pitney, Paul Ack, and the silhouette Curtis Vance, Freddie Cannon, and the Dinosaur I'm scared, you know what I'll say I know what I'll say Pinball Rock is on and go. Rock and roll. $4.99 from K-Cow. A track case is $6.99.
    75:40
    This is Steve Ritchie with a mouthful of pumpkin pie. You're listening to the Super Awesome Pinball Podcast. Pinball Show. I'm not doing that. Yeah, you are. Pinball Show? That's what it's called. Okay, here we go. This is Steve Ritchie, and you are listening to the Super Awesome Pinball Show. Now, back to our program. Well, it's about frickin' time. I am the God of Hellfire, and I bring you... The Super Awesome Pinball Show.
    76:11
    It's a cool show. All right, we're back, and now a special segment on the coronavirus and pinball. Only here on the Super Awesome Pinball Show. And now, special coverage of Pindemic 2020 with your Super Awesome Pinball News Crew.
    76:38
    That's right, it's our special Pindemic Report and Pinball on the News this week. Of course, that's what everybody's talking about. How a stupid coronavirus can ruin everybody's fun and spoil TPF, son of a bitch. Yeah. Everybody go buy stuff from the TPF website. Thank you, Charlie. Help these people out, would you? Yes. The swag is amazing. The swag bag is epic. Yeah, I have a bit of information that's going to help people out. If you like that design, the armadillo, you know, that like rat pink sort of armadillo playing pinball that I did, go out and buy the shirt now because it's not being reused next year. Ed wants to do something totally new, and I guess he thinks there's kind of like a stigma of using the artwork because of what happened and everything. So if you like the shirt, go get it. Collector's item because you're never going to get it on anything else. That's L.A. now. I mean, you can't find that, and it's going to be not only you supporting TPF, but you're owning a piece of, you know, rarity. You're not going to be able to find that shirt anywhere, or the coin, or the swag. I shared that link on our Facebook page, and, you know, the way I see it, this year's TPF, you can make it up. You bought the shirt. You can be like, oh, I was there. You didn't. That's right. I was perfect that year. What do you know? Epic year. There was no show. I was there. I was totally plastered the entire time. I had a custom Guardians of the Galaxy, took best in everything.
    77:57
    Yeah. Rick and Morty won every Twippy. It did. Yes. No, it won't. I don't think it's actually eligible until now. No, it's not. It's not. I think the rule is that it has to ship the year of the Twippies, right? So I'm not sure that it actually made that cutoff. No, it's close, but that's not. Look, I talked to Jeff about it, and he said, you know, the shipping part is important. needs to ship, but he said also he wants people to get a chance to get out and play it. Right. Because if you don't give, you know, if it's not out on route and people can't play the game or it's not at a show, then it's not really fair. They're going to vote for something else because they haven't played it. So, you know, so I think he's going to go with some sort of like a, you know, either early or mid-December sort of cutoff where, you know, just no matter what the situation is, because like Stranger Things came out in every possible way on that date. Like, here's the pictures, here's the video. It's out on location right now, and it's ready, you know, it's shipping right now. But it still wasn't, it still didn't have enough time to be included. So I think that's the deal with that. Yeah. Well, with being eligible this year.
    79:05
    You got a game worth every 18 months? That's going to happen every other year. That's okay. That's fine.
    79:11
    We're just going to go for a year worth of, you know, crap releases from everyone else, you know. Ricky Moore can stand on his own, man. I mean, that game is only in a few hands right now, and people are raving about it.
    79:23
    The only reason I even have a glimmer of hope that I might win Best Artwork for Monsters is because Jeremy Packer didn't do a game this year. That's where you're going with that. I got you.
    79:36
    Yeah. So, anyway. In the age of coronavirus, what is going on out there in the pinball world? So, we know that everything is closing down. So all of the arcades are closing, all of the tournaments are shutting down, the Stern Pro Circuit, obviously TPF, and some of the other major shows. How are people getting their pinball fix now is the question. That's just it. There's one very cool thing that's happening right now, and it's good for people who are big pinball fans but they don't have the budget of a lot of other pinball fans, is that these people who route machines, they're not making a nickel by having them sit in a closed bar. So they're actually renting these games out. So people who don't have enough money to buy a game can actually, at this time, when they've got a lot of time to spend at home, can rent a pinball machine and have it brought right to their house. It's awesome. What a freaking awesome idea. Honestly, Rent-A-Center has never really appealed to me in any way, but if pinball was on the menu there, I would be all over that. I mean, I've seen $400 a month, $300 a month to own a pinball machine in your house. and that is, I think, a steal because how expensive these machines are, if you can play the heck out of a machine for 30 days, I would be in. Unfortunately, no one in my area is doing that, but a Jurassic Park in your house,
    80:55
    any of the recent releases, any pinball machine really for that would be great. It's a business model that hasn't really been explored yet. Yeah. Even some of the people like Todd Tuckey's got a whole place full of games, and he's got a pretty big crew there too. I don't know that he's doing that, but I know that he certainly can. Right. You know, so. And then you're in Pennsylvania and he's in Pennsylvania, right? Yeah, I should reach out. I mean, I have eight pinball machines in my basement, but I could always use another one. I just think that there's some things, there's some business models that haven't been explored in pinball that I think would be huge successes. One of them is a payment plan through the distributors. Most of the distributors, it's, you know, you pay this huge amount of money, you get the game right away. But most people have to save up for a long time before they can pay that lump sum. If you could pay $200 a month, like a car or something like that, I think way more people would own pinball machines. And then this rental policy, I think, is huge, man. I mean, you can get a pinball machine in your house and maybe even rent to own. And if you decide that you want to give it back, then give it back. But have a couple of months playing a game that you would only get to play at a bar every couple of weeks or a couple of days. I think that's huge. yeah and in the spirit of things since charlie's such a nice guy uh he's gonna rent me his creature from the black lagoon for five bucks a month i don't know i guess the going rate the going rate over there is one dollar right well i do that chris but i'm afraid if you missed a payment i don't know a guy big enough to break your thumb that's right i wouldn't give me time i'll break it myself. I'm getting too old. I just get out of a chair and I break something. Oh, well, that's not actually... Is that something that you would ever foresee as being a viable thing in the future, like a rental thing? I mean, I'm not a business guy in the pinball world, so I don't really know the legalities and the possible downsides of that. I mean, people can break your pin pretty easily, and these are machines that you'd have to come out and fix and that sort of thing. And so I'm sure there's a lot of headaches associated with that. It's definitely something that has been discussed a bit here and there, but I believe that's something that's better left in the hands of distributors. Right. I mean, they know the people in their area. They can deal with any issues that might arise in that situation or just basic maintenance stuff, things like that.
    83:20
    As a pinball company owner, no, I would not do that. But I think it's a great idea. You just do what the U-Haul does. So if you rent a pinball game, you have to buy the insurance, which is like the guy comes out and fixes it because you paid for that insurance. If they don't, you've got to pay for a service call. And then you watch how well they take care of that game while it's in their house if they know they have to pay for someone to come out and fix it. Yeah. No, I don't think people would abuse games that they're not owning. You know, these are machines that, you know, break and are, you know, they're durable, but they're also fragile at the same time, and things go wrong with thimble machines, and you wouldn't be slamming them around, I would think, if you were renting them. You've just confirmed why I don't go bungee jumping. People are like, why aren't you more adventurous? Why don't you do this? I'm like, shit breaks. And I'm not exactly a 75-pound dude here. I'm like, I'm not going to put my life in the hands of some bouncy cord and some spelunkers clip and shit. You know, like people that make shit, the shit fucking breaks. Who is your friend who's suggesting that you go bungee jumping? Because you need to not be a bungee jumping person.
    84:33
    It's just all of this crap, you know. Sometimes we just get into a conversation about some kind of, or, you know, really what it is, I think, is it's always spawned by all these videos of ridiculous shit that you see on, you know, Facebook of guys riding down these crazy trails and mountains on their bike where the trail's like six inches wide. Like, are these people nuts? Like, I'd never do that. And then, you know, sometimes there's just, yeah, you know, people are in some kind of crazy apparatus and the shit breaks and they go flying out and die. And like, you know, oh, what a shame. Like, well, yeah, you know, the shame is the idiot who put his life in the hands of some mechanical piece of shit. You know, like I would never do that. Yeah, I think that's probably a good idea, man. Honestly, though, I mean, there are very few things that you can do if you don't own a pinball machine right now. I mean, so let's think about it. Like, you've got the rental option, but what about virtual pinball? I mean, that's out there. That's how I got back into pinball when I was starting out a couple years ago. Do you guys play that at all? Is that something that, you know, people at Spooky explore, like Pinball Arcade and Zen Arcade? Do you guys get into that, or is it all physical? You know, I've played, like, the VP Cabs games and stuff like that, and I think they're very, very cool, but just I love the real stuff. There's no substitute. Right. I've tried playing the tablet games and things like that, and it's cool. It's great for learning rules and stuff like that, but I love to tinker. I love the real stuff in front of me. Right. How about you, Chris? Have you played it? No, I want to play Multimorphic. I've not played that yet, especially that new heist thing that just came out. It looks amazing. Plastics in that game are incredible, aren't they? Whoever printed and cut did a really good job. Yeah, I do.
    86:14
    Did you do this? Drew, you've got to get in your grandstand and you're hot-dogging, don't you? We try to help everybody. Jimmy's a really good dude, and I wish him nothing but the best. He's a creative genius. He really is. I mean, from a guy who grew up playing video games, and pinball rarely, but mostly video games, I mean, the P3 is a pretty happy marriage of the two, and I think Heist, this new game, is the coolest of the properties that he's come out with. I mean, it just seems like a really cool way to make a deep game, lots of different rules, lots of different modes, and it just seems like a story-based game, which a lot of people want. I think the video play field just makes for a very unique experience that hasn't really been taken off yet, but do you guys think this will be the game that opens that door? It's going to be the game that gives me motion sickness. I know that. Because that whole lower part with the city moving, I just watched a video of it on my phone, and I'm like, you know. But, you know, I don't have a tolerance for that. So that's on me. You know, I'm a little more susceptible to being carsick and stuff like that than most people. So that might be the downfall for me. I think, honestly, Jerry, Multimorphic, they're the ones that are actually advancing pinball. But it's a bit of an uphill battle to get traditional pinball guys to give it a chance. I mean, it's the reality of the situation, but I think it's creative. It's beautiful. It's fun. Chariot Pinball Life has P3 games sitting in there, so I've gotten to play Lexi Lightspeed and Cosmic Kart Racing and all that kind of stuff. I think it's very, very cool. But it's still, to a lot of the hardcore guys, you hear them talking about it and stuff, and they feel it comes off as a bit of a novelty, you know, which Pinball 2000 took those kind of hits when it first came out. I don't know. I guess I'm more accepting. I think it's very, very cool, and it's neat to see somebody really push the envelope a little bit farther than, you know, what the rest of us are doing. Yeah. No, I would say for this one more than anything else that P3 has done. I mean, the theme, I think it's always, I've always been into whodunit because of the crime noir theme. I think that's really cool. You get to solve mysteries, and this is kind of right in the same vein that the mech is awesome with That crane moves side to side and actually extends out And the video screen just opens up a ton of possibilities that I think I don think pinball has ever really seen before Like there was a mode with a woman hanging over laser beams and you had to shoot certain shots to lower her down to steal a diamond or something, and then to deactivate the lasers. And it was all happening on the video screen on the play field. So that was very novel. I mean, that was something I think just kind of explores the possibilities of what that system can do. And if you have a theme that has a really good story, that might be the magic mixture that this company needs. I think this game more than anything else would sell systems. So I hope Jerry is successful. He seems like a really good guy. He seems like he is trying to push the envelope, and this seems like a game that might do it. I agree. Same here, man. All right, well, another thing that I've been able to do while this whole quarantine thing is going on is, you know, give a shout to some pinball podcasts that I've been listening to that, you know, in the past haven't really had time to or didn't really realize was out there. And I've got to tell you, one of my favorite new podcasts to listen to is the Poor Man's Pinball Podcast with Drew and Ian. Have you guys listened to that one? I have. It is an X-rated podcast on Fridays. Oh, yeah. You definitely do not want your kids in the room, but it is. These guys are hilarious. They seem like the guys who used to hang out in my frat in my college days. They do not. They've been in the spooky shop, and I've been on their podcast. I didn't know it was X-rated. Oh, my gosh. I think their standard podcast isn't, right? It's just their fucking Fridays. Yeah, what they do is they used to just do their weekly podcast, and they were like us. They used to swear words and stuff, but nothing too bad. But what they started to do, one week they were on a roll, I guess, so they finished their show, and then they recorded a second show, after they got hammered recording the first show. And they just started making that a thing. So even though they split it up now, like their show comes out on Wednesday and then Fuck It Friday comes out on Friday, Fuck It Friday was actually recorded right after the Wednesday show. And they just throw it out as a separate show because, you know, they've been drinking through the whole show, so they're hammered through the whole Fuck It Friday show, which is hilarious, the topics they get on. It's just, yeah. So check that out, Poor Man's Pinball Podcast. This is definitely worth a listen. those guys are hilarious. And I'm actually disappointed because I was supposed to present an award at the Twiffies with, uh, with Drew, uh, from, from that show. And because the show got scrapped, we now we're all doing our presentations like by video individually. So it's, I'm kind of bummed that I could do that. We had something pretty funny planned where I was going to give him a big kiss because he's got a, I don't know. One of the two has a man crush on me and they talk about it like every episode. So I said, Wouldn't it be funny if we came out and we both looked uncomfortable and I mentioned something about the man crush. I'm like, I listen to your show. You know, I know all about that. And then just, like, laying down like a gone with the wind kiss, you know, where you bow him backwards. Chris, you always have to have a Jerry Springer moment at the Twiffies. It's just that has to happen. Yeah, I told him. It's like it's the Madonna thing, you know. Like, when Madonna's getting a little bit old, she's got to be relevant. She's going to, like, plant a big wet one on some, you know, young pop chick. Right. This will just be our Madonna moment.
    91:53
    Oh, boy. Son of a bitch. Well, we can all imagine it in our minds, and it's beautiful. Yeah. You're imagining the wrong thing. No, I think that there are some really good podcasts out there, and kudos to everybody who's doing them because in a time like this when everyone's stuck at home, it is awesome to escape into a pinball podcast. So, you know, it's free entertainment. No one gets anything out of making a podcast. so thank you for doing it. I voted for Lauren Gray as Rookie of the Year. She puts out some awesome stuff with her Backbox Pinball podcast.
    92:29
    Oh, I just hit that one. Yeah, that's right. They were on there. They had a great episode. She's really focusing on the women in pinball, which I think is an underrepresented scene in the pinball world and the podcast world especially, so I think that was a really great episode, and she's just doing awesome stuff with her podcast.
    92:48
    You know, the tried and trues, the slam tilts, the pinball profiles, and some of the new guys that are making waves like the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast, they are awesome. And I've been talking to Scott a lot. He's a super good guy. So, you know, there's a lot of good stuff out there. Is Scott the guy who went down to, like, Venezuela or something to fix the cleft lip? Cleft palate, yeah. He's an anesthesiologist like myself. We've been talking a lot about the coronavirus and what it's like in the hospital and how we're coping with the new patients that are coming in with coronavirus and that sort of thing. So he's a good dude both in the pinball world and the medical world and just in general. Oh, and they sent me a Loser Kid toot, by the way, so thanks for that, guys. I wear it proudly. Nice.
    93:32
    I love toots. Being a follicly challenged human, toots, especially in Wisconsin, they are amazing. You heard that, Scott. Send Charlie Emery a Loser Kid hat. He will wear it. They're probably wondering, like, how did we end up being the podcast that's got to give out the free fucking hats all the time? I'm not. Like, nobody's paid for these. Probably like, you know, dude, you make like twice as much as me. I got to send you a fucking hat? What the hell? No, no. Sorry, I'm going to send you some money. I feel bad now. I'll just send him a hat. Well, we don't make hats. I'll send him a shirt. Well, if you send me one, I'll send them a spooky one in exchange. Oh, nice. With or without the ball on the top. I am confident enough to wear the ball on the top, but everybody makes fun of me. You know, what's funny is they have beanies that are just like that. They have balls on the top. Yeah, mine does not. That's the ones. I went for the Sands ball model.
    94:23
    So with the coronavirus out there, you know, obviously pinball podcasts are awesome, but how is this affecting the industry? So we've talked to Charlie about how Spooky is getting hit. You know, we had Deep Root who didn't do their big five days of Deep Root reveal. I mean, that was a big hit for them. Was it? Do you think they were happy that it didn't happen?
    94:44
    It seems like every time something comes along and if the show doesn't get canceled, their plans do. Is this buying them more time? I don't know. I mean, it's definitely doing that. But I heard they're ready to reveal something, right? Well, I heard it wasn't going to be much. And that's not a fact, obviously. You know, you hear what you hear. Of course, you know, I'm sure Robert Mueller will go on a podcast somewhere else and go, I heard furniture, and he said we didn't have much to show, and I don't agree with him, but that's all I'm going to say. Whatever. Yeah, I think it potentially, you know, teased a lot of plans. You know, we don't know whether Jersey Jack was going to show Guns N' Roses. We don't know if Stern was going to show anything. Even CGC, you know, they're rumored to be coming out with Cactus Canyon next, And, you know, there were people talking about, you know, that might be shown. You know, everything got trashed. So, you know, we're probably going to be locked down for another month at least. And what's coming up? What's it? The next show is Expo or is North, the North West? Yeah, I'm not sure. Expo is in October, so I don't know if that, maybe that will be the next one that actually goes. But, Charlie, from a business standpoint, and you can, obviously you can defer from this question if it's too sensitive. But, you know, from a company that makes pinball machines in this environment with the coronavirus and obviously the manpower force being significantly reduced, what do you feel is the best marketing move? I mean, you've already revealed your games and sold them, so you're in a great spot. But if you had a game that was in the wings that you were about to come out with and show to the world, is it a good time now? I mean, I feel like on one hand, people are at home and want to play pinball because they have nothing else to do. But on the other hand, people may be conserving money and not wanting to spend, you know, during an uncertain time with the markets crashing and everything like that. So do you have a feel for what companies would do in this standpoint? I mean, it's such a hard question because it's, you know, I'm asking you to speak for all these different companies. But what do you feel personally? I'm going to speak honestly. And this is just my opinion. This doesn't I don't know things. I don't whatever. I would be absolutely terrified right now if I was not sitting in the position that we are where our game had just sold out you see a company like American just introduces Hot Wheels and now you've got no place to show it and you need to sell these games like if I had to go and we've been in this position every year but this year if we had to take games to shows and push them and sell them it would be an incredibly scary time I really hope that, you know, people just have the patience and the confidence that, you know, we're not going anywhere. Pinball's always going to be a part of, you know, if you're into this, you're not going to stop loving it because this virus screwed up the show schedule. But what's everybody going to do? I mean, CGC is fine. They're going to have, you know, they still have a bunch of games that they can make and move. and maybe this pushes back a reveal or something, like you guys had mentioned that the rumors of the games that they have coming out, they're fine. Stern is obviously fine. They've got how many games at one time that you can actually just call up and buy. So I'm sure they've got some inventory. They'll be fine. JJP, you know, they've got, you can buy a Wonker, you can buy,
    98:02
    well, you can't buy Pirates, but you can buy everything else pretty much. So I think they're fine. Obviously, this is going to push back Eric's game. Can't wait to see what he's doing. But for the startups and the smaller companies, yeah, man, this is a bit of a scary thing. And, you know, what do you do? We were scheduled to go to Texas with nothing to sell. Great position to be in. We were going down there with Rick and Morty just to have a good time and watch the excitement build and come out and see what, like you said, you guys were talking about Deep Root, see what they were going to do, see what everybody was going to do. And it was a great position for us to be in. But right now, everything we've had is canceled.
    98:42
    Game delivery is going to Justin Roiland and stuff. In California, we can't do any of this stuff. And it was multiples that we were going out there to do. And it was going to be a really cool experience. It was going to be a neat trip. The next thing we have scheduled that hasn't been canceled is the Northwest show, which we've never been to. And I'm really looking forward to it. But as we all know, that area of the country has really been hit hard. so you don't want to speculate what's going to happen there but man it's rough it's really rough as a manufacturer to be kind of sitting here looking at what's going on and not knowing and uh again you know jersey jack has said it many times nobody needs what we're doing nobody this is a product that is built for fun they're big expensive toys we're we're glad that people love them as much as we do but uh i'm just hoping for the best i don't want anybody to lose anything. I don't want to see any jobs go away. I don't want to see any companies go away. I want to see everybody, you know, and if pinball has anything going for it, this community is pretty amazing and I think you're going to see a lot of love and support when people can start going back to shows again and they're going to be desperate to get out there and just have fun and do what we love to do and looking forward to it. Speaking of jobs, here's something interesting. Jersey Jacks pulling up stakes and moving just down the street from Stern. Well, if Stern shuts down their line, does that make it easy pickings for Jersey Jack to pick up an experienced work crew? I feel like if Stern shuts down their line, it's because they don't want to expose their workforce to the risks, which I think Jersey Jack would do the same. I don't think it would be, you know, I think they'd all be in the same spot. They're all stuck. I mean, nobody's going to. It's essential manufacturing only in Illinois right now, and as far as I know, pinball is sadly not essential. Right. So if JGP is going to Illinois, they're not going to be able to do anything either. So that's what I understand anyway. The point is there's a workforce sitting on their hands right now. Yep. So, you know, what's to stop, you know, JGP from going to these people and going, hey, you know, we're going to be starting up eventually and we need some people. You know, what are you making? Right. Yeah, I mean, from a recruiting standpoint, it might not be a bad time. It's just, you know, you're not going to be able to put them to work right away. Well, actually, not only that, but what about people like, you know, and not that one person's more inclined to do it than the other, but just to throw out a name so that you understand what I mean. What if, like, you know, Drew's dad goes, hey, John Borg, we're working down the street. You know, you live close by. You could just drive here instead of drive there. We'll give you $10,000 more. It could happen. I mean, they're in a good spot now because all of the pinball industry, you know, a lot of the big heavy hitters are there. So from a recruiting standpoint, they're in a great spot. Now, whether people will jump ship, that remains to be seen. They're going to have to incentivize. I mean, CERN is a tough place to leave just because of their volume. If you're a game designer and you have lots of games being made every couple of months, there's no better place to be versus a company that's only going to make a game every two years or whatever. So they're going to have to sweeten the pot, but they're in a good spot to do it geographically now. Yeah. We'll have to see what happens. Lots of exchanging of personnel has been happening lately and always has been in the pinball world, really. Pinball poach 2020. Yes.
    102:13
    Okay, and that's going to wrap up our special report on the pin-demic that is the coronavirus, and we're going to move on to much more pleasant things. Coming up this Saturday, March 28th at 8.30 Eastern on YouTube, the 2019 Twippy Awards, and we're going to have a little preview of that show and what we can expect to see. I think this is the one highlight of the quarantine.
    102:36
    It really is. I mean, I remember last year the Spooky Team was all backstage, and you were there with Scott Denise, and I know you guys were a big part of that. I'm sure you would have been there this year. Charlie, are you going to be watching? Oh, for sure. I'm so excited for this, man. You know, I was really bummed out that TPF closed, obviously, and I was worried that the Twippies would be a casualty. But it powered through, and Emoto and Kerry and Jeff Patterson have been working really hard to make this happen, and I think it's going to be awesome. They've got lots of cool video and video assets. They've got all the presenters to send in clips. So it's going to be a great show. Well, yeah, it's going to be amazing because, you know, let's not forget, that's how the Twippies got their start. It was a live video show for the first one. That's right. So I think this one's going to be just improved tenfold with everything they have planned. Because, for example, I know that we're doing the video presentation, so it's not just going to be two people sitting there, but they've got people from the whole pinball industry coming in and doing their little bits throughout the show. So you'll be able to see different faces and people's sense of humor, I'm sure. Mine's not straightforward too much. we wouldn't expect anything last man yeah but it's it's fun it's you know it's going to be exciting to see how god we've all been it seems like forever like since the voting ended doesn't it like it does well god i'm nominated for the monsters that's a year and three months old so you know we'll see i've got my fingers crossed hopefully it'll be nice you know like i said you know no jeremy packard this year so my chances are better listen man i'm sure you have some It's not a lot of shelf space because of all of your Funko Pops and all of your movie memorabilia, but hopefully you have a little space on there for a twippy. I have not won an award since high school of any sort. The closest I ever got was I won album cover of the month for Stuff Magazine, and that was back in, like, I don't know, 2005 or something. It was an album cover I did for Warrant, the Cherry Pie guys. Wow. You know, Stuff Magazine, who is kind of a hit. They're not around anymore, but they were like a playboy without the nudity. Yeah, they were like Maxim Magazine. It was like the sister company of Maxim. Yeah, yeah. It was like just a hit men's magazine. And, yeah, I won album cover of the month in there, which was pretty impressive. I was happy with that. So it wasn't really an award, but, you know, last time I got an award, like I said, was in my senior year of high school. So I got plenty of space for a fucking trophy. You know, the only trophy I have is the one that you and Mrs. Penn sent me. Oh, nice. And it's sitting on my desk right here. That's awesome. My little niece came in and she goes, what's the trophy for, Uncle Chi Chi? And I said, that's a trophy I got from some really good friends just for being a cool dude. I was just going to say, it's an awesome dude trophy. Yeah, just because you're the best. So, yeah, I'm hopeful. We'll see. There's a lot of stiff competition out there, as there is every year. Yeah. We'll know. But I'm excited to watch. I'm excited that, you know, we lost our chance to see all of our pinball friends, and so we're going to get a chance to, you know, see them all in one night on one show. So it'll be fun. Super fun. I'll be plugged in. We'll be watching some champagne ready to toast your win if hopefully that happens. I want phone calls. If I win, I want phone calls to congratulate me because nobody calls me otherwise other than my parents. I guess I have to give up my phone number then, wouldn't I? Shit, I don't want to do that.
    106:05
    Just call him. Yeah. Hey, Chris, is that something you really want out there? No, I'm cutting it out of a show, but that was a funny joke.
    106:15
    I should leave it in there out of context, but you were like, what the fuck is Charlie talking about?
    106:22
    He has all our Twippies, and he's not eligible this year, so we have no chance. But you guys did pretty well, didn't you, with TNA? He did, yeah.
    106:33
    So you didn't keep any of those? No, no. Scott takes all the... It was his game, man. I'm not taking his trophies. I got to earn them. That's cool. Well, you guys did earn them. I mean, you made that game a reality, so you definitely had a part to play. A big part. Vinicore is probably going to call me up and go, hey, I need that trophy. That's right. Son of a bitch. Can't stop my trophy this year, Frenchie. Christian has convinced me. I'm calling Scott as soon as I get off the air here with you guys. I'm telling him I want one of those at least. Hell, yeah. How many did you win last year? It had to be more than three or four. I honestly don't remember I think it was three I know he got Sound and Lights and he should have I'll tell you guys my clever idea for what my presenting video was going to be, what the original plan was, it was before all this shit happened and kind of spoiled it on the heels of the no pun intended trophy stomp from last year I figured I've got to try and one up that somehow what am I going to do and the theme of that was the jealousy thing I'm like, well, if I can't have it, I'm going to break it. You know, that was the whole idea. And so this year what I was going to do was like, you remember at the end of Benny Hill when, like, they had those little skits where they were going playing real fast motion and he'd end up having a bunch of people chasing him through a soccer field or something, you know, high speed. Yeah, I was going to do a high speed video with that same Benny Hill music. And it was going to be one of those doorbell cameras. That was going to be the view for the entire thing. and a FedEx truck pulls up and the guy comes out and he sets on the porch a big box that says fragile twippy inside and then he runs away and then I come up like one of those you know package stealing videos you know and I stick my head out of the bush from one side and then from the you know the garage wall on the other side and from the ceiling of the porch you know down and eventually I sneak up and take the trophy and I end up tripping and falling or something and I can't remember how I got back to it, but somehow I got back to putting the package back on the porch and running away. And when I put it back on the porch, I put it backwards because the placement of the box was like right in front of the camera, but you can see off to the side what was going on. You know, like the box was off to one side. So you had the box in camera and what was, you know, the antics going on in the background. So when I put the box back, I set it in the same spot, but the box is backwards and on the back of the box that says, and the nominees are dot, dot, dot. Oh, that's cool. That's really cool, actually. Why did you do that? You know, the main reason was because I knew I wouldn't be able to get a FedEx driver to do it and this bullshit going on. Right. You know, and if I told him, I said, here, take this box. I'm not touching that box, you know.
    109:13
    Like, I just need you to come, you know, and I just knew, like, any other day, it would have been fine. But with this going on, it would just be too much to ask somebody to do. And so I didn't want to get it all set up and then find out. And that's another thing, too. It's like you'd have to, like, I'd have to be in the perfect location where, you know, you had, like, the view off the porch was in this, like, you know, I knew some friends that live an hour away that have the perfect scenario. But then I have to sit there and wait for the FedEx guy to come by. And then when he comes by, I've got to go, can you back your truck up and then pull it forward? You know, just a big mess. I thought it was a great, you know, funny concept, but just too difficult to execute in these times. So anyway, there's a little sneak preview behind the scenes of what should have happened. So that wraps up the Twippies. Don't forget, Saturday night at 8.30 Eastern, March 28th on YouTube. And this is on Cary Hardy's channel. It's spelled C-A-R-Y-H-A-R-D-Y. Cary Hardy's channel on YouTube for the Twippies. Find out if I win for Best Artwork. Yay! Hope so.
    110:15
    So now we're going to talk about our new contest because that's what we do. We get cool shit and we give it away. Holy giveaways. And for our new contest, we have supplied to us from Mr. Brad Albright, who's a very cool illustrator. I'm sure you're familiar with his work on the Led Zeppelin homebrew game. He's given us this really cool, I don't even know how to explain it. It's a wall-hanging plaque sort of thing, but it's in 3D. He does this artwork and he cuts it out in a laser cutter in pieces in particular sections, and then he stacks them up. We put a video on our Facebook page. And so it's got a guy playing. It's like a Texas theme, and it's got like a cowboy sort of dude playing pinball and like a woman sitting in a chair. And if you look at it, it looks three-dimensional because of the way he builds up the layers on it. It takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of materials. And Brad was kind enough to offer us this to give away. And if you want to check it out and other cool stuff, I just bought this really cool thing from him. It's just a pinball machine, but he's got like these colored lights in it, and you can set it in different ways to blink and, you know, to fade in, fade out, and all that. It's like this retro kind of pinball machine. It's really cool. Can't wait to get that. It's super cool. Brad did the TPF poster from last year, which is 3D. So it's a poster, but you have to wear glasses to actually really appreciate it. And it's all in three dimensions. It's got, like, UFO that's kind of abducting a pinball machine up into its laser beam. And it's really, really cool. I have it hanging in my basement. And he does a lot of other cool stuff. He did a Rick and Morty 3D piece that was awesome. and he does all sorts of stuff, Christmas ornaments. Check out his site. It's awesome. I have several pieces of Brad's artwork, actually. He even sent us a Christmas card last year. Yeah, super cool dude. His website is albrightillustration.com, and you can check out his cool stuff there. He's got art prints and these laser-cut wood sculpture wall-hanging type things and all that. Like I said, there's a video and a picture that shows you what you will win. If you are the winner, and I know what you're asking, how do you win? Well, since Charlie's our guest, we're going to ask Charlie to come up with a clever, spooky-type trivia question. And he's going to give that to you in a second. But I'm going to tell you that we are going to take the first correct answer posted to our page. There will be a special post on our page that says, please post your answers here. And the first correct answer posted will be the winner. So take it away, Charlie. All right. I've put a little thought into this. and if you are a spooky pinball historian you will know that our second game Rob Zombie's Spook Show International was intended originally because we couldn't afford a license to be an original themed game what was the title of that machine and we still have it there's one in existence and Charlie's going to give you that one game as well as an additional prize right? no not so much Yeah, yeah. As a bonus, here's a Super Bear collector's item. Oh, history. Someday we're going to finish it and put it in our little spooky office museum. So there you go. There's your question. All you've got to do is go to our Facebook page right now, and you'll see where to post. Put your answer in there. The first correct answer will win the fabulous prize. Very nice.
    113:30
    Did you see that thing I put on my Facebook page, the disco dance machine? You know, this is what I'm doing in my downtime, and it's got this little kid. It's like a kid's dance party. They film these kids dancing, and they film this little boy picking up the microphone and singing. And these little six-year-old girls are doing disco dancing and shit. And they're like, well, we need a soundtrack here. You know, apparently some kid was not available. So they had a song where it was just this cheesy disco music, and, you know, some band was going, disco, disco, disco dance machine. and what they did was they just had like they just called some fucking dude in and he sang in falsetto and he's supposed to be the kid's voice so when the kid starts singing you hear this come in like disco disco disco dance machine it sounds so stupid like nice end of it it's record not included yeah Disco, disco, disco dance machine.
    114:32
    Disco fun for all. The disco dance machine comes complete as shown. Record not included. I like that song. I want that song. I would have bought that for that fucking record.
    114:44
    Well, what about Jeep Masters? You get a karaoke disco machine and you don't get one record. Yeah. To stand there and sing to his friends. And not only that, but the song was something that they made up. So there's no royalties like they're paying Donna Summer or some shit. It's just some shit studio musicians. Oh, man. We need a fucking Friday podcast. Yeah, I know, right? On all the outtakes. Charlie, you have been a freaking trooper, man. Two and a half hours. Thank you so much for joining us for this shit show that we call the Super Awesome Timbal Show. And it's been a lot of fun talking to you, man. It can't be a shit show if it's super awesome. That's right. There's a pound bite. Whoa.
    115:28
    Have a good night, gentlemen. This has been a hell of a good time, as always. All right. Everybody stay safe. Stay clean. Wash your hands. Don't touch your face. Stay inside. Don't think that you're like fucking the bionic man And you're going to outrun the cooties If you go out there you're going to get it And you're going to get your friends and family stick And we don't need that Just stay inside and this shit will go away That's all you got to do Don't prolong it Just stay inside It's not that difficult Work off Work at home Yeah so there you go Thanks for listening This is episode number six Of the super awesome pinball show again Thanks Charlie for joining us We had a fun time We're going to have to have you on again Absolutely Maybe next week. Meantime. Maybe next week. That's what you're supposed to say. Oh, my back hurts.
    116:16
    Yeah, I think I might catch the coronavirus next week. All right, everybody. Stay clean, and we will talk to you next time on the Super Awesome Pinball Show. Goodbye. See you guys. Bye. If you'd like to drop us a line or ask a question, we can be reached at superawesomepinball at gmail.com. Questions or comments may be read on the air. The original content of this podcast is copyright 2020 Asshat Radio Productions. The commentary and opinions here by the cast and guests do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the sponsors, Cointaker, Chicago Gaming Company, and Back Valley Creations. Their sponsorships of this show only serve to add to their continuing support of the pinball community.
    117:06
    Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies. It's the bathroom. To the bathroom. Okay, bye-bye now. Bye-bye. Bye. Bye-bye. Later, kids. Goodbye, goodbye, good friends, goodbye. Is this over? No, I say it's over! Bye-bye. Goodbye. Good day, sir. Get the fuck out of here. I gotta go. I'll see you later. Wait a... Okay, okay. Show's over. Bye-bye. Hasta la vista, baby. Hey, you fucking chalupa suck.
    117:52
    Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here? I'm not opposed to signing boobs.