Drinks with Jack Featuring George Gomez (Part 2)

Stern Pinball·video·8m 0s·analyzed·Jan 9, 2026

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.020

TL;DR

Gomez discusses hands-on design philosophy and Spike 3 roadmap features.

Summary

George Gomez, Stern Pinball's Head of Product Development, discusses his hands-on design philosophy developed while working in his garage on a development cabinet that birthed Lord of the Rings, The Sopranos, and Batman: The Dark Knight. He emphasizes the importance of physical iteration and CAD work, and outlines upcoming Spike 3 features including HDMI output, wireless headphone support, improved sound systems, sleep mode, and modular scalability that will make Spike the dominant pinball hardware platform globally.

Key Claims

Lord of the Rings, The Sopranos, and Batman: The Dark Knight were all developed in Gomez's personal garage cabinet
high confidence · Gomez directly states 'Lord of the Rings was was birthed in that cabinet. The Sopranos, Batman, the Dark Knight.' in response to Jack asking if he created games for Stern in that cabinet
Spike branded games will eclipse WPC95 as the largest footprint of hardware in pinball history
high confidence · Gomez: 'Spike branded games in the near future will be the largest footprint of hardware in the world for pinball machines. It will eclipse WPC95. It will eclipse every other system exponentially.'
All Access program is launching with new features including home leaderboards and free shipping at a very low price point
high confidence · Gomez states 'today we launched a new version of All Access for a very small amount of money. You're going to get home leaderboards and free shipping and a bunch of other things.'
Spike 3 backward compatibility with Spike 2 is impractical due to infrastructure differences (backbox, panel, speakers, power distribution, cabling)
high confidence · Gomez: 'The thing about backward compatibility on Spike 3 is that it's really imp it's it's kind of impractical from the standpoint that there's a lot of infrastructure that has to go with it.'
Spike 3 features include HDMI output, wireless headphone compatibility, improved sound system, sleep mode, quiet power supply, and modular scalability
high confidence · Multiple statements from Gomez detailing Spike 3 features: HDMI, wireless headphones, sound system upgrades, sleep mode, quiet power supply

Notable Quotes

“You have to work every piece of the medium, right? So yeah, you can spend time in your CAD system. You got to sketch stuff. You got to build stuff. You got to try stuff. That's really the only way you're going to get to amazing.”
George Gomez @ ~6:30 — Core design philosophy statement emphasizing hands-on iteration as essential to creating great games
“Lord of the Rings was was birthed in that cabinet. The Sopranos, Batman, the Dark Knight.”
George Gomez @ ~3:15 — Reveals the origin workspace for major Stern titles, establishing Gomez's hands-on development approach
“I literally worked in my garage and so um I would go to my garage and I would and and of course I had because I had a real job I would work intensely on the pinball machine for like the weekend, right?”
George Gomez @ ~2:00 — Illustrates Gomez's early career balancing day job with intensive weekend development work
“Spike branded games in the near future will be the largest footprint of hardware in the world for pinball machines. It will eclipse WPC95. It will eclipse every other system exponentially.”
George Gomez @ ~18:30 — Major strategic statement about Spike's market dominance trajectory and historical significance
“You don't have to turn your game on and off every time. Um, it's, you know, and so, um, you know, you save energy and it's just more convenient. You don't have to go through the boot cycle.”
George Gomez @ ~26:00 — Details Spike 3's sleep mode feature and quality-of-life improvements

Entities

George Gomezperson Jack DangerpersonStern PinballcompanySpike 3product Spike 2product All Accessproduct

Signals

?
business_signal: Stern positioning Spike as the dominant pinball hardware platform in history, expected to eclipse WPC95 and all other systems exponentially in installed base
high · Gomez: 'Spike branded games in the near future will be the largest footprint of hardware in the world for pinball machines. It will eclipse WPC95. It will eclipse every other system exponentially'
?
community_signal: Stern launching All Access program with grandfathered early adopter benefits demonstrates commitment to customer loyalty and retention
high · Gomez: 'anybody who's had it, who's already in All Access, is getting grandfathered in' and 'Those guys are getting, you know, those guys, it's a deal for them. You are an early adopter, so we're going to hook you up'
?
design_philosophy: Gomez emphasizes iterative, hands-on design process combining CAD work with physical prototyping and testing as essential to creating excellent games
high · Gomez: 'You have to work every piece of the medium... sketch stuff... build stuff... try stuff. That's really the only way you're going to get to amazing'
?
product_strategy: Spike 3 roadmap includes wireless headphone compatibility, upgraded sound system kits for Pros/Premiums, and HDMI output capabilities in active development
high · Gomez discusses multiple Spike 3 features: 'wireless uh headphone compatibility that we're doing,' 'the sound system is amazing,' and detailed HDMI capabilities
?
technology_signal: Spike 3 backward compatibility with Spike 2 deemed impractical due to infrastructure differences (backbox, panels, speakers, power distribution, cabling), limiting upgrade path for existing owners

Topics

Design Philosophy and Hands-On DevelopmentprimarySpike 3 Features and Technical SpecificationsprimarySpike Platform Dominance and Market StrategyprimaryAll Access Program Launch and FeaturessecondaryBackward Compatibility Limitations between Spike GenerationssecondaryHardware Evolution and Modular Architecturesecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.85)— Gomez expresses confidence in Spike 3's future and product roadmap; optimistic about All Access program expansion; Jack is enthusiastic about features and design philosophy. No criticism or concern expressed about upcoming products or strategy.

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

So recently, I say recently, this was a couple years ago, you had me swing by your house and I picked up this like cabinet that you had in your garage forever and you're like, "Come get this out of here" and it had like different types of armor. It had Dale Nhard sort of glued to the side and stuff and you said like that was your test cabinet. That was my development cabinet. So I would lit I literally worked in my garage and so um I would go to my garage and I would I and and of course I had because I had a real job I would work intensely on the pinball machine for like the weekend, right? So, at like 5:00, I'd leave my job and go to the garage and my little sister lived in the in the in that building. It's a two-flat apartment building I still own. And she would bring me food. That's incredible. So, that that cabinet that you gave me, you created games for Stern inside of that. Yeah. Yeah. That that's a storied cabinet. That thing belongs in that cabinet. Uh Lord of the Rings was was birthed in that cabinet. Sopranos, Batman, the Dark Knight. Holy moly. Um, yeah, dude, that's incredible. It was just taking up space in my garage, so I called Jack and I said, "Jack, you need one of these things." Showed up in my pickup and I took it right away. Oh, he had some extra blank playfields for me, too. Um, so like working out of your own studio then, you had all the tools you needed to like bend some metal, create some mechs, possibly like Yeah. Not not a lot different than what you do. Yeah. Maybe a little bit more sophisticated setup, but not much. So, I've always been very hands-on. I've always liked it that my designers are hands-on. Yeah. So I think that you know you have to work every piece of the medium, right? So yeah, you can spend time in your CAD system. You got to sketch stuff. You got to build stuff. You got to try stuff. That's really the only way you're going to get to amazing. Y you know it's iterate, iterate, iterate and getting your hands in there. Like you could also draw something in CAD, but until you actually put that ball away doesn't mean much. It doesn't mean anything. You can draw it in CAD and and get a lot of ideas out quickly that you can change your mind about, but eventually you got to build that thing and it's got to work. Absolutely. And uh something I like George helped me tremendously when I first started because um I I'm pretty sure I went all the way through Jurassic Park home and I still didn't know how to use a ruler correctly. Um, and we had to pump the brakes a couple of times for me to like sit and learn CAD, sit and learn. And I remember grabbing uh a ramp from Jaws and I had to like redraw this thing like to the tea in AutoCAD just to show that like I understand how to do this stuff because there's a lot of things that go into I bought Jack some tools and he he honestly opened the box and didn't know what half the stuff was. I looked at a lot of them were heavy. A lot of them were sharp and intimidating looking. Um, what what do I do with this calipers? I don't know what the heck these are. Uh but thankfully like we have some really amazing uh mechanical engineers at Stern that helped also hold my hand to like walk me through everything that needed to go there. Um well George, now that you are uh you know the head of PD, let's talk a little bit about you know the the future of PD like what what are we looking at here? I know I think we just talked about some all access insider stuff on social recently. Yeah. So, I mean, uh, so today we launched a new version of All Access for a very small amount of money. You're going to get home leaderboards and free shipping and a bunch of other things. And we're going to keep adding features to that program because we really want to make the All Access um program valuable. Um, as it is, anybody who's had it, who's already in All Access, is getting grandfathered in. Oh, so those guys Oh, okay. That's great. Yeah. Those guys are getting, you know, those guys, it's a deal for them. You are an early adopter, so we're going to hook you up for help. Yeah, it's awesome. And then, of course, we just launched Spike 3 and and Spike 3 is an ongoing thing. Uh, this next Spike 3 game you're going to see, you're going to see a new lower cabinet with some cool new features. So, it continues to evolve and um you really just scratch the surface on Spike 3. I one of my favorite things that uh was added to this is the ability to just like HDMI right into the board. Oh yeah. Video and audio out. Anybody who streams games. Yeah. I I remember when I like early days when I was trying to come up with ways of capturing that screen and like we sort of came up with that box. I remember Mark Guidarelli going like you're the only person in the world that's going to need something like this. And now like everybody if you own a pinball machine they're like I have to show the world how to play this game. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. It's been tremendous. and like all of the all of the things that I hear behind the scenes that we're trying to do with Spike 3 is going to be phenomenal. I know there's like wireless uh headphone compatibility that we're doing. Wireless headphones are coming. Um the sound system, it's probably hard to determine in this room because there's so much ambient noise, but the sound system is amazing. You get a Spike 3 home and you turn on the sounds. I mean, it's just like the and that kit, the kit that ships in the LE is going to be available so you can upgrade your pros and your premiums. Uh, and of course, you can buy speaker lights for your for those games also. Um, we're sort of, you know, building that out. And I I think I also heard that, um, for folks that are concerned about the longevity of their Spike 2 stuff when that hardware like ages out, if it ages out, um, that, you know, you could swap a board in there with the Spike 3. The thing about backward compatibility on Spike 3 is that it's really imp it's it's kind of impractical from the standpoint that there's a lot of infrastructure that has to go with it. Backbox, panel, speakers, uh power distribution. We We move the power supply and and you've got a bunch of cabling that's different. You know, Spike 2 has been amazing, right? The The footprint of Spike 2 games out there is enormous. If you if you come to the technology uh presentation that we're going to do tomorrow, um you know, you're going to see how important modular and scalable has been. It's been the key to the success of that system. And Spike branded games in the near future will be the largest footprint of hardware in the world for pinball machines. It will eclipse WPC95. It will eclipse every other system exponentially. So that's something that you don't you know you guys don't realize this cuz but you know every year we make more Spike games and uh the Spike architecture is you know it's I think it's already the standard of the world. It's going to be the standard of the world for sure. No, it's it's very impressive and I I love that um with the larger screen and like the higher definitions there too, we can showcase a lot cooler stuff that our animation team likes to put together. Uh just overall excited for that package to come out. Yeah, it's it's more power throughout, right? More processing power to allow us to do more stuff, better graphics. Um you know, it's quieter the it's got the quiet power supply in it. You know, it's got a sleep mode. It's got you Yeah. Wait, can you talk about that really quick? Yeah. I mean, it's it's similar to the all the other electronics in your life. You don't have to turn your game on and off every time. Um, it's, you know, and so, um, you know, you save energy and it's just more convenient. You don't have to go through the boot cycle. You don't have to start it up, wait 30 seconds for the whole thing to come to life. It's just like you come over, wake it up, and you're ready to go. Yep. Yep. Exactly. That's phenomenal. We walk it all. We walk it all.