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Tony Ramunni - Dutch Pinball Open Expo 2025 - Pinball News

Pinball News (Dutch Pinball Open Expo 2025)·video·55m 25s·analyzed·Nov 22, 2025
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TL;DR

Tony Ramunni recounts his legendary pinball art career across Williams, Bally, and Data East.

Summary

Tony Ramunni, a legendary pinball artist with 15+ years across Williams, Bally, and Data East, discusses his career trajectory from drafting to becoming a pioneering illustrator. He details his transition from silkscreen to four-color process printing under Paul Ferris at Bally, and reflects on iconic games including Black Knight, Embryon, Elektra, and Heavy Metal, sharing behind-the-scenes stories about art direction, creative process, and the evolution of pinball art from the 1970s onward.

Key Claims

  • Tony Ramunni was recruited to Williams' art department after impressing Steve Kordick (electromechanical designer and pinball pioneer) with portrait drawings he made of colleagues

    high confidence · Direct first-person account; detailed narrative with specific names and sequence

  • Constantino Mitchell (Connie Mitchell) was essentially the only in-house illustrator at Williams when Ramunni arrived; Janine Mitchell (his wife) assisted with cutting screens technique

    high confidence · Direct testimony with correction from host; specific names confirmed

  • Black Knight was Ramunni's first major game artwork, created using silkscreen technique (10-15 color separations), which he found extremely difficult compared to later four-color process painting

    high confidence · Direct account with visual reference; technical details about silkscreen process

  • Lost World (Paul Ferris design) was the first pinball game to use four-color process printing, which significantly improved visual quality

    high confidence · Direct testimony; industry knowledge confirmation from interviewer

  • Claude Fernandez (Williams designer) recruited Ramunni to Bally and later introduced him to fly fishing

    high confidence · Direct narrative with specific anecdote; cross-referenced in conversation

  • Embryon was influenced by H.R. Giger's Alien aesthetic; the name was changed from 'Clone' to 'Embryon' (Ramunni unclear on exact timing/reason); some complained the artwork resembled a 'master race' theme

    high confidence · Direct account with specific artistic influences and sales department feedback

  • Paul Ferris taught Ramunni acrylic painting technique (layering, transparency) while designing Embryon

    high confidence · Direct first-person narrative

  • Elektra was inspired by Superman films and featured a three-level playfield (first game with this design)

    medium confidence · Direct account; host confirms 'first game with a three level playfield' but Ramunni somewhat uncertain

Notable Quotes

  • “You know, the artwork, the visual aspect of a pinball game is what attracts a player to play it for the first time. And then I guess the game itself is what makes a game successful or not.”

    Tony Ramunni @ mid-conversation — Core philosophy on role of art in pinball design and player engagement

  • “I was pretty lucky to be able to express myself freely, you know, without having any teams already made for me or anything like that. So in a way, for an artist, it's a plus, you know, because you get to invent your own team, your own environments.”

    Tony Ramunni @ mid-conversation — Contrasts creative freedom in his era vs. modern licensed games with predetermined IP constraints

  • “Back then, you had to cut a stencil to do any airbrushing. You know, you would have to cut the stencil from your drawing and then spray. We used to wear masks. I don't even think it was that healthy for us. But the whole art department would smell like paint. Like a paint factory.”

    Tony Ramunni @ discussing Special artwork process — Details technical working conditions and health/safety aspects of analog art production in pinball

  • “I never thought pinball artists would become so valuable. I know people that like Kevin... some of the prices some of the work that was sold it's like hey we were working we were getting paid and I felt very lucky that I was able to work as a pinball illustrator, but it was just a job.”

    Tony Ramunni @ late conversation about artwork collectibility — Reflects on unexpected secondary market value of original pinball artwork and personal perspective on career significance

  • “The unfortunate thing, you know, back then, I mean, we used to work, we didn't work digitally, you know, so we had the original artwork. Right now, it's just a file, right? So I would imagine that in the future for collectors they have no original to buy you know it's unfortunate in a way.”

    Tony Ramunni @ final remarks — Laments loss of physical artwork in digital era; implications for future collector value

  • “When they say artists, after they pass away, they become famous. We're famous now, I guess. A little bit. Me, a little less than the others.”

Entities

Tony RamunnipersonSteve KordickpersonPaul FerrispersonSteve RitchiepersonClaude FernandezpersonConstantino MitchellpersonJanine Mitchellperson

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Long-standing effort by Rob Burke (Pinball Expo Chicago organizer) to recruit Tony Ramunni as guest speaker across multiple years, finally successful via Dutch Pinball Open connection

    high · Host: 'I tried for three, four years or something like that... Greg said you should do it... so he's here'

  • ?

    event_signal: Dutch Pinball Open Expo 2025 featuring prominent guest speaker interviews with legendary industry figures, bringing together fans, collectors, and media

    high · Video interview format at expo venue; Greg Freres facilitated connection; structured presentation with slides

  • ?

    community_signal: Unexpected collector market demand for original pinball artwork; artists now treated as culturally valuable after initially being viewed as 'just a job'

    high · Ramunni: 'I never thought pinball artists would become so valuable... I felt very lucky to work as a pinball illustrator, but it was just a job... When they say artists, after they pass away, they become famous. We're famous now, I guess.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Embryon artwork subject to complaint from German market that backglass resembled 'master race' theme; German release featured alternate artwork; Ramunni maintains influence was H.R. Giger's Alien aesthetic, not intentional master race iconography

    high · Ramunni: 'We had some Germans firing us, telling us you created like a master race... So they were kind of upset about this... I was a little bit influenced by Geiger'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Modern pinball constrained by licensing agreements (predetermined IP, character designs, approval processes) vs. creative freedom in pre-licensed era allowing original theme invention

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.166

0:00
For years and years I have tried to reach out to Tony Ramuni, who is sitting here finally. Yeah, but I mean, even, you guys know Rob Burke? You know, he's the organizer of the Blacksport in Chicago. You know him personally? Oh, did it? So he's been asking me to go there too, to Chicago, but Chicago's far away. And in October we have so many things going, because I'm not young anymore. I have a family, I have a wife, I have grandchildren, so it's kind of like, you know, for him. Well, I tried for years, and I was like, listen, he's in Bologna. There's a direct flight from Bologna to Eindhoven. It's 15. It was pretty nice. Right. So I tried for three, four years or something like that. And then I thought the beer is good in Eindhoven. So two weeks ago, I'm at Pinball Expo, and Greg Freres walks up to me. He's like, hey, Tony, Ramune has been asking about you and whether he should go. so I said what did you say you were asking about me no no no so anyway Greg said you should do it to you or not so I don't know what he meant by or not but he did it anyway so he's here and he's here to discuss his career in pinball which spanned over 15 years I think in three different companies Tony Rimouni yeah hey So anyway, I'm going to repeat a story that I was telling him this morning, how I got into pinball.
1:34
Because a friend of mine at Williams, he worked for the drafting department. So he was basically making all the components, the drawings of the components, the mechanical components. So he was going to be relocated, so he asked me, he says, hey, why don't you come and work for us as a drafting? Because I had been doing stuff after art school. I went to art school in Italy, and then we moved to the United States, and I took some classes there, art classes. And then I had to look for a job, right? And so that's how I started. I got in the drafting department at Williams, and I was doing these drawings. And my boss was right next to me. His desk was right there. I started to draw him.

  • Ramunni used colleagues, friends, and family members as photo references/models for pinball artwork, including for Bo Champ (Eight Ball Champ)

    high confidence · Direct narrative with specific examples; Doug Watson mentioned as appearing in Bo Champ artwork

  • Spy Hunter pinball artwork involved George Gomez's design (though Ramunni initially skeptical); an earlier 'Blowout' backglass design may have been prototype

    medium confidence · Conversation about game history; some uncertainty from Ramunni about 40-year-old details

    • Tony Ramunni @ discussion of artwork collectibility — Self-aware commentary on legacy and relative status within pinball artist cohort

  • “Steve Ritchie is like, you made sure that whatever I did was okay with him. He was right, by the way.”

    Tony Ramunni @ Black Knight discussion — Early example of art director collaboration model at Williams

    • Kevin O'Connor
    person
    Doug Watsonperson
    Dan Langloisperson
    Dennis Nordmanperson
    Rob Burkeperson
    George Gomezperson
    Greg Freresperson
    H.R. Gigerperson
    Richard Corbinperson
    Williams Electronicscompany
    Ballycompany
    Data Eastcompany
    Black Knightgame
    Embryongame
    Elektragame
    Bo Champ (Eight Ball Champ)game
    Road Kingsgame

    high · Ramunni: 'I was lucky to be able to express myself freely, without having any teams already made for me... So I look at it two ways... for an artist, it's a plus, because you get to invent your own team, your own environments'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Artwork and visual presentation identified as primary driver of player attraction to pinball games, with gameplay depth secondary to initial aesthetic appeal

    high · Ramunni: 'the artwork, the visual aspect of a pinball game is what attracts a player to play it for the first time. And then I guess the game itself is what makes a game successful or not'

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball artists used colleagues, friends, and family members as photo reference models for character artwork (e.g., Doug Watson in Bo Champ); common practice born of budget constraints and team camaraderie

    high · Ramunni: 'most of the time when we needed some particular pose, we would use ourselves... we would go there and just get inspired... we became friends. All of us became friends... we were doing things outside'

  • ?

    community_signal: Tony Ramunni (legendary pinball artist from Williams/Bally/Data East era) appears at Dutch Pinball Open Expo 2025, suggesting renewed engagement with pinball community after years away from industry (living in Italy post-Mr. Game)

    high · Ramunni explicitly states 'I live in Italy, and after Mr. Game' he was out of the industry; now appearing as guest speaker at major European expo after years of being approached

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Historical pinball art department structure: limited in-house staff (Constantino Mitchell as sole illustrator at Williams), supplemented by outside contractors, gradually expanding as four-color process adoption required more capacity

    high · Ramunni: 'I think there was only one illustrator that worked at Williams. Connie Mitchell... and we had people on the outside too, supporting'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Evolution of illustration technique over Ramunni's career: silkscreen (10-15 color separations, extremely labor-intensive) → four-color process (acrylic painting, professional art technique, faster production, better quality)

    high · Ramunni on Black Knight: 'silkscreen... you had to cut every single color... up to 10, 15 colors... extremely hard'; on Embryon: 'four color process... instead of cutting screens, I would actually do an illustration'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Transition from analog (physical artwork, silkscreen, hand-painted originals) to digital (files, no original artifacts) in pinball art production, with implications for collector market value

    high · Ramunni: 'back then, we didn't work digitally, you know, so we had the original artwork. Right now, it's just a file... in the future for collectors they have no original to buy'

    • 2:19
    I made a portrait of him. And he looked at it and goes, whoa, that's nice. And he hung it in the office. Before I knew it, all these guys were coming in to have me draw their faces. And she's laughing, but that's a true story. So all of a sudden we had this department full of these drawings. And Steve Kordick came one day. Anybody familiar with Steve Kordick? Only you. This guy knows everything. You guys? An electromechanical designer? He was the chief designer, yeah, and he's one of the pioneers of pinball. You know, he started back in the, I don't know, in the 70s, 60s. 50s, probably. 50s, yeah. He lived to be very old. Yeah, yeah. He passed away recently, and he was over 100 years old. 102, 102, yeah. But, you know, I remember seeing him, like, you know, he was already in his 80s, and he was totally sharp, you know. I think it was still working, too. Well, same with you.
    3:21
    I mean, I'm not that old. No, but you're still sharp. That's what I mean. Yeah. And so anyway, he came there one day and he goes, hey, Tony, you did all of this? We might need a guy in the art department. At the time, I think there was only one illustrator that worked at Williams. Connie Mitchell. Costantino. Alias Costantino. And what about Jenna Mitchell? Who? Jenna Mitchell. Yeah, because I said, you know, I think it was just him, but then we had people on the outside, too, supporting. Why? What did you know? Well, I've always seen Constantino and Janet Michelle as a duo. Let's put it at that. Yeah, but how long ago was that? Who, Janet Michelle? Yeah, Janet Michelle. That's a rigabelle. Janet Michelle? She worked often with Constantino Michelle. Oh, Janet, that was his wife, I think. Yes. Oh, yeah, Janine. I'm sorry. Yeah, no, no, no. I knew her well. Oh, Janine. For years I've said it as Jenin. Janine, yeah. Well, maybe in English. Okay. So anyway. She was helping with the cutting screens, you know. Are you familiar with that whole technique? Let's not get too technical. No, I mean, way before the four-color process, They print glasses now and I guess in the 80s because Paul Ferris was the innovator. He started with four-color process printed back glasses, which is a technique that's used in printing, printing magazines or posters.
    5:09
    Yeah, I think I hear you. You need to talk into that. Yeah, okay. I'm not used to it. And so that was a big innovative approach to pinball.
    5:22
    Because like I said before, if you look at Black Knight, the game, one of my first few games that I did art work. And I worked with Steve Ritchie on it. My first art director because Steve Ritchie is like, you made sure that whatever I did was okay with him. He was right, by the way. And so, oh yeah, that's Black Knight right there. So that, you know, the technique, that's not a four-color process. It's silkscreen. You know, you had to cut every single color in order to, you know, make an image. So for me, it was really extremely hard because I wasn't really, you know... First of all, it was my, one of my first attempt at doing that kind of, you know, work or technique in order to, I mean, you can make like a mock-up, you know, with markers and it will look really, really good, you know. But then you had to follow that, you know, mock-up and make, cut all the screens, every single color is up to, you know, 10, 15 colors.
    6:29
    And it was extremely hard for me. So, you know, and, you know, that's why, I mean, if I would paint it over, it would be, it would look a lot better than that, you know. Right. But. I do have a technical request. Can you move a little bit more to the center of the stage? In the center right there? In the middle of it? I don't know, man, you know? Just sit there. I'll sit there. Oh, for Martin? So, anyway, that was... Yeah. Let's get back. So you get hired into the art department and your first game is Scorpion. Yeah, Scorpion. Yeah, it was... No, I think Alien Poker or Scorpion. I think, no, it was Scorpion. Well, the first slide, which you played, was a little bit different. Yeah. Which you provided was scorpions. It was that ugly.
    7:14
    Like I said, going back to the technique of cutting screens and stuff, it wasn't really that easy. Then Alien Poker was the next one. Alien Poker was pretty much directed by Steve Kordick, I remember. He had a lot to do with it. He wanted these futuristic-looking creatures, humanoids or whatever.
    7:40
    And that was tough, you know, but anyway, any poker. So, but any, okay. I don't know. Any story from that time at Williams?
    7:50
    I mean. Not really, because at Williams, it was me and Connie, you know, we became good friends, you know, and so we did things outside of work and everything, but in the company itself, you know, it was a great place to work, though, I have to say, because, Now the president at the time was, I don't remember, but the thing about pinball artists, you know, we were always put on a pedestal. You know, for some reason we were really important, you know, and there is a reason, I guess, because, you know, especially nowadays, you know, with the evolution that pinball has, you know, gone through, it really, you know, I think the artwork, the visual aspect of a pinball game is what attracts a player to play it for the first time. And then I guess the game itself is what makes a game successful or not. Sustained. I see we have a designer there. He's the top designer, so he knows something about that. Love your work, Tony. Yeah, yeah. and so today I was walking through the halls and I was telling Jonathan, when I got out of there I was numb.
    9:13
    All the sounds and lights and people and stuff like that. So it's pretty exciting. I played a few games.
    9:23
    So anyway, going back to Williams, Right. There was a designer, Claude Fernandez, that worked there at the time. And then he went to Bali. And a few months after that, he called me and says, Hey, how about you come into Bali? And at the same time, Lost World was put into production. And it was the first pinball game, like I said before, four-color process. So it looked incredibly nice, you know. Anybody familiar with Lost Worth? Yeah. Yeah, it's a great game, Paul Ferris. And so I had an interview with Paul Ferris. We got together for lunch one day, and he offered me a job. So I went to Bali, and I was super excited, because going to a place where they would do four color process, instead of cutting screens, I would actually do an illustration. And back then, it wasn't digital, but it was a traditional way of painting and drawing. So it was pretty exciting. And my first game was Ambrian.
    10:33
    Well, we still have Black Knight at Williams and there's also the story of Claude Fernandez. You're still there with Black Knight? Yeah, well. What story with Claude Fernandez? Claude Fernandez, I'll tell you a story, it's got nothing to do with pinball. He introduced me to fishing because he was coming from Canada, I guess. And so he introduced me to fly fishing and all of that. And I don't know if Pat was there at the time, because then he came up with the game, the fish tales, right? Got nothing to do with it. So. But Claude Fernandez. Yeah, what about him? Well, he used to work at Williams. Yeah, but I don't know what. Yeah, he used to work at Williams, but then he went to Pat. And then Steve worked on Black Knight. No, he did not. That's Steve. Well, I know. And then Claude went to Bali. Oh, yeah. And all of a sudden we got. I have a story about the two-level play field. Yeah. Now, which one was that? Flash Gordon. Flash Gordon, yeah. One of my favorites. I saw Kevin O'Connor. You know Kevin O'Connor? Yes, everybody knows Kevin. I saw him. He was painting, and I was right behind him, you know, looking at what he was doing. So now we get to embryo. Now, you guys, tell me something. Do you see, I'm sorry, the language. Do you see a vagina there somewhere? I mean, it's like, you know, I've been reading this stuff, and I'm still having a hard time finding it. Where is it at? It's between the second and fourth pop-up. Where? Oh, that thing right there? No, that's a brain. That's a brain. Right there?
    12:02
    I could see, you know what? But it wasn't intentional. I mean, nothing was intentional there. And anyway, I remember Paul Ferris, when I was painting, like I said, it was a medium that I never used before, acrylics. And so if anybody's familiar with acrylic painting, it's not like oil.
    12:25
    You kind of work out layers and they're transparent. So Paul Ferris was teaching me how to do all of that, and it was really nice about it. So another thing I have to say, which to me is pretty interesting. I was telling Jonathan this morning, right now I see that most games are done, you know, with licensing, right? Am I right about that, Jack? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So I look at it two ways. I mean, I think I was pretty – I was lucky to be able to express myself freely, you know, without having any teams already, you know, made for me or anything like that. So in a way, for an artist, it's a plus, you know, because, you know, you get to, you know, invent your own team, your own environments, you know, kind of like I did with Embryon, you know.
    13:22
    And I was telling John this morning, I mean, when somebody, when a designer comes up with a name, you know, I think it was clone first, and then it was changed to Embryon, and I don't remember the reason. But with the name Embryon, I mean, what do you do, you know? It's like, it's pretty... But did they change the name? It kind of leads you into this, right? Yeah, kind of, yeah. What? Did they change the name before you started drawing or did they see the drawing and they figured like we better call this Oh man we going back 40 years I don remember They changed the name and I don know what cloud changed it I don know for whatever reason Anybody knows Anybody knows the reason Well, if you look at this artwork, it makes sense that it could have been called Clo. Yeah, but I mean, the idea behind Ambrian, that's what it was. I mean, it was like a... It was nothing against... You know, we had... Tom Neiman, at the time, he was in charge of the sales department. And he came up to me and he goes, I said, you know, we had some Germans firing us, you know, telling us, you know, you created like a master race. You know, I go, whoa. So they were, you know, kind of upset about this. But, you know, the whole idea was kind of, I was a little bit influenced by Geiger. I don't know if anybody's familiar with Geiger. H.R. Geiger? Yeah, because when you saw the movie, the first movie, Alien, I think it was, right? And there was, you know, there was an environment with all the eggs and so forth. But it's kind of like sparks in my, you know, I was influenced a little bit by that.
    14:50
    And, you know, the interesting thing is that a lot of this was, you know, like way on top where the logo was and where the face was. I only did one side that was projected to the other side because it was like kind of a hurry up, you know, project. We didn't have that much time. So the final piece is not like you see the back glass, but there is a piece missing on the upper left corner, the phase, the mechanical phase there.
    15:22
    Yeah. Okay. That's about it. Ambient. It was fun. And then we get to Electra. Electra, the famous. Where's that picture of Betty? Oh, so there it is. Here it is. Yeah. This was one of our colleagues. So back then, what we used to do, We had a, in the art department at Bali, we had a big library, you know, with mostly heavy metal magazine. Anybody heard of heavy metal? So, you know, we would go there and just, you know, get inspired or, you know, influenced by whatever. And, but most of the time when we needed some, you know, particular pose, you know, we would use ourselves, you know, to do that. And it was pretty common. So, so we had a lot of fun. You know, it was an environment of, you know, we became friends. All of us became friends. and we were doing things outside.
    16:10
    You're still in contact with most of the people. Oh, yeah, most of them. When we go to Chicago, we always get together.
    16:16
    But one exception, Doug Watson. I mean, Doug Watson was kind of more laid back. Have you met Doug Watson? Everybody knows Doug Watson. You met everybody. Who is this guy? Who are you? Well, Doug Watson actually was a guest at Pimble Universe earlier this year. Oh, Pimble Ears? Where's that at? Germany. Oh, in Germany. Yeah, because he's a good talker. He's really good at that. And Martin said yes. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah, plus he's a good cook, I hear, right? Well, if you'd like salmon and asparagus with sauce. Yeah, I'd like salmon. I'm a good cook, you know? I mean, us artists, we don't just draw. We do other things, too. So anyway, Elektra. Elektra, kind of like, you know, at the time too, there was, wasn't there a movie, Superman or something? So it kind of like, huh? So, you know, when I came up with, again, this was, that was Claude Fernandez. And he came up with the name too, Elektra. See, back then, we didn't have like a team. Later on, I remember, you know, my last few years at Bali, the idea of, you know, creating a pinball game as a team, you know, with the programmer, the designer, and the artist became more of a better way to design pinball games because, you know, we were all creative, you know, people. So, and at the beginning, it was, you know, we had a little bit of resistance from the designers because they were used to, you know, they were the directors, you know, they would direct, you know, just about everything. But then later they understood that Dan Langlois was pretty open to, you know, suggestions. And so, you know, in a lot of, you know, circumstances, you know, the artists would come up with some ideas for the gaming too, you know. And me, having like a mechanical background, you know, for drafting, and I was always good at that too. I kind of had that, you know, inspiration too to design games, you know, because I think, you know, someone who plays games a lot, a pinball player like you guys, if you play enough, I think sooner or later you could design a game, at least conceptually, you know. Then you need all kinds of other support. Like right now, I guess you guys have like hundreds of people, I imagine, right? I mean, I'm out of the industry, so I don't know what's behind it, but I can see by looking at a pinball machine that there is a lot of different people doing a lot of different things, you know. And, right. And so, and I think that's the best approach. so anyway you know other than that Elektra yeah I did the brochure too on Elektra by the way did you know that no so it was a little bit inspired by Superman you know the house of Superman with all the crystals and a little bit inspired by that and so yeah it was a fun project too plus it was I think the first game with a three level play field yeah what happened oh wait can I ask a question So what happened to Claude Fernandez? Anybody knows? Because I lost touch with him.
    19:41
    I saw him at Expo a couple of years ago. Oh, a couple of years ago? Yeah. In Chicago? In Chicago, yeah. Because I know he went back to France because he went back to his hometown to get married, which I thought it was. Remember that bar? Yeah. This is my wife right there, the wife of Tony Ramone. I mean, she's just famous, you know. Yeah. What are you doing? Are you filming all of this? it's going to drain your iPhone you know so that's the story with our gold ball yeah this was a guy this was a pinball machine coming alive we get to that later what is this I didn't see this was printed wow that wasn't that bad so gold ball not much to say about gold ball except that there was a pinball machine coming alive, basically. You know, this guy would come out of the play field and throw balls at you. So you better play the game with, you know, armor or something, you know. And, yeah. Well, there's a couple of different back-loss attempts I can see on the right. Oh, yeah. I forgot about that one. That was my first cut.
    20:57
    And that actually wasn't that bad, I thought. What do you guys think? and this game had a gold ball in there which the game would recognize so you get special points if that ball would randomly appear yeah I don't remember the game there was also service kits to make you a complete objective for the gold ball instead of leaving you the chance ok I don't remember the game what does that mean this one? I forgot to look it up sorry but this game who? oh because I saw you smiling maybe you knew so anyway so I do have a question about Gold Ball because the character pictures on the back glass has a lot of resemblance of the character on Silver Ball Mania is it by coincidence or was it like hey no I guess it was by coincidence I never noticed that yeah does he look like him really well he's bald too they all look alike It was a great game, you know. Kevin's silver ball. Not much to say about this one. Oh, Spy Hunter. Yeah. That was a nice one. Which apparently started out as blowout.
    22:14
    Wasn't it supposed to be an Elvis pinball machine? What? Elvis? Yes, Elvis. What did you box to the flipperless play field? doesn't ring a bell to me no I have this game there was a video game too Spy Hunter yes yeah because I did some work on that too George Gomez really yeah that was a George Gomez game no I don't think so yeah it was because I worked on it and I don't remember he designed the game is that true Jack is that true the video game oh the video game yeah Right, right, right. Oh, it's interesting. So anyway, this... So what's that blowout back glass at the top sample? I don't know, blowout. Maybe the initial name was blowout.
    23:04
    I have no idea what that blowout... You know, I haven't seen that in 40 years. What does it say on top? Take it to the limit?
    23:11
    Take to the... You gave me the slides. No, I didn't give you that one. Oh, that guy. No, I mean, I was telling Jonathan This guy that contacted me, one of the collectors, he goes from Long Island in New York. He was interested in some of the artwork I did. And he said, Tony, you're going to the expo in the Netherlands. I'll make you, can I make you, because he works in a graphics studio. He says, I'll make you a PowerPoint presentation. I go, hey, go right ahead. In fact, I have to tell him that you're using it because he sent me. So you're looking at it. Yeah, so he did this, you know. I didn't do this. And I don't know when he got that blowout from Bajo.
    23:53
    I'm going to have to ask him because now I'm curious too. I know I did that, but I don't know whether it had any, you know, relation to spy hunting. Well, it's been like 40, 35, 40 years, something like that. Yeah. And Tony's been out of the industry for quite a while. Quite a while, yeah, you know, because, you know, I live in Italy, and after Mr. Game. Mr. Game was the ex-Zachariah, right? Right. This guy knows everything too. And he's so young.
    24:24
    I'm not that young. I'm actually the tallest in my family. You're the tallest in your family? Yeah, but how old are you? Almost two meters. You're almost two meters? Get up. Let's see.
    24:37
    I mean, I've seen taller. I remember like when we first got to Bologna had a good basketball team, Fortitudo and Virtu. And they had some American NBA players coming to play for Bologna. And I've seen a few guys, because we used to go to these movie theaters where they played movies in the original language. I've seen some. I forgot the names of these guys, but they were super tall. taller than you, so you're not that tall, you know. You're okay. So, Spy Hunter, nice piece. I had a good time doing this, but, you know. There are two. Oh, there's a good one. Hey, Bo Champ. Now, Paul Ferris, with this one, it was kind of funny because, you know, in Chicago we had these two or three bars, you know. You know that. He's going, And they were kind of, you know, early, you know, what is this, Otochento, 1800 or something. And so he told me, for this game, he says, hey, Tony, why don't you go over there and, you know, get acquainted with the style. And so I took some pictures. And all the guys you see around there, you know, Doug Watson is there somewhere too, you know. And so I used to use friends and some family members too, to pose for me for this particular piece, you know. That's the original or is it a mock-up? No, that's the original painting. This is a mock-up. Or the one on the right is the pencil sketch and... No, this? That's a marker sketch. Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah, yeah. And that's the play field right there. So, you know, yeah, it was a good piece because it was a series of 8-Ball. There was another game called 8-Ball, then 8-Ball Deluxe, then 8-Ball Champ.
    26:40
    Yeah, nice, nice. 1985, huh? It's a long time. It's Beat the Clock. This was totally, you know, orchestrated by, I was telling you yesterday, Norm Clark, you know, pupil. His name was George Christian.
    27:01
    And they kind of, you know, that big clock in the middle. Because he always had that thing. You know, when they were playing prototypes, you know. I don't know if they do that now anymore. But they were like time, you know, how long it would take for something to do something else, you know. And so this guy always had it in his hands. Hey, let's do this, you know. Let's do a game with, oh, that's me up there. You see me up there? That's when I was young, the runner. And I was a rear runner. Yeah. He's still a runner. I started to run. No, I mean, I wasn't running back then though. I was running after girls. You know we used to go to no no no no no Greg Kamek You remember I was telling you the story about Greg Kamek Greg Kamek was one of the designers at Bally And so at the time we had Pac or Miss Pac one of the two And so we would constantly play, you know, play it at work too. You know, there was a room where, you know, you had prototypes that they wanted you to play all the time. So we used to go there and play for hours. We know our work. It was just like a plain board. So we got good at it. Today, you see how I stop the ball and everything? It's coming back to me. I have to get back into it.
    28:18
    So me and Greg and Mike would go to bars and impress girls. They would all gather behind us, looking at us playing Pac-Man. They would say, how come you guys? We would go for hours without losing it. because we knew all the patterns, you know, that the game made. So, and Greg, I think it is. No, it was George Christian. So what's next? What do we got next? It's about time, you know. Oh, yeah. This is one of my favorite. I have to say that it was one of my favorite painting. You know, I had a really good time. I mean, it's pretty much self-explanatory. You know, it's a futuristic race, motorcycle race game. and God forbid you do it now. See people falling off the ramp and everything. And this was a little bit influenced by a movie also, you know, with... Tina Turner, Mad Max. It's a good movie, isn't it? It's great. So it was a little bit... And also at the time, I was, as far as the colors, I was, you know, influenced by an artist that did a lot of work in heavy metal, Corbin, Richard Corbin. and he used to use colors that kind of a contrast, reds and violets, that makes it really dramatic.
    29:41
    And I think the game was a good game too, as a matter of fact, to play it. Okay. I mean, you're familiar with it. You got one of these in your... No, I don't. No, it's not one of them? No. Oh, come. It's my game. You should have had one of these. What do you have, by the way? You have seven games? Yes, we have. Yeah, but they don't care about that. Exactly.
    30:02
    They're here for you. You're here for me, really? All right. I'm so impressed. So, anyway, this was good. It's a good game. What do we got next?
    30:14
    Special for us. Now, this was Dennis Norman, right? Yeah, first game by Dennis Norman. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This was fun. Yeah, I was getting better, as you can see.
    30:27
    Progressively better because I got pretty acquainted with the medium that we were using. And I would only use airbrush for just a few things like the logos and stuff. And even doing airbrush, it was the same.
    30:43
    You know, when I Photoshop, you know, we want to do a logo, you just do it in two seconds, you know, so easy. Back then, you had to cut a stencil to do any airbrushing. You know, you would have to cut the stencil from your drawing and then spray. We used to wear masks.
    31:03
    I don't even think it was that healthy for us. But the whole art department would smell like paint. Like a paint factory. Yeah, really.
    31:16
    So I do have a bit of a technical question. Again. Well, there is the... What? the other the marker drawing on the right yeah I remember that yeah right and then obviously the guy on the left lower corner on the final piece has been repositioned yeah well I changed the composition a little bit because I thought it was off you know off balance there with that guy on the left side yeah I don't think anybody requested me to do that or maybe Paul Ferris had something to do with it too yeah and the other guy was yeah he's not there so was this influenced on any movie at the time no not this one no not at all no I mean Norman Dennis came up with the name and everything and oh this was his first game not this I meant to tell you I had nothing to do with this by the way I was going to ask do you see my name anywhere no So why is this here? Oh, go back to that guy. I'm sorry. No, what do you mean? You put this in there. I put this in there. This wasn't part of my PowerPoint. This game came out in Germany because apparently they figured the original back glass was, for some reason, too offensive.
    32:41
    Too miniaturistic? Which means mine? There was this thing called... It was offensive. I mean, everything out there was offensive. I don't know. You guys, you know. Martin is laughing. Why are you laughing?
    32:56
    The what? Not even Embryon? No? Hey. I was telling him, you know, last night that Embryon is becoming a cult or something. There's people, right?
    33:12
    But thanks for clarifying that this is not your artwork. No, it's not. I'm a little better than that.
    33:23
    Oh, yeah. This is probably my favorite one. I was telling you, too. And I saw the... You know what? By the way, when I left Bali,
    33:36
    I mean, I see all these sketches popping up. I see them on the Internet, too. Collectors have them. I mean, I left all the stuff behind, except for some originals. I kept those. but I guess they sold them because I have people calling me even last night that guy sent me a message hey Tony do you have the painting for Black Knight the original Black Knight and I said there was no painting it was just a black line and I asked Steve last night and he doesn't have it either I never thought pinball artists would become so you know interesting no not interesting so valuable I know people that like Kevin was probably one of the best and Greg some of the prices some of the work that was sold it's like hey we were working we were getting paid and I felt very lucky that I was able to work as a pinball illustrator, but it was just a job. Later on, I guess, just like... When they say artists, after they pass away, they become famous. We're famous now, I guess. A little bit. Me, a little less than the others.
    35:00
    Anyway. So, heavy metal. No influence at all, but I thought it came out pretty nice. What do you guys think? Yeah, go ahead. You're talking about the original artwork. Yeah. How big is it one-to-one? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. In fact, now I think they even make them bigger because then when you, if you make it larger, then you reduce it, you know, it becomes even better, you know. The unfortunate thing, you know,
    35:32
    back then, I mean, we used to work, we didn't work digitally, you know, so we had the original artwork. Right now, it's just a file, right? Right, Jack? so I would imagine that in the future for collectors they have no original to buy you know it's unfortunate in a way unless you make prints and then sell them by numbers well speaking of prints little side note here you've probably seen these cards laying around with images of Jack Danger, Steve Ritchie and Tony himself and also Gary Stern well Gary Stern's image is drawn by Greg Frares but the other three were actually requested by me handled by Tony especially for Dutch Pimble Open 2025 a couple of hours quick drawings done digitally that I'm still trying to I've been working digitally or experimenting digitally for a little time. So I'm still trying to get the hang of it because it's a lot different than drawing on paper. It is between the screen and the actual pen you're using, there is a little gap and you have to get used to it.
    36:57
    But in a lot of ways, it's a lot quicker to do things. Right. So there's cards here on the table if you haven't gotten a set already. And Tony would be happy to sign his. Oh, yeah, 10-hour apiece, I said, right? Yeah, right. Yeah, hey, it's okay. How many we got there?
    37:16
    No, just kidding. So anyway, heavy metal. Oh, and this is another Dennis Norman game. Right. Yeah. This was a lot of fun, too. No influence whatsoever except, you know, he was, you know, a rider, I guess. Dirt bike racer. Right, so he really wanted this game. And Blackwater 100 is a race that, I don't know if they still do it somewhere in, I want to say Arkansas, but I'm not sure. And I guess it's a really tough race, you know, one of the toughest in the world, you know. And so there was his inspiration, and, you know, I follow up on it. And wasn't there on the play field something, a gimmick of some kind? I don't remember. There was a pinball play field on the apron if I'm correct. On the what? A play field area that covers the entirety of the apron. Oh, on that play field right there? Yeah. Oh. Wow. It was the first game where you can actually shoot the ball behind the flippers and then on the apron. Oh, shit. It's behind the flipper formation. Okay, okay. I don't remember that.
    38:34
    It's a creative layout. Yeah, but this was a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun doing this. Pretty exciting team and world's toughest race.
    38:47
    Yeah. So you enjoyed working with Dennis? Yeah. Oh, with Dennis. And we did a lot of things with Dennis. We went on trips and stuff. We went to this place called Black River Falls in Wisconsin. and we went canoeing there, you know, because they had an Indian reservation up there somewhere. They were, you know, renting canoes. So he was over there, you know, and we got muddy just like that or even worse, you know. And we were camped like on the river, you know, after a day of canoeing. And so one morning we got up, we got out of the tent, and there were cows all around, you know. And Dennis was there, yeah, yeah. So, you know, like I said, we had a good, you know, environment going. And we were friends, so naturally you work better together with your friends too. And you go out and have a beer and everything. You know, that's where all the creative flows, juices, you know, when you get together and do that, right? Right, Jack? You guys do that a lot now? We do plenty of drinking together. Oh, yeah. That's good. Yeah, great. Now, you have a background as an artist too, right? Yeah, I was an animator for 20 years. Oh, an animator. Yeah. So you didn't actually draw it. Oh, you guys, he's the top designer of the world. Yeah. Do you get along with Steve Ritchie, by the way? Yes. Oh, yeah. He's a great guy. He's fun, you know. Steve Ritchie is a fun guy. I remember when he came. Now, wait a minute. Was he there first? I don't remember whether I was there and he came later from Matardi. And he was a young guy. You saw him now, right? He's pretty flamboyant. You know, you recognize him anywhere.
    40:34
    Yeah, right. But, I mean, back then, you didn't know him back then. Back then he was a skinny guy like me, you know, he had long hair, beard. And he was a lot of fun, yeah. Very creative, I mean. But he was like, you got to do this. I want this. And no other choices. Yeah. Yeah, so interesting side note. In my correspondence with Tony, leading up to him coming over,
    41:01
    we got to talk about Black Knight and he mentioned Steve being his first art director. Oh, yeah, definitely. He was my first art director because Constantino, I mean, Constantino. Yeah, we were together and we skied together. I broke my leg, you know, while skiing with Constantino. And so I was off from work for a couple of weeks. That's why I kept saying, who was the president at the time? Because he sent me like I was at home and he sent me this big bucket full of fruit Who was the president Do you remember the president back then No I have to ask Steve Ritchie Mike Stroll Mike Stroll Bravo Yeah, that was him. And they tell me that now he's 90 years old.
    41:46
    Good old days. And then you moved to Italy. I'm following your presentation. Mike Stroll? I'm just joking. Yeah, Dan. Okay, Dan. So can you... Okay, so I went to Italy for a couple of reasons, right? I knew that Midway was going to close. No, that's not true. I didn't know that.
    42:09
    While I was working one day, this guy from Zaccaria, because Zaccaria went out of business, okay? Or they were in the process of going out of business. And this guy calls me. He was the, that's me. What are you going to do with that?
    42:32
    Yeah, what do you do? So anyway, wait a minute. Let me get back to it. So, yeah, this, I don't remember his name either, but he called me. He was, you know, one of the top manager, you know, sales department, I guess, at Zachariah at the time. So the company was going under. and he called me and says, well, we have a gentleman from Bologna who's going to, you know, this guy, his name is Alfredo Cazzola. I don't know if, you know, he owned the Bologna soccer team and he was the organizer of the Motor Show in Bologna. I don't know if anybody heard about that. So anyway, he calls me and he goes, hey, you know, this guy wants to relaunch the company. He wants to take over Zaccaria because they went out of business and he wants to put it back on the market with a different name and a different approach to the industry. And that wasn't a good idea, I guess, and I'll tell you why later.
    43:32
    So he says, why don't you come to Bologna for a weekend so we can introduce you? Because he had organized a meeting with all the Italian operators in Bologna to present the new game, you know, with the new cabinet. And, yeah, that cabinet right there was a totally new design. And personally, I thought it was kind of nice. But then, you know, it kind of went in another direction as far as the traditional pinball box, which is still the same, I guess. and so I went to Italy for the weekend and we had this meeting and he had a totally different approach to the sales of the games you know that I think it penalized him a lot because operators back then had the monopoly of the you know pinball machines you know they would buy them and then put them on location and stuff you know this guy wanted to he didn't want to I mean this is a story I don't know whether it's true or not but you wanted to just rent the games to operators.
    44:46
    And I don't think it went too good. So he had problems. Then we went to Las Vegas for a trade show with Mech Attack, I think. Yeah, with Mech Attack. Because he was trying to enter the market, I guess. But that didn't go too well either. So, I mean...
    45:04
    A year later, you would, you know, it closed down too. Right. But, so how much did you do on Mechatech? How much did I do? I basically did everything because, you know, the reason why I accepted the, you know, the offer is because you told me, hey, you know, you, I want you to design the game too and bring some of the American, you know, philosophy into the, you know, pinball design, okay? And this was back in the 80s, early, yeah, 88, 89.
    45:42
    And so the problem is that when I got there, I always wanted to design a game too, just for the fun of it. And when I got there, though, we didn't have the means, let's put it that way. We didn't have the talent. We didn't have the technological resources that you needed to implement the American approach to the game. And so it was pretty difficult.
    46:10
    And plus I had a few guys there that were doing designing that really didn't like me being there. But I was told to kind of take over the creative group, let's put it that way, the team. And so I did. but with a lot of resistance. But nevertheless, I mean, I think we came up with a few neat little things, you know. And this one and Motor Show. This was the last project, I think. So what else we got? Yeah, no, because this was, oh, this was the Motor Show because like I said, the guy that took over Zachariah,
    46:49
    he was running the Motor Show in Bologna. and so this he told me do a game on you know on the motor show you know this event and so you could see a few things there that you know back then I was still like really nostalgic of Chicago and the U.S. so every once in a while I would put you know a little like if you look at the car the green car over there says go Bears and the Bears are doing great this year right yeah are you a Chicago Pan Fair yeah I mean you have to be this year I live in the city you're supposed to be. Oh, where are you from originally anyway? Chicago. Oh, Chicago. Oh, okay. Well, they're doing good this year. So anyway, I mean, I would do that. And then there was another, in the other car, there was this guy that had a radio program in Chicago, Johnny B., right? Was that his name? And it wasn't just music, since you do music. This guy would just be like me, just make jokes and things and entertain people just by talking, not just music. And so, you know, that's it. I mean, that's the story behind Motor Show. And this is the World Cup. And this was in the, you know, in 1990 we had the World Cup in Italy.
    48:07
    Did they win it? Wow. That's a good question. Anybody knows? I don't remember. But Germany won. Oh, okay, okay, okay. But, yeah, this game was done, you know. for that event.
    48:26
    And it did have, like, in the center... Now, what was that in the center? I don't remember. A TV display? No, no, in the center of the play field. There was something like a... Oh, it's been too long. But anyway, I mean, interesting enough, you know, Jonathan was telling me last night that this Mr. Game was the first game with a video, right? Actually, it wasn't. It was Haram Cat by Universal Company. It was back in 1979. Oh. Yeah. So it was before then. No, I didn't know they read. I mean, John mentioned that last night. So, you know. No, it's not true, right, Jack? I have no idea. You have no idea.
    49:06
    Okay. Well, I'll take your word for it. He seems pretty prepared, you know. Plus he's so tall, you know.
    49:13
    What? Yeah. Oh, JP. We do have a mic. if you want to walk up to the mic and ask your question.
    49:24
    You want me to go ahead? No. Or I'll repeat it if I can. We can hear you, though. Go ahead. So he's this person with a screen. How were the animations made? Do you remember? Yeah, there was a programmer, a kid. His name was Fabretti, something like that.
    49:45
    Yeah, but there wasn't that much of a game there. I don't remember. What was it? Huh? Yeah, I think scores. This morning I was playing a few games, you know, and I guess it's very useful now, you know, because you see all the scores by all the movies too. It's incredible. I mean, how can you play? It's most of the people around you. I mean, you play the game and everybody else watches, but it's really impressive. I mean, games right now, you know, Jack, they're getting really, they're really impressive, really a lot of fun, you know. And I would love to play one of those games, you know, like outside of this environment so you could appreciate it more, you know, the sounds.
    50:29
    But they're really, really nice. Right. Yeah. I would buy one of those for my house, you know. That's nice. So Tony did send me a couple of photos from the belly art department, but he will have to describe what we're looking at exactly.
    50:49
    Oh, yeah. This must have been from Motor Dome. I'm driving a motorcycle here, you know. Just imagine a motorcycle is there somewhere. And in the background you can see Kevin. Kevin is like, you know, Kevin O'Connor is over there. I don't know what he's doing. He's being funny.
    51:09
    But that was back in the old art department before Midway, you know. We were in a different place. What else you got? Oh, this is sexy Margaret Hudson, you know. You guys know Margaret Hudson? Yeah.
    51:25
    No? Anyway, she was posing for Beat the Clock, you know. Right. Yeah, we used it for that. And that's her again for Spy Hunter, I guess. Yeah, back then we used to take, you know, besides all the magazines we had for, you know, resources, we also used ourselves for you know poses that you know weren't available at the time so we made sure we went to health clubs and workouts so we could look you know Doug Watson for 8 ball champ look at that face he was young back then yeah he's different I'm still the same what do you mean yeah Right, Barb? I'm still the same. I haven't changed a bit. Let's see him again.
    52:17
    Also for April Champion. Yeah, also for that. And Margaret, that's Spy Hunter, the Spy Hunter girl. You know, once in a while, I have like a big stack of these pictures. And once in a while, I go there and look at them and it brings back so many memories, you know. A lot of fun.
    52:37
    No, you're done. You're just going on. No, no, no. What do you mean? My wife was so mad at me one day. She's there. I said, I'm going to put a goggle, a ski goggle. And she had, you don't see it there, but she had a pole, a ski pole. And she was ready to hit me. No, this is smack attack, the girl on the side there.
    52:59
    I had a good model. Pretty mean, yeah. All right. Yeah. Good. Yeah, those were all the slides. Any questions? not all at the same time please oh lucky me everybody's waiting for Rich Richie hello Steve oh that's right wow man I have a microphone so anyway Steve you want to come up here already yeah you really have problems I thought it was just me not talking loud enough Oh, Steve, you get all the crowd here, you know.
    53:42
    Greetings. Yeah. Did you go out for lunch? Say it again. Did you go out for lunch? Can I? No. No, I'm sorry. You said, I'm going out for lunch. Yeah, I just got a sandwich. I did. Yeah.
    53:55
    So, it's great to see you again. First, I want to say this. I want to say thank you very much to Marcel and to Jonathan Houston and all the people of the Dutch Pinball Open. I love this place. It's like when I come here, I feel loved. It's a very nice thing.
    54:17
    I'm ready to talk, but I'll say a few minutes about you. When we worked together on Black Knight, it was a good time.
    54:27
    I love the gold filigree around everything and the sword in the play field. All the things that you made magic in that game. I like it by you. No, not everything. I guess I remember that way. I don't know. I made, well, the only thing is I put the inserts in already for the sword, so it had to be a sword. Oh, yeah, that's right, yeah. I don't remember directing anything else. It was easy for me to do it because, you know, I was already. Right. Anyway, I just want to say thank you. I haven't seen you in many years. I know. I would have come to your seminar, but I can only hear like four words back there. Yeah, I know. You have five as well. Anyway. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, Tony Ramone. Thank you. Great artist of pinball. Thank you.
    55:16
    Thank you.