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Episode 225: Chicago’s Who’s Who

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·35m 3s·analyzed·Oct 27, 2019
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.035

TL;DR

Chicago Expo draws record crowds; Haggis Pinball enters production; JJP's Willy Wonka praised.

Summary

Pinball Profile coverage of Chicago's Pinball Expo week, featuring interviews with industry figures, manufacturers, and players. Highlights include the Pinball Profile World Tour at Deadflip, Expo vendor success, Haggis Pinball's production launch, Jersey Jack's Willy Wonka reception, and announcements about Expo's growth and potential relocation.

Key Claims

  • Haggis Pinball production starts November 1st with website and orders opening

    high confidence · Damian Hartland from Haggis Pinball directly states production timeline

  • Straight Down the Middle produced the official Willy Wonka reveal for Jersey Jack Pinball

    high confidence · Greg Bones and Zach Minney confirm JJP contracted them for promotional video production

  • Chicago Pinball Expo has outgrown the Westin hotel and may relocate to larger venue within 2 years

    high confidence · David Fix, Expo staff member, states they've 'already outgrown this hotel' and discusses Schaumburg or similar venues

  • Pinball Expo drew approximately 600 attendees with perfect weather Friday-Saturday

    high confidence · Rob Burke and David Fix cite weather conditions and estimate 600 attendee figure

  • Haggis Pinball's game changed significantly from Texas Pinball Festival prototype (whitewood with no art/inserts) to full production version

    high confidence · Damian Hartland describes transformation and Ed Vanderbeen corroborates witness to on-site construction

  • Pat Lawlor states Willy Wonka pricing was deliberately reduced to reach wider audience with Standard/Limited/Collector editions

    high confidence · Pat Lawlor discusses company decision and edition tier strategy

  • Twilight Zone was Pat Lawlor's most difficult mechanical game to design

    high confidence · Pat Lawlor directly answers question about most challenging game

  • Straight Down the Middle reached 100 episodes, evolved from garage operation to professional videography/editing team producing manufacturer promotional content

    high confidence · Greg Bones and Zach Minney describe evolution and current work with manufacturers

Notable Quotes

  • “Half the games don't have glass on them. Thanks, Andy. Good luck. Can't confirm.”

    Jack Danger / Andy Bagwell @ Early in Deadflip segment — Humorous exchange about Dead Flip's maintenance issues during World Tour event

  • “It's sort of a Mrs. Doubtfire situation. When I'm in the queue, I go back and sit down. And when I'm up, I have to go to the bathroom. I leave the dinner table. I come here, I play two games, and then I go back and forth.”

    Josh Sharp @ Deadflip interview segment — Sharp describes sneaking away from distributor dinner to play tournament at Deadflip

  • “Production starts November 1st. That's when I'll get the website up ready to take orders. People can order one from me today whilst I'm here if they feel so inclined.”

    Damian Hartland (Haggis Pinball) @ Haggis Pinball interview — Official announcement of Haggis Pinball production launch date

  • “I'm really impressed because I literally watched him build it in one of our back rooms. I brought up an empty cabinet, and he was back there sawing and putting things together.”

    Ed Vanderbeen (Texas Pinball Festival) @ Haggis discussion — First-hand account of Haggis Pinball's rapid development from whitewood to finished product

  • “We've already outgrown this hotel. And don't be surprised if we see ourselves in a new location in the next two years, even bigger.”

    David Fix (Expo staff) @ Expo closing segment — Major announcement about Expo's growth trajectory and facility constraints

  • “It's a timeless movie. It mirrors what we did with Wizard of Oz. It's a family-oriented theme so that anybody can have fun with the game.”

    Pat Lawlor @ Jersey Jack interview — Lawlor explains design philosophy behind Willy Wonka

  • “Ideas are easy, actually building them is hard. And so we spend a lot of time implementing the ideas in the games.”

    Pat Lawlor @ Jersey Jack interview — Lawlor reflects on game design philosophy and mechanical implementation challenges

Entities

Jeff TeolispersonDeadflipvenueJack DangerpersonAndy BagwellpersonJosh SharppersonZach SharppersonChicago Pinball ExpoeventRob Burkeperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Chicago Pinball Expo has outgrown Westin hotel venue and is planning relocation to larger facility within 2 years, likely Schaumburg area with better logistics

    high · David Fix: 'We've already outgrown this hotel. And don't be surprised if we see ourselves in a new location in the next two years'

  • ?

    community_signal: Straight Down the Middle content creators reached 100 episodes and evolved into professional production company producing official manufacturer promotional videos (Willy Wonka reveal for Jersey Jack)

    high · Greg Bones/Zach Minney confirm: 'The reveal of Willy Wonka by Jersey Jack Pinball, that was straight down the middle productions. We did that for them.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Pat Lawlor emphasizes mechanical implementation difficulty and iterative process; identifies Twilight Zone as most challenging design due to novel injection-molded components and complex mechanics

    high · Lawlor: 'By far, the most difficult game was probably Twilight Zone'; describes elaborate mechanical problem-solving

  • ?

    event_signal: Chicago Pinball Expo reported record success with 600+ attendees, 60+ vendors, near-perfect weather, expanded programming (haunted house, video game area, kids/women tournaments), and family attendance surge

    high · Rob Burke and David Fix cite 600 attendee estimate, perfect Saturday weather (70°F), vendor enthusiasm, families with children as first-time players

  • $

    market_signal: Pinball Expo vendor feedback universally positive with strong sales reported; vendors view Expo as essential annual event with expanding attendance and family demographics

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.105

0:00
It's time for another Pinball Profile. I'm your host, Jeff Teels. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at Pinball Profile. Email us pinballprofile at gmail.com. Please subscribe on your favorite podcatcher and check us out on Instagram at pinballprofile.
0:25
It was a great weekend in Chicago. It kicked off with the Pinball Profile World Tour at Dead Flip and then the 35th Annual Pinball Expo at the Westin. Here's some highlights from the week that was.
0:38
Chuck Jackson's here at Dead Flip headquarters for the Pinball Profile World Tour. Are you having fun? Oh, yeah, having a blast. I love the Flip Frenzy tournaments. They're a blast. Have you played a few of them? Oh, yeah. Did the one last year when the Australian people came and had it at Logan Arcade? Yeah. Did that one. That was a blast. had a few local ones that we've done too. Yeah, the software really makes it easy, doesn't it? Oh yeah, definitely. You can walk up, put who won, who lost, and you're on to the next match. In the old days, it was an Excel spreadsheet. It was a lot of math. Yes, yes. Andy Bagwell's here. Hey, Andy, how are you? Good, Jeff. How are you doing? Good. You having fun? I love this place. Okay, you've been here before? I did sneak in once. What? Jack invited me over and I came inside without telling him I was here yet. Scared the shit out of him. Were you hiding in the fridge or something like that? No, I just walked out behind him and he didn't see him on stream and he jumped about 10 feet in the air so i felt really bad afterwards yes very much so that's awesome grab this chest it's uh a great collection in here too really awesome man i love the the setup of uh old and new in here it's a lot of fun the machines play great too yes you played the maiden the time i was here so and you know what he did a good job making them tournament ready yeah can't move him much tilter tight on him uh games play perfect they still seem balanced as heck so but you know what the great thing is we watch him on dead flip blow up the games but now we're going to play them. And if we blow them up, we're like, okay, Jack, now we know the secret. There's no pitch!

  • “By far, the most difficult game was probably Twilight Zone for a lot of reasons.”

    Pat Lawlor @ Jersey Jack interview — Lawlor identifies his most challenging design project

  • “I trust this man with my life. So I can bounce things off of him. And I don't have to worry about being PC. I don't have to worry about hurting his feelings.”

    Zach Minney (Straight Down the Middle) @ SDTM interview segment — Describes creative partnership dynamic with Greg Bones

  • “Well, I can tell you this. It's going to be for Chicago Gaming Company. I just did the Medieval Madness topper background.”

    Christopher Franchi @ Vendor interview segment — Franchi teases upcoming art project for Chicago Gaming Company

    • Straight Down the Middle
    media
    Greg Bonesperson
    Zach Minneyperson
    Haggis Pinballmanufacturer
    Damian Hartlandperson
    Ed Vanderbeenperson
    Bowen Kerinsperson
    Christopher Franchiperson
    Jersey Jack Pinballmanufacturer
    Pat Lawlorperson
    David Fixperson
    Marco Specialtiescompany
    Jim Burdingperson
    Ken Cromwellperson
    Chicago Gaming Companymanufacturer

    high · David Fix: 'most of our vendors here at the show thought it was a stellar success' and 'families of four coming in and playing pinball for the first time'

  • ?

    community_signal: Christopher Franchi (artist) returning to pinball art production after apparent hiatus; confirmed working on Chicago Gaming Company Medieval Madness project with full art package planned

    high · Franchi to Jeff: 'Well, I can tell you this. It's going to be for Chicago Gaming Company. I just did the Medieval Madness topper background'

  • $

    market_signal: Jersey Jack Pinball deliberately reduced Willy Wonka pricing and introduced three-tier edition strategy (Standard/Limited/Collector) to expand market accessibility

    high · Pat Lawlor: 'The people that own the company decided that they wanted to make the game available to a wider audience' and 'we're probably going to do it again'

  • ?

    announcement: Haggis Pinball's Celts game entering production November 1st with public website and order capability launching

    high · Damian Hartland: 'Production starts November 1st. That's when I'll get the website up ready to take orders.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Haggis Pinball completed significant transformation from whitewood prototype at Texas Pinball Festival (March 2019) to full-featured production game with custom artwork, inserts, music, and cabinet art by Chicago Expo

    high · Damian Hartland: game was 'whitewood with no inserts, no art, no music'; Ed Vanderbeen witnessed construction at Texas show; now 'non-stop playing' with full production features

    • 2:01
    Batman seems a little floaty, I will agree. Oh, okay. I did notice that. I can see why he puts up the $45 billion or whatever on Batman. Little secret for those who watch Deadflip, half the games don't have glass on them.
    2:15
    Thanks, Andy. Good luck. Can't confirm. Take care. Well, here he is, desperate to play in any possible tournament to help his IFBA, 17 chances in Florida. They're not looking good, but here he is anyway, former president of the IFBA, Josh Sharp. Hey, how are you? We're going to keep it going at this point. It's worth keeping going.
    2:36
    Yeah, I've got campaign donations already. It's good. I like it. Listen, it's a Wednesday night. Don't start. How did you get to play pinball on Wednesday night? You know, it turned out the distributor dinner that I'm going to is at the restaurant next door. And I walked by. Jack's windows are super clear, so I knew exactly what was going on in here. And ate my dinner really quick. It's sort of a Mrs. Doubtfire situation. When I'm in the queue, I go back and sit down. And when I'm up, I have to go to the bathroom. I leave the dinner table. I come here, I play two games, and then I go back and forth and back and forth. And so far, so good. Wow, your dedication to family and pinball rivals no one. It knows no bounds. Yeah. How are you playing? Is this going to help on your card? Probably. Are we supposed to share standings? Do you know what you're on? Yeah. Have you lost? Yes.
    3:28
    Sorry, I'm just smiling. I think I am five and one after six. How are you doing? I'm about to lose to your brother, but I'm not giving up on that. No way, man. He's playing long game on Batman. It's match play, dude. He's freezing timers. Okay. And, of course, then shooting TV mode, just nailing it over and over again. Is this your sixth game? Seven. Dang. What's your record so far? 4-2. I just lost a terrible teed-off game where I had one flip. Is there a non-terrible teed-off game? I had one flip. Yeah, that's a good point. All right, Josh, I know you're probably going to get back to that business dinner on a Wednesday night. I should. While I'm in the queue, I really need to be over there. Yeah, sorry. It's been a pleasure. Yeah. Sorry about that. Any regrets, Jack, having us here, all this riff-raff at the dead flip headquarters? What do you think? Yeah, you broke my frickin' door. Oh, yeah, that's right. the door, which is obviously, you know, we're in a secure place. We've got a lot of valuable things here. If you want to come steal something, just pull on the door. You're good to go. It's the Canadian way. No, this is awesome, man. We're giving this place like a good trial run on seeing how everything holds up. And so far, nothing is holding up. So we'll see. The big test, though, is to try to duplicate some of the scores you put up on Deadflip on a regular basis. A little more pressure when you're not by yourself. All these eyes on you. True, true. There's also something to be said about also answering people when something breaks, which I don't have to do when I'm by myself. I'm going to talk about the door. The door, that was hilarious, by the way. That was weird. But we've had a couple of games go down here, which is kind of a bummer.
    5:05
    What are you going to do? So Dead Flip will be off air for a couple weeks while you get at least one working? We're going to have no games. We've got to send them all back to Stern after everyone's kicking and screaming. You must love that Expo is here once again, coming to your town, and all the great people, all the games. Is it your favorite time of year? Close to. Close to, absolutely. I love that Expo's getting bigger, getting better, and I think you've got a ball to play. Do I? Hold on. You want to answer the score? Thanks. Oh, 1.5 million points. Whatever, get over it. That's how it works at the football game. No, Expo's amazing, man, and it just gets better every year now. So I'm stoked to see what the actual event holds because right now it's just all of us hanging out in my studio. You're getting a lot of good feedback on your custom game with the bang back. It would have been freaking done if I wasn't an idiot. Yeah, I screwed up some of my inserts so I couldn't screw in some of my targets, which means I couldn't finish the game. And George Gomez even commented, he's like, listen, idiot, I got you. Well, what are you doing? So, well, it'll get done. It'll get done. It looks good so far. Thanks, man. I appreciate it. Thanks, Jack. You heard Andy Bagwell. while he was the one who won the Pinball Profile World Tour at Deadflip. Coming in second place, it was a tie, and I can't make this up, Josh Sharp came in second, tied with DJ Riel. It was great to see all those people at Deadflip headquarters, and thanks to people like Ken Walker, who donated some wonderful prizes from Galloping Ghost Arcade. We also had a ton of other prizes from Comet Pinball, Deep Root Pinball, Jersey Jack Pinball, Measel Mods, Stern Pinball, Ulic Store, and a set of Pin Stadium lights, won by Elisa Parks. The next Pinball Profile World Tour event is November 1st, a three-strike tournament the day before the 24-hour sanctum. So after Dead Flip, it was on to Expo. Another great show from Rob Burke and his staff. And a shout-out to Ken Cromwell of the Special Unlit Podcast who organized a great Meet the Press, Meet the Media of Pinball event. Thanks for doing that, Ken. I know a lot of people wanted to see all their favorite podcasters and streamers, So that was very nice of you to put that together and make some lovely banners for each of the participants. Speaking of some famous pinball streamers and media people, here's a couple you might recognize. Isn't this cute? A hundred episodes for our good friends at Straight Down the Middle. Greg Bones, Zach Manning here. Hey, guys, how are you? Hey, how are you, Jeff? That is a big deal. I'm just joking, obviously, tongue-in-cheek. A hundred episodes, that is no small task. And we've all talked, because you do it from the video aspect. I do it from the Simple Podcast. I know how long it is to edit this without images. Well, Jeff, it took me about six hours to edit that whole entire video. Wait.
    7:49
    Greg, I know how hard you work. It is. It's a lot of work, Jeff, and I appreciate you commending me on it. What does Zach do?
    7:57
    I know you're struggling. Smoke's coming out of his ears. Gets us angry emails. I'm good at that. I'm really good at that. Obviously, what you do is, I assume, wax your chest all the time. Is that possible? You know, that's natural, Jeff. Wow. That is natural. No wax needed. You know, look at Greg. Look at me. I mean, we've obviously hit puberty at the right time. Very gentlemanly. You're coming up. I'm getting closer. Me and Pinside Petey.
    8:23
    We're in a race to see who can cross the puberty line first. Not a good comparison there. Seriously, guys, 100 episodes and so much more, too. I mean, what does straight down the middle mean to you after 100 episodes, after all the years and seeing so many people come here to Expo and greet you and love everything that you do, and also the Twippy Awards. Oh, yeah. You know it just a lot of fun It means a lot to us We gathered kind of a great fan base and most of those fans have become friends of ours people we look forward to seeing at Expo seeing at TPF other shows So I think that's the most rewarding aspect is the great friends that we've actually made in this hobby now. I'd say that Straight Outta the Middle has evolved substantially over the last three years, hasn't it, buddy? So we first started out just two guys in a garage with horrible acoustics and equipment doing videos. and now we are hosting the annual pinball awards each and every year that we throw in a lot of production, a lot of writing, a lot of directing into, all the way to doing reveals for manufacturers. A lot of people don't know, but the reveal of Willy Wonka by Jersey Jack Pinball, that was straight down the middle productions. We did that for them. They asked us to come in and to film that. That's a great job. Thank you so much. Yeah, we did that. We were really excited. Well done, Greg. Thank you. We were very proud of that. Greg does a substantial job when it comes to equipment and the cinematography of things, and then I do the editing portion. So we couldn't say that it was straight down the middle, but now that it's out there, that's some of our work. And believe it or not, Mr. Tieles, manufacturers continue to reach out and ask us to do some of their promotional materials, whether it's videos and stuff like that, and we're really proud of it. So it's evolved from two guys to two comedy videographer guys. So it's really fun. You know, I see the smiles on your faces, and I do know it is hard work, But I can't imagine you coming to the point where you don't enjoy it. But is it difficult with all the time that you put in? Sometimes it is. It is. With family alive, with work. We live, you know, two hours apart, so just making time to even get together to do stuff. But, you know, it's still rewarding. It's pushed us. You know, it's the creativity that we've, you know, started to bring to it, that Zach started to bring to it with the editing, the different filming, you know, getting new equipment and kind of trying to up and best ourselves. That's what's kind of kept us going, actually, you know, for the last year at least is just evolving more than anything. And that's what's excited us now is the evolution of what we can do and see how far we can actually push the production quality. Yeah, plus we're a huge balance. Like what Greg is fantastic at, I have a weakness in. And what I'm really good at, Greg might have a weakness in. And we totally trust one another. This is a guy that I met because of a couple botched pinball deals, Bram Stoker's Dracula. And now we are best friends that I trust with. Be careful. Dennis might be listening when you say best friends. Dun, dun, dun. Love you, buddy. Love you. But no, I trust this man with my life. So I can bounce things off of him. And I don't have to worry about being PC. I don't have to worry about hurting his feelings. We have an agreement. If we want this thing to be successful and to help further the industry that we know as pinball, we have to be totally open and transparent with one another. And we hope that it shows to everybody out there watching and listening. We don't fight about anything. It's literally we trust each other. Zach says, I want to try this shot. Go ahead and try it. Or I want to try this piece of equipment. Well, it's not going to work, Zach. Well, I think it'll work. And I'm like, it's not going to work, Zach. He's like, I think it will. I'm like, then we'll do it. We'll try it. So we do. We have full trust in Taylor. But you're right. You're right on that one. And we wrangle each other in on that. Zach's the astronaut that shoots for the stars. I'm the guy who keeps him grounded. So, you know, it works. Well, we love what you do. Keep it up. Greg Bone, Zach Minney, thank you very much, guys. Yeah, thank you, Jeff. We love you, Teolis. Thanks, buddy. If it sounds loud here, it's because a lot of people are rightfully so playing the Celts. Let the games begin. Haggis Pinball is here at the Chicago Pinball Expo, and Damian Hartland here from Haggis. How are you, buddy? Good, Jeff. How are you, mate? Good to see you, mate. I'll be seeing you in January when I head your way. You will. Thank God you brought this game here. It's been non-stop playing, and it's a lot different than what I saw in Texas back in March. You've done a lot. It is, yeah. At Texas, it was a whitewood with no inserts, no art, no music, no art. I'm sorry to say art. No art on the play field, no art on the cabinet, no anything. And thanks to Ed, who's here with us as well. Ed Vanderbeen's here from Texas Pinball Festival. He lent me a Star Trek cabinet when I was at Texas, and I built it whilst I was there. So, yeah, it's changed a bit since then. Ed, pretty impressive. I mean, you've seen what it was like just a few months ago at your show. I didn't think he'd – I'm really impressed because I literally watched him build it in one of our back rooms. I brought up an empty cabinet, and he was back there sawing and putting things together. And I don't think he got to see any of the show itself. He was so busy working on the game the whole weekend. The fruits of his labor are paying off right now because you're getting ready to go into production, aren't you? I am. Production starts November 1st. That's when I'll get the website up ready to take orders. People can order one from me today whilst I'm here if they feel so inclined. Well, I'm sure you're going to have a lot of interest too. The artwork, the play field, it's really good. I just shot it myself. I enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun. I know our good friends at Head to Head, Marty and Ryan, they were playing it. I think I've been a bit fortunate. It's either just been blind luck or the fact that, I don't know, maybe because I've become such an enthusiast and it's really been a great thing to do, I've sort of drawn other like-minded people towards me. So a good friend of mine has been working on code for 12 months. The guy that did the art we found in the UK, he's just been amazing. I remember when you did that. He's incredible. And there's a local guy that's doing all of the printing, all the vinyl, the back glass, which is a whole custom thing we've done. All of the candy-coated, jewel-color, pearl-esque paint on the trims and the lock bars. And he's an absolute pinhead. So the quality of what he's done is incredible. You know, one of the world's best players, one of the greatest of all time just flipped it. Bowen Cairns is here right now. Bowen, what did you think of the Celts? It's very impressive. I saw a prototype of this at Texas Pinball Fest back in March. It's really cool to see how far this game has come along. and it's got a solid theme, characters, animations, the works. I was hoping to play it back in Aussie a couple months ago as I was in Melbourne the other day.
    14:33
    It looks like it's on its way and it's a real produced game. It's an interesting layout too with a big loop around. It's kind of symmetric but with a top light field that is not symmetric. I kind of like that almost silver ball mania center shot. Yeah, that kind of thing is something where you can whip it back around boom boom boom you give like bigger bigger benefits reach shot uh that would be cool but that's where the the rules and programming start to matter as well i was lucky when i was playing it damien was telling me about you know okay go for the green don't hit the red so there's a lot in there you've really done well yeah there's sort of two main paths you can take one is island games one is battle plans each of those has a number of things you have to do to get to the wizard mode we have a number of hurry ups we've got about four multi balls and uh yeah it's it's really It's really quite... Greg's done an amazing job on the coach. It's really deep, especially considering it's a single-level play field and you might think there's not a lot going on. There's actually a lot to keep you busy. Where can people find out about Haggis Pinball? You can get us on... We've got all the social media feeds. So we've got Facebook and Instagram and YouTube. I had filmed a YouTube series. There's about 30 episodes that started when I started this whole journey back in September when I didn't know how to open the back box on a pinball I had bought. and I set about thinking it might be a good idea to start a pinball manufacturing company. So there's that whole journey on film, and they can watch that on YouTube and, yeah, get us on the website or any of those social media sites. I'm really proud of you. This is very impressive. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'll see you in January. You will. As I go around the vendor room, such great success for so many different vendors, and Christopher Franchi, your artwork, once again, a huge hit here at Expo. Had a great time, had a big bunch of fun, and sold a lot of art, which was cool. Well, that poster, too, the 35th anniversary with your kind of rocket man, I don't know what you want to call him, those T-shirts sold out very quickly. They did. I was told that they were the top-selling shirt, which is awesome. You've been busy. You did this artwork. You've got some Texas stuff with the armadillo. You've got a lot of stuff going on. I do, yeah. I did Pintastic, and then we got Pinball Expo, Then we've got Texas Pinball Festival, and then I'm also doing Northwest. Very, very cool. And can I just say, I was talking to Daniel Spoler of Project Pinball, and you donated a picture of one of your great Batman artworks for the auction. Just a donation. They raised $2,300 because of your artwork, so thank you very much. Yeah, well, because of the immense size, too. It's a big 4x4-foot framed canvas, but, yeah, I was super happy about that because it's all for a good cause, and I never would have expected it to get that much. So, very cool. Well, again, your artwork is popular with so many people. I like the variety, and I can hardly wait to see what you're doing next. Well, I can tell you this. It's going to be for Chicago Gaming Company. I just did the Medieval Madness topper background Yeah I saw that The castle art in the background And I stopping by there on the way home tomorrow from Chicago to discuss a full art package for something Very exciting. I knew you'd be back in pinball. You weren't gone long because it's just too good. Thanks, Chris Burt. Yep, thank you, Jeff. Jim Burding's here from St. Louis at Expo. You enjoying the show? Oh, enjoying it every day. And you're a big collector yourself. You're getting in there. You're even playing tournaments? Yeah. I've got three machines now. What do you have? I have a tall Williams line. I've got a 77 big deal. Just refinished a Black Knight. Restored that from ground zero. And I've got a laser ball that's here at the show. Oh, nice. You brought a game. That's really cool. Yeah, it's a whole new experience. What you're doing is big because these kind of shows, and any show anywhere in the country, really can't happen without people like yourself bringing games to shows. It's a big deal. Well, I mean, St. Louis isn't exactly just a couple of minutes away, so that you're doing that, thank you very much. Oh, you're welcome. Now, what do you think of the tournament? I heard you went into the Classics. You got your six entries in. How do you feel? Eh, I did about what I usually do. It's like I think that, you know, I'm used to playing the games not as flat, and I think some of the older games, they set them up that way, but that's the advantage you have. Well, and then you come to a place like this where you've got so many heavyweights there. Or, oh, I don't know, Raymond Davidson, the Sharps, Keith Elwin. There are a lot of great players here. So you're competing against that. Yeah, it's tough. But, you know. But, you know, in St. Louis, you've got some great pinball people there as well. John Miller, Jason Fowler from Slapsave. Who's just actually, hey, there he is. What's up? How are you, Jeff? The St. Louis connection here. We're just talking to Jim here about St. Louis pinball. And I'm going to be experiencing it next summer for the first time. What will I be experiencing, Jason and Jim? What do you think? Oh, there's a lot of places to play with a lot of machines. So, yes, we've got some great locations. CPs, Padavans. Silver Ballroom, the Waiting Room. The Silver Ballroom, okay. So a lot of location pinball. I know Chicago certainly has it, but St. Louis is a hotbed. I'd say we've got four or five really, really good places, yes. Well, maybe I'll see you there, Jason. Jim, always a pleasure to talk to you, and thanks for stopping by. Thank you. A lot of people very excited here at Expo to see this man who created a fantastic game among many in his career, Pat Lawler from Jersey Jack. Pat, how are you? I'm good, thanks. Pat, Willy Wonka, a huge hit, a fun game, great flow. There's so much to like about this game. What did this theme mean to you? Well, Willy Wonka, it fits right into the Jersey Jack lineup. It's a timeless movie. It mirrors what we did with Wizard of Oz. It's a family-oriented theme so that anybody can have fun with the game. They don't have to worry that their kids are going to be exposed to something crazy. and it's just fun for everybody in the family. And so we had a great experience working with Warner Brothers to do the game and with some of the people that were involved in the movie. And there's so many toys that you can put in this when you think of the movie and what it has, and you put them all in the game. Well, I don't know if we put them all in the game. There's a lot. There is a lot in the game. And that goes back to the Jersey Jack philosophy, which is we believe that we're the sort of higher end of pinball. So our games are full-featured. We have a lot going on there. And that's just kind of our niche in the world. And it's amazing, too, when I look at the price point. It came down, too, which makes it very affordable for so many people. That was a big move on Jersey Jack's part. It was, and there was a lot of thought that went into that. And the people that own the company decided that they wanted to make the game available to a wider audience. You know, the standard edition has got a few less features in it than the limited edition or the collector's edition. But the reception for it's been awesome, and we're probably going to do it again. When you came to Jersey Jack and gave us the amazing dialed-in game, things changed mechanically from the way Jersey Jack was doing. What are some of the changes that you insisted? Well, I don't know if I insisted on anything. When I got to Jersey Jack, one of the things that I was involved in was improving the platform. And by the platform, I mean the cabinet and how you service the game.
    22:00
    Wizard of Oz was a great game. It was a great start for the company. But some of the placement of the components in it was difficult to service and work on the game at the same time. And so I moved a lot of that to more traditional parts of the game. In the back box, we did some work on the sound system. We did some work on the serviceability with the monitor.
    22:26
    And I think it turned out pretty nice. I've been told by a lot of techs that they really appreciate what we did. Was it fun to put in the remote control flippers? I mean, that's something unique. The software guys had a lot of fun doing that. and we had no idea how it would be received, and there were a lot of people that thought it was pretty unique. I said this to Jack. Each game that comes out with Jersey Jack, first of all, they're beautiful. They're fantastic. They display very well, and they play well, but there's always something that's unique that you see that, wow, I haven't seen this in pinball before. That's tough to keep coming up with new ideas.
    23:03
    There's a person I met who once said, ideas are easy, actually building them is hard. And so we spend a lot of time implementing the ideas in the games.
    23:16
    You know, actually physically building them is the hard part. You know, you look at the most secret machine in Willy Wonka, and it seems like an easy idea. There's a hole that opens up and the ball goes in. That simple idea took an awful lot of time to figure out how to get it to work right, how to get it to feel right, you know, all of the things that go mechanically with it. How do you level the device? How does a ball not get trapped in it? And so we work very hard at those things. Pat, you've made some of the greatest games of all time, some of the best-selling games of all time. I'm wondering what the most difficult mechanical game was for you to make when I think of things like Adam's Family or Twilight Zone or even these at Jersey Jack. What was the most difficult? By far, the most difficult game was probably Twilight Zone for a lot of reasons. The gentleman I was incredibly lucky to work with at Williams, his name was John Crutch, and he was the genius behind a lot of that stuff. But there's an awful lot there. There's an awful lot of parts that were injection molded. There's an awful lot of parts that no one had ever seen work that way before. And like I said, they all take time, and that was a lot of work. Well, congratulations. I know you're a busy man here at Expo. A lot of people want to talk to you. congratulations on Willy Wonka I love playing it and so do so many others well thank you very much another great success here at Pinball Expo I'm really proud of Rob Burke and the staff and the staff like David Fix who we know from Buffalo David this has been a great expo thanks Jeff it has been a great show and you know we had a lot of room we pulled out all the stops the Stern Marco room was outstanding the tournament area was just what everybody's been looking for for the pro circuit event. I think you were in there, you felt at home, didn't you? Yeah, it was great, and a nice atmosphere, too. Marco Specialties did a great job with promoting it on their TV with IE Pinball, and it was very, very exciting. The DJ that came from Logan, I mean, it was just a great atmosphere. And the vendor room, having over 60 vendors. Now, we did have, unfortunately, in Chicago, we had to have perfect weather. We had perfect weather on Friday and Saturday, Saturday getting up almost 70 degrees and sunny but we did pull in tons of families friends kids children you know families of four coming in and playing pinball for the first time so we got the exposure that we wanted and most of our vendors here at the show thought it was a stellar success there were a lot of new time vendors and they just loved it I've walked by every room I have not been in every room it's that big that I guess I could have to force myself to spend time there when I'm the tournaments it's a little tough but there's so much going on we had a haunted house first time a haunted house escape room then we had even a video game area like uh you would see it at midwest gaming classic we had uh kids tournaments women tournaments there was tons of tournaments we also had had to break up the game room into two rooms because they had so many machines And then we brought them into the vending hall It was just ridiculous with the number of the machines I think it's going to succeed about 600. I'm enjoying a lot of times in the vendors room. I've asked a lot of vendors. They're doing very well. So again, a great success. Which brings them back and makes Expo bigger and bigger. And we're looking forward to not only next year, but shortly, we've already outgrown this hotel. We've known this What? Yeah, we've outgrown this hotel. And don't be surprised if we see ourselves in a new location in the next two years, even bigger. The Willis Tower next year here in Chicago. Some people said the famous McCormick Center, a million square feet. But, no, that's too big. I'm thinking more like Schaumburg. I mean, that's a cool little town. There's a beautiful event center. It's got three hotels that are hooked to it. and I'll drive in and unload right there on the spot. So I think that might be looking like the future of Expo. Well, David, I like the present of Expo. I do look forward to the future. I appreciate everything you do and all the best to you back at Pocketeer. Thank you very much. Jeff, you have a safe trip home, my friend. Thanks, David. In 2019, everyone is waiting with bated breath for the next game from Spooky, from Scott Denisey, because of how much we love TNA. Scott, are we getting close? We are getting close, actually. So 2019, it's a big year. It's a big year. We've been working really hard on this thing, but we're actually going to reveal it at the end of December and then be shipping real short after that, I hope. Okay, yeah, fingers crossed. I know you can't say anything, and I don't want you to say anything, but, again, the anticipation for your game is through the roof. I mean, that's a lot of pressure. Well, look at how successful TNA is. Could you ever imagine when you made the Whitewood, showed it here at Expo, and showed it at other places, that it would sell as well as it did and has been so widely appreciated, a critical hit? I have no clue what happened there, honestly, to tell you. Because I just built something that I liked, and I guess other people did too. And the music, can we expect that sound? Well, I made the music out of necessity, actually. But can we expect that kind of same Scott Denise-y sound or something unique, something original? I am working on some of the music for the next game, yes. Good, good, good. And that's your little nugget of information. Okay. Well, you've got a good team, too. I do. It's grown a lot. I'm not doing any programming because Eric Repke is doing the programming. Bowen's heading up the rules with Eric. Obviously, the rest of the team's involved. We've got David Van Ness on animations. There's an artist contracted in. There's, I guess, Charlie's going through and just kind of laughing at us. I don't know if that helps or not. But I did the play field design. I'll do sound effects. I'll be working on music. I got, like, overall, like, you know, a look at everything pretty much. But you still found the time to come here at Expo. And, in fact, you're going to be going to another Expo in Houston in November. Yes, the Houston Arcade Expo. I'll be down there. I'm going to be doing a live performance as well with the music. So a live DJ set. How much fun is that? It's going to be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to that. I'll see you in Houston. Absolutely. I'll see you then. Thanks, Scott.
    29:37
    In the showroom with all the games here, the one I've seen people play more than anyone else was the Gottlieb Crawl game. Yes, that one. It was here. And Troy Smith from MTZ Arcade has it. Thank you for bringing it. Oh, you're welcome. And I liked when you lifted up the playfield because I always wondered what was underneath it. I've heard, and it is true, a full play field underneath a play field. Yes, it's not 6x10 like the lenticular lens makes it look like. It is a 2 foot by 3.5 foot play field with full size ball, full size flippers, full size pop buffers. I can only imagine how many people have come to you and said, is it for sale?
    30:20
    For the right price. Yeah? Yes, it would be. It would be for sale. Well, it's in perfect condition too. I'm watching Todd McCulloch play it right now. Dwight Sullivan was so excited to get on there. He's on it. And so many others. It's been a good lineup, but it's holding up. It is. I've had a flipper coil go bad, a couple of springs issues, but overall, for a guy like me, it's held up really well.
    30:44
    And I even just got an email from Ed Robertson wishing he was here to play it. So that was pretty cool. Well, Ed, I am playing it right now, and it is a lot of fun, but that's cool. Yeah. I've got to get to the lower play field. I'm dying to jump on it right now. Troy, thanks for bringing it. Oh, no problem. You're welcome. I hope you enjoyed it. A lot of people seem to. I'm with the final two here at Flip Out at Expo. Two amazing young players, Alexander Kismarchuk and the winner, Escher Lefkoff. I could watch you guys play for hours and hours, and likely it would be on one game, on Black Knight. My goodness, you guys know how to play that premium. Alex, I saw you actually play earlier before the final round, and I know you were over the 1 billion mark, too. Correct. Just grinding that out, manipulating that flail. When it's up, shoot it back up top. Keep going back to that mini play field. Get some catapults. For those that haven't seen the stream, you should watch it on IE Pinball. But really, when you kind of do the, I don't know what else to call it, maybe a no-fear kind of loop shot up top, that's the game. Yep, pretty much. Especially in Retro Mocha 3X, where you get three balls. Wow, it's incredible to watch. Hey, another great finish for you, Alexander. Congratulations on second place. Thank you, Jeff. And, Escher, you kept the flip-out victories in the Lefkoff name. You've got to be pretty proud of that. Yeah, happy with how I played. Black Knight, I was a bit worried about because Alexander has gone over a billion every single time he's played it beforehand.
    32:05
    Including against you. Including against me earlier. He got 1.2 billion. So I wasn't really looking forward to that game, but I played well and got the victory there. And, yeah, I was happy with how I played. You both have been playing so well this entire year. But, I mean, what we saw you and Colin Urban, who finished third, by the way, do Brisbane Masters. I mean, I've talked to people in Australia and they said, those guys are men among boys. But you are boys. You're young guys. You're just incredible pinball players. Was that a great experience for you? Yeah, I love going to Australia. I recommend it as a tournament. Great players, met a lot of new people. The tournaments went well. Games played good. The only issue I ever had was that there wasn't enough EMs there. Oh, wow. That was the only issue I really had with any of them. Yeah. And it was a great tournament. I recommend it. Jimmy Nails did a wonderful job there in Brisbane. Now, you, the next game was Jurassic Park. It's so funny because you played an hour plus and really, it wasn't really one for the record books. It wasn't our earlier game when we played it. I picked it. Ball one, I got $800 million. I was like, oh, okay. I feel safe with this. Alexander didn't do anything on ball one. I didn't do anything on ball two. And then he got $800 million on his ball two. I remember that score. It was 842 to 809 or something. Yeah, something like that. So it wasn't quite as epic as that game, but even some of the smaller scorers can be the hardest to get sometimes. It's amazing to see this Final Four. We mentioned Colin Urban in third. In fourth place, Jared August. So if you're over the age of 20, you're too old to be playing competitive football. You're showing us old farts, though. I was asking Fred for, you know, why is the kids tournament 14 under? We just made the main in the kids' tournament. Yeah, no kidding. Well, speaking of games, you are about to get a game. Have you thought about what you're going to win? Yeah, I've been thinking for a while. Still don't really know what I want to get. What's it between, do you think? I don't know. It's between the cash and probably Deadpool. Okay, yeah, Deadpool's a lot of fun. Asher, congratulations on the victory. Thank you. Other big winners at Expo, Anna Neal won the Women's Championship, and DJ Ryle beat Raymond Davidson to win the Classics event. I've only been to two Expos, and both have been fantastic. It's something you need to highlight on the calendar next year for October. There were nine homebrew games, a bunch of great Spanish games, just so much to see. The vendors I know were very excited. It's nice to see shows like this and like TPF in March really bring out the best of pinball. This episode of Pinball Profile brought to you by Fireball Whiskey. You're damn right. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at Pinball Profile. Email us pinballprofile at gmail.com. Please subscribe on your favorite podcatcher and check us out on Instagram at pinballprofile. I'm Jeff Teolas.