light blink. I shoot for the blinking light. Um, we have an illustrious group of people that judged today and I don't know if you guys know who they were. Um, Chris Ranchie, thank you for or who they are. Sometimes some of us are husbands, but um um Chris Ranchie made this great um t-shirt up for us. Thank you, Chris. But I want to talk to you about a couple of the people we figured out. There there are like 350 um years of game design and pinball and video game uh talent that judged you guys today and um everything from video games to pinball machines. A lot of these guys were uh and continue to be. Some of us are were um but I'm going to introduce you to everybody that that's that's judged you. First off, the man the safe pinball, Roger Sharp, [cheering]
or as my wife refers to him, the mustache, the safe pinball. Roger's been designing pinballs and Sharpshooter has written books about pinball. He's the only guy in around here that has a movie written about him and and starring in and amazing. Larry Demar, one of my best friends. Larry [applause] of course Adams family twilight zone worked with Eugene on defender Stargate Robbitron Williams operating system. So when we're talking operating systems, Larry Judge the co part of this um is kind of amazing. What Black Knight of course um Eugene Jarvis goes without saying Eugene designed uh [applause] some of the early Atari pinballs and Flash and and and Firepower and F14. Amazing. Chuck Robert Blakeman who was at Williams all those years that made the hardware happen on all of those games and then went and had a second career at Stern and just recently
retconed us. Hold on.
Stepped on it. Hold on. power.
It's a plus right there. Just be careful.
Wait for it.
Okay, here we go. We're back. [applause and cheering]
Okay, we we we have Ed Boon who designed multiple pinball machines, started as a pinball game designer. Um, was taxi your favorite one or which was your favorite one?
Black Knight 2000. By the way, if you've ever heard of a little video game called Mortal Kombat and created it,
of course, George Petro, who started at Williams the same time I started at Williams. George has had an incredible career both as a pinball designer, of course, now has and just finished the Pulp Fiction game, but he goes back to the early days of Williams. of course made a little stint of of a little what's that little game you made? Oh, Buck Hunter. Big Buck Hunter for 25 years. And of course, you know, Terminator Gun and a bunch of other ones. The the glue that binds us all together. Ken Fedzna, he was like the grand pua of Williams. [applause] He took all of these as Larry taught me. Larry taught me how to be the oily wheel. He took all this squeaky oily wheels and figured out how to keep us all at bay, keep us at work. Maybe maybe not Python, but um he kept Ken kept everything together. He was the sane one that made sure schedules happened, games got made and had both a huge career at Williams and Midway uh all those years running it and of course with team play making some some great amazing games also. So, I mean, what a judging crew. It's absolutely amazing. So, we wanted to do something a little different this year. Um, we we decided the names of of the trophies and the categories. We all judged. We've been actually looking at the games the past several days. We took a lot of time and a lot of thought. And this morning, we we went through everything again. We spent time what about 2 and a half hours at lunch today, George looking at things and then things we weren't 100% sure of. We came back and had a separate and a second look and around 4:00 we we decided Price Waterhouse has all of the uh awards. Some of these awards are really near and dear to our hearts. We named a couple of them over some people that we worked with over their career like a Steve Cord who was one of the fathers of pinball to uh a Shelley sack at uh Stern. Some of them are are kind of fun but we but every one of these awards really fit the game that gets it. And I wish I could give all of you guys the first place award cuz you all in your own right deserve it. I mean, the amount of hard work, sweat, and tear that went in these games. But what what excites you more than anything is the excitement and the enthusiasm and the discovery. And let me tell you guys, there are some ideas in the in here that are a lot better than the ideas out there. And I saw some stuff that I've never seen on a pinball in here. So Rob told me if you guys would like next year Larry will lead this thing. I'll come back again and maybe we'll judge this again. But we were really, you know, I think for all of us, we were really excited by what we saw. So, what I'm going to do is we're all going to take some time. We're all going to present a couple of the awards, talk a little bit about them. Um, and I guess Larry, you want to start us off? So, everybody, Larry Dear. All right. As um as Joe mentioned, we we named a lot of the awards after all stars in the industry and name them for specific attributes in the games um that were associated with the people. Um this award is the uh Larry Dear best software 2025 award and some games will receive multiple awards. So, if you don't get the one you like, just keep hoping we'll uh you know, and we're gonna we're not going to have any acceptances to sing you off stage. Um, but I am proud to award the Larry Dearb Best Software Award to Mad Max. I I am so impressed with this young man and his uncle who uh created this game uh through his high school years. So congratulations Justin. This is uh interesting in in in light of the seminar we just gave. This is the Python Anghelo most unique design 2025 goes to Adam. Can anyone guess whose award uh this is in the name of? No. The Steve Ritchie Most Complex Play Award goes to Harry Potter.
M Michael Oonnell did finance for data e spinball and its successor. So he has the Michael O'Donnell it cost too much awards. Also goes to Harry Potter. We have the Charlie Emery Gary theme award goes to Hellraiser and and just a few words again. Um Pat and I did one of the first home bruise when we did wreck and ball which turned into Banzai Run. Um it was really hard and what I've seen today and and it and it was not a production ready game. Some of these games we're seeing today actually are at the point where you could take and produce them off these prototypes. So, um, mind totally blown, head exploded, and and hats off to everybody who participated. Steve Kordek award. Yes. Yes. For the best game experience award, it's no surprise that this goes to Luo. It was Steve Cord's name. I I grew up on wedge heads and uh it was really beautiful to see this original game. Steve Kordek would have loved it. Barry, best playfield award for Big Trouble in Little China. Truly, truly wonderful game. All right, last one before we turn it over. The Brian Schmidt Best sound award goes to Sana.
You know, there was some uh debate amongst the judges, you know, so I'm not responsible for any of these awards. I was overruled. So, you know, distinction of the overruled. Here we go. Um the uh this This is the Eugene Jarvis Pet Show award. And back when I was programming, that was like turning on all the lights and turning them on, you know. And uh Monster Hockeyy's got it. Monster Hockey, you know, it's you know, there and there's been uh congratulations. You know, there's been a history of kind of these head-to-head pinballs and they've all been a complete disaster. Um, but I think Monster Hockey is maybe the one that's going to break through. I mean, it was a lot of fun. Thank you.
All right. This is the Constantino Mitchell Emerging Artist Award, Okay. Connie was an was a early pinball artist. He did uh Flash. He did uh uh beat uh Yeah. Fire power, Pinbot. Yeah. Laser Ball. Um he did all the early Williams games. He was uh amazing. And it was him and his wife did those games. and also he did uh the back glass for Defender and Robbitron and Stargate. So he did some amazing work. Then he went on to Bigger and Better Things making Happy Meals and uh was pretty famous for that too. So uh the winner of the Constantino Emergent Art Award is Battle Station. All right, we have the Alvin Gotale, who was probably the guy that invented Wedge Heads, best original theme award. And uh I know you guys probably Gotly used to be the number one pinball company back in the 70s uh and uh late late uh late 70s and you know like the 50s through the 70s. Amazing stuff. The wedge heads, the great Target games. They just they could have used a little more powerful flipper, I think, but you know, I guess that was part of the challenge. Um, so the winner is Adventure Time. Adventure Time. Congratulations. That was really, really sweet.
details award. Okay. No detail. You know, when you start when you're obsessing over a pinball game, it's like you start worrying about every scratch, every smidgen of dust, every little adjustment. And uh but uh the guys that really got the details right was Big Trouble in Little China.
And I'll do one last one and we're going to switch off to Chucky. Chucky. Hey, what do you feel for Chuck? Get up here. All right. This one is the uh best gadget award.
This is the one that goes for the best gadget award and it goes to Turbo. This one's a little closer to me. Uh, this goes to the best hardware usage award. This goes to the best usage award. Hardware usage and that's for me. Um, and that goes to Steamboat Willie. Next one is you ain't seen nothing yet award. other one is best game for kids award. This one goes to Elf. Next one is best show flow. Pick the best shot flow. And Contra is the winner of this one. Congratulations. Best bar game. Probably everybody knows we're listening to goes to Beerfest. Is the beer still cold? And this one's a baby in the hole award. That goes to Space Ball. Baby in the Hole was a game uh done by Harvey Heights and years ago at uh Betty's East Pinball. Rob, you know, Harvey designed this game. Never got built. Rob was like, "You got to build it because it's his dream and it's his it's his passion." And that's why he got that award because that was his dream. It was his passion. You know, his wife brought it back here for everybody to see and enjoy his dream and passion and that's why he got the Harvey Award. That's what it means. Okay. Oh, well, I'll do one then I'm going to turn over to George. This is the Joe Camo best overall package award and that goes to Steamboat Willie. All right, George, take take over and then we got up there next. Do you have mine? Thank you. We all named awards for ourselves, so I'm going to give out mine. This is the George Petro first game design award, and that goes to Trogdor. There you go, man. Good job. Good job.
All right, let's see. Uh, this is the George Gomez best pop bumper arrangement award. This goes to
Yes. What do you mean? Why they won?
Yeah. Well, so this one goes to Mad Max and it's for the contactless pop bumper, which is pretty amazing. So, Okay, this is the Larry Platker Best Printing Award. For those of you that don't know, Larry was instrumental in printing of many, many back glasses for games that you all love to play and look at. And uh this one goes to The Greatest Show on Earth. Okay, this is the Gary Stern not on my game award. I guess Gary was
Yeah, he wouldn't Gary would not have made this game. And this goes some other ship. Okay. Oh, this is cool. This is the George Oppperman Most Modern Graphic Art Award. So, George Opperman was uh the artist that did a lot of Atari, the Atari pinballs, right? So, they're super cool, super modern. And we gave this one to Mass Effect 2. Okay, this is the uh Michael Stroll we make the games that make the industry award. Uh Michael Stroll was a CEO of Williams Electronics for several years and our mantra at Williams was we make the games that make the industry. So this one goes to Black Knight, of course. Okay, this is uh this one is in honor of Nick Wade who was a wiring guy for uh many companies at East, right? Yeah. He worked at Williams, too. This is the Nick Wade Cleanest Wiring Award also to Black Knight. I'm going to turn it over to Roger. Does anybody know who Roger Sharp is? I don't Okay. So, let's see. with my glasses on. Pickle Expo Homebrew Contest. Roger Sharp Best Award for 2025. What might it be? Coming to America.
I didn't bring my reading glasses. Uh, Pinball Expo Homebrew Contest. Ah, the Tim Seckel I want to be a pinball designer award. And Timmy was just awarded to be in the Pinball Hall of Fame. So this is for House of Flesh and Blood. Okay. Pinball Expo Homebrew Contest, the Jack Liddon Dot and Screen Graphics Award. Did you want to fill in a little bit on Jack? was the guy that did the first dot matrix dots on the first dot matrix pinball checkpoint.
Probably creative guy. This goes to PMO. Okay. Moving on to the uh Pinball Expo homebrew contest. Susan Giani, best voice in a pinball award 2025. Suzanne uh was the voice on Xenon and a couple of other games. An incredible artist, very talented. Number of years back she gave a talk and uh just just amazing. So, this award goes to Monsters, Inc. Thank you. I'll do one more. Somebody who can I'm going to do two more so somebody can actually read these things. Oh, okay. The Pinball Expo Homebrew Contest. Sam Stern best game for beginners award of 2025. Legend of Zelda. Pinball Expo home brew contest. Shelley Sachs shipped from the furthest distance award 2025. Shelley was the backbone for data e Sega Stern over all these many years was just an incredible human being who dealt with a lot of stuff and we're looking at invaders from France of course. A pleasure. All right, let me turn it over to Mr. Ed Boon. Uh, the Pinball Expo home brew contest. Ed Boon best overall kickass game. I didn't I didn't name the category. That was that that game that Big Trouble was actually a big inspiration for the first model comic game. Okay. Okay. And for the Ken Fedzna Best Ready for Prime Time Designer Award, Mad Max. So, the best back glass back glass art award goes to Okay, I'm going to accept it on behalf of I guess uh best video graphics awarded. for the most fun to play award. That's a big one. Sonic for the best ramps award. Tony Hawk. What's going on here? George is what? Crippling with the puck. Okay, they're making us uh young guys get up here cuz we can still step up here, right? And Reed, I have glasses, though. All right. Uh best cabinet art award. Invaders.
All right. Best shots award. Best shots, Sonic. All right. The best Playfield art award. Best playfield art. Coming to America. That's what did it. Uh, best theme original. Best original theme award. Enigma. All right. And then this is the best art award for Steamboat Willie.
Giants. It's a good package. All right. Who's next? You want to do some learning? Best implementation award goes to got to catch them all Pokemon. We're getting down to the last few here. Best theme licensed award goes to Monsters, Inc. Best sound award goes to Sonic the Hedgehog. All right. This is the best gadget award. Any nominations out there? Beer fastest And this is the best music award. The greatest showman. Well, this is the hard part. First of all, I want to get all my judges back up here with me. Give them a hand. You know, we have to judge this in a lot of different ways because we understand not every game is a modern game. Some games like blue hour were a take on a classic and traditional and they all had to be judged based on what they were trying to achieve. So, now here's the hard part. First off, you guys have been incredible. You've been so encouraging of each other. Keep this enthusiasm. Keep doing what you're doing. It has been this has been just a great experience for all of us. Uh and we we thank you all. But now we're going to do Yeah. Yeah. It was really hard to get us all to agree on everything. And by the way, every award we we did, we agreed on. Yes, we did. Don't you agree, Eugene? Okay, I would like to ask three people or three games to come up. Larry, you want to announce our top three? Okay, we're going to announce Well, we're going to bring everybody up, but we're going to say who who they did, right? Invasion needs to come up here. Big trouble and little China needs to come up here. and Mad Maxi to come up here. And I like you all to come up here. We're going to have the second runner up. Larry's going to announce the second runner up. What? bottom. Okay. Okay. Okay. This is the second runner up. Best of show as voted on by this very esteemed panel. If you are unhappy with our decisions, talk to Kim. The second runner up, Mad Max. You guys want to say something? [applause] Now, Larry is going to announce our I wanted to announce this one. Um, all three of the finalists. I loved all those feelings. Um, we all picked different top games. I got out voted with those who made it sound like Harmon. So, the first runner up for the home competition for 2025 is Invasion. My favorite I'll be back next year to get the game right. Tech, would you like to say a few words?
Surprise. Everything is a surprise. And I imagine everybody everybody know why I'm here because of this man. He's the best.
You crazy too, huh?
I saw him. He say I say you crazy. So I follow you and it's it's incredible for me because I didn't know I was coming here and uh on the paper the French because it wasn't supposed to be here. So it's great honor. It's it's incredible. I don't believe it. I still sleeping in my bed in France and I'm dreaming. All right. Well, you know who the winner is then. No surprise. Come on, Tino. All right. Big trouble in Little China. I got uh three things super quick. Number one, thank you to everybody who actually makes what we do possible. the software folks, the hardware folks, the folks that build boards, the folks who toil hours just to build software so we can make these cool games. Thank you. Number two, if you brought a game here, please raise your hand. Everybody else, please clap for those people who brought a game. An amazing, talented, incredible group of human beings. They're all awesome. And if you want to build a game, talk to those folks. The last thing I want to say is I don't want to be up here again. I want to see one of you guys up here with a fantastic game.