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Inside Jersey Jack Pinball: Harry Potter Pinball on the Production Line | Chicago Pinball Expo 2025

Dutch Pinball Museum·video·40m 15s·held·Jan 11, 2026
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

Jersey Jack factory tour: Harry Potter production, engineering rigor, 938-part complexity.

Summary

Eric Meudt, Jersey Jack Pinball designer, conducts an in-depth factory tour during Chicago Pinball Expo 2025, revealing the production process for Harry Potter pinball from parts inspection through final assembly. The tour emphasizes engineering rigor, quality control, serviceability, and the intricate design philosophy behind mechanisms like the moving staircase and wand ball-locks. Key insights include the complexity of parts management (938 unique parts per game), iterative design processes involving dozens of prototypes, and careful attention to operator usability and machine maintainability.

Key Claims

  • Harry Potter contains 938 unique parts with over 4,000 total parts on the bill of materials

    high confidence · Eric Meudt, describing incoming parts inspection at JJP factory

  • A 40-foot container can hold 66 Harry Potter games, representing close to $1 million USD in product value

    high confidence · Eric Meudt, discussing domestic vs. international shipping configurations

  • Three containers of Harry Potter were shipped out last week (week of Chicago Pinball Expo 2025)

    high confidence · Eric Meudt, mid-tour comment on shipping volume

  • The moving staircase mechanism went through approximately 2-3 dozen prototypes before finalization

    high confidence · Eric Meudt, discussing staircase engineering and iterative refinement

  • Worker Rudy has built over 1,000 Harry Potter machines and no longer needs to reference assembly guides

    high confidence · Eric Meudt, discussing operator experience and production speed optimization

  • The wand models in Harry Potter are the most accurate wands in the world, sourced from gigabyte-sized files from Warner Brothers

    high confidence · Eric Meudt, showing wand ball-lock mechanisms (Harry, Hermione, Ron)

  • The 16 different gold colors were tested before settling on the final gold for Harry Potter

    high confidence · Eric Meudt, discussing powder coat development in machine shop

  • Jersey Jack uses a Shopbot CNC router that has cut every whitewood in the company's history

    high confidence · Eric Meudt, describing machine shop capabilities

  • Playfield quality control includes 100% inspection of playfields and back glass components, with standardized criteria

    high confidence · Eric Meudt, discussing inspection procedures for critical components

Notable Quotes

  • “Part of my job is not just to make a fun game, but make a game that can be built.”

    [name withheld pending review]@ 13:32 — Core design philosophy emphasizing manufacturability alongside gameplay; reflects tension between ambitious mechanics and production feasibility

  • “If I come up with a super cool mechanism, but nobody can build it, I can't put it in a pinball machine.”

    [name withheld pending review]@ 13:38 — Reinforces constraint-driven design; illustrates practical limitations of manufacturing in game design decisions

  • “We don't want our employees to have to build something and walk way over there and then build something new and bring it over here. Everything starts to move inward.”

    [name withheld pending review]@ 12:06 — Reveals operational efficiency thinking; shows optimization of factory workflow and worker ergonomics

  • “Any one part missing will stop a game from going in a box. When there's 938 different ones, even one of them shows up wrong or late... you can't put your game together.”

    [name withheld pending review]@ 9:37 — Demonstrates supply chain criticality and just-in-time manufacturing challenges; highlights why inventory accuracy is mission-critical

  • “This should come off in less than 5 minutes. Serviceability is very important. I grew up as an operator working on games... when you can't get to a certain thing and it takes you two hours to take one part out just to change a rubber.”

    [name withheld pending review]@ 30:50 — Personal operator experience informs design philosophy; emphasizes operator-centric thinking rooted in real-world maintenance pain points

Entities

[name withheld pending review]personJersey Jack PinballcompanyHarry PottergamePinball News (Pinball Expo 2025)eventDutch Pinball MuseumorganizationCrystalpersonDanpersonRudyperson

Signals

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Three 40-foot containers (198 units) of Harry Potter shipped in a single week; each container worth ~$1M in retail value; indicates strong production ramp and order fulfillment

    high · Eric: 'I think we sent out three containers of Harry Potter last week. Um it's a great time to be making pinball when you have a fun game like this.'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Extensive multi-level testing: testing room runs 24/7 for up to 1M cycle mechanism durability, 100% playfield/back glass inspection with standardized criteria, 30-min playfield test, final holistic test; reflects high-touch manufacturing approach

    high · Eric: 'Every one of these will be pulled out and inspected... testing room will run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week... about a 30 minute procedure for testing every light, every switch, every coil'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Moving staircase mechanism features offset motor design with needle bearing, rotating top with ball path integration, and lenticular print portraits; represents ~2-3 dozen prototypes of iterative refinement

    high · Eric detailed staircase engineering, showing motor bushing, needle bearing, and washer stack; estimated '2 dozen, 3 dozen' prototypes; noted iterative testing ('shoot it 100 times each')

  • ?

    design_innovation: Upper playfield designed for 5-minute removal with four accessible screws and three connectors; wand ball-locks use fiber-optic light piping instead of embedded LEDs for replaceability; reflects operator experience-driven design

    high · Eric: 'This should come off in less than 5 minutes... I didn't want to have LEDs embedded... we would have to throw out the whole thing. So... LEDs are actually way back here'

  • ?

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:12
So, welcome everybody. Um, the most peculiar thing happened, the things that you didn't arrange are the most fun things to do. So, I texted Eric this morning at a very early uh stage of the morning and I asked, "Is it possible to visit the the the factory today?" And he said, "Yes, I'm going there right now." And I said, "Do you have space for uh four?" "Yes, I have." So Eric was our Uber. Yep. Yep. I'm going to send him a ticky later for I'm going to send him a ticky later for 15. There we go. Good. There we go. Good. For the for the drive. For the for the drive. And uh Yeah. How high do we go? Like 60 And uh Yeah. How high do we go? Like 60 in 1 seconds. Uh 0 to 60 in 4.3 seconds. Uh 0 to 60 in 4.3 seconds. Yes. Yes. So guys, yeah. Eric Met and he's the So guys, yeah. Eric Met and he's the maker of the Harry Potter game and he's going to sell everything about Harry Potter everything that he can and willing to explain to us the secret stuff we don't do. We keep it private but trust me he will tell things and if he says don't tell me we're going like don't tell me we're going like so Eric. Hi. so Eric. Hi. Hi. Hi. Uh we're going to go on a tour of our Uh we're going to go on a tour of our factory. Um it is 8:30 in the morning. Um, I've been at Expo since 5:30 this morning. Wow. Wow. And it was very convenient when you text And it was very convenient when you text me cuz I was just about to head over here. So, it was good. We got to got to have a nice ride in the car. And now we're here and we're going to walk now we're here and we're going to walk around. We're going to look at some of the cool stuff. So, let's start over in this room. Actually, um, um, testing room. testing room. The testing room. The testing room. The click clack room is what we call it. The click clack room is what we call it. So, last time that was ever there, but So, last time that was ever there, but we didn't know. Yep. Yep. And so, now there's actually more stuff And so, now there's actually more stuff in here. It sounds like it's been shut down temporarily. Um, probably cuz one of my guys is in there or was just in there doing maintenance. Uh, but this room, uh, we will take our new and our unique mechanisms and we'll test them generally up to a million cycles or more, uh, and see what breaks. Eventually, everything will break, right? Um, but most games are never going to experience that kind of wear and tear. So, we analyze the mechanisms. We see what falls apart or what gets too hot, right? It could be physical adjustments that we need to make. It could be software adjustments we need to make um to make our games last as long as possible. So, this thing, this room will run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Um and then we'll come in and we'll look at the reports and we'll see if there's any switch failures on this mechanism or if any physical parts are broken. Um but this room is key for development Um but this room is key for development and for engineering. It allows us to iterate quickly when we find failures and then we can fabricate new components in our machine shop and keep testing so that when we order parts from an outside source, we know that they've been tested here and then we'll put our render made parts on test and make sure those still hold up to our expectations. We're at the end of the line right now. um at the end of the line where we're going to box games um but we're going to go all the way over to the beginning of the line um and see how the factory starts and how parts get here um and what that process is. So we'll see games here um and you'll notice that there's two different size pallets, right? So there's a smaller pallet and a larger pallet. Smaller pallets are intended for international games so we can put more stuff into the the container. So on a small container it's 33. On a 20 foot container on a 40 foot container we can get 66 games. And 66 times $15,000 US. It's And 66 times $15,000 US. It's this close to a million dollars of this close to a million dollars of product in one container. And like I said, I think we sent out three containers of Harry Potter last week. Um it's great. Um it's great. It's a great time to be making pinball It's a great time to be making pinball uh when you have a fun game like this. uh when you have a fun game like this. Yeah. So, the domestic games actually ship with the larger container. And that's one of these things that over time we we asked ourselves, what can we do to protect our games better? Cuz at massive shipping centers where guys drive around in their where guys drive around in their forklift as fast as possible, they don't actually take the forks and they don't actually take the forks and go under and lift, right? They just shove ram into things and they ram other ram into things and they ram other product into things, right? In order to move it faster. So, right? In order to move it faster. So, this prevents that,000 lb thou or 2,000 kilo refrigerator from slamming into the side of our game cuz it runs into this first. So, we've noticed a huge decrease in the So, we've noticed a huge decrease in the number of returned games from damage um from games getting smashed apart um um from games getting smashed apart um now when they drive their fork right through it or they knock it over completely, that's a different story. But even this, it has a wider base. So the center of gravity, it's a lot harder to tip this game over accidentally. So just small things in engineering to So just small things in engineering to make our product last uh and survive all the way to the end user. Mhm. Mhm. But it's one of those things that requires engineering that requires the thought and the development and the drawings and all the things that go into it. all the things that go into it. International and experience. International and experience. Yes. Yes. So these are all international Yes. Yes. So these are all international um that are going some of these are going to Europe, some of these are going to Australia um and then some to other countries. Back here is what we call incoming. So this is where all of the parts arrive um and they get brought into our system and then they are inspected. So Harry Potter has 938 unique parts on the bill of material. There's over 4,000 total parts, but 938 unique items. And every single one of those items gets drawn by an engineer, right? There's an engineering drawing for the exact material it's made out of, the exact specifications for the arc radius and the through hole size and and finish of all the good like all of that stuff matters. Then those parts arrive here and our inspection team pulls the engineering print. Generally, if it works, we can give them a one:1 print. So, they put the print on the table. They put the part on the print and they say, "Yeah, that looks good." And now I'll measure that looks good." And now I'll measure thickness. This is good. I'll measure finish. Is it magnetic, for example, is it supposed to be? Um, so they'll go through all the tests for every part, verify that it is accurate. If it's not accurate, then we have to go back to our vendors and, you know, hey, our line's going to be shut down unless you feed us the parts correctly. Um, so there are there are five people whose job it is is there are five people whose job it is is to buy parts full-time and get those parts here. It's all trash for you. It's It's all trash for you. It's all trash. all trash. For you, it's trash. For you, it's trash. Yep. Yep. But, um, lots of parts come in Yep. Yep. But, um, lots of parts come in where we just do we pick 10% and we look at 10% of the parts or we grab one from a lot. But there are certain items that are 100% inspected. Things like playfields, things like back glasses. So, what we have here are the playfields. Um, these are collector edition Harry Potter playfields made by Merkco in Germany. And so, every one of these will be pulled out and inspected. And there's inspection criteria that we follow so that everyone is inspected the same way regardless of the person who's doing it. Right. Yeah. Yeah. You have to be, I think, 30 in away or You have to be, I think, 30 in away or maybe it's 18 in away on a play field. Um, it can be back lit. Um, here's the angle, here's the light source. Like all of those are specified so that it doesn't matter who's doing it. They have the same criteria and they follow the same criteria for inspection. And for playfields, you know, this is the heart and soul of the game. So, we look for anything possible that could be wrong. You know, it's got to have perfect clear coat. It's got to have perfect printing. It's got to have perfect cuts for all the wood for the hole sizes. Um, you know, all of this stuff matters and it all has to be right because if this is wrong, then nothing's going to work. So, you know, part of my job, a lot of So, you know, part of my job, a lot of my job is defining where all of this stuff goes, all of the holes. And of course, we all know what playfields look like, but you know, every hole here is important. So, they will clean up little like, oh, a little bit of wood chaff there. Okay, that's fine, right? This stuff doesn't really matter. um looking at the hole sizes, using a pin gauge to measure that they all come in the right way. Um it's all part of the inspection process. Nice.

The testing room runs 24/7 and tests mechanisms up to one million cycles to identify failures before production use

high confidence · Eric Meudt, describing the 'click clack room' and durability testing methodology

  • “I'd shoot this myself and my mechanical engineer Dan would make a change... take the ramp flap in the front and instead of it being 10mm, make it 12mm. How does it play? We'd shoot it a 100 times each and we'd record our results independently.”

    [name withheld pending review]@ 25:08 — Reveals rigorous, empirical design methodology; shows iterative playtesting approach to incremental mechanical refinement

  • “I didn't want to have LEDs embedded in the end of here because what happens if an LED goes bad? We would have to throw out the whole thing.”

    [name withheld pending review]@ 28:11 — Design-for-repairability thinking; shows forward-thinking about lifecycle costs and operator maintenance burden

  • “We had a thousand of them here with the number 11 on the back... we had to paint over each one of them.”

    [name withheld pending review]@ 31:44 — Anecdote about licensing constraint causing production rework; illustrates IP restrictions impacting manufacturing

    • Merkco
    company
    Warner Brotherscompany
    Williamscompany
    Ballycompany
    Shopbotproduct

    manufacturing_signal: 938 unique parts per game, each with detailed engineering drawings; five full-time employees dedicated to parts purchasing; inventory accuracy is mission-critical; any missing part halts production

    high · Eric: 'Harry Potter has 938 unique parts... every single one of those items gets drawn by an engineer... five people whose job it is is to buy parts full-time'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Designer explicitly prioritizes buildability alongside gameplay; custom assembly fixtures and guides (color-coded, 3D-printed tools) are integral to design; assembly sequence optimization takes months before production rollout

    high · Eric: 'Part of my job is not just to make a fun game, but make a game that can be built... this is a process that takes quite a few months to get the game... to the production floor in a way that's buildable'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Warner Brothers licensing required removal of '11' jersey number from ~1,000 mini playfield units post-production due to unapproved design change; all units required manual repainting

    high · Eric: 'And then it was unapproved. I hear the story. And that was unfortunate cuz then we had a thousand of them here with the number 11 on the back. Really? Yeah. So then we had to paint over each one of them.'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Warner Brothers provided gigabyte-sized CAD files for wand models; Eric claims JJP wands are 'the most accurate ones in the world'; three distinct wands (Harry, Hermione, Ron) incorporated as Golden Trio ball-lock feature

    high · Eric: 'The files that we received from Warner Brothers were gigabytes for something this big... the guys told me that the ones are the most accurate ones in the world'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Factory organized around central convergence point; cabinet line (6 stations), backbox line (parallel), playfield line, sub-assembly stations, testing stands, mating station, final test, and hospital for rework; all components tested independently before final assembly

    high · Eric: 'Everything starts to moves its way in... cabinet, it's broken into, I think, six different stations... when the playfield has been fully tested, it goes through the test stand and over to what's called mating'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Designer and mechanical engineer conduct empirical iterative testing: shoot mechanisms 100+ times each, record results independently, measure incremental improvements (e.g., '1% improvement'), test micro-variations (ramp flap 10mm vs. 12mm), test surface finishes (diamond polishing, V-groove additions)

    high · Eric: 'We'd make a change... take the ramp flap... instead of it being 10 mm, make it 12 mm. How does it play? We'd shoot it a 100 times each and we'd record our results independently... 1% improvement'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Smaller pallets for international containers (33 units per 20ft, 66 units per 40ft); larger protective pallets for domestic shipping to reduce forklift damage; packaging strategy shows high attention to in-transit damage mitigation

    high · Eric: 'Smaller pallets are intended for international games... On a 20 foot container... 33. On a 40 foot container we can get 66 games... This prevents that 1000 lb... refrigerator from slamming into the side'

    • 8:39
    So, these are customade carts um that we use. We also have a a domestic source for playfields. Um and with our domestic source, we actually ship them these carts and they load the the Playfields right in it and ship it back Playfields right in it and ship it back to us. And that just saves on shipping waste, right? We don't have to wrap individual playfields every time. They can ship like this. There's a a bar that sticks in here that'll hold them all in transit so they can't come out. After inspection is complete, um most items will then be put into our inventory system. So behind the cage, only certain people are allowed in there cuz that is the lifeblood of the company. So in inventory has to be accurate. We must have the correct number of parts for every part in the game because if you go to pull a 100 games worth of parts and you only have 95 of one part, well, and you only have 95 of one part, well, you can't build all 100 games. Uh, any one part missing will stop a game from going in a box. And like I said, when there's And like I said, when there's 938 different ones, 938 different ones, even one of them shows up wrong or late even one of them shows up wrong or late or, you know, it doesn't work. You can't put you know, it doesn't work. You can't put your game together. So, most parts are stored back there. A So, most parts are stored back there. A lot of the large goods, things like coin doors, like cabinets, back boxes, um big stuff gets stored out here. Uh we build custom, um racks for storing a lot of the larger goods so they don't get damaged. So we've got stuff like this for our artwork. So these are radcs, I think, for the wizard editions. but carpeted the correct size so nothing hangs over or drapes over, right? Causing kinks or bends in the artwork. Um, you know, stored flat, not on its side, so things don't bend. So, this is some of that radcal material, right? Extra thick, durable decals that we put on our uh top tier models.
    10:45
    But care in not just the design of the parts, but then the storage and the handling of the parts, right? Because these are expensive. Yeah. Yeah. Um and scrapping parts not only is Um and scrapping parts not only is wasted cost, but it's also wasted time. Yeah. Yeah. If we lose too many parts that we If we lose too many parts that we haven't overordered on, then we're stuck with games that we can't build.
    11:12
    All right. So, as we're coming around the corner, we can start to see the first couple games that have been prepped. So, these this is our cabinet line, the start of our cabinet line. Um, and we put on the rads and we let them sit overnight so that the adhesive cures before we start putting the hardware on the buttons that, you know, could twist a decal. Um, rads are pretty robust. you know, they're not going to get wrinkled if you're putting a button on. But the traditional vinyl decals that we put on our arcade editions, right, we want to let those cure uh long so that the adhesive has has has stuck. All right. So, now we can kind of see the assembly line getting started. So, what you'll note is all of the parts that we build go toward the center of the factory. That's where at the end everything is going to come together. Um, we don't want our employees to have to build something and walk way over there and then build something new and bringing over here. So, everything starts to moves its way in. So, cabinet, it's broken into, I think, six different stations. Uh, first station they're doing things like the ground braid uh for electrical. They're putting in the rails. Um, you know, and then as it moves down, you're putting in the harnesses, the coin door, the tilt bob mechanism, all of that stuff. When it gets to its final station, it gets tested. All of that stuff gets powered on if it can and gets tested uh before anything else is put in there to verify that this subcomponent is working accurately.
    12:51
    And then just over here is the backbox line, which same story. Um, we put the decals on here and we build the computer and the monitor and the audio board and all of that stuff gets put in. Put in the speakers and then we test it at the end before it gets put together before it gets put onto a cabinet. All right. So, those two assembly lines stay pretty much the same from game to game, right? It's a different rad. Uh, but the interior, the computer is the same, the monitor's the same. But this is where things start to get different. Right? This is the play field. So every new game, it's a whole new process for building. Right? Part of what I do is not just to make a fun game, but make a game that can be built. Right? That's very important. If I come up with a super cool mechanism, but nobody can build it, I can't put it in a pinball machine, right? So we start with the play field here and So we start with the play field here and we build. As a game designer, I try to provide as best tools I can for the operator at each station. They need something to help themselves do the job better, I will try to make it for them. So, you'll see things like
    14:07
    these guides, these templates. So, this is parts that get pounded into the playfield. You can see he's using one of these templates right now for putting in what are called fin shanks and also for putting in wire ball guides. Um, so he's got a template like this. Not only is it a map that shows where the parts go, but it also protects the playfield from getting damaged if you drop a screw or or drop a tool. Um, but if he puts in a link guide, how can but if he puts in a link guide, how can he remove the how to say the cutout? Yeah, there's a cutout under each one. there's a cutout under each one. Yep. And then sometimes So Yep. And then sometimes So he's very good at this, right? It's a skill to be able to hammer right? It's a skill to be able to hammer these things in straight and the right thickness of the plates and the right thickness of the plates prevents him to get from going too far. Wow. from going too far. Wow. But then there's some extra tools that I But then there's some extra tools that I make. These are 3D printed. These are very heavy and solid pieces. That you then after he's done pounding That you then after he's done pounding the parts in, he can lay this on there and verify it's the right height and and that it's straight. And if it's not, you can actually just hammer right onto this and straighten things out. Wow. Wow. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah.
    15:31
    So, the first step is putting on the myars, right? In the high wear areas, you put on a very thin sticker, clear sticker, the myar stickers that go anywhere a ball drops or anywhere there's high action, like in the pop-up area. Um, then we do everything that gets pounded in. And this table is specially built so that it doesn't vibrate at all. Right. There's no give in this table. It's actually full of sand. It's extremely heavy. Oh, wow. Wow. Oh, wow. Wow. So that when he hammers, nothing gives. So that when he hammers, nothing gives. solid force that he can that he installs these parts into.
    16:14
    Yeah, I can do this. I can do this. No use for me. No use for me. Just just know that if you put one in Just just know that if you put one in crooked and you destroy a playfield. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. So, how many strikes out? Three. Three So, how many strikes out? Three. Three uh playfield. uh generally we can repair them, but it's it's like I said, it's a skill um to be able to do it accurately. So, after all of the parts that get So, after all of the parts that get pounded in with a hammer are put on, um we load it into a rotisserie. So, this is a rotisserie. What this does is it allows our operators
    16:58
    to work on both sides of the game, right, very easily. So they get access to both sides. They don't have to worry about anything falling. Um but as we go down the line, we again want to protect this playfield. So while parts are being installed, we have
    17:27
    a yoga mat that's been cut, right? So that again we can't drop right? So that again we can't drop tools. Um everything is protected. But what happens when this flips over? Fall off. Fall off. That's gonna fall off. So then That's gonna fall off. So then I 3D printed a yoga mat protector.
    17:47
    So this will go on here. Stick on there. Wow. Wow. And now it doesn't fall off. And now it doesn't fall off. That's clever. That's clever. And some operators will hold some tools And some operators will hold some tools or some screws, right? They'll fill this up and and then it's empty. Wow. All right. So, like I was saying, part of part of my job designing a fun game, but making it buildable. Um,
    18:13
    so every station that we have is broken into um into guides that we use for building the playfields. Um, so that they're built consistently, everything is colorcoordinated on the map. Um, there are different torqus that are required for different nuts and bolts, but we don't tell the operators use 15 inb, use 22. We say use the green drill, use the red drill. Um, and it's again marked on there. So that way if you know Rulo is ever out So that way if you know Rulo is ever out sick and Rudolph is never out sick, Rudolph is always here. Um, someone else can fill in at the Um, someone else can fill in at the station. He does yoga every day. He does yoga every day. Yes, he's got his yoga mat here every Yes, he's got his yoga mat here every day. Um, so these station guides are made as easy as we can to understand and in the process and that's all done by my wonderful coworker Crystal. Crystal, hi. Crystal, hi. Happens to be over here. Um, Happens to be over here. Um, so this is Crystal's job is is taking the game that the design team has created and breaking it down into a buildable sequence so that not only is it done in the right order, but things are um equal so that we don't have like a log jam, right? Everything has to take about the same amount of time. Um, so this is a process that takes quite a few months to get take the game from the engineering and development and get it out here to the production floor in a way that's buildable. So Crystal and usually the game designer will go through and build multiple games back there in the engineering department um before we get this process nailed down and then when it comes out here um present it to the team and they will often have feedback as well. What if we did this? Is this a problem? And sometimes they have great ideas. For instance, if you build if you can For instance, if you build if you can measure the time that you put in the first 100 games. Yes. Yes. Or the last 100 games. Or the last 100 games. How many uh percentage you can How many uh percentage you can There's there's a lot of uh time that There's there's a lot of uh time that gets saved with experience when you're not looking which one is this. Okay. You know, like a guy like Rudy has this memorized. He's built over a thousand Harry Potters at this point. He doesn't need to look at his map anymore, right? So speed increases. right? So speed increases. Absolutely. Absolutely. Till a certain point. And that is the Till a certain point. And that is the ideal time to make a Harry Potter. Wow. Mhm. Mhm. And then a new title comes and you have And then a new title comes and you have to learn everything. You have to learn everything again. And You have to learn everything again. And we have to break everything up again and and build out subasssembly stations. So as we're going to walk down the line, on our left will be the main playfield line, but on the right will be all of the subasssembly stations. All right. Where as much as possible, All right. Where as much as possible, we'll be building up our sub assemblies. So, we've got a couple nuts and bolts, you know, to to put the games together. Yeah.
    21:06
    Yeah. These are for the magnets. These are for the magnets. Those are for the magnets. Yes. Yes. The Those are for the magnets. Yes. Yes. The big exposed core magnets. Um, you'll often see as we're looking at sub assemblies, we make fixtures so that it's easier to assemble, right? Yes. Yeah. I love Yes. Yeah. I love fixtures. This sits here, right? And fixtures. This sits here, right? And they can screw all the parts together and then they can take that off, but it fits on there very tight so that it's accurate every time and everything's built the same every time. Do you know that I collect fixtures? Do you know that I collect fixtures? I do know that. I believe I've given you I do know that. I believe I've given you a couple. No, it's not on videos and then people Yeah. I try to explain in our museum Yeah. I try to explain in our museum that what you see is a finished product, but people have no idea how what goes into building it. what goes into building it. It's so nice to tell people that it's It's so nice to tell people that it's it's Yeah. For that, it's not normal that they see it's see a product, but how it's going to be built, no one knows. Mhm. So, assembly fixtures, things like Mhm. So, assembly fixtures, things like this, but then also testing fixtures. Wow. So, they'll plug in This is for a a ball So, they'll plug in This is for a a ball trough, right? they'll plug in the ball trough and they can test that the coil works and they can see that the lights light up uh when they put a ball through it, right? So, being able to verify that the part is functioning 100% before it ever gets bolted on makes it a lot easier when you get to playfield test where you're turning on the game for the first time. You've already proven that all your stuff is working. Makes their job a lot easier. All right, so again, we're going to walk All right, so again, we're going to walk down the line. Um, we'll see the games get more and more built every time it it uh as we progress
    22:51
    and we see more sub assemblies being built over on this side.
    23:07
    time for a bit of show and tell. All right, the center piece of the Harry Potter game is the moving staircase. So, let's look at the engineering of the moving staircase. First, this is the base, right? With the super detailed artwork. Yes, Yes, that has the names of all the houses and that has the names of all the houses and the crests, right? uh sculpted little lights that are very pretty. But this is the base and the top of this thing rotates, right? But I couldn't just stick a motor right here and cause it to rotate because this is a ball path. There's a ramp here. So what we do is we offset the motor.
    23:48
    So first I put in a a bushing and put in the motor shaft. Okay. and it sits just below this level. You can see this plastic is just slightly higher than this motor. And that's important. The next part is called a needle bearing.
    24:12
    One more washer. Then take the top of the staircase. You'll notice that there's three holes here. Those are for screws. There's three holes in this plate and line these up. And then the operator will look down and they'll put a screw in. Yeah. Yeah. And they'll put a screw in And they'll put a screw in and they'll put a screw in. and they'll put a screw in. It's good to know. It's good to know. And then the staircase. And then the staircase. It's their idea only. But how much time It's their idea only. But how much time does it take to to think? Can you even imagine? A lot. A lot. A lot. A lot. This went through a lot of iterations before we got it nailed, before we got it perfect. Um, and that is a process that we would we would make a change and then we would shoot this myself and my mechanical engineer Dan would make a change, you know, take the ramp flap in the front and instead of it being 10 mm, make it 12 mm. How does it play? We'd shoot it a 100 times each and we'd record our results independently. Well, I got a 1% improvement over the last time we did this. Let's keep that change and let's iterate something else. What happens if we add a Vgroove uh in the metal, does that help the shot a little bit more? Does doing diamond polishing on the tool, how does that help? How does this help? How does this help? And we would iterate and iterate many times uh before you see the final product. How many prototypes do you think you How many prototypes do you think you have of this? of this? Two dozen, three dozen. Yeah. Um, we Two dozen, three dozen. Yeah. Um, we start with a lot of 3D printed, um, so we can just get the feel for things and then we make a lot of the sheet metal in our in our machine shop back here. And once we're satisfied with our parts, then we order some parts from the outside and put those in and test those and then make more changes. And um, one of the fun parts about this mechanism is the portraits in Hogwarts all move, right? right? So, of course, the portraits on my So, of course, the portraits on my staircase. Oh wow. All move. All move. Yeah. Yeah. It's a white water experience. It's a white water experience. Mhm. Using the uh lenticular Mhm. Using the uh lenticular lenticular lenticular um um print process. print process. Wow. Wow. That's the motor or that's the uh That's the motor or that's the uh staircase. Very easy to service.
    26:33
    And you can see other subasssemblies that are built here. Right. So this is the Proggo mech. So that is the shield charm in Harry Potter. So this basically acts like a kickback. Um you can light it if you complete the hairy lanes down at the bottom. But this will pop up and save your ball if it's draining down the right side. So that is the word for the shield charm. And this is actually the wand motion that you cast if you want the shield charm. So a little different components of the spell, little little details, right? So, the guys told me that the ones are the most accurate ones in the world. Yes, they are. Um, the files that we Yes, they are. Um, the files that we received from Warner Brothers were gigabytes for for something this big. Wow.
    27:27
    And here they are. Yeah, there they are. Yeah, there they are. All right. Um, so for the Harry Potter All right. Um, so for the Harry Potter fans, make a path for the team here. Uh, for the Harry Potter fans, these are very distinct wands. This is the wand of Harry Potter. This is the wand of Hermione Granger. And this is the wand of Ron Weasley. So, they make up what's called the Golden Trio. They are the the core kids from the from the film. I really wanted to incorporate their wands into the game. Um, and I really like the idea of it becoming a a ball lock. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so then I think about things like Um, so then I think about things like serviceability, right? And I really, of course, the tips of the wands have to light up because it's magic. We want the tips to glow. Um, but I didn't want to have LEDs embedded in the end of here because what happens if an LED goes bad? Yeah. Yeah. Uh, we would have to throw out the whole Uh, we would have to throw out the whole thing. So, thinking through how we could make this work, uh, what we decided on is the LEDs are actually way back here and they're standard simple parts that we've used in many Jersey Jack games. Um, and then there's a fiber optic core that runs all the way from back to front that lights up and lights up the tip. that lights up and lights up the tip. So, this is very serviceable, but still gives the effect I want. Um, it's repairable and replaceable without having to, you know, buy a new custom sculpted wand, right? It's just an LED. An LED the effect that he wants. the effect that he wants. Yes. But still serviceability and uh Yes. But still serviceability and uh repairability. And then it's a ball lock. So I have to know my my programmer has to know that there are balls stored here. So there's an opto right here, here, and here that detect where the ball is. And that's very hidden, but it's there. And that's very hidden, but it's there. And then the release mechanism. Yeah. Yeah. For kicking the balls out. For kicking the balls out. Yeah. Yeah. One at a time. One at a time. Now it's also your signature because you Now it's also your signature because you did the drumsticks. I there I knew there were going to be comparisons when I put it on the right hand side, but I'm like it's it's something good. it's something good. So, the next game will we we have So, the next game will we we have a straight a straight sticks on the side. Ice hockey. Ice hockey. Chopstick. Chopstick. Chopstick. Chopstick. Chopsticks. There we go. Chopsticks. There we go. It's the sushi game. It's the sushi game. There we go. There we go. Um so again, more more big components Um so again, more more big components being built. Uh so the upper playfield is built over here. It gets tested independently. Um and it has again serviceability is very important. So this is this is the upper playfield. This can come off with four screws. And those screws are accessible from the And those screws are accessible from the top. So one, two, three, and four. Take those screws out. You unplug the three connectors and then the whole upper playfield just let's throw it out. So to our maintenance guys in the museum, look carefully. Right. It should be a if you need to Right. It should be a if you need to service anything under here, which there's a single mechanis on the main playfield underneath this thing. If you ever need to service this, this should come off in less than 5 minutes. Wow.
    30:39
    Serviceability is very important. Yeah, it is. You know, I grew up as an Yeah, it is. You know, I grew up as an operator working on games um when I was a kid and I'd have to deal with nightmare problems when you can't get to a certain thing and it takes you two hours to take one part out just to change a rubber. In mind that folks broke your In mind that folks broke your No, not that I'll put on camera, but you No, not that I'll put on camera, but you know, try to do as try to do better. Try to take care of the operators so that they can they can have their games out that make money and games are serviceable. And that's it's very important. Um, here's blank mini playfields, right? All of these holes, all of these counter boards, steps, they're all important and they help make the game work the right way.
    31:28
    So, a nice idea was uh when you put 11 on her back on the shirt number because it's an 11 game. because it's an 11 game. It was. And this was approved. It was. And this was approved. Yeah. Yeah. And then it was unapproved. And then it was unapproved. I hear the story. And that was I hear the story. And that was unfortunate cuz then we had a thousand unfortunate cuz then we had a thousand of them here with the number 11 on the back. Really? Really? Yeah. So then we had to paint over each Yeah. So then we had to paint over each one of them. I want to buy them all. I want to buy them all. Make a scope. Big scope. Yeah. Make a scope. Big scope. Yeah. All right. So we've gotten to the end of All right. So we've gotten to the end of the line. The whole playfield has been built and now it's time to test.
    32:09
    So the game goes over to our testing stands where it gets plugged in for the first time. All right. And then they go through about a 30 minute procedure for testing every light, every switch, every coil, and every mechanism to make sure it all works the way that I intend it to work. Um, and they have a checklist for how they go through it and what they do when they go through it. Um, if there is a small problem, they'll fix it. They'll take care of it. If there's a problem that's going to take 20 minutes to to resolve, they'll push the game to the side and it'll go to our hospital and then someone can come and spend more time on a game that's in the hospital and it's not going to stop all of production, right? Um, so when the playfield has been fully tested, it goes through the test stand and over to what's called mating. And that is the final part of the game. So that's where the back box and the cabinet and the playfield and the topper all come together for the first time. They've all been independently tested, right? So we know all the four major components work on their own. Now we plug them all together and we go around the corner into what's called final test. So this is the last step of the game. Uh it goes through again another testing procedure where they check that everything holistically is working and then it gets cleaned, polished, uh the head folded down and put into a box and then shipped all over the world. So behind you is my machine shop. So, this shop is where we create the new games where we, for example, that blue robot over there in the corner called a shopbot, that device has cut every Whitewood in Jersey Jack history. So, that has made all of our original playfields. And what I'll do is I'll I'll work in my CAD software and I will come up with the file and I'll send it out here to this robot and then I'll cut my playfields and I'll flip it over and I'll cut the back side of the playfield and then I'll come into this part of my machine shop where I can form all of the metal components. Right? So I have a laser. My laser can cut sheet metal that's that thick. I never need to cut anything that thick for pinball, but this can do it. Um, I have a lathe, I have a mill, I Um, I have a lathe, I have a mill, I have band saws, a shear, I have welding equipment back there. Um, there's a powder coat oven so that I can check different powder coats for the armors and see what color looks best. For the record, this is the 16th gold gold before we finally settled on a gold that worked. I painted 16 different colors of gold during the development of this game to find one that works. And that is a process that takes a minimum of an hour um to powder coat. You have to clean the metal very carefully. You have to wear gloves. Then you have to spray it um with aerosolized powder, right? Um and then you bake it in the oven and then you pull it out and make sure it looks uh looks correct. It is a it is an art form to powder It is a it is an art form to powder coat. Yeah, it is. And it takes a while. Yeah, it is. And it takes a while. So, I'll make my parts here. I'll bolt So, I'll make my parts here. I'll bolt them down to my whitewood and I'll figure out if it's fun yet. And then I'll remake it and I'll remake it and I'll remake it until uh I'm out of time. Yeah, Yeah, that's how it works. that's how it works. People don't know really. People don't know really. They have no idea. They have no idea. So, it we did we did some thinking on So, it we did we did some thinking on and looking at how many manh hours go into one game. So, I get about 2 years about 18 months to design a game. Um, Harry Potter took about 30,000 man-h hours from design, development, art, animation of the whole team. of the whole team. Of the whole team. 30,000 man hours. Of the whole team. 30,000 man hours. And that's actually And that's actually what we wrote down. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I'm thinking about it all And, you know, I'm thinking about it all the time. You sit on the couch here at the You sit on the couch here at the evening, you're thinking about it. Yeah. Or we're here for, you know, a 12-hour Or we're here for, you know, a 12-hour day or a 14-hour day. It's like, "Well, you worked 8 hours that day." No, I didn't. You go to Universal Studios, you go to You go to Universal Studios, you go to the the rides. Yep. Yep. And someone spots you. And someone spots you. Yep. Yep. Oh, he's going to make Harry Potter Oh, he's going to make Harry Potter game. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. All right. So, these games have gone All right. So, these games have gone through final test. Um, and actually this game is waiting for me. Oh. So I will I will come out here and Oh. So I will I will come out here and said so it's either me or my mechanical engineer myself or Dan we will inspect I personally inspect a minimum of two games on our assembly line every single day I come out here and I go through the I come out here and I go through the final test process and so does my mechanical engineer. Um we just want to check and make sure our team is catching everything. We know the game very well. So do they at this point I mean they've gone through over a thousand machines by now. Um but we just look for all the little details, the little nuance that makes the game work. Yeah. Um, extra perfect. Um, extra perfect. Yeah. Yeah. And do you know uh some secret signing And do you know uh some secret signing sometimes? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. For a customer. Yeah. For a customer. Yeah. Mhm. Um, customers reach out, they will, Mhm. Um, customers reach out, they will, hey, I got the call that my game is going to going to going to show up soon. Any way you can sign the game for us and we'll come out and sign the game and we'll assign the serial number to them. And Olaf and the guys told me a story about Olaf and the guys told me a story about the car with the paint that this is actually the correct, the correct, right? So, this car um right? So, this car um the the Ford Anglia, the the Ford Anglia, it was perfect. It was beautiful baby it was perfect. It was beautiful baby blue. And um the team at Warner Brothers says, "Well, no, the car is damaged when it's in the tree already. So, you have to make it you have to make it look damaged now." you have to make it look damaged now." Okay. Okay. Yeah, Yeah, it look damaged now. it look damaged now. And Yep. Um to beep that out. to beep that out. Some fun stuff. Um, you know, on Some fun stuff. Um, you know, on previous games we have spotlights that are metal and big and kind of ugly. Um, my programmer Joe said, "Eric, solve the problem. I'm sick of looking at ugly spotlights. Do something about it." So, I did. Do something about it." So, I did. Yeah. Yeah. So, that's what they used to look like. So, that's what they used to look like. Yeah. Yeah. And so, I created a component, a little And so, I created a component, a little light cover. Right. This looks very simple. Um, it was about a week of design work where I was printing components and checking size, checking scale because I didn't want to have screws sticking out of this. So, it has to be a friction fit to this component, but I also couldn't break these wires. Um, it had to be the right surface so that a vinyl decal could wrap around and fold and hold on to it. Um, but what we have now is a part that I never need to think is a part that I never need to think about again. So, for every game going forward, anytime I use a spotlight, I will have a cover. I'll put a different decal on it, right? for whatever that theme is. Um, and it looks cool. So on this theme, yeah, they're the the students books. Um, Um, and it works well. and it works well. So 30,000 men hours minus 40 hours. So 30,000 men hours minus 40 hours. - 40 hours 40. Yep. - 40 hours 40. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Wow. So all the little details, right? You So all the little details, right? You never rest. If you if you have any opportunity to improve something, we do. It really is amazing. Awesome.
    39:37
    Piece of art. It is a piece of art. It is a piece of art. Yes. Made by many hands, Yes. Made by many hands, right?
    39:47
    All right, guys. Well, that is that is the end of the tour. That's a wrap. That's a wrap. That's a wrap. That's a wrap. Thanks for watching and uh we're going Thanks for watching and uh we're going to put it together and you can see it in our uh YouTube channel. Eric, thanks for the invite. thanks for the invite. Thanks that you accept our Thanks that you accept our invite to you. Of course. Thank you. invite to you. Of course. Thank you. It's been fun. Thanks, man. All right.