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Ep 100: KaBoom and Elwin Pinball with Tim Kitzrow

LoserKid Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 25m·analyzed·Jan 17, 2023
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.037

TL;DR

Loser Kid Podcast hits 100 eps; Spooky expands, Stern leans on Elwin games amid recession.

Summary

Josh Roop and Scott Larson celebrate episode 100 of the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast, marking four years of covering the pinball industry. The episode covers major news including Pinball Brothers and Pedretti merging to form Euro Pinball Corps, Spooky Pinball's facility expansion and Scooby-Doo production launch, INDISC tournament results with Keith Elwin and Escher Lefkoff's dominance, and extensive analysis of Stern's 2024 production schedule showing heavy reliance on Keith Elwin designs and classic licensed titles as a recession mitigation strategy. The hosts discuss Stern's Bond license challenges, pricing pressures, and the competitive landscape among manufacturers.

Key Claims

  • Pinball Brothers and Pedretti are merging to form Euro Pinball Corps to combine manufacturing capacity with remake kit expertise

    high confidence · Josh Roop stated this as news; presented as confirmed information, not speculation

  • Spooky Pinball is doubling the size of their facility and has begun production on Scooby-Doo

    high confidence · Discussed following interview with Bug; Bug confirmed production start and facility expansion plans

  • Scott Einz joined the voice cast of Scooby-Doo, performing voices for Scooby, Shaggy, Scrappy, and all villains

    medium confidence · Josh stated this information; appears to be from Spooky announcement or interview with Bug, but not independently verified in podcast

  • Halloween and Ultraman Spooky games sold out immediately while Scooby-Doo is still available, indicating market softening

    high confidence · Josh Roop observation from production/sales data; interpreted as sign of declining pre-order enthusiasm

  • Stern is planning Bond Pro/Premium production runs in January, April, and June, with limited quantities suggesting potential Stranger Things scenario of future price escalation

    high confidence · Josh Roop cited tentative production schedule and conversation with Jason McDonald; compared to Stranger Things scarcity pattern

  • Keith Elwin designs appear in 6 months of Stern's 2024 production schedule (January-June, plus December), dominating the manufacturer's output

    high confidence · Josh Roop detailed month-by-month production schedule; Elwin appears on Bond, Iron Maiden, Avengers, Star Wars, and Deadpool

  • Stern currently has four active designers (Borg, Danger, Eddie, and Elwin) with many canceled games; Borg only has Rush remaining and Danger has no games on the line

    high confidence · Scott Larson stated this analysis of Stern's design roster and active production titles

  • Stern is combating recession by cutting underperforming titles and relying on greatest-hits rereleases and Elwin designs

Notable Quotes

  • “Now I know what Josh Sharp feels like.”

    Keith Elwin@ 50:09 — Keith Elwin's reaction to winning INDISC, comparing it to Josh Sharp's achievement; shows Elwin's humor and competitive perspective

  • “They have now started production on Scooby-Doo itself and they plan on doubling the size of their facility. It sounds like Spooky's no longer going to be boutique in my opinion.”

    Josh Roop@ 6:11 — Signals major growth phase for Spooky Pinball; indicates shift from small production to larger-scale manufacturing

  • “Have you looked at this tentative production schedule? It might as well be called Elwin Pinball at this point.”

    Josh Roop@ 23:00 — Humorous but pointed observation about Stern's reliance on Keith Elwin designs in 2024 lineup; reflects community perception

  • “This is the way that they're combating the recession, is they're using the old catalog of Elwin to get them through to the next year, at the very least.”

    Josh Roop @ ~59:00 — Explicitly frames Stern's strategy as recession-driven; acknowledges economic headwinds affecting industry

  • “Pinball needs you too.”

    Anonymous community member (personal message)@ 36:33 — Reflects community appreciation for the podcast's role in the industry; shows impact of content creators

  • “I think it will turn out to be a solid game and all these games are going to be on the PC and PC only. So, I'm hoping that it stays in the cooker long enough to make it.”

    Josh Roop (citing Tom Walsh feedback on Bond)@ 21:02 — Highlights concern about Bond's longevity and code maturity; reflects community uncertainty about license retention

  • “The pinball community is a much better place with you guys being a positive part of it.”

    Joe from Pinball Degenerates — Community recognition of Loser Kid Podcast's cultural role; shows podcast influence on community sentiment

Entities

Loser Kid Pinball PodcastorganizationJosh RooppersonScott LarsonpersonPinball BrotherscompanyPedretticompanyEuro Pinball CorpscompanySpooky PinballcompanyBugperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Pinball Brothers and Pedretti merging to form Euro Pinball Corps to strengthen European manufacturing and break into US market

    high · Josh Roop: 'Pinball Brothers and Pedretti...are combining together to form Euro Pinball Corps' with emphasis on combining manufacturing place and quality remake kits

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Spooky Pinball is doubling facility size to support increased production; already at ~1,900 capacity games annually

    high · Josh Roop: 'they plan on doubling the size of their facility' following production start on Scooby-Doo

  • ?

    product_launch: Spooky has begun production on Scooby-Doo with expanded voice cast featuring Scott Einz

    high · Josh Roop: 'They have now started production on Scooby-Doo itself'; Bug confirmed in interview

  • $

    market_signal: Halloween and Ultraman sold out immediately while Scooby-Doo remains available, suggesting declining pre-order enthusiasm and selective buyer behavior

    high · Josh Roop: 'Halloween and Ultraman immediately sold out. Scooby-Doo is still available...the market is softening a little bit'

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern combating economic recession by cutting underperforming titles, relying on greatest-hits rereleases and Keith Elwin designs, rather than introducing new designers

    high · Josh Roop: 'this is the way that they're combating the recession, is they're using the old catalog of Elwin to get them through to the next year'

Topics

European manufacturer consolidationprimarySpooky Pinball expansion and Scooby-Doo productionprimaryStern's 2024 production strategy and recession responseprimaryKeith Elwin's market dominance and design influenceprimaryBond license challenges and code maturity concernsprimaryINDISC tournament results and competitive landscapesecondaryPricing trends and cost inflation in pinball manufacturingsecondaryDesigner roster changes and game cancellations at SternsecondaryLoser Kid Podcast milestone and community appreciationsecondaryMarket demand softening indicatorsmentioned

Sentiment

neutral(0)

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.257

0:00
Thanks for tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. I am Josh Rupp. With me, my co-captain as always, Scott Larson. And Scott, it is episode 100. We finally made it here. I can't believe it. Okay. This is where we announce our retirement. Yep. And right into the podcasting sunset. That is true. And I was nervous when we posted last week, which I'll get to in a little bit. A lot of people are like, this sounds almost like a going away message.
0:32
Oh, yeah. I didn't want those vibes. Yeah, I'm totally kidding. We're, uh, Josh and I are having way too much fun doing this and, um, we're, uh, I'll put it this way. We don't spend enough time on the podcast to get burned out on the podcast. Yes. And really, you're getting in real time just Josh and Scott talking about pinball like we do when we're driving somewhere. Well, what's funny to me, okay, before we jump into this, because once I jump into this, I think we're just going to go for it.
1:04
But let's talk about Zach and Nicole Meny really quick. Oh, yeah. Out pinball. No, Zach and Nicole Meny, if you're looking for that extra thing for your arcade, I'm actually, so I am placing an order right now. I'm actually gonna order some of the Insider Connect kits. So I have one and I was originally intending on John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Knapp Arcade,
1:46
I'm a fan of the Infinity Quest Avengers, and I don't want to take out one of those apron pieces. I actually want to put it in the cabinet door. So I'm going to do that. But anyway, if you're looking for anything, including toppers, games, and if you want something like a big buck hunter, you want a video game, they got video games. If you want a golden tee, they got golden tees. Very true. It sounds like there's going to be a party soon at their house with the Pinball Industry Awards being filmed at Casa de Mene.

high confidence · Josh Roop interpreted production schedule as deliberate recession strategy; contextualized against industry downturn

  • Of the top 15 games on Pinside rankings, seven are from Stern and still in production, with Elwin having all four of his games in the top 15

    high confidence · Josh Roop reviewed Pinside top 15 list against production schedule; analytical conclusion about Elwin's market dominance

  • INDISC finals featured Keith Elwin winning, Escher Lefkoff placing second (by 6,000 points in 1.5M point game), and Travis Muri taking third

    high confidence · Josh Roop reported INDISC tournament results; obtained updates from Triple Drain group chat with competitors Neil and Travis present

    • @ 35:55
    Scott Einz
    person
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Keith Elwinperson
    Escher Lefkoffperson
    Travis Muriperson
    Andy Rosaperson
    Jason Zahlerperson
    Ashley Weaverperson
    Zach Sharpeperson
    Nicole Sharpeperson
    Rob Burkeperson
    Karl DeAngeloperson
    Joeperson
    Lyman Sheets Jr.person
    Jack Dangerperson
    Eddieperson
    Borgperson
    Jason McDonaldperson
    Tom Walshperson
    ?

    product_strategy: Bond Pro/Premium limited to three production runs (Jan, Apr, Jun) with only two Premium runs total; mirrors Stranger Things scarcity-driven price appreciation pattern

    high · Josh Roop on tentative schedule: 'That's it. For a new title, that's not much' and comparison to Stranger Things escalation from $7K to $12-13K

  • $

    market_signal: Stern's active designer roster reduced to 4 (Borg, Danger, Eddie, Elwin) with many games canceled; only Elwin has robust production pipeline

    high · Scott Larson: 'The four designers that are Stern right now are Borg, Danger, Eddie, and Elwin' with analysis showing limited active titles per designer except Elwin

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Keith Elwin dominated INDISC 2024 finals, winning open competition; Escher Lefkoff placed second, separated by only 6,000 points on a 1.5M point game

    high · Josh Roop: 'It came down to Keith Elwin, Escher Lefkoff...[Escher] beat Elwin on ball three in bonus...like 6,000 points' difference

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Community sentiment shows concern about Bond license longevity and code maturity; feedback indicates game has potential but requires sustained development

    medium · Tom Walsh quote: 'I'm kind of in love with Bond...code is not bad...it can only get better' but Josh expresses nervousness about license duration

  • ?

    product_concern: Stern faced PR backlash over Bond 60th exclusive topper claims; later clarified topper would be sold as aftermarket accessory, appearing to be damage control

    medium · Josh Roop: 'if you said exclusive topper, then that means exclusive' but Stern claimed exclusivity only to '60th' model not broader release

  • ?

    content_signal: Loser Kid Pinball Podcast reaches episode 100 milestone after 4 years; established as recognized voice in community with significant audience appreciation

    high · Josh Roop: 'We are now at episode 100, like we've said...for the last four years' with community messages praising podcast impact

  • ?

    event_signal: INDISC tournament streamed on IE Pinball Twitch achieved 15,600 peak concurrent viewers, comparable to mainstream streaming audiences

    high · Josh Roop: 'there was like 15.6 thousand viewers' on Karl DeAngelo's IE Pinball Twitch stream during INDISC finals

    • 2:21
    Yeah. And so it is, it's going to be pretty epic on the 28th. That sounds like such a bad Mexican restaurant. Casa de Mene. Oh, okay. Speaking of that, I got, someone gave me some chips the other day and I have no idea. It's from Juan Tonio. So it's like a Mexican Italian mashup. So anyway, back to Flip N Out Pinball. Seriously, they have always been great. Greg has been great with any customer service issues. So please reach out to Zach and Nicole Meny if you are looking to buy that game.
    2:55
    I agree. And their customer service is amazing. It's good. Honestly, most of you out there listening, if you're looking for...we all want a good product, but we want a great company to back it, and Zach and Nicole give that. You know you want to use them. Just give them a call, text them, message them, whatever you want to do. It sounds like they sold out the Bond 60th, so you might have to find something else. But we can go over...I want to go over the production schedule a little bit, because I've noticed some trends in it. Okay. And we'll get to that here in a little bit. But back to...now I've got stuck in my head, Casa de Mene.
    3:28
    Kassadamehne. But let's talk about some of the news. I mean, it's episode 100. So I want to talk a little bit about the news, but I also want to talk about the reaction that we had on last Tuesday, which was the 10th. I accidentally posted on the 10th. I can't even get my own day right. It was the 11th. This is the day that we originally finished the first episode. But I'm like, no one's gonna notice. We had an amazing response. But yeah, let's get some of these news notes out of the way because I think they're very interesting.
    3:59
    Did you hear that Pinball Brothers and Pedretti, you know, the guys that did Funhaus 2.0, are combining together to form Euro Pinball Corps? I actually didn't know that. So they're going to work together because I guess Pinball Brothers has the place to manufacture. Pedretti's been making quality remake kits. So why not combine the two and make a super manufacturer? You know, it's hard. They're already as they're already a European manufacturer.
    4:29
    Yep. And so it is a little difficult to break into the market, the US market, because you have the the import situation. Yeah. It this makes sense. It makes sense to be able to create more of a unified front so they can mesh both of their things. And it really, okay, I was kind of wondering where the pinball brothers were going, like what their future was. And so merging with kind of an old and a new, it does take them in a new direction and opens up more opportunities.
    5:06
    Yes. And I think that this will, I don't know, I agree with everything you said. I don't know if there's much more to say other than that. I think it's a good move. Spooky Pinball has been quite on fire these last couple weeks. We had the interview with Bug. I think it went fantastic. I thought it was very on point. I thought there was questions that need to be asked and they were. And you know, Bug has to be the most professional person we've had on the podcast. He was just very businesslike.
    5:37
    Certainly, he has become the face of Spooky. Yes. And so certainly from someone who is driving the company, Bug definitely presented himself very well and very organized. And so that was very nice. So they've got Scott Einz joined the voice cast of Scooby Doo. He's done the voice of Scooby Doo and of Shaggy and of Scrappy because I know you love Scrappy. Yeah. Also, apparently he's done the voice of all the villains in Scooby Doo. So I assume he's going to take that role considering the other cast members that are already on there.
    6:11
    They have now started production on Scooby-Doo itself and they plan on doubling the size of their facility. It sounds like Spooky's no longer going to be boutique in my opinion. If 1900, their facility can handle that right now, then they're doubling the size. Are they going to be attempting for 3,000, 4,000 after this? I mean, that's, I guess there's growth to that, right? Yeah, it does say that they're heading in an expansive direction.
    6:43
    And we did talk to them about if they were considering moving closer to Chicago and he said no, they really like where they are. I get the vibe that they like being a smaller production and a little bit more of a boutique company. So that works well. And if they do have enough business to expand their line, then good for them. I am a little concerned in that Halloween and Ultraman immediately sold out.
    7:20
    Scooby-Doo is still available, and that's not a bad thing. But I think it's showing that the market is softening a little bit. And people are not as gung-ho about ordering games that they haven't played or maybe they're only ordering one game this year and maybe that's a, you know, that's a Godzilla or a Rush or something like that. Yeah. But that's the only thing that makes me concerned.
    7:50
    Like how much investment money do they have to put up to move to a bigger facility? We know for Stern to move a few blocks away, it's like five million bucks. Yeah, it was not cheap. And the only reason they are moving is because Elk Grove said, Hey, we want you to stay here in town. Yeah, they gave them a sweet deal. It was like $2 million up front or something like that to help them move. Yeah, so they certainly helped out. And by the way, I understand that there can be feelings about that. But from a business standpoint, it makes sense for Elk Grove to keep Stern there.
    8:23
    Yep. And if you don't think that businesses get special discounts, just ask like what discounts, what Amazon got to stay in Seattle or Disneyland gets for their property taxes. Yeah, Seattle upped their taxes on Amazon and then was like, all right, we'll cut you a deal now. So it was like three steps forward, one step back for them. That's okay. Jeff Bezos couldn't afford it. But yeah, so that's a good thing.
    8:55
    I'm cautiously optimistic because I hope that they're able to maintain the business to, I guess to sell, to justify it, that's what I mean, to justify the bigger facility. Congrats, Spooky, it sounds like you guys are doing better than half the manufacturer out there, I'd even say maybe more than that. Yeah. Uh, INDISC winners, if you don't want spoilers, skip ahead about five minutes. Yeah. No, we'll say that.
    9:25
    Uh, if you did not watch INDISC, it was amazing. I'd highly recommend going back and watching those finals. Um, did you get to watch any of this, Scott? You know, I didn't because I was running around. However, um, we, we have a group chat with the Triple Drain guys and we were going back and forth because we know Neil and Travis were there. And so it was great to get some updates from them because they were competing in the tournament. So I want to shout out to Ron Howlett Jr. He took second in Classics, lost just to Andy Rosa, which Andy Rosa is amazing.
    10:01
    Yeah, he's a machine. Yeah, he is a machine. Classics one was Jason Zahler, Classics two, Keith Elwin. The main open itself, it came down to Keith Elwin, Escher Lefkoff, Jason Zoller, and our own, well not our own, we're claiming him as our third host, Travis Muri. And it was amazing. It was insane. Travis has now become a meme on Pinball Degenerates.
    10:34
    If you've not seen it, go check it out. I don't think he accounted for the ball save on bad girls. Because he was trying to soft plunge and it didn't give him the ball back and then his ball was over. So he started off his first ball with a double zero. You know, he just wanted to spot the other player. But he had an insanely good game against George Kaley on Flash Gordon and got him into the finals. Keith and Escher are just beasts.
    11:07
    I mean, it was insane. It came down to the wire. Escher beat Elwin on ball three in bonus. That's how close it was. If I remember correctly, it was like 6,000 points. It was tight. It was a 1.5 million game between the two of them, and it was like a 6,000 point difference. Travis took third. Congrats, man. That is awesome. Jim
    11:44
    хотите confusing Keith Elwin on Alien Poker on high stakes. That was $15,000. Yeah. Holy crap. So my understanding is, is Tealess was there interviewing people. He interviewed Keith and he said, you know, how do you how does this all feel? And he says, Now I know what Josh Sharp feels like.
    12:16
    That's the best line I've heard. All of these things are very important to me. I would love to have that feeling to know I took second in a tournament. Only Keith Elwin would be like, yeah, it's a notch down, right? Yeah, that's awesome. Oh my goodness. So, okay, maybe Escher as well because, you know, it's Escher. But it was insanely good. If you want to watch it, go to IEPinball. That is Karl DeAngelo's Twitch stream.
    12:47
    Stream just go on ie pinball on Twitch. Amazing. And pinball is alive and well. At one point there was like 15.6 thousand viewers. Yeah, that's crazy. I'm sorry that that is that is not so good for them. Yes, that's I joked. I'm like, this is Amarath numbers and they didn't and Karl didn't have to get half naked in a hot tub. I don't know what Amarath is or the hot tub reference. So she is a woman that is on Twitch that films herself in a bikini in a hot tub and just chats.
    13:23
    And she gets like 15,000 viewers on the on the. Okay. So I think our viewership would go down if we got in swimsuits. Maybe. I think so. I know that Marty and Jeff did it on one of their podcasts. Maybe we can do it in podcast form like they did. Podcast form, right. Yeah. And then also congratulations to Ashley Weaver, who won the women's comp of INDISC. That is amazing. Yeah, it's it's basically becoming the Is there really any competition that matches it right now?
    13:53
    Not right now. No. Yeah, not right now. It's it's pretty it's taken over the Super Bowl of pinball and you could argue TPF has a great tournament, but I Would say the INDISC. That's where that's where the elite go to play Someone had pitched the idea that Rob Burke of Pinball Expo just opened up his own pinball place there in Ohio. And it's got 1300 machines, if I remember correctly.
    14:24
    Wow. It's got an insane amount of machines. And that should be the new quote unquote Pinburgh location. I'm not opposed to that. I think it's a good idea. Hey, more pinball is always good, right? Yeah. I doubt Burke would be opposed to that either, man. So right. Probably get on top of it, get it done. Well, who else? I guess Bowen Kerins used to do with Pittsburgh or Pinburgh, right? I'm trying to think. Yeah, he's put it on. Doug, that's been on the show.
    14:54
    Yeah. Yeah, it was Doug. Yeah, Doug. OK, I'm going to go on a random side tangent really quick. This weekend I tried Yustuleipä. Have you tried this? Did you just have a seizure? Yustuleipä is a Finnish word. It's from Finland. It is a cheese that you fry up. It's got a high melting point so it doesn't melt on you, but it just crisps on the outside, nice and gooey on the inside. We've had some here in Utah. I guess there's a place, there's an artisan cheese place in Midway slash Heber.
    15:26
    You have to get yourself some Yustulepa. Anyone out there listening, it changed my life. If you like cheese- It changed your life. Yeah, dude. Yustulepa is where it's at. The only time it changes your life is if you have a heart attack after eating all that saturated food. Actually, I don't know. Is cheese saturated? I don't know. I'm just a doctor. I don't know. Just... Isn't that your expertise? You ask the doctor while you're doing the anesthesia when he's doing heart surgery? I'm not a cheese connoisseur. Is that a cheesetonusaur?
    15:57
    Oh, okay. The only thing, I am a cheese snob and I hate American cheese. Okay. Literally hate it. It's time to get some, this is finished cheese, so get some Yustolepa. It's just the way it sounds, but it starts with a J. Apparently the J is silent, so just Yustolepa. Okay. Sorry. It was that good, man. We finished it. We finished it, and then my family's like, my mother-in-law was over, my father-in-law was over. They ate it. They're like, where did you get this and where can we get more? I was like, well, it's two and a half hours west of us.
    16:31
    So we're like Googling it and trying to see how much it. bottle man like stuckey and he's definitely worth it if you're in a bigger city toenses smash bird I i feeling heard the I don't know. It's I actually I feel a little bad because I'm sure that they were thinking, oh, this will be this will be a defining feature.
    17:11
    And then they're like, well, we already have this, we could sell it as an aftermarket accessory for other people who have the game. And so why double do it? So it seemed a little awkward that they had to walk that back. I think that's typically kind of a damage control on the on a business when they announce something and then they're like, oh, well, that's not really what we meant. But to anyone else, if you said exclusive topper, then that means exclusive.
    17:42
    But they never said exclusive to Bond 60th. They just said it includes topper. No, no, that wasn't the feature. Oh, it was that it was an exclusive topper. Exclusive topper. Well, it's exclusive because this is the only model that is included with. It's exclusive to Stern, so it's, uh, well, it's no one else can sell it. It's yeah, it just seems a little bit like like gymnastics. They're trying to trying to thread that needle.
    18:14
    But either way, I feel like there's so many questions that have John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Keith Elwin, Laser Los, Bowen Kerins, Larry K. Sheats Jr., John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Knapp Arcade, Semi-Finalist, The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., Mirco Playfields, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Keith Elwin, Laser Los, Bowen Kerins, Lyman F. Sheats Jr., orbit ramps, Automated Amusements, Python Anghelo, Jerry Kizrow, He's Not Gonna Answer, right? John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Keith Elwin, Laser Los, Bowen Kerins, Lyman F. Sheats Jr., orbit ramps, Automated Amusements, Did the licensors suck to work with?
    18:44
    John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Keith Elwin, Laser Los, Bowen Kerins, Lyman F. Sheats Jr., orbit ramps, Automated Amusements, Yes, Elwin's gonna come on here and say, you know, they were just absolutely terrible. He's not gonna say that. So we're not we're not asking that kind of question. But I did find it funny. I was like, Hmm. Okay. Yeah, no, I agree. This whole Bond six. I still wonder if Stern's kind of like, yeah, we're, we're done. Like, It certainly, from a PR standpoint, it did everything about this license has not gone the way that Stern would have liked.
    19:19
    Yes. And that's pretty obvious for everybody who is familiar with Stern over the last 10 years. Here's the other thing too. I got talking with Jason McDonald. He listens to the show. He asked me, what's your thoughts on Bond Pro and Premium? We got talking about the tentative schedule, right? And it almost sounds like this might be a Stranger Things happening again, right? So they're doing the first run of pros and premiums. I know that they did like a small run before, but this is like the first official run, right?
    19:49
    This month. Then April, they're doing another run of pro and premiums. And then June, they'll do one more run of pros. That's it. For a new title, that's not much. And especially for premiums, they're only doing two runs. And I'm hoping that, who knows, maybe they'll keep the license longer. I actually did get, let me see, trying to find it. Okay, so ironically, I got this from Tom Walsh, who lives out close to us, a friend of Tony Murphy, and he bought a premium.
    20:32
    And this is what this is what he said is so I'm kind of in love with Bond I have I have a premium not bad not too bad on point eight code and it can only get better but I also love Deadpool my friends who don't like Deadpool don't seem to like Bond and so that that tells me that there is definitely potential for this yes I I don't think that it's going to I I think it will turn out to be a solid game and
    21:02
    All these games are going to be on the PC and PC only. So, I'm hoping that it stays in the cooker long enough to make it, though. This is my nervousness. Blast Premium comes out in April right First runs are called for I think if you sitting on the fence you should go ahead and get a premium if you debating whether to get this game or not Yeah because what going to happen is the new game is going to come out in March Depending on how that does, you know, could sway one way or the other.
    21:34
    And then we have another game in October. If Bond Premium isn't put on the the line by the end of the year and Stern goes back to three cornerstones, that means an L1 cornerstone is coming out the first of 2024. Dr. David Adeye Appeared to Kitchen and Admiral Ron Kulpman A well-renowned freelancer, Michael Kempinski has appeared as JSp shattered
    22:06
    the financial jeans of Wells Fargo on Sunday, June 9. Dr. David Adeye Appeared toaffen the quitting of Jelsa infinitum pl alleenри With clapтоme Island Environmental A.I. Jenny Чтобыmann of Ambush живот en はες Stranger Things went to like $12,000, $13,000 a couple years later because no one could get a hold of the premiums. Right, and Black Knight had a little bit of that too. So Stern's a manufacturer. If there's not demand, they're going to cut off things. But you see similar things that happened with Pirates of the Caribbean through JJP.
    22:39
    And I suspect that this is going to be one of those future premium titles. That will command a high price. I think so too, so long as the code catches up. Which brings me to my next point. Did you hear they're going to rename it Elwin Pinball? It's no longer Stern Pinball. Have you looked at this tentative production schedule? It might as well be called Elwin Pinball at this point. Yeah, go ahead and give us the rundown. Okay, January Bond Pro Premium and 60th, February Godzilla Premium and Elvira Premium, which if you did not hear the price went up on that, it's 10.5 now, for all those people wishing they would have got in when it was in the 7,000 range three years ago.
    23:23
    Yeah. March New Cornerstone, April Bond, just Pro Premium, May Iron Maiden and Pro and Premium, June, Bond Pro, Godzilla Pro, Jurassic Park Premium. July, Avengers Pro and Premium. August, Star Wars Pro and Premium. September, new title question mark. October, Jurassic Park Pro, and there's a space there, so that's probably the new title.
    23:55
    November, Godzilla Pro and Premium. No, sorry, just because Godzilla Premium that month with Mando Pro and Premium, And then December is Deadpool Pro and Premium. I saw you're keeping count there. How many months out of the year is Elwin? That's like six months. Yeah, that was like six months for that. That was, that is nutso. I, okay. He deserves it because he has so like, he really is four for four for cornerstone games.
    24:26
    Um, I'm jury's still out on bond 60, but that's also, I'm willing John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Keith Elwin, Laser Los, Bowen Kerins, Lyman F. Sheats Jr., orbit ramps, Automated Amusements, Python Anghelo, Joe Kaminkow, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi.
    25:02
    All of these are things that completely took over what was, I guess, a very polarizing license.
    25:32
    Interesting that they've canceled a bunch of games, right? The four designers that are Stern right now are Borg, Danger, Eddie, and Elwin. Yeah. Borg has one game on the line. And technically Gomez. Everything else has been canceled. Gomez jumps in occasionally. Correct. And, and sometimes, I mean, I guess we can't. That that's the business, right? I mean, if you're still selling the Beatles' White Album, you're not going to cap it. True. But my point being is Borg has one game on the line. It's Mando. No, sorry, sorry. Eddie just has Mando on it. Granted, he's only made two games for Stern.
    26:10
    Stranger Things, that was a challenging one just because it was, sadly, I think it was cut short because it's a very similar layout to Attack from Mars. And it took a while for everything to come through. Um, the, the lighting kit was afterwards and that was the first time they offered something that was, I mean, that was a big impact piece, but there were people who felt strongly that that should have been included, which probably should have been.
    26:41
    Um, but they were certainly hesitant to raise prices. So it seemed like that was the inflection point when they said, we want to put more features in the game, but we can't afford it under the current build of material. Yeah. So if you want to get a full feature game, you have to buy it after market to put it in. So, so I do feel bad for Stranger Things that it did not get the run it should have. So, so Eddie only has Mando. Borg, who's been there since Data East, only has Rush on the line.
    27:14
    Yeah. Or that they haven't canceled. It's not even on the line this next year. Well, I canceled, retired. Danger doesn't have a game. And they've already canceled Jurassic Park Home Pin. Yeah, which I find interesting. Um, because the, the three home pins they have, at least the, you know, the two, the, the, um, the Jurassic Park Home Edition and the, and the, uh, Star Wars Home Edition, they're actually very solid games.
    27:48
    Yes. They are not going to have the depth of a cornerstone game in code and rules. But they are fun to flip. And so it does surprise me that they are not going to continue to make Jack's game because I was pleasantly surprised by it. Yeah. Same here. Because you're like, well, there's the Elwin game, which is the top 10 game, and then you have the home edition by a new designer. And to Jack's credit, he really produced a solid game.
    28:23
    But my point being is you look at this, you look at this list, this is one way that they're combating the recession. Is you're cutting titles that aren't selling as well and you're stuffing your lineup with greatest hits, right? Sure. And your greatest hits right now are Elwins. Seriously, outside of Elwin and new titles, you have Elvira, which is Lyman Sheets' last game for Stern and that makes sense. John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Keith Elwin, Laser Los, Bowen Kerins, Larry K. Sheats Jr.,
    29:08
    Pro and Premier. I mean, you've got four different titles over the next year that aren't Elwin besides new titles, which we don't know what the rumors are, Eddie and Danger. So, yeah, but if you look at it makes sense, though, if you have the license for so I'm just going to give you the quick rundown of the top 15 on Pinside. Okay, so let's just see how many of these pop up in the manufacturing schedule.
    29:40
    Number one, Godzilla. Okay, done. Two, Medieval Madness. Okay, not Stern. Three, Jurassic Park. Okay, same designer. Four, Attack on Mars. Okay, pause for a few seconds. Okay. Yeah, but CGC needs to run. They said they were doing Medieval Madness this month. That was a year and a half ago. Come on, guys. Really. Yeah, come on. We're pulling for you. Everybody loves your games. Please figure out a way to make them faster.
    30:10
    Yes. All right. You said four was Attack. Attack from Mars. Five is Deadpool. So is that retired yet? No, it's on the line in December. Okay, December. I didn't hear that part. Okay, so that's on the line. Monster Bash, not theirs. This is alternative, by the way. This is alternative. So it could change. Of course, but Monster Bash, not theirs, not on the line. Iron Maiden, theirs, on the line. Elvira, theirs, on the line.
    30:40
    Twilight Zone and Metallica, Roundup. And then you have Lord of the Rings, Catechist Canyon, Pirates of the Caribbean, Avengers, Infinity Quest, and Rush. So of the top 15, yeah, of the top 15, you have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven of them are Stern. And still on the line, right? John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Keith Elwin, Laser Los, Bowen Kerins, Larry K. Sheats Jr.,
    31:22
    Yeah, okay. Wow. Actually, here's the good part, though, is that, you know when a band comes out and creates a new sound that really reinvigorates, like, the music scene? So, like, Elvis or Beatles or Nirvana or... Yeah, well, Nirvana's the biggest one that I personally experienced because before Nirvana, It was kind of a tired hairband world.
    31:53
    Yep. And that's when you get like the, those, those one hit wonders, like the Jackals of the world and, and yeah, and just, I don't know, winger. Um, but when Nirvana came out immediately, everyone's like, whoa, what is this? And immediately everybody who was trying to be a metal band immediately became a grunge band. So with Elwin coming out and of the top 15, he has all four of his in there.
    32:24
    This, this elevates the game, or at least gives a higher target for the other designers. So I think this is the year that they can prove that they can, they can compete a high selling game in line with Elwin. Well, and this is what I keep hearing because we've, we've obviously seen Bond 60th come out and it's an L1. Justin Boyd, hundreds of million scrolls
    32:59
    and digital To see if they can raise the price on Elwin, to see if they can raise the price on their pinball machines. Stern actively knows that there is a recession. I think we all know that we've hit a recession. And this is the way that they're combating it, is they're using the old catalog of Elwin to get them through to the next year, at the very least. And then we'll see what happens at the beginning of next year. They're very smart. I don't think I keep hearing these people that say, you know, I can't believe
    33:38
    They're raising prices again. Have you guys seen the shipping on pinball machines? I don't know how there's people still offering free shipping with their pinball machines. It's supply and demand. I mean, that's the bottom line. It's supply and demand. And if the supply outpaced demand, then you would see price cuts. And we don't wanna go back. We don't want to go back to the late aughts where it was the cheapified version of games and you started with we you started with the last uh with you know the first decade of this the new century and you started with lord of the rings simpsons pinball party and you ended with big buck hunter yeah and and it it basically took and that was because they were stripping everything out of the games because they they were just barely trying to sell them so i don't want them to be
    34:34
    All in all, the competition really is a game that you want to be desperate enough to do that because I like a full featured game. All I'm saying is I don't think the trend is going to change for Stern going forward. I think that they are in a safe position. We are going to see some changes over the next year though, and it just depends where prices fall with supply and demand and also external factors. We're all feeling it right now. It's not just Stern. Yeah. All right. I want to thank the fans that have listened for the last four years.
    35:07
    We are now at episode 100, like we've said. And I posted last week. I just want to read some of these remarks to you because it was very heartwarming to hear from some people. I often just think of we're two dudes that just do a podcast, right? And that's really all it is. We've talked about this and we talked pinball for years and so it's like, well, why don't we just start recording this? I didn't realize how much I guess we meant to the hobby. I mean, Joe from Pinball Degenerates said, thanks for creating such a quality broadcast.
    35:42
    Broadcast. I love that you threw that in, broadcast. Thanks for creating such a quality podcast and keep up the fantastic charity work you guys do. Always a pleasure to meet up with you both, Scott and Josh. The pinball community is a much better place with you guys being a positive part of it. Keep it going. Julianne, which is your coworker, which somehow you have sucked her into this. Happy anniversary and congrats. You all are the best. All the hard work you all invest is very much appreciated. Keep on keeping on. I want to give him a shout out, but I don't know if he wants me to.
    36:14
    He sent me a personal message and I don't know if it's because he didn't want to put his comment on the Facebook post or if it's just he wanted to send something a little more personal. So I'm going to keep him anonymous. Okay. Anywho, he writes, I wanted to congratulate you on your Loser Kid anniversary. Keep up the good work. Pinball needs you too. Which I replied, thank you for the congratulations. I think you've overvalued our worth to pinball, but I appreciate your kind words, right? I don't feel like we are moving the needle one way or the other when it comes to pinball.
    36:48
    It's the people in- But I think we are a force for a positive influence on pinball. Correct. That's what he responded. He responded, there are very few non-toxic, generally positive voices in this hobby. You guys are essential. And I guess I've never looked at it that way. Because we do tend to look on the more positive side of things. I, yeah, and, and I will say that I, it's more fun to be in a, in a hobby that has less toxic, less toxicity because every hobby, every weird hobby, strange hobby, small hobby, they all have it in some measure.
    37:30
    John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Knapp Arcade, Okay, so in the hospital I was dealing with someone who broke his leg. He was snowboarding, but he hit a tree. Okay. And I had a quick talk with him, like, hey, do you know how to ski in trees? He's like, yeah, don't hit the trees. I'm like, okay, no. Like, you focus, yeah, yes, but you focus on the gaps between the trees, and your mind gravitates toward that.
    38:05
    And so if you don't want to hit trees, you focus on the gaps. And I would argue the same thing if you don't want to see the negativity in a hobby or at least dwell on it, and you can be aware it's there, but don't focus on that aspect. Focus on other aspects that actually make you want to do the hobby more, to buy more, to be more involved. And I'm glad that that comes across because that definitely has been something we've tried to do.
    38:36
    Yes. When I first got in the hobby nine years ago, it's been a while now, it was the exact same complaints as what we're having now. Oh, yeah. It never changes. It was priced. And don't get me wrong, I'm feeling the hurt on the price. I'm right there with you guys. I mean, people are complaining at $2,000 fishtails and $2,100 shadows.
    39:10
    If we could, we'd all have the collection of our dreams, right? If price wasn't a problem and space wasn't a problem, we'd own them all. I think that's the thing though, is you've got to find happiness in the part of the pinball that you want. Scott Danesi, Right. And sadly, if pinball's making you sad, find something else. Yeah. I hate to say that, but if that's not bringing, you know, bringing you joy, as the decluttering
    39:41
    person says, then find something that does. But I will argue that there are aspects of the hobby, even with all its warts, that are fun and inclusive and available for all. And I feel like this is the first year that I've felt content in pinball as well. I've always been nervous of like... What do you mean by that? FOMO, right? Like, I've always got to get the next pinball machine. I've always... I'm missing out on this. I'm not doing that. And I just... Yeah, it stinks that like, it feels like there's no... I'm not excited for Venom. Just based off of the theme, right?
    40:19
    And Foo Fighters is enjoyable. I like their music, but it's not like... It's once again, I'm going to have to see it. In fairness, I was not excited for Deadpool. Yes, I wasn't because I thought it was going to be I thought it was going to be the the Reinald Ryan Reynolds version, which is hilarious, but it wouldn't fit in my home. So I was really glad that they went the direction they did, and it's still hilarious. So these things can change. I was not excited for Godzilla.
    40:50
    You knew that. John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Keith Elwin, Laser Los, Bowen Kerins, Lyman F. Sheats Jr., Now Venom will come out and be like, wow, Eddie just killed it, you know? Or Danger just slayed it with Foo Fighters. But right now I'm content.
    41:21
    For the next year I'm like, you know what? That's fine. If that's what it takes, then so be it. Where I used to be like, no, I need to know what the next game is. I need to know what's going on. No, I'm just, I'm completely happy and content where I'm at right now in pinball. And I, and it's very peaceful. Yeah, no, it's good. Namaste. And now, my friends Ron and Bruce over at Slam Tilt Podcast want to say, hey, one more year and you guys can start making comments about pinball. Love you, Dave.
    41:54
    Dave Fix. So, there was plenty of comments. We thank all those that have reached out and that we've made friends with. It's been awesome. I'm glad that you feel, and I've said this before, podcasts are, there's always a third chair and the person listening is in that third chair. And if we're doing it right, then I'm hoping we say something and they want to chime in to the conversation and say, well, I'm looking forward to this or I like this.
    42:26
    Okay, good. I, that tells me I'm doing something, that we are doing something right by allowing people to feel that they're part of the conversation. I do have one complaint though actually just it just hit me. About me? No, about... Okay. I was watching the ad for Twippies and they showed everyone at Texas Pinball Festival last year that helped host and gave out awards except for us What the crap What a chopped liver Will We just had you on the show like a month and a half ago dude No, it's okay. It's okay. We don't want to steal the thunder, so.
    42:59
    Yeah, exactly. But sadly, we actually can't make it this year, so, um, yeah, I feel bad about that, but, uh, Twippies still up? Please go and vote for your favorite everything in it. Actually, by the time we post this, it'll be... Today's the last day, so... Okay, well, then, you know what? Sorry, if you didn't order then... or if you didn't rank us, then you're dead to me, so... Forget that. If you were a judge for the Pinball Industry Awards and you were looking for the podcast in excellence, look no further.
    43:36
    Tim Kitzrow, Steve Kitzrow, Yeah, I already turned in my ballot on that one. So I thought we were supposed to like grease some hands. Aren't we supposed to know the judges so we can like, what is this like? You can't buy votes if I don't know who the judges are, right? Like this is the... Yeah, no, it's all right. No, I'm joking. But it's been an awesome four years. Thanks everyone that's tuned in. We have an interview for you coming up. We're excited about this. John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Keith Elwin, Laser Los, Bowen Kerins, Lyman F. Sheats Jr., orbit ramps, Automated Amusements, Python Anghelo, Joe Kaminkow, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi.
    44:31
    Tim Kitzrow is a legendary pinball hobby. He has some of the most iconic games that he's worked on, like Twilight Zone, Medieval Madness, Attack for Mars, and even recently Elvira's House of Horrors and Deadpool. You know him as Mr. Boom Shakalaka. This is Tim Kitzrow. How you doing, Tim? Welcome to NBA Jam Tournament Edition with Loser Kid Kaboom! Hey, man. Hey, you said infamous? Am I infamous also? Yeah, man. What's the infamy, man? Did I do something?
    45:01
    I don't know. I'm using catchy words, right? Yeah, I like that. He's infamous for his role as Rod Serling in The Twilight Zone. You mentioned Medieval Madness. Oddly enough, I did not do that one. I think that actually Tina Fey is in that one, too. Yes. She did that. But yeah, I started out at Williams all those years ago, and The Twilight Zone was second or third up. I forget, but I know that my first game got me into this whole industry was Gilligan's Island doing The Millionaire.
    45:32
    Gilligan, maybe we could bribe Kona. Oh, lovey. And that was it. And the rest was history. It's been fun to see that game at some of the shows this year. I just saw it down in Houston and a couple other places. It's one of the harder to find games. People that find it love it. It's a good game. I got to ask, though, so I was looking kind of up your resume And it said that you were classically trained in acting first. How did you go from classically trained acting to video games with Bally Williams and well, I guess, Bally Williams WMS?
    46:04
    You know, the ride is was not one I certainly planned. And my original plan out of high school was to get a great theater training at Purchase College. And that's in Westchester County, New York, who was the only fine arts college in the state university system. John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Knapp Arcade,
    46:36
    Thank you,
    47:06
    I was in the SCTV camp. Of course, John Candy, Flaherty, Catherine O'Hare, Eugene Levy, Rick Moranis, just an unbelievable cast. And I don't think they ever got enough credit, but that was in the end was like, well, I'm doing what they're doing. I'm going to Second City. That's where I'm going to get my training. I came out to Chicago and then do what every other actor does, wait tables and go to these stupid auditions for a Bud Light commercial or some other stuff.
    47:45
    And I was in a little weekend band because I always played drums, never wanted to stop playing drums just because I was waiting tables and pursuing acting. And in that band was a gentleman who worked at Williams Pinball Company and his job as all the musicians out there, their job is to do everything, basically produce. They put all the music in the games. They compose the music. They hire the talent. They write the script. They record it. They edit it. Today, there's like five guys who do those jobs generally, especially in video games, not so much in pinball.
    48:17
    Pinball still is pretty much a small operation where one guy does a lot of jobs. But he said, hey, you know, you're a pretty clever guy. You're out in Second City. We need a voice for Gilligan's Island. And as I said, you know, I was able to pull that off. And then they said, hey, we're looking for a Rod Sturmey. You think you could do that? And it was like, you're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight, a dimension of sound. You were about to embark on a journey, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So it was enough. You know, they would put it in my headset and play some back. So I kind of get the tone, the intonation, whatever.
    48:49
    It was mimicking. You know, I wasn't, you know, I never thought of myself as an impressionist. But then there was Popeye. You know, I had to come up with a Popeye like, wow, blow me down. It's going to see that. Good, good, good, good, good. You know, enough to get by at least 30 years ago, I could do it. You know, where'd Speepy go? Should have happened to Hitler. So it was just like when I was a kid, I loved being goofy, loved doing funny voices. As I said, comedy was always my real passion, even with the, you know, more dramatic roles that I'd done.
    49:20
    Shakespeare, Prince Henry, Prince Hal rather, and Romeo, for instance, and some Chekhov plays. But it was always the comedy that I came back to. So this was a fun opportunity to be creative, have fun, make 50 bucks an hour and never thought of it as a career. And for a long, long time after it was just extra money and fun. You know, it never paid much. And generally back in those days, the guys in the studio, the different people around the studio like Steve Ritchie or Mark Ritchie, they would do the voices. They would only get outside talent when one of their guys couldn't really do the role.
    49:54
    Like Steve Ritchie is also known for people for Mortal Kombat. You know, he was like, finish him and Shao Kwan and, uh, you know, that kind of stuff. Mark Ritchie actually did the first Party Monsters Elvira, the role that I did, which is kind of like the Dracula vampire sidekick. You know, what time is it Elvira? Time to get scared Steve! When the coffins are rocking, don't come a knocking. And right now I'm getting mailed on the coffin big time. So, on my resume, I had put like Elvira, Party Monsters, Elvira Scared Stiff, and then I just did the recent one a couple years ago, House of Horrors. And then I talked to Greg Ferris, he goes, No, you weren't in the Party Monsters. I go, Oh, really? I thought I was in all of them. He goes, No, that was Mark Ritchie. Oh, okay, whatever. But it was fun to return, you know, almost 30 years later from doing that first Elvira Scared Stiff, maybe 25 years later. And this one,
    50:49
    I did seven roles in the new Elvira House of Horrors. I do all the floating dead head ghosts. I do the 50s horror film trailer voice and of course the sidekick. And we won a Twippy Award, which means the best voiceover call outs in a pinball game for that year. And we were supposed to get them at the Houston show and then COVID hit. So I never got to get that in person and I was supposed to be at Elvira. I still haven't met Cassandra, but what a great return after all those years and all the NBA Jam and sports things to go back to doing video or pinball game work with Stern and doing a great little cameo in Deadpool as well.
    51:28
    Oh, yeah. So what did you do in Deadpool? Because I know that Norman North did do Deadpool himself, but... Oh, yeah. If you get to the disco round, all right, it's time to put on your boogie shoes. We're going to party till dawn. Hey, guys, $20 at the door. And ladies, I drink for free. Oh, get it? Hey, Bartender, give me a Virgin Mary. Make it extra virgin. That kind of stuff. That is awesome. Love it. That's great. I assume that you obviously have to train to turn it on and off like that, right?
    52:02
    Yeah, that's always been the way my brain's been wired. That's why I couldn't go to class without getting in trouble. I just couldn't keep the yapper shut. Runs on many cylinders. So did you get to write some of you said that you did comedy. Did you get to write some of the lines and stuff here in these games that you did over in Bally Williams? I think basically every game I ever did, I contributed line to all the pinball games. We, you know, whatever they had for a script you do and then whatever pops into my head, there was always improvisation.
    52:34
    The last one, Deadpool, I wrote a lot of it myself. I did. I did. Yeah, I did a lot of that myself. And then the same thing with the Elvira. Greg wrote a great script and then I just improvised off it. So it's always a collaboration. Yeah. And then of course for the video games though, I started writing in full with the first NFL Blitz. After NBA Jam, they said, "'Hey, you know, you're good with comedy and stuff and this is gonna be your character. So you have to express yourself, your persona, instead of us writing for you. Like, how do you express yourself?'
    53:05
    And that became that wise guy like, "'Yeah, that was totally unnecessary. Oh, but a whole lot of fun to watch. Let's see it again, Arnie.'" That was the NFL Blitz stuff and oh he just ripped his head off! That was just his helmet, darn it! And then when we came back to revisit NBA Jam with EA Sports, they just, you know, said, hey, this is yours, go for it. And I probably wrote, you know, 500 to 1000 lines. And that's where you start to get the crazier persona. Instead of just saying like, you know, for three from downtown, nothing but net, I go from downtown and like rummaging through my wife's top dresser drawer, he finds nothing but nylon.
    53:41
    Boom shakalaka! Or instead of simply rejected for a block, I go, oh, I love it when you call me big blocker. The block doctor is in and we'll see you now. Have a seat, LeBron. So that's when it was basically full on like writing a Adult Swim. That's the way I thought of it. It's like, you know, I've got this world that I'm going to inhabit. I'm the main voice. So like Deadpool, it's my, you know, snarky kind of, you know, announcer comedy voice. Sometimes it's announcer. Scott Danesi is currently the adalah IPCC runs for the短利 früher😀
    54:16
    The��니 caviar Lしました Kochi Katoudala buteru Tover Divhema region Master Schultz Uhhi And you know, what does Stuffed Curry have for breakfast? Snap, Crackle Pop, Nice Crisp Threes. Make them a part of your balanced NBA diet. Kaboom! What's for dinner? Curry Surprise. It's fast, easy to make, and a real crowd pleaser.
    54:48
    He's on fire! How do you like your curry? I like mine en fuego! That kind of stuff. That is amazing. Yeah, and James Harden, I got to go to a Houston Rockets game. They played my video highlights on the Jumbotron. I introduced the team lineup. And so we had like, you know, in the video, Harden's coming down the court doing the shake and bake and this is a limited time TV offer. It slices, it dices, it dunks in your face. Announcing the amazing Hardenizer, Beard sold separately. Call now and we'll throw in this free dagger at the buzzer. Boom shakalaka.
    55:19
    So that's the ultimate of like going from NBA Jam, this minimalist game from 93, which really had basically just small, short one-liners, which were nothing more than a lift of the Marv Albert Game of the Week dialogue Because John Hay, who was the composer of the music and the sound guy on that, he said, hey, we want it to sound like an NBA game. Marv is the voice of the NBA. I'm new at doing this. So here's what it is. All those phrases are basically things you would have heard in a game of the week.
    55:49
    But then, as I said, every game after and when I work with the NBA, now I get to go, OK, that may be where I started, you know, kind of doing this like Marv kind of feel. But now it's now it's my thing. I kind of think of it as a, you know, kind of a stand up persona. Listening to, because NBA Jam is so iconic, I think everyone knows Boom Shakalaka and whatnot. Did you think that it would ever go from just voicing a video game to having NBA teams call you up and say, hey, we want you to start doing this stuff for us?
    56:20
    Well, no. And interestingly enough, it wasn't they who called me, it was me who called them. I just got this idea in my head one day as I was thinking, well, nobody's waking up thinking, hey, I wonder how Tim Kitzrow is doing. I wonder how that waiting table is Smith & Walensky's going. I wonder if he feels like he's just a has-been. Boy, we should bring him in here and do some voiceover for our NBA team. I thought, no, these guys are probably all now 30 or 40, which means they were five or 10 or 15 when the jam came out. So I had this good idea that, hey, they might be fans
    56:51
    and I got a lure in the lure box. So I call, get their number off the internet just for like the games operation, the entertainment person. Of course you get their voicemail and I could just leave a voicemail. You've reached Trey Smith from the Atlanta Hawks. He can't come to the phone right now because he's on fire. No, seriously, he was heating up some pizza in the toaster oven and his sleeve caught fire. Leave your message at the buzzer and you won't be rejected. Hey Trey, this is Tim, Mr. Boomshonk Locker from NBA Jam. I was wondering if you guys might want to do a throwback night, 90s night with some NBA Jam highlights. Call me back.
    57:22
    And then they call back and go, dude, are you really the dude? I was playing this around the office and people thought someone was putting me on. So it was fun that I realized that my secret power, my superhero secret power was boom shock lock in my voice. And I was able to get some people on board that way. But no, when I made this game, as I said, I'm thinking nothing more than I'm making 50 bucks an hour, which is really good money for anybody still in this day and age. 50 bucks for an hour of being silly is great money.
    57:54
    As a businessman, it sucks. It's not good pay. Granted, it was 30 years ago, but over the years, I had to try to learn the business aspect of it more. All these years later, working with a professional NBA team, doing highlights for Steph Curry, this is that part of my legacy. That'll be there forever. I was forgotten for a long time. The arcade industry, pinball industry, both basically had a DOA. You remember that period, right? John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Knapp Arcade,
    58:31
    We're getting older, getting families of their own together, and there was no way I would have known that there was even the fan appreciation that there is until I started to go to shows a few years ago where these game conventions have popped up now literally in almost every state and almost every city and meeting fans who go, wow, you're the voice of my childhood. I can't believe. I have no idea, had no idea that it had that kind of an impact. I knew the game itself was popular, knew it made $2 billion, a billion the first year
    59:01
    in quarters, a billion in quarters. Wow. And when Jurassic Park that same year selling tickets probably back then for about eight to 10 bucks, they made 600 million worldwide and we make 400 million more than Jurassic Park quarter by quarter. So I knew all that stuff. So it was kind of depressing. Like I'm waiting tables again, you know, early 2000s, you know, and going, oh, well, that was fun. That, that whole thing's over. You know, now sports games are all SIM games. So they go to broadcasts.
    59:31
    They go to ABC, ESPN broadcasters. I'm known for my style, which is arcade style. So I thought it was done and over. And, and so to have this resurgence, and I did a remake of Mutant Football League a few years ago. We're working on another version now. That's a remake of a 93 classic Mutant Football League. And I've got all these opportunities, I said, in different fields with ESPN. I've done some stuff for them. I did some highlights on SportsCenter and working with the NBA teams.
    60:02
    I've got a few new games to go. So it's almost like this second life, 25, 30 years later is really unexpected. I assume that you enjoyed playing games and stuff like that too while you're... Nope. It was, you know, there's a weird period of time, my generation, growing up, going to college where there were only a handful of the games were out. You'd see Space Invaders and Pac-Man, whatever. But those quarters were really hard to come by. And I had a job at school that paid about fifteen dollars for eight hours, you know, and so to take those quarters and not spend them on beer and to, you know, if I sit down at Pac-Man, I'd burn through a couple of dollars like that.
    60:44
    That's that's a few beers. Steven P.
    61:15
    Jeffworks- Annette Landukonski Hamilton, Yeah, you've got quite the resume here when it comes to these games. These have been considered some of the best games of all time. Like I said, Attack from Mars, are you the alien in Attack from Mars or what do you do
    61:47
    in there? I know that I'm the military guy, like, we're going to build a blaster, let's blast them. You know, that guy. And I don't, I think the alien is Vince Pontarelli, who was one of the great sound guys, who's a great mimic. But yeah, it was just generally like, besides a general like, return to battle soldier, If you get a gutter ball on the first poll, and I had only played that for the first time in probably 20 something years at one of the recent shows. So I go, oh yeah, that's me. That's me. A lot of our multiple voices, of course, the obvious ones, I'm the lead, you know, the Twilight Zone and Shadow is a smaller voice.
    62:24
    I'm the voice of the shadow. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The shadow knows. And Red and Ted, one of my favorites, the roadshow adventure where I play Red. Well, honey, I got my paycheck. Let's go wreck some road. Oh, here comes that pastrami sandwich again. Oh, I knew I shouldn't have that. That's the multiball. He wakes up at night and he gets the burp going and then the ball starts shooting out. What are some of the others? Well, of course, oh, whodunit, which is a great one because it's, you know, I'm Nick Spade, the private eyelid.
    63:00
    Suddenly, I was back on the case. I took the elevator to the penthouse. Hmm, I wonder what's down there. That kind of stuff. You know, so that was a great one. And that's one you rarely see, but it's one of my favorites. And then I assume you reprised your role for Revenge for Mars. Yeah, and once again, various and military and et cetera, et cetera. Yeah, yeah. You didn't do the Bill Clinton? Well, you know what? I got something to confess here. I don't do a very good Bill Clinton. It starts turning to Barney Five in a hurry, Andy!
    63:31
    One of my favorite games, which was one of my first games, was World Cup Soccer. And that has got some amazing ones. Somebody make that save! GOLAAAAAAA! That kind of stuff. Saw that the last couple games and everybody goes, man, that's a great game! That, and when you're not making shots and all of a sudden it just pops up and says, it looks like he can't control the ball. John Popadiuk Bob Betor Keith Elwin Laser Los Bowen Kerins Lyman F Sheats Jr orbit ramps Automated Amusements Python Anghelo Joe Kaminkow Tim Kitzrow Scott Danesi I Judge Fred Nice Are you into sports too Because it seems like this was like a happy accident is what I getting from all this Oh yeah Yeah
    64:15
    I mean, I'm not as hardcore as some people and people always say, hey, you should do, you know, live play by player, work with the team or wouldn't you like to do that? You have such a good voice. No, that's, that's the, you know, that's going back to math class. That's just work, you know, like studying every single name, every team, all the nuance to be able to speak to speak. I want to be the class clown who sits in back of the history class and make fun of all the stuff. You know, and so if I'm doing a basketball game, you know, you got a chucker who misses a lot. So he's, you know, Chuck's went up from three like, Dear Rim, I miss you. Love, Chuck.
    64:47
    You know, that's yeah. So if I can't have fun with it, I could never get into. I have so much respect for those guys because you have to live and breathe and sleep and know everything and every pronunciation of every player's names and be on the road. It's just so much work. But yeah, I'm a big enthusiast as far as my football and baseball teams and everything else. But during the Bulls era, I was really deep down, probably would watch every single game, taped a lot of them on VHS.
    65:17
    But now, years later, I'm more of a fan of the league as opposed to the Bulls necessarily, and I try to stay up and certainly watch the highlights. Well, the Bulls were amazing that time, during that time. Oh my God. That was definitely, yeah. It was just a gift for me to be in Chicago, be doing that, to see the game come out in Chicago, all the arcades packed with people playing it, just fantastic. Man, you were living the perfect Chicago life, sitting watching Michael Jordan eating a Chicago dog and... Yeah, man. I went to his restaurant a lot of times to watch the playoffs and the finals.
    65:50
    He had a great place, Michael Jordan's, with the first giant screen, it was probably, you Adam F. You took a break after Revenge for Mars you did NBA with Stern and then it looks like you didn't come back till about a decade later
    66:23
    All of these guys were part of the company. What brought you back to playing in the NBA? Scott Danesi Yeah, I mean, as I said, the industry itself basically died. And, you know, luckily, all those great guys that, you know, the industry is so small that, you know, everybody knows everybody, you know, Jersey Jack and every company and Gottlieb. So, you know, the guys that I'd worked with out there, of course, Greg Farris, especially. You know, they were in Gomez, George Gomez, one of the greats, and Lyman Sheats, you know, fans of mine and casual friends, more of, you know, it was so many years ago, but they They knew exactly like what they wanted and thank goodness they reached out to me and when I did the NBA fast break or NBA pinball with Stern somewhere about 10 years ago, I remember they were like still kind of like on the edge and I remember Gary Stern saying, hey, we're just a mom and pop outfit out here trying to survive. We can't afford the big bucks to pay you. I was like, hey man, I used to get 50 bucks an hour or anything better than that. I'll take it. But yeah, they brought me back in for that.
    67:22
    And then of course, as they, you know, the Elvira thing was a no brainer since I'd done the other one. And then they just took a shot with me with the vampire for Deadpool. So it was really just a result of the industry coming back, you know, and, you know, as I said, I was just toiling away back in the restaurant business again, because, you know, this is a very niche industry. If I didn't have pinball and I didn't have sports titles, like what am I going to do? I'm not going to get calls from LA to do random voices and games. It's all going to be based on my Mr. Boom Shock Locker persona, which is why then like, I forget the name of the company that does Rage and Rage 2, they called me to do a cameo, a voice pack for Rage 2 on Fire Edition.
    68:04
    And you can find that on all the, on YouTube if you don't have the game itself, but it's really fun. It's a, you know, first person shooter and I'm just doing like crazy over the top stuff, you know, with that. See ya, wouldn't want to be, oh, that's going to sting. Pow Pow Puppy Chow, Kaboom, he's on fire! No, literally, call out the, you know. It was just, it was fun. It was great to do, you know, to reprise the Mr. Boom Shock locker roll, but out of context in a comedic way against a violent backdrop. Yeah. Yeah, I've always been waiting by the phone.
    68:35
    And as I said, now with the game conventions around the country, that's got me out, I think 12 times this year, meeting fans, doing panels, hosting, interviewing, doing tournaments for people. It's just been a great, as I said, a great renaissance for the industry and for myself to connect with people like all the Mortal Kombat crew from the actors, you know, Dan Pessina, Richard Divizio, Anthony Marquez, Carlos Pessina. I never met them. They're probably in the studio in 92 because our games came out 10 months apart, Mortal Kombat and Jam.
    69:07
    And they're working in the motion capture studio. And I would come in from time to time to the sound booth. We never met. So four years ago before COVID, doing a show out in Hartford, one of my first ones, my friend Sal DeVita, co-creator of Jam & Blitz and Immortal Combat, he goes, Hey, Tim, you know these guys, right? And I go, Nope, never met him. Don't know who they are. And he was like, No, he plays, he's a Sub-Zero Scorpion. Don't know what you're talking about. Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Johnny Cage. Nope. And by the end of the night, we got along like old college frat buddies. And we've been going to shows ever since. And we might as well be brothers.
    69:41
    Paul Nehmeyer, too, the great artist from Mortal Kombat and tons of other games. And so we've got this little like rat pack on the road. And yeah, this fun idea of like 30 years later, we never met out there, but now we've got what we call our Murderer's Row, the Monsters of the Midway. When we go to conventions, we're all together and having fun. And so if you ever see them come to town, any of your listeners come out, you'll definitely have fun with us. Sounds like it. You know, and the big thing right now at those conventions and whatnot are the where the voice actors get together and they play out a scene with their voices.
    70:15
    Yeah, we should pitch that idea to one of these pinball conventions because I think that would go over. Oh, that'd be a lot of fun and grab, you know, a random different voice actors together and throw scripts. I'd love to hear other people doing reads of, you know, famous things that we know or some of my stuff from me do someone else's stuff. And we did that at the Florida Freeplay. Ryan McKay did a great job and Brandon Speck of like putting together some fun bits of different famous movie scenes and had us read characters. He had really weird commercials for us to read, just playing around, you know, for your voiceover.
    70:48
    And Warren Davis, the creator of Qbert, is also a very good actor and improviser. So he's provided a lot of fun at these shows, too. What's your most favorite role that you've done so far in this? MLB Slugfest and that's the baseball commentator for the you know the MLB Slugfest is the sports series you know after Blitz we went to do baseball and then we did hockey NHL hits but baseball because the pace of the game is slower and since I'm writing the script I got to write full on in between pitches in between any like crazy conversational comedic dialogues I said that is as close as I'll ever get to like you know writing a Simpsons episode or being an
    71:30
    It's the world that I created. And with the guy that I brought in, an iconic comedian from Chicago whose character is Jimmy Short. It's just a great, great time. And we do 70 different improvised comedic scenes when the game is loading. So instead of just seeing the loading screen, it's us having a blast up in the booth together. So check that out if you haven't. You can get tons of clips on YouTube for MLB Slugfest. Also check that out.
    72:00
    Was there any role that you took on that you're like, oh crap, this is a little out of my hands? No, I mean, fortunately, I guess I said with the pinball, we went over most of the roles. It was just, I knew right away, like either I could do it or couldn't. And, you know, even the ones that I had to work a little bit harder at, obviously, when you're trying to take on the mantle of like the Rod Serling and it had to be approved by his estate, whatever. I didn't kind of realize the gravitas of like taking that role on. And I also didn't know that they had searched far and wide for a sound alike.
    72:33
    And then they came back to me instead of asking me first. It was like, oh, this is I don't know if he could do that. It was weird. It's like, why didn't you just ask me in the beginning? But yeah, that was the only one. And as I said, it's to live up to that. But all the rest of the stuff, hey, you know, my wheelhouse is sports stuff, bread and butter, comedic, crazy stuff like the Elvira. There hasn't been anything that's come across my plate where I go, I don't want I'm not going to do that, but I get that stuff a lot when I do my auditions for weird stuff for the internet or TV commercials where I look at stuff like, I'm not going to do that. It's crap.
    73:06
    Well, and the voices of Scared Stiff are some of the most iconic. People quote those in the pinball hobby. They're just wonderful. I did not know that. So you did Dracula and did you say you did the heads as well? In the new one, I do all the talking heads like, hey, take another shot at me like that and I'll drop you like a rock lobster, pal. And as I said, the movie trailer guy, there were so many different voices for that, like, tonight, announcing, you know, I forget what it was. It's like 50s sci-fi, you know.
    73:36
    Once I do these things, I just forget all about them and I don't play the games very often, if ever, the pinball games too. Because when I go to the shows, I'm just busy, you know, with fans and everything else. erto so like when they knew if I ever showed up I never got a real good listen never got to the Deadpool Round of like the vampires so I don't know how that even sounds but I've heard a lot of people said they have enjoyed it it's it is wonderful and and really honestly I think you've hit the nail on the head that you are the voice of most of our childhood's like I remember when NBA Jam came out when I want to say I was around 10 and just I I think we were talking about this because we're we were hyping up we were excited to have you on the podcast
    74:16
    Like, I think you have a very iconic voice and people just associate you with that product, right? They don't necessarily think it's Tim Kitzrow. It's Dracula from Scared Stiff or Rod Serling from Twilight Zone. And so it's amazing to have you on and have you talk about these games because I think that part of that's kind of lost to history, especially like you're saying, pinball went by the wayside. Yeah. You know, early 2000s, I think arcades were dying off and home arcades were, you know, not home arcades, but home consoles. Yeah, handheld and now handheld.
    74:48
    Yeah. It's taking over even the console more for the youngest generation. Yeah. I'll go to like the pinball show, Northwest in Portland. I've got this great shot of a dad playing pinball and a kid must be like three years old in the stroller on the iPhone playing a game. Kind of like there's a new generation right there. But I tell you that the pinball fans are the best. They are so hardcore, so knowledgeable, so passionate. I love getting the chance to meet them at shows, especially like the Chicago Pinball Show, the Portland Show, like Houston, you know, more pinball centric.
    75:22
    Because they just it's such a, you know, really a great small world. There's really only a handful of really great iconic games of the last 20 years. And that golden era was when I got in. That was the second wave of like the best, like Pat Lawler. And before things got some of the new stuff to me is a little bit too overdone. That's just my opinion. But that era of like the great, you know, Gottlieb, Bally Williams, the pinball games, there's some of the greatest games and the fans know it. And, and I love the fact that they're all over now in arcades all over the city in Chicago. And, and it's just, it's great. I feel very fortunate to be part of that community.
    76:00
    Well, even have movies come out now, you know, Roger Sharp, you worked with Roger at WMS and whatnot. And just saw him at the Chicago Pinball Show. Yeah. You know, and he had his own movie now. Yeah, it just won a couple of awards too. And I'm in a documentary called Insert Coin and it's available on Amazon Prime. And it's the telling of the story of the rise and fall of Midway Games done by director Josh Swee, who was an artist, digital artist out there and was also a minor character in one of the Mortal Kombat things. But of course, his connection, he knew everybody and he was a filmmaker in college.
    76:33
    He was able to round up everyone from the CEOs to Eugene Jarvis, like Gomez, Petro, We're going to be one of the great people and talk to them. How did this game get made? Great highlights back. We've got the footage that people have never seen before of Mortal Kombat doing the motion capture, the original days, the blue screen of the DePaul basketball players doing the NBA Jam moves. It's really fun. Of course, I'm in there telling some great stories. So that's been great to have that out and to have the folks that grew up with those
    77:03
    games get a backstage look at how it all came together. And one little moment, really it was a moment of time, it was like this punk rock kind of, you know, garage factory out there in California between Belmont and Addison in Chicago, right down the road from Wrigley Field. And some of the biggest hits ever made came out of there and it's kind of like Motown, you know, hit after hit after hit. It was a literal factory assembly line for hit games for a while. Like I said, the list that you've been on, these are all hits. I don't look at one of these and go, I mean, Party Zone.
    77:34
    The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., Mirco Playfields, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi.
    78:04
    You can grab any team from any league, basketball, football, baseball, and just put random players together. It's going to eventually maybe be a gambling or slot machine, but it's just a fun app if you like sports, you go back and throw back. Definitely. I've got a few other things working. I'm working on a fishing app, believe it or not. The idea of people say, you should do a golf game, to blow the thing. Hey, he's on the fourth hole right now, and just blow it up. So it's kind of the same things.
    78:35
    Like there are a couple of fishing apps out there that are very successful, but there's no voice on them. So I'm going to throw my signature of spice on it and just turn into a party, you know, and some entertainment while still being a good, fun fishing app. And so that's fun. And I've got another company that I'm working with to hopefully do four new sports titles starting this year. So there's a lot of stuff on the horizon, irons in the fire. And I'll be out on the road 10 to 20 times this year, different cities. I guess my last question is, don't tell us if you, a specific project, but will we be seeing you again here in pinball soon?
    79:17
    There are no definites, but I did do a side project. I guess I can say it. It's Todd McCulloch is one of the great arcade enthusiasts on the planet. He was a former center for the Philadelphia 76ers. He lives out in Seattle. schlimm. お願いします.
    80:03
    And he wanted to do his own custom pinball machine and he wanted to do a Happy Gilmore theme. So he met up with some other great custom pinball guy who took the skeleton, it's a Frankenstein, and I forget which game they were using as the board, but they constructed a whole Happy Gilmore and I did the voice for it. And that that when it's done, because he's friends with all the guys at Stern, he said they, you know, they may actually look at doing a production of that as well.
    80:35
    But it's a one off. But that was just a great thing. Like a one off for a great collector was fun to do. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. I mean, it's hard with Stern because, you know, you see the roles like a lot of their titles now are big franchises as Deadpool was. So I have to fit into that category of the supporting role. And of course, Elvira, because it's an original, there are no TV or movie voices to go, oh, we got to get the original. And I am the original for that. So there are fewer of the the one off kind of original game titles made anymore the way a lot of them like, you know, what was the fishing, the whitewater?
    81:11
    I mean, so many of those titles back then, Medieval Magic, just such originals. They weren't based on TV or movie or music, you know, musical bands. And of course, that's a big thing for Stern right now, which is a great idea. You know, they're doing all the bands, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, and Rush, and etc. So it's harder to find a place that I've got to fit. We'll keep requesting you because we love your stuff. I appreciate it. Well, if you want someone to get a hold of you, how do we get a hold of you? My website is TimKitzrow.com.
    81:41
    If it's easier, you can say MrBoomShakalaka.com. And you can see some of those videos that I mentioned with the Warriors and the Rockets. Tim Kitzrow,
    82:18
    And that would be, you know, that's fun. The idea of like someone growing up with me and then being able to like send out a bachelor invite with a slideshow in my voice. And I've actually been asked to do two weddings this year. I'll be doing one in October and one in December, MC and also officiating the wedding. So yeah, people can't get enough of the good old nostalgia and why not? It was a fun time and continues to be fun for new generations. I'm watching four, five, six, seven, eight year olds, You know, pick up NBA Jam and an 11 year old kid came in second in a tournament out of 37 people.
    82:54
    And the first time he had ever played it was that morning. The kids are too smart nowadays. Honestly, God. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's been a pleasure talking with you and yeah, check out my website, mrboomshakalaka.com. And of course, you can just YouTube things. Go to look at some of the MLB slugfest. As I said, that's the stuff I'm most proud of. There's a compilation of things. It's called Tim and Jim Funny Comments MLB Slugfest on YouTube where you can get all these different funny intros and word play and dialogue.
    83:27
    So yeah, it's always fun to go down that rabbit hole and see some of the highlights other people have put together. Sounds good. Yeah, man. We appreciate you coming on and thank you for setting aside some time to be with us. Yeah, real pleasure to be here and love being on your show and say a special hey to all your friends out there. Thanks for playing pinball and keeping the game world alive. If you want to get a hold of us, we are Loserkidpinballpodcasts at gmail.com. If you want to get a hold of us on the socials at Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, and Instagram at Loserkidpinball.
    83:57
    We are just wrapping up our 100th episode. This is nuts. You got anything else for us, Scott? Thanks for everybody who has spent even one episode with us. It means a lot to us. Yes. Oh, before we go though, you better send some messages to Scott because he's heading off to Guatemala to do his cleft palate and donate his time. Yeah, heading out Saturday. I'll be gone a week. So he's going to Guatemala and I'm going to Puerto Rico because it's 15 years that I've been married to my wife.
    84:28
    So we will not be here next week and we will see you in two weeks and hopefully we can line up the interview that we've been trying to line up since what, September? Yeah, exactly. Somewhere around there. Yeah. This is where you play the outro. Oh my my, oh my my, oh wait that's a different episode. Or a different show. That's a different show. What's the Golden Girls theme? We should just place that here. Oh I was just thinking of Three's Company. Come on knock on our door.
    85:00
    No but Golden Girls was thank you for being a friend. Yes, yes. Alright see you in two weeks. Alright we'll see you guys in two weeks. Bye. Adn