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Ep 5 - Jim Patla (Chief Operating Officer)

Jersey Jack Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·23m 11s·analyzed·Aug 4, 2020
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TL;DR

JJP hires legendary designer Jim Patla as COO to manage operations during facility reboot.

Summary

Ken Cromwell interviews Jim Patla, newly hired Chief Operating Officer at Jersey Jack Pinball, discussing his 50+ year career in pinball spanning Valley Manufacturing, Williams Electronics, and American Pinball. Patla designed approximately 40 pinball machines between 1970-1983 and brings extensive operational experience to JJP during its relocation and manufacturing expansion.

Key Claims

  • Jim Patla has design credit on almost 40 pinball machines

    high confidence · Ken Cromwell reads extensive game list from 1970-1983, verified by Patla during interview

  • Patla designed approximately 40 games in an 8-year period (1970s-early 1980s)

    high confidence · Cromwell: 'almost 40 games, Jim, in eight years' — Patla confirms this was normal for the era

  • Patla worked at Valley Manufacturing from 1965-1988 in various roles including lab technician and designer

    high confidence · Patla confirms: '65 to 72, you were a lab tech there. You were a pinball game designer from 1972 to 1980'

  • Patla worked at Williams Electronics from 1988-2000 in product management and engineering roles

    high confidence · Cromwell outlines career timeline; Patla confirms transition and later role on slot machine topbox group

  • Patla retired approximately 9 years ago before being recruited to American Pinball as a consultant

    high confidence · Patla: 'I retired about nine years ago, and all of a sudden I got a call from somebody else in the industry who was doing consulting for American'

  • Patla stayed with American Pinball until the completion of their third game before joining JJP

    high confidence · Patla: 'I stayed there until the third game was complete. And after the third game was on the line, I gave notice and said goodbye'

  • Jersey Jack Pinball is currently in a 'renaissance' or 'reboot' period following relocation to Illinois facility

    high confidence · Patla describes facility move: 'bringing the company here is a reboot' and Cromwell characterizes it as 'a renaissance period, like a rebirth'

  • Centaur was designed by Patla with only 40 switches and 3 colors due to budget constraints

    high confidence · Patla: 'when I was doing centaur there was only 40 switches allowed' and explains creative solutions to limitations

Notable Quotes

  • “It was the culture at the time. Obviously, the games were a lot simpler. The complexity was different.”

    Jim Patla @ ~5:30 — Explains context for high output of 40 games in 8 years during EM/early solid-state era

  • “I considered it a boot camp for learning how to design. Forty games in eight years.”

    Jim Patla @ ~6:20 — Reflects on Valley Manufacturing's culture and influence on multiple engineers

  • “I didn't realize how much I missed it. I didn't realize actually how much the product really didn't change.”

    Jim Patla @ ~13:00 — Core motivation for returning to pinball after retirement; identifies continuity in pinball fundamentals despite technological evolution

  • “When I looked around, it just felt like home. I came from Valley and there's this respect for different industry... but I really do believe that Valley was like a boot camp.”

    Jim Patla @ ~19:30 — Explains decision to join JJP; deep connection to Valley's manufacturing culture and methods

  • “It's going to be I'm going to be here to help them. There's a level of tenacity for certain.”

    Jim Patla @ ~26:00 — Articulates management philosophy focused on enabling design teams and removing obstacles

  • “When you talk about passion, the passion's obviously there... by doing such, it just gives everybody an opportunity to rethink what they have done in the past and what they want to do in the future.”

    Jim Patla @ ~27:00 — Describes corporate culture and reboot opportunity at JJP during facility relocation

  • “The stars aligned for us to snag Jim Patla here at Jersey Check. Like I said, ball save.”

    Ken Cromwell @ ~23:45 — Host emphasizes significance of Patla's hire using pinball terminology as metaphor

  • “I will go to bat for them in every area of this business. And whatever I have to do to convince individuals that this is now the priority, this is our focus, this is what we have to do, I'm going to be there for them.”

Entities

Jim PatlapersonKen CromwellpersonJersey Jack PinballcompanyValley ManufacturingcompanyWilliams ElectronicscompanyAmerican PinballcompanyTed Zaleperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Jersey Jack Pinball undergoing major facility relocation and operational reboot; characterized as 'renaissance' period with expanded manufacturing capacity

    high · Patla: 'bringing the company here is a reboot' and Cromwell: 'to see a factory be born. It's pretty amazing... from like an empty facility and then to what it is right now where games are on the line'

  • ?

    community_signal: Jersey Jack Pinball actively recruiting talent; hiring positions available despite recent facility expansion and staffing growth

    high · Ken Cromwell: 'Hey, if you want to work at a pinball company, guess what? Jersey Jack Pinball is hiring... send us a resume... at careers at jerseyjackpinball.com'

  • ?

    industry_signal: Deep connection between modern JJP and Valley Manufacturing legacy; Patla describes Valley as 'boot camp' culture that shaped multiple industry engineers; JJP facility evokes this history

    high · Patla: 'When I looked around, it just felt like home. I came from Valley... Valley was like a boot camp' and describes Valley's influence on Gary Gaten, Greg Kamek and others

  • ?

    community_signal: Jim Patla's management philosophy emphasizes collaborative decision-making, removing obstacles for design teams, and inclusive team contribution

    high · Patla: 'The approach that I like to take is to get everybody involved... we all become better that way' and 'supporting all the design teams to make sure that they have everything they need'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Jim Patla hired as Chief Operating Officer at Jersey Jack Pinball, representing significant leadership acquisition from competitor American Pinball

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.069

0:00
flying through the airwaves and into your podcatcher it's the jersey jack pinball podcast hi what's going on pinball and welcome to another episode of the jersey jack pinball podcast my name is ken cromwell and i'm your host all right guys let's just get right into the episode before we do so i wanted to thank everybody that sent an email in regards to last week's show if you missed last week's show, we had Jack Guarneri and Joe DiRusso on talking about the Be Positive campaign. And then we had Peter Dorn and Ted Estes on. And that was a fun conversation where they discussed the evolution of a 3D sculpt, how it gets into a pinball machine. And there was a focus on the Hobbit, Smaug, especially how Smaug became a dragon, but originally was kind of conceptualized as a pink foot. So if you get a chance, check that episode out. And if you want to contact the show, again, you can do that as always at podcast at jerseyjackpinball.com.
1:01
All right. Now, as I discussed last week, I said that we were going to have Jim Patla on the show. For those of you that aren't familiar with Jim Patla, Jim was just hired on as the COO here at Jersey Jack Pinball. COO essentially stands for the Chief Operating Officer. And if you're unsure about what the duties are of a COO of a pinball company, we'll sit back and relax because we're just getting started. Jim will kind of let us know about that. Jim, fascinating guy. As somebody, again, as I work here at a pinball company, which is unbelievable, but I'm very much a pinball enthusiast and I love hearing about the pinball history. And, you know, where I didn't really pick Jim's brain from a historical standpoint, I plan on doing that at some point down the road. I did want to introduce him to everybody that's listening to the show. And a lot of you are already familiar with Jim, but there are some things you may not realize. For instance, Jim has design credit on over 30, almost 40 pinball machines. And for me, that was pretty astounding. I know the name Jim Patla, and I know how he's designed pinball machines. But to really hear what he's done and what he's accomplished, and to have this gentleman here working at Jersey Jack Pinball is a huge asset. So let's just get into the conversation that I had with Jim Patla. Hello, everybody. How are you, man? What's going on? I'm doing good. So happy that you're able to make it. Thank you. You're welcome. I wanted to go ahead and first of all kind of introduce you to the public. Now, your name has been in pinball for a long time. In fact, when you came over here, you've been in the industry for over 50 years, and you started your career in pinball for Valley Manufacturing. That was back in 1965. Yes. From 65 to 88, you were a lab technician. Or I'm sorry, from 65 to 72, you were a lab tech there. You were a pinball game designer from 1972 to 1980. And this is where it gets amazing because I went ahead and I pulled the game list of a Mr. Jim Patla. And for those of you, take a minute. I want you to think in your head, how many games has Jim Patla been involved with from a design aspect? And when I thought that I knew the number, I was way off. So what I want to do here is I'm going to literally, quickly, I'm going to read through these games real fast. If there's anything you want to stop on, that's fine. But, again, it amazed me. And again, this starts from 1970 and goes all the way to 1983. And here we go. Four Queens, Time Tunnel, El Toro, Little Joe, Space Time, Four, Monte Carlo, Odds and Evens, Time Zone, High Low Ace, Circus, Big Show, Champ, Twin Wind, Sky Kings, Delta Queen, Bon Voyage, Boomerang, Flickr, Air Aces, High Deal, Slapstick, Flip Flop, Blackjack, Quarterback, Hand Glider, Blackjack, Mata Hari, both the EM and Solid State. Kick-Off, Playboy, we've got Kiss, Silver Ball Mania, Space Invaders, Rolling Stones, Vikings, Centaur, Centaur 2. You even had another game that was Rapid Fire. Like a flipperless game. That's almost 40 games, Jim, in eight years. It was the culture at the time. Obviously, the games were a lot simpler. The complexity was different. When you look at the early games, they were basically just targets, pop bumpers, slingshots, and flippers. That was about it. Then you start getting into some of what you would consider the next gen. I mean, if you look at the games, the mechanism on silver ball, the mechanism between the flipper, to me, it took a while for the engineer to perfect that, but it was worth it. It was an amazing career. You know, learning, you know, Ted Zale was my mentor, and he was the father of the zipper flipper. And just the way that he went about developing ideas was always useful to anybody who was in that department. Sure, yeah. I mean, I worked for Ted. Gary Gaten worked for Ted. Greg Kamek worked for Ted. So, I mean, there was a lot of engineers came out of that group. And by that group, I mean we used to go there and just play pinball for three hours a day after school. And that's what we did. So it was a – I considered it a boot camp for learning how to design. Forty games in eight years. I mean I'm just thinking because when I think about output for current pinball manufacturers, I mean nothing coming close. And this isn't just a company collectively. This is one designer that has 35, 40 pins that went out over an eight-year period. It's amazing. I mean, there's got to be some type of record for that, for the amount of pins that have been out in that time frame I never looked at it that way but there probably is I mean the other thing that you have to look at is the volume of games If you look at the amount of games that were sold per model it obviously was a different time. Yeah, well, I mean, it's incredible. Moving on, 1980 to 86, you're a technical advisor for engineering over there, director of engineering from 86 to 88. Then we go over to Williams Electronics. You were there from 1988 to 2000. You were a product manager from 88 to 90. manager of project scheduling and development from 90 to 94 director of project management 94 to 99 and director of engineering three through 2000 um and then in 2000 you you kind of shift gears you're still in the industry but not pinball per se right you're over at wells gardner and you're working on an lcd project correct you know i uh after pinball shut down i was there to turn off the lights which was obviously sad oh yeah it's not good and uh went to work for wells gardner traveled to Taiwan and so forth, Korea, to put together and to work with them on an LCD project because basically all the monitors at the time were CRTs. For sure. So I was there for about a year. And then after that, I went back to WMS and I did some design in the top box group. And that's the, if you want to call it, the pinball-esque novelty type features that go on top of a slot machine. So they're animated or additional lights or features that are enhanced by the game. So they're more of an electromechanical approach. Right, right. Did pinball have an influence on that project, do you think? Or was it just the natural kind of progression of drawing people to slots? I mean, the group was headed up by Tom Capera when I went back. So, I mean, Tom Capera was there. Peter Dorn was there. Oh, Peter Dorns here at Jersey Jack. Yep. So, I mean, it was people that had been around the industry either in the video group at Midway or in the pinball group at WMS or Belly. And so I would say definitely there was a influence on the type of design. So it was definitely influenced by that. So I brought you up to speed. I brought the listener up to speed up until about the year 2000. and then we're talking about Wells Garner. What happens? Because at some point you're back in pinball.

Jim Patla @ ~25:30 — Strong commitment statement about Patla's role as COO and drive to position JJP as number one

Peter Dornperson
Centaurgame
Rapid Firegame
Playboygame
Kissgame
Space Invadersgame
Rolling Stonesgame
Tom Caperaperson
Wells Gardnercompany
Elk Grove Village, Illinoislocation

high · Ken Cromwell: 'Jim was just hired on as the COO here at Jersey Jack Pinball' and Patla confirms: 'Here I am at Jersey Jack Pinball'

  • ?

    business_signal: JJP positioning itself to compete for industry leadership position with focus on operational efficiency and design team support under new COO

    high · Patla quotes from press release about 'working for a company that's striving to be number one' and commitment statement: 'I will go to bat for them in every area of this business'

    • 8:12
    I retired about nine years ago, and all of a sudden I got a call from somebody else in the industry who was doing consulting for American.
    8:25
    American Pinball? American Pinball. Right. And he said, I got something I want to talk to you about. I said, no, I can't hurt the talk. and found out they were looking for somebody to help them with the managerial end of the business to oversee the different aspects of things that they weren't necessarily experienced at. So they were putting up a new facility less than two miles from my house, and I was going to do it part-time, and it was like I got nothing to lose, and I'll see how this goes. Right, right. I didn't realize how much I missed it. I didn't realize actually how much the product really didn't change. I mean, if you look at the product, there's an LCD instead of a dot matrix display. There's LEDs instead of incandescent bulbs. But other than that. Conceptually, it's still the roots in there, right? Even the technology inside. I mean, okay, so you're using a PC-based system instead of a dedicated proc of some type in a hardware system that was designed in-house. I mean, now you do it with peripherals and so forth. But, I mean, it's just a natural progression. It wasn't anything that was revolutionary per se. Do you appreciate those changes? I mean, for somebody that's been in the industry for so long, or do you think that kind of the purity of pinball is lost when you kind of make those types of changes? No, not at all. I think that it offers new challenges because of when you had a dedicated pinball system with X amount of switches and lights and coils and so forth, you you you had restrictions placed upon you not by management but just by the physical limitations of the system that you were designing in so you had to learn to be more creative in the sense of using what was available to you yeah absolutely yeah um i guess an example that would be centaur at the time i was doing centaur there was only 40 switches allowed Oh, wow. But only two colors. Well, that's a different reason. Right, right. You can get into that, too. So I came up with a way of making additional switches through using AN logic, where I would do targets for three blades instead of two blades. And if you saw both closing at the same time, it gave you another identity. So it was a creative way to do it. Well, the person in charge of engineering didn't like my solution for whatever reason. And he managed to give me eight more switches so I could be happy. And so I needed that and was able to finish the game within his limitations.
    11:21
    The two colors aspect, you have to remember it was actually three colors. That's true. You forgot the red. Yes, I did. But that was bringing a game in on budget It was something that we were really encouraged to do Back when we were doing silk screening every screen was X amount of dollars Yeah, right. So by having only three screens on the game, I had more money to spend like on the sub-mechanical. Yeah, you allocate that somewhere else. So I was able to spend the money and make the game that I wanted to make. Interesting. And it's funny because, well, not funny, but, I mean, that game became iconic. And one of the aspects of that was because of that, you know, that really stark contract of black versus white and then, you know, with reds mixed in. Well, when that was a Whitewood, the name of that one was Video Classic. And the reason I named it Video Classic because video games were so popular at the time. We're talking like 1980, 1981. And if you looked at the different games that were successful, they had a track modes. They explained to you when you walked up to a game in an arcade, you had the screen that was showing you what you had to accomplish in the video game and so forth. So that's where I came up with it. I tried to dissect all the different elements that were appealing to the players at the time and try to put that into the pinball machine, just like the orb feature, chamber feature, queen feature, you know. So that was when you touched the flipper button, it walked you through the game and it showed you the different areas that were important.
    13:04
    If the game remained inactive for X amount of time, all of a sudden the balls kicked out and the game played itself. Yeah, right. So, I mean, all that was kind of a spinoff of, in my mind, you know, what seemed to be important at the time. And I guess it worked. So getting back to American Pinball, you said that you were approached by somebody there or somebody that was helping American Pinball, right? Correct. Yeah, there was another person there doing some consulting for him, but technology wasn't his forte. So he figured that it was better to bring somebody in that had that skill set.
    13:46
    I didn't, you know, when I went back, I did enjoy it. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed it and not only enjoyed it, but missed it. Yeah. So I stayed there until the third game was complete. And after the third game was on the line, I gave notice and said goodbye. and before I know it I was reached by a number of people and so here I am.
    14:20
    Here you are at Jersey Jack Pinball. Here I am at Jersey Jack Pinball. Elk Grove Village, Illinois. And it is everything that I hoped it to be and this is going to be amazing. What piqued your interest and I know that you said that you realized how much you missed it when you were kind of back in the game, so to speak. What piques your interest after you kind of step away from American pinball to jump back in and then come over to Jersey Jack? And I know that you had other opportunities, and this is the one that you had chosen.
    14:51
    It's really interesting. I mean, I came here. I sent out an email on June 4th. Just, you know, basically it was titled, you know, Game Over. and I just wrote a little email that kind of was a summary of my feelings at the time. And before the email hit the outbox, I had three people contact me. I had a tour of this facility the same day. Yeah. And when I looked around, it just felt like home. I can you know I came from Valley and you know there's this respect for different industry you know different companies that have been in this business over the years but I really do believe that Valley was like a boot camp when it came to teaching people the different aspects of pinball right and when I looked at this facility here the manufacturing lines the way the engineering laid out, it just felt like home. That's amazing. And the people here, um, just, they just couldn't be nicer. And, you know, I, I agree. The team here is, it's a very unique work environment. It's like you're hanging out with friends and respectful colleagues and you're, you know, you're working towards a goal. It's everybody works together. I mean, it's definitely a team and it, it isn't a bunch of talented people doing their own thing, right? It's a bunch of talented people who want to help each other and get the best job they can get out of everything. So, yeah, no, it's I'm very, very excited to be here. It's a fun time to, I mean, to be for myself. And I think I spoke about this in a prior podcast to kind of see a factory be born. It's pretty amazing. It is. Over the course of several days and weeks to see it from like an empty facility and then to what it is right now where games are on the line. It's remarkable. But putting this together, moving from New Jersey, bringing everything here, I guess I wouldn't be here if this wouldn't have happened. So, I mean, everything, right place, right time. It's really a dream. The stars aligned for us to snag Jim Patla here at Jersey Check. Like I said, ball save. Ball save right Exactly Here I am But what so I mean as your position here right Chief Operating Officer can you kind of walk the listener through like what a typical day or what kind of things are you going to be having your hands on as a COO of a pinball company? I would say my main focus, you know, obviously, you know, first of all, I got to get the lay of the land to, as much as I know, the majority of the people here. I still have to understand what they're committed to and how they go about doing their jobs.
    17:53
    Scheduling, the management of the products in a timely fashion, costs, deliverables, it's the business end of delivering finished product to our customers, but at the same time supporting all the design teams to make sure that they have everything they need to make the best game possible. And whatever obstacles I can remove from those individuals, the better off they're going to be able to perform, the better games we're going to have. It's such a vital position, especially in this type of a company. And I think it's a position that probably most people don't really think about or they take for granted from the outside as like a pinball enthusiast. You think about the designer and the artists and the programmers, and then you think about the game going in the box and getting into your house. But there's so much involved in between, and we're very lucky to have you here because I've seen your impact on the team and on the staff and on the company, and it's exciting, again, to even watch you kind of step in. The approach that I like to take is to get everybody involved because somebody has something that they've always wanted to say, but maybe they're just a little too hesitant to say it. And so by encouraging people to contribute and to share and so forth, you know, we all become better that way. It was interesting when I had read your press release and I'm paraphrasing, but one of the quotes was that you were you were excited about working for a company that's striving to be number one here. Yes. And you want to talk a little bit about that? I mean, what kind of expectations are you willing to kind of set here as far as Jersey Jack Pinball goes as we move forward? I will go to bat for them in every area of this business.
    19:44
    And whatever I have to do to convince individuals that this is now the priority, this is our focus, this is what we have to do, I'm going to be there for them. Because I can see where the enthusiasm, the creativity, I think it's here. I mean, it's not like there's going to be a cultural change here. It's going to be I'm going to be here to help them. There's a level of tenacity for certain. And I know that it's not just excitement. And it sounds hokey. But when you talk about passion, the passion's obviously there. I think that, you know, bringing the company here is a reboot. and I think that by doing such, it just gives everybody an opportunity to rethink what they have done in the past and what they want to do in the future.
    20:39
    And it's going to open a lot of doors and it's going to open a lot of eyes. Right now it's kind of like a renaissance period, like a rebirth period of the company, like not a do-over because the company's been established and it's been there, but it's an exciting switch that's getting flipped right now. It's a reboot. Yeah. It's a reboot. We're rebooting and, you know, we're bringing up a nice fresh page and we're going to continue. It's pretty awesome. Before I let you go, I have to ask you this because, I mean, this crossed my mind. After we just read off about 40 pinball machines that you created in about eight years, when can we expect the next Jim Patla design here at Jersey Jack? And can you knock out three or four designs in 18 months? In one year? Yeah. Right. I used to do four in a year. Yeah. It's crazy.
    21:21
    I mean, in all seriousness, you say you missed pinball. You're back. And, you know, we're thankful for it. But, I mean, do you miss the design aspect? Do you miss kind of getting in there and getting a whitewood flipping and working in CAD? If I can find some spare time in the future, maybe. Yes. But it won't be in the near future, I wouldn't think. We'll see. You never know. It's exciting times. It's yours, Jack Pinball. And, I don't know, I know you're a super busy guy. I see this every single day. I come in early, and you have already been here for, it seems like, forever. Like, you're here one of the first to come in and, in a lot of cases, one of the last to leave. but hopefully if you do have time it'd be great to kind of check in with you periodically and kind of get some updates on what's happening and kind of let the public know because again it's not bridging the gap a little bit between the manufacturer and the you know the the pinball sounds great so i appreciate it man it's my pleasure no it's my pleasure it's my pleasure everybody jim patlow jersey jack pinball okay bye everybody all right that's going to be a wrap on this episode of the Jersey Jack Pinball podcast. I wanted to thank Jim Patla for coming in. It's always good talking pinball with Jim. Man, a wealth of knowledge that guy has, and I cannot wait to pick his brain going forward. Hey, if you want to work at a pinball company, guess what? Jersey Jack Pinball is hiring. Now, positions, a lot of them have been filled, but we still have employment opportunities, and I'll be sending an updated list here on our social media here shortly. But in the interim, if you want to send us a resume, you can do so at careers at jerseyjackpinball.com so we will catch you next time on the jersey jack pinball podcast from everybody here at jersey jack pinball thanks for listening and don't forget to take some time out of your day and play some pinball so long everybody