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American Pinball

Pintastic New England·video·49m 47s·analyzed·Jul 5, 2022
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.035

TL;DR

American Pinball reveals factory operations, production roadmap, and addresses Sonic license loss while showcasing team expansion.

Summary

David Fix and the American Pinball team presented at Pintastic New England, unveiling factory tour footage, discussing recent game production (Legends of Valhalla and Oktoberfest in production, Houdini Master of Mystery returning, Hot Wheels next), announcing a third production line installation, and addressing the Sonic the Hedgehog licensing loss. Key personnel updates include designer Ryan McQuaid joining despite IP loss, and posthumous release of Barry Ousler's final game. Community Q&A covered development timelines (12-month cycle), beta testing strategy, and the American Pinball Dream Contest homebrewer initiative.

Key Claims

  • American Pinball is currently producing Legends of Valhalla and Oktoberfest on assembly lines, with Houdini Master of Mystery returning after, followed by Hot Wheels

    high confidence · David Fix stating current production schedule at Pintastic New England seminar

  • A third production line will be installed at American Pinball factory within the next couple weeks

    high confidence · David Fix announcing line three installation during presentation

  • American Pinball operates on a 12-month development cycle from concept to assembly line

    high confidence · David Fix responding to audience question about development timeline

  • Legends of Valhalla contains 16 legend battles across 4 different levels

    high confidence · Ryan McQuaid confirming during trivia Q&A at Pintastic

  • Barry Ousler, veteran pinball designer, passed away; American Pinball will release his final game and ensure royalties go to his widow

    high confidence · David Fix's emotional tribute during seminar discussing Ousler's death and contractual arrangements

  • Ryan McQuaid was hired by American Pinball for his creativity and design skills, not specifically for the Sonic the Hedgehog license

    high confidence · David Fix and Ryan McQuaid explaining licensing loss and hiring reasoning

  • Sonic the Hedgehog license was lost to a competitor; multiple manufacturers competed for it, including negotiation up to Sega Japan ownership level

    high confidence · David Fix describing aggressive licensing pursuit and loss to unnamed competitor

  • American Pinball test location Interium hosts public beta testing for new products and updates

    high confidence · David Fix explaining testing methodology and Bumper Blast Party at Pinball Expo

  • Hot Wheels requires 12 shots to complete the race in-game

Notable Quotes

  • “I've been a collector for over 20 years. I have over 100 machines myself, and I want to have good quality stuff. I'm putting my reputation in, and I want to have something good that I want to put my hat on.”

    David Fix@ 8:34 — Explains Fix's quality-first philosophy and personal stake in American Pinball's reputation

  • “I wasn't worried about it because I wasn't hiring the IP, I was hiring Ryan McQuaid. And I wanted that designer not just because of his game, I wanted him for his creativity.”

    David Fix@ 17:59 — Clarifies American Pinball's hiring strategy beyond licensing loss, emphasizing designer value

  • “They called me in they took an entire half an hour out of their days and if you've ever tried to get even five minutes of David's time that should say something just to make sure that i knew that i was part of American Pinball family i wasn't going anywhere and no license meant anything to them... I actually cried in a business meeting.”

    Ryan McQuaid@ 19:01 — Demonstrates American Pinball's commitment to staff retention post-licensing setback and McQuaid's emotional investment

  • “Phone's been quiet, boss. You got other projects for me? Because I need other work because we're building them too good.”

    Service tech rep (quoted by David Fix)@ 8:54 — Indicates quality manufacturing reducing service call volume, suggesting product reliability

  • “Barry was a great guy... Let me come up in April. Let me come up in May. Can we get a whitewood? Can we get this done?”

    David Fix (recounting Barry Ousler's words)@ 23:34 — Poignant recollection of Ousler's enthusiasm before passing, final game to be released

Entities

David FixpersonRyan McQuaidpersonSteven BowdenpersonBarry OuslerpersonChristopher FranchipersonAmerican Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: American Pinball installing third production line within weeks, expanding manufacturing capacity significantly

    high · David Fix announcement: 'in the next couple weeks, line three will be installed'

  • ?

    community_signal: American Pinball launching Dream Contest inviting homebrewers to develop games with commercial production partnership potential

    high · David Fix announcing contest at Pintastic: 'homebrewers, you have one year to develop and bring to Pinball Expo a game... we may take your game, negotiate with you, and put it into production'

  • ?

    community_signal: American Pinball actively supporting homebrew community through Dream Contest, staff mentorship, and integration of homebrew developers

    high · David Fix: 'I see the future it's going to come from somewhere right and here's the nice thing we went out and hired Dennis... I need to teach somebody all these you know all this stuff'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: VR technology viewed as non-competitive threat due to inability to simulate randomness and physical variations in ball physics

    medium · Ryan McQuaid: 'It's going to be years before VR is ready to replace pinball... It's difficult to count for stray pieces of dust in your simulator... until you can really simulate the proper randomness I don't care what VR you're doing it's not tournament pinball'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Sonic the Hedgehog pinball lost to unnamed competitor after aggressive pursuit to Sega Japan; licensing decision made at corporate level by IP holder

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.149

0:00
Time for the update with whatever news, whatever factoids we can squeeze out of these guys from American Pinball. I'll turn it over to David Fix and he'll introduce the rest. Dave? Thank you.
0:26
Put that up there. Well, hey, I love being here at Pentastic. And so if you guys don't know who these guys are sitting next to me, let me know. But we'll make some introduction here. So one of our newest junior game designers, as everybody knows, is from the Sonic era, of course, Ryan McQuaid. Give a nice little applaud for Ryan. All the 90s are mine. The whole era. Yeah, yeah. And then we have, of course, my good friend Steve Bowden, who we brought out of the doldrums of Voldemort, is what we've been calling it. And we're so happy to have him on the team as well. We're continuing.
1:14
So I know you guys have been watching American Pinball for the last year or so. We've been growing leaps and bounds. and I know last year at Expo we released the week before Legends of Valhalla, then we had an open house, and due to some circumstances, we weren't able to, you know, those people who weren't traveling didn't get to go and see the factory. So for a special treat, we had it made yesterday. I'm going to take you into the American Pinball Factory right now. So ladies and gentlemen, this is the first time ever to watch it. Derek, if you have it, let's cue it up and let's take everybody to Palatine, Illinois to the American Pinball Factory and here's a little tour.
2:10

high confidence · Audience member answering trivia question at Pintastic seminar

  • American Pinball Dream Contest allows homebrewers one year to develop game concepts for potential commercial production partnership

    high confidence · David Fix announcing contest details and email submission process

  • “It's going to be years before years before VR is ready to replace pinball or even compete with physics... You're not on the ground floor, is my suggestion.”

    Ryan McQuaid@ 32:37 — Addresses VR as non-threat to physical pinball due to physics simulation and randomness limitations

  • “He didn't tell me about American Pinball Dream competition. I found out when all of you did, and I was mad. I was really mad.”

    Ryan McQuaid (describing his reaction to contest announcement)@ 36:48 — Shows McQuaid's playful competitiveness and surprise at being excluded from contest details

  • “We went very aggressively after the license all the way up to Japan to the owners of Sega and they came back to us thanked us very much and told us we're giving it to somebody else”

    David Fix@ 27:42 — Indicates Sega Japan directly involved in Sonic pinball license decision at highest level

  • “I have the key. It's not in there... The updated beta code with better scoring for War on Land, finally, and other modes which we felt needed some help.”

    Steve Bowden@ 9:47 — Announces Legends of Valhalla beta code update with balance improvements available for testing at Pintastic

  • “homebrewers, you have one year to develop and bring to Pinball Expo a game... We will have it voted on by the public and by American Pinball team. If we like it, we may take your game, negotiate with you, and put it into production.”

    David Fix@ 35:37 — Explains American Pinball Dream Contest structure and path to commercial production for homebrew designers

    • Sonic the Hedgehog
    game
    Legends of Valhallagame
    Oktoberfestgame
    Hot Wheelsgame
    Houdini Master of Mysterygame
    Interiumlocation
    Pintastic New Englandevent
    American Pinball Dream Contestevent
    Fast Pinballcompany
    Segacompany
    Pinball Expoevent
    Mattperson
    Deepakperson
    Natalieperson
    Jeff Olerperson
    Dennisperson
    Remyperson
    Brian Vincentperson
    Ron Lindemanperson

    high · David Fix: 'we went very aggressively after the license all the way up to Japan to the owners of Sega and they came back to us... we're giving it to somebody else'

  • ?

    community_signal: Christopher Franchi, American Pinball artist, has transitioned away from company; now at Spooky Pinball per KB context, represented by pay request message at seminar

    medium · Audience member reading text from Franchi: 'Christopher Franchi. He says, please let David Fix know to pay him more'; KB context indicates Franchi moved to Spooky

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Ryan McQuaid retained by American Pinball as game designer despite Sonic IP license loss; company prioritized designer talent over licensing deal

    high · David Fix and Ryan McQuaid's testimony about half-hour meeting ensuring McQuaid's job security and feeling of family inclusion

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Barry Ousler, legendary pinball designer known as 'quickest gun in the industry,' has passed away; American Pinball will release his final game with royalties to widow

    high · David Fix: 'Barry Ousler was considered the most as the quickest gun in the industry... when Barry's wife called me and gave her the news... We made sure that the contracts were written right so that Barry's widow will receive the normal royalties'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Legends of Valhalla receiving beta code update with War on Land scoring improvements and other mode balance fixes

    high · Steve Bowden: 'The updated beta code with better scoring for War on Land, finally, and other modes which we felt needed some help'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Clear production schedule: Legends of Valhalla and Oktoberfest in progress, Houdini Master of Mystery next, Hot Wheels after, with possible additional game in 2025

    high · David Fix: 'After Oktoberfest is done, then Houdini Master of Mystery will be going back on the line, then Hot Wheels after that. And one other surprise... we may have another game this year'

  • ?

    product_concern: American Pinball emphasizes quality control with dedicated QC staff, mechanical engineering expertise, and rigorous playfield inspection standards

    high · Factory tour showing Natalie as QC expert with mechanical engineering degree; Matt rejecting playfields with any blemishes or clear coat issues

  • ?

    technology_signal: American Pinball utilizing 3D printers for component manufacturing; Ryan McQuaid calibrating extruders for Oktoberfest production

    high · Factory tour showing 3D printer work: 'I just finished rebuilding the extruder on this one and now I'm trying I'm calibrating the XYZ so that we can resume printing more components for Barrels of Fun for Oktoberfest'

    • One of the nice things here at American Pinball, if you see a little bit off in the corner, You'll also notice that we have American Pinball Studios. So, Jeff, go ahead and pan just ever so slightly over there just to see where some of the stuff is happening. Not too much. That's for the magic.
    2:34
    So right now, what are you working on, Ryan? You're calibrating these 3D printers? Yep. I just finished rebuilding the extruder on this one and now I'm trying I'm calibrating the xyz so that we can resume printing more barrels for Oktoberfest.
    3:04
    So here we're going to see a little area called sub-assembly. In here is where we put a lot of our sub assemblies together go ahead Jeff show the people the nice things that go on
    3:25
    so we're here with Natalie our QC expert and also mainly you're not just a QC you've also went to school for what? Mechanical engineering. So we have some more modes that we're continuing to expand here at American Pinball. Mechanical engineering and somebody who is QC is a very important person in this company. All right, so we're now down in the playfield section. Here are all our beautiful playfields already being built, and one of our greatest employees is Matt. So let's spin over here to see Matt. We're going to talk about him for a few seconds. There he is. So this is actually where everything starts. When we get the playfields in, we quality control them. And then wood rails go on, T-nuts go on, and this is where all the posts and everything else get their foundation to have the ability to get put on the board later on down the line. Excellent.
    4:34
    Matt makes sure he goes through these playfields particularly. And if there's any mark or anything blemished or anything wrong with the clear coat of the playfield, he rejects it and we put it off in the pile.
    4:45
    So as you see, the play fields come off of this little area here, and they go through, and Bob will put them on, and then he will work through the stations with everybody all the way down the line. Now look at this. And there's a beautiful line of legends of Valhalla for everybody to see. Just pan down that way, Jeff.
    5:19
    You just pan down. You can see all those beautiful legends of Valhalla just working their way down the line and getting ready for it.
    5:43
    Okay, we can see Remy here. She's working right now on our play fields. As you can see, it rotates, and it makes it easier for the employees to work through all the stations. These are our Oktoberfests running right down the line. Pretty slick.
    6:13
    So we're here in final test of playfields. So the playfields will come down here, they'll get put into this area, we hook them up to the game and we go through all the testing, the switches and wires and double checking. Deepak's been our man since the very beginning of Houdini, back in 2015.
    6:57
    So that was filmed last week and then I had the cutting crew Jeff Oler let's give him a round of applause he's probably watching Jeff you did a nice job as always we'll be putting this video and other videos that Jeff is now working with us at American Pinball online shortly so that everybody can have some fun with that and see that we are producing quite regularly a lot of games. Oktoberfest is currently on the line with Legends of Valhalla, so both of them are going right through quite nicely.
    7:41
    After Oktoberfest is done, then Houdini will be going back on the line, then Hot Wheels after that. And one other surprise that we've been talking to everybody about is that it's been ordered, and in the next couple weeks, line three will be installed. So there will be three production lines for the games at American Pinball. And somewhere in all of that, we may have another game this year. We're working hard on that because we're continuously bringing something new to the products and so forth. So I wanted to give you guys a little understanding that we might not be super fast sometimes. If you ordered games, you're like, where's my game? We're getting it to you, but we're taking the time to make sure you get the quality that you deserve.
    8:30
    I've been a collector for, and I've told this to many people, I've been a collector for over 20 years. I have over 100 machines myself, and I want to have good quality stuff. I'm putting my money in, and I want to have something good that I want to put my hat on.
    8:44
    And that's my reputation and the reputation of American Pinball. And also, we make good quality games to the point that I get a phone call from our service tech rep all the time saying, phone's been quiet, boss. You got other projects for me? Because I need other work because we're building them too good. So we have some more surprises that we're going to be coming out over the next couple months where we're going to continue to develop the American Pinball brand and quality.
    9:10
    And having Ryan on board has been fun too because he's keeping everybody awake up in the labs too, so it's been good. Yes, he does.
    9:20
    He's not just, he does that, But then he also gets in a little competition with Steve, so it's been pretty fun to see that. Steve, is there some special announcement you want to make about the Legends of Valhalla here at Pentastic?
    9:34
    Not at this moment because it's not actually in there. It's not in there. Really? I have the key. It's not in there. Okay, but it's been out on test. Right, but I could put it in there after this is over, but it's not in there. Why not? Well, the updated beta code with better scoring for War on Land, finally, and other modes which we felt needed some help. So that's going to go on. And so I guess for the next few hours, we'll be a test to see if we can – if it passes, fantastic. Just like if it passed Texas, new update. If it passes, fantastic. It will become the new public update. So this is going to be the new testing ground. So try to break it. Yeah, if any of you want to put beta tester on your resume, go ahead out there and test the code out. If you break it, tell us. Right. Please try to break it today. You going to give a key change to the people who break the game? Yeah. Well, yeah. If you go on. Yes. No, I don't want them to break the game. Wait a minute. No. But we can have fun with it. Yeah. If you do something weird, yeah, that counts as breaking it. Right. Okay. Well, let's put it to you this way, is that just don't think we just do shows. This beta code has already been out on test at Interium. It is also on test at many other locations around the United States, some of our test locations, because we test an awful lot of stuff, right? You will find out that this year at Expo, we're going to have kind of a nice little thing. We're going to have the bumper blast party at Interium, which is an outside location. It's actually American Pinball's test location. So what we love to do is we take, if we get a new product, a new product, whatever, we throw it in the machines there, and then we let the public beat on it so that we know if it's life-tested correctly. There's a lot of testing that has to go on. I mean, home testing, that's nice, but remember, that's retirement life in my world. My world is, you know, coin-op, right? So when it goes into the house, it gets played on the weekends, it gets played on nights. When it's in Terium, it's on Monday through Monday, 8 to 12 hours, getting beat on by the general public. And I want to make sure that's the best product that I can give you guys. Because I build these things as equipment for Coin-Op. And for you, the homeowners who love that great machines.
    11:58
    Is Mr. Houdini is right there. So I have a gift for him. We're going to give away some other prizes. He's one of our original customers and he's wearing his Houdini shirt today, which we're going back into production with that. So he gets a beautiful nice Houdini play field print So I also wanted to we going to ask some Q We're going to talk a little bit about what else is going on in American. But we have some questions, and I've got some prizes. I've got some goodie bags up here to give away, because I like to give stuff away. As Ryan calls me the, what did you call me the other day? Oprah. The Oprah Finball.
    12:48
    Everybody gets it. No, I'm not going to say that. No way. No, I'm not going to go down that road, Jeff. Thank you. All right. Ryan, do you have a question for the group? We'll give away a bag.
    13:05
    I'll do it first. Go ahead, Steve. I'll give you some thinking time. Give me some thinking time. All right. So Legends of Valhalla. This one you might have needed to either play the game or seen enough of the marketing. So we'll see if they've actually seen this. Okay. All right. how many legend battles are there in Legend of Valhalla?
    13:24
    Total? Who said 16 as a winner? Come on up. You can get a goodie bag or you can have a print. Choose wisely. All right, so at least we know people are seeing it.
    13:39
    Or he made it all the way through. Give me a goodie bag. Here we go. We've only had it for like three weeks.
    13:46
    16 is four different levels. Oh, there we go. There we go. You can't ask the second one. A follow-up question. I can't ask that one. Well, he already won.
    13:57
    All right. So, awesome. Four levels. Yeah. Okay. Not that one. No, we're not doing that. We'll give him a key chain. No, no.
    14:08
    All right. Got another question, Ryan? Sure. Of the four American Pinball machines, which two of them feature the American Pinball monkey mascot?
    14:18
    Ooh, good question. Go ahead. No. Blue shirt and the backpack with the hat. Yes, thank you. Come on up.
    14:37
    Come on up. Nice shirt, by the way. Oh, wait a minute. He's wearing a Sonic shirt? I don't know about that.
    14:44
    Suss. All right. Would you like a bag? Do you want a poster? What would you like? Poster. He'll take a poster. Poster. There you go.
    14:58
    Very good. All right, let's ask another question. Or, you know what, if we want, anybody have a question for us and the team, I will try to answer it as best I can.
    15:10
    Just go up to the microphone that's in the corner there. You can ask the question. Remember, this is Massachusetts, and Massachusetts State's law says everything is being recorded, so whatever you say, please keep it honorable and clean. Hello. Is this thing on? Now you tell me.
    15:27
    I have a statement, not a question. Oh, no. I received a text from Christopher Franchi. He says, please let David Fix know to pay him more money.
    15:39
    I pay him what he's worth. Wow. No, Chris is a good friend. All right. Do you have a statement on that one, Brian? No, I'm good. No, you're good? No. I'd say anything. Fran, she's a good friend. I might have said that.
    15:57
    She would have told me what to say. I would have said it for you. All right. We have another question. Go ahead. Come on up. I was wondering if you could tell us how long it takes for you to develop a pinball, from original idea development to off the assembly line. Very good question. So, currently we are working on a 12 month cycle. Okay, so it's 12 months from concept to development. Now we do have many games in development to make sure we meet the criteria of our next launch and so forth. So we are currently doing very well with that. When we walked in the door a year ago we were kind of scrambling a little bit but we are now in a better place now i will also say everybody says why are you not released the next game already i will just tell you that i owe it to the american pinball customers who bought the limited edition of legends of ahala to get their game first then i will bring out the next game i'll be very close current production schedules We should be done with it shortly. So those people who are patiently waiting, you will be getting your games probably the next month, two months. And then we'll wait to see what happens.
    17:20
    So, Mr. Sprite? Do you guys have the license for Sonic locked up? Oh, no, I knew it was coming. And I'm going to point out something. If you were at yesterday's homebrew thing, we kind of talked about, it's interesting about how you develop games and you might go into all this development, tell the IP, and you do all this promotional stuff because you're a homebrewer. You run the risk of somebody going, I want that IP. And unfortunately, that's what we did. But I will tell you this, and Ryan, you can jump in here. When we didn't have the IP, I wasn't worried about it Because I wasn't hiring the IP, I was hiring Ryan McQuaid. And I wanted that designer not just because of his game, I wanted him for his creativity. Yeah, I'll actually speak to that a little bit.
    18:15
    So, you know, everyone who's been following that little bit of drama as it comes out on various podcasts and everything, it's all common knowledge now.
    18:27
    I think I've told this story already. But as it happened, like, oh, I just got the call in the morning. It's like, we didn't get the license.
    18:36
    Sorry, that's unfortunate. No, we were looking forward to putting out your game as is, whatever. And then the very next day, I got a surprise meeting with David and the CEOs of American Pinball. And I'm like, oh, great. What could go wrong? and uh but no it actually went the entire opposite direction um they called me in they took an entire half an hour out of their days and if you've ever tried to get even five minutes of david's time that should say something um just to make sure that i knew that i was part of the american pinball family i wasn't going anywhere and no license meant anything to them they said everything happens for a reason. We got you for a reason. We wanted you. We wanted your ideas. We wanted you on our team. And we want you to not be worried that this has any impact on your career. And I actually cried in a business meeting. So there it is. So big thank you to American Pinball, not only for giving me a shot and for being the first one to ever call me. David called me way back before Virtual Expo, before Virtual Expo. He saw my video before it went live and we've been talking ever since then. But also just for making me feel so quickly like part of an actual family. It's amazing. It's completely amazing. So thank you, Ryan. Listen, I don't know how to say this. 2010 2011 i was helping with expo and i was helping with jerry and p-rock and i was also helping with aaron and fast pinball to the point that at expo i wanted to promote and help the homebrew people in 2010 and we continue to help them all the time because i see the future it's got to come from somewhere right and here's the nice thing we went out and hired dennis and dennis says i'm an old man but i need to teach somebody all these you know all this stuff that was good all right i need to teach them all this stuff i know if i can remember it but anyway dennis is excited about that and i i tell you there was one other person we brought on the team that was very excited about doing this and and it pained me the most was barry osler Barry is one of the quickest guns in the business.
    21:07
    And Ryan was in town, and we were at a business breakfast meeting when I got the call. And then about a minute, we got out of breakfast fast, and Steve came into my office, and we had a moment, and then I called Barry's wife, and she gave me the news that we had lost Barry. and it was tough but Barry Osler was considered by most as the quickest gun in the industry and he was and he still is the man developed six games for Deep Root in three years he developed a game for us in six months and I'm happy to say that we will be bringing his game shortly to the market. It won't be the next one, but soon in the market we will see Barry's very last game. And we made sure that the contracts were written right so that Barry's widow will receive the normal royalties that are due to them. So we're taking care of Barry and his wife, and we've also donated some stuff, some prizes and stuff for their charity events that we've had for them. So we give back to the community. I want to continue to do that. and I mean I'm glad to be involved in going to be involved in this game heavily so so uh when Barry and I talked about you know before we were going to end up in American and I had a discussion with him about the game he wanted to develop he's saying things like I trust you with the rules okay that's what we're going to do and all that and then it happened and that that was a that was definitely a frozen moment in time when barry's wife called me and gave her the news and i'm in the office and i'm like you know because i'm expecting him to come up we're gonna kick butt and it's right you know it's gonna be awesome and then i had literally talked to barry the week before and i was saying i'm gonna be in the office next week with ryan would you like to come up and He says, no, I have some treatments that I have to do that, unfortunately, this company that I worked for kind of cut everything out from underneath him. So everything got kind of put on hold for him to get treatments. And then when he got back with us, he could start doing it. Unfortunately, it was a little too late.
    23:28
    And Barry was excited the week before. He was like, listen, I can't come up this week, but let me come up in April. Let me come up in May. Can we get a whitewood? Can we get this done? And, you know, I didn't mean to take this whole seminar down, but listen, Barry was a great guy. Hey, but we're doing it. We're doing his game. That's all. We're going to get it. I'm working on it, too. And Ryan jumped in on it. So this is going to be great for everybody.
    23:57
    Let's ask another question. Do we have another question? I've got a rules-based one. Go ahead. All right. How many shots does it take to complete the race in Hot Wheels? Nice. Ooh. Twelve. Firsthand up there.
    24:13
    Firsthand. Didn't even wait for me to call on him, but it was firsthand. Jordan, get up here. Congratulations, Jordan.
    24:24
    All right. I'll ask a question. I've asked this a bunch of times, but I don't know how many people remember it. What was the original code name for Legends of Valhalla?
    24:35
    Huh? You're right, it was Rampage. Congratulations, come on up. Rampage was on the play field and I thought well what better way to throw all the pinball geeks into you know calling it Rampage because they think oh it the Midway game with Godzilla and all the rest of it Are they supposed to be in these? No, they're in there. Just checking. Yeah. Come.
    25:06
    Thank you. So, okay, we still have some more prizes. Do you guys have anything else? Another question? Yeah, I have one. I'll ask the general version of this and if we need help then I'll get more particular what do you have to do to reach Valhalla in Legends of Valhalla ooh what do you have to do if we don't know I was going to say die in battle no in the game not in the lore die in battle what do you have to do in the game well that's true okay let's get more game specific that. All right. I'm going to be numerical again just so it can be easier. All right. So let's see whose first hand shoots up for this one. Okay. All right. Twelve. And it's not twelve. How many tasks of a Viking do you have to complete to get to Valhalla?
    26:06
    That's correct. That is correct. Come on up. You could look at the game and see that. So you're going that way.
    26:15
    Awesome. All right. Any other questions for American Pimble? Come on, guys. This is your chance. Nobody's asked me the million-dollar question, which I will not answer, by the way. All right.
    26:28
    Yes, sir. So I really enjoyed doing the streaming Hot Wheels competition. Sure. When it came around. Are you all planning to do another kind of session like that with other games? Yes. And did you win anything through that?
    26:42
    Okay, cool. Very good. Another question? Come on up. You guys working on another trivia? I don't think about something. Okay, go ahead. Question. Was it stern? Huh? Was it stern? We don't know. Yes, we heard the podcast. We don't know.
    27:03
    We honestly don't know to this date. I mean, they're teasing it, but we don't know. I will just tell you this, that when I went, And I think this answer would have been answered if Christopher Franchi would have released the podcast that is due already. You still didn't do that? What did I waste my night for? Come on. I don't like the response, but I'm on it. Okay, good. He'll probably say, did he pay me yet? You know, that kind of thing.
    27:32
    All right, so we went to get the license, of course. and as we're getting the license we were told somebody else has jumped in here we went very aggressively after the license all the way up to Japan to the owners of Sega and they came back to us thanked us very much and told us we're giving it to somebody else and I says you can't tell me who they said no but can you at least tell me was it Stern? They said no it was not. So now I don't think it's it I don't think it's Jack at the at JJP because we have our own inside sources at JJP so I know there's a there's a couple other things going on So, yes. Hi, okay. I like to ask the really weird questions if you remember me from the soapbox derby of Expo. Okay, we'll never forget you darling. Yes. So the next weird question I have is, and we can make it American Pinball specific to fit our seminar today. If you were going to lose a finger fixing, repairing a pinball machine, which finger would it be and on what neck? The one I already lost? Is that what we're talking about?
    29:00
    No. Left ring finger, Doctor Who Center. Just chop it right off. Oh, okay. But which American game? What neck? Oh, okay, okay. It's an upcoming game. You can let me know, too. That's fine.
    29:17
    Yeah, the diverter on our new game. Chop my finger right off. Thank you for that insider information. I have a question for you. When is the Pog tournament?
    29:26
    We can get Pogs like this evening, right? Figure it out. Yeah. Find me. I put this. One thing you might not know, and this is Ryan for not doing this, we did have American Pinball Pogs made, and we gave them out at MGC. We were going to do them again for this show, but Ryan, what happened? He was busy or something.
    29:48
    So my title is game designer, by the way. Nobody said anything about pinball. I'm a pog designer. I design pogs. Pog designer. I do have some of your pogs. It's because you won them. I did. Fair and square. Very good. That's right. Cool.
    30:05
    For honor. Let's win them for honor. Anyone but Becker and Jordan. How many American pinball pogs were in the first set, if anybody knows? 12? Hands, please. Rude. Not Jordan.
    30:22
    What did you say? Six. Put your hand. No. One and six. It's a number. Just throw some out. Three. Four. 42. 24. Nope. 22. Nope. What's a pog?
    30:38
    What's a pog? Oh, somebody said eight. There it is. That's not true. It's 10. Oh, Jesus. Gail, Ted, she has ears. Meanwhile, I gave up on you as a group. Right, I'm sitting up here going like this.
    30:58
    Okay, any other questions? Yeah, congratulations for those who are winning, so this is great. Got another question, that's good. Come on down.
    31:13
    It's no problem. Hey, listen, we all get there. You're welcome. What did you get? Which shirt did you get?
    31:21
    Oh. Monkey. You're a monkey. Yes, sir. I haven't played pinball in quite a while. I've been overseas. Sure. The last four years I've been in the Philippines. Okay. I've been using the Oculus Quest and playing Pinball FX2. They haven't released a free version. So how do you see the virtual reality impacting physical pinball machines?
    31:50
    All right, let's give that to Ryan and to Steve. Steve's wincing at that. I can take that one. So I actually spend a lot of time on my VR unit. We play – I love you, dear. We need to play some VR chat soon.
    32:06
    So we play all kinds of stuff, especially like Walkabout Mini Golf and everything. we've played a little bit of virtual pinball but honestly it's just not the same like it's a step up from your average you know just screen with virtual pinball on it then you have a proper V cabinet with all the like the haptic feedbacks and the nudging sensors and everything then if you want to take it a step further the VR really does put you in the room but it's still just not the same it's going to be years in years before VR is ready to replace pinball or even compete with physics. And we can program, as humans, the most sophisticated physics engine in the world, and we will never be able to get it perfect.
    32:55
    You're not on the ground floor, is my suggestion. Yeah. Especially as VR becomes more affordable and more refined. Now that you can get a Quest 2 for, what, $300? Something like that? Yeah, it used to be $3,000 for a crappier headset. So, um... Suggestion, real VR fishing, if you're... Okay, I'll check that out. Thank you. There are definitely some things that, uh, real pinballs do that VR programs cannot quite do yet. Next is, is, it's the randomness and the spin, right? I mean, like right now, I know if I play Funhaus for pinball effects, I know I'll be able to hold the right flipper up and catch the ball coming out of the right, of the right sling, of the right kick out. That's a problem.
    33:39
    Solve that problem. Right. If I do that at a tournament game over there down the hall, it may not happen the same way at 3 p.m. than it happens at 8 p.m. or the next day or in the finals. It's difficult to count for stray pieces of dust in your simulator. Pro pinball back in the day tried to do something like that with a dirtiness setting. They tried to put it on there to do some rent. Yeah, it was in there. it was like a where setting put in some where tried to put in some randomness in the patterns simulating dead bugs in the outlands but it was still patterned so you could still find it and get 11D Grillion on it because you know what you can do and what you can't do but until you can really simulate the proper randomness I don't care what VR you're doing it's not tournament pinball before we get Dave Marston I'm going to ask a question what pinball personality in this room is featured on the back glass of Oktoberfest?
    34:42
    Oh, who? She's right with the hat there. She did point to Todd Tuckey. But no, Todd wasn't, but he will say that he was. Well, you gave me $100.
    34:58
    Moving on. David, you have a question? Come on up. Keychain for the successful answer. Oktoberfest keychain. Can you give us a progress report on the American Dream Contest? Okay, American Dream Contest. Anybody here know what the American Dream Contest is? Okay, this is me making, I guess you'd call it, Design Maker.
    35:18
    Last year at Expo, because of the success of Legends of Valhalla, we did a seminar and we basically said, homebrewers, you have one year to develop and bring to Expo a game. It doesn't have to be completely finished, but it has to be some kind of concept. Be played by the public. We will have it voted on by the public and by the American Pinball team. If we like it, we may take your game, negotiate with you, and put it into production.
    35:48
    So that was a pretty cool thing. We do have entries already. You can put your entries, or if you want to sign up or get into this, go to dreams at AmericanPinball.com. It's very simple. And if you want to come work for American Pinball, send an email to dreams at AmericanPinball.com. You do. You want to work for American Pinball. It comes to me. So I'm the guy that's already, I've already talked to about two or three people here at Pintastic who may be coming back for vacation to come to Pintastic next year because they're already talking about moving to Chicago. Oh, so they get to use air quotes, but I had to stone face it.
    36:32
    Oh, and by the way, don't worry. I'm not entering. No, no. Well, the best thing is I made this announcement that we're going to give it, you know, and he stands up and goes, but, but, but. Mine's ready now. It's right ready now. So it's disqualified. And he's like, but, but, but, but. I'm like, it's disqualified. So as a little bit of a story, he didn't tell me about the American Dream competition. I found out when all of you did, and I was mad. I was really mad. He stood up. His face is red with the mask on. I'm like, David, we've been talking for six months. Are you going to make me win this stupid competition? Because I will.
    37:10
    You know what? He worked really hard. He gave me two more designs right before I hired him. So that was great.
    37:16
    Question So Sonic the Hedgehog I know is like a dream thing for you Yes It by the way Almost got a high score right now Thank you very much Is there any other dream things that you thinking about doing or would really love to do There's a whole bunch of them. I would never dare say another theme out loud ever again. I've learned my damn lesson. Well, good answer because who knows, maybe JJP or Stern might be sitting in the room. Is Gary Stern lurking underneath these desks right now? Well, you know what? Hey, why don't you tell them the Gary Stern story at Expo?
    37:49
    Oh, yeah. That's not really much of a story. Well, no, how he got himself in trouble. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So this is – we're not trashing on them anymore. No, no, no. That's over. We're moving on from that. So Gary Stern actually did play Sonic Spinball at Expo, and I was lucky enough that he actually told me a story while we were playing. It's just one of those moments where you get to meet someone in the industry that you've heard of for ages, and they tell you and only you a story that nobody else knows, and you're like, oh my god, that's so cool. So he told me a story about back when Stern was owned by Sega.
    38:27
    And some of you may be familiar with the Sonic the Hedgehog coin roller redemption game. So it's just one of those little games that you – there's a hundred of them like it where you just put the little token in. It has to land on this little strip, get to the end of it. and if it's right in the center, you get some tickets. If it's not, whatever. So they developed that game, and they're like, oh, we're owned by Sega. Let's make a Sonic the Hedgehog one. That'll be great.
    38:52
    And so they did it. They put it out, and they, you know, hey, look. Look, we put out this new game. It's earning great. And Sega went, what is that?
    39:03
    We own you. You don't get to use our IP. They never asked. They never asked for permission. from Business Daddy.
    39:12
    Like, they never asked. So they got in a ton of trouble, and the production was cut short. I mean, they were pretty much done selling them anyway, so it didn't matter, but they asked for forgiveness and not permission.
    39:25
    So just a little story I got told by Gary Stern, and that was actually a really exciting moment at Expo.
    39:31
    Pretty cool. You have another question? Well, first off, that makes me think about Ms. Pac-Man in Valley Midway when Japan found out Ms. Pac-Man was a thing. But the other thing... Super Otto. We're really good at making Japan mad, huh?
    39:44
    I'm noticing a pattern, that's all. They did... never mind. Go ahead. The other question is... Well, this is the obvious question, really.
    39:54
    Fall. Is that when we're going to be able to see the next game coming out? That's what I've said. Fall is... No, it's okay. Fall is when I'm shooting for, yes.
    40:06
    And I'm just going to tell you, I'm going to do another street launch. Okay? So everybody knows what a street launch is from American Pinball. I did it for Legends of Valhalla. A street launch is locations in the United States that are picked at random under strict NDAs. They get the game two days before the announcement, and then the game shows up and is announced with their locations so that people across the United States can go and play it. so and we locations in new england are just as eligible i will tell you that american pinball and myself this was this was my call i made a lot of calls on this but this is my call we from we gave back to the operator in the community to the point that i made these locations stars and i also didn't charge them the first six months for the game so that they could make money and bring people back in.
    41:12
    It's a big gift, okay? And operations and locations that don't treat gifts correctly, they're not going to be used in the future. But for the most part, all the people that were there who participated got a machine, got six months later, I asked them to pay their bill, which is pretty good and they got all the people rolling in standing in line at jack bar in new york or down in uh pinball bill disney uh what was that pinball pinball gallery in pennsylvania um our buddies down at bang back bar uh entertainium uh there's a couple places out in west coast you know so there's going to be a lot of places when we do a street location but that whole thing is this is when it's going to hit. I'm not going to tease you and say, hey, check out this great video. Come back to me in two weeks. I'll let you know. And I'm not going to show it again to you in two weeks and show you another video and say, guess what, here's a little bit more of it, but wait for a stream in another two weeks. No, I'm just going to say here's the game. Go play it. Enjoy it. If you want it, call us. I'll try to make sure we've got a New England location for that. I won't forget you guys.
    42:31
    We know someone with some connections? Good. Go ahead, Steve. Not to be a potty-pooper, but I have three minutes to get to the other end of the hall. Go right now. Fantastic silver ball rumble. The stream is probably running, and they're probably running for the rest of the day. For a key chain, what position is Steve in? Don't say it. You don't say it. What?
    42:53
    He's in a bind. He's way behind. I'll give you one for that. All right. Steve, go play. Represent American Pinball. Good luck, buddy. Go.
    43:08
    Steve's a great guy. I don't know if you ever played against him. He doesn't need luck. No. You know what? Bringing Steve Bowden on was probably one of the best things that we ever did. Rules maker. Guy who sits there and analyzes and thinks about things. Can actually visualize the gameplay as it's coming about. I mean, it's just been great to have him part of the team. He's working great with the rest of the team for what he's doing. I'm really excited.
    43:36
    He's been working on Legends of Valhalla with Frank and just perfecting that game. Michael Grant did that for about six months before he defected, I'll just say, which is no problem. Michael's a great guy, you know, all the power to him. We brought Steve in, and Steve's, you know, stepped right up, and he's actually going to be stepping up a little bit more. He's going to start doing some programming. for us so to see you know he already has started yes i know so he's working on some stuff so this is this is great you know steve's not only that he's he's i consider him the ambassador for pinball because he's always doing these great fun with bonuses he's going to become the substitute teacher on jack danger stream so when jack can't get to do his thing because he's tied up at stern steve's going to take over as the substitute teacher that night and show people games stern or whatever listen this is this this hobby is too small not to you know recognize all these guys i will just say that american pinball was very happy to have a party on the night of jjp's launch and go and support them and interium and congratulations by the way mark's over here yeah we brought the entire we brought 10 people out from the front office and we had dinner that night we were on the game we we helped them we we just loved to see everything and then we i brought five more people the next day that couldn't make it so listen we're all family we all love pinball we just have to work at it you know so this is a good thing so any other questions how are you doing on time how are you in time david okay oh last minute question um I've got one more just on this rollout here. Yeah. For the next game, is that strictly for arcade-type operations, or would you do a street operator?
    45:33
    I'll do a street operator, but it has to be open to the public. I want the public to know where it is and that they can go play it and they know on that day. Also, there are tons of the – we don't have them here, but they're at the booth. So go over to Maine Home Recreation's booth. You can get a copy of the Pin Game Journal. That was the magazine that tells the entire story on how Legends of Valhalla came to be. It has a story from the designer. It has a story from the mechanical engineer, who is Zofia Ryan, who was the mechanical engineer for Doctor Who and Ryan's finger chopping device. That's why I chose it. Zofia is a pioneer in the industry as one of probably the first woman to break the glass ceilings at Williams to become a mechanical engineer and then now director at American Pinball. So she's taking care of everybody there. Smart woman. Definitely needed people in the industry.
    46:34
    And, again, dreams at American Pinball. If you guys want a job, throw it out there. Do you have a question?
    46:41
    One last question. I was wondering if you could tell us which one of the pinball machines that you have in your collection is your favorite.
    46:50
    He'd have to remember all the games he has first. Well, I have an API. I have a Hot Wheels. I have 150 some odd pins. So, I mean, I don't have that one. But I do love Theater of Magic. That is a really good game.
    47:15
    First game that my wife and I ever bought was Pinbot and The Bride of Pinbot. So that's a nice little marriage couple. They're still there. I own those.
    47:29
    I don't know. I love Ghetto. I mean, listen, every designer. To do the Steve Ritchie speech, I have a favorite game from every designer that's designed pins. And I own one of those. It really is like that. I have a much smaller lineup than David. I think I have five in my living room and a couple strewn across the U.S. at this point.
    47:53
    And a pitching bat. Actually, no, that is a new owner in the back there, Ryan Russell. So I'd say the favorite one that I have in my lineup is Total Nuclear Annihilation.
    48:06
    Scott is a wonderful human being, and he was one of the original inspirations for me kind of being like, this is possible. People have done it before me.
    48:15
    And people at all levels have done it. It's possible. And they took a great homebrew, made a great game, and I am addicted to it, and it's bolted to my floor. And that's sitting right next to a Twilight Zone, which is just another level of complexity. Yeah, it's very complex and also very expensive, if I'm not mistaken. That's right. Three times more than what normal people would pay for it because you had to rebuild it from the ground up.
    48:42
    Any other questions? If not, thank you. Any Oktoberfest owners in the room? Already has a keychain. Anybody else? You can have a keychain. Who else would like a keychain? I've got two more.
    48:56
    You and the young lady in the back who asked the last question. Okay. Thank you, guys. Thank you all so much. Thank you for your support of American Pinball. And we'll be back again next year at Pentastic. David's excited about that. And, you know, also, when Mr. Tucky wakes up over there, make sure you ask for a nice signature. I was going to give a keychain to whoever woke him up, but now it's too late. Yes. But Todd's a great guy, too. Watch TNT. Make sure you check out all of our games in the Vendor Hall, and I believe they're going to be going into the free playroom after the Vendor Hall closes. Correct. Very good. Awesome. Thank you, guys. Thank you all so much.