What can be said about Steve Ritchie that hasn't been said already? Really not much. I think everything's been said about Steve. All good things. Steve's been a dear friend of mine for many years. And, you know, since I'm among friends, I'd probably just tell you this. If I made a mistake starting Jersey Jack Pinball, It probably was not to hire him in the very beginning. But, you know, I fixed the mistake, and I hired him later. And we're very fortunate that he joined our company, and we've been reaping the benefits of that. And that's the result of Steve doing what Steve knows how to do with a great team when you let him have the resources and the time to do it. You get something great. and it takes longer to make something great. You know, we don't sell junk. We really don't. We leave that for other people to do. I don't know who they are. The guilty will admit it and say something like nice, but not really, not really. It's all pinball. It's all good. No, not you. Not you. No, really. I mean, if you think about it, when you put a lot into something, It takes a lot of money and a lot of dedication and the right people and the right portions and time to make something really great. And to make something great, believe it or not, it costs more to make something great. And, you know, our games cost what they cost because they are what they are. Our games are complete when they ship. They're code complete. They're a real game. You don't have to wait months and months. Eventually, with certain things, we do come back and fix it. like we're doing with Guns N' Roses, balancing the score, as Bill explained in his seminar. We don't abandon anything. We make a full-featured game. We include a topper, all the beautiful bling, the radcals that are unique to our company, all the sparkle play field. I don't think – I've been doing this a long time, and I know I'm partial, but I really can't find a more beautiful game than Elton John, either version. and I wouldn't be able to decide which art package I like better. I mean, the topper is amazing on this game, but we have actually had people, they just can't figure out which model they want. The PE is beautiful and the CE is beautiful and we're very fortunate we're selling them very well and we're building them right now and shipping them right now. So, you know, it's really, really cool. we donated some games to Elton John for his AIDS charity and you might have heard that two of these games at auction at the Academy Awards watch party went for $200,000 each applause so for $15,000 it's a bargain laughter Yeah. Can we go buy a Ferrari for $20,000? Can we go buy Apple stock for $8 a share? Probably not. We'd all like to get in that time machine and do what we didn't do, but we can't do it. And why did I do Wizard of Oz? Somebody asked me that today. People still ask me about that. And I said, I did Wizard of Oz, and somebody pulled actually a video of me saying it. I did Wizard of Oz because I wanted the women and young people to play pinball. I thought we could bring technology into pinball that hasn't been brought in there. Imagine pinball machines today with no RGB LEDs or no screen in the backbox. I mean, it's so common, but the first time we had RGB LEDs, it was kind of an amazing thing. to see all of these lights light up. And Wizard of Oz had 139 RGB LEDs. And this game has, what, 1,600? 1,600. So think about it. You know, what I said with Wizard of Oz was we didn't put the kitchen sink in the game. We put the whole plumbing department in there. And that's certainly what we did with this game. And really the DNA of the company is that we always try to outdo ourselves. It started in the beginning when we made Wizard of Oz. We said we're making the greatest pinball machine ever. And then when we did The Hobbit, we said we're making a better pinball machine than Wizard of Oz. Wizard of Oz is the worst pinball machine in the world. But all our games stand next to each other. They're all unique. They all have different innovations, different features. And you can tell they're all brother and sister to each other. People just love the games. And as we do more and more, the audience grows bigger. You know, now we have a lot of games on location. In Replay Magazine, the industry magazine, Toy Story has been the number one game on the chart for the last four months, which is quite an accomplishment because other games have been out a lot longer. And Toy Story is a phenomenal game on location. It earns a lot of money. And just this month, Elton John debuted at number three. So that was the first time on the chart, too. So operators, of which I was one, they always think, well, what does the game cost? You know, they're expensive. But really what you need to think is what does the game make? And Elton John, in a location, we got a screenshot from somebody that owns a tavern. In the first month, it did $2,300. Now, here's what happens, and I can say this as an operator. When something makes a lot of money, you don't tell people about it. You shut your mouth. If the game was broken and didn't make money, the whole world would know about it. I could assure you that. But because we don't hear about this doesn't mean that it's not happening. I know it's happening, and it's great because operators are coming more and more now buying our games. So it's really good. What I'd like to do is I'd like to get some people involved in playing this game. We're going to give some prizes, but first I'm going to open the floor up for a few questions to the panel, if anybody has a question. Yeah. What do you mean? Oh, yeah. Yeah. How about a Guns N' Roses? Uh-huh. Next question. But thank you. Yes, Brian. So I asked you last time what it was like to have a friend who was someone who was working for you, and I asked Mark next to that what it was like to have him. And now that we're on our third time, I want to ask both of you, now that it's been this long how do you feel like you've grown being in each other's company I know he gave you tools I mean other than that Mark what's it been like working with Steve what's it been like passing on your knowledge to Mark I enjoyed being abusive towards him that is true That's a popular opinion. No, Steve has helped refine my current game. If something doesn't shoot right, he tells me right away. He's like, no, you've got to fix this. So he's been continuing to do that. And now that mostly the layout set he been helping with the rules I mean like this isn fun you need to fix this He plays my game pretty much daily now and comes in the office and says, I like this, but I don't like this. So, like, all right, so, like, and we work through it, yeah. Do you feel more confident now that if you design something from scratch, you'd be like, I, without even asking Steve, I could design something I know he would like, than if... I mean, if it goes fast, yeah, he'll love it. My first answer was not true. I learned a lot from Mark. Plus, Mark helped me a lot. I'm a 2D guy. I don't know if you know what that means. I draw with AutoCAD. It's fast. I love that because I can throw together a game quickly. But he's a 3D guy, and he helped me build ramps and a lot of other things. And I don't know. It's been a great relationship, in my opinion. and he might have a different one, but, you know, we've gotten to be good friends and, you know, all the sidons, pretty much. I don't know. It's been great. Glad to hear that. Okay. Yes. What's your favorite part of the Elton John pinball machine, for all of you? What's something that you really enjoy in this game specifically that you haven't seen or that you want to see more of? Who are you asking? All of us. Okay, we'll answer simultaneously. Ready? I like the stars. I'll get to the stars. Really, I bet. All right. I really like the crocodile. But the thing I like about it is it's a game that I don't think I'll ever see the end of, but I feel like I can get close, and that keeps me playing over and over and over. I think that's what I really like about it. I really like the piano display. I think the integration of the piano and the way it draws you in from across the room, I just think it's a really neat feature. I guess I like how the shots feel, and I like the effects. Speaking of that piano display, there's one that just blew my mind. A guy, wasn't it Taylor that worked on the sparkly part? I think so. A new programmer we have there, and I asked him to expand it. And I love when you go up the ramp and that display and the lights sparkle. It's awesome. It feels good. For me, it's really not one thing. It's the whole experience. What I thought of in my mind, I was at an Elton John concert in 2019 with my wife, and I've been to about 20 shows with her since 1976. And there was a big picture on the screen behind him of him playing the piano, and in his eyes, his glasses, was a reflection of the keys. And I took a picture that because it was just, it just hit me. And at that moment I said to myself, this is a pinball machine. Really. Because Elton John, to me and millions of people around the world, he's the soundtrack of people's lives for, you know, many, many, many years. A whole lifetime perhaps. He's an example of excess and he's an example of charity. He's a great humanitarian. He's a good person. And he brought smiles to people's faces. So who better than have Steve Ritchie design the game with the team? Because when I play the game, I just smile. It makes me happy. I make shots that I didn't know I could make, especially with the right flipper. I think that's one of the greatest right flippers on any game. I think I can do anything with that flipper. And the game just goes on and on. And the songs, we picked a lot of songs that were really, maybe I wouldn't have put Levon in there. My wife said, you've got to have Levon in there. I was like, really? It's like I'm going to fall asleep. But it works in the game. And Elton John's people and his husband, who we work with closely every week, really, to approve everything, loved all of that. And when I got my game during the summer, I got a prototype game, a PE game. And after I set it up, the first song I wanted to play was Pinball Wizard. And I remember opening a Captain Fantastic in 1976 that was brand new. And I remember how excited I was to open that game up to get it on location. And when I went to Captain Fantastic and I pushed start and it started playing the music and all the lights came on and everything like that, and I shot the ball, I had like a full circle experience. Like, I never planned on starting a pinball company. That was not something I was going to do. You've got to be out of your mind to do that. That's pretty hard. But I played the game, and I was just blown away. All the orbit shots, everything about the game just made me smile. And I said, this is why Jersey Jack Pinball makes games. It makes games to make people happy. And this game makes people happy. I've had people come up to me, and all of us, not just at this show, but a lot of phone calls, emails. People said, you know, I like Elton John. I really don't love Elton John. I like his music, you know, but they love this game. Once they play the game, right? How many people were just genuinely surprised at how good this game is when you first played it? Yeah, look at that. Just blown away. Yeah, it's a Steve game, but Steve is Steve, and Steve's amazing, but he had an amazing group of people on the team, and everybody contributed something, and it was really good. So a long-winded professorial answer, I don't have one thing that I like about the game. I just love the whole game. I mean, the artwork, when we did Radcals on the PE odd package, and then we did Radcals on the CE odd package, The way they look, we said, you have to have radcals on both games. When you get a license like Elton John, it doesn't come along that often. You really have to pay a lot of respect to it. And even the video, the promo video that we did, the production quality and the content was so great, Elton John shared it on his own web pages and social media. So we didn't just phone it in. If you get a great theme, sometimes maybe you could phone it in and say, well, it'll sell because of the theme. But we don't do that. We really go all in. That's a Gary Stern philosophy, isn't it? Who? You get what you can get. You get what you can get. Arr! So, yeah. Anybody else? Yes, the gentleman in the damn jacket. Do you think AI has any future in the world? Personally, I do. I think AI is going to revolutionize everything. I mean, it's bigger than when the Internet happened. To me, I think so. I think it'll create a lot of jobs. I think it'll change people's lives. I could see it in pinball for a lot of different things. You know, if I go to chat GPT right now and I say to chat GPT, tell me a story about Mike DeDonner from Automated Services. He's a great guy, and he sells pinball machines. It's going to spit out a whole story about Mike DeDonner. So, you know, I don't want to say it this way, but maybe I could, and I'm not looking to eliminate anybody's job, but maybe I tell the computer, hey, these are the rules I want for the game. I want this to happen, this to happen, this to happen, and the other thing to happen. And maybe it gets programmed in five minutes. We all have a different job then. He'll be running the factory again. But I don't know. You know, we don't know the future. You know, what I was saying before about what I said in 2011 about having women and young people come to shows, it came true. Not because I was so smart or such a visionary, but if you make a product that only appeals to one segment of the population you only going to appeal to one segment of the population Us freaks and geeks are the only people at the shows then You don have families you don have children you don have wives you don have women They're not welcome. You know, when you do games that have what I would call inappropriate graphics on them or things like that, you get a different audience. Not that there's anything wrong with it. People have their own opinions, but we have an opinion too. and that's what we want to promote. So, yeah. Somebody next. Anybody? Okay. Good. So we'll move to the next part of the program, which is getting some people to play this game. And Bill is going to actually do a play-by-play and you're going to win a prize. Yeah. You are. You're going to win a slice of pizza. There's about eight pizzas out there. You guys want to open this up so we can show them what they're going to win? In about a half hour I'll show you what you're going to win. Why did I give that to you? You couldn't do it any faster? No, you're right. No frickin' way could you do it any faster. You're right. I'm not arguing with you. Mark, will you help them? Give me a voice. Give me a voice. I'll do the next one. What do you want? Give me a voice. Yeah. What kind of voice? What do you want? Run home to Mother Maggot. Nice. Nice David Hankin. Nice David Hankin. Yeah. You want to give him your piece of pizza? Thank you. Okay, so I'm going to pick. Thank you. Thank you. His pants were wrinkled. I'm going to pick five people to start with, okay, and we're going to see what's going to happen. All right? Who really wants one of these posters? Okay. All right. You? Yes. That gentleman there with the orange and black, that guy. That lady there with the red thing around her neck. You? Yes. How many is that so far? Three. The guy all the way in the back there with his hand up. That guy. You. That guy? Yeah, you. All right. One more. One more. Steve, pick somebody. You, Maggie. All right. That guy in the corner back there. His name is Raphael, I think. Raphael. Is that your name, Raphael? So five of you, contest this lineup over here. Bill? What do you think we're going to do? We're going to make it based on score. We're going to make it based on just the, what are we going to do? Are they going to play one ball? What are you going to do? Set it for one ball. Yeah, you want the portable mic? This is the portable mic. Whatever you want. It's set for one ball. Let's see if you can get to three million points. Try that? All right, who's up first? How do we get six people, by the way? You can't count. You can't count. All right, what song are you going to pick? The first place has to get the game. No, I have another question. I'm still standing. Are you going to tell us what she's doing? Yeah, I'll try. Go to volume, Bill. Yeah! Woo! All right, what are we doing here? Oh, no! Oh. One and a half. 1.5 million. Find out her name and where she's from. Come on, find out. Who are they? All right, who is our first contestant here? Who's your daddy and what does he do? I'm Julia, and I'm from Neenah, Massachusetts. Neenah, Massachusetts. Thanks for playing. All right, who's up? Who do we have here? I'm Chris Cole, and I'm from Talmadge, Ohio. What was the score, by the way, the first score? 1.5 million. Somebody write that down. Do we have a scorekeeper? I got you. You're the scorekeeper. 1.5 million. What was your name? I'm John. Julia. Julia. Welcome to my world. I'm the glove. All right, we're going to try Crocodile Rock here. Super Skill Shot. Good opening. Made the side ramp for Super Skill Shot. Very good. No pressure. There we go. We're collecting stars here. Crocodile lock lit. Shoot for the crocodile. First blow lock. We're up to 1.1 million. Trying for the hurry up. Where's the hurry up shot? Drop targets. Time's running out. Last chance at the drop targets. Ooh, the quotes. Can you imagine that at work all week long? 2.3 million. We're getting close. Can you get the second lock and start multiball? 2.8. Oh, no. Oh, he got it. I think that's a winner, Jack. That's a winner. 3.9 million. What's his name? Where's he from? My name is Fred. I'm from Nova Scotia, Canada. Is this your first time here? Your first time at the show? Yeah. Okay, first time at the show. All right, go ahead, Fred. I'm John. Welcome to my world. Great choice. I think he always says that. Really? I think he's a little biased. He likes all of them. It's kind of like me with my games. I like them all. All right, setting up a skill shot here. It's the drop targets for the skill shot. Collecting stars. Got to spell out Elton John, the light signature stage bowling ball. Oh, yeah. It's the side ramp. Very nice. We're up to one million already. Very sweet. 3.1 million. You got 3 million. Nice. Still playing. Nice. One more lock to start Crocodile Rocks multiball. Nice. 6.9 million. Nice. Nice shirt. I don't know. She's keeping count. All right, cool. I'm sorry, I don't know you. Hello, I'm Brie Reynolds, and I'm from Chicago. Woo! Like the cheese. Like the cheese? Like the cheese. All right, what song are you going to pick? No pressure. Nobody's picked Pinball Wizard. It is Saturday night. Saturday night. Saturday night. That's all right for fighting, but not in here. Go in somebody else's booth. Ask somebody for a discount on the game. That should do it. Drop targets. No. Good shot. There you go. Too bad the guy with one leg isn't dancing. Too bad the guy with one leg isn't dancing. because I'm here. You can dance with me. Oh! Thanks for playing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's not here, is he? $500,000. All right, who do we have next? I'm Eric from Brookline, Massachusetts. All right. Good luck, Eric. Ask him about his topper on his game. Ask him what he did to the topper. That guy chopped the ceiling out to put his topper on his game. He chopped the ceiling out of the couch. That's a commitment. That's a commitment. All right, he's got Crocodile Rock. First lock lit. Oh, no. $700,000. Wait, wait, sorry. One million, I think. One million. One million with phones. One million. One million. And who's our next contestant? My name is Gino from Rhode Island. All right. Good luck. Where's he from? Rhode Island. Rhode Island. All right, cool. Oh, boy. What a scene. Got the lock lit for Crocodile. You're making it work for him. There you go. Oh, kickback saves the ball. Almost. Almost. Oh. Oh. What a great game. 2.4 million. All right. So who's the first person that got the highest score? Fred. Fred. Fred, move to the front of the line, please. Fred, you're okay, Fred. For a first-time person to the place, it's not your first time playing pinball, apparently. No. Not even. Wait. Okay, who's number two? Number two. Crystal with 3.94. Crystal, are you in a league? You're not in a league. Maybe you should think about it. I should think about it. Okay. All right, who's number three? Julia, 1.5. Oh, no. Very cool. Stand by the wall over there. I'm going to take mug shots after. And who's fourth? Gino. Gino, hey, Gino, que se dice? Hey, como estas? And who's fifth? Eric with one million. Eric, I want you to know we're having a carpenter come over your house to fix your ceiling after this show is over, okay? By the way, when you did that, what did your wife say? I'd like Matt to talk about it in front of all these people. But you're still living at that house, right? I was almost staying in the basement. Forgiveness, not permission, huh? Well, good for you. And I guess number six is in number six spot. Breathe me. Okay. All right, so here's what we're going to do. I have five I thought I had five posters but I have six so you get a poster and you get a poster and you get a poster and you get a poster and you get a poster so when we're done with this in a couple minutes just come up front we'll unwrap them, we'll sign them and you can have them again thank you somebody take a picture of all the winners Where's our photojournalist? There you go. How much do I pay you for? I don't even know who you are. What's your name? I'm George. Hi, George. How are you? Hi, Edward. There you go. Okay. Now, we're auctioning off pizzas. The next thing we're going to do, we have some extra pizzas. Now, if you want a pizza, just take it with you. Bring it up to your room. They say, Gabe, those pizzas are good for 60 days, right? Well, I think we had enough fun for the night, right? It's never enough. Well, on behalf of Jersey Jack Pinball, We want to thank everybody for doing what you do, which is just loving pinball, promoting pinball, being positive, not being negative in a world where there's a lot of negativity and a lot of people pulling you down and everything like that. I always say I can't be negative because my blood type is B positive, which it actually is. It's pretty rare. I found that out when I donated blood that my blood type was B positive. I said, how weird is that? Yeah, really. All right, everybody. Well, thank you again. Have a good night. Be safe. God bless. And please take some pizza. Please take some pizza.