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Game Plan: Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

Silverball Chronicles·podcast_episode·1h 26m·analyzed·Mar 24, 2026
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TL;DR

Silverball Chronicles explores Game Plan's 1970s cocktail pinball machines and their failed alcohol/cigarette licensing deals.

Summary

Episode 50 of Silverball Chronicles discusses cocktail pinball machines, small tabletop-sized pinball games produced by Game Plan in the late 1970s. The hosts trace the concept's origins, focusing on a series of licensed theme iterations (Black Velvet, Camel Lights, Foxy Lady, Real, Chuckaluck) that used alcohol and cigarette branding—all of which faced licensing withdrawals. Roger Sharpe's intervention helped redirect the concept away from problematic sponsorships, highlighting both the innovation of compact pinball and the industry's struggle with licensing decisions.

Key Claims

  • Game Plan released cocktail pinball machines (Model 110) in late 1977/early 1978 with swappable playfields to save arcade floor space

    high confidence · David Dennis and Ron F. Winter Hallett discussing Game Plan's concept and historical records

  • Black Velvet was the first cocktail machine theme, based on Black Velvet whiskey, designed by Ed Sabula with art by Jim Sullivan

    high confidence · Dennis and Hallett reviewing Black Velvet flyer and Game Plan documentation

  • Black Velvet licensing deal was terminated due to concerns about marketing alcohol to minors/teenagers in arcades

    medium confidence · Dennis stating 'Black Velvet killed the licensing deal when they started to do kind of their own research' regarding selling to younger players

  • Real cigarettes (a licensed brand) pulled sponsorship after their own test marketing determined the pinball machine was a poor marketing vehicle

    medium confidence · Hallett and Dennis discussing Real's withdrawal; Dennis noting 'a cigarette company is doing marketing and they're like, you know what, this isn't a good idea'

  • Roger Sharpe encountered Game Plan's cocktail pinball concept at a New York State trade show and advised against cigarette/alcohol licensing

    high confidence · Direct quote from Roger Sharpe recounting meeting with Kenny Anderson at Game Plan

  • Cocktail pinball playfield dimensions were approximately 29 inches tall, 38.5 inches long, 28 inches wide, and weighed 170 pounds

    high confidence · Dennis reading Game Plan's Black Velvet flyer specifications

  • Lee Goldvoss was president of Game Plan and had previous experience with government contract technology work before entering pinball

    high confidence · Roger Sharpe's account: 'Lee Goldvoss, who was the president of Game Plan... whose previous company was a technology company of sorts, doing government contract work'

  • Game Plan used the same playfield layout across multiple cocktail machine themes (Black Velvet, Camel Lights, Real, Chuckaluck)

Notable Quotes

  • “But for pinball, it's like the biggest franchise on the planet. And it's great. It's a great thing to get new people into pinball, which is a good thing.”

    Ron F. Winter Hallett @ early in episode — Endorsement of Pokémon's role in growing pinball despite personal indifference to the IP; reflects industry recognition of major franchise value

  • “I was at a New York State trade show and encountered Kenny Anderson who was at Gameplan. He took me over to look at a cocktail pinball machine that is company I've never heard of And it was real cigarettes. And he asked me what I thought. I was like, oh my god, you can't do cigarettes.”

    Roger Sharpe @ mid-episode — Direct account of Sharpe's pivotal intervention in cocktail pinball licensing strategy; shows his role in industry problem-solving

  • “Pinball was still somewhat tenuous in regard to people's acceptance. There's a lot of stigma attached to it. I like the concept of a cocktail table.”

    Roger Sharpe @ mid-episode — Explains Sharpe's nuanced position: acknowledging pinball's regulatory sensitivity while supporting the cocktail machine innovation

  • “The cigarette companies are like, I don't know about this one... a cigarette company is doing marketing and they're like, you know what, this isn't a good idea. Their product literally kills people. It's unbelievable.”

    David Dennis @ late episode — Captures the absurdity of cigarette manufacturers withdrawing from licensing due to marketing concerns—dark humor highlighting industry dysfunction

  • “They just replaced the velvet gimmick... we're not plugging the booze, we're plugging the lady now.”

    David Dennis @ mid-episode — Observes how Foxy Lady repackaged the same playfield and artwork, substituting female imagery for alcohol branding as licensing pivot

  • “So it seems it kind of in a nutshell, it seems like kind of a good idea. Takes up less space. It's always a problem with pinball machines.”

    Ron F. Winter Hallett @ early-mid episode — Acknowledges the genuine market problem cocktail machines addressed (floor space efficiency)

Entities

Silverball ChroniclesorganizationDavid DennispersonRon F. Winter HallettpersonGame PlancompanyRoger SharpepersonEd SabulapersonJim SullivanpersonLee GoldvosspersonKenny AndersonpersonWendell Adamsperson

Signals

  • ?

    historical_signal: Game Plan's cocktail pinball innovation (late 1977-early 1978) addressed arcade floor space constraints with compact, tabletop-sized machines featuring swappable playfields and solid-state boards

    high · Dennis and Hallett discussing Model 110 specifications, playfield dimensions, and Game Plan's stated design rationale

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Multiple consecutive licensing withdrawals across Black Velvet (whiskey), Camel Lights (cigarettes), and Real (cigarettes) due to brand risk concerns and regulatory sensitivity around pinball

    high · Dennis documenting each brand's exit; Roger Sharpe's account of Black Velvet/Real concerns; Real's own marketing testing determining pinball was ineffective

  • ?

    industry_signal: Pinball maintained significant regulatory and public perception challenges in late 1970s; industry figures like Roger Sharpe actively managed brand partnerships to protect format's legitimacy

    high · Roger Sharpe: 'Pinball was still somewhat tenuous in regard to people's acceptance. There's a lot of stigma attached to it.' Sharpe's intervention in cocktail machine licensing

  • ?

    design_innovation: Cocktail pinball machines represented novel compact design solving arcade floor space limitations; featured octagonal or round configuration with pedestal base rather than traditional four-legged cabinet

    high · Dennis and Hallett describing cocktail machine dimensions (29" tall, 38.5" long, 28" wide, 170 lbs) and noting space-saving advantage vs. full-size machines

  • ?

    product_strategy: Game Plan standardized playfield design across multiple themed cocktail machines (Black Velvet, Camel Lights, Foxy Lady, Real, Chuckaluck), varying only artwork and stickers to reduce manufacturing costs during licensing failures

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.267

0:00
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0:30
The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports. Right now, the NBA is heating up, March Madness is here, and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I can follow the teams I care about, get real-time scores, breaking news, and highlights all in one place. Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment. I don't know, it was 70 degrees here Wednesday, the next day it was 35. Yeah, exactly, same thing happened here. And then the next day it snowed. Yeah. So. Yep. We're at that part now. Isn't that great? I'm so glad I live here. Ugh. You strike me as one of those like European speedo kind of guys when you're at the beach. Is that the bikini briefs? Yeah, the banana hammock. No. No? I just have regular trunks. You're just a... Sorry. What do you think of this topic? Is this a good one? Episode 50, this is a big deal. Yeah! This is a, this is like, who would have thought we would have made it this far? Oh hello everyone! I'm David Dennis and this is Silver Ball Chronicles and with me is Ron F. Winter Hallett. What's up fella? Winter sucks. I hate winter. We were just discussing this in our pre-production meeting. Pre-production meeting, yeah Wednesday it was 70 degrees here, the next day it was 35, the next day it snowed. Terrible. Terrible. Right now, as we're recording this, I'm in the middle of a big snowstorm. It's got to be 20 centimeters. I don't know what that is. I don't know what that means, yeah. So I can't change it to your incorrect measurement. You know, last time I was in Canada, I saw a sign that said, slow to 70 children crossing. It was the least I could do. Well done. Very good. What have you been doing? You've been traveling. You've been getting out of this F-winter snow and hanging out on beaches and sunny palm tree laden locations? I was in Florida where I really didn't get much above 60, so that sucked. That was pinball at the beach. Still better than snow though, isn't it now? Yes. Yeah, when I got back from that, it was, I believe, 8 degrees Fahrenheit and my car almost didn't start. That was a wonderful return. Northeast, man. Northeast. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Well, upstate New York might as well be Canada. Really. It might as well be. So then I just got back from INDISC where it was 85 to 90 degrees the whole time. Southern California. They just don't get it. They just don't understand. They had it at some like new place like this health spa, hotel, whatever. It's like 50 pools. It was great. Very fancy. News is you're back here hanging out in just this sloppy, snowy, brown grossness. Yeah, it's 35 degrees here. This is the opening day for Guptal's, the ice cream place I go to. Oh! I don't think they're going to get much business today. Yeah, exactly. I might still go because I'm crazy. I bet you there's lots of people like that. We still do ice cream in my family in the winter. What about anything else exciting in the hobby? Perhaps a little bit of the Pokemon? I'll be playing that tomorrow because my league has it. So that'll be interesting. That's quick already. A premium or a pro? I think premium. A pro. Okay. That's, I mean, I missed that whole Pokemon thing. I don't know. I'm like the perfect kind of age, I think. But I totally, I just was never into anime. Anime kind of creeped me out. Just the, the art style never did it for me. And then I didn't get in on the Game Boy game, even though I was, I was very much a game, I just totally missed on all of it. All of it. Except Penta. You were into that. Yeah. I mean, are you excited about this? Is this right up your alley? Is this something you will be having in the collection? I'm excited for pinball. For me, I am. I don't care. I haven't died. Pokemon means nothing to me. Okay. But for pinball, it's like the biggest franchise on the planet. And it's great. It's a great thing to get new people into pinball, which is a good thing. Yeah, it's smartly they smartly made the layout very They didn't fall into the traditional thing that Stern usually does with a big thing is create it to eat quarters on location like a Steve Ritchie Star Wars or something like that where it just it just kills you. So congratulations to Jack, George Gomez and the team. Well done. Not for me, but well done. Well done. You can join us on Patreon, silverballchronicles.com slash Patreon. That's where you can join us for a month or two, you know, throw us a small pittance and then leave. But I'll tell you the group that we have in our Patreon. Thank you so much. We actually love you very, very much. We might not be the best of friends. Ron might not call you on a daily basis and vent about his job. But we do still very much appreciate all of you on our Silverball Chronicles Patreon. $3 a month gets you through the door. $6 a month will get you the early ad-free access, the Discord chat room, all the perks. You get a sticker after three months. And then if you join us on the $20 a month Elitist Crony, you'll get that t-shirt after three months. Very big deal. Of course, we gotta thank our sponsor, which is Flip N Out Pinball, that's Flip the letter N out pinball, and Zach and Nicole Meny, they are a wonderful team to have aboard with us. And remember, if you complain a whole lot about something, they will stalk you, figure out your shirt size, and send it to you just to rub it in your face. Do you wear a double XL shirt, Ron? I do not. Did you read the thread? I did not reach the thread. For those of our listeners who were in the U.S., it's Flip N Out Pinball, just so you're not confused. Yes. How would you spell it if it was Flip N Out Pinball? That's a good question. O-W-T, out, maybe? Out. Flip N Out Pinball? Yeah. If it were in Canada, it would be Oot N A Boot Pinball. Uh-huh. Yay. Yeah, big time, big time. You want to talk to Zach, you want to email him, ZACH at flip the letter N out pinball dot com. You want to message him evenings and weekends, the most inconvenient time you could possibly imagine. That's when he loves it the most. So please reach out to them. They give us a massive kickback every month. They just send in a pile of cash. We take, we say nothing but positive things. We're here to talk about the best things about him. They send it to you, not me. Nope, they send me this. They back up a whole truck of cash. It's not just because we actually believe that they're pretty good at what they do. We really enjoy them. And we try to keep my hatred for Greg. That's Greg at Flip the Letter N Out Pinball dot com. You hate a lot of people in this hobby. There's, there's, I have a lot of enemies. Greg, Joel, I mean, you just have a lot of enemies. Joel is on a totally different plane. ный

high confidence · Dennis and Hallett comparing playfield images across different theme variations, with Hallett stating 'It's literally the same playfield'

  • Night Moves was displayed as a cocktail pinball machine in the A Division tournament at INDISC

    high confidence · Hallett: 'I can tell you, because I just played one at INDISC. They had one in the A Division... Night Moves'

  • Cocktail pinball machines had no backbox and featured solid-state boards (MPU1) with self-diagnostic test systems

    high confidence · Dennis describing cocktail machine specifications and reviewing Black Velvet flyer technical features

  • “Those guys and backgrounds tend to struggle when it comes to marketing, but, I mean, cigarettes and alcohol, who doesn't like that right?”

    David Dennis @ late episode — Commentary on how technology/engineering backgrounds (Game Plan's founders) lack marketing expertise; ironic reference to problematic licensing choices

    • Black Velvet
    game
    Camel Lightsgame
    Foxy Ladygame
    Realgame
    Chuckaluckgame
    Night Movesgame
    Flip N Out Pinballcompany
    INDISCevent
    Pokémongame
    Andreas Bernardperson
    Patreonorganization

    high · Hallett and Dennis repeatedly confirming identical playfield layouts across themes; discussion of stickers replacing Real cigarette imagery with Chuckaluck branding

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Game Plan founders (Lee Goldvoss and partner Mike) transitioned from government contract technology work to pinball manufacturing; lacked marketing expertise despite engineering background

    high · Dennis referencing Sharpe's account: 'Lee was someone whose previous company was a technology company of sorts, doing government contract work'; commentary on tech backgrounds struggling with marketing

  • ?

    content_signal: Silverball Chronicles Episode 50 marks significant milestone in long-running pinball podcast; hosts acknowledge reaching 50 episodes as notable achievement

    high · Opening exchange: Dennis and Hallett: 'Episode 50, this is a big deal. Yeah! This is like, who would have thought we would have made it this far?'

  • ?

    event_signal: Cocktail pinball machines appearing in competitive tournament settings; INDISC featured Night Moves cocktail pinball in A Division tournament with official rig setup

    high · Hallett: 'I can tell you, because I just played one at INDISC. They had one in the A Division... It was actually in the tournament? In the tournament. They had a rig over it and everything.'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Silverball Chronicles audience actively submits episode topic suggestions; 'Ted' submitted cocktail pinball machine topic months prior; demonstrates engaged listener base driving content

    high · Dennis: 'Ted emailed in, oh, I don't know, a few months ago, the end of last year, and he said... he suggested we also talk about something ridiculous about the cocktail pinball machine'

  • ?

    community_signal: Roger Sharpe's authority and trusted judgment resulted in direct intervention in Game Plan's licensing strategy; demonstrates his elevated status as problem-solver and industry arbiter of appropriate partnerships

    high · Sharpe's account of Game Plan president Lee Goldvoss seeking his advice and accepting his recommendation away from cigarette/alcohol licensing

    • 9:00
    For this episode today, Ted emailed in, oh, I don't know, a few months ago, the end of last year, and he said, hey, love the pinball, I'm sorry, love the bingo podcast, which I think is crazy. But he suggested we also talk about something ridiculous about the cocktail pinball machine, which is going to be our topic today. So thank you so much, Ted, for sending that in and pushing me in the right direction. Also kind of a weird email from Emma, who says that you should check out some player shoots again, same player shoots again, which is in a book by Andreas Bernard, who is a European. It's kind of interesting. It's weaves together a memoir and criticism of a coming-of-age avid pinball player in West Germany in the early 1980s when pinball machines could be found in nearly every bar, pub, and amusement arcade. What are your memories about West Germany, Ron? I've never been there. My memories of West Germany was sitting around on a couch and watching Top Secret with Val Kilmer. I have seen that, yeah. Yes, that had a big West Germany plot point, which when I was in my, you know, when I was like 8 to 10, I had no idea what West, what East and West Germany was, and quite frankly, neither do my kids nowadays. And what about Scott, Scott V? He wants a new show about JJP. Well, we've released a few of them a while back. You would have got that second episode shortly after that. Also Ted, Ron, if you're looking for a super straight project, he's got a back glass that he's looking for. Andreas Bernard, he was at INDISC, which I was just at. I knew that name sounded familiar. Oh, okay. I think I know he is. He's a tall, taller guy. I think he's been there last couple of years. Exactly. Did I thank Doug for joining us on Patreon? I think I did. If you didn't, you just did. I did. I did, yeah. So welcome Doug to our Patreon. I think Doug and I actually have a lot of the same hobbies. He skis though, that's not my thing. But he's a big fan of the Lego, he's a big fan of the F1, he appears to hate all things Joel from Flip N Out Pinball, so... Does he like James Bond? Probably does. I mean, who doesn't? Congratulations to all of our patrons for being blessed in our presence. Wow. The pinball industry does a lot to try to innovate and stimulate sales. Things like the mechanical bell, solid state boards, and that weird wide body pinball machine thing that for some reason won't ever really go away. They added DMD screens and even stereo sound. But one of the strangest pinball machines out there is the cocktail pinball machine, a small, almost round coffee table size working commercial pinball machine. Join us this month as we dive into Game Plan, Smoke Em If You Got Em. Nice title. So what is a cocktail pinball machine, Ron? What is a cocktail pinball machine? Well, I can tell you, because I just played one at INDISC. They had one in the A Division. It was actually in the tournament? In the tournament. They had a rig over it and everything. That's wild. Yes, Night Moves. Night Moves, okay, that's the more famous one. It's the one most people have seen if they've seen a cocktail pinball. It's not Gottlieb, but it is Gottlieb. It's all Gottlieb parts. The designer is someone we'll be talking about later, a very well-known Gottlieb designer, And so it's like an octagon or something, right? Like it's they got this. It's like really weird if you want. Like, what's this? What's the good size comparison to this thing? Like a like a like if you go to a bar and you're hanging out and you're at one of those little like bar tables that you stand at, you don't sit at. It's kind of that size. It's about it's very unusual. These things. It has no back box. I'd say it's around the same size as if you played a cocktail or tabletop Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man or Galaga or something like that. Perfect, perfect. Yeah, those old cocktail machines. You ever seen one of those? The only difference is it doesn't really... like those machines, the screen would flip, so you would sit on either side. Yeah, player on either side. On this one, you really don't sit on either side because the playfield's static. Unless it's like rotation eight or something which is a whole different level of cocktail pinball. Yeah, it's not. It's all, of course, it's just like a pinball machine. It's got two flippers on the bottom. Yep. In lanes, out lanes. It's got pop bumpers and spinners and capture holes and drop targets in some examples. It's, for all intents and purposes, it is a pinball machine, but it is really unusual. It's unusual. And it's, if you're driving right now and you're not able to sort of picture that in your mind's eye, take your cell phone out and Google cocktail pinball machine and that will give you a better visual representation. And it has a plunger, right? You plunge the ball just like you normally would. It has a solid state board set in it. It's got score displays. Previously oneldoc The
    15:12
    Patreons and people who've shot us an email or whatever have been like, what? Like, what's the story? I've seen a Night Moves or I've heard of people talk about a cocktail or I've seen a picture of one on the Pinside Forum somewhere. This was an idea released by a company called Game Plan. In late 77, early 78, they had come up with this idea of a cocktail machine. It would, you know, they dubbed it in-house their model 110. It had the MPU1 board and they came up with this idea of having this smaller pinball machine that with swappable playfields. This is something that has come up a billion times, swappable playfields. Drive you crazy. But the idea was, arcade and pinball machines took up a lot of space. And pinball machines specifically took up like double the amount of space that an arcade machine would take up. So you want to make it smaller so it fits more of them on the square footage of a location. It doesn't, it can fill in gaps in weird places where you can't fit a full pinball machine. But if you've got swappable playfields, you can take the playfield out and put it back in. The playfields half as large as a regular pinball machine that makes it that much easier to swap out. So it seems it kind of in a nutshell, it seems like kind of a good idea. Takes up less space. It's always a problem with pinball machines. Makes a lot of money. Yeah. Now I have to correct myself. Be stress-free, Snapdragon Neverる Opinion and
    17:19
    Justine Munro. Game plan designed in parallel about three or four or five different pinball machines. So when we talk about these in order here, they might not actually be in that specific order that they were released. They were all kind of released around the same time and they went in and out of production in a relatively short period of time. So please just just chill out here. Okay, let's go through the first one. So Black Velvet was the first cocktail machine and this is of course the theme based on the 1989 blues rock song by Alanna Miles. No. No? No, that didn't exist yet. Oh. So what was Black Velvet? It's booze isn't it? Yes! It's the licensed, it is a licensed theme so they're not falling down to all of the terrible deaths that all pinball manufacturers and new pinball manufacturers in 20 frickin 26 still struggle with it is a licensed theme and is the canadian rye or whiskey brand under the same name so i did some searching around black velvet it is still uh uh uh an alcohol that is done it's brewed in a bunch of different places some in canada some in the states but it's like a rye whiskey I don't drink rye. The reason for that is I forget how to talk if I have too much rye, and that has led me into some seriously terrible situations. There is an unknown amount of units, but it's designed by a fellow whose name we've heard a few times called Ed Sabula. Oh yeah. And the art by Jim Sullivan. He is anacakunn Gray! I'm going to give you a little bit more in the podcast here, but he was kind of brought in by the leadership of Game Plan to kind of get the show going here. Let's start building these things. Let's get these great concept ideas such as the black velvet pinball machine. So let's take a look at the flyer here. What do you think of this lady's suit? It is 70s as hell. It is screaming 70s. You could not get more 70s. It's green with the huge collars. The collar on the outside. The guy has the sideburns going. It says, this is the 70s, I think. It is pretty green. We're just missing the disco and the cocaine and boom, it would be 70s. Exactly. And if you thought you'd seen it all, remember you haven't seen anything yet. Yep, that's the tagline on the flyer. We love flyers here. It's this and these are these are pretty good ones because they're a bit weird. I want to see the what are the great features. You got to zoom in there so I can see. I don't even know if I can zoom in. Oh, no. There we go. You can. There we go. Game plans for player sit down. Pinball game is one in a family of model 110 pinball games. That is so means nothing to the average person. That would be nothing to anyone. Industry proven mechanical components, i.e. we're using actual pinball parts. Ooh, the Z80 microprocessor system using the... Z80. Okay, yes. For Canadian friends, it's Z80. For anyone else, Z80 microprocessor system using the latest design techniques and top quality components. Because remember, this is 1978. Solid state pinball is a new thing. It has a self-diagnostic test system. Ooh, it has a watchdog fail-safe system. That's weird. Watchdog I usually see as one word, and failsafe I usually see as one word. Is that like the tilt? Would that be the tilt? Uh, oh no, watchdog failsafe I would assume like low power situation reboots itself or something. That's what I think of when I think of a watchdog. Integrated accounting system, hence audits. Adjustable for three or five balls. Adjustable to all coin combinations, like every one of them that's possible. Like even a Swiss franc? Yeah, add a ball, free play or novelty. And it's designed by industry professionals. Yes, better than designed by industry amateurs. What, advertising residuals available? So you could get money from Black Velvet, I assume? Yeah, so I think the idea is that we're promoting this brand of Black Velvet. You put it in your bar. We be right back This pinball machine and you could just live it up Oh they have the dimensions here So if you wonder so it is 29 inches tall 38 and a half inches long 28 inches wide and it weighs only 170 pounds Yeah, which compared to a regular pinball machine. Machine, which I wonder, back then, well, no, like, like it'd be 250. But it's probably even less than that back then. It was probably low 200s. So actually this isn't that much lighter than a full game. Still quite heavy. Because it still needs a cabinet, but yeah. So it's got a pedestal basically, right? Like it's got a, instead of having four legs, it has a wooden pedestal, which has that awesome wood paneling, right, with that real fake wood veneer. Yeah, and this particular game looks like it is a symmetrical game. So symmetrical left and right are exactly the same. So, describe it here. Like, let's see, you plunge, goes up to the top and it bounces back and forth over that top lanes. It looks like a bally top, honestly. It has the saucer in the middle, then lanes on either side. It's got orbit spinners. This looks very bally-like. Very bally-like. It's got two capture holds on the left and right just below the spinners, two pop bumpers in the middle. Roulette wheel in the center. So yeah, under the playfield, there's a piece of glass or a piece of acrylic. And then under that, it's almost like it looks like a wheel of fortune kind of wheel that spins, I guess, to give you bonuses or points or something.
    23:53
    And then an in lane and an out lane and two flippers at the bottom. So it looks, let's say, basic, right? Very basic. We are watching That's their tagline. Black velvet. Feels great in a crowd. What a, okay, so is alcohol a really good thing for pinball, do you think? Uh, when you're trying to get away from that, probably not. So, year, like years before this, pinball was banned, right, in a lot of places For being too close to the mafia and cash money and money laundering and, you know, we've got Roger Sharp and his shot that saved pinball thing in New York City. So we're now cozying up to alcohol. Eh, not really the best idea, but how do we do better than alcohol instead of alcohol or liquor or hard liquor specifically? Oh, there's only one thing you can do better than that. Yeah, let's get out of the alcohol game, let's get into something a little bit better. Around the same time, 1978, we have this theme.
    25:36
    Camel Lights. What do you think that's about? Camel Lights. Cigarettes. Camel Light Cigarettes. So instead of alcohol, we'll go to cigarettes. This is the same design, same Ed Sabula on this, and it's got Paul Laerelli is the thing. So What I discovered in my research was that Black Velvet killed the licensing deal when they started to do kind of their own research. And they were becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of selling a pinball machine for, lack of a better term, younger, teenager, kids in arcades. Get colonized or prefer vegetables. That food you can't eat about a day. Same-day pain so 97 higher. Totally. You can't go to school withoutавA画, a meal you can't eat about a day. The most popular moments are in the case of intention. There's Hayes Ka as aPlay entregaWooLetts. I would've died in another city for anything, you know. Levi's Five-Digger. Randy Dub, pals4pro.com We'll ve- him wank Ron pies bryanc inspirat al blP Oh yes, for satisfaction in a low tar, Camel Lights the Way. Oh wait a minute, for satisfaction, okay, I'm not reading that right. For satisfaction in a low tar, Camel Lights the Way. Oh, Camel Lights the Way! I get it. Ahhhhhhh. So that was the thing back then, right? Was you, your cigarettes had low tar. Yeah. Because we're into the 70s, moving into the 80s, where people all of a sudden realized that Would test our poll to see what we think our October finish list that we are stove to get to tomorrow and itlanettevous.com questions ask any questions or ask any Rate the price live day to which are not determined literally we're sharing the down low às what level ofoster or sleepy taste act so have a good one well thoroughly disesque foot up to all want to see this video can check I didn't see that in an arcade. So, part of the problem was, when Black Velvet pulled out and they noticed, oh my god, we're surrounded by cigarettes and whatever, they had all these spare parts left over. So that's why they decided to make Foxy Lady. Wait a minute, is it the same playfield again? So let's... So Foxy Lady, 1978, Ed Cebula and Wendell Adams on this one. Oh, that would mean it's got to be a different playfield, right? Right? So we look at the playfield here. No, it isn't. It's the same. How is there different credits? It's literally the same playfield. So far. Although, different style. And it's fucking taking forever to load.
    28:59
    Yeah, IPDB has been very, very, very pokey. There we go. Foxy Lady, your name is the game. What do you, what strikes you about this art package? It's the same as Black Velvet. It's literally the same thing. She still has a giant alcohol bottle next to her. It's still the same lady. It's still the same colors. They've just replaced the velvet gimmick. Yeah, we're not plugging the booze, we're plugging the lady now. Mark The Wally Winka Show, Knapp Arcade, Bally Williams, Straight Down the Middle, Bally Williams,
    30:03
    You can have this in your doctor's office. You can have it in a kid's bedroom, in the bar. Well, this has a new feature, but the features are all the same ones that have for black velvet, like the exact same thing. It does have interchangeable playfields on locations within 10 minutes. So, look at, there's two things I want to show you on this flyer. The first one is on here on the left. I don't care about that one. The dimensions. Yeah, I was going to get to that one next. Absolutely, my favorite dip is Swiss Anch seasoning, British Available for stand-up play. Yeah, so I guess they kind of noticed somewhere around this time somebody had said something like, it's kind of uncomfortable sitting down. Why don't we stand it up? So then it's got kind of more of a, more of a cocktail bar theme standing up, right? It's about waist height. Yeah, it's basically the same height an actual, regular pinball machine would be. So they just made the base taller. It's funny, all the pictures of the woman on the flyer, none of them is she actually playing the game. No, she's just like observing in the area. Observing. Foxy Lady. So the problem was they had all these parts left over and all this stuff kind of done. Yeah, we got booze, we got cigarettes, what else can we do? So we got a problem, right? We got a problem with all of these bits and pieces. So we throw it together in Foxy Lady. We got all these coils, we got all this stuff printed, We've got to get this stuff out the door. That's what we do. But that's when, well, you know what? We need to bring in some other theme to reinvigorate it, to get it going again. So we come in with what? Oh my God. Okay, real. I have no idea what this is. Is this a Canadian cigarette? I don't know. Or a European cigarette? I've never heard of this cigarette. This is another cigarette company. Yes, I can't, is it, oh, the strong tasting low tar.
    32:25
    Yes, it only has, written on the playfield, only nine milligrams of tar. And it's got two packs of cigarettes on the side. This art actually is much cooler, because it's like this. No. No? No, it looks like ass. I like that it has, the Surgeon General's warning is on the playfield. On the top of the playfield.
    32:46
    Cigarette smoking is dangerous. To your mouth. To your health, it says. To your health? Yes, it says your health. It's blurry. Yeah, I guarantee you. I've read lots of the warnings. It says health. Did the other one have that? Did the cameras one have that? I don't remember seeing it. Was it hidden under things? We're looking at a blank playfield. That's why it's... And by the way, it looks like it's the exact same layout again. It is exactly the same layout. Wow, they're going for like a record. Like what's that Gottlieb that has like seven different games That's the same playfield. They're going for that record here. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Unknown amount of units. Ed Sabula on that one. We got booze. We got two different cigarettes. This is great. I don't think this is good for them. So what about this one then? So then they had a problem with the real cigarettes. Okay, so they went to Tarrington or Moore or... So they went to Chuckaluck. So they decided, okay, this is the same problem. So they're all released at the same time. The alcohol company is like, wait a second, this is not, this is a terrible idea. They pull out. Then they get a couple of cigarette companies kind of at the same time. They're in parallel. The cigarette companies are like, I don't know about this one. So what happens with all these playfields and stuff? Well, we go with Chuckaluck. So what's the difference with Chuckaluck here? So real is like, we are not doing this pinball machine thing, because this is a dumb idea. So they pull their sponsorships, so what they did was they printed off a bunch of stickers, and they put those stickers over the cigarettes on the playfield. Now the picture on IPDB shows a pack of cigarettes on the right, and that's because I think the person has removed the stickers that were originally on there To reveal the original real artwork underneath. Well, the stickers just say, Chuckaluck. So it's a, it's still cigarettes, but it's a fake cigarette company. It's like, what is going on here? Here's the other thing. Look at the playfield. It has rollovers. Did the original black velvet have rollovers? It's a good question. Because if it didn't, then maybe that was that extra design credit. Maybe that was the guy that said, hey, put rollovers on this thing. Yeah, what a weird situation to be here. Because these, they got the rollovers like Stern had, like the ones on Starz, the orange rollovers. So the cigarette company did their own test marketing, this real cigarettes, and they discovered this was a poor idea. You got a bad, you got a really bad idea if a cigarette company is doing marketing and they're like, you know what, this isn't a good idea. Their product literally kills people. It's unbelievable. So we gotta pivot and we gotta pivot hard or this is not gonna work because we've already thrown two brands out. The other brand is probably on its way out as well. So who do you call in with licensing to save you? The one, the only, Roger Sharpe. What does Roger Sharpe say? He says, I was at a New York State trade show and encountered Kenny Anderson who was at Gameplan. He took me over to look at a cocktail pinball machine that is company I've never heard of And it was real cigarettes. And he asked me what I thought. I was like, oh my god, you can't do cigarettes. Pinball was still somewhat tenuous in regard to people's acceptance. There's a lot of stigma attached to it. I like the concept of a cocktail table. So he liked the cocktail table concept but not putting cigarettes on it. Could you imagine where you're like, hey Roger Sharp, come take a look at this. And he's like, oh my god! You can't do cigarettes! But I like the idea of the cocktail. That's kind of neat. They should have done one with the booze and the cigarettes both on there. That would have been incredible. So what do you think went through Roger's head? This is the guy who legalized pinball in New York City by doing one thing one time that nobody has ever heard about in the pinball hobby. And they definitely didn't make a movie about it. Roger said, Later that night, having dinner with Ken and Lee Goldvoss, who was the president of Game Plan. Lee was someone whose previous company was a technology company of sorts, doing government contract work. Lee and his partner Mike saw an opportunity to come into the pinball business. They saw the opportunity because of all the video games coming out in different cabinet configurations. They were also doing black velvet based on alcohol. Those are two things that you can't do. Cigarettes and alcohol. So this guy made a bunch of money in technology doing government contracts with boards. How do we make more boards? How do we expand? Will we expand into this crazy video game hype? And we do that really quickly. But technology people, as you know, engineering type folk, not exactly marketers. And we can still see that in pinball today, that those people that have tech companies Those guys and backgrounds tend to struggle when it comes to marketing, but, I mean, cigarettes and alcohol, who doesn't like that right? I wonder if you can make a weed pinball now, how that would go down. The trailer park boys, that would totally have marijuana in it, so noticing the error in their ways, after dinner with Roger Sharpe, we have to move to a family fun theme, and And that's when they come up with their new title, Family Fun. It's so boring. Oh, God. It kind of hits the nail on the head, doesn't it? We're not doing cigarettes and liquor anymore. It's all about family fun. Please tell me it's a different play field. So let's take a look here at the flyer. Oh, it's different. It's different. Yeah. Oh, my God. It is so family fun. Super bright artwork. Yeah. You've got a lady here who looks literally insane that she's having so much fun on the The Playfields. Yeah. And then the father just below her in a nice tie, just kind of his bust. And then you've got a crazy like kid in bell bottoms just like, yay! And there's kitties. Look at the kitty cats. Oh, there's cats. There's so much. So, so we have gone from one side of the spectrum all the way to the other side of the spectrum with crazy family fun. Look at these plastics. Look at all the family fun on the plastics here. We're over here with the family on the canoe on a river. There's somebody biking. They're out jogging. Or is it yogging with a silent J? Anyway, over here you've got this guy golfing. Family fun. What better way to be having family fun than the father is golfing away from his family for four hours, goes to the bar drinking. Sounds good to me. Somebody's up here skiing. Skiing or shee. But it's all silhouettes. Yep. I like the mechs. The mechs are interesting. See, that's what I gravitate to. We got proven spinner targets. The spinner looks plastic. It kind of looks plastic, but I don't think it is. I think it's actually a regular spinner. What makes it proven? I don't know. They probably used it from some other manufacturer. Drop targets are interesting because they look like stand-ups, but you hit them and they go down. They don't look like your typical drop target. That's interesting. It's very unusual. Well, let's see. How are they going to plug this thing? We're looking at the flyer here. This says explosive action and electronic sounds. It's the playfield that fits all locations. Family fun. When I look at this, I just say explosive action. It is like unbelievable. This one is worth the look up because it looks so ridiculous. Golf is explosive action. It's just, but the best part is the dad who's got like the kind of the dad haircut from the 70s and he's wearing a tie and like the, you can see it's like his neck and it's like he's wearing a suit. It looks more like the 50s to me, honestly. Yeah, it's like 50s dad, exactly. Yeah, he doesn't have the long sideburns. What's up with that? At least the kid's got the bell-bottom pants. He's with it. It's so weird. Let's see, the playfield, it's okay, the options, it's all the same as the previous game, like literally copy and paste, including the extender base available. So you can still get the extender base. I wonder if it's just the bottom part of the base, like not a whole separate base, just like a separate part. Yeah, you'd have to buy it separately. This is Ed Cebula, Wendell McAdams on this, and those are two names that we'll know from a couple of things. Now I don't want to get into them just yet because there's a little more to that later on in the episode here. But Ed Sabula has been around in the industry forever and Weldon McAdams was at Stern Electronics in its early days and then before them whoever they were and I'll get to that in a minute before Stern Electronics. The Chicago coin. Yes. That's right. So what about Star Trip? This is the one that I have played. I have played in Star Trip. So their next game is Star Trip. Let's see if it's a different playfield. Look at the flyer here. Oh my. So there's like a 70s man with a thick beard and a brown leisure suit sitting down playing. It's a young blonde, Michael McDonald. He's playing. Some old woman is watching him play. Michael McDonald. Yeah. And then there's like the dad, the guy with a comb over with a beer watching the grandmother. Oh yeah, that is a comb over, isn't it? The grandmother hanging out here. She's up really close because she's old and needs to get close. And then there's like a weird like couple. They look like swingers. They're dancing kind of behind the old lady. And then there's like a lady. A Playboy bunny. All right. Yeah, it's like a cocktail waitress kind of lady with fishnets and heels and like a cocktail and a wine and a couple of glasses of wine. This is – what is going on here? They look like they took graphics and just copy and pasted them from some other sources. It looks like they're all kind of cut out and just sort of stuck on there. But it's Star Trip. Why isn't it like a space theme? So what about the playfield? We got to see it. Do you think it's going to be different or you think it's going to be the same? Chuggalug, chuggalug, chuggalug. Yeah, we're on IPDB folks. So sorry if this is the day. Really, really been slow lately. It looks the same. This is family fun. It's exactly the same. But it's got rocket ships on it. And then like a lady who's in like a cleavage dress, but looks like she's in space. Like she's an air traffic controller. So why, why doesn't this, why isn't this on the other side of the flyer? Like, why is it just like weird people just looking at it? There's multiple scoring features, you know. Space age two way sound. I have no idea what that means. Oh, what does that mean? Stereo? This one has explosive action, which I can understand because it's rocket ships. But also has intergalactic excitement. I don't know what that means, but that sounds pretty awesome. I know people don't know spacing. Intergalactic, I've only seen it as one word, so I don't know how it became two words. Or at least hyphenated. All the other options are the same. Except it's added this one. Look at this one. Oh, well, no, that was in one of the previous ones, the interchangeable playfields, yep, on location within 10 minutes, yeah. And again the expander base is available Um I have played this one It kind of fun It kind of fun I have not played any of these You a step ahead of me Yes this one is at my local bar in random Fredericton New Brunswick
    44:38
    It's out for repair at the moment. Oh. But it has the extender base and this has been in our league. You just kind of want to shoot the spinner, I guess. That's kind of... Is it next to the bowling ball factory? Anyone get that Brunswick? You know, Come on, come on.
    44:54
    Anyway, I mean, it's fine. It's fine. It's kind of neat. It's fine that every playfield has multiple themes that we can use with it. It was about this time. So now we're kind of in the summer of 79. We've kind of been like about a year or so into kind of frigging around with these themes and what's going on and is there actually a business in here. Game Plan kind of realized that if they want to sell pinball machines that like arcades and people actually wanted, not just the cocktails, they'd have to branch out into the more conventional pinball machine. And to do that, you'd have to staff up. So, John Trudeau, the worst person in pinball, joined Game Plan in 1979 as a factory game tester and quality control person, one of the many hires during this period as they started to staff up. John Trudeau says, it was to change the direction of my life. I was an offset pressman, who is a person who sets up, maintains, and maintains industrial printing machines, like changing ink plates. I was doing okay, making a good dollar, but it wasn't much fun, and I decided to do something else. I had some electronics training when I was in the Air Force, and I thought I'd just try something for a little while. I got hired as a game tester, and I would take the games that came off the line, supposedly finished, and make them work right. Yee! A tester! Yeah, he's just the guy who kind of flips the pins at the end of the line, realizes that something's not working, and then has got to screw something together and throw it in the box. So Ed Cibula, he basically became a mentor of John Trudeau, recognizing that they needed some new blood in the design team and the construction groups if this is going to work long term. They also brought in another fella, somebody who you might recognize on a part-time basis, friggin' Roger Sharpe. Again. God, this guy just won't go away. Here's a game that I actually have played many, many times. This is Sharpshooter, the one pin that everybody knows about game plan. It's the old western theme. And it's the one with Roger Sharp on it. Exactly. 4,200 units. So we went from not knowing any of the sales numbers to like 4,000 units. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if that's their biggest seller. Roger Sharp, Joe Joes Jr. and Ed Sabula on that design. Good old Joe Joes. If you remember him from our Stern episode, our Stern Electronics episode. All the way back. Episode 2. Yeah. Episode 2. We had to do that one specifically so you could continue to pump the value of Stern Electronics games. Art by George Mulleton and mechanics by Joe Joos Jr. We've known, if you go back to our Roger Sharp episode, I don't know, what was it, 10 episodes ago? Roger Sharpe was, everybody knew Roger as writing his book on pinball and doing the shot to save pinball and all that stuff. But in that previous episode, you'll also remember that we said that Roger was kind of goofing around working with his friend Steve Epstein at Williams on a game called Las Vegas. And he wasn't really having as much fun working in game design as he kind of expected. And what game did Las Vegas become? That became Baracora. Correct. Very good. Everybody's second favorite fish-themed game. Oh, yeah. Next to fish tails. I agree. Let's see. Roger Sharpe says, At Williams, you had a design staff. I mean, we had Steve Kornick, who was still very active, Steve Ritchie, and you have a number of different people who are helping out game designs. Very awesome. Here I am, this guy on the outside, in Las Vegas, become somebody's stepchild, taking nothing away. He's a dear friend. Steve Ritchie called the game Los Bogus, so he kind of got shunted into the corner. Nobody, nobody, you got your own design team. What are you bringing in this random guy from the outside to dive inside the game? That sounds like a very Steve Ritchie thing, too. Steve Ritchie, very competitive. He's going to crap all over your game if it's good or not. He crapped over his own game. You know what the high speed was called within Williams? High cost. Yes. So that's the thing, right? Is like, I'm doing my own thing over here. What do you want? What do you want me to babysit Roger Sharp for in his Las Bogas game? So it kind of gets shoved into the corner. Now at Game Plan, it was a totally different experience because Roger could actually guide the game and be more involved because they needed the staff. Roger says that I was the only game in town for Game Plan, Las Vegas. This game is something else, okay? Sharpshooter. So what was so special about Sharpshooter? Why did this game take off for some reason? Uh, that's a good question. People like drop targets? Yeah, it's got like a weird row of drop targets on the left side. What is there, like eight? Seven? Seven drop targets? Big drop target bank. Yeah. It also has an orbit spinner, like come on. Yep, gotta love orbit spinners. It does not have an Italian bottom. So what do I mean by Italian bottom? It doesn't have a standard two in lanes, two out lanes bottom. It has the whole right side is just two pop bumpers like right in your face. Which is so what's the last game that had a pop bumper down there? Was it Rick and Morty? Uh yeah. Rick and Morty had one. Godzilla has one technically. Godzilla has one. But there's two all the way down. So instead of a right sling, it's got two huge pop bumpers. Super deadly, right? But you gotta shoot that spinner in sharpshooter to get the real big points, right? Like you like the spinner, I think, with the drops. But then when you shoot into the drop targets on the left, it's gonna bounce back into the pop bumpers on the right. So it's kind of unique. It's kind of a cool game. I really think it's unique. It's very different than what Williams was doing, right? Because Steve Ritchie was kind of figuring out this kind of flow era thing, right? He was shot dynamics, that kind of stuff. The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports. Right now, the NBA is heating up, March Madness is here, and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I can follow the teams I care about, get real-time scores, breaking news, and highlights all in one place. Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment. It also had amazing art, right? Well, it has the entire staff of game plan on it, including Roger Sharp himself, I think Roger's wife, someone else's wife, someone else who worked there. It's like all employees. It was wonderful. It's a great, it's a great game. It's very different than these cocktail ideas. And what's more popular in this era than friggin cowboy games? Well the next, the next theme, another good one, you don't have to pay any licensing. Coney Island. Have you been to Coney Island? I have not. This is from December of 79. This sells 3,000 units and is designed by Ed Sabula. Some pinball manufacturers today would kill to make 3,000 units in like a six-month period. The theme, for those who don't know about Coney Island, that is a neighborhood and entertainment district in the southwestern section of New York City. It's kind of like in Brooklyn somewhere. It's known for Ferris wheels, funnel cakes, it's a tourist trap, and it has a couple of I like those old crappy wooden roller coasters that people love so much to almost die on. Oh, crappy. Come on. What do you think of this? What, the artwork? Very colorful, I guess. Yeah, it's very colorful. It's very flashy. Lady in a bikini. Nothing says Coney Island like a lady in a bikini. More people that probably were employees, I'm assuming, around there. Unique sound oriented to Coney Island gameplay. One million light for high score to date. Full memory recall, 1-4 player holdover. I would hope it does that. The marketing is significantly different. You can see pictures of the pin up close. It's much more colorful. Whoever staffed up in this department has significantly kind of changed the design, layout, and look, wouldn't you say? It also has the Z80 microprocessor. They really, they want to make sure you know it has the Z80. The Z80 microprocessor. That's right, you guys say processor, that's another thing. You say process. Yes, process. Process. P-R-O, pro. Mm-hmm. Look at this drop target bank here. Instead of on the left side, it's on the right side. But it's the exact same drop target bank, isn't it, than Sharpshooter? But it's pointed in the other direction. Why create another mech? This is an Italian bottom. Just use it. It's an Italian bottom, so it's the same thing without the pop bumpers of Sharpshooter. CG Yeticellence & Marketing Communications ACTR len Audition Lizards. Okay, it sells 1,400 units. We're in June of 1980. Yeah, you notice we're going down with each successive game with the production numbers. Blizzard by Gameplan. It has thundering flipper sounds. That's right. It makes a sound every time you flip. Lizard lights and hisses during game over attract mode. Yep. The lizard breathes faster the longer the ball's kept in play. The typical background sound thing. So we're kind of stealing that Steve Ritchie... Oh, there's no stealing. Come on. The flash, right? Where you're building and building. Yes, the increasing intensity, yes. But everyone does that now. They just invented it. So it's got like a lizard whose tongue is grabbing some sort of Amazonia lady's leg, pulling her in there somehow. Very cool. But this has unique sounds because... Tastefully done. This introduces Game Plan's new microprocessor sound system. Oh! Which is the background sound and things like that. Italian bottoms, so they didn't get anything crazy. It's got two sets of drop targets. Yep. It's good. It is. It looks fine. It looks fine. Of all the kind of the games in that early 80s, this looks perfectly fine. This was in the Papa Warehouse. That's where I played it.
    56:01
    I'm trying to remember. Theirs had like a cool little lighting effect in the back box. I don't see anything being mentioned in the flyer about that, so I don't know if that was This is the one that I want to play. It sells a thousand units from 1980, designed by Al Gregg is the designer. We're talking about Supernova. Space God looking guy themed thing. It's a winged dude in space, yes. Another encounter of the most profitable kind. Ah, close encounters. Oh God. Okay, what cool new features does this have? Your leader has landed. Out of sight sound. Sync audio animation. No idea what that means. Does that mean when I hit a pop-up or it makes the sound at the exact same time? Maybe the background lights on the... Or maybe when your bonus countdown, it's synced with the sound effects. Super 5000 jet bumper. Whoa, 5,000 points for that jet pumper. Two-way bonus, super sensitive flippers. What does that mean? They're super sensitive. A huge 50,000 score target. Roll over feature, bonus, multiplier and more. And you know how much this game weighs? 250 pounds. So it's- Not the supernova god. No. So that's basically, so the full size is like 80 pounds more than a cocktail. It's got these drop targets on the left side, but there looks like a lot of wasted space up there. That's because there's a spinning reel underneath that plastic. It's a roulette wheel. Another roulette wheel. Which I think they probably found in all of those other parts from those other... From Black Velvet. It's the Black Velvet roulette wheel. It's made a comeback. It is. So they've got all these parts. They might as well throw it into something here. It's up there behind those stand-up targets. It's kind of fun. It's got an orbit spinner. I think it's neat. It's got a plastic that covers most of the roulette wheel, though. It's kind of weird. It's, yeah, it's... Like, you have a whole wheel, but you show, what is that, maybe a third of it? Maybe? Yeah, it's like a space dish. It says, Space Lab Lights Target. But the best thing... Satellite. Look at the 50,000 value. What's the planet? Uranus. I love it. I love it. Well done. Well done game plan. If I had a space game, I would have to have Uranus in there somewhere. Has to be. That's right. That's right. But this is when the 1980s recession really starts to kick off. Video games are going to kick pinballs butt. Yeah, the death of pinball is arriving by 1981-82, which led to Game Plan rethinking its game plan to build pinball machines. Dead silence on that one, yeah. Yeah. Reviewing Stern Electronics, you know, you might want to go back to that episode. Or Gottlieb. Gottlieb's troubles during this time. We've made a couple of pinball is dying episodes that you can see in the archives that cover this era quite robustly. So I won't reiterate that in this episode, but it was a spin downward for even the big fellows in the industry, let alone this weird, you know, sparky startup. Well, what did John Trudell have to say about that? He says, when Gameplan decided they didn't want to make pinball machines anymore, I was still just getting my feet wet. There was an ad in one of the trade publications for a pinball game designer, and I responded to it and got picked up at Gottlieb. When things get tough, it's usually the small teams, the small companies that struggle first. So they jump ship. You want to get into somewhere else. Well, Gottlieb is the big game in town. At least they have some stability. So John Trudeau was working on a cocktail at the time called King of the Road, and you could see that cool artwork on IPDB. And he was also doing the artwork for a wide body pinball machine called Global Warfare that would come out in June of 1981, and it was designed by Roger Sharp and Ed Sabula. But unfortunately, only 10 were ever made. Roger Sharpe says, Global Warfare, I never realized that they were ever built. I just knew it as a drawing that was never really finished. The game rules were there, but the geometry, my god, I never would have let it go out the door. Oh, wow, he's busting on his own game. So there's the thing, right, is he's kind of just getting some stuff together. They got all the parts left, they got a little artwork, they just slam it out the door, but they only get 10 made because they clearly realize we're circling the bowl here when it comes to pinball. Gameplan would exit pinball entirely in 1982, but they had a few playfields and materials laying around, and they hobbled together a couple of pins during this two-year period, one of them being Sharpshooter 2, selling 600 units, which is still pretty good by today's standards for a small company. And, of course, as we all know, sequels are never as good as the originals. I think they cobbled it together, not hobbled it together. Oh yes, I'm sure they cobbled it together. Ah, they were hobbling along. But they cobbled together. But here's the thing though, I know there's Game Plan pinballs after that, so how could that be the end? So that brings us to 1984, we're kind of two years of kind of not much going on, and that's when a game called Attila the Hun is released. Hmm, what does John Trudeau have to say about that? He says, well, Gameplan reentered the pinball market again in the mid-80s, and lo and behold, I went to a trade show, and there was Attila the Hun sitting there. It was my first design. So, wait, he was, he's at, he's at a different company. Yes, but they took his design. So they had his design and his artwork, and they just kind of said, alright, let's just throw this together, because now we want to get back into pinball. And this is the conquering barbarian theme, right? Attila the Hun, April of 84, it sells 500 units, pretty decent. Ed Stabula on the concept. The design was John Trudeau, however, he's over at Gottlieb now making friggin' Rocky and all those other weird games. In 84, no, more like Hollywood Heat or something. Oh, is that it by then? Actually, year before then. The year after would be Hollywood Heat, because that's a ripoff of Miami Vice. But he's making Gottlieb games, yes. This has Larry Balzik and Tom Schmelzer doing the artwork. While at Gameplan in 1980, so this is like four years ago, Ed Sabula asked John Trudeau, who he was mentoring, to build a pinball machine around Attila the Hun. Obviously an open license, but something that people knew. And John created the playfield and threw some artwork together, but it never went anywhere Until they needed a pinball machine to make. Because they let everybody go and they didn't have anybody on staff. Well, here we go. Let's just use this one. I guess this is a good time as any. Attila the Hun, your favorite barbarian. He lived from 406 to 453 AD. He was the leader of the Huns, the Ostrogoths, which was the Roman era Germanic tribes, and the Allens, a Iranian-normatic people, among others. I can see why you took the Hun name, because Attila the Ostrogoth doesn't sound good. Attila the Allen? No. Attila, the Central and Eastern European person. I'm more of a Conan guy myself, so... The term Hun became a bit of a racial slur, kind of for those Eastern European, World War I German sort of folk, And that's kind of where this comes from. He invaded a lot of the Western and Eastern European nations at those times, plundering the Balkans, the Byzantine Empire, which was like Eastern Europe. And he also attempted to take on what was called Roman Gaul, which is modern day France. I remember that. And parts of Italy, including an attempt to take Rome, which at that time was a big deal. Oh, he could have killed some of my ancestors. So let's take a look at the Attila the Hun sort of playfield here. We'll kind of talk, we'll give it a little bit of commentary. John Trudeau said it was his first design. He didn't have very high hopes. He didn't have any high opinions. The interesting thing about IPDB, a lot of John Trudeau's artwork, Whitewoods and stuff, he took a lot of pictures. Yeah, he took pictures of everything, even games that were never made. Let's see, their comeback game, what do they say, how they really plug in this here. We got Till the Hun, 4 player pin designed for years of profit and dependability. The question is, does this use a Z80? I don't see Z80 here anywhere, what's going on? This is a shame. I was all bought in on the Z80. I would think they probably were to a better chip by then. Let's see. Strategically located drop targets. That's usually the kind of drop targets you have. These are high-powered bumpers as opposed to weak ones. Yeah, it's just like standard stuff. Seven-digit scoring. They're supercharged flippers. They're supercharged. The artwork, really good, right? It's got Attila the Hun on horseback throwing a spear of some sort. He's got like ripped abs. Yeah. So it's got me, it's got me, it's got my first quarter. Then when you look at the playfield itself, not too bad either. Hey, it's got up here on the top left, it has a captive ball that goes around into an area and then kind of falls back out into the resting area. That's kind of cool. Wide open playfield, orbit spinner, it's got drop targets on the left and on the right. Yeah, it's all right. It's okay. It's no Hollywood Heat. It's no Rock. Yeah. It's no... Seems fine. It's no Victory. I'm just naming all the Trudeau games I could think of. He doesn't... I don't know why he's dunking on himself, but it's okay. Now in 1984 John original artwork that he had made for that pin with the theme he had taken with him when he left And he just kept it kind of with his own stuff at home I guess in his closet So Game Plan was like, oh, well, Frigg, we need some new art. So they commissioned Larry and Tom to make new artwork. 1985 would see Baby Sharpshooter, the unproduced cocktail with a female lead, which was more of a novelty carnival duck shooting game. So they're kind of trying to fill in as much as they can. The next actual sort of full-size release game... The next thing they actually produced, as opposed to the unproduced game... ...is the pirate Peter Pan-themed Captain Hook. Well, they did Hook before Data East did it. And it's actually based on Captain Hook and Peter Pan because it's a book, not actually Peter Pan by Disney. So it's public domain, so you can just use it. So the flyer looks the exact same format as the Tale of the Hunts. Our ninth year of pinball design excellence, although three of those years we were kind of not really around, and two of the years was a bunch of terrible cigarette cocktails. But in that nine year period, there was a couple of years where we made a couple of good pins. I wonder, is it weigh anymore? What's the weight of this thing? 260. So not 250 anymore. Now it's 260. It's 10 pounds more. Introducing Captain Hook, a four player pinball with an excitement of high seas, piracy and the bounty of the highest possible for machine profits. It's interesting how they have a hybrid when I'm looking at the cabinet. They have the beehive like Stern Chicago coin had, but then the start button, it's not on the coin door. It's on the cabinet just like Williams would have.
    68:27
    Yeah, it's probably cheaper. That would be my guess. So the playfield itself, it's a perspective view. You're on the poop deck.
    68:39
    Very good. What looks like Captain Hook kind of falling down, it's actually kind of a neat layout. It's got two flippers at the bottom, Italian bottom, drop targets on the left, drop targets on the right, spinner on the orbit, and then at the top it has a third flipper that shoots into a stack of, what was that, four drop targets behind the pop bumpers. I think it's kind of a cool layout. So I mean, their layouts aren't atrocious, they're not terribly bad. Not symmetric, so that's good. Have you played it? I don't remember this one. Only 450 units. Ed Sabula designed it. So in 1911, the novel Peter Pan or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up by J.M. Barry. And it was also a play in 1904. And then the massive Disney film in 1953. Then again, they're trying to fill in some more. So they do Lady Sharpshooter. So we've got sharpshooter, sharpshooter two, baby sharpshooter, which didn't go anywhere, and it produced 1200 units. So it actually sold. Game plan still had some life in them. They were still able to make it. Is there anything? I don't remember ever seeing a lady sharpshooter. Lady sharpshooter. Yeah. So let me go back here. I wonder if that was like Europe or something. There's baby sharpshooter. So, baby sharpshooter was first. There is none. That was a cocktail. None of those. Oh, it's a cocktail. Lady sharpshooter is a cocktail. Yeah, I've never seen this. Yep, and it's got a woman holding a rifle. And it's got a pop bumper on one side and a sling on the other, so no Italian bottom. It's got a spinner on the right, a stand up on the left, and then that's it. There's no pop bumpers other than the one at the bottom. Oh, no, there's two in the middle. Yeah. Two pop bumpers in the middle. Right in your face. I wonder if the pop-up on the right by the flipper is like the sharpshooter tradition. I guess. So, I mean, they built a brand around sharpshooter, they were trying to leverage that as much as possible. So that's lady sharpshooter. Because baby sharpshooter was not enough. So we have a whole sharpshooter family now. Get ready for shooting up profits with Old West excitement. Now the hombres who brought you sharpshooter one and two have wrestled up another winner to corral big profits. Lady Sharpshooter. We're back to 170 pounds. I guess. Certified to comply with the limits of a Class A computing device pursuant to subpart J of part 15 of the FCC rules. Dear operator, invite the lady to your route. Thousands of locations await her arrival. I don't know what that is. 1,200 locations, apparently. I guess, I don't know, what is that? Probably trying to fill in the line with parts that they might have laying around. Andromeda, this is the sci-fi fantasy theme named after, I don't know, the Andromeda Galaxy, probably. September of 85 sells 500 units, designed by Mike Kubin. Mike Kubin. Seewich! Yeah! Old Stern. He did Nuget. Yeah. Magic. Zenon, Centaur, anybody? And no longer at Bally. Reamon Merchant on software. So there's a significant shift in this pinball machine, and it is the fact that there is a lot of new blood all of a sudden appears in game plan. So they went through the struggles, they downsized their production, they've brought that production back up now, bringing in some new names. Ed Sabula's still there though, through it all. What a guy, eh? What a guy. This one I have played. SPص SPOSЭто SP light SP cables SP Levon A powerful new way, but this is like the third game that's had a powerful new sound system in the last year.
    72:52
    Magnificent graphics, a player grabbing appeal, seven digit scoring, high score to date, multiple ball retained till, it's not until, it's till launched. The same drop target mech again, probably from a... Lady on the back, there's like these weird bat, tiger, lion things. Don't forget her multiple eyes. She has eyes stacked on top of eyes. Four eyes, kind of off-putting, but she's got the rest is where it should be. If you know what I mean. Yeah. It's clearly trying to appeal to the male pinball player. Mm-hmm. It's got a cool playfield. What do you think? Yep. Drop target into an orbit. Next to that is a spinner into the orbit. Yeah. It's got the pop bumper right by the flipper. It's actually four pop bumpers. It's got one right by the flipper, which it's got to be like the game plan thing. That's like their thing. Yeah. Yeah, six drops, really close to the flippers. Yeah. Very fun. I bet you that's the same. It's cool. This is good. I bet you that's the same mech as Sharpshooter. So on the left, that pump bumper doesn't lead to an out lane. It actually is more like, what is it, the Beast's Lair? What is that game? Well, no, that leads to the left out lane. So no, no, you're thinking of Paragon. No, this leads to drains down the center. But nothing down to the left side, but there is an out lane on the right side. So it looks like it's difficult but not, you know, doesn't cheat you, which is nice. This seems like a, is this a tournament game? This was used in, I mean, Papa had this game. Yeah. That's where I play it. Because I think I've seen this on stream somewhere. Oh, yeah. Like an INDISC or a... So if tournament people like it, you know it's good.
    74:37
    Yes. So what about the next one? The next game is the best game plan game. Is it? Oh, yeah. Okay, okay. This is Cyclops. We covered this during the Roger Sharp episode. It's the game with ass. So much ass. The most ass on any game. It's not so much ass. Well, okay. It has another pop bumper down by the flipper with a lady captured down there. There's a spinner to the orbit on the right side. There's a little mini flipper on the left between two pop bumpers into four stand-ups, but there are a lot of captured ladies. Yeah, that's very, very bondage. Yeah, the Cyclops are capturing the ladies and the guys have to save them. Yeah, it's clearly, um, it, game plan didn't, was never, you know, it didn't seem like they were so overt when it came to what they were selling. But boy, oh boy, it looks like they're selling it on this game, eh? One of them is Roger Sharpe's wife, I believe. Oh my. Oh yeah. I think Roger's the guy on the horse. Yes, Roger's on the horse with his mustache. Yes. And sunglasses, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense, because I don't think they had sunglasses when people rode horses. But anyway. I've done the ultimate. I played this game at Josh Sharpe's house. Ooh. The ultimate in Sharpe. Wow. Very cool. So it's designed by Roger Sharpe, sells 400 units, it's from November of 85.
    76:13
    It's Seamus McLoughlin does the art and Riemann Merchant on the software. So like rules wise seems pretty good. It's it's you'd see this in tournaments occasionally, but this is if I was gonna have one game plan game, this is it. This is the one. Just look at look at that spinner. It's so beautiful. It has a great spinner sound effect too. The sounds are great. Yeah, it's got the lock up on the top. So once you shoot the spinner, it goes around across the ball. This is the masterpiece right here. This is Gameplan's finest hour. Yeah, it's a good one. Very cool. I have not played it. And another pin that lots of people have never played. Loch Ness Monster. Their last game, one unit produced. There's a fantasy monster theme. So we're following the monster theme. This is also designed in 1985, November. It's done by Joe Kaminkow. Everybody knows Joe Kaminkow. From our Data East episode, yes. Right? He's Gary Stern's right hand fellow. Ed Cebula, and then we did the art by Seamus McLoughlin. Kevin O'Connor, everybody knows that name. And Margaret Hudson. Margaret Hudson, right? We know Margaret Hudson from 8 Ball Deluxe and a lot of those Data East pinball machines. Software by Ream & Merchant, who would eventually get to Data East. What does Joe say about this pin? He says, unfortunately, Gameplan ran out of money on Cyclops before they got to my game. It had a ramp, it had speech, it had a lot of things that games didn't have at the time. Yeah, so this is that struggling period, right? We're kind of getting through the collapse of pinball in like 82, 83. We're kind of getting our feet back under us in 84. We've got like, what, like space shuttles out, Williams is kind of getting back around into high speed. Like we're just starting to get things back together. But they hit, they got rid of multiball a lot. They got rid of speech because that stuff was expensive. Yeah, but they started, it started to come back, started to come back. This is not a pin that I've seen a lot about beyond sort of the myth of the Loch Ness Monster. The Wally Winka Monster Pinball Machine. So what are we looking at? Well, I'll tell you. Let me tell you a story. Story time with Ron. I might have said this story before on this episode, on another episode, but I'll say it again. Basically, this is probably 15 years ago. It's a long time ago. There's like no pinball in my area. So if I want to play pinball, go to events, I got to travel, right? Right. On this particular Saturday, a guy named, I won't say his last name, but Mike, and he eventually, he was the guy that ran the game room at Lanes and Games, which New England people will know what I'm talking about. But Mike was having a party at his house, he lives in Massachusetts, and it was just a pinball party. And it's like a Saturday, and it's like, I got nothing to do, it's like, what is it, two and a half hours? Yeah, sure, yeah. Oh, I'll go, I'll go. And then I thought to myself, should I bring my camcorder? Because this was the era where I was filming everything. And, you know, usually I would go to like these people's houses and I filmed like their game room. So I had like a whole series of game room collections on YouTube. But for whatever reason, I said, ah, I won't bring the camera. My biggest regret in pinball right there. That I didn't bring my camcorder. That's a big one. You've got a lot of regrets. www.InDISC.com You need to play them because you never know. You might never see it again. Yeah, wait in the line and play. Then he had two games under blankets. It's like they're going to be unveiled tonight. Like unveiled. Okay, this is interesting. All right. So we get to the unveiling and he takes the blanket off the first one and it's Big Bang Bar. One of the original like 14. This is before the remix came out. And I had played Big Bang Bar a bunch of times because it was at I used to go to California Extreme every year, and I always used to go to California Extreme, so I played it a bunch of times. But I'm thinking, like, if that's the first one he's revealing, what the hell's under the second blanket?
    80:48
    Yeah. And he says, well, what's more rare than a game that only 14 exists? How about one that only one exists? And he takes the blanket off, and it's Loch Ness Monster.
    80:59
    Whoa, so cool. Because I believe the guy from Fabulous Fantasies in Vegas owned it for a while, but then it made its way to New England. The Winning Pinball Show, Knapp Arcade, Bally Williams, Straight Down the Middle, Bally Williams,
    81:37
    This is the only game that has a turntable with a little figurine of the Loch Ness Monster on it. And I think it rotated. Yeah. Okay, so sort of like, what, Body Moves? What is that one? Body Moves? Metropolis? Oh, no, Genesis. Not quite like that, because it was on a turntable that was spinning. It was just like a figurine of the Loch Ness Monster. And I had never heard of it. I was like, what the hell is Loch Ness Monster? So there's three drop target banks, right? So it's got lots of drop targets all across the playfield. It's got a lot of, like, you know, three drop target banks on it. It's got a lot of, like, two drop target banks all across the playfield. David Van Es Very different. It's very, very different compared to a lot of other... It does look very Data East, doesn't it?
    82:36
    When I look at it, I get a Data East vibe. I mean, it doesn't have the pop-up or right by the flippers this time, so... Yeah, yeah, exactly. But it's cool. It looks cool. It's like they're hunting for the Loch Ness Monster on a boat, This is a production of WGN Radio, and is not intended to represent the views, opinions, or opinions of any individual. It is intended for educational purposes only and does not intend to replace those of WGN Radio or any other organization. You go to IPDB, most of the pictures of this game are his. So the one that, the game that you see in his pictures is the one I played. I like it. It looks fun. So Game Plan. It closed right when this model was going into production. Yeah, only that prototype. Now, Joe Kaminkow would have a disastrous stint at Premier Gottlieb after he left Game John Trudeau worked at Premier Gottlieb, then Bally Williams, and eventually Stern Pinball. He would leave Stern in 2017 after being charged with child pornography. He was then charged a second time in 2018. This time I think it was like actually doing something with a family member. In 2019, he pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to three years in prison. Yes, so I don't have any further updates on True. No. What happened to Ed Cibula? He was there the whole time. So Ed Cibula would end up working with Gary Stern and Joe Kaminkow at Data East. He was brought aboard to help them scale up to get things together. And I think Gary and Joe owe a lot to Ed Sabula for keeping them on the straight and narrow. And it prevented them from looking like complete fools. I mean, trying to manufacture a pinball machine and having no idea what you're doing. Well, I mean, Gary and Joe probably had some understanding, but Ed Sabula was the guy. You gotta thank Ed Sabula for Gameplan and Data East now. Yeah, exactly. Kidde would pass away a few years into his time at Data East, which would eventually become Sega and then Stern, and that left a huge hole in that company. But what do you think about our game plan episode? I love Cyclops. Every time I see that, I'm just like, oh, I wish I had it. I wish I had a Cyclops. The cocktails, man. Cocktails. What a unique adventure in pinball. It wasn't wide body. Nobody else thought, wow, you know what, let's keep on keeping on here. I'm surprised I haven't seen most of those. Usually I've seen a lot of these games, but when it comes to cocktails, they seem to be harder to come by, some of the rare ones. They were just, I think a lot of them were just junk. You know, like I played a game, you know, Blackness Monster, where there's one, but I haven't played almost any of those cocktails. And some of them have 500 units made.
    86:11
    Read us out? I don't. Stewie, get up in my high chair here. As always, you can send your comments, questions, corrections and concerns to civilcronicles at gmail.com. We look forward to all your messages and we read every one. Please subscribe to us on your favorite podcatcher. Turn on automatic download so you don't miss a single episode. Remember to leave us a five-star review. That way more people can find us. Join us on Patreon to support the show! Becoming a Pro Crony is the perfect way to say thanks and it starts at $3 a month! Want to get early access to episodes before anyone else? Have a strange love for stickers? Join the Discord chat by jumping on at $6 a month as a Premium Crony! Want all the other perks in a shirt after 3 months? Join us at $20 a month as an Elitist Crony! Maybe you just want a t-shirt? I understand! Swing on over to silverballswag.com and pick up a Silverball Chronicles t-shirt! Get the ones that has wrong name. F*** that up. Get the ones that has wrong name. Ah f*** it. You just ended that. That sounded... Roger was working on a playfield with his friend Steve Epstein. I would do that. I would do that again. No. He was working on the island with Epstein on this new design. After a long winter, even a small shift can change how home feels. This spring, open the door to something lighter. Explore vibrant scents inspired by place, from bright citrus terraces to blooming lavender fields and layer them into rooms you love most. For a limited time, get a free Pura 4 diffuser when you subscribe to 2Scentz for 12 months. It's an easy way to refresh your space without starting over. Visit pura.com and bring spring home today. The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports. Right now, the NBA is heating up, March Madness is here, and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I can follow the teams I care about, get real-time scores, breaking news, and highlights all in one place. Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment.