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Jack Guarnieri - Pinball Expo 2018 - Pinball News

Pinball News (Pinball Expo 2018)·video·48m 12s·analyzed·Oct 21, 2018
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TL;DR

Jersey Jack Pinball celebrates expansion and community engagement at Pinball Expo 2018.

Summary

Jack Guarnieri, CEO of Jersey Jack Pinball, addresses the 34th Annual Pinball Expo in 2018, celebrating the company's growth, international expansion, and community relationships. He discusses Pirates of the Caribbean's successful launch, new code updates for Hobbit and Dialed In, and Jersey Jack's commitment to family-friendly themes and player engagement through Twitch streaming and community feedback channels. The presentation emphasizes the company's collaborative approach with distributors, operators, and players.

Key Claims

  • Jersey Jack Pinball shipped thousands of games internationally and domestically in 2018

    high confidence · Guarnieri states 'we've sold and delivered thousands of games' and describes loading containers for Australia and European ports

  • Jersey Jack has approximately 1,200-1,400 members in its Google News Group community forum

    high confidence · Guarnieri: 'I mean, there's about 1,200, 1,300, 1,400 people on the Google group'

  • Guarnieri traveled approximately 150,000 miles in 2018 and visited five continents for shows and distributor events

    high confidence · Direct statement: 'about 150,000 miles in the air' and 'I've covered five continents this year'

  • New code updates for Hobbit and Dialed In were in beta testing at Pinball Expo 2018

    high confidence · Guarnieri: 'I think they're both in beta testing right now. All the new code is on the games in the hall'

  • Phone-controlled flipper feature (Redemption mode) is available on Wizard of Oz and Hobbit, with plans to add it to other games

    high confidence · Guarnieri confirms feature exists on both games and discusses future implementation on other titles

Notable Quotes

  • “This is definitely not customers and a company selling and creating a product. This is a relationship. It's more like a family reunion.”

    Jack Guarnieri@ 1:08 — Establishes Jersey Jack's philosophy of community-centric business model

  • “Make pinball great again. It's not a political statement. It's a statement of some DNA of our company. We want to keep making games that are great.”

    Jack Guarnieri@ 2:41 — Defines company's core design philosophy and quality commitment

  • “If you don't have anything [to ask], I guess we'll get over it.”

    Eric Mignola@ 22:05 — Humorous moment reflecting the informal, family-like event atmosphere

  • “I would much rather spend my time making pinball rules and pinball assets and stuff like that for people to enjoy while flipping the game than to spend even more time trying to tweak out a video mode.”

    Keith Johnson@ 29:29 — Reveals design philosophy prioritizing core pinball mechanics over ancillary video features

  • “If you want a video mode, play your PS4.”

    Keith Johnson@ 29:55 — Distinguishes Jersey Jack's focus on physical pinball experience versus digital entertainment

  • “You know what the next game is? It's a pinball machine. I can promise you that. And it's going to be awesome.”

    Jack Guarnieri@ 34:55 — Playful deflection of unreleased game question; humorously avoids specific details

Entities

Jersey Jack PinballcompanyJack GuarnieripersonEric MignolapersonKeith JohnsonpersonButch PeelpersonRob BurkepersonPirates of the CaribbeangameWizard of Oz

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Jersey Jack operating open-door policy for media, customers, and curiosity seekers; no longer conducting formal open houses due to limited facility space despite growth

    medium · Guarnieri: 'We welcome people in, media, a lot of curiosity and stories about pinball...we don't have any room anymore in the building to do it'

  • ?

    business_signal: Jersey Jack Pinball reports strong international distributor expansion with selective partner vetting; thousands of games sold and distributed globally in 2018

    high · Guarnieri: 'We've added many distributors, especially international distributors. We've done it in a very selective...we've sold and delivered thousands of games'

  • ?

    community_signal: Jersey Jack implementing weekly Twitch streams (JJPLive) featuring designers and developers playing games live with chat interaction; content also ported to YouTube

    high · Eric Mignola: 'On Twitch, every week we stream ourselves playing our games...we try to explain as we're doing it the things we're doing'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Strong positive customer sentiment with attendees expressing appreciation for game quality, community engagement, and company support for player education and Twitch content

    high · Multiple audience members praise company for depth, rules education, and entertainment value; compliments emphasize appreciation for developer accessibility

  • ?

    community_signal: Jersey Jack maintaining closed, moderated Google Group with 1,200-1,400 members; community feedback directly influences software updates and feature additions

Topics

Jersey Jack Pinball's global expansion and distributor network growthprimaryPirates of the Caribbean game performance and market receptionprimaryCommunity engagement through Twitch streaming and Google Group feedbackprimaryCode updates and software support for existing gamesprimaryDesign philosophy: family-friendly themes vs blood-and-guts competitionprimaryPhone-controlled flipper features and interactive game mechanicssecondaryVideo mode implementation debate and design trade-offssecondaryAftermarket mod ecosystem and vendor growth at Expomentioned

Sentiment

positive(0.88)— Guarnieri and team express pride in growth, community relationships, and product quality. Audience engagement is enthusiastic with multiple compliments and positive feedback. Only minor tension around design choices (video modes) but handled respectfully. Overall tone celebrates industry renaissance and Jersey Jack's role in it.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.145

Thank you, everyone. Good evening. And thank you all for coming. Usually I have a wireless mic and I get to run through the audience, but due to some technical snafu, I'm going to be maybe stuck up here for a little bit. So that's okay. And Butch Peel, one of our electrical engineers, is on stage. He's going to work the slide projector, as it were. And the designer of our latest game, Eric Mignola, he is here. Oh, I have a long cord. Okay, Good, good, good. So let me ask you, you know, how's everybody doing tonight after a whole day? Come on. I mean, really, this is like a family reunion in a way. I don't look at this. This is definitely not customers and a company selling and creating a product. This is a relationship. It's more like a family reunion. And I want to welcome everybody to the 34th Annual Pinball Expo. And certainly, Rob, we will be here next year. I mean, we're very lucky to all be together. And who could be better than us playing pinball all weekend? I mean, really, that's a dream. I have rock star customers that are jealous of us that we get to play pinball all week. And it's wonderful. Congratulations, Rob, you know, to you and Bridget and Jared and the whole Burke family. I think this year Expo I've been coming for many years not 34 years but this year seems to be really a lot of energy so thank you thank you for putting on this show and probably my guess doing this kind of stuff is that every day of the year you have a phone call you have an email you have somebody wondering about what's going on and I want to thank some of the volunteers I know Jay Stafford and Dave Marston and Dave Fix and Roger Sharp and everybody. So if you're out there and you see the people with the yellow shirts, the volunteers, thank them, because without the show, we don't have a show without the volunteers. So make pinball great again. It's not a political statement. it's a statement of some DNA of our company. We want to keep making games that are great, and that's what we aspire to achieve in our design and manufacture and support process, that we make a really great product for you. Good. So the other day there was a factory tour of some kind, and I attempted to get on the bus and my disguise apparently wasn't so great so I got pulled off the bus and put in a headlock by Rob Burke and I don't know if it was worth me going or not but maybe I'll try to go again next year with a better disguise so we'll see what happens. But you like that picture, right? That's one of your favorites. Since we last saw you here last year, Jersey Jack Pinball has had a really spectacular year. I have to say it. It's, you know, from somebody who created the company from an idea in my mind to see where it's going now, what we're doing, it just blows me away. We've added many distributors, especially international distributors. We've done it in a very selective and we've sold and delivered thousands of games and we've really helped to introduce many millions of people to what pinball is today in the 21st century. And I want to thank all of our distributors and the Worldwide Network, some of them here this evening. All the passion that we have in building these products and I said it in the very beginning of the company, You know, we weren't just building a game. You know, we were building a company. And the company doesn't work without really great people inside the company and the distributor network. You know, our company, I'm very proud. It provides really good jobs and a livelihood to a lot of wonderful and talented and dedicated people who every day get up and they're motivated to make great pinball machines. And I'd ask the employees of Jersey Jack Pinball, everybody, and the contractors to just stand up a second and be appreciated. Where are you guys? Thank you. I'd ask our vendors and distributors to stand up for a moment and be recognized too. You know, wonderful guys. And really, you know, also in recognizing what pinball is today, it's become this unbelievable, you know, thing that gets reported on amazingly by people like Jim Shelberg and Gary Flower and Martin Ayo and all the people doing podcasts and This Week in Pinball and Jack Danger and all these people. So we really want to recognize all the contribution that those people make because, you know, if that tree fell down in the woods and you didn't hear it, it would be one thing. But everybody's really interested in what we're doing, and that's really great because we're bringing pinball to more people. And, you know, if you look in the vendor hall, All the people like Joe DiRusso at PINGraphics and Matt Reisterer from Back Alley. Yeah, I mean, those people that are making all these crazy mods and lights and toys and all kinds of add-ons and everything. Back in 2010 or so, there wasn't a lot of that going on. And it's really wonderful from where I stand to see so many other companies trying to make pinball machines, making pinball machines. Pinball is alive and well, and we want pinball to be alive and well, and we want pinball to go a lot of places where it hasn't gone before. Go ahead, Butch. So I put together a few slides. By the way, is Dave Christensen here? This is Dave Christensen, one of our distributors. He's from Luxembourg in France, so I don't know where he is running around. Go ahead, Butch. Give me a couple more. This is from one of our shows in London. I get to travel this past year. I was very happy to travel so far, about 150,000 miles in the air. And my arms are pretty tired sometimes, but it's a lot of fun. And I've covered five continents this year. I haven't made it to Antarctica or Africa yet, so I still have some work to do. Go ahead. And this was a shot in our distributor, Pinball Universe in Germany. And this is our distributors from the Netherlands. You can tell I really have a lousy time when I go to these shows, too. You know, it's really a chore and it's back-breaking work. Go ahead. Yeah, there's not a lot of pictures where I'm really not smiling. This is one of our distributors also from the Netherlands and another distributor. And this is a shot from last year down in Australia. So shout out to Wayne and Paul down under in Australia. I'll be there on December 1st, which is the first day of summer for them. They have a big flip-out tournament. And then I get to do a little bit more traveling and eventually come back home around Christmas time and start everything all over in January in London. So pinball shows today and pinball events, you know, years ago, we all know the people that were here many years ago. Anybody here from the first pinball expo that attended 34 years ago? Gary? Yeah, yeah. So you guys know better than me that maybe there were only a handful of pinball shows a year. And now we know there are many pinball shows in a weekend. So it's really cool. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. So, yeah, these are local shows. Joe, you'll appreciate that picture. You know, all our distributors getting along, like wonderful family. That's Joe and Mike from Automated, the picture there. And this was a show in Vegas that we did, an IAPA show with our distributors from Oregon. Pinball is alive and well around the world. I was in Poland last year at Krakow and Warsaw, and there's pinball everywhere, really. This is in Austria. This is another shot. This is in Litz-Raport. This was in France this past April. This is back in Austria, and that's one of our distributors and one of the guys that has a museum out there. This is our distributor in Austria, and, you know, they really go all out. It's a food event, it's a marketing event, it's a family event, and it's pinball. So they really had a great time with Pirates of the Caribbean. This was in Texas Pinball Festival, and that same weekend, so Friday I was in Texas at Texas Pinball Festival, and I had to leave because Saturday I was in Banning in California at the Museum of Pinball, and that's Richie Knuckles for those that know him and his daughter Faithy. And these are the guys that run the pinball museum out there in Banning. If you get a chance to get out there, they have thousands, thousands of games, not hundreds, thousands of games. It's an amazing place. And Pirates of the Caribbean was really welcome. A lot of young people there. We did a Q&A kind of thing on pinball trivia and everybody won a pinball hat. So that was pretty cool. This was some of the group. Sometimes I get to talk to myself at some of these things, and sometimes I get to talk to several hundred people. My wife, Joanne, after 35 years, she'll tell you I talk to anybody. It doesn't matter. I'll talk to myself, especially if it's about pinball. This was in Vancouver a few weeks ago. I don't know if they're in the room, actually. This is back in Allentown. Yep, Tommy's running around the floor somewhere in his booth. Yep. That's in Allentown. In a competition. I guess you guys are in a competition. Alan, are you here? Where's Alan Seahack? There he is. Number one operator in New York City. The legend. Alan, I don't know how you do everything you do, but you're amazing. God bless you. You're just amazing. Great operator. We welcome a lot of people to come to our building in Lakewood New Jersey And we open our doors pretty much when people call You know we don have a picture from a few years ago when we used to do our open house. And we really don't even have any room anymore in the building to do it. We welcome people in, media, a lot of curiosity and stories about pinball. you you you you you you you you you . . . We started building these games in the summer. We sent all our distributors games so they have them around the world. And we shipped a bunch of games to street locations. Allen has one and Barcade and Pete's Sunshine Laundromat in Brooklyn and Ace Goge in California and a place like Seattle Pinball Museum. They all have games, and they're all really working well, and they're earning very, very well, which is really important. And some of those games, they've already created more sales, which is a great thing. So as they get out in the wild, people get to see them and play them, and they say, wow, this is really a great game, and I need to buy it. What we did was we loaded several containers of games that we shipped to Australia and a number of ports in Europe. And now in the last couple weeks, we've turned our focus to American games. So, you know, I know last week Jen called a lot of our distributors, right, and said, you're getting games next week. So that's a good thing. So we're really happy about it. You know, the hundreds of orders from the international distributors were really important because getting games into different countries where our games are not well represented is really a good thing. so it's a really nice happening to get more of our games to more of these places. So I think I'm going to turn it over at the moment to Eric, our designer, who's going to talk a little bit about Pirates of the Caribbean. Thanks, Jack. So last year, this time, we released Pirates. And it's been a long road getting games into production. But now that they're out in the wild, it's really been a fun trip. Like seeing all my friends and pinball family members that are getting the game and rave reviews and telling me how much they love it. And the cool things we've done with the software and the hardware. and it's a very humbling experience to be the center of attention when it comes to a game like this. It's an entire team effort, and hearing people compliment the whole team and something that we all created and how much joy we bring to you, it's a very humbling experience. So I want to thank you. Everyone who has bought a Pirates or has bought any of the Jersey Jack games is a piece of my heart and soul, and every one of those games have been around since Wizard of Oz, and it's been a lot of fun. So with Pirates, we've been doing something out of our office to generate some fun that people can watch generally in the middle of their work day. So sorry, people who have bosses. This is part of my job. It's pretty fun. On Twitch, every week we stream ourselves playing our games. So it's usually me, Keith, Joe Katz, and one other member of the JJP team. And we do that so people can see the game and see what we've designed and the rules that we play. And we try to explain as we're doing it the things we're doing. So if you can get onto Twitch and follow us, JJPLive on Twitch, you can see us. You can get notified when we're streaming. We also port our videos over to YouTube and we'll be doing some YouTube live stuff as well, so you'll be able to follow us on there. It's a lot of fun. There's chat windows where you can directly interact with us while we're streaming, ask questions about the rules, if something's not clear, something you don't understand. So we've had a lot of interaction with fans while we're playing and had some monster games on there and it's really cool. It's a really cool outlet to be able to hang out with people digitally and see the game and go out there. So what else do we have here? For everyone who has bought a Pirates of the Caribbean, if you have received your game already or it's coming soon, just raise your hand, please. I'd like to see each of you. And that's very fun. I want to hang out with you guys sometime this weekend. So come by the booth, hang out, play a game with me and let's chat about it. I really appreciate the customers who have, who are enjoying our games. What else would you like to talk about? Well, if you don't have anything, I guess we'll get over it. Sure. I think I'm good. All right, that was fast. Thank you, Eric. Thank you. So, you know, I wanted to mention, it's kind of important, we don't abandon anything. And there are new, there's new code for Hobbit. Who has a Hobbit? Amazing, amazing, amazing game. Yeah, that guy back there, yep. It's an amazing game and there's new code. And there's new code for dialed in. Who has dialed in? Okay, so the game has a lot of, you know, added cool things, animation, things like that. And I think they're both in beta testing right now. All the new code is on the games in the hall. So you can go there and play them and check it out, you know, in the next few weeks when the amazing software department that we have. And I really want to thank our software people because they listen to all of you. You know, we have the Jersey Jack News Group. Who's on the Google group? All of you? It should be almost every hand, really. I mean, there's about 1,200, 1,300, 1,400 people on the Google group. It's kind of closed. It's not a lot of drama and yelling and that kind of thing. It's a lot of constructive good stuff because we know who everybody is, and it's really great. So, you know, they listened to you, and they responded, and they changed a lot of things and added a lot of things and they figured out a way to make these things even more fun than they were, which kind of blows me away. To me, it's another one of those really unique things that, except Shellberg, you're behind me now, right? Okay. I know. I don't know what was happening there. I thought it was hi Okay You know it makes us very unique and it sets us apart from anybody else that makes pinball machines And we very proud of it You know we want to treat you as we want to be treated, and it's really important to us. You know, so I think, you know, we usually do take some questions, and at the, Marcy told me to make this session quick. She has things to do later, so she didn't want me to talk all night. No, I'm only teasing. So anybody have a question? I could take the portable mic. I could come down. Or I would ask somebody to come up and ask the question. How about we do that? Yeah. All right, put this one on. Come on up. State your name and your rank and serial number. and, you know... Wait, we're going to let one of our technical geniuses put that microphone on for you. Jeff Murphy. I'm from Warsaw, Indiana. I'm an enthusiast, restore, collector. And I got kind of a long question. One of my favorite features on .matrix... Oh, I own a dial in an LE. number 189 this is the unscripted part of the show ladies and gentlemen this is where everything goes off the rails usually but we're going to go with it so I met Jack on Wednesday it was a real thrill for me and I asked him a question and he said you should come to this I wasn't serious So the whole team, because the whole team will be here. Well, there's only one other person, one additional person then on Wednesday. But anyway, I'm curious. No, no, they're hiding in the audience. Oh, that's right. They're all here. Anyway, I'll try not to ramble on too long here. Too late. Okay, one of my favorite features on dot matrix display and newer machines is the video mode. Saucer attack on Attack from Mars and the three video modes on Williams to Indiana Jones come to mind as some of my favorite video modes Now that large color LCD screens are standard on new machines I've been hoping for some entertaining video modes with wishful anticipation but haven't seen any on Jersey Jack pinball machines I will note that Stern has done a fine job with their asteroid escape video mode on the recent Star Wars machine. Because Jersey Jack is the industry leader. Okay, you had me at hello. You had me at hello. I got it. Okay, I'm going to get you an answer. Go ahead. Keep going. This last part you're going to love. Because Jersey Jack pinball is the industry leader in technical innovation, designing groundbreaking, breaking no compromise pinball machines, Will we be seeing any video modes appearing on any of your machines soon? Okay. Keith is holding his head. And Keith knows right where I'm going. I'm going right here to really the second person that I hired at Jersey Jack Pinball. I was really lucky and blessed and humbled that Keith decided to join a company that I started from a brain fart. and I love him for it. So listen, you answer the question, okay? He's an amazing rules guy. He's an amazing pinball guy. He's an amazing pinball player. But he's an amazing person and he's an amazing dad and an amazing husband. He's a really great guy and I love him. Here, now answer the question. So, thank you. Making little video modes for dot matrix games is one thing. You know, you got 128 by 32 and, you know, three shades of orange and black. You know, it's not much you can do with that. You know, you can make some entertaining stuff. You may have noticed we put a fair amount of effort into the games that we make now in terms of what JP does for our backgrounds and what we do to put them in and coming up with all the ideas and all the assets. That's a lot of work. And now you want me to throw a game in there too. I mean, the problem is you can't just throw a cheesy little dot matrix game in there. You're going to be expecting something grand and cool. And oh, by the way, it's got to work with two or three buttons. There's not a whole lot of stuff that you can do that's super compelling in that regard the closest we've come to is we threw in Liar's Dice on Pirates of the Caribbean it's an interaction with the display mode I wouldn't go so far as to call it a video mode but it is a mode that takes place on video so I suppose it technically meets the definition but you know I mean whatever I don't think that the I would much rather spend my time making pinball rules and pinball assets and stuff like that for people to enjoy while flipping the game than to spend even more time trying to tweak out a video mode and get it to be fun and look right and what everyone would expect from us and that kind of thing. So that's kind of where I'm at with that. It's a lot of work for not that much payoff, I feel like. If you want a video mode, play your PS4. Now, let me ask you something. Thank you, Keith, and I like that. Wait, don't go anywhere. Don't go away. We have a gift for you. We have a lovely parting gift for you, even though you're going to stay here. Our giver of gifts will give you a gift. Hopefully that's your size. Do we have another person that would like to ask a question? it's it's not even a question i just want to compliment the company and i'm sure there were other reasons why you you delayed it but the the new thing with joe keith and uh and of course eric playing pinball on twitch showing us the rules keith keith's in another realm with rules and pinball's getting deeper and i i know as a player that's not good i appreciate knowing how to play these in-depth games and at least knowing what I'm doing. I applaud the company for tying up your resources to show us how to play these wonderful games. Bravo to you guys. Okay, what size are you? Thank you. We appreciate that. Thank you. Eric will give you... Well, you've got to take the swag. You've got to take that shirt. Anybody else? Another question? Joe, you had a... Oh, yes. THANK YOU. DOING GOOD. TWO QUESTIONS, BUT I THINK IT'S THE SAME ANSWER TO BOTH, SO YOU'RE JUST GIVING ONE ANSWER. YOU'RE HERE AT THIS, EVENTS LIKE THIS IN IAPA. Do you all ever present at non-amusement industry events? Good question, and we do. In fact, you get a shirt also. In fact, you saw, you know, I pulled a couple of pictures from me going to the, you know, to the retirement community, to the men's club. So, you know, we're available. We don't charge anything. If you have some place you want us to show up, Gabe is laughing, you know. We do show up. Just, you know, we don't even ask you to feed us. Give us some water and some breadcrumbs and we'll be fine. And we're happy to go evangelize about pinball anywhere, right? Butch, right? Wait a minute. That's an official question. When will we see you in Robert Englunds? Are you inviting me? I stayed at your house one time. I did. It was great. Did you sell that house finally? Yeah? Did you take the plaque down for the room that I slept in? I heard you got more money because I slept there. All right, give Gary Flower a shirt, please. Gary Flower is an international author and well-published, a very good friend of mine. I love him. And, you know, I'll probably be there in January when I go to the London show. I'll be happy to freeze on the Thames River and happy to be there with you. We can go to dinner at Gordon Ramsay's, the Narrow, right, where we have a nice dinner. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that. That would be great. Lovely, as they say. That would be lovely. Anybody else? Yes, sir. I'll get to you with your golden ticket there. I saw that. Eric, you're falling down on the job. Is that a game designer? Give her a round of shirts. Keep your day job, please. My name's Adam Streeter. I'm right here. Oh, stand up. I was waiting for a while. I actually just have to ask a question so I can get a T-shirt, so that's why I'm doing it. Okay, that works. I love all. So I have a pretty decent collection. I have all the JVP games. They're my favorite games. They're amazing. They're immersive. They're all different. They're all excellent. Thank you. I've had Pirates for about almost six weeks, and it's the first one. I've bought a bunch of games since I got dialed in, and this is the first one that might. Is Pat in here? Pat's there. He's wearing a hat. Okay, I don't want to say this. That was my favorite game for the last year and a half, and this is the first one that could be. It's amazing. I just want to say it's awesome. So the question I got to ask, what's the story on the next game? Is it a lot of toys in it? So do you want to know what the next game is? Because I'll tell you. I'll tell you what the next game is. Do you want to know? Say yes. Say yes. Don't tease me. Yes. You know what the next game is? It's a pinball machine. I can promise you that. And it's going to be awesome. You know, Jack played it and he likes it. Everybody knows that old post. Save you money, guys. Save you money. I wouldn't buy if it was me. And this is some little, you know, partial. I wouldn't buy anything else but our games, really. Did I say that? I mean, Coke loves Coke. They don't love Pepsi, right? So what would I say? He gets a T-shirt. You're getting one ready. Now you're getting ahead of me. All right. Who else? This nice lady wearing a Pirates of the Caribbean shirt. Yes. You had a question? Green Law and King B.W. Pinside. Pinside represented in the house. Gravatar. Who else? What's my name on Pinside? Mud? No. Jersey Jack. Absolutely. When is the next reveal When the game is ready That when it is When the game is ready that when we reveal the next game I don even know what that is It says Wonka Golden Ticket. It's pretty cool. Somebody would make that game. It would be cool. Oh, you want Shake my hand. Oh, you want us to make that game? Well, we'll see. Peter Pan? Neverland. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. You know, I never say never. That's how I get in all this trouble. And that's not like a Justin Bieber song, you know. I've been saying that for a long, long time. So they get shirts. She's got a pirate shirt. So you know what? You've got to give her instead, right? You've got to give her, yeah, dialed in or something like that. Okay. Who else? Marcy, how am I doing on time? You okay? Good. Yes. So I'm Bill from beautiful Fargo, North Dakota, and we have the pleasure of operating in Fargo, and we've been blessed to sell Jersey Jack machines as well, and they've done very well. One of the things we've noticed more than anything is it especially has attracted young people. On Dialed In especially I've seen more kids with that selfie mode go crazy than any other machine and they gravitate towards especially those Jersey Jack machines more than anything else Will we continue to see themes that appeal to a family friendly audience and especially young people to get younger players playing because I think the average age of most of us attending is in the 40s Thank you for what you do and will we see more family-friendly themes? Thank you, and thank you for all you do. I really appreciate how you represent us. It's wonderful. Yeah, you know, if you talk to Pat, he'll tell you a story about painting in primary colors and, you know, making toys when he was a little kid, and I will tell you similar type of stories. I kind of run the family kind of thing. I'm not about a lot of blood and guts, and a lot of things like that that other people might be doing. So family themes will continue in the company. And, you know, we just want to make the best product possible to make. The camera, I've got to tell you, I thought it out when I was an operator in, like, 1977. I wanted to get a Polaroid camera and put it at the top and somehow rig it up so that an instant photo came out when somebody got a high score. So the first opportunity I got to do it real time, we did it in Pat's game, and it blows people away. And you're right about the young people, because that's where the market is, and that's where we want to be. And, you know, that game reflects, I've said this before, you know, when in the past pinball reflected things and themes that were in consciousness of the public, well, certainly that game is in the consciousness of the public right now with all the stuff it does. So we're really proud of it. So all right, you got your gift. Couple more. Anybody? Yes. All right. Just a quick question. I was wondering if you guys would be adding the feature for controlling the flippers with your phone for two other games in the future? Yep. I'd like to continue that along. And I think it's pretty cool. My idea when I thought of that years ago was I I want to play a team game, me and you against this guy and that guy, okay? And I really want to control things that are under the glass. I want to move the QED guy in your way. I want to make other things happen so that we can actually play a team against each other. And maybe I get ten times to do that for free or five times to do that for free. Then if I want to mess you up later, I actually have to pay for it on location. So the idea was kind of like a water blaster in an amusement park where I'm not on a water ride, but I get to put a quarter in and get you wet and laugh. So there's a lot of things we can do. We have to, you know, plan out and dedicate resources for different things. It's hard to make everything a priority because, of course, then nothing becomes a priority. But we have it on the radar to do these things and continue along. We dialed in. We just showed a little bit of what we could do. It was just like the first sticky toe in the water kind of thing. Thank you. You had the same question. Isn't that amazing? That's kind of cool. We don't have any more gifts, do we? Okay, well, we're at the desperation point now. Yeah, well, Lloyd will come in next, and he'll be giving away a whole bunch of stuff. You're not getting a gift because you answered a question already. Okay. Important. To my knowledge, it only works currently on Wizard of Oz, right? I believe we have it on Hobbit. Is that correct? Software? Yes. Keith is shaking yes. It's on Hobbit too. All right. Pendemption is a really good thing for certain amusement centers, and we want to continue that on some other games too. Do we have any operators in the audience aside from you? Can we get them to stand up? Alan, you want to stand up or you want to stay seated? Stay seated. You fell down on me today already once. God bless you. All right. All the operators. That's the backbone of the industry, of the operators. Wonderful, wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. What year? Listen, when you get your own show, you can ask the questions, all right? Sit down. Albert, do you have a question? Any accounting question? Alex, you have an IT question? our it guy? No? Wally, what's up with you? Are you going to design a game one of these days or what? You made Medusa? You made a great game, the Wally Welch? One of these days you got to design another game, Wally? Son of a gun. Todd Tuckey is in the audience. Look at that guy back there. Holy cow. Todd Tuckey, huh? Anybody, if you want to waste some money, buy his book. Or donate to the Todd Tuckey Fund. I love you, Todd. Donate a game or anything else. We're all getting there. I'm not retiring. So I'm just going to croak over a pinball machine and somebody will throw me, they'll caught me. We thought of an idea, but I'm not going to get into it. My son is laughing. You know, before this great event ends, you know, I want to take picture of everybody. I want to take complimentary picture of everybody. Everybody smile. So everybody, here's what I want you to do. I I want you to see the letter that comes after Q on three. Okay, now think of this. The next letter, Dave Christensen, the American alphabet, okay? Not on a . Okay? Then letter that comes after Q, everybody say that. One, two, three. Arrr. All right, that's pretty cool, I like that. Well, let's do that one more time. One, two, three. Arrr. All right, that was good, I like that. I got to take pictures of you guys. One more question. Joe Newhart, you have a question? No. Good. It's the first time in your life that you don't have a question. Guy texts me all hours of the day and night. Gabe, for God's sakes, are you going to ask about an update on Friday? Where's our update? What? What's up? I'll come down there. I'll come down. Am I coming to Pentastic? everybody Gabe runs Pintastic this amazing show it's in Sturbridge Massachusetts I'll give you the wireless mic Jack can you name one thing from every Jersey Jack game that you contributed to that you wanted on the game we're going to be here a long time I'll just go quick on Wizard of Oz I had a lot of say in that game it was our first game I really wanted a way to get the ball back when you lose your ball on both sides of the game. And since I'm from Brooklyn, even though I'm Jersey Jack, how I play pinball, I shake the heck out of the game all the time. So on the left side, when you lose the ball, I wanted the nudge game there, a little game at the bottom, so you have that balloon bumper, and then you get into No Place Like Home. And on the right side, if you're lucky enough that the ball rolls over to four rollover targets. Where's your father, by the way? So he just sent you in here, like, all along? No father? Okay. and it rolls over to Toto, and you get to do one shot in the middle. So that I had to hand in. On Smaug, I was responsible for taking the left flipper off that game. And I should have taken the upper right flipper off the game, too. I shouldn't have listened. I should have taken that off. But it's an amazing, amazing game. I'm responsible for all the different packages, the art packages, what the game became, and I'm really proud of it. It's a beautiful work of art. and we had one drop target on Wizard of Oz, which I love drop targets, so I got 11 resettable, trippable, individually drop targets on Hobbit. So I got that. On dialed in, I'll claim the camera. There were some other things, but I'll claim the camera. I don't know, Pat, earlier, did you tell everybody what the working name of that game was before it was dialed in? You did. Does anybody remember that name? Killer App, right. I let Pat roll along for about a year and a half thinking that that would be the name of the game. But probably I wouldn't make something with the word killer in it. It was a great name. But Keith came up with the name Dialed In. Right, Keith? Yeah, great name. And on Pirates, I don't know, Eric. Pirates, we talked about it a lot. I think I was a big fan of the upper play field, the rocking play field. And if you let Eric loose, that game would have had like seven playfields on it somehow. It would have had a lower play field, an upper play field. There would have been a play field on the side that you bolt onto the game. You know, you just let them loose and it's just going to happen. So, yeah, so that's what we got. All right. So I think, oh, I see, I think that's it, huh? I think that's good. I just want to say thank you to everybody. Okay. Have fun. We're here all weekend. Try the veal, okay, ladies and gentlemen? Remember to tip your waiter and waitress. Thank you. Thank you.
  • “When the game is ready, that's when we reveal the next game.”

    Jack Guarnieri@ 34:39 — Establishes Jersey Jack's practice of announcing games only when production-ready

  • “I kind of run the family kind of thing. I'm not about a lot of blood and guts, and a lot of things like that that other people might be doing. So family themes will continue in the company.”

    Jack Guarnieri@ 38:24 — Reinforces company commitment to family-friendly content as long-term strategy

  • game
    Dialed Ingame
    Hobbit, Thegame
    Pinball Expoevent
    Pinball Heavencompany
    Alan Seahackperson
    Pat Lawlorperson
    Gary Flowerperson
    Museum of Pinballorganization
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Joe DiRussoperson
    Market of Pinballorganization
    Back Alley Creationscompany

    high · Guarnieri: 'there's about 1,200, 1,300, 1,400 people on the Google group...they listened to you, and they responded, and they changed a lot of things'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Jersey Jack committed to family-friendly themes and designs as long-term company strategy; explicitly contrasts with competitors' blood-and-guts approach

    high · Guarnieri: 'I kind of run the family kind of thing. I'm not about a lot of blood and guts...So family themes will continue in the company'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Jersey Jack prioritizing core pinball mechanics and rule depth over video mode implementation; deliberate choice to invest development resources in playfield design rather than LCD games

    high · Keith Johnson: 'I would much rather spend my time making pinball rules...than to spend even more time trying to tweak out a video mode'

  • $

    market_signal: Dialed In's selfie mode camera feature proving highly successful at attracting young players and families; strong appeal to younger demographic in location play

    high · Bill from Fargo: 'especially has attracted young people...I've seen more kids with that selfie mode go crazy than any other machine'

  • $

    market_signal: Jersey Jack games performing strongly in location play; Pirates of the Caribbean generating strong revenue in street locations and arcade venues worldwide

    high · Guarnieri: 'they're all really working well, and they're earning very, very well, which is really important...those games, they've already created more sales'

  • ?

    announcement: Guarnieri playfully deflects questions about next unreleased game, indicating game reveal timing tied to production readiness rather than scheduled announcements

    high · Guarnieri: 'When the game is ready, that's when we reveal the next game' and 'You know what the next game is? It's a pinball machine'

  • ?

    product_strategy: New code updates for Hobbit and Dialed In in beta testing at Expo; software team iterating on animations and features based on community feedback from Google Group

    high · Guarnieri: 'there's new code for Hobbit...there's new code for dialed in...they're both in beta testing right now. All the new code is on the games in the hall'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Phone-controlled flipper feature (Redemption mode) currently available on Wizard of Oz and Hobbit; future implementation planned for other Jersey Jack games pending resource allocation

    high · Guarnieri: 'We have it on the radar to do these things and continue along' regarding phone-control features beyond Dialed In