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Jersey Jack Pinball

Pintastic New England·video·1h 5m·analyzed·Jul 19, 2022
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

JJP founders defend pricing, discuss design philosophy, and hint at major upcoming licenses.

Summary

Jack Winery (Jersey Jack Pinball founder) and designers Mark Seiden and Steve Ritchie participate in a Pintastic New England seminar panel. They discuss Jersey Jack's philosophy of expanding pinball's player base through premium licenses (Toy Story, Wizard of Oz, upcoming titles), defend pricing models as value-creation rather than cost, highlight recent record sales ($30M+ in one day for Avatar LE and Toy Story LE), and share anecdotes about game design, maintenance tips, and pinball community culture.

Key Claims

  • Toy Story pinball generated over $30 million in sales in a single day (1,000 LE units at $15k + 1,300 Avatar LE units)

    high confidence · Jack Winery, directly stated during seminar

  • Toy Story license was originally acquired in 2014, but Toy Story 4 assets provided superior animation quality compared to older films

    high confidence · Jack Winery explaining licensing and design decisions

  • No other manufacturer since 1995 has licensed Toy Story for any game (video, driving, redemption, or pinball)

    medium confidence · Jack Winery claim about competitive landscape; unverified

  • Toy Story pinball placed significantly more units on commercial location in first week than typical pinball games

    high confidence · Jack Winery discussing location performance: '$600-$800/week' opening doors to commercial market

  • Jersey Jack Pinball games will ship in 'autumn-ish' (August/September range, not December)

    high confidence · Jack Winery production timeline statement

  • Steve Ritchie previously left another manufacturer because they would not license 'Stairway to Heaven' for a Led Zeppelin game

    high confidence · Jack Winery: 'No Stairway to Heaven, no Sam Stern, no Steve'

  • Jersey Jack Pinball has 'amazing licenses in the pipeline' and competitors have attempted to leak them

    high confidence · Jack Winery stating future pipeline confidentiality

  • Mark Seiden is now employed at Jersey Jack Pinball and working on a new game with Steve Ritchie and Eric Miner

    high confidence · Mark Seiden and Jack Winery directly confirm his hiring

  • The Wizard of Oz broke pinball into the 21st century and other manufacturers copied JJP's backbox gameplay innovation

    medium confidence · Jack Winery opinion/interpretation of competitive response

Notable Quotes

  • “We're not cutting corners. Okay? We were cutting corners, I wouldn't have to pay Tim Allen what we paid Tim Allen.”

    Jack Winery@ 18:34 — Defines Jersey Jack's commitment to premium talent and licensing authenticity

  • “Is your $15,000 or $12,000 Jersey Jack Pinball game worth that money? No. It's absolutely not worth that money. It's worth more than a million dollars. And I'll tell you why. It creates memories.”

    Jack Winery@ 21:16 — Core philosophy defending premium pricing through emotional/experiential value

  • “The whole idea when I started Jersey Jack Pinball was to expand the player base of pinball. I said that there were a lot of games that were based on testosterone. They weren't made for children. They weren't made for women.”

    Jack Winery@ 15:46 — States foundational mission to diversify market appeal beyond traditional male demographic

  • “Everything costs a lot of money. Back in 2000, when I was selling you guys Monopoly for $4,000, Monopoly cost me $2,802.01, and I sold them for $3,895.”

    Jack Winery@ 22:05 — Historical context for margin structure and manufacturer cost basis

  • “It's been literally a dream come true. I'm super excited to be working on a game, and I can't wait to show everybody what I'm working on.”

    Mark Seiden@ 5:14 — Confirms Mark Seiden's engagement and enthusiasm at Jersey Jack

  • “The whole environment at Jersey Jack Pinball is so different from my previous employer. Make the game you want to make. That's an awesome thing.”

    Steve Ritchie — Implicit criticism of previous employer (Stern) creative constraints; praise for JJP autonomy

Entities

Jack WinerypersonMark SeidenpersonSteve RitchiepersonJersey Jack PinballcompanyToy Story (pinball)productWizard of Oz (pinball)productPat LawlorpersonEric Miner

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Jersey Jack Pinball reported $30 million+ in single-day sales (1,000 Toy Story LE @ $15k + 1,300 Avatar LE units); Jack claims no manufacturer in coin-op history achieved equivalent single-day revenue

    high · Jack Winery: 'We sold another 1,300 James Cameron Avatar (Limited Edition) games that day, so we were over $30 million in sales for the day...in no time in the history of the coin-operated amusement industry...did any company ever introduce any game that in one day or one month or maybe one year did $30 million worth of sales.'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Pinball community is characterized as tight-knit, supportive 'family' with shared values; Jack Winery advocates for positive focus and dismisses negativity

    high · Jack Winery: 'The fun thing about pinball people is we're this big family...everybody just cares about each other...Focus on the positive.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Jersey Jack Pinball's foundational mission is to expand pinball's player base beyond traditional testosterone-driven games to appeal to women and children through premium licensing

    high · Jack Winery: 'The whole idea when I started Jersey Jack Pinball was to expand the player base of pinball...there were a lot of games that were based on testosterone. They weren't made for children. They weren't made for women.'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Jersey Jack retained Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory license over competing manufacturer by demonstrating superior product quality (Hobbit) to Warner Brothers executives

    high · Jack Winery: 'There was another pinball company...that was trying to steal Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory from me...they told me, you know what, it's not always about money. It's about making the greatest product. You got Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.'

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.197

0:00
No, it came from another planet. You don't want to know where it came from, okay? Just eat it and enjoy it. Because, you know, where I come from in Brooklyn, we know where the pizza comes from.
0:30
But I think the pizza up here is good. I've had it before. Did you have it, Steve? No, I didn't have any pizza. Mark, did you have any pizza? Not on that pizza, but I had some pizza from Red Wing Diner in Foxborough, which is my favorite place. There you go. Red Wing Diner owes you some props, I think. Okay, so welcome, everybody, to I guess this is the Jersey Jack Pinball Seminar. we're really proud to be here we want to thank Gabe we want to thank Dave Marston we want to thank the whole staff all the people that do everything behind the scenes and in front of the scenes and count t-shirts and take money and do everything they do Gabe you run an amazing show fantastic applause you did You did a pentastic job, I have to tell you. Just amazing. We're very proud. Mike at Automated is very proud to be a sponsor. I'm very proud to be a sponsor. Just keep going. Maybe you should move the show back to November. I don't know.
1:44
But we'll see. Oh, you think I'm going to run around, huh? I might run around. We can tie you up with a cable. Make sure you don't. Okay, well, that might be something. I don't know. I'll see if I run around. I might run around later. Jack. Yes. Who was my first sponsor ever? I don't know. Who was your first sponsor ever? Me.
2:05
@ 5:41

  • “This game opens doors to location pinball. This game breaks down doors.”

    Jack Winery@ 14:54 — Emphasis on Toy Story's unprecedented location operator appeal

  • “I don't focus on anything negative. My blood type is B positive. When I gave blood many years ago, I found out my blood type is B positive. How the hell am I going to be negative?”

    Jack Winery@ 28:52 — Demonstrates personality/humor and community focus philosophy

    • person
    John Yossiperson
    Christopher Franchiperson
    Spooky Pinballcompany
    Pintastic New Englandevent
    Tim Allenperson
    James Cameron Avatar (Limited Edition)product
    Joe Warner Brothersperson
    Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (pinball)product
    Gabeperson
    Dave Marstonperson
    Todd Tuckeyperson
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Automate Itcompany
  • ?

    licensing_signal: Jersey Jack Pinball has 'amazing licenses in the pipeline' with competitors attempting to leak them; Jack Winery emphasizes secrecy and game quality will exceed expectations

    high · Jack Winery: 'We have some amazing licenses in the pipeline. Maybe you heard somebody or some people try to leak some of them. It's not going to matter. When you see the game and you play the game, your head's going to explode.'

  • $

    market_signal: Toy Story pinball achieved unprecedented location operator adoption in first week; game positioned as primary driver of location pinball expansion

    high · Jack Winery: 'We have some pinballs on location first week...doing $600 and $700 and $800 a week...This game breaks down doors...This game will bring in 20, 30, maybe more percent of people that never, ever, ever bought a pinball machine.'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Mark Seiden hired at Jersey Jack Pinball after previous independent/homebrew work; described as 'dream come true' and working with legendary designers

    high · Mark Seiden: 'It's been a dream come true to work for Jersey Jack Pinball. It's been awesome working with Steve, Pat, Eric, and Jack.'

  • $

    market_signal: Jack Winery explicitly defends $12,000-$15,000 pricing as justified by emotional/experiential value creation rather than manufacturing cost, but acknowledges value perception challenges

    high · Extended discussion of pricing philosophy; Jack addresses Christopher Franchi interview questioning game value at premium price points

  • ?

    announcement: Mark Seiden, Steve Ritchie, and Eric Miner are developing new unannounced games at Jersey Jack Pinball; Steve Ritchie has whitewood and is actively designing

    high · Direct statements from Mark Seiden and Steve Ritchie confirming new game development; Steve mentions having a whitewood for playtesting

  • ?

    product_strategy: Jersey Jack Pinball production timeline for upcoming games is 'autumn-ish' (August/September), not December; Jack Winery commits to avoiding extended delays

    high · Jack Winery: 'The games are not going to run that far away from now. I said autumn. Maybe it'll be August, September. Autumn-ish. It's not going to be December.'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Steve Ritchie expresses stark contrast between Jersey Jack creative autonomy and previous manufacturer constraints ('make the game you want to make' vs. prior environment)

    high · Steve Ritchie: 'The whole environment at Jersey Jack Pinball is so different from my previous employer...The guys say, make the game you want to make. That's an awesome thing.'

    • Yeah, everybody knows the story by now, Gabe. Gabe called me up and said, you know, I'm thinking about doing this pinball show, Pintastic, and listen, I just started a pinball company.
    2:19
    Would I be an idiot to tell him not to do a pinball show? I mean, nobody told me, not to start a pinball company.
    2:28
    You know, there could have been one person in the world, don't start a pinball company, it's hard. I wouldn't have listened anyway. It was great. I have no regrets. And we got games like Toy Story. And we got games that Mark is working on a new game. And Steve Ritchie is with Jersey Jack Pinball working on a new game. the king lower that's fine that's good the king so I think what we'll do is all of us will say a little something and then we'll take some questions and we'll see where we are okay and And any question, there's no question that's not on the table. You could ask about anything. I really don't know if we'll answer it.
    3:27
    Before we take questions, can I speak? Yes, you can speak before we take questions. I just wanted to say that. Not yet.
    3:35
    I just wanted to say that. Pintastic has a great flavor. The show is different than other shows. I've been to a lot of them. I like the people here a lot. It's just different. different than the Midwest and the West Coast.
    3:50
    I don't know. There's no bad pinball people, but I love the people here. Steve's going to sing Sweet Caroline after this.
    4:07
    Right? I didn't even hear that. Okay, we'll save it for later. You have a pose, you know, like in the chair. We're going to sing Sweet Caroline, right? No, please.
    4:24
    Well, they're going to sing Sweet Caroline. We have a lot of Boston Red Sox fans here, right? Red Sox Nation.
    4:35
    How's it going with the Yankees? Okay, on that note, we're going to get Mark Seiden now. one of the hometown favorites to come in and save me.
    4:50
    Go ahead, Mark. I don't know. It's been an awesome experience being hired. It's a dream come true to work for Jersey Jack.
    5:01
    Our first new inbox was Wizard of Oz. We were just blown away by that. It's been awesome working with Steve, Pat, Eric, and Jack. it's been literally a dream come true. I'm super excited to be working on a game, and I can't wait to show everybody what I'm working on. And your wife is smiling, too.
    5:27
    She's happy that you were. Well, there are other reasons to be happy, I guess, too. So what do you want to say, Steve? Everything.
    5:40
    What do you want to talk about? I just want to say that the whole environment at Jersey Jack Pinball is so different from my previous employer.
    5:53
    Very different. And I want to say that I have a Whitewood now, and it's playing, and it's like sky's the limit. The guys say, make the game you want to make. That's an awesome thing. It really is. And the people there are great. A lot of them I know. I mean, Bill Grupp, Ted Estes, Keith Johnson, and quite a few other people there worked at Williams. And I've made friends with lots of people, Joe Katz and J.T. Harkey, which have helped me get my whitewood running.
    6:29
    I'm also, you know, I'm grateful guys like our mechanical engineers. We've got some new ones. Dan Lacek. I have to say hello to him. I have to say thank you so much for the parts you made.
    6:43
    It's just an awesome experience. It's totally different. Can I tell them who my artist is? I'm working with John Yossi. Can I stop you?
    6:56
    I'm working with John Yossi, and it's a lot of fun. We've been friends for a long time, but he hasn't been able to do anything on my game, except for maybe, I think, the LE version of... You don't mind to talk anymore? No, I'm teasing you. Oh, you are? What's the tease? I'm not getting it. Well, just keep going.
    7:20
    Anyway, I'm really grateful to be there. Thankfully, Jack is not there every day. He's in New Jersey.
    7:30
    You're getting mad at me now. Actually, there's a lot of good people there. We love Jack. Also, the guy that, well, what do you want to call him, our benefactor, his name is Leonard, and his whole family are a group of nice people that I really enjoy talking to. I mean, they're like down-to-earth, I don't know, realistic.
    7:57
    The guy, they love pinball. It's never going to end for them, I think. I look forward to, you know, continuing to work there. and getting out a game that we're all going to be proud of. I promise it will be something special. That's all I want to say.
    8:19
    And there's more pizza. So if anybody wants to get up and have more pizza, you can do that in between. That's fine. Thank you. Thank you, Gabe. How many more pies are coming, do you know?
    8:40
    Two more? Wow. So, you know, it's like loaves and fishes. If we run out, we'll just hold a couple pieces up in the air and we'll see what happens. Probably nothing. Did everybody get a chance to play Toy Story yet. So Toy Story is a game that Pat Lawler was the designer of. We know John Yossi did the artwork. J.P. DeWin did animation, video. We had other people involved. Joe Katz, you saw the video from Joe Katz, a number of other people. It was a team effort. It didn't happen from one person, really. Pat did a great job. You know, the license, I first got the license, I was first thinking of doing Toy Story back in 2014, believe it or not. I first got the license in 2014. And when I got the license, it was only Toy Story 1, 2, and 3. Toy Story 4 didn't even exist yet. And they said, well, when Toy Story 4 comes along, you could get into it. And Pat was working on Dialed In. and then Disney moved the movie further away by a year and a half you know this is all like ancient history but it was very fresh in my mind Disney pushed the movie out a year and a half and we all talked about it and said well maybe what we should do is we should work on Willy Wonka I had Willy Wonka from Warner Brothers and there was another pinball company believe it or not, that was trying to steal Willy Wonka from me.
    10:42
    And they almost did. But I appealed to the executives at Warner Brothers and told them what we did by showing them what we did with The Hobbit. And they compared The Hobbit to another game that this other company did. And after a few weeks, I got a visit from somebody from Warner Brothers at a show, and they told me, you know what, it's not always about money. It's about making the greatest product. You got Willy Wonka. So it was really a big win for me and for the company, and Pat got to work right away on Willy Wonka. How many people have Willy Wonka?
    11:30
    I mean, it's a great game. I love it. I have one. It's a lot of fun. Who's laughing? It's a great game. I have one.
    11:45
    And so Pat didn't get into Toy Story until after he got to Willy Wonka. And really, you know, people have asked me, how come it's not Toy Story 1, 2, 3? How come it's 4? What did you do? Why did you call it Toy Story 4? Really, when the design team got together and they looked at all the assets we had for all the movies. The sharpest animation that was available came from Toy Story 4. We went through a period with Wizard of Oz dealing with a 70-something year old movie and dealing with animation that was difficult to work with.
    12:28
    And the movie itself lent itself to the amusement industry. We had carnival games and we can use tickets. And there was a lot of fun we can build in. We had a villain. Maybe the villain wasn't as nasty as Sid or other villains. But we had enough to work with. It was the arc of the characters came together in four. You know, the meet me at the carousel. You found out what happened to Woody. And you found out what Buzz was going to do. And it was a great episode. It was really, it was one of my favorite episodes. So it was real difficult to argue with me to say, well, we're going to focus on Toy Story 4. We're going to have characters from other movies, but we're going to focus on Toy Story 4. And that's what we did. And I'm proud of that. And we were able to get original speech from Tim Allen and Tom Hanks' brother, Jim Hanks, and Bo Peep. and we were able to put everything together in such a way where in our industry, a lot of you are on the home side, what I would call the consumer side of our industry. When I started pinballsales.com in 2000, we were selling games to the home. But the other side of my life is the commercial side of the industry. and it struck me as amazing in the last year how nobody from any other factory and there are scores of factories that make games none of them since 1995 licensed Toy Story to make a game. They didn't license Toy Story to make a video game a driving game, a redemption game no game, no game. I must either be a nut or I must be a genius. Because I will tell you what, with this game, we were able to get more games on location right off the bat. This game opens doors to location pinball. We have some pinballs on location first week. Now, we're not out long, doing $600 and $700 and $800 a week. okay now remind me what the game is going to do week 6 or week 10 remind me what the comps are on the game this game doesn't open doors this game breaks down doors okay this is if I was a distributor this is a dream come true I put this in the showroom mom, dad, grandma, grandpa kids they play the game a gold Amex card is on my desk When can you deliver the game? It is the easiest game to sell. Easiest game to sell. This game will bring in 20, 30, maybe more percent of people that never, ever, ever bought a pinball machine. The whole idea when I started Jersey Jack Pinball was to expand the player base of pinball. Remember what I said 11, 12 years ago? I said that there were a lot of games that were based on testosterone. They weren't made for children. They weren't made for women. The artwork was a different type of artwork that probably is not acceptable today. And it insulted a lot of people. I did Wizard of Oz.
    16:06
    Who's talking? I did Wizard of Oz. And people said to me, Wizard of Oz? And then we showed flipper slippers that was my daughter Jen's idea. And there was some people that said some biker people that said I don want that on my game I don want any of that stuff And then when the game was made they were the first people to call and say make sure my game gets those ruby flippers.
    16:36
    Okay? You know, it was hard doing what we did because we released every little thing that we did. If a flipper coil fell off the shelf, it became a news item because every Wednesday, Gabe would be emailing Jen, what's the update this week? What's the update this week? What's the update? And I had to give him an update because I took his money, for God's sakes.
    16:58
    So I had to give him an update. I had to show him my magic iPad. I had to do whatever I had to do. And we made those games. And my favorite game still today is Wizard of Oz. How many people here have a Wizard of Oz game?
    17:14
    Okay. How many people here wish they had a Wizard of Oz game? Okay. That is an amazing game. It brought pinball into the 21st century.
    17:26
    It broke all the groundwork. My competitor said, Gameplay doesn't happen on the back box of the game. He'll never get a thousand orders. He'll never build them. He'll never do anything. Well, guess what? You can kiss. Okay.
    17:44
    They followed us doing everything we did. And that's flattering. And that's fine with me. But we're going to keep doing things that other people can't do and other people things won't do. We have some amazing licenses in the pipeline. Maybe you heard somebody or some people try to leak some of them. It's not going to matter. It doesn't matter. When you see the game and you play the game, your head's going to explode. Okay? I promise you. I'm actively involved with everything that goes on. I'm actively involved with Mark's game. And I'm actively involved with Eric's game. I'm actively involved with Steve's game.
    18:32
    We're not cutting corners. Okay? We were cutting corners. I wouldn't have to pay Tim Allen what we paid Tim Allen. I could have had somebody imitate Tim Allen. Okay? and you wouldn't have said, well, you know, they couldn't get Stairway to Heaven, but it's still a Led Zeppelin game. Oh, did I say that? Yeah.
    18:52
    It's one reason why I'm not at that S company anymore. No Stairway to Heaven, no Stern, no Steve. I'm going to clap for that.
    19:08
    I'm going to stand up for it. Thank you very much. Thank you very little. So Steve did Elvis too, which we sold a lot of Elvis games. But, you know, look, we're in a fun business. There's a lot of lousy things happening in the world. The economy is what it is. Wars are breaking out. Rocket Man is still launching rockets. Let's have some fun. Life is short, right? We're reminded of that. my cousins have a saying and we're not here for a long time we're here for a good time you know I want to address something that I talked about on the super awesome once in a while it's good maybe it could be awesome I don't know if it's awesome or not pinball show with Chris Franchi the other day and he hasn't dropped it yet because he told me I was going to be on with him for an hour so I asked my wife Joanne to hold dinner and three and a half hours later I went down to eat my cold chicken cutlets.
    20:12
    The guy grilled me like I was the treasury secretary or something like that. But one of the questions he kind of asked me was,
    20:23
    is that game worth $12,000? Is that game worth $15,000? I've got to tell you people, I've sold games to the home at pinball sales dot com since 2000 I was bringing games in came from Europe I was buying Adams families for 600 bucks imagine that put 600 bucks into them sold a game for 1800 dollars and we thought we had a great time none of those games came back not in a recession not in a divorce and people selling their homes and moving, they don't come back because they've become part of the family.
    21:06
    Uncle Joe played the game or somebody got it for his birthday, a little Johnny. You know, he grew up and he's in college now or grandma bought it, grandpa bought it. So is your $15,000 or $12,000 Jersey Jack game worth that money? No. It's absolutely not worth that money. It's worth more than a million dollars. And I'll tell you why. It creates memories. It creates memorable moments. It creates experiences that you can't buy for any amount of money. No amount of money. I look at my three-year-old grandson playing Willy Wonka, okay, and I'm playing it with him. You think I'm getting rid of Willy Wonka? You think I'm getting rid of that game? That game will be long used when I'm gone. That's why the games are worth it. The $15,000 or $12,000, that's cold money. It doesn't mean anything to anybody. Yeah, it's an amount of money. Everything costs a lot of money. Back in 2000, when I was selling you guys Monopoly for $4,000, Monopoly cost me, from the company that built it with my cash discount, $2,802.01. $2,802.01, and I sold them for $3,895. Take a monopoly and look at what those people are building, and you tell me what's worth money.
    22:31
    You tell me if that game is worth what they're doing. All they're doing is following me up. We're putting more and more in, and they're putting more and more on their price tag. They're not putting more and more on anything.
    22:43
    I know. I fixed thousands of those games. I sold thousands of those games. I was the biggest distributor for many years. Not going to fool me. and I don't want to fool you I want to give you your money's worth I want to give you a game that's going to give you an experience I want to give you a game that's going to appreciate I can't promise that past performance is any guarantee for future like they say on those financial commercials chances are things are going to go up because of supply and demand there's a lot more people looking to buy pinball machines today than there were five or ten years ago. COVID, unfortunately or fortunately, had something to do with that. People discovered pinball and nesting at home and staying at home. And this guy, when I sold him a fishtail for $2,500 ten, twelve years ago, his fishtail was worth seven grand.
    23:41
    And the Lord of the Rings is worth $9,000 that he bought for $4,000. So all those games that are worth all that money, those people are taking that money and they're keeping it in pinball. And they're buying other games. They're not paying the kids tuition or they're not paying the mortgage with it. That's pinball money and it stays with pinball money. Okay?
    24:02
    And I know distributors. Never the two shall mix. Okay? Honey, the game was only $2,500. Here's a receipt. But somehow she was able to pay a distributor some other way that it was off the radar. Ladies, Google is not your friend. Don't go to Google and see what games cost, okay?
    24:28
    All your friends, all your family, they're all at your house playing your games. Let them enjoy it. Let them have fun. Nobody in the world understands any of us. I got to tell you that. The only people that understand us are in this room and rooms like this. Because if you go anywhere else, people that know what I do for a living and they hear this. Jack, I read something on the internet that your company sold out of a thousand collector edition Toy Story games that were $15,000 each in two minutes and 50 seconds. What? I got stuff in my warehouse. I can't give it away.
    25:18
    In this economy and everything else. Is that right? Is that two hours and 50 seconds? I said, actually, not only that, we sold another 1,300 LE games that day, so we were over $30 million in sales for the day. At no time, I'm only doing this 46 years, so what the hell do I know? It's only my opinion. In no time in the history of the coin-operated amusement industry than any company ever introduced any game that in one day or one month or maybe one year did $30 million worth of sales.
    25:56
    It's all you guys and girls. Because you respond to what we create. And you have the patience for it. CE games are not going to run that far away from now. I said autumn. Maybe it'll be August, September. Autumn-ish. It's not going to be December. We want to get them going. I don't want to use the ish that everybody wants me to use.
    26:21
    But we're in pretty good shape. We have a lot of people breaking their behinds to make sure the supply chain brings us what we need. We have a lot of people in the factory every day. These guys are there. They can see it if I want to see it. I just go there. I go on FaceTime and I see what's going on. I look at the cameras in the building and I see a lot of people working and doing stuff and everything. And I say, good.
    26:47
    Let me go back and do what I do. And what do I do? I deal with all the licenses. I deal with all the approvals. I'm on the front end of the company doing that kind of stuff that I like to do. And I'm coming to shows like this where I get a chance to shake hands and kiss babies and take pictures with people and stuff like that. So that's what the fun of it is. All right? So you want to say anything else?
    27:16
    No. If people have questions, though, I'd be happy to answer them. And Mark, do you want to say anything else?
    27:27
    No. See, that's why I bring them. You know, I could bring other people, and they have plenty to say. John Greatwich, did you bring a bottle of port with you? No, yeah, but that's the best pizza tonight ever.
    27:43
    Wow, look at that. Gabe said the pizza was going to be good. He asked them to put good cheese on it.
    27:53
    John Greatwich, one time somebody from Australia bought a bottle of port wine to Texas Pinball Festival. Do you remember where you were?
    28:01
    I do. You didn't want to drink, and we forced you to drink. Right, that's right. But do you remember where you were? I went to the hotel room after drinking water you went to sleep under a game is where you went you might have thought you went to the hotel room where are you where's John Greatwich he's under a cactus canyon God bless you John you know what the fun thing about pinball people is we're this big family I don't think it's dysfunctional I just think it's just the great family because there are so many stories and so many things to share. And everybody just cares about each other, you know. You may have some people that are negative, but we don't need to talk about them. We don't need to listen to them. You know, focus on the positive. I don't focus on anything negative. You know, my blood type is B positive. When I gave blood many years ago, I found out my blood type is B positive. How the hell am I going to be negative? That's what mine is too. Let's cut you off. No, it's like the most rare blood type. Most rare. We can sell our blood. In case of anything, we can sell our blood.
    29:12
    Well, that's a good thought. That's like saying, you know, when I think things are bad, at least I'm not in jail.
    29:25
    You keep driving that car at 146 miles an hour, we'll see what happens. we got a better radio detector now and it's like I don't have a car that will go that fast but every day I do go pretty fast in this one stretch of highway because I can get away with it there's no entrances or exits plus I don't know if you guys noticed maybe it didn't happen here but with COVID freeway speeds went up nobody's obeying 55 miles an hour 80 is more like it I don't feel bad moving in a pack of people that are going 80 miles an hour as long as there's enough space between the cars. Stupid people.
    30:06
    I know stupid people on the road. We know that. Okay, so now I'm going to teach them a little piece of wisdom that I know about pinball. Go ahead. Okay. If you have a broken spring on the game, anywhere almost, except inside the jet bumper, okay, a lot of people take apart the whole thing, you know, take the spring off, then put the spring on, then put the device back together. Don't do that. Wrap your hand in a cloth, get a pair of needle-nose pliers, pull the spring right off, two pieces, let it snap or whatever. You've got a rag on your hand or you can wear a heavy glove. Then you thread on the new one, and you'll save a lot of time changing springs. This is something I learned a long time ago from a guy named Joe Isaacson at New Orleans Novelty. And it's a useful thing to know. Does this work with a garage door spring too?
    31:03
    You got any of those? Nothing that cool. I had a customer the other day, not that this means anything, I had a customer the other day that had a game and he said his slingshots were going too slow between them. Just going back and forth like that. It looked kind of like an old game. So I said, grab the front end of the rubber ring and pull it tight and put the slack around the back end of the rubber ring of the triangle. What's that going to do? Well, what that's going to do is it's going to make the contacts be closer together. And you can test it by banging the play field. So if they're too close together, the slingshot will hit. He says, I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to make the coil stronger.
    31:58
    So we're going to have to do some videos on some simple things for so many people because there are so many new people which we love coming into the industry and the hobby that a lot of the old things that old people, older people that have done, we have to pass them along so that you know how to do them. So we'll work on that, right? Definitely. Definitely work on that. Okay. Want to take questions?
    32:26
    Did everybody eat pizza? So questions, Dave Marston has a thing that you have to walk up to the microphone. I've been at these seminars, and Todd Tuckey, that goes for you too.
    32:39
    You've got to walk up to the microphone and state your name, rank, and serial number. How many slices of pizza you ate Zero And what your question is So my question is I assume with Mark coming on he learned a lot from now working with a manufacturer Has there been anything yet where you learning from Mark
    33:01
    Well, Steve, how about you answer that? I can answer that, but I have to have somebody here repeat the question I did not hear. What did he say?
    33:09
    Mark came into the company, and he's a new guy, and he's learning from people in the company. What have you learned from him?
    33:18
    How to drink IPA. Now, he's a good guy. And we know that makes better games. And he has a lot of skills. And it's like, you know, yeah, IPA. That's what I'm thinking.
    33:35
    No, we talk a lot about our designs and whatever. What did you teach him? He taught me about Tool, too, a really good band that I just learned about because I got new hearing aids. I couldn't hear anything, and so I listened to them, and they were great.
    33:55
    Would you like to take a question from Todd Tuckey? I'm giving you the option. Well, if we say no, that wouldn't be right. I love Todd Tuckey. Let's everybody give Todd Tuckey a round of applause. Well, it's actually... He won a Twippy this year. I did. But this is actually not a question, Jack. This is a statement.
    34:24
    Jack, you are the master. Thank you for being here and making these wonderful games. And that's it. Thank you.
    34:41
    I think I'm speechless. Thank God. Sorry, sorry. Next questions? Just a quick question. Everybody talks about what their favorite game is. What games do you guys like the least?
    35:07
    What's your least? I mean, I'm not talking about a hateful one that you'd, like, you know, throw out the back of the truck and make disappear. But, you know, what do you like the least? What's your least favorite game? My least favorite? Yeah. Popeye.
    35:23
    It wrecked pinball for so long. It just totaled the business. Williams had contracts which were, I mean, you know, when the games were good, they didn't mind. They had contracts where they had to buy a certain number of games. And Popeye just wrecked everything. That was it.
    35:43
    I just want to say, Barry Osler made a lot better games, and I just think, rest in peace, Barry. Everything else was good.
    35:56
    All right. I really enjoy asking very weird questions, so I'm sorry. if you were going to lose a finger working on a pinball machine what finger would it be and what mech would you lose it on it would be this one it's not much of a problem it leaks coins sometimes in the shower grabbing the soap I drop it a lot But I don't have to use that hand.
    36:35
    I don't want to lose the pinky. This is the good one to lose. I call it stumpy. What a good question. What a very intelligent question that was. So, she asked what mechanism, it was a follow-up question. She didn't know what mechanism you lost the finger piece in. Can I ask my question anyway? I lost my finger in a lightning hole, meaning sprockets or aluminum are about this big, and they drill holes in them to make them lighter, and they pass by the swing arm, which is like, you know, it's got about that much space between the swing arm and the swing arm is rigid, and my finger in a crash went in one of those holes, and it took off the tip of my finger, and it came back up and it was still in the glove.
    37:45
    And it's like, you know what, I can't tell you. I'm like, yeah, I guess I can. You just did. Okay, I'm going to be honest. Are there kids in here? Yes.
    37:57
    Yeah, I'm not going to say it. Okay, but it's like, what you do is when you take off your glove, you go, O-F, O-F, O-F, O-F, a lot. That's it. You just stare at your finger and it's like, it's horrible. And then I realized I have to ride five miles in horrible stuff to get back. I didn't put my glove back on. We drove back into the camp, and it's like people are freaking out. They're like, oh, oh, oh. They drive me into a van, and we go to the hospital.
    38:26
    It was Mother's Day. No, I made a deal with my wife. I said, if I can go dirt riding on Sunday, I can ride with this guy. And I kind of went around to the ride with him. And so I traded, and we celebrated Mother's Day on Saturday instead.
    38:44
    And I had a motor home then. So I went to the doctor, and he said, I can't put it back on. I'm just going to have to sew it up. It's too short. It's just going to fall off. I think I was like 42.
    38:56
    So my wife came down, and we had pizza in the motor home. That's it. And that's going to be a new mode in Steve and I. So with the new Disney license, did you get some of the Disney execs to come down and play some pinball? Like, you know, did you get Kevin Feige or maybe Pete Docter, those guys to get addicted? So we're getting Disney some games contractually. We owe them some games, but they want to buy some games.
    39:36
    And two pinball guys that have been pinball supporters and customers for a long time, Josh Cooley was the director of Toy Story 4, and Mark Nielsen was the producer of Toy Story 4. That's why you got Tiki Party Pinball in the game. It wasn't just an accident. Disney really doesn't do anything by accident. So we have a really cool Tiki Party game in the game. as well. And they can't wait until they get their CE games. But as far as Disney goes, they can't wait to participate in helping us promote the game any way they can.
    40:14
    It's really a great partnership with them. We love them. How did the design and concept for Dialed In come to fruition?
    40:25
    Where's Pat? so I can answer that question because I was there with Pat was and I told this story years ago but Pat was coming back to pinball and I was going to meet him at an Italian restaurant in Chicago so I met him and I said to myself knowing Pat for a bunch of years since maybe in the 90's I said maybe he's going to come to this meeting with a whole portfolio of games. Maybe he helped and did what he did, and he made a whole bunch of games, and he's going to show them to me. So he comes to lunch, and I'm sitting across from him, and he's got nothing with him.
    41:14
    And I said, okay. So Pat starts by saying this. He says, you know, I have three or four really good ideas, about what I'd like to do. And he guesses that I want to do a licensed game.
    41:32
    I said, Pat, I don't want to hear three or four ideas. I'm going to pass out at the table here. Give me your best idea.
    41:42
    So he starts explaining this crazy game. I don't know if the phone is going to destroy the world or the world destroys the phone. I don't know what the hell goes on. I stop listening to him. I don't even know what he's saying. I'm looking at him three feet away from me, two and a half feet away from me, and he's got his glasses on, and he's crazy eyes and eyebrows, and he's talking about pinball. And he's going. And I say to myself, you know, I'm a kid, I'm an operator in Brooklyn. It's 1990. I'm opening up Funhaus. and I open up the game at this location and I take it out of the box and we plug it in and this thing goes, Run the house!
    42:30
    And everybody goes, loses their shit, the game fills up with money and breaks my wrist taking quarters out of it. And I'm looking at him saying, Do you believe this guy's going to work for me? Do you believe it? I don't really care what the hell he wants to do. I'm not hiring Michelangelo and telling him how to paint the Sistine Chapel let him do whatever he wants to do who cares, I didn't care I said, maybe stop then I think I was still in dreamland and I said, yeah that sounds good and that is absolutely true I couldn't make that up That's absolutely true.
    43:22
    So Steve... So Steve! That's you. Steve, I'm very curious, Steve. We listened to Jack spend some time discussing the cost and justifying the cost of Toy Story, which is well justified. What is new to you in your career is suddenly you have a lot more money to spend. And you are not historically known for... Your question is too long.
    43:55
    I'm just curious what part... No, listen. Somebody's going to have to interpret this. I'll interpret it. Just be quiet. I'd like to know... Stand down.
    44:06
    I'm very curious to know what most excites you about higher budget pinball machines, not Jersey Jack. Okay, I'll translate. Okay. Steve, you've got $10 to make a game. What are you going to do with it?
    44:21
    Nothing. Okay, so what's he asking, really? That's not what he's asking. What is he asking? You doubt me. You really doubt me? Yeah.
    44:32
    Okay, he says, what are you going to do with your higher budget bill of material to make a really great game? What are you going to do?
    44:41
    Thank you. I am definitely going to improve the entire pinball experience in this game. It's like I'm not going to talk about the toys, but there are three new things to pinball. I'm pretty excited about all of them, one especially, though. It's crazy, but I'll tell you what. For a long time when I was working at the S Company, in the end, like the last year or so, I would go. So I don't even know if I want to design this because they're going to take it out. That's a bad thing to have happen. And after a while, you know, it just wears you down. I had to get out of there. I just had to because it was like, you know, I just was sad. I really was. I was sad, too, because I had to leave a lot of my good friends in Stern. There's lots of good people there.
    45:31
    There's a couple bad ones. Let's talk about the bad ones. So, anyway, I am excited about these three new devices. There might be more. What I'm telling you is I feel very happy and creative. That's it. More creative than I felt in a long, long time, really.
    45:55
    I'm going to get to do what I want. When I first got there, Pat walked up to this character who tries to, I don't know, he's kind of negative. And he goes, Steve gets to do cool shit, so leave him alone.
    46:08
    Pat's defending me. I love it. Did that answer your question? As much as I expected. Thank you, you filthy animal. No, that was great. Thank you. Jack? Yes. Oh, it's you. Is it true that you shopped out a game for Steve Ritchie today? Is it true that what? You shopped out a game for Steve Ritchie today. Yes, I shopped out a game for Steve Ritchie today. That's true. Steve Ritchie bought an F-14 off the floor of the free play room, right? He picked the better of the two. He bought it with his own American-made money. It was being wrapped up by the... Are the twins here?
    47:06
    I don't think they're here, but... Okay, it was being... Now I can talk about them. It was being wrapped up by the twins. They carried the game over their head like ants at a picnic.
    47:18
    It looked like the game weighed about three pounds. They carried the game into the vendor hall, and I saw Steve went, I don't know, to get money or wherever the hell he went. I saw two scratches on the glass, and I said to the guy, I said,
    47:38
    there's scratches on the glass. You know, this game is for Steve Ritchie. You think he could do something about it? And he got you a new glass. You don't know this. Okay, I don't know. That's very nice. You don't know this. Because what I was going to do was steal a piece from Jersey Jack.
    47:56
    Now I don't have to. Now I don't have to do that. I really don't steal things. I feel like I should have stole more. So I got the wax, and I got a rag, and I wiped the game down. I gave it an operator shop job, and it was a lot nicer. So the surprise for you is that the game's a lot cleaner, and you have a new glass on it, and God willing, nobody will put a forklift through it. Between the time it leaves, you know, where are we? Massachusetts. I do appreciate it. Thank you. And Illinois.
    48:44
    Going to steal a glass. A busy glass. All right. A starry glass. So, Steve, I got asked at the American panel earlier the same question as you, and I want you to know I chose the same finger to lose, first of all. And second of all the question is now that you get to work with Mark our local first hero that I got to luckily follow in his footsteps out there what it like working with a junior designer passing on all of your knowledge and experience to someone in the next generation And like how has it felt as part of your day process I feel kind of bad about it because he just ignored everything.
    49:27
    It's true. He has bad ideas. There's things you're going to know if you've made pinballs. And, you know, if he wants my help, I give it to him. I told them everything that I know about pinball except for instances that haven't come up. You know what I mean? I mean, there's always some things that happened in the past, and that's like, I don't know. Making good pinball is about keep banging on it until it plays nice. Shots first. Make your shots first. I've been very fortunate to work with Steve. he's taught me so much about everything like design and like all these little things you wouldn't think of like thinking of ricochets off of this target there making sure it's going on somewhere cool things like that like yeah I've been very fortunate with Steve and everyone there helping out I will say to you that your game is pretty unique it might be so unique that it's e-nuke I think that's what I was going for I think Steve taught Mark everything he knows but Steve didn't teach Mark everything he knows not yet could fit in a thimble my question is if American unfortunately didn't get it and Stern can I see who's asking the question right here Okay, cool. Hey, if American unfortunately didn't get it, and Stern likely didn't get it, did you guys get the Sonic the Hedgehog IP? No. Then Spooky got it. All right. No.
    51:12
    Who would buy a Sonic game that's here anyway? Who would buy that? So... Well, I'm not laughing at it. I'm just curious. Who would buy a Sonic game? Who would buy a Sonic game that Spooky made?
    51:32
    Okay, who would buy a Sonic game that Jersey Jack made? Okay, so, you know, very interesting. Very interesting. But I don't have it. If I had it, I wouldn't tell your ass anyway.
    51:51
    But it's nice of you to ask. Thank you. You know, Sonic was the precursor company to the S-Pinball company, so you would think they would have gotten it, yeah.
    52:08
    All right, I got a question for Mark. Mark, it's Joel. Hey, Joel. Since, you know, we did a little bit of work together on Metroid, I was wondering if, is there anything that you are able to take from Metroid into what you are currently doing, if you're allowed to say so? So I did start off with Metroid as – I did take ideas for Metroid in what I'm working on now. But it's so different that it's evolved into something else. There are things that you will see in it. It's like, oh, yeah, I was definitely inspired by that. But it's definitely different. So, yeah, I did take that as a basis. but the theme that I'm working on didn't really fit for the layout that I had with that game. So I had to evolve it into something different. Yeah, thank you. Are you okay with the food? I have to go pick it up in like ten minutes. So before you go, hang on. This is really important, so. before anyone leaves I have an important message I would like to talk about I am looking for a Roboton 2084 I see your shirt over there if you know anybody who wants to sell one I will buy it I know That looks like a really nice new shirt, too. Would you never wear it? It's a remake, isn't it?
    53:56
    I didn't hear him. You didn't want to hear him. It doesn't matter. You didn't need to know. How about a Funhouse 2 pinball? Funhouse 2? Yeah. You're going to make it? Do it. You know, let me tell you this. Respectfully. I get, you know, I do the licensing, right? And it's fun. I enjoy it. I love it. It's, you know, with all the headaches and everything in the world, it's fine. I got to do something, right? So that's what I do. I like doing it. I get people twice a week, average. When do you make this game? When do you make that game? When do you make the other game?
    54:38
    They're all no good. Nobody has given me an idea that I could say, gee, that would be good. Holiday theme. So after I sell you your game, what do I do with the rest of them?
    54:58
    Okay, go ahead. We have somebody who wants to ask a question. Can we get some obligatory Mortal Kombat voice sounds from the man himself? I feel like a trained monkey. I thought it might be over. I'm tired of it. I don't know if you're tired of it, but finish it. Do my best.
    55:18
    Sonia wins. Fatality. That's it. I like this one better. Give me finish him. Run home to mother maggots.
    55:37
    About three people know where that came from. Shoot here and here. What? Shoot here and here. That was Arnold. That wasn't me. I know. What do you say? Shoot here and here. I don't get it. What do you always say? He's amused by that. I'm really not. I love it. He tells me. What do you tell me? Shoot here and here, but not here or there.
    56:02
    And then what do you say? Thank you very much. Give me your boots. I can't say that. No. No, it's like, I need your boots. your clothes and your motorcycle.
    56:20
    Here's one that I was really feeling at Stern. Rage! It's in there. Okay, have you got another question?
    56:37
    I always count on you, Gabe. Are we still looking at, I know last year at the show you told us we were going to be doing two games a year from Jersey to Zach. Are we still looking at that, or what's the story? I'll tell you what. One of these years, that's going to be true.
    56:54
    I promise you, one of these years, that's going to be true. Is it going to be this year? You know, I could give you the same excuse your paper boy talks to you about in the supply chain.
    57:06
    You don't want to hear that. I don't know. You know, it's better to be honest than not be honest. I'd like to.
    57:16
    The next game is coming down the road pretty quick. Will it make the end of the year? I don't know. You know, I hate to say it. June's over. Six months from today is Christmas. Merry Christmas, everybody.
    57:32
    This is your notice. Get out there and buy some gifts before, you know, the economy goes, you know, upside down. Maybe.
    57:44
    Jack, we're over here? Yes, sir. Hey, Jack. How are you? Good. Great. I just wanted to say thank you for doing what you do, but I also do have a question about standard edition games. Obviously, for Toy Story, you chose not to. Is there going to be future games that you may come back with standard editions?
    58:04
    I always say all the time, never say never, right? But the game did away with itself. The rarest games we've ever built are the standard edition, for those that are interested in rarity. You know, you say you did 500 of these, 1,000 of those. You know, you did 100 and change of Guns N' Roses. The idea was my idea when we had operators that were cost-conscious, and I figured we'd have a lower-end game for them. But then operators like Pete Rose from Sunshine Laundromat and guys like Antz from Louisville at Zanzibar. Those guys went out and they bought CE games. They showed me.
    58:48
    Take this with your SE game. So it's a lot of extra work. It's a lot of extra artwork and design process and ordering parts. And right now for this model, we felt we'd be better off with the limited edition and the collector edition. Could it come back? It's possible it could come back.
    59:08
    Yes? So the last few games have all been standard body games. Are wide bodies still on the table for potential new games? No. I would say, I would let Steve answer that.
    59:22
    Gag me with a spoon. Yeah, I would let Steve answer that. Hi, it's me again. Don't ask about another thing. No, I'm not.
    59:41
    I didn't know. If you ask about toes, I'm out of here. This question is for Mark. You're both safe. Mark, we've talked about this.
    59:52
    Cop Rock is on your list of dream themes. That's true. I brought the DVD with me. When am I getting a Cop Rock?
    60:02
    We've cut off your mic because we can't talk about future pinball licenses. Oh, okay. When am I getting a Coprock pinball machine? Same answer. We can't discuss future pinball licenses. Mark, you got to remember to say this. This is going to be very important in years coming. On advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer the question on the grounds that my answer may tend to incriminate me. Okay? You're going to have to practice that. Anyone else?
    60:40
    And you guys didn't have any alcohol, did you? Oh, yeah. I was going to say you had to have some. Okay. Any more questions? You guys are killing us.
    60:58
    Yes, ma'am. Hey. Sir? Would you guys ever be open to doing something like the Stern, you know, QR code log in achievement system? I mean, it does open up a lot of different ways to play your system. You know, it's... Have you heard of score bit? No. It's in all our games. It has all of that and had it before Stern did. Thank you. And it's free. And more things are coming for score bet shortly.
    61:33
    There's a lot more planned. And you can update our games, Wi-Fi. Well, you're really running all over the place. I was just kind of wanting to know Steve is freezing his ass off so we're going to have to end this soon it's cold up here no right here I'm telling you there's a pneumonia hole right up there he's freezing too I can tell I love it it's great I love it I feel like I'm in a meat locker it's wonderful I love Terminator 2 and I was just wondering about the profanity wrong? Do you know where that was originally intended for or for who?
    62:24
    It involves Arnold Schwarzenegger. He has a cuss line from the first Terminator movie when it goes through the ball lock and it has the options on the dot matrix display.
    62:35
    What's that question? He wants to know about the profanity wrong from Arnold Schwarzenegger's game Terminator. He wants to know about it? Something like that. Actually, we did not ask for that in Terminator 2.
    62:50
    They were tracking him down, and he didn't really want to do it. They were working in the desert, making the desert scenes, and they brought a sound trailer down there and made him do it. And so at the very end, he said that.
    63:11
    We were grateful. you were grateful he didn't say that to you it's ok he could he was afraid of me at the end of Terminator 3 I don't know if he was afraid of me I just think he thought I was a strange person and his people sort of you know this was after Terminator 3 they had a party we went down there he went through the theater if you were on the aisles you could shake his hand or whatever and at the party though I wanted to go and shake his hand and so his people got around him and wouldn't let me but the other young people the actor and actress that were there they were very nice I don't remember their names though somebody must know who those people were no Terminator 3 was a big time movie wasn't it?
    64:10
    didn't they offer you Didn't they offer you a role to be in the casket that he carried around in the cemetery? You don't have to say it in the mic. I'll hear you better here. Didn't they offer you a role to be in the casket as he was carrying around in the cemetery? No. Jack, to your left. What's that? Who's the next play field designer for the next game? The next play field designer for the next game? Well, Eric, the next Playfield game is Eric's game. It's coming up.
    64:44
    These two guys are, like, way behind. You're not going to see them. God knows when. I'm not, like, 20 or 30. Way behind. Way behind is way, way, way behind. Not true. They're not way behind. But Eric's up next.
    65:00
    I'm getting texts of people telling me to shut up, actually. Is that it for everybody? Great to be here, thanks Sweet Caroline Oh, oh, oh Your time never seems so good You guys So good, so good I've been in love You guys are so flat, you guys You've got to work on that
    65:33
    you