Uh, hey. Yeah, how's it going? Is there even one reason I should acknowledge your presence? You look pretty hungry. Actually, I suddenly lost my appetite. Uh, you shouldn't, like, waste food and stuff. Uh, because there's, like, starving people in, uh, Indiana or something. Yeah, yeah. For pennies a day, we can end the suffering. Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Tilt Podcast, a show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, here with my co-host, Bruce Nightingale. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Is that supposed to be the Iron Man music? Yes, Barry. It doesn't really sound like it. But this is episode 93. Iron Man. We're starting the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Woo-hoo! Alex Bruce is thrilled. Yes, I am, because Godzilla fucking blew fucking chunks. Hey, do not insult Godzilla. Oh, my God. It's like, Godzilla fought this monster. Godzilla fought this monster. Yes. Godzilla fought this monster. People want to see monsters fight, Bruce. Whatever. No one's going to turn on fucking Voltron. Or He-Man. Voltron. He-Man. Hey, I like Voltron. Come on. Hey. Which one now? The Lion's of the Cars. Maybe we'll ask our guest who his favorite Voltron was. Ooh, that's a good thing. Our guest this week is Christopher Franchi, artist of Batman 66 and Guardians of the Galaxy. Welcome. Thank you. Coming to you from beautiful downstate Michigan. There you go. Ooh. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Yeah, you can call me Christopher or Chris, or you can also call me the Hexagon King, whatever you choose. I like Hexagon King. I'm just happy to be here. By the way, speaking of hexagons, a friend of mine was in my office, and we were talking about the whole hexagon thing, and he brought up a great idea, which I'm going to initiate, because a couple people asked me if I was going to put hexagons in my future games, and I'm like, no, I think it's kind of run its course. It worked for Guardians of the Galaxy because there was actually a purpose to it, but what I'm going to do from this point on is I'm going to put a hexagon in every game that I do somewhere. And if I can work it out, right, there'll be a prize for the first, first person who finds it. Cool. Work it out. You said, yeah. And, uh, Bruce, um, yes, the lion Voltron is the best Voltron. No, no, no, no. The cars. No, no, no, there's like 20 of them. As opposed to Five Lions. If one wasn't around, you were screwed. Voltron, really? Yeah, really. Come on. I'm kind of bummed that I missed Godzilla, to tell you the truth, guys. I'm a big fan. There you go. He's the king of the fucking monsters, Bruce, so you show some respect. Yeah, show some respect. Apologize. We're going Iron Man, baby. Well, you know, I'll tell you what, Bruce. in honor of what we're going to be discussing today. I will respect your opinion on Godzilla. How does that sound? Wow, thank you, sir. And I will respect your opinion, too, sir. I will not. You're wrong. Godzilla rules. Let's continue. Go scratch. Mm-hmm. So, Chris. Do we want to get into it? We can get right into it, because I loved it. All right. a list of seven... Before you start, I'll just say, for those of you saying, why aren't they going over Chris's career? How he got into pinball, etc., etc. It's because he's been on like five different podcasts the last month and he's probably already gone over that story. Podcast whore. Just listen to Pinball Profile head-to-head. You'll get all the information. Get the whole list. I missed anything. Just call me. I'll fill you in. Exactly. We go for the good stuff. We go for the meat and potatoes. Yeah. Well, you're getting it. No one else. I've not talked to anybody else about this. So slam tilt exclusive. Ooh. Well, so here's what we're going to do. We're going to go over each point, and I'm going to explain myself. Because, you know, I didn't put a ton of thought in this. I didn't realize that every person on the planet who had anything to do with pinball was going to get a hold of the list and then just nitpick it apart. Like, for example, today I got a message from somebody. Like, what is it? two weeks later now or something, and somebody comments on it, if you want to be treated equal, question mark, and then the scratching the chin emoji. And I'm like, look, okay, so I didn't choose the right wording. I'm sorry. I wrote this on a whim. I just typed it out and walked away, and that was it. But now that it's a big damn deal, I've got to go through and explain it because a lot of podcast people misinterpreted a lot of these things, and I don't need that. But I'm going to tell you this. when I'm done explaining it, I'm going to shut everybody down who had anything to say about this. And I'm not going to be rude about it either. I refuse to be rude about this or be offended by it or anything like that. That's not why I'm here. And that's not why I wrote what I wrote. It says, it states right up front, like, I'm trying to help you. I'm not trying to make fun of you or tease you or, you know, whatever. I don't remember what my exact words were. Butthurt. I remember butthurt. Well, that was at the end. You know, after I said, you know, don't be butthurt. But, yeah, it was like, you know, just understand that these are tips and I'm not trying to insult anybody, you know. So, all right, so let's go down to number one. And, Bruce, you were guilty of getting this wrong last week when you guys talked about this. And I shouldn't say that you got it wrong. I have a misleading sentence in here. But it starts off correctly. you know if you stumble over your words oh i'll read it exactly so i don't get accused of trying to put a spin on anything if you're a host or co-host of a show and you talk slow and stumble over your or and repeat your words when drunk key word they're drunk avoid drinking before the show unless you're martin robbins from head to head and he can pull it off seriously it's embarrassing and awful to try and listen to you avoid alcohol unless you're third fourth or fifth in the pecking order of the show. That way, non-drunk people can keep the show moving along. So, I'm not saying don't drink. I'm saying don't be drunk. Don't do a show when you're drunk. You don't know me. I don't drink. So, me drinking is a rare thing. So, you would think I would go right into the shitter. Well, you know, I could have 20 rum and cokes and not feel a thing. So, you know, that's key. Now, remember, this is coming from a list above titled Podcast Tips. Not rules. tips. Big difference between a rule and a tip. I'm not telling you this is how you do things. I'm merely suggesting this is how you might want to try it. So there's number one. Just don't be a drunk shit show and try to do a podcast. Not a good idea. Number two, don't spend half your show going over how was your week. What I mean by this is I've heard a few where people How was your week? Oh, well, I went to the doctor, and then I made this great linguine, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then the other person talks, how was your week? And then they run out of things to say. There's an uncomfortable silence. And then the person who already asked it the first time says, again, how was your week? And it just keeps perpetuating because they don't really have anything to talk about, so they just talk about what they did. Well, if I tune into a podcast with the word pinball in it somewhere, that's pretty much what I'm expecting to hear. Not that I don't think that how was your week and talking about taking your dog to the vet doesn't give me a little bit of sense of who you are as a person, but I don't need 45 minutes of it. You know, 10 minutes, whatever. You know, go ahead and do it. Talk about personal things. That's fine. But keep it to a minimum because, you know, you've got a point to get to here. So that's tip number two. Any problem with that? No, I laughed at all these. All right. Ron? Bruce, how was the anal probe? Did everything clean? everything clear? Oh, well, you know, my car had a little hiccup and I had to bring it to the dealership. I don't care. What about your anal probe? My anal probe? What the hell, Bobby? All right. One of the other podcasters, I'm not going to name any names in any of this, but one of the podcasters who was complaining about this, as soon as he finished complaining about it, he gave out a recipe for how to make some kind of eggs. And I'm like, that's pretty much my point. All right, so number three, don't alienate people on your show. Oh, this is a controversial one. What I mean by this is if you are female, never say anything like, we'd love to have you on our show if you're a woman. We prefer women. This is a show for women. Show should not be for a certain group. You limit your possibility for wider appeal and success when you alienate half your audience. The audience I was talking about alienating was the male audience. you're not alienating women when you say this is a show for women i'm talking about the men and that's just one example the point being you can do a show that's for women that that has an you know an angle that comes from a woman's point of view that's fine but don't say only women can listen to it and only women can take part in it because that when you do things like that if you're someone like myself, I kind of take offense to being kind of told you shouldn't be listening because you're a man, more or less. So do your thing. Do it exactly how you want to do it. That's awesome. You know, and I like like everyone else. I think it's great that women are doing it as well. I'm just saying don't tell me to tune out because I'm not a man. I'm not a woman. You know, I think that's that's foolish because you when you do that, you know, you lose half your potential audience. All right, number four, remember your topic. It's pinball. If I'm 45 minutes into your podcast and only heard the word pinball twice, you're not doing your job. This actually happened, and it doesn't require an explanation that's pretty quick and to the point. You know, if you're going to call yourself a pinball podcast, talk about pinball at some point. Learn how to edit. Well, I heard a few podcasts that could really benefit from this technique, And Ron, I know you edit your show, so you can appreciate this. If you want to make your show move along smoothly and take out embarrassing things that make you sound unprofessional, like is this recording and stuff like that, please feel free to do so. It just makes your show sound a little more professional. That's it. Simple. Let's see. Number six, don't overstay your welcome. If you run out of things to say regarding the topic, bail out and sign off. Don't milk it with boring filler, such as, so how was your week? again. Just log off. Just wrap it up. There's no rule saying you have to talk for, you have to do a podcast for an hour, for two hours. Got nothing else to say? Then don't drag it out. This one's mine. This one's mine. Coming up. This one's yours. Number seven. Don't rip on other podcasters on your show. Yes, Bruce, this was directed at you. Other people are guilty of it. I just think You know, my mom always told me if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. And, you know, you heard my response last week. Fuck you. No, no, no. It was more like I like what I do and I do what I like. I do what I want. I do what I want. You got it. So that's pretty much it. Now, what I have to say about, well, before I shut everybody down on their witch hunt, do either of you have anything you want to say about that? I laughed my ass off during the whole thing. I know most of the podcast that you mentioned. Bruce got it. Ron said, well, I'll wait until the end to tell you what I think, and he never said anything. So now it's your chance. Yes, I did. Well, you said I was guilty of breaking my own rule, and that's not true because I'm not ripping on other podcasters because I have yet to do my show. So I am not a podcaster ripping on other podcasters. And the word rip would not be relevant here. I'm not ripping on anybody. I'm merely suggesting how you do a better show. It is not meant as a rip or a burn or a slap in the face. So anything else, John? I wasn't butthurt. I wasn't. I thought it was actually fucking funny because I know almost everyone you said. Editing sucks. That's all. It does suck. I mean, I will edit the show to the way I want a show to sound. And that's how I put my punctuation mark on the show. Because let's face it, Bruce is the entertaining one. I am the classic, this is the classic straight man comedian thing we're doing. That's exactly who I'm thinking of. You're the Abbott. And Bruce, do you know what? Back in the day, Abbott got 60%, Costello got 40%. Straight men always made more money. Yeah, unfortunately. Because good straight men were harder to find than the comedians. Just saying. Not in this case. No other problems. You're good with what I said. You understand it. No, I understand it. Okay. All right. Now, this is what's going to shut everybody down. Do you know how I spend my week listening to podcasts? I listen to every one of these podcasts judge my work for two years they get out their little scorecards Guardians of the Galaxy has come out let's grade it, what do you think about the art well I give it a 9 well I give it this, I give it that my work gets picked apart on a daily basis and it has been for two years now when I turn the tables and I critique your work you should have nothing to say because I've been your fodder for two years. I merely take an afternoon and write off a couple of tips and get chastised for it. Now, think about what you do. I'm not going to say for a living because nobody gets paid to do this, but your podcast as your hobby, something you want to do, you are guilty of the same thing. So if you want to chastise me, that's being a very, very big hypocrite. Guess what? You can listen to it. it's actually somewhat helpful to some of these podcasts, including our own, or you can just ignore it. Yeah, it just is what it is. It's out there for you to either use or not. I totally agree with you with, guess what? You've been criticized for years. Well, luckily, I don't think we've ever criticized you. Well, criticized doesn't mean good or bad. No, I don't think we've done either. So we're kind of neutral when it comes to your artwork. Yeah, you don't really do the, hey, this came out. Let's talk about all the different things about it. I think Batman 66, I think our critique was, it looks good. It doesn't play. That's what we said the first time we saw it. Well, it looks really nice, but we can't play a game on it. No. I mean, I think most of the opinions on Batman 66 were about the code and the fact that it was not anywhere near like alpha code when it first came out. But I do agree with your point. You know, you know, people need to look into the mirror and see like, oh, somebody's criticizing me. I got to be all defensive. But guess what? Most of these podcasters are being critical. Yeah. And it's not that that's not what I you know, it wasn't like a trap. Like, let's see if I critique them, then I can say this. I thought about that afterwards when everybody got all mad. I'm just like, oh, wait a minute. You know, for the past two years, I've been criticized for my work, good or bad. and then I do it and I get nailed to the cross like what the hell, that's bullshit so that's why I say it and I honestly think that no one should have any right to say anything at this point being that I just said that you criticized my work for two years I did it for an afternoon on you and you threw a fit so one of two things either don't criticize my work or understand exactly what you're doing and the impact that it has because if you've gone on and you've said, oh, well, I think Guardians of the Galaxy looks like clown vomit, and I'm supposed to be the Man of Steel here and go, well, that doesn't hurt my feelings, not at all. When I tell you don't be drunk and get on a podcast, don't start crying and going, he's picking on me! So that's it. That's all I got to say about that, boys. He said Man of Steel. I know. He is the Man of Steel. Tony Snow makes a deal. He's a cool exec with the hardest deal. Thank you. That's an old school Marvel cartoon. Do you guys remember those? Yep, I do. The ones where they just kind of like, the panels moved across the screen, but they didn't quite move. They just kind of slid it across. Yep. I love those actually. Now, I have another question for you, sir. Yes. I am going to sign up, Ron, for one of your monthly crap crates. Oh. Would you like to explain what the month, or would you like me to explain the monthly crap crate? Well, you can explain it, and then I'll field your questions, sir. Okay. This is an authentic Franchi monthly crap crate. Every month, enjoy a mystery box jam-packed with a bountiful bevy of Franchi's excessive discarded crap and useless junk and stuff that he's accumulated over the prior month. Tons of unwanted mystery minis, undesirable subscription box shit, or maybe some toys he's just tired of looking at. All this randomly and carelessly tossed in a box, far less cool than the example shown, which is a box of his face on each side with question marks all around it, and it says on the side, the Franchi box. It says, subscribers can never unsubscribe, and your card will automatically be charged the $99.99 monthly fee, plus $49.99 shipping and fondling, unless you die. items are non-refundable and most likely will suck i think ron needs this that was a rare afternoon that uh i just barely had the time to do something stupid it was fucking classic i loved it i belonged to two of them i still have the loot crate one it's a dx i just got one today actually it's full of sweet uh deadpool stuff that's cool i had another one that was uh based on horror movies and I got nothing but garbage on that like you know oh it's an exclusive yeah it's an exclusive zombie hand bottle opener you know and then the next week it would be something equally as useless and I'm like look I want like cool shit with like Freddy Krueger on it and Leatherface and like all these cool horror movies and all they did was like do this like you know it's a generic haunted house toy like I don't want this shit so I quit that one but yeah I think that's what probably spawned me to do that, like, you know, this box of useless shit. And trust me, I literally have, like, shoeboxes in my garage where my desk will accumulate little toys over the months, and then I get too many, and I throw them all in a box and put new ones out. So I do have a shit ton of crap that I could give away. I should probably seriously do it. Well, I see your desk. In one of your pictures, I see your desk. You don't see above my desk. I've got shelving around the top part of my walls that have those Funko Pop vinyl figures and a vintage Batman collection. That's just my work office. My home's got a bunch of other shit too. Now I see you have a Hellboy liquor bottle. Yeah, it's cinnamon whiskey. Yes, have you tried that shit? Yeah. It's terrible. I like it, but I'm not a big drinker. I don't appreciate a single malt, you know, scotch or anything like that. So my drinks are always like the ones with umbrellas and fruit hanging out of the top. But I do like the bottle. The bottle is cool. Well, yeah, I'm a huge Hellboy fan. I've been a Hellboy fan since before the movie. Yes, it's a great bottle, and it's a perfect, you know, perfect water, especially the writing on the back is really cool, too. Yeah. You carry that at your bar? We used to. I couldn't get the shit away at the end. because I'm a big Marvel nut, so I'm like, ooh, let's try Hellboy. One's like, yeah, it's this much money. Okay, great. I can get rid of this in a second. Towards the end, I'm sitting there going, who wants to try this? And I'm like, well, how much is it? It's free. And one guy would take a swig and go, oh, boy. And they're like, yeah, you want another one? No, no, no, no. We're good. We're good. One's good enough. I see why it's free. Yeah. Hellboy's not Marvel. Hellboy's Dark Horse. Oh, that's right. That's right. I forgot about that. You're fired. How about a Hellboy pinball machine? See, bringing it back to pinball. Oh, man. That would be awesome. That would be cool. I have a list. I made a list of things that I think would make good pinball machines. One of them that I don't think I'm going to get anybody to make, you know, Charlie from Spooky, if you're listening, this is right up your alley. I know I can mention this because I know for a fact that Kapow or Stern or anybody else isn't going to touch this one, and I think they're not seeing its potential. the General Mills Monster Cereals. Count Chocula, Frankenberry, and Booberry. There you go. Wouldn't that be a... Everybody knows that. Even kids know that because they're introduced to that every Halloween. It comes around every year. They're just fun characters. I think I'd make a great fun pinball. You would. I agree. That'd be kind of cool. I like that. Ron's been quiet through this whole thing. He's so curious to our... Very nice, Bruce. thank you. You are so considerate. And compassion. Don't forget the fucking compassion there, buddy. Compassion. How long have we known each other now? A one, a two, a three. Oh no, that's the count. I'm sorry. What the hell did Count Chocula say in the commercials? He did the Bela Lugosi voice, but he didn't have a catchphrase. What are some of the other themes that you'd like to see in a pinball machine? I would love to see, though I don't think it'd also ever get made, a strange Brew, the Bob and Doug McKenzie movie. Oh, that'd be friggin' sweet. You'd have Canadians lining up at the border for it. Jeff Teolis would buy it. Let's not forget our Canadian friends. They're far cooler than we are, that's for sure Smarter too Yeah now that I think about it as I going down this list I thinking like this is probably really kind of a crap list No it not That one a great one I like the Grinch, too. Like the classic Grinch cartoon? The classic cartoon, right. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, not the Jim Carrey shit. No, no, no. Oh, God, no, no, no, no. I'd love to see more horror movie titles. You just don't get that anymore. And even if it's already been done, you know, I don't think it's been done well. Like, was a Freddy Krueger game ever any good? Oh, no. Yeah, it's a stinker. So do it, you know. They did Pirates of the Caribbean again. Just don't put a triple spinning disc on it, and I think you're good. Too soon? Oh, you're critical. Sorry, you're being critical. What about Scooby-Doo? Scooby-Doo, my wife would be all in on that. Yeah, I think Scooby-Doo's a good one. Well, a lot of the Hanna-Barbera stuff. There's tons of characters in that. All-Star Laugh Olympics. Power Puff Girls. Captain Caveman? Captain Caveman would be rocking. With a shaker motor when he hits stuff. Yeah, the All-Star Laugh Olympics, because it has all the Hanna-Barbera people in it. That would rock. Yeah, and let's follow suit of what Stern did. They were designing a game with Trudeau. Trudeau turned out to be a creep, so they scrapped it. So I say, all right, let's pretend that Trudeau's creature from the Black Lagoon never happened and redo that, too. Because I want to do the art for that. I love the Black Lagoon. That would be cool. And I don't know. I haven't played that game a lot, though it's one I want to get because I love the character. And I have sort of a mini collection of that going at home, too. But it seemed like every time I played it, it was, believe it or not, over the top. Like, I think too much is going on in that game. It's really hard to see where your ball goes. Yeah, some parts of it does, but, you know, it's a good game. Actually, it's underrated. People think it's the basic rules, but there's a lot of higher rules when it comes to multiball and how to increase your multiball. Wait a minute, increase your multiball. Do you mean multiplier? No, not your multiplier. How do you increase your multiball? I want to hear that. multiball jackpot, the jackpot. Okay. Yep. Wiseass. See what I got to put up with? Exactly. Hey, man, I'm going to call you out if you're going to call me out. Increase your multiball. That might be the name of the podcast now. Increase your multiball. The size of my multiballs have been increased. I already have the title for this episode. All right. It's called Christopher Franchi's a Big Fat Jerk. Christopher Franchi's a Big Jerk, Jerky, Biggie, Jerky, and a whole lot more. The big old, fictive, and jickey, big, too wild. The boys and girls. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. You sound like Cartman when you do that. That is Cartman. So, wow, wait a minute. We found an impression. You do well. Yeah. That's rare. That's one. That's one. No, there's two. There's two. Oh, yeah. What's the other one? Yeah, that's the most obscure one. He is the best Space Ace impersonation ever. Dexter. Dexter from Space Ace. Call me Ace. What? What the hell is Space Age? Oh, my God. Oh. I was thinking of the guy from Kiss. Like, apparently not. No, no, no. It's not East, really. And Chris does like Kiss, so we're another... This is Gene Simmons from Kiss, Bruce. Come on. Come on. Serious, come on. Hi, this is Gene Simmons of Kiss. I'd like you to visit my panty room. Oh, God. For a small fee. Yes, for a big fee. I'm sending VIP packages to my panty room right now for $49.95. I worked for that guy for four years. Oh, God. Yeah. No, Space Ace is the second game from Don Bluth after Dragon's Lair of a laser missile. Oh, okay. I don't think I've ever seen that. Oh, it's great. I know Dragon's Lair. I'm familiar with the way it works. It's actually better than Dragon's Lair because there's multiple ways you can do it. As opposed to Dragon's Gate, where there's only one way you can do it. Yep. Yeah. So, what's new with you, Chris? What's new with me? How was my week? Well, let's see. I'm going to tell you guys how to make this really great lasagna. And then I went clothes shopping. It was great. I got these cool shirts. How was my week? Well, I plan to see that we'll spread like fire in the pinball community. I told Joe Kamenkow this week that he needs to seriously consider starting his own pinball company for the amount of requests that have come down the line this week. I'm not sure what's going on. Of course, I can't talk about titles or anything like that, but I wouldn't be surprised if something interesting happened as far as manufacturing goes in the next year or so. I don't know. So, yeah, I've been busy. I've been working on two titles at the same time that are supposed to be coming out in October at Expo. And I actually have just found out about another title that is going to get weaseled in at the end there. I think that's going to be what we're going to be starting on next. I just found out, like, I don't know, two, three days ago. but he's got a lot of ideas and he seems to be putting a lot of his energy focusing it towards pinball these days whereas when we did batman 66 you know we kind of like did it and it was done and that was it so i don't know i think joe might have some some big plans of brewing but i couldn't say what i couldn't say when so you may be working on three games simultaneously? No, I think once we finish up these, yeah, I don't think I can do three. For one of the two games I'm working on now, we found out about a we'll call it a ghost deadline. A deadline that didn't exist until three weeks before we found out we had to meet it. You know, months ahead of schedule, and so I spent a few sleepless nights buttoning up some playfield art to get it approved, and that was no fun at all. So I still got a lot of work to do on those two games to get everything ready for October. And, you know, and all of this is just kapow, really. You know, Stern also has plans for things they want me to do. I might have to quit the day job pretty soon. So let's see. I know you can't give away much, but let's see. The two games you're currently working on now, how would you say the licensor has been as far as the approvals? Pain to work with? Easy to work with? I have had nothing but luck with licensors since I started both of them have been completely fine for the first time both of them asked for one minor change for Guardians there were no changes and for Batman there were no changes basically what I did they approved and it went out the way it was and as I said the two changes that were requested this time around were extremely minor to the point where I was like, really? You want me to change that? Okay, whatever. Yeah, no big deal. Move the character's hand two inches to the left. They just asked me to swap out an item, a sort of very meaningless item in the artwork for something else. So, yeah, it was very minor, and I couldn't. And the newspaper was invented. You know, it was just created. It wasn't anything that was borrowing off a copyrighted property or anything. So they asked me to take it out and put something else in, so I did. So that's kind of a clue. We know it's probably not Disney or like Lucasfilm if they're easy to work with. Well, one of them, they're both easy to work with. One of them was extremely difficult to get, and the other was, I guess, extremely easy to get. All right. I don't know. I don't know how well I play the hint game. I'll probably say something I regret. Every time I open my mouth, even though I'm extremely careful, I seem to give some crappy little hint away by accident. And then next week I'm getting calls from Stern like, why don't you shut up already? So you don't need Stern's permission to be on podcasts or anything like that? Not really. They've never said that, but they've called me out a few times like, oh, we heard that, you know. And usually I'm pretty good. It makes trying to have a smooth conversation difficult because I have to pause and think, you know, I can't say this. I can say that. And, you know, so it trips me up a bit. But I've never actually made any mistakes, I don't think. And as Bruce can attest, thinking is not good. Yeah. Well, Stern's point is nobody should be on a podcast ever because then they just don't have to sweat it. That's true. Well, you know, actually, this all segues into a very nice thing we can discuss, which is the podcast I'm going to be doing. You're doing a podcast? I'm going to do a podcast. Wow. It's actually going to be a live radio show that will be available in podcast form afterwards. and I just talked to Zach at Stern and or not which one of the sharps is at Stern is it Josh? No it's Zach it is Zach see I had it right and then thought I got it wrong I've apologized Zach's got a Zach Josh jar in his office you know so every time you accidentally call the wrong brother you gotta put a dollar in the jar I might as well just start writing checks. Anyway, talk to Zach and Stern is kind of more or less going to endorse this show. They're going to make it available as well. They'll promote it and the guys at Stern are behind it. I should probably explain what I'm going to be doing so that you can appreciate what it means to have Stern's support. what I wanted to do was a lot of the old guard is going to be falling off soon in pinball a lot of the older guys that have been around since the Williams days and all that they're going to be gone soon they're not necessarily going to be dead but they'll be retired and I wanted to sort of do a definitive interview with these guys so that you could get a chance to know them rather than when somebody has them on they talk about whatever they're working on at the time and you know how did you get into pinball what's your favorite machine and you know the same old stuff some of that you know what i don't know we'll get get into you know how did you get into pinball but we'll certainly do you know it's sort of a career spanning interview and then give them an opportunity to do things like what i'm calling a dream theme dream team where they pick a theme that they'd really like to do that they haven't had a chance to and then from all the people over the past five, six decades or whatever like that, assemble a team that you would most like to work with to create this machine. And that will give you kind of an idea of who their heroes are and who they looked up to coming into pinball. And I just really want to do an interesting interview where you get a chance to know these people better than what you're presented with at an expo or what you've heard on a podcast. You know, I just don't think anybody's really given them their due in that sense. Not that any of those interviews have been lousy or anything, but I just kind of want to do the definitive interview. Like if you ever wanted to know about some guy, you know, maybe this is five years down the road and, you know, George Gomez is retired or whatever. You know, you could listen to this interview and you'd get pretty much everything you need to know out of it and learn about the person, too. Not so much just the work, but the person as well. So it's basically going to be a two-hour live radio show where I sit down Dick Cabot style or Larry King. I'm going to have to get some suspenders. So that's basically what I'm doing. It's going to be called Silver Ballers, Legends of the Pinball Creators. And, you know, hopefully we'll get some funny stories out of these people, too, about, you know, behind-the-scenes stuff that has happened over the years that most people don't know about. And no, I did not steal your name, Bruce, because silver ballers actually has a few different meanings in that. Obviously, a silver ball is what you play pinball with. A baller is somebody who is awesome at whatever they do. You know, successful person, which these people certainly are. Silver implies gray hair, old people, though George Gomez has a lovely head. OK, well, that's me then. Yeah, so that's where that came from. It actually came from a design, a t-shirt design that I did for Stern that they ended up not using. It just said Silver Ballers, and it was kind of like an old-school looking. Actually, it was the same type. If you go to the Facebook page, which I think is Silver Ballers Podcast, or Silver Ballers Pinball Podcast, I don't know. If you find it on Facebook, that artwork is basically the T-shirt ever so slightly remodeled to work for the TV show, because I didn't have a lot of time to do it. But that should start. The first episode should be about 30 days, and it'll be well-promoted. You'll know where to go and where to tune in if you want to listen live. will not be going to be calling questions because you know, you give the possibility for an idiot to come in and say something stupid. So I can't do that. I might take questions ahead of time and ask them, you know, if something like that might work. And hope to, most likely, probably, but cannot be 100% have George Gomez on first. yeah I looked it up it goes to the Facebook page Silver Ballers just a Silver Ballers podcast Legends of the Pinball Creators yeah which is also a play on words because these guys are legends but they're going to talk about some legends of their career as well so it should be fun and hey you know what if you want to criticize it and tell me not to drink during it just kidding yeah it should be fun uh i've i did a podcast for four years had nothing to do with pinball i could best describe it as a morning show at night it was a obviously had a you know comedic slant and uh did whatever we wanted really for two hours horsed around on a weekly basis i had a couple of mainstays like we did a roundtable rants thing where we just talked about people that pissed us off because the world's full of people that piss you off. And what else did we do? We did a game show every week. Game show like, I think you guys could probably take over the game show. It'd have to be branded with my name because I need full credit, but we did this game show where you know what, I don't remember the name of the website now, but I had this book called Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy. And it was about misinterpreted lyrics about what people thought they were saying as opposed to what they were actually saying. And this is usually, you know, before the internet days when you couldn't just look up lyrics like that. You just heard it on the AM radio and went, what did he just say? And so how we made a game out of it is that I would play a host, and we had three or four other people on the radio show, and I would say just in a regular normal voice what the misinterpreted lyric was. And if you could guess what the song was by that, you got two points. if you couldn't figure it out, I would sing it to the tune of the song which is pretty funny because I can't sing then if you got it, you got one point and obviously if you didn't get it at that point, you didn't get any points and I'd have to explain it so you would sing the lyric the wrong way I would sing it to the tune of the song but with the wrong lyrics the misinterpreted lyrics so if you said something like Big Ol' Jet had a light on right, I'd have to if they didn't get it just by those words I'd have to go, big old dead Atlanta. Don't carry me too far away. I'll tell you what my favorite one was. This will give you an idea of how this show went. Somebody actually thought this was the lyric. And we'll play it the proper way. I'll just say it straight first, see if you get it. If not, I'll sing it for you. I'm trying to remember what it was now. Fail. Okay. It was Bonjour Super Hombre. Any idea? I don't know Is it a Kiss song? Well Bruce would know it Do I gotta sing it? You gotta sing it Bonjour Super Hombre I still don't know it Pour some sugar on me Oh god How does somebody get that? Yeah You're mixing languages there You got French and Spanish Bonjour Super Hombre I don't know but that's what somebody thought that was so that's a good play I think that would be a nice non-pinball game to play so that you could not always talk about pinball and validate or not validate violate one of my rules that you must adhere by so how's the cooking going Bruce is my burger ready yet just finished alright excellent I'm actually going to stay in the kitchen because it's quieter in the kitchen Ketchup only. Ketchup only. Very important, Bruce. Eat my curly fries. And don't be pouring that cheap-ass ketchup into the Heinz bottle. No, no, I am a Heinz boy, so no, that will never happen. Nope, I made wings, boneless wings, and nachos, which I hate. Can't you at least call them pinball nachos so that we're not talking off-subject? Yes, it's pinball nachos, of course. Very nice. With our Monster Bash Burger. There you go. Do you do it? You see, you should do that. You should have the Monster Bash Burger. What other, okay, what pinball-related food items could you put on your menu, Bruce? Well, you could have a double burger and call it the Hercules. That's that big, clunky pinball. Let's see. We can have that as our next segment. The Hexagon Hamburger. That would work. Yeah. It's shaped like a hexagon. Yeah, you can get them in that shape. I know. Franchi Burger. The Franchi Burger. We actually have one guy comes in all the time. he orders the Al Burger, which is double bacon and onion. And it's a what burger? The Al Burger, because the only guy that orders it is this guy named Al. He orders it every day. Well, that's nice and pinball. Yes, it is. How about, like, some sea witch soup? That sounds so appealing. Mmm. What did you do this week, Ron? What did I do this week? Besides editing, editing, editing. Yeah, because this is going to air. I'm having a great holiday week Memorial Day was great The Iron Maiden launch party At Rock Fantasy was awesome You won Yes I won I'm predicting I won It was great Lots of Iron Maiden Fun after party after the tournament Great time was had by all Several machines broke But I fixed them Wow, you're like a monster. I'm a maniac. Yeah, I'm a maniac. What did I do else? Let's see. I play lots of pinball. That's it, Bruce. What did you do in this upcoming week? I worked on pinball machines at the bar. I have to pack up someone's Quicksilver. No, you packed it up, you see. No, I'm going to pack it up because I'm psychic. I'm psycho. I mean, psychic. and I'm going to repair a lot of machines. I can see that coming this week because we're going to be so beaten down on the Memorial Day weekend where everyone wants to not go out and have burgers on the grill. They want to just come here and play pinball and drink heavily. That's the easy way. You don't have to make it yourself. Exactly. That's why I tell everyone, come here and let me make your food and let me enjoy your pinball on me. Have a Franchi burger. Have a Franchi burger. Hexagons are us. Shit, Tex, the concert was. Isn't anybody going to ask me how my week was? We are going to. That's next. How was your week, Mr. Franchi? Well, in addition to doing a lot of pinball art, I accepted an invitation to a pinball invitational. Ooh. So let me tell you folks, if you'd like to get on the Trash Talkers Invitational, apparently all you need to do is write some pinball tips, and Chuck Webster gets a hold of you and invites you to the Trash Talker Pinball Invitation. Wait, no, you're not eligible yet. How am I not eligible? Because you have not done a pinball podcast yet. I've discussed pinball on my podcast. Yeah, but no, you have not done a true pinball podcast. Well, are you going to tell Chuck? Oh, I tell fucking Chuck all the time. Yes, we are. We need to get Chuck on. Yes, I think this is now the last straw. This is the last. Chuck needs to get. The committee must bring their slacky in, Chuck. Yeah, Chuck. And must come before the tribunal of the Slam Bill podcast. Come before. Kneel before us. But, I mean, he's. For my pleasures. Exactly. Kiss my ring or whatever. Before annihilation. Oh, gosh. Kiss my ring, bitch. Yeah. Kiss my Ming Ring. Yes. Ming Ring. I mean, and he keeps like, oh, you're going to be next. No, you're not. You're going to be next. No, you're not. And just like podcast after podcast. They just announced that Tilt Through is in. Yeah. They do like one podcast a year. Fucking Betty Crocker is going to come in next. Because as you say, I don't officially even have a podcast yet and got invited. So that's the ultimate slap in the face. That's ridiculous. That is the ultimate slap in the face. I'm ready for fucking Betty Crocker's fucking pinball podcast to come on and they'll get fucking taken on right away. Chuck, this is not right anymore. Well, hey, you know, I need two wingmen. I know where you guys should get in in the back door. Oh my Oh my Oh Well I would be honored if we are not accepted I would be honored if we were not accepted We were not accepted I'd be honored to go on Mr. Franchise's team. Oh, what, as a ringer? As a ringer. In all fairness, if Elwin and Sharp can't make it, you guys are in. Yeah. I'd say great. Yeah. I think his ringers are going to be a little higher caliber. I got pull at stern. What can I say? Yeah. No, no, no, Bruce. We get in as podcasters or we're not in. I ain't nobody's ringer. I just don't believe we're still not in yet. This is ridiculous. Well, I am demanding Mr. Webster. We are demanding the committee. I'm sorry, the representative of the committee. The slacky. I'm calling him the slacky. He's the fucking slacky. Chuck Webster, we demand your presence on the Slamtail podcast. Not in four or five weeks. Next. Well, not next week. Yeah, next week, because when this airs in edited, correct form. So try that again. Next week. June. June. You will be ours in the beginning of June. Not no middle or end. June. June 7th podcast. You better be on. Yep. Bruce, you sure you don't want Chuck Webster in the end? Oh, my. I got that before Bruce there. Bruce was a little late on that. I was like, huh? But Chris is already, I mean, he was already trash-talking me on head-to-head for no reason. Who was? You were. You. Oh, I didn't trash-talk you. I just said that. Mr. Ron duped me when we were playing No Fear. I whipped your ass on No Fear, and you didn't even mention it. No, I mentioned it. I came into my office at the point where you mentioned it because you did talk about it, but it was at the end of the show. Yeah, I put you over, and then I get heat for it. I don't know what's going on. It's ridiculous. Well, if I may be fair and explain myself, I suck at pinball. So the fact that I beat a master like yourself. Masturbator? I have to. Well, that's the case for all masters. Woo-hoo! You know, I have to brag a little because I'll never get the chance again. I know I just walked away from that pinball machine going how the fuck did that happen especially when he owns it and you've never played it before that was your no fear but I own a no fear I was going to say because I was going to give you shit for that crappy right flipper yeah the right flipper had issues that's of course why I lost I just couldn't adjust I adjusted and kicked some ass crappy players are better adjusting to malfunction games everyone knows that What? Oh, okay. Come on, Bruce, gotta get ready. For what? Trash talker, man. I'm telling you, maybe he doesn't think our trash talking is good enough. I've been fucking trash talking this whole fucking time. Actually, my jaw is getting tired. They all suck. I have not seen one good player. Maybe one I've seen. Maybe one. Oh, man, I'm just, ugh. Tired? Ugh, pissed at fucking Chuck. I mean, how long has he been dragging this out now? This has been months. I felt bad. I felt bad when he called me or he contacted me and said that. Because the first thing I thought of was you guys. And I'm like, aw. But then I relished telling you. Speaking of relish, is my burger done yet, Bruce? No, it's not done yet. But I'm actually doing something to it as we speak. Oh, I didn't ask for mayo. Extra mayo, it comes. Wow. Wow. The secret sauce is coming out. We have definitely degraded to our normal territory. Yes, we have. Well, that's what happens when you have me on. So I've just about gone through our whole format. I mean, I had Trash Talker Invitational. I have some stuff. Oh, wait a minute. You have some stuff? I have some stuff. Okay, what do you have? Stuff that you're not putting on my burger? Yes. We're putting jalapenos on your burger and everything. We're going to make it all spicy for you. No, I have a new grail to find. Since we found our last grail, I now have a new grail for the people to help me find. You just keep... Okay. Since we found Gammatron, we have found Quicksilver, we have found Stargazer, and we found your cheetah, it is now we need a piece of toast. We need a piece of toast. We need a catacomb. Okay, why? Why do you want a catacomb? Because it's rare. It's rare. Because it's rare. You sound like a pinsider now. You realize that, don't you? I want to buy the rarest game. I want to buy the rarest, most expensive game and never play it. But I play my games. You know that. I put them at the bar. You want a game that doesn't make money? Put catacomb at the bar. Yes, exactly. No one will understand the stupid bag of towel. No one will get it. They'll just let it sit there. It'll be a perpetual life. I want it. Oh, I can see it now. Next week I'm going to have fucking pinball bar tips by Franchi. Yes. How to run your pinball bar, not into the ground. Into the ground. Yeah. Don't put catacomb in it. People will be walking in, oh, God, catacomb, walk right back out. Yep. I've helped myself, though, with a brand-new Iron Maiden. So what does that tell you? That's true. That's true. But I'm sure if you put the catacomb right next to the Iron Maiden, it's not going to help. No one's going to play the catacomb. You know what's next to the Iron Maiden, don't you, Ristoran? I don't know where you put the Iron Maiden. The oldest game I have. Stars? You got it, baby. Okay. Two good games right next to each other. Yeah. Although, I mean, Iron Maiden's really going to have to... I mean, it's hard to... It's hard to slack. Yeah. It's going to be hard to match a stars level. I know. Stars is awesome. There can only be one stars. But that's the next holding rail. That or a BMX. Oh, okay. BMX. Wait a minute. You know who owns a BMX? Fucking bastard. He keeps on shutting us out. Chuck Webster owns a BMX. I know he does. You need to bring the BMX, Chuck. Only then will we forgive you. This will be Borgzad Is this the bicycle BMS? I wonder if John Borg has one He still does that I know he does He lives for that stuff That guy's nuts He is Some of the stuff I still see him do at his age Oh my god Yeah but he can pull it off The guy is thin as a rail and full of energy It's insane I'm so jealous Me too I'm just a fat bastard Thank you Have a nice day I get paid to sit on my ass all day. I've got an excuse. Exactly. But it doesn't make it good. Ron, see me. I have lost 22 pounds. I think Ron was actually surprised how stout I looked at Alan. Oh, my. Oh, my. So what kind of games does Christopher Franchi like to play? Well, my favorite old school is Captain Fantastic. Cool. I think just because of the artwork it's not that spectacular of a game but the artwork is I grew up playing that game in lobbies of ice rinks my entire childhood because I played hockey for 30 years I like Captain Fantastic the only games I own are Guardians, Batman 66 and Batman 89 so my collection is quite weak but I'm looking to expand that I also have a creature from the Black Lagoon slot machine 3D video slot, so that's fun so what do you want in your collection next? what do I want in my collection? I want a creature even though I know it's marred now it's not marred, there's so many people that were involved with it it's not marred True. Yeah, I'd love a creature. Boy, you put me on the spot. I wasn't prepared. Yes! Fail. You're used to this as a podcaster. You're in the podcasting world. You've got to be up on your toes. I'm not a tournament player. My picks are more based on the art or the property or whatever. It's not so much the gameplay. Does it have a super jackpot bonus and all of that kind of crap? It's more of a visual thing. I would love to have an old EM with a space theme. I saw some great ones. I went to this guy named Joshua Clay. He does this Ann Arbor Pinball Festival every year. Joshua Clay Harrell. I don't know how this thing works, but he's got a VFW hall in the middle of nowhere in Michigan, just outside of Ann Arbor. and it's got like four surrounding buildings and each one is jam-packed with pinball machines and they're there year-round, but he opens up the doors so you can play them once a year. Yep. And he's just got an amazing collection and that's where I got to play Iron Maiden and I got to play Stars based on your guys' recommendation. I did seek that one out and play it. Nice, nice. And enjoyed it. You know what other game I want I don't know if it was just a freak good game, but at Texas Pinball Festival, I played Spider-Man, and I don't know which one it was, but I think there was a Sandman figure on it. Okay, so it's the newer one. It could be either the newest release or it could be the 07 release. Yeah, it's either Vault or the 07. Yeah. Was it cartoony or was it based off the movies? It was cartoony. Okay, so that's the newer one. Yep. That's the Vault. I had a blast playing that game it was so much fun I could do no wrong I don't know if it was just I had a lucky good game but I didn't sit down expecting to have an awesome game I can't wait to play this game it was next to one that my daughter was playing so I just played it and had a friggin blast and I tend to like there you go you ask me what kind of games I like the old Hulk, the old Superman the old Spider-Man like the really old, you know, the E.M. Just because, like, I don't know why, but visually, you know, it's just such a nostalgic look, and I love the old superheroes. I grew up on that stuff, you know, the old artwork. I used to have, that's right, I forgot to mention, I used to have, and I didn't realize that I had gold or I wouldn't have got rid of it, but I used to have an old Flight 2000. Oh! Oh! Yeah, and I don't even know what I did with it. I had it right before I got married. And somehow it disappeared. I know it probably was my ex-wife going, like, yeah, putting that in the house. So it probably had to go, and I don't remember what I did with it. But I should have put up a bigger fight. I would have. Because that was an impressive multiball. It was fun. Like, yeah, it's a fun game. Oh, excuse me. Isn't that the first game that Stern did that had talking in it or something? Yeah. Yes, sir. That is correct. Hey, Bruce. I thought of an idea. Let's go over through. How many superhero games can you think of, and how many do we think are any good? Okay. So we've got Superman for Atari. Yes. That's actually Atari's best game, in my opinion. Yes, it is. Ever play that one, Chris? Yeah, I just played it at the Ann Arbor Pinball Festival at Joshua Clay's Place. It's a big wide body. Yep. That's Steve Ritchie's second game. Yes. Oh, really? I didn't know it was a Steve Ritchie game. Yep. Don't ask him about it. You might not be happy about it. Oh, he likes sea. Well, from conversations with him, he said it just took a lot of White Woods to get that. So let's see. Yeah, Hulk from Gottlieb. Hulk, Gottlieb. It sucks. Spider-Man, Gottlieb. Sucks. Iron Man. What? Wait a minute. There were none between Iron Man and Hulk? What else would you think of? There's got to be some other superheroes in there. There's Batman. They made a 89 Batman. Batman. I've got that one. I can't remember even playing that one. I can't even make an opinion. It almost looks like Phantom of the Opera. It's got the Batcave up the middle and then the skee-ball Joker thing in the left orbit area. It's got 12 GMD. So you've got Batman Forever. Which, I mean, the flippers aren't Absolutely the strongest ever. It just can't make anything. Okay. But I still actually like it. I've never played one that fully worked, but the parts that did work were cool. Spider-Man. Stern. Excellent game. Yes. Iron Man. Excellent game. Hulk, because of the Avengers. And Avengers, you know, so you have a couple different versions there. All right. Avengers. Eh. Eh. I like it. I haven't played that one. Is that it for the superheroes? Nope, Guardians of the Galaxy. Piece of shit. It's all in Marvel. It's a comic book. It's based off of X-Men. Underrated game. Did you guys have nothing to say about Guardians of the Galaxy? You kind of skimmed over that one. What happened? Actually, I've only played it once. Yeah, I played it at a launch party. I've only played it once. When it first came out and it was Grootball, or basically all you did was hit Groot all day? I still have Grootball. I have not updated the code since I got it. Jesus. Wow. Fail. Oh, you want to hear something great? My Batman 66 was not updated until Lyman gave me the code at Texas Pinball Festival a couple months ago. I never updated it once. Wow. Wow. How did it even flip? Damn. Originally? Well, see, that's what was cool. It was like night and day. I went along with everyone else and had these little updates. I went from suck game to awesome game just in the matter of putting in a little SanDisk chip in my computer. And it is amazing. It is amazing. You're liking your Batman 66. Oh, I love it. I love it. I think that code has turned that game around so much, and a lot of other people think so, too. But if there wasn't for that Pinside contingency who can't seem to ever change their mind once they decide it sucks, that's it. I think a lot more people would come around to that game. It's Lyman's masterpiece, I think. So let me guess, Mr. Franchi. You do not like Pinside by those comments right there. I don't like anything where people make it a point to just try and outdo other people's insults. Mm-hmm. You know, and there's a lot of that on there. You know, it's not all bad. No, it's not all bad. Yeah, I think that the general idea is awesome. You know, there's a place where you can go where everybody likes pinballs there and you can talk. But, you know, you just read enough of that crap where someone's just being rude for the sake of trying to be funny. You know, and I get that every time one of, you know, my games comes out. You know, there'll be one guy that doesn't like it and he'll make some wisecrack about it. And then everything that follows are people just trying to outdo the humor of his wisecrack. It's very toxic. Yeah, and that's just, you know, I mean, no one's got time for that. You know, I don't need that in my life. But it did, I can't remember the guy's name, and it sucks. I wish I could, but I know he does the, what's the podcast with the, not EM, what's the podcast with the initials? Two Southern guys. They also talk about video games, too. Oh, not the Eclectic. No, not the Eclectic. No, not that one. Oh, Broken Token. Broken Token. Okay. Yeah, Brent and Whitney. I forget which one it was. I contacted them through Pinside because one of them was advertising that they had an 89 Batman and an 89 Batman play field for sale. Okay. And I've got a couple of spots on my play field that are just beat to shit where the ball drops out of a ramp and, like, just all the paint has gone off the play field. And I asked him, I said, you know, I'll pay you, you know, whatever it is. Like, is there any chance you could take a good straight-on photo of these two areas on the play field so that I could make a vinyl sticker patch to put over? and I swear it wasn't an hour later, and the guy had sent me photos, didn't want anything in return, was super nice, helpful about it, and so now I have the art, because I could not find a good picture of that play field anywhere, especially in high res. For such an old game, you can't find a straight-on shot. This was, I think, the right in lane, just not a popular spot on the play field for a photograph. So, yeah, I've been searching for years, and he helped me out. That was awesome. So, you know, there's definitely a ton of good people in the hobby that I've met over the past couple of years. But, you know, I wouldn't say I'm not a fan of Pinside. I just wish they would clean it up. Yeah, I think it needs a big douche. Yeah, I mean, there's not too many. I can't imagine there's too many, like, 21-year-olds on that. And I don't mean to put every 21-year-old to shame, but those are mostly, those are the people who would come in and just talk shit. So you know you've got 40-year-old men acting like children, basically. Yep. You know, they probably like to be with some guys. I don't know about that. Yeah, and that's a shame. Like, let's get past that and enjoy the hobby. There's other ways to get attention or to be funny than to insult people. I haven't even gone on to see I heard poor Jeremy's getting slammed down there for his artwork on Iron Maiden and from what I've seen that's completely undeserving no I totally agree and people just don't care you've spent a year of your life doing this and you know you're going to put it out there and you know there's going to be people that say shit about it and that still doesn't make it okay for every ten comments that were good about Guardians, there was one bad one, and it still kind of stung. It's not like I took it personally. It was just like you want to please everybody. You're getting paid to do a job that it's not for you. It's like I'm not designing this so that I like it. I'm designing this so that everybody will like it. And when someone doesn't, it just kind of sucks. And when they say it in a shitty, immature way, it sucks even more. We would never say anything shitty or immature. Never. Well, shitty, but definitely mature. Guess what? Everyone thinks a bar is so easy and that kind of stuff. I try to make everyone happy, and you're never going to make everyone happy. I used to work for two people that I'm good friends with, and they own six businesses. And I would do all the graphic design work for their different businesses. And every one of them, every one of them, I would see all of these complaints and people trying to get money while you tripped over your doorstep. I want to eat shit. The burger was lousy. And then one comment later, the burger was awesome. Yeah, you can't win. Yeah, and nobody takes the time to write something nice. No, no, it's very hard. I went to a fucking silver ball saloon and had an awesome time. They haven't got time for that. But the people who didn't have enough ice in their drink are going to go to your whatever that damn website is. Yelp. Yeah, Yelp. It's awful. Don't even go there. They don't give you enough ice. It's bullshit. What the hell is a Franchi burger? It's all about this fucking hexagon thing. What the hell? Yeah. If I wanted a hexagon burger, I'd play pinball. God damn it. That's how I do it. I do artists and designers for my burgers for pinball. There you go. Would the Gomez Burger have like sort of a southwestern flair? Maybe. And the Elwynn Spicy Fries. Hey, you guys would get this because you're of my generation. The Lyman Burger comes with a Sprite. Nice. That's what they used to call the flavor, Lyman, because it's lemon and lime. Yeah, lemon and lime. Yep. This is a good exercise. Food items. What food items are associated? With different pinball personalities. Yeah, I like this. Well, let's think of a... Okay, what about Steve Ritchie? Loudmouth? You need a steak. You need the biggest, beefiest thing. Steak with mushrooms and everything. Loaded. This is the Ritchie. The Oscar fans out there. He's the King of Flow. Yes. So do you want something that has like a... I don't know, like a chocolate volcano dessert? There you go. It's got chocolate flowing out of volcano. Yep. We can ask our 97 listeners to chime in. Well, Borg's easy. You just do the cheeseburger. Bacon cheeseburger. Bacon cheeseburger. I like that. No, not burger. Borg. Borg. I know, Borg. Let's see. What else? Borg. Borg. A little Swedish chef. Thank you. Hey. Yes. I actually feel like that sometimes when I'm cooking. So you got chickens and you just grab them. So who else can we do? Who's the guy who did the dialed in? Forget his name. Pat Lawler. Oh, Pat Lawler. Let's see. What would Pat Lawler have? No, no, no. I know the one. Gary Stern, it would just be a bottle of vodka. Yep. Done. And Joe Camacow, just any alcohol there is. Done. Oh, yeah, that's true. Yeah. Oh, I know. Well, he's stop and go, right? Yep. So what would make you go quickly after eating? Mexican food. Yep. You got it. So he be some kind of Mexican Stop and go A wet burrito That just sounds like toilet Wet burrito Luckily none of these are served at the Silver Bowl Saloon. Thank you very much. I like that. We'll have to think of some more. I like this. This is a good news. Hey, all 97 listeners. 97 listeners. We're probably going to 96 after this. The send... Do you want to do a Facebook? That would be better for mail, I think. Mail. Mail. Use our mail ball bag well. The mail ball bag. SlamTillPodcast at gmail.com. That's SlamTillPodcast at gmail.com. Send us some suggestions for food items, pinball-related food items, like the ones we just said. The best ones might be used at the Silver Ball Saloon itself. Yep. I like that. So if we like, like you might see the Franchi Burger at the Silver Ball Saloon. Yep, you might. And people will be like, what the hell is a Franchi? that's what they're going to say your customer base well then i point to the big poster in my dining room of the uh batman 66 yeah that's a beauty i don't even have one of those where'd you get that i made it from one of the flyers and i have a machine that can blow it up that big do you have a machine that can blow blow it up is it mega made yes does it go from suck to mega made yeah it went from suck to blow there's your dream theme right the space balls game Oh, fuck yeah. Spaceballs? Spaceballs the movie. This Week in Pinball's top ten dream themes or whatever? You know, we didn't discuss that, so you know what? Let's bring that up. Okay, I didn't see that, so let's go for it. Was that this week? Yeah, it was just today. Oh, it was just, oh yeah, top ten pinball dream themes. Actually, no, it wasn't today. It was a week ago. Yes, a week ago. A week ago. Future. Future. I don't go to the website unless I'm prompted and he posted something Jeff posted something on Facebook and that's what made me go check it out Top 10 as voted on by the pinball community I guess that means pin side Number 10 Jaws Which I know Mr. French would love to see If you could draw it If I can draw the actors yes, I don't want to just draw the shark because like I said, sharks are either straight or bent. There's not too many dramatic poses you can get out of that. Beetlejuice? That'd be a fun one. I love Tim Burton. I think Beetlejuice would be a good one. A lot of Tim Burton stuff, really, but I think that one's probably the strongest as far as... Because the visual style's pretty much the same with Edward Scissorhands and all that stuff, but Beetlejuice would be the strongest property to do if you wanted to do a Tim Burton one. That's good. Blade Runner. I'm not If they did, it'd have to be the original. Yes. Yes, not the new one. The new one sucked really bad. And it better have Rucker Hauer in it somewhere. Yeah. But they could do those cool big billboards that actually had motion by putting little LCD screens on the play field. That'd be cool. And all the Asian women drinking Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola, yeah. I was going to say. They kept all the advertisements. See, what was... Did they have Atari in there somewhere? I was trying to think. They tried to pick companies they thought would actually be around in the future. That's why they had Coke. Yeah, they did do Atari. Yeah. They had like an Atari bar or something like that. Yeah, okay. Atari's still around. Yeah, but they're not Atari, Atari. I know, I know, I know. Masters of the Universe. Spooky just made that. He, man. He, man. Come on. No? No. No? Blues Brothers. Blues Brothers would rock. See, I'd rather go with Masters of the Universe. No, Blues Brothers. You could just take Spooky's castle out of the Alice Cooper thing, and there's your Castle Grayskull. It does look like Castle Grayskull. Yeah. Rick and Morty. No. I haven't seen enough of that. My daughter keeps telling me to watch it, and I bought season one, but I've only seen about three episodes, so I'm not in it enough to have an opinion. Gotcha. The Matrix. Yeah, that would be pretty good. Yeah. They already did that kind of. Someone did that, what, was it Johnny Mnemonic re-theme? Made the Matrix. Isn't that kind of a... I mean, I know it was big when it came out, but it was kind of forgotten pretty fast, too. Back to the future! Well, if one more person asks me if someone's making that, all pinball manufacturers listen. Make Back to the Future. I get requests all the time. They want it done right. Unlike the original. Well, they don't ask me to do it. They just ask if someone's making it. They give a shit who's drawing it. I mean, there is already one, and it sucks. So they want it done right. And it needs to have Michael J. Fox in it somehow. Otherwise, what's the point? Yeah. Did the original one not? No. He wouldn't give his consent to his likeness. So you had Doc Brown and someone who vaguely looked like – It was Gary Stern, and it was some kid. Yeah, that's in the flyer. I'm talking about the play field. I'm talking about the actual game. If I'm not mistaken, the kid playing Marty and the flyer was Cam and Cal. Yep, I believe that's correct. Then we have Goonies. That's fun. I only saw it once when it first came out, but it seems fun. Then Harry Potter. Harry Potter, my daughter is a huge Potter head, and she keeps on telling me that she's going to bring the movies over, and I'm going to sit down and I'm going to watch them whether I like it or not, but I have not seen a single movie. Me neither. Have you seen any, Bruce? I've seen them all, unfortunately. You've seen all of them? Unfortunately. So you didn't like them? No, my wife is the biggest. If there was a Harry Potter, guess who would be in the bar? I think we'd be number one on the list. My wife is the biggest nut, and I'd be going, Ugh. okay yeah honorable mentions big trouble and little china god no horn and oh what are you talking about i love that movie i would definitely go for that kurt russell that movie's awesome no no no best kurt russell movie would be escape from new york i'd rather watch big trouble little china i've seen them both nope sorry you're wrong no big trouble's got more visuals for pinball team, but I like Escape from New York better. The theme is definitely better in Escape from New York. You can do a lot more with it. Really? You think you could do a lot more than having the freaking Mortal Kombat character in it? Okay. Haunted Mansion. Is that just like a generic? No, that's a cartoon. It's Disney. Lucas, actually. It was Lucas that did that. Because Lucas had the old game. Are they talking about the Eddie Murphy film, or are they just talking about the Haunted Mansion ride, you know, at the Disneyland. Yeah, it could be anything. Or it could be Haunted Mansion, the PC game. You know, it could be anything. All right. So, Led Zeppelin. Ugh. Ugh. Yeah. Thank you. Well, they could just get Greta Von Fleet to do all the vocals. I figure if you're from Michigan, you would get that. Yes. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, the guy basically sounds just like Robert Plant. except he actually can hit all the notes, so they could totally get him on there. But he looks like somebody from Minuto. Yes. Oh, God. That's the weirdest thing. Yeah, I'm just not feeling the visual. No. And then when he hits all the high notes, there's, like, no effort at all. It's just a very weird look. All right, Legend of Zelda. Nah. Wait a minute. They already did this one. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Again, but the reboot. I mean, again, yeah, what, are you going to use the horrible CGI version and do it? Yeah, no. Oh, no. Check, please. Yeah. Is that a customer? Willy Wonka. If it's the original, yes. If it's the original, yes. If it's the new one. If it's being made? Like, hasn't it been really pretty much officially announced? No, not officially. Jack has never said officially. Well, if you say, hey, we're going to take Willy Wonka and put it on the back, or Toy Story and put it on the back burner and come out with Willy Wonka first, that's officially saying that it's coming. Yeah, but they never said that. They never said that. Somebody said that. Rumors are that this has happened. Yeah. And we don't deal with rumors here on the Slam Tilt Podcast. All right. Fair enough. Fair enough. Well, actually, you do. But, yeah, I believe it, too. I believe it, too. I totally believe that. So, yes, I believe that's a future Jersey Jack. They've been equal. Yep. That might be the first Jersey Jack I buy, because I love Willie. Yeah. I love Willie Wonka. God. I mean, when you drain, you could just say, you know, you get nothing. Yeah, if you tilt, you tilt away your bonus, you get nothing. Good day, sir. Yep. Perfect. Perfect. Everyone wants that one, so. The anime should be rocking on that. I just thought of a good horror theme, because I said we need more horror themes. You guys familiar with the movie Phantasm? Yes, a little bit, yes. I mean, it's basically the main bad guy is the tall dude, but like all these little silver balls with blades in them chase you. I mean, isn't that perfect for pinball? They're crumbly. Let's have a nightmare when I'm actually after my game. Oh, I made that shot. Oh, that's right, I died. Do you need a teddy bear, Bruce? I do. I need a hug. I need somebody to love me. So you need a Ted pinball machine. Oh, that'd be fucking kick-ass. I played a Ted slot machine and won a bunch of cash in Vegas, like a couple grand. Nice. Thank you, Ted. Thank you, Ted. Does he swear? Yeah, it did. It did swear. It did actually swear? Wow. It was 21 and over, so who gives a shit? Yeah, it was actually pretty fun. But then I played the Sharknado game and almost lost it all back. Oh, God. There you go, the Sharknado pinball machine. If you can't get Jaws, Sharknado. Yeah, I don't know about that. Yeah, it's a total fail. Something tells me we could get that Ian Ziering guy's likeness rights, though, for five bucks. Maybe $4.95. Yeah, if I have a coupon. Yeah, I got a coupon for two faces for one. We'll give you Ian's. Okay, great, thanks. It was on my Groupon. And Australians are going, what the fuck's a Groupon? Yeah. So what do you guys want? I don't think I've ever heard you guys talk about a Groupon. Oh, I know mine. Beavis and Butthead I would love I love Beavis and Butthead Mel Brooks movies a whole machine dedicated like each mode could be a movie you could have a spinning disc with a spiral on it and every time your ball lands on it it goes ooh Ziety there's so much you can do with it you know Spaceballs and History of the World and I ain't found shit yet you know Spaceballs would be the best one. If you're going to do one movie, Spaceballs. You left out my favorite Mel Brooks movie, Young Frankenstein. Oh, Frankenstein. Young Frankenstein. I'm a rather brilliant surgeon. I could help you with that hump. What hump? Let's go. I like the way the guy's hump moves throughout the movie. It's on one side, it's on the other side, it's on the other side. And you look at him like, huh? So, yeah, Beavis and Butt-head's mine. Yep, I'm with you there I would definitely take that Yeah I mean, and all you gotta do is get Mike Judge I mean, he's like every damn voice It would be cheap Well now, if Stern truly listens Are we ever gonna get Tron? Of course not You don't think they're gonna do a Tron Vault edition at some point? If everyone wants a Tron Vault, yeah What's the deal? Probably Disney I'm waiting for the day that they call me there would be an awesome day that they call me and say hey we're going to do a Tron Vault and we want you to do artwork based on the original movie that would be freaking awesome that I'd be interested in I've yet to get to draw Kurt Russell wait a minute Kurt Russell's not a Tron and I'd rather do that than the Apple Dumpling Gang or whatever other shit he's been in didn't he keep grew up doing Disney movies didn't he? he did yes in the early early days he played minor league baseball too are we getting off the rails here? no still we're talking pinball oh we are? Kurt Russell and the Apple Dumpling Gang? Tron because we were talking about Tron artwork Kurt Russell Russell's not there. Jeff Bridges is in Tron. Wait, the original Tron. Yes, Jeff Bridges. Yes, he's in it. It's Jeff Bridges. Oh, that's not. You're right. Damn it. I always get the two of them confused. Fail. Fail. Jeff Bridges in Tron looks like the Big Lebowski. That's Brett. Damn it. Big Lebowski. Same guy. Yeah. It's Jeff Bridges and Bruce Box. Box. Box lighter. Yeah, him. Yeah. Never mind. Yep. And then the cool bad guy that was also in Time Bandits. Oh, yes, him. I know who you're talking about. Yeah, I can't remember his name, but he was in Time Bandits and he was in that, and he was awesome in both movies. Time Bandits, another turd I forgot about. Hey! Yes, that's a good thing. Time Bandits is awesome. No, it's not. Turd. Love it. Awesome turd. Is that Terry Gillian movie? Yep. Oh, maybe I'll have to watch that again. No, you don't. Yes, you do. I haven't seen that since it was in the theater. Does that tell you how long it's been? Oh, God. I'm so sorry. Come on. The Supreme Being? No, you're next going to tell me the everlasting story is the next pinball machine that will be coming out. That will be the never-ending story, Bruce. Whatever it is. The shitty, shitty movie. The everlasting Gobstopper movie. Yes, there you go. It never ends. Jesus. It's probably a weak property, but it would be really fun for a pinball machine is Dexter's Laboratory. That would be kind of cool. Because of all the kooky machinery, you could do such a fun play field. Yep. And when he walks, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. You know, that's a little sound he used to do. Oh, it's great. Yeah, the little xylophone. Yep. And then you know what? When you push the start button, DD goes, ooh, what does this button do? Do, yes. That would be good. That would be really good. Oh, I like that. Yeah, Dexter rocks. So are we done, Mr. Ron? I'm looking at my format here. Yeah, I'd say so. Wow. Well, Chris, you're always welcome to come on again. You want a bone to pick with anybody? You come see us. We'll give you the outlet. Because you want to make your show. No, wait a minute, wait a minute. He has his own podcast. He wants to make his show good in PC. Our show is just a shit show. I don't want to pick any bones. I want to bury hatchets. That's what I want to do. I didn't come on here to start trouble or perpetuate it. No, I know. I'm here to stop it and to make friends. That's all. Yes. Well, we love you. and so does head to head well I love you guys too and I love me some Marty and Ryan oh sorry Marty and Royan that's right and it's called the silver ballers podcast or legends the pinball creators and it looks like right now just google it because the facebook page is the one that comes up I've already liked it so I've been on there for a while it'll tell you all about when the first one's coming it is a limited series it's not going to go on forever and you know because I've got Stern behind me I think we're looking at probably just the Stern people you never know we'll see what happens I'll kick them off as sponsors don't limit yourself well it's the time you know as you guys or at least Ronwell knows it does take time to prep for a podcast to do a good podcast it does take time to get things and that's one thing that I have very little of these days I only plan on doing it once a month I don't know if I mentioned that but it's just going to be a monthly thing and we'll see where it goes but I'm looking forward to and not looking forward to the first episode because I know just for the sake of being asses a lot of people are going to give me a bunch of shit for the first one tell me how much it sucked and I should learn how to edit and everything else. But, hey, my excuse is mine goes out live. You know, it is what it is. And that's the true test of a champion. You go out live. You can't fix anything. It just is what it is. That's the difference between Billy Mitchell and me. My world record was done live. His was done via MAME recording. And you've got better hair. Well, he's got more hair, but, yeah, I probably have better hair. But if you had more hair, would you style it like that? No. God, no. The mullet's dead. Kill the mullet more. Yeah. I don't know what that feathered back Kate Jackson hairdo he's got going on there. Nice. King of Kong. I'm in it. Did I mention that? I'm in the movie. I just thought I'd mention that again. King of what? King of Kong. Come on. Really? You don't know what King of Kong is? No. I don't do video games. I'm assuming that's some sort of video game. Oh, no, it was a movie. It's a documentary. What's the documentary about? It's a cult classic. Is it about Donkey Kong? Yes. Well, then it's a fucking video game. That's what I just said. I thought you meant it was an actual video game. No, no, no, no. It was a documentary about a video game. It goes back to the first rule. It's a video game. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that particular documentary, they made fun of it on South Park, so you know it's relevant. Wow. Well, if you're in it, I'll go check it out. See if you can find me. I'm in there at least two or three times. Where in the world is Ron Hallett? Where's Rondo? Where's Rondo? I just, like, I appear when they start doing, you're the best around, right at that part of the movie. And, boom, there I am. Perfect time. This reminds me, guys. I have an opportunity for an upcoming pinball machine to bury some friends in the artwork. and I thought that it would be fun to do some of the pinball podcasters. So we might have to talk later about you guys taking a photo of yourselves in a particular pose, not naked. Darn! No. Fuck! Yeah, and we'll see if we can get you in on a pinball machine. Nice. I am so there. We'll talk more about that later. I'll do the thinker. The thinker pose. The thinker pose. Yeah, you. Yeah, that's what I think of when I think of Bruce. Yes, see? So once again, thank you, Chris. Chris, thank you very much. Thanks for having me. The Silver Ballers Podcast. Yes. I have two favorite podcasts. I don't like one more than the other, and they are you and Head to Head. And we created Head to Head. We helped them start. So guess what? We created Head to Head. Wow. No ego there. Oh, boy. Wow. They gave us the props saying that we helped them get started. So we win. We win. Ooh, Ziety, you win. Win. So we are the Slam Till Podcast. We can be reached at slamtillpodcast at gmail.com. Our website is slamtillpodcast.com. And you can go to Facebook and look up slamtillpodcast.com. But best just go to the site. All the links are there. we'll be moving there eventually that's kind of on hold for now oh boy we'll get there and we need to find out who our 100th episode person can be give us some ideas folks yeah because we've gotten so many zero you dumb fucks when is your 100th episode when is it 7 weeks 7 weeks away I might be able to help you out with that ooooh Gary Stern, Bruce. Gary Stern. It's going to happen, even if you gave out his phone number. Did you know that, Chris? I gave his phone number out? Yeah, I heard that episode. You were probably like, holy shit. I was just sitting at my desk drawing something and listening, and I just went, ooh. It's unfortunate. That's a burn. Good job, Bruce. Yes, excellent. We will see. Let's see. Who are we endorsing now? We're going to endorse the Trash Talker Invitational Committee. Yes. Oh, God. Yes. We're going to endorse them because we want them to come on and tell us what the fuck's going on. Yeah, what's going on. Yeah, no more podcasts. We're not going to mention anyone until we find out what. We've got to get to the bottom of what's going on. Hey, thanks for my invitation, Chuck. Yeah, exactly. There is a conspiracy, an absolute conspiracy going on here. We're going to get to the bottom of this from Chuck next week. I'm telling you. We're going to get him on. He wouldn't dare refuse our request. No, not at all. No way. We are the Slam Tilt Podcast again. Let's see. We have Pinball Star, Joe Newhart. Go to them for all your spooky pinball, American pinball, home pin, and Jersey Jack pinball needs. Flipper Fidelity, go there for your best in pinball sound systems and Stern Distributor. Say goodbye, Bruce. goodbye what's his name Kurt Russell no I was going to say what's his name from King of Kong Billy Mitchell go ahead say goodbye Bruce goodbye Billy Mitchell You can fool me if you try Oh my, my, oh my, my Guaranteed to keep you alive Oh my Oh my Oh my Oh my.