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Pinball Roundtable - with special guest Christoper Franchi

JBS Show·podcast_episode·1h 40m·analyzed·May 12, 2026
Buzzsprout-19162558
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Franchi discusses art philosophy, recent Spooky titles, unannounced Dutch project, and community honesty.

Summary

Christopher Franchi, a celebrated pinball artist at Spooky Pinball, joins the JBS Roundtable for an informal discussion about his career, art philosophy, and recent projects. He discusses his journey from Stern to Spooky, his work on Evil Dead and Beetlejuice, an unannounced project with Dutch Pinball (likely Back to the Future), upcoming Beetlejuice code updates, and the importance of honest criticism in the pinball community. Franchi also hints at reviving the The Super Awesome Pinball Show as occasional episodes with Christian Lyon.

Key Claims

  • Christopher Franchi won the Twippy in 2018 for The Munsters and again in 2025 for Evil Dead Best Artwork

    high confidence · Kale's bio reading and Franchi's confirmation during roundtable

  • Franchi signed a deal with Dutch Pinball before signing with Spooky, and Spooky knew and approved the arrangement

    high confidence · Franchi's direct statement in response to Ralph's question about exclusivity

  • Beetlejuice code update coming at the end of May with multiple new characters doing new call-outs

    high confidence · Franchi: 'I was asked to give an update via Spooky from Mr. But that there is an update coming at the end of May for Beetlejuice'

  • Beetlejuice just broke Elton John's previous record for most money made in one month at Electric Bat Arcade

    medium confidence · Kale citing Batcast earnings report: 'For a long time, Elton John held the record for the amount of money made in one month at the Electric Bat Arcade, and Beetlejuice just toppled that'

  • Franchi had only three weeks to create three art packages for Batman 66, utilizing previously completed artwork

    high confidence · Franchi's direct account: 'I only had like three weeks to work on that. And I had to utilize a lot of artwork that I had already done'

  • George Gomez rejected the original Batman 66 art package and asked Greg Freres to find replacement artwork

    high confidence · Franchi: 'They had an art package already done and George Gomez hated it. So he told Greg Freres, please go find someone to fix this'

  • Franchi would like to work with designer Jack Danger on an original theme

    high confidence · Franchi: 'You know who I'd love to work with? Jack Danger... It would be really cool if Jack and I could do an original theme together. That's like a dream project there'

  • Evil Dead features Bruce Campbell doing voice work, including many improvisational lines

    high confidence · Franchi and Ralph discussing Campbell's contributions: 'some of those were just like improv'

Notable Quotes

  • “Your word or your opinion isn't worth shit if you don't tell the truth. People come to you because they want your opinion on things. If you're just a fucking sellout, you're like, this is great, that's great, everything's great, buy, buy, buy. No one's going to want to listen to you.”

    Christopher Franchi @ N/A — Core philosophy on community criticism and the artist's responsibility to maintain credibility through honest feedback

  • “I signed a deal with Dutch before I signed a deal with Spooky. And Spooky knew. It wasn't like I just let it sit there and fester... I told Spooky, I've got this thing going on here, and it's going to happen one of these days.”

    Christopher Franchi @ N/A — Addresses how he manages his Dutch Pinball project (implied Back to the Future) while under Spooky exclusive contract

  • “It would be really cool if Jack and I could do an original theme together. That's like a dream project there.”

    Christopher Franchi @ N/A — Expresses desire to collaborate with designer Jack Danger on original IP, a notable aspiration for future work

  • “I'd say I like Beetlejuice artwork better than Evil Dead artwork. But they're both awesome... as far as gameplay goes... Evil Dead wins for me.”

    Christopher Franchi @ N/A — Comparative assessment of his own artwork on two major recent Spooky releases

  • “The art on a pinball machine is the billboard that says, come play me.”

    Christopher Franchi @ N/A — Core design philosophy about the role of artwork in attracting players

  • “There's a couple of things here... your opinion isn't worth shit if you don't tell the truth... A company like Spooky... when you're talking about what you don't like about something... you're kind of speaking to the makers, too.”

    Christopher Franchi @ N/A — Explains how honest criticism benefits manufacturers and the community simultaneously

  • “Batman 66... That's the one I want to change the most because I didn't really have time.”

    Christopher Franchi — Despite being a successful early project, Franchi views it as constrained by time pressure and reused assets

Entities

Christopher FranchipersonJamie BurchillpersonKale HernandezpersonRetro RalphpersonSpooky PinballcompanyDutch PinballcompanyGeorge Gomezperson

Signals

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Christopher Franchi transitioned from Stern Pinball to Spooky Pinball, becoming lead artist and primary creative force for new releases

    high · KB notes Franchi worked for Stern on Beatles, Guardians, Munsters before moving to Jersey Jack (Elton John) then Spooky in 2025

  • ?

    machine_intel: Back to the Future is in development at Dutch Pinball with Franchi as artist; DeLorean gift and evasive responses suggest active project

    medium · Franchi: 'I signed a deal with Dutch before I signed a deal with Spooky... it's going to happen one of these days'; Joe Kamenko DeLorean gift visible in studio

  • ?

    code_update: Beetlejuice receiving significant code update at end of May with new voice actors and call-outs, responding to community feedback

    high · Franchi: 'there is an update coming at the end of May for Beetlejuice... multiple new characters doing new call-outs... Bug said, we heard what you said and we responded'

  • $

    market_signal: Beetlejuice dramatically outperformed previous revenue record holder (Elton John) in monthly earnings at Electric Bat Arcade

    high · Kale citing Batcast earnings: 'For a long time, Elton John held the record... Beetlejuice just toppled that... destroyed it'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Franchi views artwork as primary attraction mechanism ('billboard') and believes honest critical feedback strengthens products when companies respond

    high · Franchi: 'The art on a pinball machine is the billboard that says, come play me' and extensive discussion on value of honest criticism

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.302

0:00
Welcome back, Roundtable fans. After a short break, our intrepid hosts have returned. Retro Ralph, Kale Hernandez, and Jamie Burchill. Also, joining them this week, as long as they don't screw it up, the purveyor of the habitual hexagon, lunchbox, action figure, rare toy collector, and Marina Certiz's biggest fan, please welcome everyone's favorite spooky artist, Christopher Franchi, this week on the JBS Roundtable.
0:30
Hello and welcome to a very special edition of the Pinball Roundtable. I am joined as always by Kale Hernandez and Retro Ralph. But today we scheduled Christopher Franchi. Finally, I know this is all my fault and I apologize, but you are here and that's all that matters. All right. But Kale is going to give your bio for everyone. OK, for those that don't know, which where are you? If you're living under a rock, you don't know who you are, dude. But go ahead, Kale. Take it away. Considered one of the top pinball artists today, Franchi got his start in 2016 when he created three art packages for Stern's Batman 66 in just one month. After that, he became a fan favorite with seven titles under his belt and many more in the works and on the horizon. Companies love him for his quality and speed. Franchi won the Twippy in 2018 for his work on Stern's The Munsters. Franchi still lives in Michigan. We don't know if that's true. We'll find out today. And works alongside his faithful dog, Barlow, who is featured as an Easter egg on many of his art packages.
1:54
Franchi's titles include Batman 66, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Beatles, The Munsters, Godfather, Galactic Tank Force, and Elton John. You know where I got that from, Franchi? You missed a few. Oh, that's an old card.
2:15
And you have to update us on some of the stuff. Well, Evil Dead and Beetlejuice. There you go. And also I got the Twippy for 2025 for Evil Dead Best Artwork. That's right. That was on the one that we hosted. So I brought to attention that you probably need to update your card. I do. Get with Bug and Luke on that. I wasn't aware that I had to print a new one every year. It's not like I'm a sport hero. Well, you are. I mean, your stats keep going up. You know, people need to see your stats. All right, so very easy interview today. We're not really doing an interview, ladies and gentlemen. He's just sitting on the roundtable with us. I'm just hanging out.

  • Franchi may revive the Super Awesome Pinball Show as occasional episodes with Christian Lyon, potentially one per new game release

    medium confidence · Franchi: 'Actually, I just talked to Christian at Allentown, and we might be getting the band back together... we talked maybe about just doing a podcast every time a new game comes out'

    • @ N/A

  • “Godfather... it's not an action movie. It's not a lot to do. When I kind of uncovered that concept of doing an art deco sort of a feel to it and then just put all the portraits together, I thought it worked as well as it could.”

    Christopher Franchi @ N/A — Design thinking about adapting artistic style to IP constraints and thematic requirements

    • Greg Freres
    person
    Kevin O'Connorperson
    Bug and Lukeperson
    Jack Dangerperson
    Bruce Campbellperson
    Christian Lyonperson
    Raymond Davidsonperson
    Joe Kamenkoperson
    Electric Bat Arcadevenue
    Evil Deadgame
    Beetlejuicegame
    Batman 66game
    Godfathergame
    Elton Johngame
    The Munstersgame
    Monstersgame
    Back to the Futuregame
  • ?

    community_signal: Super Awesome Pinball Show likely being revived on limited basis (one episode per new game release) with Christian Lyon

    medium · Franchi: 'we might be getting the band back together... we talked maybe about just doing a podcast every time a new game comes out'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Fall of the Empire's ball save mechanic is criticized by players for poor usability and inconsistent behavior; Stern coder Raymond Davidson disputes criticism

    medium · Ralph: 'it's confusing... requires extra effort to figure out how to use it... if you get keys to a car and don't know how to use them, the car company is to blame'

  • ?

    product_concern: Batman 66 artwork created under severe time pressure (3 weeks for 3 packages), resulting in asset reuse and repetition Franchi now regrets

    high · Franchi: 'I had to utilize a lot of artwork that I had already done, or I'd still be drawing this shit now... wouldn't be my choice today'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Beetlejuice's Deo mode is challenging for tournament play and can trap players unfavorably

    medium · Kale: 'when you get the Deo mode on a tournament, it'll trap your ass, man... it'll piss you off'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Community enthusiasm for Beetlejuice's artwork is very high, with non-pinball enthusiasts also attracted to visual design

    high · Franchi's wife comment: 'she was like, this is so friggin pretty, like just beautiful looking'; Franchi prefers Beetlejuice artwork to Evil Dead

  • ?

    industry_signal: Franchi's perspective on honest criticism reflects broader industry sentiment that content creators must balance positivity with candor to maintain credibility

    high · Extended roundtable discussion on whether content creators should worry about offending manufacturers; Franchi advocates for unfiltered honesty as essential to credibility

  • ?

    design_innovation: Franchi's approach to Godfather used art deco aesthetic with portrait focus, adapting style to non-action IP constraints

    high · Franchi: 'I kind of uncovered that concept of doing an art deco sort of a feel to it and then just put all the portraits together'

    • 3:01
    Hanging out, I'm going to ask you some poignant questions. We'll start off with my question. Artists are usually hard on themselves, right? Was there ever a project that you work on pinball related that you look back and you said, no, that was pretty good. That was pretty flawless.
    3:22
    Or pretty perfect. Like Batman 66? I think that's pretty perfect. No, no. That's the one I want to change the most because I didn't really have time. I only had like three weeks to work on that. And I had to utilize a lot of artwork that I had already done or I never would have got it done. I had a lot of head-to-toe drawings of the good guys and bad guys, and I was able to use that stuff, or I'd still be drawing this shit now. So can I swear on this show? No swearing? You can say whatever you want. Oh, okay. Franchi, when you say three weeks, is that including everything, the whole entire package, play field, everything? Well, okay, so to clarify one thing, I did not do the play field. I only did the characters on the play field. Kevin O'Connor did the play field and then I just did the heroes and villains and he plugged those in but he did the rest of the layout. That was already done when I came aboard. They had an art package already done and George Gomez hated it. So he told Greg Ferris, please go find someone to fix this.
    4:26
    So, yeah, but it was, yeah, three different art packages as far as the cabinet and back glass goes. And that's also why you see a lot of repetition. You know, it's that wouldn't be my choice today.
    4:39
    But, you know, in some of the back classes and some of the same artworks used to shuffled around. I just didn't have the time. I would think the one and people are probably going to be like, that's your worst art package of all of them. But I think the one that I think I kind of nailed it on and wouldn't change a thing would be Godfather.
    5:00
    Because there's not I mean, it's not an action movie. There's not a lot to do. So when I kind of uncovered that concept of doing an art deco sort of a feel to it and then just put all the portraits together, I thought it worked as well as it could. You couldn't really have like a cool collage kind of thing for Godfather, I didn't think. So but I think everything else, Monsters, I wouldn't change. And I'm not saying I wouldn't change it because I think it's perfect. I just I don't think it needs any changes. But most of the time, if you'll ask any company that I worked for, like they'll ask me to send them the play field. And then like two weeks before production, I'm like, wait a minute here. Here's a new file. Like I'm constantly picking and I'll look at something and go, oh, that sucks. Or I got a better idea. So, you know, it's kind of like they have to like yank it off my desk at the last minute and go, you're done. We got to get this into production. And but that's sorry, that's a long answer. But that's no, no, no. But at what point did you do Catwoman? The Catwoman edition was, geez, later on, that might have been the last thing I did for Stern. That might have been after Munsters and the Beatles where they came back and said they wanted to do that. And I want like I had this I was visioning this cabinet with her laying on her side, like on her little, you know, villain hideout bed with her little cat phone and all that there on the bottom of the cabinet. And they're like, no, we just want to update it back glass and sides of it. I think I had to talk them into the sides of the back box. They at least gave me that, but they don't want to do anything more.
    6:43
    So that's where that came from. I didn't really care for that much either. I don't know. I see it. It's behind Jamie there. I don't mind the back box with the villains kind of like oogling over Catwoman. I don't like the back glass because it was a piece of art I already had done, and I stuck this gold trophy cat under her arm, and it wasn't supposed to be there, and it looks clunky. And I just, you know, again, not having the time to do what I wanted to do. But, yeah, that's where they came from. Well, there you go. It's beautiful. Well, so ladies and gentlemen, we gave you the introduction of Chris Franchi. Do I call you Chris, Christopher Franchi? What do you like to go by?
    7:29
    Really, I mean, everyone just calls me Franchi, which is fine. Yeah. Because my name's Christopher, but that's like a mouthful to say.
    7:37
    So don't say it. Just call me Franchi. All right. I'll just call you Franchi. My friends call me Franchi. You can call me Bill.
    7:43
    Okay, no problem. What did you say, Ralph? Bill. I said he always has to be different. I mean, look at him. He's the only one wearing a different shirt than us. We're wearing a shirt that deserves this kind of attention. Oh, Jamie, you don't have one of these? And he didn't wear one for whatever. Why didn't you wear yours? You didn't wear yours? You didn't get the memo? You did this on purpose, the three of you, right? I didn't know what you're talking about. Yeah, you did. I made sure all the cool people got one of these. Oh, that's why you didn't get one. Jamie. All right. For this act, we're going to question two, which is Back to the Future. And now you need to tell us something. OK. Question number two. Why are you such an asshole?
    8:25
    Question number two is from Ralph. He wants to know about working on Back to the Future. Is there anything that you can tell us without getting in trouble?
    8:34
    Well, the question everybody wants to know is how? How am I working with Dutch? I'm not going to say Back to the Future. I'm going to say how am I working with Dutch when I have an exclusive deal with Spooky. The correct answer to that is I signed a deal with Dutch before I signed a deal with Spooky. And Spooky knew. It wasn't like I just let it sit there and fester. And then when it came up, I'm like, surprise. I told Spooky, I've got this thing going on here, and it's going to happen one of these days. I'm going to have to go do it. And they said that's fine. So that's how that. So we don't know whether it's Back to the Future or not.
    9:16
    Well, if I could do my Ralph impression to that statement. Yeah, so behind you, there's a model of an automobile. Is that there for a reason? Did you have to use it as a model? Inspiration. A gift from Joe Kamenko for Christmas. Oh, nice. That's why that's there. Oh, okay. No other reason. It lights up and shit, too. I don't remember what the buttons are. There's buttons on here that you can't see. He's pressing a DeLorean for those that are on the podcast and not watching us on YouTube, but he is messing with a DeLorean that Joe Kamenko got him, which just seems very nice. Oh, very interesting. I don't know how to get it shut off. So speaking of impressions, let me get all my impressions out. I can't do Jamie anymore because he cut off the silver mud flap. I had this like ripped up newspaper that was all curled up and I tucked it in my hat. It was all bushy and I can't do that now. So I don't do an impression of you. The best impression I can do of Kale. I don't have the big chunky glasses, though they're cool and I wish I did. But this is my impression of Kale. This is my impression of Kale doing a live stream of a tournament.
    10:40
    Okay, hold on. Now, I can reinforce it. Kale, if you say that doesn't look like you, I got some reinforcement. Bring it on, Jamie. That does not look like me. All right, here it is. Bring it on, Jamie. I got it, guys. Watch this. Oh, jeez. What are you doing? Watch this, guys.
    10:59
    Okay. Hey, wait. Do I really look like that, guys? Yeah, you do. I mean, I guess in that moment, but not typically, no. But in that moment, something must have been happening exciting during that moment. He's kind of like the screen's too close to his face, so he's kind of a little cross-eyed, you know, because he's trying to focus on clothes. Look at Serge. Serge is my favorite, man. Hey, real quick on Serge. I'm going to stop sharing. If he is willing to do a podcast and he does Dirty Pool before he does me, I might be upset. Can you let him know that for me? I'll go to him. All right. Because I asked him first, and I would like to interview Serge. And no offense to Jeff Dodson, but you're new here, buddy. Hey, Jeff.
    11:52
    Wow. Wow, you're getting kind of cocky, Jamie. No, but Jeff, you know, he sneaks in and he gets these great interviews because he asks, right? Did you say you want to interview, Serge?
    12:06
    Yeah. Oh, well, hang on just a second here because... Did Dotson already interview him? Let me turn my speakers up here. What is this here? They're live right now. I like it when it's just the three of us being stupid. But that's what I love the most. Oh, for sure. And I just, I don't know. I don't want to bring somebody else in. And that threesome that we have, it changes. It's a little different. And I like what we've got going on. Huh. How about that? Wow. So, ladies and gentlemen, I do another interview show called The JBS Show, and that's the show that I would like to have. Oh, he got you, man. Okay. Zing. I've been zinged. Zing. Fair enough. All right. Let's get on with his questions. Let's keep going.
    13:02
    Ralph has a question for you when he gets upset. Go ahead, Ralph. Well, I can ask my own question. I don't need you to ask my question. All right, Franchi, what is it about when I get pissed off on a live stream that brings you such joy? Like, I'm trying to figure it out. I need to know. Because it seems to be a going trend that people enjoy seeing me pissed off. I just want to genuinely know. I can't explain it. It's just funny the way you get mad. You talked real fast, like the one clip that we were talking about before, the one that you posted just for me, you texted me about it.
    13:36
    It was because you drain the ball five seconds after Rudy put his hand in front of the thing. And if you watch the clip, his hand really had nothing to do with you draining the ball. You just suck. And then you blamed him for it. You ruined my shit.
    13:55
    Oh, hey, I got to blame something. You know, it's just I mean, it's it's the it's the ferocity of your anger. You just shove away from the promotion. You're like, God damn it. You're like swinging.
    14:09
    I appreciate the passion of your anger. You know, thanks, Franchi. I appreciate that you appreciate it. You know, it's humorous. It doesn't come off like you're actually really angry, like you want to go kill somebody. It kind of comes off. Every now and again, I get a little bit upset, like just a little bit. Oh, I know you get upset, but the way you display your anger is more humorous than it is like asshole. There you go, Ralphie. Thanks, Franchi. There you go. No, Ralph, I love everything about you, man. Am I up there? I would say some sweet things, but I want the other guys to hear it. Say it for later. I don't even have the same t-shirt. Go ahead, Kale. You're up, buddy. All right. So Franchi, you've worked with some amazing pinball designers throughout the years, starting off with George Gomez, Borg, Meunier, Nordman. Meunier. Diner, Nordman, Richie, and Bug and Luke. Is there one designer you would – well, I know – I guess it doesn't really work now. This question doesn't really work now because you're under contract. But is there one designer you haven't worked with that you would love to work with in the future?
    15:33
    I never thought of that. Who else is left? That's why he's the best in the business. He's the best in the business, Franchi. There's Brian Eddy. Who's the other guy over at Jersey Jack?
    15:51
    Oh, Mark Seiden. Who designs games for Barrels? Who did the Haunted House? We really don't know. Carl D'Angelo? Carl D'Angelo in the one, but that's just that one game. Who did do Labyrinth Land? You know who I'd love to work with? Travis Musman. Oh, that was Travis. That's right. But then what about Dune? David Van Ays.
    16:21
    Okay, there you go. I don't know if this counts, but I'd love to work with Jack Danger. Ooh. Hmm. That counts. We would actually love to see that. That would be really cool. Yeah. His designs are very off the wall, and I can be off the wall if I want. And so I think that would be really fun to work with him and do something interesting together. It would be really cool if Jack and I could do an original theme together.
    16:51
    That's like a dream project there. You heard it here first. That would be very cool. I would be into that. Yeah.
    17:00
    All right. Beetlejuice versus Evil Dead. Let's go right there, Ralph. You had to. I have to. Okay. All right. Well, that's not fair. What's the question? Which art is better?
    17:15
    No, you're not asking me art. You're asking me gameplay, right? I'm asking you gameplay. Okay. All right. We're going to switch to Evil Dead versus Beetlejuice because in the arcades, you know, at the Electric Bat, you've got Evil Dead and Beetlejuice. What are people – what are you hearing about this? Go ahead, Ralph. Take it over. I'm fucking this all up. Yeah, you kind of are. I'm leaving right now. So it's hard right now because Evil Dead is a finished game and Beetlejuice is not yet. So it's hard to gauge based on where the game will go. But if I had to answer based on where it is now, artwork on both of them are amazing. I don't even know how I would actually say which one is better, but probably if we had to do artwork without the gameplay, which I'll pivot back to, I'd say I like Beetlejuice artwork better than Evil Dead artwork. But they're both awesome. So but as far as gameplay goes, and this is weird because I'm not really a horror movie fan and I wasn't really even much of an Evil Dead fan. But there's something about the way that whole package comes together. Gameplay, the theme integration, the call outs are so good. The music is good. Like everything in that is so good to me. It's almost like perfect.
    18:32
    So Evil Dead wins for me on on like game on which game. But artwork I'd give to Beetlejuice. I just think Beetlejuice is like it's too pretty. Like you just you could I was telling my wife, I was like, come in, I want you to see the new Beetlejuice. And she came in and she was like, and Franchi, I'm not saying this just because you're here. She's like, this is so friggin pretty, like just beautiful looking, you know. So and then I showed her the she I lost her when I started talking to her about what a butter cabinet is. She's like butter. And she like then she was hung up on the word butter. And I'm like, no, not butter like that you spread on bread. And she's like, well, I don't understand the context of butter. I was like, just never mind. So I stopped there. Do you have a butter cabinet? I do. I got the butter. My Evil Dead is a butter, too. I haven't seen one in person. I've probably seen it on a show, but just didn't pay attention to it. Ralph's a baller. He's got the quality shit. He's a baller. It looks good. It looks good. They both are beautiful. But yeah, so right now I'd have to give it to Evil Dead and overall. The reason we were talking about this. Ralph and I were talking the other night, Kale. And we were bullshitting about Beetlejuice and playing it in a tournament, right? Because both of us play a lot of tournaments, Franchi. And when you get the Deo mode on a tournament, it'll trap your ass, man.
    19:51
    Yeah, it'll piss you off. So we were just doing a comparison, trying to compare both recent titles and saying, you know, I still play Evil Dead almost every time I'm at Eureka Heights. Well, Kale, what's your answer to the same question?
    20:13
    I think the Beetlejuice artwork, I think I like the Beetlejuice artwork better. I don't dislike the – what's the other one called? Evil Dead.
    20:30
    Because with Evil Dead, I've never seen either movie. Are there like three of them or something, anything like this? But with Evil Dead, what I dig – Five. There's a bunch of spinoffs, right? Yeah. So with Evil Dead, what I dig, since I have no connection with the IP at all, The artwork on that machine reminds me of a movie poster come to life, like a vintage movie poster come to life, and I love that vibe. But I don't know if you listen to the – and you probably have because you always do – listen to the latest Batcast and the latest earnings report. I did. Record breaker. For a long time, and I just thought about this right now. For a long time, Elton John held the record for the amount of money made in one month at the Electric Bat Arcade, and Beetlejuice just toppled that. I mean, just destroyed it.
    21:26
    Now, what do those two games have in common? Franchi art. If you want to make some cash, hire me. Right. And that's the art that the art on a pinball machine is the billboard that says, come play me. Yeah, no question. Well, as far as, you know, Ralph was saying about the code, I I was asked to give an update via Spooky from Mr. But that there is an update coming at the end of May for Beetlejuice. And the exciting part is that there are going to be multiple new characters doing new call-outs. As Bug said, we heard what you said and we responded.
    22:12
    So they hired new people. That's awesome news, Franchi. That's cool. So that's coming at the end of the month, which is, what, two weeks away. Yeah. In my Beetlejuice video, there was a person that counted how many times I said call-outs. And they were like, Ralph says call outs. And I can't remember. It was a lot, actually. I think I said it like 32 times. He's like, Ralph said call outs 32 times in one video, whatever. And I did. That was my only real like that was my criticism because because you want to know why? Because the problem is whenever you do something amazing like it was an Evil Dead, that's the expectation now. So when it didn't have that kind of, you know, that kind of power or punch when it comes to the call outs. But that was a dream. That was the ideal. Yeah, I know. We got really lucky with that to get Bruce Campbell in there.
    22:58
    You're just not going to get these guys. He also made it so fun. Like some of the things that he said are so funny. Like, and I don't know if those were all, I think he was saying, Bug was saying some of those were just like improv. A lot of it. Yeah. Have you ever seen him work a crowd? Like he does a lot of the convention stuff and he'll get up and he'll talk. Like he's like a talk show, like a game show host up there. Like he's cracking jokes and like he's real sharp on his toes. So, yeah, he's he's a good ad libber.
    23:24
    Yeah, he was great. That's cool. That's awesome news. I'm excited. People are going to be excited for that. Yeah. Well, thanks for shouting that out. We appreciate that on the roundtable. Once again, breaking news, ladies and gentlemen, just realize you can't read because there's white paper in the way. There we go. Now you can read my name. We're always breaking news. Kale, we got more news we're going to break later, aren't we? Oh, we have some we have some serious breaking news coming up. We'll get to it. We'll get to it. That's called a tease, ladies and gentlemen. Recently, Raymond Davidson of Stern Pinball Coder texted me and Ralph and, you know, he didn't like what we had to say, Franchi, about the ball save and follow the ball save. The Empire. And so the question to the group is the roundtable. Do we and I know Kale's answer to this probably, but do we ever get worried about the things that we say in public that are going to have repercussions? What what start with Kale? Well, hang on before before anybody answers. What does he tell you? Like, did he do you like? No, no, no, no, no. He's been sort of busting my balls for a while that I could never figure it out. Because it would never work. Sometimes it would work and then sometimes it wouldn't work. But then they have – it's kind of confusing. There's modes where you just pulse it, so you have to do it a certain way. Then there's modes where it just grabs it. And for some reason, any time I needed to do the one I needed to do, it doesn't seem to work. So I've always said this, and I was like, just make it easy. Make it work like the Magi Save on Beetlejuice because that always freaking works And if the game is already hard which Fall of the Empire is and then you have this ball saved that doesn work it like the thing that going to save me can even save me So it's just kind of a pain in the ass. But he's been going back in the fourth of me and he's like, well, you don't know how to use it. And that was the case for a little while. But it's still even though I know how to use it now, it still does. Yeah, but it requires like an extra effort to figure out how to use it. Then somebody dropped the ball. That's my take. That's my take, too. If you get keys to a car and you're not familiar with the fact that you've got to stick the keys into the thing to turn it, and you just sit in the cockpit with the keys and go, who's to blame if you don't know how to start the car? The people who gave you the keys and didn't tell you what to do with them.
    25:52
    That's legit. I'm sorry to interrupt, though. Go ahead, Kale, and answer the question. No, that was good. I just wanted to put a picture before you guys started. No, that was good. Okay, so do I ever worry about shit I say on the internet? Yeah.
    26:08
    Only after I say it. Right. But while I'm doing it, no. No, you know, I want to give people my raw, honest opinion about whatever I'm talking about. And yes, it's going to piss some people off. And you know what? Sometimes it makes people really excited, you know, but but it works both ways. You can't win. Like because if I say good things about about JJP, Spooky, Barrels of Fun, I get a message from Stern saying, what the fuck are you doing? And propping up the little guys. So you can't win, you know.
    26:55
    Yeah. So just listen, we're all going to die someday. Just stay where you want. Well, you know, this makes you feel any better, Kale. This is my opinion on this. Coming from being a pinball maker. Number one, there's a couple of things here. A couple of factors here. Number one, your word or your opinion isn't worth shit if you don't tell the truth.
    27:18
    Right. People come to you because they want your opinion on things. If you're just a fucking sellout, you're like, this is great, that's great, everything's great, buy, buy, buy. No one's going to want to listen to you. It's a bunch of shit. Number two, a company like Spooky, because when you're talking about what you don't like about something or this sucks or that sucks or whatever, I would think you're not just doing it to reach out to the public and say, this is a problem. You're kind of speaking to the makers, too. This is the problem I have with your product. Someone like Spooky listens and reacts to that, which gives you guys a better game in the end. So it's necessary for you guys to speak your mind and say what you think because, you know, if the company, if it's a good company and they're smart, they'll listen, they'll adjust. And in the long run, everybody's happy to get a better product. So feel no shame. Speak your mind. Boom. Ralph, we should stop worrying.
    28:18
    Yeah, I mean, Jamie, you and I are kind of the same on this. I will say what's on my mind, but sometimes – and I don't even think I deliver anything really harsh to begin with, but I feel like I then will worry about who that might have affected in a certain way. But I'm really soft, I feel like, with – I don't feel like I'm brutal or really aggressive in my criticism. I just give it in more of a constructive way. Sure, sure. That's just how I am as a person, though. Retro Jinko, I would have a different opinion on that. I love it. No, but like if you said – like I'm not one of someone – the only thing – actually the one thing that I have a real – that I will – I get aggressive when people ask me is if I like the Cybertruck because I hate the goddamn Cybertruck so much. And I just – I hate it so much. It's like the one thing where I'm like, please, I don't want to see another one of these things ever again. I just hate it. I'm sorry if you're a Cybertruck owner, but I hate them. Oh, it's something. Next time you come to an electric bat tournament, we're going to take you for a ride in it and we're going to record it.
    29:24
    I know Matt has one. I love you, Matt. I just hate your car. That's a good reel. Wow. It'd be like wearing a bad suit and getting caught wearing it, pictures taken and shit. Here's me in a cyber truck. I'm so sorry. Franchi, you did the Super Awesome Pinball show for a long time. Never any regrets when you uploaded that thing going, oh, shit. No. I'm going to get it for this one. No. No, I didn't care. I didn't care if I pissed people off either. I'm speaking my mind like anybody else. But what I did and what Ralph does, too, if he beats himself up for saying negative shit, is I'm not going to be one of those Internet guys that just goes and just talks shit about everything. Fuck you. That was a stupid video. You're ugly. You've got a big pimple. Yeah. You can say negative crap if something deserves it, but, you know, you balance that with saying something nice as well. You know, Stern came out with a Pokemon. Well, you know, that rant shot's nice, but that art sucks or whatever. And I'm not saying that's my opinion. I'm just saying, you know, if you go back and forth, if you just come on and you're just like negative, like this sucks and that sucks and all that, you know, that comes off bad. But, you know, you've got to give your honest opinion and all that. So, you know, when I was on the show and I tried to kind of lay low, too, because like when I was doing that show, I was kind of working for everybody. So I tried to be a little less opinionated than the other two guys. And I kind of played ringmaster. I did give my opinion. A lot of times it threw me under the bus. What do you think of the artwork for that? Oh, don't ask me. Oh, boy.
    31:03
    Edit, you know, take that out. But, yeah, yeah. Actually, I just talked to Christian at Allentown, and we might be getting the band back together.
    31:17
    Wow, there you go. Breaking more news, ladies and gentlemen. Well, it's just going to be me and Christian, and it's not going to be anything regular. Actually, we talked maybe about just doing a podcast every time a new game comes out.
    31:31
    Good. That's cool. That's fun. Well, you know, the community misses it. I'll tell you, honestly, that was a great show. Well, you know, it was fun to do. It was a ton of work. But the concept was basically interviewing pinball people. And we had started going around again. You know, I think we had George Gomez on three times, you know, we got a couple of good gets. We had Elvira on. We had Tom Drummond, the bass player from Better Than Ezra. You know, we had some good, interesting people come on. But when it started getting like, you know, here we go again, you know, I think actually, I think, George Gomez was the last one. And I was just like, I don't want to do this anymore. These people have nothing more to say. It gets to the point where once you've explored, because we didn't want to know what was it like designing Deadpool. We would interview George and get a career retrospective. We wanted you to know these people and know where they came from and everything. Once you did that, it just kind of became like, well, we got this new game out, and everyone's pitching their latest shit. And it's like, I don't want to do this anymore. So, but it's like a book tour. Yeah. Yeah. If you don't stay away or if you stay away from that sort of thing, you know, the interviews are tough. A lot of work, too. And Christian, Christian Lyon, Dr. Pin did a ton of work. He was the guy responsible really for doing the research on the on the people we had on and writing a lot of the questions. Me and Jeff would send in questions that he would pepper in, but he did most of the work. So he's a great, great partner to have. So, yeah, look for look for I don't know if we're going to call it Super Awesome Pinball Show still or do it, you know, 2.0 or some kind of bullshit like that. But do whatever you want. As long as you're on there and people are going to love it. It's going to be great. Yeah. Congrats. Welcome back. Not so fast. So question about licensing since we're talking about we talk about Stern for a little bit. It's been how many days since Pokemon's been out, Ralph? Like 80? Close. It's got to be close. It's got to be close to 80, Kale. And we're at a very minor update and no achievements and no Pokedex or badges or anything. God, don't get me started. Let's talk about licensing. We know licensing is a pain in the ass, right? Ralph knows. But maybe you can get some insight. Let's talk about licensing, right? What a pain in the ass of this. Oh, God. You guys have no idea.
    34:10
    Let's talk about achievements, though, first. Do we all need a little Boy Scout sash with our little patches that we look at how to do? Yes. Let's fucking play pinball. Come on. We love it. I love it. It's stupid. I know you think it's lame. I know you think it's lame, but it is a weird thing. It's like, look, I made a bonfire. You know, I sold 500 boxes of cookies. I don't need little shit things. Like, look what I did. Whatever. I need constant reinforcement.
    34:42
    Positive reinforcement of how good I am. I constantly need reinforcement. Okay, well, anyway, what's your question, Kale? Sorry.
    34:51
    About licensing. For an arcade, it's really a big, fantastic thing. Stern Insider Connected, ladies and gentlemen. Dude, people freak out over these little stupid badges. And it makes us more money. It makes people happy. It gets people into it. It does. But, you know, what I want to know, like from behind, you have more experience with this than us three. Is it really as hard as they make it sound?
    35:29
    Work with a licensor? Yeah. No. No, but the disappointments hit hard. There might be only like, you know, there would be one thing you find out like, you know, Oh, well, we can't get Michael Keaton to do voiceovers for Beetlejuice and you can't get a sound alike. Oh, you know, but it's not you can't get mad at that because that's not like somebody just being a dick. Like, oh, you want Michael Keaton? No, you know, it's not that it's like that's rules. Michael Keaton says, you know, if it's not in his contract, you can't use it. If he doesn't want to do call outs and he says up front, don't send anybody my way. I don't want to do it. That's just the way it is.
    36:16
    Like I've been very fortunate working with licensors. In fact, somehow I've gotten a reputation with all these different Warner Brothers and Universal and all that. And when they find out that I'm on the job, they're like, oh, goody. We love working with that guy.
    36:31
    And I get very few. I've never gotten any notes back from them that said, this doesn't look right. Change it. The only notes I get back are, you can't use that person. Get them out of there. And that's, you know, rare because they usually know the rules going in.
    36:48
    Like with Beetlejuice. I was going to say, Franchi, they give you some kind of style guide, right? And to say, like, these are the characters if you're going to reproduce them. Yeah, they give you outlines. They'll go into a project or. Yeah, they'll give you outlines. The style guide I stay way away from. I don't want to. In fact, I turned down a job that I had signed on for. I'm not going to say what it is or who it was for, but it ended up being one of those things where I was going to be cutting and pasting assets. Oh, like you had to follow it to a T or something? Well, I mean, I had literally not drawn anything, like take this drawing and stick it on the sides like Toy Story was. You know, I thought I'm not going to do that. I'm especially not going to take an art credit for that because all I'm doing is dragging and dropping. And that's not my reputation. And that could kill my reputation. If I did, you know, everyone knows me because I draw everything and then I come out with this thing that's just a bunch of clip art, you know, everything that I built in 10 years could just go up in flames just like that. So, yeah, I don't want to touch that.
    37:53
    Franchi, you know what comes to mind for me and I just feel like I have to ask you this? What? And I don't know, I feel like you'd be okay me asking, but out of all the gigs you've had, do you get a level of autonomy at Spooky that you've just never had before?
    38:15
    What does autonomy mean? Meaning full creativity, like full creative control. How much of your creative control is taken away? And I would imagine it's spooky. My guess is that you have a lot of creative control. Oh, I'm just curious if you feel comfortable answering. Do I have to? That's not at all what I thought autonomy meant.
    38:36
    Like autonomy means that you can go and do it however you want to do it kind of thing. Yeah, I feel real stupid. I sound like Gary Hardy says that kind of thing. Cut that part out where I said, no, leave it in. I don't care. I'm an open book. I got my office window open over here. I thought there was actually a cricket outside the window.
    39:02
    I've been very, again, been very fortunate to work with some great people that don't put a lot of restraints on me. They just kind of let me roll. They give me the information I need to know and roll with it. Um, spooky, spooky is a little bit easier to deal with because I'm like art director there. So I'm kind of working for myself.
    39:30
    Of course, you know, the guys at spooky have to like what I do, but they never don't like what I do. They're always like, wow, that's great. You know? Um, so that's a little bit different. Actually, that's, that sounds like a good thing. You know, like I'm kind of my own boss. And so, you know, but it's really not because it's good to get constructive, you know, criticism about your, you know, is this really as good as it could be? Should I change something? You know, I can help you out with all that.
    40:02
    You know, just send the proof. Yeah, send that Dutch project over. We'll check it out. We'll see. We'll check it out. I tried that one time with some guy called Kaneda or something. Yeah, how'd that go? Well, yeah. This is before Stern didn't warn me that I just fell right into that trap. Whoops.
    40:22
    It happens to all of us. Yeah. But it is what it is. This is happening to me the other day. End of the day, I sent out the artwork. It's all on me. You know, I would have liked a warning like, hey, this guy's going to try and weasel you and like just watch out. That would have been coming handy. That would have been very nice. But at the end of the day, it's my fault. But anyway, yeah, licensing, you know, it's like I said, I think it's more about the disappointments of what you can and can't do. Not difficulty in working with the people and having them say, well, we don't like that. Change it.
    41:01
    You know, from my experience, anyway, I've had a great experience with. Sure. With especially Warner Brothers and the different companies that I've worked with that they've been very supportive. And yeah, I was really surprised. Bug told me like the people at Warner Brothers, well, they just love you. I'm like, really? Why don't they call me up? Tell me to do some Batman stuff, damn it. Give you some extra cash.
    41:28
    Yeah, and that makes sense from the beginning of a project. So you kind of know what you're going into. And as we've seen, you can make a fantastic game with only like one real actor. For example, Jurassic Park. All you have is Newman in there. You know, you have the T-Rex and the Raptor, but it still turned out to be a fabulous game. But, you know, I think the one thing us definitely us three are thinking about is it, you know, it taking a year, sometimes a year and a half to finish a game. And like I don't know how much of a part you've been of that, of a game that takes so long to finish the code on, you know, but from inside companies, I've heard everything from the artists or not the artists, the software developers of prima donnas and they like to take their time from, you know, issues with accounting to actual issues with dealing with the licensors. And, you know, it's probably a Venn diagram where the truth is somewhere in the middle. But all we hear nowadays from these, you know, machines that take a year, a year and a half to finish is the licensor. It's the licensor's fault.
    42:44
    I have not heard that come out of Spooky's mouth, and that's really the only company I can speak for. I don't know what these other guys are going through.
    42:54
    We've just not had that problem. I mean, all these companies, all these pinball companies are working with the same people. You know, Warner Brothers, you know, Harry Potter went to Jersey Jack, you know, so I don't know. You know, I can tell you one thing. Well, it's been 80 days. It's pissing me off. So it's really.
    43:15
    It's certainly easy to just say it's the licensure's fault, you know, and it kind of takes the heat off of you. But I don't think I would do that. I wouldn't want to throw those guys under the bus if they didn't deserve it. Oh, you know, it's those damn licensors. Next thing you know, like, can I have a license for this? Nope.
    43:36
    Damn it. That's my own fault. I opened my big fat mouth. Yeah. You might be able to bring some clarity to this because this was at least, because I think this could apply to your projects with art when you do the art projects. But because I got to work on that Harry Potter featurette. And so I got to I had to submit edits and they had to come back to me. But I was really just working with someone at Jersey Jack who was the producer and they were working with Warner Brothers, not not me directly with them. But the one thing I did notice, it wasn't so much that they wanted to change a lot. It was and I'm sure they must prioritize these projects like different ways because they have other things they're doing. I just felt like the time to get an answer back took a long time. Like, so do you feel like sometimes their responsiveness is slow when you need to, like you have to halt because they're taking a while? Yeah, I can't explain why their turnaround is so long, but I know that there's a lot of turnover in that industry. You know, you're dealing with one guy and half of the project, this other guy comes in. It's like, well, some guy got promoted or some guy got laid off or like Warner Brothers just switched hands and now they're owned by. By the way, Franchi, I didn't mean Warner Brothers specifically, so just in general. Yeah. No, I'm just saying as an example.
    44:56
    Yeah. Sometimes you get quick responses. Sometimes you don't. I can't explain it. We never get a reason, you know. I mean, how dare you to ask? Like, what the hell took so long, you know?
    45:10
    Well, we're taking this license away from you. And wait a minute. I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. But, yeah, it just is what it is. It's got to go through, you know, see the thing is a lot of this has got to go through legal crap.
    45:24
    And when you get lawyers involved, they're not sitting around waiting for you to come to them and talk to them about Beetlejuice. They got all kinds of crap on their desk, you know. So once they get around to it, you know, they get checked off. You know, it's got to go through a lot of different people. So that certainly slows things up. But, you know, the problem you experienced is that you've got people talking about their product, you know, so there's probably some things you had to cut out because somebody said something. They're like, we don't want that in there. It was rough.
    45:59
    Well, actually, the funny you mentioned that it was you couldn't use magical the word. They don't let you use the word magical to describe the wizarding world of Harry Potter. And you'd even tell the people you were interviewing, please just don't say magical. And they're the ones making the game, so they know it too. And sure enough, like someone will throw in a magical and you're like, shit, I got to rerecord that whole thing. Or, you know, because we don't like to dub. Dubbing sounds so obvious if you dub something. So we had to start over.
    46:28
    Kind of like the Jack. Sorry, I had to rip on Jack for the Pokemon thing. I don't know if you saw that, Franchi, where they had to dub in him saying Pokemon because he said it wrong. But that actually fit because it's a Japanese IP. And we all remember – Hey, you. Get away from that. That's funny. Actually, I wasn't thinking that. See, it's fine. It's on the end now. You want to fight? Fight me.
    46:51
    Exactly. That's awesome. Yeah, so that was an interesting thing because it was more about that stuff. It was like, hey, we can't say this or can't say that. But the only thing is sometimes that becomes really hard because if they say you can't say something and your filming is done, you got to either cut it out or figure out a way around it. That's the hard part, which I'm sure with artwork, you have the same thing. If you go too far with something thinking, do you ever have that where like you go far with something hoping that they'll give you this thing and they don't? I push the boundaries all the time. I'll give you a tip if you hadn't thought about this. If in editing, if somebody says something, you've got to edit it, and you're like, well, how am I going to do that? I can't get him back in. Cut to a shot of you going and then edit his audio. He's still talking, but you're reacting with a facial expression, and you can change the audio to whatever you want. Yeah, not a good point. I don't have those skills.
    47:51
    I have to do it. Not very good, technically. I'm Jamie's editor. He does, you know, these guys put up with me so much. The audio in my podcast have been shitty so bad. And poor Kale, and they're all over me. But we fixed it today. Today I sound good. The theme premiere show should be, whoa, whoa, whoa, Jamie's crying. You know, that fucking song haunted my childhood.
    48:19
    That song haunted my, you don't think I heard that a few times? That's not the first. You had these kids that are like four years older than you and you're like hitting a bag of a snowball. Jamie's crying. Leave me alone. God. And I would get a wah, wah. As the snowball was pummeling my face.
    48:39
    All right. We're not Don's Pinball Podcast. Let's take it easy. Oh. Webby. Love you, Don. No, he's all right. Shots fired. Shots fired, Don. Shots fired. Sorry. Jeez. You're offending guys we were buddies with, Jamie. Come on now. It wouldn't be a JBS show if we didn't do it. These are our friends. I don't want to interview other people. Hi, Franchi.
    49:02
    Don's a dick. Since we were talking about Insider Connected, I think this could be a good segue to Turner Pinball is building, what do they call it, a pin access? Pin access, yeah. Okay.
    49:15
    Oh, that's how we found out about Goonies. Yeah, it was a pin access thing. Right. You found out what about Goonies? There was a folder under that – what would you call that? You're a software guy, Ralph. It was like a heading or something? It was like in the – yeah, it was in like the root of a folder. There was a file there that was – it wasn't called Goonies, though. It was called – I can't remember. Do you know how much shit like that? Spooky does on focus?
    49:43
    Yeah. Well, now that it's been exposed, I wish somebody would go back and check it after an update to see if something's changing in that folder. There hasn't been – they found it in the last one. I just find it interesting that someone's actually mounting the software to look in it. Like I don't know. That just seems weird to me. People are scouring like the trademark office website to see what movies have been registered for pinball and stuff. I don't want to play pinball. I'm not thinking – I just think there are a lot of people I agree that do this, but I just want to play it. I don want to sit there and like obsess over like weird things but I guess it a weird hobby sometimes I don know You know the bad thing about this stuff getting out the whole reason why they did it is really kind of null and void now You know, you could really just say, hey, in six months, we're going to have a Friday the 13th, you know, whatever.
    50:36
    But the thing that's bad about it now is that it gets out, people assume it's true, and they just start forming expectations. Oh, yeah. And if it's six months out, they got six months of time to go, oh, if it's Beetlejuice, it better have this and it better have that and it better have this. So when the game comes out and none of that's there, it's almost like you feel like they feel like you hoodwinked them. Wait a minute. Where's all this stuff I was expecting? Well, no one said it was going to be in there. You thought it was going to be in there. That's the danger of this stuff getting out. You know, as far as sales go, you know, I was having this conversation with Spooky a couple of weeks ago. I said, just tell people what it is. Half the time they're right anyway. They already know what it is. And it's already sold out. Yeah. You can't even get one if you want one now. Well, yeah, Spooky is in a unique position right now, but I don't know how long it's going to last. And let's say this doesn't happen next year.
    51:36
    Build a nice campaign that starts in the summer and goes through the fall into your release, you know, a little bit at a time, get bigger and bigger, you know, kind of like they do with movies.
    51:48
    You know, you get a little teaser trailer, then you get the regular trailer, then you get the Red Band trailer, then you get the three-minute long trailer, then the movie comes out. Yeah.
    51:58
    Just do that. There's no, you know. I couldn't agree more. Because if you want people, you have to believe in your product and what you've got. If you think, you know, we'll say Goonies anyway. So if you've got Goonies and you think, oh, yeah, everyone's going to love Goonies, and you believe in your product enough that you went and got the license and you developed a game, then you put it out there and you tell people you probably don't want to buy Transformers if you like Goonies better because it's coming, you know. And here's a little teaser. Here's a little bit of what it looks like or here's a little bit of something. Give them a taste. That's how you do business. You don't let the money get pissed away.
    52:35
    Go ahead. Well, because I think that's a great point. And the same thing happens in the video game industry. We've known for like a year that they're working on the new Grand Theft Auto and we're all very excited. And they've even said they're going to bump up the price to like what, like over a hundred bucks for the game. And we're like, I don't care. It's Grand Theft fucking auto. Yeah. So I think that model is great.
    52:59
    Because, I mean, the leaks always happen. Yeah. I mean, when is the last time we've truly been surprised by something that was announced? I think Labyrinth. Well, in recent times. The Haunted House. Yeah. Haunted House or whatever. Yeah, yeah. Barrels is the king of the hill when it comes to keeping it secret. They really are good at keeping it secret. They really are good at it. But it comes with a price because not a lot of people get to play test it, not a lot of people, and so they've botched some releases because of it.
    53:35
    So there's a tradeoff, right? Yeah, I wonder if like tomorrow if we it would be interesting if you could test this, because I do wonder if the pinball community, knowing how crazy we can be, knew every title for that year, how the sales would shake out versus if they didn't know the titles of the year. You know what I mean? Because there are people that are there people that like, for instance, we know that Transformers is coming and we know pretty with high confidence that Sonic is coming. If people knew both those were coming within like a certain period, would they actually make different buying decisions or hold off one versus the other? You know, I do because people that's what I do wonder how that would affect the like how people bought stuff. I really think they buy as much. I really don't think it would change because people in tune to this industry, they're listening to the podcast or they're on the Internet. They already know what's coming. And if you stay tuned to the show, you're going to know the rest of the games for this year and some for next year. But here's the thing, though, Kale. The only thing I might slightly disagree with, though, don't you think there's a lot of sales that happen because people don't want to be left out? Like the whole FOMO thing, I think people do FOMO buy. Like it comes out and they're like, oh, I don't want to miss out on it because my favorite podcast person or streamer or whatever, even though that's not the intent of the person streaming the game, like I want you to feel bad and want to buy this. But it happens a lot of times like that because you feel like you're left out of something.
    55:03
    I don't know. And I think there's a lot of people like that in our community that buy that way. Did you hear that? My phone went off. Even though I put it on Do Not Disturb. Oh, because you have VIP contacts and they can they can still go through. My cousin that I talk to once every 10 years is not a VIP contact.
    55:24
    Sorry, friends and family. Friends of Fam. Sorry about the event. Don't even worry about it. Well, tell me what you guys think of this. This is kind of the impression I have of this whole wait and see bullshit.
    55:38
    If someone comes out and says, like, Spooky came out, well, now it's kind of early, but let's say they came out in end of August and they said, hey, our next game is Beavers and Butthead. And to me, that shows confidence in what you're selling.
    55:59
    It's not coming out until November, but we're letting you know what we got because we believe in it and it's going to be a great product. If you hide it and you just sneak it out at the last minute like, poof, here it is, it almost tells me that you don't believe in it and you're really worried and you held it back as long as you could.
    56:17
    And then you put it out there and you're just like, please buy it. Yeah, one of these. Yeah, I think it's much better to have the balls to say, you know, fuck you guys. Like, we got Beavis and Butthead. It's coming out in November. You're going to want it. We'll show you some stuff soon. Stick around.
    56:35
    Until then, keep playing pinball, you know. I think that says more about a company than hide until the last minute. That's my impression. I'd love to see it. So what do you guys think then? Do you guys like it when some of these companies do, if done right? Because some of them in recent times have done the teasing where you kind of know what it is. Like, and I know the game didn't do well, but Pinball Brothers kind of did that with Predator. Like, you knew it was Predator, but they kept sharing, like, little pieces here and there, and then they kind of, like, fully released it, even though I think they could have done that much better. But that was the idea. That was the idea. So do you guys like that, though? Come on, don't bring it back to there. I'm already in enough trouble with this shit. Please, come on.
    57:17
    I'm already in enough trouble. We have not dug out of this hole after like three episodes. So anyways, I'm never digging out of this hole until I get that guy on the podcast. Do you guys like the collective teases if people did that? Like a lead up to where you get maybe like maybe they did that over a series of months? Is that? Yeah, I think that's what Franchi's talking about. But you like that. I'd like that. Constructed releases that little teasers, things that get you excited about. It makes it fun. Yeah. Yeah, last year, I don't know if you guys know this or not, but last year at Expo, Bug was handing out Zagnut bars. Yeah, he gave me one. Unfortunately, a lot of people were like, this is the worst candy bar ever. They don't remember the scene in Beetlejuice where he says, how about Zagnut, you know? But that was a good tease, you know? Now, see, that was a good tease, but then David Van Ness handed people baggies full of sand. Like, he literally gave people trash. And what was that supposed to be for? The sand in Dune. Oh, Dune. That had to do with Dune. That's kind of far-fetched. I hope you don't get pulled over on the way home, you know.
    58:24
    Maybe the sand wasn't a great move. All right, but, you know, you're just trying. Can you imagine the poor guy that had to, like, put the sand in these little baggies to hand out? He's got sand and shit all over him. Well, he's got kids. Did you guys see the movie Raising Arizona? Yeah, of course. I live in Arizona. When there was no crawdad to pound, we ate sand. You ate what? We ate sand. You ate sand?
    58:50
    Healthy white baby. What else you got? Jamie, your mission is to find out who at Barrels of Fun bagged the sand, please. All right, I'll find out. Whose job was that? Who was sandbagging? Who was sandbagging that day? I'll find out. All right. Well, my original question was supposed to be about, you know, Spooky and JJP and Barrels and American Pinball doing a Stern Insider Connect. We've already said how much we love Stern Insider Connect. Are we going to see this from them? Jamie, can you do me a favor? Connected. It's called Stern Insider Connected. Connected. All right. Okay. What an idiot. Now what's the question?
    59:37
    I'll answer your question. No, it won't ever happen, and I'll tell you why. Because you have no idea how much money that costs Stern. You think they're just going to give it to these other companies to use? No, but maybe with Turner. I'm saying with Turner's pin access, would he license that? You'll probably see different stuff. Yeah. Because people want to be more in control, too. I mean, would you want to be giving all your stuff up to Stern to put on the platform? So you might end up having three or four different versions of this. The only problem is, sadly, I don't believe they could be interconnected. So you'll never know.
    60:14
    You get a patch for Pokemon. You get a patch for Winchester. Not in the same program. It'll be separate. That's fine. It depends. There's got to be something because when I go, I'm insider connected. I've got to get my badge. And I want a badge and I want to get on that leaderboard. And I think leaderboards have proven on location without question. You know, when I go to the bat, what do I do? I look at the leaderboard. Where can I get on there and put a little JBS show up there, you know? Did you grow up in a big family, Jamie? Like a lot of kids? No, just me and my brother. Is your brother older?
    60:55
    He's younger. Nothing's lining up. What are you getting at, Chris? Yeah, where are we going? It's just so like, I need to be noticed. Hey, look at me. Like, I thought maybe he was in like a family of 10 kids, you know, or he had an older brother that beat him up all the time and like all the neighborhood kids like his brother and hated him. No, I just like getting my initials on games. It's pretty badass. I don't know.
    61:19
    Hey, let's move on from this. You'd be happy with your initials on your underwear, Jamie. I do. Calvin Klein. All right. Ralph hit me up and was showing me this homebrew guy. Ralph, take it over. The homebrew guy. This is cool, but also a little controversial. So there's this guy who started a Facebook group called Homebrew Pinball Australia. And I saw some fights break out between this guy and some other people, and it became this big, long thread because this guy was able to build. It's almost a fully working pinball machine, and he did it all with AI, meaning he taught himself with AI how to do these things that he did not know how to do before this. And the game, I mean, it's pretty impressive for someone that had no experience ever building a pinball machine. Ralph, so he used – with the help of AI, he did the art, the geometry, the layout, and the software? So he hasn't done art. I haven't seen art on it yet. But, I mean, some of his sculpts have art, like he's 3D printed things that look like the things from the movie. It's Saw-themed. But, yeah, everything else you said has been 100 percent he taught himself how to do it with AI. And it's been like 50 – I'd say it's probably been about 80 percent of the people have really supported what he's doing and like, this is so cool. Keep going. You're learning something you've never done before. And then there's like this 20 percent that just is like flaming him to hell because of the fact that he used any form of AI to achieve what he achieved. So it's just interesting because had I not known that. And I don't I have my own opinion, but had I not known that I was like I was just watching it scroll. You know, when you just see things in the autoplay, I just saw this thing. I was like, holy shit, this is cool, whatever this dude is building. And I was just looking at him, but I hadn't read anything about the project yet. And then I kind of did some research to find out that, you know, he used AI to basically like build basically the whole thing.
    63:23
    So. No one wants to say anything. I don't want to jump in first. Go, go, please. AI is a sticky subject. I'll say this right off the bat. If this guy didn't use AI, he still wouldn't know how to do it and he would have nothing to show anybody. It would have ceased to have something in this planet exist if he didn't have the help that AI offered him. So you can't say anything shitty about that because, I mean, why do we need to hold people back because they think AI is a cancer? Number one, AI is here and it's not going anywhere. If you think you can like start a revolution and people are just going to pull the plug, it's just going to get worse. My job at Aristocrat, I got replaced because of AI. So you think I'd be real bitter and pissed off, but I learned a long time ago that if you don't go with a flow, you get stuck in the undertow and that rhymes. But that's just it's the way of the world. And it's not like this guy, he didn't cheat. People always think like, oh, you're just cheating. He needed AI to perform what he was trying to do. And AI assisted him in doing it. And he still did it. It's not like he hit a button and these robots came in and went, he just sat back with a beer and went, look what I made. That's not what happened. And this whole AI, you know, with artwork and stuff like that, like, I mean, me being an artist, if I came out with a whole AI package, yeah, that'd be pretty shitty. But like these bars, you know, the people are doing perfect example, pinball tournaments. You guys are tournament players. You're all tournament players. A lot of these bars and these pinball clubs use AI to make flyers.
    65:17
    Nice flyers. They look good. They look professional. If they didn't have AI to do that, they would look like the shit that I saw two years ago. No offense. Sorry, people. They were trying their best. But if you don't have the money to pay some guy $500,000, $600,000, $800,000 to make you a fancy flyer, and you can go to AI and say, okay, I want a flyer for this and all, you've got a nice-looking representation of your thing, something that you're proud of. Didn't cost you a million dollars because I know these people can't afford it. I've seen the winnings of people like, I won the tournament, and they're fanning out like six singles. Came in first, $6, you know. So, and the same thing, like I will absolutely admit that there's a game coming out in a year, but it partially used Aion for some very meaningless background bullshit that saved me time and wasn't important. No one's going to be like, you know, I don't remember, can't tell you what it was. Not because I don't want to, but my mind is not remembering. But let's just say it was like a bush or something in front of a building. No one's going to go, oh, no, that's not a Franchi bush. You can tell, you know. Who cares? When I started doing artwork on a computer, it's when the computer revolution took over and Photoshop and CorelDRAW and Illustrator and all this stuff. And I knew right then, I'm like, I'm not getting left in the dust. I'm hopping on this train right now. So AI is the same way. I would never use it for a full art package. I would never use it to like draw a main character.
    66:59
    But people, you know, here's the problem with with AI is that people know it exists. Someone comes to you and says, hey, and this is one of the problems I had at Aristocrat when I was working there, is they're like, you know, why don't you just use AI to come up to these concepts for, you know, a gambling game? You know, instead you took a whole week when you could have done this in a day. Like, well, I was trying to draw it myself, you know, like, well, don't draw it yourself. Use AI because we know it exists. You should be using it. It's free. So you're going to, artists are going to run into situations where people are going to say, like, you know, why did it take you so long? Why am I paying this much? You know, et cetera, et cetera. So you have to, as an artist, a pinball artist, you know, use it within reason. And, you know, don't use it for anything major. But if you use it for filler or something in the background, you know, you know how long it takes to draw like a sky with clouds and stuff like that? If you can just say, hey, give me a give me a sunset, you know, with a purple sky that fades into pink and into orange and you hit a button and it's there. Number one, you're never going to get exactly what you want. So you're still going to have to kind of draw over it and retouch it because you want. But if you can get that in 30 seconds rather than me take four hours to draw it, why not?
    68:13
    No one's going to say, that's not a franchise guy, you know, so it doesn't matter. You've got to go with the flow. It's going to leave people in the dust and this bitterness that people have against it. I get it. It's going to take over a lot of people's jobs and all that. But like I said, no one's pulling the plug. It's not going anywhere. It's just going to get worse. And if you don't get in a canoe and start paddling upstream, you're gone. Yeah, I remember. I think a lot of these people that complain about AI or maybe a little bit on the younger side, they don't remember the history of art and using computers.
    68:53
    When I was in middle school, D.C. released a comic called Batman Digital Justice. I remember that. People freak out like, I'm not paying for this. This is the end of hand-drawn art. We have to stop this. So this whole outrage over using technology to create art is nothing new. Right. Well, you know, and people have to separate it too because like Kale, you know, as well as I do, are you married to Rachel? Are you guys husband and wife? Yeah, it's all legal. Okay, so your wife, Rachel, is an amazing painter. She doesn't use AI for what she does, but that's her thing. That's what she does. She's not doing that commercially. She's not drawing a painting of a beautiful woman doing something and then selling that to Marlboro for some ad. She's doing it because she's expressing herself. She's creating things that express an emotion. She wants to have an art show, things like that. That's different. Obviously, you don't, you know, but don't confuse the two. You know, I can do artwork like that if I want to, but I choose, you know, Rachel chooses to run an arcade and do that for a living and have fun doing art. I've lost my joy for personal art because I do commercial art for a living. So that's kind of sad, but I like making a living doing art. That's the tradeoff, you know. So there's a big difference. There's two different kind of art worlds. And, of course, you would never use AI for something like what Rachel does, fine art, as you would say, instead of commercial art. Big difference. And commercial art, it's like Drew Struzan. I don't know if you guys know who he is. He died recently. He's one of the most famous movie poster artists in the world.
    70:53
    He did a video. And he said, I'm going to take you through my process from sketches to getting things approved to doing the final art. And that guy was my hero. He still is my hero. I should say he was. He is my hero. I love that guy's artwork.
    71:08
    I watched this video and step one, he had taken all these photos and he's got them in an overhead projector and he's tracing them on the paper.
    71:18
    And I'm like, holy shit, the dude traces. And then, of course, he's going to address it. He's not just going to trace and like just kind of sweep it under the rug. And he says, here's the deal.
    71:30
    I'm an illustrator. I'm a commercial illustrator. And I need to get this stuff done fast. Yes, I could sit down and I could draw this guy by hand by just putting the photo here and drawing it. Or I could save 80% of that time by tracing it out. And all he does is kind of an outline. I mean, you know, all the work is in rendering and all that, which he all does by hand and does a beautiful job. But I was shocked. And then when he explained why he did it, it completely made sense. It's like he's not doing a gallery show and he's not, you know, creating something, you know, because he's trying to express an emotion or a feeling or a statement or whatever. He's doing art for a company that has to pay for it. They want it on time. They want it on budget. And if this is what he has to do to do it, that's what he's got to do. So, yeah, I think a lot of people forget that part of it, though, you know, like I think when people consume it in the pinball world, they don't think about, oh, this was a commercial project. And if Christopher Franchi wanted to do this the way he wanted to do it, you know, take as much time as you wanted. This might take I'm just making this up six months. But they tell you, well, you only have two. So like, I don't think people think about that. A lot of people don't think about the process. They just think about almost like it just appeared out of nowhere. And that's unfortunate sometimes. Yeah. But it's unfortunate sometimes because I think we get so close to it because we do these podcasts, we get to know people in the industry and we get to see more of it. And sometimes I do feel bad for some of these people, artists, code developers, anybody, because they don't think about the constraints. It's that they're under sometimes. Well, you brought up a good point. Coding. Do you know how much of that shit's AI these days? They're not going to tell you. Stern's not going to say, like, oh, or I shouldn't say call out Stern, but any company. They're not going to say, oh, you know, our team's in here and, like, AI's filling out all the gaps and doing this and doing that. It happens. It's being done now because it saves this team a ton of work. They're not going to tell you about it. And because they don't tell you about it, no one's throwing their hands up in the air and saying, oh, god damn AI. It's here to stay. It's probably going to sell pinball machines. We're going to replace distributors. Sorry, coin taker.
    73:52
    Here's one thing I'll add to this that just because of the industry I'm in. So we sell data storage. So we're basically selling these small scale storage devices that can hold petabytes of information. So people put their whole company's data sets on us. Right. And this year, we have a major supply chain shortage. And the reason why we have a supply chain shortage, anybody that sells data storage right now, we can't get product. We can, but it's so trickled out and we have to pay way more for it. And do you want to know why? Because all of the big hyperscaler companies like Meta are buying billions of dollars of memory to feed AI GPU farms. And they bought the whole inventory of almost like two years. So our whole business is selling the thing that they're buying all of it out. They bought the entire allotment. So when someone says, I do get, though, there are things that I don't like about AI 100 percent, but I'm seeing these billions of dollars being spent. It's like it's almost impossible to stop, unfortunately, like there is no way to stop it. So I'm not saying we should blindly support it in its full usage of everything in our daily lives. But I get where when someone says something like, let's rise up, there almost is no rising up. Like it almost can't. You can fight. There are small fights and win them. But the big battle of AI, I think we're going to lose. It sounds bad, but. Look at smaller achievements in the world. Like nobody has stopped anything. Something comes along that makes your life easier or whatever however you want to classify AI Nobody has stopped any of this stuff from coming It just keeps coming So just put your fist up in the air and say I putting a stop to this This isn't going to happen. I don't support this. You're just going to get left in the dust. It's as simple as that. You know, you don't have to like it, but you have to live with it. That's the thing. You know, no one says you have to like it, but you have to live with it. You can't fight it. You have to live with it. Yeah. Well, that was a great topic, guys. Thank you. Good job, Ralph. Kudos to you, sir, for writing that one down. Appreciate it. Let's get to the meat and some more meat and potatoes. We've got about 15, 20 minutes left here, and we've got a $100 bet that Jamie lost to Kaneda that we need to talk about. We haven't heard about this yet. What happened? I bet it can't eat $100 that JJP didn't have Van Halen, and guess what? I was wrong. I don't know if I'm going to Venmo you $100 or buy you wife some sake on a Saturday morning. Spectacular. Well, just to be fair, you need to wait until it ships because a lot can happen. A lot can happen. Good point. You can't pay it now. Don't pay it now. Right. Well, no. I mean, the question wasn't is it going to be released? The question is does JJP have it? That was confirmed. You lose. Wait, was that actually? Was that actually what it was? I said they didn't even have it. I said they got nothing. Send a hundred bucks, man. Well, Franchi, you better pay up, Jamie. So next Saturday morning, Spectacular, I'll give Brenda a hundred bucks. So the question is, David Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar? Or Bull?
    77:17
    You know, I didn't have that much time with him. But I think it's got to be Bull. And then the pop bumpers will have the guy from Extreme.
    77:28
    They'll stick him up in the pops. And Franchi, it has to be both, right? Doesn't it have to be Sammy and... Well, I know that the two of them hate each other. So if they had to agree to be on the same product together, I don't think that would happen.
    77:43
    It would have to be one or the other. That was in the past. No, that's going on right now. Maybe they could be throwing them a nice check. That's going on right now. Well, they do not. Yeah. Well, David Lee Roth is so idiot. You know, he keeps on opening his mouth. He's a piece of work. Sammy Hagar is kind of a chill dude. You know, but if someone's going to smack you upside the head 12 times, you got to stand up eventually. So that's interesting. But the reason I bet this hundred and felt so good about the hundred bucks, Franchi, was because I actually spoke with Wolfgang Van Halen. I said, how the hell is it not a Wolf of Van Halen pinball machine? He says, my uncle's never going to allow it. There's too many lead singers. It's never going to pass. And I was like, all right, well, that sounds like I heard it from a source. So, Jamie, I still don't think you understand how much money JJP has. It's starting to dawn on me a little. Money talks. Money talks. Money talks, brother. Are you guys going to bring up this, what the hell is the name of that damn game, Resident Evil Pinball Machine for $27,000? I have that question on there. I just threw it on there because of what you just said, Franchi. So the whole today, this whole Resident Evil thing, finally, they kind of came to light of how many they were going to make and everything. But here's the crazy part. Is it going to make 400 units and they're going to have collector's edition of 100 units, right, for this Resident Evil game? And here's what's crazy. The normal version, the like basic, I don't know what they're going to call it, I guess limited in collectors. They're limited, assuming collect, yeah, so they're limited is going to be $25,000 US and the collectors is going to be $27,000 US. Like that's nuts. And then they're busting up the 100, the 100, see, I don't, the collector's edition in the LE should be flip-flop. Why do they have the word limited on the one that's not as limited? But the 100, they're doing a split into five characters, so they're going to do like what, 20 of each character? Yep. You know, that's a bit convoluted, but still it's like $28,000. Does this thing give you a blowjob while you're playing?
    79:49
    That's insane. So, I mean, I would imagine part of this price is because it's being manufactured overseas, right? And they know they're going to get their most sales in the States. Yeah, the Swiss price is $21,000 whatever at $19,000 which equates to the $27,000 and the $25,000 U.S. It's made in, yeah, so I don't know. So we don't know anything, we haven't seen the game, I haven't been keeping up with it. No, all we know is the price. That's all we know, how many they're making, the price, and then they're making up the... And Nap reported that, right? Yeah, Nap Arcade reported it today. Okay, yeah. So it's kind of weird. I mean, I don't know. I'm not a – I can't touch that. Did that release come from the company or did NAP like find that out? Because my whole thing, if that's a release from the company, that's just dumb. I don't think it was a release from the company. Okay.
    80:46
    I don't know. They found out somehow. The way NAP boarded it sounded like it was official. It was a statement from the company. Oh, it was. You're right. It is a statement. Signed by somebody at the bottom or something? Yeah, it is a statement. He just says, here's World Pinball's message. But I don't know where they sent this message or who they sent it to. But it says, hello, thank you for your message. The official teaser is scheduled for a later date, after which we will open pre-orders. And then they went ahead and stated that there would be the limited editions and how many.
    81:18
    So I don't know if this was someone inquiring and they just responded back via an email. This is why this makes no sense to me. Could you imagine if you're like, hey, guess what? We're doing a brand new Indiana Jones. We're not going to tell you anything about it, but it's going to be the most expensive movie ticket you've ever paid for. Okay, hold on. You know how we always get made fun of because we never read shit? We just talk about it real quick? Okay, it is in here. It says, obviously, it says, a friend of mine recently reached out to the company that is reportedly working on the game and received that response. So that's what so so this could be bullshit.
    81:54
    But if it's someone that Knapp really trusts, I think he probably wouldn't post it if it wasn't someone trusted. Knapp also said in there that that this company is supposed to reveal information in March and March came and went. Nothing ever happened. So people were expecting an announcement relatively soon. And this is even going to happen. But if you go to the official website, it doesn't have this information on it. Just so we're clear. Like if you go to the Resident Evil Pinball website, it doesn't have this information on it. It literally just has a thing that you click and then it opens up your email to mail them a question. That's it. Okay. Well, if this company wants to clear up any rumors, please get in touch with the JBS show. Yeah. We'll take care of it. Yeah. It does have the Capcom logo and the World Pinball logo on it, though. So there you go. Okay.
    82:44
    That says something. All right, Kale, I think it's been long enough. We're an hour, 23 minutes in. I think you've got to drop some knowledge to us. Do you want to hear some news? I want to hear some news. Come on, brother. First of all, a friend of the Electric Batcast, and he loves our show too, Pixel Pete, made us some T-shirts.
    83:07
    I haven't shown you these yet. Oh, no way. Let me get this out of the way here. Look at that. Look at that gorgeous guy in the middle.
    83:18
    I'm always gassy. Yeah, I am really. Sucks. What are we doing here? I love it. On the back. Nice. Dude, that's awesome. That is from one of our fans, Pixel Pete. And as soon as you come to town, Jamie, we're going to try all these. He sent one for everybody. Oh, wow. Pixel Pete. Thank you. Am I going to be the odd guy out now? Well, I didn't get a shirt. Yeah, that's exactly right. Franchi, this is how you get a shirt. Franchi's not getting shit. I'll tell you that right now. These are mine. Here's the deal, Jamie. What size t-shirt do you wear?
    83:56
    You know, XL. All right. All I have is a 3XL in this, but this is getting reprinted in a, you can't tell by looking at it, but it's actually pink with like blue crackles in it. I'm redoing it in like a tennis ball yellow green with teal crackles in it, and I will make sure you get one of those. Yeah, that'll look good with my skin color. That'll be beautiful. Yeah, I want to make sure it contrasts nice.
    84:24
    I'm going to put a silver mud flap of hair on the back here on the skull. I don't have that anymore. I got rid of that shit.
    84:36
    That's a Texas waterfall, man. All right. You want some more stuff? Yeah, I want some more stuff. Let's go.
    84:45
    So we know the rest of the year is pretty much Transformers. We got invites to go see Transformers. That's going to be fun. Are you going? I don't know, man. And here's my deal. Like I looked up tickets and we know how much lodging is. I know. Yeah. And I'm like, and so I'm paying all this money, you know, and then they put the camera in your face and you have to go, oh, this is the best game I've ever seen in my life. I haven't participated in that yet, by the way. But all this money is coming out of my pocket. And they're like, and so I looked up when Rachel and I were talking about, we're like, we looked up, you know, fine dining restaurants around here. And like one of our favorite restaurants we go to, it's like it's $250 a plate. It's an omakase room. But it's like we could we were like, well, we could go to Chicago and pay a bunch of money to promote Stern or we could go have a nice dinner. And so we're kind of weighing that out. So you went to dinner? Not yet. OK, that would be like several dinners, wouldn't it? Yeah, we're still deciding what to do. No, but we very much appreciate the advice. Thank you so much, Zach. But the fact, you know, I'm going to be in Chicago this week and I don't think I have enough headway like Ralph to get in there early. So I am getting an invitation. Oh, I will represent the roundtable if if no one else is going. Absolutely. Oh, thank you, sir. Yeah. Don't forget to get your special badge.
    86:26
    Oh, I really do love those things, Franchi. So then after that, I think everybody knows we're getting Fallout from Keith Elwin. That's right. I have a feeling we're getting a very special machine after I think it's going to come out after Fallout.
    86:43
    And I don't know whether it's not going to be like a remastered, but it's going to be a new version. It's going to be the Goldfinger James Bond version. Something very special Gomez is going to put together for all the fans. That's going to be absolutely stunning. That's a great game. And the code finished. Dude, I'd be in on that just because I've owned it. This would be my third time owning it. I just – I always love that game. It's just a fun game, dude. I always go back to it. It's a really cool-ass game. I just love that game. And you're going to get the game with the code finished, the code complete. Yeah.
    87:16
    So this is – so they're going to do a Goldfinger. Oh, dude. So no kiss. Do you think it will be like premium and LE only or something? Like you won't do a pro? I would imagine this Goldfinger edition, it's just kind of like the 50th anniversary games, Blood Red Kiss. I think it's going to be in the vein of that. Okay.
    87:39
    Okay. Heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen. So do you think they're scrapping that rumor or they'll do it later? Remember we were thinking the other rumor was they were going to do that gold Godzilla, like another Godzilla. Do you think they're for Spike 3? Godzilla and Spike 3? I don't know. I haven't heard any more about that. But I could see them doing that next year because they have a lot of pretty big, you know, they could have some serious wins this year with what they got. Next year, I think the first game we're going to see is Dracula. And I hear they're putting a lot into this. And I'm really excited about this game because I'm going to line up all three Dracula games. We have the other two. Oh, that's cool. And we're going to get the new one. And then after that, John Borg, I believe he was working on Bill and Ted, but there were a lot of people not excited about that IP. Didn't think it would sell very well.
    88:37
    So they moved them on to Ozzy Osbourne. To Black Sabbath or Ozzy? The whole catalog. Are they going to put the Black Sabbath catalog on there?
    88:49
    Stay tuned. I don't know. Oh, boy. Ozzy. No more Tears. No More Tears is a pretty good song. No More Tears multiball. Yep. Ozzy Osbourne by Borg. I am all in on this. So would you guys be mad at me if I, like if you told me, if you gave me two games and you said you can have an Ozzy Osbourne or a Van Halen, I wouldn't even consider the Van Halen in that choice. Is that crazy? Do you guys think I'm crazy? No, that's not crazy. Ozzy's unbelievable. I wouldn't even consider it. I would take the Ozzy so fast, it wouldn't even be an option in my mind. Because of the achievements. I would get an L.E. of an Ozzy Osbourne pin for sure. As long as when you drain, it goes, Shinn!
    89:35
    Wow. That's bad. Wow, Kale, you dropped some. Kale's dropping some knowledge on us, ladies and gentlemen. What else is going to be pushed? Anything else to that? You got more? That's all I got. Okay, still pretty good. I mean, come on. I just got excited. You get a little bit, you want more all the time. Spooky's making Elvis. Uh-oh. Is Spooky making Elvis? No. But would you be mad if they did? Are you doing South Park art? No. Okay, good. Is anybody? I don't know. I don't know. That's what we're trying to find out here. I would imagine if somebody at the South Park was in the South Park would do the artwork for him because it's South Park. It's construction paper. Right, yeah. No, let's go back to Elvis though real quick. Okay. Steve Ritchie? I like Elvis. Like would you guys be down for like a, because the old Elvis had Stern was kind of crap. But you'd be down for a new Elvis? Oh, you'd like to revisit it? Well, I'd like to do like an Elvis through the years rather than just Vegas Elvis or whatever. You know, it seems like the one they... You end with a fat Elvis? Yeah, would you actually include fat Elvis? I probably couldn't, I bet. I'd give it right up to before that. You know, the jumpsuits and all that, but just not the big gut and the fat chin. Right. I didn't have to do this. I could have just pointed to my own.
    91:14
    I don't know. I never hear his name mentioned. He is the king. I don't think it would sell very well. Nah. No?
    91:22
    Mm-mm. I don't see it. You could probably do it as a limited run. Right? I don't know. Crickets. You should talk Spooky into doing a summertime release of bands, limited run bands in the summertime, like Billy Idol. Because I think Billy Idol would kick ass.
    91:44
    Because every metalhead... I don't think it'd sell well, but it would... Why wouldn't it? I don't know. Don't you think with the bands it almost has to be really...
    91:56
    Don't you think they almost have to transcend generations to sell well? I think he kind of does, but what he does mostly is he transcends genres.
    92:06
    He's not just this punk rock guy or this rock guy or this heavy metal guy. He kind of like everybody likes Billy. Somebody needs to do a prince.
    92:16
    I already did a back glass. I'm good to go. Let me tell you why no one's doing a prince. I proposed it to American Pinball. I did a back glass, which I thought was pretty cool. And we submitted it and the family wanted $2 million.
    92:34
    Oh. And that's what J.J.P. did. So J.J.P. has got the license now. $2 million. But I agree with the music hold, music pin thing needs to move at least into the 80s. Can we get it out of the 70s? Absolutely. You know? Yeah. There'd be some really cool 80s stuff they could do. Well, because like when I'm in the grocery store, I'm hearing like Duran Duran and shit. I'm like, God, am I that old that like my little new wave bullshit that was my own little pet crap is now grocery store music? You know, I hear Public Image Limited and, you know, and all these other punk bands and crap in the grocery store. Susie and the Banshees. That's how old we are. Come on. Rachel and I heard ministry at Trader Joe's the other day. It's freaking awesome. I see the middle of the produce section. I want to fuck you like an animal. I don't know if N.I.M. No Nine Inch Nails. No, at least not that one. It'd be a good pinball machine. Some lady's putting tomatoes in a bag to that song.
    93:44
    Some grandma walks up at the service counter. What's this song? This is catchy. I like it. I like N.I.M. All right, boys. We're at an hour and a half. Thank you so much. We covered everything. Christopher Franchi. I really appreciate it. You didn't shout out our loyal listeners. Oh, yeah. On there. I wanted to do a quick shout out every and just take two people. We already talked to Pixel Pete and thanked him. But David Kreps and Jeff Eppner, no matter what we post on the roundtable, they always have nice things to say about us. So I really appreciate them. And thank you for watching and listening and everything that you do, David and Jeff. Thank you, guys. Appreciate that. Thank you, guys. Really appreciate it. The numbers are just ridiculous.
    94:32
    Oh, shit. I don't know what's happening. I don't know what happened. The numbers have just been ridiculous for our podcast. So I'm totally stoked. I'm so happy that the roundtable has taken off and done as well as we have. So thank you, Jens. There's no prouder moment than when you reach that pinnacle of 50 listeners, isn't it? I know. I mean, we're doing a couple of thousand. It's been really great. And I'm really, you know, you add the podcast and the YouTube. It's been just phenomenal. One of the top podcasts. It's getting harder to get people's attention. So those are good numbers. Yeah, we're getting there. I'm really proud of us. So, all right. To end, Kale Hernandez, thank you so much. You just did an electric bat cast with Rachel, one of the best ones ever. I think the questions were fantastic. I almost went without a gutter gould, but that can't happen. You have to have a gutter gould question in the electric bat. I mean, what a great dude. When I met him, I was the most excited that I've ever met any fan. That's when I met gutter gould. I mean, that was just so awesome. And do me a favor. Shout out to Serge. I want to interview him on the JBS show, which is a different show. Roger. Does Serge have like a backpack with an extra brain in it?
    95:46
    No, that's all in his little head. I don't know. He's amazing. I listen to him talk when he's explaining rules and my eyes go crossed and I just kind of go and drift off into another galaxy. That's what happens when they talk when they talk pinball repair to me. I just know how he keeps all of that in his head. He's a genius. And if you're listening, Serge, JBS show. That's a gift. Here we go. Hey, since you mentioned Serge, I'll bring this up real quick because this was really cool. And I almost sent it to you, Kale, but I forgot to send it to you. Someone was talking in like the Stern Enthusiast group or one of these groups, and he's like, I just bought Evil – I mean, I just bought The Walking Dead, and I really don't know how to play it. Are there any good tutorials out there? And some guy's like, hey, this is a really good one to start off, and you'll get all the basics. And he sent the video that we all made at my house with Serge as like a, hey, follow this, because that was good. It was a good tutorial. I was glued to that. That was a really good video. I was about to say I'd let Serge know, but he's going to listen to this. Yeah. Wow, there you go. We got to do another game soon. I don't know what, but. Yeah, let's do it. Well, what's the next one? Well, I guess Transformers. When Pokemon gets an update, let's get together. Yeah, actually, it'd be cool for him to do Beetlejuice, but maybe when the code gets a little, maybe after the next code release instead of, because you guys will probably do one when the new code comes down anyway. Two weeks. Two weeks? Two weeks. Yeah, you heard that here first. Franchi's dropped it. We dropped a lot of knowledge. You're going to get some new Beetlejuice code in a couple weeks, which is pretty awesome. And Retro Ralph, follow him on Retro Ralph Live on Instagram. We're trying to get your Instagram. Can I just do mine? Because you get it wrong every time. It's Retro Ralph Live on YouTube. That's where the video version of the podcast is. And then the podcast is also on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. And then my core channel, Retro Ralph, is for the long form content. That's what you need to know. And then my Facebook group is doing really well right now. That's just Retro Ralph on Facebook. For some reason, Facebook, they are coming all over the place to see stuff. So I'm excited about that. And Franchi comments on that stuff, too. So that's cool. Franchi is always in the comments, which is fun because he says funny things to me. I try to get around.
    97:55
    There you go. All right, Mr. Franchi, where can people find you? You can email me at 21inches at playgirl.com.
    98:07
    Okay. Where else? If we don't want to go there, where else? Please don't email me. You can hit me up on Facebook. The Hotel Buffet. Christopher Franchi on Facebook.
    98:19
    You don't need my email because you can't send me money. I'll give you my PayPal address. There you go. But, yeah, there.
    98:28
    Well, thank you so much. You can find me in the – I'm usually on the streams, too, messing around with people. Absolutely. And we really appreciate that. Thank you so much. I almost did this one live. I thought about it today and not tell us and just click this live button or not say anything. That would have been bad. That would have been terrible, right?
    98:49
    No. It could have been bad. I want to do another roundtable live. And I'm coming to Arizona in the next few months. I'm sending them the itinerary to make sure they're in town, both of them. Yeah, we'll do it live again. We'll do it live again. Yeah, fuck it. We'll do it live. Are you guys surviving? Yeah, my mom was – my uncle lives in – I forget what city in Arizona, but they said it was 105 degrees, but it felt higher. I don't know what that means, but like apparently it's roasted. It was hot today. Yeah. Yeah, we had to stay inside. The forehead's a little shiny there, Kale. Yep, a little shiny.
    99:25
    They live in a desert, okay? They live in a desert, but I love them and I have to come see them and why would I hate them coming to Houston? Do you have to shake your shoes out in the morning to get the scorpions out? And we're so lucky we do not live in an area with we're right downtown. So we don't live in an area with scorpions. But, man, I've heard the horror stories. They'll crawl on the ceiling and drop on you at night.
    99:48
    Yes. Can't wait to move to Arizona. Boys, thank you so much. Great roundtable. Mr. Franchi, thank you so much. That was so awesome. Thank you for having me. I had a blast. I really appreciate the offer to come on. I really appreciate it. All right, boys, thank you so much. This will be up tomorrow. Now, Mr. Franchi, when you leave, don't leave. We're going to stay about five seconds so that we can upload on Riverside. I need to tell everybody. All right. Thank you, folks. Peace out.
    100:34
    The T게 Show!