The Special When Lit Pinball Podcast starts now. Here are your hosts, Ken Cromwell and Bill Webb. Hey, what's going on pinball land? Welcome to episode number 16 of the Special When Lit Pinball Podcast. My name is Ken, my co-host is Bill. We've got a pretty interesting show The show in store for you today in a lull in the news in pinball. We've reached out to try to do our best, but before we get involved in what's going on later, let's talk about what's going on now in the life of bad boy Bill. What's up, Bill? Not a whole lot, Ken. Honestly, just started ripping into Project Whirlwind, ripping down the playfield, stripping out the cabinet, getting ready to start building the cabinet, hopefully this weekend if time allows. Nice. So, yeah, I mean, hoping to knock that cabinet out probably right after Expo. I'm hoping to have the cabinet done. What's your goal with this, ultimately? Is it going to be a nice whirlwind, a restored whirlwind? It should be a nice example. New cabinet, wicked paint, new playfield, new translight, new speaker panel, decals, plastics, original topper, but I think we're going to try and make a custom one, which should look pretty cool. It sounds pretty involved. It sounds more than a pretty nice one. It sounds like it's a... Well, we'll see how it all comes out. I know you, Bill. You don't just settle for small. If you're not setting the bar higher and higher every time, right? Exactly. But actually, it brings a good poll question. If anybody's got any input, I'd love to hear it. I'm thinking about powder coating the assemblies underneath like I've done on previous games, but you and I have had this debate of whether to go white on all the assemblies underneath or go with a blue to kind of match. So definitely curious on feedback if anyone has any. Yeah, thanks for everybody that, a couple people interacting with the Facebook page recently, so that's pretty cool, I like that. Yeah, I'd be curious, should we talk about what camps we're in as far as the colors or should we not skew the voting? Because you're more likable than I am, so I'm assuming that if I were to tell what I wanted on the pin, it would automatically go the other way. How about you, well, here, so I won't tell you whose vote is for who, or which color I should say, But so far the opinions are either blue to kind of match the cabinet, which... And these are the sub-assemblies that will be underneath the game that will be getting powder coated. Correct. You won't be able to see them unless the playfields opened. Correct. So blue, probably like a metallic blue, a white that would be very similar to the topper, or even maybe a yellow. Yeah, anyone who's got any feedback on that, I'd love to hear it because I'm kind of on the fence on how to do it. We'll take it. We'll take the feedback. Curious to see what happens. So we have in our industry buzz segment today, Nirmal Visani, who is the head marketing and sales strategist over at American Pinball. And we're going to talk a little bit about the history of American Pinball. We're going to talk about Houdini. We're going to talk about Oktoberfest. So let's just get into that right now. You good, Bill? Oh, yeah, let's go for it. Here we go. Getting the news from around the industry in this week's industry buzz. American Pinball. All right, so this week's edition of Industry Buzz on the Special One Lit Pinball Podcast, we feature Nirmal Vasani, who's the lead sales and marketing strategist for American Pinball in Streamwood, Illinois. Nirmal, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Absolutely, man. How are you? I'm doing well. I'm doing well. I had a nice little drive on the way here, but I got a new car, so it was all worth it. What are you driving these days? Can you tell us? It's a Lexus RC350 all-wheel drive. So you've made it. So, it's a beautiful car. So, after this we're going to have to check the car out? Oh, of course. Definitely. I'll give you all a joy ride the whole nine yards. Just making sure. We're going to have to go, yeah, exactly, for a little test run. High speed style, the getaway. Yeah, I mean all the roads around here are like 35 miles per hour. Where's the high speed in that? I know, well there's a reason for that, man. You've got to be careful. Well, yeah, yeah. We don't want all the floods of people coming into the Pinball Pale Ale studio. Oh, that is true. That is true. Yes. And I know you're impressed with our set up here. Oh, it's actually very nice to see. Thank you so much. I love watching people's games. I just love seeing the way that people set them up and stuff like that. It gives me a lot of ideas for my own in the future. It's good times. So anyways, thank you for taking the time for coming in. It's always good to have a guest. And you are a hot topic, American Pinball, right now. But before we start and get into some of the goodies, can you describe a little bit about what you do on a day-to-day basis for American Pinball? What does the lead sales and marketing strategist do for a pinball company? Absolutely nothing. I take naps all day. And let's go to the second question. So I'm the one who's the main person when it comes to interfacing with all the distributors, interfacing with all the customers, whenever people have inquiries, when they come in, they answer questions and stuff like that. I also have a lot of say in how much machines that we want to sell. So like for Oktoberfest, one of the ideas was we could have a reoccurring production The Out Pinball Podcast is a production of WILLY WANKA. The Out Pinball Podcast is a production of Iowa Public Television which is solely responsible for its content. Ametron has had that part of the production market in pinball for years. This isn't just something that popped in and you guys jumped in. So it wasn't really pinball. It was more coin-op, more focused towards slot machines and toppers and stuff like that. Because our bread and butter at Ametron is LEDs. We do that all day, every day. So whenever- Like LED boards? Right, right, right. Yeah. LED boards, LED assemblies, when it comes to toppers, sourcing vacuum forms for custom LED assemblies and stuff like that. We do that very well because we have a lot of experience in it. We place like millions of LEDs in a month. And so a lot of these companies that are in the gaming industry and the coin-op industry will come to us because one thing that coin-op and LEDs have in common is that you always want all these cool RGB light shows and stuff like that to attract the customers, to attract the quarters. Yeah. Yeah. So that's one thing that Ametron's been doing even before there was an Ametron. Like when my dad was at his previous place, he was also a supplier for Williams. He was also a supplier for Bally and stuff like that. And your dad is the owner, president, CEO of Ametron. Of Ametron. I'm going to be the host of Aimtron. And that's Mikesh. Yes. Correct. Mikesh Vasani. Correct, Ken. I've answered my own question. Nice. But you were very nice in giving us a tour of the facility and I didn't know what to expect when going in but I mean it's a highly tuned operation and there's a lot going on. There's a lot of production and it's efficient, it's fast, very clean. And we have to be because if we weren't all of those things we would never be able to compete with China or Mexico or all these overseas places that are like just really She's one of my 3 good female players I've ever been around. Our Love Is How you'll wear it, are you klein, Kap вып zurück I can only James and Bally and Earnest, we started to get inquiries from other places as well. And one of our salesmen actually brought in Stern as a customer. And so that was a really cool thing where we saw LED boards for a pinball company which we had no idea there was an industry behind that. And the amount of volume that they were doing for an industry that supposedly didn't exist was astronomical. Right. And then we got Jersey Jack in the same house and then we got other pinball companies in the same house. Bally Williams, Jersey Jack, Stern. Yeah, all from Ametron. All from Ametron. You guys have been doing this for... A while. ...30 plus years. When it comes to Bally and Williams and stuff like that, now they're WMS, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow, that's crazy. We've been doing that for multiple years. Parked hanging out in Streamwood, Illinois. I had no idea. Well, Ametron is in Palatine, but... Oh, that's right. Ametron's in Palatine, but American Pinball's in Streamwood. American Pinball's in Streamwood. It actually... Ametron actually started in Streamwood in that very same building. Okay. Ametron started in Streamwood and the building was never meant to be a permanent place for Ametron. It was just it was like 2008 the recession was really really bad we got the building on like a foreclosure for like pennies on the dollar we got all the equipment for about the same price so it was actually starting a business in the middle of a recession is very very scary but it was actually a stroke of genius on Ametron's part in that we got the barrier of entry at a very low cost. Okay, because everyone was selling their machines. Everyone thought it was crazy to start a business. Everyone was getting out of the business. We're the ones that kind of jumped in and we're like there's a gap here. There's nothing for high quality placements in a price that's competitive with overseas. So you guys have had some history in the pinball business. When did you guys actually get into produce producing machines? So that's actually interesting. If you're referring to producing our own machines, that wasn't until basically the end of last year. When it comes to making pinballs though, we've been doing that since 2015. After Ametron started, Deval, who used to be a part of Ametron, he is now the owner of and the CEO of American Pinball, he had an opportunity to contract manufacture pinball machines. And so he took that and he made it his own company as American Pinball and that's how We're a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders, and we're here to help you get started. We're a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders, and we're here to help you get started. Okay, so you're not primarily a contract manufacturer though, correct? Well, we were for a couple years. Now that we have Houdini, we've kind of shifted focus to using our line to build our own product, of course. But I'm not sure if you've heard, by the end of the year, we're moving into a new facility, a three-line facility, and we're going to have two lines for our own products of pinball machines, and the third line will be for contract manufacturing. So somebody can come in with an idea and they just need the manufacturing prowess of a powerhouse in manufacturing so they can go to American Pinball and just get their own machine on the line? Right. Wow, that's awesome. Interesting. And if they don't have the engineering work done, if they don't have the artwork done, if they don't have the nitty gritty of what it takes to actually build a pinball machine because there is a ton that goes into it, American Pinball will actually help supply Profiles annual, www.illionplateskin.com those All these guys are manufacturing their homebrew machine. Right, and there's actually a couple that I've reached out to myself to see if they would like to manufacture. So let's go through that list. Okay. I'd prefer not to. No, no, no, I didn't realize that that was what was going on over there. Yeah. It's something that I actually do. I like to reach out to people who have cool ideas and I talk to them. I ask them, did you think about actually licensing this? Did you think about actually making this into a, uh, a manufacturable pin? And the answer a lot of times is, well, I kind of made this for fun, but now that everyone on Pinside loves it, I'd love to take this a bit further. What can I do? That's really exciting. That's real cool. I mean, it gives a lot of people that are doing this stuff as a hobby and building these homebrew pins and giving them a chance to actually make their game a reality and not just a one-off. Right. And... So there's a lot of work to be done. But it's unprecedented, like right now is an unbelievable time. If you're creative and you have a product that people like and you're passionate about pinball, you actually have a chance of getting the machine manufactured. And one thing that is always a concern, especially when talking about homebrew pins is a lot of times people who make homebrew pins, they kind of do it in their basement. They just kind of do all the work by hand. They kind of built everything by hand Right they do it at home They brewing it at home It like it pretty shoddy and they like well this isn ready for manufacturing I don even have the resources to get this started We can always just buy the idea off of you too. That's an option that doesn't really reach a lot of people. And I know a lot of people want to keep it their baby. That's completely fine. We'll help you out. We'll help you out. So opportunities are there. Right. Very cool. Right. So let's talk a little bit about the staff The pinball team is a great fun project. We are a team of amazing young people. We are trying to create a great team that can make a great team. We love the team and we love the team. We love the team and we love the team. So we're gonna have a really awesome team. So we're gonna have a really awesome team, which is the team that's gonna make a great team. Joe Balcer and Jim Thornton. So actually, I think it was Joe Balcer and Josh Kuhler. Yes, the makers of Houdini. At least the current iteration that you see of Houdini is Joe Balcer and Jim Thornton. Actually little known secret when you take away the apron on the playfield underneath it says yet another J&J production. That is Joe and Jim. Interesting. A little Easter egg. We like Easter eggs on the special ones. They do it on all the pins we've worked on. Okay. They do it on all the pins we've worked on. I thought you were going to say there's like 50 bucks under there. You go ahead and put it down payment I wish. In a blade or something. Coupon for Mexican food or something good. There you go. Oh, Bill's Mexican food. There you go. Sorry, got to throw that in. No, that's actually pretty funny. But Houdini's been successful. Yeah. You want to talk a little bit about the success that you guys have had? I mean, it's really cool. We have a couple in select theaters of magic and stuff like that. And then we have... So it's like David Copperfield ringing up American Pinball asking for his Houdini machine? Or how's that working out? You wouldn't believe. It was Neil Patrick Harris actually. Wow. I heard the story about Neil Patrick Harris. Little Doogie Howser. He got one for his birthday. That's pretty fun. Very cool. He tweeted sometime that all he wanted was a Houdini pinball for his birthday. And so we reached out to his manager and made it happen. It's pretty nice, man. Yeah. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Not bad for publicity either, right? We didn't actually get much out of it. No. It was just something that was like, yeah, if we get any, it's cool. If not, it's just a cool street. Fans of Doogie Howser should all be jumping on the Houdini train at this point. Oh, yeah. I don't understand how that wouldn't happen. I mean, a lot of people, way too many people don't know that the pin exists. And a lot of people that, uh, do know though. Why do you think that is though? I mean. Well, I mean, traditionally in the pinball marketplace, a lot of the potential customers are basically homeowners who don't know much about pinball. They just kind of see something that's cool. They might go to the occasional show here and there, or like they might get dragged into a show and then they're all just kind of asking around. They might see the big two, but they wouldn't really see anyone else. And so a lot of times, like when I went to. Did you say the big two? Who are the big two? Who are the big two? Stern and JJ. Okay. At least those are the two biggest in my head. CGC comes to mind just because they've had to have moved a lot of the remakes. So CGC is probably larger than Stern if you look at the whole company, but their main products are more game room products than pinball. For sure. If I'm not mistaken, pinball is actually a shorter segment of their marketplace. Okay. Don't quote me on that. I might be completely wrong. No, hey, we're just having a conversation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is industry buzz on special Winner Pinball Podcast, right? We're buzzing around, so no worries. No worries. So, one other question about the Houdini. So, the version that's out now is actually a second redesign from the original when the original wasn't what you guys wanted it to be. Well... Can you tell us a little about that? The original wasn't designed by Joe, and so they were brought in to make that product a reality, and Joe looked at that and he said, this is never going to work. So he took it, he threw away the old design and redesigned it from scratch. This was in November, by the way, and he promised a game in March at Texas Pinball. That's unbelievable pressure. And that should not have even happened. But he was the one that said, guys, we can do this. And I hear this story over and over and over. Unfortunately, I wish I was there to see it myself, but I hear the story over and over and over again. Joe really wanted to show that a lot of the larger companies are just very inefficient when it comes to pinball design. He wanted to say that this is possible, that everyone else is just sleeping. What are they doing? I can show you, I can prove to you by getting a pin ready in four months and bringing it to the show. Which you did, and that was, was it Texas Pinball Festival? It was Texas Pinball. So you guys, you bring that down there and probably to the doubt of other people that it was going to be there, you showed up. Oh yeah, a lot of people thought it was going to be a dumpster fire, a lot of people thought it was going to be, it just wasn't going to shoot was a lot of people that, like, we weren't going to have a complete game, and... Well, that has happened before on a lot of reveals. You're looking at foam cores and things made out of cardboard and empty boxes of lights, We've never done anything that's serviceable as a pinball machine. No, we had a real workable, shootable game. With code. With code. Something to be proud about. Oh yeah. So how do you feel about where Houdini has wound up as far as sales and everything else? Are you guys feeling pretty good about the first game that you guys have released? Yeah, actually. I mean, the fact that something that we make is going into random homeowners that people are actually lining up to buy this game is something that still continues to blow my mind today. People really like the theme, the artwork. People say it's one of the most beautiful pins they've ever seen. A lot of people will say it's objectively the most beautiful new pin that's out there. I can't really say anything to that degree. I haven't seen enough pins in person to actually make that judgment. But when you look at the game, there's something very mesmerizing about the way that Jeff has drawn Houdini and the way that the playfield just kind of calls out to you. It's something magical. This is a very visually appealing game. Yes, yes. When it also comes to the, uh, the rule set is very deep. Josh made sure that there's a lot of strategy that you can implement into it so you can keep learning how to evolve your skill at the game. It's a very high skill cap game. And it's still designed with elements that are easy on the beginners. So let's say you're new to pinball, and this is actually how I started to hit high scores when I first started playing the pin. Take the glass off, right? I wish, I wish. I didn't have the key. I didn't have the key or else I would have. There were times when I got that frustrated when I first started. So I used to Grand Champ games. Yeah, there you go. There you go. So I missed all the shots, but the beautiful thing about missing all the shots is you still get all the seance letters lit, so you get the multiball off of that. And so stuff like that, stuff like that is I think the genius behind the way that Houdini is designed where no matter what your skill level is, there's always some way that you can progress towards the game. Let's talk about the elephant in the room for me, and that is the Oktoberfest, which was kind of like officially revealed at that Vancouver show. And I think if I remember correctly, it was yourself and Joe Balcer just at a table with with kind of a presentation going on where you had all caught off guard that he went as deep into the game reveal as he did. Or was this something that was planned out? Did you know that it was going to be revealed that day? So like 30 seconds before we actually started that thing, Joe, he talks to me outside of the room and he's like, so I was thinking of confirming the title. And then that was the extent of our conversation. A big meeting of launchers. That's crazy. And I was okay with that. Joe has a lot of experience in the industry. When he feels it's time, I will back him up on that decision. That's amazing. And so he went up there and throughout the entire presentation, not a single word about Oktoberfest. And I was like, oh, okay, so he's not going to do it after all. He's actually pretty happy with the way the presentation is going and stuff like that. And at the very end, Tommy, who is the director of the show, as well as one of our distributors, he asked, so tell us about the new game. Yeah, there it is. And that opened up the door. That was the door needed. Yep, that was a whole can of worms. And so he told everyone about Oktoberfest. He showed a picture of the bartender who is hilarious, by the way. Jeff did a really good job of drawing him as well. Is that bartender integrated into the game then? Yes, yes, yes. He's actually one of the main characters in the game. And... I wanted to talk about that picture that was at Vancouver too, because it was like this weird, it looked like somebody kind of placed a cell phone at a weird angle. And I've had, we've had conversations. That's actually exactly what it is. Is that what it is? Well good, you guys hit it out of the park on that one. But I mean, I've had conversations with some of our other colleagues about what we anticipate, you know, the play field might look like or what the mechs or wire forms. Was it This Week in Pinball or Straight Down the Middle? I can't remember. I think it was Straight Down the Middle that posted, alright people, here's the picture, guess what's on it. Yeah. And so people were going. I can confirm that both of those guys, Jeff Patterson and Zach Meny, like those guys and expanding on that picture. Is there anything that you can share with us that's within that picture that maybe will help make sense of what we looked at? Umm... I'm trying to think of... You've got wire forms. Oh yeah. Yeah, I'm just... So, one of the wire forms is what's right after the lock shot. Um, and that's a very, very interesting form. It has a very unique shape to it. One thing that Joe likes to do on his pins is to push the boundaries of what's possible with pinball. On Houdini, it was the, uh, trunk shot, that 22 inch trunk shot. The catapult shot. Yeah. And every sane designer would look at that and they'll say, just put a wire form on it. Why are you doing this in thin air? It's never going to make it. And it makes it. Not every single time, but nine out of ten times, that's success. That's a success. And it's just impressive when you see that actually shoot. So a lot of the stuff that you see in that picture on Oktoberfest is stuff that's equally crazy, and you look at it and you're like, this is never going to work. There's going to be crazy ball hang-ups and this shape is all weird and it'd be so cool if it works though. And it does work. And Joe Balcer kind of has a reputation of not repeating himself or have like a design style that is continuous from a prior pin. Oktoberfest as a theme is one where you can't do justice to the theme without addressing that there's alcohol-related content. Okay, that makes total sense. But that's not the essence of the content. Oktoberfest is so much more. It's about the music that's there. It's about the carnival elements. The Oompa music. Right, it's about that like that crazy German party theme. That's a festive environment. Right, right, right. A lot of fun, a lot of bright vivid colors, stuff like that. Crazy food. Yeah, yeah. In fact, oh Josh is gonna kill me. One of the modes on the game is called food frenzy. So we do we do address the fact that there is more than alcohol related to Oktoberfest. It is a very I think it's a great idea. I personally haven't really talked to him about that, but he's been pretty busy. I'm just going to what he posted on Pinside. Yeah, he's been pretty busy coding the game, so I haven't been really bothering him in the past couple of days. And you brought somebody else on board, right? Ferret is on board. Joe Schober. Yeah. Yeah. Ferret. So that's cool. He was... You want to talk a little bit about him and the acquisition, him coming over to American Pinball? Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. So Ferret was from Highway, and after that unfortunate collapse, we picked him up to And then, to help us out with coding Oktoberfest, which is really nice considering that if it wasn't for Ferret, Joe would have to, or sorry, Josh would have to juggle both Houdini and Oktoberfest at the same time. Which, even for a programmer as good as he is, is very difficult to do. And so, Ferret is giving him a lot of the help that he needs, and he's a very good programmer. He's very good at designing rulesets, he's a good player. I'm a fan of the show. I've been watching tournaments very frequently. And so you get to see this combination of two people with really good ideas just kind of building on top of each other and it just gets crazier and crazier and I love every second of it. So you know one of the questions I have is when can we expect to see Oktoberfest and be able to play it if we can ask that We expecting it to be available at Expo And so we have it all planned out so that you can play it at Expo. There will be hopefully more than one machine there and uh... that way we can cut down on the lines and stuff like that but it's a very fun shooting game and I would love for it to be ready for Expo. Could you do me a favor please? Sure. If you do end up revealing the game at Expo officially, could you not make it boring? Could you make it fun? Can you have some oompa music? Can you get people dressed up in lederhosen? I was actually planning to do that. Yeah, you need the girls. Can you have some girls, some beer steins? Just can you make it a fun, festive environment with some pretzels and some wiener schnitzel or whatever the heck goes on over there? Instead of a boring reveal of an overhead shot of a playfield, can you please make it Have 있 competitor's We'll steal one of them. Yeah, just to make sure it shoots right. You wouldn't want to have a problem. Right. All the prototype pins come through here at some point. Actually, yeah, they do. But is there any, I mean, I'm just going to be direct with you. And if I'm out of line by asking, I apologize and I'll edit this out. But I mean, is there anything that you might be able to kind of share with us that hasn't been publicized about the pin, the design, something new and innovative, something that's different, something that's changed? So I'm looking for a nugget. Here's something that hasn't been done in a very long time. The game has three buttons. You're right. You know what? The three button design hasn't been done since Deadpool, pretty sure. So it's been at least three or four weeks. Hey, thanks for coming in to the Special Oily Pinball Podcast. Thanks for the nugget, buddy. So allow me to clarify that. The third button is actually not on the lock bar. It's actually right underneath the right flipper button. Oh, really? So it's in the flipper area? Yes, it's the third flipper button. I thought, okay. No, I actually want to rephrase that because that button is not used for the third flipper. What it's used for will be a surprise. So we have a third button in the vicinity of the flipper area that's not used for... It's going to be right underneath it because it's really annoying when you have the two buttons like in tandem where it's like your fingers aren't really in a comfortable position. It's one before the other. Instead, we had it so that your middle finger and your index finger are like right on top of each other. And I'm showing my fingers to Ken and the funny thing about that is this is a podcast and he can see it but none of you guys can see it. Right. It's making perfect sense to me. Yes, yes. And no one else is going to be confused. No worries. All makes sense. Yeah, all right, well, you know what, so that's a nugget, I'll take that. Also wanted to talk a little bit about, you kind of generously said by coming in today that you'd be willing, we could come up with some type of a fun contest for the listeners, and you'd be willing to give away an autographed Translight to one of our listeners. And the listener will actually get to choose who signs it, which would be really cool. Nice. So they could ask for anybody at American Pinball, obviously, right? Anyone at American Pinball. All right, just one, huh? I mean, you can ask for multiple. Okay. So you can specifically leave somebody off. So you can be like, I need your cash, Duvall, Nermal, Joe Balcer. The guy that runs the forklift, because he puts them on the truck. He's important too. Right. Actually, yeah. That guy's an angel. That guy's an angel, I'll tell you. It's a whole team. Yeah, going in there and seeing how games get packed, I think you showed me how you guys shipped that container. That was unbelievable how you guys were able to kind of like Tetris, you know, box machines into stuff that was going overseas. That was crazy. I guess it's just one of those things you don't realize. Yeah, yeah. There's a lot that goes into pinball. And realistically, do you remember when we were giving you the tour, all the sub-assemblies? Mm-hmm. Not all of them, but yeah, I remember the sub-assembly. But do you remember the young ladies who would peel off the decals and they would painstakingly align them to the stage and they'd put them on and it would take them forever to do? Yep. Like, no one realizes how much effort goes into something so simple and the people that work there, the people that have to do everything by hand in order to get this machine to be right every single time, they're the true unsung heroes of pinball. And that's not just from American Pinball, that's across all companies. I honestly said normal because I mean you've got such a particular audience when somebody gets a home use or a home machine and they're meticulously going over their playfield. They're looking at the artwork. They're looking at their decals. They're looking at their inserts. I mean you don't really have a lot of room to not be perfect. They're looking at screws that are put in on an angle because the... You'll be criticized. Yeah. That's cool that you called them that. But you don't hear that about us. Yeah. American Pinball has always been known for providing good quality pinball machines. And I really like how you appreciate all the employees and all the work that goes into... They deserve way more than what I can appreciate. Yeah, but it's refreshing that you acknowledge them. I like that you're doing just a fresh theme that nobody's thought of doing. Yeah. I'm anxious to see what happens. We've both been talking about Oktoberfest, I think almost since we started this podcast. Yeah. So, you know, for us to kind of potentially see the reveal at Expo, for you coming in and taking your time to talk about the company, talk about the employees, talk about the direction Non-professionalThat repeating a career of 35 minute DAMON Quiet. Oh man! Crazy project – you gotta get that. SASS condition …. How?? Damn only on the Special Taiwan Lite Pinball Podcast.bur festaillife Yeah! conhecer me. Nou tsan' smirky Nou zo suis cool. Jason kleenje DEEL這是 duper kielbopa Krenner bszó Thanks for joining us. We'll be back with more of the best in baseball and baseball in the history of baseball. We'll be right back. Ken, you're going to be the one to throw in the party. You know what? I'm going to throw in a good word for us. I'll see what I can do. Absolutely. Happy to put a good word in for a little discount. There you go. That's awesome. Nerval, thank you so much for coming in. It's been fun. We'd like to have you back after expo, after the reveal if you're up for it. Yeah, I'd love to be back. We'll kind of talk about how that went. And I'm looking forward to the party of the century on that Thursday night at 8.30. Absolutely. Hey, you know what? I'm happy to go ahead and put some time into throwing a party. Well, Ken is the party, so whenever Ken shows up typically and he's got a couple of drinks, we're typically in good position. The drinks are key to my party prowess. Well, in that case, judging by your cup, we should already be in party mode, right? Hey, it's party mode. This is where I get a little psychic and guess themes of future pinball machines. I told you it was gone in 60 seconds, man. No, that's good times. So a millennium from now, there's going to be a Pinball 3000, right? Can we consider I don't know. I don't know. I mean, what kind of, we keep kind of coming back to what kind of things would you like to see in a pinball? Is there anything that you thought would be kind of cool, something that hasn't been done, something that you appreciate that's already been done? Um, I mean, like, what's what's a normal dream theme? My dream theme and there has been a Mario Bros pinball machine that's been done before, but there's so much more you can do than the than the game is actually allowed, right? There's like no mech where you actually have the pinball sinking down a pipe that goes . Yeah. That's Bill's text message. All the stuff that happens. Yeah. Or like you have like random, every time you hit a target it hits that coin sound that goes like . That would be cool. Yep. And like all these different things that you can do with the pinball that like, I don't know. What's really, really disappointing is I see a lot of licenses for really, really cool themes and the actual pinball doesn't do justice to it at all. I think that that's pretty commonly accepted then. You know, especially if you're waiting for that particular license to come out or that theme to come out and it's disappointing, you're like, ah, it's kind of a wasted effort. Right, right, right. And like, obviously the holy grail of pinball themes is Harry Potter. And so if a Harry Potter theme ever comes out, my biggest fear is that it just won't do justice to any of the movies. Do you watch any pinball streaming by any chance? I watch Straight Down the Middle. Have you seen the high scores that both Zach and Greg recently put up on Houdini? I'm so jealous of their skills. So literally, it was like, Zach I think had 10 million points and I think Greg in the same game might have had 6 million. And like, for me, a million points on Houdini is respectable. They blew the machine up. And they want to make sure that you saw that. Because it was like streaming that you had never seen before that game. I actually didn't see it live. If you're watching this live, unfortunately I wasn't able to be there for the live one, but I saw the VOD and it blew my mind. That's awesome. It blew my mind. So your mind was blown? Yes. Just like that game was blown. Pretty cool. Yeah, they blew it up. So they're done with it. They're ready to rock out Oktoberfest to see if they can do that one. Right? It's the only way to do it. Phil, you got anything else here? No, I'm just grateful that you could make it out and we had this opportunity to talk to you before our expo and looking forward to having you back. All right, so it's dry ride time, right? Yeah, let's do it. Hey, we're going to have to go check this car out. And if we don't post this, it's because we had a little issue. So we'll see what happens. All right. Thanks again, man. Thanks for coming in. Thank you. Bye-bye. All right. So there it was, Bill. A normal, likable guy. It seems like he's having fun with what he's doing. Although he's new to pinball, he's passionate about it already. Very passionate. Honestly, I was very surprised. Very nice gentleman, very informative, just an all-around likable guy. You know, very passionate. You know, and I wondered a couple things as far as the direction of American Pinball, but it sounds like not only did they have that first game out with Houdini and now getting into Oktoberfest, which has raised some eyebrows. I mean, let's not lie, I've been one to be supportive of it, and there are some that have questioned that idea for a theme, but it sounds like it's something that Joe Balcer's wanted to do. Well, and let's be honest, I mean, both of us both like Joe Balcer's designs. So, on that alone, I think, you know, potentially has the... I can't say that I like all of Joe Balcer's designs, because I don't know that I've played all his pins. The games that I've played, I've genuinely liked. Yeah. They're always refreshing, the ones that I've played as well. I mean, I haven't played every single one, but, you know, I have high hopes. You know, and honestly, not every theme is going to be one to pull you in, but this one could be one of those ones that sucks you in. I mean, there's been titles in the past that I shook my head saying, really, why would you do a theme on, you know, a game on that theme? And then, you know, when you finally see it, you're like, wow, that was actually really great integration into the game and making it all come together. I like that the designer has specifically wanted to do this. So at that point, it becomes a passion project. You're not going to want to go ahead and design something and kind of half-ass it. So I'm imagining he's putting everything he can into this game and we'll see what happens. We're not far away. We're 15 days away to see what happens with the reveal. What are you expecting at the reveal? I was trying to coax Nermal into having a little bit of an Oktoberfest party over there. I don't know if he was buying into what I was selling, but I hope that they do something that's a little bit more off the wall than a typical boring reveal. It sounds like he wants to. So, I mean, honestly, it'll be real interesting to see. I do have high hopes for this game and the reveal. Well, and this is going to be the only game that I think will probably be revealed unless Monster Bash Remake makes an appearance, but at this point, that might not be until Expo next year. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, we still got to set up that bet between all the other podcasts of which week each person gets. Right. Well, it was our week this past week and we missed, so if somebody wants to take a week, We're bound to get it if we just keep revolving the guests. Yeah, start throwing darts at dates. But, yeah, honestly, it's so close that I don't even want to speculate. But I'm looking forward to Expo, which brings us to our next. Yeah So you know what We we went and we were able to Al Hotline we got the promoter and founder of Pinball Expo Rob Burke Rob, welcome to the show. Thanks for coming on. Kenny, thank you. Appreciate it. I'm so glad to be with you guys tonight. Yeah, man, it's exciting. So how many days are we away from Expo at this point? We're under 20. Yeah, I haven't checked the count-o-meter, but I'd say a couple weeks plus, it's getting close to my plan. It has to be a lot of time and effort. When do you guys actually start planning this Pinball Expo as we're 15 days away as of this interview? Well, to put it in perspective, I mean, I think when the show is over the previous year, you kind of sit down and kind of talk about the good, the bad, the ugly. John Popadiuk, Automated Amusements, Rad Cabs or My heroes who were the designers and the artists. And I remember being on the airplane heading home after the first year and just really exhausted and overly happy and I said to myself, I did it. And in my mind that was it. It was like, could it be like a one and done kind of deal? And I remember about six months into the following year as I started getting letters and phone calls, hey, when's the next show? And I said, there is no next show, this was it. And they said, oh, no, no, this was too much fun, You got to keep it going. So, you know, the rest is history. We keep rocking and rolling. And you're on your 34th expo, right? Next year being celebrated the 35th? Yep. So, you know, I'm wondering, back in my mind, I'm thinking about 35, but this year, you know, I want to make it really special. We kind of call it the rebirth. You know, there's some new people helping me with this show, and we want to bring some new intensity, a new excitement to the show, and a new amount of energy that when people John Popadiuk, Automated Amusements, rad cabs or side art panels on cabinet, John Popadiuk, Bowen Kerins, Laser Los, Mirco Playfields, Flip N Out Pinball Podcast, INDISC, Scott Danesi. We're going to talk about the most important thing that we've ever done, and that is the tremendous amount of tournaments we have going on. Right. So Trent Augustine runs the flip-off tournament, and in that tournament you can win a new Stern game. Then we've got American Pinball that's doing a tournament on Houdini, so you could win that game. And then we have something really kind of special, I think, and that is St. Louis Ball Bowler is bringing an actual 13-foot bowling alley This is the kind with the ball that was made back in the 50s and we're actually going to have a big ball bowler tournament. That's a nice little twist, change of pace from pinball. Yeah, just a little extra fun to put in the show and the winner of that tournament and strictly high score gets a reconditioned ball bowler. Wow, very, very nice. It is great. I mean, these kids go for like, I don't know, anywhere between $4,000 to $6,000 or so. Sure. We got so much stuff going on. There's going to be so much energy in that show. Then we have Doc Mack from Galloping Ghost. He's coming down. And he's bringing about 30 or 40 of his vintage arcade games. And Doc has the largest operating arcade game in the United States. And he's out of Brookfield, correct? That is correct. And he's helped us out this year. And he's going to have a tournament with his arcade games and the winner of that tournament is going to get a belt very similar to these wrestling belts they have for the championship wrestler. So it should be a lot of fun. So much could be happening. You won't know where to turn next. Do you have to relinquish the belt the following year if you're defending and you're not winning? I wonder how that's going to go. That's a good question. He hasn't given me that answer yet but I think that will ultimately be the case. But I mean that's just an example of what else we have going on. We have the stuff we've always done in the past. We have the tours, we have the autograph sessions. I know for a lot of people it's really special to meet the George Gomez, Steve Ritchie, Keith Elwin, who's a past tournament player, is going to be here. He designed the game for Stern. He'll be there. And just so much else happening there. Pat Waller will be there. And you've created incentives for people to bring pinball machines for the free play area this year too, right? Yeah, Kay, thanks for mentioning that. But yes, we have. So for everyone that brings a game, we're going to give them a raffle ticket. And the more games they bring, I can't remember the exact number here, but once they start bringing, I think it's four or five games, we double the raffle tickets. But we're having a separate raffle just for people that bring games. When we pull that raffle ticket, they get a Stern pinball machine. So for those that bring a high roller casino, for those that bring a machine to the free play area, you're automatically entered into a contest to win a Stern high roller casino. And the more games that you bring potentially can double your entries based on what you're bringing to the show. That's something that I haven't heard of recently. So that's got to be exciting and again, a tremendous incentive for anybody to come in. Not only are you sharing your machines for the public, but you have a chance to kind of take something home, which is free of charge. Rob Schoenberg, The more games you bring, there's some financial incentives as well. So you get the raffle, plus you get the financial incentive. And this is all on the website, pinballexpo.com, so you can check it all out. I mean, there's just going to be so much happening, your head's going to be spinning a bit in a good way. So Rob, you guys are running the Storen Tour again this year for touring the manufacturer, correct? Right, that's always been a fun part of our show and Jerry Stern's been a very supportive of our show every year. And he's having a tour of his facility and when he goes to tour of course we have a little souvenir of sorts. But also I think Stern's also getting involved Saturday night. They have what they call Stern-O-Rama, so it's a little party they're doing as part of their shindig at the hotel and that's always pretty crazy so we'll have that going on. We are looking forward to this becoming the premier expo in not only the United States but in the world. And if there's anything that we can ever do as a podcast to help you, please don't hesitate to ask because we are on board, full guns a blazing on this. So thank you so much, Rob. Rob Stolzmann, Pinball Manager, Invisibility, and If you're going to have a big show, it's got to be in the heart of pinball land and that is Chicago, of course. So we plan on just really having a wonderful time and a great event and a great experience for everybody that comes there. So when they leave, they say, hey, this was really, really a fun time. And we want to keep that energy going every year. And like you say, every year we try to make it bigger and bigger. So this is the start of something big. That's all I can tell you. The Renaissance year, Pinball Expo, Rob Burke joining us. Thank you so much, Rob. And if you don't mind, we'd like to follow up with you after Expo and just kind of get your feedback on how everything went. That sounds great. Thanks, Kenny. All right, Rob. Thanks for coming on the show, buddy. All right, my friend. Thank you. So it's pretty fun talking to Rob and I have not met Rob, I have not spoken to him before, but he seems like a pretty laid back dude, man. He's just ready to kind of get this thing going. He's done it before. It's kind of driving the ship into port, but with some new collective or collaborative efforts from some new staffing, it sounds like. What are your thoughts on that? I'm really looking forward to it. It sounds like there's lots of great things to be expected from Expos to come. So yeah, I mean, this year is definitely one that I've been more looking forward to. I like that they're taking care of people that are bringing games a little bit more by giving them something as an incentive of potentially winning. A Stern High Roller Casino is, it's just fun. It's not something that's expected and it's there. I also, you know, we tip our hats to everybody that's bringing games to Expo. I know you're bringing a couple games. I think that's pretty cool. You have one in the Pinn Stadium booth and then potentially one in the free play area. The Out Pinball Podcast is a production of WGBH. The Out Pinball Podcast is a production of WGBH. The Out Pinball Podcast is a production of WGBH. We don't know what's coming next. Jersey Jack Pinball, Yellow Brick Road Edition is supposed to be potentially revealed. Deeper Pinball, we had Jeff Patterson from This Week in Pinball was granted access to their facility. He was in there earlier this week and he will be writing about this on Thursday, probably not giving us industry secrets because I'm sure there's a trust factor there between Jeff and Robert Mueller, but I'm super excited to just hear about the general visit of that facility. So look forward to that on this week in pinball. Spooky pinball still shipping the Alice Cooper Nightmare Castles. I think those are getting wrapped up or ramped up, I should say. So I think that kind of covers the news, so to speak. Anything that I'm missing off the top of my head here that's pertinent? Not that I can think of. I think everything is kind of at a lull right before the, you know, calm before the storm. The calm before the storm. I'm going to ask you this before we close out the show. Next 3 years, 19 late-yd Russo majors have работу Vamos com aún no sucka no But you never know, you know, we're not the manufacturers, we're not pushing these things, so... Never know. You know, you wait and see and maybe somebody pulls a rabbit out of a hat and surprises us at Expo. So I'm excited to see Oktoberfest. We'll see what happens. Yep. So for episode number 16 of the Special Winlet Pinball Podcast, guys, thanks again for listening. We're gonna have some pretty interesting guests coming on the show as we get into Expo and post-Expo. So look forward to some pretty decent content coming out of Chicago, Illinois. We want to thank everybody for listening. And I ask you do not forget to take some time out of your day and play some pinball. All right, everyone, you guys have a good morning, good afternoon, good evening, and we'll talk to you soon. For Bad Boy Bill, this is Sir Kenneth Cromwell III, and this is the Special One Lit Pinball Podcast. So long, everybody.