What's up, guys? And welcome to the channel where I talk and do everything pinball. And if you are unaware of something that recently happened in the world of pinball, then by all means, you've come to the right video because we have news in regards to American Pinball. They are on the rise. And here I have Brian Vincent, the new owner of American Pinball, and Ron Lindamman, your new role promotion-wise as president of American Pinball.
All right. What's up, Gary? How's it going guys? Welcome to the show. No, I basically want to first start out. We'll go uh from you, Brian. I would like you to educate because I know you've already been on the Flipping Out Pinball podcast. So, there's probably going to be some repeat questions here, but not everybody watches that. So, I want to basically re reiterate some of the things that were mentioned there. And I'm don't think you're gonna have a problem with that because you as you want to get the uh right information out. So, but let's let's start out with you and kind of give everybody an education about who you are and what has taken place as of last week
or Yeah. So, I mean um you know I'm a business guy. Uh actually I'm a chemist by training. Um you know um married 30 Oh man, I'm get myself in trouble. Something years, three kids. Um you know, they're all grown now. I started a business, my first business back in 2003. U my my previous background is primarily in LED lighting. And you know, I thought it was kind of cool with with pinball. Well, first of all, I'm a huge pinball fan, right? I got like 47 pinball machines, you know, and the history is, you know, when I was really my wife and I were really poor man. We had no money and we were living in this apartment. She was selling shoes at night. I was like in graduate school and uh they had a uh like a putt putt place that we could walk to and for like three bucks you could play around a putt putt and you could get a uh like a coke and a candy bar and a cup full of tokens and they had an Adam's family pinball machine. And so that was our entertainment on like Saturday night. We go down there and just play for two hours and play. That's the only machine they had. They add in the Adams family. That was it. And I told her, I said, 'You know, honey, I'm going to work really hard someday. I'm going to have my own Adams family pinball machine. So, you know, that was the first machine I ever bought. And um unfortunately, I picked one that was highly collectible. I was like, whoa, these cost what? But uh but yeah, so you know, background um you know, I had another company. We started the company from scratch. It was like a thousand square feet in the dog grooming facility, old dog grooming facility with a shed in the back. And you know, we built that company up. It it's kind of similar to the manufacturing and pinball. It's kind of a a Henry Ford assembly line. We're the largest that company's now the largest global provider of LED lighting to the brand imaging and commercial sign industry. So that's kind of how I built that my main business that I built up. Um so um we sold that business last year. had just gotten so big and I I like small companies and um so it was a way for me to kind of back off a little bit and get back to doing what I love. And I'm a huge pinball fan. So when this opportunity came up um you know I was like hey this is a great great way to you know be in the hobby and also contribute to uh you know to the pinball industry. So that's kind of my background.
Okay. Uh so Ron and I think some people are aware of you cuz you know they've seen you at shows before they've known you for the the poly caves and but uh kind of I guess give people a little bit better idea about you know you guess your new role at American Pinball.
Yeah I mean my background originally was more in coin op towards the vending side of it. Um you know I spent years as a manager with um companies like canteen vending um I was a general manager for Sedexo vending and then um also airark refreshment services which is vending you know coin op um obviously worked with a lot of operators because when you live in that role a lot of operators are coin people or well now they're card people but they were running you know pool tables and things like that a lot of people I worked with from there I moved into amusements through polycade working with Tyler Bushnell um I was director of sales marketing there for a couple years and then um moved on. I did work with Beckin for a short time their FBC financial doing um large scale arcades and you know credit processing and things like that. So and then moved into American Pinball as director of sales and marketing and then to general manager last year and now the president of Orbit Games and American Pinball.
All right. So like that is the introduction to our two guests right here to give you guys a little bit of a heads up here. So, as it was it two weeks ago that it was officially announced?
Yeah, two weeks ago.
So, two weeks ago, let's let's rewind back one year actually. So, one year ago, this time things were not looking too good for American Pinball. And this is the I guess the first big obstacle uh that you you two have ahead of you right here is that you have a whole year of not much going on kind of thing. So it like last January was whenever the previous I guess president or whatever Mr. Fix's role was, you know, he was let go from the company and then we haven't had a game from American Pinball, a new game for that matter in that amount of time. And so during that time there has been a a whole year of rumors, speculation, people like myself out there spouting things that could not be possibly 100% true. And so I think your first obstacle right now is to gain the consumer confidence back.
So I'm kind of curious, you know, Brian, what are you going to be doing to tackle something like that? Yeah, I mean that's that's why, you know, I'm not one to do a lot of podcasts and stuff like that, but you know, I've agreed to do a few because the first thing I think people haven't heard from American Pinball and um you know um when I bought the company, I said the first thing we have to do is build trust with the community. And so um you know, when you think about where it was, quite frankly, honestly, I don't really care that much about where it was. What I care about is where it's going. What I can tell you is there was a void of leadership. Ron was doing the best that he could with, you know, no leadership, no liquidity, right? And you have, if you have no leadership and no cash, that's not a good position to be in business. So, you know, my job is to come in and solve those two problems and then help him and help build a team that can get back to doing what American Pinball when they started was doing pretty well, which is building some quality quality games. And what I liked about American was that they have a good manufacturing process. like I don't have to go rebuild that. They know how to I mean America knows how to make games. They know how to make quality games. There's some little things that need to get, you know, tweaked and fixed. But but really, you know, we're trying to build some some creativity, bring in some new intellectual property. Uh I don't know, people probably saw the announcement today where we just signed a deal with Planetary to do, you know, seven Ballet Williams remakes. So, I'm super excited about that because I'm a huge By Williams fan. But what that allows us to do is start filling the pipeline with games so we can start getting games out and at the same time work on our own, you know, new licenses and new IP for um, you know, for upcoming games, call it, you know, next year and the year after. So, everyone's saying, are you getting a game out this year? The answer is yes, we are going to have game one out this year. Hopefully, um, you know, I would think by end of Q2, Q3 time frame. We've already been working on it. And yes, it will be a Ballet Williams what we call reimagine game. Um, you know, I think we're going to get more uh people ask what that means. And what I'll tell you is it's it's uh it'll get more interesting as we go along, but what we want to do is, you know, add some new things to these classic games that enhance them, not changing the game play and stuff like that, but we there's opportunities not only to modernize them, but do some creativity, you know, even a little bit in the gameplay here and there. And that's and so more to come about that with that. But um that's kind of our direction right now. And it gets something that we can get into the pipeline and get back to manufacturing and get the company, you know, um doing what we're supposed to be doing, which is making great quality games and games that people want to buy and have fun with. So
yeah, I think that's definitely something that American Pinball and those that own machines from American Pinball would agree on is that, you know, when the games were being pumped out that they were good quality games. I mean, especially particular games, they were pretty loaded with a lot of cool little wireformms, mechs, they had a lot going into these games. Barry's barbecue is a little bit different when in regards to how packed it was, but that's, you know, a different game. Also to speak on to for the for the last year like Brian was saying that was what I was kind of doing was making sure because I know everyone spoke about the factory being closed. It was never closed.
We actually built games the whole year.
I know we were selling the older titles but that left the infrastructure for somebody like Brian to come in and kind of pick up from those pieces with it with us. You know we were keep going all year building new machines.
So so factory all the infrastructure was kept in place. Actually kind of crazy. We actually sold more machines than the year before. So
that's interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah. So like like uh Brian, you definitely got the got ahead of me on there when it comes to talking about the remakes or reimaginings and you know answering a lot of the questions before I even ask him. Sorry about that. Probably no problem. It's probably make this interview thing just a lot uh smoother and quicker than it could be possibly, but kind of thing. So, I mean mainly like it's like I've heard so many people that tell me that, you know, the best way to make a million dollars is to have a billion dollars and like start a pinball company. So, it's like cuz it's evidently one of those like types of things that you're going to get into. I guess there's a lot of risk involved, but as someone like yourself, I mean, in the state that we're currently in in pinball, I mean, I guess the main question is other than your passion, why? It's like,
well, um, what I can tell you is I've learned two rules of business. One is never lose money, and two is don't forget rule number one. Um, you know, I I say that jokingly, but I mean, you know, I see an opportunity here. Like other people would say, "Oh, it's hard, it's difficult." You know, I learned a long time ago, you know, if it was easy, everyone would go do it. Um, and I think if you make a great quality product and that passion is built into the product, it it will turn into sales. And um you know I think there's multiple revenue opportunities we have. I think we're going to be smart about how we make and build things. Um so I I look you know you wouldn't have five competitors in this market if they were all losing money. Um there people do make money in the pinball industry. what what probably some people have struggled with are pinball people trying to make pinball machines who don't have sort of a business infrastructure background sort of and and I can bring that piece of it and I don't know everything about pinball. I've heard a lot of people out there saying you know how does this guy you know he what does he know about making pinball machines and what I can tell you is every manufacturing business fundamentally works the same way. Um, you know, the widgets are different, the parts are different, but my previous business very similar in how we manufactured. Um, it's sort of your classic uh light assembly, Henry Ford assembly line. And these are very there's opportunities to be flexible on those. There's opportunities to scale. That's one thing I like about this business, the way it's set up. The manufacturing is pretty scalable. Um, and uh, you know, we like that. That's kind of our model. We don't want to. What I don't want to do is get the com. And here's the good news, I guess, to back off a little bit. Um, no, I don't have to make a ton of money in this business. No, I don't. Um, I want to build a great company. I want to make great titles and I think it's going to be a a great business and um, it's going to be around for a long time. Okay. So, you know, is if I wanted to actually take my resources and put it to some to optimize the highest return on investment, I'd have to go do something really boring. and I'm at the point in my life I don't want to do that. So,
so you're right. It's not necessarily the the best way to make the most amount of money, but you know, hey, I love the industry. I love pinball. You know, this is a passion for me. And I think if we treat our customers right, you know, I always said I everything in business that I learned was pretty much stuff you learned in kindergarten, like be nice to people, you know, answer the phone if you have a customer service issue, you know, take care of it. I think someone was surprised they're like the first thing Brian said he was going to do is we're going to go fix and update you know GTF's code. Well, I didn't build GTF. I mean, it was something that I kind of came along with the deal that the first thing is before we do anything else, let's take care of our existing customers who have our products and make sure that they get what they need and that we're taking good care of them because, you know, that's just that's just doing the right thing. And I always believe in business if you do the right thing, you try and be helpful and you're honest, like I promise you we're going to screw something up. We just will. It it can't not happen in business that something kind of gets messed up. But I think the reality is you figure out how to make it right and you're honest about it and say, "Yeah, we kind of screwed this up." You know, here's what we learned from it. We're going to go fix it. You know, as opposed to like being cryptic and saying, "Oh, it was our vendor's fault or it was this fault. We didn't get our parts in time." No, that's our responsibility. And so I think the team knows that this team's bought in. You know, we have a small group right now, but we're adding to that team. And I'm excited about the people. I mean, Ron's doing a fantastic job putting the team together. And uh but yeah. Yeah. That whole thing about start with a billion and having a few million. I, you know, I mean, I don't know about any of that. I mean, it's it's I've I've been pretty blessed that when I've started companies, I've tried to do the right things and generally it's worked out. So,
so are you like aiming to like preserve this company's legacy or like reinvent it or do some kind of balance in between the two? I mean,
I don't think there's a lot of legacy to preserve, right? I mean, there's only been a few titles out there. I mean, it's not like the company has this long rich history, you know? Yeah. I mean, they they've made some great machines. I mean, Houdini is great machine. I love Galactic Tank Force. I mean, there's some good things to build on. Um, what I'm trying to do is make a company that is a little bit different. Um, you know, and I think there's some guys out there doing a great job. Um, I mean, Barrels of Fun is doing a fantastic job with their titles. They have a little niche that they're filling. We're we're trying to fill our own sort of niche in the market. And, you know, we want to make great machines that people buy. And I don't know what that looks like long term. I mean, does that mean we're making in five years 2,000 machines a year? 3,000? A thousand? You know, I don't know. We'll see how it goes. Um, in my other business, I never expected to, you know, we always thought, you know, if we could just have 5% market share. Well, we never expected we were going to have 70 things just happened. And it happened because we took care of our customers, right? I mean, it just sort of just like any entrepreneur that tells you they had a bunch of stuff planned in advance. It's just they're just kind of saying that because it's easier to tell that story than reality, which is, you know, the market's going to tell us where we're going to go. I I think I said that the other day. you know, if we do the right things, the market will take us where we're supposed to go, right?
Yeah. I I strongly encourage you to take care of your current customer base because I mean, I've heard from someone recently that things that you should just start with a clean slate, start all over, forget the past and move on. And I'm like, no, then would you just just forget about the games that you've already created? Let them be dead. Can't get parts for them.
We got we got code coming out for October Fest and that game's technically kind of retired. We're I mean we we want to take care of the customers when we hear things out there. You know, in the past, you know, we didn't have the revenue to kind of put things towards it, but now with the we have the right team and we're building the team, we're going to fix anything we see and we're going to move forward with a great product in the future.
Yeah. And I always said if it's the right thing to do, if you add a zero to it and you're willing to change your mind, then you got an ethical issue. It's if it's the right thing to do at a thousand bucks, it's the right thing to do at 10,000 bucks. So, you know, like we got to go take care of our customers. I mean, it's just that's just it. And, you know, they are our customers. They can't, you know, when I bought this company, there is a following of people who own our machines that like our machines. And it's funny because I'm actually, we've actually seen people say, "Hey, now that there's new ownership, hey, I'm interested in a Houdini, you know, or hey, can I get a Hot Wheels?" So, I think, you know, some of this has kind of given the customer some confidence that the that that, you know, because there just wasn't a lot of communication. And quite frankly, I don't I can't speak for the prior group that owned the company like how much longer it would have lasted, but you know, you know, it was, you know, probably on life support, you know, and and and so I think people are feeling comfortable now that, you know, at least it's going to have the resources and the support that it needs. And yes, we're going to stock old parts. A lot of our parts are common. We're not going to cut off old stuff. We're going to continue to support, you know, what's been built. And then we're kind of looking to the future with with new stuff. So
yeah, I I I definitely believe that is the issue right now is that there's a like you said, I think the community felt that you guys were on live support. So it's like why should they buy machine if there's a inkling in their mind that there's not going to be support for that game in the near future or who knows when. So now that there's resurgence and it's getting a little more confidence back up there and I think it should hopefully build up momentum, especially after the release of your first game and people get a chance to play it, feel the quality to make sure that's still there, then definitely there is still a viable chance for you. But there there's still a little bit of like I guess confusion and I'm hoping that Ron that you can clarify this for some people out there in regards because you know Brian you bought pin American Pinball and Orbit Games and I think at one point in time people assumed that American Pinball turned into Orbit Games or whatever. So if you want to clarify the difference between those
talk to a little bit about that too um and Brian can also. So you know Orbit Games is a completely separate company that serves obviously the operator side of amusements. Um, you know, I last year with us not having a new pinball release, which we were planning on having one last year with Orbit Games released and kind of gave it that feel like we weren't going to do pinball. Yeah. Without Brian, we were going to have to slowly get back into that. It was going to take longer, but we never had a plan to not do pinball. Now, it might have been a combination before of having the brands together in some way where now we can kind of separate those again and have two different entities. I told Ron, "Have a great time with Orbit Games until it interferes one ounce with American Pinball." Um, we're a pinball company and uh I think American Games will I mean Orbit Games creates, you know, some some alternate revenue streams actually where we think we can drive some pinball sales um as well. Uh but quite frankly, I mean, first and foremost, we're a pinball company. 99% of what we talk about every day is pinball. So, um, you know, there's some games that we have there, um, that we think there's there's a niche for, but it's I don't see that as being our primary focus.
Yeah. So, like you're currently set up where you were over there in was it Elkrove? I forgot the exact location, but basically up there in Chicago for basically in Chicago in Illinois. So, I'm assuming that you're going to be paying Axtron rent now for the location that you're currently at. I guess because you're under still in their building technically.
Yeah. So, the buildings are firewalled. what you know the way we bought the company I mean the only relationship really have with Amtron other than you know we we is is basically we're leasing their building as far as you know parts that they provided of course we're still buying those parts on a negotiated basis but there's no contractual thing to do anything other than you know we've got a lease agreement you know with the building you know I don't even know I mean basically the first thing Ron did is you know we had to firewall it we got different keys I mean that's like you know Just realized I said Axtron and that's that's the company that that builds our reactors at work. So Amtron Axtron very close in name.
Nobody must be a smart elic or something.
No no even the board sets that that they print for us. I mean we own those designs. So essentially we just find somebody to make them. So
that was going to be my current right now. But you know that's one of those things that the partnership goes good then they may keep work making them and that's something that we have to choose as we look just like any business you look at things like that.
Yeah that was my next question actually there Ron was the board said I know that recently a lot of money went into the R&D on that aspect and then just recently got put into the game. So I was curious if there was more R&D or a new or you're going back to the PRC system or you're sticking with what was just developed. So I'm assuming that you know you're going to to the Amtron boards. Well, they're we call them luminina boards, but they're they're owned by us, not Amtron.
Okay.
All right. So, like,
and I think look, I mean, there's board design improvements we're talking about. Um, I mean, this is not this is, you know, this is an evolving process. I mean, you know, there's I always said that part of it is, you know, trust our team, but there's also a technology piece. I have to use TE's like that. it keeps me and then themes because it keeps me on track cuz I'm kind of add but but you know technology is a big piece that matters and you know and that gets into things like flippers and a whole range of things that players you know it impacts how gameplay goes right like so we want to have the best feel on our flippers we want there's a whole range of things that we're working on uh on the technology side as well I mean there's just a lot going on we're we're really investing right now
yeah I'm definitely curious about the changes that are going to take place because you know you know people don't typically like change. So I'm curious also when it comes to let's just say for instance the cabinet the cabinet was in a way recently changed you know from GTF and I believe that still went over to Barry's game. Uh are you looking to maintain that cabinet style or a different one? I mean, do you want um I know with I know with um some of the Valley Williams stuff, we're trying to keep it traditional to the Valley of Williams products.
Okay.
So, that's you know, our cabinets. I mean, even in our old scheme, we have like three or four different or three different setups with it. You have what you had Houdini and Hot Wheels was the same body and then it changed for Valhalla, which was similar in some parts to the October Fest.
But, you know, we're not married to any type of, you know, setup. But, you know, I like the Houdini cabinet personally.
I like the Houdini one, too.
I mean, either some people like it, some people don't. I mean, it's kind of like a JJP cabinet. It's got that deeper angle and it actually some of our cabinets, the more the more recent ones like GTF are sort of similar in sort of shape and size.
I kind of wish they did more with the art on the inside of that little poop thing that goes around, but then maybe that's something we'll look at in the future. So,
yeah. Yeah, that I was just kind of curious about I guess especially once you start diving into remaking what everybody's well aware of the B Williams remakes is like you said reimagining I'm sure to the pin heads there's a little bit of hint of worrisome in there they're like oh how much are they changing on these type of things
that not for that part we're we're going to have a version of the machines in a classic form that you know people can appreciate if they want
yeah I think when we say reimagine right so it depends like we're going to go into this step-wise. First of all, you know, when you buy a classic remake, you want it to be a classic remake. But there's also some people in the market that will say, "Hey, on a limited run, I want something that really kind of goes in a different direction, right? Does something totally new that still feels like the game, but might be different." And those will be sort of what we call a limited run reimagined portion of it probably. You know, we're still fleshing some of that out. But, um, you know, one of the things that I will say is unique that people are like, "How do you do this?" Well, when you have a Henry Ford assembly line, it's it's pretty straightforward. Our vision and goal and we've got some work to do is um when you order and we're trying to make sure this is implemented in game one. I know I'm pushing the team here, but um you know, when I I'm like a collector, right? So, when I buy a game, like I don't I've got a I've got a closet full of legs, right? Because I get this game, I'm like, I hate these steel legs. I want red legs on this, right? So, our idea for the classic games and and some of our new games is, you know, you can buy the classic model, right? It just comes as is, but when you go online, you can order and like it's like if you go buy buy a Lexus, right? You can go online, you can change trim packages, and we're going to have options so you can actually finish out your own machine. Like if you want a certain powder coating option, you we'll offer a couple of them with each model so that you can actually have powder co powder coated wire forms and legs and hinges and side rails. Everything's matching. You know, we might offer some alter alternate artwork with a particular classic game. If someone wanted a different art art package, they could upgrade to that. So the idea is that we let people have choices, right? I mean, to me, sales is really easy. You give the customer what they want. If you give them choices, then they can feel like they and they'll they'll get assigned right Ron in a s basically a a u you know their serial number and when they place their order will go and that'll all follow them right down the factory line everything to the topper to you know every every other um custom feature that they're going to and that'll grow like you know our first edition probably will have four or five different options but the whole idea is like when I order a machine and I'm paying the kind of money I'm paying for the machine I want it to be what I Right. Like I I don't want to have to like order it and have a have an acrylic topper up there that's kind of crappy and then wait six months and get my name on a waiting list and then buy, you know, a $2,000 topper, $1,500 and take the old one down and put the new one up. I mean, to me, the idea is that when people order something, you know, they can get those features added on and it ships with their machine.
Yeah. And dealers can still get the, you know, the standard one, what they want as far as what they want to have in stock, you know, and even when they're ordering online. I mean, you got to pick your dealer and then you kind of go down there. So,
yeah, I I I like the idea of being able to order and customize your machine. But another part of me is thinking about how a logistical nightmare this could technically be cuz and we we'll take it down to the simplest form like just fast food. Everybody's been there where you order a burger like, "Yeah, I want this, this, and this on it." and you get back home, open it up, and they put ketchup on there. You said no ketchup. So, I can only imagine what that would be like whenever you get your game open and you spend, you know, 8 to $10,000 on something and they put red legs on here. I didn't want red legs. So, I'm hoping
we're not talking about 20 options. We're talking about like two two options of we're not talking about like t-shirts when you pick out. If you think about how a machine is made though, if you think about how a machine is made, there's so many other parts on it that I mean the way these pick tickets work and you go through an assembly line, it just follows every and then there's a final QC check. It's like, do I have this, do I have this, do I have this? It's this person's machine shipping to, you know, this distributor or drop shipping to this particular customer. I mean, we should be able to manage those things. And I I feel confident that we can do it. And that's the first question people ask. And I just want to tell them, I say, "Order your machine, and when it shows up and you're happy with it, then all your all your worries will be solved. That let let us take care of the back end of that. We we're we're going to figure out and make sure that that happens the way it's supposed to happen." Um, in my previous business, we we have we had 50 or 100 SKUs and we built thousands of like every every building is a different shape. So, I mean, we, you know, cutting, kitting, all that is a pretty straightforward process if you're set up properly and and we've got the lines set up to be able to do that. So, I I feel really confident, Carrie, that it's not going to be a problem.
Will we make a mistake and ship someone the wrong color legs?
Well, I'm sure at some point we will. I'm sure we'll take post that one side and saying they shipped me the wrong legs. But I will tell you, like I said, we'll mess something up when you're do. But I can promise you this, you know, it's not going to be a hassle to get it fixed. Like to me, it's not it's, you know, if if if we mischief something, we do something, we own it, and we're going to make it right for people. But but I feel good about that people are going to get what they order.
And a lot of this stuff's going to be easy, you know, like like dust covers for the top that are branded, cup holders that are branded, magnet covers for the door, things like that. Those are going to be really easy things to add in at the end.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I I like having options, but sometimes, especially for the new people in the hobby, a lot of options could just add it to where there's more confusion kind of thing. A lot of people just go in and go, I I just want this machine. Okay, well, do you want this, this, this, and they're like, I just want the game kind of thing. They play it at shows and that's what they want. Whatever whatever mode this is. Just give me this machine that I see right in front of me kind of thing.
And that's that's actually better for these people because what you don't want is like, man, I'm paying an extra X for that. I just want the basic machine. like, right, I'm happy with the base model. When I buy Ford Focus, I don't need like the upgraded Bluetooth and I don't need this and that. I just want the machine. Well, you know, that's that's for them. And the distributors will be carrying those machines and they'll be able to buy those machines and they don't have to. But I know people in the hobby and people are collectors, you know, like me, I I like I like the idea of having some options because I want to think about how that looks in my game room, right? I want to feel like I'm bought into it. I want to get the topper that I want. But that's just, you know, so there'll be a there we're trying to offer something for different customers and different people, you know, sort of in in uh at different points in the collection or hobby, you know, from beginners to people who are collecting lots of machines like me.
All right. So, like some other changes recently was the the logo. I'm kind of curious, you know, are we have we nailed it down to an official logo yet, Ron, or are we still working on that? Still making some tweaks and
kind of curious. I mean, we've changed a few things about it. Um, but you know, when you look at American Pinball in general, I mean, we had the original logo, we've had a Chris Ranche logo, we've had, you know, obviously this logo. I mean, I like it.
I'm kind of curious. I mean, we have we nailed one down. I didn't know there's like an official one that we're going to get like this is the one that we're going forward with or is it going to be something that just evolves over time?
We got an artist. We got an artist making some changes to it. That was one of the things we wanted I wanted to do. And so, but I, you know, the tagline, play the adventure. I like it. I mean, it's pinball. It's supposed to be fun. It's not supposed to be like high tech and boring and and you know, the last thing people wanted want to hear is Vincent pinball. I mean, there's enough people's last name in pinball. I mean, you know, it's just going to be American pinball is great. It's it's an American
pastime and American hobby. And I, you know, and it's a cool name. I mean, I'm I'm not people like, "Oh, you're going to change the name and and because of this and the history." And I'm like, you know, honestly, a year from now when we're making great games, no one's going to worry about it. I mean, that's what we have to do is put our heads down and make good games and everything will take care of itself.
Yeah, that's the easiest thing. I say easy thing about pinball, but it's like that's the the best thing that you can do is just continuously make great games. And yeah, like you said, everything else will just take care of itself.
Look, I'd be I'd be skeptical, too. Like, like me, if I just put myself like, "Hey, here's this guy. He comes in. He buys this company saying he's going to do this." Well, at the end of the day, I can say anything I want. What matters is what is game one like? and you're only as good as your last game. And so, you know, our deal is, you know, I want to get the team, you know, we're doing some of these little podcasts to let people know what kind of what we're doing so people understand the direction, but reality is we're going to put our heads down and and, you know, just focus on, you know, game one, right? We're going to focus on game one.
I'm just saying like the logo is basically the mascot for pinball. So, if you can nail that down and this is what people identify you as, that's all I'm saying. just like narrow down where it's going to be at kind of thing because people recognize a logo just by looking at it. That's who that is kind of thing. So you just
just a suggestion just narrow down and figure out what we're going to do with it kind of thing. But we can move on to what was announced today which is a little bit of a treat kind of thing because at first like you know we were kind of like putting this interview off a little bit longer and I'm like what is going on? So I'm kind of glad we did because now we could talk about this and that is regards to you have signed with Rick over there at Planetary Pinball. You guys are going to be remaking as of right now at least seven Valley Williams remakes. So what all information are you able to divulge at this point in time in regards to that?
We can tell you we're super excited.
That's tell you this what I'll give you. I'll give one hint today.
Uh it's not really a hint, but what I will tell you is people are going to like our first title. You Carrie, I know I've heard you talk. I've listened to all your podcasts. I know what you like. you are going to like this first title. I'm gonna leave it at that. That's all you're going to hear
because I'm because I know that we've had I say we but like I know that there's other rel relationships that have been with Planetary to do remakes. Let's say, you know, everybody knows Padre, everybody knows CGC and I I know what titles they were going to make kind of thing, right?
So, it's like I'm kind of curious, you know, where we're going to go with with you guys. Are you going to be creating some of the bangers that everybody's hoping that you're going to be creating? because everybody's got their own personal idea of what they want to see from you. So obviously if we can get that here faster than CGC and hopefully from the the build quality that I'm hearing from Bretti hopefully you can do better than that then I think you definitely have a win on your hands kind of thing.
Right. And look there's some titles that weren't available a couple that are out there. Um, you know, I'm not, you know, Rick's not at liberty to tell me who's doing them, and I'm not going to pry. I know I I got the titles, some of the titles that we really wanted. That's why I wanted to lock up a kind of a long-term deal because it sets a strategy for us going forward. And and you know, Rick and Planet, the guys at Planetary are fantastic. I mean, if there's a little change in direction and we wanted to substitute a title, you know, we're going to have that kind of relationship where we could do that or move some stuff up and down. But what I can tell you is you will know the titles. The titles are popular and people are going to be excited about them. Um, so, uh, the first one you'll see and I think it's it's the one I'm probably most excit Well, actually game two I'm most excited about, but game one's close. We're excited about this first one and the next one's going to be equally as good or better. So, and then in what it also does, Carrie, is it gives us some time because we are I mean we're in the process of actually working on some new IP. Um, we've kind of got one thing locked down and we're going to be adding. So, we're going to have but I'm hoping by the end over the next 60 days, we'll kind of have our IP portfolio sort of set up for the next couple of years.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah, cuz that's the thing is that I mean everybody saw it on social media just you know as of recently you're hiring basically everybody at this point in time, right? So it's like so for you to say that like yeah we've got you know two games in the making. It's like who's making them kind of question kind of thing, you know? So I'm kind of curious definitely what you guys have in the pipeline for us. But like I said, if you had the quality and you got the speed down, then it's it should be a win-win for you kind of thing. I'm hoping so, you know, and I I mean, like I said, this this community means a lot to me. The last thing I want to do is go out and lay an egg, right? I mean, this is important to me. So, you can imagine the passion I'm putting into this. And, you know, we're not going to release a game that's not ready. As much as I would like to get something out there as soon as possible, you know, we've got a we've got a I think a realistic timetable. Um, you know, there are certain things, you know, Karen, you I don't know if you have kids, but have you gone on vacation with the kids? It's not really a vacation when they're there and artists and designers my whole, you know, in different aspects of different businesses. And what I can tell you is the hardest thing about going on vacation is getting out of the driveway. Okay? You know, you're sitting there, everything's loaded, we got a direction, we're going and it's like, "Oh, I forgot my charger. Oh, I forgot my water bottle. Oh, you know, so I think as much as we can plan to say, hey, what really matters around this game? Let's all get aligned and once we go, we go. we're not going to go back in and grab because yeah in our in my other business I always say you know if the engineers had a say in it a product would never get released into the marketplace. Not that we're going to cut any corners, but you know, you you always have to ask yourself, is this something that really matters in the overall scheme of the game, right? I mean, of course, you can always make it better, right? You can always make it better. Um, but, you know, that's, you know, at some point you have to say, okay, it's time to take the product out. So, but I think we have a good we have a good cadence and a good schedule set up. And um I feel confident that you know, unless Ron says you're crazy, but I mean I think by end of Q3, I mean we'll have game one out um and we'll be on the way to to game two being released and then that's probably going to be another
um remake or reimagined. We'll probably have actually more. We'll have kind of a dual strategy there. That'll be really interesting. But and then right after that, hopefully we have our first licensed um original IP coming out. um you know in 207.
Yeah. So I didn't know if it was going to be like an alternating between your reimaginings to your licensed IP or original IP. However, whatever direction you guys decide to go in, I'm assuming you're going towards the licensed genre kind of thing.
I think more so. I mean, you know, it's not that we wouldn't consider doing a small run of something, but I I think the cadence is asking it's it's two titles a year and that's why people are how are you going to do two titles a year? Well, we've got a remake strategy and that line is going to be dedicated to how we do that. We've got it'll it'll be sort of flowing and we'll bring in the next title and the next title. So, you know, if you imagine how many you make and how long do you bring the next title? Well, I don't see us as saying, okay, we're going to run 2,000 of these. Um, you know, we're realistic. Say, okay, we may run a, depending on the title, we may say we're going to run 500 of these Bally Williams titles. Our goal is not to make a ton of them because we want to want to keep getting stuff out to customers. And then on the other line at the same time, we're running a new, you know, call it every year, 15 months, have a new uh a new original um or licensed game, you know, out um that's a new piece of IP. So, I think it's so it's two titles a year, right? I mean, roughly. And people are like, there's no way you can make two titles a year. Well, it's actually, you know, it's not that hard. I mean, you know, I mean, we make it hard, but and and I'm not discounting that the guys that are in the industry are going to go, "This guy was so hard." And it is I mean I'm not discounting what I mean. There's a lot of things that have to happen.
Well, there's some things behind the scenes too. Investment in the team. So that that's essentially where it comes from. You know, we might not name every person on the team, but but you know, we definitely have people that we're working with behind the scenes on things.
So like with your like current location being down here in Texas, Brian, and like Ron, you know, you're over there in Georgia. I know that you travel back and forth. Like what like what's the dayto-day going to be like for you, Brian? I mean I mean how is how are you going to what I mean what how are you going to be able to do what you're going to be doing from I guess from a distance kind of thing. Are you
I mean Ron and I have a pretty good cadence. Um you know we're going to be adding another ops person that's going to be really kind of a right-hand guy to to Ron. Um but I'm I mean I'm kind of coming back and forth you know every week. I mean like I said it's a two-hour flight from Dallas. So it's not like I can't be there and travel and be up and be with the team. So, you know, and and when we're not, you know, I mean, if you a lot of what we're doing, I mean, you know, just like in this day and age, co taught us one thing is that we can we can all meet and work on things together and work work independently. But, but yeah, I'm going to be back and forth. Ron's up
almost, not every week, but pretty close. Um, and so, uh, you know, fortunately, I like Chicago.
Well, for me, it's become like the way the way the plane is, it's almost like a bus. It feels like and more like
yeah so there's there's challenges there we'll work through them but what I will say is I don't you know
um you know it I will be I will be there as much as it we need to be successful you know and um you know I like being with the team I like getting my hands dirty I mean it was so fun because I back I was I'm always like I was an inventor kind of a product guy and that's how I built my businesses so actually to go back into like the engineering lab and see the game development and be able to give some input. It's like it's like super fun for me. So, I get excited to go back up there and do some of that and just kind of inter, you know, interface with, you know, the mechanical engineer or the, you know, the the sound guy or whatever.
Yeah. So, like out of curiosity, I mean, like I don't know, let's just uh project here a couple of years in the future or whatever. I mean, what does success look like for you for American Pinball? Both of you? I mean, like let's get feedback from there on that one. Um, I I will tell you what I think it is.
We uh in two years we have another game that we release and when we put it out there. Um, first of all, I don't know that we're going to be taking a bunch of deposits and making people wait a long time. I'd like to be able to have them in box or at least a good number, but that run gets sold out really fast because what that tells me is we're doing the right things, right? It's like I want the demand to be there for our games. Whether I produce a hundred of them or 1,500 of them, you know, it that's going to depend on the title, but you know, you if we're making a couple thousand games a year in in four or five years, you know, I mean, I'd be super happy about that. And I, you know, and we're making titles that people care about and um you know, people are excited to play. You know, if you ask me what I really want, I mean, you know, we release a new title and that title sits, you know, the the the community looks at it and it once when there's enough ratings, it's sitting in the top 20, you know, in games that are out there. I mean, that's the ultimate I mean, you know, I own a bunch of those games. I mean, I I can I I'll give accolades to Elton John, man. One of my favorite games. I mean, it's a fantastic game. Um, Jersey Jack did a great job. Steve Ritchie did a great job on that game. But and other games like that, you know, I own a bunch I own a bunch of Stern Machines. I own a bunch of JJPs. I own a Cactus Canyon remake, you know. I mean, but I want to be I want to make we I think success is we have games that that people look at it and say that that's a banger, man. That's a good game. And we kind of have a reputation of building those kind of games, you know?
And I mean, I I basically go for the same thing. I mean, I just want to have games that people want, but you know, a lot of the stuff that I want in success is not stuff I can't talk about because I want to get the licenses that we're trying to go after. So,
that stuff will come later. But, um, that's where I see success is for us to get what we want. What we want.
Yeah. And I, Carrie, I want to take some risk, right? Like, I don't want to just make the same thing everybody else is making. I'm willing to take a risk with some titles and do some stuff a little differently. like, you know, I don't want to do the next, you know,
um, you know, superhero game, right? I mean, to me, it's not I mean, you know, I don't know. I mean, not to say we wouldn't do a superhero game, but I mean, there's all kinds of titles that people haven't thought about that would be great pinball titles that I think it would be fun to explore, right? Give something a little different to somebody, you know? I don't have to I don't have to have the next horror theme, you know, necessarily.
Yeah. I I I mean, is there a machine that's already been made, like a dream theme machine for you, or are you looking forward to potentially making your dream theme? You don't have to say what it is, but I mean, has it already been made? And are you looking forward to hopefully potentially making it?
Uh there's a there's some on the short list, let's put it that way, uh that I'm going after. Um we've got one locked down that is is going to be awesome. It I I can't tell you what it is. we'll get closer and, you know, we'll we'll start talking about it as we get closer to, you know, there's a long way to go on that one. It it it's literally a piece of IP. We don't have any we don't it's it hasn't been designed yet. We don't have a designer assigned to it. So, it's real early, but there's one that I'm super excited about and we're working on getting a couple more right kind of lined up.
Yeah, there's a lot of themes out there and I'll just throw one out there. Fifth Element. That's one that I know a lot of people are asking for and wanting for and I might be one of those.
I love I love Fifth Element. You know, a lot of the stuff, you know, for me when I look at themes, it's like I'm the same because we're not going to do these ones. It's like I I I want to make games if you want.
I don't always have the same lineup. You know, I like things like Garbage Pale Kids or like things like that, you know, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to make a garbage pail kids pinball machine. You know, I love I love Atari. I love Peewee Herman. I love all Richard Tracy. All that stuff.
We're gonna make another thing to keep in mind like you know we're like I think we who are players and kind of get where we're kind of to the point where and especially players who are really good players, right? You know, they sort of lead the the uh the narrative, but you know, I mean, I can think of some games out there that don't rate super high that five and 6,000 of them have been sold. um by other manufacturers. So, the reality is, you know, you want something that like really good players can play and there's enough depth to it, but also a game that's approachable for more casual players. And that's a hard balance to find, right? Because, you know, you you you got to have something that the general public wants, right? And a title and a theme that's interesting and a game game play such that it's just not totally frustrating. But you can't have it, you know, you can't you got to make it where good players, you know, and people who who have seen all kinds of there's good shots, there's, you know, um um interesting modes and stuff like that and some depth that people, you know, are more advanced players are interested in. So, I think, you know, we want to accomplish both those things if we can. car.
So, I know that's the great thing about pinball is that it's very subjective on what everybody an individual person is going to like, whether it be they love the because of the code, they love it because it's packed. But I've played plenty of games that aren't packed that are highly enjoyable. But I'm kind of curious, you know, from your guys perspective. What makes a fun or a good game to you?
Ron, you want to go first? I'll go.
I mean, we were just laughing about this the other day. Like I mean I was I mean I like some of our games like Lactane Forest, but like when I go play other people's games, I mean I like Labyrinth. I mean I love I love Uncanny X-Men. I just love the way it flows around. I mean there's for me those are some of my favorite games, but obviously going to the past I mean I love all the B Williams ones. I love Fishtails. I love I love a lot of those games.
So
yeah, it's I mean man that's that's like asking where your your favorite kid is, right? I mean, what I will say this, like for me,
what's the first thing I see when I walk up to a machine? I see the artwork. I see the back glass. I see the quality of the build. I see, you know, the lights. Like I'm kind of an artist type. So, for me, like that's a big part of of like the whole experience is when I walk up to a machine like, you know, I mean, you take the artwork from like Avatar. I mean, it's beautiful artwork. The way they did the lighting is excellent. Now, you know, you know, you could argue about whether it's got the best shots or this or that and the game play. And not to me, you know, you you got to have a PhD to know the rule set because I don't know the language of the Na'vi people. But, um, but it's a great game. I own that game. I love that game, right? And I've I've finally started to figure some of that out. But but to me there's you know what what makes the the game enjoyable is you know I'm thinking of games that are challenging enough that like I keep coming back to it but I I kind of am simple enough that I like you know some difficult shots but I like to be able to know where I'm shooting. You know like Star Trek Next Generation I know where I'm shooting. I know what I'm looking for. It's got some interesting things like the cannon. It's it's challenging enough, but you know, it's you know, going back to an example of a Valley Williams game, but you know, it's stuff like that that I think um you know, that I like personally, and I'm not a great I mean, I'm a I'm a average player, you know, I'm not I'm not like a you know, a pro. So, um but I mean I I love Godzilla, for instance. And I know that's sort of cliche. Everyone says, "Oh, you know, Godzilla's number one." But it is. It's a great game. I love that game. Um, I'm kind of I like Uncanny X-Men. I can think of a lot of games out there that that I enjoy and I enjoy them for different reasons. And I find myself I don't know about you, Carrie, but I find myself like going through these cycles while I'll play a game for a while and then I'll just kind of go on to something else like you know, like I've been playing Jurassic Park a lot lately. I don't know why, but I mean, I've just like I've just gotten this rut where I've been playing that and then I'll go play, you know, pirates.
Yeah. I guess that's the great thing about having an ice collection. you got 47, so you got a much bigger collection than I do kind of thing. But yeah, I'm in the same boat where there's times where I just get a bug and I just want to play a particular game for a damn good while. Right now, my my addiction is on Harry Potter. I'm really enjoying the hell out of this game, the way it shoots and everything.
But there's definitely been times where I'm just like, man, I want to play a lot of Jurassic Park. And then I go to like Pinball Expo and then I'm spending a bunch of time on Spy Hunter.
So it's like I I don't know. I can't explain it, but there's times where I'm just like, man, I don't know why I like this game, you know? But I just like I just like the way
I'm curious. It's not on our list. It's so don't take it on the list. But man, Party Zone. I love Party Zone. I love
I Party Zone. Party Zone.
Dude, it's another game that I really enjoy.
You know what's funny? It's like it's like funny like you know there's also a certain like the brain is funny like if it goes back to a certain piece of nostalgia or a certain shot like there's nothing better than hitting that shot that just feels so good, you know? Um but or a call out, right? or something that happens in the G. I mean, I still almost like my hair Well, I don't have any hair, but I get like really excited like, you know, when I hit the multiball still to this day on Adam's Family and it's like showtime, you know, that's like the greatest
moment. Yeah. It's like it's it's a moment that's been created kind of thing.
Yeah. The moment. And so games that create moments like that are fantastic, right? And you know, I think sometimes things can be over complicated, right? I mean, everyone's going to have something different. You know, look, at the end of the day, we want games that people enjoy. And there will be a c subset of people that enjoy some games and subset of people that enjoy certain other games. And I appreciate I think I watched you were talking about the other day about like whether I think it was just four or five days ago. I happened to catch the thing where you're talking about like have people improved over the previous year and what I you know and what you said is true. You know, I mean, like, you know, these people improve for these reasons and they have this subset of product that's a little different than another manufacturer and it doesn't mean that one's bad and that one's good. Um, you know, like I I hope Pokemon comes out because my daughter's a huge Pokemon collector and I'll be first in line to buy a collector's edition. So, you know, and I had even seen it, but I'm a huge P. So there's weird reasons people buy things and you know that's one that was like my daughter's like if there's ever a Pokemon dad you've got to buy it and I'm like well I wish I could have developed it but
it's like I think we know
releases it if it's stern if it indeed is stern which it sounds like
it's like I I I could easily you know compete competitor against competitor but it's just it's I would rather the the manufacturers compete against themselves like every year they should strive to be better than their pre previous year kind of And I would have loved to included American pinball in that, but you didn't put anything out, Ron.
Yeah, I tried. I tried.
Well, you have to have this thing called money to make something, right? And and let me give Ron some credit because, dude, to keep things the way he did and to sell existing titles and, you know, do his he did a deal with Polycade. I mean, he did everything he could to keep those doors open. And so, when I came on board, I'm like, dude, that's the kind of grit. that's the kind of person I want to work with because he was committed to it, you know, and um you know, you can't you can't you know that it's hard to teach that like you you either have that or you don't, man. Yeah, like you mentioned you one of the things that you saw or did not see whenever you went in there and was the it was missing some leadership and that's something that leaders typically are able to identify and as you a business owner and the successful that you've become that's something obviously a skill that that that you have and not everybody has that skill and I want to say that and I'm not wanting to talk bad about you know Mr. Fixer or anything but I don't know if that was a skill that he had enough of. he hadn't developed enough of it I think in in his current role but I I'm glad that that is something that you you have identified and that you are basically taking on and putting you know promoting Ron to a new position kind of thing. So that kind of makes me go a question towards you Ron is like when it comes to being more on I guess a face for the company kind of thing. I remember talking to you about this you know months ago and everything and you you're like you're like I don't know if I want to be the face of American Pinball but are you going to be the face of American Pinball now or what? Well, here's the thing. Last year, you know, I'm not gonna be, you know, and you know, I know you saying before with David, I'm I still think of David as a friend. You know, it's not like, you know, I'm not going to talk badly about anybody out there,
but you know, when I look at it without having an investment,
I was quiet this last year just on going on podcast because I know people, you've reached out, different people have reached out. I don't want to go on podcast and talk about things that were dreams because sometimes, you know, we've always had ideas even prior to there, but when you say those ideas and they don't come to fruition, they become a lie in a sense.
Yeah.
So, I was essentially trying to avoid that type of situation until I had proper investment. I don't want to talk about things and I'm still not going to talk about the titles, but I don't mind coming out and being the face of the company in this sense now because if we have the proper investment, it's very proud to stand for forth and I can say that Brian's going to back us on these projects. You know, I may not say the titles, the names, but we're going to move forward and I believe we're going to achieve everything that we put out and we're set out to do. So,
sweet. But uh so like getting wrapping up, we're creeping up on the one hour mark right here. Is there anything that uh we didn't talk about that you would like to talk about or mention or anything in regards to American Pinball or orbit games or anything? I
mean, the only thing I would say is that, you know, just keep an open mind. Um, you know, I know you said it, people don't like change. And um, you know, we're gonna I mean, anytime you have a new owner, a new investment, sort of a new strategy, it involves a certain amount of change. And, you know, I'd say just, you know, pinball community out there, you know, we will do our best to listen to to people, right? Everyone's going to have a different opinion, but there's some consistent things that we hear that we're taking note of. And we've looked at what people are doing right and what people aren't doing right. And um what I can tell you is we may not be able to we may not have the, you know, the A-list designer. We may not, but we will control the things we can control, which is answering the phone. If you have tech support and you need help, um, you know, we want to make sure we have the team in place to get you what you need. you shouldn't have to wait seven days to get a call back on, you know, a mech that's broken on your machine or something like that. So, what and and if we don't have something in stock, we're going to communicate with you and we're going to let you know. We're going to keep you updated. I mean, those are things we can control and we'll do our best to serve our customers. I mean, I think that's what it gets down to. If you have a service mindset and you know, I always say, put other people in front of yourself, right? And I try, you say, what's a good leader? a good leader puts his people in front of him, you know, and I I I don't care if I have to. I mean, I'll I'll change, you know, the trash out. I'll come help on the assembly line if I have to. I mean, that's just
You get a picture of him taking the trash out.
I promise. I I believe him. We We've talked about this in great length. I mean, we're both that way in a sense that to me, my team, and Brian's the same way. I'm going to back them with everything that they do. We're going to make sure they have the support they have. You know, talking about service, you know, Ben does a great job on the front end, but we know that that's going to grow. As we grow, we're going to invest into that. And that's the thing that we're looking at is we just need to keep our ears to the ground and understand our eyes to understand what our team, the struggles they come across that we're going to keep growing that team with that. And and I will tell people look if you want to join our team and we have lots of opportunities and we love to work with people that are passionate but I hope you what you hear Carrie if I can leave one message is it's our team it's not my team it's not Ron's team I mean you know if you say it's my team they're just saying that in that sense but I mean you know look the designer you can have the best designer in the world but if the coders aren't bought in if the software guys aren't bought in if the line people aren't bought in you know it is every bit that person on the assembly lines game as it is my game or anyone else's. I mean, this is a team effort and it takes that. And I think if we that's what we want to do. We want to foster that attitude and we want people in the community to understand that that's what we believe and that's what we stand for. And if you stand for that too, you're going to love our products. And so, um, you know, but but you're only as good as your last game. And we don't we don't have a last game. So, we got to get we got to get going.
Like I said, I think it's the consumer confidence portion. And I remember telling Ron this months ago. I was like, man, right now you right now the community is just on a like I don't know kind of basis on American Pinball. They're they're scared to invest in a game and then just have a dead game. So it's good to hear that you're still going to support the old games and that you're still going to grow and continue to make new games as well kind of thing. So that definitely happens. Carrie, you said it at the beginning of the podcast like what we may be saying might be wrong out there because we're out there. The reason is you're filling in the blanks because you have no information, right? And so what I tell people, you know, I can't tell you what our next title is going to be, but if you ask me something, I'll do my I will answer it to the best of my ability. We don't have any secrets. You know, there's nothing KG here. Um, you know, there's no, you know, just that's just the way I live my life. And I hope that's the way our team lives their life. And like I said, if we mess up, like I'm not, you know, we're going to mess up. And if we do, guess what? we tell you about it. What really matters is actually when you screw up and you call the customer to let them know you messed up before they even know you messed up, right? Because that's being that's being what I call rigorously honest. That's being going out there and saying, "Hey, we want to make sure we think we might have shipped you the wrong thing. You might not have noticed it, but you know, hey, we want to take care of this." And though that's the kind of mindset that I want to have and um I think it's refreshing. And you know what? If we do that, we're going to sell a lot of machines.
Yeah. Like I said, you you like you said earlier, focus on just building your games, making sure that they work 100%. The quality is there and eventually it just takes care of itself after that. Word of mouth, it goes a long way. When people get your first game that gets released and they go, "Hey, the build quality is really good or this is I mean that's going to do more for you than anything else, will kind of thing."
Yeah.
Yeah. It's the golden rule. Treat others the way you want to be treated. So
actually, no, I say treat you should treat them actually better than you want to be treated. I mean really in reality I mean it's like man I always tell people they said I want to be happy I mean you know the way you become happy is you make other people happy right you know it just that's the way life works right if I want if I want you know if I want to live a fulfilled life I have to go help other people right and so that's kind of the way I live my life and I know it's sort of the older you get maybe you get a little more what do you call it like uh u I don't I can't think of the term that's a senior moment but you get sort of more introspective about things, right? I mean, and things, you know, I trust me, I was much more of a firecracker when I was 30 years old than I am today. So,
but I'm still just as passionate about this industry. And man, I mean, I can't thank the people enough. I I mean,
for the other than the usual people who like are going to be negative, the first they want to be the first thing one to say something negative anytime something happens. But that's such a small percentage. I mean, I just want to thank everyone. We've had great people saying, "Hey, I hope you guys do this. You know, we're rooting for you." And uh I just want to tell your listeners and you know and the people in the community that that really means a lot to us and we take that seriously and we're we're going to do our best.
Yeah. When I shared that they had a new buyer, people were excited. We're like yeah good. And so when the news dropped today about you going to be doing some baller remakes, that was also good news to people's ears. People were like good kind of thing. So I don't think when it comes to American Pinball there's ever been a thing about being poor quality kind of thing. It's just been been lately just the lack of confidence. Like are they still going to be around? that was that's been like I said the main obstacle to overcome. So I'm hoping that's going to be resolved this year kind of thing. But uh I know we we got a couple of shows coming up. Pinball at the Beach I don't think uh y'all guys are going to be going to that one in regards to just you know not as much of an American pinball presence but just
booth or anything. I mean, we talked about we haven't decided yet depending on timing if we will go walk there and kind of hang out, but it would be kind of just to hang out with people if we
My daughter plays college tennis and this is her last year and I've made a commitment that I'm going to try and be there for her as much as I can. So, I always tell my employees too, man, your family comes first. Um, you know, and uh we'll I'll be at as many events that I can and you'll see me around. I mean, I'll for sure of course I'll be at TPF. We're gonna we're gonna have a booth there. We're going to have we're going to have to the extent we can have some new stuff, we're going to have some new stuff there and some exciting stuff to share. So, um you know, we're we're excited to be at that. Um and try and I'm going to try and make a few more. We're going to we'll get a schedule out. One of the things we want to do is kind of get a schedule out so people know where we're going to be, when we're going to be there, and uh you know, we're working on that. Ron's putting that together right now. So,
okay, that sounds good. That was my next question in regards to that. Where you're going to be in Texas Pinball Festival, which is March. So, they'll have a presence there. I know you said some new stuff. So, I'm kind of curious about what do you mean by new stuff right out there. Not your new game or anything. Just
we we can't quite say exactly. I mean, we got like a 20 by 30 booth and we'll have obviously some machines out there. Um, we'll be there to kind of talk to the public. We'll have our team out there kind of, you know, meling around kind of letting you guys letting everyone know about the machines. Um, I know we can't talk about obviously the new machines yet, but we certainly want to have a presence. A lot of our fan base goes there and the the whole pinball community. And I'm just looking forward to meeting some people, you know, hang out and, you know, let people meet me and and Ron and meet the whole team. You know, we're gonna we're there just, you know,
to meet some of our customers and see how we can help.
All right. So, um, I'll have Do you want me to put both of your email addresses in the video description on this one or just you, Ron? Or I mean,
either one.
Okay. I know you're still hiring, so for the people that want to submit a resume or whatever kind of thing, just send it to you, Ron. Definitely. I'll put whatever links that you would like me to put into the video description on this. Uh if there's nothing else to say or we said everything, then I guess we can just wrap it up right here, guys. Awesome.
Yeah, with with those resumes. I'm going through them. I know I'm getting a lot of them coming through. So, I am, you know, if anyone puts it out there and they put their application, if I haven't got to them yet, I am getting to them. So,
and thanks for putting this together, Carrie. It's Yeah, it's been great to talk with you. listen to your show and you know it's good it's good uh to get out there a little bit um and just kind of let people know what's going on. So
yeah, it's always nice to hear and I like I said I've never been against American Pit Ball or anything like that. Like yes, there's been a couple of games that have been released lately by them that I just not games for me. Uh but like uh I think Houdini is honestly my favorite of the games that that have been created me personally.
Yeah.
Is is it a hard shooter? Yeah. But damn it, it's cool looking. And it's, you know, it just like this game that
just got one too many shots. Just a little more room. But no,
it's a common complaint. It's tight, but damn it, it's cool looking kind of thing, you know.
All right, guys. Thanks for tuning in the show and until next time out.
Appreciate it. types you send.