Pinball Roundtable - with special guest Christoper Franchi

This week, the silverball legends align as we welcome a true titan of the industry: the one and only Christopher Franchi. Known for his iconic work on titles like Guardians of the Galaxy, Munsters, Evil Dead, Beetlejuice and Beatles, Franchi joins the crew to pull back the curtain on the world of pinball and the future of the hobby.

Join Retro Ralph, Cale Hernandez, and Jamie Burchell as they dive deep into the hottest topics and most controversial rumors currently shaking the pinball world.

In This Episode:

The Art of the Game: Christopher Franchi discusses his creative process and what it takes to bring a modern machine to life.

The AI Debate: A candid discussion on the use of AI in pinball art and design. Is it a tool for progress or a threat to the craft?

Beetlejuice vs. Evil Dead: Breaking down the aesthetics and hype. Which spooky IP reigns supreme in the pinball realm?

Jump! Van Halen is Happening: The boys discuss the latest news surrounding the long-awaited Van Halen pinball machine.

Stern Rumor Mill: We’re looking into the crystal ball at upcoming Stern Pinball release titles. What’s next from the factory in Elk Grove Village?...and much, much more!

Connect With Us:

If you enjoyed the show, make sure to Subscribe, hit the Notification Bell, and drop a comment below: Which rumored Stern title are you most excited for? #Pinball 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back, Roundtable fans. After a short break, our introven hosts have returned. Retro Ground. Baby first. Also, joining them this week. Lunchbox X Figure Toy Collector. And Remister Test's biggest fan. Please welcome everyone to favorite spooky artist, Christopher Franci. This tweet.

SPEAKER_06 0:33

Hello and welcome to a very special edition of the Pinball Roundtable. I am joined as always by Kale Hernandez and Retro Ralph. But today, we scheduled Christopher Franci. Finally, I know this is all my fault, and I apologize, but you are here, and that's all that matters. All right. But Kale's going to give your bio for everyone, okay? For those that don't know, which where are you? If you're living under a rock, you don't know who you are, dude. But go ahead, Cale, take it away.

SPEAKER_04 1:02

Considered one of the top pinball artists today, Franchi got his start in 2016 when he created three art packages for Stern's Batman '66 in just one month. After that, he became a fan favorite with seven titles under his belt and many more in the works and on the horizon. Companies love him for his quality and speed. Franchie was the tw won the Twippie in 2018 for his work on Stern's The Monsters. Franchie still lives in Michigan. We don't know if that's true. We'll find out today, and works alongside his face faithful dog Barlow, who is featured as an Easter egg on many of his art packages. You know where I got that from, Franchie?

SPEAKER_03 2:09

You missed a few.

SPEAKER_04 2:12

Oh, that's an old card. And you have to you have to update us on some of the stuff.

SPEAKER_03 2:19

Well, Evil Dead and Beatle Cheers. There you go. And also the uh I got the Twippie for 2025 for Evil Dead Best Art Work.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

That's right. That's right. That was on the one that we hosted.

SPEAKER_04 2:32

So uh I brought to attention that you probably need to update your card. I do. I do. Get with Bug and Luke on that.

SPEAKER_03 2:41

I wasn't aware that I had to print a new one every year. It's not like I'm a sport hero. Well, you are.

SPEAKER_06 2:47

I mean, your stats keep going up. You need, you know, people need to see your stats. So all right, so very easy interview today. We're not really doing an interview, ladies and gentlemen. He's just sitting on the round table with us. So we're going to ask you some hanging out. I'm going to ask you some poignant questions. We'll start off with my question. Uh artists are usually hard on themselves, right? Was there ever a project that you work on pinball related that you look back and you said, nah, that was that was pretty good. That was pretty flawless. That was pretty flawless. Or pretty perfect. Like Batman 66? I think that's pretty perfect, man.

SPEAKER_03 3:26

No, no, that's the one I want to change the most because I didn't really have time. I only had like three weeks to work on that. And I had to utilize a lot of artwork that I had already done, or I never would have got it done. I had a lot of, you know, head-to-toe drawings of the good guys and bad guys, and I was able to use that stuff, or I'd still be drawing as shit now. So can I swear on this show? No swear? You can say whatever you want. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Frankie, when you say three weeks, is that including like everything? The whole entire package, play field, everything?

SPEAKER_03 3:59

Three, so yeah, to clarify one thing, I did not do the play field. I only did the characters on the play field. Kevin O'Connor did the play field, and then I just did the the heroes and villains, and he plugged those in, but he did the rest of the layout. That was already done when I came aboard. They had an art package already done, and George Gomez hated it. So he's told he told Greg Ferris, please go find someone to fix this. So yeah, but it was yeah, three different art packages as far as the cabinet and back glass goes. Um and that's also why you see a lot of repetition. You know, it's that wouldn't be my choice today. Um, but uh, you know, in some of the back classes, I don't know if there's some of the same artworks you just shuffled around. Uh I just didn't have the time. So I would think the one and people are probably gonna be like, that's your worst art package of all of them, but I think the one that I think I kind of nailed it on and wouldn't change a thing would be Godfather. Because there's not a I mean, it's not an action movie, there's not a lot to do. So when I kind of uncovered that concept of doing an art deco sort of a feel to it, and then just put all the portraits together, I thought it re it worked as well as it could. You couldn't really have like a cool collage kind of thing for a Godfather, I didn't think. So, but I think everything else, Monsters I wouldn't change. And and I'm not saying I wouldn't change it because I think it's perfect. I just I don't think it needs any changes. But most of the time, if you'll ask any company that I worked for, um like they'll ask me to send them the play field, and then like two weeks before production, I'm like, wait a minute, here, here's a new file. Like I'm constantly picking and I'll look at something and go, ah, that sucks, or I got a better idea. So um you know, it's kinda like they have to like yank it off my desk at the last minute and go, You're done, we gotta get this into production. Uh but that's sorry, that's a long answer, but uh that's right. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_04 6:01

Hey, but uh at what point did you do Catwoman?

SPEAKER_03 6:04

The Catwoman edition was geez, later on? That might have been the last thing I did for Stern. That might have been after Monsters and the Beatles. Okay. Uh where they came back and said they wanted to do that. And I wanted like I had this I was visioning this cabinet with her laying on her side, like on her little, you know, villain hideout bed with her little cat phone and all that there on the bottom of the cabinet. And they're like, nope, we just want uh updated back glass and sides of the I think I had to talk them into the sides of the back box. They at least gave me that, but they don't want to do anything more. Um so that's where that came from. And I don't really I didn't care for that much either. I don't know. I like the I see it's it's behind Jamie there. I don't mind I don't mind the back box with the villains kind of like oogling over Catwoman. I don't like the uh I don't like the back glass because it was a it was a piece of art I already had done and I stuck this like trold trophy cat of uh uh under her arm and it wasn't supposed to be there and it looks clunky and I just you know again not having the time to do what I wanted to do. But yeah, that's really well there you go.

SPEAKER_06 7:19

It's beautiful. Well, so ladies and gentlemen, we gave you the introduction of Chris Franchie.

SPEAKER_05 7:23

Do we do I call you Chris? Christopher Franci? What what do you like to go by?

SPEAKER_03 7:28

Um really, I mean, everyone just calls me Franchi, which is fine. Yeah. Because my name's Christopher, but that's like a mouthful to say. Um, so don't say it. Just call me Franchi. All right, I'll just call you Franci. My friends call me Franchi. You can call me Bill.

SPEAKER_02 7:43

Okay, no problem. What'd you say, Ralph? Bill. I said he always has to be different. I mean, look at him. He's the only one wearing a different shirt than us. I mean, we're wearing a shirt that deserves this kind of attention. Jamie, you don't have one of these and he didn't wear one for whatever.

SPEAKER_06 7:56

Why didn't you wear yours?

SPEAKER_03 7:57

You didn't wear yours? You didn't get the memo?

SPEAKER_06 7:59

You you did this on purpose, the three of you.

SPEAKER_03 8:02

I didn't know what you're talking about. Yeah, you did. I made sure all the cool people got one of these.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Oh that's why you didn't get one.

SPEAKER_03 8:11

Jamie.

SPEAKER_06 8:13

All right. For this act, we're going to question two, which is back to the future. And now you need to tell us something. Okay. Question number two.

SPEAKER_03 8:21

Why are you such an asshole?

SPEAKER_06 8:25

Question number two was from Ralph. He wants to know uh about working on Back to the Future. Is there anything that you can tell us without getting in trouble?

SPEAKER_03 8:34

Well, the question everybody wants to know is how? How am I working with Dutch? Um, I'm not gonna say Back to the Future. I'm gonna say, how am I working with Dutch when I have an exclusive deal with Spooky? The correct answer to that is I signed the deal with Dutch before I signed the deal with Spooky. And Spooky knew it wasn't like I just let it sit there and fester, and then when it came up, I'm like, surprise! I told Spooky, I got this thing going on here, and it's gonna happen one of these days, and I'm gonna have to go do it. And they said that's fine.

SPEAKER_04 9:06

So um that's how that's so we don't we we don't know whether it's uh back to the future or not.

SPEAKER_03 9:14

Um the uh this is a well if I could do my if I could do my Ralph impression to that statement.

SPEAKER_04 9:20

Uh-huh. Yeah, so there behind you, there's there's a model of an automobile. Um is is that there for a reason? Did you have to use it as a uh you know as a model? Inspiration? No, inspiration.

SPEAKER_03 9:39

A gift from Joe Kamenco for Christmas. Oh, nice. That's why that's there.

SPEAKER_04 9:45

Oh, okay. No other reason.

SPEAKER_03 9:47

It lights up and shit, too. I don't remember what the buttons are.

SPEAKER_06 9:52

There's buttons on here that he's pressing a DeLorean for those that are on the podcast and not watching us on YouTube, but he is uh messing with the DeLorean that Joe Kamenco got him, which just seems very nice.

SPEAKER_03 10:03

Oh, very interesting. I don't know how to get all the shut off. Okay, so don't worry about it. Oh, speaking of impressions, let me get all my impressions out. Um I can't do Jamie anymore because he cut off the silver mud flap. I had this like ripped up newspaper that was all curled up and I tucked it in my hat and it was all bushy, and I can't do that now, so I don't do an impression of you. The best impression I can do of Kale, I don't have the big chunky glasses, though they're cool, and I wish I did. But uh this is my impression of Kale. This is my impression of Kale doing a live stream of a tournament.

SPEAKER_06 10:40

Okay, hold on.

SPEAKER_03 10:42

Now I can reinforce it. Kale, if you say that doesn't look like you, I got some reinforcement. Bring it on, Jamie.

SPEAKER_06 10:49

All right, here's the one. Bring it on, Jamie. I got it, guys. Watch this. Oh, geez, what are you doing? Watch this, guys.

SPEAKER_04 10:59

Okay. Hey, wait, do I really look like that, guys?

SPEAKER_02 11:03

That's yeah, you do. I mean, I guess in that moment, but not typically, no. But in that moment, something must have been happening exciting during that moment.

SPEAKER_03 11:11

The screen's too close to his face, so he's kind of a little cross-eyed, you know, because he's trying to poke his fire. Look at look at Surge.

SPEAKER_06 11:19

Surge is my favorite, man. Hey, real quick on real quick on Surge, I'm gonna stop sharing. Uh if he is willing to do a podcast and he does Dirty Pool before he does me, he might I might be upset. Just can you let him know that for me? I'll talk to him. Yeah. All right, because I asked him first side. And uh I would like to interview Surge, and no offense to Jeff Dodson, but you know, you're new here, buddy. No. Hey Jeff.

SPEAKER_02 11:52

Wow. Wow, you you you're getting kind of cock kind of cocky, Jamie.

SPEAKER_05 11:57

No, but Jeff, you know, he he sneaks in and he gets these great interviews because he asks, right? Did you say you want to interview Serge?

SPEAKER_03 12:06

Yeah. Oh, hmm. Well, hang on just a second here. Because Did Dotson already interview him? Let me turn my speakers up here. What is this here? They're live right now.

SPEAKER_06 12:18

I like it when it's just the three of us being stupid. That's what I like the most. Oh, for sure. And I just I don't know. I I don't want to bring somebody else in, and that threesome that we have, it changes. It's a little different. And uh I like what we've got going on.

SPEAKER_03 12:40

How about that?

SPEAKER_06 12:42

So, ladies and gentlemen, I do another interview show called the JBS Show, and that's the show that I would like to have.

SPEAKER_04 12:51

Oh, he he got you, man.

SPEAKER_03 12:53

Okay, yeah. Zing. I've been zinged. Fair enough. All right. Let's get on with these questions.

SPEAKER_06 13:00

Let's keep going. Uh Ralph has a question for you when he gets upset. Go ahead, Ralph.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

Well, I can ask my own question. I don't need to ask my question. All right, Franchi, what is it about when I get pissed off on a live stream that brings you such joy? Like, I'm trying to figure it out. I need to know. Like, because it seems to be a going trend that people enjoy seeing me pissed off. And I just want to gen genuinely know, like, what is it?

SPEAKER_03 13:21

I can't explain it. It's just it's funny the way you get mad, you know, and you talk real fast, like the like the one clip that we were talking about before the one that you posted just for me, you texted me about it. Um was because like you drain the ball like five seconds after Rudy put his hand in front of the thing. And this, if you watch the clip, his hand really had nothing to do with you draining the ball, you just suck. And then you blamed him for look, you ruined my shit. Well, hey, I gotta blame something, you know. And it's just the I mean, it's it's the it's the ferocity of your anger. You just you shove away from the promotion, you're like, God damn it! And you're just like swinging your arms around. Fair enough. I appreciate the passion of your anger, you know? Thanks, Franchie. I appreciate that you appreciate it. You know, it's it's humorous. It doesn't come off like you're actually really angry, like you want to go kill somebody.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

It kind of comes off every now and again.

SPEAKER_03 14:28

Um I get a little bit upset. Like the the just a little a little bit. Oh, I know you get upset, but you're the way you display your anger is more humorous than it is than it is like asking.

SPEAKER_02 14:41

You know, thanks, thanks, Franchie.

SPEAKER_03 14:42

Yeah, you go. No, it's a Ralph, I love everything about you, man.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

Uh am I up? I would I would say some sweet things, but I want the other guys to hear it. Same for me. I don't want to hear it. I don't even have the same t-shirt. Go ahead, Kyle.

SPEAKER_06 14:56

You're up, buddy.

SPEAKER_04 14:57

All right, so uh so Franchy, you you've worked you've worked with some amazing pinball designers throughout the years, starting off with George Gomez, uh, Borg, Munye, Nordman, and Minier. Uh Nordman, Richie, and uh Bug and Luke. Is there one designer you would uh well I know I I guess it doesn't really work now. This question doesn't really work now because you're under contract, but is there one designer you haven't worked with that you would love to work with in the future?

SPEAKER_06 15:35

I never thought of that. Who else was left? That's why he's the best in the business. He's the best in the business, Frangie.

SPEAKER_03 15:42

There's Brian Eddy. Who's the guy who's the other guy over at um Jersey Jack? Oh, Mark um Mark Mark Siden. Mark Sidon. Um designs games for barrels. Well, who did the haunted hell?

SPEAKER_02 16:04

Carly Angeline Calvin, but but that's just that one game. Who does who did do Labyrinth?

SPEAKER_06 16:11

You know who I'd love to work with? Travis Moseman.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

Oh, that was Travis, that's right.

SPEAKER_06 16:15

But then what about what about Dune? David Van S.

SPEAKER_03 16:21

Okay, there you go. I don't know if this counts, but I'd love to work with Jack Danger. Ooh. That counts.

SPEAKER_04 16:30

We would actually love to see that.

SPEAKER_03 16:31

That was very cool. Yeah, his his designs are very off the wall, and I can be off the wall if I want. And so I think that would be really fun to work with him and do something interesting together. Yeah, it would be really cool if Jack and I could do an original theme together. That would that's like a dream project there.

SPEAKER_04 16:54

Well, you heard it here first. That would be very cool. I would be into that.

SPEAKER_06 16:59

Yeah. Alright. Beetlejuice versus Evil Dead. Let's go right there.

SPEAKER_02 17:06

You had to. I have to. Okay? Alright, well, that's not fair. What's the What's the question? Which art is better? No, you're not asking me art. You're asking me gameplay, really.

SPEAKER_06 17:18

I'm asking you gameplay. Okay. Alright, we're gonna switch to Evil Dead versus uh Beetlejuice because in the arcades, you know, at the Electric Bat, you've got Evil Dead and and Beetlejuice. What are people what are you hearing about this? Go ahead, Ralph. Take it over. I'm fucking this all up.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

Yeah, you kind of are. Um no, I'm leaving right now. So it's hard, it's hard right now because you know, Evil Dead is a finished game and Beetlejuice is is is is not yet. So it's hard to gauge based on like where the game will go. But if I had to answer based on where it is now, artwork on both of them are amazing. So I'm not I I don't even know how I would actually say which one is better, but probably if I if we had to do artwork without the gameplay, which I'll pivot back to, I'd say I like Beetlejuice artwork better than Evil Dead artwork, but they're both awesome. So, but as far as gameplay goes, and this is weird because I'm not really a horror movie fan, and I'm I wasn't really even much of an Evil Dead fan, but there's something about the way that whole package comes together. Gameplay, the theme integration, the callouts are so good, the music is good, like everything in that is so good to me, it's almost like perfect. So Evil Dead wins for me on on like game, on which game, but artwork I'd give to Beetlejuice. I just think Beetlejuice is like too, it's too pretty. Like, you just you could I was telling my wife, I was like, Come in, I want you to see the new Beetlejuice. And she came in and she was like, and Franchie, I'm not saying this just because you're here. She's like, This is so friggin' pretty, like, just beautiful looking, you know? So um, and then I showed her the she I lost her when I started talking to her about what a butter cabinet is. She's like, butter, and she like then she was hung up on the word butter, and I'm like, no, not butter, like that you spread on bread. And she's like, Well, I don't understand the context of butter. I was like, just never mind.

SPEAKER_04 19:06

So so we stopped there. But I loved it. Do you do you have a butter cabinet?

SPEAKER_02 19:11

I do, I got the butter. My evil dead is a butter, too.

SPEAKER_04 19:14

I don't I haven't seen one in person. I've probably seen it at a show, but just didn't pay attention to it. Ralph's a baller, he's he's got the quality shit. He's a baller.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

It looks good, it looks good. They both are beautiful, but uh yeah. So right now I'd have to give it to Evil Dead in over overall regularly. The reason we were talking about this.

SPEAKER_06 19:31

Ralph and I were talking the other night, Kale, and we were bullshitting about Beetlejuice and playing it in a tournament, right? Because both of us play a lot of tournaments, Franchie, and when you get the Deo mode on a tournament, it'll trap your ass. Yeah, you know, it'll piss you off. So we were just doing a comparison, trying to compare both recent titles and saying, you know, I still play Evil Dead almost every time I'm at I'm at Eureka Heights.

SPEAKER_03 20:04

Well, Cale, what's your what's your answer to the same question? Um I I I think the Beetlejuice artwork.

SPEAKER_04 20:19

I think I I think I like the Beetlejuice artwork better. Uh I don't dislike the uh the uh what what's the other one called?

SPEAKER_03 20:26

Evil Dead.

SPEAKER_04 20:27

Evil Dead Um because with Evil Dead, you know, I've I've never I've never seen either movie or or are there like three of them or something, anything like this?

SPEAKER_02 20:38

But with Evil Dead, what I dig up five. It was a bunch of spin-offs, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:43

So with Evil Dead, what I dig, since I've never seen I have no connection with the IP at all, the the artwork on that machine reminds me of a movie poster come to life. It it like a like a vintage movie poster come to life, and and I love that vibe. But um, I don't know if you listened to the and you probably have because you always do, listen to the latest batcast and the latest earnings report. I did. Record breaker for a long time, and I just noted I just thought about this right now. For a long time, Elton John held the record for the amount of money made in one month at the Electric Bat Arcade. And Beetlejuice just toppled that. I mean, just destroyed it. So what do those two games have in common?

SPEAKER_03 21:29

Frankie art. If you want to make some cash, hire me.

SPEAKER_04 21:34

Right. And that's that the art that the art on a pinball machine is the billboard that says come play me.

SPEAKER_03 21:40

Yeah. No question. Well, um uh as far as you know, Ralph was saying about the code, I I was asked to give an update via spooky from Mr. Buddh that there is an update coming at the end of May for Beetlejuice. And the exciting part is is that. There are going to be multiple new characters doing new call outs. As Bug said, we heard what you said and we responded. So they they hired new people. That's awesome news, Franchie. That's cool. Very good. So that's coming at the end of the month, which is what two weeks away. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

Yeah. In my Beetlejuice video, there was a person that counted how many times I said call-outs, and they were like, Ralph says call outs, and I can't remember. It was a lot, actually. I think I said it like 32 times. He's like, Ralph said call us 32 times in one video, whatever. And and I did. That was my only real like that was my criticism because I was like, because you wonder why? Because the problem is whenever you do something amazing, like it was an evil dead, that's the expectation now. So when it didn't have that kind of you know, that kind of power or punch when it comes to the call-outs, but that was cool at the beginning.

SPEAKER_03 22:51

That was the ideal. Yeah, I know. We got really lucky with that to get Bruce Campbell in there. Um, yeah, you're just not gonna made it so fun.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

Like some of the things that he said are so funny. Like, and I don't know if those were all I think he was saying, Bug was saying some of those were just like improv. A lot of it's yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:09

Have you ever seen him work a crowd? Like he does a lot of the convention stuff, and he'll get up and he'll talk like he's like a talk show, like a game show host up there. Like he's cracking jokes and like uh he's real sharp on his toes. So yeah, he's uh he's a good ad blibber. Yeah, he was great.

SPEAKER_02 23:25

That's cool. That's awesome news. I'm I'm excited. People are gonna be excited for that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 23:30

Well, thanks for shouting that out. I appreciate that. Uh on the round table, once again, breaking news, ladies and gentlemen.

SPEAKER_03 23:36

Just realized you can't read my name because there's white paper in the way.

SPEAKER_06 23:39

There we go.

SPEAKER_03 23:42

Now you can now you can read my name, right?

SPEAKER_06 23:44

We're always breaking news. Kale, we got more news we're gonna break later, aren't we?

SPEAKER_04 23:48

Oh, we have some we have some serious breaking news coming up. Well, we'll we'll get to it.

SPEAKER_06 23:52

We'll get to it. That's called a tease, ladies and gentlemen. Uh recently, Raymond Davidson of Stern Pinball Coder texted me and Ralph, and uh, you know, he didn't like what we had to say, Franchie, about the uh ball save and fall of the empire. And uh so the question to the group is to the round table, do we and and I know Kale's answer to this probably, but do we ever get worried about the things that we say in public that and are gonna have repercussions? What let's start with Kale, because Well, hang on, before before anybody answers, what did he tell you?

SPEAKER_03 24:34

Like, did he did he scort your ass?

SPEAKER_02 24:36

Like no, no, no, no, no. He's been sort of busting my balls for a while that like I could never figure it out. I was I would because it wouldn't it would never work. Like sometimes it would work, and then sometimes it wouldn't work, but then they have like it's kind of confusing. Like there's there's like modes where you just pulse it, so you have to do it a certain way. Then there's modes where it just grabs it. And for some reason, anytime I needed to do the one I needed to do, it doesn't it doesn't seem to work. So I've always said this, and I was like, just make it easy, make it work like the magic save on BLC. Because that always freaking works. That's and if the thing that if if the game is already hard, which Fall of the Empire is, and then you have this ball save that doesn't work, it's like the thing that's gonna save me can't even save me. So it's just kind of a pain in the ass. But anyway, so he's been going back and forth with me, and he's like, Well, you don't know how to use it. And that was the case for a little while, but it's still, even though I know how to use it now, it still doesn't work.

SPEAKER_03 25:28

Yeah, but if it requires like an extra effort to figure out how to use it, then somebody dropped the ball.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

Yeah, that's my take. That's my take too.

SPEAKER_03 25:37

I think you get keys to a car and you're not familiar with the fact that you gotta stick the keys into the thing to turn it, and you just sit in the cockpit the keys and go, Who's to blame if you don't know how to start the car? The people who gave you the keys and didn't tell you what to do with them. You know? That's legit. I'm sorry to interrupt though. Go ahead, Kale, and answer the question. I just want to know that was clear before you guys started.

SPEAKER_04 26:01

Okay, so do do do I ever worry about shit I say on on the internet?

SPEAKER_06 26:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:06

Uh only after I say it.

SPEAKER_06 26:12

Right.

SPEAKER_04 26:13

But but while I'm doing it, no. No, I you know, I I wanna I want to give people my raw, honest opinion about about whatever I'm talking about. And and yes, it's gonna piss some people off. And you know what? Sometimes it makes people really excited, you know, but it but it works both ways. You you can't win, like because if I say good things about about JJP, spooky, um, uh barrels of fun, I I get a message from Stern saying, What the fuck are you doing propping up the little guys? So so you can't win. You you know, yeah. So um, so just listen, we're all gonna die someday. Just say what you want.

SPEAKER_03 27:01

Well, you know, this makes you feel any better, Kale. This is my my opinion on this. Coming from being a pinball maker. Number one, there's a couple of things here, a couple of factors here. Number one, your word or your opinion isn't worth shit if you don't tell the truth. Right? People come to you because they want your opinion on things. If you're just a fucking sellout and you're like, this is great, that's great, everything's great, bye, bye, bye. No one's gonna want to listen to you. You know, it's a it's a bunch of shit. Number two, a company like Spooky, because when you're when you're talking about what you don't like about something or this sucks or that sucks, or whatever, you're not, I would think you're not just doing it to reach out to the public and say this is a problem, you're kind of speaking to the makers too. This is the problem I have with your product. Someone like Spooky listens and reacts to that, which gives you guys a better game in the end. So it's necessary for you guys to speak your mind and say what you think because you know if the company, if it's a good company and they're smart, they'll listen, they'll adjust, and in the long run, everybody's happy to get a better product. So feel no shame. Speak your mind.

SPEAKER_06 28:14

Boom. Ralph, we should stop worrying.

SPEAKER_02 28:18

Yeah, I mean, I mean, uh Jamie, you and I are kind of the same on this. I I will say what's on my mind, but sometimes, and I don't even think I deliver anything really harsh to begin with, but I feel like I then will worry about who that might have might have affected in a certain way. But I'm really soft, I feel like, with like I don't feel like I'm brutal or like really aggressive in my criticism. I just give it in a can more of a constructive way. Sure, sure. But retro jango. That's just how I am as a person, though. Like an opinion on the retrojango how it happened. I love like if you said like I'm not one, if someone the only thing actually, the one thing that I have a real that I will I get aggressive when people ask me is if I like the Cybertruck, because I hate the goddamn Cybertruck so much. I hate it so much. It's like the one thing where I'm like, please, I don't want to see another one of these things ever again. I just hate it. That is I'm sorry if you're a cyber truck owner, but I hate them. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 29:16

Well, next next time you come to uh Matt at that tournament. Yep, I'm we're gonna take you for a ride in it and we're gonna record it.

SPEAKER_02 29:24

I know Matt has when I love you, Matt. I just hate your car. That's a good reel.

SPEAKER_03 29:29

Wow, it'd be like wearing a bad suit and like you know, getting caught wearing it, you know, pictures taken and shit. There's me in a cyber truck. I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_06 29:39

Franchie, you you did the super awesome pinball show for a long time. Never any regrets when you when you uploaded that thing going, oh shit. No. I'm gonna get it for this one.

SPEAKER_03 29:49

No, no, I didn't care. I didn't care. I didn't care if I pissed people off either. You know, just I'm speaking my mind like anybody else. But what I did and and what and what Ralph does too, uh, you know, if he beats himself up for saying negative shit, is I'm not gonna be one of those internet guys that just goes and just talks shit about everything. Fuck you, that was a stupid video. You're ugly, you got a big pimple. Yeah. You can say negative crap if something deserves it, but you know, you you balance that with saying something nice as well. You know, oh well Stern came out with uh Pokemon. Well, uh, you know, that rant shot's nice, but that art sucks or whatever. And I'm not saying that's my opinion. I'm just saying, you know, if if you go back and forth, if you just come out and you're just like negative, like this sucks and that sucks, and all that, you know, that that comes off bad, but you know, you've you've got to give your honest opinion and all that. So um, you know, when I was on the show, and I tried to kind of lay low too, because like when I was doing that show, I was kind of working for everybody. So I tried to be a little less opinionated than the other two guys, and I kind of played Ringmaster. Um, I did give my opinion. A lot of times it threw me under the bus too. What do you think of the artwork for that? Oh, don't ask me. Oh boy. Edit, you know, take that out. Um, but um yeah, yeah. I thought actually I just talked to a Christian in uh at Allentown, and uh we might be getting the band back together. Wow, there you go. Breaking more news, ladies and gentlemen. Well, it's just gonna be me and Christian, and it's not gonna be anything regular. We actually we talked maybe about just doing a podcast every time every time a new game comes out. Uh good. That's cool.

SPEAKER_06 31:32

So that's fun. Well, you know, the community misses it. I'll tell you honestly, it was a great show.

SPEAKER_03 31:37

Well, we had you know, it was it was fun to do, it was a ton of work, but yeah, the the concept was basically interviewing pinball people, and we had started going around again. You know, I think we had George Gomez on three times, you know. We got a couple of good gets. We had Elvira on, we had uh um Tom Drummond, the bass player from Better Than Ezra, you know, we had some good interesting people come on. But when it started getting like, you know, oh here we go again, you know, I think actually I think George Gomez was the last one. And I was just like, I don't want to do this anymore. These people have nothing more to say. It gets to the point where once you've explored because because we didn't want to know like how what was it like designing Deadpool, we would interview George and and get a career retrospective, you know. We wanted you to know these people and uh you know know where they came from and everything. Once you did that, it just kind of became like, well, we got this new game out, you know, and everyone's pitching their latest shit and it's like I don't want to do this anymore. So but uh it's like a book tour. Yeah. Yeah. If you don't stay away, you know, or if you stay away from that sort of thing, you know, the interviews are tough, they're a lot of work too. And Christian, Christian Lyon, Dr. Penn did a ton of work. He was the guy responsible really for doing the research on the uh on the people we had on and uh writing a lot of the questions. Me and Jeff would send in questions that he would pepper in, but he did most of the work. So he was a great, great partner to have. So yeah, look for look for a I don't know if we're gonna call it super awesome pinball show still or do it, you know, 2.0 or some kind of bullshit like that, but as long as you're on there and and people are gonna love it, it's gonna be great.

SPEAKER_06 33:24

Yeah, congrats. Welcome back. Not so fast. So, question about licensing, since we're talking about we talk about Stern for a little bit. It's been how many days since Pokemon's been out, Ralph? Like 80? Close. It's gotta be close. It's gotta be close to 80, Kale. And we're at a very minor update and no achievements and no Pokemon or badges or anything. God, don't get me sad. Let's talk about licensing. We we know licensing is a pain in the ass, right? But maybe you can get some insight. Let's talk about licensing. Right? What a pain in the ass it is. Oh god, you have you guys have no idea.

SPEAKER_03 34:12

Let's talk about achievements though first. Do we all need a little Boy Scout stash with our little patches that we go guys do?

SPEAKER_02 34:18

Yeah, come on, we love it. I love it. Stupid. I know you think it's lame. I know you think it's lame, but it is a weird thing.

SPEAKER_03 34:26

It's like look, I I made a bonfire. You know, I sold 500 boxes of cookies. I don't need I don't need little shit things. Like, look what I did.

SPEAKER_06 34:36

Uh whatever. I need constant, I need constant reinforcement, reaffirmation, positive reinforcement of how good I am. I can constantly need reinforcement. Okay, well, anyway, what's your question, Cale? Sorry.

SPEAKER_04 34:51

About life. But for an arcade, it's really a big, fantastic thing. Um Stern Insider Connected. Ladies and gentlemen, uh, dude, it people freak out over these little stupid badges. And it makes it makes us more money. It makes our cross-more. It makes people happy. It gets people, it gets people into it. It does. But um, you know what I want to know, like from behind you have more experience with this and and than us three. Um, is it really as hard as they make it sound?

SPEAKER_03 35:29

Work with a licensor?

SPEAKER_04 35:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:33

No. No, but the disappointments hit hard. There might be only like, you know, there might be one thing you find out, like, you know, oh well, we can't get Michael Keaton to do voiceovers for Beetlejuice, and you can't get a sound alike.

unknown 35:49

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 35:50

You know. But it's not, you can't get mad at that because that's not like somebody just being a dick, like, oh, you want Michael Keaton? No, you know, it's not that. It's like that's rules. Michael Keaton says, you know, Peter's signing his contract, you can't use it. If he doesn't want to do call-outs, and he says up front, don't send anybody my way, I don't want to do it. That's just the way it is. Um like I've been very fortunate working with the licensors. In fact, most it's somehow I've gotten a reputation with all these different Warner Brothers and Universal and all that. And when they find out that I'm on the job, they're like, Oh, goody, we love working with that guy. And I get very few, I I never I've never gotten anything, any notes back from them that said, This doesn't look right, change it. The only notes I get back are you can't use that person, get them out of there. Um, and and that's you know, rare because they usually know the rules going in. Um like what Beatles.

SPEAKER_02 36:49

I was gonna say, Franchie, they give you put some kind of that they would give you some kind of style guide, right? And to say, like, this is these are the characters if you're gonna reproduce them on the project. Yeah, they give you outlines.

SPEAKER_03 37:00

Yeah, they'll give you outlines. The style guide I stay way away from. I don't wanna in fact I turned down a job that I had signed on for. I'm not gonna say what it is or who it was for, but it ended up being one of those things where I was gonna be cutting and pasting assets. Oh, like you had to follow it to a T. Well, I mean, I had literally not drawn anything, like like take this drawing and stick it on the side, like like like Toy Story was. You know, I thought I'm not gonna do that. I'm especially not gonna take an art credit for that because all I'm doing is dragging and dropping, and that's not my reputation, and that could kill my reputation. If I did, you know, everyone knows me because I draw everything, and then I come out with this thing that's just a bunch of clip art, you know, that you know, everything that I built in 10 years could just go up in flames just like that. So uh yeah, I don't wanna I don't wanna touch that.

SPEAKER_02 37:52

But um Franchie, you know what comes to mind for me, and I I just feel like I have to ask you this. What? And you and I don't know, I feel like you'd you'd you'd be okay uh me asking, but um like out of all the gigs you've had, do you get a level of autonomy at Spooky that you've just never had before? What does autonomy mean? Like meaning you can meaning full creativity, like full creative control. Like how how much of your creative control is is taken away? And I would imagine it's spooky. My guess is that you have a lot of creative control. Oh, that's just curious if you feel comfortable answering. Do I have to that's not at all what I thought autonomy meant? Um like autonomy means like you can go and do it however you want to do it, kind of thing.

SPEAKER_03 38:40

Yeah, I feel real stupid. Cut that up part out where I said, No, leave it in. I don't care. I'm an open book. Um I got my office window open over here. I thought there was actually a cricket outside the window. Um I've been very again been very fortunate to work with some great people that um don't put a lot of restraints on me. They just kind of let me roll. They give me the information I need to know and and roll with it. Um Spooky's a little bit easier to deal with because I'm like art director there, so I'm kind of working for myself. Um of course, you know, the guys at Spooky have to like what I do, but they never don't like what I do. They're always like, Well, that's great, you know. Um so that's a little bit different. Actually, that's it's that sounds like a good thing, you know. Like I'm kind of my own boss, so uh, you know, but it's really not because it's good to get constructive, you know, criticism about your, you know, is this really as good as it could be? Should I change something?

SPEAKER_04 39:58

You know, and I can help you out with all that. You know, just send the proofs together.

SPEAKER_03 40:05

Send that Dutch project over. We'll check it out. We'll see what we're doing. We'll check it out. I tried that one time with some guy called Canada or something. Yeah, how'd that go? Well, yeah. This before Stern didn't warn me that uh and uh I just fell right into that trap. Whoops. Um it is what it is. End of the day, I sent out the artwork, it's all on me. You know, I would have liked a warning like, hey, this guy's gonna try and weasel you and like just watch out and don't. But that would have been come in handy, that would have been very nice, but it at the end of the day it's my fault. But anyway, um yeah, licensing, you know, it it's like I said, I think it's more about the disappointments of what you can and can't do, not difficulty in working with the people and having them say, well, we don't like that, change it. Um you know, from my experience anyway. I've had a great experience with especially Warner Brothers and and uh uh the different companies that I've worked with that they've been very you know supportive. And yeah, I was really surprised Bug told me, like the people at Warner Brothers said, well, they just love you. I'm like, really? Why don't they call me up? Tell me to do some Batman stuff. Damn it.

SPEAKER_04 41:28

Yeah, and and that makes sense from the the beginning of a project, you see so you kind of know what you're going into. And as we've seen, you can make a fantastic game with only like one real actor, for example, Jurassic Park. All you have is Newman in there. You know, you have the T-Rex and a Raptor, but it still turned out to be a fabulous game. But you know, I th I think the one thing us uh definitely us three are thinking about is it, you know, it taking a year, sometimes a year and a half to finish a game. And like how I I don't know how much of a part you've you've been uh of that of a game that that that takes so long to finish the code on. Um you know, but from inside companies, I've heard everything from the artists or pre- the not the artists, the uh the software developers are prima donnas, and they like to take their time from you know issues with accounting to uh actual issues with dealing with the licensors. And you know, it's probably a Venn diagram where the truth is somewhere in the middle, but all we hear nowadays from these uh you know machines that take a year, a year and a half to finish is it's the licensor, it's the licensor's fault.

SPEAKER_03 42:44

I can't I have not heard that come out of Spooky's mouth, and that's really the only company I can speak for. I don't know what these other guys are going through. Um we've just not had that problem. A lot of these companies, all these pinball companies are working with the same people. You know, Warner Brothers, you know, Harry Potter went to uh to Jersey Jack. Um, you know, so I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 43:10

You know, I can tell you one thing Well it's been 80 days, it's pissing me off, so it's really bad.

SPEAKER_03 43:16

It's certainly easy to just say it's the licensor's fault, you know, and and it kind of takes the heat off of you. But I don't think I would do that. I wouldn't want to throw those guys under the bus if they didn't deserve it. Oh, you know, it's those damn licensers. You know, next thing you know, like, can I have a license for this? Nope. Damn it. That's my own fault. I opened my big fat mouth. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:43

You might be able to bring some you might be able to bring some clarity to this because this was at least because I think this could apply to your projects with with art when you do the art projects, but uh, because I got to work on that Harry Potter featurette, and so I got to I had to submit edits and they had to come back to me, but. I was really just working with someone at Jersey Jack who was the producer and they were working with Warner Brothers, not me directly with them. But the one thing I did notice, it wasn't so much that they wanted to change a lot. It was, and I'm sure they must prioritize these projects like different ways because they have other things they're doing. I just felt like the time to get an answer back took a long time. Like, so do you feel like sometimes their responsiveness is slow when you need to like you cat you have to halt because they're taking a while?

SPEAKER_03 44:29

Yeah, I can't explain why their turnaround is so long, but I know that there's a lot of turnover in that industry. You know, you're dealing with one guy and have to do the project, this other guy comes in, and it's like, well, some guy got promoted or some guy got laid off, or like Warner Brothers just switched hands and now they're owned by By the way, Franchie. I didn't mean Warner Brothers specifically, so just in general. Yeah. Yeah, no, I'm just saying, um, as an example. Um Yeah, I sometimes you you get quick responses, sometimes you don't. I can't explain it. We we never get a reason. You know, I mean, how how dare you to ask? Like, what the hell took so long? You know? Well, we're taking this license away from you and that wait a minute, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. Um Yeah. It just it is what it is. It's gotta go through a you know, see the thing is a lot of this has got to go through legal crap. And when you get lawyers involved, yeah, they're not sitting around waiting for you to come to them and talk to them about Beetlejuice. They got all kinds of crap on their desk, you know. So once they get around to it, you know, they get checked off, you know, you it's gotta go through a lot of different people. So that certainly slows things up. Um you know, they the problem you experienced is that you've got people talking about their product, you know. So that's there's probably some things you had to cut out because somebody said something, they're like, we don't want that in there.

SPEAKER_04 45:57

Like it was Ralph.

SPEAKER_02 45:59

Well, actually, the funny you mentioned that it was you couldn't use uh magical. The word they they don't let you use the word magical to describe the wizarding world of Harry Potter. And I and you'd even tell the people you were you were interviewing, please just don't say magical. And they're the ones making the game, so they know it too. And sure enough, like someone will throw in a magical and you're like, shit, I gotta re-record that whole thing, or you know, because I don't we don't like to dub dubbing sounds so obvious if you dub something, so we have to start over. Kind of like the Jack. Sorry, I had to rip on Jack for the Pokemon Pokemon thing. I don't know if you saw that, Franchi, where they had to dub in him saying Pokemon because he said it wrong.

SPEAKER_04 46:36

No, but that that actually fit because it's a it's a Japanese IP, and we all remember, yeah, you know, we all remember get away from that.

SPEAKER_02 46:45

That's funny. Actually, I wasn't thinking that. See, see, it's fine, it's on brand now. Exactly. Exactly. That's awesome. Um, yeah, so that was that was an interesting thing because it was more about that stuff. It was like, hey, we can't say this or can't say that. Um, but the only thing is sometimes that becomes really hard because if they say you can't say something and your filming is done, you gotta either cut it out or figure out a way around it. That's the hard part, which I'm sure with artwork you have the same thing. If you go too far with something thinking it do you ever have that where like you go far with something hoping that they'll give you this thing?

SPEAKER_03 47:23

I push the boundaries all the time. But I'll give you a I'll give you a tip if you hadn't thought about this. Um in editing, if somebody says something you gotta edit it, and you're like, well, how am I gonna do that? And I can't get him back in. Cut to a shot of you going and then edit his audio. He's still talking, but you're reacting with a facial expression, and you can change the audio to whatever you want. Yeah, no, good point.

SPEAKER_06 47:48

I don't have those skills. Can't do it. Not very good, technically.

SPEAKER_02 47:53

I'm Jamie's. I'm Jamie's editor.

SPEAKER_06 47:55

He does, you know, these guys put up with me so much. The audio in my podcast have been shitty so bad. And poor Kale, and they're all over me. But we fixed it today. Today I sound good. The theme from your show should be Whoa, whoa, whoa, Jamie's crying. You know, that fucking song haunted my childhood. That song haunted my you don't think I heard that a few times?

SPEAKER_03 48:23

That's not the first. Yeah, these kids that are like four years old, and you just like hitting you a bag of head with a snowball.

SPEAKER_05 48:28

Jamie's crying. And I would get a wham wah as the snowball was pummeling in my face.

SPEAKER_06 48:39

All right, we're not Don's Pinball Podcast. Let's take it easy. Oh, whatever. Uh he's all right. Shut Don't fire. Shut the fire, Don. Shut the fire. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 48:49

Jeez. You're offending guys we we were buddies with, Jamie. Come on now.

SPEAKER_04 48:54

It wouldn't be a JBS show if we didn't do this. Jamie, these are our friends.

SPEAKER_03 48:58

I don't want to interview other people. Hi, franchise.

SPEAKER_06 49:02

Don't do it. Since we were talking about Insider Connected, I think this could be a good segue to Turner Pinball is building what are they calling a pin access? Pin access, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 49:14

So oh, that's how we found out about Goonies.

SPEAKER_06 49:17

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 49:18

It was a pin access thing.

SPEAKER_03 49:20

Right. You found out what about Goonies?

SPEAKER_04 49:23

Well, there was there was a folder in under that uh what would you call that? You're a software guy, Ralph. It was like a heading or something.

SPEAKER_02 49:31

It was like in the yeah, it wasn't like the root of a folder. There was a file there that was it wasn't called Goonies, though. It was called, I can't remember. Do you know what shit like that? But it had a Goonies. Spooky does on purpose. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 49:44

Well, now that it's been exposed, I wish somebody would go back and check it after an update to see if something's changing.

SPEAKER_02 49:53

There hasn't been they found it in the last one. I just find it interesting that someone's actually mounting the the like the software to look in it. Like, I don't know. That just seems weird to me. Like I never spent it.

SPEAKER_03 50:04

Scouring like the trademark office website to see what movies have been registered for pinball and stuff. I want to play pinball.

SPEAKER_02 50:11

I'm not thinking I just think it is there are a lot of people. I agree that do this, but I just want to play it. I don't want to sit there like obsess over like weird things, but I guess it's a weird hobby sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 50:20

I don't know. You know, the the bad thing about this stuff getting out, the whole reason why they did it is really kind of null and void now. You know, you could really just say, hey, in six months we're gonna have uh Friday the 13th, you know, whatever. Um but the the thing that's bad about it now is that it gets out, people assume it's true, and they just start forming expectations. Oh yeah. And if it's six months out, they got six months of time to go, all right. If it's Beetlejuice, it better have this and it better have that, it better have this. So when the game comes out and none of that's there, it's almost like you feel like they feel like you hoodwinked them. Wait a minute, where's all this stuff I was expecting? Well, no one said it was gonna be in there. You thought it was gonna be in there. That's the danger of this stuff getting out. You know, as far as sales go, um, you know, I was having this conversation with Spooky a couple weeks ago. I said, just tell people what it is. Half the time they're right anyway. They already know what it is.

SPEAKER_04 51:25

And it's already sold out.

SPEAKER_03 51:26

Yeah, but like you can't even get one if you want one now. Well, spooky yeah, they're spooky's in a unique position right now, but I don't know how long it's gonna last. And let's say this doesn't happen next year. Build a build a nice campaign that starts in the summer and goes through the fall into your into your release, you know, a little bit at a time, gets bigger and bigger, you know, kind of like they do with movies. You know, you get a little the teaser trailer, then you get the regular trailer, then you get the red band trailer, then you get the three-minute long trailer, then the movie comes out.

SPEAKER_01 51:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:56

You know, I it just just do that. There's no, you know, I couldn't agree more. Because if you want people you have to believe in your product and what you got. If you think, you know, we'll say Goonies anyway. So if you got Goonies and you think, oh yeah, everyone's gonna love Goonies, and you believe in your product enough that you went and got the license and you developed the game, then you put it out there and you tell people you probably don't want to buy Transformers if you like Goonies better, because it's coming. You know, and here's a little teaser, here's a little bit of what it looks like, or here's a little bit of something. Give them a taste. Um that's how you do business. You don't let the money get pissed away.

SPEAKER_04 52:35

Go ahead. Well, because I think that's a great point. And and it's the same thing happens in the video game industry. We've known for like a year that the new they're working on the new Grand Theft Auto, and we're all very excited. And they've even said they're gonna bump up the price to like what, oh like over a hundred bucks for the game. And we're like, I don't care.

SPEAKER_06 52:54

I don't care, it's Grand Theft Fucking Auto.

SPEAKER_04 52:56

Yeah, so I think that model's great. Um because I mean the leaks always happen. Yeah. I mean, when when is the last time we've truly been surprised by something that was announced?

SPEAKER_02 53:09

I think Labyrinth. Well, recent times, well, yeah, yeah, haunted house or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 53:16

Yeah, yeah. Barrels is the the king of the hill when it comes to the city.

SPEAKER_02 53:20

They really are good at keeping it secret. They really are good at it.

SPEAKER_04 53:23

But it comes with a price because you know you not a lot of people get to play test it. Not a lot of people and and so they've they've botched some releases because of it. Uh so there's a trade-off, right?

SPEAKER_02 53:38

Yeah, I wonder if like tomorrow, if we it would be interesting if you could test this, because I do wonder if the pinball community, knowing how crazy we can be, knew every title for that year, how the sales would shake out versus if they didn't know the titles of the year. You know what I mean? Because there are people that are there people that like, for instance, we know that Transformers is coming and we know pretty with high confidence that Sonic is coming. If the if people knew both those were coming within like a certain period, would they actually make different buying decisions?

SPEAKER_01 54:10

Right.

SPEAKER_02 54:11

Or hold off one versus the other, you know? I do because people that's what I do wonder how that would affect the like how people bought stuff.

SPEAKER_04 54:18

I I I really think they'd buy as much. I really don't think it would change because people in tune to this industry, they're listening to the podcast, they're on the they're on the internet, they already know what's coming. And if you stay tuned to the show, you're gonna know the rest of the games for this year and so for next year.

SPEAKER_02 54:36

But here's the thing though, Kale. The only thing I'd I might like slightly disagree with though, don't you think there's a lot of sales that happen because people don't want to be left out? Like the whole FOMO thing, I think people do FOMO buy. Like they it comes out in the Oh, I don't want to miss out on it because my favorite sh podcast person or streamer or whatever, like even though that's not the intent of the person streaming the game, like I want you to feel bad and want to buy this, but it happens a lot of times like that because you feel like you're left out of something. I don't know. And I think there's a lot of people like that in our community that buy that way. Did you hear that? My phone went off.

SPEAKER_04 55:09

Even though I put it on do not disturb Oh, be because you have VIP contacts and they can they can still go through.

SPEAKER_03 55:18

My cousin that I talk to once every 10 years is not a VIP contact. Okay, then that's friends and family. Sorry about the family. Sorry about the worry about it. Well, you tell me what you guys think of this. This is the kind of the impression I have of this whole wait and see bullshit. If someone comes out and says, like if Spooky came out, well, now it's kind of early, but let's say they came out in end of August and they said, Hey, our next game is Beavers and Butthead. Would to me that shows confidence in what you're selling. Like it's not coming out until November, but we're letting you know what we got because we believe in it and it's gonna be a great product. If you hide it and you just sneak it out at the last minute, like poof, here it is, it almost tells me that you don't believe in it and you're really worried and you held it back as long as you could. You know, and then you put it out there and you're just like please buy it. Yeah, these moves. I think it's much better to have the balls to just say, you know, fuck you guys. Like, we got beavers and butt head. It's coming out in November. You're gonna want it. We'll show you some stuff soon. Stick around. Until then, keep playing pinball, you know. I think that's that says more about a company than hide into the last minute. That's my point. I'd love to see it.

SPEAKER_02 56:44

So, what do you guys think then? Do you guys like it when some of these companies do if they if done right? Because some of them in recent times have done the teasing where you kind of know what it is. Like, and I know I know the game didn't do well, but Pinball Brothers kind of did that with Predator. Like, you knew it was Predator, but they were kept sharing like little pieces here and there, and then they kind of like fully released it, even though I think they could have done that much better. But that was the idea. That was the idea. So do you guys like that though? Come on, don't bring it back to there. I'm already in enough trouble with this shit. Please, come on. I'm already in enough trouble. We have not dug out of this hole after like three episodes. So, anyways, I'll never dig it out of this hole until I get that guy out of here. Do you guys like the collective teases if people did that? Like a lead up to where you get maybe like maybe they did that over a series of months.

SPEAKER_04 57:33

Is that what Franchi's talking about? But you like that there's collected releases that little teasers, things that get you excited about.

SPEAKER_03 57:42

Makes it fun, yeah. Yeah, last year, I've I don't know if anybody, if you guys know this or not, but last year at Expo, Bug was handing out Zagnut bars. Yeah, he gave me one. Unfortunately, a lot of people were like, This is the worst candy bar ever. They don't remember the scene in Beatles Juice where he says, How about Zagnut? You know. Um but that was that was a good tease, you know?

SPEAKER_04 58:04

No, see, that was a good tease, but then David Van S handed people baggies full of sand. Like he literally gave people trash.

SPEAKER_03 58:13

And what was that supposed to be for? It's hard to be for the sand in the dude, dude. That's kind of far.

SPEAKER_04 58:20

I hope you don't get pulled over on the way home. You know.

SPEAKER_02 58:24

Maybe the sand wasn't a great move. All right, but you know, you just try. Can you imagine the poor guy that had to like put the sand in these little baggies to hand out? Junk sand and shit all over him. White heads.

SPEAKER_03 58:36

Did you guys see the movie kids? Did you guys see the movie Racing Arizona? Yeah, of course I looked at it. When there was no crawdad to found, we ate sand. You ate what? We ate sand. You ate sand? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 58:52

So whatever.

SPEAKER_02 58:54

Jamie, your mission is to find out who at barrels of fun bag the sand, please.

SPEAKER_06 58:58

All right, I'll find out. What job was that? Who was sandbagging? Who was sandbagging that day? I'll find out. All right. Well, my original question was supposed to be about, you know, spooky and JJP and barrels and American Pinball doing a Stern Insider Connect. We've already said how much we love Stern Insider Connect. Uh are we gonna see this from them?

SPEAKER_04 59:24

Jamie, can you do me a favor?

SPEAKER_06 59:26

Connected.

SPEAKER_04 59:27

It's called Stern Insider Connected.

SPEAKER_06 59:30

Connected.

SPEAKER_03 59:31

All right.

SPEAKER_04 59:32

Okay. Wait. Now what's the question?

SPEAKER_03 59:36

Here's here's I'll answer your question. No, it won't ever happen, and I'll tell you why. Because you have no idea how much money that costs Stern. You think they're just gonna give it to these other companies to use? No, but it'd be with uh Turner.

SPEAKER_06 59:48

I'm saying with Turner's uh pin access, you'll be licensed that.

SPEAKER_03 59:53

You'll probably see different stuff. Yeah. Because people want to be more in control, too. I mean, would you want to be giving all your stuff up to Stern to put on the platform? So you might end up having, you know, three or four different versions of of this. The only problem is, sadly, I don't believe they could be interconnected. So, you know, you'll never know, you know, you get a patch for Pokemon and get a patch for Winchester, you know, not in the same program. It'll it'll be separate.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:23

You know, it's just it depends on the biggest. There's gotta be something because you know, when I go, I I'm I'm an insider connected person and uh I want a badge and I want to get on that leaderboard. And I think leaderboards have proven on location without question. You know, when I go to the bat, what do I do? I look at the leaderboard. Where can I get on there and put a little JBS show up there? You know, and so did you grow up in a big family, Jamie? Like a lot of kids? No, just me and my me and my brother.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:53

What is your brother older?

unknown 1:00:55

He's younger.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:57

Nothing's lining up. It's just so like I need to be noticed. Hey, look at me. Like I thought maybe he was in like a family of ten kids, you know, where he had an older brother to feed him up all the time, and like all the neighborhood kids like his brother and hated him.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:12

No, I just like getting my initials on games. It's pretty badass. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:19

Hey, let's move on from this one.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:20

Let's move on. I do. Calvin Klein. Uh all right. What's Ralph hit me up and was showing me this homebrew guy. Ralph, take it all, take it over.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:37

The homebrew guy. This is cool, but also a little a little controversial. So there's this guy who started a Facebook group called it's called Homebrew Pinball Australia. And I saw some fights break out between this guy and some other people, and it became this big long thread because this guy was able to build uh it's almost a fully working pinball machine, and he did it all with AI, meaning he taught himself with AI how to do these things that he did not know how to do before this. And the game look, I mean it's pretty impressive for someone that had no experience ever building a pinball machine.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:15

Ralph, so he used he with the help of AI, he did the art, the geometry, the layout, and the software.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:22

So he hasn't done art. I haven't seen art on it yet. But I mean, some of his sculpts have art, like he's 3D printed things that look like the things from the movie. It's saw themed. But uh, but yeah, everything else you said has been 100%. He taught himself how to do it with AI. And it's been like 50, I'd say it's probably been about 80% of the people have really supported what he's doing, and like this is so cool, like keep going, you're learning something you've never done before. And then there's like this 20% that just is like flaming him to hell because of the fact that he used any form of AI to achieve what he achieved. So it's just interesting because had I not known that, and I don't I don't I have my own opinion, but had I not known that, I was like, I was just watching it scroll. You know, when you just see things and they autoplay, I just saw this thing and I was like, holy shit, this is cool, whatever this dude is building. And then I was just looking at him, but I hadn't read anything about the project yet, and then I kind of did some research to find out that you know he used art of AI to basically like build basically the whole thing. So no one wants to say anything on any opinion, but I don't want to jump in first.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:30

Um go, go, please. AI AI is a sticky subject. Um I'll say this right off the bat if this guy didn't use AI, he still wouldn't know how to do it and he would have nothing to show anybody. It would have it would have ceased to have something in this planet exist if he didn't have the help that AI offered him. So you can't say anything shitty about that. Because I mean why why do we need to hold people back because they think AI is a cancer? Number one, AI's here and it's not going anywhere. If you think you can like start a revolution and people are just gonna pull the plug, it's just gonna get worse. My job at aristocrat, I got replaced because of AI. So you think I'd be real be real bitter and pissed off. But it it's I learned a long time ago that if you don't go with a flow, you get stuck in the undertow, and that rhymes. But um that's just it's the way of the world. And and it's not like this guy, he didn't cheat. People always think, like, oh, you're just cheating. He needed AI to perform what he was trying to do, and AI assisted him in doing it, and he still did it. It's not like he hit a button and these robots came in and went, and he just sat back with a beer and went, All right, look what I made. That's not what happened. Um, and this whole AI, you know, with artwork and stuff like that. Like, I mean, me being an artist, if I came out with a whole AI package, yeah, that'd be pretty shitty. But like these bars, you know, people the people are doing perfect example, pinball tournaments. You guys are tournament players, you're all tournament players. A lot of these bars and these these pinball clubs use AI to make flyers. Nice flyers. They look good, they look professional. If they didn't have AI to do that, they would look like the shit that I saw two years ago. No offense. Sorry, people, they were trying their best. But if you don't have the money to pay some guy$500,$600,000,$800,000 to make you a fancy flyer, and you can go to AI and say, okay, I want a flyer for this and all that, you've got a nice looking representation of your thing, something that you're proud of. Didn't cost you a million dollars because I know these people can't afford it. I've seen I've seen the winnings of people like, I won the tournament. They're fanning out like six singles. Came in first. Six dollars, you know. So and the same thing, like, I will I will absolutely admit that there's A game coming out in a year, but it partially used AI on for some very meaningless background bullshit that saved me time and wasn't important. No one's gonna be like, you know, I don't remember, I can't tell you what it was, but not because I don't want to, but my mind is not remembering. But let's just say it was like a bush or something in front of a building. No one's saying, Oh, that's not a franchise bush, you can tell. You know. Who cares? When I started when I started doing artwork on a computer, it's when the computer revolution took over and Photoshop and Corel draw and Illustrator and all this stuff. And I knew right then, I'm like, I'm not getting left in the dust. I'm hopping on this train right now. AI is the same way. Um I would never use it for a full art package, I would never use it to like draw a main character. Um but people, you know, here's the problem with AI is that people know it exists. Someone comes to you and says, hey, and this is one of the problems I had at Aristocrat when I was working there, is they're like, you know, why don't you just use AI to come up with these concepts for, you know, a gambling game. You know, instead you took a whole week when you could have done this in a day, like while I was trying to draw it myself, you know, like, well, don't draw it yourself. Use AI because we know it exists. You should be using it, it's free. So you're gonna people our artists are gonna run into situations where they're gonna people are gonna say, like, you know, why did it take you so long? Why am I paying this much? You know, et cetera, et cetera. So you have to, as an artist, as a pinball artist, you know, use it within reason. Um, you know, don't use it for anything major. But if if you use it for filler or something in the background, you know, you know how long it takes to draw like a sky with clouds and stuff like that? If you can just say, hey, give me a give me a sunset, you know, with a purple sky that fades into pink and into orange and you hit a button and it's there. Number one, you're never gonna get exactly what you want. So you're still gonna have to kind of draw over it and retouch it and get what you want. But if if you can get that in 30 seconds rather than me take four hours to draw it, why not? No one's gonna say that's not a franchise guy. You know? So it doesn't matter. It it you gotta go with the flow. It's gonna leave people in the dust and this this bitterness that people have against it. I get it, it's gonna take over a lot of people's jobs and all that, but like I said, no one's pulling the plug. It's not going anywhere, it's just gonna get worse. And if you don't get in a canoe and start paddling upstream, you're gone. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:41

I I remember um I think a lot of these people that complain about AI or maybe a little bit on the younger side, they don't remember the history of art and the uh using com using computers. I remember when I was in middle school, DC released a uh a comic called Batman Digital Justice. I remember that. People people freaked out, like, I'm not paying for this. This is the end of hand-drawn art, you know, we have to stop this. So this whole outrage over using technology to create art is nothing new.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:18

Right. Well, you know, and people have to separate it too, because like Kale, you know as well as I do, your your are you married to Rachel? Are you guys husband and wife? Yeah, we yeah, it's it's all legal. Okay, so so your wife, Rachel, is an amazing painter. She doesn't use AI for what she does, but that's that's her thing. That's what she does. She's not doing that commercially. She's not drawing a painting of a beautiful woman doing something and then selling that to Marlborough for some ad. She's doing it because she's she's you know, she's expressing herself, she's creating, you know, things that express an emotion. She wants to have an art show, things like that. That's different. Obviously, you don't you you know, but don't confuse the two. You know, I can do artwork like that if I want to, but I choose, you know, you Rachel chooses to run an arcade and do that for a living and have fun doing art. I've lost sort of lost my joy for personal art because I do commercial art for a living. So that's kind of sad. But I like making a living doing art. That's the trade-off. You know? So the there's a big difference. There's two different kinds of art worlds, and of course, you would never use AI for something like what Rachel does, fine art, as you would say, uh, instead of commercial art. Big difference. And commercial art, it's like Drew Struzan. I don't know if you guys know who he is. He's like he died, he died recently. He's one of the most famous movie poster artists in the world. Um he did a he did a uh video, and he he's said I'm gonna take you through my process from sketches to getting things approved to doing the final art. And that guy was my hero. He still is my hero, I should say he was. He he is my hero. I love that guy's artwork. Um, I watched this video, and step one, he had taken all these photos and he's got them in an overhead projector, and he's tracing them on the paper. And I'm like, holy shit, the dude traces. And then, of course, he's gonna address it. He's not just gonna trace and and like just kind of sweep it under the rug. And he says, Here's the deal I'm I'm an illustrator, I'm a commercial illustrator, and I need to get this stuff done fast. Yes, I could sit down and I could draw this guy by hand by just putting the photo here and drawing it, or I could save 80% of that time by tracing it out, and all he does is kind of a an outline, you know, all the work is in rendering and all that, which he all does by hand and does a beautiful job. But I was shocked, and then when he when he explained why he did it, it completely made sense. It's like he's not doing a gallery show, and he's not, you know, creating something, you know, because he's trying to express an emotion or a feeling or a statement or whatever. He's doing art for a company that has to pay for it, they want it on time, they want it on budget, and if this is what he has to do to do it, that's what he's got to do.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:22

So yeah. I think a lot of people forget that part of it though, you know. Like I think when people consume it in the pinball world, they don't think about, oh, this was a commercial project, and if Christopher wants if Franchi wanted to do this the way he wanted to do it, you know, take as much time as you wanted, this might take, I'm just making this up, six months. But they tell you, well, you only have two. So, like, I don't think people think about that. A lot of people don't think the about the process, they just think about almost like it it just appeared out of nowhere. A lot of people just unfortunate sometimes. Yeah, but it's unfortunate sometimes because I think we we get so close to it because we do these podcasts, we get to know people in the industry and we get to see more of it. And sometimes I do feel bad for some of these people, artists, code developers, anybody, because they don't think about the constraints that they're under sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:15

Well, you talked, that's you brought up a good point. Coding. Do you know how much of that shit's AI these days? They're not gonna tell you. Stern's not gonna say, like, oh, or I shouldn't say call out Stern, but any company, they're not gonna say, Oh, you know, our team's in here and like the AI is filling out all the gaps and doing this and doing that. It happens, it's being done now because it saves this team a ton of work. They're not gonna tell you about it, and then because they don't tell you about it, no one's throwing their hands up in the air and saying, Oh, goddamn AI, it's here to stay. It's it's probably gonna sell pinball machines, we're gonna replace distributors. Sorry, Coin Taker.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:52

Here's one thing I'll add to this that um just because of the industry I'm in, so the we sell data storage. So we're basically selling these small-scale storage devices that can hold petabytes of information. So people put their whole company's data sets on us, right? And this year, we have a major supply chain shortage. And the reason why we have a supply chain shortage, anybody that sells data storage right now, we can't get product. We can, but it's so trickled out and we have to pay way more for it. And do you want to know why? Because all of the big hyperscaler companies like Meta are buying billions of dollars of memory to feed AI GPU farms, and they bought the whole inventory of almost like two years. So where our whole business is selling the thing that they're buying all of it out, they bought the entire allotment. So when someone says, I do get though, there are things that I don't like about AI 100%, but I'm seeing these billions of dollars being spent, it's like it's almost impossible to stop, unfortunately. Like there is no way to stop it. Right. So I'm not saying we should blindly support it in you in its full usage of everything in our daily lives, but I I get where when someone says something like, let's rise up, and there there almost is no rising up. Like it almost can't. You can fight, there are small fights and win them. Yeah. But the big battle of AI, I think we're gonna lose.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:19

If you look at it, it seems bad, but look at smaller achievements in the world. Like nothing, nobody has stopped anything. Something comes along that that makes your life easier or whatever, however, you want to classify AI. Nobody has stopped any of this stuff from coming, it just keeps coming. So to just put your fist up in the air and say, I'm putting I'm I you know I'm putting a stop to this. This isn't gonna happen, you know. I don't support this. You're just gonna get left in the dust. It's as simple as that. You know, you don't have to like it, but you have to live with it. That's that's the thing. You know, no one says you have to like it, but you have to live with it. You can't fight it, you have to live with it.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:02

Well, that was a great topic, guys. Thank you. Uh good job, Ralph. Kudos to you, sir, for uh writing that one down. Appreciate it. Uh let's get to the meat and some more meat and potatoes. We've got about 15-20 minutes left here, and we've got a$100 bet that Jamie lost to Canada that we need to talk about.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:22

We haven't heard about this yet. What happened?

SPEAKER_06 1:16:24

Uh I bet Canada$100 that uh JJP didn't have Van Halen, and then uh guess what? I was wrong. I don't know if I'm gonna Venmo you a hundred bucks or buy you wife some socking on a Saturday morning spectacular.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:37

Well, just to be fair, you need to wait till it's it ships. Because you know, a lot can happen. That's a lot can happen.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:45

Good point. Yeah, you can't pay it now. Don't pay it now. Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:48

Well, I mean, the question wasn't is it gonna be released? The question is, does JJP have it? That was confirmed. You lose. Wait, wait, was that actually? Was that actually what it was?

SPEAKER_06 1:16:59

I said they didn't even have it. Oh well. So send a hundred bucks. Okay, well, Francis, you better pay up JPP. So next Saturday morning spectacular, I'll give uh Brenda a hundred bucks. So the question is David Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar or Bull. You know, I didn't have that much time with him. But I think it's gotta be both. And then the pop pumpers will have the guy from Extreme. Right. They'll stick him up in the pops.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:32

Doesn't it have to be Sammy, Sammy, and uh well, I know that the two of them hate each other.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:38

So if they had to agree to be on the same product together, I don't think that would happen. It would have to be one or the other.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:45

That was in the past. That was in the past.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:47

No, that's going on. That's going on right now. They do not believe. Yeah, well, David Lee Roth isn't an idiot. You know, he keeps on opening his mouth. Yeah, he's a piece of work. Sammy Hagar's kind of a chill dude, and he's you know, but if someone's gonna smack you upside the head 12 times, you gotta stand up eventually.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:05

So that's interesting. But the reason I bet this hundred and felt so good about the hundred bucks, Franchie, was because I actually spoke with Wolfgang Van Halen. I said, How the hell is there not a wolf a Van Halen pinball machine? He says, My uncle's never gonna allow it. There's too many uh lead singers, it's never gonna pass. And I was like, All right, well, that sounds like I heard it from a source.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:26

So, Jamie, I still don't think you understand how much money JJP has.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:31

I it's I'm starting, it's starting to dawn on me a little. Money talks.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:34

Money talks. Money talks, bro. But you guys, do you guys are you guys gonna bring up this uh what the hell's the name of that damn game? Resident Evil pinball machine for$27,000.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:46

I put that question on there. I just threw it on there because of what you just said, Franchie. So the whole today, this whole Resident Evil thing finally they kind of came to light of how many they were gonna make and everything. But here's the crazy part is they're gonna make 400 units and they're gonna have collector's edition of 100 units, right, for this Resident Evil game. And here's what's crazy the normal version, the like basic, I don't know what they're gonna call it. I guess limited in collectors, they're limited, assuming collect yeah. So their limited is gonna be$25,000 US and the collectors is gonna be$27,000 US. Like that's nuts. And then their buttons is nuts.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:25

The 100, the 100, see, I don't think the collector's edition and the LE should be flip-flop. Why do they have the word limited on the one that's not as limited? But I know the 100 they're doing is split into five characters, so they're gonna do like what, 20 of each character? Yep. You know, that's a bit convoluted, but still. Does this thing give you a blowjob while you're playing?

SPEAKER_04 1:19:48

Right. That's insane. So I mean, I would imagine part of this price is because it's it's being uh manufactured overseas, right? And they know they're gonna get their most sales in the states. I'm guessing.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:00

Yeah, they're yeah, the Swiss price is the Swiss price is 21,000, whatever, and 19,000, which equates to yeah, the 27 and the 25 US. It's made it's made in in uh yeah. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:15

So we don't know anything. We haven't seen the game. I haven't been keeping up with it. So we don't know all we know is the price.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:21

That's all we know, how many they're making, the price, and then that they're making it. NAP reported that, right? Yeah, right. NAP Arcade reported it too. Yeah. So it's kind of weird. I mean, I don't know. I'm not a I can't touch that.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:34

Did that release come from the company or did Nat Nap like find that out? Because my my whole thing, if that's a release from the company, that's just dumb.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:43

I don't think it was a release from the company.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:45

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:46

Uh they found out somehow.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:48

The way Napa sounded like it was official. It was a statement from the company. Oh, it wasn't. It's like signed by somebody at the bottom or something.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:57

Like it is a statement. He just says, here's World Pinball's message, but I don't know where they sent this message or who they sent it to. But it says, hello, thank you for your message. The official teaser is scheduled for a later date, after which we will open pre-orders, and then they went ahead and stated that there would be the limited editions and the and how many. Um so I don't know if this was someone inquiring and they just responded back via an email.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:24

This is why this makes no sense to me. Could you imagine if they're like, hey, guess what? We're doing a brand new Indiana Jones. We're not gonna tell you anything about it, but it's gonna be the most expensive movie ticket you've ever uh paid for.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:36

Okay, hold on. You know how we always get made fun of because we never read shit, we just we just talk about it real quick. Okay, it is in here. It says, obviously, uh it says a friend of mine recently reached out to the company that is reportedly working on the game and received that response. So that's what so so this could be bullshit, but if it's someone that Nap really trusts, I think he probably wouldn't post it if it wasn't someone he trusted.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:00

Nap also said in there that um that this company is supposed to reveal information in March, and March came and went, and nothing ever happened. So people were expecting an announcement relatively soon, and this is where this is gonna happen.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:13

But if you go to the official website, it doesn't have this information on it. Just just so you just so we're clear. Like if you go to the Resident Evil pinball website, it doesn't have this information on it. It literally just has a thing that you click and then it opens up your email to mail them a question. That's it.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:30

So well, if this company wants to clear up any rumors, please get in touch with the JBSO.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:36

Yeah, we'll take care of it. Yeah.

unknown 1:22:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:39

It does have the Capcom logo and the World Pinball logo on it, though. So there you go. Okay. That says something.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:46

All right, Kale, I think it's been long enough. We're an hour 23 minutes in. I think you gotta drop some knowledge to us.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:52

So you do you want to hear some news? I want to hear some news.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:54

Come on, brother.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:56

First of all, this uh a friend of the electric bat cast, and he loves our show too. Pixel Pete made us some t-shirts. I haven't haven't shown you these yet. Oh, no way. But let me get this out of the way here.

SPEAKER_06 1:23:14

Look at that. Look at that gorgeous guy in the middle.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:19

I'm always gassy. Yeah. Yeah, I'm really sucks.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:24

What are we doing? On the back? Nah, dude, that's awesome. That is from one of our fans, Pixel Pete. And as soon as you come to town, Jamie, we're gonna try all these. He sent he sent one for everybody. I think.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:39

Wow, Pixel Pete. Thank you. Am I gonna be the odd guy out now?

SPEAKER_03 1:23:42

Well, I didn't get a shirt.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:44

Yeah, that's exactly right. Franchie, this is how you get a shirt.

SPEAKER_06 1:23:48

Franchi's not getting shit of these. I'll tell you that right now. These are mine.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:52

Here's the deal, Jamie. What size t-shirt do you wear? Uh you know, XL. All right. All I have is a 3XL in this, but this is getting reprinted in a um you can't tell by looking at it, but it's actually pink with like blue crackles in it. I'm redoing it in like a tennis ball yellow-green with teal crackles in it. And I will make sure you get one of those.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:17

That'll look that'll look good with my skin color. That'll be beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:21

Yeah, I want to make sure it contrasts nice. You know, I'm gonna put a silver mud flap, you know, of hair on the back here on the skull. No, I don't have that anymore. I got rid of that shit.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:34

All right, that's taken this waterfall, man.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:38

Yeah. All right, all right. You you want some more stuff? Yeah, I think. I want some more stuff. Let's go. Um so uh rest of the yeah, uh we we know the the rest of the year is pretty much um uh Transformers. We all we we got invites to go see Transformers. That's gonna be fun. I don't know. Are you going? I don't know, man. I and and here's my deal. Like, I looked up tickets, and we know how much logic.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:06

I know, yeah, and tickets are expensive right now.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:08

And so I'm paying all this money, you know, and then they put the camera in your face, and you have to go, oh, this is the best game I've ever seen in my life.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:16

I haven't participated in that yet, by the way. I keep saying no.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:20

All this money's coming out of my pocket, and then like, and so I looked up when Rachel and I were talking about, we were like, we looked up uh, you know, fine dining restaurants around here. And like one of our favorite restaurants we go to, it's like it's$250 a plate. It's an omakase uh room. But it's like we could we were like, well, we could go to Chicago and pay a bunch of money to promote Stern, or we could go have a nice dinner. And so we're we're we're we're kind of weighing that out.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:51

So you went to dinner?

SPEAKER_04 1:25:52

Not yet.

unknown 1:25:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:54

That would be like several dinners, wouldn't it?

SPEAKER_04 1:25:56

Yeah, we're still deciding what to do. No, but we uh very much appreciate the invite.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:01

Oh, thank you so much, Zach. But the fact, you know, I'm gonna be in Chicago this week, and I don't think I have enough headway like Ralph to get in there early. So I am I didn't get an invitation.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:13

Oh, well, because you work for spooky. So I will represent the round table if if no one else is going, I'll be there to represent the round. Oh, thank you, sir. Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:22

Uh don't forget to get your special badge. Oh, you I really do love those things, Franchie. So then after that, I think everybody knows we're getting Fallout from Keith Elwin. That's right. I have a feeling we're getting a very special machine after I think it's gonna come out after Fallout. Um, and I don't know whether it's not gonna be like a remastered, but um, it's it's gonna be a new version. It's gonna be the Goldfinger James Bond version. Something very special Gomez is gonna put together for all the fans. That's gonna be absolutely stunning. That's a great game and the code.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:02

Dude, I'd be in on that just because I've owned it. This will this would be my third time owning it. I just I always love that game. It's just a fun game, dude. I always go back to it. It's a really cool ass game. I don't know. I just love that game.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:12

And you're gonna get the game with the code finished, the code complete.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:16

Yeah. So this is so they're gonna do a gold finger. Oh, dude. So no kissing. Do you think it'll be like premium in LE only or something? Like they won't do a pro.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:26

Uh I would imagine this, I would imagine this gold finger edition, it's just kind of like the the 50th uh uh you know anniversary games. I think uh blood red kiss. I think it's gonna be in the vein of that.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:38

Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:41

So do you think they're scrapping the the that rumor or they'll do it later? Remember, we were thinking the other rumor was they were gonna do that gold Godzilla, like the like another Godzilla. Do you think they're for Spike Three?

SPEAKER_04 1:27:52

Godzilla and Spike Three? I don't know. I I haven't I haven't heard any more about that.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:57

But I could see them doing that next year because they have a lot of Pretty pretty big. Yeah, they could have some serious wins this year with what they got.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:05

Next year, I think the first game we're gonna see is Dracula. And I hear that they're putting a lot into this. And um I'm really excited about this game because I'm gonna line up all three Dracula games. We we have the other two. Oh, that's cool. And we're gonna get the we'll get the new one. And then after that, um John Borg, I believe he was working on Bill and Ted, but there were there were a lot of people not excited about that IP. Didn't think it would sell very well. Okay. So they moved them on to Ozzie Osborne.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:42

To Black Sabbath or Ozzie? The whole catalog. Are they gonna put the Black Sabbath catalog on there?

SPEAKER_04 1:28:49

Stay tuned. I don't know. Oh boy, Ozzy.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:52

Okay, that's it. No more tears. No more tears is a pretty good song. No more tears multi ball.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:58

Yep. Ozzie Osbourne by Borg. I am all in on this. So would you guys be mad at me?

SPEAKER_02 1:29:05

Would you guys be mad at me if I like if you told me if you gave me two games and you said you can have an Ozzy Osbourne or a Van Halen, I wouldn't even consider the Van Halen in that choice. Is that crazy? Do you guys think I'm not? No, that's not crazy. Ozzy's unbelievable. I wouldn't even consider it. I would take the Ozzy so fast it wouldn't even be an option in my mind. Ralph's getting an L. I would get an LE of an Ozzy Osbourne pin for sure. As long as when you drain it goes shin!

SPEAKER_06 1:29:35

Wow. Well that's bad. Wow, Kale. You dropped some knowledge.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:41

Can we just add anything else to that? You got more?

SPEAKER_04 1:29:46

That's all I got.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:47

Okay, it's still pretty good. I mean, come on. No, I mean it's good. No, no, I just got excited. You get a little bit. You want more all the time. That's a good thing. Spooky's making Elvis.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:58

Uh-oh. Is Spooky making Elvis?

SPEAKER_03 1:30:02

No.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:03

No.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:04

But what do you mean if they do?

SPEAKER_04 1:30:07

Are you doing are you doing South Park art?

SPEAKER_03 1:30:11

No.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:12

Okay, good.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:13

Is anybody? I don't know. I don't know. That's what we're trying to find out here. I would imagine if somebody had a South Park relations, South Park would do the artwork for you. I mean, because it's South Park. Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:24

It's construction paper.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:26

Right, yeah. Um boys. No, let's go back to Elvis though, real quick. Okay. Steve Richard? I'd I'd like Elvis. Like, would you guys be down for like a and because the old Elvis had stern was kind of crap. Like, could you be down for a new Elvis?

SPEAKER_04 1:30:42

You'd like to revisit visit it?

SPEAKER_03 1:30:43

I'd well I'd like to do like an Elvis through the years rather than just Vegas Elvis or whatever they you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:53

You end with the fat Elvis?

SPEAKER_03 1:30:55

Yeah, would you actually enjoy the Fat Elvis? It probably couldn't, I bet, but I'd get right up to before that. You know, the jumpsuits and all that, but just not the big gut and the fat chin. Right. You know. I didn't have to do this, I could have just pointed to my own. Um I don't know. I just I never hear his name mentioned. He is the king.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:18

I I I don't think it would sell very well. Nah. No?

SPEAKER_02 1:31:23

I don't see it. You could probably do it as a limited run. Right. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:32

Should talk somewhere into doing like a summertime release of like you know, like bands, like limited run bands. Like in the summertime, like Billy Idol. Because I think Billy Idol would kick ass. Because like every like Metalhead.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:49

Why wouldn't it? Don't you think with the bands it almost has to be like really uh like don't you think they almost have to transcend generations to sell well?

SPEAKER_03 1:32:01

I think he kinda does, but what he does mostly is he transcends genres. He's not like just this punk rock guy or this rock guy or this heavy metal guy. He kind of like everybody likes Billy Addle.

SPEAKER_06 1:32:13

Somebody needs to do a prince. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:16

I already did a back glass. I'm good to go. Did I see someone? Well, let me tell you why no one's doing a prince. I proposed it to American Pinball. I did a back glass, which I thought was pretty cool. And we submitted it, and the family wanted two million dollars. Oh. That's what JJP called it. Americans said, oh, we're just gonna do it. So JJP's got the license now. Two million. Two million dollars. But I agree with the moot the the music hold music pen thing needs to move at least into the 80s. Can we get it out of the 70s? Absolutely. You know?

SPEAKER_02 1:32:52

Yeah. There'd be some really cool 80s stuff they could do.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:56

Well, because like when I'm in the grocery store, I'm hearing like Duran Duran and shit. I'm like, God, am I that old that like my little new wave bullshit that was my own little pet crap is now grocery store music? You know? I hear public image limited and you know, and all these other punk bands and crap in the grocery store. Susie and the Banshees.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:17

Come on. Rachel and I heard Ministry at Trader Joe's the other day. It's freaking awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:25

It's the middle of the produce section. I want to fuck you like an edible. I don't know if NIM. No nine intent. No, at least not that one.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:36

It'd be a good pimboming team.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:38

Some ladies putting like tomatoes in a bag to that song.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:44

Some grandma walks up at the service counter. What's this song? This is catchy. This is catchy. I like it.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:51

I like NIM. All right, boys. We're at an hour and a half. Thank you so much. Uh we we've covered everything. Christopher Franchie. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:01

Shout out your our loyal listeners who have been on there.

SPEAKER_06 1:34:04

I wanted to do a quick shout out, every, and just take two people. We already talked to uh Pixel Pete and uh thanked him. But uh David Krebs and Jeff Epner, no matter what we post on the round table, they always have nice things to say about us. So I really appreciate them and thank you for watching and listening and everything that you do, David and Jeff. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Thank you guys. Really appreciate it. Numbers are just ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:32

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_06 1:34:32

I don't know what's happening. I don't know what happened. The numbers have just been ridiculous for our podcast. So I'm I'm totally stoked. I'm so happy that the round table's taken off and done as well as we have. So thank you, Jen. It's no prouder moment than when you reach that pinnacle of 50 listeners, isn't it? I know. I mean, we're doing a couple of thousand. It's been really great. And I'm really, you know, you add the podcast and the uh the YouTube. It's been just phenomenal. One of the top podcasts.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:01

It's getting harder to get people's attention, so those are good numbers.

SPEAKER_06 1:35:04

You know, yeah, we're getting there. I'm really proud of us. So all right, to end, Cale Hernandez, thank you so much. You just did an electric bat cast with Rachel, one of the best ones ever. I think the questions were fantastic. I I almost went without a guttergould, but that can't happen. You have to have a guttergould question in the electric bat. I mean, what a great dude. I I when I met him, I was the most excited that I've ever met any fan. Yeah, was when I met Guttergould. I mean, that was just so awesome. And do it me a favor, shout out to Serge. I want to interview him on the JBS show, which is a different show. Roger.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:42

Does Serge have like a backpack with an extra brain in it?

SPEAKER_04 1:35:46

No, that's all in his little head. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:49

That guy's amazing. I listen to him talk when he's explaining rules, and my eyes go crossed, and I just kind of go and drift off into another galaxy.

SPEAKER_06 1:35:57

That's what happens when they talk when they talk pinball repair to me.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:02

I just don't know how he keeps all of that in his head.

SPEAKER_06 1:36:05

He's a genius. And uh if you're listening, Surge, JBS show.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:08

That's a gift.

SPEAKER_06 1:36:09

There we go.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:10

Hey, since you mentioned Surge, I'll bring this up real quick because this was really cool. And I I almost sent it to you, Kale, but I forgot to send it to you. Someone was talking in like the Stern Enthusiast group or one of these groups, and he's like, I just bought evil, I mean, I just bought The Walking Dead, and I I really don't know how to play it. Are there any good tutorials out there? And some guy's like, Hey, this is a really good one to start off, and you'll get all the basics. And he sent the video that we all made at my house with Surge as like a hey, follow this. Because that was good. It was a good tutorial.

SPEAKER_06 1:36:39

I was glued to that. That was a really good video.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:42

I was about to say I'd let Surge know, but he's gonna listen to this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:45

Wow, there you go. We gotta do uh we gotta do another game soon. I don't know what, but yeah, let's do it.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:50

Oh well, uh, what's the next one? That's Transformers. When when Pokemon gets an update, let's get together.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:58

Yeah, actually, it'd be cool for him to do Beetlejuice, but maybe when the code gets a little maybe after the next code release instead of well, because you guys will probably do one when the new code comes out anyway. Two weeks. Two weeks? Okay. Well, yeah, you heard that here first. Franchise dropped. Yeah, we dropped a lot of now. You're gonna get some new Beetlejuice code in a couple weeks, which is pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_06 1:37:15

Uh, Retro Ralph, follow him on Retro Ralph Live on Instagram. We're trying to get your Instagram. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:24

Can I just do mine? Because you get it wrong every time it's Retro Ralph Live on YouTube. That's where the video version of the podcast is. And then the podcast is also on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Uh, and then my core channel, Retro Ralph, is for the long form content. That's what you need to know. And then my Facebook group is doing really well right now. That's just Retro Ralph on Facebook. For some reason, Facebook, they are coming uh all over the place to see stuff, so I'm I'm excited about that. And Franchie comments on that stuff too, so that's cool. Franchie's always in the comments, which is fun because he says funny things to me. I try to get around.

SPEAKER_06 1:37:56

There you go. All right, Mr. Franci, where can people find you?

SPEAKER_03 1:38:00

Uh, you can email me at 21inches at playgirl.com. Okay. Where else? If we don't want to go there, where else? Please don't email me. Um you can hit me up on Christopher Franci on Facebook. Um, you don't need my email because you can't send me money. I'll give you my PayPal address. There you go. But uh yeah, there. Um Well, thank you so much. You can find me in the I'm usually on the streams too, messing around with people and everything.

SPEAKER_06 1:38:34

Absolutely. So we really appreciate that. Thank you so much. I almost did this one live. I thought about it today, and not tell us and just click this live button. Um, not say anything. That would have been bad. That would have been terrible, right? No, it could have been bad. I want to do another round table live. And uh I'm we have to and I'm coming to Arizona in the next few months. I'm sending them the itinerary to make sure they're in town, both of them. Yeah, we'll do a live, we'll do it live again. We'll do a live again. Fuck it, we'll do it live.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:05

Are you guys surviving? Yeah, my mom was t my my uncle lives in, I forget what city in Arizona, but they said it was 105 degrees, but it felt higher. I don't know what that means, but like it was apparently. It was hot today. Yeah, yeah, we had to stay inside. The poor head's a little shiny there, Kale.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:23

Yep. A little shiny they live in a desert.

SPEAKER_06 1:39:27

Okay. They live in a desert, but I love them and I have to come see them. And why would I make them come to Houston?

SPEAKER_03 1:39:33

Do you have to shake your shoes out in the morning to get the scorpions out?

SPEAKER_04 1:39:36

Uh we're so lucky we do not live in an area with we're right downtown, so we don't live in an area with scorpions. But man, I've heard the horror stories. They'll crawl on the ceiling and drop on you at night.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:48

Yes, man.

SPEAKER_06 1:39:50

Can't wait to move to Arizona. Uh boys, thank you so much. Great round table, Mr. Franci. Thank you so much. That was so awesome, man. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:01

I had a blast. I really appreciate the offer to come off.

SPEAKER_06 1:40:05

I really appreciate it. All right, boys, thank you so much. This will be up tomorrow. Now, Mr. Franchi, when you leave, don't leave. We gotta stay about five seconds so that we can upload on Riverside. I need to tell everybody that. All right. Thank you, folks.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:22

Peace out.