Transcript
Speaker: Thanks for tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast.
Speaker: I am Josh Roop.
Speaker: With me, my co-captain, as always.
Speaker: Scott Larson.
Speaker: And Scott, it is episode 100.
Speaker: We finally made it here.
Speaker: I can't believe it.
Speaker: Okay, this is where we announce our retirement.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And ride into the podcasting sunset.
Speaker: That is true.
Speaker: And I was nervous when we posted last week, which I'll get to in a little bit, that a lot of people are like, this sounds almost like a going away message.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: I didn't want those vibes.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm totally kidding.
Speaker: Josh and I are having way too much fun doing this.
Speaker: And we're...
Speaker: I'll put it this way.
Speaker: We don't spend enough time on the podcast to get burned out on the podcast.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And really, you're getting in real time, just Josh and Scott talking about pinball like we do when we're driving somewhere.
Speaker: Well, what's funny to me, okay, before we jump into this, because once I jump into this, I think we're just going to go for it.
Speaker: But let's talk about Zach and Nicole Many really quick.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Not pinball.
Speaker: No, Zach and Nicole Many.
Speaker: If you're looking for that extra thing for your arcade, I'm actually, so I am placing an order right now.
Speaker: I'm actually going to order some of the Insider Connect kits.
Speaker: So I have one and I was, I was originally intending on doing the hack where you, where you plug it in and then just do the home thing.
Speaker: But I just figured, you know what, it's just kind of fun to have everybody being able to scan it in.
Speaker: And that, that really completes the game.
Speaker: I'm waiting for my, the mod because I have like my Jurassic Park LE and my Infinity Quest mod.
Speaker: um, Avengers.
Speaker: Uh, and I don't want to take out like one of those apron pieces.
Speaker: I actually want to put it in the cabinet door.
Speaker: So I'm going to do that.
Speaker: But anyway, if you're looking for anything, including, uh, toppers games, and if you want something that like a, like a big buck hunter, you want a video game, they got video games.
Speaker: Uh, if you want a golden tea, they got golden teas.
Speaker: Very true.
Speaker: And it sounds like there's going to be a party soon at their house with the pinball industry awards being filmed at Casa de Mene.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so.
Speaker: It is, it's going to be pretty epic on the 28th.
Speaker: That sounds like such a bad Mexican restaurant.
Speaker: Casa de Mene.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Speaking of that, I got, someone gave me some chips the other day and I have no idea.
Speaker: It's from Juan Tonio.
Speaker: So it's like a Mexican Italian mashup.
Speaker: So anyway, nice.
Speaker: But back to flipping out pinball.
Speaker: Seriously.
Speaker: They have, they have always been great.
Speaker: Greg,
Speaker: has been great with any customer service issues so please reach out to zach and nicole many if you are looking to buy that game i agree and their customer service is amazing it's good honestly most of you out there listening if you're looking for we all want a good product but we want a great company to back it and zach and nicole give that you know you want to use them just give them a call text them message them whatever you want to do
Speaker: It sounds like they sold out of the bond 60th, so you might have to find something else.
Speaker: But we can go over... I want to go over the production schedule a little bit because I've noticed some trends in it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And...
Speaker: We'll get to that here in a little bit.
Speaker: But back to... Now all I've got stuck in my head is Casa de Mene.
Speaker: Casa de Mene.
Speaker: But let's talk about some of the news.
Speaker: I mean, it's episode 100, so I want to talk a little bit about the news, but I also want to talk about the reaction that we had on last Tuesday, which was the 10th.
Speaker: I accidentally posted on the 10th.
Speaker: I can't even get my own day right.
Speaker: It was the 11th is the day that we originally came out, the first episode.
Speaker: But I'm like, no one's going to notice.
Speaker: We had an amazing response.
Speaker: But yeah, let's get some of these news notes out of the way because I think they're very interesting.
Speaker: Did you hear that Pinball Brothers and Pedretti, you know, the guys that did Funhouse 2.0, are combining together to form Euro Pinball Corps.
Speaker: I actually didn't know that.
Speaker: So they're going to work together because I guess Pumball Brothers has the place to manufacture.
Speaker: Pagetti's been making quality remake kits.
Speaker: So why not combine the two and make a super, super manufacturer?
Speaker: You know, it's hard.
Speaker: They're already a European manufacturer.
Speaker: And so it is a little difficult to break into the market, the U.S. market, because you have the import situation.
Speaker: Yeah, it this makes sense.
Speaker: It makes sense to be able to create more of a unified front so they can mesh both of their things.
Speaker: And it really.
Speaker: OK, I was kind of wondering where the Pinball Brothers were going, like what their future was.
Speaker: And so merging with kind of an old and a new, it does take them in a new direction and opens up more opportunities.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And I think that this will, I don't know.
Speaker: I agree with everything you said.
Speaker: I don't know if there's much more to say other than that.
Speaker: I think it's a good move.
Speaker: So spooky pinball has been quite on fire these last couple of weeks.
Speaker: We had the interview with bug.
Speaker: I think it went fantastic.
Speaker: I thought it was very on point.
Speaker: I thought there was questions that need to be asked and they were, and you know, bug has to be the most professional player.
Speaker: person we've had on the podcast.
Speaker: He was just very business-like.
Speaker: Certainly, he has become the face of Spooky.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And so certainly from someone who is driving the company, Bug definitely presented himself very well and very organized.
Speaker: And so that was very nice.
Speaker: So they've got Scott Ines to join the voice cast of Scooby-Doo.
Speaker: He's done the voice of Scooby-Doo and of Shaggy and of Scrappy because I know you love Scrappy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Also, apparently he's done the voice of all the villains in Scooby-Doo.
Speaker: So I assume he's going to take that role considering the other cast members that are already on there.
Speaker: They have now started production on Scooby-Doo itself, and they plan on doubling the size of their facility.
Speaker: It sounds like Spooky is no longer going to be boutique, in my opinion.
Speaker: If $1,900, their facility can handle that right now, then they're doubling the size.
Speaker: Are they going to be attempting for $3,000, $4,000 after this?
Speaker: I mean, I guess there's growth to that, right?
Speaker: Yeah, it does say that they're heading in an expansive direction.
Speaker: And we did talk to them about if they were considering moving closer to Chicago.
Speaker: And he said, no, they really like where they are.
Speaker: I get the vibe that they like being a smaller production and a little bit more of a boutique company.
Speaker: So that works well.
Speaker: And if they do have enough business to expand their line, then good for them.
Speaker: I'm a little concerned in that...
Speaker: Halloween and Ultraman immediately sold out.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Scooby-Doo is still available and that's not a bad thing.
Speaker: I, but I think it's showing that the market is softening a little bit and people are not as gung ho about ordering games that they haven't played, or maybe they're only ordering one game this year.
Speaker: And maybe that's a, you know, that's a,
Speaker: a Godzilla or a rush or something like that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But that, that's the only thing that makes me concerned.
Speaker: Like how much investment money do they have to put up to move to a bigger facility?
Speaker: Because we know for Stern to move a few blocks away,
Speaker: It was like 5 million bucks.
Speaker: Yeah, it was not cheap.
Speaker: And the only reason they're moving is because Elk Grove said, hey, we want you to stay here in town.
Speaker: Yeah, they gave him a sweet deal.
Speaker: It was like $2 million up front or something like that to help him move.
Speaker: Yeah, so they certainly helped that.
Speaker: And by the way, I understand that there can be feelings about that.
Speaker: But from a business standpoint, it makes sense for Elk Grove to keep Stern there.
Speaker: And if you don't think that businesses get special discounts, just ask what discounts Amazon got to stay in Seattle or Disneyland gets for their property taxes.
Speaker: Seattle upped their taxes on Amazon and then was like, all right, we'll cut you a deal now.
Speaker: So it was like three steps forward, one step back for them.
Speaker: That's okay.
Speaker: Jeff Bezos couldn't afford it.
Speaker: But yeah, so that's a good thing.
Speaker: I'm cautiously optimistic because I hope that they're able to maintain the business to, I guess, to sell and to justify it.
Speaker: That's what I mean.
Speaker: To justify the bigger facility.
Speaker: Congrats, Spooky.
Speaker: It sounds like you guys are doing better than half the manufacturer out there.
Speaker: I'd even say maybe more than that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: In disc winners, if you don't want spoilers, skip ahead about five minutes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, we'll say that.
Speaker: If you did not watch in disc, it was amazing.
Speaker: I'd highly recommend going back and watching those finals.
Speaker: Um, did you get to watch any of this Scott?
Speaker: You know, I didn't because I was running around.
Speaker: However, um, we, we have a group chat with the triple drain guys and we were going back and forth because we know Neil and Travis were there.
Speaker: And so it was, uh, it was great, uh, to get some updates from them because they were competing in the tournament.
Speaker: So I want to shout out to Ron Hallett jr. He took second in classics and,
Speaker: Lost just to Andy Rosa, which Andy Rosa is amazing.
Speaker: He's a machine.
Speaker: Yeah, he is a machine.
Speaker: Classics 1 was Jason Zoller.
Speaker: Classics 2, Keith Elwin.
Speaker: The main open itself, it came down to...
Speaker: Keith Elwin, Esher Lefkoff, Jason Zoller, and our own... Well, not our own.
Speaker: We're claiming him as our third host, Travis Miri.
Speaker: And it was amazing.
Speaker: It was insane.
Speaker: Travis has now become a meme on Pinball Degenerates.
Speaker: If you've not seen it, go check it out.
Speaker: But I don't think he...
Speaker: accounted for the ball save on bad girls.
Speaker: And because he was trying to soft plunge and it didn't give him the ball back.
Speaker: And then his ball was over.
Speaker: So he, he started off his first ball with a double zero.
Speaker: You know, he just want, he just wanted to spot the other player, but he had an insanely good game against George Kaylee on flash Gordon and got him into the finals.
Speaker: And then Keith and Escher are just beasts.
Speaker: I mean,
Speaker: It was insane.
Speaker: It came down to the wire.
Speaker: Escher beat Elwin on ball three in bonus.
Speaker: That's how close it was.
Speaker: If I remember correctly, it was like 6,000 points.
Speaker: It was tight.
Speaker: It was a 1.5 million game between the two of them, and it was like a 6,000-point difference.
Speaker: Travis took third.
Speaker: Congrats, man.
Speaker: That is awesome.
Speaker: I know that his dream was to make it to a final and to rank in the top four.
Speaker: Yeah, dude.
Speaker: It's amazing.
Speaker: I was playing.
Speaker: I was playing Jurassic Park today and I barely got to three dinosaurs.
Speaker: So and then congrats to Kaylee.
Speaker: He went on ball three against Keith Elwin on alien poker on high stakes.
Speaker: That was fifteen thousand dollars.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Holy crap.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: My understanding is, is Tealus was there interviewing people.
Speaker: He interviewed Keith and he said, you know, how do you, how does this all feel?
Speaker: And he says, now I know what Josh Sharp feels like.
Speaker: That would be the best line I've heard.
Speaker: Yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker: Okay, to be fair, I would love to have that feeling to know I took second in a tournament.
Speaker: keith elwin would be like yeah it's a notch down right yeah that's that's awesome oh my goodness so okay maybe escher as well because you know it's escher sure but it was it was insanely good if you want to watch it go to ie pinball uh that is carl d'angelo's twitch stream uh just go on ie pinball on twitch amazing and
Speaker: Pinball is alive and well.
Speaker: At one point, there was like 15.6 thousand viewers.
Speaker: Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker: I'm sorry.
Speaker: That is that is not so good for them.
Speaker: Yes, that's I joked.
Speaker: I'm like, this is Amarith numbers.
Speaker: And they didn't.
Speaker: And Carl didn't have to get half naked in a hot tub.
Speaker: I don't know what Amarith is or the hot tub reference.
Speaker: She is a woman that is on Twitch that films herself in a bikini in a hot tub and just chats.
Speaker: And she gets like 15,000 viewers on the average.
Speaker: I think our viewership would go down if we got in swimsuits.
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: I think so.
Speaker: I know that Marty and Jeff did it on one of their podcasts.
Speaker: Maybe we can do it in podcast form like they did.
Speaker: Podcast form, right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then also congratulations to Ashley Weaver, who won the women's comp of N-Disc.
Speaker: That is amazing.
Speaker: Yeah, it's basically becoming the... Is there really any competition that matches it right now?
Speaker: Not right now, no.
Speaker: Yeah, not right now.
Speaker: It's pretty... It's taken over the Super Bowl of pinball.
Speaker: And you could argue TPF has a great tournament, but I would say the N-Disc, that's where...
Speaker: That's where the elite go to play.
Speaker: Someone had pitched the idea that Rob Burke of Pinball Expo just opened up his own pinball place there in Ohio.
Speaker: And it's got 1,300 machines, if I remember correctly.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: It's got an insane amount of machines.
Speaker: And that should be the new quote-unquote Pinberg location.
Speaker: I'm not opposed to that.
Speaker: I think it's a good idea.
Speaker: Hey, more pinball is always good, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I doubt Burke would be opposed to that either, man.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Profit Ali.
Speaker: Get on top of it.
Speaker: Get it done.
Speaker: Who else, I guess, Bo and Kearns used to do with Pittsburgh or Pinberg, right?
Speaker: I'm trying to think who else put it on.
Speaker: Doug.
Speaker: That's been on the show.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, it was Doug.
Speaker: Yeah, Doug.
Speaker: Okay, I'm going to go on a random side tangent really quick.
Speaker: This weekend, I tried ustolepa.
Speaker: Have you tried this?
Speaker: Did you just have a seizure?
Speaker: Ustolepa is a Finnish word.
Speaker: It's from Finland.
Speaker: It is a cheese that you fry up.
Speaker: It's got a high melting point, so it doesn't melt on you, but it
Speaker: It just crisp on the outside, nice and gooey on the inside.
Speaker: We've had some here in Utah.
Speaker: I guess there's a place, there's an artisan cheese place in Midway slash Heber.
Speaker: You have to get yourself some used to Lepa.
Speaker: Anyone out there listening?
Speaker: It changed my life.
Speaker: If you like cheese.
Speaker: It changed your life.
Speaker: Yeah, dude.
Speaker: Used to Lepa.
Speaker: The only time it changes your life is if you have a heart attack after eating all that saturated.
Speaker: Actually, I don't know.
Speaker: Is cheese saturated?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I'm just a doctor.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Isn't that your expertise?
Speaker: You ask the doctor while you're doing the anesthesia when he's doing heart surgery.
Speaker: I'm not a cheese connoisseur.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: The only thing, I am a cheese snob and I hate American cheese.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: It's time to get some, this is finished cheese.
Speaker: So get some justolepa.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: It's just the way it sounds, but it starts with a J. Apparently the J is silent.
Speaker: So just just justolepa.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: It was that good, man.
Speaker: We finished it.
Speaker: We finished it.
Speaker: And then my, my family's like, I, my mother-in-law was over.
Speaker: My father-in-law was over.
Speaker: They ate it.
Speaker: They're like, where did you get this and where can we get more?
Speaker: It's like, well, it's two and a half hours west of us.
Speaker: So we're like Googling it and trying to see how much it'd be cost to like ship it to us and stuff.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's, it's definitely worth it.
Speaker: If you're in a bigger city, totally worth it.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: Okay, did you also hear that the 007 topper is not really exclusive compared to the, or for Bond 60, like it was advertised?
Speaker: That's what I'm hearing.
Speaker: Do you, I mean, that's why it was included with the Bond.
Speaker: Wow, I don't know.
Speaker: It's, I actually, I feel a little bad because I'm sure that they were thinking, oh, this will be, this will be a defining feature.
Speaker: and
Speaker: Then they're like, well, we already have this.
Speaker: We could sell it as an aftermarket accessory for other people who have the game.
Speaker: And so why double do it?
Speaker: So it seemed a little awkward that they had to walk that back.
Speaker: That's typically kind of a damage control on a business when they announce something and then they're like, oh, well, that's not really what we meant.
Speaker: But to anyone else, if you said exclusive topper, then that means exclusive topper.
Speaker: But they never said exclusive to Bond 60th.
Speaker: They just said it includes topper.
Speaker: No, no, that wasn't the feature.
Speaker: Oh, it was that it was an exclusive topper.
Speaker: Yeah, it was.
Speaker: Exclusive topper.
Speaker: And they said, well, it's exclusive because this is the only model that is included with.
Speaker: It's exclusive to Stern.
Speaker: So it's, uh, no one else can sell it.
Speaker: It's exclusive.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It just seemed a little bit like like gymnastics.
Speaker: They're trying to trying to thread that needle.
Speaker: But either way, I feel like there's so many questions that have arised from this Bond 60th.
Speaker: If you guys want to send us some questions for Elwin.
Speaker: Yeah, because we're going to have Elwin on here soon.
Speaker: The good news is we don't know anything more than you guys.
Speaker: We've seen we've seen the releases.
Speaker: We've seen that.
Speaker: And so we have the questions, too.
Speaker: Also, we're not going to be asking the questions to Elwin that you blatantly know he's not going to answer, right?
Speaker: Like, did the licensors suck to work with?
Speaker: Yes, Elwin's going to come on here and say, you know, they were just absolutely terrible.
Speaker: He's not going to say that.
Speaker: So we're not asking that kind of question.
Speaker: But I did find it funny.
Speaker: I was like, hmm, okay.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I agree.
Speaker: This whole bond six, I still wonder if Stern's kind of like, yeah, we're, we're done.
Speaker: Like it certainly from a PR standpoint, it did everything about this license has not gone the way that Stern would have liked.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And, and, and that's, that's pretty obvious for everybody who is familiar with Stern over the last 10 years.
Speaker: Here's the other thing, too.
Speaker: I got talking with Jason McDonald.
Speaker: He listens to the show.
Speaker: He asked me, what's your thoughts on Bond Pro and Premium?
Speaker: And we got talking about the tentative schedule, right?
Speaker: And it almost sounds like this might be a Stranger Things happening again, right?
Speaker: So they're doing the first run of Pros and Premiums.
Speaker: I know that they did like a small run before, but this is like the first official run, right, this month.
Speaker: Then April, they're doing another run of Pro and Premiums.
Speaker: And then June, they'll do one more run of Pros.
Speaker: That's it for a new title.
Speaker: That's not much.
Speaker: And especially for premiums are only doing two runs.
Speaker: And I'm hoping that who knows, maybe they'll keep the license longer.
Speaker: I actually did get, let me see, trying to find it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So ironically, I got this from, from Tom Walsh who lives out close to us.
Speaker: a friend of Tony Murphy and he bought a premium and this is what, this is what he said is.
Speaker: So I'm kind of in love with bond.
Speaker: I have, I have a premium, not bad, not too bad on 0.8 code and it can only get better, but I also love Deadpool.
Speaker: My friends who don't like Deadpool don't seem to like bond.
Speaker: And so that,
Speaker: That tells me that there is definitely potential for this.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I don't think that it's going to, I think it will turn out to be a solid game at the end.
Speaker: I I'm hoping that it stays in the cooker long enough to make it though.
Speaker: This is, this is my nervousness.
Speaker: Last premium comes out in April, right?
Speaker: First runs are, are called for.
Speaker: I think if you're sitting on the fence, you should go ahead and get a premium.
Speaker: If you're debating whether to get this game or not, because what's going to happen is the new game is going to come out in March.
Speaker: Depending on how that does, you know, could sway one way or the other.
Speaker: And then we have another game in October.
Speaker: If bond premium isn't put on the, the line by the end of the year and Stern goes back to three cornerstones, that means an L one cornerstone is coming out the first of 2024.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And as soon as another one comes out and they're pumping those out, there's no way they're going back to bond premiums.
Speaker: That is my assumption.
Speaker: You don't take it to the bank, but kind of all signs are leading that way.
Speaker: It gets this Stranger Things treatment.
Speaker: I bet a year down the road, the code's going to be nice.
Speaker: People are going to start enjoying bond and be like, well, crap, I should have bought this.
Speaker: And then who knows what happens with the license at that point.
Speaker: And what stranger things went to like $12,000, $13,000 a couple of years later, because no one could get ahold of the premiums.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And black night got, had a little bit of that too.
Speaker: So I, I'm stern as a manufacturer.
Speaker: If they, if there's not demand, they're going to cut off things, but it's the same, you know, you see similar things that happened with, um, pirates of the Caribbean through JJP.
Speaker: And I suspect that this is going to be one of those future premium titles that will command a high price.
Speaker: I think so too.
Speaker: So long as the code catches up.
Speaker: Which brings me to my next point.
Speaker: Did you hear they're going to rename it Elwyn Pinball?
Speaker: It's no longer Stern Pinball.
Speaker: Have you looked at this tentative production schedule?
Speaker: It might as well be called Elwyn Pinball at this point.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Go ahead and give us the rundown.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: January, Bond, Pro, Premium, and 60th.
Speaker: February, Godzilla, Premium, and Elvira, Premium.
Speaker: Which, if you did not hear, the price went up on that.
Speaker: It's $10,500 now.
Speaker: For all those people wishing they would have got in when it was in the $7,000 range three years ago.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: March, new Quarterstone.
Speaker: April, Bond.
Speaker: Just pro premium.
Speaker: May, Iron Maiden and pro and premium.
Speaker: June, Bond pro, Godzilla pro, Jurassic Park premium.
Speaker: July, Avengers pro and premium.
Speaker: August, Star Wars pro and premium.
Speaker: September, new title question mark.
Speaker: October, Jurassic Park Pro.
Speaker: And there's a space there, so that's probably the new title.
Speaker: November, Godzilla Pro and Premium.
Speaker: No, sorry, just Godzilla Premium that month with Mando Pro and Premium.
Speaker: And then December is Deadpool Pro and Premium.
Speaker: I saw you're keeping count there.
Speaker: How many months out of the year has Elwin got?
Speaker: That was like six months.
Speaker: Yeah, that was like six months.
Speaker: That is nutso.
Speaker: Okay, he deserves it.
Speaker: Because he really is 4 for 4 for Cornerstone Games.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: I'm jury still out on Bond 60, but that's also, I'm willing to even admit that that's a boutique, that's a special interest game, and never was really intended for mass sales.
Speaker: But my gosh, he's still selling the Iron Maiden.
Speaker: Yes, that is.
Speaker: OK, it's certainly not the band that people are buying because I know some people that music drives them nuts.
Speaker: I like the music, but but that just shows the strength of the game that I completely took over what was, I guess, a very polarizing license.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Well, and I've heard it recently.
Speaker: I know they kind of talked about it in Final Round.
Speaker: I've heard from other people.
Speaker: They need to have Elwin just cranking out games.
Speaker: Why would you have him cranking out games when all four of his titles are still selling like crazy?
Speaker: I mean, you want to draw this out and make the people want more.
Speaker: People are obviously wanting more at this point.
Speaker: And I find it interesting that they've canceled a bunch of games, right?
Speaker: The four designers that are at Stern right now are Borg,
Speaker: Danger, Eddie, and Elwin.
Speaker: Borg has one game on the line.
Speaker: Everything else has been canceled.
Speaker: Gomez jumps in occasionally.
Speaker: Correct.
Speaker: And sometimes, I mean, I guess we can't.
Speaker: That's the business, right?
Speaker: If you're still selling the Beatles' White Album, you're not going to cap it.
Speaker: True.
Speaker: But my point being is Borg has one game on the line.
Speaker: It's Mando.
Speaker: No, sorry, sorry.
Speaker: Eddie just has Mando on it.
Speaker: Granted, he's only made two games for Stern.
Speaker: Stranger Things, that was a challenging one just because it was, sadly, I think it was cut short because it's a very similar layout to Attack from Mars.
Speaker: And it took a while for everything to come through.
Speaker: The lighting kit was afterwards, and that was the first time they offered something that was, I mean, that was a big impact piece, but there were people who felt strongly that that should have been included, which probably should have been.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But they were certainly hesitant to raise prices.
Speaker: So it seemed like that was the inflection point when they said, we want to put more features in the game, but we can't afford it under the current build of material.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So if you want to get a full feature game, you have to buy it after market to put it in.
Speaker: So, so I do feel bad for stranger things that it did not get the run.
Speaker: It should have.
Speaker: So, so Eddie only has Mando Borg.
Speaker: Who's been there since data East only has rush on the line.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Or that they haven't canceled.
Speaker: It's not even on the line this next year.
Speaker: Well, I canceled retired.
Speaker: Danger doesn't have a game.
Speaker: They've already canceled Jurassic Park home pin.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Which I find interesting because the, the three home pins they have, at least the, you know, the two, the, the, the Jurassic Park home edition and the, and the,
Speaker: Star Wars Home Edition, they're actually very solid games.
Speaker: Yes, they are not going to have the depth of a cornerstone game in code and rules, but they are fun to flip.
Speaker: And so it does surprise me that they are not going to continue to make Jack's game because I was pleasantly surprised by it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Same here.
Speaker: Because it's because you're like, well, there's the Elwynn game, which is the top 10 game.
Speaker: And then you have the home edition by a new designer.
Speaker: And to Jack's credit, he really produced a solid game.
Speaker: But my point being is you look at this list, this is one way that they're combating the recession.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: is you're cutting titles that aren't selling as well, and you're stuffing your lineup with greatest hits, right?
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: And your greatest hits right now are Elwynn's.
Speaker: Seriously, outside of Elwynn and new titles, you have Elvira, which is Lyman Sheet's last game for Stern, and that makes sense.
Speaker: Because people love Elvira.
Speaker: I don't know how it's still selling at a higher price than everything else, but it's still selling.
Speaker: Then Star Wars, because it's freaking Star Wars.
Speaker: Do I have to have any other explanation outside of that?
Speaker: Mando Pro and Deadpool.
Speaker: Well, Pro and Premium.
Speaker: I mean, you've got four different titles over the next year that aren't Elwynn besides new titles, which we don't know, but the rumors are Eddie and Danger.
Speaker: So... Yeah, but if you look at... It makes sense, though.
Speaker: If you have the license for... So I'm just going to give you the quick rundown of the top 15 on Pinside, okay?
Speaker: So let's just see how many of these pop up in the manufacturing schedule.
Speaker: Number one, Godzilla.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Done.
Speaker: Two, Medieval Madness.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Not Stern.
Speaker: Three, Jurassic Park.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Same designer.
Speaker: Four, Attack from Mars.
Speaker: Two seconds.
Speaker: Yeah, but CGC needs to run.
Speaker: They said they were doing Medieval Madness this month.
Speaker: That was a year and a half ago.
Speaker: Come on, guys.
Speaker: really come on okay we're we're pulling for you everybody loves your games please figure out a way to make them faster yes um all right you said four was attack attack from mars five is deadpool so is that is that retired yet no it's on the line in december oh it's oh okay december i didn't hear that part okay so that's on the line monster bash not theirs
Speaker: This is alternative, by the way.
Speaker: This is alternative.
Speaker: So it could change.
Speaker: Of course.
Speaker: But Monster Bash, not theirs.
Speaker: Not on the line.
Speaker: Iron Maiden, theirs on the line.
Speaker: Elvira, theirs on the line.
Speaker: Twilight Zone and Metallica round up.
Speaker: And then you have Lord of the Rings, Cats Canyon, Pirates of the Caribbean, Avengers, Infinity Quest, and Rush.
Speaker: So of the top 15, yeah, of the top 15, you have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven of them are Stern.
Speaker: And still on the line, right?
Speaker: And still on the line.
Speaker: Those seven games are still on the line because obviously there's a reason why they're still, they're selling.
Speaker: No one's selling their games right now because you can't replace it.
Speaker: Maybe they should name one of the new wings of Stern after Elwin.
Speaker: That's just what I'm saying right now, okay?
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Actually, here's the good part, though, is that...
Speaker: You know when a band comes out and creates a new sound that really reinvigorates the music scene?
Speaker: So like Elvis or Beatles or Nirvana?
Speaker: Yeah, well, Nirvana is the biggest one that I personally experienced.
Speaker: Because before Nirvana, it was kind of a tired hairband world.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: that's when you get like the, those, those one hit wonders, like the jackals of the world and, and yeah.
Speaker: And just, I don't know, winger.
Speaker: But when Nirvana came out immediately, everyone's like, Whoa, what is this?
Speaker: And immediately everybody who was trying to be a metal band immediately became a grunge band.
Speaker: So with Ellen coming out and of the top 15, he has all four of his in there.
Speaker: this elevates the game or at least gives a higher target for the other designers.
Speaker: So I think this is the year that they can prove that they can compete a high-selling game in line with L1.
Speaker: Well, and this is what I keep hearing because we've obviously seen Bon 60th come out and it's an L1 and there's only 500 made.
Speaker: And I think people are really freaking out about this because of the price point.
Speaker: Well, you have to understand, I think this is a one-off product that was asked by the licensor to be done.
Speaker: And Elwin just threw his hat in the ring because that's what he said on Stern Insider Podcast.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: and they accepted his, you know, him winded design.
Speaker: I don't think this is a test the waters to see if they can raise the price on Elwynn, to see if they can raise the price on their pinball machines.
Speaker: Stern actively knows that there is a recession.
Speaker: I think we all know that we've hit a recession.
Speaker: And this is the way that they're combating it, is they're using the old catalog of Elwynn to get them through to the next year at the very least.
Speaker: And then we'll see what happens at the beginning of next year.
Speaker: They're very smart.
Speaker: I don't think I keep hearing these people that say, you know, I can't believe they're raising prices again.
Speaker: Have you guys seen the shipping on pinball machines?
Speaker: I don't know how there's people still offering free shipping with their pinball machines.
Speaker: It's, it's the, it's supply and demand.
Speaker: I mean, that's the bottom line.
Speaker: It's supply and demand.
Speaker: And if the supply outpaced demand, then you would see price cuts.
Speaker: And, and that's, and we don't want to go back.
Speaker: We don't want to go back to the, the late aughts where it was the cheapified version of games.
Speaker: And you started with, you started with the last, with, you know, the first decade of the new century, and you started with Lord of the Rings, Simpsons pinball party, and you ended with Big Buck Hunter.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it basically took and that was because they were stripping everything out of the games because they they were just barely trying to sell them.
Speaker: So I don't want them to be desperate enough to do that because I like a full featured game.
Speaker: All I'm saying is I don't think the trend is going to change for Stern going forward.
Speaker: I think that they are in a safe position.
Speaker: We are going to see some changes over the next year, though.
Speaker: And it just depends where prices fall with supply and demand and also external factors.
Speaker: We're all filling it right now.
Speaker: It's not just Stern.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: I want to thank the fans that have listened for the last four years.
Speaker: We are now at episode 100, like we've said.
Speaker: And I posted last week.
Speaker: I just want to read some of these remarks to you because it was very heartwarming to hear from some people.
Speaker: I often just think of we're two dudes that just do a podcast, right?
Speaker: And that's really all it is.
Speaker: We've talked about this and we talked pinball for years.
Speaker: And so it's like, well, why don't we just start recording this?
Speaker: I didn't realize how much I guess we meant to the hobby.
Speaker: I mean, Joe from Pinball Degenerates said, thanks for creating such a quality podcast.
Speaker: Broadcast.
Speaker: I love that you threw that in.
Speaker: Broadcast.
Speaker: Thanks for creating such a quality podcast and keep up the fantastic charity work you guys do.
Speaker: Always a pleasure to meet up with you both, Scott and Josh.
Speaker: The pinball community is a much better place with you guys being a positive part of it.
Speaker: Keep it going.
Speaker: Julianne, which is your co-worker, which somehow you have sucked her into this.
Speaker: Happy anniversary and congrats.
Speaker: Y'all are the best.
Speaker: All the hard work y'all invest is very much appreciated.
Speaker: Keep on keeping on.
Speaker: I want to give him a shout out, but I don't know if he wants me to, he sent me a personal message and I don't know if it's because he didn't want to put his comment on the Facebook post or if it's just he wanted to send something a little more personal.
Speaker: So I'm going to keep him anonymous.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Anywho, he writes, I wanted to congratulate you on your loser kid anniversary.
Speaker: Keep up the good work.
Speaker: Pinball needs you too.
Speaker: Which I replied, thank you for the congratulations.
Speaker: I think you've overvalued our worth to pinball, but I appreciate your kind words, right?
Speaker: I don't feel like we are moving the needle one way or the other when it comes to pinball.
Speaker: But I think we are a force for a positive influence on pinball.
Speaker: Correct.
Speaker: And that's what he responded.
Speaker: He responded, there are very few non-toxic, generally positive voices in this hobby.
Speaker: You guys are essential.
Speaker: And I guess I've never looked at it that way.
Speaker: Because we do tend to look on the more positive side of things.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I will say that it's more fun.
Speaker: to be in a hobby that has less toxicity.
Speaker: Because every hobby, every weird hobby, strange hobby, small hobby, they all have it in some measure.
Speaker: And if there's anything we can do to undermine that and to focus on the positive stuff.
Speaker: Okay, so in the hospital, I was dealing with someone who broke his leg, he was snowboarding.
Speaker: but he hit a tree and I, I, I had a quick talk with him.
Speaker: Like, Hey, do you know how to ski in trees?
Speaker: He's like, yeah, don't hit the trees.
Speaker: I'm like, okay, no, like you focus.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: But you focus on the gaps between the trees and your mind gravitates toward that.
Speaker: And so if you don't want to hit trees, you focus on the gaps.
Speaker: And I would argue the same thing.
Speaker: If you don't want to see the negativity in a hobby or at least dwell on it, and you can be aware it's there, but don't focus on that aspect.
Speaker: Focus on other aspects that actually make you want to do the hobby more, to buy more, to be more involved.
Speaker: And I'm glad that that comes across because that definitely has been something we've tried to do.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: When I first got in the hobby nine years ago, oh, it's been a while now.
Speaker: It was the exact same complaints as what we're having now.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: It never changes.
Speaker: It was priced.
Speaker: It was priced.
Speaker: And don't get me wrong.
Speaker: I'm feeling the hurt on the price.
Speaker: I'm right there with you guys.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, people are complaining at $2,000 fishtails and $2,100 shadows.
Speaker: If we could, we'd all have the collection of our dreams, right?
Speaker: If price wasn't a problem and space wasn't a problem, we'd own them all.
Speaker: I think that's the thing, though, is you've got to find happiness in the part of the pinball that you want.
Speaker: Focus on the gaps, like you said, Scott.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And sadly, if pinball is making you sad, find something else.
Speaker: I hate to say that, but if that's not bringing you joy, as the decluttering person says, then find something that does.
Speaker: But I will argue that there are aspects of the hobby, even with all its warts, that are fun and inclusive and available for all.
Speaker: And I feel like this is the first year that I've felt content in pinball as well.
Speaker: I've always been nervous of like, what do you mean by that?
Speaker: FOMO, right?
Speaker: Like I've always, I've always got to get the next pinball machine.
Speaker: I've always, I'm missing out on this.
Speaker: I'm not doing that.
Speaker: And I just, yeah, it stinks that like, it feels like there's no, I'm not excited for venom just based off of the theme.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And Foo Fighters is enjoyable.
Speaker: I like their music, but it's not like it's once again, I'm going to have to see it.
Speaker: In fairness, I was not excited for Deadpool.
Speaker: Yes, I wasn't because I thought it was going to be.
Speaker: I thought it was going to be the Ryan Reynolds version, which is hilarious, but it wouldn't fit in my home.
Speaker: So I was really glad that they went the direction they did.
Speaker: And it's still hilarious.
Speaker: So these things can change.
Speaker: I was not excited for Godzilla.
Speaker: You knew that.
Speaker: I was like, Godzilla as a theme.
Speaker: Are you kidding me?
Speaker: I'm not going to buy this.
Speaker: And then after I said, I'm like, okay, put me down for a premium.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I wish I bought the LE that I thought I was this close to buying the LE.
Speaker: So right now, for the next year, I'm not planning on buying any pinball.
Speaker: Doesn't mean that'll change.
Speaker: Doesn't mean Venom will come out and be like, wow, Eddie just killed it, you know?
Speaker: Or Danger just slayed it with Foo Fighters.
Speaker: But right now, I'm content.
Speaker: For the next year, I'm like, you know what?
Speaker: That's fine.
Speaker: If that's what it takes, then so be it.
Speaker: Where I used to be like, no, I need to know what the next game is.
Speaker: I need to know what's going on.
Speaker: No, I'm just, I'm completely happy and content where I'm at right now in pinball.
Speaker: And I, and it's very peaceful.
Speaker: Yeah, no, it's good.
Speaker: Namaste.
Speaker: Our friends, Ron and Bruce over at slam tilt podcast want to say, Hey, one more year and you guys can start making comments about pinball.
Speaker: Love you, Dave.
Speaker: Dave picks.
Speaker: So there was plenty of comments.
Speaker: We thank all those that have reached out and that we've made friends with.
Speaker: It's been awesome.
Speaker: I'm glad that you feel, and I've said this before, podcasts are, there's always a third chair and the person listening is in that third chair.
Speaker: And if we're doing it right, then I'm hoping we say something and they want to chime in to the conversation and say, well, I'm looking forward to this or I like this.
Speaker: Okay, good.
Speaker: That tells me I'm doing something, that we are doing something right by allowing people to feel that they're part of the conversation.
Speaker: I do have one complaint, though, actually.
Speaker: It just hit me.
Speaker: About me?
Speaker: No, about... I was watching the ad for Twippies, and they showed everyone at Texas Pinball Festival last year that helped host and gave out awards except for us.
Speaker: What the crap?
Speaker: What are we, chopped liver, Will?
Speaker: We just had you on the show like a month and a half ago, dude.
Speaker: No, that's okay.
Speaker: It's okay.
Speaker: We don't want to steal the thunder, so...
Speaker: But sadly, we actually can't make it this year.
Speaker: So yeah, I feel bad about that.
Speaker: But Twippy's still up.
Speaker: Please go and vote for your favorite everything in it.
Speaker: Actually, by the time we post this, today's the last day.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Well, then you know what?
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: If you didn't rank us, then you're dead to me.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Forget that.
Speaker: If you're a judge for the Pinball Industry Awards and you're looking for the podcast in excellence, look no further.
Speaker: Yeah, I already turned in my ballot on that one.
Speaker: I thought we were supposed to grease some hands.
Speaker: Aren't we supposed to know the judges so we can like... What is this?
Speaker: You can't buy votes if I don't know who the judges are, right?
Speaker: This is the...
Speaker: yeah no it's all uh no i'm joking but it's it's been an awesome four years thanks everyone that's tuned in uh we have an interview for you coming up we're excited about this um this gentleman i feel like is the voice of your ballet williams 90s uh as soon as we introduce him you will know exactly who we're talking about and
Speaker: We went kind of a different approach.
Speaker: We usually just do the interview, right?
Speaker: And this being the 100th episode, we wanted to kind of talk a little bit and then do the interview without further ado.
Speaker: But right now, we have a gentleman that is...
Speaker: I would say infamous and legendary in the pinball hobby.
Speaker: He has some of the most iconic games that he's worked on, like Twilight Zone, Medieval Madness, Attack for Mars, and even recently, Elvira's House of Horrors and Deadpool.
Speaker: You know him as Mr. Boom Shakalaka.
Speaker: This is Tim Kitzrow.
Speaker: How you doing, Tim?
Speaker: Welcome to NBA Jam Tournament Edition with Loserkid.
Speaker: Kaboom!
Speaker: Hey, man.
Speaker: Hey, you said infamous.
Speaker: Am I infamous also?
Speaker: Yeah, man.
Speaker: What's the infamy, man?
Speaker: Did I do something?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I just, I'm using, I'm using catchy words, right?
Speaker: Yeah, I like that.
Speaker: He's infamous for his role as Rod Serling in the Twilight Zone.
Speaker: You mentioned Medieval Madness.
Speaker: Oddly enough, I did not do that one.
Speaker: I think that actually Tina Fey is in that one too.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: She did that.
Speaker: But yeah, I started out at Williams all those years ago, and the Twilight Zone was second or third up.
Speaker: I forget, but I know that my first game got me into this whole industry was Gilligan's Island doing The Millionaire.
Speaker: Gilligan, maybe we could bribe Kona.
Speaker: Oh, lovey.
Speaker: And that was it.
Speaker: And the rest was history.
Speaker: It's been fun to see that game at some of the shows this year.
Speaker: I just saw it down in Houston and a couple other places.
Speaker: It's one of the harder to find games.
Speaker: People that find it love it.
Speaker: It's a good game.
Speaker: I got to ask, though.
Speaker: So I was looking kind of up your resume, and it said that you were classically trained in acting first.
Speaker: How did you go from classically trained acting to video games with Bally Williams and, well, I guess Bally Williams WMS?
Speaker: You know, the ride was not one I certainly planned.
Speaker: And my original plan out of high school was to get a great theater training at Purchase College.
Speaker: And that's in Westchester County, New York, who was the only fine arts college in the state university system.
Speaker: So basically you were getting a conservatory training for
Speaker: like Juilliard or NYU, but for like $1,200 because it was a state school.
Speaker: But you had, you know, when I first was sitting out there, I thought, oh, well, it's a state school.
Speaker: So I just apply and get in.
Speaker: But no, it was an audition with 600 people.
Speaker: They chose 30.
Speaker: And we did all the classics.
Speaker: And it was, you know, speech and voice and makeup and movement and circus and performance.
Speaker: It was a great, great training.
Speaker: And then I came out to Chicago.
Speaker: After a small time in L.A.
Speaker: doing some theater up in Will Gear Theater in Topanga Canyon.
Speaker: And as many plays as I had done at that point, my favorite was always comedy.
Speaker: And I thought what's more fun than doing comedy is writing your own comedy.
Speaker: So I wanted to go to Second City to kind of create my own comedy and just have that whole experience.
Speaker: And SCTV was a big, big influence on me comedically.
Speaker: A lot of people go to Saturday Night Live, but I was in the SCTV camp.
Speaker: Of course, John Candy, Flaherty, Catherine O'Hare, Eugene Levy, Rick Moranis, just an unbelievable cast.
Speaker: And I don't think they ever got enough credit, but that was, in the end, was like, well, I'm doing what they're doing.
Speaker: I'm going to Second City.
Speaker: That's where I'm going to get my training.
Speaker: So I came out to Chicago and then do what every other actor does, wait tables and go to these stupid auditions for a Bud Light commercial or anything.
Speaker: Some other stuff.
Speaker: And I was in a little weekend band because I always played drums, never wanted to stop playing drums just because I was waiting tables and pursuing acting.
Speaker: And in that band was a gentleman who worked at the Williams Pinball Company and his job as all the musician players.
Speaker: Musicians out there, their job is to do everything basically producer.
Speaker: They put all the music in the games, they compose the music, they hire the talent, they write the script, they record it, they edit.
Speaker: Today, there's like five guys who do those jobs generally, especially in video games, not so much in pinball.
Speaker: Pinball still is.
Speaker: Pretty much a small operation where one guy does a lot of jobs.
Speaker: But he said, hey, you're a pretty clever guy.
Speaker: You're out in Second City.
Speaker: We need a voice for Gilligan's Island.
Speaker: And as I said, I was able to pull that off.
Speaker: And then they said, hey, we're looking for Rod Sterling.
Speaker: You think you could do that?
Speaker: It was like, you're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight, a dimension of sound.
Speaker: You were about to embark on a journey, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker: So it was enough.
Speaker: You know, they would put it in my headset and play some back so I'd kind of get the tone, the intonation, whatever.
Speaker: It was mimicking.
Speaker: You know, I wasn't, you know, I never thought of myself as an impressionist.
Speaker: But then there was Popeye.
Speaker: You know, I had to come up with a Popeye.
Speaker: Like, wow, blow me down.
Speaker: It's going to see how.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Enough to get by at least 30 years ago, I could do it.
Speaker: Where did Sleepy go?
Speaker: Should have happened to Hitler.
Speaker: So it was just like when I was a kid, I loved being goofy, loved doing funny voices.
Speaker: As I said, comedy was always my real passion, even with the more dramatic roles that I'd done with Shakespeare, Prince Henry, Prince Hal rather, and Romeo, for instance, and some Chekhov plays.
Speaker: But it was always the comedy that I came back to.
Speaker: So this was a fun opportunity to be creative, have fun, make 50 bucks an hour and never thought of it as a career.
Speaker: And for a long, long time after, it was just extra money and fun.
Speaker: You know, it never paid much.
Speaker: And generally back in those days, the guys in the studio, the different people around the studio, like Steve Ritchie or Mark Ritchie, they would do the voices.
Speaker: They would only get outside talent when one of their guys couldn't really do the role.
Speaker: Like Steve Ritchie is also known for people for Mortal Kombat.
Speaker: You know, he was like, finish him and Shao Kwan.
Speaker: you know, that kind of stuff.
Speaker: Mark Ritchie actually did the first Party Monsters, Elvira, the role that I did, which is kind of like the Dracula vampire sidekick.
Speaker: What time is it, Elvira?
Speaker: Time to get scared, Steve!
Speaker: When the coffins are rocking, don't come a-knocking!
Speaker: And right now I'm getting nailed in the coffin big time!
Speaker: Ho-ho!
Speaker: Ho-ho!
Speaker: So on my resume, I had put like Elvira, Party Monsters, Elvira Scared Stiff.
Speaker: And then I just did the recent one a couple of years ago, House of Horrors.
Speaker: And then I talked to Greg Ferris.
Speaker: He goes, no, you weren't into Party Monsters.
Speaker: I go, oh, really?
Speaker: I thought I was in all of them.
Speaker: He goes, no, that was Mark Ritchie.
Speaker: I go, oh, OK, whatever.
Speaker: But it was fun to return almost 30 years later from doing that first Elvira Scared Stiff, maybe 25 years later.
Speaker: And this one, I did seven roles in the new Elvira House of Horrors.
Speaker: I do all the floating deadhead ghosts.
Speaker: I do the 50s horror film trailer voice and, of course, the sidekick.
Speaker: And we won a Twippy Award, which means the best voiceover call-outs in a pinball game for that year.
Speaker: And we were supposed to...
Speaker: get them at the Houston show and then COVID hit.
Speaker: So I never got to get that in person.
Speaker: And I was supposed to be at Elvira.
Speaker: I still haven't met Cassandra, but what a great return after all those years and all the NBA jam and sports things to go back to doing a video or a pinball game work with Stern and doing a great little cameo in Deadpool as well.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: So what did you do in Deadpool?
Speaker: Because I know that Norlin North did do Deadpool himself.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: If you get to the disco round.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: It's time to put on your boogie shoes.
Speaker: We're going to party till dawn.
Speaker: Hey, guys, $20 at the door.
Speaker: And ladies, I drink for free.
Speaker: Get it?
Speaker: Hey, Barton, give me a Virgin Mary.
Speaker: Make an extra virgin.
Speaker: That kind of stuff.
Speaker: That is awesome.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: That's, that's great.
Speaker: I assume that you, you obviously have to train to, to turn it on and off like that, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's always been the way my brain's been wired.
Speaker: That's why I couldn't, couldn't, uh, you know, go to class without getting in trouble.
Speaker: I just, I just couldn't keep the yapper shut.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Runs on many cylinders.
Speaker: So did you get to write some of, you said that you did comedy.
Speaker: Did you get to write some of the lines and stuff here in these games that you did over in Valley Williams and whatnot?
Speaker: Yeah, I think basically every game I ever did, I contributed lines to all the pinball games.
Speaker: Whatever they had for a script,
Speaker: you do.
Speaker: And then whatever pops into my head, there was always improvisation.
Speaker: The last one, Deadpool, I wrote a lot of it myself.
Speaker: I did.
Speaker: I did.
Speaker: Yeah, I did a lot of that myself.
Speaker: And then the same thing with the Elvira.
Speaker: Greg wrote a great script and then I just improvised off it.
Speaker: So it's always a collaboration.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then, of course, for the video games, though, I started writing in full with the first NFL Blitz.
Speaker: After NBA Jam, they said, hey, you're good with comedy and stuff, and this is going to be your character, so you have to express yourself, your persona, instead of us writing for you.
Speaker: Like, how do you express yourself?
Speaker: And that became that wise guy like, and that was totally unnecessary.
Speaker: Ha ha!
Speaker: Oh, but a whole lot of fun to watch.
Speaker: Let's see it again, Arnie.
Speaker: That was the NFL blitz stuff.
Speaker: And oh, he just ripped his head off.
Speaker: That was just his helmet.
Speaker: Darn it.
Speaker: And then when we came back to revisit NBA Jam with EA Sports, they just, you know, said, hey, this is yours.
Speaker: Go for it.
Speaker: And I probably wrote, you know, 500 to 1,000 lines.
Speaker: And that's where you start to get the crazier persona.
Speaker: Instead of just saying like, you know,
Speaker: For three, from downtown, nothing but net.
Speaker: I go, from downtown.
Speaker: And like rummaging through my wife's top dresser drawer, he finds nothing but nylon.
Speaker: Boom shakalaka.
Speaker: Or instead of simply rejected for a block, I go, oh, I love it when you call me Big Blocker.
Speaker: The block doctor is in and we'll see you now.
Speaker: Have a seat, LeBron.
Speaker: And so that's when it was basically full on like writing a adult swim.
Speaker: That's the way I thought of it.
Speaker: It's like, you know, I've got this this this world that I'm going to inhabit.
Speaker: I'm the main voice.
Speaker: So like Deadpool, like it's my, you know, snarky kind of, you know, announcer comedy voice.
Speaker: Sometimes it's announcers.
Speaker: Sometimes it's kind of a heckling fan.
Speaker: And it just became my, you know, my my signature style.
Speaker: which I also have now crossed over into working with NBA teams where they will send me highlights and I will just, you know, put together a voiceover for the highlights.
Speaker: And then they played on their jumbotron and social media.
Speaker: I worked with the Golden State Warriors for two years during their finals championships.
Speaker: And I would do a roundup of every series, a playoff series, and then the finals and, you know,
Speaker: You know, what does stuffed curry have for breakfast?
Speaker: Snap, crackle pop, nice crisp threes.
Speaker: Make him a part of your balanced NBA diet.
Speaker: Kaboom.
Speaker: What's for dinner?
Speaker: Curry surprise.
Speaker: It's fast, easy to make, and a real crowd pleaser.
Speaker: He's on fire.
Speaker: How do you like your curry?
Speaker: I like mine on fuego.
Speaker: That kind of stuff.
Speaker: That is amazing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And James Harden, I got to go to a Houston Rockets game.
Speaker: They played my video highlights on the Jumbotron.
Speaker: I introduced the team lineup.
Speaker: And so we had like, you know, in the video, Harden's coming down the court doing the shake and bake.
Speaker: And this is a limited time TV offer.
Speaker: It slices, it dices, it dunks in your face.
Speaker: Announcing the amazing Hardenizer.
Speaker: Beards sold separately.
Speaker: Call now and they'll throw in this free dagger at the buzzer.
Speaker: Boom shakalaka.
Speaker: So that's the ultimate of like going from NBA Jam, this minimalist game from 93, which really had basically just small, short one-liners, which were nothing more than a lift of the Marv Albert Game of the Week dialogue.
Speaker: Because John Hay, who was the composer of the music and the sound guy in that, he said, hey, we want it to sound like an NBA game.
Speaker: Marv is the voice of the NBA.
Speaker: I'm new at doing this.
Speaker: So here's what it is.
Speaker: You know, all those phrases are basically things you would have heard in a game of the week.
Speaker: But then, as I said, every game after and when I work with the NBA, now I get to go, OK, that may be where I started, you know, kind of doing this like Marv kind of feel.
Speaker: But now it's now it's my thing.
Speaker: I kind of think of it as a kind of a stand up persona.
Speaker: Listening to because NBA Jam is so iconic.
Speaker: I think everyone knows Boom Shakalaka and whatnot.
Speaker: Did you think that it would ever go from just voicing a video game to having NBA teams call you up and say, hey, we want you to start doing this stuff for us?
Speaker: Well, no.
Speaker: And interestingly enough, it wasn't they who called me.
Speaker: It was me who called them.
Speaker: I just got this idea in my head one day as I was thinking, well, nobody's waking up thinking, hey, I wonder how Tim Kittrow is doing.
Speaker: I wonder how that waiting tables of Smith and Walensky is going.
Speaker: I wonder if he feels...
Speaker: He feels like he's just a has-been.
Speaker: Boy, we should bring him in here and do some voiceover for our NBA team.
Speaker: I thought, no, these guys are probably all now 30 or 40, which means they were 5 or 10 or 15 when the jam came out.
Speaker: So I had this good idea that, hey, they might be fans.
Speaker: And I got a lure in the lure box.
Speaker: So I call, you know, get their number off the Internet just for like, you know, the games operation, entertainment person.
Speaker: Of course, you get their voicemail, and I could just leave a voicemail like, you've reached Trey Smith from the Atlanta Hawks.
Speaker: He can't come to the phone right now because he's on fire.
Speaker: No, seriously, he was heating up some pizza in the toast oven and a sleeve caught fire, leaving your message at the buzzer, and you won't be rejected.
Speaker: Hey, Trey, this is Tim, Mr. Boomshok Locker from NBA Jam.
Speaker: I was wondering if you guys might want to do a throwback night, 90s night with some NBA Jam highlights.
Speaker: Call me back.
Speaker: And then they call back and go, dude, are you really the dude?
Speaker: He goes, I was playing this around the office and people thought someone was putting me on.
Speaker: So it was fun that I realized that my secret power, my superhero secret power was Boomshak locking my voice.
Speaker: And I was able to get some people on board that way.
Speaker: But no, when I made this game, as I said, I'm thinking nothing more than I'm making 50 bucks an hour, which is really good money for anybody still in this day and age.
Speaker: 50 bucks for an hour of being silly.
Speaker: is great money.
Speaker: As a businessman, it sucks.
Speaker: It's not good pay.
Speaker: Granted, it was 30 years ago, but over the years, I had to try to learn the business aspect of it more.
Speaker: So all these years later, working with a professional NBA team, doing highlights for Steph Curry.
Speaker: I mean, that's part of my legacy.
Speaker: That'll be there forever.
Speaker: And no, I
Speaker: I was forgotten for a long time.
Speaker: I mean, the arcade industry, pinball industry, both basically had a DOA.
Speaker: You remember that period, right?
Speaker: No one thought they were coming back.
Speaker: And then they came back.
Speaker: And so there were a bunch of years in there where all the kids who played my game growing up were getting older, getting families of their own together.
Speaker: And there was no way I would have known that there was even...
Speaker: the fan appreciation that there is until I started to go to shows a few years ago, where these game conventions have popped up now literally in almost every state and almost every city and meeting fans who go, wow, you're the voice of my childhood.
Speaker: I can't believe.
Speaker: It's like I have no idea, had no idea that it had that kind of an impact.
Speaker: I knew the game itself was popular.
Speaker: I knew it made $2 billion, a billion the first year in quarters, a billion in quarters.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: And when Jurassic Park that same year selling tickets probably back then for about $8 to $10, they made $600 million worldwide.
Speaker: And we make $400 million more than Jurassic Park quarter by quarter.
Speaker: So I knew all that stuff.
Speaker: So it was kind of depressing.
Speaker: Like I'm waiting tables again.
Speaker: early 2000s and going, oh, well, that was fun.
Speaker: That whole thing's over.
Speaker: Now sports games are all sim games, so they go to broadcasters.
Speaker: They go to ABC, ESPN broadcasters.
Speaker: I'm known for my style, which is arcade style.
Speaker: So I thought it was done and over.
Speaker: And so to have this resurgence, and I did a remake of Mutant Football League a few years ago.
Speaker: We're working on another version now.
Speaker: That's a remake of a 93 classic mutant football league.
Speaker: And I've got all these opportunities, I said, in different fields with ESPN.
Speaker: I've done some stuff for them.
Speaker: I did some highlights on SportsCenter and working with the NBA teams.
Speaker: I've got a few new games to go.
Speaker: So it's almost like this second life, you know, 25, 30 years later is really unexpected.
Speaker: I assume that you enjoyed playing games and stuff like that, too, while you're.
Speaker: Nope.
Speaker: Nope.
Speaker: Nope.
Speaker: It was you know, there's a weird period of time.
Speaker: My generation growing up, going to college where there were only a handful of the games were out there.
Speaker: You'd see Space Invaders and Pac-Man, whatever.
Speaker: But those quarters were really hard to come by.
Speaker: And I had a job at school that paid about $15 for eight hours.
Speaker: And so to take those quarters and not spend them on beer and to, you know, if I sit down at Pac-Man, I burn through a couple of dollars like that.
Speaker: That's a few beers, especially on 25 cent beer night on Wednesday nights at the pub.
Speaker: So kind of early on, you know, and I was just so busy, you know, acting completely involved with that and engaged with my fellow, you know, classmates and everything else.
Speaker: Just to walk off and start playing video games just wasn't part of who I am.
Speaker: I need to, you know, that's Second City.
Speaker: It's like I like to collaborate.
Speaker: I like to, you know, create stuff.
Speaker: So, you know, as an actor, I'm always with people.
Speaker: And so that idea of just being with a game in that world,
Speaker: It's just foreign to me.
Speaker: And even when I went to, you know, to Midway and work on games, I'd come out to their cafeteria.
Speaker: They had every pinball game, every video game.
Speaker: And when NBA Jam was out there, I'm grabbing the joystick, hitting buttons like a little kid's like, I can't figure it out.
Speaker: I'm going to go sit down and cruise and smash some, you know, stingrays on cruising.
Speaker: You know, it was easy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You've got quite the resume here when it comes to these games.
Speaker: These have been considered some of the best games of all time.
Speaker: Like I said, Attack for Mars.
Speaker: Are you the alien in Attack for Mars?
Speaker: Or what do you do in there?
Speaker: I know that I'm the military guy.
Speaker: Like, we're going to build a blaster.
Speaker: Let's blast him.
Speaker: You know, that guy.
Speaker: And I don't, I think the alien is Vince Pontarelli, who was one of the great sound guys, who's a great mimic.
Speaker: But yeah, it was just generally, besides a general, like, oh, return to battle, soldier.
Speaker: If you get a gutter ball.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: On the first poll.
Speaker: And I had only played that for the first time in probably 20 something years at one of the recent shows.
Speaker: So I go, oh, yeah, that's me.
Speaker: That's me.
Speaker: A lot of our multiple voices.
Speaker: Of course, you know, the obvious ones, I'm the lead, you know, Twilight Zone and Shadow is a smaller voice.
Speaker: I'm the voice of the Shadow.
Speaker: OK.
Speaker: Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?
Speaker: The Shadow knows.
Speaker: And Red and Ted, one of my favorites, the roadshow adventure where I play Red.
Speaker: Well, honey, I got my paycheck.
Speaker: Let's go wreck some road.
Speaker: Uh-oh, here comes that pastrami sandwich again.
Speaker: Oh, I knew I shouldn't have that.
Speaker: That's the multiball.
Speaker: He wakes up at night and he gets the burp going and then the ball starts shooting out.
Speaker: What are some of the others?
Speaker: Well, of course, oh, whodunit, which is a great one because it's, you know, I'm Nick Spade, the private island.
Speaker: Suddenly I was back on the case.
Speaker: I took the elevator to the penthouse.
Speaker: Hmm.
Speaker: I wonder what's down there.
Speaker: That kind of stuff.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That was a great one.
Speaker: And that's one you rarely see, but it's one of my favorites.
Speaker: And then I assume you reprised your role for Revenge for Mars.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And once again, various and military and et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You didn't do the Bill Clinton.
Speaker: Well, you know what?
Speaker: I got something to confess here.
Speaker: I don't do a very good Bill Clinton.
Speaker: It starts to turn into Barney Five in a hurry.
Speaker: Andy.
Speaker: One of my favorite games, which was one of my first games, was World Cup soccer.
Speaker: And that's got some amazing ones.
Speaker: How did he make that save?
Speaker: Gola!
Speaker: That kind of stuff.
Speaker: Saw that the last couple of games, and everybody goes, man, that's a great game.
Speaker: That and when you're not making shots and all of a sudden it just pops up and says, it looks like you can't control the ball.
Speaker: That's good.
Speaker: It hits too close to home.
Speaker: Who are you in Judge Dredd?
Speaker: Judge Dredd?
Speaker: Judge Dredd.
Speaker: Judge, jury, and executioner.
Speaker: That's me.
Speaker: I'm Judge Dredd.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Where are you into sports too?
Speaker: Cause it seems like this was like a happy accident is what I'm getting from all this.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, I'm not as hardcore as some people and people always say, Hey, you should do, you know, live play by player, work with the team.
Speaker: Or wouldn't you like to do that?
Speaker: You have such a good voice.
Speaker: No, that's, that's the, you know, that's going back to math class.
Speaker: That's just work.
Speaker: You know, like studying every single name, every team, all the nuance to be able to speak to speak.
Speaker: I want to be the class clown that sits in back of the history class and make fun of all the stuff, you know.
Speaker: And so if I'm doing a basketball game, you know, you got a Chucker who misses a lot.
Speaker: So he's, you know, Chuck's went up from three, like, dear Rim, I miss you.
Speaker: Love Chuck.
Speaker: You know, that's, so if I can't have fun with it, I could never get into, I have so much respect for those guys because you have to live and breathe and sleep and know everything and every pronunciation of every player's names and be on the road.
Speaker: It's just so much work.
Speaker: But yeah, I'm a, I'm a big enthusiast as far as, you know, my, my football and baseball teams and everything else.
Speaker: But, you know, during the Bulls era, I was really deep down, probably would watch every single game taped a lot of them on VHS
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: But but now years later, I'm more of a I'm a fan of the league as opposed to the Bulls necessarily.
Speaker: And I try to stay up and certainly watch the highlights.
Speaker: Well, the Bulls were amazing that during that time.
Speaker: Oh, my God.
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: It's just a gift for me to be in Chicago, be doing that, to see the game come out in Chicago, all the arcades packed with people playing it.
Speaker: Just fantastically.
Speaker: Man, you were living the perfect Chicago life, sitting watching Michael Jordan eat a Chicago dog.
Speaker: Yeah, man.
Speaker: I went to his restaurant a lot of times to watch the playoffs and the finals.
Speaker: He had a great place, Michael Jordan's, with the first giant screen.
Speaker: It was probably 25 feet by 10 feet, but it was made up back then, the early 90s.
Speaker: of like multiple kind of like plasma tiles, like for a scoreboard, you know, it wasn't one big screen, but it was cool.
Speaker: It was like the biggest, most modern piece of technology in the world to watch the bulls in a fully packed Michael Jordan bar in downtown Chicago.
Speaker: I was living the life.
Speaker: What brought you back?
Speaker: Cause you took kind of a break after revenge for Mars, you did NBA with Stern.
Speaker: And then it looks like you didn't come back till about a decade later to do Deadpool and Elvira.
Speaker: What brought you back?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, as I said, the industry itself basically died.
Speaker: And luckily, all those great guys that – the industry is so small that everybody knows everybody, Jersey Jack and every company in Gottlieb.
Speaker: So the guys that I'd worked with out there, of course, Greg Ferris especially, and Gomez, George Gomez, one of the greats, and Lyman Sheets, fans of mine and casual friends, more of –
Speaker: You know, it was so many years ago, but they knew exactly like what they wanted.
Speaker: And thank goodness they reached out to me.
Speaker: And and when I did the NBA fast break or NBA pinball with Stern somewhere about 10 years ago, I remember they were like still kind of like on the edge.
Speaker: And I remember Gary Stern saying, hey, we're just a mom and pop outfit out here trying to survive.
Speaker: We can't afford the big bucks to pay you.
Speaker: I was like, hey, man, I used to get 50 bucks an hour or anything better than that.
Speaker: you know, I'll take it.
Speaker: But yeah, they brought me back in for that.
Speaker: And then of course, as they, you know, the Elvira thing was a no brainer since I'd done the other one.
Speaker: And then they just took a shot with me with the vampire for Deadpool.
Speaker: So it was really just a result of the industry coming back, you know, and, you know, as I said, I was, I was just toiling away back in the restaurant business again, because, you know, this is a very niche industry.
Speaker: If I didn't have, you
Speaker: pinball and I didn't have sports titles.
Speaker: Like, what am I going to do?
Speaker: I'm not going to get calls from LA to do random voices and games.
Speaker: It's all going to be based on my Mr. Boom shock lock a persona, which is why then like, uh, uh, I forget the name of the company that does rage and rage too.
Speaker: They called me to do a, a cameo, a voice pack.
Speaker: for Rage 2 on Fire Edition.
Speaker: And you can find that on all the, on YouTube if you don't have the game itself.
Speaker: But it's really fun.
Speaker: It's a, you know, first person shooter and I'm just doing my crazy over the top stuff.
Speaker: You know, with that.
Speaker: See ya, wouldn't want to be.
Speaker: Oh, that's going to sting.
Speaker: Pow, pow, puppy chow.
Speaker: Kaboom, he's on fire.
Speaker: No, literally, call out the, you know.
Speaker: It was fun.
Speaker: It was great to reprise the Mr. Boomshot locker role, but out of context in a comedic way against a violent backdrop.
Speaker: Yeah, I've always been waiting by the phone.
Speaker: And as I said, now with the game conventions around the country, that's got me out, I think, 12 times this year, meeting fans, doing panels, hosting, interviewing, doing tournaments for people.
Speaker: It's just been a great, as I said, a great renaissance for the industry and for myself to connect with people like all the Mortal Kombat crew.
Speaker: from the actors, Dan Pesina, Richard Divizio, Anthony Marquez, Carlos Pesina.
Speaker: I never met them.
Speaker: They're probably in the studio in 92 because our games came out 10 months apart, Mortal Kombat and Jam.
Speaker: And they're working in the motion capture studio.
Speaker: And I would come in from time to time to the sound booth.
Speaker: We never met.
Speaker: So four years ago, before COVID, doing a show out in Hartford, one of my first ones, my friend Sal DeVita, co-creator of Jam and Blitz and in Mortal Kombat, he goes,
Speaker: Hey, Tim, you know these guys, right?
Speaker: And I go, nope, never met him, don't know who they are.
Speaker: And he was like, no, he plays, he's a Sub-Zero Scorpion, don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker: Scorpion, Sub-Zero, don't know, Johnny Cage, nope.
Speaker: And by the end of the night, we got along like old college frat buddies, and we've been going to shows ever since, and we might as well be brothers.
Speaker: And Paul Nehemiah, too, the great artist from Mortal Kombat and tons of other games.
Speaker: And so we've got this little like rat pack on the road.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And yeah, this fun idea of like 30 years later, we'd never met out there, but now we've got what we call our murder, murderers row, the monsters in the midway.
Speaker: When we go to conventions, we're all together and having fun.
Speaker: And so if you ever see them come to town and your listeners come out, you'll definitely have fun with us.
Speaker: Sounds like it.
Speaker: You know, and the big thing right now at those conventions and whatnot are the
Speaker: where the voice actors get together and they play out a scene with their voices.
Speaker: We should pitch that idea to one of these pinball conventions because I think that would go over amazing.
Speaker: That'd be a lot of fun and grab a random different voice actors together and throw scripts.
Speaker: I'd love to hear other people doing reads of famous things that we know or some of my stuff for me to do someone else's stuff.
Speaker: And we did that at the Florida Freeplay podcast.
Speaker: Ryan McCabe did a great job and Brandon Speck of like putting together some fun bits of different famous movie scenes and had us read characters.
Speaker: He had really weird commercials for us to read, just playing around for your voiceover.
Speaker: And Warren Davis, the creator of Q-Bert, is also a very good actor and improviser.
Speaker: So he's provided a lot of fun at these shows too.
Speaker: What's your most favorite role that you've done so far in this?
Speaker: MLB Slugfest, and that's the baseball commentator for the MLB Slugfest is the sports series.
Speaker: After Blitz, we went to do baseball, and then we did hockey, NHL hits.
Speaker: But baseball, because the pace of the game is slower, and since I'm writing the script, I got to write full-on
Speaker: in between pitches, in between any like crazy conversational comedic dialogues.
Speaker: I said, that is as close as I'll ever get to like, you know, writing a Simpsons episode or being, and it's the world that I created.
Speaker: And with the guy that I brought in, an iconic comedian from Chicago, uh, um,
Speaker: whose character is Jimmy Shorts.
Speaker: It's just a great, great time.
Speaker: And we do 70 different improvised comedic scenes when the game is loading.
Speaker: So instead of just seeing the loading screen, it's us having a blast up in the booth together.
Speaker: So check that out if you haven't.
Speaker: You can get tons of clips on YouTube for MLB Slugfest.
Speaker: Also check that out.
Speaker: Was there any role that you took on that you're like, oh, crap, this is a little out of my hands?
Speaker: No, I mean, fortunately, I guess I said with the pinball, we went over most of the roles.
Speaker: It was just I knew right away, like either I could do it or couldn't.
Speaker: And, you know, even the ones that I had to work a little bit harder at, obviously, when you're trying to take on the
Speaker: the mantle of like the Rod Serling and it had to be approved by his estate, whatever.
Speaker: I didn't kind of realize that the gravitas of like taking that role on.
Speaker: And I also didn't know that they had searched far and wide for a sound alike.
Speaker: And then they came back to me instead of asking me first, there was like, oh, this is,
Speaker: I don't know if he could do that.
Speaker: It was weird.
Speaker: It's like, why didn't you just ask me in the beginning?
Speaker: But yeah, that was the only one, as I said, to live up to that.
Speaker: But all the rest of the stuff, hey, my wheelhouse is sports stuff, bread and butter, comedic crazy stuff like the Elvira.
Speaker: There hasn't been anything that's come across my plate where I go, I don't want to do that.
Speaker: But I get that stuff a lot when I do my auditions for weird stuff for the internet or TV commercials where I look at stuff like, I'm not going to do that.
Speaker: It's crap.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, and the voices of Scared Stiff are some of the most iconic.
Speaker: People quote those in the pinball hobby.
Speaker: They're just wonderful.
Speaker: I did not know that.
Speaker: So you did Dracula, and did you say you did the heads as well?
Speaker: In the new one, I do all the talking heads.
Speaker: Like, hey, take another shot at me like that, and I'll drop you like a rock lobster, pal.
Speaker: And...
Speaker: And as I said, the movie trailer guy, there were so many different voices for that.
Speaker: Like, tonight announcing, you know, I forget what it was.
Speaker: It's like 50s sci-fi, you know.
Speaker: Once I do these things, I just forget all about them.
Speaker: And I don't play the games very often, if ever, the pinball games too.
Speaker: Because when I go to the shows, I'm just busy, you know, with fans and everything else.
Speaker: So like when the new Elvira showed up, I never got a real good listen.
Speaker: Never got to the Deadpool round of like the vampire.
Speaker: So I don't know how that even sounds.
Speaker: But I've heard a lot of people say they have enjoyed it.
Speaker: It is wonderful.
Speaker: And really, honestly, I think you've hit the nail on the head that you are the voice of most of our childhoods.
Speaker: I remember when NBA Jam came out when I want to say I was around 10 and just...
Speaker: I think we were talking about this because we were hyping you up.
Speaker: We were excited to have you on the podcast.
Speaker: And it's like, I think you have a very iconic voice and people just associate you with that product, right?
Speaker: They don't necessarily think it's Tim Kitzrow.
Speaker: It's Dracula from Scared Stiff or Rod Serling from Twilight Zone.
Speaker: And so it's amazing to have you on and have you talk about these games because I think that part of that's kind of lost to history, especially like you're saying, pinball went by the wayside.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: you know, early two thousands, I think arcades were, were dying off and, and home arcades were, you know, not home arcades, but home consoles were handheld.
Speaker: And now, now handheld, you know, it's taking over even the console more for the youngest generation there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'll go to like the pinball show, the Northwest in Portland.
Speaker: I've got this great shot of a dad playing pinball and a kid must be like three years old in the stroller on the iPhone playing a game.
Speaker: And like, there's a new generation right there.
Speaker: But I tell you that the pinball fans are the best.
Speaker: They are so hardcore, so knowledgeable, so passionate.
Speaker: And I love getting the chance to meet them at shows, especially like the Chicago pinball show, the Portland show, like Houston, you know, more pinball centric.
Speaker: Uh,
Speaker: because they just it's such a you know really a great small world there's really only a handful of really great iconic games of the last 20 years and that golden era was when I got in that was the second wave of like the best like the Pat Lawler and before things got some of the new stuff to me is a little bit too overdone that's just my opinion but that era of like the great
Speaker: You know, Gottlieb, Ballet, Williams, pinball games.
Speaker: There's some of the greatest games and the fans know it.
Speaker: And I love the fact that they're all over now in arcades all over the city in Chicago.
Speaker: And it's just it's great.
Speaker: I feel very fortunate to be part of that community.
Speaker: We'll even have movies come out now.
Speaker: You know, Roger Sharp.
Speaker: You worked with Roger at WMS and whatnot.
Speaker: Just saw him at the Chicago Pinball Show, yeah.
Speaker: You know, and he had his own movie now.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It just won a couple awards, too.
Speaker: And I'm in a documentary called Insert Coin, and it's available on Amazon Prime.
Speaker: And it's the telling of the story of the rise and fall of Midway Games, done by director Josh Swee.
Speaker: who was an artist, a digital artist out there, and was also a minor character in one of the Mortal Kombat things.
Speaker: But of course, his connection, he knew everybody, and he was a filmmaker in college.
Speaker: He was able to round up everyone from the CEOs, Eugene Jarvis, Gomez, Petro, every one of the great people, and talk to them, how did this game get made?
Speaker: Great highlights.
Speaker: We've got the footage that people have never seen before of Mortal Kombat,
Speaker: doing the motion capture, the original days, the blue screen of the DePaul basketball players doing the NBA jam moves.
Speaker: It's really fun.
Speaker: Of course, I'm in there telling some great stories.
Speaker: So that's been great to have that out and to have the folks that grew up with those games get a backstage look at how it all came together.
Speaker: And one little moment, really it was a moment of time, it was like this punk rock kind of
Speaker: you know, garage factory out there, California Ave between Belmont and Addison in Chicago, right down the road from Wrigley Field.
Speaker: And some of the biggest hits ever made came out of there.
Speaker: And it's kind of like Motown, you know, hit after hit after hit.
Speaker: It was a literal factory assembly line for hit games for a while.
Speaker: Like I said, the list that you've been on, these are all hits.
Speaker: I don't look at one of these and go, I mean, Party Zone.
Speaker: Party Zone is fantastic.
Speaker: You know, just these games are insane.
Speaker: It's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, who would have thunk it?
Speaker: Yeah, who would have?
Speaker: Is there anything else you'd like me to ask you?
Speaker: Actually, I'm doing one fun thing right now.
Speaker: It's an app, it's called Throwback.
Speaker: Big Breakers, Big Money Brackets, Throwback.
Speaker: And it's on wherever you get your apps.
Speaker: But you can grab any team from any league, basketball, football, baseball,
Speaker: And just put random, you know, players together.
Speaker: And it's going to eventually, you know, maybe be a, you know, a gambling or slot machine, but it's just a fun app.
Speaker: If you want to have, if you like sports and go back and throw back.
Speaker: I've got a few other things working.
Speaker: I'm working on a fishing app, believe it or not.
Speaker: And the idea of like people say, you know, you should do a golf game, you know, to like blow the, you know, the thing.
Speaker: Hey, he's on the fourth hole right now and just like blow it up.
Speaker: So it's kind of the same things.
Speaker: Like there's a couple of fishing apps out there that are very successful, but there's no voice on them.
Speaker: So I'm going to, you know, throw my signature of spice on it and just turn into a party, you know, some entertainment while still being a good, fun fishing app.
Speaker: And so that's fun.
Speaker: And I've got another company that I'm working with to hopefully do four new sports titles starting this year.
Speaker: So there are a lot of stuff on the horizon, irons in the fire and,
Speaker: You know, I'll be out on the road 10 to 20 times this year, different cities.
Speaker: So, so look for me where if I come to your town, stop by and say hello.
Speaker: I guess my last question is don't tell us if you, a specific project, but will we be seeing you again here in pinball soon?
Speaker: In pinball?
Speaker: There are no definites, but I did do a side project.
Speaker: I guess I could say it.
Speaker: Todd McCulloch is one of the great arcade enthusiasts on the planet.
Speaker: He was a former center for the Philadelphia 76ers.
Speaker: He lives out in Seattle.
Speaker: He lives out on one of those islands you got to take a ferry to.
Speaker: And after he left the NBA, he was going to collect fancy cars like a lot of athletes do.
Speaker: And he has this three-car, like, custom garage, carriage house, guest house.
Speaker: And he got his first couple of cars, but he fell in love with people doing the Northwest, especially with pinball.
Speaker: He'd always loved pinball, but he started collecting.
Speaker: He got rid of the cars.
Speaker: Now he has basically a three-story active arcade and museum on the third floor.
Speaker: And he collects everything.
Speaker: And he wanted to do his own custom pinball machine.
Speaker: And he wanted to do a Happy Gilmore theme.
Speaker: So he met up with some other great custom pinball guy who took the, you know, the skeleton that, you know, it's a Frankenstein of, and I forget which game they were using as the template, the board, but they constructed a whole happy Gilmore.
Speaker: And I did the voice for it.
Speaker: And that, that when it's done, cause he's friends with all the guys at Stern, he said, they, you know, they're,
Speaker: may actually look at doing a production of that as well.
Speaker: But it's a one-off, but that was just a great thing.
Speaker: Like a one-off for a great collector was fun to do.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, it's hard with Stern because, you know, you see the roles, like a lot of their titles now are big franchises as Deadpool was.
Speaker: So I have to fit into that category of the supporting role.
Speaker: And of course, Elvira, because it's an original, there are no TV or movie voices to go, oh, we got to get the original.
Speaker: And I am the original.
Speaker: There are fewer of the one-off kind of original game titles made anymore the way a lot of them like, you know, what was the fishing, the whitewater.
Speaker: I mean, so many of those titles back then, medieval magic, just such originals.
Speaker: They weren't based on TV or movie or music, you know, anything.
Speaker: musical bands and of course that's a big thing for stern right now which is a great idea you know they're doing all the bands led zeppelin the beatles and rush and etc so it's harder to find a place that uh i've got to fit we'll keep requesting you because we love your stuff appreciate it well if you want someone to get a hold of you how do we get a hold of you
Speaker: My website is timkitzrow.com.
Speaker: If it's easier, you can say mrboomshackalaka.com.
Speaker: And you can see some of those videos that I mentioned with the Warriors and the Rockets, a list of my games and how to get in touch with me.
Speaker: And I do custom voiceover drops for podcasters, YouTubers, voicemails, or if you want to send me your random videos from your phone, because no one's ever going to want to watch them as they are, barely watchable, unintelligible.
Speaker: But if you send them to me, I'll do a voiceover and turn them into some entertainment that you can have fun with.
Speaker: Or if you have a bachelor party or something you want to do, you do an invite, you can go to that site.
Speaker: It's called Who Said What Now?
Speaker: And it's at my website, timkitzrow.com.
Speaker: And that would be...
Speaker: That's fun.
Speaker: The idea of someone growing up with me and then being able to send out a bachelor invite with a slideshow in my voice.
Speaker: And I've actually been asked to do two weddings this year.
Speaker: I'll be doing one in October and one in December, MC and also officiating the wedding.
Speaker: So, yeah, people can't get enough of the good old nostalgia.
Speaker: And why not?
Speaker: It was a fun time and continues to be fun for new generations.
Speaker: I'm watching four, five, six, seven, eight year old, you know, pick up NBA Jam.
Speaker: And an 11 year old kid came in second in a tournament out of 37 people.
Speaker: And the first time he'd ever played, it was that morning.
Speaker: The kids are too smart nowadays.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Well, it's been a pleasure talking with you.
Speaker: And yeah, check out my website, MrBoomShakalaka.com.
Speaker: And of course, you can just YouTube things.
Speaker: Go to look at some of the MLB Slugfest.
Speaker: As I said, that's the stuff I'm most proud of.
Speaker: There's a compilation of things.
Speaker: It's called Tim and Jim Funny Comments MLB Slugfest on YouTube, where you can get all these different funny intros and wordplay and dialogue.
Speaker: So yeah, it's always fun to go down that rabbit hole and see some of the highlights other people have put together.
Speaker: Sounds good.
Speaker: Yeah, man.
Speaker: We appreciate you coming on and thank you for setting aside some time to be with us.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Real pleasure to be here and love being on your show and say special.
Speaker: Hey to all your friends out there.
Speaker: Thanks for playing pinball and keeping the game world alive.
Speaker: If you want to get ahold of us, we are loser kid pinball podcast at gmail.com.
Speaker: If you want to get ahold of us on the socials at Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, and Instagram at loser kid pinball.
Speaker: We are, uh,
Speaker: just wrapping up our hundredth episode.
Speaker: This is nuts.
Speaker: You got anything else for us, Scott?
Speaker: Thanks for everybody who has spent even one episode with us.
Speaker: It means a lot to us.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Oh, before we go though, you better send some messages to Scott because he's heading off to Guatemala to do his, his cleft palate and donating his time.
Speaker: Heading out Saturday.
Speaker: I'll be gone a week.
Speaker: So he's going to Guatemala and I'm going to Puerto Rico because it's 15 years that I've been married to my wife.
Speaker: So we will not be here next week and we will see you in two weeks and hopefully we can line up the interview that we've been trying to line up since what September.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: Somewhere around there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: This is where you play the outro.
Speaker: Oh my, my, oh my, my.
Speaker: Oh wait, that's a different, that's a different episode or a different show.
Speaker: That's a different show.
Speaker: What's the Golden Girls theme?
Speaker: We should just place that here.
Speaker: Oh, I was just thinking of Three's Company.
Speaker: Come on, knock on our door.
Speaker: No, but Golden Girls was... Thank you for being a friend.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: See you in two weeks.
Speaker: We'll see you guys in two weeks.
Speaker: Bye.
