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Ep 100: KaBoom and Elwin Pinball with Tim Kitzrow
60 Plays3 years ago
4 years and counting! Josh and Scott talk recent news and have the iconic voice of 90s Bally Williams, Tim Kitzrow join the show.
Recommended
Transcript
Celebrating 100 Episodes
00:00:06
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast.
00:00:09
Speaker
I am Josh Roop.
00:00:10
Speaker
With me, my co-captain, as always.
00:00:12
Speaker
Scott Larson.
00:00:13
Speaker
And Scott, it is episode 100.
00:00:16
Speaker
We finally made it here.
00:00:17
Speaker
I can't believe it.
00:00:17
Speaker
Okay, this is where we announce our retirement.
00:00:20
Speaker
Yep.
00:00:21
Speaker
And ride into the podcasting sunset.
00:00:24
Speaker
That is true.
Laid-Back Podcasting Style
00:00:25
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.
00:00:33
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:00:33
Speaker
I didn't want those vibes.
00:00:34
Speaker
Yeah, I'm totally kidding.
00:00:37
Speaker
Josh and I are having way too much fun doing this.
00:00:39
Speaker
And we're...
00:00:42
Speaker
I'll put it this way.
00:00:43
Speaker
We don't spend enough time on the podcast to get burned out on the podcast.
00:00:48
Speaker
Yes.
00:00:49
Speaker
And really, you're getting in real time, just Josh and Scott talking about pinball like we do when we're driving somewhere.
00:00:58
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
Arcade Accessories and Fun
00:01:04
Speaker
it.
00:01:04
Speaker
But let's talk about Zach and Nicole Many really quick.
00:01:07
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:01:08
Speaker
Not pinball.
00:01:08
Speaker
No, Zach and Nicole Many.
00:01:10
Speaker
If you're looking for that extra thing for your arcade, I'm actually, so I am placing an order right now.
00:01:17
Speaker
I'm actually going to order some of the Insider Connect kits.
00:01:23
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.
00:01:33
Speaker
But I just figured, you know what, it's just kind of fun to have everybody being able to scan it in.
00:01:38
Speaker
And that, that really completes the game.
00:01:41
Speaker
I'm waiting for my, the mod because I have like my Jurassic Park LE and my Infinity Quest mod.
00:01:49
Speaker
um, Avengers.
00:01:51
Speaker
Uh, and I don't want to take out like one of those apron pieces.
00:01:55
Speaker
I actually want to put it in the cabinet door.
00:01:58
Speaker
So I'm going to do that.
00:01:59
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
Pinball Industry Awards
00:02:09
Speaker
games.
00:02:09
Speaker
Uh, if you want a golden tea, they got golden teas.
00:02:12
Speaker
Very true.
00:02:13
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.
00:02:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:22
Speaker
And so.
00:02:23
Speaker
It is, it's going to be pretty epic on the 28th.
00:02:25
Speaker
That sounds like such a bad Mexican restaurant.
00:02:28
Speaker
Casa de Mene.
00:02:31
Speaker
Okay.
00:02:32
Speaker
Speaking of that, I got, someone gave me some chips the other day and I have no idea.
00:02:37
Speaker
It's from Juan Tonio.
00:02:41
Speaker
So it's like a Mexican Italian mashup.
00:02:43
Speaker
So anyway, nice.
00:02:44
Speaker
But back to flipping out pinball.
00:02:46
Speaker
Seriously.
00:02:46
Speaker
They have, they have always been great.
00:02:48
Speaker
Greg,
00:02:48
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
00:03:15
Speaker
It sounds like they sold out of the bond 60th, so you might have to find something else.
00:03:18
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.
00:03:22
Speaker
Okay.
00:03:22
Speaker
And...
00:03:23
Speaker
We'll get to that here in a little bit.
00:03:24
Speaker
But back to... Now all I've got stuck in my head is Casa de Mene.
00:03:29
Speaker
Casa de Mene.
00:03:32
Speaker
But let's talk about some of the news.
Early Release Success
00:03:34
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.
00:03:41
Speaker
I accidentally posted on the 10th.
00:03:44
Speaker
I can't even get my own day right.
00:03:45
Speaker
It was the 11th is the day that we originally came out, the first episode.
00:03:48
Speaker
But I'm like, no one's going to notice.
00:03:51
Speaker
We had an amazing response.
00:03:55
Speaker
But yeah, let's get some of these news notes out of the way because I think they're very interesting.
Euro Pinball Corps Collaboration
00:03:59
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.
00:04:09
Speaker
I actually didn't know that.
00:04:11
Speaker
So they're going to work together because I guess Pumball Brothers has the place to manufacture.
00:04:15
Speaker
Pagetti's been making quality remake kits.
00:04:19
Speaker
So why not combine the two and make a super, super manufacturer?
00:04:23
Speaker
You know, it's hard.
00:04:25
Speaker
They're already a European manufacturer.
00:04:30
Speaker
And so it is a little difficult to break into the market, the U.S. market, because you have the import situation.
00:04:39
Speaker
Yeah, it this makes sense.
00:04:41
Speaker
It makes sense to be able to create more of a unified front so they can mesh both of their things.
00:04:50
Speaker
And it really.
00:04:51
Speaker
OK, I was kind of wondering where the Pinball Brothers were going, like what their future was.
00:04:58
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.
00:05:06
Speaker
Yes.
00:05:08
Speaker
And I think that this will, I don't know.
00:05:11
Speaker
I agree with everything you said.
00:05:12
Speaker
I don't know if there's much more to say other than that.
00:05:14
Speaker
I think it's a good move.
Market Concerns for Spooky Pinball
00:05:16
Speaker
So spooky pinball has been quite on fire these last couple of weeks.
00:05:21
Speaker
We had the interview with bug.
00:05:23
Speaker
I think it went fantastic.
00:05:24
Speaker
I thought it was very on point.
00:05:27
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.
00:05:34
Speaker
person we've had on the podcast.
00:05:36
Speaker
He was just very business-like.
00:05:38
Speaker
Certainly, he has become the face of Spooky.
00:05:42
Speaker
Yes.
00:05:42
Speaker
And so certainly from someone who is driving the company, Bug definitely presented himself very well and very organized.
00:05:51
Speaker
And so that was very nice.
00:05:54
Speaker
So they've got Scott Ines to join the voice cast of Scooby-Doo.
00:05:57
Speaker
He's done the voice of Scooby-Doo and of Shaggy and of Scrappy because I know you love Scrappy.
00:06:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:03
Speaker
Also, apparently he's done the voice of all the villains in Scooby-Doo.
00:06:07
Speaker
So I assume he's going to take that role considering the other cast members that are already on there.
00:06:12
Speaker
They have now started production on Scooby-Doo itself, and they plan on doubling the size of their facility.
00:06:19
Speaker
It sounds like Spooky is no longer going to be boutique, in my opinion.
00:06:23
Speaker
If $1,900, their facility can handle that right now, then they're doubling the size.
00:06:29
Speaker
Are they going to be attempting for $3,000, $4,000 after this?
00:06:33
Speaker
I mean, I guess there's growth to that, right?
00:06:37
Speaker
Yeah, it does say that they're heading in an expansive direction.
00:06:43
Speaker
And we did talk to them about if they were considering moving closer to Chicago.
00:06:48
Speaker
And he said, no, they really like where they are.
00:06:53
Speaker
I get the vibe that they like being a smaller production and a little bit more of a boutique company.
00:07:01
Speaker
So that works well.
00:07:02
Speaker
And if they do have enough business to expand their line, then good for them.
00:07:11
Speaker
I'm a little concerned in that...
00:07:17
Speaker
Halloween and Ultraman immediately sold out.
00:07:20
Speaker
Yes.
00:07:21
Speaker
Scooby-Doo is still available and that's not a bad thing.
00:07:26
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.
00:07:39
Speaker
And maybe that's a, you know, that's a,
00:07:42
Speaker
a Godzilla or a rush or something like that.
00:07:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:46
Speaker
But that, that's the only thing that makes me concerned.
00:07:50
Speaker
Like how much investment money do they have to put up to move to a bigger facility?
00:07:55
Speaker
Because we know for Stern to move a few blocks away,
00:07:59
Speaker
It was like 5 million bucks.
00:08:01
Speaker
Yeah, it was not cheap.
00:08:02
Speaker
And the only reason they're moving is because Elk Grove said, hey, we want you to stay here in town.
00:08:07
Speaker
Yeah, they gave him a sweet deal.
00:08:09
Speaker
It was like $2 million up front or something like that to help him move.
00:08:12
Speaker
Yeah, so they certainly helped that.
00:08:14
Speaker
And by the way, I understand that there can be feelings about that.
00:08:18
Speaker
But from a business standpoint, it makes sense for Elk Grove to keep Stern there.
00:08:24
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.
00:08:38
Speaker
Seattle upped their taxes on Amazon and then was like, all right, we'll cut you a deal now.
00:08:44
Speaker
So it was like three steps forward, one step back for them.
00:08:49
Speaker
That's okay.
00:08:50
Speaker
Jeff Bezos couldn't afford it.
00:08:52
Speaker
But yeah, so that's a good thing.
00:08:55
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.
00:09:07
Speaker
That's what I mean.
In Disc Tournament Highlights
00:09:08
Speaker
To justify the bigger facility.
00:09:10
Speaker
Congrats, Spooky.
00:09:11
Speaker
It sounds like you guys are doing better than half the manufacturer out there.
00:09:15
Speaker
I'd even say maybe more than that.
00:09:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:19
Speaker
In disc winners, if you don't want spoilers, skip ahead about five minutes.
00:09:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:24
Speaker
No, we'll say that.
00:09:26
Speaker
If you did not watch in disc, it was amazing.
00:09:28
Speaker
I'd highly recommend going back and watching those finals.
00:09:32
Speaker
Um, did you get to watch any of this Scott?
00:09:34
Speaker
You know, I didn't because I was running around.
00:09:36
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.
00:09:44
Speaker
And so it was, uh, it was great, uh, to get some updates from them because they were competing in the tournament.
00:09:51
Speaker
So I want to shout out to Ron Hallett jr. He took second in classics and,
00:09:58
Speaker
Lost just to Andy Rosa, which Andy Rosa is amazing.
00:10:02
Speaker
He's a machine.
00:10:03
Speaker
Yeah, he is a machine.
00:10:05
Speaker
Classics 1 was Jason Zoller.
00:10:09
Speaker
Classics 2, Keith Elwin.
00:10:11
Speaker
The main open itself, it came down to...
00:10:15
Speaker
Keith Elwin, Esher Lefkoff, Jason Zoller, and our own... Well, not our own.
00:10:22
Speaker
We're claiming him as our third host, Travis Miri.
00:10:27
Speaker
And it was amazing.
00:10:28
Speaker
It was insane.
00:10:30
Speaker
Travis has now become a meme on Pinball Degenerates.
00:10:34
Speaker
If you've not seen it, go check it out.
00:10:36
Speaker
But I don't think he...
00:10:39
Speaker
accounted for the ball save on bad girls.
00:10:43
Speaker
And because he was trying to soft plunge and it didn't give him the ball back.
00:10:47
Speaker
And then his ball was over.
00:10:48
Speaker
So he, he started off his first ball with a double zero.
00:10:52
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.
00:11:05
Speaker
And then Keith and Escher are just beasts.
00:11:07
Speaker
I mean,
00:11:09
Speaker
It was insane.
00:11:09
Speaker
It came down to the wire.
00:11:12
Speaker
Escher beat Elwin on ball three in bonus.
00:11:17
Speaker
That's how close it was.
00:11:18
Speaker
If I remember correctly, it was like 6,000 points.
00:11:20
Speaker
It was tight.
00:11:23
Speaker
It was a 1.5 million game between the two of them, and it was like a 6,000-point difference.
00:11:29
Speaker
Travis took third.
00:11:30
Speaker
Congrats, man.
00:11:30
Speaker
That is awesome.
00:11:31
Speaker
I know that his dream was to make it to a final and to rank in the top four.
00:11:37
Speaker
Yeah, dude.
00:11:39
Speaker
It's amazing.
00:11:40
Speaker
I was playing.
Houston Pinball Community
00:11:41
Speaker
I was playing Jurassic Park today and I barely got to three dinosaurs.
00:11:45
Speaker
So and then congrats to Kaylee.
00:11:48
Speaker
He went on ball three against Keith Elwin on alien poker on high stakes.
00:11:54
Speaker
That was fifteen thousand dollars.
00:11:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:57
Speaker
Holy crap.
00:11:58
Speaker
So yeah.
00:12:00
Speaker
My understanding is, is Tealus was there interviewing people.
00:12:04
Speaker
He interviewed Keith and he said, you know, how do you, how does this all feel?
00:12:08
Speaker
And he says, now I know what Josh Sharp feels like.
00:12:11
Speaker
That would be the best line I've heard.
00:12:19
Speaker
Yeah, it's awesome.
00:12:20
Speaker
Okay, to be fair, I would love to have that feeling to know I took second in a tournament.
00:12:27
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
00:12:53
Speaker
Pinball is alive and well.
00:12:55
Speaker
At one point, there was like 15.6 thousand viewers.
00:12:58
Speaker
Yeah, that's crazy.
00:13:00
Speaker
I'm sorry.
00:13:00
Speaker
That is that is not so good for them.
00:13:03
Speaker
Yes, that's I joked.
00:13:05
Speaker
I'm like, this is Amarith numbers.
00:13:07
Speaker
And they didn't.
00:13:08
Speaker
And Carl didn't have to get half naked in a hot tub.
00:13:12
Speaker
I don't know what Amarith is or the hot tub reference.
00:13:17
Speaker
She is a woman that is on Twitch that films herself in a bikini in a hot tub and just chats.
00:13:23
Speaker
And she gets like 15,000 viewers on the average.
00:13:27
Speaker
I think our viewership would go down if we got in swimsuits.
00:13:30
Speaker
Maybe.
00:13:31
Speaker
I think so.
00:13:32
Speaker
I know that Marty and Jeff did it on one of their podcasts.
00:13:35
Speaker
Maybe we can do it in podcast form like they did.
00:13:37
Speaker
Podcast form, right.
00:13:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:39
Speaker
And then also congratulations to Ashley Weaver, who won the women's comp of N-Disc.
00:13:44
Speaker
That is amazing.
00:13:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's basically becoming the... Is there really any competition that matches it right now?
00:13:53
Speaker
Not right now, no.
00:13:55
Speaker
Yeah, not right now.
00:13:56
Speaker
It's pretty... It's taken over the Super Bowl of pinball.
00:14:00
Speaker
And you could argue TPF has a great tournament, but I would say the N-Disc, that's where...
00:14:08
Speaker
That's where the elite go to play.
00:14:11
Speaker
Someone had pitched the idea that Rob Burke of Pinball Expo just opened up his own pinball place there in Ohio.
00:14:20
Speaker
And it's got 1,300 machines, if I remember correctly.
00:14:24
Speaker
Wow.
00:14:24
Speaker
It's got an insane amount of machines.
00:14:27
Speaker
And that should be the new quote-unquote Pinberg location.
00:14:32
Speaker
I'm not opposed to that.
00:14:33
Speaker
I think it's a good idea.
00:14:33
Speaker
Hey, more pinball is always good, right?
00:14:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:38
Speaker
I doubt Burke would be opposed to that either, man.
00:14:40
Speaker
Right.
00:14:41
Speaker
Profit Ali.
00:14:42
Speaker
Get on top of it.
00:14:43
Speaker
Get it done.
00:14:46
Speaker
Who else, I guess, Bo and Kearns used to do with Pittsburgh or Pinberg, right?
00:14:51
Speaker
I'm trying to think who else put it on.
00:14:53
Speaker
Doug.
00:14:54
Speaker
That's been on the show.
00:14:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:55
Speaker
Yeah, it was Doug.
00:14:56
Speaker
Yeah, Doug.
00:14:57
Speaker
Okay, I'm going to go on a random side tangent really quick.
00:15:00
Speaker
This weekend, I tried ustolepa.
00:15:02
Speaker
Have you tried this?
00:15:04
Speaker
Did you just have a seizure?
00:15:06
Speaker
Ustolepa is a Finnish word.
00:15:08
Speaker
It's from Finland.
00:15:10
Speaker
It is a cheese that you fry up.
00:15:13
Speaker
It's got a high melting point, so it doesn't melt on you, but it
00:15:16
Speaker
It just crisp on the outside, nice and gooey on the inside.
00:15:21
Speaker
We've had some here in Utah.
00:15:22
Speaker
I guess there's a place, there's an artisan cheese place in Midway slash Heber.
00:15:26
Speaker
You have to get yourself some used to Lepa.
00:15:28
Speaker
Anyone out there listening?
00:15:29
Speaker
It changed my life.
00:15:32
Speaker
If you like cheese.
00:15:33
Speaker
It changed your life.
00:15:34
Speaker
Yeah, dude.
00:15:35
Speaker
Used to Lepa.
00:15:36
Speaker
The only time it changes your life is if you have a heart attack after eating all that saturated.
00:15:44
Speaker
Actually, I don't know.
00:15:45
Speaker
Is cheese saturated?
00:15:46
Speaker
I don't know.
00:15:47
Speaker
I'm just a doctor.
00:15:47
Speaker
I don't know.
00:15:50
Speaker
Isn't that your expertise?
00:15:52
Speaker
You ask the doctor while you're doing the anesthesia when he's doing heart surgery.
00:15:55
Speaker
I'm not a cheese connoisseur.
00:15:57
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:15:58
Speaker
The only thing, I am a cheese snob and I hate American cheese.
00:16:02
Speaker
Okay.
00:16:03
Speaker
It's time to get some, this is finished cheese.
00:16:05
Speaker
So get some justolepa.
00:16:07
Speaker
Okay.
00:16:08
Speaker
It's just the way it sounds, but it starts with a J. Apparently the J is silent.
00:16:11
Speaker
So just just justolepa.
00:16:13
Speaker
Okay.
00:16:15
Speaker
Sorry.
00:16:17
Speaker
It was that good, man.
00:16:17
Speaker
We finished it.
00:16:19
Speaker
We finished it.
00:16:19
Speaker
And then my, my family's like, I, my mother-in-law was over.
00:16:23
Speaker
My father-in-law was over.
00:16:24
Speaker
They ate it.
00:16:25
Speaker
They're like, where did you get this and where can we get more?
00:16:27
Speaker
It's like, well, it's two and a half hours west of us.
00:16:31
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.
00:16:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:36
Speaker
It's, it's definitely worth it.
00:16:38
Speaker
If you're in a bigger city, totally worth it.
00:16:39
Speaker
So.
Bond 60th Topper Confusion
00:16:41
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?
00:16:54
Speaker
That's what I'm hearing.
00:16:55
Speaker
Do you, I mean, that's why it was included with the Bond.
00:16:59
Speaker
Wow, I don't know.
00:17:01
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.
00:17:11
Speaker
and
00:17:12
Speaker
Then they're like, well, we already have this.
00:17:15
Speaker
We could sell it as an aftermarket accessory for other people who have the game.
00:17:21
Speaker
And so why double do it?
00:17:24
Speaker
So it seemed a little awkward that they had to walk that back.
00:17:28
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.
00:17:37
Speaker
But to anyone else, if you said exclusive topper, then that means exclusive topper.
00:17:42
Speaker
But they never said exclusive to Bond 60th.
00:17:45
Speaker
They just said it includes topper.
00:17:47
Speaker
No, no, that wasn't the feature.
00:17:50
Speaker
Oh, it was that it was an exclusive topper.
00:17:51
Speaker
Yeah, it was.
00:17:52
Speaker
Exclusive topper.
00:17:53
Speaker
And they said, well, it's exclusive because this is the only model that is included with.
00:18:00
Speaker
It's exclusive to Stern.
00:18:02
Speaker
So it's, uh, no one else can sell it.
00:18:06
Speaker
It's exclusive.
00:18:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:08
Speaker
It just seemed a little bit like like gymnastics.
00:18:11
Speaker
They're trying to trying to thread that needle.
00:18:14
Speaker
But either way, I feel like there's so many questions that have arised from this Bond 60th.
Production Schedule Concerns
00:18:20
Speaker
If you guys want to send us some questions for Elwin.
00:18:24
Speaker
Yeah, because we're going to have Elwin on here soon.
00:18:27
Speaker
The good news is we don't know anything more than you guys.
00:18:30
Speaker
We've seen we've seen the releases.
00:18:32
Speaker
We've seen that.
00:18:33
Speaker
And so we have the questions, too.
00:18:36
Speaker
Also, we're not going to be asking the questions to Elwin that you blatantly know he's not going to answer, right?
00:18:42
Speaker
Like, did the licensors suck to work with?
00:18:45
Speaker
Yes, Elwin's going to come on here and say, you know, they were just absolutely terrible.
00:18:50
Speaker
He's not going to say that.
00:18:51
Speaker
So we're not asking that kind of question.
00:18:57
Speaker
But I did find it funny.
00:18:58
Speaker
I was like, hmm, okay.
00:19:00
Speaker
Yeah, no, I agree.
00:19:02
Speaker
This whole bond six, I still wonder if Stern's kind of like, yeah, we're, we're done.
00:19:07
Speaker
Like it certainly from a PR standpoint, it did everything about this license has not gone the way that Stern would have liked.
00:19:20
Speaker
Yes.
00:19:20
Speaker
And, and, and that's, that's pretty obvious for everybody who is familiar with Stern over the last 10 years.
00:19:28
Speaker
Here's the other thing, too.
00:19:29
Speaker
I got talking with Jason McDonald.
00:19:31
Speaker
He listens to the show.
00:19:33
Speaker
He asked me, what's your thoughts on Bond Pro and Premium?
00:19:36
Speaker
And we got talking about the tentative schedule, right?
00:19:38
Speaker
And it almost sounds like this might be a Stranger Things happening again, right?
00:19:43
Speaker
So they're doing the first run of Pros and Premiums.
00:19:45
Speaker
I know that they did like a small run before, but this is like the first official run, right, this month.
00:19:50
Speaker
Then April, they're doing another run of Pro and Premiums.
00:19:54
Speaker
And then June, they'll do one more run of Pros.
00:19:57
Speaker
That's it for a new title.
00:20:00
Speaker
That's not much.
00:20:01
Speaker
And especially for premiums are only doing two runs.
00:20:05
Speaker
And I'm hoping that who knows, maybe they'll keep the license longer.
00:20:11
Speaker
I actually did get, let me see, trying to find it.
00:20:17
Speaker
Okay.
00:20:18
Speaker
So ironically, I got this from, from Tom Walsh who lives out close to us.
00:20:28
Speaker
a friend of Tony Murphy and he bought a premium and this is what, this is what he said is.
00:20:37
Speaker
So I'm kind of in love with bond.
00:20:39
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.
00:20:46
Speaker
My friends who don't like Deadpool don't seem to like bond.
00:20:49
Speaker
And so that,
00:20:52
Speaker
That tells me that there is definitely potential for this.
00:20:56
Speaker
Yes.
00:20:57
Speaker
I don't think that it's going to, I think it will turn out to be a solid game at the end.
00:21:03
Speaker
I I'm hoping that it stays in the cooker long enough to make it though.
00:21:09
Speaker
This is, this is my nervousness.
00:21:12
Speaker
Last premium comes out in April, right?
00:21:14
Speaker
First runs are, are called for.
00:21:18
Speaker
I think if you're sitting on the fence, you should go ahead and get a premium.
00:21:22
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.
00:21:29
Speaker
Depending on how that does, you know, could sway one way or the other.
00:21:35
Speaker
And then we have another game in October.
00:21:37
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.
00:21:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:49
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.
00:21:56
Speaker
That is my assumption.
00:21:58
Speaker
You don't take it to the bank, but kind of all signs are leading that way.
00:22:03
Speaker
It gets this Stranger Things treatment.
00:22:06
Speaker
I bet a year down the road, the code's going to be nice.
00:22:08
Speaker
People are going to start enjoying bond and be like, well, crap, I should have bought this.
00:22:12
Speaker
And then who knows what happens with the license at that point.
00:22:15
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.
00:22:22
Speaker
Right.
00:22:23
Speaker
And black night got, had a little bit of that too.
00:22:27
Speaker
So I, I'm stern as a manufacturer.
00:22:29
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.
00:22:39
Speaker
And I suspect that this is going to be one of those future premium titles that will command a high price.
00:22:49
Speaker
I think so too.
00:22:51
Speaker
So long as the code catches up.
00:22:54
Speaker
Which brings me to my next point.
00:22:56
Speaker
Did you hear they're going to rename it Elwyn Pinball?
00:22:59
Speaker
It's no longer Stern Pinball.
00:23:01
Speaker
Have you looked at this tentative production schedule?
00:23:03
Speaker
It might as well be called Elwyn Pinball at this point.
00:23:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:06
Speaker
Go ahead and give us the rundown.
00:23:07
Speaker
Okay.
00:23:08
Speaker
January, Bond, Pro, Premium, and 60th.
00:23:12
Speaker
February, Godzilla, Premium, and Elvira, Premium.
00:23:16
Speaker
Which, if you did not hear, the price went up on that.
00:23:18
Speaker
It's $10,500 now.
00:23:19
Speaker
For all those people wishing they would have got in when it was in the $7,000 range three years ago.
00:23:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:25
Speaker
March, new Quarterstone.
00:23:28
Speaker
April, Bond.
00:23:29
Speaker
Just pro premium.
00:23:31
Speaker
May, Iron Maiden and pro and premium.
00:23:35
Speaker
June, Bond pro, Godzilla pro, Jurassic Park premium.
00:23:39
Speaker
July, Avengers pro and premium.
00:23:43
Speaker
August, Star Wars pro and premium.
00:23:46
Speaker
September, new title question mark.
00:23:50
Speaker
October, Jurassic Park Pro.
00:23:52
Speaker
And there's a space there, so that's probably the new title.
00:23:55
Speaker
November, Godzilla Pro and Premium.
00:23:59
Speaker
No, sorry, just Godzilla Premium that month with Mando Pro and Premium.
00:24:03
Speaker
And then December is Deadpool Pro and Premium.
00:24:05
Speaker
I saw you're keeping count there.
00:24:07
Speaker
How many months out of the year has Elwin got?
00:24:09
Speaker
That was like six months.
00:24:10
Speaker
Yeah, that was like six months.
00:24:14
Speaker
That is nutso.
00:24:15
Speaker
Okay, he deserves it.
00:24:20
Speaker
Because he really is 4 for 4 for Cornerstone Games.
00:24:26
Speaker
Yep.
00:24:27
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.
00:24:41
Speaker
But my gosh, he's still selling the Iron Maiden.
00:24:47
Speaker
Yes, that is.
00:24:50
Speaker
OK, it's certainly not the band that people are buying because I know some people that music drives them nuts.
00:24:56
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.
Focus on Keith Elwin's Games
00:25:09
Speaker
Yep.
00:25:10
Speaker
Well, and I've heard it recently.
00:25:12
Speaker
I know they kind of talked about it in Final Round.
00:25:14
Speaker
I've heard from other people.
00:25:16
Speaker
They need to have Elwin just cranking out games.
00:25:18
Speaker
Why would you have him cranking out games when all four of his titles are still selling like crazy?
00:25:24
Speaker
I mean, you want to draw this out and make the people want more.
00:25:29
Speaker
People are obviously wanting more at this point.
00:25:31
Speaker
And I find it interesting that they've canceled a bunch of games, right?
00:25:35
Speaker
The four designers that are at Stern right now are Borg,
00:25:40
Speaker
Danger, Eddie, and Elwin.
00:25:44
Speaker
Borg has one game on the line.
00:25:46
Speaker
Everything else has been canceled.
00:25:47
Speaker
Gomez jumps in occasionally.
00:25:49
Speaker
Correct.
00:25:50
Speaker
And sometimes, I mean, I guess we can't.
00:25:52
Speaker
That's the business, right?
00:25:55
Speaker
If you're still selling the Beatles' White Album, you're not going to cap it.
00:25:58
Speaker
True.
00:26:00
Speaker
But my point being is Borg has one game on the line.
00:26:03
Speaker
It's Mando.
00:26:04
Speaker
No, sorry, sorry.
00:26:05
Speaker
Eddie just has Mando on it.
00:26:08
Speaker
Granted, he's only made two games for Stern.
00:26:10
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.
00:26:22
Speaker
And it took a while for everything to come through.
00:26:27
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.
00:26:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:43
Speaker
But they were certainly hesitant to raise prices.
00:26:46
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.
00:26:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:55
Speaker
So if you want to get a full feature game, you have to buy it after market to put it in.
00:27:00
Speaker
So, so I do feel bad for stranger things that it did not get the run.
00:27:05
Speaker
It should have.
00:27:06
Speaker
So, so Eddie only has Mando Borg.
00:27:08
Speaker
Who's been there since data East only has rush on the line.
00:27:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:14
Speaker
Or that they haven't canceled.
00:27:16
Speaker
It's not even on the line this next year.
00:27:18
Speaker
Well, I canceled retired.
00:27:22
Speaker
Danger doesn't have a game.
00:27:23
Speaker
They've already canceled Jurassic Park home pin.
00:27:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:27
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,
00:27:43
Speaker
Star Wars Home Edition, they're actually very solid games.
00:27:48
Speaker
Yes, they are not going to have the depth of a cornerstone game in code and rules, but they are fun to flip.
00:27:57
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.
00:28:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:08
Speaker
Same here.
00:28:09
Speaker
Because it's because you're like, well, there's the Elwynn game, which is the top 10 game.
00:28:14
Speaker
And then you have the home edition by a new designer.
00:28:18
Speaker
And to Jack's credit, he really produced a solid game.
00:28:23
Speaker
But my point being is you look at this list, this is one way that they're combating the recession.
00:28:30
Speaker
Right.
00:28:31
Speaker
is you're cutting titles that aren't selling as well, and you're stuffing your lineup with greatest hits, right?
00:28:38
Speaker
Sure.
00:28:38
Speaker
And your greatest hits right now are Elwynn's.
00:28:41
Speaker
Seriously, outside of Elwynn and new titles, you have Elvira, which is Lyman Sheet's last game for Stern, and that makes sense.
00:28:51
Speaker
Because people love Elvira.
00:28:53
Speaker
I don't know how it's still selling at a higher price than everything else, but it's still selling.
00:28:58
Speaker
Then Star Wars, because it's freaking Star Wars.
00:29:01
Speaker
Do I have to have any other explanation outside of that?
00:29:04
Speaker
Mando Pro and Deadpool.
00:29:08
Speaker
Well, Pro and Premium.
00:29:10
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.
00:29:21
Speaker
So... Yeah, but if you look at... It makes sense, though.
00:29:26
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?
00:29:35
Speaker
So let's just see how many of these pop up in the manufacturing schedule.
00:29:39
Speaker
Number one, Godzilla.
00:29:42
Speaker
Okay.
00:29:43
Speaker
Done.
00:29:44
Speaker
Two, Medieval Madness.
00:29:45
Speaker
Okay.
00:29:46
Speaker
Not Stern.
00:29:47
Speaker
Three, Jurassic Park.
00:29:49
Speaker
Okay.
00:29:50
Speaker
Same designer.
00:29:51
Speaker
Four, Attack from Mars.
00:29:52
Speaker
Two seconds.
00:29:53
Speaker
Yeah, but CGC needs to run.
00:29:55
Speaker
They said they were doing Medieval Madness this month.
00:29:57
Speaker
That was a year and a half ago.
00:30:00
Speaker
Come on, guys.
00:30:01
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
00:30:28
Speaker
This is alternative, by the way.
00:30:29
Speaker
This is alternative.
00:30:30
Speaker
So it could change.
00:30:31
Speaker
Of course.
00:30:32
Speaker
But Monster Bash, not theirs.
00:30:34
Speaker
Not on the line.
00:30:35
Speaker
Iron Maiden, theirs on the line.
00:30:37
Speaker
Elvira, theirs on the line.
00:30:40
Speaker
Twilight Zone and Metallica round up.
00:30:42
Speaker
And then you have Lord of the Rings, Cats Canyon, Pirates of the Caribbean, Avengers, Infinity Quest, and Rush.
00:30:47
Speaker
So of the top 15, yeah, of the top 15, you have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven of them are Stern.
00:31:00
Speaker
And still on the line, right?
00:31:01
Speaker
And still on the line.
00:31:02
Speaker
Those seven games are still on the line because obviously there's a reason why they're still, they're selling.
00:31:09
Speaker
No one's selling their games right now because you can't replace it.
00:31:15
Speaker
Maybe they should name one of the new wings of Stern after Elwin.
00:31:21
Speaker
That's just what I'm saying right now, okay?
00:31:24
Speaker
Wow.
00:31:25
Speaker
Actually, here's the good part, though, is that...
00:31:30
Speaker
You know when a band comes out and creates a new sound that really reinvigorates the music scene?
00:31:39
Speaker
So like Elvis or Beatles or Nirvana?
00:31:42
Speaker
Yeah, well, Nirvana is the biggest one that I personally experienced.
00:31:48
Speaker
Because before Nirvana, it was kind of a tired hairband world.
00:31:54
Speaker
Yep.
00:31:55
Speaker
that's when you get like the, those, those one hit wonders, like the jackals of the world and, and yeah.
00:32:02
Speaker
And just, I don't know, winger.
00:32:05
Speaker
But when Nirvana came out immediately, everyone's like, Whoa, what is this?
00:32:10
Speaker
And immediately everybody who was trying to be a metal band immediately became a grunge band.
00:32:16
Speaker
So with Ellen coming out and of the top 15, he has all four of his in there.
00:32:24
Speaker
this elevates the game or at least gives a higher target for the other designers.
00:32:31
Speaker
So I think this is the year that they can prove that they can compete a high-selling game in line with L1.
00:32:39
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.
00:32:47
Speaker
And I think people are really freaking out about this because of the price point.
00:32:52
Speaker
Well, you have to understand, I think this is a one-off product that was asked by the licensor to be done.
00:32:57
Speaker
And Elwin just threw his hat in the ring because that's what he said on Stern Insider Podcast.
00:33:01
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:33:02
Speaker
and they accepted his, you know, him winded design.
00:33:05
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.
00:33:13
Speaker
Stern actively knows that there is a recession.
00:33:17
Speaker
I think we all know that we've hit a recession.
00:33:20
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.
00:33:29
Speaker
And then we'll see what happens at the beginning of next year.
00:33:31
Speaker
They're very smart.
00:33:33
Speaker
I don't think I keep hearing these people that say, you know, I can't believe they're raising prices again.
00:33:39
Speaker
Have you guys seen the shipping on pinball machines?
00:33:41
Speaker
I don't know how there's people still offering free shipping with their pinball machines.
00:33:45
Speaker
It's, it's the, it's supply and demand.
00:33:47
Speaker
I mean, that's the bottom line.
00:33:48
Speaker
It's supply and demand.
00:33:50
Speaker
And if the supply outpaced demand, then you would see price cuts.
00:33:57
Speaker
And, and that's, and we don't want to go back.
00:34:00
Speaker
We don't want to go back to the, the late aughts where it was the cheapified version of games.
00:34:08
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.
00:34:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:23
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.
00:34:33
Speaker
So I don't want them to be desperate enough to do that because I like a full featured game.
00:34:39
Speaker
All I'm saying is I don't think the trend is going to change for Stern going forward.
00:34:44
Speaker
I think that they are in a safe position.
00:34:47
Speaker
We are going to see some changes over the next year, though.
00:34:50
Speaker
And it just depends where prices fall with supply and demand and also external factors.
00:34:56
Speaker
We're all filling it right now.
00:34:58
Speaker
It's not just Stern.
00:35:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:01
Speaker
All right.
00:35:02
Speaker
I want to thank the fans that have listened for the last four years.
00:35:07
Speaker
We are now at episode 100, like we've said.
00:35:10
Speaker
And I posted last week.
00:35:13
Speaker
I just want to read some of these remarks to you because it was very heartwarming to hear from some people.
00:35:21
Speaker
I often just think of we're two dudes that just do a podcast, right?
00:35:24
Speaker
And that's really all it is.
00:35:26
Speaker
We've talked about this and we talked pinball for years.
00:35:30
Speaker
And so it's like, well, why don't we just start recording this?
00:35:33
Speaker
I didn't realize how much I guess we meant to the hobby.
00:35:35
Speaker
I mean, Joe from Pinball Degenerates said, thanks for creating such a quality podcast.
00:35:43
Speaker
Broadcast.
00:35:44
Speaker
I love that you threw that in.
00:35:46
Speaker
Broadcast.
00:35:47
Speaker
Thanks for creating such a quality podcast and keep up the fantastic charity work you guys do.
00:35:53
Speaker
Always a pleasure to meet up with you both, Scott and Josh.
00:35:55
Speaker
The pinball community is a much better place with you guys being a positive part of it.
00:35:58
Speaker
Keep it going.
00:36:00
Speaker
Julianne, which is your co-worker, which somehow you have sucked her into this.
00:36:04
Speaker
Happy anniversary and congrats.
00:36:06
Speaker
Y'all are the best.
00:36:07
Speaker
All the hard work y'all invest is very much appreciated.
00:36:10
Speaker
Keep on keeping on.
00:36:11
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.
00:36:24
Speaker
So I'm going to keep him anonymous.
00:36:26
Speaker
Okay.
00:36:27
Speaker
Anywho, he writes, I wanted to congratulate you on your loser kid anniversary.
00:36:32
Speaker
Keep up the good work.
00:36:33
Speaker
Pinball needs you too.
00:36:35
Speaker
Which I replied, thank you for the congratulations.
00:36:38
Speaker
I think you've overvalued our worth to pinball, but I appreciate your kind words, right?
00:36:43
Speaker
I don't feel like we are moving the needle one way or the other when it comes to pinball.
00:36:47
Speaker
But I think we are a force for a positive influence on pinball.
00:36:53
Speaker
Correct.
00:36:53
Speaker
And that's what he responded.
00:36:55
Speaker
He responded, there are very few non-toxic, generally positive voices in this hobby.
00:37:00
Speaker
You guys are essential.
00:37:03
Speaker
And I guess I've never looked at it that way.
00:37:06
Speaker
Because we do tend to look on the more positive side of things.
00:37:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:10
Speaker
And I will say that it's more fun.
00:37:16
Speaker
to be in a hobby that has less toxicity.
00:37:22
Speaker
Because every hobby, every weird hobby, strange hobby, small hobby, they all have it in some measure.
00:37:30
Speaker
And if there's anything we can do to undermine that and to focus on the positive stuff.
00:37:38
Speaker
Okay, so in the hospital, I was dealing with someone who broke his leg, he was snowboarding.
00:37:45
Speaker
but he hit a tree and I, I, I had a quick talk with him.
00:37:51
Speaker
Like, Hey, do you know how to ski in trees?
00:37:53
Speaker
He's like, yeah, don't hit the trees.
00:37:54
Speaker
I'm like, okay, no, like you focus.
00:37:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:58
Speaker
Yes.
00:37:58
Speaker
But you focus on the gaps between the trees and your mind gravitates toward that.
00:38:06
Speaker
And so if you don't want to hit trees, you focus on the gaps.
00:38:10
Speaker
And I would argue the same thing.
00:38:12
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.
00:38:22
Speaker
Focus on other aspects that actually make you want to do the hobby more, to buy more, to be more involved.
00:38:31
Speaker
And I'm glad that that comes across because that definitely has been something we've tried to do.
00:38:37
Speaker
Yes.
00:38:38
Speaker
When I first got in the hobby nine years ago, oh, it's been a while now.
00:38:45
Speaker
It was the exact same complaints as what we're having now.
00:38:47
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:38:48
Speaker
It never changes.
00:38:49
Speaker
It was priced.
00:38:50
Speaker
It was priced.
00:38:51
Speaker
And don't get me wrong.
00:38:53
Speaker
I'm feeling the hurt on the price.
00:38:55
Speaker
I'm right there with you guys.
00:38:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:58
Speaker
I mean, people are complaining at $2,000 fishtails and $2,100 shadows.
00:39:10
Speaker
If we could, we'd all have the collection of our dreams, right?
00:39:13
Speaker
If price wasn't a problem and space wasn't a problem, we'd own them all.
00:39:20
Speaker
I think that's the thing, though, is you've got to find happiness in the part of the pinball that you want.
00:39:26
Speaker
Focus on the gaps, like you said, Scott.
00:39:28
Speaker
Right.
00:39:28
Speaker
And sadly, if pinball is making you sad, find something else.
00:39:33
Speaker
I hate to say that, but if that's not bringing you joy, as the decluttering person says, then find something that does.
00:39:43
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.
00:39:54
Speaker
And I feel like this is the first year that I've felt content in pinball as well.
00:39:59
Speaker
I've always been nervous of like, what do you mean by that?
00:40:04
Speaker
FOMO, right?
00:40:04
Speaker
Like I've always, I've always got to get the next pinball machine.
00:40:07
Speaker
I've always, I'm missing out on this.
00:40:09
Speaker
I'm not doing that.
00:40:10
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.
00:40:19
Speaker
Right.
00:40:20
Speaker
And Foo Fighters is enjoyable.
00:40:22
Speaker
I like their music, but it's not like it's once again, I'm going to have to see it.
00:40:26
Speaker
In fairness, I was not excited for Deadpool.
00:40:29
Speaker
Yes, I wasn't because I thought it was going to be.
00:40:33
Speaker
I thought it was going to be the Ryan Reynolds version, which is hilarious, but it wouldn't fit in my home.
00:40:41
Speaker
So I was really glad that they went the direction they did.
00:40:45
Speaker
And it's still hilarious.
00:40:46
Speaker
So these things can change.
00:40:49
Speaker
I was not excited for Godzilla.
00:40:50
Speaker
You knew that.
00:40:52
Speaker
I was like, Godzilla as a theme.
00:40:53
Speaker
Are you kidding me?
00:40:54
Speaker
I'm not going to buy this.
00:40:56
Speaker
And then after I said, I'm like, okay, put me down for a premium.
00:40:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:00
Speaker
And I wish I bought the LE that I thought I was this close to buying the LE.
00:41:06
Speaker
So right now, for the next year, I'm not planning on buying any pinball.
00:41:10
Speaker
Doesn't mean that'll change.
00:41:11
Speaker
Doesn't mean Venom will come out and be like, wow, Eddie just killed it, you know?
00:41:16
Speaker
Or Danger just slayed it with Foo Fighters.
00:41:20
Speaker
But right now, I'm content.
00:41:21
Speaker
For the next year, I'm like, you know what?
00:41:24
Speaker
That's fine.
00:41:25
Speaker
If that's what it takes, then so be it.
00:41:28
Speaker
Where I used to be like, no, I need to know what the next game is.
00:41:31
Speaker
I need to know what's going on.
00:41:33
Speaker
No, I'm just, I'm completely happy and content where I'm at right now in pinball.
00:41:36
Speaker
And I, and it's very peaceful.
00:41:39
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's good.
00:41:40
Speaker
Namaste.
00:41:42
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.
00:41:53
Speaker
Love you, Dave.
00:41:55
Speaker
Dave picks.
00:41:58
Speaker
So there was plenty of comments.
00:42:00
Speaker
We thank all those that have reached out and that we've made friends with.
00:42:05
Speaker
It's been awesome.
00:42:07
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.
00:42:15
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.
00:42:26
Speaker
Okay, good.
00:42:28
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.
00:42:34
Speaker
I do have one complaint, though, actually.
00:42:36
Speaker
It just hit me.
00:42:37
Speaker
About me?
00:42:39
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.
00:42:49
Speaker
What the crap?
00:42:51
Speaker
What are we, chopped liver, Will?
00:42:53
Speaker
We just had you on the show like a month and a half ago, dude.
00:42:56
Speaker
No, that's okay.
00:42:57
Speaker
It's okay.
00:42:57
Speaker
We don't want to steal the thunder, so...
00:42:59
Speaker
But sadly, we actually can't make it this year.
00:43:02
Speaker
So yeah, I feel bad about that.
00:43:05
Speaker
But Twippy's still up.
00:43:08
Speaker
Please go and vote for your favorite everything in it.
00:43:15
Speaker
Actually, by the time we post this, today's the last day.
00:43:18
Speaker
Okay.
00:43:19
Speaker
Well, then you know what?
00:43:21
Speaker
Sorry.
00:43:21
Speaker
If you didn't rank us, then you're dead to me.
00:43:24
Speaker
Okay.
00:43:28
Speaker
Forget that.
00:43:28
Speaker
If you're a judge for the Pinball Industry Awards and you're looking for the podcast in excellence, look no further.
00:43:36
Speaker
Yeah, I already turned in my ballot on that one.
00:43:40
Speaker
I thought we were supposed to grease some hands.
00:43:42
Speaker
Aren't we supposed to know the judges so we can like... What is this?
00:43:46
Speaker
You can't buy votes if I don't know who the judges are, right?
00:43:48
Speaker
This is the...
00:43:51
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
00:44:15
Speaker
We went kind of a different approach.
00:44:17
Speaker
We usually just do the interview, right?
00:44:19
Speaker
And this being the 100th episode, we wanted to kind of talk a little bit and then do the interview without further ado.
00:44:26
Speaker
But right now, we have a gentleman that is...
00:44:30
Speaker
I would say infamous and legendary in the pinball hobby.
00:44:33
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.
00:44:44
Speaker
You know him as Mr. Boom Shakalaka.
00:44:46
Speaker
This is Tim Kitzrow.
00:44:48
Speaker
How you doing, Tim?
00:44:49
Speaker
Welcome to NBA Jam Tournament Edition with Loserkid.
00:44:53
Speaker
Kaboom!
00:44:54
Speaker
Hey, man.
00:44:55
Speaker
Hey, you said infamous.
00:44:56
Speaker
Am I infamous also?
00:44:58
Speaker
Yeah, man.
00:44:59
Speaker
What's the infamy, man?
00:45:00
Speaker
Did I do something?
00:45:02
Speaker
I don't know.
00:45:03
Speaker
I just, I'm using, I'm using catchy words, right?
00:45:05
Speaker
Yeah, I like that.
00:45:06
Speaker
He's infamous for his role as Rod Serling in the Twilight Zone.
00:45:11
Speaker
You mentioned Medieval Madness.
00:45:12
Speaker
Oddly enough, I did not do that one.
00:45:13
Speaker
I think that actually Tina Fey is in that one too.
00:45:17
Speaker
Yes.
00:45:18
Speaker
She did that.
00:45:18
Speaker
But yeah, I started out at Williams all those years ago, and the Twilight Zone was second or third up.
00:45:26
Speaker
I forget, but I know that my first game got me into this whole industry was Gilligan's Island doing The Millionaire.
00:45:33
Speaker
Gilligan, maybe we could bribe Kona.
00:45:35
Speaker
Oh, lovey.
00:45:37
Speaker
And that was it.
00:45:38
Speaker
And the rest was history.
00:45:39
Speaker
It's been fun to see that game at some of the shows this year.
00:45:42
Speaker
I just saw it down in Houston and a couple other places.
00:45:46
Speaker
It's one of the harder to find games.
00:45:49
Speaker
People that find it love it.
00:45:50
Speaker
It's a good game.
00:45:51
Speaker
I got to ask, though.
00:45:52
Speaker
So I was looking kind of up your resume, and it said that you were classically trained in acting first.
00:45:57
Speaker
How did you go from classically trained acting to video games with Bally Williams and, well, I guess Bally Williams WMS?
00:46:04
Speaker
You know, the ride was not one I certainly planned.
00:46:07
Speaker
And my original plan out of high school was to get a great theater training at Purchase College.
00:46:14
Speaker
And that's in Westchester County, New York, who was the only fine arts college in the state university system.
00:46:20
Speaker
So basically you were getting a conservatory training for
00:46:24
Speaker
like Juilliard or NYU, but for like $1,200 because it was a state school.
00:46:29
Speaker
But you had, you know, when I first was sitting out there, I thought, oh, well, it's a state school.
00:46:33
Speaker
So I just apply and get in.
00:46:35
Speaker
But no, it was an audition with 600 people.
00:46:37
Speaker
They chose 30.
00:46:38
Speaker
And we did all the classics.
00:46:40
Speaker
And it was, you know, speech and voice and makeup and movement and circus and performance.
00:46:46
Speaker
It was a great, great training.
00:46:48
Speaker
And then I came out to Chicago.
00:46:51
Speaker
After a small time in L.A.
00:46:52
Speaker
doing some theater up in Will Gear Theater in Topanga Canyon.
00:46:56
Speaker
And as many plays as I had done at that point, my favorite was always comedy.
00:47:01
Speaker
And I thought what's more fun than doing comedy is writing your own comedy.
00:47:05
Speaker
So I wanted to go to Second City to kind of create my own comedy and just have that whole experience.
00:47:11
Speaker
And SCTV was a big, big influence on me comedically.
00:47:15
Speaker
A lot of people go to Saturday Night Live, but I was in the SCTV camp.
00:47:19
Speaker
Of course, John Candy, Flaherty, Catherine O'Hare, Eugene Levy, Rick Moranis, just an unbelievable cast.
00:47:27
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.
00:47:33
Speaker
I'm going to Second City.
00:47:34
Speaker
That's where I'm going to get my training.
00:47:35
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.
00:47:44
Speaker
Some other stuff.
00:47:45
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.
00:47:54
Speaker
And in that band was a gentleman who worked at the Williams Pinball Company and his job as all the musician players.
00:48:02
Speaker
Musicians out there, their job is to do everything basically producer.
00:48:05
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.
00:48:11
Speaker
Today, there's like five guys who do those jobs generally, especially in video games, not so much in pinball.
00:48:17
Speaker
Pinball still is.
00:48:18
Speaker
Pretty much a small operation where one guy does a lot of jobs.
00:48:22
Speaker
But he said, hey, you're a pretty clever guy.
00:48:24
Speaker
You're out in Second City.
00:48:25
Speaker
We need a voice for Gilligan's Island.
00:48:27
Speaker
And as I said, I was able to pull that off.
00:48:29
Speaker
And then they said, hey, we're looking for Rod Sterling.
00:48:33
Speaker
You think you could do that?
00:48:34
Speaker
It was like, you're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight, a dimension of sound.
00:48:39
Speaker
You were about to embark on a journey, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:48:42
Speaker
So it was enough.
00:48:43
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.
00:48:49
Speaker
It was mimicking.
00:48:50
Speaker
You know, I wasn't, you know, I never thought of myself as an impressionist.
00:48:54
Speaker
But then there was Popeye.
00:48:55
Speaker
You know, I had to come up with a Popeye.
00:48:58
Speaker
Like, wow, blow me down.
00:48:59
Speaker
It's going to see how.
00:49:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:02
Speaker
Enough to get by at least 30 years ago, I could do it.
00:49:04
Speaker
Where did Sleepy go?
00:49:06
Speaker
Should have happened to Hitler.
00:49:09
Speaker
So it was just like when I was a kid, I loved being goofy, loved doing funny voices.
00:49:15
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.
00:49:26
Speaker
But it was always the comedy that I came back to.
00:49:29
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.
00:49:36
Speaker
And for a long, long time after, it was just extra money and fun.
00:49:40
Speaker
You know, it never paid much.
00:49:42
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.
00:49:50
Speaker
They would only get outside talent when one of their guys couldn't really do the role.
00:49:54
Speaker
Like Steve Ritchie is also known for people for Mortal Kombat.
00:49:57
Speaker
You know, he was like, finish him and Shao Kwan.
00:50:01
Speaker
you know, that kind of stuff.
00:50:02
Speaker
Mark Ritchie actually did the first Party Monsters, Elvira, the role that I did, which is kind of like the Dracula vampire sidekick.
00:50:10
Speaker
What time is it, Elvira?
00:50:11
Speaker
Time to get scared, Steve!
00:50:14
Speaker
When the coffins are rocking, don't come a-knocking!
00:50:16
Speaker
And right now I'm getting nailed in the coffin big time!
00:50:19
Speaker
Ho-ho!
00:50:20
Speaker
Ho-ho!
00:50:22
Speaker
So on my resume, I had put like Elvira, Party Monsters, Elvira Scared Stiff.
00:50:28
Speaker
And then I just did the recent one a couple of years ago, House of Horrors.
00:50:31
Speaker
And then I talked to Greg Ferris.
00:50:33
Speaker
He goes, no, you weren't into Party Monsters.
00:50:35
Speaker
I go, oh, really?
00:50:36
Speaker
I thought I was in all of them.
00:50:37
Speaker
He goes, no, that was Mark Ritchie.
00:50:38
Speaker
I go, oh, OK, whatever.
00:50:41
Speaker
But it was fun to return almost 30 years later from doing that first Elvira Scared Stiff, maybe 25 years later.
00:50:48
Speaker
And this one, I did seven roles in the new Elvira House of Horrors.
00:50:53
Speaker
I do all the floating deadhead ghosts.
00:50:55
Speaker
I do the 50s horror film trailer voice and, of course, the sidekick.
00:51:00
Speaker
And we won a Twippy Award, which means the best voiceover call-outs in a pinball game for that year.
00:51:06
Speaker
And we were supposed to...
00:51:08
Speaker
get them at the Houston show and then COVID hit.
00:51:11
Speaker
So I never got to get that in person.
00:51:15
Speaker
And I was supposed to be at Elvira.
00:51:16
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.
00:51:29
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:51:29
Speaker
So what did you do in Deadpool?
00:51:31
Speaker
Because I know that Norlin North did do Deadpool himself.
00:51:34
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:51:35
Speaker
If you get to the disco round.
00:51:38
Speaker
All right.
00:51:38
Speaker
It's time to put on your boogie shoes.
00:51:40
Speaker
We're going to party till dawn.
00:51:43
Speaker
Hey, guys, $20 at the door.
00:51:44
Speaker
And ladies, I drink for free.
00:51:47
Speaker
Get it?
00:51:48
Speaker
Hey, Barton, give me a Virgin Mary.
00:51:50
Speaker
Make an extra virgin.
00:51:53
Speaker
That kind of stuff.
00:51:54
Speaker
That is awesome.
00:51:56
Speaker
Love it.
00:51:56
Speaker
That's, that's great.
00:51:58
Speaker
I assume that you, you obviously have to train to, to turn it on and off like that, right?
00:52:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:03
Speaker
That's always been the way my brain's been wired.
00:52:06
Speaker
That's why I couldn't, couldn't, uh, you know, go to class without getting in trouble.
00:52:10
Speaker
I just, I just couldn't keep the yapper shut.
00:52:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:14
Speaker
Runs on many cylinders.
00:52:15
Speaker
So did you get to write some of, you said that you did comedy.
00:52:18
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?
00:52:23
Speaker
Yeah, I think basically every game I ever did, I contributed lines to all the pinball games.
00:52:28
Speaker
Whatever they had for a script,
00:52:30
Speaker
you do.
00:52:30
Speaker
And then whatever pops into my head, there was always improvisation.
00:52:35
Speaker
The last one, Deadpool, I wrote a lot of it myself.
00:52:39
Speaker
I did.
00:52:39
Speaker
I did.
00:52:40
Speaker
Yeah, I did a lot of that myself.
00:52:42
Speaker
And then the same thing with the Elvira.
00:52:44
Speaker
Greg wrote a great script and then I just improvised off it.
00:52:47
Speaker
So it's always a collaboration.
00:52:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:49
Speaker
And then, of course, for the video games, though, I started writing in full with the first NFL Blitz.
00:52:54
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.
00:53:03
Speaker
Like, how do you express yourself?
00:53:05
Speaker
And that became that wise guy like, and that was totally unnecessary.
00:53:08
Speaker
Ha ha!
00:53:09
Speaker
Oh, but a whole lot of fun to watch.
00:53:10
Speaker
Let's see it again, Arnie.
00:53:12
Speaker
That was the NFL blitz stuff.
00:53:14
Speaker
And oh, he just ripped his head off.
00:53:15
Speaker
That was just his helmet.
00:53:16
Speaker
Darn it.
00:53:18
Speaker
And then when we came back to revisit NBA Jam with EA Sports, they just, you know, said, hey, this is yours.
00:53:25
Speaker
Go for it.
00:53:25
Speaker
And I probably wrote, you know, 500 to 1,000 lines.
00:53:29
Speaker
And that's where you start to get the crazier persona.
00:53:31
Speaker
Instead of just saying like, you know,
00:53:33
Speaker
For three, from downtown, nothing but net.
00:53:36
Speaker
I go, from downtown.
00:53:38
Speaker
And like rummaging through my wife's top dresser drawer, he finds nothing but nylon.
00:53:41
Speaker
Boom shakalaka.
00:53:43
Speaker
Or instead of simply rejected for a block, I go, oh, I love it when you call me Big Blocker.
00:53:48
Speaker
The block doctor is in and we'll see you now.
00:53:51
Speaker
Have a seat, LeBron.
00:53:53
Speaker
And so that's when it was basically full on like writing a adult swim.
00:53:57
Speaker
That's the way I thought of it.
00:53:58
Speaker
It's like, you know, I've got this this this world that I'm going to inhabit.
00:54:03
Speaker
I'm the main voice.
00:54:04
Speaker
So like Deadpool, like it's my, you know, snarky kind of, you know, announcer comedy voice.
00:54:09
Speaker
Sometimes it's announcers.
00:54:10
Speaker
Sometimes it's kind of a heckling fan.
00:54:12
Speaker
And it just became my, you know, my my signature style.
00:54:15
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.
00:54:25
Speaker
And then they played on their jumbotron and social media.
00:54:28
Speaker
I worked with the Golden State Warriors for two years during their finals championships.
00:54:33
Speaker
And I would do a roundup of every series, a playoff series, and then the finals and, you know,
00:54:37
Speaker
You know, what does stuffed curry have for breakfast?
00:54:38
Speaker
Snap, crackle pop, nice crisp threes.
00:54:41
Speaker
Make him a part of your balanced NBA diet.
00:54:43
Speaker
Kaboom.
00:54:44
Speaker
What's for dinner?
00:54:45
Speaker
Curry surprise.
00:54:45
Speaker
It's fast, easy to make, and a real crowd pleaser.
00:54:48
Speaker
He's on fire.
00:54:49
Speaker
How do you like your curry?
00:54:50
Speaker
I like mine on fuego.
00:54:52
Speaker
That kind of stuff.
00:54:53
Speaker
That is amazing.
00:54:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:55
Speaker
And James Harden, I got to go to a Houston Rockets game.
00:54:58
Speaker
They played my video highlights on the Jumbotron.
00:55:02
Speaker
I introduced the team lineup.
00:55:04
Speaker
And so we had like, you know, in the video, Harden's coming down the court doing the shake and bake.
00:55:09
Speaker
And this is a limited time TV offer.
00:55:10
Speaker
It slices, it dices, it dunks in your face.
00:55:12
Speaker
Announcing the amazing Hardenizer.
00:55:14
Speaker
Beards sold separately.
00:55:15
Speaker
Call now and they'll throw in this free dagger at the buzzer.
00:55:17
Speaker
Boom shakalaka.
00:55:19
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.
00:55:34
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.
00:55:41
Speaker
Marv is the voice of the NBA.
00:55:43
Speaker
I'm new at doing this.
00:55:44
Speaker
So here's what it is.
00:55:45
Speaker
You know, all those phrases are basically things you would have heard in a game of the week.
00:55:49
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.
00:55:59
Speaker
But now it's now it's my thing.
00:56:01
Speaker
I kind of think of it as a kind of a stand up persona.
00:56:04
Speaker
Listening to because NBA Jam is so iconic.
00:56:07
Speaker
I think everyone knows Boom Shakalaka and whatnot.
00:56:12
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?
00:56:21
Speaker
Well, no.
00:56:22
Speaker
And interestingly enough, it wasn't they who called me.
00:56:25
Speaker
It was me who called them.
00:56:27
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.
00:56:32
Speaker
I wonder how that waiting tables of Smith and Walensky is going.
00:56:35
Speaker
I wonder if he feels...
00:56:36
Speaker
He feels like he's just a has-been.
00:56:37
Speaker
Boy, we should bring him in here and do some voiceover for our NBA team.
00:56:41
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.
00:56:47
Speaker
So I had this good idea that, hey, they might be fans.
00:56:51
Speaker
And I got a lure in the lure box.
00:56:53
Speaker
So I call, you know, get their number off the Internet just for like, you know, the games operation, entertainment person.
00:57:00
Speaker
Of course, you get their voicemail, and I could just leave a voicemail like, you've reached Trey Smith from the Atlanta Hawks.
00:57:05
Speaker
He can't come to the phone right now because he's on fire.
00:57:07
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.
00:57:13
Speaker
Hey, Trey, this is Tim, Mr. Boomshok Locker from NBA Jam.
00:57:17
Speaker
I was wondering if you guys might want to do a throwback night, 90s night with some NBA Jam highlights.
00:57:22
Speaker
Call me back.
00:57:23
Speaker
And then they call back and go, dude, are you really the dude?
00:57:28
Speaker
He goes, I was playing this around the office and people thought someone was putting me on.
00:57:31
Speaker
So it was fun that I realized that my secret power, my superhero secret power was Boomshak locking my voice.
00:57:40
Speaker
And I was able to get some people on board that way.
00:57:43
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.
00:57:51
Speaker
50 bucks for an hour of being silly.
00:57:53
Speaker
is great money.
00:57:54
Speaker
As a businessman, it sucks.
00:57:56
Speaker
It's not good pay.
00:57:58
Speaker
Granted, it was 30 years ago, but over the years, I had to try to learn the business aspect of it more.
00:58:04
Speaker
So all these years later, working with a professional NBA team, doing highlights for Steph Curry.
00:58:09
Speaker
I mean, that's part of my legacy.
00:58:12
Speaker
That'll be there forever.
00:58:13
Speaker
And no, I
00:58:15
Speaker
I was forgotten for a long time.
00:58:16
Speaker
I mean, the arcade industry, pinball industry, both basically had a DOA.
00:58:21
Speaker
You remember that period, right?
00:58:23
Speaker
No one thought they were coming back.
00:58:25
Speaker
And then they came back.
00:58:26
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.
00:58:34
Speaker
And there was no way I would have known that there was even...
00:58:38
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.
00:58:51
Speaker
I can't believe.
00:58:53
Speaker
It's like I have no idea, had no idea that it had that kind of an impact.
00:58:57
Speaker
I knew the game itself was popular.
00:58:59
Speaker
I knew it made $2 billion, a billion the first year in quarters, a billion in quarters.
00:59:04
Speaker
Wow.
00:59:04
Speaker
And when Jurassic Park that same year selling tickets probably back then for about $8 to $10, they made $600 million worldwide.
00:59:14
Speaker
And we make $400 million more than Jurassic Park quarter by quarter.
00:59:19
Speaker
So I knew all that stuff.
00:59:20
Speaker
So it was kind of depressing.
00:59:21
Speaker
Like I'm waiting tables again.
00:59:23
Speaker
early 2000s and going, oh, well, that was fun.
00:59:26
Speaker
That whole thing's over.
00:59:28
Speaker
Now sports games are all sim games, so they go to broadcasters.
00:59:31
Speaker
They go to ABC, ESPN broadcasters.
00:59:34
Speaker
I'm known for my style, which is arcade style.
00:59:37
Speaker
So I thought it was done and over.
00:59:40
Speaker
And so to have this resurgence, and I did a remake of Mutant Football League a few years ago.
00:59:45
Speaker
We're working on another version now.
00:59:47
Speaker
That's a remake of a 93 classic mutant football league.
00:59:52
Speaker
And I've got all these opportunities, I said, in different fields with ESPN.
00:59:57
Speaker
I've done some stuff for them.
00:59:59
Speaker
I did some highlights on SportsCenter and working with the NBA teams.
01:00:02
Speaker
I've got a few new games to go.
01:00:04
Speaker
So it's almost like this second life, you know, 25, 30 years later is really unexpected.
01:00:10
Speaker
I assume that you enjoyed playing games and stuff like that, too, while you're.
01:00:14
Speaker
Nope.
01:00:15
Speaker
Nope.
01:00:15
Speaker
Nope.
01:00:15
Speaker
It was you know, there's a weird period of time.
01:00:19
Speaker
My generation growing up, going to college where there were only a handful of the games were out there.
01:00:24
Speaker
You'd see Space Invaders and Pac-Man, whatever.
01:00:29
Speaker
But those quarters were really hard to come by.
01:00:32
Speaker
And I had a job at school that paid about $15 for eight hours.
01:00:37
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.
01:00:44
Speaker
That's a few beers, especially on 25 cent beer night on Wednesday nights at the pub.
01:00:49
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.
01:01:00
Speaker
Just to walk off and start playing video games just wasn't part of who I am.
01:01:03
Speaker
I need to, you know, that's Second City.
01:01:05
Speaker
It's like I like to collaborate.
01:01:06
Speaker
I like to, you know, create stuff.
01:01:08
Speaker
So, you know, as an actor, I'm always with people.
01:01:10
Speaker
And so that idea of just being with a game in that world,
01:01:15
Speaker
It's just foreign to me.
01:01:16
Speaker
And even when I went to, you know, to Midway and work on games, I'd come out to their cafeteria.
01:01:22
Speaker
They had every pinball game, every video game.
01:01:25
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.
01:01:32
Speaker
I'm going to go sit down and cruise and smash some, you know, stingrays on cruising.
01:01:36
Speaker
You know, it was easy.
01:01:37
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:37
Speaker
You've got quite the resume here when it comes to these games.
01:01:41
Speaker
These have been considered some of the best games of all time.
01:01:43
Speaker
Like I said, Attack for Mars.
01:01:45
Speaker
Are you the alien in Attack for Mars?
01:01:46
Speaker
Or what do you do in there?
01:01:48
Speaker
I know that I'm the military guy.
01:01:50
Speaker
Like, we're going to build a blaster.
01:01:52
Speaker
Let's blast him.
01:01:53
Speaker
You know, that guy.
01:01:54
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.
01:02:00
Speaker
But yeah, it was just generally, besides a general, like, oh, return to battle, soldier.
01:02:06
Speaker
If you get a gutter ball.
01:02:08
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:08
Speaker
On the first poll.
01:02:10
Speaker
And I had only played that for the first time in probably 20 something years at one of the recent shows.
01:02:14
Speaker
So I go, oh, yeah, that's me.
01:02:15
Speaker
That's me.
01:02:16
Speaker
A lot of our multiple voices.
01:02:18
Speaker
Of course, you know, the obvious ones, I'm the lead, you know, Twilight Zone and Shadow is a smaller voice.
01:02:25
Speaker
I'm the voice of the Shadow.
01:02:26
Speaker
OK.
01:02:26
Speaker
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?
01:02:31
Speaker
The Shadow knows.
01:02:33
Speaker
And Red and Ted, one of my favorites, the roadshow adventure where I play Red.
01:02:38
Speaker
Well, honey, I got my paycheck.
01:02:40
Speaker
Let's go wreck some road.
01:02:42
Speaker
Uh-oh, here comes that pastrami sandwich again.
01:02:44
Speaker
Oh, I knew I shouldn't have that.
01:02:46
Speaker
That's the multiball.
01:02:48
Speaker
He wakes up at night and he gets the burp going and then the ball starts shooting out.
01:02:52
Speaker
What are some of the others?
01:02:53
Speaker
Well, of course, oh, whodunit, which is a great one because it's, you know, I'm Nick Spade, the private island.
01:03:00
Speaker
Suddenly I was back on the case.
01:03:01
Speaker
I took the elevator to the penthouse.
01:03:03
Speaker
Hmm.
01:03:04
Speaker
I wonder what's down there.
01:03:06
Speaker
That kind of stuff.
01:03:07
Speaker
Yeah.
01:03:07
Speaker
That was a great one.
01:03:08
Speaker
And that's one you rarely see, but it's one of my favorites.
01:03:11
Speaker
And then I assume you reprised your role for Revenge for Mars.
01:03:15
Speaker
Yeah.
01:03:16
Speaker
And once again, various and military and et cetera, et cetera.
01:03:19
Speaker
Yeah.
01:03:19
Speaker
Yeah.
01:03:20
Speaker
You didn't do the Bill Clinton.
01:03:22
Speaker
Well, you know what?
01:03:23
Speaker
I got something to confess here.
01:03:24
Speaker
I don't do a very good Bill Clinton.
01:03:27
Speaker
It starts to turn into Barney Five in a hurry.
01:03:30
Speaker
Andy.
01:03:32
Speaker
One of my favorite games, which was one of my first games, was World Cup soccer.
01:03:36
Speaker
And that's got some amazing ones.
01:03:38
Speaker
How did he make that save?
01:03:40
Speaker
Gola!
01:03:43
Speaker
That kind of stuff.
01:03:44
Speaker
Saw that the last couple of games, and everybody goes, man, that's a great game.
01:03:49
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.
01:03:54
Speaker
That's good.
01:03:57
Speaker
It hits too close to home.
01:03:59
Speaker
Who are you in Judge Dredd?
01:04:01
Speaker
Judge Dredd?
01:04:03
Speaker
Judge Dredd.
01:04:04
Speaker
Judge, jury, and executioner.
01:04:06
Speaker
That's me.
01:04:07
Speaker
I'm Judge Dredd.
01:04:08
Speaker
Nice.
01:04:09
Speaker
Where are you into sports too?
01:04:11
Speaker
Cause it seems like this was like a happy accident is what I'm getting from all this.
01:04:14
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:14
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.
01:04:21
Speaker
Or wouldn't you like to do that?
01:04:22
Speaker
You have such a good voice.
01:04:23
Speaker
No, that's, that's the, you know, that's going back to math class.
01:04:26
Speaker
That's just work.
01:04:27
Speaker
You know, like studying every single name, every team, all the nuance to be able to speak to speak.
01:04:32
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.
01:04:38
Speaker
And so if I'm doing a basketball game, you know, you got a Chucker who misses a lot.
01:04:42
Speaker
So he's, you know, Chuck's went up from three, like, dear Rim, I miss you.
01:04:46
Speaker
Love Chuck.
01:04:47
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.
01:05:01
Speaker
It's just so much work.
01:05:03
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.
01:05:10
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
01:05:17
Speaker
Yes.
01:05:18
Speaker
But but now years later, I'm more of a I'm a fan of the league as opposed to the Bulls necessarily.
01:05:24
Speaker
And I try to stay up and certainly watch the highlights.
01:05:27
Speaker
Well, the Bulls were amazing that during that time.
01:05:30
Speaker
Oh, my God.
01:05:30
Speaker
Definitely.
01:05:32
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.
01:05:39
Speaker
Just fantastically.
01:05:40
Speaker
Man, you were living the perfect Chicago life, sitting watching Michael Jordan eat a Chicago dog.
01:05:44
Speaker
Yeah, man.
01:05:45
Speaker
I went to his restaurant a lot of times to watch the playoffs and the finals.
01:05:50
Speaker
He had a great place, Michael Jordan's, with the first giant screen.
01:05:54
Speaker
It was probably 25 feet by 10 feet, but it was made up back then, the early 90s.
01:06:00
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.
01:06:05
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.
01:06:14
Speaker
I was living the life.
01:06:15
Speaker
What brought you back?
01:06:16
Speaker
Cause you took kind of a break after revenge for Mars, you did NBA with Stern.
01:06:20
Speaker
And then it looks like you didn't come back till about a decade later to do Deadpool and Elvira.
01:06:24
Speaker
What brought you back?
01:06:26
Speaker
Yeah.
01:06:26
Speaker
I mean, as I said, the industry itself basically died.
01:06:29
Speaker
And luckily, all those great guys that – the industry is so small that everybody knows everybody, Jersey Jack and every company in Gottlieb.
01:06:38
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 –
01:06:51
Speaker
You know, it was so many years ago, but they knew exactly like what they wanted.
01:06:54
Speaker
And thank goodness they reached out to me.
01:06:56
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.
01:07:06
Speaker
And I remember Gary Stern saying, hey, we're just a mom and pop outfit out here trying to survive.
01:07:12
Speaker
We can't afford the big bucks to pay you.
01:07:15
Speaker
I was like, hey, man, I used to get 50 bucks an hour or anything better than that.
01:07:18
Speaker
you know, I'll take it.
01:07:20
Speaker
But yeah, they brought me back in for that.
01:07:22
Speaker
And then of course, as they, you know, the Elvira thing was a no brainer since I'd done the other one.
01:07:27
Speaker
And then they just took a shot with me with the vampire for Deadpool.
01:07:30
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.
01:07:42
Speaker
If I didn't have, you
01:07:44
Speaker
pinball and I didn't have sports titles.
01:07:46
Speaker
Like, what am I going to do?
01:07:47
Speaker
I'm not going to get calls from LA to do random voices and games.
01:07:51
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.
01:07:59
Speaker
They called me to do a, a cameo, a voice pack.
01:08:03
Speaker
for Rage 2 on Fire Edition.
01:08:04
Speaker
And you can find that on all the, on YouTube if you don't have the game itself.
01:08:09
Speaker
But it's really fun.
01:08:10
Speaker
It's a, you know, first person shooter and I'm just doing my crazy over the top stuff.
01:08:13
Speaker
You know, with that.
01:08:15
Speaker
See ya, wouldn't want to be.
01:08:17
Speaker
Oh, that's going to sting.
01:08:18
Speaker
Pow, pow, puppy chow.
01:08:19
Speaker
Kaboom, he's on fire.
01:08:21
Speaker
No, literally, call out the, you know.
01:08:24
Speaker
It was fun.
01:08:24
Speaker
It was great to reprise the Mr. Boomshot locker role, but out of context in a comedic way against a violent backdrop.
01:08:33
Speaker
Yeah, I've always been waiting by the phone.
01:08:35
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.
01:08:47
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.
01:08:55
Speaker
from the actors, Dan Pesina, Richard Divizio, Anthony Marquez, Carlos Pesina.
01:09:01
Speaker
I never met them.
01:09:02
Speaker
They're probably in the studio in 92 because our games came out 10 months apart, Mortal Kombat and Jam.
01:09:07
Speaker
And they're working in the motion capture studio.
01:09:09
Speaker
And I would come in from time to time to the sound booth.
01:09:13
Speaker
We never met.
01:09:13
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,
01:09:22
Speaker
Hey, Tim, you know these guys, right?
01:09:23
Speaker
And I go, nope, never met him, don't know who they are.
01:09:26
Speaker
And he was like, no, he plays, he's a Sub-Zero Scorpion, don't know what you're talking about.
01:09:30
Speaker
Scorpion, Sub-Zero, don't know, Johnny Cage, nope.
01:09:34
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.
01:09:41
Speaker
And Paul Nehemiah, too, the great artist from Mortal Kombat and tons of other games.
01:09:45
Speaker
And so we've got this little like rat pack on the road.
01:09:49
Speaker
Yeah.
01:09:50
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.
01:09:59
Speaker
When we go to conventions, we're all together and having fun.
01:10:01
Speaker
And so if you ever see them come to town and your listeners come out, you'll definitely have fun with us.
01:10:08
Speaker
Sounds like it.
Voice Acting at Conventions
01:10:09
Speaker
You know, and the big thing right now at those conventions and whatnot are the
01:10:12
Speaker
where the voice actors get together and they play out a scene with their voices.
01:10:16
Speaker
We should pitch that idea to one of these pinball conventions because I think that would go over amazing.
01:10:21
Speaker
That'd be a lot of fun and grab a random different voice actors together and throw scripts.
01:10:26
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.
01:10:32
Speaker
And we did that at the Florida Freeplay podcast.
01:10:35
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.
01:10:45
Speaker
He had really weird commercials for us to read, just playing around for your voiceover.
01:10:49
Speaker
And Warren Davis, the creator of Q-Bert, is also a very good actor and improviser.
01:10:53
Speaker
So he's provided a lot of fun at these shows too.
01:10:58
Speaker
What's your most favorite role that you've done so far in this?
01:11:02
Speaker
MLB Slugfest, and that's the baseball commentator for the MLB Slugfest is the sports series.
01:11:09
Speaker
After Blitz, we went to do baseball, and then we did hockey, NHL hits.
01:11:12
Speaker
But baseball, because the pace of the game is slower, and since I'm writing the script, I got to write full-on
01:11:19
Speaker
in between pitches, in between any like crazy conversational comedic dialogues.
01:11:25
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.
01:11:32
Speaker
And with the guy that I brought in, an iconic comedian from Chicago, uh, um,
01:11:38
Speaker
whose character is Jimmy Shorts.
01:11:41
Speaker
It's just a great, great time.
01:11:43
Speaker
And we do 70 different improvised comedic scenes when the game is loading.
01:11:48
Speaker
So instead of just seeing the loading screen, it's us having a blast up in the booth together.
01:11:53
Speaker
So check that out if you haven't.
01:11:55
Speaker
You can get tons of clips on YouTube for MLB Slugfest.
01:12:00
Speaker
Also check that out.
Rod Serling Role Challenge
01:12:01
Speaker
Was there any role that you took on that you're like, oh, crap, this is a little out of my hands?
01:12:07
Speaker
No, I mean, fortunately, I guess I said with the pinball, we went over most of the roles.
01:12:11
Speaker
It was just I knew right away, like either I could do it or couldn't.
01:12:15
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
01:12:20
Speaker
the mantle of like the Rod Serling and it had to be approved by his estate, whatever.
01:12:24
Speaker
I didn't kind of realize that the gravitas of like taking that role on.
01:12:28
Speaker
And I also didn't know that they had searched far and wide for a sound alike.
01:12:33
Speaker
And then they came back to me instead of asking me first, there was like, oh, this is,
01:12:37
Speaker
I don't know if he could do that.
01:12:38
Speaker
It was weird.
01:12:38
Speaker
It's like, why didn't you just ask me in the beginning?
01:12:41
Speaker
But yeah, that was the only one, as I said, to live up to that.
01:12:45
Speaker
But all the rest of the stuff, hey, my wheelhouse is sports stuff, bread and butter, comedic crazy stuff like the Elvira.
01:12:53
Speaker
There hasn't been anything that's come across my plate where I go,
Iconic Voices in Gaming
01:12:57
Speaker
I don't want to do that.
01:12:57
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.
01:13:05
Speaker
It's crap.
01:13:05
Speaker
Yeah.
01:13:06
Speaker
Well, and the voices of Scared Stiff are some of the most iconic.
01:13:10
Speaker
People quote those in the pinball hobby.
01:13:13
Speaker
They're just wonderful.
01:13:15
Speaker
I did not know that.
01:13:16
Speaker
So you did Dracula, and did you say you did the heads as well?
01:13:19
Speaker
In the new one, I do all the talking heads.
01:13:21
Speaker
Like, hey, take another shot at me like that, and I'll drop you like a rock lobster, pal.
01:13:26
Speaker
And...
01:13:28
Speaker
And as I said, the movie trailer guy, there were so many different voices for that.
01:13:30
Speaker
Like, tonight announcing, you know, I forget what it was.
01:13:34
Speaker
It's like 50s sci-fi, you know.
01:13:36
Speaker
Once I do these things, I just forget all about them.
01:13:38
Speaker
And I don't play the games very often, if ever, the pinball games too.
01:13:43
Speaker
Because when I go to the shows, I'm just busy, you know, with fans and everything else.
01:13:46
Speaker
So like when the new Elvira showed up, I never got a real good listen.
01:13:50
Speaker
Never got to the Deadpool round of like the vampire.
01:13:53
Speaker
So I don't know how that even sounds.
01:13:55
Speaker
But I've heard a lot of people say they have enjoyed it.
01:13:58
Speaker
It is wonderful.
01:13:59
Speaker
And really, honestly, I think you've hit the nail on the head that you are the voice of most of our childhoods.
01:14:05
Speaker
I remember when NBA Jam came out when I want to say I was around 10 and just...
01:14:10
Speaker
I think we were talking about this because we were hyping you up.
01:14:14
Speaker
We were excited to have you on the podcast.
01:14:16
Speaker
And it's like, I think you have a very iconic voice and people just associate you with that product, right?
01:14:23
Speaker
They don't necessarily think it's Tim Kitzrow.
01:14:25
Speaker
It's Dracula from Scared Stiff or Rod Serling from Twilight Zone.
01:14:29
Speaker
And so it's amazing to have you on and have you talk about these
Evolution of Pinball Fan Base
01:14:33
Speaker
games because I think that part of that's kind of lost to history, especially like you're saying, pinball went by the wayside.
01:14:38
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
01:14:39
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.
01:14:47
Speaker
And now, now handheld, you know, it's taking over even the console more for the youngest generation there.
01:14:52
Speaker
Yeah.
01:14:53
Speaker
I'll go to like the pinball show, the Northwest in Portland.
01:14:56
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.
01:15:05
Speaker
And like, there's a new generation right there.
01:15:07
Speaker
But I tell you that the pinball fans are the best.
01:15:10
Speaker
They are so hardcore, so knowledgeable, so passionate.
01:15:14
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.
01:15:22
Speaker
Uh,
01:15:23
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
01:15:46
Speaker
You know, Gottlieb, Ballet, Williams, pinball games.
01:15:49
Speaker
There's some of the greatest games and the fans know it.
01:15:51
Speaker
And I love the fact that they're all over now in arcades all over the city in Chicago.
01:15:55
Speaker
And it's just it's great.
01:15:57
Speaker
I feel very fortunate to be part of that community.
01:16:00
Speaker
We'll even have movies come out now.
01:16:01
Speaker
You know, Roger Sharp.
01:16:03
Speaker
You worked with Roger at WMS and whatnot.
01:16:05
Speaker
Just saw him at the Chicago Pinball Show, yeah.
01:16:07
Speaker
You know, and he had his own movie now.
01:16:09
Speaker
Yeah.
01:16:10
Speaker
It just won a couple awards, too.
Insert Coin Documentary Appearance
01:16:12
Speaker
And I'm in a documentary called Insert Coin, and it's available on Amazon Prime.
01:16:17
Speaker
And it's the telling of the story of the rise and fall of Midway Games, done by director Josh Swee.
01:16:23
Speaker
who was an artist, a digital artist out there, and was also a minor character in one of the Mortal Kombat things.
01:16:29
Speaker
But of course, his connection, he knew everybody, and he was a filmmaker in college.
01:16:33
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?
01:16:43
Speaker
Great highlights.
01:16:44
Speaker
We've got the footage that people have never seen before of Mortal Kombat,
01:16:48
Speaker
doing the motion capture, the original days, the blue screen of the DePaul basketball players doing the NBA jam moves.
01:16:55
Speaker
It's really fun.
01:16:56
Speaker
Of course, I'm in there telling some great stories.
01:16:58
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.
01:17:07
Speaker
And one little moment, really it was a moment of time, it was like this punk rock kind of
01:17:12
Speaker
you know, garage factory out there, California Ave between Belmont and Addison in Chicago, right down the road from Wrigley Field.
01:17:19
Speaker
And some of the biggest hits ever made came out of there.
01:17:21
Speaker
And it's kind of like Motown, you know, hit after hit after hit.
01:17:24
Speaker
It was a literal factory assembly line for hit games for a while.
01:17:27
Speaker
Like I said, the list that you've been on, these are all hits.
01:17:31
Speaker
I don't look at one of these and go, I mean, Party Zone.
01:17:34
Speaker
Party Zone is fantastic.
01:17:36
Speaker
You know, just these games are insane.
01:17:39
Speaker
It's awesome.
01:17:40
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
01:17:41
Speaker
Yeah, who would have thunk it?
01:17:44
Speaker
Yeah, who would have?
01:17:45
Speaker
Is there anything else you'd like me to ask you?
New Apps and Games
01:17:48
Speaker
Actually, I'm doing one fun thing right now.
01:17:51
Speaker
It's an app, it's called Throwback.
01:17:56
Speaker
Big Breakers, Big Money Brackets, Throwback.
01:18:00
Speaker
And it's on wherever you get your apps.
01:18:04
Speaker
But you can grab any team from any league, basketball, football, baseball,
01:18:11
Speaker
And just put random, you know, players together.
01:18:14
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.
01:18:20
Speaker
If you want to have, if you like sports and go back and throw back.
01:18:23
Speaker
I've got a few other things working.
01:18:25
Speaker
I'm working on a fishing app, believe it or not.
01:18:27
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.
01:18:31
Speaker
Hey, he's on the fourth hole right now and just like blow it up.
01:18:34
Speaker
So it's kind of the same things.
01:18:35
Speaker
Like there's a couple of fishing apps out there that are very successful, but there's no voice on them.
01:18:39
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.
01:18:48
Speaker
And so that's fun.
01:18:50
Speaker
And I've got another company that I'm working with to hopefully do four new sports titles starting this year.
01:18:57
Speaker
So there are a lot of stuff on the horizon, irons in the fire and,
01:19:00
Speaker
You know, I'll be out on the road 10 to 20 times this year, different cities.
01:19:03
Speaker
So, so look for me where if I come to your town, stop by and say hello.
Happy Gilmore Pinball Project
01:19:08
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?
01:19:15
Speaker
In pinball?
01:19:17
Speaker
There are no definites, but I did do a side project.
01:19:22
Speaker
I guess I could say it.
01:19:23
Speaker
Todd McCulloch is one of the great arcade enthusiasts on the planet.
01:19:29
Speaker
He was a former center for the Philadelphia 76ers.
01:19:31
Speaker
He lives out in Seattle.
01:19:33
Speaker
He lives out on one of those islands you got to take a ferry to.
01:19:36
Speaker
And after he left the NBA, he was going to collect fancy cars like a lot of athletes do.
01:19:41
Speaker
And he has this three-car, like, custom garage, carriage house, guest house.
01:19:47
Speaker
And he got his first couple of cars, but he fell in love with people doing the Northwest, especially with pinball.
01:19:51
Speaker
He'd always loved pinball, but he started collecting.
01:19:54
Speaker
He got rid of the cars.
01:19:55
Speaker
Now he has basically a three-story active arcade and museum on the third floor.
01:20:02
Speaker
And he collects everything.
01:20:03
Speaker
And he wanted to do his own custom pinball machine.
01:20:07
Speaker
And he wanted to do a Happy Gilmore theme.
01:20:09
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.
01:20:24
Speaker
And I did the voice for it.
01:20:25
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,
01:20:32
Speaker
may actually look at doing a production of that as well.
01:20:35
Speaker
But it's a one-off, but that was just a great thing.
01:20:37
Speaker
Like a one-off for a great collector was fun to do.
01:20:40
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
01:20:41
Speaker
Yeah.
01:20:42
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.
01:20:49
Speaker
So I have to fit into that category of the supporting role.
01:20:53
Speaker
And of course, Elvira, because it's an original, there are no TV or movie voices to go, oh, we
Challenges in Voice Roles for Pinball
01:20:58
Speaker
got to get the original.
01:20:58
Speaker
And I am the original.
01:21:00
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.
01:21:11
Speaker
I mean, so many of those titles back then, medieval magic, just such originals.
01:21:15
Speaker
They weren't based on TV or movie or music, you know, anything.
01:21:19
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
01:21:39
Speaker
My website is timkitzrow.com.
Custom Voiceover Contact Info
01:21:42
Speaker
If it's easier, you can say mrboomshackalaka.com.
01:21:44
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.
01:21:51
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.
01:22:04
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.
01:22:10
Speaker
Or if you have a bachelor party or something you want to do, you do an invite, you can go to that site.
01:22:15
Speaker
It's called Who Said What Now?
01:22:16
Speaker
And it's at my website, timkitzrow.com.
01:22:19
Speaker
And that would be...
01:22:20
Speaker
That's fun.
01:22:20
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.
01:22:27
Speaker
And I've actually been asked to do two weddings this year.
01:22:31
Speaker
I'll be doing one in October and one in December, MC and also officiating the wedding.
01:22:37
Speaker
So, yeah, people can't get enough of the good old nostalgia.
01:22:41
Speaker
And why not?
01:22:41
Speaker
It was a fun time and continues to be fun for new generations.
01:22:45
Speaker
I'm watching four, five, six, seven, eight year old, you know, pick up NBA Jam.
01:22:49
Speaker
And an 11 year old kid came in second in a tournament out of 37 people.
01:22:54
Speaker
And the first time he'd ever played, it was that morning.
01:23:00
Speaker
The kids are too smart nowadays.
01:23:01
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
01:23:03
Speaker
Well, it's been a pleasure
Nostalgia of Gaming Voices
01:23:04
Speaker
talking with you.
01:23:04
Speaker
And yeah, check out my website, MrBoomShakalaka.com.
01:23:09
Speaker
And of course, you can just YouTube things.
01:23:11
Speaker
Go to look at some of the MLB Slugfest.
01:23:13
Speaker
As I said, that's the stuff I'm most proud of.
01:23:15
Speaker
There's a compilation of things.
01:23:17
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.
01:23:27
Speaker
So yeah, it's always fun to go down that rabbit hole and see some of the highlights other people have put together.
01:23:32
Speaker
Sounds good.
01:23:33
Speaker
Yeah, man.
01:23:34
Speaker
We appreciate you coming on and thank you for setting aside some time to be with us.
01:23:38
Speaker
Yeah.
01:23:38
Speaker
Real pleasure to be here and love being on your show and say special.
01:23:42
Speaker
Hey to all your friends out there.
01:23:45
Speaker
Thanks for playing pinball and keeping the game world alive.
Conclusion and Farewell
01:23:48
Speaker
If you want to get ahold of us, we are loser kid pinball podcast at gmail.com.
01:23:52
Speaker
If you want to get ahold of us on the socials at Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, and Instagram at loser kid pinball.
01:23:58
Speaker
We are, uh,
01:24:00
Speaker
just wrapping up our hundredth episode.
01:24:02
Speaker
This is nuts.
01:24:03
Speaker
You got anything else for us, Scott?
01:24:05
Speaker
Thanks for everybody who has spent even one episode with us.
01:24:09
Speaker
It means a lot to us.
01:24:10
Speaker
Yes.
01:24:11
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.
01:24:21
Speaker
Heading out Saturday.
01:24:22
Speaker
I'll be gone a week.
01:24:23
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.
01:24:29
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.
01:24:37
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
01:24:38
Speaker
Somewhere around there.
01:24:40
Speaker
Yeah.
01:24:42
Speaker
This is where you play the outro.
01:24:43
Speaker
Oh my, my, oh my, my.
01:24:45
Speaker
Oh wait, that's a different, that's a different episode or a different show.
01:24:50
Speaker
That's a different show.
01:24:52
Speaker
What's the Golden Girls theme?
01:24:54
Speaker
We should just place that here.
01:24:56
Speaker
Oh, I was just thinking of Three's Company.
01:24:58
Speaker
Come on, knock on our door.
01:25:00
Speaker
No, but Golden Girls was... Thank you for being a friend.
01:25:04
Speaker
Yes.
01:25:05
Speaker
Yes.
01:25:06
Speaker
All right.
01:25:07
Speaker
See you in two weeks.
01:25:07
Speaker
We'll see you guys in two weeks.
01:25:08
Speaker
Bye.