Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Ep 105: Bad Mother Flippers with Mark Ritchie and Josh Sharpe
47 Plays3 years ago
Suprise! It's only been 2 days since our last episode, so we figured, why not drop another episode? Mark Ritchie along with Josh Sharpe join us to talk all about Pulp Fiction and crazy fun adventure that took 5 years to make!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Recent Pinball Releases
00:00:07
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast.
00:00:09
Speaker
We are on episode 105.
00:00:10
Speaker
I am Josh Roop.
00:00:11
Speaker
With me, my co-host, as always.
00:00:13
Speaker
Scott Larson.
00:00:15
Speaker
And Scott, there has been nuts.
00:00:18
Speaker
So many reveals.
00:00:19
Speaker
So many releases.
00:00:20
Speaker
If you're going to be buying Pulp Fiction, that seems like the new hotness right now.
00:00:25
Speaker
Where are you going to be getting yours from?
00:00:27
Speaker
You know, I would call Zach and Nicola Flipping Out Pinball, and I would definitely see if I can get the Bad Mother Flipper Edition.
00:00:34
Speaker
Because, my gosh, that's amazing.
Industry Insights with Josh Sharp and Mark Ritchie
00:00:37
Speaker
And that topper is great.
00:00:39
Speaker
And, you know, speaking of the bad mother flipper, we've got two bad mother flippers with us today.
00:00:44
Speaker
We've got Josh sharp, which everyone knows, you know, the overlord, the King, whatever you want to call him.
00:00:50
Speaker
He did the call shot, right?
00:00:52
Speaker
Yes, something like that.
00:00:54
Speaker
And then we have a very special guest, a man that has been in the industry for 30 plus years with amazing titles like Indiana Jones Pinball Venture, Fishtails, Taxi, and it's done numerous call outs.
00:01:08
Speaker
We have Mark Ritchie with us.
00:01:10
Speaker
How are you doing, Mark?
00:01:11
Speaker
Good.
00:01:11
Speaker
How are you guys?
00:01:12
Speaker
Doing great.
00:01:13
Speaker
And how are you doing, Josh?
00:01:15
Speaker
Fantastic, boys.
00:01:16
Speaker
Better now that your computer's working?
00:01:18
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:01:20
Speaker
We're going to pretend like this wasn't supposed to start 20 minutes ago.
00:01:25
Speaker
Oh my goodness.
00:01:26
Speaker
Well, hey, I'm glad we're all here.
00:01:27
Speaker
I'm glad we were able to figure out the technical difficulties and get this underway.
00:01:31
Speaker
But Mark, this is amazing.
00:01:33
Speaker
The last game you worked on besides for Capcom with Kingpin was Indiana Jones Pinball Ventures.
00:01:40
Speaker
So what brought you back into the realm of pinball?
00:01:44
Speaker
These guys here are Roth Rills, believe it or not.
00:01:46
Speaker
I had all but
00:01:48
Speaker
kind of given up on the thought of getting back into it, not wanting to go back to work for Stern or any of the big companies.
00:01:54
Speaker
I just, that prospect just would love to design, but not under that roof.
00:02:00
Speaker
I don't know if that's, you know, I could have done that a couple of times, but passed on it.
00:02:04
Speaker
And I'm super glad I did because I feel like this is the best group I could have possibly ever been blessed to work with.
00:02:13
Speaker
Definitely.
00:02:14
Speaker
I'm a lucky guy.
00:02:16
Speaker
Well, in my understanding, it sounds like there's a lot of the old school Bally William guys still there with raw thrills and with, uh, with play mechanics and stuff, right?
00:02:24
Speaker
Yeah, there's a few of us.
00:02:25
Speaker
There's a few of us, George and I go back, George Petro, president of, uh, play mechanics and a pinball programmer.
00:02:34
Speaker
Nice.
00:02:35
Speaker
You know, I was pretty skeptical when we started this for that reason, because George is the president here and he's got lots of other stuff to do.
00:02:42
Speaker
And it's really been, um,
00:02:46
Speaker
I don't know how to put it, I guess a surrealistic kind of ride.
00:02:50
Speaker
It's been a while.
00:02:51
Speaker
Obviously, we've been on this thing for five years.
00:02:53
Speaker
So take that in consideration with the timing.
00:02:59
Speaker
I mean, we primarily make arcade games.
00:03:01
Speaker
So pinball was kind of a journey for us.
00:03:05
Speaker
So even though we knew how to do it, there were all kinds of new hurdles and just it was a ride.
00:03:12
Speaker
Well, so that brings up, yes, you're a company that is involved in all sorts of entertainment, home entertainment, and you're known for the remakes.
00:03:22
Speaker
The remakes have been, or at least Chicago Game Company is known for the remakes and being able to make these classic games.
00:03:29
Speaker
However, this is really branching into an original title that they're helping out with, and so it's a partnership.
Creating the Pulp Fiction Pinball Machine
00:03:37
Speaker
So tell me about how that came about.
00:03:41
Speaker
Interesting story.
00:03:43
Speaker
I had reached out to Doug to try to acquire a few parts, basic things, flippers, bumpers.
00:03:49
Speaker
We had at that point decided we were going to go ahead and start making a Whitewood, creating the game.
00:03:54
Speaker
This is down the track.
00:03:55
Speaker
I mean, the story starts earlier than that.
00:03:58
Speaker
But regarding Doug and Chicago Gaming, I actually just went over there one day and said, hey, can I get some stuff from you?
00:04:06
Speaker
In fact, I have the receipt somewhere here for the bill.
00:04:10
Speaker
for the cabinet and for all the basic stuff you needed, you know, to get a game fired up.
00:04:15
Speaker
And, um, it was kind of funny.
00:04:17
Speaker
Um, Doug was, he sniffed something and eventually he says, I think I know what you guys are working on.
00:04:25
Speaker
I got a pretty good idea.
00:04:26
Speaker
I know what it is.
00:04:27
Speaker
And that's a George, kind of a George story.
00:04:29
Speaker
I was not privy to that, but George told me about it.
00:04:32
Speaker
Um, so yeah, he, he,
00:04:34
Speaker
he figured out what we were doing and got interested.
00:04:36
Speaker
And all of a sudden we started getting more support from Doug, a little bit more support.
00:04:41
Speaker
Pretty soon we had a hardware system.
00:04:42
Speaker
Pretty soon we had, well, everything.
00:04:45
Speaker
And, um, you know, it was a process, but, but, but we didn't, we never, I certainly never said, Hey, Doug, want to make a game with us?
00:04:53
Speaker
You know, it, it didn't happen that way.
00:04:55
Speaker
Um, he sort of got involved on his own through George.
00:05:01
Speaker
And, um, before I knew it, uh,
00:05:04
Speaker
Eugene and George had a talk with them and we had a partnership.
00:05:09
Speaker
So I wasn't really involved in it directly, you know, so, but that's what I know about it.
00:05:15
Speaker
Well, Pulp Fiction is an iconic movie that is really genre changing.
00:05:22
Speaker
You could definitely say that Hollywood tilted a little bit when Pulp Fiction came out.
00:05:28
Speaker
But it's also 30 years old.
00:05:30
Speaker
So how did the process of deciding to make a Pulp Fiction game or at least knowing the Pulp Fiction license was up for a game?
00:05:39
Speaker
How did that happen?
00:05:41
Speaker
Josh, correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe this project started out as a video game.
00:05:46
Speaker
Yeah, I think we went to them for that.
00:05:48
Speaker
And then they pitched us on Quentin wanting to get a pinball machine made.
00:05:53
Speaker
And then it was sort of in our court.
00:05:56
Speaker
I didn't even know about this project back then.
00:05:58
Speaker
But if George and you guys over there in your building wanted to do something and you guys took it on.
00:06:07
Speaker
I think Scott and George were talking about a side-scroller, very similar to, I guess, NARC.
00:06:12
Speaker
I believe that was the original plan for that game.
00:06:15
Speaker
And at some point, I think Eugene said, why don't you guys make a pinball?
00:06:22
Speaker
And that's kind of how we ended up shifting from that to the pinball.
00:06:27
Speaker
And my understanding, too, is Quentin had – he – the only real direction he wanted was old school, right?
00:06:33
Speaker
He didn't want LCDs.
00:06:34
Speaker
He didn't want all this fancy stuff.
00:06:36
Speaker
And even something like getting a hold of him was old school.
00:06:39
Speaker
You had to send papers in the mail.
00:06:42
Speaker
Telegraph.
00:06:43
Speaker
Oh, my gosh.
00:06:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:46
Speaker
I mean, that was such a long process.
00:06:51
Speaker
So many times.
00:06:52
Speaker
I mean, it would have been okay if it happened once, but it happened like multiple times.
00:06:57
Speaker
And where we were just sitting, you know, okay, what's the next step?
00:07:00
Speaker
We've sent stuff in for approval.
00:07:04
Speaker
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
00:07:07
Speaker
Six weeks later.
00:07:08
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:07:08
Speaker
Okay, fine.
00:07:09
Speaker
Go ahead.
00:07:09
Speaker
You know, early on, it was that way.
00:07:12
Speaker
And it's that way now.
00:07:16
Speaker
You know, regarding approvals and things like that.
00:07:18
Speaker
They're just really slow to react.
00:07:20
Speaker
I'm not sure why.
00:07:21
Speaker
You know, maybe the Weinstein thing had something to do with that early on because that was going on.
00:07:27
Speaker
So, you know, um, Hollywood's a different world, man, different world.
00:07:32
Speaker
Definitely.
00:07:33
Speaker
They definitely dance to their own music and I can't play that song ever, but, um, you know, um, kind of an interesting, uh, side story here.
00:07:47
Speaker
You know, I had submitted, my first crack was a wide body.
00:07:51
Speaker
So I had way more in the game originally.
00:07:55
Speaker
And,
00:07:56
Speaker
He basically just peed all over it.
00:08:00
Speaker
I don't want that.
00:08:00
Speaker
Get that out of here.
00:08:01
Speaker
Way too much.
00:08:02
Speaker
No ramps, no displays.
00:08:04
Speaker
Here's what I want.
00:08:05
Speaker
And I started getting emails with pictures of Dolly Parton and Captain Fantastic, Strikes and Spares, all these old rally games.
00:08:15
Speaker
It became real clear what he wanted very quickly.
00:08:18
Speaker
So...
00:08:19
Speaker
We wanted to make him happy.
00:08:22
Speaker
I mean, he's the guy, he's got to be happy or we're not going anywhere or doing anything with anybody.
00:08:26
Speaker
So that was kind of the tact we took with it.
00:08:30
Speaker
And from there, we made an 80s game.
00:08:37
Speaker
So he didn't want any ramps or displays.
00:08:39
Speaker
I know that this is – traditionally it's a single level, but it has stuff in it that you wouldn't typically see in a single level, like the vertical upkicker that goes to the ball lock behind.
00:08:48
Speaker
He hasn't noticed it yet.
00:08:49
Speaker
He hasn't noticed.
00:08:51
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:08:51
Speaker
I'm going to say in the subway.
00:08:53
Speaker
I didn't know.
00:08:54
Speaker
Oh, no, no, no subway.
00:08:55
Speaker
Nothing under there.
00:08:56
Speaker
Yeah, we did the cool stuff, but we kept it.
00:08:59
Speaker
We tried to keep it.
00:09:00
Speaker
It's impressive though, because I think, like it said, I'm going to reference the straight down the middle feature here and there, but it's a great collaboration of, it was a nineties movie, but they're dressed up like they're from the seventies.
00:09:12
Speaker
So there's a lot of mixture of modern, you know, that nineties and seventies.
00:09:16
Speaker
And I feel like that's interpreted it in this game very, very well of like, you can't really put an error on this game, right?
00:09:23
Speaker
No.
00:09:24
Speaker
And so, I don't know, just looking at this,
00:09:29
Speaker
Was it difficult trying to make something that was going to appease him, I guess?
00:09:34
Speaker
Not really.
00:09:34
Speaker
Not on my end.
00:09:35
Speaker
I kind of had a good vision of stuff early on, like the briefcase and the characters and things.
00:09:41
Speaker
Those things came really quickly.
00:09:42
Speaker
The font shop probably came right after that.
00:09:46
Speaker
And then I started naming the features before I actually had them.
00:09:50
Speaker
So I kind of had a really good idea of having these
00:09:54
Speaker
these different paths that didn't know what I was going to do with them, but laid them into the game and thought this can be cool at some point, you know, um, a lot of times games go that way for me.
00:10:06
Speaker
Um, I don't always have a whole idea.
00:10:09
Speaker
I'll have a piece of it and I'll start with that.
00:10:12
Speaker
And then that's kind of how the play field evolved.
00:10:15
Speaker
Um,
00:10:17
Speaker
So I think very visually and I think I look at if I look at a license, I'm looking for artifacts.
00:10:23
Speaker
I'm looking for things that people are going to remember that I can mechanically make happen in a game.
00:10:29
Speaker
Obviously, everybody does that, I'm sure.
00:10:30
Speaker
But, you know, that's what the briefcase was automatic.
00:10:34
Speaker
Originally, I wanted to have the balls actually load into the case.
00:10:38
Speaker
So as the case rotated, the original plan was that the balls would drop out of the bottom of it.
00:10:43
Speaker
But that became very quickly a mechanical nightmare.
00:10:46
Speaker
So we abandoned that.
00:10:49
Speaker
So I think what we ended up with was much better, much more reliable.
00:10:52
Speaker
So you have to think about reliability.
00:10:54
Speaker
You can't throw a bunch of crap in a game and expect it to work, you know, with a horrible design behind it.
00:11:02
Speaker
So, yeah, it's a process, you know.
00:11:06
Speaker
So walk through the cabinet because the cabinet, this is where you guys nailed that vintage effect is because the cabinet doesn't look like a modern cabinet.
00:11:16
Speaker
It doesn't feel like a modern cabinet.
00:11:19
Speaker
Even in the back lot, the back glass, does that lift off or does that fold down?
00:11:26
Speaker
It folds and it can also be detached from the cabinet, but it actually has hinges directly above the speaker board.
00:11:34
Speaker
Okay.
00:11:34
Speaker
Kind of like the old days where you remember we had hinges on the necks of games.
00:11:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:39
Speaker
Valley did it.
00:11:40
Speaker
I know Valley did it.
00:11:41
Speaker
And you could just fold the back box down.
00:11:45
Speaker
But yes, it's modern as far as that goes.
00:11:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:50
Speaker
But the cabinet, you know, I guess you're alluding to the coin door and some of the things that are.
00:11:55
Speaker
Just everything.
00:11:56
Speaker
Everything looks non-modern.
00:11:59
Speaker
Even the cabinet says this is not a modern game.
00:12:03
Speaker
Is it like a two-tone paint too?
00:12:05
Speaker
Like the old school.
00:12:07
Speaker
Almost looks like there's overspray, like, you know, a simulated overspray.
Design and Features of Pulp Fiction Pinball
00:12:11
Speaker
We purposely designed the cabinet to look like it had been like it was a stenciled cabinet from the era.
00:12:17
Speaker
Because in the old days, they would run two or three stencils to do the designs on the outside of the cabinets.
00:12:23
Speaker
No decals.
00:12:23
Speaker
This is way before decals.
00:12:25
Speaker
So we basically mimicked that look for that.
00:12:28
Speaker
That was Scott's deal.
00:12:31
Speaker
He did a great job with that because I have people going, hey, man, did you guys stencil?
00:12:35
Speaker
Yeah, I got the same stuff, you know, and it's like, wow, you know.
00:12:39
Speaker
We look at it every day.
00:12:41
Speaker
So when you see people saying stuff like that, it's just, it's awesome.
00:12:45
Speaker
I mean, that's, that's exactly the effect we wanted.
00:12:49
Speaker
The coin door actually came out a little bit later when we started going down the retro road.
00:12:53
Speaker
We're like, Hey, let's go all the way.
00:12:55
Speaker
You know, we can't like, we can't put a half coin door on this thing and expect it to look like a game out of the eighties or nineties, you know?
00:13:03
Speaker
So that came from George would push that pretty hard.
00:13:07
Speaker
He was on, on that program.
00:13:09
Speaker
and then the integrated start button we took basically right off a gallery machine you know so a lot of it was inspired again by just the general look of games from that era and it definitely hits the mark i think the other thing too is it's impressive looking at what price point this came in at and how custom this is i mean this is just not a cookie cutter off the line and and
00:13:34
Speaker
you guys are obviously hit an amazing mark because it sounds like every, everywhere I'm talking to the LE has, is sold out unless if you, you might have to dig in some corners right now, but it seems like all the many, many, many, major distributors have sold their bad mother flippers.
00:13:51
Speaker
So, which is, comes with that amazing topper.
00:13:54
Speaker
You got to tell me about that topper.
00:13:55
Speaker
How, who came up with that and how did it come about?
00:13:58
Speaker
I was a couple of people.
00:13:59
Speaker
It's mostly me.
00:14:00
Speaker
I had the vision in the beginning and then, um,
00:14:03
Speaker
Scott got involved with me on that pretty early and we shot it over to Doug and said, Hey, here's the idea.
00:14:08
Speaker
And Doug went, it's hard to, Doug went nuts with that thing.
00:14:16
Speaker
He went and he did it right.
00:14:18
Speaker
And he took an idea and basically ran with it, did all the engineering, did all of the, you know,
00:14:26
Speaker
all of the trials with the motors and everything he went through to get that thing to where it is today.
00:14:31
Speaker
It was just, I could write a book about that, you know, but Doug is, Doug is a passionate dude, man.
00:14:37
Speaker
He, he was a huge part of this thing.
00:14:41
Speaker
I think we couldn't have pulled this off without him.
00:14:43
Speaker
There's no way.
00:14:45
Speaker
We certainly couldn't have pulled off a game that looks like this.
00:14:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:49
Speaker
The stuff that, that,
00:14:52
Speaker
the CGC side was able to bring to the table was equally important to the game itself was the package.
00:14:58
Speaker
And yeah, they were instrumental in pulling that through to the finish.
00:15:06
Speaker
But, you know, he would call me on Sunday evenings and go, hey, what do you think about this?
00:15:11
Speaker
You know, I'm going to try this movement.
00:15:13
Speaker
I'm going to try these bearings, you know.
00:15:15
Speaker
I'm like, yeah, great.
00:15:17
Speaker
Cool.
00:15:17
Speaker
When can we see it?
00:15:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:19
Speaker
It was a lot of, when can we see it?
00:15:21
Speaker
But it was worth it.
00:15:22
Speaker
You know, I mean, he does things in a way that he has quality in his mind before he does anything.
00:15:29
Speaker
That's a huge thing.
00:15:30
Speaker
Even if it takes him longer, I think in the end it's completely worth it.
00:15:35
Speaker
You know, I agree.
00:15:36
Speaker
It's that three-legged stool of good, fast, cheap.
00:15:38
Speaker
And Doug, Doug does good and he does cheap.
00:15:43
Speaker
So it's not fast.
00:15:45
Speaker
And I couldn't think of,
00:15:47
Speaker
two out of the two out of those three things I would pick would be the two that Doug picks.
00:15:53
Speaker
Not to say it's not frustrating to deal with the fast side, but like, you know, I've talked with Mark about this over the years of this thing being developed, but you know, the game is going to live for 10, 20, 30, 40 years out there, and
00:16:09
Speaker
all of the trials and tribulations of getting to this point and having a game that is of this quality and looks like this will be worth it for long after Mark and I are gone.
00:16:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:22
Speaker
Well, this is going to fit really well with, I would say, a lot of people's game rooms where they're trying to have something that's a little more of, I guess, for adults, not a kid's game room.
00:16:36
Speaker
You know, there's no bounce house where you're putting this.
00:16:41
Speaker
But how was that zoning in on that?
00:16:45
Speaker
I mean, it's a very R-rated title.
00:16:48
Speaker
And and trying to trying to find, OK, here's the market for it.
00:16:52
Speaker
Were you concerned that, hey, there's there's a lot of stuff in here that would not go into some family's homes?
00:17:00
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:17:01
Speaker
Um, which is why we bleep, we have a version of audio that bleeps basically every square in the game.
00:17:07
Speaker
Except for Josh's house, apparently.
00:17:09
Speaker
Well, yeah.
00:17:11
Speaker
Work in progress.
00:17:12
Speaker
We actually had it happen again last week, but I won't talk about it.
00:17:17
Speaker
I found another one.
00:17:20
Speaker
Not as bad though.
00:17:22
Speaker
But, um, yeah, you know, absolutely.
00:17:24
Speaker
I think about stuff like that.
Gameplay Strategies and Influences
00:17:27
Speaker
Brings to mind a story, a guy years ago when I'd finished fish tails, a guy from the South, I got a phone call at that time.
00:17:36
Speaker
We had a woman that would handle all the incoming calls.
00:17:39
Speaker
She was a receptionist and she pages, she's facing me.
00:17:42
Speaker
There was a man on the phone to talk to you.
00:17:43
Speaker
He's from Georgia.
00:17:44
Speaker
And I'm like, okay.
00:17:45
Speaker
So I get on the phone with this guy and he's going, Hey, uh,
00:17:49
Speaker
you know, I don't know about you, but I'm kind of offended with the accents that you guys put on that game on a couple of them characters.
00:17:58
Speaker
And I don't know.
00:17:59
Speaker
I was flabbergasted when I heard that, you know, it kind of left a mark on me, like, I guess kind of after that.
00:18:05
Speaker
And I just ended up telling the guy, Hey, I don't know how I said this, but I go, Hey, we pick on everyone equally.
00:18:14
Speaker
No, I haven't gotten a call from the guy in Wisconsin yet.
00:18:17
Speaker
So yeah.
00:18:20
Speaker
Anyway, it's a crazy side story.
00:18:22
Speaker
But yeah, it does make me nervous.
00:18:25
Speaker
I mean, I think some people are going to pass on it, possibly for that reason.
00:18:30
Speaker
I mean, that is a risk.
00:18:32
Speaker
There's no question.
00:18:33
Speaker
It's not even the swearing that concerns me.
00:18:36
Speaker
You've got the gimp as the drop targets.
00:18:40
Speaker
My kids think that's just a Halloween costume.
00:18:43
Speaker
It is a Halloween costume.
00:18:45
Speaker
What, Josh, you don't have one of those outfits?
00:18:48
Speaker
No, I do not.
00:18:49
Speaker
You sure?
00:18:53
Speaker
Maybe that's why they think it is a Halloween costume at the Sharp Home.
00:18:56
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:18:56
Speaker
Right, right.
00:18:57
Speaker
It's Josh's house, yeah.
00:18:58
Speaker
I don't even think Pulp Fiction is the worst game in my basement.
00:19:01
Speaker
Definitely.
00:19:03
Speaker
There's no Dad of the Year awards in my house.
00:19:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:07
Speaker
You somehow ended up with the Zingy Bingy prototype in your house?
00:19:10
Speaker
That's the only thing I'm missing.
00:19:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:12
Speaker
All right.
00:19:15
Speaker
Okay, so Mark, walk us through the game.
00:19:17
Speaker
So I step up to it, what am I gonna do?
00:19:21
Speaker
I'm gonna let Josh take that.
00:19:25
Speaker
You know, I play it a certain way and Josh has alluded to this already.
00:19:29
Speaker
You can play that game any way you want.
00:19:32
Speaker
The features are not dependent on one another per se.
00:19:36
Speaker
So you can have fun with one of those features endlessly.
00:19:40
Speaker
I can tell you what I would do.
00:19:41
Speaker
Okay.
00:19:42
Speaker
I'll walk through it.
00:19:44
Speaker
My style.
00:19:44
Speaker
Okay.
00:19:45
Speaker
First thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna try to spot the skill shot in the upper in the center hole up on top of the center saucer.
00:19:53
Speaker
Blue, blue arrow in the center.
00:19:55
Speaker
Max points, right?
00:19:57
Speaker
Spot a character at that point.
00:19:59
Speaker
Ball kicks out.
00:20:00
Speaker
Now I'm in the bumpers.
00:20:01
Speaker
Now while I'm in the bumpers, I'm going to try to get big kahuna lit first thing, because that is a play field multiplier.
00:20:07
Speaker
When I get both of those targets lit, I can now shoot the magnet on the lower right side and jack my play field multiplier, which I'm going to want to do right away.
00:20:18
Speaker
After that, I'm going to start shooting for multiball, either in the pawn shop immediately or the briefcase, which is three drop targets down.
00:20:26
Speaker
Both are three drop targets down, although I think
00:20:29
Speaker
I think briefcase might be a little bit tougher only because of the distance.
00:20:35
Speaker
But I think in any case, when I play that game, I get multi-ball no less than five times in one play.
00:20:46
Speaker
So I'm going to do that.
00:20:51
Speaker
I'm going to go for all the bonus points and payoffs I can.
00:20:54
Speaker
I mean, it's really that simple.
00:20:56
Speaker
And you can do that either with the briefcase.
00:20:59
Speaker
or the pawn shop.
00:21:01
Speaker
I'm sure Josh has a way different strategy because he kicks my ass every time we play it.
00:21:06
Speaker
Not really.
00:21:07
Speaker
I mean, I think, you know, to your point, what you touched on first, the kahuna bonus is obviously a really big deal.
00:21:13
Speaker
So I will usually, you know, work towards those multi balls, but then not start them until I can get my multiplier up.
00:21:24
Speaker
And outside of that, it's sort of
00:21:27
Speaker
The game falls into the like the mode shot, for example, on the right is also the collect a character shot.
00:21:37
Speaker
So if I don't hit the saucer on the top, it means my target is still up.
00:21:43
Speaker
So that kind of opens up the single ball modes for me.
00:21:46
Speaker
So it's sort of like it's situational where.
00:21:50
Speaker
I missed the top, so it's like, all right, I'm going to go after this target because the single ball scoring modes have the potential to score even greater than any of the multi balls if you get a hold of it.
00:22:00
Speaker
And then you can collect those points again at the end of those modes.
00:22:03
Speaker
So it really is, you know, it's, I haven't been bashful about being a fan of Lyman and his work and the risk reward that he's put in his games, certainly in the tail end of his career.
00:22:20
Speaker
but it's it's definitely built to be that where anywhere you want to go if you execute your points will come and if you don't you should be close to something else that you are advancing as you do things i do think you know it's cool for me this game seems older than fishtails and indy jones but we somehow have both of those multi balls in this game we sort of have that front
00:22:49
Speaker
Indy Jones multiball, which Indy's lacking the fishtail's deeper lock shot.
00:22:55
Speaker
And this game has both.
00:22:57
Speaker
So to have two different three-ball locking mechanisms on a retro vintage game is really cool.
00:23:06
Speaker
We can lock four balls before we have to start kicking them out and stuff.
00:23:12
Speaker
So it's pretty cool.
00:23:14
Speaker
And then just, I've always believed that
00:23:19
Speaker
you know, the Williams games were always that perfect, perfect level of charm, difficult, you know, stuff that I've talked about forever.
00:23:28
Speaker
And the one thing that, that those games always lacked were, you know, these mini wizard modes that have developed over the last 20 years that those nineties games didn't have.
00:23:40
Speaker
They had eternal life, you know, by the time you got to India, Indy Jones, you know, they had lost in the zone, they had tore the mansion, but there weren't these,
00:23:49
Speaker
midway points that were explored to the level of depth that modern games do have now, and our game has that.
00:23:58
Speaker
So if this game did come out 30 years ago,
00:24:04
Speaker
A lot of the game would have been the same, but it would have been missing that depth that we have for, you know, it has a taxi role regarding the characters that are like picking up your passengers in taxi.
00:24:16
Speaker
But then there's a wizard mode at the end of that versus in taxi, you get your jackpot, you're back to your game.
00:24:21
Speaker
So I think sort of just paying attention to...
00:24:24
Speaker
And I think I mentioned it in the Zach video, but like we are not selling a game to that audience of 30 years ago, right?
00:24:31
Speaker
Like we are selling this game to a modern audience.
00:24:34
Speaker
So it was important for me on the rules side to have modern rules in a game that are equivalent to other machines, just hopefully less confusing if we did it right, which I think we did because we had to because we couldn't rely on an LZ.
00:24:51
Speaker
You know, I do feel...
00:24:53
Speaker
you know, the tail end of the DMD era into the LCD era, it was, it really serves as a crutch to be able to, there's nothing worse.
00:25:03
Speaker
And I have joked about this with Lyman over the past, but you know, when you reach the LCD era, it's like, Oh, we can do whatever we want because then we can just throw some stuff up on the screen and people will figure it out.
00:25:16
Speaker
And the real trick and the really hard part and Lord knows that,
00:25:23
Speaker
I set Mark hundreds of bad rule suggestions before we landed on stuff that was far too confusing.
00:25:32
Speaker
And we always had to harken back to like, how do we explain this knowing that we have alphanumeric displays and inserts and sound and speech?
00:25:43
Speaker
And, you know, at some point,
00:25:46
Speaker
you go from like, oh, damn, I wish we could do this to sort of embracing the limitations that the system has because it makes you put on your problem solving hat.
00:25:59
Speaker
And it's like, I have this cool rule idea.
00:26:03
Speaker
Can we make this work with the limitations we have?
00:26:06
Speaker
And having some RGB inserts allowed us to create some depth of rules because...
00:26:13
Speaker
You now know you had a chance to do something more than one time.
00:26:16
Speaker
You could do it at different color levels that would raise the value through the story that you're telling.
00:26:21
Speaker
So I think we tried to exploit that as much as we could to make the gameplay as modern as possible.
00:26:29
Speaker
Man, that was really long wait.
00:26:31
Speaker
I feel like my dad's kid.
00:26:33
Speaker
Yeah, it's okay.
00:26:34
Speaker
It's okay.
00:26:34
Speaker
That's what we said.
00:26:36
Speaker
Therapy, therapy in an hour.
00:26:37
Speaker
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
00:26:40
Speaker
Okay, so rule sets.
00:26:42
Speaker
You obviously take some rule sets as an inspiration piece for any game, right?
00:26:49
Speaker
And so what are the games that you drew inspiration from in creating this rule set?
00:26:55
Speaker
For this, it was really, you know, a lot of it was paying homage to Mark.
00:27:00
Speaker
You know, I think seeing... And by the time I was involved, like, it was already this single-level game.
00:27:06
Speaker
So, you know, the first image I got from Mark had sort of the five characters in the center.
00:27:12
Speaker
So, you know, I immediately...
00:27:16
Speaker
like started focusing on like the taxi rule and collecting characters and then just trying to find a way to extend, like, how do we make this a modern rule version of a classic
Character and Art Design Decisions
00:27:27
Speaker
rule?
00:27:27
Speaker
So it was a lot of, of that, you know, there's other modes like the, one of the mini wizard modes, the shot is, uh,
00:27:36
Speaker
there's one shot lit on the play field and you can hit it as many times as you want, which kind of calls back to the super jackpot stage for Indiana Jones and Fishtails, where you've made it to this event and you can just start going to town and it's a really special moment.
00:27:54
Speaker
So, you know, a lot of stuff from Mark's previous games and just a lot of stuff like really, I'm not a huge fan of
00:28:04
Speaker
colored arrow modes in terms of, of that being a, what distinguishes one mode from another.
00:28:11
Speaker
So, you know, trying to highlight different areas of the play field, you know, I'm a huge Larry, Larry DeMar to me is like the goat of, of really transitioning from classic to modern, modern pinball would not be what it is today without Larry.
00:28:26
Speaker
And,
00:28:27
Speaker
You know, one of my favorite games that he did was World Cup soccer.
00:28:29
Speaker
So, you know, the ultra modes that he has on those games that suddenly increased the scoring for very common pinball items like jet bumpers and spinners and that game ramps and the goalie and whatever, you know, tying that into...
00:28:45
Speaker
You know, the roll scene modes are pretty much a version of that where it's not just super jets, but you're actually dancing out the scene through that mode through the jets, which is where the dance floor is on the game.
00:28:59
Speaker
So trying to stick to the story, trying to do things that players, you know, after playing a couple of times will identify that, like, you know, this mode is the jet bumper mode and this mode focuses on the spinners.
00:29:13
Speaker
And then having that risk reward for the tournament players built in to be able to execute and get a good payoff.
00:29:23
Speaker
You talked a little about Easter eggs with previous games.
00:29:27
Speaker
I know like in Indiana Jones, you can get to the fish of tails or to the WB frog if you go the right cart path.
00:29:35
Speaker
Is there anything like that in this game as well?
00:29:38
Speaker
I think I don't think we score anything, but there's definitely a special call out if you're if you get a you cheat Dr. Jones style ball into the pawn shop while the pawn shop is locked.
00:29:51
Speaker
Nice.
00:29:51
Speaker
Outside of that, I don't think we went to, you know, we I mean, every decision we made really tried to to focus on the vibe of.
00:30:01
Speaker
that we were explicitly trying to go for with the game that like things like that are cute but it kind of just didn't fit within this game yeah so not really i know that uh like the one of the rules the drive fast rule has you
00:30:18
Speaker
building up the speed of your car faster and faster.
00:30:21
Speaker
And there is an Easter egg that the miles per hour you have to hit to light your extra ball is 146 miles an hour, which is from high speeds back less, which is how fast Steve was going during his adventures.
00:30:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:36
Speaker
So what made you guys land on the five characters?
00:30:39
Speaker
The Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Quentin Tarantino, and Mr. Wolf.
00:30:45
Speaker
I can't remember his name, but I mean, Bruce Willis is a pretty big part of the story.
00:30:50
Speaker
Why wasn't he one of the modes versus Quentin's obviously it's his game.
00:30:54
Speaker
It sounds like he wanted this made.
00:30:56
Speaker
So I don't blame you for putting him there, but just, just unique.
00:31:00
Speaker
The picked Quentin's character and Mr. Wolf's versus maybe the other two.
00:31:05
Speaker
Well, originally we had, we had Jules, we had Vincent, we had Butch, we had Marcellus, we had Mia and we had Mr. Wolf originally.
00:31:15
Speaker
When we submitted for approval, we were asked to remove both Butch and Michael, which was also equally devastating because yeah, I agree.
00:31:25
Speaker
I mean, what the question is, why is Quentin on the play field?
00:31:27
Speaker
Well,
00:31:29
Speaker
It's a licensing thing, and that's all I'm going to say about it.
00:31:31
Speaker
Okay.
00:31:33
Speaker
Easy enough.
00:31:33
Speaker
That's what they wanted, and that's what we gave them because we believed in this game, and we believed that the theme would carry it pretty far and that if they wanted that, okay.
00:31:45
Speaker
So we had fun with Quentin in the game anyway.
00:31:49
Speaker
I think it turned out great.
00:31:50
Speaker
I mean, I don't hate it anymore.
00:31:52
Speaker
I wasn't all about it in the beginning, but you evolve, you adjust, and you keep going.
00:31:59
Speaker
And then also originally the back glass was supposed to be the iconic, um, Pulp Fiction poster, but then Quentin kind of pushed against back that it did.
00:32:09
Speaker
Was it originally going to be like realistic art or was it always this kind of comic book style art that you guys have?
00:32:15
Speaker
Um, it, you know, that we never got that far with it, but I think we were kind of going to do, um, I don't think we would have done the comic book thing if we hadn't been directed to do
00:32:30
Speaker
I don't recall exactly what if we had carved a style in or anything, because what we were giving them were just concept sketches basically at the time.
00:32:40
Speaker
So we weren't really hard line on how the art was going to look at that point.
00:32:45
Speaker
We basically got most of that direction from QT himself.
00:32:50
Speaker
So, you know, like the whole comment about, you know, yeah, you guys got to do hand drawn art.
00:32:56
Speaker
And and by the way, if you don't have an artist, I have a guy.
00:33:01
Speaker
And Scott heard that and he's like, no, we have a guy.
00:33:06
Speaker
So that kind of evolved into that.
00:33:08
Speaker
Originally, you know, I'm looking at old stuff right now and.
00:33:13
Speaker
A lot of it is photorealistic, but it's again, it's concept art, so there's nothing really finished that you could make a, you know, a clear decision on what the direction was at that time.
00:33:25
Speaker
Gotcha.
00:33:25
Speaker
We were kind of floating, kind of, is this going to work?
00:33:28
Speaker
Is that going to work?
00:33:28
Speaker
What do you think about this?
00:33:29
Speaker
What do you think about that?
00:33:30
Speaker
I mean, it was back and forth, a lot of back and forth with George and I and Scott at Furverstein on how the thing should look.
00:33:39
Speaker
So we sort of, I don't know, it's hard to say, a lot of paste up stuff, you know, and the concept sketches and just to sort of try to get a direction because I would say we really didn't have an art direction at that point.
00:33:53
Speaker
What was the most surprising thing that happened in the game that turned out way better than you thought?
00:34:00
Speaker
For sure, the magnet shot.
00:34:03
Speaker
When George got a hold of that thing and got his programming fingers on it and had it throwing the ball all over the play field, it'll grab the ball and then it'll whip it.
00:34:12
Speaker
You don't know where it's going to go.
00:34:14
Speaker
Sometimes it finishes shots for you.
00:34:16
Speaker
Sometimes it'll lock the ball.
00:34:18
Speaker
Sometimes it'll go up straight up the spinner lane.
00:34:20
Speaker
I mean,
00:34:22
Speaker
That was probably the biggest surprise, surprise cool moment for me.
00:34:26
Speaker
But I think also when I saw the briefcase work for the first time, that was pretty exciting.
00:34:32
Speaker
So those two things I think were probably the biggest.
00:34:36
Speaker
What should I say?
00:34:37
Speaker
How should I describe that?
00:34:38
Speaker
I'll be nice.
00:34:40
Speaker
Very exciting.
00:34:41
Speaker
How's that?
00:34:42
Speaker
I got to say, and I love the briefcase too and the way that it mimics the movie, right?
00:34:47
Speaker
Like no one knows who's in the – no one knows what's in the briefcase.
00:34:50
Speaker
Who's in the briefcase?
00:34:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:54
Speaker
There's a theory out there.
00:34:55
Speaker
It's supposedly the diamonds from Reservoir Dogs that Mr. Pink got away with the diamonds.
00:34:59
Speaker
I heard Marcellus' soul is in there, which explains the Band-Aid at the back of his neck.
00:35:05
Speaker
Okay.
00:35:06
Speaker
You heard that one?
00:35:07
Speaker
I haven't.
00:35:07
Speaker
That's the one that I started.
00:35:08
Speaker
The sole was stolen, the band-aid was put on, and the sole ended up in the briefcase.
00:35:13
Speaker
Huh.
00:35:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:14
Speaker
That's a good one, too.
00:35:17
Speaker
As good as anything, right?
00:35:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:19
Speaker
As much as you can speculate, that's as good as it's going to get.
00:35:23
Speaker
So did you enjoy this process?
00:35:26
Speaker
I mean, you've been out of pinball for almost 20 years now.
00:35:29
Speaker
Was it just like coming back to home?
00:35:31
Speaker
Was it like riding a bike?
00:35:32
Speaker
How
Mark Ritchie's Career Reflections
00:35:33
Speaker
was it?
00:35:33
Speaker
Pretty much.
00:35:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:35
Speaker
I, I loved it.
00:35:36
Speaker
It was a dream come true for me.
00:35:39
Speaker
I mean, you know, I kind of washed my hands of pinball thought, well, maybe I'll do it again sometime on my own time.
00:35:45
Speaker
I didn't think these guys would ever do this.
00:35:48
Speaker
It came as a complete surprise.
00:35:49
Speaker
And, you know, I think somebody asked me like, like, I don't know who it was, but you know,
00:35:55
Speaker
How did you convince them to make that game?
00:35:59
Speaker
And I go, they convinced me.
00:36:01
Speaker
I didn't.
00:36:01
Speaker
It was the other way around.
00:36:03
Speaker
George hit me up.
00:36:04
Speaker
Hey, you want to do a pinball?
00:36:04
Speaker
I went, no.
00:36:06
Speaker
I mean, yeah, yeah, sure.
00:36:09
Speaker
I never said no.
00:36:12
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:36:12
Speaker
I mean, it's awesome to be doing this again.
00:36:15
Speaker
It's something I know how to do.
00:36:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:18
Speaker
And then I guess the other question is, if you can talk about it or whatnot, what made you exit Pinball?
00:36:24
Speaker
Because originally you were working for Williams.
00:36:26
Speaker
I don't know if I've ever heard the story of you going from Williams to Capcom and then kind of exiting.
00:36:32
Speaker
What is the question?
00:36:35
Speaker
Your Williams exit to Capcom, Mark.
00:36:37
Speaker
Tell us all about how that went down.
00:36:39
Speaker
Oh, that was, yeah, that was fun.
00:36:43
Speaker
I majorly pissed off Neil McAstro.
00:36:46
Speaker
He talks about it.
00:36:47
Speaker
What's that, Tom?
00:36:48
Speaker
What is that public, that video, Josh?
00:36:52
Speaker
Which one?
00:36:53
Speaker
He rants about it on the video at the end.
00:36:55
Speaker
Oh, is it the Pinball 2000 documentary or no?
00:36:59
Speaker
No, no, no.
00:37:00
Speaker
God, I can't remember now.
00:37:01
Speaker
It was that one dude that did like a whole history on video games.
00:37:04
Speaker
Oh, it's the Insert Coin documentary?
00:37:06
Speaker
That's it.
00:37:07
Speaker
Yeah, Neil just goes off on a rampage about some dude who,
00:37:11
Speaker
ripped them off, stole stuff.
00:37:13
Speaker
And, you know, he went after them, nailed them in court.
00:37:16
Speaker
I was that guy.
00:37:17
Speaker
Wow.
00:37:18
Speaker
Nice.
00:37:18
Speaker
I didn't get nailed in court.
00:37:20
Speaker
None of that happened.
00:37:21
Speaker
He, he just, he harassed us endlessly, but we made games, you know, and the reason I left Williams was basically that guy.
00:37:31
Speaker
I, I, I never liked him.
00:37:32
Speaker
He was, I just had a hard time.
00:37:36
Speaker
My thought was, why should I be putting money in this guy's pocket?
00:37:39
Speaker
He's already got enough.
00:37:40
Speaker
He doesn't like anything I do.
00:37:41
Speaker
I mean, I made the greatest game of my career.
00:37:44
Speaker
And he was very like, eh, no big deal, you know?
00:37:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:48
Speaker
And I just, I guess I, I guess I was just really pissed off, you know?
00:37:55
Speaker
And I left there and I thought, the heck with this.
00:37:57
Speaker
Next thing it comes along, I'm gone.
00:37:58
Speaker
Well, something came along very, very quickly after that, so...
00:38:03
Speaker
And then how was Capcom?
00:38:04
Speaker
Like, was it enjoyable when it went... I can't remember if it didn't think they were in bankruptcy.
00:38:09
Speaker
It was a short run.
00:38:10
Speaker
Yeah, not many.
00:38:12
Speaker
It was...
00:38:15
Speaker
It was very pressuresome.
00:38:17
Speaker
It was like stepping out of the frying pan into the, into the, into the kettle in a lot of ways, because we had nothing.
00:38:22
Speaker
We basically built that place up from scratch.
00:38:25
Speaker
They had absolutely nothing.
00:38:27
Speaker
And we had a couple of sharp people there that were able to put stuff together relatively quickly, a hardware system.
00:38:33
Speaker
And then, you know, that that's always a huge battle.
00:38:37
Speaker
So that was our first step.
00:38:39
Speaker
We got that done, I think in year one,
00:38:42
Speaker
At the end of the year, we had something that was playable.
00:38:45
Speaker
And I think the first thing we did was we tested the hardware on a redemption game because none of us could make pinball according to our agreements with Williams Electronics.
00:38:57
Speaker
So you had to wait a year before you could actually engage in the design of a competitive product, right?
00:39:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:04
Speaker
But we were all working on redemption games, which...
00:39:08
Speaker
It wasn't a pinball machine, so it wasn't competitive, you know.
00:39:11
Speaker
And basically, that's where we tested the pinball hardware.
00:39:15
Speaker
And from there, we, you know, things matured and moved on, and we were able to start making games.
00:39:22
Speaker
And I had other guys in there.
00:39:23
Speaker
Greg Kamek was there.
00:39:26
Speaker
Brian Hansen.
00:39:27
Speaker
Python, of course, which was awesome.
00:39:29
Speaker
That was a complete crazy, that's a whole story.
00:39:32
Speaker
I could, for another time, because it's too long.
00:39:37
Speaker
So how did you narrow down which moments of the game you're going to focus on?
00:39:42
Speaker
Because, I mean, you have the Royale with cheese on there, and you have the pawn shop, and you obviously have the dance scene.
00:39:52
Speaker
What made you select which scenes?
00:39:55
Speaker
I guess what I thought, I watched the movie like 20 or 30 times, I think, before I started getting into this.
00:40:01
Speaker
And I just, I grabbed things that stuck out at me and were like, you know, iconic moments that people are never going to forget.
00:40:09
Speaker
And when you see them on the game, you know exactly what that is.
00:40:13
Speaker
And so I guess I looked for the most...
00:40:15
Speaker
think the things that pop out, you know, Royal cheese was one of them, the briefcase, all of these things.
00:40:22
Speaker
Um, the gun was my idea.
00:40:23
Speaker
Um, that was just because these guys are carrying these Chrome 45 pistols, you know, I mean, pretty cool.
00:40:29
Speaker
Um, so that's kind of, that was, you know, um, I call it, uh, Luke loose theming, I guess.
00:40:37
Speaker
Very, you're very loose with a theme like this.
00:40:39
Speaker
Cause there's so much stuff there.
00:40:41
Speaker
It was, this one was really easy because
00:40:44
Speaker
So many great moments.
00:40:45
Speaker
I mean, there are things that we didn't do that I kind of wish we had, but we just didn't have the space for it or that it didn't fit, you know.
00:40:54
Speaker
So like the scene in the diner at the end, I would have liked to have done a little bit more with that.
00:40:59
Speaker
We do.
00:40:59
Speaker
We do.
00:41:00
Speaker
We do allude to it within the modes, but there's other things that are bigger than that, you know, and I guess I have a scale that just says, hey, where's the most memorable moment here?
00:41:11
Speaker
Where's the most memorable audio?
00:41:14
Speaker
more importantly in that movie, it was more about the audio.
00:41:17
Speaker
Where can I put that stuff and how can I make it make sense in the game?
00:41:20
Speaker
You know, I think that's part of the problem solving too, where it's like you're, you want to do five great things instead of 12 good things.
00:41:31
Speaker
And yeah,
00:41:32
Speaker
You know, that does, you know, like, I think we have five modes, like we could have had 15 modes in this thing, you know, but it just comes down to picking what works for the game, you know, kind of just always going back to what's best for the game.
00:41:46
Speaker
So on, on fishtails and on Indiana Jones, you have like an auto plunger feature with, with the fishing rod and on Indiana Jones, it's the gun.
00:41:55
Speaker
Was there ever a gun considered on Pulp Fiction or was it always, you wanted just the, the, the plunge for the skillshot?
00:42:02
Speaker
There was a gun considered.
00:42:03
Speaker
In fact, I have a. The first part was a launch button, right?
00:42:07
Speaker
That you guys built up over there.
00:42:08
Speaker
Well, there was a pistol, too.
00:42:10
Speaker
I mean, we had a we had a 45 pistol at one point very early.
00:42:15
Speaker
But, yeah, we we thought about it.
00:42:17
Speaker
And then, of course, that was not, again, not going to fit.
00:42:21
Speaker
The retro image was not going to fit in with everything else.
00:42:24
Speaker
You know, we do have an auto fire mode built into the game, though.
00:42:29
Speaker
So you're telling me if there's a modder out there that wants to mod a 45 to the game, they could probably get away with it.
00:42:37
Speaker
I think so.
00:42:38
Speaker
Right, Josh?
00:42:39
Speaker
They'd have to turn flipper launch on.
00:42:42
Speaker
Right now, if the setting is set that way, you can press the flipper button and fire the ball.
00:42:48
Speaker
Okay.
00:42:50
Speaker
Possible.
00:42:51
Speaker
Factory setting, though, I believe default is off.
Collaboration and Development Process
00:42:54
Speaker
Is that right, Josh?
00:42:54
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:42:56
Speaker
Yeah, that's honestly, I was showing my son.
00:42:58
Speaker
He's like, why didn't they put a gun as the plunger?
00:43:02
Speaker
But I figured it was something like that.
00:43:05
Speaker
So I like that on the watch, you put Richie as the manufacturer.
00:43:10
Speaker
Well, I didn't do that.
00:43:11
Speaker
That was dark.
00:43:12
Speaker
But yeah, it's cool.
00:43:16
Speaker
You're now part of Pulp Fiction.
00:43:17
Speaker
How does that make you feel?
00:43:18
Speaker
I guess the other man, there is an Easter egg, Mark.
00:43:21
Speaker
So we have a director.
00:43:23
Speaker
That for now is still Mr. Ritchie.
00:43:26
Speaker
But in the role scene modes, it goes a little fourth wall where we're actually introducing these as movie scenes rather than being in the world.
00:43:38
Speaker
And Mark is the voice of the director as you make progress during that.
00:43:46
Speaker
I don't know if we asked Josh, but how did you get roped into all this?
00:43:49
Speaker
Oh, man.
00:43:50
Speaker
I just...
00:43:52
Speaker
kept showing up until they stopped me showing up.
00:43:56
Speaker
They haven't stopped.
00:43:58
Speaker
I think, uh, man, Eugene randomly talked with me about this thing and I had no idea what was going on.
00:44:06
Speaker
And I'm just sitting there just like, my chin is on the ground and it's like, how have these guys not let me know what they're doing?
00:44:15
Speaker
What the heck?
00:44:16
Speaker
And, you know, call Mark.
00:44:18
Speaker
It's like, Hey, Eugene just told me, Mark, you know, caught me up to speed.
00:44:21
Speaker
And,
00:44:22
Speaker
And it was like, I mean, it's kind of how I've been with pinball my whole life, especially with Stern over the last, whatever, 30 years, 20 years.
00:44:34
Speaker
Like, I am Mr. Unsolicited comments.
00:44:39
Speaker
So, you know, Mark says to me what he's doing and immediately he's just like, this would be fun.
00:44:44
Speaker
This would be fun.
00:44:45
Speaker
Shower thought this morning.
00:44:46
Speaker
This would be fun.
00:44:47
Speaker
It's just...
00:44:48
Speaker
I'm sure at some point, Lonnie has emailed me to please stop emailing him, the game's done, or buggy Dwight, or buggy Lyman back in the day.
00:44:58
Speaker
But I just kept bugging Mark, and he was gracious enough to not ignore me.
00:45:05
Speaker
And I think also, and it's so great about the collaboration of this team, I think it takes a lot.
00:45:14
Speaker
of courage for not, not for, not for me, cause I don't care, but for people in my position, it takes courage to present ideas to these icons of the industry and hoping that they're not terrible.
00:45:30
Speaker
I'm fine if they're terrible, but I think, you know, it's a big part to, to have, you know, the, the graciousness and acceptance of the people on the other end to, you know,
00:45:41
Speaker
also be trusting enough, like Mark can tell me that an idea isn't good.
00:45:45
Speaker
And he knows, but, and there's other people that I'm sure Mark couldn't tell someone that, you know, it's like, man, how do I tell someone that this is not good?
00:45:53
Speaker
And it's like the openness of the team to be able to know that like, he's not calling me a bad person.
00:45:58
Speaker
You know, he's just explaining why something isn't going to work.
00:46:01
Speaker
And, you know, I was not kidding where, you know, a hundred rule suggestions go in and, you
00:46:09
Speaker
it leads to the one best answer.
00:46:13
Speaker
And it really does take, you know, we're fortunate that we had the time to get there.
00:46:17
Speaker
But none of this was like, bing, bang, boom, we got a game, we're done like this all is easy.
00:46:23
Speaker
It's a lot of just, you know, here's something George puts it in the game, Mark's playing it.
00:46:29
Speaker
it's not working here.
00:46:31
Speaker
All right, try this.
00:46:32
Speaker
You know, what about this?
00:46:33
Speaker
That doesn't make sense.
00:46:35
Speaker
A lot of just, you know, that collaborative team nature to get things to as fun as we can.
00:46:43
Speaker
And I don't think that, I mean, I don't think, I know I've been on teams where that nurturing environment of the team just doesn't exist and it becomes a lot harder.
00:46:54
Speaker
So I'm really fortunate to
00:46:58
Speaker
that everyone on the team and, and on the CGC side, everyone is, is listening.
00:47:04
Speaker
You know, isn't afraid to listen, isn't afraid to be wrong and is afraid to, and isn't afraid to support someone else.
00:47:10
Speaker
Who's right.
00:47:11
Speaker
When are these games going to be available to buy?
00:47:13
Speaker
That's a great question.
00:47:15
Speaker
Mark and Mark and I are asking that ourselves.
00:47:17
Speaker
We are diligently wanting to answer that question as soon as possible.
00:47:23
Speaker
Of course.
00:47:24
Speaker
Um,
00:47:26
Speaker
I'm going to guess what the SEs are going to roll first.
00:47:30
Speaker
Is that right?
00:47:31
Speaker
I don't even know.
00:47:33
Speaker
That sounds right.
00:47:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:36
Speaker
That's the bill of materials that Doug's finalizing first.
00:47:39
Speaker
Given that, it would be preemptive for me to say anything about that right now.
00:47:44
Speaker
Okay.
00:47:45
Speaker
I think the only thing Ryan White included third – he expected it to ship third quarter of this year.
00:47:54
Speaker
So I will say –
00:47:57
Speaker
Between July 1st and September 30th, or else Ryan's a liar.
00:48:01
Speaker
That's probably a safe bet.
00:48:05
Speaker
Hey, I wanted to add to what Josh was saying earlier regarding his input and stuff.
00:48:11
Speaker
You know, me being out of the business some 27 years, and, you know, Josh alludes to it in another way, too, which is, you know, today's rules need to be for today's player.
00:48:27
Speaker
I'm not today's designer.
00:48:28
Speaker
So when Josh knocked on my door, that door flew open.
00:48:32
Speaker
I'm like, yeah, come on.
00:48:34
Speaker
Because he knows the rules.
00:48:35
Speaker
He knows what's hot.
00:48:37
Speaker
Let's face it.
00:48:37
Speaker
I've been out of it a long time.
00:48:39
Speaker
And so I really trusted his judgment on a lot of this stuff.
00:48:42
Speaker
And I'm glad I did because the gameplay is really good.
00:48:46
Speaker
I'm really happy with it.
00:48:48
Speaker
And I don't think that I would have come up with anything like that, certainly on my own.
00:48:51
Speaker
So he was a welcome partner.
00:48:56
Speaker
Day one.
00:48:57
Speaker
So is this mostly a play mechanics game or is this like a collaboration between you guys and CGC?
00:49:02
Speaker
Is CGC just manufacturing for you guys?
00:49:04
Speaker
Like, yes, yeah.
00:49:07
Speaker
Where's the overlap?
00:49:08
Speaker
Where's the Venn diagram?
00:49:10
Speaker
CGC is the manufacturer.
00:49:11
Speaker
It was all developed here, Josh and I and George for the most part.
00:49:15
Speaker
And Scott, the four of us.
00:49:18
Speaker
We were working on this thing over the COVID months where everybody was closed up.
00:49:22
Speaker
We were in George's basement.
00:49:24
Speaker
We moved the game to his basement and we worked there and we just kept at it.
00:49:28
Speaker
We had play nights every Wednesday night for a year and a half.
00:49:33
Speaker
Right on.
00:49:34
Speaker
Some of the best nights.
00:49:37
Speaker
My teenage self was just eating this up.
00:49:41
Speaker
You guys have no idea how excited I have been through this whole process just as a fan.
00:49:49
Speaker
It was fun.
00:49:51
Speaker
Was it hard for you to Josh juggling because you've been doing the Cactus Canyon continued code?
00:49:58
Speaker
You're you're doing the Pulp Fiction code and you still have your normal day job of CFO over Roth thrills I love this stuff Josh.
00:50:07
Speaker
It's it's so I mean It's it's stuff I think about in the shower it's stuff I think about you know when I'm driving home from work.
00:50:17
Speaker
This is just It
00:50:20
Speaker
I just got to do it with a group of people that I work with every day.
00:50:23
Speaker
But it's, you know, if I'm going and play Ghostbusters and hang out with Dwight, the next few weeks is probably spent with me thinking about Ghostbusters in the car and messaging Dwight stupid ideas that he can ignore or make fun of me for.
00:50:40
Speaker
So it really is, you know, something that I mean, I have a notebook at home filled with
00:50:47
Speaker
you know, really bad layouts and now looking back on it, really bad rules, but it's a hobby for me.
00:50:55
Speaker
And, and so for me, it's, it's, it's stuff I'd be doing for fun in my mind anyway, you know, my, my doodling fake rules for fake games that don't exist.
00:51:05
Speaker
And I think sort of, you know, Mark alluded to it earlier, but, you know, I feel like where we really, uh,
00:51:13
Speaker
benefited was like Doug Duba's hobby at night is to just, he's like, he's not a mechanical engineer, but he likes to build and tinker and do things.
00:51:24
Speaker
And it's the stuff that he would do after hours anyway, and just for fun.
00:51:30
Speaker
And, you know, he was able to apply the stuff he likes to do for fun on this project.
00:51:36
Speaker
I always feel bad because I, you know, I joke with Mark, with George that like, those are the guys that have to do the work.
00:51:41
Speaker
This is not work for me.
00:51:43
Speaker
This is just like camp.
00:51:46
Speaker
You know, it is playtime.
00:51:48
Speaker
And I'm fortunate that I can throw some stuff that has some value at it.
00:51:53
Speaker
But like, believe me, it's all just doing it is exciting enough for me.
00:52:00
Speaker
So this is a new direction.
00:52:02
Speaker
Do we have other games that are being developed?
00:52:05
Speaker
I would say that our core business is going to remain arcade games.
00:52:12
Speaker
Yeah, sure.
00:52:13
Speaker
I can tell you about a couple of really cool titles coming up on that side of things.
00:52:17
Speaker
That's right.
00:52:18
Speaker
That's right.
00:52:19
Speaker
But I guess the ultimate question is the door's probably not closed if there was another project to come along, right?
00:52:25
Speaker
Yeah, I think if an opportunity presents itself that lines up, if that's in Redemption, if that's in VR, if that's in Pinball, we'd be stupid to not look at it and evaluate it from a business decision.
Community Engagement and Future Plans
00:52:42
Speaker
Sounds good.
00:52:42
Speaker
Nothing yet, but you never know, boys.
00:52:45
Speaker
Never know.
00:52:47
Speaker
Well, you're always competitive.
00:52:49
Speaker
I'm just saying you're trying to take down Stern now and show up your brother's hat.
00:52:54
Speaker
I saw he updated his resume on LinkedIn yesterday.
00:52:58
Speaker
It's going to be tough going for those guys over there.
00:53:00
Speaker
Did he say Josh's younger brother or Josh's superior brother?
00:53:04
Speaker
Right.
00:53:06
Speaker
Actually, we purchased our contract manufacturer, Partech, who they build a lot of Stern's harnesses for their games.
00:53:17
Speaker
So it's in our best interest for Stern to be the healthiest they've ever been.
00:53:22
Speaker
And based on the president at Partech, I get his books at the end of every month.
00:53:27
Speaker
The Stern business is doing great.
00:53:30
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:53:31
Speaker
We wish those guys nothing but the best.
00:53:33
Speaker
Yep.
00:53:34
Speaker
Because we stand to benefit from their... All pinball is good pinball, right?
00:53:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:39
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:53:39
Speaker
Well, and they're definitely doing good and moving to a new facility.
00:53:42
Speaker
Man, that Foo Fighters just came out.
00:53:43
Speaker
It looks great.
00:53:45
Speaker
But we're on play mechanics time.
00:53:48
Speaker
We're not on stern time.
00:53:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:50
Speaker
It's a small industry.
00:53:52
Speaker
We all support each other.
00:53:53
Speaker
Exactly.
00:53:54
Speaker
So is this going to be a TPF?
00:53:56
Speaker
Are people going to be able to play it?
00:53:58
Speaker
That's the plan.
00:53:59
Speaker
That's the plan.
00:54:00
Speaker
Even if Mark has to throw in the back of his truck and drive it all the way down there, right?
00:54:03
Speaker
Oh.
00:54:05
Speaker
I think Doug is putting it on the back of his truck.
00:54:07
Speaker
Yeah, it won't be mine.
00:54:09
Speaker
That's the current... Doug is volunteering.
00:54:13
Speaker
Is he bringing the topper?
00:54:14
Speaker
Because that topper is a showstopper.
00:54:18
Speaker
What Chicago Game Company has done with toppers, it makes all other toppers look pitiful compared to them.
00:54:27
Speaker
It's pretty... Doug, man.
00:54:28
Speaker
Doug's crazy bad.
00:54:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:33
Speaker
It's like crocodile Dundee.
00:54:34
Speaker
That's not a top.
00:54:39
Speaker
When are we going to see gameplay of the video or of the, sorry, of a gameplay video of Pulp Fiction?
00:54:45
Speaker
We're working on a stream, but it won't happen before TPF, but I would expect in April we'll, uh, we'll be working on a, um, a live stream.
00:54:57
Speaker
And then, uh,
00:54:58
Speaker
trying to get a game shipped out to Carl because we have a very cool challenge.
00:55:04
Speaker
Some challenges for him to try to tackle in the upcoming months.
00:55:10
Speaker
It'll be out there.
00:55:11
Speaker
What's something about Pulp Fiction that we should have asked you that we didn't?
00:55:15
Speaker
Or if you have like a crazy story that you can share with us about maybe licensing or something like that with it.
00:55:22
Speaker
Not that I can recall at the moment.
00:55:24
Speaker
I've had a couple of kids since the game was started in development.
00:55:27
Speaker
That's probably the craziest thing.
00:55:28
Speaker
I got two new cats.
00:55:30
Speaker
I saw two cats.
00:55:32
Speaker
I don't think he wasn't mentioned, but David Thiel.
00:55:36
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:55:37
Speaker
Oh, yes.
00:55:39
Speaker
I think he's instrumental in, you know, we have some licensed songs, but we have a lot of not licensed songs and obviously sound effects and the...
00:55:51
Speaker
I think he alluded to it in Zach's video, but like there were not clean stem.
00:55:57
Speaker
This was this this was all live boom mic recorded.
00:56:01
Speaker
So there was no can I get all of Sam Jackson's speech?
00:56:05
Speaker
Can I get that that stem and they can send all clean speech of one character?
00:56:10
Speaker
So the amount of work he did to process out.
00:56:13
Speaker
the noise.
00:56:14
Speaker
And I know we've played with it long enough that it's like, you can still cut, you like hear the keys jingling in the background or the wind or whatever.
00:56:21
Speaker
And it's just like the ability for him to process down to actually be able to like hear the speech calls, you know, the, the game is so much better for it to be able to, to focus on that fun and humor and the,
00:56:36
Speaker
the songs he composed that were custom.
00:56:38
Speaker
And it's like, Hey, we need a song for this mode that kind of has this kind of vibe.
00:56:44
Speaker
And it's like, here you go.
00:56:46
Speaker
It's amazing.
00:56:48
Speaker
Thanks, Dave.
00:56:50
Speaker
You definitely have to, on the game like this, the soundtrack and the sounds, they are vital to the experience of this game.
00:56:58
Speaker
Certainly when you have no video, it really is, Scott.
00:57:02
Speaker
It really is.
00:57:03
Speaker
Major, major important.
00:57:05
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:57:07
Speaker
Emphasizes just a little bit more.
00:57:09
Speaker
Was that a key jingle there?
00:57:10
Speaker
What was that in the background?
00:57:14
Speaker
Find the sound effect.
00:57:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:16
Speaker
Someone record this off their phone?
00:57:18
Speaker
Lucky for us, Dave is extremely intuitive with what the right path, what the right thing to do, how to level and balance the sounds, I think, also
00:57:29
Speaker
is a huge piece of work that he still works at.
00:57:33
Speaker
I mean, we're still working with him.
00:57:34
Speaker
We're not done.
00:57:35
Speaker
So we're really close, but we're not done.
00:57:39
Speaker
Well, there's a lot of, it says like 250 plus call outs.
00:57:42
Speaker
That's insane.
00:57:44
Speaker
You're playing the whole scenes from this movie.
00:57:47
Speaker
Unless you got the bleep version, I guess, and you're cutting out half of it.
00:57:51
Speaker
There's a lot of laughing.
00:57:53
Speaker
I can't remember exactly what the phrase is, but it's hilarious when they take the body to the cleaners.
00:58:01
Speaker
He's like, do I look like a... I really hope that's in the game.
00:58:07
Speaker
It's in the game.
00:58:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:10
Speaker
Yes.
00:58:10
Speaker
We got it all.
00:58:11
Speaker
We got all the good stuff.
00:58:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:13
Speaker
I don't think we missed much.
00:58:15
Speaker
I can't think of anything we missed, Josh.
00:58:17
Speaker
You...
00:58:18
Speaker
No, no.
00:58:19
Speaker
I mean, some of the, some of the stuff that we missed, you know, is unfortunate.
00:58:22
Speaker
It's like, because we didn't focus on a scene in a mode, there's less of it.
00:58:26
Speaker
Cause we did try to keep the mode stuff all in context.
00:58:31
Speaker
So, I mean, I've seen on Pinside, there's a lot of like, Oh, the game should have this speech call when you do something like this.
00:58:37
Speaker
And it's like, that would be funny, but it doesn't work within the context of the rule construct that we're doing, the story that we're telling.
00:58:45
Speaker
So a lot of that is, uh,
00:58:48
Speaker
We pulled out everything we could for the things that we focused on.
00:58:52
Speaker
Josh, haven't you learned that everyone is a designer and a concept artist out there?
00:58:56
Speaker
You just need to accept it for it.
00:58:58
Speaker
I'm one of them, boys.
00:58:59
Speaker
This time I just got someone to open the door.
00:59:02
Speaker
I get it.
00:59:03
Speaker
I get it.
00:59:04
Speaker
I'm one of them.
00:59:07
Speaker
I'm one of them.
00:59:08
Speaker
So you're telling me if I want a job, I need to start knocking on doors.
00:59:12
Speaker
Just keep emailing.
00:59:14
Speaker
Incessantly, unprovoked.
00:59:16
Speaker
And eventually you find someone like Mark who's nice enough to open the door.
00:59:20
Speaker
And now you're one of us, so you've got to stop doing that stuff.
00:59:23
Speaker
That's right.
00:59:25
Speaker
We don't go there.
00:59:28
Speaker
So if you have your suggestions for rules, please email them to Josh Sharp.
00:59:32
Speaker
Yes.
00:59:35
Speaker
Right.
00:59:35
Speaker
Okay, so you guys are both going to be there at Texas?
00:59:39
Speaker
I'm not.
00:59:40
Speaker
Okay.
00:59:40
Speaker
I'm not.
00:59:41
Speaker
I'm on spring break with the kids.
00:59:44
Speaker
I will be sneaking.
00:59:46
Speaker
Are the seminars streaming from Texas?
00:59:49
Speaker
I think they normally do, right?
00:59:51
Speaker
Yeah, they will be streamed.
00:59:53
Speaker
I will be getting yelled at by my wife while I'm watching the team up there do their thing while I'm not watching them.
01:00:02
Speaker
I'm hoping that they are streamed because Josh and I cannot make it to Texas this year.
01:00:06
Speaker
And it's killing us because this is, this is one of those expos that you want, or the festivals that you want to be to.
01:00:14
Speaker
So it's weird.
01:00:16
Speaker
It's definitely, you know, you have those days where like, Oh, Venus and Mars are passing the solar system every 370 years.
01:00:24
Speaker
This is like, Oh, all the nine planets are eight or I don't know if Pluto exists, but they're all like lined up and,
01:00:31
Speaker
The next time that's going to happen is like 40,000 years from now.
01:00:35
Speaker
Right.
01:00:35
Speaker
Well, hopefully this is a major boost to the pinball industry and you guys decide to do it every year and Texas just becomes the hotspot for
Podcast Conclusion
01:00:45
Speaker
it.
01:00:45
Speaker
There's a 0% chance there's a pinball game from Play Mechanics next year.
01:00:50
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:51
Speaker
How's that?
01:00:52
Speaker
0%.
01:00:53
Speaker
0%.
01:00:53
Speaker
All right.
01:00:53
Speaker
Well, you guys heard it first.
01:00:54
Speaker
Okay.
01:00:55
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:57
Speaker
Well, cool.
01:00:57
Speaker
Thanks, Mark.
01:00:58
Speaker
And thanks, Josh, for coming on.
01:00:59
Speaker
We really appreciate it.
01:01:00
Speaker
If you want to hang out with Mark down at Pinball or not Pinball Expo down at Texas Pinball Festival, he will be down there.
01:01:07
Speaker
And if you want to hang out with Josh, go and knock on his door.
01:01:09
Speaker
Actually, if you want to hang out with me, find my brother who most people think is me and tap his shoulder at TPS and call him my name.
01:01:18
Speaker
He'll answer.
01:01:18
Speaker
I answer to Zach.
01:01:19
Speaker
He answers to Josh.
01:01:20
Speaker
It's all good.
01:01:22
Speaker
And your dad is going to be down there.
01:01:23
Speaker
My dad will be there with the mood screening.
01:01:26
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:26
Speaker
And actually, on March 17th, I saw it's going to be released on Apple TV.
01:01:32
Speaker
So if you haven't seen that, go ahead and pull up Apple TV and watch Roger Sharpe's movie.
01:01:40
Speaker
I think you'll even be able to buy it via Amazon streaming as well.
01:01:44
Speaker
Google play.
01:01:44
Speaker
I think too.
01:01:45
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:46
Speaker
Cause I, my, it's funny cause my wife, I don't know how your wives are, but my wife isn't so much into pinball as much as I am.
01:01:54
Speaker
And I made her watch the Roger Sharp movie and she loved it.
01:01:57
Speaker
And she's already getting our family ready for it to come out.
01:01:59
Speaker
And she wants to do a big family night.
01:02:01
Speaker
Cause she just, she loved it.
01:02:03
Speaker
I was like, I told you it was funny.
01:02:04
Speaker
Cause it was one of those standoffish things, right?
01:02:06
Speaker
Like you're going to make me watch a movie about pinball.
01:02:08
Speaker
I'm like, it's,
01:02:08
Speaker
It's not about, like, it is pinball, but it's not.
01:02:10
Speaker
It's not.
01:02:11
Speaker
It's about my parents' meeting.
01:02:12
Speaker
It's not.
01:02:12
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
01:02:13
Speaker
It's not the tutorials that I force you to watch.
01:02:17
Speaker
It's like a romantic comedy history, you know, documentary documentary documentary.
01:02:22
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:24
Speaker
So, well, cool.
01:02:25
Speaker
If you want to get ahold of us, we are a loser kid pinball podcast at gmail.com.
01:02:29
Speaker
You can get ahold of us on all the socials, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Twitch, now YouTube, all at loser kid pinball.
01:02:36
Speaker
Drop us a line there.
01:02:37
Speaker
It's easiest to get ahold of us on Facebook messenger where you hit us directly through loser kid or Scott or Josh.
01:02:44
Speaker
Um,
01:02:45
Speaker
We got anything else for us, Scott, before we hop off?
01:02:47
Speaker
Man, go to Texas.
01:02:48
Speaker
Go now.
01:02:50
Speaker
Do it for us.
01:02:51
Speaker
Let us live vicariously to you.
01:02:53
Speaker
Send us pictures.
01:02:55
Speaker
Not those kind of pictures.
01:02:56
Speaker
Pictures of pinball machines.
01:02:58
Speaker
Yeah, no more of that, David Dennis.
01:02:59
Speaker
Don't be sending us that stuff anymore.
01:03:00
Speaker
Yeah.
01:03:43
Speaker
Shut up and sit down.