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Ep 32.2: Past, Present and Future with Roger Sharpe
PodcastAnalysis updated 3d ago1 hr 27 min listen
Here is part 2 of the Roger Sharpe interview. We wrap things up by finishing our discussion about Bally/Williams and also talk about tech videos, licensing, and the future of pinball!
Highlights
- Williams Bally Midway was profitable in 1999 but not profitable enough to satisfy shareholders, leading to the company's exit from pinball.
- Pinball can only sustain long-term as a privately-held business, not under public ownership; history will repeat itself if the industry goes public.
- Stern's ability to create short production runs and revisit games (vault editions) is unique in the modern industry and should be credited to Gary Stern.
- License term expiration and parts availability are the two primary factors limiting JJP's ability to increase production runs of popular games like Pirates of the Caribbean.
- Bally and Williams had separate design teams and production lines that never mixed; the merged entity maintained two simultaneous production lines (one Bally, one Williams) through the 1990s.
- Pat Lawlor proved with Addams Family that a Bally-branded game could sell enormous quantities and compete with Williams titles, despite Bally's diminished brand reputation.
- The lack of technical support infrastructure and skilled technicians in commercial venues is the primary barrier limiting pinball's growth into bars, arcades, and family entertainment centers.
- Historical pinball factories employed dedicated technical staff who conducted seminars and hands-on training at distributor open houses; this infrastructure no longer exists.
- Harley-Davidson pre-ordered and pre-paid for 220 Harley-Davidson pinball machines in the 1990s, which prompted a special production run at Williams.
- No modern pinball manufacturer has established a comprehensive online/video-based technical training program or maintenance guide, which is a significant gap.
Notable quotes
“I have never taken the time because it's too painful to ever read the book from beginning to end the way that it was printed and published.”
“At the end of time in 1999, we were making money at Williams Bally Midway, but we weren't making enough to satisfy the shareholders.”
“If you wind up taking it public, you falter and lose almost instantaneously because history is going to repeat itself.”
“The only way that we are going to expand pinball into the real world is by providing technical support because any and all of those locations don't have it. And that's what's holding pinball back from kind of reaching where it can get to.”
“To play a physical pinball machine, there's nothing like it. To have all of the sound and the music and the speech and the lights, the mechanical parts of it, I mean, my God, it sends a chill. That is not replicatable yet with anything else that exists.”
“Pat demonstrated that it could be a Bally game and sell an enormous number of games.”
“It was like hi i need x y and z... oh great so you'll ship it over in a couple of hours fantastic thanks i can keep the line going.”
“We're not Best Buy. As a manufacturer, any manufacturers, what kind of warranty can we put on? What kind of service can we do to follow up?”
Entities
- American Pinball· company
- Chicago Gaming· company
- GameWorks· company
- Jersey Jack Pinball· company
- Stern Pinball· company
- Williams Bally Midway· company
- Bernie Powers· person
- Brian Collin· person
- Dennis Peter Perry· person
- Doug Duva· person
- Gary Stern· person
- Greg McKay· person
- Jack Guarnieri· person
- Jeff Nauman· person
- Joshua Sharpe· person
- Kent Pemberton· person
- Pat Lawlor· person
- Pat Powers· person
- Pat Riley· person
- Roger Sharpe· person
- Sam Ginsberg· person
- Steve Ritchie· person
- Tom Cahill· person
- Ward Pemberton· person
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