Skip to content
Pinball Profile
Pinball Profile
200 episodes tracked since 2020 about →
Copied!

Episode 272: Jerry Thompson

PodcastAnalysis updated 2d ago49 min listen
From the creator

Stern Pinball sound designer Jerry Thompson discusses his latest work on TMNT and how this Texan got to create audio to several pinball machines.

Listen on Pinball Profile

Highlights

  • Jerry Thompson has been collecting pinball for 22 years and was a fan long before working in the industry.
  • Thompson organized the first Seattle Pinball Expo in 2008 from a grassroots pizza-place gathering that grew to ~1,000 attendees.
  • Thompson's initial pinball work was on Woe Nelly (2015) providing sound design, but doesn't consider it his first full sound package because he didn't do the mixing.
  • Thompson convinced George Gomez and Dwight Sullivan to let him do Ghostbusters as his first full solo sound package after working on Game of Thrones speech processing.
  • Thompson watched all 120 Batman 66 episodes, all Monsters episodes, and all 26 Elvira movies to source sound assets for their respective games.
  • Universal provided Stern with official dinosaur sounds from the Jurassic Park movie for the pinball game.
  • The Beatles pinball machine had licensing restrictions preventing Beatles members from speaking in the game; Thompson pitched recording samples to convince the licensors otherwise.
  • Thompson suggested Cousin Brucie as the voice of the Beatles pinball game's radio announcer and flew to New York to record at his home studio.
  • Adam West was in his 80s (Thompson mentions 'he was 89') when recording for Batman 66 pinball, requiring significant EQ adjustments to match his younger TV show voice.
  • Thompson moved to Seattle in 2003 and decided to work for himself after being on radio in Houston, relying on voice work and production side work.

Notable quotes

“I've been in a movie, but never been in a pinball machine. This is great.”
Cousin Brucie
“I hear it in my head already. And so we talked to George and he's like, but you've never done one before. I said, give me a month. If it doesn't work out, get rid of me.”
Jerry Thompson
“I mean, you're Batman. I'm not going to tell you how to be it. And he goes, I feel that's wise.”
Jerry Thompson (quoting Adam West)
“a man's got to know his limitations”
Jerry Thompson (quoting Clint Eastwood)
“I'm a native Texan. I took this job. I'm going to stay here, which I was glad I did.”
Jerry Thompson
“My goal is to make you feel like you're in the situation.”
Jerry Thompson
“I love those moments of collaboration where somebody will make something better.”
Jerry Thompson
“I Forrest Gumped my way through life because I end up in these crazy situations.”
Jerry Thompson
“I didn't like the pressure, especially being in a morning drive, because, you know, ratings, it's all about ratings.”
Jerry Thompson
“It's my favorite place. Even though I got to do some really cool things and be on the radio, all I ever wanted to do really was work for myself and work from home.”
Jerry Thompson

Entities

  • Stern Pinball· company
  • Seattle Pinball Expo· event
  • Batman 66· game
  • Beatles· game
  • Ghostbusters· game
  • Jurassic Park· game
  • Munsters· game
  • Woe Nelly· game
  • Modern Pinball· organization
  • Adam West· person
  • Chris Franchi· person
  • Cousin Brucie· person
  • Dean Grover· person
  • Dennis Nordman· person
  • Dwight Sullivan· person
  • George Gomez· person
  • Greg Ferris· person
  • Jerry Thompson· person
  • Joe Kamenkow· person
  • Keith Elwin· person
  • Lyman Sheets· person
  • Raymond Davidson· person
  • Rod Olson· person
  • Sean Myers· person
  • Steve Ritchie· person

More from Pinball Profile

→ All content from Pinball Profile
Pinball ProfilePodcast1w ago

Episode 439: Emily Reilhan

30 min listen

Talk about a banner year…and it’s only June! Emily has won everything under the sun so far in 2026 as you’ll hear, including the Women’s World Championship, the WNACS, the first ever Women’s...

Contact us about this coverage