6 episodes tracked since 2025 about →
The Eras Tour - Jersey Jack Pinball Part 2
PodcastAnalysis updated yesterday1 hr 56 min listen
Highlights
- Pat Lawlor was brought in as head of design at Jersey Jack and established an R&D facility in Chicago rather than relocating to New Jersey
- Dialed In! (2017) is the least-produced game Jersey Jack has ever made
- Pirates of the Caribbean had manufacturing issues where tight cabling would unplug itself when the ship mechanism rocked
- Pirates of the Caribbean lacked movie clips and assets, forcing them to hire a cast member for custom call-outs instead
- The Hobbit art was received poorly at Pinball Expo and was completely changed before production
- Jersey Jack faced a cash flow pressure similar to Zidware, requiring them to pre-sell future games before completing current ones
- Pirates of the Caribbean secondary market pricing is around $25,000+ if available
- Dialed In! was Jersey Jack's first non-widebody, conventional-sized game designed for manufacturing efficiency
Notable quotes
“Pat Lawlor, he had his own model shop at home, but he developed a new model shop or a research and development team, I guess, with designers and things like that in Chicago. I guess that was probably part of his deal was that he was not moving to New Jersey.”
“Making the Hobbit was a lot harder than I thought when we came in. There were millions of dollars in parts in the factory, but we couldn't build a single game. We were new to this as well, and we had to learn on the spot. It took some time, but we finally did it.”
“I will admit the pirates is a little bit of a risk with the character thing... but people don't have to pay attention to it if they don't want to. I feel like games have to have a lot to do and a lot to learn and stuff like that to justify their cost. I mean, we're selling games at $8,500 minimum right now.”
“They moved all the stuff into the backbox where it belongs... So you know who made that decision. He's talking very much, I think, when it comes to how do we do more with less?”
“There was some sort of magic that kind of happened from, like, 1990 to 96. There was something going on there. There was some level of creativity or freedom or competition or something.”
Entities
- Flip N Out Pinball· company
- Jersey Jack Pinball· company
- Stern Pinball· company
- Williams· company
- Pinball Expo· event
- Dialed In!· game
- Pirates of the Caribbean· game
- The Hobbit· game
- The Wizard of Oz· game
- Abbott family· organization
- Silverball Chronicles· organization
- Brett Abbas· person
- Bruce Nightingale· person
- David Dennis· person
- David Thiel· person
- Eric Meunier· person
- Jack Guarnieri· person
- Jean-Paul de Win· person
- Joe Balcer· person
- John Youssi· person
- Keith P. Johnson· person
- Ken Cromwell· person
- Pat Lawlor· person
- Ron Muggles-Hallett· person
