2 Pinball Designers, 2 Nudge Writers, 1 Prius: 32 Hours in Chicago

They’re finally here: the next generation of pinball designers. In the last month, Scott Danesi and Jack Danger have been a part of two of pinball’s biggest storylines. First, it was Danesi, announced as the creative director of the next P3 title for Multimorphic. As a DJ, designer, and pinball personality, Danesi has developed a cultlike following. You know who I’m talking about. Some guys are just DANESI dudes. We’re now at the cusp of Danesi’s third pinball machine, already the designer of Total Nuclear Annihilation and Rick and Morty. Both are undeniably Spooky’s two best games to this point.

Last week, Jack Danger’s first cornerstone pin at Stern was revealed: Foo Fighters. It’s a crazy milestone for a dude who started as a Twitch streamer before pinball even had its own category. Like him or hate him, streaming as Deadflip, he’s helped legitimize pinball and exploded the hobby on the internet. These days there are enough pinball streamers to warrant their own category. Deadflip’s double duty as streamer and designer? Well, it’s working out. This week, the first stream of gameplay for Foo Fighters was revealed on Deadflip’s stream. To say it looks dope is an understatement.

So it’s not hard to make the stretch that this is FINALLY a major sign that a new generation of pinball designers are in charge. It’s not just Jack and Scott – both Eric Meunier at Jersey Jack and Keith Elwin (who you know from designing your fave pinball machine and being the best ever) are youngish – but Jack and Scott feel young in a way that’s, well, current. Look, we love Borg and Ritchie and the rest, but if this hobby is going to continue to grow – we want the risk-takers and innovators to be at least a couple years away from AARP status. RESPECTFULLY.

Why? Because pinball has never felt younger. Brewcades are routinely packed full of players in their 20s and 30s (and yes, 40-somethings) for league nights. Many of the players in the IFPA top 20 are 21 or younger – could this finally represent a sea change? Are young people integrating into pinball establishment? We went to Chicago to find out. Well, we actually went to a party – but here’s how we ended up on Deadflip’s stream, then Galloping Ghost, then a frickin’ off-the-chain party at the Danesi residence in the blink of an eye. Here’s Nudge doing Chicago in 32 hours.

Chicago is Pinball Mecca

A few months ago, I got an invite from Scott to attend a record party at his house. I’d met him a few months earlier while doing a story on Pinball Olympics for Nudge 3 (out this summer!) and found that we had a lot of overlap in how we viewed pinball and art. I reached out to Jack Danger of Deadflip to see if we couldn’t sort of make a weekend of it – first unveiling the new (at the time) Nudge #2 on his stream, then playing some homepin.

Rick and I met at my place in Wisconsin, packed a bunch of stuff into my Prius, and headed down to Chicago to party with pinball people. To say that I brought too many joints is an understatement. Really overplanned that part of the trip in hindsight.

The plan: Party as much as possible with cool pinball people for 32 hours and play a ton of pinball. That’s it. Not exactly Mission Impossible, but by the end, we’d have experienced Twitch fame, hilarious road rage, and the dankest pair of pants I’ve ever worn.

6 PM, Friday: Streaming with Deadflip

Twitch streaming is the future of pinball, and we have Jack Danger to thank for that. Is he the first pinball streamer? I don’t know. Probably not. I know he’s the most successful by a wide margin. He’s done his best to grow it — even documenting his rig on his website so other folks can do the same thing. And while the older generation might scoff a bit at Twitch, it’s generally seen as the fastest and best way to grow the hobby for people under 40. After all, what better way to introduce the public to the sometimes esoteric world of pinball than to have a good-looking, funny dude make fart jokes while explaining how to get a bigger bonus on Deadpool? Answer: there ain’t a better way.

Jack’s audience reflects that. At times during his stream of Foo Fighters, he had well over 2,000 people watching. Those numbers even a few years ago would have been astronomical for pinball, but they’re almost run of the mill these days. This year, INDISC had thousands upon thousands of viewers, and Fox Cities streams routinely match these numbers — but the Deadflip stream is the only one blowing up on sheer personality. It’s why Foo Fighters is such a natural fit: Jack Danger is already half rockstar, half pinballer.

Jack is larger than life. I mean that literally. As a six four dude, I rarely look up to anyone — but when I walk through his studio door, it’s the first thing I notice. JD hits at least 6’6”. He’s lowkey and good-looking in that sorta world-weary former Chicago punker kinda way. Rick accidentally says the street that the studio is on as we walk through the front door. Jack puts his finger to his lips as he lets us in. It turns out that Me, T, and Rick are late.

“We’re already streaming, buds.” He says in a stage whisper and takes us over to his rig.

We walk up to his streaming rig which is set up for streaming Jack’s first designed title for Stern, The Jurassic Park home pin. The rig is intense, with multiple cameras, lights, and a shitload of wires. It looks like something straight outta Johnny Mnemonic.

What immediately strikes me is how intimate and intimidating Twitch streaming is. I was in a band for a long time, but this is different than most performances. You don’t see your audience, and you don’t hear them — but the chat is always going. I’m amazed at how easily Jack flips between talking to us while addressing a running commentary of questions and comments on the stream. As always, he has his trusty mod Tatersalad working overtime to make sure that the chat space is welcoming and, well, poppin’ off.

The beginning of the stream is awkward. Me and Rick don’t really know what to do. I can’t stop looking at myself in the monitor, and as such shuffle around trying to find a spot where I’m not awkwardly too close or too far away from the camera. Jack takes an interview role for a while and asks us about the start of Nudge, what’s in issue 2, etc. I do my best to answer, but mostly it comes off as a nervous kid introducing himself on the first day of school. “Hi, my name’s Doc and I like ice cream.” etc.

Jack’s space is huge. I wander around whenever I’m not playing. He’s got all sorts of pins, from weird 1980s Gottliebs to a bundle of new Sterns. He’s also got knick knacks. Like crazy knick knacks. A collection of hats, a FUNKO pop of himself, and yes, TWIPPYS. TWIPPYS everywhere. The most interesting? A Torpedo Alley that Jack was allowed to pull from Keith Elwin’s office at Stern. The only evidence its the GOATS? A single post-it note on the backglass that says simply: Elwin.

“Keith said ‘Enjoy playing the most ridiculous game of all time,’” laughs Jack.

Rick pulls out a metric ton of sweatshirts from Tilt, the Minneapolis pinball bar, that they’ve given him to give to Jack. Jack seems genuinely into it and immediately begins shuffling through them.

“They’re thirsty for you, Jack.” I say on stream. “These guys want you to come up there SO bad.”

I get a text from tilt five minutes later: Thanks for blowing our spot up lol.

I respond: You don’t know how these celebrities work. You GOTTA grease ‘em up a little. Y’all ARE thirsty.

It hammers home a point for me, though, you do actually have to watch what you say on these streams. Even though it feels like we’re just hanging out and playing pinball with our friends, this is going out into the world and has real-world implications. I’ve always found Jack to be a little reserved in person, and maybe that’s the reason: when everything you say can AND WILL be held against you, it can be kinda terrifying to open your mouth in the first place. Always a little mindful of context. Most people won’t feel bad for him, but it’s got to be kinda lonely for Danger to have the walls up all the time.

Is the Jurassic Park home pin fun? I’m going to be honest here: absolutely. The flow is top notch, the skill shots make intuitive sense, and there’s that “kinetic satisfaction” that nerds talk about. Did I ever figure out what I was supposed to be shooting? Not really, and to be honest, Jack isn’t much help in that regard either.

“Just hit the shot four times and start the mode.” Jack says. Rick asks for some clarification. “Follow the blinking lights.”

Follow the blinking lights. Sure. Got it. We might not know the rules of this game, but shoot a blinking light, can do. Rick and I team up against Jack and T in a game of split flippers. My main move? Letting the ball dead flip off my flipper so that Rick can do all the work. It’s a good strategy. We smoke them. Take that, Stern. Win one for the Nudgeys. The rest of the stream goes by without incident. It’s fun, and by the time we wrap up, it doesn’t feel like nearly two hours have passed.

After the stream, we hang out in studio for a bit just chatting. Jack isn’t talking about it much, but it does seem like the stress of working on his first cornerstone pin is weighing heavy on him. The bags under his eyes are extra, uh, baggy, and he seems, well, tired. You can tell that he wants (the at-the-time-unnamed) Foo Fighters to succeed. It weighs on him. He tries to shrug it off.

“This is the best job I’ve ever had,” Jack says. “And definitely the most stressful.”

We invite Jack to hang with us at Logan Arcade, but it’s pretty obvious that by the end of a pretty intense week, this dude needs to go home and chill. Rick, T, and I leave Jack at the studio. The last time I see him, he’s shutting off the lights and closing up shop — it’s a lonely image, especially since he’ll be leaving this studio for a new space just a month later. Change on top of change. There’s very little in Jack’s world that feels constant.

Meanwhile, me and T and Rick get buzzed at Logan and play pinball on their free streaming rig for like four hours. No days off.

Saturday, 10am: Feeling funky

I don’t know what it is about growing older, but you def get stinkier. When I was in my early twenties, we’d tour in a band and I wouldn’t shower for a week. Did I stink? Probably so, but it wasn’t anything I was conscious of. These days though? I go without a shower for a day and I’m stinky as hell. Could it be the body naturally pickle as we age? Best not to dwell on that too long. Instead of showering, Rick and I take a walk to find some coffee, then bring donuts home for T and their partner. It’s the least we can do after freeloading for a night. Rick blows up T’s Mando and leaves his trademark high score initials, ASS.

We leave T’s by 10AM. No one likes visitors that stay too long. There’s only one problem: Galloping Ghost is next on our itinerary and their pinball spot doesn’t open for another three hours. Whoops on that one. What do we do? What any self respecting goofenbacher and his best bud would do. We got high and ate Mexican food and walked around in a daze.

Chicago gets a lot of clout for its hotdogs and pizza, but lemme just say this: the taco scene is also top notch. This is coming from a Bay Area boy, who got spoiled on tacos in Oakland and San Jose. This little hole in the wall is about three blocks down from Galloping Ghost and was absolutely lit.

Was it supremely tasty? Absolutely.

Did it also give me insane diarrhea for like three days? Also yes, but honestly worth it. Plus look at these aesthetics.

2 PM: Galloping Ghost, road rage, and cat piss

As we arrive at Galloping Ghost, there’s some kind of amazing Chicago road rage happening. A guy has gotten out of his car and is picking a fight with a semi-driver. I don’t know how it started, but I realize how it’s going to end: very fun smack talk.

“Look at yourself!” the guy screams, his girlfriend buries her face in her hands in embarrassment. “Look at how stupid you look!”

We go inside before it gets any worse/better, depending on your perspective.

Look, I hate to say this but Galloping Ghost arcade is p dang stinky. Like to the point where I thought it was me. I kept skulking around feeling kinda embarrassed for smelling like shit, until I walked up to Rick playing Jackbot and he gives me a look.

“Smells like cat piss in here,” he says.

“Yeah,” I say, a little too relieved. “Smells like cat piss.”

That said, they do have a ton of semi-rare to extremely rare games — including the famous Predator prototype that was nixxed back in the 90s. It’s a pretty funny game — not super fun, but with a ton of great artwork that had to be completely outside of licensor approval. I mean, look at this thing.

My favorite game? Surprisingly, it’s the X-Files. Which feels almost Zen in its lack of discernable rules. Plus, who doesn’t love a good filing cabinet? We stay at GG playing games until nearly 7 pm, and by that point there are a ton of people filling up the place. Evidently a tournament is happening later that night, but neither Rick or I have any desire to stay for it. To be honest, I’m feeling extremely funky. Like EXTREMELY. I worry that I won’t be able to make it to Scott’s. That worry is unfounded. After I get a lil’ green in me and we stop by a liquor store for Rick, it’s party time.

7 PM - 11ish: Scott’s record party

Scott Danesi hasn’t told me much about his party, but that’s no surprise. His full pitch for Pinball Olympics was “You don’t know what that is? Don’t read about it. Just come. You won’t regret it.” He’s alluded to the same thing for this “record” party where Scott and several of his DJ friends get together and test out free records they’ve found from around the city. Some of it becomes amazing music, some of it goes directly into a junk pile, but all of it serves as a soundtrack for a ton of pinballers — who play on Scott’s electic pinball collection the entire night.

By the time we get there, I’m frickin’ starving. The good news? While these folks are young for pinball, they aren’t exactly young. It’s been my experience that while parties in your twenties are mostly about drugs and booze and such, parties in your thirties and forties are about one thing: food. There’s no shortage of grub. While it’s supposed to be a potluck-style, I realize quickly that me and Rick are woefully unprepared to bring food. I shove some Nudge’s on the table and hope nobody notices they aren’t edible.

If you’re wondering what kinda folks that Scott Danesi gets at one of his parties, it’s basically exactly who you’d hope for. In our short time hanging out, we make friends with Chicago pinball operators, legendary Chicago House DJs, and yes, even some dudes from American Pinball. Ryan, of Sonic Spinball homebrew fame, is especially animated — regularly answering the ringing pay phone that Scott recently connected. Here he is screaming “What?” for the tenth time over the noise of the party.

If Jack Danger is surprisingly reserved, then Scott is the opposite: he revels in the party. Though he’s obviously working extremely hard on his next game, it’s amazing how loose and free he seems, gliding from group to group, encouraging people to try his new redemption game — which is stocked full of amazing hipster prizes. I try it once, but don’t do too well. I get embarrassed after people start standing behind me and laughing and decide maybe it’s better to just stick to pinball.

By 11 pm, I’m toast. That’s not a very rock n’ roll attitude, but Rick and I have a long drive to make tonight, back to my brothers place in Madison. We say a quick goodbye, leave a stack of Nudge’s for the party, and go to grab our shoes — which proves to be harder than when we showed up.

Rick and I drive back to Madison in silence. It’s been a helluva two day stretch. And while we might never have been funkier, we’re also a little wiser and maybe a little kinder. When pinball is at its best, it brings people together. In the end, that’swhat happened this weekend. These people would be strangers to us if it wasn’t for pinball. That’s dope and it’s something this new generation of designers seems to really get. Pinball’s a party — and it’s just getting started. We can’t wait to see what happens next.