Q-Bert, Super Spinners, and Monday Night Football: The sound-designed worlds of David Thiel
By Charlotte Fillmore-Handlon
Picture it. It’s the 1990s, and I am in the dark corner of my cousin Jessie’s basement. Out of the dark, a woman yells “super spinner!” in “digital stereo.” The notes of Mission Impossible suddenly emerge from the mysterious, suspenseful melodies of the game. I feel like a mother fucking spy.
Are you still picturing it? Good. Keep going. At the end of the game, you watch in horror as my cousin and I follow along with the words on the alphanumeric display, belting out Nobody Does it Better like two lil’ Carly Simons. Have we ever even heard the actual song before? Clearly not, judging by our inability to keep up with the melody. Well, that and the fact that it was the James Bond theme song for The Spy Who Loved Me, which came out in 1977 – way before we were even born.
David Thiel: Data East’s Wizard of Sound
Today when I hear the opening lines of, “Nobody Does it Better,” I can’t help but think of David Thiel, the sound designer for Data East’s Secret Service. This is the game that first moved me. The game that made me wail karaoke in my cousin’s creepy AF basement (reader there were vintage mink stoles with heads down there). The game that instantly transported me with the power of music. (Side note, who the hell came up with the idea to have karaoke at the end of a pinball game? Can we pleeeassse bring this back? Danesi? Anybody?)
David Thiel (sorry, I have to write it out in full every time, or it just doesn’t seem right) is even featured on the Secret Service backglass. Pictured as part of a quartet who are rip-roaring through a non-descript government town on a mission to bring the pain to our titular hero. See them in that pursuing vehicle? Those are Data East staff members: Richard Ditton, Elaine Hodgson, Lonnie Ropp, and, yes, David Thiel. He must have been a total celeb, right? Wrong.
Believe it or not, David Thiel worked in freakin’ insurance when he was first approached to join Gottlieb’s new video game department. At the time, being a sound designer for video games and pinball full time was simply not a thing. That is until Data East came calling.
The legend is born
This was not a career that David Thiel envisioned for himself because it simply didn’t exist at the time. Then, all of sudden, he’s working on hit after hit. First, he finds himself creating the voice for a new video game character… Oh, let’s see if you’ve heard of him: Q *fucking* Bert. That’s right David Thiel went from working in insurance to writing programs that move us just by creating a world within the way a speaker reverberates and produces sound. As David Thiel attests, 1980s programming was really hard - unnecessarily hard. There were no resources. I can’t help but think this is also why it sounds so fucking good.
The best thing? He kept going. Hit after hit after hit. Sometimes it seems that everywhere I look, I see David Thiel’s name credited. You want some modern designs? Tron (need I say more) and Dialed In stand out as two of my modern favourites.
David Thiel’s crown jewel… Monday Night Football?
I’m going to be honest. The first time I heard David Thiel’s name was when we got Monday Night Football. It was the first year of Replay FX, and we were buying the game from a bowling alley outside of Pittsburgh (shout out Petey Hendricks). And like all of you who are just little pinball sickos like us know: you just can’t wait when you have a new game. Of course, we HAD to set it up in the hotel room for the duration of Pinburgh.
I remember it like it was yesterday. World Champ pinballer Robert Gagno watched in excitement as we wheeled it into our hotel room. It was the same year a film crew followed him around for Wizard Mode, the freakin full-length documentary film he was starring in.
Pictured: Robert Gagno, the author, and friends probably annoying the crap out of everyone on their floor in this hotel.
Near the film's end, you can catch a glimpse of us all playing Monday Night Football late one night, the sounds of David Thiel reverberating our very souls. Here’s the thing, that kinda stuff isn’t always for everyone. By the end of Pinburgh, our roommates had had enough of Monday Night Football and its thudding bass line, whistles, and masculine whoop, whoop, whoop-ing noises. We came back to the room to find the game unplugged and power cord wrapped tightly around one leg. Game over, brooooo.
Sound Design: The real secret to the world under glass.
We talk a lot about Python Angelo’s art, or how gameplay and rulesets can make a game feel more real, but for me sound design is really what gives us a world under glass. Monday Night Football was THE game that helped me understand how important sound design was to pinball. That there’s this personality and intention behind all those tiny sonic details. Like what happens when you hit this target? What sound does it make? How does it seamlessly fit into the background music and build on the increasing energy of the game? The game that you - right now - are playing.
Hit that field goal ramp! The ball loops back to your left flipper. Hit it again! The pitch rises. And again! How does the sound of that loop add to this experience? The second loop? The third? When it works, it seamlessly pulls you into the world. You might not care about football, or even Monday nights in general, but when the sound design is rocking, you’re all in: hook line and sinker.
Sure, sound design communicates scoring to the player, but that’s not all it does. It’s a pleasurable experience, but that also means it’s just as likely to blend into the background when it’s doing its job. Blending into your subconscious to create another world, somewhere between this one and a fantasy. It’s beautiful, it’s complete, and it’s truly a work of art.
When it works, It’s actually easy to not be consciously aware of – and that’s why it’s so incredible. This is how pinball communicates, with lights, with gameplay, but above all else: with sound. As David Thiel always says, in pinball, you play the sound effects.
Retina Scan Completed: Begin Play
When I think back to that little girl machine-gunnin’ the flippers and wearin’ out the coil stops on Secret Service, I can see her impressionable mind being influenced by the flashing lights, the music, and the sounds of the game. She is absolutely mesmerized even though it’s going to be another couple of decades before she hears the term “flipper skills.” But now I really see those days in my cousin’s basement as the genesis of my love of pinball.
So is it really a coincidence that the pinball machine that stands out in my memory as being my first pinball love was sound-designed by David Thiel? I think not. After all, nobody does it betterrrrrrrrr.
I would like to dedicate this article to the memory of my Uncle Parker. Thank you for getting the Secret Service and bringing pinball into our lives.
