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LoserKid Pinball Podcast
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Ep 153: Rock On with John Borg

PodcastAnalysis updated 3d ago1 hr 3 min listen
From the creator

John Borg is here to talk about all his 37 years of making pinball!

Listen on LoserKid Pinball Podcast

Highlights

  • The original Metallica (2012-2013) was designed by John Borg, with the electric chair (Sparky) as the focal mechanical point inspired by the 'Ride the Lightning' album cover.
  • Metallica Remastered took approximately the same development time as a full new game, despite being a remaster, due to extensive playfield relayout, new lighting systems, and new artwork.
  • Metallica band members re-recorded all original speech plus approximately 400-500 additional lines for the Remastered version.
  • The Roadcase edition of original Metallica was produced in approximately 150 units, making it rarer than the LE versions.
  • Sparky's visual changed from the cartoonish original to a skeleton design for the Remaster due to aesthetic concerns with the new sinister art style.
  • The Remastered version includes a Blackened feature (post-collection of all band members) that has not been publicly seen yet, featuring Sparky shocking the band members.
  • Original Metallica outlane specials were changed to ball saves called 'Resurrection' in the Remaster to appeal to modern players, as specials are now considered a '70s/'80s term.
  • John Borg spent 5-6 months designing a game after Rush that never received a license (package deal fell through), and those custom toys will be repurposed in future projects.
  • Borg has been designing pinball machines since the 1980s at Gottlieb (3 years), then Data East (starting 1990), then Stern for 30+ years.
  • The Star Wars game at Data East was created after Borg had spent significant time developing a dinosaur mechanism (originally intended for a different game), which was redirected when Spielberg's Jurassic Park project interfered with licensing.

Notable quotes

“They told me that they had procured a Metallica license. And I remember the first heart attack I had working on the game was I started working on the game on a Monday, and then they came and told me that James Hetfield was going to record speech for the game on Thursday.”
John Borg
“So I looked at Donnie's art, and I thought, wow. You know, let's see what he does. He's going to lay out a Sparky: or it wasn't even Sparky yet. He just actually sent the image of this character in an electric chair. And I go, wow, let's call him Sparky. And we didn't change a thing.”
John Borg
“So people ask me in the beginning, you know, when they first saw Sparky, they're like, how come he's a skeleton? I'm like, well, he's been sitting in the electric chair for 10 years getting shocked. His flesh burned away.”
John Borg
“Development time was just about the same as a normal game, just really. Everything that had to be relaid out on the playfield and adding lights and making new light boards, you know, new art, and just following all that and seeing all that stuff through. It was just like doing a full-blown game.”
John Borg
“I start with what I think is going to be the focal point or the coolest thing in the game. You know, like for Metallica, for instance, the electric chair was going to be the big thing. I just look at what toys or toy I'm going to put in a game: you know, focal point, main mechanical feature. And then I just build around that.”
John Borg
“I have that bottle. You have the OG Slash Jack Daniels bottle.”
John Borg / Josh Roop
“Joe came to me and told me that they were making a movie. Spielberg was making a movie called Jurassic Park about dinosaurs, but he said he really wanted to do the game, and he asked me to change my game into Star Wars.”
John Borg
“I look, you know, I've been around for a long time. And you know, every ten years the industry just makes like a leap. You know, the games that we're making now compared to into the '90s, you know, as far as the software and just even the makeup of the game, it's amazing.”
John Borg

Entities

  • Data East· company
  • Flippin' Out Pinball· company
  • Gottlieb· company
  • Stern Pinball· company
  • Guns N' Roses· game
  • Metallica· game
  • Metallica Remastered· game
  • Star Wars· game
  • Loser Kid Pinball Podcast· organization
  • Dirty Donnie· person
  • Eric Lieberman· person
  • Joe Kamikow· person
  • John Borg· person
  • Josh Roop· person
  • Lyman Sheets· person
  • Neil Falconer· person
  • Raymond Davidson· person
  • Scott Larson· person
  • Slash· person
  • 72 Seasons· product
  • Blackened· product
  • Hardwired· product
  • Resurrection· product
  • Roadcase Edition· product
  • Sparky· product

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