I couldn't agree more with frolic.

I was dubious on any original theme, but super excited about Pat back in the industry and getting to design a high end game for a company that wouldn't restrain his vision.

While I wasn't completely turned off to the title on reveal, I was left wondering why they didn't focus group the name and theme a bit more. Though I've not gotten to play the game yet, I've seen enough video to know for certain I'm ordering one very soon.

I like games that my non-pinball friends enjoy playing. Many pinheads snicker at my Varkon because they don't think it's a good player, but guess which of my games everyone wants to play when they come over? Varkon. It's different from the others. DI will have this effect in spades.

The selfie picture thing isn't meant for hardcore collectors or tournament players. It's meant for our wives and children and their friends to get a laugh out of. It's a wonderful feature.

Agree with both of you. I was down on the title until people started saying what a good player it is. I specifically planned a business trip to Illinois to play it, and spent almost 3 hours on it. Problem now is I told my wife when I got the racing simulator that I would keep it at 3 machines, and now dialed in will be my 5th. Guess it's still better then when I had a dozen machines and she couldn't use the bonus room.

No, you definitely aren't wrong to think that. That has to be the next thing. Bought a pair of Bose blue tooth at the airport last week and I thought the exact same thing to myself. That would have been a much better use of the bluetooth integration with Dialed In (that and diagnostics of course).

It likely wouldn't be hard to enable bluetooth natively but I would bet you could use this:

https://www.amazon.com/TaoTronics-Bluetooth-Transmitter-Connected-Transmission/dp/B00P24XKS8

Easily hidden in the machine and with ample usb ports, super easy.

At 2:12:00 in the Buffalo Pinball latest stream, they are going through the options, and I saw an option for "Camera Flash Topper" Could this be a hint at the CE Topper??

Can it be upgraded for blue tooth enabeled head phones? Pardon my ignorance in asking that question, but that would be awesome.

I've heard the biggest issue with the headphone jacks is that they get abused or broken, so I could see a bluetooth option being really handy.

I really don't get those that are down on the theme. It's as much about a guy with a phone as it isn't. If you slapped UFO's on the head (oh wait they did) and called it Attack From Mars and played the game as is, would your mind really be blown differently? The game has everything most of us ask for. Speed, flow, depth, great audio and lighting, artwork, that "just one more game" pull.

Families and friends will love this game but so will hard core pinball players.

Haha, if you were at Expo you experienced your whole cycle in fast forward. The presentation went over like a lead balloon, people were trash talking all over the show. Then they started playing it and the tune shifted. By the next day the tone was definitely different.

The price is the real sticking point. We've come a long way from WOZ's $6500 launch price.

Todays posts sum it up....price hurdle, yes, but a Freaking Amazing Pinball Machine.....Pure Fun!

Not sure when or how, but playing a couple hours on this is intuitive, fun, and you Want too!

Not your theme...cool....Price, Got it.......Otherwise, one hell of a Game!

I am curious to see what they have done to the magnet area to prevent the burn and chipping that was on the test games.

As an audioguy anything that provides a way for the player to hear their game is great.
If pinball Bluetooth headphones/earbuds were easy we would be doing it already.
I don't know the Bluetooth protocol well enough but I have doubts that it is not suitable for this application (if someone does know the protocol well enough and can contribute feel free to correct me)
problem one: pairing. It is in the name. Pairing. What is needed is a protocol that works one to many not just one to one. Anybody who has paired a Bluetooth headset or keyboard knows that this is not something trivial. There is a sequence of activities. It is not casual. Part two to pairing is what if you have three Bluetooth games next to each other how do you pair to the one you want and prevent interference? Again, I'm not sure that the Bluetooth protocol is set up for this. That one is a maybe.
problem two: latency. I have frequently had problems trying to watch movies using Bluetooth headphones as the implementation of the Bluetooth stream adds latency (noticeable and sometimes as much as a second). This is a deal breaker as well. Like a bad Twitch stream imagine getting the sound effects back from hitting targets a second late.
I really hope that there are solutions to all the problems so that players could have the benefits of all the cues and callouts that we put in.
I'm sure that Bluetooth could work in a private collection pairing one at a time. But in that case just turn up the speakers and have a good time.

ddt: out

Nail on the head concise summary.

It's too hard to get friends and family of mine to have any interest in pinball. What i end up buying is 99% for me and i wish it wasn't that way.

I bought Woz because the wife and kids thought it was great. Now they won't even turn on a pinball machine. Attention spans are just way too short and no desire to figure it out or get better.

If i bought it I'd get the WTF is this look.

I agree with you about the family. That said, more guests gravitate to my Spider-Man than my AC/DC. My son loves Spider-Man as well. it is the one game he always goes to. I know if I picked up a Dialed In he would play that more than the other two.

i can count on one hand the number of times visitors have gone to the arcade during a party. they just dont care! the young people are on their damn devices filming, taking selfies and whatever it is they do. the adults are drinking, talking and on their devices also with the social media thing. i dont buy games to try to attract people to play. i went thru the same thing as ice with woz rr. the family played it for a week and when i mentioned selling it they were all jumping up and down, they havent played it even after me saying i was gonna sell it. eventually it will go and trust me they wont notice it gone.

the selfy thing is cool for how many times? i think the gimmick will get old really fast.

Does anyone know the timeframe for release, or is it all a guess at this point? I want to order, but typically wait until it's in stock so it ships the same week. Anyone have any insight on how long that may be?

I tend to like people who agree with frolic!

Seriously regarding the selfie thing, I consider myself a GenX-er that behaves like a millennial (though SnapChat is a bridge too far). I appreciate the concept of a selfie even if the concept makes me squirm a bit. But if pinball is to pass along to the next generation and survive, it NEEDS those new elements that make it not an old white guy pin. Selfies sound stupid but I bet you are going to see more people posting pics of their selfies on the backglass than you will people posting about AC/DC or Aerosmith.

And FYI, AC/DC is my favorite pin of all time, and I've seen Aerosmith in concert. <3

Those samples didn't have the actual Mirco playfields, supposedly. I doubt that chipping will be a problem with the production playfields.

From the assembly line photo thread it looks like the first games will be shipping out next week. It will probably be a little while before there are games "in stock" unless a distributor had preordered more than they have sold to date.

A simple mylar ring will solve the problem regardless....

Theme/Scheme with JJP...

Hated Woz as a theme, swore I would never own one, ended up buying one after playing, one of my all-time faves!
Not really a Hobbit fan, tolerated the movies, ended up buying one after playing and love it.
Dialed In, need I say more, really despise the phone guy, but gotta say, best new game I have played in YEARS even over the 2 existing JJP's.
Will definitely be buying one...AND I expect it to do well on route especially with kids/women who might not be pinball centric.

BM66-absolutely loved the theme with the new, smaller LCD look, wanted to buy a premum, but thank god I didn't buy one.

If JJP only could ever deliver a top Disney theme like a Guardians, Toy Story, Cars, even a Disneyland Park themed Pin, I think it could actually put them in a position to be viable in the long-term.

I guess "theme" is just over-rated, I'll get over it and just enjoy the game, never thought I would say that...

Did they do the flip with your phone thing in the stream?

I got an email saying production started!

What exactly is the selfie functionaltiy taking away from? It being there is not taking away anything from the game. It will be new to people playing on route time and time again.

The JJP LCD is awesome, love the technology etc....the "selfie" as a part of it is just whatever

I played the TMZ slot machine in Vegas last time where you can take a "selfie" and watch yourself travel throughout the game.

It's good for a stupid laugh once or twice but I don't really want to see myself on a slot or pinball machine or anybody else for that matter!

I seriously doubt it will help one iota on route. If that's what it takes to get people to play a pinball machine then WTF is going on.

An unlicensed theme will sell well with pinheads, outside of that, not so much and JJP has cut back on initial first run of orders big time.

That's not what I'm hearing. Are you just making stuff up again because you don't like the theme?

You don't know the facts then. From 1000 parts orders down to 250 on first run. I don't need to make anything up but I get the need to pump the hype up at launch. Facts are facts though.

Doesn't mean it won't sell big after the fact though.

However well this fantastic game sells it would have sold double with a better, more cohesive theme. Everyone in the pinball community knows this is true including Jack.

O well im happy for what it is and cant wait to get mine . I think it will be the most played in my collection by a fair amount due to how quirky and off the wall the theme is. So much is unknown with a original theme especially with the deep ruleset and cant wait to discover everything it has to offer.

Sorry, I disagree.

The theme of the game is perfectly cohesive. Makes total sense when you're playing it. Now, if you mean a more well-known LICENSED theme, that's a different conversation.

Please, the game sucks compared to WOZ and any JJP game has yet to live up to that. Still is fun but I feel WOZ is so groundbreaking it is the definitive JJP game. Oh and I sold mine but still feel it is the best game ever produced...

I think the theme is becoming more cohesive all they time. The trailer they just released really solidified Pat's vision for me. More of the gaps are being filled in with every code release. Take, for example, the comic book playing out during attract mode, or the remodelling of Station 3 to look like the one in the LCD display, or all the other little details which appear on both the LCD and the playfield. A lot of thought is being put into this game.

Let's be positive: we have an original theme, a great shooting game, several innovative features never before seen, a good quality build and they are actually about to ship!

I didn't know that and had not heard it before. Very disappointing and surprising if that report is correct. Can you disclose the source of that info?

I'm guessing JJP will be surprised by the number of people that want to order this game when it is in inventory and ready to ship.

I am really intrigued about the how the selfie thing and the app will do on location. WOZ did really well for me and it had a halo effect in that the games around it did better as well. Talking to the people at the bar it was literally the LCD and lights that made people wander over.

About 2/3rd to 3/4 of my players are pretty clueless about pinball. I was talking to a group of 5 people playing a week ago and they had no idea what they were doing but they kept playing, these were university students. One hit a multiball and then they all wanted to do it so they kept playing while I gave them some tips.

I'm nearly certain if the game started taking pictures of one of them while they were playing they would be pretty excited about it. People see that and then they want to play. If the app has some sort of feature to get people to come back. e.g. have a free game, I think it could really kill.

Dialed in plays so much better than woz imo. I like woz also but man the action and shots on di are top notch

So where does a Texas lawyer that is a huge Stern supporter get information about what JJP is ordering? Just speculating here... Could it be a Stern distributor who may have a strong incentive to bash the competition

Supposedly ex-JJP employees that are at Stern now. They have no axe to grind, right?

Jack told me personally at PAGG he's sold 1000 already and expects to sell another 1000 while those are being built. Even if he's in PT Barnum mode and DOUBLING what's he's sold, that's still 500 units. If he's only sold 250, then he's already made 5% of the machines just getting the line up and running. I don't believe it.

Having spent a good amount of time with it on Friday and Sunday at PAGG, I think it will do really well on route. Can't wait to get it out there. Ours is supposed to be here in 2-3 weeks.

I have no doubt Jack hypes the hell out of things, not unlike the good people at stern, but 250 is not a believable number.

That is bullshit, the releases are 250 at a time rather than 1000 sets of parts arriving and paying for, all the manufacturers have made over 1000 of every part and have purchase orders for.

The first run is over 1000 LE games, same as wizard of oz, plus CE editions.

They call up vendors to release 250 parts, then another 250 etc etc, the parts are already made waiting for the release.

Releasing all 1000 and sitting on parts for months can hurt cash flow, Stern does it the same way

I do wish JJP the best and hope they sell a ton of games because lots of profits will mean more great games coming from them in the future. Can't wait to add another maybe release #4.

In all seriousness, I don't think WOZ as a theme is really going to draw big business. It's going to be the technology in the game drawing people over. Hell, look at how effective recent Stern games have been just from being lit really well. It would attract people just because it was a big box of light.

I think DI will demo and show really well with non-pinheads. Packed with stuff. Lots of it will illicit smiles.

I am one of those people.. when its in stock and production bugs cleaned out - I'm in.

I don't know if it was the theme or the bling but it did draw people in. Hobbit is going in soon so I will see how it does.

Agreed. I might even go so far as to "hope" that you can disable that feature.
Still, I think the game as a whole is likely to be a massive hit.
I also had thought that the display animations for Aerosmith were nothing short of disastrous until I saw them in person. Now I think they're fantastic.
So just continue to keep an open mind. Selfies alone will not stop this pin from being awesome, assuming the rest of it can keep up -and from reports of people who have played it, that seems to be happening.

Same here. In the last 5 years I have yet to order and pay for a machine that I wasn't playing within the week. Same will be the case for DI, I just hope I don't have to wait too long.

On another note, how do companies gauge interest in a new machine. Is It off distributor orders, surveys, or interest at shows? I can't imagine how difficult it would be to build enough machines for the initial release, but not too much you have stock for a long time after. Seems like it would be complicated for sure.

Not a distributor. Or anybody with an axe to grind

Let's see if it's true in coming months

Regardless, like you guys say, it might be great and as long as you love it that's all that matters

Imho it probably has mostly to do with pricing of pins across the board

I doubt anybody can keep selling thousands of $8k plus pins. Maybe? Dunno

Somewhere in one of the JJP threads a distributor said something along the lines of they gauge total likely unit sells by some formula based off pre-orders / deposits. If so, that formula will be off on this game, the pre-order model isn't what it used to be, so many of us want to pay and then get our machine and not pay to have our machine built.

I'm not surprised if DI hasn't crushed it in pre-orders since it was a novel theme, but based on what we are seeing it is going to crush it in word of mouth from amazing gameplay and deep code on release...no one is going to get KISS'd by JJP...so to speak.

I don't think manufacturers can expect to consistently sell multiple thousands of each $9000 title (assuming prices are going to stay that high for all of their games). Sure, some themes are so popular/desired they overcome price and some games are so good they overcome the blah theme and price but what percentage of new titles/games are going to fall in one of those two categories?

I don't have an opinion as to how well DI will or can do since I have not played one yet.

That is bullshit in and of itself. Purchasing 1000 quantity of anything is MUCH cheaper than 250 units.

"Cash flow" shouldn't be an issue. "Cash savings" to the bottom line def should.

You buy based on the orders you have and what you think you can sell in the short term. Period.

"Releasing" parts is irrelevant. It's the payment and commitment to purchase.

Stern orders enough parts to satisfy initial demand 250 or 2500. Wtf.

Either way, i hope they sell 10k of these things. Competition is a great thing.