Great example of the Pinside echo chamber is on display tonight, so I thought I'd chime in as someone who actually played the game.

I had not been reading any threads leading up to the JJP announcement, but as an operator, I was skeptical of a non-licensed theme. So I went into this with no expectations. I was there in person for the expo reveal tonight.

I think the name, and the theme, sound dumb if you're not standing right at the machine. The execution is awesome. It's basically a Sim City Disaster theme...being broadcast by an action news channel. To observers, the backbox is like watching someone play a video game.

It's a standard width body cabinet. It's fast. Really fast. One of the quickest, least stop & go, titles by Lawlor. Much faster than WOZ or TH. When you watch someone play this game, you want to play it. There were crowds huddling around the games for hours afterwards.

People LOVED the selfie feature. A camera takes pictures of you during certain modes...one of them is a frenzy mode where it takes a picture with every switch hit (and displays them in piles on the LCD screen). I saw people taking pictures of the game taking pictures of the player. People were loving it.

Other tidbits:

In multiball, people are shooting lasers at you (indicated by inserts on the playfield). If one hits your flipper, it shudders a bit and you can't flip for a second or two, and then it comes back. You can prevent this by shooting a ball up at the laser to disable it (and get the super jackpot).

At some points, you are awarded tickets. You earn the reward by literally raising your hand in front of your face and miming that you are scratching the ticket.

This game is not about a phone. It's a sim city destruction theme. The people who watched live gameplay, and played themselves all came away excited about it. I hadn't heard a bad word.

Trust me, it's going to be a big hit.

Agreed, the video footage wasn't great last night, and I was in like the 5th row.

People are saying $9k is high, but WOZ and TH are rolling off the line right now at $8.5k NIB.

I think compared to a Stern Premium/LE, this is a good value...although I agree that overall, NIB prices are getting pretty high quickly.

It wasn't clear to me how the drones work, but they're stationary, and will occasionally spin their propellors. Each drone seems to activate separately.

There is an exposed magnet on the far right side of the playfield, in between the outlane drain and the right orbit shot. I really loved the magnet action (which is surprising because as a competitive player, I generally dislike a magnet that might fling the ball STDM, like the slings on GB or the magnet on TWD). However, the placement was such that it did cool stuff (fling the ball away, up ramps, into the scoop, etc) most of the time. I did see it drain someone, but my suspicion is that it's preventable if you protect the outhole by raising the right flipper while the ball is in that area.

There is a diverter on the left ramp, which takes you onto an upper playfield...except to me it didn't look like there were any switches at all on it, just a few rubbers and a hole in the center of the (clear) floor that drops you into the pops. Seemed kind of lame.

There is a theater thing right up the middle that is just like Ecto-goggles, but with a bigger screen. Seemed neat, and more obvious to the player/observer than Stern's version. I like the shot too...sometimes the ball gets caught by a magnet, and other times it's an upper loop shot that comes around quick to the upper flipper.

I thought the volume levels were a bit unbalanced for certain sounds...which should be easy to fix. However, I did not find the sound to be annoying. I think "exciting" would be a better description. Lots of explosions and stuff. It made the game feel frantic when it should. I didn't find the phone annoying as others stated...it did make it really obvious what you were supposed to do...especially for multiball start. (Phone is going crazy and turning red).

Jack said Q2.

I put down a deposit on the cheaper version. I have 18 games on route, and always buy the least expensive version of games . (I put money down on a GOT Premium, but backed out to a Pro after playing the LE. Also, I want to put something out as soon as I can, which means a Pro...not waiting months for Premiums/LEs).

As an operator, I was skeptical of a non-licensed theme. I spent a lot of time watching people play last night, and I was sold by their reaction to the games. I'm probably going to graciously accost people as they step away from playing the game today to get more opinions.

I really did not want to buy a WOZ, so expensive. Every operator I talked to said it was one of their top earners ever (and for many it was #1). That has been true for me as well. So, I guess you can say that I have a lot of faith in JJP as far as building good earning games.

I actually think that the execution of this theme is brilliant in terms of addressing both children and adults. It didn't feel like a kiddie theme to me (although maybe this theme hits me more squarely because I was a huge SimCity fan growing up), but the younger generation is going to eat it up (with the toys under the glass, and video game feel of the backbox).

I totally get the concerns that this game is going to feel dated with the "cell phone theme". That never once occurred to me in the hour plus that I hung around it. Again, great execution.

But I suppose in 30 years when we're all half robots and can communicate by just speaking into the air, it might?

I'll also add that the cell phone I think did an awesome job of telling you how to play the game. Oh, it's ringing? Shoot it. Phone tells you what you're supposed to do next. More obvious and accessible than the TH book (which is way up in the corner). The ball is in a scoop, so you have time to see what's up, and no need to decipher info from a massive monitor.

I held out on more expensive games, but once I got a WOZ, that bumped up my threshold. I bet you could get a MET and a TAF for $10k. So if you have two spots, that's probably a better move. I already have a lineup full of top games, so my options are different.

Both TAF and TZ are top earners for me...but I'm certain that no other 90s games would do as well. Maybe MM? But now we're in the same price range as Dialed In. Dialed In looks awesome at 9k compared to MMR and Big Lebowski, although people LOVE TBL as a theme. The game itself is not as impressive as Dialed In, even though I really like TBL, and might possibly route one.

I love the price on Heighway games, but haven't seen Alien yet (other than the promo video). What I will say about kits is, as an operator, that does nothing for me. I'm not going to have a 4k kit sitting in my closet not being used. When it's time for a game to go, I'll move it to a different location, or sell it, and replace it with something else. Kits are probably better for home buyers with limited space, but I wouldn't have a game kit sitting outside a cabinet for any length of time as an operator.

I asked many people about this game today, and the opinions fell primarily into these buckets:

- Game is awesome, but too expensive to buy
- Game is awesome, I might/will get one
- Game is awesome, but too expensive to be out on route
- Game is awesome, you should definitely put one on route...people will love it

In other news, Jack said at the talk tonight that there will be a standard, probably without invisiglass, without shaker, and without special trim. No word on pricing. People earlier in this thread were saying that it would sell so much better at $7000...and I'll repeat: WOZ and TH are shipping NIB for $8500, and have been for at least the last year and a half. Why would they suddenly drop the price? Yes, yes, yes, it's too expensive, but people are buying what JJP is selling at their current prices.

I was standing next to Steve Bowden while he streamed live on Facebook today, and chatted with him a bit. It's 30ish minutes, no idea how good the quality is because I haven't watched it. You can find it a bit down on his page (posted around 11 hours ago as of this post) here: https://www.facebook.com/stevenbowden

Today, I discovered that if you hover close to the person playing, you can steal their selfies. I don't think it was programmed intentionally, but it's really fun to move your head around and taunt your friend while stealing all their glory.

Promo flyers from the past are all about earning potential. Not anymore.

All my best earners are games around $5k...TAF, TZ, MET, LOTR. Cheaper games like Congo, Fish Tales, and Judge Dredd earn probably half as much...or less.

Every op I've to who owns a WOZ said it was either their single best earner, or in the top few. So I bought one. It's earned about 40%-50% more than an average game at my location. (Priced at 75 cents, same as modern Sterns). I didn't start routing it at my main location till June of 2016, when people had already been playing it for 2+ years on location. Point being: it wasn't just earning because it was a new game that people couldn't play anywhere.

Yes, I could have bought a Fish Tales, a Shadow, and a South Park with that same money, but there's no room left at my location, and I already own two of those games.

Indeed it is! It's been great. Once in a while I need to fix the castle doors, or the drop target. It's been flawless otherwise. So glad I never had to deal with light board issues.

In both presentations, Jack promised "code complete" when the game ships.

JJP stated that you absolutely don't have to use your phone...this is a completely optional feature/gimmick.

Not sure why people are so turned off by a feature like this which can be completely ignored.

Einstein's Theater sits above the playfield and you shoot the ball underneath it. There is a magnet directly below. Sometimes the magnet catches the ball and then drops it back down toward the flippers. When the magnet is not activated, the ball travels straight through and it becomes an inner loop shot which feeds the upper right flipper.

Source: I played several games at Expo.

All the boards got moved from the bottom of the cabinet into the backbox. On the previous titles, they had to do a lot of monkey business with designing mechs to account for the lack of height between the metal box protecting the boards/cpu and the playfield. They also couldn't use the standard support rails that everyone else was using (because they're too deep).

They didn't say it explicitly, but in my mind, I took it to mean that they had to design special full length rails to make it work, but with the new design, they can use the standard ones. The standard ones do a slightly better job of propping up the front of the playfield for flipper work, in my opinion.

This seems to be a common complaint with most JJPs on factory settings, doesn't it? I turned up the flipper strength a little on my WOZ and people love the way it plays.