I really think it’s a game to be played before buying. TPF may have been too loud to get the full experience anyway, IMO you need to hear a Pin as well as play it to get an idea if you like it .

Personally, this is a Title to play 25+ times before purchase. Same with Hobbit. Not every game is for everybody.
Im still on the fence about JJP POTC , ( that acronym is too long to begin with). I like it a lot but was confused by game play. Im 25 or so games in and have no clue what Im doing, and Ive read about.
I also feel these will be available for a long time, then on secondary market as well.

There's one on location in Columbia, MO at Silverball Bar. I'd HIGHLY recommend taking making the drive and putting the time in before making that expensive of a purchase.

https://pinside.com/pinball/map/where-to-play/11400-silverball-columbia-mo

I'll relay my advice via a quick story. I've only been into Pinball for around 3 years or so (this weekend will be my third TPF in a row). The first time I went, before going I read everything I could about pinball, read all of the owners forums, watched every video I possibly could, etc. I made a list of about 10 pins that I thought were my absolute favorite from all of my research. Long story short, I played every single one of them multiple times at TPF, along with dozens of other pins. Of those 10 that I thought were my absolute favorite, I think I took 9 of them off the list and replaced them with other games I played at TPF that I liked much better.

Obviously up to you, but personally after my experience, I would never buy a pin that I had not played at least a few times unless it was a tremendous bargain that I knew I could enjoy for a short time without the risk of loosing any resell value on it.

Hey Eric - always a good idea to play anything first of course.. But these are going to be sold out soon - JJP has cut production and most distributors and factory are sold out, OP may be asking as there are not many left to buy - PinballSTAR had about 20 to go about a week or two ago and am down to my last handful... Not saying he needs to rush to buy, but the NIBs are going to be gone shortly. Surely though he can pick one up on the secondary market later - at what price, who knows ? Just wanted to clarify before he has a false sense of availability. How was AE5 ? Hope you all had a bang up weekend !
Joe

Basically, hit one of the colored mode start shots, shoot the start chapter shot, make all the colored lit shots for that mode...repeat.
Once in a chapter, all the required shots are shown right at the top of the screen.

I don't see how anyone wouldn't be happy with this game. I say go for it!

Here is the way I think about JJPPOTC gameplay in terms of some WMS/Bally pins:

If you prefer Whirlwind, TAF, & TZ over TOTAN, STTNG, & MM: JJP POTC will be right up your alley

To me, the first impression I had of JJPOTC over a year ago was TZ on Multiball steroids. Having owned it now over 3 weeks my first impressions have been 110% confirmed. The one thing I didn't notice until having it & playing it is that the number of scoring strategies available on this pin are EXTREMELY high, and considering it isn't 100% code complete......wow!!!

I would play any game before buying it. Most NIB regrets seem to center around lack of code support and I can tell you that is the last thing you have to worry about regarding JJP POTC. The game is incredibly deep and there's still more to come.

I just bought one. Delivery on Friday.

Not many left, so I committed.

You're asking a forum of people who buy machines sight unseen if they would buy a game without playing it. That's like telling a crazy person that...they're crazy...but in their mind you're the one that's crazy

In general, you should always play a game before you buy it. PinballStar is a good guy, but please do not let FOMO drive your buying decisions. There will be one on the secondhand market at some point, and more often than not, it will be cheaper and likely HUO, so still just as pretty as taking it out of the box, and the original owner would have taken care of the box and plastic for you already Someone had mentioned that there was one within driving distance to play. If this is a game that you're about ready to plop $9K+ on, then yeah, it would probably be worth the gas money and time to play a dozen or two games on it before you buy. This is coming from a "sane" person that thinks things rationally, and maybe in this crowd, I'm the crazy person...so who knows?

Some of my favorite long term keeper pins are purchased before ever playing. The great thing about pinball today is we have streams and videos to help make up our mind. If you’re an experienced player, and know what you like, you can typically know from a video and reviews whether you’ll like it or not. A dozen plays on a location game can be deceiving on whether it would make a good home only pin or not.

That said, $10k is a lot of coin whether you play it before or not. The good news is, JJPOTC is ceasing production for an undisclosed amount of time, so you really shouldn’t be too fearful of losing much money. You’d probably lose more flying to a big pinball show haha! Your biggest worry should be how much you have to tweak this pin and be under the hood rather than knowing if it’s good or not.

ALWAYS play before you buy...except I just wired the payment in full for an LE about an hour ago and haven't played it yet

The POTC LE's. Are. Disappearing.

Certainly you can tell the way it shoots and have knowledge of what you like as far as layout, rulesets and theme? I have a Smaug Hobbit which I adore...and I can tell how JJP POTC shoots from reveals, reviews, etc. and comparing to my other machines.

Lastly, don't buy anything if you don't have the dough!!

The more I played JJPOTC the more I liked it. Amazing design with lots of fun shots and plenty of things to discover. Upper playfield is enjoyable; loading the cannon and shooting the dauntless is very satisfying. Fun rules, great to play with or without friends. Best integration of a lockbar button, imo. Theme is well integrated, non-fans and fans of the movies can enjoy this pins pirate motif.

My wife and I played one game at NWPAS 18'.
We have owned a beautiful standard since late last October and just recently ordered an LE.

I've bought a few pins blind and this has to be the most satisfying of them all. Granted I did play one game, but one game on any pin is nothing and I dislike the POTC movies.

Used POTC LE's sell for only about $600 below NIB price, and only 3 have ever come up for sale on pinside so far. For what it's worth. It will be interesting to see what happens when NIB is no longer available.

Definitely put some time into the pin before buying. Go find the closest arcade/bar and put $20 in. I just bought a POTC and I’m waiting for delivery. If you don’t buy soon. Nib will be gone, but I’m sure that you’ll be able to find it used later.

My one concern is that arcades can be very misleading: can’t hear the sound + game may not be set up right. This can steer someone away from a game.

In an ideal world, I’d use pinside to find local owners and ask to play it at their home before buying. When I first did this I thought it was weird to go to random dudes’ homes I met on the internet. But then I went and of course it’s still weird, but everyone is super nice!

It's been pointed out the LE's are very popular. That being said it was also mentioned that standards seem be be available and if you have an extra 3k you can go from LE to CE.

In a Stern Pro buyer and a JJP LE buyer, so I will probably miss out on Pirates LE. It just stinks they are stopping production of this game. Good luck.

Normally I would say play before buying but doubt there will be much risk with this pin. If you love JJP pins don't think you will be disappointed with this one. I was not all that impressed when I played a few games but not a huge fan of JJP games or pirate themes. Production is ending and doesn't look like there will be many out there. Used prices will more than likely go up once you cannot buy nib anymore. Doubt you would lose much if you sold it a few months later. Of course, you could hold out and find a deal on a used one but doesn't sound like you would save all that much.

Played all of my pins this weekend. POTC is miles ahead of the rest. I started to question my ownership of a few of my others.

I played this on location that is fairly close to where we live a few times. The first time I played it I was completely overwhelmed just looking at it, no idea what to expect and no one to give me a tutorial. Needless to say that first game was over before I could blink. The wife tried it and looked at me with a WTF glare in her eyes. I almost wrote it off completely but the next few times we went to this place something drew me back to it. After a few games I started to understand it. Shooting that upper loop is so satisfying, getting the ball on the upper playfield and being able to execute the tasks to load the cannon and actually sinking the other ship is awesome. As I’m very new to this hobby I would set small tasks like those to learn it and as such I’m on pace to beat the game in about 30yrs. I’m sure your skill level is much higher but my point is there are loads of things to do and an incredible amount of characters to chose from to do it with. I agree with everyone that it is a safe bet to try it before you buy it, as these are very expensive toys. But give it a few try’s if you can and form your own opinion. Again, the first time I played it I was so overwhelmed that I hated it and now we own one and we all love it. Like others have said, this is a fantastic home use pin.

OR... Just go buy it! You only live once and if you go broke at least you can say you owned it first! Ugh sorry that’s terrible advice. Think it through for sure.

Pirates is a long-ball game in the same vein as The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings. I think its a much better game than either but if you don't like long-ball games... I would DEFINITELY try to put in a good amount of games before plunking down the cash on this one.

With that being said... if I had to pick one single pin for a home collection it would likely be Pirates.

Is JJP POTC going out of production in the same way that WOZ ECLE was the only LE for WOZ?

No, they didn't renew the license. The game is a dud and didn't sell well. Onto the next. I'd bet they hold their value due to such limited production. Play it first and see if you like it. Most of these opinions are from people with 9k invested in a pin they wouldn't like to lose. So I'd take it with a grain of salt.

Game seems like it has received near universal appraise.

Just like this opinion from a person who likes to hate on this pin. The pin did so awful that they couldn’t keep up with orders and it took 4+ weeks to get one if you wanted it and couldn’t find one at a distributor. Totally terrible sales. That’s why there are so many all over the place, distributors can’t give them away!

Dud is such a spectacularly nice term. I'm sure all the buyers will keep the hype as high as possible so they don't lose money on resell.

Jjpotc is magical, dont care who you are.

The only reason I care about resale is that I happen to own two. I am not letting this out of my keeper collection.

I actually have one I need to sell, because I’m moving, but I’m not at all worried about hyping it to keep the value high.
The game speaks for itself.

The game must have spoke to the wrong people.

Uh oh the jjp fan boys are here. Seems like a smart business move to cease production on a game that's minting money. I've got some nice swamp land to sell ya.

Such a dud that only 3 of them have even been up for sale used on pinside.

Oh I didn't realize that. I guess that proves it's the best game ever. Pack it up boys. Case is solved!

I’ll try to keep to the question rather than participate in the sideshow. The game costs a lot and I would always try to play a game before buying it if at all possible.

Fatdik has made me see the light. I now no longer like this game. Him so smart.

Me too. You just know when you see it sometimes

I have purchased many pins without playing them first and I've only regretted it once when I bought GOTG Pro. I bought JJPOTC without playing it and it has quickly become #1 or #2 amongst all of my family and friends. It is a phenomenal game. I don't care about the resale value because it has joined WOZ, LOTR, MM, and TZ on my "never sell" list. Honestly it is probably #2 on that list after my sweet WOZ RR, my all-time favorite game.

Worst modern pin ever produced. It's so bad.

I might have to give pirates another whirl after reading some of the reviews. You guys might've changed my mind.

And I've never been wrong

Find a place to play it that takes care of their games, and bring headphones. This is what I did, and I was sold in minutes.

Also open invite for anyone in Dallas/Fort Worth to come play mine, if you’re curious. Or in the Bay Area for a few more weeks.

Try it first , you got to be like me and love loooooooog ball time .

Its a good pin that sold well at intial reveal.... but after some features were changed and taking forever to ship many people including myself cancelled their preorders. Then fast fwd 8 months and after route pins shipped and lots of jjp streams people were interested again. After they started arriving in homes it started gaining steam . At this point in time most preorders have been filled and lots of people placing late orders are wiping out any stock distros had due to it going out of production for the time being and probably for good. Not sure how well it ended up selling bc of the way things happened but there sld be enough made that if someone wants one down the road they sld be able to get one. I really want one but really wanna c what pats Wonka looks like .

I have a quick question. What are the differences between the LE and the standard? Besides $1000 and stainless vs black trim! Personally I like the stainless better.