Dude that picture was a joke. It was the supposed Australian picture turned upside down. Same picture...

Not exactly a secret: https://www.facebook.com/JerseyJackPinball

Thanks for posting. Seeing them all together, that first pic has got to be of a test printed playfield on top of a bunch of blanks, given that the subsequent picture shows routed, printed playfields properly separated on a drying rack.

The Hobbit is at ReplayFX in the PinballSTAR booth !

Jersey Jack Guarnieri and Wizard of Oz and Hobbit programmer Keith Johnson are here ! ...and Keith brought NEW code AGAIN !!!

Everyone is excited to play the Hobbit we had lines before our booth even opened !

PinballSTAR is selling the Hobbit which will begin production very soon.

Standard $ 8,000
Limited Edition $ 8,500
Smaug Gold Special Edition $ 9,000

Contact us for payment plans.

Joe Newhart
PinballSTAR Amusements
[email protected]
570-357-0042

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Attention MODS...please unlink MG and RAZA from this thread. Apparently some kook named Crazyoranges linked them. TIA!

I honestly have never seen a bigger troll than Crazy

Hoping for some new video from Replayfx.

Maybe they should stay linked....ispy JPop In line for the Hobbit!

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Played Hobbit in Pittsburgh today,shot the shit with Jack for a bit. Still in ,can't wait Great pin!

Jpop is a Death fan! Cool

Played it today as well. Thought it was great. Will end up owning it someday.

any updated videos of hobbit gameplay?

How many hobbits are there?

Judging by how many were at Bilbo's eleventy-one birthday party, I'd say there were a lot of Hobbitses.

Anyone attend the the Jersey Jack seminar yesterday at ReplayFX and care to share any new details or info?

Did you know the irony is that guy's name is Jo(h)n too?? But no JPop

They went through a lot of justification of how much they changed the game since Expo and the level of cost and effort that took.

The real nice part was doing side-by-side of the art changes from the Expo game to the current game. They explained that with the delay they had access to IP that was released after their initial designs, so they opt'd to incorporate that newly available content as they opened the design back up.

The side by side art comparisons really show how much brighter the new art is (light blues and brighter reds and greens vs the older greys, darker greens, etc).

They talked a bit about flexibility (or lack of) when dealing with IP holders.. and Keith talked a bit about how its different now vs when they did LOTR when Peter Jackson/Wingnut was not as established. Now they got very little info ahead of the release.

In the Q&A, someone finally addressed the elephant in the room about production.. Jack's answer was basically there are parts coming in all the time... some things are constrained in vacations, lack of urgency, etc.. but he said

- he hopes Hobbit is in production by end of Sept
- he hopes to announce Lawlor's game before the end of the year (it was kind of eluded to Expo.. but can't remember if he said outright).

I get the impression it was 'get Hobbit pumping out' before announcing Lawlor's game. He said its very far along (forget the words he used.. but gave the impression it was closer to a playable game than just a design).

Jack did not give any specifics about addressing their production output. He mentioned a 30 day time to ship currently... said he can keep building Woz til 2017. Was not precise in his answer in how he could/would/wouldn't be able to manage 1-3 games in production at the same time.. but inferred he'd want to be selling all three simultaneously.

On the showfloor... the games display is visually stunning... 'multi-media smorgasbord' I said. The screen looks incredibly sharper and more vivid than WoZ... maybe just the content, but it really pops.

The lighting added to the pop-up figures makes ALL the difference (flickering light from below). They look incredible. The PF art is nice and inviting. The armor is nice. The game is still pretty confusing on what you are supposed to be doing... but 3ball multiball and hitting monster hurry-ups can be had all day with easy for the 'walk up and play' angle.

This particular prototype had a problem with the left VUK.. but looked to just be a typical mechanical VUK issue.

The basic yellow flippers look lost where the rest of the game is so detailed.

Does anyone yet know the purpose of the upper flipper?

To keep people talking about it, and this thread bumped.

But seriously, folks...at Replay when I played the game, I rather enjoyed knocking the ball from the left flipper to the upper right flipper, then smacking the ball home into that hole behind the dwarf targets. I still say that flipper is an integral part of killing Smaug. Windlance shot up to the right flipper, and smack it into the hole to shoot him in the heart. The mighty Boob has spoken.

Ouch. End of Sept, not for the open day this month then? I'm getting impatient......

Yeah, that's a punch to the gut.

I called that about 8 months ago saying late q3 early q4 and jack personally thumbs downed me. No horse in the race, just call me a realist.

Forgot to mention, five minutes after Jack and I talked, Mike Pacak ran over Jacks foot with his personal scooter.

So by the time this game is out, if you believe the strong rumors, their competition will have a game with a much better and more relevant theme with a fire breathing dragon. Just sayin. Could be an interesting Expo.

I understand not being precise about when production will start, but Sept. is only several weeks away. To be producing any real volume of games within the next few months the factory should already be gearing up. Sounds like it will be a slow transition from WOZ to shipping significant numbers of TH. I'm not trying to be negative but Jack is too cagey to put any stock in the latest timeline. I was impressed enough though with the game at ReplayFX to hang tight. He is certainly a master at managing information and marketing games to keep the order book going.

There are secret emails proving that Jody paid Mike to do that with a TWD topper!

By my math.. end of Sept is 7-8 weeks away. We call that almost 2 months.. I don't really think of 2 months as 'several weeks' but I guess that's a personal interpretation.

I wouldn't be counting on any 'real volume' of games. Sounds like they are going to continue at similar volumes as they are now. He was even asked about production volume and he didn't address the point. So I would expect the same slow trickle we have now, but he will be mixing in WoZ and TH as needed it seems for the foreseeable future.

The whole production topic was not even part of Jack's speech, it only came up in Q&A. I noticed they didn't even call the visuals/art they were showing 'the final version' which was a little interesting. Not once in the presentation did they say 'the final...' as if things were still up in the air... or maybe they've just been so conditioned to later changes they don't call anything final

Jack wasn't clear on 'shipping' vs 'building' either in his Sept comment. I don't recall if the question was 'when will hobbit be shipping' or was it 'when will hobbit be finished?'. Either way, no biggie... the key takeaway is they aren't close enough to nail down dates with any precision... that's what anyone needs to know. Beyond that, its just the waiting game.

SPOILER ALERT ON THE HOBBIT MOVIE.






I guess due to the PF art they will have to keep the wind lance concept somehow - even though it wasn't used in the movie at all to kill Smaug. The use of a make shift 'bow', and not a wind lance, was used to deliver the black arrow killing blow. I guess it could still work to have the wind lance there on the PF art, but just refer to the kickback as just the 'black arrow' in the game mode(s)

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EDIT: Note that I enlarged the image many times to show the lance...the PF decal quality is much better than this attachment LOL

Any updates on the voice talent?

The movie is half a year old, and the book is almost a hundred years old. If any of what I said is a spoiler, people need to get out more often.

Who would even believe Jack saying late September at this point? This is like WOZ all over again where he'll blame anyone he can for the delays. And then JJP will probably have some random price increase to make the prepaid buyers feel like they got a good deal and not bail.

It always seemed like expo was the goal date for JJP3 reveal, but with hobbit barely, or not even being produced by then, it will put a lot of pressure on those plans.

I guess we'll find out how much stock is in the "Lawlor won't allow them to do pre-orders on his game" rumor and how much that can be danced around. Maybe they start taking pre-orders for it when it is showable, with promised production X months later?

So "technically" they aren't taking pre-orders for an announced game, but a showable "near complete" game. Still doesn't mean anything will be produced quickly.

SilverBallz, It is not an official date or anything. He was asked what his best guess was and he said that was a date he was aiming for.

He also said that this was a conservative guess (not exact wording. watched it on a phone cam and can't remember the exact words)

At least he is saying what he is aiming for. Much better than total silence.

I was told by my distributor long ago(5-6 months ago) that the Hobbit would probably not go into production before fall (as I would imagine others have been told also) so this timeframe is not a shocker for me. Would I still pay up front 2 years ago if I knew about all the delays? Who knows.

All I know now is that I am seriously looking forward to this game, still.

JJP is not alone in the delay apartment. There have been delays like this with both Heighway and Dutch Pinball also (I have games on order from both of them) I guess we read more about JJP delays because more people are eager for the games to hit the market (I hope)

Anyway. It is what it is. Pinball is hard

There are many times more pre-orders for Hobbit, so no surprise the criticism is much more amped up than for Heighway and DP. Both those companies are probably grateful for their relatively low pre-order numbers while the months drag on. Also why the MMR threads were so heated, at 1000 preorders.

Agree, frolic. But it can be a factor easy to forget when you read complaint after complaint

You gotta appreciate the Stern model. They ship the games half baked, so let's not give them too many claps, but still, so much less drama when they can just announce the game and it's there.

I've definitely learned from being inside the belly of the beast that it's so easy for small things to domino and delay you. You don't need money problems, or license drama, or really any "drama" at all. Someone takes longer to approve something than they said they would, you wait before moving on to the next part because of it, and suddenly things that weren't even related to that particular approval get pushed back.

I think JJP is under more pressure than Heighway or Dutch Pinball because the WOZ delays were something that people really wanted to see put behind them. But I definitely wouldn't throw stones, I'm totally working out of a glass house now too.

I can testament to that waiting for Stern to make their code acceptable is no fun ride, either.

I bought Star Trek and Metallica new and waited a year before the code was any good. By that time, I had grown sick of waiting and could not enjoy the pins like I ought to, so I sold them both.

I realize that some would rather have a bare-boned code pin than no pin at all but for me, having the actual pin and waiting endlessly for a code update was torture.

Since The Hobbit is so delayed and we have seen the proto in action, I am pretty sure that the code will be ok at launch. Same with Heighway. More uncertain about Big Lebowski, since so little has been shown or talked about regarding code progress on that machine.

I'm not happy about the wait but have resigned to the fact that there is nothing I can do about it. There is the positive aspect of maturing code but it's little comfort. This is likely my last NIB JJP due to pricing trend but it is certainly my last pre-order. I could have used the thousands I invested in the machine over 2 years ago. I had hoped that the delay on WoZ was due to the learning curve but it appears the curve is still not curving.. :/

He did say adamently that they weren't going to do pre-orders, but did say something to the effect of taking DEPOSITS. At what point would deposits come into play wasn't really discussed. So deposits... secure your order, but don't fund the company, etc kind of thinking.

Ideally it'd be a $500 non refundable deposit. It must be a nightmare keeping tracking of people buying, selling, and trading preorders

Fill the orders quicker and the customers won't have the need or want to sell their spots.

I was really contemplating getting The Hobbit...

Not sure why but that 9,000 price tag really turns me off to the whole project (and pinball in general) and makes 8k even seem ridiculous.

Anyone else think JJP is going to hit a wall with this 9k price tag?

Game of Thrones here I come!

...also likely $9k.

$7500 for Hobbit is looking like a deal now.

This is one reason I preordered...Heck the folks that got ECLEWOZ at $6500 got a great price even though they paid in delays and frustrations.

Yep, I was one of those $6500 ECLEWOZ guys, was it worth it? I can say it was now, after all those years but man it was a rough ride!

If I hadn't cashed in my deposit on TH right after Expo I don't know how I could have handled that delay again along with Jpop.

JJP, which is stating the obvious, needs to get it together one would think.

As Jack has stated many times before, you can't survive producing 1 pinball machine every 2 or 3 years.

What a shame for TH, I'm sure the Lawlor pin along with everything else is gonna poach a ton of those potential Hobbit sales.

I'm thinking JJP is probably happy to just hold onto the pre orders that they currently have and not lose any more due to the delays.

TH is gonna kick some ass, just get it out there.

Is it really a deal if you cant get it today, tomorrow or ( insert number of months here ) ?
Not sure how anything can be a "deal" when it does not exist and not manufactured yet.

Most people will wait a reasonable amount of time for something they want but kicking that wait out to years is a stretch.

I just lose interest after years of waiting, really even a year is too long.

The only way "The Hobbit" would be considered a "deal" is when the day occurs that the demand far outstrips the supply and the prevailing price is well above what you paid. Until then you are losing money. If you had taken the $7500 that some folks forked over three years ago and put it in the stock market, I would venture to say you would better off than the $8500 it costs today for an LE model. Would it be considered a "deal" if six months after the game is in production that used LE's surface in the used market at $7000 or less? It's all relative, Weedhopper.

I guess my "DOH" emoticon didn't register as sarcasm..,