My thinking exactly. My WOZ was okay when I first got it, but the code kept getting better and better over time. While I would not have likely kept it if it still had the initial code, it is not going anywhere now. It is too deep and compelling at this point.

I really enjoyed that aspect of the early-buying WOZ experience.

We all want a great playing game and it was neat seeing Keith make changes based on our feedback once in a while.

B9 you need to have a party!!!

https://www.twitch.tv/soireeflip

french guys streaming Hobbit live

Played TH at my local arcade today, Pinball Wizard in NH. I have a very much mixed impression:

1. Shooter was weak; felt like a limp handshake. How odd to have the launched ball just barely impact the opposite targets. That can;t be right, can it?

2. Flippers felt very weak. Just about reaching the top of the playfield and ramps. If this was my personal machine, I think I'd crank them up a bit.

3. The left sling assy was loose and needed tightening. It would move with every bump. I alerted the attendant, but he explained the owner had the key, but he would make a note.

4. I think the tilt angle was too shallow. The ball seemed to move very slowly, especially in the expansive playfield when bash targets were hiding.

5. The outlanes seemed very forgiving, especially compared to my GoT Premium. I think I only lost one ball to them in the handful of games I played. Maybe this had something to do with slow ball speed and tilt angle (?). Not complaining about not losing too many balls to the outlanes.

6. The inserts, lights and sound were very pleasing, as expected!

7. The large LCD was bright and sharp, with great contrast. The nearby WoZ LCD screen looked tired and faded in comparison - possibly a bit blurry even. The only complaint was was the backglass - looked terribly washed out/blue tint, especially compared to the bright and beautiful LCD display. My parting thought - I did not actually spend too much time looking at the display. LOTS of good info there for sure, but just not accustomed to looking UP while the ball is in play.

8. This was setup as a 5-token game. Ouchie. /cheapskate

Conclusion - I had TH on my wishlist along with GoT. Happy GoT came out first; not second guessing at all. Maybe my opinion will shift with a better tuned machine, faster & stronger. This copy today was not my cup of tea.

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I don't get it. No one has said 'the weak flippers are awesome'
So why is JJP shipping machines with the default flipper strength so low?
The first machines they ship all went to arcades etc. So thousands of people getting their impression on the the game with those settings. So.... Why?
It doesn't make business sense.

As someone that wants nothing more than JJP to succeed it's frustrating

They might be strong at the factory ( higher power/voltage to games ). Easy to increase strength if needed.

The first three or four test ones were. No telling once they started rolling out the door. Not every pinball buyer posts on Pinside.

LTG : )

They might be strong at the factory ( higher power/voltage to games ). Easy to increase strength if needed.

The first three or four test ones were. No telling once they started rolling out the door. Not every pinball buyer posts on Pinside.

LTG : )

What would happen if they shipped games with the flippers cranked all the way up? You would probably end up with a lot more broken parts than some sheet metal ramps. So the smart thing to do is to ship the games with mediocre flipper strength. The true player is going to hear by word of mouth or "Pinside" to set the flippers at 23 and tilt the playfield to 7 degrees. Then everyone will be happy. Then you can play at your own risk.

The hobbit needs to have good flipper strength and a good pitch. It makes a huge difference with its play field. Huge! I will correct that on mine but JJP should do better to make that happen naturally.

Oh and I Agree fix the damn shooter spring. It was straight up crap when I played it and I thought it was broken. I'll correct that too but damn... All I can figure is that didn't want the ball smashing into the dwarf drop targets too hard? But it really is way to weak right now.

Agreed.... I thought the one at boxcar was broken or misaligned or something.

I know this is an easy fix, and that's fine for machines destined for home use. However, games on location need to be shipped right! Hell, the guys at boxcar can't even dislodge a stuck ball, no way theyre going to go in and adjust flipper strength

Got 10 more games on it tonight, I'm feeling the game a lot more now but still have plenty of concerns. Seems like this is a machine that's going to need a lot of little tweaks to play as good as it looks and god damn does it look good. Except the translite, I agree with whoever said it looked washed out. :/ My better games were averaging around 300K.

Shooter spring feels inadequate, as others have noted. A full plunge would only sometimes get as high as the A in DWARF or leftmost yellow target if the skill shot missed. I went with the drop target skill shot nearly every time as I couldn't really figure the others out.

The flipper strength seemed a wee bit higher than last week so they may have turned them up a notch or two but still not where I was expecting them to be. I know this is a widebody game and there's an art to building up ball speed for certain shots but at the same time, I found myself needing to catch the ball so I could pause and study the screen to figure out what I needed to be doing. Or at least pretend I was figuring it out, most of it actually just confused me more. It is definitely going to take a while to get used to this. Anyway, there were a number of shots that I flat out couldn't make from a cradled ball. On the other hand, once the ball got rolling the flippers strength seemed a lot less of an issue.

Which reminds me, I don't know what this thing weighs but nudging seemed to be a not-so-subtle art. I'm gonna need a few tilt warnings before I feel comfortable knowing how aggressive to be but the little bumps here and there that usually work for me on a new Stern don't faze this beast.

But stuck balls?

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Had one rest on top of the inlanes divider too but during a multiball so no biggie. Also got two balls into the left kicker lane a couple times but it kicked the both back out just fine.

For the code is lacking guys; yes, it's still beta code and that's a concern. But listen to 4:07:00 - 4:11:00 and tell me Keith doesn't have some bitchin code already in place and/or in the works. Then continue watching Keith play past 4:11:00 and light it up as well as explain some rules on the way.

Thanks for the link. "Player 1" was painful to listen to and made hearing Keith a challenge but it was some good info.

Well, rip it from the box and get playing - and taking pictures!

Number 808? Are they that far along already?

Smaug with RAD-Cals arrived today!

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Those numbers have nothing to do with the order in which they are built/shipped.

Gorgeous pictures!!

Damn, your house looks exactly like 3 other ones that had TH's delivered today!

Can someone with an SE record the SE attract mode? Is there a difference in SE and LE attract modes as of now?

RAD-CALS

they realy exist now?

please post some detailed pics

i hope to get mine soon

tom

Looks awesome B9! Even the certificate is pretty cool with the "deed of title" nice little touch over the normal certificate of authenticity printed on it, every detail of the hobbit looks fantastic, congratulations B9 now go an enjoy playing man

Hoping for a surprise in there... like a topper.
Did they supply a key fob at least?

Beautiful game. Thanks for sharing.

Has anyone heard any news about a code update to push this bad boy past beta code?

Yeah there are about 3 keyfobs.

I got to play it today and it was great. Was getting a little nervous with all of the gameplay videos i saw but you really have to play it to know what its like.

Took lots of pictures but I don't think much that hasn't been posted already. I've hosted them on IMGUR so you can see them in full quality.

https://imgur.com/a/Sl8NO

Click on the pics for full quality

1. The ball divertor for the mode start/winlance area
2. hidden LED to flash on smaugs face
3 and 4. Current game settings.
5. Hidden LED again (why did i upload it twice, haha)
6. the metal bracket for the ramps
7. start button is flush, no accidental presses. There is no LED in there though i think??? can anyone confirm
8. That powdercoating....

Recessed start button is awesome! I wonder if that can be retrofitted to WOZ.

Wow! Those are 3 deep games in a row you have there! Congrats. Can't wait to get mine.

Nice Keefer collection

Is that the correct order to put them in? Woz, LOTR, TH?

Should be Woz, TH, LOTR

that way the 2 JJPS are together, and the 2 x Tolkin pins are also together!

I doubt the large Hobbit start button would work on WOZ since the cabinet hole is small.
Herg made a mod to house the start button to prevent accidental presses.
I don't think a lot of people saw this thread. The parts are inexpensive. Herg posted the housing on shapeways so anybody could get one at the shapeways price.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/request-start-button-cover-for-woz

In the house! Rainy day, but a little sunshine in a box arrived today.
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Lol. Pinside Top 100 strikes again. If it goes the way of GOT on the Top 100, it's going to settle at 60th.

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I played a few games at Marvins tonight in Farmington Hills, MI. I enjoyed it so far. Here's a few pics I snapped in detail.

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Thanks for the pictures, I didn't know Marvin's had TH. Time to plan a visit!

First fisheyes. Neat

HOBBIT LAUNCH PARTY - at Pinball Gallery, Malvern PA - FRI APRIL 1st - 5pm - 11pm

Pinball Gallery is run by Bill Disney and is located outside Philadelphia (very close to King of Prussia).
http://www.pinballgallery.net

Featuring :
-TWO Hobbits to play to your hearts content for 6 hours !
-The entire Pinball Gallery arcade to play - OVER 65 pinballs and arcade machines !
-Jersey Jack Guarnieri will be there !
-A Free Door Prize to every attendee - possible prizes are : Hobbit Translights, Hobbit Flyers, Limited Edition PinballSTAR Hobbit Posters, Hobbit Craft BEER (yes you head that right), Pinball Gallery and PinballSTAR Tshirts, and more - all signed by Jack !
-Pizza / Drinks for small fee (goes to charity)

Door fee for the night is $ 30 / adult and $ 20 / child under 18. ALL proceeds from the door fee and food sales will be split between two charities :

1. PinballSTAR's Children's Hospital Charity Fund where we donate Wizard of Oz Pinball Machines to children's hospitals (see below)

https://timesleader.com/archive/283425/news-local-news-1066736-therapy-in-play
http://www.pinballnews.com/

We have donated FOUR $ 8,500 NIB Wizard of Oz's to the children's hospitals below - events like this help fund the donations ! And we donate a portion of every game sale we make to the fund...

St Christopher's Children's Hospital in Philadelphia
Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh
UNC Children's Hospital in Chapel Hill on April 12, 2016 (machine we donated to Project Pinball)
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (May 2016)

2. Multiple Sclerosis

We will also be offering some discounts on games we sell for those in attendance and additionally we'll extend those offers to our Pinside and Facebook friends... We have WOZ in stock... We will have Hobbits in STOCK very soon and are selling both LE's and Smaug Golds ! We are still selling from our DAY 1 Hobbit allotment - you will get your game very soon !

PinballSTAR are distributors for :
Jersey Jack Pinball (Wizard of Oz / The Hobbit)
Planetary Pinball (Medieval Madness Remake)
Spooky Pinball (America's Most Haunted / Rob Zombie's Spookshow International)
Chicago Gaming (Arcade Legends (130 titles) and Ms Pac / Galaga video games)

PinballSTAR's Facebook page :
https://www.facebook.com/pages/PinballSTAR-Amusements/281515171950637

Pinball Gallery
81 Lancaster Ave.
Great Valley Shopping Center, Store #20
Malvern, PA 19355
(484) 693-0693

Pinball Gallery Website - CHECK IT OUT ! Look at the VIDEO TOUR !!!
http://www.pinballgallery.net

The admission rates are usually $ 8 / hour or $ 20 / day so for $ 30 you donating all of the fee to charity, you get to play in the entire arcade, you get door prizes and use of TWO Hobbits !

We hope to see everyone who can make it !!! Our parties are always at fun locations with tons of giveaways and great food !!!

TO ATTEND : We do need an RSVP sent to [email protected] - please put 'HOBBIT PARTY' in heading and give us names of each person who will be attending. We need this to plan food and prizes please...

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

bump for those not in the loop

...was postponed on Joe's behalf, sending his family our love.

No rescheduled date yet but this means yinz all slackers get another shot at being there.

They've been tweaking the place out for this event and it really looks great.

"Thicker/glossier decals" - is this a thing? Apparently a $400 up charge. Is that sound right and is it worth it???
Thanks,
Bob

Yeah kinda weird.
But repro decals here are $300 here. You need to pay a professional $1000 to strip the sides and apply them properly.
So i guess its a good way to protect the decals long term.

lol....decal upgrade....

I can only imagine the pitchforks and torches if Stern ever required a $400 charge for premium DECALS!

I wonder whats next?

$200 if you actually want your game tested before it ships
$500 for a "thicker glossier" clear on the playfield

JJP is definitely breaking new ground in the area of selling upgrades to your order.... Jack must have worked in a car dealership is a former lifetime