Quoted from Pinball69:I honestly think from my research of reading is that the JJ machines technology is so much ahead of the other makers. They just do it right.
I was a huge WOZ fanboy. I had a lot of games at the time, and I thought WOZ would fit in great. And I loved the game... until I started having problems with it. The chipped playfield was something to be dealt with quickly. During winter I would pop light boards due to the increased static (seriously, I would ALWAYS have to touch the lockdown bar of a Stern game before touching WOZ or I'd get a static shock and wonder if I blew another board). And when they went out, they would take down whole sections of lights until bypassed. And none of that dulled my appreciation of the game. Until I started having resets.
My reset issue went on for 6 months. And it crushed my love for the game. JJP tried to support me, and things like a new I/O board went in. But for 6 straight months I didn't play anything other than test games. After all the troubleshooting and parts and time going by, I ended up finding the problem by recording slow motion game play. It was occasionally happening after the left VUK fired. My issue was that when the game was assembled the wireform was leaning on the connector for the Crystal Ball. The connector itself was hot glued to the screen, so you couldn't see it. But when I finally took the glue off, I found that most of the leads on the screen were broken. They were making connection, but occasionally didn't from the vibration, and that quick disconnection of the Crystal Ball screen would reset the game. Sometimes a full reset, sometimes it would just lose I/O for a few seconds as things went dark. I had to buy a new screen and cable (and move the ramp slightly of course).
The parts came in, I put them in, and then put the game up for sale fully working. I had wanted to buy Hobbit, but I just couldn't bring myself to write the check after my experience with WOZ. I love Jack and JJP, and I'm glad they are still making a go of it. The WOZ experience just stuck with me, because I hate when games are down for a long time. I know it happens in pinball sometimes, but this one just felt like inexperienced engineering.