Prototype to Final.....

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Great pix, Chris. Thanks!

This is the first I've really seen of detailed playfield pics. I'm not a huge Pirates fan and kind of blew it off, but man this game looks pretty awesome! Reminds me of TZ with all the toys, mini playfield and features to it. It also looks like it might be a difficult shooter with all of the clutter down on the lower playfield.

You could assume that from a photo but JJP did do Hundreds of hours of weekly live game play to show otherwise? Think they wisely assumed showing it live would let the buyer decide with more than a flyer image. I was sold seeing them illustrate this masterpiece.

I'm not saying its bad nor good. TZ for example can drain quickly because there is a lower cluttered playfield and pops so low. It reminds me of that and not the typical wide open fan layouts we see alot of these days. Not good, nor bad just an observation.

Agreed. Personally I love that Eric took a new direction, his direction and created his own vision. Refreshing to me over the how do we make this fan layout not look like 50 others. I’ve put my fair share of dollars into this game at 257 and each play is a unique and fun journey. I am most impressed by how unified the software, animations, design team was on this. Absolutely seamless as if it was one guy doing it. So can’t wait to get ours.

Well I'm heading over to check this game out. I plan to leave my impressions of the game as well. I'm definitely not a fanboy of this game and of course you're going to get the straight forward from me. It's a stunning game from those photos but side art is weak.

Impressions of this bar? Love it. Great beer and open layout.

I had the best time ever at Helicon tonight! My friend even got me enjoying the alcohol. Thanks for making such an amazing place to make friends and play pinball.

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Hell yeah dude! This is what it's all about!

Looks like the happiest place on earth

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I'll definitely have to stop out there soon. The pins look amazing. Not too far from South park. Are there certain hours where it's family friendly? My 6 year old has been playing every day down in the game room. He'd definitely like to come too.

Looks like a super fun place, what a lineup!

Perfect. We will definitely be up soon.

I was able to spend about an hour at the bar today and it was packed. What's great about the place is that it has this very chill vibe and you don't feel overcrowded. Again - love the layout and I would say majority of people weren't even playing pinball which is great for pinheads like us! Everyone seemed like they were having a good time and I again enjoyed the beer as well!

After playing pirates at shows, I was almost taken back when I walked up to it b/c.....no one was playing it! Usually at shows the line is 10-20 people deep - I actually looked around and again, place was busy but no one was waiting so I jumped right in.

Before I give my impressions, I'm not good at pinball. I play for fun, don't take it too seriously and just comment on my gut reaction based on my experience. I also want to mention that the pirates games designer (forget his name).....I love that guy - SO much passion, just seems like a nice person.

I will say that after playing it, the game holds the title of the, "wait - that was a widebody pin?" - it plays so fast for a widebody it's crazy. Kudos to him and team for making a widebody that plays like a standard but is loaded.

Here's the first thing that I thought of when playing this game - it looks different. I don't know how or why b/c technically it looks the same (it was an LE and I played the prototypes which I thought were LE) - but this game was lacking that JJP super saturated look. I know - this is nuts b/c from the pics, from what I've played myself at shows - I can't put my finger on it but it's like that super polish wasn't there. I don't know if it's the lack of wheel, but the PF itself - the colors - something was not as saturated in your face WOZ, Hobbit, DI and even the Pirates proto. Maybe the lack of proper powder on the LE? At least the armor didn't look like it was that glossy JJP powder.

The game shoots really well - so many places to put the ball - I love the top left flipper, I love the super outlanes that roll back to the left flipper, love the right outlane that can be bumped into the shooter. Speaking of shooter - this was the darkest shooter (wood wise) I've ever seen. Not sure if that is normal but it didn't look dirty - just not that light color we're used to seeing. Anyway - the ramps were butter smooth. Left kickout seemed to struggle but would pop after two tries. It just felt good to shoot.

Ship toy - I want to love this thing. I like the idea, I like how it's really active and I like shooting it but you're up there alot and I can see that wearing out its welcome. I also don't like how it's constantly tilting left and right b/c even when you're playing below it, in the corner of your eye that thing is moving back and forth and along with the crazy pops to the right, it can be very distracting. I don't think it's bad but I def don't think it's a huge plus. For me, it's fun but I can see it getting on my nerves. Then there is the magnet area that closes and bangs the ball around. Felt it killed the flow - maybe I should be actively doing something, so maybe it's me.

The game was kind of quiet and I'm not a huge fan of Pirates but it didn't seem to impact the game too much. Meaning the ties in here didn't feel like your were part of the movie (like Hobbit) - it could have been generic pirates and still had the same impact. For me, take it or leave it. For someone really into the movies, that could be a disappointment.

The wheel - oh the wheel. As someone who played the proto, this was more of a bummer than I thought. It def seems like something should have gone there as it's big. It's made worse when the screen above actually shows the three wheels moving during certain sequences. I'm not sure if it's too bad if you never experienced before but that was a bummer.

Games lasted longer than expected (vs when I played the proto) - this was def easier.

Overall - it felt like a little of that magic from the proto was gone but you have a very solid shooter that is packaged in the fastest wide I've ever played. Thanks to Helicon for absolutely NAILING it with this place and bringing us south hills guys a place to play the newest games first. I will be back for Deadpool!

It's a fallacy that widebodies are slow. There's nothing inherently slow about them. They just tend to have either a lot of stuff packed in (so stop and start), or a lot of people think of machines like Paragon and its ilk which are set up very flat, and have weak flippers. There's also further to travel on some shots so it gives the impression of less speed sometimes.

Of the Superpins Demoilition Man is very fast, Popeye is very fast (but less flow) and probably ties Jonny Mnemonic for fastest orbits in any game, STTNG is fast. Roadshow and JD are average. IJ is slower. TZ is like treacle. WOZ can be fast depending on setup, though obviously not that much flow due to the upper pfs. Hobbit's average depending on setup.

I'd say JJPotC is fairly normal in this respect. Though exceptional in others.

Not sure how one can think the rocking ship isn't innovative with the way it moves and can vary in speed depending on what is happening in game play and of course the cannon that is difficult to load and shoot across the PF at another ship and hitting a target to sink it! Not to mention the level or detail with flickering lanterns and sculpting of ship, its perfection!

Great pics, amazing looking game and awesome location! Thanks for sharing!

Good points. I think some people say that some of those games are slow as they have become a bit blinded by the typical two ramp, few toys offerings that Stern has regularly put out over the past 10 years. Games with very little on the playfield will always play faster then those jam packed with toys and features. For $6k-$10k I want a game loaded with toys and innovation, not two ramps and little else, lol. Pirates looks like it offers a good variety of speed along with a ton of features.

No question A+ for innovation. I just don't know if it will be fun or frustrating in the long run.

That bottom makes Italians weep. Really glad they don’t take any part of the playfield for granted in design.

Would love to see a modern take on scissor flippers, zipper flippers, and other bottom variants on future JJPs. Watching Elwin dazzle the crowd at Pinburgh with his scissor skills on Harlem, I’m looking forward to seeing those type of skills tested on new games.

Did unboxing video ever get posted?

Did you have the topper in the end, or not?

He posted he did have the one for his model of game.

LTG : )

Yeah, but he said he'd put it on and take pictures. I wondered if he was mistaken and it wasn't there, and to ship later.

No need to be sorry. Just curious. The originally revealed one, which was just a clone of the backglass, went down like a lead balloon. It hasn't been shown in months, so no-one knows if they revised it.

Huh? Sounds like you have the job I always Dreamed of!! lol