Pat is definitely way different these days than the period after Williams closed. Very upbeat and excited. Not just his game, JJP too !

LTG : )

So Terminator 2

Spoke to Jack a few months ago about TH, and he said that he thinks that WOZ and TH are great - and he is proud of them, but he is really excited about Pat's game.

To me that says a lot.

Wow O-din - I just looked him up - crazy and I hate to admit it but I never heard that name and I am into vintage games too... Some of those old guys like Steve Kordek and Wayne Neyens were always my favorite to listen to at Expo seminars when they were around... It was like listening to your grandfather tell you stories on the porch... Good stuff... Thanks for a new name to research !

He was crazy. Truly an out of the box thinker that gave us modern multiball and quite a few other features we now take for granted. I read an article from the 60s where he wanted multi level playfields, ramps, and computer sounds, but Bally kind of put the brakes on that.

Another guy to look up is Harry Mabs. He thought it might be a good idea to add flippers to the game of pinball.

I hope they do some cool fantasy game ala Swords of Fury, thats what i miss.

Swords of Fury-Dial 3000 for Lionman!!!!

Added over 8 years ago: Sheesh....

I know of Harry Mabs yes... Probably these old timers are to be much more respected for their ingenuity given they had very little to work with in that day - no computers, etc.. I have some pre-war games and I love showing them off to folks to show all they do with some springs and levers, no electricity... Cool stuff. They all deserve to be respected. Many of these guys always created new and copied nothing - which was sort of my point with Pat.

Wizard of Oz is a timeless theme. It has sold for 3 years now and will keep selling. Any theme that sells long term needs to be timeless.
I still think John Wayne - Balls of Steel Spectacular is a good theme to consider. Lots of material available, lots of potential. Timeless.

"If you've got them by their {pin}balls, their hearts and minds will follow." - John Wayne

quote-if-you-ve-got-them-by-the-balls-their-hearts-and-minds-will-follow-john-wayne-194395_(resized).jpg

Uh, yeah, only binding upon the parties that signed the agreement.

I would buy a NIB Woz if still available...especially since they have the kinks worked out

They're still available (from Pinball Sales):

RROZ: http://www.pinballsales.com/shop/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=155&idcategory=2
Standard: http://www.pinballsales.com/shop/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=45&idcategory=2

I imagine distributors have them in stock as well.

Yeah, you can still find WOZ NIB around. It's such a good game. I wouldn't be surprised if after The Hobbit and during the run of game #3 if JJP doesn't see enough demand to sneak a few on the line once more. But for now, stock is disappearing on boxed games.

Nice guess, especially as rumor includes a robot arm in the game.

Beg your pardon?

I would buy that in a hearbeat. The Blanch in the bedroom shot would be awesome.

This phone thing could work if they did it in a Jerky Boys kind of way.

It's going to be interesting to see how this progresses. In the 'Bro, Do you Even Pinball?' JJP live stream last week, Jack said that Pat's game will be shown "before the end of the year". They are setting up a smaller second line now to rerun WOZ, so they will have 2 lines going, one running TH and the other running WOZ. Jack said they were producing 15-20 Hobbits per day at the moment, around 300/month, so things are definitely ramping up. Hobbit code is 95% finished, again as per Jack, so most of their development resources will be focused on Pat's game soon.

All this bodes well for a fairly complete 3rd game on reveal. This development time for this game has to be one of the longest in history, given that it was announced back in January 2014 and Pat started working on it in his private facility early on. So if it is revealed at the end of this year, that will be 3 years since the initial announcement.

Well the hobbit was even longer wasn't it? It was shown but if it's not ready to ship then they are really still working on it..

Don't think everyone should get their hopes up too high as that usually leads to disappointment. Hobbit software had 3.5 years to develop but it was still in beta when the pin was released. Not complaining. Just saying extra development time doesn't necessarily lead to a complete pin.

This betting man says Expo

Fair enough, I'm just happy to see JJP developing as a company. They were really struggling for a while there, so its good to see that there is still demand for WOZ (they have a few hundred new preorders) and now they have an almost complete, solid new game in TH to show off at shows. They should be caught up on the initial Hobbit pre-orders in a few months at this rate. I hope they can accomplish their goal of 2 new games per year

Sure. I'd be happy with 1 pin a year if it's at the same quality as WoZ and TH. 2 x JJP pins a year would make me broke

Wasn't Lawlor working on a different design for Pinball 2000 and lost out to George Gomez and Holopin. Does anyone remember what that was? Not Wizard Blocks. A whole new concept.

This man says a spike in pinhead blood donations in order to afford it!

I don't believe Hobbit sales will continue as long as WOZ did for a number of reasons, JJP will announce game 3 soon no matter what.

Well, at least its a high quality optioned game for not much more than a stripped down Stern game. I'm in on his next game, and one by one my Stern HUO games will probably all be replaced by JJP except Family Guy and AC/DC.

We are all lovin TH that arrived last week.

Did you guys not hear about the leak? I thought the theme and even name were common knowledge

No, tell us again.

The one by an ex JJP employee claiming to have information from Stern insiders ?

I don't know if I'd put a lot of faith in it.

LTG : )

I don't think it's allowed on pinside, as it was deleted. Pm me if you must know.

Says a guy who works for jjp...

No. Lawlor and Gomez designed the Pin2K that was released.

I think JPop had the initial Pin2K design, which was just a color monitor in the backglass.

Unlike Bryan's leak which was anonymous, I don't hide my name or that I work for JJP when posting.

LTG : )

Last I heard they were pusing for Chicago Expo and to have playing games on hand. Totally excited to see what it is.

I feel like a kid staring at a giant Christmas present... Do not open until...?

At least I have WOZ to console me.

On WOZ availability, I believe you can still order from JJP, when I was ordering mine the plan was to build some RR's after Hobbit while ramping up the new game. A couple months ago when I got mine there were even a couple ECLE's still in the box I'm thinking from folks who opted to the RR. Those are probably all gone by now though.

The real question is: "How soon will it be released after it's announced?"

Summer 2017?

Fall 2018?

I think with how fast they are producing Hobbits so far, that sometime in Spring/Summer of 2017 is very doable.

Yeah, i think that is reasonable. Since they are waiting for the game to be complete and built (I assume finalized prototypes) before announcing it should just be a matter of ironing out final kinks which at that point should be minor and switching over the production line. They of course have Hobbits to finish and then build a (I assume final) run of WOZ.

I'm not counting on Christmas but my birthday is early spring

I'm just curious if anyone knows what the 3rd logo on jjps site is? On the side bar it shows the logos for woz, hobbit, and some 3rd game I assume. Looks like a jail/prison game maybe? Maybe it's not a game at all, but I was interested in knowing what it is. FYI, it can't be seen on a mobile device, I only see it on my PC.

I don't think they will announce it this year. They need to sell as many TH games as they can before this one is unveiled. Hobbit sales will slow to a crawl when they reveal it.

This is so stupid. Why the hell can't we talk about it?

The PLD Logo? Pat Lawlor Design. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Lawlor

or was it something else?

Whatever it is, can't wait to see what these guys come up with next, especially unbound from licensing. That said, I hope they don't abandon licensed themes altogether, either.

Yeah, I think it was those initials. Makes sense. I seem to remember a gun or something like that. Don't have my pc currently available to look again. Just wondered if it was a clue.

Because that information was not supposed to be publically released yet. I'm pretty sure that pissing off the second-largest pinball manufacturer is not one of Pinsde's priorities.

looks like a PLD (Pat Lawlor Designs) logo.

David theil said it's a special year because 5 games he has worked on wil be in production at the same time.
Star trek, spiderman, alien, hobbit, ans Jjp3
He has said it recently. So that means they can on production starting this year. For production to start jack said they need a orders so they will be opening up orders a little before.
I'd put money on an expo reveal.

Didn't he do TRON as well...if by small chance there is a VE or a rerun this year (which I doubt)...wouldn't that be 6?

It was an unauthorized leak from a disgruntled former employee, and could have been legitimately damaging to JJP's business. Robin did the right thing in deleting it.

Giving blood kidding aside, pretty much in on Lawlor as my first JJP and having kids "save" their part toward it (so far they could buy a bottle of novus 1).... Our WW is a staple and trusting its a family friendly original theme.

I hope you are right. Anecdotally, it feels like they seem to be catching up quickly to Hobbit backorders. Pinball could use a dose of good news in 2016. JJP #3 being on the line in 2016 would be great to see.