Yeah we saw that VUK get stuck with 2 balls in it at the FUN booth. We actually lifted the machine up and let the ball roll back into the pop bumper trees

Overall i liked the game. The screen stuff screamed vegas slot machine.
Scores were generally low. I think i hit 12k.

Nice game overall.

--Jeff

It's good they are getting a lot of testing & feedback before release.

Multiplayer games allow lock "stealing", make sure you go 4th if you're playing it head to head!

Keith usually makes lock stealing a setting (ie. on TSPP - you can even "save" locks between games).

I haven't seen one in person but in vids I thought it too looked like a slot machine/pinball

Well, According to Jack, Keith was all done programming WoZ last week. That's why Ted Estes iwill now be doing WoZ programming since it is not yet completed.

I think we're going to need to hear more about this one.

This is how rumors get started. Are you saying or implying that Keith is no longer with JJP?
I don't have a clue where you came up with your conclusions regarding programming.

Perhaps he is basing it on the following sentence from last week's JJP email:

"This particular game is on its way to our Programmer, Ted Estes, who has been assisting Keith with WOZ."

From the WOZ Group:

From: Jersey Jack
Date: Sun, 17 Mar 2013 21:05:33 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Mr. Bally on Pinside

There is no truth to his posts that Keith is done programming WOZ.

I never said that.

Quite the contrary even yesterday during my Skype call into the Texas
Pinball Festival I restated that we will do everything to make sure
the game is what we all expect it to be when we designed it.

Keith is an amazing talent and along with other people on our Team,
now including Ted Estes is working to make the game be nothing short
of Epic.

Please take every opportunity to correct these people who have no
other motive than to disrupt and disparage our company, it's products,
it's people and accomplishments.

Period!

Seriously, MrBally.

Twisting something into a controversial statement intended to imply that Keith was fired and Ted is taking over, thereby causing WOZ buyers to panic. And yes, while you didn't come out and directly say that, it's obvious that's what you were trying to make everyone think.

Perhaps you can backpeddle now by claiming you only meant that Keith "might" be moving on to The Hobbit, or that you just heard it from some anonymous source and didn't particularly care if it was true or not before spreading it around.

Negative karma to you, sir.

LMAO, hear what you want to hear MRBally but it does not make it true.

EDIT: Thanks for fixing the thumb Jack

I don't think Keith is gone at all.. I was speaking with the engineer from JJP.. and I'm pretty sure he mentioned his name as being part of the entourage heading to Warner Bros to work out details on licensing issues for Hobbit...
Wish I recorded skype TPF seminar from but I thought he mentioned Keith several times about code updates as if still there...
Apologies is I have my info wrong..

There is no truth to his posts that Keith is done programming WOZ.
I never said that.

Quite the contrary even yesterday during my Skype call into the Texas
Pinball Festival I restated that we will do everything to make sure
the game is what we all expect it to be when we designed it.

Keith is an amazing talent and along with other people on our Team,
now including Ted Estes is working to make the game be nothing short
of Epic.

Please take every opportunity to correct these people who have no
other motive than to disrupt and disparage our company, it's products,
it's people and accomplishments.
Period!

Just confirming - I was at the TPF Skype call and Jack was extremely clear that Keith was staying on WOZ despite having input into the design of TH. He even mentioned that Keith obviously had the most up-to-date code on his PC as he programmed away and that the code on the machines at the TPF was not the code that would be shipped with machines later this month.

I think there was some applause after that specific answer.

To Clarify: I read (either on Pinside or RGP) that Keith was given a drop dead date by Jack to be done with WoZ programming on or about March 15, 2013. Sorry for any confusion in my statement.

I did not mean to imply that Keith was no longer with JJP. Only that he has other assignments after said date.

Please put the pitchforks away.

Even that statement appears to be incorrect. What does he (Keith) have to work on other than WOZ. They do not even have a playfield design yet for Hobbit.

Might be incorrect, but it is what I read and what I meant in my earlier post that generated the negative comments.

I imagine that my statement of Jack gave Keith a drop dead date of March 15 was originally posted by whoever to give buyers confidence that the game would be shipping soon after this date. Then the famous "box photo" thread was made and in the thread it was mentioned that Ted was programming the game.

I have no Idea what Keith has to do "next". Maybe there is another game such as the one Dennis designed under contract that was mentioned as being game #2 (an original theme) which possibly could be released prior to Hobbit.

I got 66k on one of my tourney plays, which seemed really high on the game. It's still really low scoring. I've seen 2 digit end of ball bonuses. Seems most bonuses were 3 digits.

Almost no modes work yet. You light the locks by spelling tin man, cowardly lion, and scarecrow via the rollover buttons on those characters. I'm terrible at aiming at rollovers, so I usually just shot other things while those spelled out by accident. Yes, in multiplayer mode, the letter spelling, locks, and lit locks carry over from player to player, so later players clean up. Once you get multiball, it wasn't really clear what to shoot at so I flailed.

I did get the monkey to steal my ball, but I am not sure how. Once it was up in the castle, I couldn't rescue it. The r and second e are really hard to hit, but I did get the door open eventually and got the ball in there, only to have it spit it out. I guess code on that is still unfinished.

I lit twister and was able to spin the house a bit. It's more challenging than it looks.

The upper flipper on the main playfield is a little weird. You can't see the ball coming to it, so it's very hard to shoot from it, but the only shot exclusive to that flipper seems to be the skill shot target in the haunted forest. You can pound the witch from the lower flippers, and there seems to be no specific award for dropping the witch anyway at this point so that flipper seems a little wasted. Maybe it will be better with the final code, but I wish you had more to shoot at with that one than stationary targets. Like a ramp or loop or something.

The tilt's seemed pretty lenient, even in the tourney section, so, as others have said, I was able to save almost every middle drain. It seemed easier to nudge than the massive Williams widebodies I am used to.

I basically pounded the center ramp and vuk, and ended up with a decent score. They still have a ways to go, but the potential is there. I love that the flippers up top are tied to the buttons on the opposite side below. Makes perfect sense and felt natural. Wish it was further along code wise, as with most lights being in attract mode during play, it still feels very early in the coding process. I also noticed the screen graphics slowing down at times, sometimes a lot, which make me worry about how robust the base system is. It was under a hard load, but it's something you would expect a machine to weather.

Pretty game with little substance now. I think there is no way it shops with anything resembling complete code, but I hope I'm wrong.

Dude, quit it already.

Dennis did not design anything......Keith is all over WOZ and so is Ted and the rest of the Team.

Retract the incorrect posts you wrote please.

Jack has been very clear to the WOZ buyer's that Keith and company will continue to update the software as needed. Ted Estes is also a proven programmer and I am sure he is capable of taking a code diagram from Keith and programming it properly. There are also two others (one is Alex/ Pinchroma) that have worked or are working on programming. I am confident that Jack is not going to let WOZ coding go the way of Wheel of Fortune. He has way too much on the line and far too much reputation at stake.

Rather than deny misinformation, why not provide something accurate so that it ends once and for all?

For reference, go to the "Woz updates from Ohio" thread. Pages 2, 5 and 6 are the posts that mention the "drop dead date" (actually listed as March 13th).

To Jersey Jack: I retract anything that is being construed as or even appears to be incorrect in my earlier post(s) in this thread as I have no motive to disrupt, slander or disparage your company, it's products, or people. I am sorry for what my post(s) in this thread caused.

Well, thank God for that!

WOW. I did not draw that conclusion. Thought Ted was helping Keith. I think you misunderstood.

One more thing I noticed on the non-tournament machine. One LED in the yellow brick road died, and 2 in the scarecrow insert row were stuck on (with one being the wrong color). I didn't notice these problems with the tourney machines, so I can only assume they were hardware failures rather than glitches in the current code. I understand JJP machines come with a year warranty, so these should be easy fixes, but it makes me wonder about how those surface mounted leds will hold up on route if they couldn't make it through the TPF weekend.

My big worry about surface mounted LED's was that if one went out you pretty much had to replace the whole board rather than an easy to fix thru-hole or socket connected replacement led. The selling point for these was that they would hold up so much better than the socketed ones. If that isn't the case, replacing boards might become an expensive proposition after the warranty expires. I think this could be an issue for route operators as well as private owners, especially if they bring them to shows like TPF where the games receive a beating.

I do not say this to disparage JJP or Jack, it's just one of the questions I still have about the game. But I guess it's kinda a moot point since it seems everyone is moving towards surface mounted LED's and nobody else provides a year warranty.

A certain amount of anything electronic dies in the first few weeks, even after being tested at the factory.

Even when you buy brand new #44 LEDs, a few of them kick the bucket - that's why I tell everyone to buy a few extra, as the next batch might not color match exactly.

As long as Jack can supply some extra surface mount LEDs from the same batch, replacement is not too bad at all for an experienced tech.

I'm not positive, but pretty sure one of the delays in the final production was for redesigned LED boards. At the open house, many of the pf's were assembled except for these (There are 4-5 under the main pf, I think). The WOZ games out there will still have the original version. This may be relevant to that problem.

This is frustrating to read. Same issue at previous shows. I told Joe at Ohio, a simple delay in coil activation in software, exactly how it handles kickout at power up, will resolve the issue completely. Would have thought that could have been implemented pretty quickly to resolve a lot of headaches.

--
Rob Anthony
Pinball Classics
http://LockWhenLit.com
Quality Board Work - In Home Service
314-766-4587

okay so my thoughts on this machine were generally positive
yes the code was not ready
yes it shouldnt have been in a tournament at this point in its growth
but it did show great potential and was one of my favorites in the entire show.

I felt as though the flippers were Fine but not fantastic. I played both tournament machines and only the left one was where i wanted the flippers to be in terms of power. I feel like the flippers even on the left machine got the job done but not much more. I could see them getting less powerful pretty quick with use over time.

now to the mini play-fields. at first glance i looked at the one with the spinning house and thought "wow if i can figure out how to get it in there i can keep up that loop all day and just watch the points pile in"
this was NOT the case.
most times i flipped it around once with my max being around 4 or 5 times! definitely a difficult play-field and it quickly became my favorite just because of the challenge to keep the ball in play.
The top play-field used to rescue Dorothy was very fun as well it was hard to hit all targets and get into the door at first but after a few times up there i mastered it. I had Dorothy trapped one time when i got through the door but it didn't save her. a coding issue that can be resolved though.
One thing i would fix with trapping Dorothy is that I had a 3 ball multi-ball going on ball 2/3 and while the 2nd ball was draining i decided to shoot the third around the right loop to trap Dorothy to give me a small break in the game to relax. when the monkey picked the ball up it counted as my 3rd ball drain and kicked out my next ball into the lane on ball 3! Definitely something that needs to be fixed!

When you lock a ball for emerald city multi-ball it automatically plunges the next ball for you. this aggravated me to no end because instead of being able to plunge it to the rollover lanes up top where i could maintain full control of the ball it shot the ball all the way around to the haunted forest pop bumpers where i had no control at all and on a few occasions drained right after. In my opinion this should be changed to either let the player plunge the ball manually or at least allow more time for the player to do so.

I know the code isn't finished so i wont be mad at all the lights and targets that did nothing. Im hoping that when new rules and scoring are implemented that it will be a more balanced game because right now it is just get multi-ball or go home.

The game is absolutely gorgeous and i love the screen instead of the dot matrix display, definitely a gamble that payed off very well. i did have a few issues with it but nothing i couldn't overcome or something that couldn't be fixed

with all that real estate and with so much going on you kind of have to just pick a quadrant in your mind look up at it and then right back to the game without seeing the other three. there just simply is no time to look at all 4 and your score. i found myself getting to the end of a ball and being surprised by how high or low my score was because i didn't have time to ever look at it. when something is really important there should be more full screen instructions so you don't have to sift through all 4 quadrants to figure out what you're supposed to be doing.

there is a slight issue with the kick up in the forest. when two balls find their way there in multi-ball at the same time it tries to kick the first ball out but it blows the other one back a few inches and because of the first ball hitting the second it doesn't have the required power to get all the way up. rinse and repeat. i think this could be resolved by a quick double kick when the machine notices the problem.

Like i said my thoughts of this machine were generally positive the things i criticized in this post were mainly nit picking and could all be fixed with updates. it is a great machine with amazing potential. if i had the money i would for sure buy one.

sorry for the lengthy post :/

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Good post and seemed objective overall.

I don't think I'd worry much about VUK issues if the issue is merely timing or power. On Keith's older games (ie. the TSPP Otto kickout where the ball can actually bounce back inside, or might have a second ball pressing against it) the software "learns" the best strength setting, and if it doesn't work it tries different strengths until the ball clears and adds the results to the learning table.

I remember when I upgraded to the last released TSPP software, for the first couple games the Otto loop would never clear on the first try. Now, it's perfect.

I suspect we're just too early in WOZ software for something like that to be implemented.