The page will keep you current on Jersey Jack Pinball and its first game Wizard Of Oz (WOZ). For updates on other pinball related issues, click The World Of Pinball THE LATEST AT JERSEY JACK PINBALL September 9, 2015 - Every day brings us more parts and closer to production of The Hobbit. In recent days our customers have become more excited to get their games. Every loyal JJP customer knows our commitment to make Great Games. We wanted to share more details of Hobbit as you will see an update on code, sound, and animations below. We went back to the drawing board to redesign The Hobbit so in that process we found a more artistic and suitable finish for the body armor of the LE and SE games. As always it took more to do it but it looks awesome! See photos below. We are on track to begin Hobbit Production this Fall. To get a better understanding of our level of dedication and commitment to make the greatest pinball machines, please check out this video of David Thiel and Butch Peel's Seminar, "Making of The Hobbit Pinball" at this year's Northwest Pinball & Arcade Show in June - Click Here to Watch the Seminar This weekend, Butch Peel will be attending the Cleveland Pinball Show and will be speaking at 9:30 on Friday Night. Gary of Abel Electronics will have a WOZ to Play and Hobbit Translites for Sale. Unfortunately, tight schedule and logistics prevented us from getting a Hobbit to the show, but soon everyone who has a Hobbit on order will have one to play. Thanks to Marvin Ortscheid for your commitment to the Cleveland Pinball & Arcade Show! - For more info, visit http://clevelandpinballshow.com/ Hobbit Code Update Progammer, Keith Johnson says "Hobbit code is progressing nicely. Already 21 of 31 planned main 'book modes' are complete and are all individual different-playing story-based modes. All of the main objectives leading to the wizard modes are in the game, and finishing the other minor rules such as mystery awards and bumper rules is progressing now. There is already significant choreography in the game, particularly Smaug, so it already feels much more like a game than WOZ might've at this point prior to shipping. There are many things that haven't been divulged yet about how the rules and modes will work that will take the game to unprecedented levels, so look forward to that!" Hobbit Sound Update Here is a little progress report on speech and callouts from SoundMaster, David Thiel. Over a thousand speech callouts have been culled from the three Hobbit movies. Over a thousand sound effects have been extracted and used as raw materials to craft over 400 custom award stingers. Hollywood's "Two Steps from Hell" have delivered 34 pieces of music for the game modes of The Hobbit Pinball. Each piece is a lush and epic orchestral background composed for the specific mode of game action. Each composition is luxuriously long and few will loop during play. David says, "No pinball has ever had such an 'epic' soundtrack." All the CPU power and storage of the JJP system is being exploited for Hobbit Pinball audio. All cues and music are uncompressed 44.1, stereo assets delivered with authored dynamic mixing to ensure that the most important sounds are always being heard by the player. "I've worked on 24 pinball audio packages since 1987 and what we have accomplished with The Hobbit Pinball is the most exciting and entertaining audio package ever. I've had the 'Expo' prototype for months testing audio cues and I am having a blast playing the game as it takes shape." - David Thiel. Animation Update Artist & Graphic Designer, JP DeWin says "It has been a joy to work with the high def. movie material from The Hobbit after WOZ. It's good to see so many positive reactions regarding the LCD, as I knew I wanted to make the user interface on our 2nd game even better than the first. It still amazes me how the animations run so smoothly on screen thanks to the great programming of Keith and Ted. Having been able to work on both the print-art and animations simultaneously on Hobbit has been great, as I can easily re-use playfield elements on the screen to clarify rules and seamlessly bring the design elements of the whole game together." November 25, 2014 - Greetings Pinball Fans, We recently returned from the IAAPA Amusement Show in Orlando, where we revealed an updated version of The LE Hobbit & Smaug Gold Special Edition along with a 75th Anniversary & Standard WOZ. We received extremely positive feedback from both longtime customers and people who had never seen our machines before. Based on feedback from IAAPA regarding the Smaug toy, we have made some color changes. Smaug will also be showing his teeth in the production games. Please see below for updated images of Smaug! Games Revealed at IAAPA included the following updates since it's last apperance at Pinball Expo: + Book LCD + Replaced VUK exit chutes with wireforms + Bumper enter/exit through Bag End (removed "Switch Mode" targets) + Laser etched Ramp lettering / RGB LEDs underneath + Smaug sculpt redesign + Gold pile in front of Smaug + Columns, gold pile & lighting in upper left + Flasher lighting/domes (3 on left side, 3 on right side, 1 gold pile, 1 pop bumper) + New art on playfield plastics + Action button and RGB LED + New decals - arch, shooter, drops, ramps, spinners + 2 RGB LED Smaug lighting + Redesigned bumper barrels to accommodate book LCD + New backglass art + New drop target colors + Closed entrance to shooter lane from outlane Yet to come for Production Games: + Bumper 10pt switch between top and right (through-the-bumper shot) + New Playfield art + Beast GI lighting + Smaug eyes lighting (single color) + Laser-cut ramp gate with added GI lighting + Smaller axes on slings + Teeth added to Smaug Toy As a reminder, customers who currently have a Hobbit LE on order have until December 31st to decide if they would like to switch to a Smaug Gold. An LE can only be switched to an SE if a minimum of $4000 has been received from the customer or from the customer's distributor by 12/31/14. After this date, no new orders for Smaug Gold will be accepted. We have had many inquires about purchasing a second Smaug Toy so the customer has both Smaug colors if they wish to interchange them in the future. If you would like to do this, the 2nd Smaug Toy will ship with your game for an additional $200, but will NOT be installed. This applies to both LE buyers and Smaug Gold Buyers, both have to option to purchase the additional colored Smaug Toy. If ordered directly through JJP, please email Jen@JerseyJackPinball.com to purchase. If ordered through a distributor, please contact them to order. As far as the thick decals we are offering as an upgrade, we will have photos/videos of these in the next month or so to better understand what they are. September 17, 2014 - We are EXTREMELY happy to report that all of the pre-ordered Emerald City Limited Edition games have been completed! This is yet another milestone for JJP and while it may have taken a bit longer than anticipated, we are truly thankful to all the believers to stood by our side. Our goal has always been to deliver amazing pinball machines to our loyal and patient customers, and we will continue to do just this. We are currently building 75th Anniversary and Standard WOZ games as we prepare to change over to The Hobbit in late December! For new orders placed now for both Standard WOZ and 75th WOZ, the approximate delivery time is early November 2014. January 25, 2014 - Jersey Jack Pinball has announced that Pat Lawlor has joined the team. Here's the press release from JJP: "Jersey Jack Pinball, Inc., the industry leading designer and manufacturer of premium, no compromise pinball machines is very proud to announce the collaboration of their next machine with the legendary pinball designer Pat Lawlor. Pat is returning to Pinball to build an EPIC machine with JJP. Pat is well-regarded by millions of pinball enthusiasts around the world for what he has been able to create over the years like the best selling pinball machine 'The Addams Family'. Pat will have the help and support of the JJP team along with his long time teammate Ted Estes. It is our intention that Pat will be able to create a game that truly lets him explore the space of new technology available today in the JJP platform. 'The game will be an original idea enabling Pat and his Team to imagine and to create. If you are a true pinball enthusiast you are going to love this pinball machine,' said JJP Founder Jack Guarnieri." January 15, 2014 - Jersey Jack Pinball, Inc., the industry leading designer and manufacturer of premium, no-compromise pinball machines announces that they have entered into an equity partnership with the investment arm of JDA. The founding group of JDA has a proven track record of success and generated over $40 million dollars for their shareholders in their last transaction. This partnership will now enable Jersey Jack Pinball, Inc. to have the resources to fund multiple game platforms, expand into related technologies and markets, and to provide a catalyst for growth. It further provides Jersey Jack Pinball, Inc. with deeper management and financial resources. "We are very excited to combine the strengths of these two dynamic organizations. The expanded talent, experience and financial strength that this brings will enhance the future products we are able to build and add to the enjoyment of our player base." said Jack Guarnieri, Jersey Jack Pinball, Inc. Founder. The principals at JDA are true pinball enthusiasts as well and personally own over 40 pinball machines including Jersey Jack Pinball, Inc. world renowned The Wizard of Oz Pinball Machine. About JDA JDA is a private holding company developed for the purpose of transitional holdings of interest, incubation and performance of advisory services associated to the business interests of its shareholders. The shareholders of JDA have companies in the technology space including servicing the blind and developing critical mass computer applications, holdings of over $10 million in real estate, interests in gold and silver mining, a world class training facility for gymnastics and all star cheer, and consulting services that tailor to the telecom, data and technology sectors. December 15, 2013 Today we are allowed to reveal the latest cabinet and backglass artwork creation by Jeff Busch. We are working on the game mechanisms, rules, insert placement, playfield artwork and the interactive Smaug mechanism on the playfield. In the next few weeks we will show more progress on the playfield. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug opened today and we got a sneak preview earlier this week and the movie was Awesome! Today we host over 200 people at our JJP Factory so in coming days we will post pictures and more on the cabinet artwork. Please see this update from one of our many amazing distributors, Joe Newhart of PinballSTAR Amusements. Joe says, "Our donation of a Wizard of Oz game to St. Christopher's Children's Hospital in Philadelphia will be on Tuesday 12/17. We are PinballSTAR Amusements, Jersey Jack Distributor and it took us a year to raise the money through game sales, tournaments, and sales of tshirts and posters, but we made it to donation #1. I have purchased other WOZ games for future donations as we continue to raise money. I would like to put the call out to any Philadelphia, PA/NJ/MD/DEL pinheads who would like to come out and be part of the donation ceremony and hang out with some kids and play pinball. Jersey Jack is planning on attending, schedule permitting. Please see this update from one of our many amazing distributors, Joe Newhart of PinballSTAR Amusements. Joe says, Please contact me at Sales@PinballSTAR.com if you'd like to attend and I can get you all the info! I know it's a work day and all - but if anyone can make it - it will be a fun day to share pinball with the kids. The timing wasn't planned this way, but it is nicely timed right before Christmas for those kids stuck in a hospital for the holidays. Donations for this project are also gladly accepted to paypal at Joe@PinballSTAR.com." More info can be found at this Facebook page. November 8, 2013 Greetings Pinball Fans, With the fast approaching Holidays we are working extra hard to get every game out the door we can. So far we have built over 500 LE's, and the factory continues to increase speed as the months roll by. We continue to receive extremely positive feedback from customers who have received their games. In response to the showing of the two prototype 75th Anniversary Games in California this September, the interest at the JJP Fireside Chat at Expo and since then, we have decided to build 1,500 of them for production beginning in early Summer 2014. This is AFTER all the remaining LE's and Standards previously ordered have been shipped. This game comes with 4 custom toys/playfield additions, beautiful red treatments, a shaker motor, a new topper, and will be numbered. Please click here to view the official 75th Anniversary WOZ Pinball Flyer! The price of the game is $9000 and there is an option to add Invisiglass for an extra $250. To place an order for a game, a $2500 deposit is required. After the $2500 deposit is received, the balance is not due until 30 days prior to shipment of your specific game. To place a new order for the 75th Anniversary WOZ - click here We doubt there will be many as who want to wait longer but we are allowing those people who have not yet received their LE or Standard yet to switch their game to a 75th game if they want to at an additional cost. These people who choose to switch will be the very first people to receive the 75th Anniversary game once shipping begins. This is only fair as they have already been waiting for their LE/Standard to be shipped. If you would like information on switching to a 75th Edition, please contact your distributor. If you choose not to switch, then nothing at all will change. You will remain in the queue at your current price with your current game. All game rules and play features are exactly the same between game versions. Nothing changes there. Aside from those who choose to switch to a 75th as they will receive their game first, games will be shipped in the order in which deposits are received. First to pay = first to play. We will make the extra toys and topper on the 75th Anniversary game available for purchase by anyone in 2014 as we start to run the game. This way the people who have purchased their games have an opportunity to buy those items for their games if they want them. There was no plan to make this game until a couple of weeks ago. The timing of this announcement is important as we were required to reveal any 75th Anniversary Product by a deadline for marketing purposes. As always, Thank you all for your continued support in JJP! September 4, 2013 - Wizard of Oz at Smithsonian! Jersey Jack Pinball's Wizard of Oz Pinball Machine is now on display at The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington DC. As far as we know this is the first time that a new production pinball machine has been so honored. The game along with a plethora or other Wizard of Oz merchandise is displayed in the museum gift shop in a tribute to the 75th Anniversary of The Wizard of Oz. "We are extremely excited and honored to have our game in such a monumental location where hundreds of people will get to see and play it every day!" exclaims Jack. April 29, 2013 - FIRST OFFICIAL GAMES LEAVE JJP FACTORY - Jack cartwheels as promised! Greetings JJP Fans, Today marks one of our biggest milestones as Jersey Jack Pinball, Inc. proudly announces that it has begun shipping Wizard of Oz Pinball Machines! While the proverbial yellow brick road may have been a bit longer than anticipated, we are absolutely thrilled to be shipping games now. In these coming weeks the game code will continue to evolve with regular updates as Keith and Ted implement more modes and rules.....If you "tweet", we have created a special Twitter Page to announce code updates when they're ready. We will also announce when code updates are available on the Jersey Jack Pinball Facebook Page. We are completing more games daily and shipping them as they go through burn-in and final testing. The games are shipping in the queue in which orders were placed. Whether you have been following our journey since day one, or have recently found out about our company, Thank You. This experience has been extremely special and we could not have imagined abundance of support we have been given. JJP couldn't be more thrilled that The Award Winning game has begun to make its way to amusement centers, taverns, truck stops, amusement parks and home game rooms around the globe! A billion ideas, thousands of parts and millions of dollars have created this game for you! April 19, 2013 - Greetings Pinball Fans, Good News is that we now have received the first batch of production board sets. Better news is that we are completing full production games now with all production parts and we will be shipping games after our burn-in testing cycle. Next week we will have more sets of boards....more games and that's the same for many weeks after. JJP Distributor, Abel Electronics will be at "Pinball at the Zoo" this weekend in Kalamazoo, Michigan with a WOZ. The game will have the latest code update. For more info, visit - http://www.pinballatthezoo.com/ Our Team has started The Hobbit LE and the game is on track for 2014. We already know that it will have multiple metal ramps, multiple flippers, feature "That Dragon" and be a fast paced game. It's already easier since Joe + Co. can focus on game elements and not drawing thousands of parts that need to be tooled for the first time. Jeff Busch is drawing the Hobbit LE artwork and the game will incorporate all three movies and we will be able to show some playfield details soon. We are happy to announce that "Two Steps from Hell" will produce the music for The Hobbit Pinball Machine. Two Steps From Hell,was founded in 2006 by composers Nick Phoenix and Thomas Bergersen. Two Steps can be heard worldwide in the ad campaigns for blockbusters such as "Oz The Great And Powerful", "Harry Potter", Dark Knight", "The Hobbit", "Wolverine", "Skyfall", "Lord Of The Rings", "Spiderman", "Bourne Identity", "Indiana Jones 4" and "Lincoln". Two Steps From Hell is at the forefront of a new "Epic" music genre and have almost a billion views on YouTube and have 3 top selling albums on iTunes. The first album "Invincible" is about to become a certified Gold record. Their music can also be heard featured in television shows such as "America's Got Talent", "X-Factor" and "The Super Bowl 2013". Nick and Thomas have also worked with Hans Zimmer on two films, Sherlock Holmes 2 and Pirates Of The Caribbean 4. Two Steps From Hell will wrap up the E3 convention this summer with a concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall on June 14. This is their premiere concert and features 130 musicians from around the world. March 20, 2013 - AMUSEMENT EXPO COVERAGE - Jersey Jack starred in three videos we caught at the Amusement Expo. Find them below! February 28, 2013 -- NO PLACE LIKE JERSEY -- A feature article and video on appeared on Polygon.com today on JJP and its first game, Wizard of Oz. Check out the story on polygon.com by clicking JACK February 6, 2013 -- WOZ VIDEO, HOBBIT ART (and Artist) ANNOUNCED! JJP's game two, based on the Hobbit triogy, is coming to life as these first images of cabinet art are released as part of today's JJP Update. Also officially announced is the addition of Jeff Busch as the Hobbit artist and programmer Ted Estes to assist Keith Johnson finish up WOZ and move on to the Hobbit as well: Greetings JJP Fans--Every day brings more progress and excitement as we make our way to shipping production games. In this past week our game at the lab passed all of the EMC Compliance Testing. Every week we receive new code as Keith and now his Team work their way through to completion. It's looking good for production games to be shipping around mid March. Customers will be getting e mails regarding production and shipping dates and the video of Jack doing cartwheels as games leave the building is much anticipated. We are extremely excited to announce Jeff Busch as our Artist for The Hobbit Pinball Machine. Jeff has already been working on the game and we can show the beginning of his work. In the same idea as on WOZ, the left side of The Hobbit begins with the first movie and will wrap its way around to the right side with the assets of the second and third movie. Jeff said, "I'm very excited to be joining the JJP Team! To be part of a group of such incredibly talented people with so many years' experience under their collective belt is a dream come true. And the fact that "The Hobbit" is my first game with them is just the Middle-Earth icing on the cake." Jeff made his mark on the pinball industry with games like Baywatch, Pinball Magic, Batman Forever and Apollo 13. To see some of Jeff's work visit, http://www.jeffbuschcreative.com/. Jeff made his mark on the pinball industry with games like Baywatch, Pinball Magic, Batman Forever, and Apollo 13. To see some of Jeff's work click. JEFF We are also pleased to announce Ted Estes as a JJP Software Programmer. Ted will assist Keith in finishing up WOZ as well as The Hobbit. Ted is well known in the industry for his work on games like Twilight Zone, Demolition Man, and Road Show. JP deWin is working his magic on animation for The Hobbit as he did for WOZ and we will show some of that tease in the next few days. JP says, "I'm very happy to continue my work for JJP and I'm looking forward to work on The Hobbit. Being a huge Lord of the Rings fan, The Hobbit for me is a great theme to work with. Can it get any better? Working in Pinball and animating Middle Earth! I've learned a lot during the Wizard of Oz project. There's so many possibilities with the screen, they're endless. I'm glad I can now further explore how we can make even better use of the LCD". For those who have pre-ordered a Limited Edition Hobbit Pinball Machine, please check your payment schedule as you may have a payment due on or before 2/15. We are closing in on the 1,000 sold mark and now in releasing artwork we expect more to be sold. Jack has recently returned from an unbelievable amusement show in London, EAG. The Pinball Heaven/Jersey Jack Pinball booth (as well as the surrounding aisles) were packed with people throughout the entire show. Jack said, "We received an overwhelming positive response to the game. The show could not have gone better unless I had games to give to people right then and there." CHECK OUT PGJ EXCLUSIVE EAG VIDEO BELOW! January 24, 2013--EAG 2013 IMAGES! (above) (left) (l to r) JJP video wiz, Jean-Paul de Win, Mark Robinson and Darren Ball of the Northern Lights show, Jersey Jack :: (Right) Holland's Ad Jonker takes a trip to Oz. January 21, 2013 -- JJP on SET UP DAY at the EAG in London! The PGJ brings you the very FIRST look at the WOZ at its FIRST major industry show in this FIRST video from Gary Flower and David "Uncle Bob" Ainslie. More to come! Also check out the radio interview Jack did on the NPR show Marketplace which was aired today, also. Jack must have been clicking his slippers a lot to make it back here stateside from London for the broadcast! January 19, 2013 -- JJP UPDATE: BOARD SETS ORDERED/NEW VIDEO! Greetings JJP Fans! Today we are happy to report on our progress in manufacturing production games. Last week we ordered the first 1,500 sets of production boards for our games which will arrive by the end of February. Games are being built and everything is being tested so that when the boards arrive it will be an easier operation to begin shipping production games. Next week Jack travels to London for the EAG Show. Two WOZ games are already there and a nice open house party was hosted by Phil Palmer - Pinball Heaven last Sunday. (see EXCLUSIVE PGJ report below!) Jersey Jack Pinball was featured on Slate.com and then the story was picked up by MSN.com. The article was right on the front of MSN.com! Click here to view the full article! JJP has orders of almost 900 Hobbit Limited Edition games and there will be an update coming soon as the artists are at work on that game. Jersey Jack Pinball, Inc 1645 Oak Street Lakewood, NJ 08701 (800) 473-5225 (Direct) Jack@JerseyJackPinball.com January 13, 2013 -- FIRST WOZ IN THE UK! PGJ writer Mark Robinson made the trip to the Cock & Bottle to check out the first public appearence of the game and the event was a big success. Mark sent along these PGJ EXCLUSIVE photos and report: The event was at The Cock and Bottle in Tarleton near Preston, which is local for Phil Palmer of Pinball Heaven. He put on a buffet and covered the bar tab as well! Once the machines were out of the van even though they were wrapped, you could tell they were going to look stunning. Several of us helped take them in and set them up but neither was put on or played until they were both ready. First game was myself, David Dutton, Simon Lowe and David Sibson, as we were the first there and helped set up. We managed to get two four-player games finished. There were a few teething problems with cables needing reseating, but when games have been shipped so far, that's totally understandable. The quality of the machines really shocked us! To be honest, we couldn't find fault with anything to do with the build. While we couldn't get a full idea about the game as the software is still unfinished, the games were impressive. Several people there went away saying that they were thinking of buying one and I think most were shocked at how good the game was. I grew up with WOZ and we watched it every Xmas, it became a tradition in our family. A few were already talking about The Hobbit and really looking forward to it as well. The machines were constantly played with an orderly queue at them both. When a new set of players took their turn they employed good pinball etiquette by asking around to see if they could make it up to a four player game. I am sure that there will be at least a few sales generated by this event and I saw at least one operator who, I hope, will get the game into some of the large cinemas over here. Overall it was a very successful day and a great debut for Jersey Jack Pinball and their Wizard Of Oz in the UK! January 3, 2013 -- JERSEY JACK PINBALL and WIZARD OF OZ ON REPLAY COVER! WOW! 2013 is starting off great for Jersey Jack and WOZ ... first there is a one-of-a-kind New Year photo on the PGJ web site (below) and then the January, 2013 edition of REPLY magazine that arrived in the mail is sporting this impressive cover. In the liner notes, "On The Cover" says: "Labor of Love: Jack Guarnieri, who announced intentions to launch his Jersey Jack Pinball factory nearly two years ago, recently began building the initial run of Wizard of Oz games. Test units are already on the street and Guarnieri says they will begin to fill orders and place games with distributors this month. The pinball, which picked up a debut award at last fall's IAAPA show, features an array of exciting mechanical toys, LED lighting, wide-body construction and, of course, the familiar Wizard of Oz licenced theme. "Everybody that sees the game immediately gets the passion that was put into it," Guarnieri told RePlay. "If a game is fun, it makes money, and the industry is always ready for another game that makes money." December 31, 2012 -- JERSEY JACK PINBALL WISHES EVERYONE A MAGICAL 2013! above (l to r) Joe Balcer, JP DeWin, Chris Granner, Matt Riesterer, Keith Johnson, Bryan Hansen. below-- Butch Peel, Eric Meunier, Jack Guarnieri December 18, 2012 -- Jersey Jack Pinball OPEN HOUSE! JJP recently sent an update on the event at their New Jersey production facility: Greetings JJP Fans, On Friday December 14th Jersey Jack Pinball, Inc. hosted an Open House Holiday Party at their Lakewood, NJ facility. The event was attended by over 200 people starting at 3 PM and ending when a whole group went to the opening of The Hobbit movie. This was the first time for many people to see and play a Wizard of Oz pinball machine as well as get a tour of the factory where the games are being built. Being behind the scenes with personal guides explaining everything from the design process to the final assembly brought smiles to everyone. There was plenty of food and fun and door prizes. Game Designer Joe Balcer signed autographs and posed for pictures. "This was a fun event as many of our customers have been patiently waiting for us to create and build this game for them," stated Jack Guarnieri. "Seeing and playing the game as well as seeing where and how we build the game was priceless. It was great to host so many people today." While many of the games that guests were playing are shipping to distributors and test locations, Jack updated the gathering with news of expected game shipments beginning by the end of February. It was recently announced that the second licensed Pinball Machine from Jersey Jack will be based on all three Hobbit movies. By design, the Open House was on the same day as the opening of the movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, a whole group of people were invited to the evening screening of the movie which smashed box office records. Jersey Jack Pinball would like to wish all of you a Blessed and Happy Holiday Season and a Prosperous, Healthy and Peaceful New Year. December 12, 2012 -- First WOZ appears in Michigan! The first Wizard of Oz machine on location in Michigan is currently located at Able Electronics (Gary Monarch--JJP distributor) in Saint Clair Shores. Check out the ON LOCATION video interview at the PGJ YouTube channel by clicking PGJ YouTube November 30, 2012 -- JJP Game #2 Announced: THE HOBBIT From the JJP Update today: Dear Jersey Jack Pinball Fan: These are very exciting times for us. Two weeks ago we were at IAAPA - The International Amusement Parks Show in Orlando Florida. We had eight games in our packed booth for all four days. Our Wizard of Oz Pinball Machine won a coveted Brass Ring Award for Best New Product beating out hundreds of games on the show floor. We have shipped the games from IAAPA to certain distributor's showrooms and we are building and shipping more games in these next few weeks which will be on location and at other distributors. Last week we placed our first game on location at iPlay America in Freehold NJ. We would like to update you on our plans to ship production games. We have continued to refine certain details of the game and are confident that we will be shipping customer games sometime in early 2013, roughly 90 days from now. Games will ship in the queue in which the game order was placed. Jersey Jack Pinball, Inc. proudly announces that we have licensed all three Hobbit Properties from Warner Brothers for our pinball machine which will embody all three movies. The game will ship as the third movie hits theaters in July 2014. We are now accepting pre-orders for the The Hobbit Limited Edition Pinball Machine. We will be building 1500 of the LE Version and it will be a full-featured wide body in a similar fashion as with Wizard of Oz Pinball. Joe and our design team will get to work early next year and Keith will be programming the game as he did with Lord of the Rings Pinball as well. Go to JerseyJackPinball.com to order The Hobbit Limited Edition Pinball Machine! In Peter Jackson's trilogy adaptation of The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien, the first film in the trilogy, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, opens this holiday season, on December 14, 2012. The second installment in the franchise will be The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and the film will be released on December 13, 2013. The third in the trilogy is The Hobbit: There and Back Again, which will be released worldwide on July 18, 2014. On Friday, December 14, 2012 we will have an Open House Holiday Party at our facility in Lakewood, NJ which you are invited to attend. It will be from 3 PM - 8 PM and we will have WOZ games to play, door prizes and other game related items for sale. You can RSVP to this event by emailing Jen at Jen@JerseyJackPinball.com. November 14, 2012 -- Jersey Jack has updated with new information on the Wizard of Oz game: Today is a day that we have worked towards for a very long time. At 10 AM Eastern Time today in the Orange County Convention Center here in Orlando Florida, the IAAPA show opens - (www.iaapa.org) We have a six hundred square foot booth with eight of our Emerald City Limited Edition Wizard of Oz Pinball Machines sitting on top of our custom Yellow Brick Road carpet in Booth #837. We are also showing for the first time what our Crystal Ball does. See the video to the right! In actual game play the Crystal Ball will show custom video animation rendered specifically for the size screen and appropriate reward rule and reward. So in effect, our game does not have one monitor but two! We will update pictures on our Jersey Jack Pinball Facebook page all through this week from the show floor in our booth. Expect some other news and announcements to follow. Thanks to all of you for your support! September 11, 2012--JJP has released new video showing general and detail game play for its Wizard of Oz game.The update text follows: Dear Pinball Fans--Today, as we do everyday, we remember those who lost their lives and whose lives were affected by the events that took place on September 11th 2001. Our thoughts and prayers are with them and with our country. The other day in response to some requests, Jack took a short video of a game we have here at JJP in our Conference Room. While the game is mostly physically complete, the software is not. We did however want to show more elements of how a single ball travels on the game. We want to include the community in our progress as this is what we have believed from the beginning. This has never been done in pinball development as there is a chance for people to guess that we are finished, which we are not. We have received so many e mails from our Facebook post about how spectacular the game looks, the lights and the different toys. This video will bring more questions about sound and speech calls. Chris and Keith work together to place them and fit them perfectly - which has not been done yet in this video. This video only shows one screen on the LCD Display. We have released several but there are many that are unreleased that will be incorporated into the game. So much more to come! July 4, 2012--Happy 4th of July from Jersey Jack Pinball! "We're moving along, going as fast as we can....." That's been some of what we can report on production. More and more assemblies continue to be built, more parts arrive daily and we are getting games together. This week JJP welcomed Howard Bellin one of the owners of Bumper Action our Exclusive Australian Distributor. Howard was very pleased with what he saw; " My visit with you was fantastic. I was enormously impressed with WOZ and your organization." Howard has a great passion for the business and we are looking forward to visiting him later this year. Although we exhibited a game at E3 and the Northwest Pinball Show last month, we have not told you everything about the game. we need to keep some things to be discovered. The General Illumination lights, another game feature not revealed, several innovations to make maintenance and service easier for the casual owner as well as the route operator and Keith's Rules in programming++ ECLEWOZ games are in short supply if any distributors still have them. We want to remind everyone that the WOZ games are available and the first 1,000 games have a numbered plaque, the game has a signed certificate, has all the toys, artwork and game rules that the ECLEWOZ has. We know that everyone is waiting for the ultimate update - when we say that we are building your game next. We can see that's coming in these next several months and we are hopeful that real games will ship in September. We have taken a lot of extra time to get this game right. As we place games on location we will shake out some potential problems too. There are many moving parts and many elements that have to come together from many sources. We believe we are building the greatest pinball machine ever because if we believed any less, that's what we would be giving you. In the next update we will have an announcement about our JJP Sound System. Enjoy! (above) WOZ cabinets and playfields on the line and a close up example of GI lights June 8, 2012--Wizard Of Oz Makes First Truly Public Appearance at the 2012 Northwest Pinball Show! After showing the game at the E3, Jack brought it north to Seattle (the WOZ Emerald City Edition in the Emerald City). It was taken from behind the curtain at the back of the lecture hall and set out to give NW show attendees a look. Then Jack and programmer Keith Johnson presented a seminar on the game which was followed by a session where the audience was invited up to take a first, quick flip. There are a number of videos chronicling this event on the PGJ YouTube Channel, but two are available to view below. June 5, 2012--Wizard Of Oz Debuts At The 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3)! Jack brought a development prototype of the game to the show and has released some video which gives the first public look at the lights flashing and music playing. Check them out by clicking HERE, HERE, and HERE. May 26, 2012 --Jersey Jack Pinball Memorial Day Update! As the JJP crew takes a break for the long holiday weekend, these images were released of the 95% finished Wizard of Oz playfield and some close-up details not shown before. Also, Jack sent along some extra photos and the PGJ worked a little magic of its own to bring out even more detail. Notice the flying monkey, the witch's face, even the reflection of the playfield above the rainbow targets. It's all looking pretty good! So scroll down and check it out! Thanks, Jack! March 31, 2012--Greg Freres' Wizard Of Oz final playfield art! GREG: Welcome to the long-awaited WB-approved playfield art for the Wizard of Oz. I've read so many posts over the past couple months and understood the pain y'all were going through. I was inspired by many of your posts when you first saw the castle playfield so thanks for helping me get through the last stages of the design process. I am still not used to having so many people be so aware of a project...it's been a bit unnerving to say the least. When we first started the project there were two major elements that I used as the springboard - the fact that we were going to use "hand-drawn" artwork and the idea that the playfield was somehow divided between the Good Witch/Bad Witch sides of the storyline. And when Joe's design started coming to life and there really was a nice division between the two sides this was a great starting point to think about how the art would also be divided. I'll have more to say in the near future about all the background that went into the steps I took to get this where it is today but one of the things when dealing with a license is working within the constraints and limitations they provide. With that said, I can honestly say this is a combination of hand-drawn and photo related elements to remain true to the licensor's requests. My goal was to create as much visual unity or continuity between the design elements so the end result was one flowing piece of art. The great thing about this playfield is the organic layout that Joe has created with the myriad of shots. Since my last commercial game, Revenge from Mars, I had become accustomed to working with the "fan" style layout which can be somewhat easier for an artist to work with. I think my work on WNBJM was a good warm up for this layout because, it too was more organic in its design approach. One of the visual anchors for this layout, the spiraling Yellow Brick Road, was one of the first elements I created to get the design process started. Interestingly enough, the placement of the Wicked Witch at the bottom came along later in the development but it made sense immediately because of the Ruby Slipper Flippers. She's gotta' get those shoes! Now that the suspense is over, I hope you enjoy the look and feel of this piece. Don't forget you are only looking at one piece of the puzzle - there are a lot more visuals that make a playfield a cohesive unit and I too can't wait to see all of Matt's dimensional elements push this over the top. Once the game is together we are sure the entire package will become an entertaining trip down the Yellow Brick Road. Cheers, Greg. Check out the full, high resolution version by clicking WOZ March 20, 2012 WOZ cabinet images and Munchkin music! JJP continues to keep us in the loop as far as production progress of their game. Here we see cabinets waiting to be filled and the latest music production from Chris Granner, "Munchkin Multiball." To hear the Munchkin music click HERE. Click the audio and then view the videos for the full WOZ experience! February 24, 2012 Wizard Of Oz Rainbow Flower Field and Multiball video sequence released! Jersey Jack Pinball reveiled an animation from graphic designer, JP DeWin to be used for the Multiball gameplay. Also shown today for the first time is Matt Riesterer's Munchkinland Ranbow Flower Field addition to the right side upper playfield complete with Dorthy's house after it has fallen on the Wicked Witch of the East. An additional announcement was made about the material planned for the cabinet. JJP decided to eliminate any MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) or Pressboard as is known by many, in their cabinet. WOZ cabinets are being constructed right now using special plywood and the process is unique to JJP. The playfield will use 11-ply plywood (instead of the original 9-ply product) to provide a more rigid structure and help prevent warping. The new material is fractionally deeper and some brackets and switches had to be redrawn and tooled. With all this, JJP reports that they are still on track to begin production on 3/13/12! For more info on the Wizard of Oz and its development, click HERE. February 3, 2012 WOZ Witch's Castle Playfield! Jersey Jack Pinball releases the first images of the WOZ playfield art by Greg Freres with these photos of the Witch's Castle upper playfield. Also announced is the addition of Roger Harris (l) to the JJP team. Roger, along with Production Manager Ken Holland (r) will be responsible for the "fit out" of the assembly line, fabrication of line fixtures, assembly, testing and other dutues January 27, 2012 Jersey Jack Pinball Releases New WOZ Audio Listen to "Bald Mountian by clicking HERE Listen to "Merry Old Land of Oz" by clicking HERE Everyone has been asking for a sound update so today, we are releasing two fantastic music clips composed by Sound Master, Chris Granner. Who better to tell you about the pieces than Chris himself?... "The Merry Old Land of Oz" arrangement started life in my mind as the main "Emerald City Multiball" background track (more on all the rules at some much later point), and the "show" that starts multiball calls for a big fanfare opening (which you hear in this arrangement). The thing I thought it needed to make it "go fast enough" for multiball was, 1) about 24 beats per minute FASTER than they take it in the movie, and 2) a collection of "inner voices", accompanying textures if you will, that had a little more energy than the "oom-pah" style of the original. Fun, right?! So, I get this together and send it off to Keith, who responds (paraphrase here) "I like it a lot...but it's too happy for multiball." Doh! I went back & read the rule set again. Double Doh! CLEARLY this play state requires something darker. JEEZ! where o WHERE will I find DARK in this soundtrack!? Although that question has at least two dozen answers, there wasn't much competition in my mind: enter "Night on Bald Mountain" obviously! In the movie, the "fanfare" opening of this arrangement is a REALLY scary gesture in the brass -- which is used throughout that scene for something VERY specific which has its very own place ELSEWHERE in the rules -- so I couldn't use it here. Bottom line: the fanfare for the opening to multiball is still to be revealed, but this tune has this super-intense texture to open, that leads right into that incredible brass anthem refrain, and just NEVER lets up -- PERFECT for multiball! The crazy thing about this is: "Night on Bald Mountain" was written by the Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky and is a wonderful example of the late-romantic harmonic and orchestral style advanced by him and his contemporaries. But I'll tell you one thing for sure: they NEVER played it like the Hollywood orchestra did for the Wizard of Oz! The version from the movie is half-again as fast, tempo-wise; in fact, MY version is at exactly the same tempo as the movie soundtrack's version, and no kidding, in order to "perform" the parts (on my keyboard), I literally had to slow the tempo down by a factor of three in some cases. JUST insane -- really gave me new respect for just how virtuosic those Hollywood orchestra cats were! (If you want to hear the piece performed more as Mussorgsky imagined it, just YouTube "Fantasia Bald Mountain." Remember? And does that mountain top look like a Balrog or WHAT!?) Anyway, I hope you enjoy these two numbers, at least a third as much as I enjoyed putting them together! To be continued....." Chris January 9, 2012 - Jersey Jack Pinball releases more photos of the WOZ whitewood progress: Mark Weyna (l) and Bryan Hansen work on a Whitewood playfield; The Witch's Castle Playfield on a build-up fixture that will be used on the production line; and playfields will have colored inserts...shown is the Munchkin Land Upper Playfield October 16, 2011--Jersey Jack releases color WOZ artwork August 18, 2011--Jersey Jack Pinball releases images of playfield items and circuit board! The board has features that are covered under pending patents so only a small portion will be shown at this time. This board has been designed with serviceability as its primary feature. It uses traditional, readily available through-hole components to ensure minimum down time. Operators, technicians and collectors alike will be pleased at the many features incorporated into it and the JJP system. The factory warranty on this board is one year and JJP authorized distributors will be able to offer longer periods based on the needs of customers. JJP continues to complete many items on the checklist for WOZ. This week Matt gets to show off his latest approved version of his Trumper Bumper Trees and the State Fair Balloon which is at the lower left of the playfield. August 7, 2011--PGJ EXCLUSIVE WOZ "NORDMANITE" PHOTOS along with whitewood video released! As is his practice with most games he's involved with, Dennis Nordman likes to build a full size model out of foam core (Nordmanite) to get an idea of how various elements fit together as well as a feel for the ball flow in the game. (You can see his version for the game Whitewater in the current PGJ #147.) Wizard of Oz is no different. These photos, shown not only first, but exclusively by the PGJ, gives the best idea to date of how the finished game will look. Refer to the whitewood photos below for comparison. Notice the "Witch Dead-40" placeholder for the melting witch toy! See the whitewood video by clicking below. Chris Granner's music for the game serves as background sound. (Click the arrows logo in the lower right corner for full screen viewing.) July 29, 2011--It's a WIDEBODY! Jersey Jack Pinball released the full whitewood photo of its upcoming Wizard Of Oz pinball explaining it has to be a widebody game to fit all they have planned for the game in it. For more, visit the JJP site by clicking HERE. Also, click HERE to hear the latest music Chris Granner has created for the game! July 12, 2011--George Gomez joins Stern as VP of Game Developement. See PinGame Update for details! June 13, 2011--Wizard of Oz full cabinet art package has been released by Jersey Jack Pinball. Soon to be turned into original paintings by Jerry Vanderstelt, these representations of the various game surfaces are together for the first time, although in black and white only. It's as if Dorothy has yet to step out of her house after landing in Oz and the world is still in grey scale. Follow the story of Dorothy's adventure starting at the flipper button (right on this image), up the back box, over and down again till you reach the "no place like home" scene at the opposite button. Also shown above is a rendering of how the backbox will appear with its video monitor to display various elements during the game. This video above shows the melting witch toy and below is the model of Dorothy's house along with a portion of the playfield engineering drawing showing a balloon popbumper in the left out lane. Also released are drawings of the two mini playfields in the game. . March 26, 2011--Jersey Jack Pinball to use Williams parts! Jack Guarnieri, during his Texas Pinball Festival talk, announced that Jersey Jack Pinball, Inc. (JJP) has signed an Agreement with Planetary Pinball Supply, Inc, (PPS) a Williams Electronics Games, Inc (WEG) licensee, to utilize pinball replacement parts within its new platform of pinball machines. As part of the agreement, Jersey Jack Pinball, Inc. will have full access to the roughly 40 pinball patents assigned to PPS. "We are thrilled and elated that this could even be possible. It's an amazing step in building full feature games where the player is connected to the game action for the ultimate fun experience" stated Jack Guarnieri. The buyers of the Jersey Jack Pinball, Inc. games get the advantage of readily available familiar parts used in the games. "We are excited to help bring the proven replacement parts capability into the JJP platform and look forward to world class games using world class parts," stated PPS President Rick Bartlett. Pictured here is Jack (center) with PPS's Matt Christiano and Rick Bartlett. February 21,2011--Back Alley Creations', Matt Riesterer, has joined the Jersey Jack Pinball team as a modeling artist. Matt has been a customer/friend of Jersey Jack Guarnieri for many years and has has created many high-end custom after market items for pinball machines. Matt has been exclusively contracted to do the toys and models for the upcoming Wizard of Oz pinball as well as for future JJP games. "Matt's amazing work is a result of his talent, dedication and passion and I'm truly happy he has joined us in our efforts to create the best games possible," said Jersey Jack. Matt will use his exceptional talent to focus on the details of the Emerald City Limited Edition game. "This is an awesome dream come true for me. I could think of no other person who I would rather do this with than Jack. He has assembled an amazing team of people and being part of this is an honor!" exclaimed Matt. The Wizard of Oz Pinball Machine will incorporate many new design elements that will need to be created and sculpted. Matt's creativity and experience along with input from other members of the Jersey Jack Pinball Team will insure that this game and other games to follow, will be unique in design and attention to detail. They are all working to create something very special. For more information about JJP and the addition of other team members see other features on this page or visit JJP by clicking HERE. For more info on Back Alley Creations click HERE February 18, 2011--Jersey Jack Pinball adds another pinball veteran to the team! Former Williams sound engineer, Chris Granner has joined JJP and will be handling the responsibility of translating the classic Wizard of Oz song book to pinball. February 5, 2011--Jersey Jack Pinball continues to build a pinball-experienced team for its first game, The Wizard of Oz. News from Jersey Jack Pinball reveals the recent addition of former Williams/Bally and Stern programmer, Keith Johnson to the team. Others not mentioned here before who will help with the process in one way or the other include Rick Bartlett, Roger Sharpe, Drew Maniscalco and Jim Thornton. However, the specific needs of playfield art has prompted yet another addition, Greg Freres. Greg designed the art package for a number of games from Bally and then Bally/Williams including Bally's Rolling Stones, Skateball, No Fear, Revenge From Mars, and, with designer Dennis Nordman, Elvira and the Party Monsters, Dr. Dude and Scared Stiff. While we know that established sci-fi/fantasy artist Jerry Vanderstelt (Lord of the Rings and Elvis pinball) will be doing the backglass and cabinet art for The Wizard of Oz, Greg has been brought on board to produce the playfield art for the game. Successful playfield art is best achieved by an experienced artist who understands the interaction between the playfield elements and the ball as well as facilitating communication with the player. Greg's experience in the creative pinball process makes him a valuable addition to JJP. With Greg and Dennis together again, could there be a JJP game in their future? The answer is "yes" there is, in the form of game #2. This pinball will not have a licensed theme, but be something totally original. For more information about JJP and the addition of other team members see other features on this page or visit JJP by clicking HERE. January 21, 2011--World famous pinball designer Dennis Nordman has joined Jersey Jack Pinball! Dennis has designed some of the best loved pinball machines including, Pirates of the Caribbean, Whitewater, Scared Stiff, Elvira and the Party Monsters, Demolition Man, Indy 500, and others. Joe Balcer, who is designing the Wizard of Oz, Jersey Jack's first release, will collaborate with Dennis on design elements and together they are sure to create a great game. Dennis will also be designing game #2 for Jersey Jack Pinball. Recently, Dennis and partner Greg Freres have been working on the Whoa Nellie! Big Juicy Melons custom pinball game from their Whizbang Pinball company, and have produced a limited edition of four special games. "Words can't describe how thrilled I am to be given the opportunity to design pin games again," Dennis says. "Jack is a great leader and motivator and I know we will build an exciting product." Jersey Jack promises more exciting news about developments of The Wizard of Oz as well as more additions to the company in the near future. (The photo here with Dennis sitting is the only time Jack will get to be the taller of the two!) January 16, 2011--Jack Guarnieri of PinballSales.com makes public his plans to manufacture pinball machines! JUST ANNOUNCED-Art by Jerry Vandenstelt! Jersey Jack Pinball will produce commercial grade machines for sale to the general public with their first title, The Wizard Of Oz, slated to be available in December, 2011. Jack discussed some details on the Spooky Pinball Web Cast which can be heard by clicking SPOOKY but there is an EXCLUSIVE PGJ REPORT on our "Articles" page in which Jack makes details public for the first time, reveals the game's artist and where game designer, Joe Balcer, shares his thoughts, as well! Click HERE to check that out!

Jersey Jack Pinball, Inc. Jack@JerseyJackPinball.com 800-473-5225 1645 Oak Street Lakewood, NJ 08701