Wizard Of OZ Pinball

[Pop Bumper Pete]

Im already down for a WOZ, didn't know there was a dedicated forum, can you post the link?

PM sent

[Pop Bumper Pete]

[Caveoftreasures]

I was watching a ABC Television show the other night, a show called 4 Corners. Excellent show, been around for 30 plus years.

The Australian retail economy, is at its worst, since the last worst economy, over 27 years ago. I am assuming the USA economy is similar, with some saying their dollar is the worst, also for aprox 30 years etc. My personal opinion is, that we need to get rid of the labour government in this country, and although I reckon the USA president Barrack Obama is doing a much better job than Bush ever did, the USA population needs to make a scapegoat of someone to turn the economy around.

A change of governments can only bring about more confidence in the $$ economy. I think things economy wise, will still get alot worse before they get better.

If company's like STERN and Jersey Jack dont come up with AMAZING titles, they will simply go broke.
Personally, the Wizard of Oz is a BAD CHOICE. If u emailed 1000 pinball players/collectors and asked them to put up a title they would like to see built, i dont think one person would have picked a movie title from the 1940's.  It would seem that STERN isnt the only company without some 2011 imagination. I hope it is a amazing machine. It would have to be in order to spend over $6500 in this slow economy.  

NOTE - I will add, since the project ia already on its way, that if done right, with great imagination and use of the Wicked Witch on the broomstick, and all the cast members of the movie (tin man, cowardly lion, scarecrow, dorothy, red shoes, flying house, Kansas and the tornado etc), it just might be good enough to remind alot of people about their childhood, which the Wizard of Oz movie was to alot of people. I really hope they do a amazing job on the playfield with toys and features). It might just sell well, although a very unusual first choice ?  

[vinito]

Just a guess, but it's possible that the Wizard of Oz theme might have been picked from the list because there is a very successful recent slot machine that used that theme. The close ties with pinball/slots being what it is, that might be part of it. Also, here in the US the Wizard of Oz is probably more "home-grown culture" than other countries. It plays on TV every year on some holiday (I think Easter?) and everybody is familiar with and fond of the story. As for me, growing up and living in Kansas all my life (though in the "big" city rather than rural) it is probably even a little more appealing.

There's something to be said about choosing a classic theme with a wealth of iconic visual, musical and sound sources to choose from instead of gambling on the latest "blockbuster" movie. Remember that TZ was just kind of a cult TV program theme and it was one of the most successful games. Addams Family was a decent, goofy movie, but that's not what made the pin sell how it did. The pin was successful because it was a well-executed game - not because the theme was something that folks just had to have. Plus until a movie is complete and you see it, there's no way to judge whether it is actually any good or just another marketing flash-in-the-pan that will be forgotten in a year or two. As you know, these days movies are very rarely any good. Even Avatar was just so-so overall (great visuals, lazy story and music) though it was billed to be a quantum leap. Bands have a much narrower audience to appeal to yet.

Anyways, in my opinion Wizard of Oz theme was a solid choice and it's likely to be a darned good machine. Movies might be a crap shoot, but with the cast of characters involved in making this game I don't see how it can fail in the "fun" category. Whether it's a business success or not we'll have to wait and see. I have a pretty decent job these days and I'd really like to order one for myself, but it doesn't fit into my budget yet (maybe next year it would have). It's true the general economy makes it tough to bet on anybody spending money on your product. IF I had it, I'd blow my money and order a Wizard of Oz machine. I don't have it currently though and will just have to play somebody else's. I still have a few quarters.

[mildflame]

Dont forget the jump in pinball here, Wizard of Oz was about dorothy going into a colour world... pinball will have a colour display! from the world going for black and white to colour in the movie. Orange to colour in pinball
I would buy one if I could afford it and I definately think this title will go up in value also... especially if stern and Jersey Jack go bankrupt!
I hope not Jack seems to have some great Ideas for pinball Wait! maybe Jack will bring pinball back from the grave!

[Caveoftreasures]

Ahhh, that makes more sense if the Wizard of Oz movie has a following where it is played every year at easter etc in the USA.  Add in the succesful slot machine, and u can see the tie-in. Maybe the gambling industry has a few connections to the pinball industry via Jacks etc.

Maybe the Pinball will be a winner afterall. Hope so. Cant wait to see the finished product. Might be very worrying to STERN. 

[Pop Bumper Pete]

Dont forget the jump in pinball here, Wizard of Oz was about dorothy going into a colour world... pinball will have a colour display! from the world going for black and white to colour in the movie. Orange to colour in pinball

I like this idea
start the game off with the display looking like a boring old orange DMD, then, get to OZ, and the display bursts into color

[vinito]

... Maybe the gambling industry has a few connections to the pinball industry via Jacks etc.
...Might be very worrying to STERN.

The gambling industry tie-in makes me wonder if the recent slot machine effort has already streamlined the copyrights issue too. The more I think about it, the theme choice may turn out to be a little bit of genius for a first effort.
Even the abbreviation is kind of cool - WOO ! It's like a little celebration every time you use it.

Regarding Stern, if nothing else, if it's successful maybe it will serve as a lesson to Stern that they've got lazy and settled into a tired formula of chasing movies for themes. Though they did do a Wheel of Fortune a while back which has both a wide audience appeal and the gambling tie-in (successful slot machines with the WOF theme) and I don't know for sure but I got the impression it was a fairly successful game effort.

Sure wish I had an extra 7-grand laying around.

The morphing into color thing would be neat. I know one machine I always thought I'd like is the old DE "Time Machine" because of the way the sounds morph as it moves through different eras. They missed this in Star Trek because they could have had it travel back in time as they like to do on the screen. They could have fuzzed up the sounds to be fuzzy radio transmission and clear up when going back into subspace times. Even could have moved backward in time to before electricity at the end of a multiball so none of the solenoids work anymore so the balls have nothing to do but roll downhill and drain to end the mode, hehe.

[swinks]

I must admit I wasn't sold on the Wizard of Oz theme, but Vinito has some of great views and ideas on this - thanks Vinito. I really hope this pinball steps it up and pushes the boundaries of design and then encouraging STERN and possibly other people to get enthusiastic and advance the game into the next level of pinball.

[Retropin]

Dont forget the jump in pinball here, Wizard of Oz was about dorothy going into a colour world... pinball will have a colour display! from the world going for black and white to colour in the movie. Orange to colour in pinball

I like this idea
start the game off with the display looking like a boring old orange DMD, then, get to OZ, and the display bursts into color

Is this actually locked in as a design feature or has the idea spawned from this discussion??

Its about the coolest thing ive heard for a pinball for many years... what a great idea!

[Pop Bumper Pete]

Dont forget the jump in pinball here, Wizard of Oz was about dorothy going into a colour world... pinball will have a colour display! from the world going for black and white to colour in the movie. Orange to colour in pinball

I like this idea
start the game off with the display looking like a boring old orange DMD, then, get to OZ, and the display bursts into color

Is this actually locked in as a design feature or has the idea spawned from this discussion??

yes

[mildflame]

Dont forget the jump in pinball here, Wizard of Oz was about dorothy going into a colour world... pinball will have a colour display! from the world going for black and white to colour in the movie. Orange to colour in pinball

I like this idea
start the game off with the display looking like a boring old orange DMD, then, get to OZ, and the display bursts into color

Is this actually locked in as a design feature or has the idea spawned from this discussion??

yes

Discussion, i was thining overall and not that specific machine... that could be a good feature

[swinks]

For those who don't get the pin journal updates, here is the 13th June Art Package release.

[swinks]

For those not registered with Jersey Jack updates here is the latest release from them.

"Greetings Pinball Fans!
 
Happy Father's Day to all of the Dad's out there. We hope you all enjoy your day today!
 
This past week our Design Team continues to construct the whitewood playfield and begin the process of wiring so they can start "shooting" the game.
 
This is the process which enables them to take what was flat in lines and circles on drawings and translate it all to game play.
 
In this next two weeks the game will come alive and more design elements such as placing of inserts, tweaking toys and targets and every element of the game gets more defined. This will allow artist Greg Freres to begin his playfield drawings.
 
With the approval from Warner Brothers, Jerry VanderStelt has begun to hand paint the full color canvas for the backglass art of the game. This is very exciting as we will see this art in a few weeks and it will be released as soon as it is approved by Warner Brothers.
 
Today Jersey Jack Pinball, Inc. is proud to release the black and white drawing for the right cabinet design artwork. While you are only seeing a black and white image on the cabinet, the final artwork will be shown in full, bright colors. Jerry has created the seven unique works of art for the cabinet and he will draw each by hand on canvas. It is expected that it will take several weeks for him to complete each canvas.
 
Today, we are also releasing a drawing of the two upper mini playfields. The game is designed to have the "Good" elements on the right and the "Evil" elements on the left.
 
The first upper playfield on the right side is Munchkinland which will have Dorothy's House. The playfield has one flipper and as you hit the ball on the ramp shot, the ball travels counter clock-wise around the Dorothy's house causing it to spin.
 
One of the toys in the game is a Flying Monkey that will swoop down and capture a ball (Dorothy) and bring it back to the upper playfield now known as The Witch's Castle. This playfield is on the left rear of the game. This playfield also has one flipper and you must complete a target sequence to release the captive ball (Dorothy) Next week we will tell you how you get up to both of these upper playfields.
 
There is so much more detail to emerge about this game but every week there will be more and more. Thanks again and enjoy Father's Day."[/i]

The artwork is the same as my last post.

[ktm450]

Some interesting ideas there