Wizard Of OZ Pinball

[Strangeways]

These guys are doing a tremendous job, and I like the information they are feeding us - A great teaser of what appears to be an awesome machine.

[Ant68]

It's a wide body

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Greetings Pinball Fans;
 
What a treat, two updates in two days! Today we give you a better idea of what the Emerald City Limited Edition Wizard of Oz Pinball Machine will be.     
 
Unique to the Emerald City Limited Edition Wizard of Oz Pinball Machine:
 
-Limited to 1,000 units
 
-Each game will have a numbered plaque affixed to the game, on the front of the cabinet - # of 1,000 etc....

-Certificate of Authenticity, hand signed by the Design Team

-Body armor is in the Emerald Green/Black special finish that Matt has chosen with Jerry. The four legs, side rails, hinges, lockdown bar.
 
-Emerald Green Mirror effect backglass framing a commercial 26" Wells Gardner LCD monitor which will display scores, animation, movie clips, attract mode, backglass artwork and more.
 
 -Optical non-reflective playfield glass.
 
-Interactive Emerald City Limited Edition Topper
 
 -Shaker Motor
 
 The game includes:
 
-Hand drawn playfield, plastic set, decal set by artist Greg Freres. Four major mechanical toys; Dorothy's Spinning House, the Witch's Castle, Flying Monkey, Melting Witch.   
 
-Two mini playfields, three Trumper-Bumpers, one Balloon Bumper, Two magnets, One Spinning target, Crystal Ball, Rollover targets, Winkie Guard drop target, Five Bally/Williams Flippers which include Two Ruby Red Slipper Flippers. (Standard Flipper Bats Available by Request) 
   
-Full color cabinet and backbox artwork created by artist Jerry VanderStelt will be screened on the highest grade adhesive backed vinyl and printed with UV stabilized inks.
 
-Digital Stereo sound system which will boom the music and effects created by SoundMaster, Chris Granner. Front of game audio connection jack for headphone/ear bud. Component audio connection jack at rear of game.   
 
-Bally / Williams Parts
 
-One Year Warranty
 
Oh, by the way.......the Wizard of Oz is a Wide Body Game! It is the same dimensionally as a Twilight Zone.
 
The only way to pack all of the features and elements that the Design Team wanted to incorporate in this game was to make it a wide body game. As we all know, the size of the back box is the same for a standard or wide body Williams game so it takes up the same footprint in either model.
 
The best thing is that we get more room to create and you get more room to play pinball! Of the top most popular pinball machines of all-time, three are wide body games. The last wide body to be built was in 1995 with Road Show.
 
Jack was asked now and then these past months if the game would be a wide body and he said "I just started a pinball company. If you think I would do a wide body as our first game, you must also think I'm crazy!" Now we know.
 
For all of our loyal customers who have joined us on the Yellow Brick Road, we appreciate your trust and confidence in us. It is because of you that we are able to create this game and propel pinball into the next age, growing a bigger player base that will love and treasure pinball as much as we do for generations to come.
 
There are many more surprises about this game to be revealed. Next week, we will upload a Video Clip of Game Play on the Whitewood Playfield. 
 
While we would like to tell you everything, it's going to be more fun to show them to you as we go along and ultimately when you open the box and setup your new game, that's the very best!
 
We're off to see The Wizard!

[Pop Bumper Pete]

With the pull-out day approaching, the question has been asked on a few forums if any one is pulling out of this project

I have been in since the beginning, but I am not sure the game is a keeper

I am keeping the option open to get it, play a few times and sell

I was luke-warm on the theme, still am

The white wood pics have not excited me,

Too much hoopla over pieces that will mean very little to game play
Eg Dorothy’s spinning house
The pop-bumper and the ‘Wizard’ targets down the left outlane

Maybe when I see how the LCD is incorporated in the look of the game I will be more excited

[Retropin]

With the pull-out day approaching, the question has been asked on a few forums if any one is pulling out of this project

I have been in since the beginning, but I am not sure the game is a keeper

I am keeping the option open to get it, play a few times and sell

I was luke-warm on the theme, still am

The white wood pics have not excited me,

Too much hoopla over pieces that will mean very little to game play
Eg Dorothy’s spinning house
The pop-bumper and the ‘Wizard’ targets down the left outlane

Maybe when I see how the LCD is incorporated in the look of the game I will be more excited

I agree Pete... im not a buyer of this machine by any means... but im still not that excited about the theme and even though some aspects look good... its not enough for me to acrually wish i was in on this project.
To be completely honest.. im waiting to see how this one turns out and then would consider a possible purchase of an Elvira # 3 machine.
Jack is asking for a lot of faith to be put into a progressive project.. al power to him and i hope those who have put down money and are running with this will not be disapointed. But were you to ask a business man if being a purchaser of an incomplete project was a good investment or not.. then you know the answer.
Time will tell on all this.. but seems to me the only ones that may be worth having are the first 1000... after that.. well.. who cares?

[morrie]

 But were you to ask a business man if being a purchaser of an incomplete project was a good investment or not.. then you know the answer.

But If you were to ask a gambler ?

Its good to see someone else having a go, and if nothing else
it has given stern a bit of a kick up the bum
Hard to make judgment on WOZ but at least he is introducing some new technology into it
I am wishing JJPB all the best the more new pinball titles on the market
the better it is for pinball 

[greatwichjohn]

I signed up early, & look forward to picking it up in 2012. the plan is to operate it & hopefully give Stern a wake up call. Stop the cheap quality product that they are producing. This August I get to fork out money to get replacement MPU's for my Rolling Stones & Iron Man manufactured this year. They will exchange the mpu's hopefully for good ones (they remain dead at power up at times), but I have to pay shipping both ways to my Canadian Distributor.

Still haven't heard about my broken Mic plastic.

[NYPinball]

Interesting to see what the Aussies say about the WOZ, I'm from New York, First I'm shocked and feel bad they you have to pay so much shipping. I'm surprised no one has made a group purchase type of set up to combine the shipping to save money. I'm surprised Jack didn't help with that, of if anyone asked him to. But it's good to see all the interest, I didn't know if the theme for Wizard of Oz was too popular for Aussies but it seems you have a similar love/hate for the theme as the Americans do. Personally I think it's a good theme with LOTs of possibilities, I'm ordering one and VERY excited to get it.
Ron
NY Pinball

[wonder]

But were you to ask a business man if being a purchaser of an incomplete project was a good investment or not.. then you know the answer.

But If you were to ask a gambler ?

Its good to see someone else having a go, and if nothing else
it has given stern a bit of a kick up the bum
Hard to make judgment on WOZ but at least he is introducing some new technology into it
I am wishing JJPB all the best the more new pinball titles on the market
the better it is for pinball 

so what your saying is that your gambler.

[pinsanity]

Hi Pinball Fans,

We shot a quick video the other day, so as promised, we have attached the first video clip of the Wizard of Oz Whitewood shooting!

While the major toys, spinning house, flying monkey, melting Witch and Witch's Castle are not even included in this video, we wanted to give you a sneak peek.

Winkie Guard and balloon bumper are not set, music is just for background for this video......

Here you go!

[pinnies4me]

Bad move with that stock sound track blasting away in the background, make an already iffy theme a little more unattractive.

Playfield on the other hand looks interesting. Something about it looks familiar though, can't quite put my finger on it.. ..

[vinito]

Bad move with that stock sound track blasting away in the background

Probably just wanted/needed to have something other than the dry, crispy mechanical sounds of a pin going on. That's one thing about pinball since the 70's is the programmed sounds & soundtrack make the gameplay seem "smoother" because the mechanical sounds are somewhat masked by what's coming out of the speaker, transforming it into a different experience. The lack of that is interestingly part of the charm of older games too. Apparently that's the actual game soundtrack too, whether it's the finished version I don't know. So it shows the so-far progress on both fronts.

Anyway, at least it wasn't some goofy, blasting rave music like seems to always be behind most videos of otherwise quiet demo videos made to show hobbyists' projects. I'm really tired of that and still wonder why so many folks almost universally do it. You can still hear the machine's sounds at least.

Playfield on the other hand looks interesting.

Two things strike me as odd.
1. The left upper playfield seems to be a one-second drain machine with no chance of keeping the ball in play up there. Lot of effort and expense for something that doesn't get much gameplay. I remember hearing something about magnets though and I don't see any signs of that anywhere yet. Maybe that's still missing and will change the way it works?

2. The pop bumper in the left outlane also seems like an expensive and space-consuming thing which doesn't add to gameplay either. So far at least. As before, maybe there's something not installed yet which will change gameplay a bit and make it more relevant also. Or maybe it's already there and simply didn't occur for that short clip.

It's still a whitewood. Probably several tweaks to go before full reveal. It's not a bad idea to keep a couple cards hidden until final release. That's what I would do I think.

Another thing I noticed. These hobbyist jokers have a pretty nice flowing game with original music in just a few short months. Why did it take Coconut Island so much longer to get to that point? 

[Retropin]

Another thing I noticed. These hobbyist jokers have a pretty nice flowing game with original music in just a few short months. Why did it take Coconut Island so much longer to get to that point?

Something everyone is asking themselves... just WHY did it take Coconut Island so long???????

[pinnies4me]

More like "WHY did they bother making Coconut Island!?!"

[necroscope]

After seeing the latest cheap plastic looking offerings from stern ie:TRON and ROLLING STONES this game looks all quality even at whitewood stage,cant wait to see the finished product.better yet elvira.

[theintelligent1]

There is also a foam rendering of what it will look like on pingame