Jersey Jack - Wizard Of Oz News

[brad]

Yeah, but not one of his presentations shows the whole finished product. It does look good, and I hope it's successful, since it's already lit a fire under Stern (their next table will use an LCD), the first notable innovation in the last 20 years. We could be looking at a resurgence in the industry. Competition does that.

Yeah hes all about surprises doesn't wanna give it all away before release. I did come across a good breakdown of the rules. It really showed off most of the table and answered a lot of questions. Nice to see*2 companies again. As you said competition does wonders.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

I'm excited to see it, not so much for Wizard of Oz itself (although it looks interesting), but because once it arrives hopefully the crowd will disperse from the AC/DC LE here locally and I can get a few undisturbed games in.

And if the rumors come true and Elvira manages to pull off a third table, I'll be placing a pre-order myself.

 

[spoonman]

Now maybe Williams will release Pinball 2000 after all.

I would love to see TPA recreations of some of those. Namely Revenge from Mars. It looks fantastic.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

Now maybe Williams will release Pinball 2000 after all.

I would love to see TPA recreations of some of those. Namely Revenge from Mars. It looks fantastic.

It's fun, but quite honestly I prefer AFM over RFM. It's really hard to see what the ball is doing when it's near the screen, and for some reason I find hitting virtual targets with a physical pinball vaguely unsettling. The ball doesn't act like it's hit anything (because it hasn't) and so the returns are sometimes very weird.

 

[Richard B]

It's fun, but quite honestly I prefer AFM over RFM. It's really hard to see what the ball is doing when it's near the screen, and for some reason I find hitting virtual targets with a physical pinball vaguely unsettling. The ball doesn't act like it's hit anything (because it hasn't) and so the returns are sometimes very weird.

You're not the only one - AFM is much higher rated than it's sequel on both ipdb and Pinside. It is also valued at more than twice what Revenge is worth.

 

[spoonman]

It's fun, but quite honestly I prefer AFM over RFM. It's really hard to see what the ball is doing when it's near the screen, and for some reason I find hitting virtual targets with a physical pinball vaguely unsettling. The ball doesn't act like it's hit anything (because it hasn't) and so the returns are sometimes very weird.

Yeah, I'd like both. I've never seen an Attack from Mars machine in real life and probably never will.
This would be the only way I'd be able to experience it.

 

[Richard B]

Now maybe Williams will release Pinball 2000 after all.

I would love to see TPA recreations of some of those. Namely Revenge from Mars. It looks fantastic.

Why was Williams so restrictive of their 2000 series?
We likely won't see recreations of these because of the complexity in emulating the hardware that runs them.

 

[spoonman]

Why was Williams so restrictive of their 2000 series?
We likely won't see recreations of these because of the complexity in emulating the hardware that runs them.

I believe a few people were working on it for PinMame/FP, but I don't think it was ever completed.
Anyway, IMDB.org were legally forced into removing the roms back in '08.
http://www.ipdb.org/pb2000_cease.html

 

[Jeff Strong]

Thread merged with older one.

 

[J2fold]

Looks pretty cool, but I agree there needs to be some better sounds and maybe some voices.

 

[Richard B]

I believe a few people were working on it for PinMame/FP, but I don't think it was ever completed.
Anyway, IMDB.org were legally forced into removing the roms back in '08.
http://www.ipdb.org/pb2000_cease.html

Yes, I heard about that. Someone had a working SWE1 before he was threatened with lawsuits so he never publicly released it. VPForums still has his posts detailing the process. If nothing else, it shows how difficult it is to emulate properly.
What I don't know is why these two roms are so closely guarded, while they apparently have no problems with the rest of them.

 

[spoonman]

Yes, I heard about that. Someone had a working SWE1 before he was threatened with lawsuits so he never publicly released it. VPForums still has his posts detailing the process. If nothing else, it shows how difficult it is to emulate properly.
What I don't know is why these two roms are so closely guarded, while they apparently have no problems with the rest of them.

When Farsight buys the rights to these tables do they get any additional help (IE: source code) or are they totally on their own?
Maybe they are in contact with the original designers and programmers.

I recently watched the great pin documentary Tilt: The Battle to Save Pinball and these guys seem very passionate about their hard work on Pinball 2000 and I assume would be keen on helping get their masterpieces in the hands of pin fans.

 

[Logan812]

When Farsight buys the rights to these tables do they get any additional help (IE: source code) or are they totally on their own?
Maybe they are in contact with the original designers and programmers.

I recently watched the great pin documentary Tilt: The Battle to Save Pinball and these guys seem very passionate about their hard work on Pinball 2000 and I assume would be keen on helping get their masterpieces in the hands of pin fans.

It's a shame they couldn't choose a better movie than Episode 1. Revenge From Mars is cool though (I still prefer AFM)

If WOZ becomes a success, then Stern has some real competition to deal with. (Finally)

 

[Moon Jump]

Make sure you check out Tilt even though it's only 45 minutes it's packed with a lot of great info. It's funny watching the Red Letter Media, Mr. Plinkett Star Wars reviews where they say how bad Episode 1 was and this is the result of George Lucas having total control. The problem with Episode 1 was Lucas didn't want anybody knowing what was going to be in the movie. So the designer of the game had to be locked in a room and he couldn't share any info with other people at Williams, they couldn't even play test the game, he had to do pretty much everything himself. Then when the game came out they couldn't sell the games overseas because Lucas said he didn't want the game released till after Episode 1 came out in theaters a couple of months after the US premier. Thing was the game was released in the US and everybody bashed the game so when the word hit everybody in Europe that the game sucked they dropped their orders and it pretty much spelt the end of it.

 

[spoonman]

Make sure you check out Tilt even though it's only 45 minutes it's packed with a lot of great info. It's funny watching the Red Letter Media, Mr. Plinkett Star Wars reviews where they say how bad Episode 1 was and this is the result of George Lucas having total control. The problem with Episode 1 was Lucas didn't want anybody knowing what was going to be in the movie. So the designer of the game had to be locked in a room and he couldn't share any info with other people at Williams, they couldn't even play test the game, he had to do pretty much everything himself. Then when the game came out they couldn't sell the games overseas because Lucas said he didn't want the game released till after Episode 1 came out in theaters a couple of months after the US premier. Thing was the game was released in the US and everybody bashed the game so when the word hit everybody in Europe that the game sucked they dropped their orders and it pretty much spelt the end of it.

I've had the bonus disc for Tilt: The Battle to save Pinball in my PS3 for a couple weeks now.
It has quite a lot of extra content including the full Pinball 2000 promo video and some other cool stuff.

 

[Logan812]

Make sure you check out Tilt even though it's only 45 minutes it's packed with a lot of great info. It's funny watching the Red Letter Media, Mr. Plinkett Star Wars reviews where they say how bad Episode 1 was and this is the result of George Lucas having total control. The problem with Episode 1 was Lucas didn't want anybody knowing what was going to be in the movie. So the designer of the game had to be locked in a room and he couldn't share any info with other people at Williams, they couldn't even play test the game, he had to do pretty much everything himself. Then when the game came out they couldn't sell the games overseas because Lucas said he didn't want the game released till after Episode 1 came out in theaters a couple of months after the US premier. Thing was the game was released in the US and everybody bashed the game so when the word hit everybody in Europe that the game sucked they dropped their orders and it pretty much spelt the end of it.

All of that secrecy, ego, and humongous waists of money, and for what? JAR JAR?!

Anyway, WOZ looks pretty interesting if I must say. At least they're making improvements/setting standards that Stern should've done a decade ago.

 

[jrolson]

New gameplay video,

 

[mmmagnetic]

Man, those are a lot of LEDs.

 

[gooche77]

Looks gorgeous

 

[Matt McIrvin]

I've had the bonus disc for Tilt: The Battle to save Pinball in my PS3 for a couple weeks now.
It has quite a lot of extra content including the full Pinball 2000 promo video and some other cool stuff.

I haven't seen this documentary yet, but I did just get the chance to play a Revenge from Mars in mostly-playable shape, hidden away at Canobie Lake (it wasn't at the main arcade, but at the skee-ball arcade by the chicken-finger stand in the Old Canobie section).

It struck me as not a bad game, but the Pinball 2000 gimmick wasn't really adding that much to the playing experience. It made the playfield seem cramped by making the entire rear section of it hard to see, and the video images effectively made everything back there seem like the same "shoot a bunch of targets" task. All in all, an interesting attempt, but probably not the idea that was going to save pinball.

Making the backglass an LCD like the Oz table does, on the other hand, just seems like the next logical step beyond the DMD: not revolutionary, but the way things obviously would have gone had the industry not collapsed.

That prototype with the screen in the playfield seems limited by the shape of the LCD. To do anything much cooler than this, we'll probably need to have affordable video surfaces that can be cut and drilled like a piece of wood.