Wizard of Oz at the Seattle Pinball Museum

[smbhax]

To my shame I'd never been to the Seattle Pinball Museum despite living in Seattle, but I somehow read somewhere they were getting a Wizard of Oz table this week, so obviously it was time to drop in.

Their WoZ (WoO?) is a late prototype machine with a manufacture date a few weeks prior to the main production line that just started rolling out. As far as I know it doesn't have any significant differences over the production tables, but I didn't go around asking for details.

At SPM you buy a day pass and can then play all the tables, which are on Free Play--except for Wizard of Oz, which is $1/play. This is actually nice because it means there isn't much of a line to speak of at the table. I should've taken more photos of it I guess, here's like the one halfway-decent one I got:

Just played a couple games on it and did badly--the inlanes are narrow and a lot of shots punish misses harshly--but my initial impression is that I like it: the whimsical theme is a nice change from Stern's grim and gritty, and the presentation carves out a new top notch. It's kind of a stop and go table which isn't my preference usually, but I can deal with it here. I do think the big LEDs in the middle of the playfield could stand to be a tad dimmer to spare the player's eyes.

~~~~~~~~

I can't go away without posting some of the other photos I took since there's just so much pinball to see and play at the Museum.

A view of most of the machines on the first floor:

Wizard of Oz is tucked away behind this, in back next to the cashier's counter and near the Pinball 2K machines (the only high score I registered all day was on Star Wars Episode 1 >_<). Follow that hallway back and there's a little stairway up, which will have a sign saying either open or closed: it was closed in the afternoon but opened in the evening, although maybe a quarter of the machines up there were still not functional for various reasons.

View of most of the upstairs machines--there are a few old video games up here as well, including a funky Midway one called S.A.M.I., oh and that half-pin thing Rapid Fire, Bally's response to Williams' Hyperball:

A couple of the older machines on the first floor--machines are in a chronological loop, most with little placards giving a description and their IPDB score ; ):

 

[smbhax]

I had never seen this before, but the two earliest '60s Gottlieb machines there, Swing-Along and Texan (which was upstairs and not operational), had a little rod below the plunger: this isn't a plunger, but rather a loader you push in to pop a ball onto the plunger from a hole in the lower right side of the plunger lane--you can see both the loading rod and the hole the ball comes up through into the plunger lane here:

Time Zone might've been my favorite machine there:

The hole below the lower center playfield is made up of five or so layers of colored cardboard or something with progressively smaller holes cut in them, forming an inverted cone; lights between the layers cycle to highlight one layer at a time, and each one has a score printed on it--this is the Tunnel score various switches give you, while others will cause the lights to cycle in a surprisingly convincing sort of wormhole warp effect. Looks great and makes for some unique gameplay.

One of the better names and nicer looking tables, although I didn't really manage to get into the gameplay:

Upstairs you can play both the EM and SS versions of Stern's "Pinball," side-by-side:

 

[smbhax]

You have to hand it to Capcom, they tried some funky stuff with their tables:

In that one, Flipper Football, in a two-player game you alternate trying to shoot goals past drop targets at the top center while a clock counts down the game time--each player has their own clock. There are no outlanes, and if you lose the ball down the center, the other team gets a point, and then that player gets to go. Play continues until both clocks have expired; if one player's clock expires before the other's, the remaining player just continues to play, but they concede goals if they let the ball drain down the middle. Playing by the clock isn't my favorite thing but it was interesting. Highly animated large DMD below the glass, and I think the ref dropped an F-bomb at the end; oh and printed on the inside of the table is a sign saying "Big Bang," a reference to their risque alien-pole-dancer table developed at about the same time, but which didn't end up seeing production because their pinball division was shut down. : P

More upstairs tables: Tri Zone was pretty good

but Future Spa was absolutely gorgeous, so pretty and so much to do in this huge table:

If I go back there by myself I'll have to devote a lot of time to the Spa, if the upstairs is open. If only it didn't have that deadly gap in the right inlane, grr!

Fiesta, a bargain at $300

except that it was stuck on infinite balls.

 

[smbhax]

Attila, another h-one of the upstairs ones that wasn't working:

Also their Twilight Zone in the middle of downstairs had a badly broken Power field diverter, and some confusion with the ball locks, which was a shame. The vast majority of the tables were in nice shape, though, and there were a couple guys there throughout the day working on various tables. I saw them open up Wizard of Oz a few times, not sure what for.

Around maybe 8:00 or so they switched from a light to a dark lighting scheme. Gorgar and a few antecedents in the low light:

It was a fun day!

 

[gooche77]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Kolchak357]

Thanks for the tour smbhax. What a great looking place.

There is a ball load plunger on Central Park too. It can even be seen in the TPA version.

I dig that Future Spa.

 

[smbhax]

There is a ball load plunger on Central Park too. It can even be seen in the TPA version.

I dig that Future Spa.

Oh, cool! I'll have to keep an eye out for that when it hits PS3. : ) It was really satisfying to use: a meaty ka-chunk, and it almost feels like you're loading a round into a large bolt-action rifle. : D

Ooh and now you've got me thinking about the prospect of Future Spa in TPA, although I don't suppose it would be easy for them to capture the cool wavery blue animation of the logo in the backglass.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

I like loading up a multiball with the loader rod can that be done on TPA?

 

[Kolchak357]

No, you don't even use the loader rod. It's just there for show.

 

[smbhax]

I like loading up a multiball with the loader rod can that be done on TPA?

There's a multiball table with a loader rod?? : o

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

No you just load more than 1 ball!

 

[smbhax]

Haha oh ; )