Jersey Jack sent out an email update today that was pretty light in information but heavy in mystery.

In the release JJP announces their Open House and IFPA tournament on August 9th. What caught us off guard is the picture of Jack signing WOZ back boxes. That is not what is interesting about the picture though. What is interesting is the Midway style cabinet on the dolly behind Jack. 

Could this be a cabinet for the upcoming production run of Williams famed, Python Anghelo designed Pinball Circus? I will admit that I am not an expert in Vid art packages but to me the art is unfamiliar and looks to be very glossy which leads to the fact that it may have been freshly applied. 

Is this a hint at the upcoming Pinball Circus project that JJP is rumored to be producing? If so it is very exciting to see.

You may also notice another interesting image in the picture, a pinball machine shaped to look like a Chicago style hot dog cart! Hmmmm...... Could this be the prototype for Pat Lawlor's new game? Why would JJP have a hot dog cart in the warehouse? The mysteries continue to build! Perhaps the new prototype metal and umbrella cabinet are the real "Game Changers" that we have been waiting for in pinball. And you thought an High Def LCD panel was a big deal! I know that I would like a hot, snappy, juicy hot dog to shoot out at me when I get into the vault more than a silly token. Is there tasty, mustard laden pinball in our future? Only time will tell.

Post your comments below and let us know what you think or know ion the subject. 

Oh, by the way, here is the email that was sent out today in case you missed it.

Greetings Pinball Fans,  

This Saturday August 9th, Jersey Jack Pinball will host an Open House and what we hope will be the first place holder for the Jersey Shore Pinball and Gameroom Show.

There is an IFPA sponsored Pinball Tournament on Wizard of Oz that starts at 9 AM

We will have door prizes, a Pizza Party at 1 PM and an opportunity to see a pinball factory at the Jersey Shore. We will have vendors bringing Pinball machines and video games to play and sell. Games will be setup inside and in the parking lot for the swap meet.

We will have many collectible items to buy and we guarantee perfect weather 80 degrees, low humidity and no chance of rain.

Keith Johnson will be here too!

Please RSVP to Jen@JerseyJackPinball.com

Hope to see you here! 

Admittedly, Pinball Arcade probably isn't pushing the PS4's graphical teraflops to the limits, but its simplicity belies a depth that makes it one of the console's most absorbing titles. Formerly a digital-only release, this packaged edition brings together 22 classic tables – including cult properties such as Star Trek and Elvira – all perfectly recreated, with a host of historical info on each cabinet. It's a pinball connoisseur's dream come true, yet even for newcomers the variety proves an education to the surprising variety pinball can offer.

At Pinballz Arcade, people can hear the clanging of tokens in hands and the pinging of pinballs whizzing through machines — sounds of a seemingly bygone era that continues here
in Austin.

Darren Spohn and his wife Mikki opened Pinballz in 2010 and have provided Austin with its pinball fix ever since. Spohn has run tech and IT companies in town for 15 years, but his love for pinball machines began long before that. 

“I asked my wife ‘Do you mind if I get a pinball machine?’ and she said ‘Oh, that’s fine,’” Spohn said. “I bought it and I said ‘Well, I actually bought two,’ and then like a week later we’re out at lunch, and I said ‘Hey, I’ve got to tell you — I have seven of these now,’ and it just kind of blossomed from there.”

What began as a personal collection has now grown to more than 100 pinball machines and a cadre of old-school video and ticket-rewarding games. 

“We really felt that the town needed something different like that,” Spohn said. “It needed a kind of cool, ‘Cheers bar’ approach to running one of those. And we figured we’d give it a shot, and we opened it three years ago, and it’s been very successful.”

Pinballz is family-oriented during the day, but when the sun goes down, the atmosphere gets downright adult. Gamers stay late into the night on weekends, which may or may not be aided by the casual BYOB policy for those 21 and older.

A specialized arcade such as Pinballz did not exist in Austin outside of giant family entertainment centers. 

With more than 200 games, the biggest challenge facing the arcade is simply keeping everything running, from AC/DC pinball to Dance Dance Revolution and from the classic Skeeball to a custom-built big screen Street Fighter.
“We have over 100 games and things go constantly wrong on those,” Spohn said. “We don’t charge a lot of money for our games, so it’s a challenge with what we charge to keep everything running at 95 percent or higher.”

William “Billy” Renquen has worked on these games since the arcade opened. A certified master auto-mechanic by trade, Renquen keeps the flippers flipping at Pinballz in addition to running his own auto-shop.

“When we first opened three years ago, they were running maybe 60-70 percent, and I was fixing five to seven games a day,” Renquen said. “It took me about a year to catch up and have all of them running at once.”

Machines go down daily at Pinballz, and it’s up to Renquen and his team to get them back up.

“The machines are high maintenance,” Renquen said. “They vibrate a lot. There’s a lot of movement going on, so they fail pretty constantly — some more than others. You just work as fast as you can and as hard as you can … It’s a pride thing for me to keep them all running.”

Pinballz harkens to the early days of arcade gaming. It’s not merely the games that bring back nostalgia for an era the college generation missed.

“To us it’s rewarding that we brought in a place like that — that really ramps up Austin,” Spohn said. “It’s that really cool feeling that we brought something unique to Austin.” 

via www.dailytexanonline.com/2013/11/03/pinballz-arcade-provides-a-nostalgic-gaming-experience

Craig Snelling learned how to repair arcade games out of necessity. It was the summer of 1984 and he was 14 years old, living with his parents in Glendale, Calif., when his favorite game, Mario Bros., broke.The video game scene already had exploded with the introduction of the Commodore 64 home computer and Atari console, but the science behind the games was a mystery to most. Repair manuals were rare. Google didn't exist.

That didn't matter to Snelling. He wanted to play.

“So I locked myself in the garage and figured it out,” he said.

Soon, Snelling had accumulated a couple machines in his garage. A friend suggested he sell them. He did and has been ever since.

Today, the 42-year-old lifelong gamer owns Billiards 'N More, an arcade repair shop, game room and store with two locations in Las Vegas and plenty of business.

"The hobby is huge," Snelling said the day before heading to Hawaii for a weeklong vacation, his first in more than 20 years. He always feared going crazy being away from the office too long.

Snelling likes his job. He makes good money, too.

He earns enough repairing and selling arcade games to employ 14 workers and pay $3,000 a month for commercials on the CW network. He stars in one, sinking an eight ball in the corner pocket of a pool table.

Despite the prevalence of console and smartphone gaming, there's still strong local demand for retro pinball machines and arcade games.

There's the Pinball Hall of Fame on East Tropicana Avenue and a small arcade at the Riviera, where the Pinball Hall of Fame once stood. The Cosmopolitan’s Secret Pizza houses two pinball machines and an arcade game, which Snelling supplied.

Then there's Insert Coin(s), the "barcade" on East Fremont Street. Snelling sold the bar's owner, Chris LaPorte, more than 40 machines from his personal collection for more than $30,000.

Snelling still has plenty of machines left over. He keeps them in storage units around the valley but a small collection fills an 800-square-foot game room in his 1,600-square-foot Henderson home. The room is outfitted with pinball machines, arcade cabinets, big-screen TVs and beanbag chairs. It is a favorite spot for Snelling's 16-year-old son, a Call of Duty enthusiast.

Snelling's customers are mostly collectors who know what they're looking for before they call. Sometimes, however, a customer comes in looking for a billiards table and ends up taking home a pinball machine.

The shop's titles include Rocky and Bullwinkle, the Addams Family, the Sopranos, Star Wars, Attack from Mars and Jurassic Park. Prices range from $1,600 to $13,000.

Snelling recently sold a Monster Bash pinball machine populated by the Wolfman, Frankenstein and Dracula for $12,900. His Attack From Mars game, which pits players against aliens trying to take over the world, goes for $12,000. A Twilight Zone machine, one of the most popular in the pinball community, runs $8,000.

"It's a roller coaster," Snelling said of the arcade business. "There will be three days when you don't sell anything, and then you have a $40,000 week."

Snelling makes a good portion of his profits doing repairs and modifications.

Most of his machines have been updated with new graphics and LED bulbs. Original pinball machines used yellow incandescent bulbs under their boards, leaving their features flat.

For $500 in parts and labor, Snelling cracks open the machines and installs colored LEDs. If there are water graphics in the game, Snelling installs blue lights to make the features pop. Green lights go under trees and grass, red under red images.

The Attack from Mars machine, one of Snelling's favorites, originally had gray spaceships. Snelling made them pink and added blinking red eyes to the game's four-armed aliens.

"Modding is huge," Snelling said. "Why would you want to keep it original? I don't know. It looks 10 times better."

Installing LEDs takes about five hours. Because the machines are so heavy and difficult to move, Snelling often goes to clients’ homes and works there. Other common repairs include replacing burned connecters and changing out flippers.

Snelling's toolbox isn't very big. He relies primarily on two pieces of equipment: a multimeter that checks voltage and a circuit scope that monitors computer chips.

And while Snelling admits he’ll always be a gamer, he said his favorite part of the job is the reaction he gets to a job well done.

“Some people almost get teary-eyed: ‘Oh my God, I never thought it would work again,’" he said. "It’s a feel-good moment.”

Snelling can relate. It’s the same feeling he got in 1984, when he finally heard again the music from his Mario Bros. game.



Via vegasinc.com

Big news this afternoon at the Chicago Pinball Expo as Planetary pinball Supply in cooperation with WMS gaming have announced the new production run of the hugely popular Medieval Madness pinball machine.

Update: Due to very high demand as sales smashed through 1,000 games within 24 hours, PPS has decided to announce an additional model of "Standard" Medival Madness pinball machines in addition to the Limited Edition games. The new games will apparently be unlimited in production quantity so if you missed out on an LE model you still have a chance to get your new in box MM!

Read more after the break

As Pinball Expo gets underway in Chicago there is much excitement as the unveiling of new custom machines based off of the Multimorphic P-Rock system are unveiled, the Color DMD presentation as well as the rumors of remakes of classic Williams games like Medieval Madness and Attack From Mars also fill the air. 

With new games from Stern and JJP also shipping it's a new heyday for pinball.

If you had a chance to make it this year or simply care to speculate on what may be coming feel free to tell us what you think in the comments section below.

You can find more info about Pinball Expo here www.pinballexpo.net

Without sight of a press release Stern pinball today leaked out a video for their new pinball machine based on the previous two Star Trek movies directed by JJ Abrhams that have been a huge commercial success. 

Designed by the legendary pinball designer Steve Ritchie who also designed the 1990's Williams Star Trek pinball this game has been a long anticipated title release. At this point there is no actual video gameplay footage of the game but rather still images cut into a pinball trailer. There is lots to be gleaned from the video so use the pause button frequently to see the details of the game.

You can also follow a thread on the pinside pinball forum if you desire more details and commentary.

Let us know what you think so far in the comments below.

Live long and prosper......

Our friends over at Pinballnews.com have a great article on the new P3-ROC board as well as news of custom games that will be shown at this years Pinball Expo.

Release: Sep. 7, 2013

The biggest hurdle any potential home pinball machine builder used to have to overcome was not finding a cool theme. Nor was it designing a killer playfield layout with interesting shots and ingenious toys. No, the hardest part - and this continues to affect commercial pinball manufacturers today too - used to be creating a control system to make everything work.

Getting flippers to flip and bumpers to bump may seem easy enough, but when you start adding complex lighting effects, display animations and deep rules, suddenly the task becomes far more complex. Complex enough to defeat many budding game builders.

But all that changed in 2009 when Pinball Controllers started selling the P-ROC board.

The P-ROC gave game developers a ready-made control system which provided the bridge between custom game designs and the sequence of instructions to drive them. Game builders could hook up their lamps, solenoids, displays and switches, sit down at a computer and tell the P-ROC what to do with them.

But if that wasn't exciting enough, the P-ROC could also take control of existing machines from Williams, Bally and Stern thanks to the multitude of connectors around the outer edges of the board.

Suddenly, everything other than the actual playfield layout was fair game for changing, because - let's face it - most games have room for improvement in one area or another.

So if you want better display animations, deeper rules, more interesting objectives, more balanced scoring, less-annoying quotes, funkier music, or even stereo sound, it was all possible by installing a P-ROC.

It still wasn't exactly a trivial task of course, since even rules or effects you wanted to keep from the original code had to be re-written for the P-ROC, and that's in addition to all the new features. But far more time could be spent developing the fun parts of the game, instead of working out how to design the basic framework of the underlying control system.

The pinball world really sat up and paid attention when Barry Driessen and Koen Heltzel revealed the work they had been doing to upgrade The Machine - Bride of Pinbot.

The most obvious feature was the addition of a dot matrix display to replace the original's alphanumeric variety, but below the surface they had completely rewritten the rules to make it less of a one-shot game, while adding amazing 3D animations to the display, numerous gameplay modes, and a brand new stereo soundtrack.

Several months later Dennis van de Pass began work on improving his Demolition Man, rectifying the deficiencies of the original rules by adding multiple modes, making the multiballs more varied, and adding a two-stage wizard mode.

Since then, many other game designers have either taken existing machines and re-themed them or built their own machines from scratch, using a P-ROC board to drive them.

To celebrate their achievements, this year's Pinball Expo will feature a special display of P-ROC-based games.

Gerry Stellenberg of Multimorphic (owner of Pinball Controllers) has arranged for eight custom games and their designers to come to Expo and display their machines on the Multimorphic stand alongside the company's P3 pinball platform which is also based on P-ROC technology.



Read the rest of the story here pinballnews.com

That was fast! As we patiently awaited an update of another playfield drawing from JJP's upcoming, "The Hobbit" pinball machine which was finally shown last week JJP has been quick to release yet another picture in record time. This time detailing the center section of the playfield and what looks to be an action-packed design with cues from the #1 rated Williams game, Medieval Madness which incorporate pop-up trolls into the design. What will be included in this game is yet to be known. 

Along with classic design, auto kickback feature, a cross playfield ball launch and at least 4 flippers, this game looks like it will satisfy those looking for the "classic" look and feel of the Williams / Bally design along with the outstanding build quality that JJP is known for in their games.

See the press release below.

Greetings Pinball Fans,  

Today we are happy to release another section of The Hobbit Limited Edition Pinball Machine playfield.    

Click here to view the middle and lower portion of  

The Hobbit Pinball Playfield  

This will be a 4 flipper game with multiple shots from all 4 flippers. The upper flippers are very active with the game rules.  

As a reminder, as of September 1st the price of The Hobbit LE will increase $500 to $8000.00. We ask that you are current on the payment schedule for The Hobbit by 8/31/13. Those who are not current will see a $500 increase in the price of their game after 9/1/13, making their game $8000.

We will proudly show the full playfield before the end of August. This is going along better than WOZ as much of the basis of the platform is already created.

If you missed this in the previous update, click here to view the top right portion of the Playfield 

JJP Distributor, PinballSTAR Amusements is happy to announce that in conjunction with the fine folks at the PAPA 16 event this week in Pittsburgh, he will be running a WPPR points side tournament on a Wizard of OZ on Friday 10-5.     

     

WPPR points awarded and over $3,100 in prizes and giveaways. All proceeds to go to the PinballSTAR Amusements charity fund towards donation of WOZ machines to Children's Hospitals. For questions regarding this please click here for more info or email Joe atSales@PinballSTAR.com  

By Finn J.D. John
If you were a fan of the classic ABC television sitcom “Happy Days,” you know The Fonz had a special relationship with two particular machines: his trusty ’49 Triumph motorcycle, and the pinball machine in Al’s diner.
But it may surprise you to know that when Fonzie was playing that pinball machine, in 1950s Milwaukee, Wisc, he was breaking the law — and so was Al.
It’s a bit hard for younger Oregonians to believe, but just a few dozen years ago pinball was illegal in most large American cities — including Portland.
When coin-op pinball was first developed, it was mostly a game of chance, not skill — at least until flippers were added in the late 1940s. But even then, authorities still looked at a pinball machine as a straight-up slot machine with some extra gewgaws attached to it to fool players into thinking it was innocuous.
And they may have been right about that — at least, in some cases. But after 1949, the illegal status of pinball was going to have some profound effects on Oregon’s underworld, especially in and around Portland. It would set the stage for a semi-comical battle between two of the Beaver State’s scuzziest racketeers.
Where Pinball
Came From
Games like pinball had been around since at least the 1700s, but the coin-operated game was developed in the early 1930s, and by the end of the Great Depression they were a familiar sight in bars and malt shops pretty much everywhere.
But slot machines of the “one-armed bandit” type were getting to be a familiar sight, too. And as city authorities started cracking down on these in the 1940s, they also took a look at the pinball games.
To be fair, pinball was mostly luck-based at first. That made it great for gambling operators, since it provided protection against some wizardly player coming to the table and using his or her mad skills to take them to the cleaners. So a number of bars had started letting patrons place bets and cash in extra games that they might win.
They’d quit doing that by the late 1940s, as improvements to the games had dramatically increased the amount of skill that was involved in the game and decreased the role of luck. But by then it was too late. The public-relations war had already been lost.
So in ’49, when the city of Portland outlawed the silver balls, pinball’s reputation was dark and sordid — and alluring. Authorities considered them “gateway machines” used by wicked, scheming men to lure innocent youths into the underworld of one-armed bandits, covert blackjack tables and other underworld wickedness. Rebellious youths, attracted by the forbidden-fruit effect, considered them great fun.
All of which meant that by the mid-1950s — the beginning of pinball’s glory days — pinball in the Portland area was strictly an outlaw enterprise. Games were supplied by criminal syndicates, sometimes in collaboration with corrupt local officials. And when those syndicates started fighting for market share, things could get pretty exciting.

The Pinball Wars
The pinball wars in the north Willamette Valley mostly centered around two racketeers, who supplied the machines that restaurants and bars used. There was Stan Terry, an old bootlegger whose pinball-and-slots syndicate covered mostly establishments south of Portland, in the Milwaukie area; and “Big Jim” Elkins, the self-styled vice boss of Portland itself.
The two of them, in a nutshell, coveted one another’s rackets. They started out in the early 1950s with surprise raids. Elkins, with five or six heavily armed goons, would barge into a bar with Terry’s machines in it, take all the money and as many of the machines as they could haul and disappear into the night. Then Terry would respond in kind. Apparently nobody got hurt in any of these tit-for-tat raids, but then again, they weren’t getting anywhere either.
So around 1955, Elkins escalated the battle by traveling to Seattle and asking the Teamsters Union for help. The Teamsters Union at that time was essentially an organized-crime syndicate, and was already running some machines in Portland under the direction of a short, stocky crook named Tom “Blubber” Maloney.

The Teamster Scheme
Elkins couldn’t get an appointment with the head of the Teamsters in Seattle, so he reached out to Maloney instead. Holed up in the Roosevelt Hotel on Park Street, the two of them hatched a scheme: They’d set up a Teamsters-affiliated pinball operators union, lock Terry out of it and shut him down by denying him access to union trucking services and by throwing picket lines around his customers’ joints.
This was soon done, and a few weeks later, the Coin Machine Men of Oregon was formed. Almost immediately, it moved on the enemy: It summoned a picket line of Teamsters around the Mt. Hood Café, a place with a bunch of Stan Terry’s machines in it.

The Vegas Mafia
Gets Involved
It was looking like the end for Stan Terry. Once the Teamsters started shutting down his customers, his remaining clients would leave in a hurry. In desperation, he went and talked to an old underworld buddy who’d worked for legendary former head Portland racketeer Al Winter before he’d left to open the Sahara Casino in Las Vegas. Terry’s friend had another friend who knew Hy Goldbaum, the pit boss at the Flamingo Casino — the mobbed-up joint in Vegas that had been started by the late Bugsy Siegel. Goldbaum personally escorted Terry to Seattle and introduced him to the head of the Teamsters — the guy Elkins hadn’t been able to get an appointment with.
Some cash changed hands, and then a telephone rang and the pickets were pulled from around the Mount Hood. Just like that, Elkins had lost, and now the Coin Machine Men of Oregon was the group on the outside, facing the prospect of pickets and “hot cargo” restrictions on its slots and pinball machines. At that point, it was checkmate: Elkins had no choice but to sell his machines and routes to Terry for whatever he could get. Terry, with the Teamsters, had run him out of the business.
But Elkins wasn’t done yet. He had another scheme up his sleeve to get the business back. All the business. And it was very simple.

Elkins’
Desperate Scheme
Elkins had made the acquaintance of a square-jawed goon named Herman “Bugsy” Burns. Now, he called up Burns and told him he had a job for him: He and some associates would pose as pinball-machine repairmen and start making the rounds to every joint with one or more of Stan Terry’s machines in it. Elkins already had the trucks and fake IDs that they’d need, and had lined up a big warehouse in North Portland where the machines could be hidden afterward. Everything was ready to go.
When the crew got to each joint, they’d tell the owner pretty much what The Grinch told Cindy Lou Who in Dr. Seuss’s classic “How The Grinch Stole Christmas”: The machines were being updated, so they were collecting the old ones, and another truck would be along in an hour or so with the new replacements.
Elkins figured if they were efficient, they could collect every single Stan Terry pinball machine before anybody figured out the scam, and then Terry would be out of business.
And it probably would have worked, too. But they’d never find out. Because Bugsy and his friends got bored while waiting for the signal to start the collection run, and decided to while away the time by knocking over a Safeway. Of course, they got caught.
Stan Terry kept his machines, and kept paying the Teamsters for the privilege. Big Jim Elkins was stuck on the outside looking in, perhaps thinking — as historian Phil Stanford wryly comments in his book — that, “as ever, good help is so hard to find.”

(Sources: Stanford, Phil. Portland Confidential: Sex, Crime and Corruption in the Rose City. Portland: ptown books, 2004; Donnelly, Robert C. Dark Rose: Organized Crime and Corruption in Portland. Seattle: UW Press, 2011)

Finn J.D. John is an instructor at Oregon State University and the author of “Wicked Portland,” a book about the dark side of Oregon’s metropolis in the 1890s. He produces a daily podcast, reading archives from this column, at ofor.us/p . To contact him or suggest a topic: finn@offbeatoregon.com, @OffbeatOregon (on Twitter), or 541-357-2222.