Jersey Jack Pinball today announced some rather big news today as the company has hired legendary audio engineer or "pinball sound master" David Thiel to work on The Hobbit Pinball, the next Pat Lawlor game as well as future JJP games. Considering David's past work including the incredible sound on Tron Legacy pinball along with the groundbreaking sound system utilized by JJP, we can rest assured that the future of pinball will sound amazing.

In addition, JJP revealed new images of The Hobbit Pinball playfield art.

Read the press release and see the images after the break.

On the heels of the recent Jersey Jack Pinball update, comes another in rapid-fire succession. First off is an update on Jack's visit to the Michigan Pinball Expo as well as new statistics on WOZ earnings on location. Jack and the team have been hard at work in developing The Hobbit pinball and have some videos to show us.

New Wizard of Oz machines are being delivered and check out the uber-cool new jukebox functionality from Pinnovators as well.

Read the update below and let us know what you think about it in the comments section.

Jack and team have been busy working on the new Hobbit pinball machine as well as completing orders for WOZ in order to get ready for the next release. Read the update after the break.

For more than a decade, Stern Pinball was the only manufacturer of pinball machines. The Chicago-based company's last rival closed down in 1999.

But Stern's pinball monopoly may be drawing to an end. In 2011, the startup manufacturerJersey Jack Pinball opened for business, and it's working hard to grab a slice of the industry.

"You know, it would be a boring world, I guess, if there was only one company making shoes or handbags or anything," says Jack Guarnieri, the New Jersey company's owner. "So, I think more competition and more product in the marketplace raises the awareness of pinball."

Jersey Jack Pinball's debut game is based on The Wizard of Oz film. They plan to release a second game, The Hobbit, in the spring of 2014.

Breaking Stern's monopoly and squeezing into this industry will be a challenge, mainly because demand just isn't what it used to be. Between 1955 and 1970, the games made more money than the entire American movie industry. Thirty years ago, there were nearly a dozen pinball manufacturers in the U.S.

Now, it's a very different story.

"Back in the day, they used to sell 5- to 10,000 of each pinball machine — now they're lucky if they hit 1,000 to 1,500," says Tim Arnold, owner of the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas. "So it's exactly like the movies — if you get a hit movie, everything is great. But if you have one or two dud movies in a row, you're in deep trouble financially."

Arnold says Jersey Jack needs to do two basic things to succeed: create an incredible product and bring it to the masses.

Jersey Jack seems to be on track with that first goal. Arnold compares The Wizard of Oz game to going from black-and-white to color television.

The game has a multicolor LED screen that plays animation and clips from the movie. Special flipper settings and lights transform the board according to each mode of play.

"If you're going for the Emerald City, all the lights turn green," says Arnold. "If you're battling flying monkeys, it all turns red. It's really a spectacular visual presentation."

There's only one problem: The Wizard of Oz is hard to find. Even two years after its initial release, the game is unlikely to be in your local arcade. Many of the units have gone to homes of private collectors.

Molly Atkinson, one of the few who has played it, had to go to a collector's home to do so. She's a collector herself and runs a public-access arcade called Pins and Needles in Los Angeles.

"It's a real fancy game, Wizard of Oz," she says. "It has a lot of neat features on it. And for some reason, it's really grown on me."

Atkinson doubts it will join her collection any time soon. The machine costs about $8,000. "No new games are affordable! When it was a public play thing, games never cost this much," Atkinson says.

She only charges 25 cents per play at her arcade, but even if she charged double, it would take 16,000 games for her to recoup that cost.

Atkinson had hoped that if the pinball monopoly was broken, the machines would become more affordable.

"We finally do have someone else who's entered the market," says Atkinson. "But their games are maybe even more expensive. So it's just very unattainable for someone like me to get one."

Still, Atkinson says the arrival of a new game-maker is a good thing. She hopes that competition between the two companies will breathe fresh life into the industry.

Jersey Jack owner Guarnieri, a veteran arcade executive, says that's the whole point. "That's really what you want to hear," he says. "That's success."

With Jersey Jack's second game due out in the spring, Guarnieri says a third machine, with an all-original design and story, is already in production.

Stern Pinball did not respond to press inquiries for this story. A banner on the company's website declares it it is "the only maker of REAL pinball games on the planet!!"

Guarnieri says they probably just haven't updated the site yet.

via http://www.npr.org/2013/12/22/256328172/in-the-world-of-pinball-an-underdog-takes-on-the-giant

Jack and the team over at JJP released an update today which covered the pace at which Wizard of Oz machines are being produced, software updates, new game deliveries and a couple of tidbits regarding the production of their upcoming game The Hobbit and a video of the new Hobbit trailer.

Also included in the update are details and pictures of Jack and Ted's visit to Hollywood and the premiere of the 75th anniversary IMAX 3-D release of The Wizard of Oz.

It looks like the gang all had a great time. Check out all the details after the break.

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 at[email protected]  

After what may seem like an eternity for pinball fans who crave new pinball information, JJP has released another detail drawing of The Hobbit and gives us another clue to the playfield design. 

Greetings Pinball Fans,  

Today we are happy and very excited to release another section of The Hobbit Limited Edition Pinball Machine playfield. This game will have several new and innovative features which will be detailed in coming weeks.  

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.

Many people are paying according to the schedule which enables us to develop the game as we did with WOZ. We need to reward those who are loyal and stay on the payment plan while others who do not pay now will pay more later. There may be another price increase before the game goes into production. We have several distributors around the world looking to increase their orders so demand is growing for the game as more information is released.

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.

We are excited to reveal the top right portion of  
The Hobbit Pinball Playfield - Click here to view the PDF
  

This area shows multiple entrances into the pop bumper area which can be controlled by the game or by skill or luck. We also show one magnet and one spinner and a target above the banana shaped insert. There is a lot in this 25% of the main playfield to absorb. We will release another section of the playfield next week. The playfield is packed and the game is very different than WOZ.           

If you missed this in the previous update,click here to view the lower portion of The Hobbit Pinball Playfield

Wizard of Oz games continue to roll off the line. Getting through the first few days of massive orders has taken time but we are now into group shipments and we have 180+ ECLEWOZ games in the queue for August with only 18 of them as WOZ. We are also expecting another code update in the next several days.    

It has been a long road but we got here as fast as we could. We are producing the best game we can which gets better every day. We thank our loyal JJP customer base for their patience and support and we will soon announce a reward system for those loyal customers for parts and goodies at reduced cost.    

Jack definitely did not do it alone but that's the name of the AOL segment. If anyone missed this, we were recently featured on anAOL.com/Huffington Post segment called "How I Did It - Here's the link to view - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/26/jersey-jack-pinball_n_3504566.html     

Stay tuned here for more Hobbit pinball news as it's released.

Jack and the crew at Jersey Jack Pinball have sent out big update with some impressions from a happy new Wizard of Oz pinball owner and his two happy kids proudly taking a picture. JJP have also included a sneak peek at the lower playfield section of the Hobbit pinball machine currently in the design phase. With some unique features not seen before like the slingshot mounted articulating axes, long-since-seen outlane kickback and what appears to be another long-missed and unique feature, a cross playfield trajectory shooter lane instead of the usual straight to the back shot.

Look for the rest of the announcements including the addition of Lloyd Olsen to the technical support staff and a link to the JJP E3 video produced by us here at performancepinball.com

The good folks over at Jersey Jack Pinball have release another update regarding the progress of not only the Wizard of Oz pinball but also give us an update on their upcoming game The Hobbit.

With the impending release of WOZ comes big news about the soundtrack for The Hobbit to be scored by  the group "Two Steps from Hell" which should ensure an epic pinball experience!

Find the release after the break