JERSEY JACK PINBALL

[Donkbaca]

All th EMS in my neck of the woods are ridiculously overpriced, people feel like because something is old, it's worth a lot

[Jeff AMN]

I really don't understand the problem.  You might spend $200 on an EM, fix it up, play it awhile, and sell it for a $100 loss?  Who cares?  You blow $100 on dumb crap all the time.

Yeah, depending on how long I have a game, I don't mind taking a $100 hit on a sale. Part of the fun is fixing them anyway, so I see that as time enjoyed. Usually I at least break even or make a few bucks when I sell my stuff though.

[smartbomb2084]

I have always believed that half the fun of owning a pinball is working on it.  If you aren't 'mechanically inclined' as they say then owning a pinball really isn't for you unless you are just going to turn it on and have it look pretty.  It WILL break if you are actually going to play it for any extended length of time and if you don't  know of a good reliable home tech then you are out of luck if you can't fix it yourself.

If you have had a game for some time and you sell it for what you paid you are not really even but actually ahead because you got to play it for FREE as long as you owned it.

[bleargh]

(touch-ups done, clear is curing).  Its been a whole lot of work to get it looking nice, but its finally coming together.

That's the sort of advanced work that is totally optional.  It's great to do but a clean and shopped game will play just as well if you don't touch it up and clear it. 

Agreed; I didn't have to go to this effort on the machine.  When I first picked it up I thought I was just going to do a quick cleanup on it, but as I got into it I realized that although my first impression was "not that bad shape" there were more and more things piling up each time I looked at it... multiple spots worn through to the wood, heavy planking, major cupping on all the inserts.  I laughed at myself, and decided that I guess I needed another "summer project" to work on, so I stripped the whole thing down and basically started a restoration of the puppy.

[Donkbaca]

Don't get me wrong, I think that's great. But as a pin-noob I just want a fun machine to play on, I wouldn't want to spend and a few hundred bucks on something not working in my garage that  I don't know exactly how to fix. I know these things break, but I think it would be easier to fix something that you played and knew worked rather then getting something that didn't play and try to get it working. Anyhow, I would rather pay 1200 for a cleaned up, working pin than 650 for a beater pin, at least for my very first pin.

[TopJimmyCooks]

I really don't understand the problem.  You might spend $200 on an EM, fix it up, play it awhile, and sell it for a $100 loss?  Who cares?  You blow $100 on dumb crap all the time.

Yeah, depending on how long I have a game, I don't mind taking a $100 hit on a sale. Part of the fun is fixing them anyway, so I see that as time enjoyed. Usually I at least break even or make a few bucks when I sell my stuff though.

I bought the HGOT for market for a player, and I've got $400 in parts and tools.  If I can't fix the original control board, I will never see my cash back out of this thing.  If I can, I can resell my $200 replacement main board for about $175 (says ebay) so I'll be fine.  Gives me some incentive to get soldering.  but, it was worth it because I've got the game to play while screwing with the board.  Then, once my mame rig is done, it will be easier to break the thing down for some more fun restoration to increase the $. 

I will be happy if I clean it, touch up the field and repaint the case and clear enough cash to get a soldering station. 

[smartbomb2084]

This is entirely off topic here but I want to know... Is your red, white, and black 'Album Cover' a reference to THE WHITE STRIPES?

[kastawaykid]

This is entirely off topic here but I want to know... Is your red, white, and black 'Album Cover' a reference to THE WHITE STRIPES?

I thought that by his name "Top Jimmy Cooks" and the "Album Cover" (Eddie's favorite guitar), that he was probably a Van Halen fan?

[ChadTower]

I averaged it out once... figuring what I spent on buying, repairing, maintaining, and losses/gains on sales versus number of times I played them. 

It came out fairly close to about $1/game and figuring realistically I'm playing 300-400 games a year spread across all my machines, that's not all that bad.

Those guys that buy them, clean them, and flip them are making less than $5/hour doing it and don't believe another word they say if they insist it's much more than that.  

Truth.  The truly profitable flips are few and far between.  Maybe you break even on a really good one these days.  Most you don't and you're doing it because you care about the machine.

The part that I don't get about the $100 loss scenario is the newly acquired skills involved with fixing the game.  That's the main thing I get out of it.  When I got into this hobby I didn't even understand what soldering is nevermind being able to do it.  A few years later I'm the guy everyone gives their expensive stuff in need of repair because "Chad can fix almost anything".  Granted, a lot of that is just being able to find the right forum for advice, but the electrical repair and basic PCB troubleshooting I've picked up is worth way more than $100/machine.  I save more than that every time an appliance dies and I don't have to spend $100 just to get a repair guy on site to look at it.  I have fixed my water heater, my washer twice, my dryer, my dishwasher, and a couple other things with the skills I've picked up from this hobby.

[TopJimmyCooks]

This is entirely off topic here but I want to know... Is your red, white, and black 'Album Cover' a reference to THE WHITE STRIPES?

I thought that by his name "Top Jimmy Cooks" and the "Album Cover" (Eddie's favorite guitar), that he was probably a Van Halen fan?

I like the White Stripes too . . . and don't worry, this thread was thoroughly derailed before this tangent cropped up.   

[whammoed]

Haven't seen an update on this in months.   This still on track or cancelled?

[Jeff AMN]

It's still on track, but there seems to be an odd lack of urgency to get the product out. Some days I think it looks amazing, other days I think it looks like pinball soup and confusing. I really can't wait to see how it all plays out, but it is a little unsettling how slowly it's coming together.

[ChadTower]

I'm having trouble coming up with a reason to be emotionally invested.  Yeah, I'd like to see a new pinball vendor, but I don't think I'll ever see one of these.  Or if I do it will be for 10 minutes at some gathering from behind the crowd of guys around it who don't respect people waiting.

[jrivelli]

While I can say it will be nice to have another Pinball vendor out there, it actually won't be. They are aimed at making massively priced home use only games. Not really the type stuff many of us will ever see and no one in their right mind will put out a $7,500 pinball on route. I wouldn't at least, yikes!

I just hope a lot of the parts are going to be common and easy to replace. Nothing like a $7,500 pinball with ultra expensive parts or impossible to find!

[Jeff AMN]

They'll be using Bally/Williams parts.

[jrivelli]

The other problem is that there just isn't the market for games to be sold in the 10,000+ mark anymore. It seems like games may move into the ultra expensive HUO. I am really really curious to see how this does in the private market AFTER their first pin. Then again with how long it has taken to make this first pin who knows how long the second will take or if there will ever be one?

My biggest bummer is the chance of playing this is slim to none. None of my friends have $7,500 for a pinball. I need new friends obviously

[mebronx2000]

i will take pics when we get it 

[FrizzleFried]

i will take pics when IF we get it 

Fixed...

[TopJimmyCooks]

"i'm talkin' bout my Doorbell, when ya gonna ring it - when ya gonna ring it"  with m' pinball machine?

I don't see the economics of one pinball machine with 5-6 well known engineers & designers working on it for months/years.  Say 7K per machine, they sell 2500??, thats 1.75 mil.  Say these dudes make 75K/year and work on the project for 1 year each that's a third of a mil right there.  overhead, mr' jack's cut, etc. gotta cost something to buy the parts and make the thing ($3K?) anyone know the cost of pinball parts like they do with phones and tablets on ifixit?  Making one game at a time with no ongoing pipeline of machines a/la stern is not a model I would invest in. 

I really hope it gets made and is a good thing for the buyers, and I'd love to play, I'm no snob, I enjoy all themes and play styles so far.  'course these guys are big in the redemption game biz and have forgotten more about the game than I ever knew.  I just don't see how the business model makes sense. 

[MaineEvent]

New picture(kind of?) of the prototype

[Xiaou2]

Ohh man, I dare say this will be the most Hideous Pinball ever produced.
>.<

[Q*Bert_OP]

It's Cirqus Voltaire all over again!!! 

[Necro]

New picture(kind of?) of the prototype

Yeah, that's a straight up (poor) photoshop job.

[smartbomb2084]

If this game is going to use WMS mechanical parts does anyone know if the boards will be WPC based too?

Or is all we care to do around here is bash bash bash someone elses work?

[ChadTower]

I dunno... I don't see that as being any worse than Avatar.  Most people don't hate Avatar. 

[Jeff AMN]

I just think that after all the Photoshop bashing from the JJP team, they release a machine that's got Photoshop-Fu all over it.

[Xiaou2]

Personally, I cant stand those cheezy break into song movies anymore, with rare exception. Its very annoying.  Imagine a pinball using video clips, singing songs from the WOZ?  Thats no treat to me.

Maybe they think this will attract a lot of children or something.   But thats Way off-base.
For one thing, Pinball isnt a childs game.  And when the kid is finally old enough to be good at them and enjoy/appreciate them, they are not going to be interested in WOZ one bit.

As for the 'Art',  its just not happening.   Even if this is hand painted, with one of these hyper-realistic artists.. it LOOKS like a collage of Photos.  It carries no artistic interpretation, and so it looks cheesy as hell. (like the movie itself)

At least with Avatar, the movie wasnt a bunch of full grow actors in badly made Halloween costumes, and sets that looked like they came out of a high school play.

 Of course, I dont like Sterns Avatar look either.  But just sayin..

[Vigo]

Personally, I cant stand those cheezy break into song movies anymore, with rare exception. Its very annoying.  Imagine a pinball using video clips, singing songs from the WOZ?  Thats no treat to me.

Heh, yeah. Thinking about it, I can't imagine a much more grating set of songs to have during play. Now if it played Pink Floyd during play.... 

[ChadTower]

If it played Pink Floyd anyone under 45 would walk away.

[HaRuMaN]

If it played Pink Floyd anyone under 45 would walk away.

I'm 33 and love Pink Floyd.  Even started to collect vinyl PF albums.

[Malenko]

If it played Pink Floyd anyone under 45 would walk away.

I'm 33 and love Pink Floyd.  Even started to collect vinyl PF albums.

I'm 33, love Pink Floyd too. Dark Side of Oz was pretty neat, and I wasn't even high or anything.  I guess Chad thinks Pink Floyd was a 1 hit wonder?

[HaRuMaN]

If it played Pink Floyd anyone under 45 would walk away.

I'm 33 and love Pink Floyd.  Even started to collect vinyl PF albums.

I'm 33, love Pink Floyd too. Dark Side of Oz was pretty neat, and I wasn't even high or anything.  I guess Chad thinks Pink Floyd was a 1 hit wonder?

Tell that to Roger Waters...

[Nephasth]

I'm 33, love Pink Floyd too. Dark Side of Oz was pretty neat, and I wasn't even high or anything.  I guess Chad thinks Pink Floyd was a 1 hit wonder?

I'm 26 and watched what we called Pink Oz (apparently it's also Dark Side of Oz too) 10 or 11 years ago. Pink Floyd's not bad, I'd rather this pin play that than those damned Wizard of Oz songs...

[Donkbaca]

Hey! I'm 33 and like Pink Floyd as well!

[amendonz]

speaking of music pins http://pinballhead.com/tag/stern-acdc/

[Necro]

If it played Pink Floyd anyone under 45 would walk away.

I'm 33 and love Pink Floyd.  Even started to collect vinyl PF albums.

Seconded on the loving pink floyd and being 33.  Not on the vinyl thing.  LAst thing I need is another ---goshdarn--- thing to collect.

[Nephasth]

I'm 33 and love Pink Floyd.

I'm 33, love Pink Floyd too.

Hey! I'm 33 and like Pink Floyd as well!

Seconded on the loving pink floyd and being 33.

Hmm... I don't suppose you guys all drink Rolling Rock and attend secret meetings as well?

[smartbomb2084]

Why bother to click posted links, smartbomb?  Much easier to talk trash.  

No need to click posted links when we can have you do the reading for us.  You are all too eager to oblige.

As far as trash talking goes I'm learning from the best around. You.

[Donkbaca]

Hmm... I don't suppose you guys all drink Rolling Rock and attend secret meetings as well?

No, but I did go to club 33 at Disneyland this year...

[yotsuya]

Hmm... I don't suppose you guys all drink Rolling Rock and attend secret meetings as well?

No, but I did go to club 33 at Disneyland this year...

Lucky bastard!