Jersey Jack Pinball

Meet Jersey Jack Pinball’s Newest Pinball Machine: Pirates Of The Caribbean

16/10/2017 By ausretrogamer

Just in case you’ve been busy playing Jersey Jack Pinball’s other awesome machines (which is understandable), you may have missed the unveiling of their fourth and latest title, Pirates Of The Caribbean! The machine made its debut at the Pinball Expo in Chicago last Thursday and to say that it impressed the pinball world would be a gross understatement.

Jersey Jack’s Pirates Of the Caribbean features all the best bits of the five films and hosts a remarkable 3.25 sextillion game play variations – so you will never play the same game twice! Pinball wizards can play as one of 22 movie characters to plunder on this awesome looking machine. As per usual, JJP will release the machine in three versions: a Collector’s Edition (USD$12,500), Limited Edition (USD$9,500) and Standard Edition (USD$8,500). There will be variations between the machines, as expected, with the Collector’s Edition being the most blinged out of the lot with barnacle-covered legs and body armour, a moving ship in a bottle topper, rotating pop bumpers, extra toys and a custom hand-drawn playfield art package featuring the villainous Davy Jones.

The machines are packed with innovative and unique features including the spinning wheel that can be activated directly above the main flippers, which when lit gives extra points or even allows the player to plunder their opponent’s points or balls. There is also a secondary display showing Captain Jack’s compass, which in the film’s shows the direction of his heart’s desire, constantly shows the player the best shot they can take at that time – very clever indeed.

It is great to see Jersey Jack Pinball raising the bar yet again and with Pirates Of The Caribbean, we reckon they have another hit on their hands!

If you missed Buffalo Pinball’s live Twitch stream from the unveiling at Pinball Expo 2017, you can check it out now on YouTube.

source: Jersey Jack Pinball

Pinfest 2017 Highlights

09/10/2017 By ausretrogamer

If you were one of the lucky patrons to have attended this past weekend’s Pinfest 2017 at Caves Coastal Bar & Bungalows in Newcastle, then we envy you!

Not only were there heaps of pinball machines to play from every era, patrons also got to see and experience Homepin’s amazing new Thunderbirds machine. Homepin have done an amazing job, not just on the theme and design, but also by setting up a factory to mass produce pinball machines! We will Mike Kalinowski and the Homepin team all the best.

If that wasn’t enough, Australian Pinball League’s Norbert Snicer also caught up with Andrew Kress who built his own Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy machine! Yes, you read that right! Andrew’s creation is unique and sophisticated, featuring multiple LCD screens and an awesome playfield to boot! To say Andrew’s machine was impressive would be a gross understatement. Pinfest 2017 could claim that it was the only place on the planet where you could play the only Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy pinball machine.

If you were like us and missed out, here are a few highlights from Pinfest 2017: Festival Of The Silver Ball:

An impressive flyer for an impressive event!

Norbert Snicer chats with Homepin’s Mike Kalinowski and checks out their new Thunderbirds machine!

We are quite excited by Thunderbirds and can’t wait to play it!

The crowd lines up to play some pinball!

Stern’s new Star Wars pinball machine proved popular

The sweet sound of the silver ball!

There were pinball machines to enjoy from every era!

Every generation enjoys flippin’

Andrew Kress stands proud in front of his creation: Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy!

The impressive Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy playfield
image sources: Australian Pinball League

Masters Of The Universe Future Pinball: I Have The Power!

19/06/2017 By ausretrogamer

When our friend Rusty Pinball made us aware of the Masters Of The Universe Future Pinball machine, we were thoroughly impressed and absolutely gobsmacked! Look at it, it’s beautiful to look at, audio is amazing, nostalgia tingling full motion video and a playfield flow that oozes Eternian spirit!

Not taking anything away from TerryRed’s masterful digital version of MOTU pinball, we just can’t help but wish it was a real table that we could bump, slam and tilt on! Oh yeah,we can also imagine the real MOTU table with a Castle Grayskull topper – how cool would that be?!

The thought of a real Masters Of The Universe pinball machine is truly making us weak at the knees. We just hope Jersey Jack Pinball is listening *nudge nudge wink wink*

source: TerryRed

Why Isn’t There An ABBA Pinball Machine?

05/06/2017 By David Cutler

By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.

Aerosmith, KISS, AC/DC and Metallica all have one. The Rolling Stones and Guns N’ Roses have one too.
Why doesn’t ABBA, who has sold more than 375 million albums and singles worldwide and been offered a rumoured nine figure deal to tour again, have a pinball machine on the market?

It’s hard to believe that Stern or Jersey Jack Pinball haven’t thought about obtaining the licensing rights for the Swedish super group that produced huge hits like Mamma Mia and SOS from 1972 to 1982.

Take a Chance On Me and Dancing Queen seem like perfect extra ball or bonus points sound cues for a pinball machine.

A DJ friend once told me, “There’s two types of people: those who love ABBA and those who love ABBA and don’t admit it.”

Some have called ABBA tacky; I think they were pop kitsch. And in all of that bubblegum kitsch, the music still brings joy to a great deal of people globally. Pop kitsch is ideal for an attention grabbing pinball machine.

An ABBA pinball machine would appeal to a large spectrum of music lovers. ABBA is a cross generational band. Ages range from teenagers to grandparents who love Dancing Queen. And the Meryl Streep film ‘Mamma Mia’ has strengthened people’s affection for a group that parted ways thirty-five years ago. However, ABBA never officially broke up.

I can just imagine a group of young people at an arcade or bar putting coins into an ABBA pinball machine, hearing Dancing Queen as their first game ball drops for play, “having the time of their lives.”

Stern Announce Star Wars and Jersey Jack Release A Flashy Trailer For Dialed In!

01/06/2017 By ausretrogamer

Whoa, what a way to start June!

Stern Pinball finally announced their new machine, the Steve Ritchie designed Star Wars! Funnily enough, the announcement came via a brief spot on The Star Wars Show (see embedded video). Stern has promised that Star Wars Pinball will take players to a galaxy far, far away! More information, photos and pricing to come – we can’t wait!

Stern’s new STAR WARS pinball machine makes a cameo appearance on The Star Wars Show!

source: The Star Wars Show

Also going all out was Jersey Jack Pinball. With the announcement that their latest machine, Dialed In! was in production, the New Jersey-based factory went all Hollywood by producing a very flashy and cool promotional video to show off Pat Lawlor’s brilliant original concept game. Mark our words, Dialed In! is destined to be a top 10 pinball machine of all time!

Jersey Jack Pinball’s DIALED IN! official trailer!

source: Jersey Jack Pinball

Wow, wish every month starts like this! Stay tuned for more pinball news!

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Pinball Press
Pinball Press brings you news from the world of pinball – events, product reviews/updates, interviews and the people in pinball!

If you have any pinball news to share, hit Pinball Press on Twitter

Pinball Innovation: Flipping At The Bleeding Edge

30/05/2017 By ausretrogamer

Imagine if we had a crystal ball to see into the future to see what pinball machines would look like – what would we see?

The future of pinball depends on innovation to ensure it remains relevant. Innovation can be obtained via the use of current and emerging technologies, and unlike the end of the 20^th century, the technology is already available for pinball manufacturers to leverage and perhaps get an advantage over their competitors.

The current leaders in pinball innovation, Jersey Jack Pinball (JJP) have not only forced their competitors to innovate just to keep up with them, they are constantly pushing themselves to come up with new ideas for their pinball machines. JJP’s Dialed In! was the first pinball machine to feature Bluetooth® connectivity that provides new capabilities (like controlling the flippers) through a smartphone. Innovation never ceases, so pinball manufacturers need to keep up or risk perishing.

Jersey Jack Pinball’s Dialed In! is the first pinball machine with Bluetooth connectivity

With all this talk of innovation one wonders what current or emerging technologies can be used to catapult pinball machines to the bleeding edge. There are current technologies that pinball designers and manufacturers can leverage to provide a better and immersive experience for their target market – be it the player, operator or collector. The advent of cloud computing has allowed a myriad of services to be used, from big data to streaming analytics and real-time telemetry monitoring via Internet of Things (IoT) to deliver innovative products and services.

First things first, what the hell is this Internet of Things (IoT)? In a nutshell, it is a system of ubiquitous sensors connecting the physical world to the Internet. Although things, Internet, and connectivity are the three core components of IoT, the value is in closing the gap between the physical and digital world in self-reinforcing and self-improving systems. IoT creates these systems by connecting things, animate or inanimate, to the Internet with unique identifiers that provide context, giving visibility into the network, the devices themselves, and their environment. Equipped with rich data sets and using advanced analytics, IoT can give us enormous insight into our world, and this is where pinball manufacturers can differentiate themselves by providing IoT-ready pinball machines and mobile applications that can provide telemetric real-time data analysis and information, event processing, pattern analysis and recognition from a player, operator or collector’s perspective.

Pinball manufacturers in the 21st century that want to stand out from the crowd could enrich the pinball experience with a number of innovations using IoT, like:

Geospatial awareness – a geo-location broadcast (to a smartphone app) to ensure players know where to find and play a particular pinball machine
Fault tolerance with predictive failure on components using telemetry sensors
Health monitoring on key components with real-time component status and diagnostics reporting (on screen / email report or via smartphone app)
Playfield Analytics that gives the user a rich set of dimensional (per ball / per game) information on:
- Playfield hot spots to show the area where the ball spends most time
- Statistics on shots, play and modes, providing shot accuracy (%)
- Ball speed in kilometres or miles for the speed demons
- Time per ball and points per ball
- Shot reaction time to measure how fast a player reacts to hit/flip the ball
- Track use of machine (in tournament mode) and provide the player their score via smartphone app

Innovation should improve and enrich the experience of pinball by providing deeper real-time insights about the machine, either from a player wanting to know how hard they hit the ball or the operator acting proactively on fixing a component before it fails.

For pinball to remain relevant, manufacturers must challenge the status quo by pushing the technology envelope to keep players, collectors and operators flipping for longer. Long live the silver-ball!

Which pinball innovation tickles your fancy? Tell us now on Twitter or Facebook.

Jersey Jack Pinball Is Calling All Pinball Enthusiasts

28/02/2017 By ausretrogamer

When Jersey Jack Pinball’s Jack Guarnieri puts out a call to all pinball enthusiasts, we sit up and take note!

The Jersey Jack Pinball (JJP) team will be keeping busy in March as they hit the event circuit by attending the Louisville Arcade Expo this coming weekend (March 3 – 5) and then the Texas Pinball Festival (March 24 – 26). JJP will be taking their finest games to these mighty fine events – we just wish we could be there too!

Finally, we had to share this great pinball note from Jack Guarnieri about Dialed In!:

“As most of you know by now, our newest game, Dialed In!, is designed by the legendary Pat Lawlor, himself. This game is special for so many reasons, but the story of how Pat became involved is special, and one I thought you might enjoy.

In 2011, I found myself renting a building from Pat in Harvard, IL for JJP. I knew he had been retired for several years, but welcomed him to see the work we were doing and shared our vision. Pat saw that vision come to life with our first game, The Wizard of Oz, and grew excited. He began to toy with the idea of returning to pinball design – one day.

By late 2013, after expressing his interest, we made Pat part of the JJP team – a pivotal decision for the company. The idea was simple: design an unlicensed, original game – something directly from Pat’s imagination.

Fast forward to the birth of Dialed In! What a game. I have to tell you, the result is amazing, and the reaction of people who’ve played it has been incredibly gratifying and such an affirmation of Pat’s genius. In it, we’ve built a game with groundbreaking technology and features never before seen in a pinball machine.

Ever the dedicated pro, Pat has been visiting the game in the field, studying it and making signature tweaks. I can’t ever remember a new game having received such care and attention.

As we near production, we want to give everyone interested in owning a Dialed In! an opportunity stake their claim now on this historic game with a completely refundable deposit of $250, and balance due upon game production.

We hope you’ll take advantage of this offer and stop by our upcoming events (more below) to experience Dialed In! for yourself: a game that embodies true passion for a game we all love.”

Jersey Jack Pinball’s Jack Guarnieri at the Australian unveiling of Dialed In!

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Pinball Press
Pinball Press brings you news from the world of pinball – events, product reviews/updates, interviews and the people in pinball!

If you have any pinball news to share, hit Pinball Press on Twitter

Creating The Playfield With Jersey Jack Pinball’s Butch Peele

09/02/2017 By ausretrogamer

Ever wondered how a high-quality pinball playfield is made? We definitely have!

Well, wonder no more as pinball tech wizard, Butch Peel, details the intricate process behind creating a high-quality Jersey Jack Pinball playfield.

Once you finish watching this episode, you may also like to check out Butch Peele’s playfield tours of Jersey Jack Pinball’s groundbreaking games, Wizard Of Oz and The Hobbit – trust us, they are worth watching!

source: Jersey Jack Pinball

Ausretrogamer 2016 Highlights

30/12/2016 By ausretrogamer

As another year draws to a close, one can’t help but to reflect on the year gone by. With a record number of visitors hitting the site, we had a heap of highlights in 2016, so dwindling them down to a handful proved to be harder than we thought. Are you ready? Here we go!

We started the year by learning how pinball machines work and how to troubleshoot general problems – a course that was well worth doing!

Getting the grand tour of ZAX Amusements and getting to play the newly released (at the time) Ghostbusters Pro pinball machine was a double highlight!

What better way to spend your birthday than having the awesome Ms. ausretrogamer organising a birthday mystery tour involving escape rooms, USA foods, retrogaming hunting at vintage markets, arcade action and a drive-in movie!

It is always a wonderful surprise when you go on a holiday and find a market that has retrogaming goodies! Carrara Markets delivered the thrill of the hunt buzz we were looking for!

After the birthday mystery tour, it was only fair to repay Ms. ausretrogamer in kind, by surprising her with The Walking Dead Pro pinball machine for her birthday. The look on her face was priceless!

When Marcus Sezonov extended us an invite to his Rosstown Retro Pinball Arcade tournament, we definitely could not pass up the opportunity. With a fantastic pinball collection comprising of classic machines from a variety of manufacturers from around the world, we could not stop flipping the silverball. Oh yeah, Marcus also had an original Japanese Space Invaders cocktail table to satisfy our arcade urge.

Being part of Australia’s biggest gaming event is a privilege. For PAX Aus 2016, our Classic Gaming Area was even bigger and better – more arcade and pinball machines, old school computers and consoles, handhelds from yesteryear and for the first time, a classic gaming museum!

Another PAX Aus 2016 highlight was participating in Seamus Byrne’s Geek Trash or Treasure? Finding Collectibles with Real Value panel in the Gamespot Theatre! We can now say that we popped our public speaking cherry.

Last but not least, meeting Jack Guarnieri at the recent exclusive Melbourne Jersey Jack Pinball event was a huge highlight and one we will not forget in a hurry! Oh yeah, playing the Pat Lawlor designed, Dialed In, was pretty great too!

We can’t wait to see what awesomeness 2017 brings us all! We’ll take this opportunity to thank you for your patronage and hope that you’ll come and visit us again in 2017.

Happy New Year to everyone – we hope it is a happy, healthy, successful and fun one!

Dialed In: Meeting Jersey Jack Pinball’s Jack Guarnieri

09/12/2016 By ausretrogamer

If you weren’t aware, there is more than one player in the pinball manufacturing business. Jersey Jack Pinball started in January 2011 and immediately took the pinball scene by storm, creating and releasing innovative, fun and quality pinball machines. This trailblazing pinball company was founded by Jack Guarnieri, an amusement veteran of some forty years and a visionary that understands that pinball must break new ground in features and technology to keep players interested and to attract new ones to this wonderful game we call pinball.

In their short history, Jersey Jack Pinball (JJP) has introduced a number of pinball innovations; the high quality backboard LCD-HD screen, RGB-LED playfield lighting, rich audio, QR codes with social media integration and exquisite playfield toys to name just a few. Keeping this ground breaking momentum isn’t easy, but JJP understands that it is crucial to their continuing success.

JJP definitely took a leap of faith with their latest machine, Dialed In – it is refreshing to see a pinball company take a risk and be at the bleeding edge of pinball design and technology! Pinball designer extraordinaire, Pat Lawlor jumped on board and has integrated a number of mind-blowing features, like Bluetooth connectivity enabling additional player capabilities through a smartphone and a camera that emblazons player selfies on the backboard LCD screen. You would think that Dialed In’s original concept may not attract players to it, but we reckon Pat Lawlor and Jersey Jack Pinball have absolutely nailed it! With the game being meticulously developed over a number of years, it shows that no stone has been left unturned for an engrossing and engaging experience. With only the software left to be completed by the legendary Ted Estes, we can’t wait to see the final result!

Dialed In undercover! Waiting for the Australian unveiling

The unveiling of Dialed In! The anticipation was unbearable!

This past weekend, Mr Pinball and Bayside Pinball Club hosted the Jersey Jack Pinball event, with JJP founder and CEO, Jack Guarnieri as the guest of honour. Jack’s Australian unveiling of Dialed In drew a capacity crowd at the Sandbelt Hotel in south-east Melbourne. Eager onlookers could not wait to get their first glimpse of the machine and have a play. Once the machine was available for play, it was like moths to a flame – the queue to play the machine became longer by the second! We were glad that we waited for our turn, as playing Dialed In was a mesmerising experience that left us wanting to play it over and over again. The playfield was inviting, the ‘feel’ of the flippers felt right, the flow of the silverball was precise and that rich thumping audio was just so visceral! Dialed In is already a winner from our brief experience!

Meeting Jersey Jack Pinball’s Jack Guarnieri was both an honour and a humbling experience

The crowd is abuzz awaiting Jack’s inaugural Australian keynote speech!

The other highlight of the event was meeting Jack. Greeted by a warm hug, we knew that Jack was the kind of person we could immediately call our friend. Jack’s eagerness to get to know people, his intellect and humour made him very endearing. He made himself available for people to approach him, even going without food all day to ensure that he got to meet as many folks as possible. Jack’s keynote speech at the unveiling of Dialed In and the Q&A session were great insights into the man and the JJP company, from his fascinating beginnings in Manhattan and the Jersey Shore, to pinball operations, manufacturing and distribution. We hope that Jack returns to Australia in the not too distant future!

Many thanks to Wayne Gillard from Mr Pinball and Lucas Bardin from Bayside Pinball Club for putting on such a great event!

Jack introduces Pat Lawlor’s original concept game, Dialed In! And it’s a beauty!

The crowd gathers to take a closer look!