It has been a long time coming, but finally, on April 29th, Jersey Jack shipped off the first truckload of the highly anticipated Wizard of Oz pinball machine. The start of Jersey Jack Pinball Inc. and the release of this title ended Stern's 14 year run as the only major, authentic pinball maker.
We first reported on the
Wizard of Oz pinball back in 2011 and several times in 2012, and reported again on Jersey Jack and the enthusiastic pinball entrepreneur,
Jack Guanieri, in January this year. The hype and buzz surrounding the endeavors of Jersey Jack (including their soon to be released second title, The Hobbit) has piqued the interest of operators and enthusiasts right across the amusement sector.
Although some have laughed at his endeavors or called him crazy, Guarnieri has stuck to his dream as so many of his role models have. "What overcomes doubt," he says, "is the resolve and the passion and determination of people like Steve Jobs and Sam Walton, whether it's going over the hill in Normandy or whether it's building a freaking pinball machine."
The result of Guanieri's passion and determination is self-evident. In sending out the first shipment, Guanieri released a statement thanking everyone involved and who bought one of the highly sought after Wizard of Oz machines for their support. Guanieri also promised more code updates for the machine to come:
"While the proverbial yellow brick road may have been a bit longer than anticipated, we are absolutely thrilled to be shipping games now. In these coming weeks the game code will continue to evolve with regular updates as Keith and Ted implement more modes and rules.....If you "tweet", we have created a special Twitter Page to announce code updates when they're ready. We will also announce when code updates are available on on the Jersey Jack Pinball Facebook Page."
Jack Guanieri and Joe Newhart of PinballSTAR Amusements will be at Pinfest 2013 on May 3rd & 4th in Allentown, PA with 3 Wizard Of Oz Pinball Machines.
