Willy Wonka revealed

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Chris K
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Willy Wonka revealed

Post by Chris K »

Just in case anyone is living under a rock. :)

Here’s the most info I found in one place so far:

https://www.thisweekinpinball.com/willy ... ages-more/

The LE adds the typical JJP stuff and the Wonkavator (a physical 3-ball lock on the backboard). $7500/9500/12500.

It looks gorgeous! We’re packing this morning up to head to MGC, I can’t wait to see it!
Our pinball table breeding stock:
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Scared Stiff, Black Hole, Roy Clark, Monster Bash Remake, Future Spa, Big Deal, Top Score, Baywatch, Rick and Morty, TMNT, Sinbad, Guns N Roses
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zenbone
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Re: Willy Wonka revealed

Post by zenbone »

watched some coverage online.... looks like a great machine but online stuff can be a bit deceiving vs. real life.
did you get a chance to shoot it? what did you think of it?
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Chris K
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Re: Willy Wonka revealed

Post by Chris K »

We played some games at MGC. I didn't play enough to give an in-depth review (I'm not very good and I didn't look at the rules), but it plays really fun! It's a really nice-looking table of course, and what I heard of the sound (it was LOUD in the hall) sounded like a lot of voice callouts. The ramps both shot nice. The gobstopper shot was fun (and I won't call it difficult, cause I think I was just drunk and tired). Wonkavision was pretty cool, with the left half being an easy orbit and the right half pretty tight.

I don't like pops that can directly drain, and I had a few of those. It's like Kiss/Aerosmith in that regard. It's also not one of those tables where it's immediately obvious what's going on by the inserts, but that's kind of a JJP thing, and there's plenty of time for that to improve (like Hobbit did in 3.0).

I think you can look at the footage and the game plays pretty much like you'd expect. Compare to something like GB Pro where the right ramp is itty bitty and annoying and you wouldn't know it to watch talented players. Wonka shot nice.

I walked away from the show conflicted... I liked Black Knight Premium (the upper playfield isn't amazing, but it was much more fun than the ramp return on the Pro to me), and I liked Wonka a bit more. Chateen liked Wonka a lot more than Black Knight. So Wonka wins for us.

The conflicted part is, we both like JJP Pirates more than Wonka. If the JJP Pirates Standard was at price parity with Wonka, I'd buy that. But that extra $1K is too much to swallow for us for one pin. So.... Wonka?
Our pinball table breeding stock:
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Scared Stiff, Black Hole, Roy Clark, Monster Bash Remake, Future Spa, Big Deal, Top Score, Baywatch, Rick and Morty, TMNT, Sinbad, Guns N Roses
MikeS
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Re: Willy Wonka revealed

Post by MikeS »

I got to play a handful of games on Wonka with my son yesterday and was really impressed with the game overall. It's probably the best layout I've ever played and the shots all felt like butter! The game just looked great and the game objectives were easy to understand. It looked and felt like what I'd expect a Lawlor WPC game to look like in 2019 had they not gone out of business.

The best part of the game is the lower $7500 price point on the Standard. It's the first JJP game where they actually put value into the base model machine. I'm pretty tempted to buy one but the good news is that you don't have to make up your mind right now. They'll be making this game for Years' to come!

And I agree with Chris that if Pirates standard were $7500 that I'd choose it over Wonka. Pirates has deeper and further along code and I think the toys and innovation is ahead of even Wonka.
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ralphwiggum
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Re: Willy Wonka revealed

Post by ralphwiggum »

Wonka is a no brainer for me..... I love the movie, and the game looks great (even if it is Lawlor :evil: ). I am just not a buyer at $7500. It is still hard to believe that a machine can cost $7500. I remember laughing at an auction many years back when some "sucker" bought a routed Cactus Canyon for $4500.

Time will tell though. If the code gets the depth that a $7500 machine should really have, it may make it difficult for me to say no. Right now, it looks like a really nice Stern Pro from a code perspective, but with all of the quality and looks of a JJP pin. They really do have the market cornered and games with personality/identity.

I feel like JJP is what Williams would be today if their doors were still open.
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Chris K
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Re: Willy Wonka revealed

Post by Chris K »

The theme does it for me, and there's some fun shots for sure. I think it's all up to getting enough plays on it that I learn the rules a bit. The thing I liked about BKSOR is that within a few seconds I learned:

1) Hit the upper lock light then lock, repeat for multiball
2) Hit the shield lock light then lock, repeat for multiball
3) Shoot the spinny ball thing to get to the upper playfield
4) When the Black Knight is freaking out, hit the target in front of him

That pretty much took me through all my games at MGC, and would probably take me through a month or two at home as I learned the rules.

JJP tables are pretty bad at being obvious, in general. When someone explained Hobbit's rules to me, I started loving it. I can see there's a giant pile of rules in Pirates, and all I can figure out is OMG THIS BOAT IS AWESOME! Pirates and Wonka are both really fun layouts (I prefer Pirates, personally), so it's all up to "WTF am I supposed to do with this thing?".

I really liked Dialed In when I first tried it, but so much of the table is locked behind that stupid, hard-to-hit-easy-to-brick scoop that I liked it less the more I played it. The question is, when you learn Pirates or Wonka, will you like it more or less?

For the cost, I agree, it's kinda bonkers. For us it's a matter of limited space and getting our favorite tables. I'm willing to burn a little cash on something amazing. But it's gotta be amazing.

That Pirates boat is amazing. Shit, this is a Wonka thread. :?
Our pinball table breeding stock:
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Scared Stiff, Black Hole, Roy Clark, Monster Bash Remake, Future Spa, Big Deal, Top Score, Baywatch, Rick and Morty, TMNT, Sinbad, Guns N Roses
pinballgap
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Re: Willy Wonka revealed

Post by pinballgap »

Wonka is going to be a fun Jersey Jack game.The playfield, theme is great, the shots are good,with Pat doing code it will be good , and hey its willy wonka and will be fun to own.As far as a innovative fun and challenging players game for home use Pirates wins with no comparison. It's worth the extra cash if you have it.They may make more in the future, but if not, it will have better resale value 5 years down the road (if that's a consideration for the buyer).The only problem I had at the show with the JJ games was the week flippers at the show.Could be a setting or lack of power due to all the juice needed to run so much fun,but if not they really need to look into why that is happening and correct it.
A sleeper game that has good playing shots and cost value is Oktoberfest.I didn't get into the code but the gameplay and shots are just as good as most other games out there.
DeaconBlooze
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Re: Willy Wonka revealed

Post by DeaconBlooze »

The weak flippers bothered me too. It seems to be a symptom of JJP in general to me. Even when they aren't "weak", it feels like there's just a little lag. Hard to describe, but everything feels kind of soft compared to the more crisp responsive feeling of the Stern flippers.

Wonka does seem like it would be fun to play. I liked the limited time I had on it at the show. While I'm glad they did cut their prices, it's still way too expensive for me to consider grabbing one. For that matter, so are the new Sterns. I sort of blew my load last year when I grabbed SW Pro and TNA. I'd need to move one of those before I could consider grabbing something else new. Honestly, nothing has come out recently to compel me to do that. Plus, those 2 games are my kids favorites. Maybe they just have a sense for how much they cost...
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ChrisS
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Re: Willy Wonka revealed

Post by ChrisS »

Although I'm not a Wonka buyer I think the game looks great. JJP really has nailed it with the LCD screen. They just keep improving it. I can't wait to find it on route. It's a good sign when even TN can be into a PL game. :lol:

I just can't see spending that kind of money anymore when for that you can get WCS, Jackbot & a 1 or 2 Sys11's depending on the current rate for WPC games. That is 3-4 times the fun to me because no matter what the game is, it will become tired over time and you will need a break from it.

Chris
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Chris K
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Re: Willy Wonka revealed

Post by Chris K »

I agree on JJP games and the flippers. They set 'em wimpy. I cranked up the back legs on Hobbit to make it less floaty and then bumped the flippers up enough to backhand a ramp from a cradle.

I love JJP's menus, with their full, granular adjustability of power for all coils. I set the slings strong enough to avoid a lot of back & forth, the VUKs and trough to not fail but not blast the table, and the plunger to hit the DWARF targets every time. Beats the heck out of screwing with leaf switches for dialing in a table.

Stern continues to wimp out on this, with only certain coils (ie: GB scoop/saucer) having full-range controls. I was excited to hear people talking about CGC tables having power settings, until I tweaked my MBr last night and found the tweaks weren't for everything, and consisted of something like "min, normal, +1, and max".

Why can't everyone take a page from JJP's book and make some decent menus? It's a one-time development cost with payoff on every table.
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Star Trek: The Next Generation, Scared Stiff, Black Hole, Roy Clark, Monster Bash Remake, Future Spa, Big Deal, Top Score, Baywatch, Rick and Morty, TMNT, Sinbad, Guns N Roses
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Re: Willy Wonka revealed

Post by DeaconBlooze »

There's a lot that could just be taken and implemented as industry standard. I love the audits on TNA - I can just take out my phone and take a picture of a single screen (or maybe 2 with a scroll) of all of the gameplay audits. That's way more convenient than cycling through and trying to take note of things I may care about.

Or maybe Stern has changed this since moving to LCD.. I should probably just check my audits on SW to see.
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Chris K
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Re: Willy Wonka revealed

Post by Chris K »

Star Wars is just a big dumb emulated DMD. I bet it's 90% Whitestar, still.
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Re: Willy Wonka revealed

Post by DenisRey »

Is that a bad thing, Chris?
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Chris K
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Re: Willy Wonka revealed

Post by Chris K »

DenisRey wrote: Mon Jun 03, 2019 8:57 am Is that a bad thing, Chris?
Yeah, it's lazy. A waste of a nice big LCD that could be used to make our lives easier. I suppose they saved some cash when development BM66 by doing this, but we're still stuck with the crappy menus now.

Which would you rather troubleshoot?

JJP switch matrix test:
Image

Stern switch matrix test:
Image
Our pinball table breeding stock:
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Scared Stiff, Black Hole, Roy Clark, Monster Bash Remake, Future Spa, Big Deal, Top Score, Baywatch, Rick and Morty, TMNT, Sinbad, Guns N Roses
Hilton
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Re: Willy Wonka revealed

Post by Hilton »

Madison people will get to explore this game soon...
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