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THE WIZARD OF OZ

Little by little, additional details of Jersey Jack Pinball's The Wizard of Oz are released, and the latest announcement shows the left side of the playfield layout.

The left side of the playfield drawing

The picture shows the position of the Witch's Castle mini-playfield at the back left of the game, with the ball popper which feeds it and the orbit lane beneath. There are also three Haunted Forest pop bumpers, the position of the Wicked Witch device shown earlier is revealed along with a new Crystal Ball spinner feature with a four-bank of targets, a ball popper which feeds to the left inlane and a modification to the outlane target bank.

Let's start at the top left though, and that mini-playfield.

The Witch's Castle mini-playfield area

Jack describes this part of the game by saying, "The upper left playfield is the Witch's Castle. Once up there you will have different opportunities for scoring and mode advancement. The player must also open the doors of the castle to rescue the Dorothy captive ball. There is also a Winkie Guard drop target preventing you from entering the Witch's Castle so you will have to get by him somehow to get up to that Witch's Castle."

Just out of shot is a centre ramp which is flanked by ruby standup targets. We should have more on this soon when the right side of the playfield is revealed.

The exit from the mini-playfield takes the ball onto a wireform above the pop bumpers, before sending it over to that right side of the game.

The Crystal Ball area

How the Crystal Ball will look or be implemented has not been announced yet, but there is a spinner mounted at the bottom of the pop bumpers, a four-bank of F-A-T-E targets and a ball popper, which is fed from those pop bumpers and sends the ball onto a cross-playfield wireform which ends at the left inlane.

According to Jack, the spinner/Crystal Ball feature will enable mystery and other qualified awards to be collected.

The lower left of the playfield

The State Fair Balloon feature has changed slightly with the original W-I-Z-A-R-D targets now spelling out K-A-N-S-A-S instead. The layout and function of the targets remains the same though.

Here's how Jack describes the various features on the left side of the playfield.

From the bottom up, last week we revealed the State Fair Balloon Bumper. This is a game below the game and spelling targets encourage the player to nudge the ball using that bumper as a flipper and trying to save the ball by returning it back up the lane into play or earn a qualifying game or even to get another ball awarded.

Moving up we now see the Crystal Ball Spinner shot that ties a spinning target to the Crystal Ball that will enable mystery awards and other qualified awards.

Next we see the three haunted Forest Tree Bumpers and some rollovers representing the main characters in the forest which reward point value and awards to the player. Matt will be sculpting all of these bumpers so they are unique and add another dimension to the game.

Next we find the Wicked Witch of the West on the edge of the Haunted Forest where she will appear and disappear messing with the player. There are skill shots to hit her and make her melt into the playfield.

The upper left playfield is the Witch's Castle. Once up there you will have different opportunities for scoring and mode advancement. The player must also open the doors of the castle to rescue the Dorothy captive ball. There is also a Winkie Guard drop target preventing you from entering the Witch's Castle so you will have to get by him somehow to get up to that Witch's Castle.

Many elements of the left side of the playfield represent the "Evil darker side" of the story we tell. Next we will show you more of the right side of the playfield.

Jack is also due to announce the distributors in the US and internationally shortly.

Rest assured you'll be able to read this and all the latest news on The Wizard of Oz right here at Pinball News.

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