Date: 13th January, 2013

With The Wizard of Oz due to appear at the EAG Expo trade show in just nine days, the UK distributor for Jersey Jack Pinball's products - Pinball Heaven - held a launch party near their base in the village of Tarleton, near Preston in Lancashire.

The two Emerald City Limited Edition machines which will be at EAG were set up in the function room of the Cock & Bottle pub, and Pinball News made the 450-mile round trip to be there in time for the opening at midday.

The two machines are set up

Everyone admired the quality of the cabinet printing

One of the machines had the manufactured date recorded on the back of the cabinet as 1st November 2012, while the other was much newer.

Just 10 days old

The backs of the two machines

The unlit topper

Pinball Heaven owner Phil Palmer sets up one of the machines

The playfield with the game de-powered

The software on the two Limited Edition machines was still at a fairly early stage, with Emerald City Multiballl being the only feature which worked to any degree. A new software version is expected very shortly and will be on show at the EAG Expo show.

The first game is played

It wasn't long before both machines were in constant play, with plenty of players waiting for their turn. For nearly everyone, this was the first time they had seen the machine in the flesh, and comments were universally positive about the appearance, solidity and qualify of construction, and the machine's feel when playing.

Soon, both machines were ready to play

The crowd of waiting players and watchers soon grew

At its peak there were around 40 people playing, waiting to play, or just watching

Fun playing The Wizard of Oz

The machines didn't survive the journey and the launch party without a few minor problems. For instance, a fuse on one machine's power/driver board blew, although a replacement of equal rating had no problems for the rest of the day, and one of the trough switches had a momentary detection issue, but that soon cleared and didn't recur.

The launch party was free for those who braved the rain, sleet and snow, and Phil not only got the pub to provide plenty of hot and cold food for the visitors, he also paid for all the drinks at the bar which was greatly appreciated.

There were also flyers handed out which included the Pinball heaven logo.

The UK version of the flyer

The event wrapped-up at around 5:30pm, as the two machines were packed away and loaded into a van, ready for collection by a courier to take them to London for the EAG Expo show which takes place on the 22nd -24th January.

Naturally, Pinball News will be there all three days to bring you all the latest happenings.

© Pinball News 2013