Sorry that I’ve been so remiss in posting here lately – but between life and enjoying the amazing new WOZ software version 3.0 released not too long ago, I haven’t had much time to film videos or write up tutorials. However, I do have something new for you today: I’ve taken a bit of footage filmed earlier this month and created a quick video testing tutorial to address an issue with the Winged Monkey that’s recently cropped up with some JJP Wizard of Oz owners.

You’ll find the video embedded below (be sure to click on 1080p!)... and after the video, a detailed write-up of exactly what’s going on!

Shortly after WOZ version 3.0 software came out, quite a few owners – including myself – noticed strange behavior in the gameplay behavior of their Winged Monkey. One such symptom is that the monkey initially refuses to pick up the ball: the magnet grabs it, the monkey starts moving down, but before it’s halfway there it suddenly reverses and returns home... and the magnet releases the ball.

After three or four tries, it appears to start working normally again... but don’t be fooled, because it’s not!

As promised, here is today’s second gameplay video for JJP’s Wizard of Oz pinball running new software version 1.22, this time featuring Reverse Flippers mode! The production quality’s definitely better on this one than the last – I think I’m finally starting to get some of these settings tweaked...

Enjoy, and be sure to leave a comment!

So, Jersey Jack Pinball’s got this snazzy new v1.22 software for The Wizard of Oz with tons of new stuff, and do you think I can record a decent game to save my life? Nope! The one really good game I had was spoiled by a freaky stuck ball in an impossible place that required removing the glass to get to! Agghhh!

I’m not done trying yet, but I thought I’d post the best of the worst for this morning. Which is indeed pretty bad, so don't take it out on the game! However, in this particular game I did manage to get all the way through There’s No Place Like Home for the first time ever, and there’s a match at the end of the game, so that’s something – but if you’re looking for new modes, they simply aren’t here. Well, I do start Weak Flippers... but there’s nothing much to see with that! Mostly you’ll be able to check out the changes made to regular gameplay, such as hurry-ups, Glinda, new audio, and new lightshows.

Without further ado, here it is!

Jersey Jack Pinball has just released a software update to their The Wizard of Oz pinball machine, replacing the former software version 1.21 with the brand new v1.22. Although this sounds like a minor update, the added content is anything but minor – representing 3 new Crystal Ball modes, 2 new Munchkinland modes including a brand new multiball, significant improvements to several other modes, plus a whole slew of bug fixes and other changes. All told, this update includes over 230 new files!

Of note, as of this moment the update has been released as a “delta” (see our tutorial on delta updates), however if you have an unusually slow USB stick the update may fail to apply, requiring you to restore to the last full install, v1.18. JJP will be addressing this issue later today (Wednesday), so if you don’t absolutely need to update this instant, you might want to wait.

For now (you know there will be more coming!) I've whipped up a quick video with the attract mode lightshow, including the new choreography for the JJP logo itself (starting just after the one minute mark).

The changelog for this version is included below:

After yesterday’s gameplay video showing JJP’s The Wizard of Oz running v1.21 software, I decided to see if I could improve my audio capture quality by recording directly from the game’s line level output... and during my initial test, ended up having my best-ever game of WOZ at 295,917 points (and yes, that’s with my extra ball problem fixed). The only problem: audio didn’t come out at all good! Seems I was using a cable with a bad connector, and my recording ended up being horribly clipped (while not actually overloading the capture device). That’ll teach me to rely on VU meters without grabbing a pair of headphones to double-check!

I’ve salvaged the track as best I can (mostly by mixing it with the “live” recording I also made), but will only post the most interesting part of the 16-minute game: which is about two-thirds of Ball 3, where I stack more modes and multiballs than I ever have on WOZ!