My Smaug sound has always been fine. 2.96.

In the mission "Flashback" it doesn't miss the scream "Draaaaagooon" ?

The "Dragon!" shout at the beginning of "Flashback" has been replaced with Balin saying "That was the day the dragon came."

"Dragon!" is now played randomly after Smaug swoops by on the screen. The townspeople screams are sometimes randomly played instead.
--Ted

Ran update and machine says it’s missing jpg files from ‘there and back again’ folder. Keeps cycling. That folder didn’t contain jpgs when I saved to my hard drive and unzipped. Any ideas or similar experiences? Perhaps JJP is currently working the folder/files? Machine seems bricked as of this moment.

You didn't get a good download, or something went wrong when you put it on the usb stick.

I'd start with a fresh download. I'm on a PC, how I do this is download the file, put it on my desk top, it then looks like a zipped file. I put a formatted usb stick into my computer with nothing else on it. Then I left click the zipped file once, then right click, select extract all and send it to the usb stick. It should have Hobbit_Update on it. if you open the stick.

When done I go to the game with it turned on, plug in the usb stick, go to utilities and select update and do what the screen says. When done unplug the usb stick, turn game off, wait half a minute and turn game back on. Then hit enter and see if the update number is in the game, lower right corner of the game.

LTG : )

Thanks Lloyd...we did all of that, except for extracting straight to the stick. Just did and still no jpgs, per image.

And any idea how to ‘unbrick’ the machine?

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Full install if it's bricked. Follow instructions in the manual.

Takes time to download, load on stick, and into game. Files are huge.

LTG : )

Thanks again, will do. Any idea why the jpgs aren’t showing up?

What version did you have on the game when you started? Version 2.96 must be installed on top of version 2.00 or later.
--Ted

Make sure you have a complete download. Check the hash. Turn off antivirus software on the computer.

Extract the archived file to a new folder on your desktop.

Copy the update folder which is inside of the original folder to your newly formatted USB stick.

This is how I do it and I have had very few problems other than maybe a bad cable or a bad USB stick.

Thank you so much for this great job and listening customers (fans ) !!!

We're in and loving it. Sorry to make the thread a technical helpline, and thanks for sticking with it!

FYI, from 8/16 on the google/jjp thread:

"Joe Katz and I are slowly pecking away at a small list of remaining changes when we can find the time. I don't have an estimate on when we will be finished.
--Ted"

It’s been sitting on my shelf for a while, but I just watched the extended 3D trilogy for the first time (I saw the theatrical versions back when they came out)....and as much as I love the Hobbit pinball, having the movies fresh in my mind really amplifies my respect for everything Keith & Ted have done in creating this game. Their use of the movie assets to craft cool modes that make sense with the playfield features is phenomenal, and a stark contrast to the random “shoot the colored shots” of most modern games. The cinematic experience of this game is unparalleled. Yet you still hear people in the hobby parroting old first impressions without experiencing what this game is NOW...they’ll say “the shots aren’t there” or the upper flipper doesn’t do anything. So false, so completely false. This game is immensely satisfying to play due to the layout, code, LCD, rules & sound working perfectly together. The game keeps growing on me! I really hope those who’ve believed the anti-hype give it a go. There’s no game out there right now like this.

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Can't agree with you more Rarehero. I've never experienced a pin that enhances the movie experience and vice versa. Just the other day the Hobbit theme came on in the car and my daughter yelled, "Launch the ball!", followed by my son chanting, "hesitation will get you nowhere!" Love it!

What is the obstacle to having wifi/internet connection in settings of modern games and having the option to download/update code automatically (as an option)? Is there some downside to this other than cost of adding a usb wifi adapter or board with wifi built in? I guess they just started with the LCD's recently so maybe wifi is another 10 years out?

I imagine it’s because code updates aren’t something that happen often and at some point the game will be finished & won’t happen at all. Why bother with a constant internet connection for something you’ll do a few times, takes a few seconds, and at some point will never do again? USB is simple and easy. Much better than burning ROMS for older games.

You could use the WiFi for online play with other people with the same game or just to post scores on a dedicated score board for that game. It would be nice to be able to challenge someone to a game from your home and play against them at your convenience.

I don’t think online play for pinball can or ever will work...or even make sense. Every machine is a bit different, and set up different....and then there are cheaters. There’s no way to tell if one games score is relevant to another. I can’t imagine caring what other people’s scores are on other machines or the purpose of seeing them displayed on mine.

You may not imagine it but I can and others probably can too. Not sure how hard it would be to to have a online setting so everyone is playing the same settings, and if you need to cheat to win a friendly online game then that proves what kind of character that person has and probably would not get many game invites. Could be fun to have daily and weekly achievements to shoot for to make a game have a little longer stay power in a collection.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the Multimorphic P3 has this planned and it will be rolled out soon. They have shown multiplayer simultaneous online play at shows (Heads Up). Their new game Cosmic Cart Racing will allow up to 4 players to 'race' against one another simultaneously (cart racing themed game where you make shots to drive your cart). The game can also detect when you have the glass off and when you try to activate targets with your hand, i.e. it knows when you are cheating.

https://www.multimorphic.com/

There’s no way everyone can be playing with the same physical settings...the system is going to make sure every games legs are the same height, posts in the same positions, account for mods that alter gameplay?

This is pinball, not video games. Pinball has had staying power without gimmicks like achievements...something like that just isn’t necessary. I don’t want to see real pinball become like Zen Pinball.

...and despite these “modern features” P3 will continue to barely be a blip on the pinball radar & sell a mere fraction of what Stern & JJP are doing, because you know what people love about pinball? CLASSIC RETRO PINBALL. PC video gaming features are not a selling point. A well designed fun game with a great theme is what sells units.

Notice how popular classic retro pinballs are? You know, the ones without flippers? The EMs with two inch flippers? The luck boxes with shallow rules? The bagatelles?
Neither have I.

People want modern games. That definition will change as the technology changes. As long as grannies have money there will be games for them to spend it on but they eventually die off and are replaced with younger grannies that like more modern stuff.
Pong is a good example. Great nostalgia value but almost no one will play for thirty minutes. It was fun at the time because there was nothing better.

Playing against someone is always better than playing alone. I couldn't think of anything better than playing my best mate and seeing his face in the bottom corner using jjp's camera. We have a rule that we don't buy the same pins but if we could play head to head I'm sure that would change. And who cares if settings are a bit different we're playing for fun not world records.

You’re totally misquoting me. How I been known to ever wax nostalgic about EMs!?! LOL. By classic retro pinball I’m talking about Stern and JJP. They’re modern in the sense that they’re NEW, but they’re essentially classic 90’s games with a bit of bling. They’re balls, ramps, wood, metal, lights, sounds. Pinball is INHERENTLY retro. When most people see new Sterns like AC/DC or Star Wars, they assume they’re “classic” games, not brand new!

No one interested in pinball is losing sleep over internet functionality or anything that P3 does.

That’s subjective, but in the case of pinball, only playing together on the same machine makes sense. Playing two different pinball machines online isn’t really playing together as the experience of each machine is totally different.

In any case - is it a dealbreaker? No, cuz machines are still selling and people are playing them.

Pinball has always moved with the times as technology grows so does pinball. Yes it is better to play with someone in the same room but if you can't playing online is the next best thing.

Online play would work fine. Just like selfie leagues sure you might get some cheating but it would work

It's the obvious next step .

"Retro" changes with the times. You're trying to restrict it to a specific era or technology and it won't work. Today's cutting edge will always be tomorrow's retro. You don't see many people pining for the days of alphanumeric displays or score reels. As new technology is used in interesting ways it becomes tomorrow's retro.

The display doesn’t define pinball. The physical game of pinball defines pinball, and aside from some deeper code, that hasn’t really changed since the 90’s.

Pinball is different than other things. It’s a coin operated gaming device. Technology already technically replaced it: video games in the arcade...then at home. For all intents and purposes, when it comes to evolving technology, pinball should be dead. Arcades barely exist, because we’ve evolved beyond coin operated entertainment. Yet Pinball persists as a niche...because the people who like it, like IT. Look, I love Revenge From Mars, but Pinball 2000 didn’t move the needle. Pinball fans still wanted “regular pinball”. P3 hasn’t moved the needle, people who like pinball are still buying barebones Sterns...displays aside, nothing in their games is more advanced than the 90’s B/W titles. Pinball persists when it embraces what it is: Pinball.

Sure it’s great that technology has advanced to make scores and goals clearer, servicing easier. I don’t think internet connectivity moves the needle at all. Some people have been pushing the “Pinball needs more tech” line forever. Dialed In has a lot of tech. You know what game earns the worst at my local joint? Dialed In. Know which earns best? Ghostbusters. A game that’s barely playable with a red DMD. Reason? THEME. Theme sells pinball, not tech. I had internet connectivity & high score uploads in my Bop 2.0 & never used it. Just didn’t care. Maybe a Ted or Keith will offer an opinion on the subject. As for the topic - Hobbit is awesome.

Pinball is a great game and I would never want to change the physical or mechanical parts. All I’m saying is that if we had the opportunity to play a friend or stranger without having to be there physically it would be pretty cool. Who knows this could actually get a different generation of people involved in pinball you know the younger people that are stuck in their bedroom all day playing Xbox or PlayStation. It’s always hard to accept new change but when we do it usually sticks with us(flip phone to smart phone).

Love my Hobbit and new code.

Ah, the quest to get the younger generation into pinball....never going to happen in a mainstream way. Pinball is niche. It will always be niche. It can survive being niche, it’s not an insult. I think younger people who like pinball actually do like it for what it is. Online functions will not move the needle. Pinball is Pinball & isn’t competing with phones or games. That war ended decades ago. Ask a kid if they’d rather play Fortnite on their phone with 125 million other players or an online pinball that may have someone on the other side of it...they won’t give a shit.

Trying to get the younger generation to enjoy pinball is not a quest, but if it happens it’s not a bad thing just would be a side note in the pinball evolution.

It’s just a thing that always comes up...people always say “the companies should do ___ to get kids into pinball”. Look, it’s over. Aside from our kids, most kids won’t give a crap. Pinball is what it is:

1.) Rich man’s toy/collectible
2.) Barcade location game
3.) Niche Tournament game

Or as Stern now calls it: “A Lifestyle Brand”.

At the end of the day, these guys are running a business. Additional features take time and money. So - it always comes down to this: If feature X costs $$$ & takes up the valuable time of our programmers, will it increase sales? Online play might be a neat idea to some...but I guarantee it would result in zero extra sales. That’s why the big players haven’t bothered. Great games with great themes sell units in pinball.

Not as easy as wifi

It's ?$10 for a usb wifi adapter...and the whole the game will be finished at some point I get but that could be 5+ updates and who knows what other uses it would allow? PC based games should have wifi in 2018 regardless of how much you'd use it. It's cheap.

The hardware might be "cheap", but the software is not. Adding software to manage auto-updates via wifi, and adding security code (to prevent exploits and hacking) and account management (for users) is not a 5 minute ordeal.

Good points. Geek Squad for pinball business opportunity.

It can't be that bad though if cheap kids toys come with wifi...we're buying $8k man toys and they can't integrate a basic wifi? C'mon.

Those toys do not integrate -any- sort of security measures, and you’re not out $10K if they are bricked. The actual WiFi chip and basic software integration is a cost of about $4 and a couple of hours. That’s just to get it to work in ideal circumstances. It’s several hundred hours further to get it to work “most of the time” under less than ideal conditions. Oh. And security so people don’t post a malicious package and destroy your game when you try to upload it. Oh and test it alongside other devices so you can be sure nothing grabs onto the wrong device and wrecks it permanently.

Awesome post and a ton of great points about the game. The theme integration offered by The Hobbit is in my opinion the best in pinball. The number and uniqueness of the modes along with each containing great choreography with audio and video from the films is a bit mind boggling.

Just curious, what do you think about the theme integration on Pirates? Do you think that the lack of movie clips and movie / actor audio hurts the game? After owning The Hobbit I'm having a hard time justifying spending nearly $10k on a Pirates when it lacks the movie audio and actor audio assets. The wizard modes all come across as unique in the game but the chapter modes and movie multiballs all feel too similar in my opinion due to the lack of licensed assets.

Yes, it absolutely hurts it. The rules and depth might be there for the “pinball geek”, but for someone like me who likes games with personality and character, it’s a deal breaker. I can’t go from something like Hobbit to something like POTC. When I played it, it just felt really sterile and lifeless. You have all these characters, but no character! You have 5 movies worth of modes based on stories and moments...but there’s no story or moments to go along with the gameplay. There was one mode about a wedding...there’s nothing about a wedding while you’re playing. Stern’s POTC solved the issue of the licensor not branding movie assets: they simplified the narrative and didn’t make it based on specific movie things - you fight different ships with different captains who all have personalities and quotes as you attack, a la Medeival Madness’ castles. You collect gold, walk planks, fight krakens, etc. the sound alike Depp is good and makes you feel like it’s true to the license even tho it does it’s own thing.

Others have said this already, but whenever JJP licenses a movie or show - they should WALK and do something else if they can’t get the audio/video assets. Toy story should be fine since it’s all animation, and Wonka should be fine as it seems like older films are a bit easier to negotiate assets for.

Well, at least we're on USB's instead of floppy disk I guess. Go pinball!

hahaha hear hear !

You hit the nail on the head, I agree. I see all of these chapter intro clips played on Pirates like you said "the sword", "the negotiation" (not sure on names), etc but there's no context for what is actually occuring in the scene as no other video and audio assets from the scene involving the actors can be used.

The wizard modes in Pirates do feel like classic Keith Johnson multilayered wizard modes which is awesome but I don't find playing the chapter modes, and movie multiballs to get to them to be very interesting. Thankfully the game does have the character select feature which adds a lot of strategy to the game. Right now I'm going to wait and see how the code further develops for Pirates and see what JJP #5 is at next year's Texas Pinball Festival.

I wouldn't mind as long as you could have both wi-fi and USB options. I live in a rural area with limited internet options. One of the things I really love about pinball machines is that they aren't tied to the internet and I can enjoy them without having to have it. Every other damn piece of electronics I buy demands to be connected to the internet. The beauty of USB is that I can take my laptop into Starbucks in town, download the update, and bring it home and install it.

But I also wouldn't want resources wasted on developing wi-fi, the time is better spent on code and design, and we sure as hell don't need anything else that drives the price up even a little. PotC is close to $10k already.

I agree, you can't be immersed in the theme if you don't have the assets. Pirates looks cool and is probably going to be fun, but it won't be immersive in the same way The Hobbit is.

Also I swear I can hear some sounds from The Hobbit in PotC, like they re-used a few of the sound files instead of making new ones.

Did I overhear on the Buffalo pinball tournament that PotC was pulled from the tournament because it played too long?

Getting a nib will I have to down load and install vet 2.0 ISO and delta and then do the same with ver 3.0 ? Any help would be greatly appreciated