Wow! This is an incredible update, tons of stuff added and many of them items that owners and players have been suggesting.

This is a type of code update that will take The Hobbit to the next level! Thank you JJP

Still bashing the game I see....in a code update thread of all things, wow.

Dude, get out of here and stop trolling.

Absolutely. This is the type of code update that elevates a game to a new level. Pretty much everything that has been mentioned multiple times by owners over the past year has been added. Very impressed.

Wow! Very cool. Thanks Ted for all of your hard work on this update.

There's one question remaining and that is...Will we eventually see a "Bilbos Auction" super duper wizard mode added? That is the last major event of the trilogy after all. Lol, just joking.

Another example of JJP offering the best code support in pinball! Thanks Ted

I thought I read some rumors that 3.0 is being streamed today? Does anyone know if that's true?

Cool. Thanks Ted!

Very cool! I'm so glad that option was added as it provides more incentive for beating multiple modes as well as provides another path to Arkenstone mode attempts versus having to repeat the normal qualifier.

One thing I'm curious about is say 3 Arkenstone mode attempts have been made (so all 3 in order), none of them are completed and you start a 4th attempt. At that point do you go back to the 1st Arkenstone mode (Into the Fire) where you last left off, do you start it over from the beginning, or can you choose any of the 3 Arkenstone modes at that point? I agree 100% with JJP that the Arkenstone modes should be played in order as you are building upon the major events of the trilogy. It would be cool though to have the option to select which Arkenstone mode you want to play after a 3rd attempt has been made as at that point all 3 would have been played once.

It sounds like Ted and the team really want to have them played in order and I can understand that. Playing the Arkenstone modes in order follows the trilogies story. However, should the modes be played in order? Do we have to play the book modes in order from movie 1 to movie 3? Do you have to play the mini wizard modes in POTC in order? Do you have to play Return of the King, Fellowship of the Ring, and Two Towers muiltiball in LOTR in order? No, you have a choice in all 3 of those situations. It would be nice to have the option to select a mini wizard mode when one has reached.

When an Arkenstone mode is lit it could be really cool to have a large animation appear on the main LCD showing the icons of the 3 Arkenstone modes with the text "Choose an Arkenstone Mode". When you press the flippers it selects between them giving off a lit insert affect as each one is selected.

I see the big 2.95 - 3.0 updates add a lot of choice to the game. It would be cool to see the game make the last step and allow any of the 3 Arkenstone modes to be selected. If JJP is really set in stone on not offering this at least give players the option to select an Arkenstone mode after all 3 are played at least once in order. That would be a compromise then

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.

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.

Yes! It's awesome that JJP delivered on the code for The Hobbit and listened to owners concerns. The last update was huge and took things to a new level. 2.97 / 3.0 looks like it will really help polish things off. Also heard a pretty substantial update for Dialed In is coming too. Thank you JJP

Also, from an owners and potential customers perspective it looks really good going into Expo with code updates for your games and having very polished release code for your latest game.

I may have found a bug with 2.97. After playing Smaug MB i started the mode "Flashback" that was from the time when Smaug terrorized Laketown years before the films. In earlier code I thought Smaug started moving around almost immediately when the mode starts. When I played the mode today I made a few shots but he never moved once. I ended up draining during the mode so not sure if Smaug starts to move around later in the mode. I got to the point in the mode where you load the Windlance but Smaug still hadn't moved yet. On my next ball I started locking balls again and Smaug moved so I can verify it's not a hardware issue.

Here's the scene the mode is based off of.

Ball locks towards Smaug multiball
During Smaug multiball (6 stages, a majority of the callouts are used in this mode)
Post game sequence

There's now a lot more Smaug callouts in the game then there used to be and I've noticed that they rotate. In the past it was always the same set of few Smaug callouts that played. Smaug does move around in one of the book mode missions but I don't believe he talks in it. I still wish there was a "Riddles in the Dark" and / or "Thief in the Shadows" book mode or multiball with Smaug and Bilbo going back and forth but overall very happy with how more Smaug callouts are now in the game.

Honestly I'm not sure. I think the ruleset is pretty amazing, those last few updates were huge and really revamped the game. Ted Estes and the JJP team did an incredible amount of code work with those final few updates. I also think Ted posted a while back that he has no desire to go back to the game after working on it so much with those final few updates.