Me personally, i love GOT pro. I love the shots, and the rules. I had LOTR for a while, but got tired of the long ball times, with some games approaching an hour long. As far as lasting ability, LOTR is timeless and one of the best ever, but it all depends on how you like to play.

GOT is shiny and new but I would go with tried and true: LOTR!

I really like GOT pro, its a great pin but not quite in the same league as LOTR's, unless your a huge GOT fan then the choice is simple.

As a GOT owner I would go LOTR for the family for sure.

I have a GoT LE and have owned a LOTR in the past. Although they both have a medieval theme they are very different games. As mentioned, LOTR tends to have much longer games and GoT plays much faster. You are also deciding between a 12 year old game that has a much higher probability of maintenance and condition issues than a NIB game. I much prefer GoT, but it is a personal choice.

I have LOTR and GOTLE. LOTR has a little more depth, but GOT has more breadth with the multiple scoring multipliers, WIC hurry-ups, etc. I prefer the way modes are implemented on LOTR - they have a little more shot variety.

Art and audio quality are much better on Spike than Whitestar, but I think Whitestar is more robust and easier to repair yourself. I'm very concerned about how few fuses there are with Spike. My node 1 board failed and it's not even fused! Expensive little board too.

Finally, mods: LOTR supports ColorDMD now, and it looks fantastic. It's easier to mod the audio in Spike, using Pinball Browser. But I've never had the desire to change the LOTR callouts, because they're perfect.

I took the outlane posts out of my LOTR. Long ball times are no longer a problem.

I prefer it because it is more fun to play. But I think the reliability/condition issue is also something that the OP should also consider in comparing a NIB game to something made in 2004.

Forgot to mention gameplay. Very similar layouts, but you'll have a lot more stop-and-go with LOTR with the Ring, the Path of the Dead and the Shire. And the Gimli and Ring shots can be frustrating to younger/newer players. I don't have anything negative to say about GOT gameplay, but it's newer to me.

I actually agree with this almost completely. Including the node board 1 which also failed in my GoT LE, but was replaced under warranty at no charge. Not sure if a fuse would have prevented the failure, and I know they have made some recent code changes they claim makes this less likely, but I would agree the lack of fuses in SPIKE is concerning.

The ColorDMD in LOTR looks great, and is available now. The audio quality is much better in Spike though.

I also think the scoring multipliers, hurry ups, etc. in the GoT code are a lot of what makes that game fun for me. A lot more strategy comes into to maximizing your score and it is possible to have a short but high scoring game. In LOTR the scoring is much more linear, so a high scoring game is also a very long game.

I have GOT LE and LOTR. I never thought I'd consider getting rid of LOTR, but when I got GOT, LOTR went right to the bottom of the list (and next on the chopping block).

LOTR is a great game, but the epic ball times really wear on you, and it always seems that you have that 45-minute game when you're supposed to go somewhere. GOT on the other hand will have you hitting the start button over and over to achieve that one game where everything comes together just right...because it doesn't happen often (at least not for me).

All that said, I wonder how much of the GOT premium you played. My wife and I finally played the pro at TPF, and she said what we both were thinking: "There's a whole lot missing from this game."

Best of luck in your decision. Both great games.

Disagree. The verdict is still out on Spike. Whitestar is very reliable, and it's easier to change a transistor if one blows. Whitestar has far more circuit protection (fuses), and everything is through-hole so I can work on. I don't even know if anybody does Spike node board repairs yet. It's nice that Spike is modular, but if one node goes out the game is unplayable - so, same result. It's just easier to ship the boards because they're smaller.

LOTR theme is integrated way better than GOT. If you've never journeyed through LOTR, I advise you go that route. It's the slower playing pin of the 2 with much longer ball times.

I prefer GOT PRO but only because the LOTR ship has sailed long ago; been there and don't choose to go back again. Also, I'm more of a shooter style player now and care more for breadth than depth which GOT offers on a higher level.

Overall, If you want a journey - go LOTR. If youre strictly after a players pin of fun & flow, go GOT.

I will say this, the theme integration of GOT is actually quite clever in that you don't have to watch the show to understand all that's going on - its more broader theme Integration.

GoT Pro was so fun at Allentown that my wife was begging for us to buy one. Mailed a check today for our first NIB game.

I currently own both, LOTR and a GOT Pro. They are both fun games. I REALLY like GOT a lot. It is a fun game, and the scoring is a blast to try and squeeze out high scores. I constantly find myself giving extra thoughts of taking a shot that is available, or increasing its multiplier to make it more valuable. Great game.

However.... LOTR is a masterpiece. There are so many ways to play it, and so many great objectives along the way. The Multiballs are very well done, and some of the callouts are the best in pinball. But you can play it just for modes and try and go there and back again. You have Destroy the Ring, which is an amazingly fun sub-wizard mode for starting all 3 multiballs. There and Back Again requires you to collect elf rings to start more modes. And anyone that says they have hour long games is a good enough player to need to tighten the game up and make it harder. They should be starting with making the multiball starts all hard, and shutting off Mode Start on each ball. Open up the outlanes all the way, increase the pitch. An hour long pinball game is just too long, but I've never had that problem on mine.

So in this specific case, I think LOTR wins. I'm not selling my GOT any time soon because I really enjoy playing it. But if one of these two had to go, GOT would be on the next truck out of town.

GOT is a good game, but it's no LOTR. I like how GOT is a shooter's game, but I love deep, challenging rulesets so I would go LOTR in a heartbeat. If you do go GOT, the Pro is definitely a better value than the LE/Premium at this point.

Took all the flow out of the game? You must be really good at looping the right ramp over and over! JK, of course.

I own LOTR and GOT premium. Both great games so you can't go wrong. Even with GOT pro. But I still prefer the gameplay on LOTR.

Looking forward to getting our GoT Pro and turning off the casual mode that was enabled at Allentown. Was wondering why we couldn't pick our houses and was thinking that was a Premium/LE feature.

One of my games I got to Hand of the King and scored 914m and was maybe the most fun I had playing pinball. Those ramps are smooth and buttery and so much fun to nail.

I think we agree on a lot of the game play issues and I would also agree Whitestar boards are reliable and longer term reliability of Spike is unknown. But even on Whitestar, not everyone is comfortable doing board work themselves, and some of those that are probably shouldn't be. But there are still a lot of other 12 year old parts - connectors, switches, coils, bulbs, bulb sockets, caps, diodes, etc. that go bad with time and use. In a game this age there is possibility of acid damage to the boards, playfield wear, cabinet wear, etc. Sure there are great examples out there that have been well maintained, I'm just saying there is a larger element of risk in buying a used 12 year old game than a NIB game with a warranty. That would factor into my decision in comparing these games, although for some it might be less of an issue.

That said I agree that GoT and LOTR are both highly regarded games, and it would be hard to go wrong either way.

I was kinda thinking the pro would be much faster for this reason but not really sure because i havent played the pro. not a big fan of mini playfields on anything really. it's seems like an unnecessary add-on. "hey look what I did boss. I jammed this little bottleneck in the back over there. I just did it as a joke but they're going out like that"

So, all of the flow in the game is in that one ramp leading to the upper playfield? Interesting.

Well first it adds a drop target in a pretty cramped area which I don't like. And I guess instead of returning the ball to a flipper in half a second, playing the upper PF for 30 seconds might slow things down. "Flow" is a 'whatever' term anyway, but just my observations. It certain(t)ly is slower then the pro.

GOT has one of the best mini-playfields in pinball (THE best, in my opinion). It's not an add-on; The Prem/LE is the game that Steve Ritchie designed; he deleted it for the Pro.

Going back to the reliability/cost discussion (which I think is a really good one)...

I got curious about the replacement cost of the 10 node boards in GOTLE. The 7 that are available are currently about $1200. If I assume the three Serial LED boards are about $70 each, that takes the cost up to ~$1400. LOTR has 2 boards to implement all of this, at a total cost of $765. This may be kind of academic, since you'd only have to replace all the boards if something catastrophic happened, like a lightning strike.

I agree that connectors get flaky as they age. Old PCBs are surprisingly robust, though. Most of my 80's games are still running their original boards. As long as you avoid battery acid damage and shorting things out, they'll last forever.

I have my fingers crossed for Spike. I love the reduced wiring, and the creative options that it opens up for designers. I hope that diagnosing problems becomes much easier, but I also hope every repair doesn't become "replace the node board".

understood. ritchie also designed firepower. I get it. a lot of people want more perceived value and cool looking stuff to shoot at like ramps and bash toys etc. I'm likely in the minority but I'd much rather play a 30 second ball on EBD than a 3 or 4 minute ball on TZ. too much stop and go ruins my buzz...

GOT PRO has been the most quickest setup pin ive ever owned; Easiest pin to maintain; fastest Shaker install ever. And has had the least issues *knock on wood* than any other pin ive owned. So far, i like the new look, feel, and overall kinder appeal that Spike offers thus far.

Only issue I had was wire snapping off dragon opto

That reminds me - I will admit, i had to reseat my opto connectors once or twice. But no snapped wires or soldering.

It is kind of weird. The opto pad has 2 big solder joints on the back, but the wires are run over the back, to the font where they meet a very small solder joint, basically the size of the wire. Much easier to solder to the big pad on back.

Optos connections are a common point of failure for all generations of Sterns. Other than one transistor failure on LOTR, I think all of my Stern repairs have been re-soldering wires to optos. They're really reliable.

Agree lord of the rings is a masterpiece, the way the theme is intergrated is amazing really makes u feel like you apart of somthing, a little biased tho because it's my grail pin , an unfortunately GOT did nothing for me, just my opinion tho. Good luck..

For me, the upper playfield makes the game play faster. The ball is back to a flipper (an upper one) just as fast as it is on the Pro, and the smaller playfield is of course very fast with the stationary targets, the turnaround (a SR signature) and the exit lanes. It really reminds me of my Black Knight, and I jokingly call it "BK2016".

LOTR= Gomez
GOT= Ritchie
You should check out what both these designers have made in the past and see what type of style you and your family like/want. Both have made a ton of quality pins.

^^^ This was a big factor for me in picking GOT. I had 3 Gomez pins (LOTR, RFM and JM), 2 Borgs (IM, MET) and no Ritchie. In a large collection, it's a sin not to have at least one Steve Ritchie pin, and GOT checks all the boxes for me.

Lotr has so much more going on and is one of sterns best ever