The constant ding with the left sling hit, is literally, mind-numbing

The out of theme soundeffects that are on this game make it sound you're playing a Peggle themed slot machine that has a LOTR/Hobbit backdrop...

I stopped bashing woz stuff a while ago. Honestly because after getting Lotr I started thinking the Hobbit would have to be in play. I came with full intent to like it and get on board.
Bottom line is its a huge fail. Empty and boring.
To say the Smaug is disappointing is being nice. It turns around.. Ooohhh. Shoot targets and loops and the center. Chopping wood with some pop ups that just don't satisfy.
I bet even the usual fans will soon admit it's a far cry from Woz and very lacking. Seriously bummed and I'm the last one to say that.
Both Stern and JJP need their asses kicked as TWD and Hobbit are fails. Jeez add Jpops show and you would almost leave in tears.
TBL saved this year.

You seem to post on Hobbit threads somewhat frequently. What is your secret for not getting mob attacked? Am I just being perceived as more harsh than you? Is it because I included "CraZ" in my username and that's just too easy for simpletons to latch onto?

At this point I think Jack needs to get out there and make a statement about what is in the final game as it's now hurting sales. I know several people who have already backed out of their preorder and I'm considering doing the same thing. I'm a big JJP supporter but at the end of the day I have to look at what I'm spending $7500 on.

I think there's still a lot of cool things about The Hobbit but the unfinished looking Smaug area, the book "toy" and the unfinished look of the apron is leaving many of us scratching our heads. I'm hoping that these concerns can be addressed. I'll give JJP the benefit of the doubt as they did an incredible job with WOZ.

Agreed, I'm in on pre-order, I could kinda handle 1 thing not being the best say Smaug, but if the book stays in place of LCD and that's it for the apron then I'll pick up a LOTR & Metallica!
And I fecking love my WOZ, which IMHO looks better, even the early days WOZ! It just looks like it has more on it!

It could have been worse 4 times in 54 seconds that could get old.

So who has played it? What were the bash toys like?

I'm keeping my preorder for now but have an uncertain feeling in the pit of my stomach after the reveal.

Agreed. If the Expo game is indeed the final, I'm going to (sadly) cancel my order.

The game play and multiball so far look good, not great, but these are short videos. I need more, as well as actual hands on play, before plunking down $7500. Lesson learned with WOZ and MMrLE.

I really love the integration of the movie(s) into the game/LCD and hope there's more clips than WOZ.
It would be excellent alongside my LOTR...

I may have to agree. This is/was my first NIB but there is no way i will spend that kind of money for this pin. Just give me a WOZ... I am sad today.. But, if this is not the finished product, please someone tell us this before the hobbit goes south quickly...

Even with the underwhelming book toy and a less detailed looking Smaug than many hoped for .. you should probably still at least play a game yourself before ever considering cancelling. You've waited this long ... at least get your hands on it. I don't think there is hardly anything fun to look at in ST but some people seem to still think the game is a ton of fun.

ST is fun because it's lightning quick. TH looks dull and languid flow wise. Until we see longer videos, I think it will be difficult to really gauge gameplay.

Am I the only person that sees TH playfield and thinks that it looks entirely bland?

No there have been about a hundred other people that have said the same thing.

Based on the bulk of posting you are far from the only one. Definitely a lackluster performance. The backside of Smaug when turned around is unbelievably bad. I have never seen a mountain that looks like that. Might as well do away with the spin feature totally so people can see him in attract mode and maybe want to pump a dollar in. The artwork on the big open area on the playfield is truly bland to borrow your word. I could go on but I am just glad that I never put any money on this.

Yeah, I was confused by that as well. It looks more like a rock climbing wall (or just a big boulder) than anything close to resembling a mountain.

You make a good point about the attract mode. I think they will probably have Smaug facing forward and talking during attract mode though (and turn and hide when the game starts)... that would make sense.

You keep saying many are disappointed with the detail of Smaug, which is such a non-issue compared to the major problems. Smaug doesn't live up to the hype in regards of (not) interacting on a mechanical level. I think that is the major cause of disappointment. Too bad that there's nothing on the table to make up for it:

* The only innovation are the individual drop targets. They are kinda nice, sure... they're just not THAT nice.
* There's a lot going on UNDER the playfield. Much of it doesn't show. TH just doesn't look very interesting and nothing you see looks particularly new, cool or special.
* There's nothing that ties the different elements of the table together. Smaug body? Mountain? Bag End? There's much room for improvement, literally.
* So far the flow of the game seems ok, not great. Half of the center shots don't make it up the ramp and the upper right flipper is completely useless.

People keep saying that the stuff we can't see (code, sound) will make up for everything that's missing right now, but that's bs. It doesn't change the fact that the table as is is a big disappointment. I mean, come on, by that logic all we'd need are whitewoods.
Sure, a crappy table with great code is better than a crappy table with crappy code. But this is not what we expected from JJP.

You can have tons of fun on tables that cost significantly less than TH. What I want to see is a gameplay video that shows why folks should buy this game when they can get a JP and a LOTR and still save a couple bucks.
Jack's convinced TH is the best thing since sliced bread? Show us!

Seems you aggree with me. Btw. I don't even think there should necessarily be more stuff on the PF. But when there's not much to look at, what you do see has to be all the more convincing. So far that's not the case with TH. (I'm saying this as someone who actually likes the photoshop art and the Smaug figure.)

there have been barren playfields that have turned into great games. AFM, i'm looking right at you.

That being said, i would like to see more actual physical "stuff" for my money.

for the money jjp is asking for this it just doesn't make sense to me. with so many other options coming to light, prices need to drop and there must be more to the games for me to be interested. yeah this is a pass for me. maybe jjp#3 will have the creative freedom necessary to have a more inspiring and robust product.

I've watched all the posted videos that I could find and did not see that upper RIGHT flipper make that left ramp once. Is there something yet to be done to give that flipper it's "raison d'etre"?

The windlance is supposed to shoot dragons...the dragon is on the left...the windlance shoots to the right...is the kickback supposed to shoot towards the upper right flipper so that you can "one time" Smaug on the rebound?? If not, then I guess you are shooting to nuke ... BAGEND??

They removed the upper LEFT flipper because they poorly thought up the design... maybe they should have pulled the upper right one also (and put another shot there).

The upper flippers are great for creating speed and loopy flow... but they have to go SOMEWHERE.

I'd really like to know the history that led to some of these "savvy" decisions (as well as the neutering of Smaug)...If limitations were place on JJP from the "higher ups", there had to have been more interesting workarounds than what has been presented here...

They got a great first game, they got lots of sales, they got a great licence with a perfect pinball character (a Dragon for pete's sake!). This should have been out of the park.

I believed the hype and was truly expecting THE masterpiece...my fault.

There is still some good stuff on the table and I do like those ramps up the middle...but it seems like a lot of good ideas died along the way...

watching the videos and looking at the pictures doesn't make go ''i gotta have this''.
at 8k+ you better give me more than this, lcd is great no doubt but...

upper flipper is probably there because of earlier design and was left there.

Post more video from expo! Also any impressions playing the game?

Looks like a big bland wide empty and floaty Fish Tales.

At least Fish Tales is fast.

And the plastic book????? Was that supposed to be an LCD book thing...similar concept to the crystal ball on WOZ?

The whole back section of the PF (Smaug, the U-ramp, etc) should be covered with a plastic/molded mountain. And Smaug should have snatched balls for a lock at the very least. Very disappointing effort for this theme and given the high bar set with WOZ.

For those of u complaining about certain noises being over powered and annoying its a very early code and there isn't even any actors dialog in the game yet from gandolf directing u on the journey. There was a similar irritating sounds when u hit the ball into the crystal ball spinner on early woz. It went away as the code progressed. Keith and the team will keep doing their job give it time.

With that note I finally can release a video I have had from early prototype hobbit. It's a quick drop target video. Also shows the early wire forms which are gone. I loved them but it deff unblocked ur view of the left drops with them gone.. Not the reason there gone but is what it is. Here's the drop target test cycle. Watch to the end!

A quick reset of the targets looks neat I guess ... but I have no idea why that would make sense during the game. And while the drop targets are "neat" ... it's hard to make up for everything else that seems to be missing or given much less attention.

As someone else stated on one of these threads ... it feels like a slightly flashier EM game. I hate to be negative but it's really a step or two back on innovation to slightly improve something that has been in pinball for decades and decades.

thats just a test cycle....any one of them can be up or down in any configuration keith wants at any time...what he does will be up to his code work

So then, how is this innovation? Sure the code will be much, much deeper ... but does it not look like an old EM to you?

My son just asked me if this was made by the guy who made fish tales.

IMHO: It looks like some of the best aspects of an EM, yes. And in the hands of a creative programmer, I think it can make some very, very, creative and innovative modes. We'll have to see what Keith does with it. My vote is of confidence wrt seeing some cool modes.

I'll bet that somewhere in this, the shot to kill Smaug will be a single, rapidly moving "gap" in the otherwise upright drop targets rapidly cycling across all three drop target banks.

I don't know guy, id ask u to see the game in person when u get the chance. Play the game, and see if u like it. If u don't like it so be it. Everyone has there own tastes, I like the game, I hated mustang, I like twd... More new games to buy, better then no new games to buy. The big laboswki too. We have options.

Fair enough. I'm assuming you have pre-ordered this game and you're happy with what you see so far so that is good.

I'm sure I'll see this game some day. It seems like more places within a reasonable driving distance are putting pinball machines back out these days so I hope to find one.

The VUK wire forms look so much better on this white wood. Please get rid of that horrible metal rock VUK and go back to something like this.

thanks for sharing the vid

The VUKs look like the ductwork on my parents' furnace when I was growing up a long time ago.

Time is right for LOTRve!!!!!!

I know I really loved them as wire forms too.

Played the Hobbit machine a few times today in the expo vendor hall. Liked the look of both versions of cab art shown. The smaug cab art looked even better than the woz direct print cabs to me. The way the display is divided up seemed to be easier to see the game info I was looking for. Each section is well defined and its contents were very fluid.

Game was hooked up to external speakers and a sub. No idea if some of the sound was being played by the speakers in the game or not simultaneously.

I wish someone had taken a video of the very first ball I played due the fact that I had one very long multiball session which resulted in a score of over 200k. During the m-ball there were no visual/audio clues directing me on what to hit or shoot at. This alone leads me to believe that the software present in the game was just meant to show some general features of the game to the expo crowd. Of course I may of missed the visual clues if present while keeping the balls in play.

The popup targets were linked to individual hurry ups activated by 1 of the inlanes when lit. The popups registered from many angles which was very satisfying to see. When hit they went down quick.

The ramps can be backhanded when hit cleanly. Didn't experience any rejected ramp shots going sdtm at all.

Captive ball in between the ramps hitable and registers from the upper flipper. Don't recall making any ramps from it so no idea if that's possible or not. Was able to hit the left scoop/vuk though with the targets down of course.

Felt good to flip around on the Hobbit which is to be my 1st nib game. Sure some things can be improved upon from the game as shown at expo since it wasn't the final released product. I wont state my opinion on the gameplay here due to that fact. If any of my friends wish to have my thoughts on the gameplay, please email or pm me.

As an owner of LOTR, a game I will never sell, and as a future owner(paid in full), of the Hobbit SE, and as a recent buyer of WOZ for my sibling, I think we should all give JJP a bit more time to get the Hobbit right. I agree the book looks out of place and is probably just a placeholder. And for certain, Smaug needs to be tuned up. But I think we need to be patient with the progress of this machine. The code has a long way to go, and I suspect the game will look different in its final form. JJP has been a great innovator with it's LED and fantastic lighting. But it has not been very successful with meeting deadlines. I am not entirely happy with the current progress either, but I think the realistic view is that JJP needs more time. I agree JJP is unable to churn out 2-3 machines every year like Stern, but I would argue that JJP is making a different product than Stern. Bottom line.......cut JJP some slack here.

Holy cow, I can just picture the migraine I'd have after playing through that noise.

It's not the code people are worried about.

Wow thats strange as I'm in exactly the same situation as you regarding machines.

I'm happy to cut jjp some slack and have the patience of a saint, but some words from jjp would help a lot at this point. As far as people know so far we have been sold a pup and that smaug could be a barometer of things to come.

If you are susceptible to migraines.... mayyyybe you're in the wrong hobby.

Hobbit has a nice cabinet art; there's that.

I played a game on it, got 41,142 on one ball. Seemed like it played for an hour, but more likely it was a couple minutes or so.

It was nice that they had it set on 1-ball, so that everyone could get a chance to play. I gave up waiting in lines for TBL.

Expo 642.JPG

Expo 645.JPG

Must be something wrong with me because I really like the look of the hobbit.

How different are the enhanced decals from the standards? From the pics, the major difference seems to be that they are glossy. Anything else?

Looks more like a SYS80 on steroids...wide open, lots of drop targets and no flow. hmm maybe I'll actually like the Hobbit as I do like SYS80's!