I noticed this for the first time...I guess I don't look up enough. What does the ball on the screen next to Radagast symbolize?

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Haha I just noticed this yesterday as well! I think these are the add-a-balls when you start a mode

You are probably right. At first I thought it meant extra ball was lit, but it wasn't. Unfortunately, I am the only one playing my games 90% of the time. I really enjoy watching others play my Hobbit because there is so much going on in the screen that I miss when I am playing. It's just a perfect blend of music, clips, callouts, and light show. Hobbit is integration perfection.

It means you have one Mode Lock ball ready to go. If you added a second Mode Lock ball it would show two up there. If you drain you lose any Mode Locks you have stashed away that ball.

Still some nasty rejects off the ramp this morning so I've upped both left and right flipper power 3 clicks above the stock value. I've also reduced the power of the left lane kick back by 4 clicks which seems to set up the upper right flipper better for drop target shots and to someday kill Smaug. I still need to reduce my auto plunger value as I feel it is too strong at stock value. Someday I'll get this thing dialed in.

well back in the club! This time with the black arrow edition. Very nice. Gorgeous game and really one of the best examples of music, theme integration and how to make modes feel special.

Game btw is heavy. Prob the heaviest JJP. Black arrow with all the fixes really makes this one feel the best imo. The pics of the black don't do it justice. It's much nice in person with some great art. It's def a unique game and I kind of missed my older one (SMAUG - another beauty).

This is the brightest modern game by far. Whoever puts pinstadiums on this should have their head examined. Great job jjp.

Also the led back light by Lermods it's very effective in this game! Highly recommended.

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I believe to have found a bug and reported it. Smaug Multiball victory lap no balls getting auto plunged.
I just had this occur for the first time after ~13 times of killing Smaug in the past. This is what I believe to be a code bug. I had Roast Mutton running and killed Smaug. The balls drained as expected but it wouldn't load up balls to auto plunge. I had to manually load a ball into the shooter lane. Closed the coin door and the ball was auto plunged but the flippers were still dead. The ball drained and then the machine started auto plunging balls for the victory laps of which I was able to play then.

Bad or loose trough sensor or cable?

Game was waiting for all balls to drain?

Never say never but I dont think so on either comments. I played another round and like normal boom smaug dies, balls drain, auto plunge does its job and the game moves on. I've heard of one other person that had this issue happen. No ball search no nothing when this happens. I'm at 14 times now of killing Smaug and I'm fairly certain when the incident happened it was the first time Roast Mutton was running. If it's a code issue I'm grateful it'll be rare.

Managed to finish Riddles in the Dark this morning which allowed a 4x Into the Fire. Over 770,000 from that after falling just short of Level 4. Just got lucky that Riddles gave easier shots than normal stacked with a multiball. Finally cracked a Million! (I don't allow Beast and Smaug multiballs to stack.)

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Congratulations ! I have never got riddles and don't know how to do it .
Riddles in the dark is a 5-star mode , I'm not sure if that is different to x 4 . I normally go for the demise of bolg , a 4 Star mode , the easiest I have found just hitting the centre ramps .

Nice! I've only finished RitD one time and, man, was I excited! What is this about a 4x Into the Fire?? Is the 4X specific to completing RitD? There is so much awesome depth in these rules, I'll probably never know them all.

1 star = 1/4 value Wizard
2 star = 1/2 value Wizard
3 star = Full value Wizard
4 star = 2x value Wizard
5 star = 4x value Wizard

I'm always trying to start a Wizard mode with at least a 3 star completed.

Congrats. This games scoring is a real head scratcher compared to most. I gave up on actual scoring and focused on completing modes (want to see TABA). I've made it all the way to and past BOTFA and I think my score was around 2.7 million. Couldn't believe it especially since I had also beaten Smaug. In all fairness I didnt do fantastic on all 3 mini wizard modes but damn I expected more. I play 3 ball btw.

No $hit?! This changes everything. I guess it's time I stop beating "The One Ring", LOL!

Haha, I was thinking the exact same thing!

Damn straight. I always flip the pages to get to The One Ring. I will now have find a new approach. Thanks for the tip!
I put up a 3.4million game onetime and haven’t come within a million since. People asked how I did it and since I was about 5 beers deep I paid no attention to how I got there. All I knew is it took for freaking ever and was the most fun I have ever had on a pinball machine! I am thinking now I must have completed a high rated mode

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Sure enough - I just got to Into the Fire (qualified with "The One Ring"), made it to level three and only scored a total of 97,000 for it. Time to get serious

Coming along great on this mod - it's become a more complicated model than I thought it would.

Added some color-matched terrain details and some pretty dramatic lighting that casts some good shadow effects and even illuminates the green on the playfield. The lighting taps into any standard 2-pin Molex 12v under the playfield. I'm currently tapping the upper right GI spotlight, so the lighting intensity varies during gameplay.

I was hoping someone that is still experiencing the opto switch problem could PM me. I'd like to send you one of my non-lighted protoypes to see if it solves the problem. I can't reproduce that error on my pin.

Pics attached here don't look as good as the real thing - man, is it hard to photograph LED lighting.

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Question. If you complete two modes before Into the Fire, which one gets counted towards the scoring on the wizard mode?

I'm sure it is whichever is the hardest mode. I don't think Keith would penalize us for completing easier modes alongside the harder ones....

The one with the higher star rating.

Looking good! Hopefully you can make a bunch of these and sell them to us.

The highest star rating is used for THAT multiplier. From my memory, Keith or Ted also said that there is a multiplier for how far (what level/stage) you complete the arkentsone modes for the next arkenstone mode after that. There is also a multiplier for how many times you complete the map to Erebor.

Take my money!

I showed a pic to a buddy of mine and he wants one too. Put me down for two.

Great Job!!

Really nice looking!!

Bro i ditto Hobbit post of the year if this is true. I cant wait to go home and check. Fingers crossed mine has these as well. SO many Trial and errors to get these stupid rollovers dialed in. !!

Thanks everyone for all for the comments and feedback on making this mod - it really helped in getting the details in order! I've really been working to make this something that I can produce for more than just my own machine and that the final piece has a professional finish worthy of this pin. You should see this pile of protoypes - oh wait, you CAN see

I'm going to order the materials I need to make ten of them for now as a trial run to see if it is sustainable. I would guess three weeks or so to get them finished. I'll charge $85 shipped domestically ($90 to Canada) - no international for this run. They will definitely never be cheaper than this if I make more beyond the first ten.

As Gandalf would say "A good mod is never cheap, nor is it too expensive, it is priced precisely where it needs to be".

PM me or let me know in this thread if you want in. I'll send a Paypal iinvoice when ready to ship! Those who have already expressed an interest, I'll make sure to reserve a spot (or two) if you want in.

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@ reaper802 Success!!! i had 3 different pinheads over to my house at trying to help me get these roll overs dialed in. Must have lifted the PF 50 times.

I just text them to tell them the whole freaking time the roll overs had that piece on them. lol

Your the man !

I'm interested--put me on the list please!

Please ship internationally!!!

Here here!!

If this trial run is sustainable, I'll definitely ship overseas - will add to my store front here on Pinside!

Yeap. This totally fixed my hobbit air balls and clunky ramp shots and smoothed out the rollovers.

I'm looking at picking up a Hobbit Pin soon.....wondering what everyone thinks of the different versions of this pinball machine?

I was thinking either Black Arrow or Smaug Version but I'm not too sure of the differences. What do all the experts here recommend?

Thanks for the feedback.

If it is a later built Smaug (after July 2016) or has the updates already installed by the original owner then they are the same and it comes down to which cab art and trim package (gold or black) you prefer. Some had radcals which are great.

EDIT: Here are some more differences (off the top of my head)

1. Smaug Toy - Smaug SE has gold paint dusting, and the BA has the red (same as the LE)
2. The non flipper rubbers are white on SSE and black on the BA. (I changed my SSE to clear)
3. The captive ball is black on the BA and chrome on the SSE (I put the black one in my SSE)
4. The flipper bats are black on the BA and yellow on the SSE.
5. Each have different attract modes.

I think that is everything...basically all cosmetic.

My Black Arrow also came with 5 black balls inside it from the previous owner. It looked like they were a sealed plastic bag direct from the factory.

I went with the LE based on the bronze/black powder coating vs the gold or black. Personal preference.

The LE looks fantastic too

Nope, only 1 of the 5 tough balls are black not the captive ball/s.

I liked the idea of black pinballs (but I have the Smaug SE). I reached out to JJP and they said that at first the BA edition was going to have all black pinballs, but they didn't work out and so now they just have 1 black ball behind the newton ball (captive ball) to keep it out of general play. So you get 6 pinballs total: 5 regular chrome for normal play and 1 black pinball that is goes in the captive ball - Thorin shot. So I just ordered 1 black pinball that I used in my SSE as the captive ball.

Did you get 5 chrome and 1 black for your BA edition? And if so where did you put the single black pinball?

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I seem to recall a JJP interview with somebody where they mentioned it was too hard to see the black ball sometimes. I'm sure eventually the black wears off, too.

I played the prototype BA at Expo and it was hard to keep track of the black ball.

Yeah... JJP decided the cool factor of black pinballs wouldn't work - but keep the newton ball black. I think it looks cool - so I got one for my Smaug SE.

Both Newton and captive ball are chrome on my BA.

Did you get a black pinball though?

BA owner here and it's a black ball behind newton

I went the gold newton and gold captive ball route myself. A lot of people think that looks pretty good too.