He will be missed

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I think mine is at 6.5....if I go to your suggestion, what strength for flipper adjustment?

I'm only one or two points above stock. It doesn't take much. Go one point at a time and do like 3 games at least before making another adjustment.

26 left, 27 right to start.

It plays better with the left flipper slightly weaker than the right on my game. The balls stay on the wireforms better.

Good point, if you make the flippers to strong the ball will fly off the wireforms

I'm also at 7.1 - 7.2 and I have my flippers set to 25. default is 22. Works good for my game.

I've had the game for 6 weeks now and finally got to Barrel Escape yesterday. Still trying to kill Smaug... Such a cool game!

I adjust the right flipper strength so you can barely make the lock ramp from backhanding with the right flipper (after a trap, of course).

Everyones power from the wall is slightly different.

If you can make either ramp from either flipper from a captured or cradled position you are good.

When testing for adjustment, the ball should barely go over the ramp, but should make ir every time. It shouldnt fly over the ramps.

Too fast and the balls fall off the wireforms on strong powerful shots.

OK guru's,
I been having this intermittent problem where the Book/Time and Lock/Mode ramp LED's malfunction. They always start off correctly functioning and test good in all colors, but on some games the Time LED will stay light blue and the rest of the ramp word LED's stop working. I checked the plugs under playfield for the two LED boards under the ramps and they are seated well. Any suggestions appreciated!

May be the BAG board (I think they call it)

Or a loose cable.

I watch The Hobbit movies often. There's no other game that offers theme integration like this pinball machine. No other.

A local artist painted this and I had to have it.

sting painting small (resized).jpg

Stupid question: can beast frenzy be beaten?

Absolutely.

Just don't loose a ball.

Hi Jorant. How's everything working out? What is your high score? T.

3.5 mil. Favorite game in my collection!

So.... I played today and had a terrible start. Had like 150 thousand going into ball 3. Here's the beauty of this game: the longer you play, the more it pays out. I ended up just shy of 2 million. Here's how:

As you progress, your ring button lights up purple when nothing else qualifies. Every time you hit it, it pays out a hundred points more every time with seemingly no limit. But the REAL beauty is the honey comb nature of the modes. The more modes you do, the more chances you can clump them together and get adjacency bonuses. I has almost 200 thousand in one of the completed modes. Combine this with the brilliance of trying to bring in a high difficulty mode into your mini wizards, and it absolutely makes this game.

The thought put into the software is so effing incredible. Just wanted to share.

Awesome!!!
Thanks!
So do you know roughly how adjacency bonuses pay out?

I honestly do not. It breaks it down after you complete it. All I know is after the mode completes it gives you bonuses based on them. And I certainly didn't discover this on my own but in a video I saw.

Edit: if you look at the score of your mode after, it will tell you the value of your mode, the honey comb meter giving you a certain percentage, a map bonus percentage, and then the overall total.

Edit 2: I tool a pic of what to expect when one mode touches another. I didn't complete this mode nor is it lucrative, but there shows a map bonus next to it. I'll try to take pics of when you get multiples next time.

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Jorant: Thanks. I was never able to get anywhere. I'm glad you love it, it ended up where it belonged... I assume it has been healthy and no issues other than the flipper rubber?

You assume incorrectly lol. But no big deal, there is precious little I cannot fix.

So map bonus then? Cool!
Now I can't wait to get off work to try this out!

I always thought the map bonus was how close you were to Erebor?

So I posted this on the WoZ thread so trying here to see if I can get an answer.

Upon turning the game on I’m getting closed switch error for switch 13 (Bilbo ramp). I put the game into test and block the opto and it fixed the issue.

At first I thought it was the optos acting up but upon raising the playfield and moving the wires for the optos it set the switch off. I held the wires still and found the issue to be close to the OPTO IQ Board and not close to the optos themself. I reset the connector to no avail.

Anyone experience this before?

Flaky connector. Flaky wire. Pin sticking up out of a connector. Wire broken internally you can't see. Etc. etc.

Easy fix. Once you find the problem.

LTG : )

Thanks Lloyd. I looked for the the pin sticking out but will check the others.

Yes an LE as well.

You got them all except for the standard, which ironically I think there are the least of

During initial release days there was a Standard and LE. The Smaug and Black Arrow are LE's that came later, but the original LE was the 'Motion Picture Trilogy'. It had different art on each side of cabinet and Bronze Vein Armor. The first pic show the Bronze Vein armor. The next two pics show the prototype armor that was changed to bronze vein before release. .. https://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=6223
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image-10 (resized).jpgimage-8 (resized).jpg

Here's the standard edition. It also used the same Trilogy art work but without the Invisiglass, shaker motor, powder coated trim, etc.. JJP also offer Radcal upgrade for 400.00.

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Sorry for the cross post, but for anyone looking for a complete rulesheet for Hobbit, I just published an updated version here:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-hobbit-rulesheet/page/4#post-5735785

Can’t wait to read this!! So much going on I can’t follow it well.

And it is awesome. Thank you. I've been trying to unravel the mystery if the modes and what I called adjacency bonuses. You call them "feeder" bonuses? Can you expand on that please?

jorant - when the modes are scored you get a bonus based on where you are on the map to Erebor and based on feeder bonuses (I think that's a better term as I don't think they are always adjacent on the screen). The feeder bonuses are higher based on you playing the feeder modes first and based on how well you do on the feeder modes. I personally think the best strategy isn't to focus on these feeder modes but to focus on beating higher star modes in order to multiply your arkenstone mode scoring... Obviously if you can do both that'd be best.

So, the Map Bonus is higher the closer you are to Erebor then?

Also, I found this map here... https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-hobbit-rulesheet/page/3#post-3418867

I take it that this is what you are referring to for Feeders?

Actually, the bonus is relative to where you on the map compared to where that mode occurs -- not relative to Erebor. Confusing, IMHO, and similar to the guidance above on focusing on higher star modes, I don't think this is worth thinking about during the game. Are you really going to skip playing a mode and wait until the map is in the exact right place? If so, you've probably achieved a level of prowess on the game that is well beyond most of us.

Yep, same info just formatted differently than pg 16-17 in the rulesheet doc.

That's for sure! Especially for how I play.

If you do want to focus on making bonus, it's pretty impossible to memorize where on the map every mode belongs, so work with generalities. The grid of the pictures corresponding to each mode follows the story line left to right. So if you are at the beginning of the Erebor map, play a mode to the left side of the grid. If you want close My Erebor, play a mode closer to the right side of the grid. That said... probably not the best spot to put your focus.... Jumping left to right lowers your chances of getting b the feeder bonuses as those also build left to right in the order of the story line.

Joined the club last week and man what was I wrong about this game... I’ve always believed the people who were saying the machine is floaty, extreme long ball times, slow and boring.... THEY ARE WRONG! When properly set up this machine is a masterpiece that plays fast and can be brutal. I’m so glad I’ve finally pulled the trigger.

Did you raise the pitch past 6.5?

Shows how many people don't know how to set up a pin properly!

Ahh! Got it!!

From Manual Page 15 of 33

** Not shown is the location of the mode which also increases scoring if your map is
advanced beyond that location when you play the mode.

7.1 to 7.2 is the sweet spot.

The hobbit isn't for everyone I guess, but when people say it is bad I am legit confused as hell. The game is great! Rules are great, music and call outs are a 10. Theme integration is one of the best, if not the best, in all of pinball. A real gem of a game.

The sweet spot for the pitch is indeed > 7.0, I’ve removed the middel post and cracked up the flippers a bit.

Indeed, I’ve played the Hobbit when it was just released at a pinball show and it wasn’t set up correctly so my first impression of the Hobbit was absolutely not positive.