Hi Folks,
i like to show my small Hobbit Mod here, this is imo a very helpful improvement.
When i play the multiballs at my Hiobbit, there was always a difficulty to get the balls under control next to the flipper fingers. The outlanes have a simple clamp, compared to my Indi which is having a metal plate at that position. The plate is stopping the ball by far better and because of this, the ball is not jumping around the fingers like in the Hobbit. So i made some modifications, with a extra plate (mirror plates) for each side, including 8 new posts.
What should i say, a complete new play in multiballs Some guys in the german forum like that as well, so i thought i might be a good idea to tell my mod story here as well. It´s easy to install and to remove, the final plates are a bit more wide than in the pictures...

Here are some pics:

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It looks well constructed. I’d love to try it. Wish you were closer, lol.
Might be a good mod to sell.

Thanks !
i still have some here, if you are interested, send me a PM. Shipping is not so difficult for these few parts.

Where can you find Keith’s posts on his future updates for Hobbit after POTC?

My friend that owns a few high end pinballs ( WOZ RR, TZ, AFM, TSPP etc.) was over today. Played my Hobbit. Now he wants one of these blue plate specials locally.

Like they are going for 6K or something like that, loves the game. If you want to sell in Chicago area let me know. Prefers LE.

Cheers

I have dialed mine back as far as it will go now (6), and on my last game the wind lance still fired my ball into the Right VUK. Strange. Am I changing the right setting? I go to coils right? It just seems strange that the setting is called "strength" but when you go into it it shows a unit of milliseconds??? Just a typo?

Have you checked your playfield pitch? Maybe try a bit steeper to compensate?

I'm at 6.5 now, seems to be pretty common. I'm wondering if the ball guide is in the right place. I've dialled back the coil power to minimum (6) to no avail. Looking at the silver guide on the left that the ball follows out of the wind lance shot, I wonder if it was properly assembled at the factory. When I hold a straight edge to it, it points directly at the right VUK hole, is this normal? I've tried to attach a picture. Please let me know if I need more details/better description.

My two pictures below are of where the metal guide is sitting on the pf, the first pic I am holding a flat carpenters pencil to the guide, showing that it aims at the VUK hole.

Thanks for your time guys.

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After trying to adj the ball guide
I could not get the shot to launch to the correct spot also ,so I had to use a piece of Velcro in the kick backl lane to deflect the ball to the sweet spot,may have to play with the placement of Velcro to get it right but worth a try,easy to remove mod if it does not work

Try 7°

I'm at 7 degrees also was set up that way from dealer I love the play it's perfect for me.

I agree, 7 degrees is the sweet spot for Hobbit. The windlance fires into the right orbit above flipper probably 80 to 90% of the time. Also at this angle, it does not feel "floaty". Instead, it is fast! FYI, mine is on carpet and I had to put wood blocks under my back legs to get to 7 degrees because the game is so heavy it sunk into the carpet.

Thanks guys, I'll give 7 degrees a whirl.

Well, no luck. Set up at 7 degrees and the wind lance is still hitting the right VUK. I'm thinking there may be a bug, it doesn't seem to matter what I set the coil power to, it acting the same. Can anyone verify their coil can be failed back? Can you make your coil deliberately fire short?

Thanks again guys.

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I didn't have much luck finding a sweet spot, I thought the same thing, and tried holding the ball in a bunch of different places during coil test as I launched balls.

I had the kick back working perfect now I just played a game and it was way off so I removed the velcro,it seems to change power level by it self,I have to admit that it has always been hard to adj.

I run mine at 7.2 and love it, looks like it could be that and also your lane guide definately faces futher up than mine - losen the screw going into the pf on the guide and bend it a bit then tighten it back up, should be golden (also open up those outlanes!)

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If someone likes to go for a new experience, I can offer some kits for 65Euro incl. Shipping

You still have posts on your outlanes?

He did open them up as much as possible, without removing them

Haha I'm just busting buddy's balls

That's pinball shaming!!!

And I think hes right, I should take them off!

Chris,
What,s the difference between the regular/standard interactive undercab lighting for the Hobbit vs. the deluxe model (besides the coat)? Are the interactive colors just three (RGB)?

So both JJ games have a whiney shakers any idea on how to fix.

I moved my guide down a bit and the windlance is firing properly now. Smaug doesn't stand a chance!!! Thanks for the tips guys.

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That's awesome enjoy!!

Hi all I just bought a used Hobbit Smaug LE. I'm the process of checking everything out and I noticed that there wasn't any sound or music in the attract mode, or at least that's what I thought, after about 15 minutes it did play a bit of music. My WoZ play music almost continuously. Shouldn't their be more music and sound during the attract mode? Is their a way to set that in the menu? I have set both attract music and sound to yes. I also updated to version 2.0.

Thanks Lambow

Settings, turn on attract. Does not play constantly. Will play, then go quiet and then play again...like its trying to get your attention.

I'd like to update my code to 2.0, i have never done this before. can someone link me a thread on what i need to do please. i have no clue

Go to jerseyjackpinball.com and under Support go to downloads. Pick game. Full instructions are there for a full install or delta update. Depending what your game needs.

LTG : )

will a san disk memory stick work

got it , thanks LTG

Sorry if this is a duplicate question. I searched and cannot find this. Does anyone have a solution for the ball getting stuck on top of the right flipper? I’m trying to find something to put there. The ball sometimes goes there when it is launched off one of the pop ups.

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Thank. I didn't even think that it could be the wires. The post was okay for me. I just had to move the wires so they did not go around the post to cut off the clearance. The ball now rolls through and down. Thanks!

Mine does that too. Thanks for the easy solution.

I just picked up a hobbit LE, so far I love it, beautiful game. But I am pretty sure it has a shaker issue. When the shaker comes on it seems to buzz, then barely shake at all. Quick shakes are heard, but not really felt. Longer shakes seem to work, almost like it is winding up.

I did a test using the coil utility, and did not get the noise. Go figure. Maybe it only comes out during slower speed shakes?

Mine does the same thing. I'm guessing this could be fixed in code. It really doesn't make sense to turn the shaker on for only a few seconds as it takes a few seconds to ramp up to speed.

Shakers must be set to EXTREME for JJP games...otherwise they act like you describe. Try it out.

My game is at extreme but still noisy any other ideas?

I will give that a try. It was on medium, and I tried it on high with no change to the noise. Hopefully extreme does the trick.

Anybody have any thoughts on if cliffys are really needed on the balin and radagast upkicks?

I always put them one. I put the inlane ones on too but overkill for this game. If you look in the topics index, I posted a link to photos I took when I put them on.

For HUO probably will never get used enough to matter. But I do all the protection for my games. Plastic protectors from Laseriffic and the Cliffy protectors including the plunger lane.

Michael

$67 bucks cheap insurance!

Apparently it was an issue to the previous owner of my machine, so they took a dremel to the post to cut out a notch to allow the ball to pass through. Works perfect.

Ordered cliffys today. Better safe than sorry I figured.

I had posted this earlier in the much more negative "where's the code thread" thought it might be better suited here..

Having a mode (there and back again?) for starting all the book modes would be perfect. Success/Completion of elf, dwarf, man, gandalf, radagast modes could be the baseline for scoring in that mode as well. This would encourage completing modes and could be a viable strategy for points combined with the already added (and awesome!) map and feeder bonuses.
Into the fire, barrel escape and battle of five armies are awesome as is! So many levels and parts to get through. With so many parts of each mode, I'd love to be able to make the choice when you get to an arkenstone mode to either continue whichever one I was on or to move on to the next one. There could then be a hurry-up or bonus mode for starting all three or finishing all three with a much bigger reward for completion.
Just my two cents... I know Keith is crushed with code demands and he has spoken about where expectations should be. I love the game as it sits and was just stewing about cool add ons that would make it even greater. Hats off Keith for everything that you've packed into the game.

Good stuff - that left VUK cliffy is a pain to get in - but I am glad it's there.

I created a couple of diagrams that compares the basic game progression of the Hobbit to LOTR. The Hobbit has a ton of stuff in it but I think the charts show what makes LOTR a masterpiece and the Hobbit look like unfulfilled potential.

You can see that LOTR requires you to "beat" at least 8 game stages to reach Valinor. You can also see that almost every stage advances the game in some way. The exception being There and Back Again.

The Hobbit only requires you to beat 1 mode to get to a Rune wizard mode. You can also see that each stage only advances towards a Rune mode. Once that Rune mode is played, it's rinse and repeat to get to the next one. The only reason to beat anything (other than one mode per cycle) is to get points.

LOTR Game Chart.pdf
Hobbit Game Chart.pdf
Edit: I think the Hobbit has more than enough in it to out do LOTR. After reading a number of Keith's posts about his theories on game design I can't believe the Hobbit game chart above is what he originally drew up. That's why I'm still holding onto my game in the hope that he will have time to fulfill the games potential.