Call or Email Jen and explain your situation. There should be a Machine number stamped on the outside of the box. She likely can help you with that if you are looking to buy it.

From what I saw in a video of the factory tour at JJP, the decals can be applied with the legs already on the cabinet. The "Rad Cals" at least are pre-cut so that they can be added with the legs on. So ... I don't think you will damage the cabinet decals unless you are really throwing your machine around. I have seen people put a machine on one leg and tip it about 45 degrees and shake it to get a ball unstuck at a expo show. That was scary. Some people have a crazy disregard for other people's treasures.

Thanks - I'll remember that when I get mine. Something simple that will save time and the "Doh!" frustration later.

Thanks pinballer ... going to have to print that out until it gets into the unofficial rulesheet that is in that thread. Then ... ... I'll definitely need a "coach" to guide me through all that wall playing. This is a two "player" game ... one person plays while the other one coaches. Can't wait for my TH to arrive in a month or so.

Drew - are those "coins" on the flippers REALLY secure? Curious if they will start to fall off. They look good. Kind of a compliment design to the ruby slippers on the WOZ flippers.

If you want a NIB, you may want to shoot for Thanksgiving at the latest. My guess at that is because currently it is on a "mini" assembly line at JJP. Supposedly ... JJP will be starting up game #3 before the end of the year (some say). If JJP only has the capacity for a major production line and a "mini" production line, WOZ production might be done soon. I personally think Hobbit will be on the main major production line past the new year, but ... just thought I would point out something to think about.

Thanks meSz ... gives us a time frame of a month after we get contacted and confirm our order before shipping.

My order date is after yours and I'm seriously considering this. If distributors offer a cheaper deal, I might bite on it.

That's the counter to the above that is keeping me on this side of the fence. But wouldn't a distributor go to bat for you? I would just make sure that the production date is late July or after. Not sure if we really know when the spring steel on the ramps was standard in production. Sometime in August?

Was your first car a junker? What did you do for that? Turn up the sound and all those little noises go away! Then you wont hear the ratcheting.
Just joking.

Smaug was not an "LE". It was a "SE". I don't "think" they have a SE game # listed on them. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong. There usually is a game production number on it on the playfield front edge or under the apron.

Ok, that's good to know. I think that they had to be ordered by the end of 2013 though. I could not get a Smaug SE (JJP direct) when I ordered mine a little over a year ago. Before they went into production they knew how many would be built - if they stuck to that. They could have put that "out of" number down. That's ok, not "real" important to know that. I wonder if they started the "Black Arrow" version because they saw that they would run out of LE numbers in the near future.

Distributors don't want to take direct sales away from JJP ... I inquired about switching to get one right away and two distributors would not do it. I was told to hang in there. I understand their stance but ... it is hard to though, knowing others can just walk up a buy one.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Better, honest communication with realistic target dates would help. Stuff happens, but good communication is key. Not angry, just getting impatient.

Same thing happened to me while I was waiting. I got a used IM and a ACDC Prem while waiting. My Hobbit is in-route someplace too ... no call from the shipping company yet. I feel your excitement and anticipation.

I FINALLY officially joined the club and received my TH LE. Debating waiting a week (or two ) for my Escalera or just struggle with my son to get it downstairs. Was doing some remodeling while thinking about it, and stepped on a 12p nail with all my weight. Blood came gushing out. Wrapped it up with pressure and elevating it currently. Guess I know which decision I'll go with.

My wife was REAL surprised and happy that we got the TH. Her favorite along with our WOZ. Whew ... glad that went that way.

Now to eat and go to urgent care. I would rather setup & play my new TH ... Argh!

... like a game interactive topper ...

Laseriffic makes non-interactive toppers (the only Hobbit one so far that I know of)
beatmaster makes barrel spot lights, shooter rod housing lights (I bought yellow)
MustangPaul makes leg light up kits (I will eventually buy yellow)
a few people make plastic protectors
Amazon sells some small Hobbit keys, swords, & other things that a few people have added - I'll add those soon
Not much other than that ... I wish there was more too.

My TH is in my garage still "in the box" ... waiting for my Escalera (on week 3 now). I have the barrels in hand too. Once I get my pin in my basement and put the barrels on, I'll post a pic in his barrel thread ... if no one else puts a photo of them on a TH yet.

You can turn off the "match" feature in the settings menu. It's just another 10 second delay for me to start another game, so that setting is turned off on all my games.

I'm holding out for the PowerBladez for TH from PinGraffix. Take a look at what they did for the MET Creeping Death version. Everyone lobby PinGraffix to work on the TH version next in this thread:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/poll-which-powerbladez-would-you-like-to-see-pingraffix

The more votes in our favor the better!

That's a good idea. Some people also put self-sticking felt material along the side of the wood playfield. I might do that too.

That's why they have that "poll" thread - to see what the interest is for which theme to take on next. They have matching speaker grills too. I think the animated PowerBladez were $299. I hope they do a TH version soon. I'm holding out for it. They said one for ACDC is about to be released. I'll likely get that one too.

Vote, vote, vote!

Now we just need an animated AND interactive topper for TH!

Where did you buy it? I never saw it go (or caught it) on sale on Ebay. I want to keep on eye out for another sale.

Something that I don't understand yet ... Sometimes some of the "Lock" roll-overs turn red after I have the 3rd lock waiting. Sometimes the red ones turn green when I roll over them, sometimes the green ones turn red (I think), but not all the time. What am I qualifying with that and should I be trying for the red or green roll-overs?

Thanks ... still a little unclear, but I get the general concept. It's another multiball mode. I'll have to read up on what to do once the lock roll-overs are all red. I have not got them all red yet.

We've only had our Hobbit setup for a few weeks now and it's very addicting. Been playing it almost every day, learning the rules and strategies. I got grand champion on 2 consecutive games yesterday (highest just over 2 million now), so I'm getting there. My son was surprised that my wife and I don't know the storyline to understand some of what is going on - we never saw the movies, but love the game. For Christmas my son bought us the blue ray DVDs of the trilogy. Very thoughtful, but he unknowing is feeding the addiction. We will be watching the movies tomorrow to get a better understanding. That's strange ... watching a movie trilogy to understand a pinball game better. I guess we ARE weird like my kids claim.

I keep getting a ball stuck on top of the "E" pop up targets in "ELF" when it is down. When it pops up, it launches the ball real hard and loud into the glass. Anybody do a mod to stop that? I don't want it to break the glass.

Thanks! I'll try that.

I measure about 32 inches. Great pin if you like pins that have many modes that "request" that you make specific shots in a specific order that the playfield and callouts indicate to get the most points. I love it! So do my wife and adult kids. Very addicting game play.

Thanks for the detailed instructions! I received a set of my barrels and was about to try to see how I can make them fit without taking away too much of the site lines to the targets. I think your way will lift them up enough for that. Do the lights still shine on the beasts ok? Or is that why you got the different bulbs ... brighter to go farther for the same lighting effect? Most of the light on the beasts comes from under the play field and through the plastic "fix" in front of them anyhow. If I like how the first set works out and look at all the 4 locations, I might buy another set. Great looking accent mod from beatmaster !

I have a prototype Hobbit themed pincup coming soon from modfather too. I will post pics of it on my machine for him when I get it in the next week or two. Watch for that as it "may" add to the barrel accent looks too (TBD).

I thought it would put a gold outline around the mode hexagon tile. That's what it appears to do with mine. Maybe I'm wrong.

Ok ... I got my ModFather shipment in and here are some pics of the Hobbit themed shooter rod and his prototype of the Hobbit themed pincup. I like them both a lot. The pics on his website and even my pics do not do them justice. It is hard to take good pics of shades of brown and cooper colors. The first pics are in real bright lights to show the details. The last 2 pics are how the look in normal ambient light. The barrel pincup really goes well with the theme of the pin. I told him I would post pics, so I did the best I could with them. If you like how they look, give him a thumbs up.

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Are you guys removing the JJP sticker first? Or just putting this on over the top? If you are removing the sticker, does it come off easy, or is there a trick to do it without too much scraping off?

How in the world do you spell "RACE" on the Hobbit?

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I guess I had a blonde moment. Dah. I "get it" now ... didn't realize those were classified as a "race" of something in that meaning. There isn't individual modes for that section that I've seen, so shouldn't it be more like "Shoot characters AND spell all races to qualify mode"? Maybe more modes will be in updated code for those.

I got one of those ... +1 on it looks great. Ya gotta get rid of that red pincup though and get the modfather version. That look awesome too. I got his prototype and it looks really good.

The magnet above the barrel popper top entrance - I never noticed, but I don't think mine has ever worked. When during the game should it activate? I checked the connector and it came apart real easy, so maybe it was a loose connection. My wife & I played a couple half hour long games after that this morning and we did not see it catch a ball. Before I go through the process of going through the test menu to see if I can trigger the magnet on in test mode, I want to know what should trigger it to turn on to make sure that works too.

Ok thanks. That explains it. Thanks for the explanation guys. Glad I don't "appear" to have a problem with it then. I hope more future code variety will be on its way soon, and maybe use it.

The magnet was used during "Barrel Escape" I noticed last night ... unless another mode was also piggy backing at the time.

I'm waiting for the Pingraffix interactive light up blades.

They're working on it and will be one of the next ones released last I saw/heard. Anticipating ... I hope it turns out great!

What do you guys/gals think? A gold (brass plated) captive ball.

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I got them from the pinball plating website

http://pinballplatingandmore.com/t/pinballs

I asked them if they would hold up enough for a captive ball application and they claim it does just fine there. I only got one to try out. they seem the same weight. I'm guessing the finish would not hold up too well with normal play, but the captive ball doesn't see much abuse.

I also got the gold (brass) plated coin slots and just installed them. It brings them out and makes them look good. Still undecided though ... maybe they should just stay black and "blend in" with the black coin door.

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This is a good reference:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-hobbit-rulesheet/page/3#post-3421626

I read about 3-4 months ago that they did not leave enough room for the ball to drop from the ramp returns and the guy that bought them had to modify them to make them work. I hope that they fixed that ... I like the look of those too. Has anybody ordered a set recently?

An Escalera ... it saves the following:

I bought an Escalera and love it. It does not get used much, but my back and balls thank me every time it does get used. My son thanks me now too.

1- Yes
2- Yes

I own both and my family enjoys them the most. TH is a good home pin as it will take a while to figure things out and learn strategies. With 32 modes, it is pretty entertaining to us. We've had the TH for 7 months and we are still in the honeymoon phase with it. It'll be a keeper. I would advise to read the rulesheet in that thread to see if it is just too much depth. It's too much for some ... not for me. Still learning and figuring things out as I progress deeper into the game.

Is the manual you bought the same one that can be downloaded from the website - version 3.0 Dec 2016?

modfather does. I have one and it matches the color scheme pretty well. The website colors are off a bit from reality.
https://modfatherpinball.com/collections/hobbit/products/hobbit-custom-shooter-rod
If you look at the pics on that site for the pincup, you will see my shooter rod in some of the pics and that if matches pretty well.

I bought those flipper toppers too and like them ... haven't gotten around to putting them on yet though. I like the black flipper rubber ... looks good with those toppers. I might have to copy that look.

As soon as the ball goes up the right ramp for the book mode, look at the book to see what mode and what shots it is asking for. The ball purposely hangs in the windlance launch out lane for a couple of seconds to give you that time for a glance. Most book mode required shots are lit up yellow for ramps, drop targets, holes, and orbit shots so when it switches to the next required shot and doesn't have a call out ... and you don't have a second to look at the book, look for the yellow lights on those features. Sometimes they are flashing blue or red. If the "time" light is lit on the left ramp and you are down to one ball in that mode, sometimes shooting for that ramp is a better option if your required target is on the right side of the playfield and the ball is approaching the right flipper. That then gives you more time for the mode and a 1 or 2 second glance at the book.

The book will not tell you the colors, it calls the next shot needed specifically ... like "Shoot right ramp". For the book modes those are usually the yellow/amber lights for what you need. When in the bigger modes, blue is usually a "jackpot" shot, red is an important shot as well as flashing shots. When not in any mode, look at the lights in front of the stand up targets. If they are purple, then the yellow target behind the standups need to be hit to qualify that particular dwarf listed there. (Saying that, I'm not sure if purple is just new to the beta code or if it was there before.)

There is more to come. WOZ got way better as the code progressed and so far the same holds true for TH. More call outs would be great. For the non-book modes (the more major arkenstone modes), there is just so much going on. I would highly advise to read the TH Rulesheet that tiesmasc made up in that thread to understand what you have to do for those modes. Understanding that will make a big difference instead of relying on call outs and lights. You will know which direction to wildly shoot for with all of those balls in those modes.

Great code update - spectacular! We love the reserve ball setting and have been playing it that way since the beta was out (1.95P). Light shows are great, more call outs help, and the added book instructions during the main major arkenstone modes help to polish this game. Future completion modes that are hoped for (even by Keith) would be great.

Just to vent ... With all these modes and things (like specific call out shots) that need to be accomplished in the game, it cracks me up every time one of these "great" pinball players say that any pin (but especially the deep coded JJP pins) is easy and boring. Fine - after you set it to the hardest setting and do the same, move on to the next game to conquer and ridicule. The majority of the owners love the theatrical entertainment value of the JJP pins. This is a "Owners Thread". Yes, it could probably get "old" for those that are super great "serious" players ... ok ... so ... move on. The rest of us will have fun just playing them ... and for guests to have fun too. That's what mostly sells to homes (fun), and I'm pretty sure that is JJP's main target customer. The locations get the games exposure for those to discover them and want one for the entertaining adventure of figuring it out, polishing their skills, and attempting to conquer it. The fun pins get into homes to be played. Personal special themes sell, but if the game is not fun, it sets ... and guests would soon move on to the fun games very quickly.

I know some of the "great" pinball players that play tournaments all the time might disagree ... ok ... so what. If I was that great at pinball, I would still have my favorite "fun" pins. Variety in pinball is a good thing.

Keep up the great work JJP employees, contract help and suppliers!

I'm waiting to see what the new TH Pingraffix PowerBladez look like for this. They keep saying it will be out real soon. (???)

Got a Weta party magnet ... this looks like a good place for it.

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I also got a Hobbit movie crew gift. Internet shows it is legitimate, so I am happy with the find.

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Elf Targets ... ball smacks the glass REAL hard.

I made this adjustment a while ago and the ball does not get stuck on the E anymore. Definitely do that. Mine pops the glass a few ways ... mostly during multiballs or during the modes that pop the targets up and down.

Yes I do. Happens occasionally now for me. Before it would get stuck often on the "E" and followed what LTG said to adjust that row of targets. It happens on the dwarf targets rarely for me, but usually that is during a mode that pops the targets up and down.

Mine does that too. Thanks for the easy solution.

I have one on the way for WOZ. In a month or two, I'll get the TH version.

Interesting ... I bought the WOZ deluxe from Rock Custom Pinball last weekend. If there isn't a deluxe yet for Hobbit, there will be soon because he told me he could do it. He knows my long term plans (he has a list sent to him in a PM) for most of my pins and I'm splitting it up to one per month. A new DILE is on order from Joe and that will be tacked on to the end of the list once that pin arrives.

On the code ... Keith said he will revisit the TH code a few times now. Top priority is JJPOTC code and having 1.0 (complete) or higher code when released. That's the way it is. Seeing the progress Keith made on WOZ, he will return to TH with something good. I remember JJP (and Keith) saying that there were others coding working with him in the later stages of WOZ (when TH was coming out). So they are working as a team. Right now all effort is going into JJPOTC - that would mean as a team. I can wait for the TH (knowing what he and his team did with WOZ over time).

All the whining about TH being too easy (not too easy for me by any means), don't choose the book mode ... take what it gives you. Not so easy anymore. TH is absolutely fantastic to me. More depth for us deep divers is always wanted ... for any game.

Ted is doing a great job coding on DI. He is listening to us and trying to help (through code) with some quirks that some pins have. The JJP coders are the best from what I see, and doing great! I'd be interested to know how many lines of code are already in TH. The more complex the game is with multiple things going on at the same time and the newer technology, the more complex the code. All the nested if-then-else statements ...

Just my 2 cents.

If you "attempt back stab" using the ring button option, the ramp diverter goes down. Maybe award extra points if you accomplish doing the U turn and do actually back stab the beast on that side of the playfield.

From mediocre players (my wife & me), Hobbit is a fantastic pinball machine as is. So is DI and WOZ for that matter. If they are "just" making a final wizard mode for TH, I wouldn't see it for a while or very often (gotta play better), so the urgency for us is not there. Any new code to advance these JJP pins to a new level or polish them off is very welcome and would refresh our addiction to the games. I would award Keith and Ted a beer if I ever meet them in a bar sometime for their good work that (I think) goes above and beyond - dilly, dilly! They (and their team) both do very fine top notch work that puts JJP at a higher standard and leaves the owners with pitchforks wanting MORE ... and wanting it NOW. Patience ... they said that their main concentration is on the new JJPOTC pin until it is released and that they WILL come back to TH and DI. Hearing that they ARE spending time on TH again and that they are waiting on some more animations for DI reinforces that ... thank you for that update Ted. JJPOTC must be close to production.

JJP coding team --> Keep up the good work and we look forward to whatever new code you will entertain us with. Keep feeding our addictions ...

I agree. Tournament type players and pinball "traditional purists" seem to have opinions that it's not a big challenge or that they don't like it. It has been a popular JJP seller. My wife and I are mediocre players and think all of the JJP pins are fantastic. We (generally all pinball geeks) always want more ways to have fun with our pinball machines to freshen up the excitement/entertainment/experience ... and JJP listens, and sometimes adjusts based on what pinsiders say/ask. There are several ways to make the game harder through settings, removing the center post, opening up the side posts, etc just as JJP has advised to those that think it is too easy. For Hobbit and those that think it is too easy, why do you seem to choose the easiest book modes to play? Take the one that is given to you. Maybe JJP should have that as a setting to turn off that ability to change the book modes with the flippers for those that want a more difficult game.

Just for the record, I do like a few of the Stern pins too that also have that "fun factor". But won't slam them or compliment(?) them here. Most of the designers and coders don't read pinside anyway (so some of them have claimed at shows/expos).

I love the long battles with the machine and all of the multiballs. That intense work out is a total blast and adrenaline rush to me. Then I'll go and play a different game for the contrast. Like others have said, scoring is secondary to me, but completing the modes is the challenge. I say put in a setting to not allow the last second book mode changes with the flippers to get to the easiest ones. Now you have more variety and a tougher challenge for those in need of that.

I'd still like to see a list of what people think the "easiest" book modes are in case I feel like taking advantage of that way of stacking it in my favor.

The scoring is all good for competition and all, but I still like the idea of rewards for completing modes too. They are doing both, which is very good to hear.

I think the current game code is great and the polish/enhancements that they are talking about will make it even better. I'm looking forward to get it and try it out. I'm not good enough yet to be able to see super wizard "I beat the game" modes, but it'll be good to know that there is something there to shoot for. JJP puts out some great pins.

^^^ What he said ^^^

Didn't see that you had posted that on the new page ...

Woohoo! New Hobbit code next week Friday. Can't wait to see it! Might just be a JJP Live showing it instead of a release, we will see.

From Hogbog ...
LIVESTREAM. @3pm Central 07/06/2018 on https://www.twitch.tv/jjplive

The JJP Software group sent out a tweet that no live stream today but there would be a possible surprise later this week. Then there was this post in the JJP Live Pinside thread shortly after that:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/jjp-live/page/3#post-4468430

That indicates that there would be a JJP Live stream on 7/6 to show "New. Hobbit. Code." So we can speculate the rest of the week on if both are correct and something will happen by the end of this week too. Or … maybe the tweet was supposed to say next Friday. Pinsiders (including me) always hope for the best scenario for them when clues come out directly from JJP. Something to look forward to anyway.

Okay … the Colorado show Pinsiders were not very good at investigative reporting. Lets see if the other side of the country is any better. Come on Pintastic Pinsiders … find out what's going on at JJP and let us know. At least some more clues.

As someone earlier mentioned, check the washers you added to the beasts to avoid wires being crimped. One of mine was bent and it was very close to pinching the wires. Replaced the washer and ready to go for the new release.

Family is loving the updates and more call outs. Great additions and things to help the player know what to do and if/when modes are completed.

Something I noticed too … maybe it's supposed to be this way now in this version, but when not in a mode both ramps and the right hole spear inserts are always solid red. Is that by design?

We have to get used to the blue verses purple ring button light. We'll get there, but we keep thinking the blue is purple.

We like the star ratings for the book modes, but one suggestion for the future … could you (JJP) add the star rating to the top or bottom of the small book LCD screen when the mode is in the queue to be played. I don't think most people will remember which modes are what stars except for maybe the extremes. That would help with setting up which book mode we should setup to play. Not important, but would be helpful. [We always want more, don't we. ]

The new code is great and refreshing our interest to play the game in different ways. Thanks JJP!

+4 from this family agrees

I wouldn't worry about it at this point ... unless you need something right away. Jack told me a couple of weeks ago that they will be doing another run of the TH Black Arrows later this year. Currently their facility is packed with parts and Jack was grumbling a bit that he didn't like having millions of dollars worth of parts just sitting in the building being stored (per say). Some shelves were literally stacked to the ceiling - probably mostly waiting for the JJPOTC production to ramp up. I'm guessing that once those parts start to clear out, they will start to order TH parts for the next run of those. DI is being produced on their mini production line currently. Guessing that once they catch up on those later this fall that TH will go back on that line - pure speculation there. All that being said, if you want some specific unique and more expensive "spare" parts because of your concern, I'd let them know (send Jen or Frank an email) so that they can order a few more extras for the next TH run. Just my suggestion.

I wouldn't worry about TH parts personally. They will being ordering another batch of them.

That would be a good question for JJP people on if they will continue to stock these parts once they stop making the pins. My guess is that they would for at least a few years. But even finding plastic ramps for Stern pins is sometimes very hard or unobtainable after a few years. So ... at some point the part support would stop. What the JJP plan is for that is a good question.

I'd probably buy a spare Smaug assembly when they do their last run. Maybe JJP should have a non-warranty wait/want list for some of these major "spare parts" for customers so that they can order extras to cover it. A "little tiny bit" more revenue for them just by changing a number on a parts order form to a vendor.

Jack showed me a couple of screens on their software system for inventory. It's pretty cool. If you click on a part, it will show how many are in stock and will show the drawings for it. They check some of the part dimensions when they arrive to make sure that they are within tolerances. I think they just got a stock pile of JJPTOC parts over the last 6 months as they were preparing for production but delays were happening, so they kept ordering parts to keep the DI production line going. Jack did say that they can check when inventory is getting low and more parts need to be ordered through the system. Sounded kind of like one of those "just in time" kind of inventory systems. A lot of people went on vacation over parts of the summer and JJP hired more people too.

Based off of what a few of you are saying you heard from Frank, I'm speculating that the part count for non-production parts (that would be available to us on the website) may not have been getting updated for the website. The website part store is probably low priority for them. Databases are great (I made and manage a few for the company I work for), but if you don't keep feeding it accurate data, then everyone blames the database for being at fault.

Also guessing that Back Alley had to sign an agreement to not sell the unique JJP production parts to us - ever. Otherwise … I'd buy a few production parts they make from them for sure.

If the "reserve ball" option is turned on and you play a multi-player game, you would not see a "shoot again" but the ball image x3 would change to x4 for you if you won an extra ball. Each player gets a turn for one ball in the rotation. Once a player runs out of balls (think cleanly), they are out of the game* and the rest of the players continue to cycle through the rotation.

* If there are less than 4 players in the game, another player can join the rotation during the game by pressing the start button and have the full number of balls that a game is set for (default is 3).

There's better explanations of this setting, but this is the general idea.

I know that with that option on, yes, if you won an extra ball, the ball image with the "x3" would turn to "x4". If you won yet another ball before draining, the "x4" would change to "x5" and so on … until you reach the maximum extra balls allowed - which is also a menu setting.

From what I've seen of the newest code and postings here from Ted, the scoring advantage is in completing the harder modes and "completing" more or all of them, not just playing them. If you complete a 5 star book mode you will earn more points than a 1 star book mode when you play in the "Into the Fire" wizard/mode as so on down the line progression. If you play all of the book modes, you will get a wizard mode - the more book modes you "complete" (and higher stared difficulty ones), the more points you will get. If you are good, there are ways to "blow up the score" by just completing the harder book modes before going into the arkenstone modes. I think I even read that if you complete multiple map quests, the multiplier goes up - but could be wrong on that.

Besides the Smaug shot, when the ball comes out of the barrel pops and goes into the right orbit then comes down to that flipper, you hit the captive ball for decent points (like a skill shot) and I think towards a ball save on the left out lane (?). Its a shot that gives some worthwhile rewards. I don't know of other upper flipper skill shot type of rewards.

* Before the code update * I did that once and they all reset after a Arkenstone mode. My ego was deflated when that happened - I had to start over. Just guessing that if the book modes are the qualifiers for Arkenstone, you just wont get anymore book modes until the Arkenstone is played. Also guessing that TABA would play right after the last mode times out or is completed, which would be before you shoot the Arkenstone shot/hole. (???) [Speculating]

The number will show the 3 balls + add any extra balls you earn. There is a maximum extra balls setting in the menu. I think the default setting is a maximum of 5 extra balls. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

This is for screaminr from the question in the JJPOTC club thread …

For connecting TH to a external sub, I used what Pinnovators recommended and it works great. First I bought an RCA splitter for the sub connection at the back of the box from Amazon, then a RCA to STEREO 3.5mm adapter at monoprice:
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=7241
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then used the Pinnovators 3.5mm stereo cable and routed that out through the back under a small access plate (that no one knows what it is for) that has the 4 screws (just pinched the wire casing a touch with it so that it wouldn't get accidentally pulled), then to the Pinnovators sub splitter.
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I had bought 5 of those monoprice adapters because they were cheap but had questionable reviews - all 5 worked. Pinnovators said that they never had or heard of a problem with them. Their theory was that it was best to have the sound coming from both a RH and LH audio channel. I have that setup with the adapters for both my WOZ and TH and the sound is great.

If nothing else it can give you an idea of what to do. I see that the monoprice RCA to 3.5 stereo is out of stock until 10/25, so if you want one I will bring one to Expo with me and give it to you for 50 cents. I don't have another extra RCA splitter though. Let me know ...

I guess that it depends on your taste and preferences. I like the external sub as it gives you better adjustments to accentuate the bass like a movie theater. You can possibly do some of that with the speaker in the pin, but then you are rattling the pin more when you are looking for the sound. When the sound levels increase for the intensity of the various modes is when the difference is most prevalent. Just my opinion. The existing JJP sound systems are great for pins either way.

One that you didn't mention that I have is I bought a shinny gold colored newton ball and captive ball. Nothing spectacular, but fits the theme better. The finish has held up well.
http://www.pinballplating.com/quick-exchange-parts/newton-ball

The link is there … from the pinballplating.com (the hot rod arcade guys) The "regular" captive ball can be bought there too.

Some pics of my gold (brass) balls after a few hundred plays.

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I've had mine for a year ... maybe 500 plays or so and not a mark on them. I do touch them up with some of the wax I put on the playfield to keep the shine going whenever I clean up the playfield. I agree that it is a nice touch.

It will be 3.0 (or higher). Ted is still finalizing a few things and it will be a "full install".

That's on the JJP forum and the final beta test. The JJP website will likely have 3.0 for download soon (guessing a few days or week) if all goes well.

You would have to sell that Weta Smaug bust if you sell the pin. ?!?

Try not locking the 3rd ball for a while. Lots of added comments/heckling after 2 balls are locked.

My Smag magnet catches the ball less now also. Is there a intensity setting?

No, it catches it sometimes. But usually not. Used to catch it all the time.

I vote to bring it back then. That is a better pause while waiting for the animations then it disappearing and pausing. But a very minor thing. Thanks for posting that this is normal now.