Quoted from Millz:

How long until the LE's sell out now?

Quoted from meSz:

Agree with ya to a point but I also suspect there are those that still have a sour taste due to the delays in shipping WoZ as well as some of the late changes. Also, correct me if I am wrong but, the WoZ LEs sold out relatively quick where as the Hobbit LE is still available??
I hope for Jack as well as the buyers he is able to produce another great game and have as little trouble as possible!!
I haven't been in the hobby that long but it's great to see Jack, Rick and some others enter the pinball market. More options the better, well maybe not for the wallet but.........

Quoted from meSz:

Not trying to be a killjoy here but he said "90-ish days" and this is the same guy that has been telling these folks that their machine will be ready November, December or February/March. Also, I may be wrong, but isn't the issue for the delay the lack of cabinets and not a "cash" issue. Again, not trying to be negative as I hope Jack succeeds as I feel his first machine is excellent! Have a good one!

Quoted from PanzerFreak:

I think The Hobbit is going to have one heck of a deep ruleset based off of what we saw in the video. Here's where I'm thinking the rules are going. This is going to be something new for pinball when you toss in the LCD display.
1. Each players goal is travel the path of Bilbo, the Dwarf's and Gandalf from the point where they arrive at Bilbo's house all the way towards the end of the last movie.
2. We can see the green, red and yellow markers on the map of Middle Earth in the center of the screen. Each marker represents a player. If a character is in mission in Lake Town then his marker will be there on the map while another player could still be all the way back in the Shire.
3. Each point where a player stops in Middle Earth will represent one of the games missions.
Other guesses
1. Defeating Smaug will be a wizard mode similar to Destroy the Ring in LOTR and Battle the Wicked Witch in WOZ. I don't see defeating Smaug being a There and Back Again or Somewhere Over the Rainbow type wizard mode as people are going to want to fight the dragon on a good to great game.
2. The title of the last movie is called "There and Back Again". I think this will be the games final wizard mode where you somehow have to go back through Middle Earth on the display / game and get back to the Shire.
3. There will be a mode where you go back and forth with Golumn with riddles. Beating this mode and others will award you a reward.
4. Rewards along the way will include the key into the Lonely Mountain, the ring, and Bilbo's sword Sting.

Quoted from Pin_-_K:

I still want to hear that the GI brightness on TH will be increased from Jack or anyone @ JJP with the authority to speak on that matter.
I honestly don't think Jack, the Designers or the Coders believe that there are ANY GI Lighting issues with WOZ.
I'm fairly sure they think WOZ is working as Designed & will be walking down the same GI Lighting path with TH as "they" don't perceive it to be an issue.
If they did think it was an issue IMHO they would have offered a "GI Lighting Kit" to fix WOZ & we all know that didn't happen.
I REALLY hope I'm wrong but because of the WOZ GI Lighting Issue I'm seriously considering cancelling our TH preorder.
Worst case scenario I'm out the $500 I would have saved by preordering (& put my deposit back in MY bank $$$) and buy one later after I actually see & play it, best case scenario, I save $8K+ by not buying TH because it may end up with the same GI issue (please no thread hijacks/tirades on "See & Play First" opinions).

Quoted from CaptainNeo:

but they have to have SOME GI's. That was a big problem with some of the B/W titles too. Try playing MB in an arcade environment (meaning very dark room). It's damn hard to see anything. You need good GI's in a game. Especially, if your going to have overly bright inserts, which backlight your ball. Making it even worse.

Quoted from PanzerFreak:

I doubt it will be complete at launch. Yes WOZ code wasnt complete at launch but Keith and Ted did complete the code for the game with 3.0 and then some.

Quoted from HENSBROOKER:

- Could it be that the Hobbit license is restricted to 'just' those 1500 LE's?

Quoted from Captain_Kirk:

I thought the Hobbit was supposed to have dual buttons on each side, for the diverters.

Quoted from hank527:

I question this entire thread
Ted Estes and Balcer have both left JJP. Smaug was not designed and not implemented as per the rumor.
I question whether the Hobbit will be done by November with all of these departures.

Quoted from Aurich:

I know I criticized the art, but one thing I'm not at all worried about is the rules.

Quoted from TaTa:

I wonder how "gold" plated pinballs would look like for this game?

Quoted from IdahoRealtor:

It's hard. Most Millennials (18-33 year olds) are broke and live with their parents. Thankfully, I am 34.
True story. There's a young guy who shows up at our league from time-to-time. One night I overheard him saying he had $8000 saved up and that he wanted to spend it on pinball machines. I advised this young person not to spend his entire savings on pinball, but if he REALLY wanted one to maybe start with a $1000-$2000 game and then save the rest. Fast forward a week or two and he is at my house to see about buying my Sega Frankenstein. He loved it, but for some reason ended up not buying it. The next time I saw him I asked why he passed on the game and his answer was "because Dad says we have no room for it".

Quoted from asay:

It's hard to spend $2k+ on a toy when you are $150k in debt from student loans, and can only get a job that pays $30k/year. And that's only if you're lucky enough to actually find employment.

Quoted from Pinchroma:

Fuscia with streaks of neon orange.
But in all seriousness that i'm not sharing until people actually see the game. Nice try though

Quoted from Goronic:

soon.png 206 KB

Quoted from labnip:

just because...

ernie-hobbit-pin-pool.jpg 121 KB

Quoted from heckheck:

Dammit, I bet that's the button for the user controlled diverter. But I DON'T see an extra side button in those pictures. I had suggested to Jack when he said at Allentown that the button might need to move to the lockbar so people knew it was there, to instead wire two buttons in parallel. One button on the lockbar and one on the side of the cab in reach of fingers without removing a hand. I certainly hope he took that advice.
One of the biggest gripes I have playing the new Star Trek is having to take my hand off the flippers to hit that big button to attack the Defiance. It's risky and not natural. It will be worse to control a diverter using this method, as that requires acutal coordination with a physical ball.

Quoted from aobrien5:

I'll go on record and say it's a hologram projector that will shoot a video of Smaug onto the glass when the arrow is loaded and you'll have to shoot him with the lockdown bar button at the right time to kill him... or he eats you (ball drains down outlane).

Quoted from LTG:

JJP will premiere it at Expo.
LTG : )

Quoted from wcbrandes:

Ok this is friggin night and day over what was sitting in Chicago last fall! If this keeps going it is a must have pin, and already i"m liking what I see over LOTR. There is nothing really here yet with the dropping targets etc. and I do not agree with anyone that thinks this is going to be a "slow" game. Remember this is a wide body!

Quoted from heckheck:

One thing we know is that a Stern Star Wars pin would be a narrow body and probably given to a very experienced playfield/software design team. Half of me still wants JJP to get Star Wars and do it up with video, etc. The other half (growing steadily as I sit stewing waiting for my Hobbit) is starting to think I wouldn't mind Stern getting the licence, and getting a fast hard playing narrow body pin 1 year from now instead of 4 years from now.
10K forget that, I won't pay that to either company for any pin. Keep it between 7 and 8K or I'm out (and I imagine a lot of others would be too whatever they say on pinside).

Quoted from LTG:

That number of games going out, tech support should get interesting.
LTG : )

Quoted from PanzerFreak:

Hey Jack and Keith,
Any chance we can see the rule / objective screens for the game?

Quoted from robotron:

they should have an option for scoring on the hobbit. i really hate the low scoring on my woz. hope they can give you the option of high scoring.

Quoted from txstargazer3:

No, those are headed to Australia.

Quoted from flynnibus:

He did say adamently that they weren't going to do pre-orders, but did say something to the effect of taking DEPOSITS. At what point would deposits come into play wasn't really discussed. So deposits... secure your order, but don't fund the company, etc kind of thinking.

Quoted from HoakyPoaky:

The first red flag was when Balcer left over a year ago. The game design clearly wasn't finished, yet JJP brushed off his departure saying it would have no effect on Hobbit development, because the game design was already finished. Well how'd that work out at Expo 2014?? Add up all the BS and the coming delays were clear as day.

Quoted from jungle:

From what I've seen of GoT JJP and Heighway will be cracking open the champagne

Quoted from dendoc:

Nope. Another guarantee that it will be produced "this month" by Jack is the latest offering.

Quoted from rai:

We're almost at 3 years since the announcement of TH that was a month after Full Throttle was announced. Stern has released 8 new pins in the time since TH was anounced. Avengers, Metallica, ST, Mustang, TWD, WWE, Kiss, GOT.
I'm sure it's worth the wait and all, but I'm surely glad I didn't pre-order and instead bought STLE and IMVE, the sad thing is some people who have this on order may still be waiting this time next year.

Quoted from beelzeboob:

My point was just that people post pictures as if that means anything. You're not buying artwork. You're buying a game. By all accounts, nobody gives a shit about the GOT artwork once they start playing the game.

Quoted from lordloss:

Is the Hobbit 2016 thread out of the basement yet? I don't think any of those on the "line" from last year actually left the building.

Quoted from TomGWI:

What would be considered the ETA of a Hobbit machine to an owner?

Quoted from TomGWI:

I was referring to the topic of the thread "Hobbit Update"
Why are we talking about powdercoating a shadow?
Next Question, when is the next Hobbit update coming?

Quoted from Pinchroma:

No they don't. Powder coating ramps is a really really bad idea. Wireforms are one thing as the ball follows a predefined path, ramps will get ball tracks, valleys, and divots which will impact the roll of the ball significantly. There is a reason none of the manu's or pinball coaters will do it and it's certainly not cost. A ramp would be about the cheapest part to coat as there is little to no prep on it.