Most LE's have the better coloring on the playfield

Always wondering how you guys determine this. Isn't the count resetting once you pull the batteries?

If you swap the batteries while the game is on you won't lose your settings.

For mine it was fairly easy, I looked at the month and year of my machines date, and for that month and year it came from Stern with Version 8 CPU and Display which is what the machine still had installed with the factory labels on the chips. Once you change the version yes that number changes hence why I snap shot it before the change to ver 10.02 / 10.0

I know that, but the previous owner could have easily reset it.

The new playfield looks amazing great job!

As for Kaneda you know he's from New York HOME of FAKE NEWS! Kaneda is just releasing fake news clickbait so he can win another 2 dollar award, facts never matter. Based on this new round of false information spread by this man's egotistical podcast lets see if we can now label him correctly. Which one works the best?

Concast MS Kaneda
Fake News Kaneda NN
Failing New York Kaneda Times
Lamestream Kaneda News

When will people stop listening to someone who does nothing but promote false rumors in hopes you might listen to his podcast? I'm still waiting on Aliens remake more FAKE NEWS!

still wishing for this
stern cleans house n uses up nos parts to make these

On my last Stern tour they mentioned that license expired long ago.

10 years since the LE, can't see a vault happening. have Stern ever vaulted a White Star before?

that settles it then
thank for the info

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/for-sale-lord-of-the-rings-122

I wish. My desire for a VE was that I could do some kind of monthly payments. My only hope is a route machine or beater/project sub $4000 now. Been looking for 6 years now for one though.

AC/DC expired. Didn't stop them from re-licensing and vaulting a Luci.

Stern are masters of misdirection, they were literally denying the AC/DC re-license and Luci vault I kept hearing about up to a few days before it was announced. Them stating the obvious that LotR would have to be re-licensed doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things.

A Spike 2 update to a proven table like LotR with a bunch of new LotR broadcast content coming starting next year means it would print money. Gary Stern, and especially Gomez, have to know this. Gomez has ALWAYS said if the market is demanding a pin, Stern will find a way to do it. This is even better since all the design work and real-world playfield testing and adjusting is already done.

what if this whole stupid SternShowdown thing was a fix to show LoTR as the best Stern ever and reason to Vault it?

Thats my fan theory too!

I hope so! I’m definitely a buy if it happens.

I'd imagine Tolkien estate is probably a pita to work with. I can't imagine that is an easy/inexpensive license to acquire. But who knows, I don't know shit about licensing other than a few things I had to do forever ago, so I won't pretend to know how it works in pinball.

I looked into this a whole back, it’s not the Tolkien estate as JRR sold off all movie rights while he was still alive:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-lotr-vault#post-4735393

I think your last line of that post sums it up best.

That might be the deal breaker here, we all seen what happened to the Arwen plastic which was rumored to be a licensing dispute.

I don't know what happened with the Arwen plastic, but it looks like at some point Stern started running replacements with her image removed? If that's what you're talking about, I'm not sure it tells us much one way or the other about the status of the LOTR actors' likeness rights. Stern would need a license from LionsGate to reproduce images from the film regardless, and since that license expired some years ago, Stern can no longer make the Arwen plastic.

I'd take a vault with art from Alan Lee...could just be pure Tolkien I don't need the movie.

I continually voted for LOTR so it would be number 1 for all the peolple who didnt own one

Yea the only reason maiden won is because not many people have played lotr which is why they should still vault it

Iron Maiden won because a link was posted to their fan page.

I voted for IMDN cause I think it’s a better game. <ducks from all the downvotes inbound> I actually replaced my LOTR with IMDN. I’d still love to see a vault of LOTR if that helps my case at all

Nothing's won yet, the poll on Twitter still has two days left.

Check at 1:36 in this video posted 2 days ago. Hmmm. One can dream!

Don't dream, these are just spare parts.

When I saw that video yesterday I was thinking the same thing. Oh no, here come the vaulters!

Please Stern, please please please re-release LoTR. People want $14k CDN for an LE! I’ll be first in line...

I’m 100% with you on this .But I really feel when they vault they should change things up a bit with shots and code .Why make a replica ? What do you think ?

Depends on if they're emulating or porting the code as to what kind of flexibility they have. A "LotR Continued" would be a cool option, but I'll be fine with a LotR Spike.

I don't see how Stern can vault LOTR at pro-prices. It would probably be at least $7-8k, since the game is so jam packed.

Actually, maybe they could do a pro version with a static Baradur tower (the shaking is cool, but doesn't really serve that much of a purpose) and no Balrog (could code around it, maybe LOTR multiball alternates between ring shot and ramp shots)? You could even remove the magnet from the ring shot and just have the ball go to the sword lock and stay there for a few moments while the mode animation plays. Just saying. I hate all those ideas, but probably some ways Stern could save money and release at a pro-level price. Then move on to a premium/LE pricing for the full featured game as we know it today.

Do they do levels on old vaults that predated the Pro/Prem/LE fork? The only examples we have are:

Iron Man Vault (Premium equivalent)
Spiderman Vault (Premium equivalent)

Which leads me to believe Spike LotR would just be one version at the Premium level.

It would have to have generic art instead of the film actors...and the voices would also have to be done by randoms. The newline license is long since extinct.

That game would not be the same without the same voice call outs! JACKPOT ONE! JACKPOT TWO! Etc Is probably the best set of jackpot call outs in pinball.

Star Wars and Star Trek are evergreen themes/pinball machines. Stern has a nice comic book SW premium available and now Mandalorian. So Star Wars is covered but Stern needs to offer Star Trek games again. So I propose they spend some time improving the code and then vault it. Currently there are six named modes with three levels each and eighteen (?) away modes BUT the general consensus is that level modes are too similar to level one and they are a bit boring. So by totally rewriting the 36 modes to make them better would make the game feel new. So anybody agree? Rewrite ST modes and vault it.

At most they would fix bugs. BTW, it has already been vaulted. NEXT!

Not happening. Embracer group has the rights. Purchased last year for $395 million.

IMG_0567 (resized).jpeg

Who says they aren't licensing? I believe they are since they really need more income with the cratering of their stock after that happened...

Too much hassle for too little reward. For every person that likes a new feature there’re two who are mad that it’s not “original.”

Reskinning/revoicing may be necessary if the film assets are effectively unobtainable, but I don’t see an upside for Stern in “reimagining” the game beyond that.