I think the 3-ball game is more than enough, but I would not disparage anyone for wanting to explore the game further with more. Including extra balls from score, Bara-Dur, elf gifts, etc, I have had 6 extra balls on ball 1, which means it's a 9-ball game if you score well and it's possible to get at least 1 more from there. That's plenty, IMO.

I try to complete each TABA mode, but otherwise completely agree on going for elf rings again immediately when a mode is done.. Manipulating the ring modes to be able to repeat ROTK (via Ents) is, IMO, central to getting to Valinor. TABA mode itself is challenging and a chance to double your score (or more) for each of those modes played. It's possible to get well over 50M (I have got 100M once with 2x and Gollum) on a completed TABA mode with double scoring. Said otherwise, if you like the modes and have some success with them, TABA can be as rewarding as Valinor in terms of points.

Anyone know what's going on with APB Enterprises? Their Pinside store has been disabled / "on vacation" for a while now; listed as returning in 2099(!). Their eBay store has zero listings as well.

Is this really a vacation or is something else going on?

Does any other seller carry their medium power LOTR flipper coils?

Well ive put some new ROMs, but still no luck, i see that your display ROM is point oposite direction of mine...

Some chips can fry if put in the incorrect orientation.

For future reference, the ROM for the display on the particular machine is the inverse of what should be.

I tried contacting them about a month ago. Here is the reply I received:
“Thanks for the note. Sorry that I took my store down. I will make a few and let you know when I open the store again. It will likely be this weekend.

Thank you again.

Andrew”

I haven’t heard anything further.

I contacted him a week ago to get medium coils and he said the same thing. Will make more but doesn’t know when.

I’m getting this now. I have a shaker. Can a balrog hit while NOT covering the ramp (bally folded away) count as a ring hit (balrog is very sensitive, I tend to get false hits during fotr multiball)?

Just started my pinball journey a few weeks ago, and I have a set of pinstadiums coming to go in my LOTR. Looking for any info as to which lights I need to make the connections to. Thanks.

I don’t have pinstadiums but I’m certain they come with installation instructions.

Any GI light will do. For the flasher I would just pick whatever flasher goes off with the spinner. I've got the backbox LED mod which is tied to the spinner. It's a nice effect.

Does anyone have a tip on how to slightly lower the power on the PBL flipper coils? I replaced my stock ones and the PBLs ones are slightly overpowered. The flipper mechs have all been rebuilt with new bushings, etc so it may calm down a little over time? I'm just getting airballs off the Palantir target, flying off the Legolas ramp, etc.

You could try these adjustments. Just be sure to jot down the current adjustments, in case you need to go back to where they are set now.

lotr flipper adjustments (resized).JPG

lotr page 2 (resized).JPG

The way I did it was to swap them out for the medium strength coils. My game came with the PBL coils and I felt as though I could make the ring shot without even needing the ramp. I did my glass and plastics a favour and switched them out immediately.

I put the medium coils and I decreased the power with the 3 coil settings
Perfectly tuned and long lasting.

Where do you get the medium strength ones? I bought the PBL ones because my stock coils were quite weak after any amount of play.

Edit: Never mind, found them on eBay. APB enterprises.

Looks like he’s away currently and not taking any orders for the time being. I’d send a PM anyways.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1065-apb-enterprises/01414-new-stern-pinball-medium-power-coil-lord-of-the-rings-gnr

The PBL coils are way too strong. If you can't get the APB coils, I'd suggest adding some fans to the stock coils to help dissipate the heat.

Do you mean in my photo?

In your photo, and on my display is the same, i was putting the rom with the signs matching, and i nothing was working, ive change it and is working 100%.
Thanks

You can check my last video of gameplay on LORD, should i level it diferent, what can i improve?

Thanks

Game looks good and your skills look good! I haven't seen LOTR with Pinstadiums before. Some will say it doesn't fit the dark theme but I think it looks good. The only thing I can suggest to improve would be to get a colorDMD. All that bling and having the old orange display clashes a little bit.

Also, the Palantir Mod by Aukraut looks incredible. Pricey, but worth it.

Was just a simple video, not my best game for sure, just to give an example, and work/learn from this standing point.
In person is not that bright, and to be honest LORD is a machine full of details and colors, i think it fits perfectlly.

Thanks for your opinion.

Just picked up my 2003 LOTR yesterday and loving it. However, looks like I already managed to break something so I'd love some help here if anyone knows where to start. Game has been playing great, had 50+ games without issue. However, when testing the coils, I managed to get 4 balls into the shooter lane. Unlike a normal person where they would remove the glass and take the balls out, I stupidly decided to just hit the plunger hard to get the balls out. It worked, but now when I turn the game on, a ball isn't sent to the shooter lane and the flipper buttons don't flip the flippers.

What's weird is that when doing a coil test, I can flip the flippers fine and the ball eject works well too. The flippers are registering somehow as the mission indicator light changes whenever I hit either flipper. I'm starting to dive into this but any help would be greatly appreciated here. When I start the dedicated switch test, it shows both the right and left flipper EOS. In full transparency, I have no idea if that's right at all as I haven't done this before. The active switch test doesn't show anything at all when I press the flipper buttons, but I don't know if they're considered a switch per se. Any help here would be greatly appreciated.

You didn't break it by plunging too hard.

Is the coin door closed? When the coin door is open, there is an interlock to disable the coils.

No, you don't see the flipper buttons in the switch test.

That's exactly it! I figured that out right before you posted. However, I'm still stumped. When I close the door, it only closes the bottom interlock. I'm not sure if there was something else there that I knocked loose or what. Going to go digging around in the cab to see. Here's what it looks like now. You can tell it will only cover the bottom interlock, not the top as well.

IMG_20191215_214813 (resized).jpg

Here's a picture with the door closed. You can tell it's only closing the bottom interlock, no idea how it ever closed the top. Buddy of mine just told me his closed both. Is there something I knocked loose that covered both? I can't seem to find anything in the cab.

IMG_20191215_215250 (resized).jpg

Welp, figured it out. Apparently, the top one can be pulled out and locked to always be on. I guess when I pushed it in to test the coils it popped out and I didn't pop it out. I feel really stupid and I'd love to delete this to hide that. However, I'm going to leave these here in case someone else is a dumb as me and runs into this as well. Thanks for the help Neal_W .

Ahh the joys of a new pin owner. I remember I had to look at the directions to figure out how to even turn my nib LOTR on back in 2004. It just happened to be the first pin I ever owned.

Folks make that mistake all the time. No biggie. Welcome to the LotR club.

I didn't know about this feature for a few years after getting into this awesome hobby, so you are well ahead of the curve. Happy Flipping.

I have the medium strength coils , to me they were subtly better than the stock coils

Last night while in war of ents mode and aiming for orthanc I hit an absolutely clean perfect ring shot 3 times in a row!!!

I suck so bad......

I put my stock coils on again last night and I think they seem ok with the new flipper mechs and sleeve. Ring shot is makeable with a solid flip, Orthanc shot is easier with the stock coils. With the PBLs I was getting hard rebounds off Orthanc in the front and rear and the ball would skip over the hole in the front or just rebound back down the orbit in the rear. No more airballs off Palantir either.

Put up my GC score of 113 million and got to TABA last night with the stock coils so I can’t complain too much!

Very strange. I would say your interlock switches need to be moved or it has the wrong coin door. That bracket on the coin door pushes both switches closed on mine.

Mine too.

Who makes the best interactive back box kit for lord of the rings?

I don’t know whose is better, but here’s ours. It’s not the interactive version, but for an extra $10, we can add flasher integration.

https://lermods.com/shop?olsPage=products%2Flord-of-the-rings-pinball-led-strip-backbox-light-kit

Looks bad ass man. You’ll be hearing from me

What is the strategy for qualifying TT mb the second or third time around , had a shot at valinor last night ( 7 elve gifts , all mb completed and taba done) but had to requalify TT again to get to DTR and drained.

to get the K and P , barud dur and then hit the lit palintir , repeat until you get these as " keep letter spotted" rewards ?

To get the K and P you can shoot a legolas or aragorn ramp and shift the KEEP lights with the flipper buttons before the ball gets there.

if it goes down one of the e inlanes with the flipper shift it will give a k or p.?

did not know this! thanks

The KEEP lights will shift right (right flipper) and left (left flipper) with each flipper press so you want the E that the ball is approaching to be in the unlit position when the ball gets there.

Just like the "ORC" bonus multiplier in-lanes at the top.

I would greatly appreciate some Pinside guidance. I got adventurous and tried installing a new pinsound board on my LOTR. Unfortunately in the process of removing and reattaching the microprocessor, I accidentally bent off and lost two metal legs from the chip. Now the machine is non-responsive when I turn it on. Seems like I need to get my hands on a new microprocessor. Any guidance where to get this chip? Appreciate any direction as machine us otherwise in fantastic shape.

02321650-9804-48AC-998B-CF22B67DFABE (resized).jpeg

394C7385-FFB9-4ED0-ADC6-0534575D9EBE (resized).jpeg

I don’t know if this is the best source but here is one.
https://ksarcade.net/st-ef68b09ep-processor.html

Thanks - will give this a try.

https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/

You probably don't want to go this route as your machine is down, but I get mine direct from China ebay.com link: 5pcs EF68B09EP Encapsulation DIP 40 as they are fairly cheap (roughly $2 each); on the downside there is a long wait (around 4 weeks) and I've had mixed results on if they work or not. That being said, I've also had mixed results with ones from Marco Pinball https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/5400-10320-00.

Another E-bay source is ebay.com link: ST EF68B09EP USA ship since these are already in the US you will get it fairly quick.

My guess is no matter where you buy it, they are all going to be sourced from China.

You could also try Matts Basement Arcade, I got a full set of the upgrade chips from him, reasonable pricing and pretty fast shipping and best of all they work!

https://mattsbasementarcade.com/product/lord-of-the-rings-lotr-pinball-stern-rom-upgrade-chip-set/