Switch is separate from your Actual kick action. Look for loose bracket, wire on coil, etc. could be alignment or broken/loose wire

Hi everyone,

I joined the club with you all yesterday!

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I was hoping that I could get some information from the group on some things on mods:

1. What are the more popular mods that are available for LOTR? Is there something that is considered a "must-have"? (Note, I already have a ColorDMD on the way). Things that look interesting to me are the POTD mod and the Palantir mod.

2. Are there parts specific to the game to keep on-hand? It seems that the VUK switches are a constant source of issue. Anything else noticeable?

3. One final question: I've noticed when the Balrog moves, the motor makes a pretty loud sound. Is that a normal sound? If not, is there any maintenance that can be done to decrease the sound. If needed, I can take a video to see if that's normal.

comment23 Welcome to the club! Here are a couple threads re #LOTR mods.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/best-mods-for-lotr

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/lotr-mods-2

Those forked VUK switches are to be kept on hand for sure. Nothing else LOTR-specific comes to my mind.

If my Balrog motor makes any noise, it must be getting drowned out by the "roar" sound effect. Never noticed much motor sound. FWIW.

This pinsider is selling some used LOTR plastics here if anyone needs them:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/lotr-plastics-1

Welcome to the club Comment23!

1)A color DMD was a great choice. It probably is one of the best mods for any game where available.
I personally love the POTD mod. I got mine from Hemi http://www.pinballrefinery.com/store#!/Complete-LOTR-Pinball-PoTD-modification/p/20527694/category=4730921
I also recently got the interactive sword mod from Modfather and love it. http://modfatherpinball.com/collections/mods/products/lotr-interactive-sword-mod
I have the eye planitir mod from Jay. Couldn't find the link but just do some searchng.
I really love the custom intereactive backbox from cointaker. Just email Chris and he can hook you up.
I bought a real cool topper that I made myself. Sauron helm and Chris from Cointaker made a custom interactive led that fit inside the helm and lights up. My favorite out of all of them. I think Lasseriffic does a great job with toppers so check out their site. Joe is really cool and may have a design not on his sites lineup. http://shop.laseriffic.com/collections/pinball-toppers/products/lord-of-the-rings
Speaker lights and acrylic inserts are real nice. I buy most of that stuff from cointaker.
There are so many cool mods out there but these are my favorites.
I just bought led leg protectors and shooter housing from mustangPaul and Beatmaster respectfully. Also picked up under cab lighting from Tim Mezel.

2) VUK switches are a issue. I replaced 2 on my machine but for having it 5 years not too bad.

3)My Balrog isn't really all that loud so you might want to check out for binding. In fact, I only really notice the motor when the game first boots up after that the speakers pretty much drown any sound out from the motor.

Enjoy the game! It's a great game even without any mods.

Thanks for the heads up, I bought 2 for future need.

i bought a huo lotr sometime ago and had a question for the guys that have a colordmd in there game
which looks better in the game lcd or led? just not sure on this before i order one
thanks in advance for the input

LCD in mine and it looks awesome. Haven't seen an LED version in LOTR, but based on other impressions of LED displays, the brightness would be overpowered for the dark theme of this game. Can't imagine it would look good... but would love to hear from someone who has tried.

Scored two HUO LOTR with in three months. Passing one off to a good friend.

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I've had the LED in mine for about a week and really like it. I did need to turn down the brightness quite a bit but all of the colors look great. The fiery eye of sauron and Balrog cuts look very nice and it makes the gold text really shine.

Don't really know how it directly compares to the LCD yet but after a few weeks, I'll probably swap it with the LCD that i have in WH2O to see which looks best in which game. It's a bit of an apples to oranges comparison, but at this point the LCD in WH2O just looks a little washed out next to the LED in LotR now.

If you want to use the Hi-res or Scan modes, you'll need the LCD display. If you are going to stick with Dots, then you can use the LED display.

The video below shows what the LCD looks like in Scan mode...

Seems off, the magnet doesnt help, but if you get it through (even on the 1st ball in single ball mode) it should destroy the ring

Thanks. The issue is so temperamental. Which is what happen the first time. The coil and bracket look ok.
It just refused to kick up at all just now until 'coil malfunction.
Went to take video and it's started to work most of the time.

I went into switch test and noticed that when I press the switch with my finger it makes the switch sound once. When I roll the ball in it seems to go off about 3 times before kicking. The gimli switch does exactly the same thing but never has any issues kicking the ball up.

Here is a small video in switch test.

I have no issues replacing the switch again... Just don't want to keep doing it if it's something else. The switch arm does have a little bit of sideways action which I don't think it had when I replaced it.

Headed to Reno, NV (Mordor?) on a heroes journey right now. We'll see if anything ends up in the back of my truck

Hello,

Don't want to hijack any thread but not sure where I should post as a first time poster. Usually read some forums but don't post .
Any way....just bought a basket case LOTR and will be started the repair process. Hopefully with help from you guys I can keep the frustration down and have success. Apparently this machine was in Italy at one time so I have some major work to get back to where it should be. Thanks in advance for providing so much info on these games....BTW....my first pin....gotta love it.

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Guys, it's official. I'm in love. <3

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I've met the girl of my dreams, and her name is LOTR. Or Lotter. Something like that.

This was the holiest of grails for me. At least a 3-4 year wait. And it was worth it.

The journey to Mordor proved long and difficult, but we returned to the shire with a big stein of mead and a new beautiful friendship has blossomed.

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She's nearly perfect. I was shocked at how easily the leg bolts would unscrew on this one. I've never seen/had a second-hand HUO game where the leg bolts were basically finger tight once you did a quarter turn to loosen them!

This means nobody ever got that impatient and just stripped the leg bolt threads by forcing them. I will take care of this similarly. In fact, it didn't even have leg standoffs on it, and the cabinet art under the legs barely showed any wear.

Scott took really good care of her... and as far as me taking care of her now, "You have my sword."

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There are little spots of wear around the flipper buttons but tbh, that's the only flaw. Guess I could read up on one of vid's posts... maybe I'll "shoot it full of clear" or something... something nutty.

Proud to be among the fellowship of the ring here!

I mean... check out that ass! (ETA: The sticker at the top was just a random sales sticker it looks like, and all other "blemishes" just wiped off (dirt)).

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Welcome! So it begins.

I keep coming back to this old girlfriend time after time after time. May the two of you live happily ever after.

Not sure what to think of this though

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Custom message you can change or turn off.

I got a standard LOTR on July 31,2016. It is my all time favorite. I am having trouble locating a PAL chip to use with a shaker install. Pinbits no longer has them. Coin Taker has the motor and That Pinball Place has both rom's. I was also recently told this chip is not needed to run the motor. Any help to clear up what is needed to get this pin shaking is welcome.

My Gimli vuk has the second new switch I put in. The design is poor. If it goes again I am going to put a switch in like the one in the Star Trek pro left side vuk. I will have to modify the mounting bracket by cutting out a slot for the new type switch. The ball will activate the switch when it is sitting in the bowl on top of the switch. I think this will be more reliable.

I'm pretty sure he knew that.

I believe it is needed. PALs are burned like ROMs.

If it came to it, you should be able to burn one yourself or find someone who can.

Just bend the leg of the switch up more so it gets a more solid push down on the switch. Struggles with the ball's travel will usually be the kicker's plunger not being centered on the ball (or the metal guide out of alignment).

Well, RobT has a sense of humor

Hey guys, to be clear, are the movie multiball goals cumulative? In other words, if you start a movie multiball more than once, do you pick up where you left off?

The movie multiballs continue over to the next ball until you complete them and destroy the ring or not..

It does save the progress with the caveat that the Return of the King only saves completed sets of the four shots.

Good clarification. If you finish one or two and then dtr does the incomplete one reset? Or will it continue with progress? Do you have to complete them all in the same dtr cycle to count toward valinor? Because there is no way I'm going to get all three done and then dtr without some continued progress...

You have to win all the movie multiballs, but not in the same cycle leading up to the DTR. You could win Fellowship, then play DTR, then win the other two multiballs (TT and Return of the King) and destroy the ring. Then, if you have also already received 7 gifts from the elves and played There and Back Again you will go to Valinor when DTR is won.

Ok. That is great clarification. Thanks again. Better get back to it. I'm finally getting pretty consistent beating tt. Still only beat fotr once. Not sure I've ever beat rotk. Any tips on those two miltiballs?

ROTK is the bear of LOTR. During the multiballs try to get good at making shots without needing to look up. It needs to become instinct where to aim and take quick glances to see which shots need to be made. Also, don't use an add-on diverter that shifts the ball away from the shire on the path of the dead, and make sure your path of the dead is level or slightly leaning left to give a fair chance of the ball landing in the shire. It is ideal to get to ROTK three or four times in a good game to have a great chance of winning the multi-ball.

Excellent tips. Thanks! I feel I have hope for valinor now that I know I can start each multiball a few times.

Another quick question. In the ents mode, is a shot to the right orbit always supposed to stick in the tower? Mine catches on something but always dribbles out the left orbit. Never goes into the tower. Is there a diverted up there that is not working?

In short, yes:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tech-question-about-lotr-war-of-the-ents-mode

The LOTR flyer shows black flipper rubbers, so I assume they shipped with black?

I want to keep mine as close to factory as possible... but red looks so much better.

Use red Superbands (or any other color Superbands) and it will play fairly similar to the original black rubber.

I have black superbands on mine. One of the very few of my games that I left superbands on. They look and play great on LOTR.

Finally got another LOTR. Long story..

Anyways, I was thinking of trying out the etched gold mirror speaker acrylics on speakerlightkits.com. Has anyone else tried these? Pics perhaps?

Thanks!

I believe that's the one I have. It's at my office. I'll take pics Monday if no one beats me to it.

Sweet.. Thank you.

A few weeks ago I replaced Q15 and Q16 transistors on my LOTR LE driver board (it's different than the standard edition).

Game played fine, no problems. Turn it on today and it starts a game then freezes up. I open up the head and whoa tons of lights are off!

No 5V, 20V, or 50V
F5,F7,F8,F10,F11 all blown

What da funk happened?! BR blow up maybe? Where should I start looking for trouble?

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Regarding my problem above, I just noticed I never fully screwed the board back in. It was just hanging on the screws. I'm guessing that might be part of the problem and could have cause a short or missed ground connection or something... Yay for fuck ups

Replaced all the blown switches and F11 the 5V Logic Power still blows about 10 seconds after powering on. Sure hope I didn't somehow fry the CPU.

Hi guys, joined the club recently and i'm very happy, LOTR is a really great game.
I would like to know something:
When you plunged the ball strong from the shooter lane or make a solid shot in the right orbit, is the ball supposed to touch sometime the right top side of the Orthanc tower then feed the left flipper? It slows the ball and it's not smooth, that bother me a little... I like clean and fast orbit shot and it's not the case here.
I rebuild the flippers and they are strong. So i will try to bend the right top ball guide to make the shot smoother but if it's "normal" maybe i will not.
Thanks

Should be clean.

Anyone have any suggestions for LEDs on LOTR?

I usually use the Comet frosted 2-LED bulbs in warm white. I like these LEDs bacause they are just a little brighter than incandescent and the warm white is not "too" white. I also like the Comet parts because I think they are reasonably priced and good quality. That being said, I tried some out on the inserts in front of the sword ramp and they are *barely* brighter than the stock bulbs. Except for the white insert. Plenty bright there.

I also don't want to go totally overboard either.

Oh, and are the non-ghosting LEDs good enough to take care of the ghosting problem on this game or is the OCDLED board actually needed.

Thanks.

I used Comet's 2-SMD warm white bulbs for the GI, and Comet's 2-SMD color-matching bulbs for the inserts (except for the yellow inserts, where I substituted warm white instead). I'm very pleased with the result.

I also installed the LED-OCD board, which makes a huge difference for the fading and transitions of the light show on this particular pin. It's definitely worth the investment. Herg rocks!

OK...after three weeks working on the playfield I fired up the machine. But let me digress....was a Italian machine and the coin door was/is a disaster. I've disconnected the coin mech and and basically have everything just hanging there. Door closed still says insert coins. Door open looking for balls and counts down. Diagnostics seem to work with buttons. How can I put this thing in free play until I can get a door and harness? Any help would be appreciated....thanks.

Never mind....all good. Seems things are working....have to run through the diagnostics now.