Only ever had one DE, GNR. I do have a leftover power board that I had replaced with a rottendog after it gave me problems.

Would love to work something out... my LOTR is basically unplayable with the current center ramp.

here is the last chance to get one of the stainless steel speaker panels

$ 85,- + 20$

Panel_Stern_alt_Lord_A_clean.pdf

What's the problem with your ramp?

Tips no longer extend all the way back as they had been mushroomed quite badly and filed off. It makes it tough to hit the ring shot, and especially tough to DTR on 2-ball.

Had some friends over to play and all of them complained about LOTR being too hard - yes they are beginning players. I think the reason everyone had this opinion is because LOTR doesn't have a ball saver turned on as factory default. All of my other games do, so I think that's where the perception of the game being hard came from.

So I went into the adjustments to try to turn it on but could not find a setting for a general ball saver. Am I just missing something or is it called something else?

It is called freeze time in the settings.

Ah! Ok.. that explains it.. I will go make the adjustment.

Thanks!

Setting #38 in the Standard adjustments.

Brought mine home yesterday! Super excited about it . Newbie question, playing just now, I destroyed the ring and the flippers went crazy, it was great! Then the dmd said you still have work to do and the game continued. What did I actually accomplish and what did I still have to do?

You destroyed the ring! By compleating the main three mutiballs, you went to the destroy the ring mode and beat it - read about there and back and valinor

I may have one that needs plating, but it sounds better than the one you have Ill see if I can find it

Win each movie multiball, start there and back again, collect 7 elf gifts and then destroy the ring to start Valinor.

Damnit, that's all I needed to do?

LOTR is an amazing game. You can play it a bunch of different ways depending on your mood. What you accomplished was destroying the ring. DTR is one of the mini-wizard modes. You got there by STARTING all 3 movie multiballs and then hitting the ring shot. It's cool to do it.

The movie multiballs are fairly easy to start, but difficult to finish. But finishing them is massively rewarding because of the callouts.

The modes are also amazing, and finishing them can also be tough. Starting them all in a game leads you to There And Back Again (TABA).

Finishing multiballs or modes gives you a gift from the elves (or in elvish, a cheese wedge). These can be valuable for things like an extra ball.

Collecting rings have different value. Three elf rings will light mode start at the ring. Important if you want to get through the modes for TABA. When you collect a ring, all 4 ring shots switch to that ring for a moment and give two rings on the combo. So on two shots you get three rings if you combo it.

7 Dwarf rings light mystery at the Shire. Sometimes valuable (starting a multiballs), other times not so much.

9 rings of Man lights Gollum multiball, and that one is important. Gollum multiball switches back and forth between double scoring and half scoring. However, if you start it, and then start Two Towers multiball, it adds a multiplier to the jackpot... and progress. In TTT if you have two balls in play, they are single jackpots. 3 balls is double jackpots and 4 balls is triple jackpots! Now TTT needs a certain number of jackpots to complete. But it needs half that number of double jackpots (you get there in half the shots), and triple needs a third of the shots. So the more balls in play, the faster you finish it. So adding Gollum helps you complete it quicker.

The game is just packed with strategy choices. Timing out modes to get to TABA is rewarded by crap scores in TABA (that's where Star Trek's Kobiashi Maru got the idea). The mode you play is chosen by flippers, so you can plan your shot for the mode you want to select.

And of course, Valinor. A place not many get to. I've owned LOTR for a long time (I'm on my second copy), and I've never finished Return of the King. Outside of that I've completed every mode in the game... just not in the same game.

In other words, you still have a lot to do

Do what I did, angle the ramp differently. Take it out of the machine and bend it slightly to give it a higher angle. This will result in the ball going directly into the ring. You can also use washers above the playfield, but under the ramp to raise it up slightly. No need for a new ramp (though new is always nice).

I'd let mine go for $200+ shipping if interested.

Thanks! I will give that a shot as the ramp seems very hard to find.

Thanks for the offer, I will keep it in mind if judremys suggestion doesn't work out.

Ok guys, I'm ready to be flamed. But here goes.

So I'm a mediocre player. And I can't handle not seeing all parts of my game. And still learning lotr. So, I wanted to see if valinor was even a realistic goal for me. For the last few months I've been playing games throughout the day on 10 ball. I know. I know. But I constantly get interrupted by patients coming in, etc (it's at my office) so I never get consistent time.

Bottom line, I reached valinor on ball 8 yesterday. I know it doesn't count, but you still feel it and it's still tough to hit that dtr right when you need it. The irony is that I got called away immediately and didn't get to shoot a single ball! I opened the coin door to pause it like I sometimes do but when I came back it had timed out. I guess I didn't earn it anyway.

But it got me thinking and wondering if anyone else has done this? I have it down to 5 ball now and am thinking that's realistic. Three ball would take the luckiest game of my life, but we will see.

Any thoughts?

Well you shouldn't get flamed because it's your game, so you can set it up any way you consider it to be fun. And getting there on 8 balls means you are an extremely good player. I've never even completed Return of the King multiball. Even on 8 ball you are not allowed to call yourself a mediocre player... unless you made other changes like making everything easy and putting rubber bands over the outlanes.

And it goes for everyone, set up your games how you like to play them. It's more fun.

A 5-ball Valinor should be perfectly reasonable, or even a 6-ball—assuming one earns an extra ball from 7 Barad-dûr hits and another from the appropriate Gift from the Elves insert. A 6-ball Valinor would require many additional Barad-dûr hits (47 total?) to light extra ball again.

But this would certainly be something to add to the strategy if one wants to achieve an "arcade-fairness" level of Valinor ascension.

Can anyone do me a huge favor and post a picture of the diverter coil wiring? I want to ensure I'm hooking up my new coil correctly. Thanks!!

Setting your pins to your liking is the way to go. All my pins are on 5 ball but not on easy settings. Most are factory settings. I have mine set up for fun. I have not reached Valinor yet. Someday!

I'm in the club. I was initially scared away with the talk of crazy long ball times. (I typically prefer short games) I'm in line for Alien, and figured i could mix it up while i'm waiting... I'm glad I did!

http://christopherhutchins.com/gallery/album511/61_G?full=1

"Mango silence" made me think of some other callouts I could use some help with - during War of the Ents, the Ents yell something at the beginning of the mode and something when it is completed when they break the damn...any clarification on what it is? I'm watching the movie right now and still can't understand them!

Have you tried to put Subtitles on the movie?

Release the river!!

And the beginning one is "The Ents will go to war".

"Saruman! A wizard should know better!"

I'm in. So stoked! It came with a set of uninstalled upgraded flipper coils, worth installing or just enjoy? Seems to play pretty great as is.

IMG_5146 (resized).JPG

The upgraded coils change the game.....for the better. Some may say they are too strong, but I've had them on for three years and no plastics broken or any damage for that matter. Helps greatly making the ring shot on longer games where the stock coils would get weaker.

Keep stock coils, make sure the flipper mech parts are all clean and not worn, then add small fans to the flipper coils. That way you get the proper strength flippers and they never weaken from heat build up over long games.

The stock coils are more than strong enough to make every shot in the game.

I have the juiced left coil.. after a full flipper rebuild on the right I gotta believe the originals are plenty good, maybe just not enough on a location game that doesn't get top end maintenance.

Keep the stock coils and instead focus on pulling some of that awful colored GI and blue LEDs in the characters inserts out of there.

So keep it that way

You will hear both sides of it. I tried them for a bit, but felt they made the game easier. So I went back to stock.

Yeah it came with the pinball bulbs delux kit installed. I've never been a fan of skittles lighting, but I will say in person it does have a neat moody kind of feel to it... it definitely overpowers the playfield artwork details a little bit. But I get why people say this kind of thing doesn't photograph well, as it really does look much better in person.

I will replace a lot of the colored stuff with warm white, especially the purples up top and the green in the slings. Agreed on the character inserts. Have an LED OCD to slap in as well. Will post a before and after whenever I find time to balance things out.

Thanks for the advice on the coils, I'm just gonna leave them.

Regarding the coils, are the LE coils different than the standards? They feel pretty strong to me but it does get really hard to hit the ring.

I have the stronger coils and think they are great. The game is still a challenge for me. I have played routed LOTR and the flippers in them seemed weak on some shots.

Just put a bunch of games in. Every shot is makeable. If the shot up the middle isn't perfect it won't hit the ring, dig it. Haven't been able to break the 15 minute mark yet so maybe would be cool to install once I get better and notice them getting weaker over time. Fan idea is interesting as well. God I really love this game!

My LOTR came with a headless Sarumen....anybody know where I can get one? Been looking at eBay and Amazon but can't seem to find the right size. May have to go with some other figure....thanks in advance for any help.

This is the set that has the Saruman toy that came with LOTR:

ebay.com link: Play Along Lord Of The Rings Aome Saurmans Chambers Deluxe Action Figure New

I bought and put in the stronger coils but eventually took them back out. They just were way too powerful for me and the originals worked just fine. Don't ask me why I tried the stronger ones if the originals were fine, I guess I wanted to see if I was missing something....

Thanks for the info....probably pick one of these up.
Wow....I was looking at some of these toys....what's the deal with the shipping on these things. I have done a few eBay sales of my own and these shipping prices seem very high. Don't expect an answer but ....what the heck?

I think people up the price on the shipping to get the price they want for the item. The actual shipping cost is likely closer to $6.50.
It is a shoe-box sized item though. The original retail price for that particular toy set was probably around $20-30.

For ebay, when an item is being sold by several people I usually search by lowest price including shipping cost and the buy it now option can be helpful.

Thanks. I was tempted to do the same. I checked out my manufacture date and it's from the 2006 run, apparently the coil issue was worked out by then? I guess I'll find out if I ever get good enough for the 45+ minute games everybody talks about

Makes sense....guess I'll shop around.
LOL....I offered some guy $5 on a $15 dollar set with $20 shipping cost....he declined!

Only machine I bought NIB. Read LOTR when I was 12 and since I was into pinball I had to get one. Got one from a guy in KY for 3600. Strained my back getting it up the stairs,bed ridden for two days and had to hire the local football guys(Texas) to finish getting it up the stairs. Had it for 5 years. Got to Valinor 2 times. Best score was 1,008,000,000 Love pinball, but if you count time spent playing, at least a 1/3 of the time was on this game. I guess I need to buy more NIB games.

Hello, just joined the club. One question that I searched and could not find a topic/answer for. My VUK from Orthanc to the path of the dead about 50% of the time ejects so hard that it hits the side of the cabinet. I checked position of the posts with rubbers that I guess are there to protect this sort of thing, and they are in proper position according to the manual. All other VUK's/solenoids are firing well, so I don't want to change the global solenoid to low (currently set on medium (default)). I was going to buy new rubbers in case these were old or the wrong size, although they look like the right ones. Anyone else have this issue or other suggestions? Also, how hard is it to remove the right wire ramp (wiggly one)? Was going to add the Gimli VUK cliffy, and saw that this has to be moved to get to the screw by the metal guard. thanks.

I think that's normal.

Agree...mine smacks pretty hard almost all the time....although it varies... a little.
Also....have cliffys on mine. Pretty easy to do. Gimli VUK, Shire VUK and tower. Tower seems to shift a bit over time and use...not a big deal though.

Any one have any experience with the PinGraffix kit for LOTR? Thinking about the pinblades and noticed the "package" they sell. Wondering if the pingrill and other stickers are worth the additional $.....any thoughts? Thanks.