The Lord of the Rings LOTR Journey begins here members club

I used this. It is the kit from the Stern bulletin with second gen Balrog LED bulb and socket, and was cheaper than the bulb they used to stock. Now I have a spare socket.

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/502-5022-00

My LOTR had this bulb in it, but not half as bright as the Cointaker bulb. Cointaker bulb makes Balrog really light up!

Is a new socket needed? I bought the coin taker bulb but now I’m wondering if i need a new socket too

So it's confirmed that installing pinsound board fixes sound issues, including corrupted sound ROMs? So no need to troubleshoot what the rootcause is, just install the board and get better sound quality on the side?

I would like to get confirmation of this also. I know that you load on custom sounds to the pinsound board, so I imagine it bypasses those sound roms. But will it also bypass a bad u8 flash chip? PinSound

The service bulletin is dated April 29, 2004 so if your LOTR was built after that you should have the newer lamp socket.

Does anyone know if you have the larger lamp socket if you can just use a led tower flasher bulb? Would something like these fit and work?
http://www.cometpinball.com/product-p/5smdflash.htm
http://www.cometpinball.com/product-p/8smdg18tower.htm

Indeed, I confirm the PinSound Whitestar kit completely bypass the sound section on the Whitestar CPU/Sound board.
And it has been confirmed by multiple users who had a faulty sound section on their original board.
Of course, the CPU part has to be running correctly
You can take a look on the installation video: https://www.pinsound.org/whitestar/

Looks like the Second one you have listed as #89 LED would work.

I’ve been running the pinsound board for a couple weeks now and the orchestral mix available for it really takes the game to another level. Bonus points for fitting nicely alongside my led ocd

New clear rips of scenes from the movies without the distortion on the originals would absolutly knock the mix out of the park.

Awesome. Thank You! I have one on order from you as of yesterday so I had my fingers crossed that was your answer.

You can add in your own rips for any existing sound is my understanding

Unfortunately, dialog taken from your copy of the movie will have loud unwanted backing music and sound effects mixed in, and would sound clunky. I imagine the studio gave Stern the isolated dialog track to use for the callouts, and the custom callouts recorded for the pin would also be needed.

After an unlucky first-ball, I was under the impression you could restart the game by holding the START button (after ball is sitting on the plunger for ball 2,3,4,5). Is there a setting I'm missing or does LOTR lack this feature?

There is a setting in the menu for that.

There is no luck in pinball... just play better!!

As said above, there is a setting for that and I have used it. It's #35 in the Standard Adjustments menu titled "Game Restart".

Not that I've been unlucky or anything like that.

One Pinsound mix to rule them all...

Is there a setting that can override it? Any other thoughts on why it isn't working?
A1-35 is set to yes, game is set to free-play, and I used moviestar-setting-mode and set it to 'home use'.

Should work. Ball must be in the shooter lane, and it must be ball 2. Try it one more time.

Maybe the ball save setting was on (called "Freeze Time"), and it was still on ball 1?

Maybe your shooter lane switch is not working??

I do have freeze-time enabled and if it's a ball-save mode, I've tested 'restart' multiple times with long ball times.

Thanks for the tip, I'll look into the shooter lane switch (although I do think it's working).

PSA: My Pinsound LOTR movie mix is just uploaded, new thread created:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinsound-lotr-wool-movie-mix#post-4103641

Hope you like it, cheers!

So I just switched to the APB coils and they're perfect. I can finally play this game properly. It's nice to not have balls flying off ramps anymore. Thanks for the heads up.

Just joined the club about 2 weeks ago.. just did a complete plastic replacement (easily half were broken or completely missing ... I kept pulling stuff out going ‘there isn’t one on the play field that looks like this...’)

Fully shop, disassembled almost everything - still need to install a new Gimli cliffy and figure out how to mount Gandalf and I am done.

Also considering a replacement set of cab decals since it looks like someone threw acid on these or something! Think it’s worth it?

Do it!

Yup. I did...looks amazing.

The play field now looks stunning, so I guess I really should get the rest of the cab in good shape too... wish the decals were a bit cheaper!

Was this the one for sale in PA? That side art did look rough if it's the same one. I was gonna buy that one and replace the decals along with the playfield

Yep - took me 2 days to shop it (I removed everything) and replace all the plastics. I still need to replace flasher caps, but it looks amazing now. I Will be Bondoing the backbox (super chopped up) along with another game I'm restoring. I'll come out ahead in the deal .. but only JUST barely. It's going to look outstanding when I'm done, though. I am considering getting bronzed hardware too.

I'm still astounded at how similar it is to Monster Bash - it's a little more complex, but it's totally the same shots. Very interesting to play both of them next to one another

Both fan layouts put plenty of differences. LorR always impresses me with the layout of the inner/outer orbit shots crossing and interacting with the Barad-dur saucer, the lanes, the Orthanc diverter post, the moving Orthanc guide, and the Orthanc skill shot. (and a jump flying over it!)

Good job. Good to know it went to a good home. Are the reds faded on the playfield or was it just crappy photos? I saw bay area amusements had a playfield if you're looking for one. What was the deal with it, how did it get so rough?

Play field was in great shape - there was one tiny wear spot near the “rings” LEDs in between the flippers. I touched it up a bit and Covered with Mylar and it’s all good. no other spots other than like I mentioned, the shire mostly, and the ball entry to the shooter lane, which I covered with a cliff. The shire I may address eventually but it looks ok.

Inserts look really good - I wish they were more like B/W inserts; these are harder to read because the insert plastic is a little more “busy” but it’s a minor thing.

I AM concerned about the plastics - it is really clear why so many were broken, this game has a million unprotected edges and plastics just out everywhere. This game also came with a paper-printed Arwen image in between 2 clear plastics.. I assume this is because the original broke.

Not sure why it was a little rough - have no idea why the cab was so trashed on one side. Doesn’t look like sun fade, it looks like somebody spilled some sort of caustic on the game. The original decals always looked kind of dingy anyway, so I guess I don’t mind.

Next is to figure out how to get the wire forms replated, OR buy the whitestar adapter so I can pinsound the game..

Buy the Pinbits Plastic Protectors, those will protect those edges from here on. As for the Arwen plastic, also extremely common, with several different protectors and diverters for it out there to protect from the drop from the Path of the Dead. I recommend the protector made by Redshift in Australia, outstanding design that also protects the Shire Hole. Your best bet is to go thru this whole thread, you will find at least 3 other things you'll want to do to yours to improve it....I know I did!

Mine has the same and I've been wondering the same thing. It looks really faded when lit up and pretty crappy to be honest. It doesn't match the rest of the plastics. Looks like I need to find an original then.

thanks for the tips! I am ordering the Pinbits protectors, and I've seen the Redshift protector - I'll see about that; seems pricey, and since I don't have a 'real' plastic down there right now, I may wait on that. Although since it also protects the shire... hm...

This thread is LONG! started going through it the other day... also of concern are my coils... not sure where I stand there yet

Retro Refurbs has a repro arwen plastic. Little shop of games used to sell one as well but it's out of stock, maybe if you email them they will be getting them back in.

https://www.retrorefurbs.com/shop/arwen-plastic-lord-rings/
http://littleshopofgames.com/product/lord-of-the-rings-arwen-plastic-with-protector-plastic/

There must be a scan of it somewhere - I’m already in for $250 for cab decals.. $45 seems like a lot of money for a single plastic...

I agree. Mine has a hairline crack that no one else notices and it bothers me, but not $45 bothers me. If anyone does have a scan and would share it that would be great.

I've been meaning to ask: on the left "sword" ramp; is the balls supposed to smash against the cabinet wall when it goes up the ramp? Mine knocks against the side loudly every time I hit that shot. Am I missing something in this area? A rubber or a post of some sort?

Good question, I have the same thing too. It seems like there should be something there to keep it from hitting the side of the cab. There is no sign that something is missing however. Is this just the way it is?

Yes it does do that. I look at it sort of like the ball hitting the glass in WH2O, part of the design.

I really like this plastic. It's twice as thick and great art work. I believe I bought it off market watch. Also, my ball does the same thing on Path of the Dead. It also sometimes gets stuck on the first right post or falls back down the tower.

5029 (resized).jpeg

7488 (resized).jpeg

I mounted a simple small strip of black target foam to that wall and it really helps knock down the knock. Plus it minimizes the bounce back off the wall back to the tower. Just a small foam strip will work and hardly noticeable.

I think he means the right ramp. That is where the sword is.

Mine does not hit the side of the cab when I shoot it up the right ramp from the left flipper, it hits the large switch there and heads down the ramp fairly quietly. If I backhand that shot, I then get a satisfying clunk. It might be that the ramp is tapered, putting spin on one side or the other side of the ball.

I was thinking about adding one of these, both at the right ramp and at the Shire...
http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=2120

OK one more question - I am not sure if I have the original or upgraded coils (I need to check but think they are the way-too-powerful upgraded ones), but I've read about changing some coil settings in the menu. Where are these settings? I don't see them in the service portal. This is an original later-run LOTR (2004 I think?) ,not VE and not Gold LE.

I've got that. It installed ok although you do have to drill a hole in the rail. I would recommend cliffies over that as they are thoughtfully designed and don't require drilling holes. I have the cliffy for the shire rail to protect that after I repaired it

I just installed this from Pinbits and it works great. The ball will not get stuck between that post and the tower anymore. It does also help to minimize the amount of times the ball will fall back into the tower but does not eliminate that problem completely.

https://www.pinbits.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=13_48&products_id=491&zenid=0b110f5c1c0bddcfe578f6d240c514fd

Pretty sure that setting is only to adjust the upkickers. I tried lowering the power on mine and noticed that the ball would not make it up to the POTD and even had trouble kicking up from the trough to the shooter lane. You're going to have to swap to the original coils or get the medium power ones from APB which I just installed in my game. Shoot an email over to Andrew @ APB and he'll hook you up.

andrew.barney@apbenterprises.com

I recommend the Cliffy for that Shire rail as well unless you decide to get the Redshift protector which mounts on that rail and serves as a protector for it as well. The rail on my game was so damaged that I ended up using the cliffy to hide the damage and then installed the Redshift over that. The mounting holes line up perfectly on both.

Thanks pipes -
Edit: holy crap! The redshift protector is $65 including shipping! Does anybody sell this stateside?

I was going to place a PBL order; they have medium-strength coils specifically for LOTR, which I assume are roughly the same thing? Anybody know ?

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=1112

No, those are the high powered coils that you probably have in your game already. That's what I had, they're brutal. These are the original one's...

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=156

If you want a little more power while being able to keep the ball on the ramps, I recommend the APB.

Gotcha - thanks for keeping me from making a mistake. Damn this game is getting expensive !!!