Interesting... So the bulletin shows I need this part:

http://actionpinball.com/parts.php?item=077-5003-00-80

Is it the same as this:

https://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=4441

Those two parts don’t look the same, but the latter one (Pinball Life) appears to be the same mini bayonet socket used in the out-of-stock Balrog LED Kit at Marco Specialties:

LORD OF THE RINGS (STERN) BALROG LED KIT (#502-5022-00)

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

That is the exact kit part number referenced in the Service Bulletin, and the bayonet socket appears to match the socket photos at the top and bottom of the Service Bulletin.

Note: You will need to bend the 2 solder lugs and the screw lug for the light assembly to fit inside the Balrog bash toy, as you can see more clearly in the bottom right photo on the Service Bulletin, showing it actually mounted inside the Balrog. Also don’t forget to add the insulators on the solder lugs to prevent electrical shorts.

The Action Pinball one seems to be the right part, seeing thelat it is referenced as the Balrog replacement, and also the lugs and mounting arm are pre-bent.

Do you guys think this is the one? The Pinball Life one seems to be a standard socket, but not what would fit Balrog (without adjustments).

Marco may not restock, and I'd like to try to fix this sooner than later.

I'd appreciate your thoughts on this.

Personally? I think the pinballlife one is fine. It's power going to a socket. As long as you get the right size and right voltage LED, it should work.

My PF is pretty faded and the cabinet art isn't in that great of shape. I'm mulling over the idea of a new art package. I'd like the game to have better overall artwork, perhaps using assets that can be easily found online or going full out custom hand-drawn/painted.

I've got a large cnc machine, so could put together a brand new cabinet without ruining my stock one. I could also work out the PF cutting details. CPR is eventually going to offer custom one-off playfield, so that could be a good route for a PF.

I don't know, it's not something I'm committing to yet, and it may take me years, but thought I'd go ahead and put it out there into the universe.

Just went to look at a machine that someone is selling. The coin door has 3 slots and the power supply says Canada. They did not have coin mech on the door.

Does this sound normal? Was Stern selling games like this or has it been modified?

Also, the born date on this game is 2006. Didn't realize they were producing them this late.

I'm really curious to know why this one has 3 coin slots and no coin mechs.

Anyone?

Bally/Williams export games had 3 coin slots and 2 coin slots for domestic designated sales. Stern probably did the same.

I have read that operators sometimes kept the coin mechs when selling a game, so the buyer would keep it at home and not put it on location where it would be competition for the seller.

Mine is the same.

delete

Pinball is illegal in Canada mabey that’s why no coin mec

Has anyone done an Orthanc upgrade? It seems like a 3D printed facade could go over the current metal piece and the entire top could be replaced. It ideally would look similar in consistency/quality to the Barad-dur tower.

I see there are a few Orthanc towers on Thingiverse, but this one looks the most detailed and could maybe be altered as needed to fit in the game: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2887689

Funny, eh?

We can get in more trouble for pinball than marijuana!

I love this country!

Did you get yours NIB or buy second hand like that?

Also, when your game boots, do you get this screen? Can this be turned off with the dip switches so it is USA and does not show this screen?

And can you guys confirm that this is the latest software?

MVIMG_20180926_001420 (resized).jpg

That is the latest software, and showing that info can be done by the menu setting for Fast Boot or Fast Restart or something like that....

Yup, Standard adjustment 45: fast boot => Yes

I make a note of settings I touch, so I can recover after a battery swap. I have extra balls off, which is better for groups and tourney practice. Here is my list:

SA 4 replay levels = 4 (tiers of replays or EBs) ->1
SA 6 Special Award = EB
SA 9 EB Limit = Unlimited -> 0
SA 15 Tilt Warnings = 3
SA 29 High Score = 10 letters
SA 30 Free Play = Yes
SA 38 Ball save
SA 42 Coindoor Ball save = Yes
SA 49 Tech Alert = coin door and startup
SA 3 replay award = EB ==> replay
FA 33 Cave Troll = ON
FA 34 = consolation balrog = none
FA 36 = Extend attract = Yes

I have a Canadian LOTR - I took out of the box a year or so ago (and still haven’t even powered it up LOl) — anyway, it has 3 slots from the factory

When you like LOTR too much!

IMG_20180926_000550 (resized).jpg

SA 42 Coindoor Ball save = Yes
FA 33 Cave Troll = ON
FA 34 = consolation balrog = none
FA 36 = Extend attract = Yes

Curious to know about these settings. Can you explain them a little more. What do they do?

COINDOOR BALL SAVER: Set to YES or NO. Default is NO. When set to NO, this feature is not
available. When set to YES, this feature allows the Coin Door to be opened during game play; the ball
will drain but the game will be placed "on hold". When the Coin Door is closed, the pinball will return to
the Shooter Lane, and the game will resume.

CAVE TROLL SEQUENCE: Set to ON or OFF. Default is OFF. If set to ON, game adds the Cave Troll
sequence to the start of The Fellowship of the Rings Multiball. If set to OFF, it goes straight to Balrog intro.

CONSOLATION BALROG: Set to NONE, MYSTERY, CAVE or BOTH. Default is BOTH. Set to NONE to
disable this feature. Note: This controls whether a player hasn’t seen the Balrog, it allows it to come out
on the following awards. MYSTERY = can be randomly awarded, especially on Ball 3; CAVE = Will be
the first award given from Cave Shots; BOTH = can be awarded by either Mystery or Cave, but at any
rate there will only be one Consolation Balrog; NONE = no consolation Balrog will ever be awarded.

EXTENDED ATTRACT MODE: Can be set ON or OFF (default is OFF). When ON, the 4th then every 8th pass through attract
mode will show the One Ring poem and accompanying light show.

Wondering if anyone might know this... I have two LOTR pins at my house right now, but one of them will be going to a new home soon.

One was manufactured in 2005 and the other in 2006.

A few things I've noticed:

- the playfield art is clearer on the 2006
- the clearcoat seems thicker and skinnier on the 2006
- inserts on the 2005 are pretty flush to the pf, but on the 2006 they all are slightly raised
- balrog on the 2006 is matte, and it's shinny on the 2005

Just wondering if there is anything to this. Did they change anything near the end of production, or was this luck of the draw?

This has been noted previously in the thread. Some playfields have better color registration than others. If you look at the text above the flippers "light all rings for ring frenzy" you may notice the orange/yellow/black don't line up perfectly on some playfields, etc. Also some playfields have a green hue that is noticeable on the faces in the center of the playfield, and some don't. Variances in manufacturing occur over a production run.

Not sure about the slightly raised inserts. Maybe they are slowly lifting up, which is not good.

I am looking for an original set of sounds for the Lord of the rings, maybe someone has?

Do you want to sell it to me?

If you own a LOTR, you really should consider these magnets to cover the lame girls on the apron. These really make the apron look cool. PM me if interested.

Mod - For Sale

LOTR Custom Apron Magnets Archived

New (selling multiple, business) - “These are brand new custom apron magnets. Very high quality!! Use these to cover up the girls on your LOTR Apron. Please see photos. $24 + $6 shipping. Sorry, magnets are expensive...”

2018-09-29

Howell, MI

Jimmyhonda

24 (Firm)

Archived after: 42 days

Viewed: 273 times

Status: Not sold

Looking for some tips - I'm about to swap out the RAM for NVRAM but looking at the existing chip on the board I don't see any notch. Is it marked underneath at all? Any other way to determine which way round to install the new chip?

Also any general tips so I don't mess anything up? I was planning to try prying the old chip out with a flathead screwdriver against the socket.

Thanks!

there should be a notch on the chip and there is a notch on the diagram on the board.

It's strange cause on the docs its the only one without a notch it seems. I'll look when I get the chip out.

Chip (resized).png

Line it up like this...

6412CE0E-41F9-43B5-9A8B-0EEDFE8AB6E2 (resized).jpeg

Ok so I'd say that looks like notch down Thanks!

What the $*@&??? Are you serious??

The notch is there to help you identify where pin 1 of the IC is at, there are several ways to figure this out in absence of a notch.
- Pin 1 is typically a square pad on the PCB
- Pin 1 may have a round indention or dot on the chip to signify this.
- In the absence of any other characteristic markings, Pin1 is the lower left pin when the chip is oriented to read the part information on the IC.

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There was a ban in Montreal that was recently lifted:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/pinball-north-star-montreal-bylaw-1.4062263

You'd never know it, as Canadians are typically very liberal and open minded, but no one is perfect

Now that I own this game, I'm coming to the conclusion that the way Stern chose to mount a lot of the figures looks pretty bad.

I haven't noticed, but has anyone taken steps to clean these up in their game?

Stern used a ton of glue on the AOME figures anyway (or a previous owner did), so why couldn't they have glued them to their bases and mounted with screws or wires from underneath? I'm sure what they did ultimately worked out for route, but I'm going to attempt to clean up some of the weird looking ones, like those on the slings. Saruman looks particularly odd, too, with his feet sunk beneath the platform. In some cases, the plastic platform is probably not even needed (as long as it's not a ball deflector or serving some other purpose) and something with wires could mount the figures in a cleaner way.

Previous owner, as Stern did not use glue. Stern used clear plastics and black wireties.

I don't mean Stern glued the figures down. I was thinking they glued them to keep their joints from moving, or a previous owner did. The stock AOME figures have some joints for posing them. A lot of the figures in my game are glued stiff.

Thanks for clarifying. Yes, Stern did glue the joints, as the AOME figures fall apart easily at the joints. I had to do the same when I built my Path of the Dead Mod and when I added Gimli & Boromir. After just a few games the figures started to resemble Monty Python instead of Tolkien.......

I am not aware of figures falling apart. Here are several photos showing attachment if you scroll through the posts:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-lord-of-the-rings-journey-begins-members-club/page/58#post-4399907

I was asking if anyone re-mounted them differently. I think the stock method looks pretty bad. They are stock in my game and I'm going to change them.

Pinbits has a kit that makes the mounting look better.

http://www.pinbits.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=13_48&products_id=441

https://mrtn.smugmug.com/Photos/Pinball/2009-12-17/

Topper, backlit blue, fireballs on the sides, color changing orb in the center and two orange flasher strips on the bottom tied to the eye flasher at the tower.

10Lx8Wx9.5h.

20181003_173602 (resized).jpg

Hi Everyone!

I'm newish to the club, but have been slowly working through my LOTR to make sure everything is tip top! I've got a question about the right flasher by the right flipper, can someone explain or show me a picture of how that plastic is mounted? I've got a bolt floating on nothing in the top left corner and two plastic offsets on the right and left bottom, so there's not actually anything securely attached to anything.

The other issue I'm trying to work out is that I've got a broken plastic behind the Barad-Dur tower in the back right of the game. If anyone wants to sell me one of them, I'd be interested!

Can someone please provide a link where I can purchase the Arwen plastic mod that helps deliver the ball from the Path of the Dead? Apparently, I am not good at google.

https://redshiftled.com.au/Plastic-stuff.php

There is screw with spacer (shown) attached to the plastic underneath, and two plastic standoffs holding the right flasher. I always thought that looked odd and not level, but I have seen the same configuration on other LotR.

IMG_6049 (resized).JPG

So to be clear, bolt/screw in the bottom right of the picture from bottom to top is bolt head, bottom plastic, sleeve/spacer, top plastic, lock nut, nut? Does that actually connect to something on the playfield near the tip of the sword?

Hello, my LOTR is playing fine and works great. However, every single time I power it up, it doesn’t recognize the balls and searches. After the timer goes down, everything goes to normal and works great. Everything also works great from game to game and the machine recognizes balls just fine. However, if I power off the machine, and power it back up, it searches and searches for balls again? I don’t get it? Any idea what’s wrong??

Sounds very possible that it doesn't have the correct number of balls in it.

Yes. When you've turned it on, go to diagnostics menu and check which switches are on and pay attention to ball trough switches (switches 11-14)