Anyone else have an issue where when hitting the ring ramp, it seem like the ball gets slowed down by the spinner?

I feel like a lot of clean shots fall short of making the shot into the ring, especially as the game progresses.

Anyone else?

Try the upgraded coils. I got the stronger ones, ring shot is not an issue.

Was it an issue before?

Tried that, unfortunately it didn't help. What solenoid test is the shaker on the 10.02 code?

I would check step 18 in the link you provided and make sure that wire is seated in the connector properly. You can use a meter and a paper clip to check it from the connector back to wherever it goes.

Bend/adjust the spinner so it's leaning forward a bit -- rather than leaning backward. Make a big diff.

Exactly what shaker kit did you use?

RussM

On mine it's #12 - Not Used

True story, it was working the entire time. It's just so weak, I couldn't feel it. My sub shakes the game more than the shaker does. Once Lamprey posted the solenoid, I could finally test it.

I used the PBL shaker as I do in all my games. This might be one case where the red tremor might have paid off assuming it's stronger like it is in all the other pins.

Mine shook the most when you hit balrog.

I am using the regular Stern shaker from PBL. It is working great. I had a motor from CT that was too violent. It was not the Red Tremor though. I think the RT will destroy your cabinet! Must be something else going on.

This has probably been asked a million times but I haven’t read the whole thread. Is the jay guy going to do anymore of his eye mod? What is his username to get on the list in case he does? Just joined the club last night

For the love of god, I still do not understand why so many people put purple lighting in a LOTR? Red in the top right corner makes sense because that goes along with Mordor, but purple!? To each his own, I would just love to know the logic behind it? The rest of the lighting is done very tastefully in that machine.

@jsm172 -- This thread should have the answers you seek. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/lotr-projected-eye-palantir-mod

Anybody tried any different colored flipper buttons? stock buttons don't have springs, right?

I'm still struggling with my clear LED flipper buttons - they feel stiff and sticky. They make post transfers way harder than they should be. I'm switching them out for some regular buttons, deciding between red, black, white, or green.

Yeah, I put gold buttons on mine. The stock buttons should have a sprint in them.

I used orange buttons

Any pics of the gold/orange buttons?

And are you sure about the spring? The lotr manual calls for part# 500-5026-32. When I Google that, it comes up with a no-spring version

The ones that came on mine, which I think were original, did have springs. But, it's possible they were not original.

I'm out of town for the week, so I can get a picture next weekend.

nbd. Just curious how different colors look.

I have a set of the path of the dead figures. They are about $60 on eBay. I'm not greedy, make me a reasonable offer if you are interested.

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Orange buttons, orange Super Bands and red Perfect Play for the kickers. The colors are better than the pictures show. May be due to the Invisiglass.

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All my pins have buttons with springs. I do not notice any issues in the pins that did not have them originally.

Looks slick!

I'll be getting buttons without springs later this week, so I'll let you guys know if that helps. It could be the springs, or maybe the build quality of the clear plastics, but mine are stiff and squeaky. When I got the machine, the left flipper was sticky, to the point where the button would get stuck in regularly. I swapped that for a new clear button w spring. No longer sticky, but it's audibly squeaky and stiff.

Sold.

My LotR came with a pink/purple 12v LED strip at the back of the playfield and a green 12v LED strip under the apron. It must have been a popular mod that was sold years ago. I see some LED kits include LED strips for 'front and back'. Mine did come with a full no-ghost LED kit installed also.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1024-pinballbulbs/01547-lord-of-the-rings-pinball-ultimate-led-lighting-kit

I know I'm in the minority here, but I feel the same way about LEDs on this title.

I'm with you. Although I have replaced the flashers with LED's, all other lighting is incandescent and I prefer the warm yellowish old timey natural feel for this title. Almost all of the other pins I have owned that weren't already LED when manufactured, I put LED's in. For this title I just could never bring myself to do it.

I’m feeling a strong urge to buy this game.

LOVE IT but have never owned it. If anyone has a lead on one in the Midwest
please drop Blind Willie a line......

Yeah - I'm with you. Years ago I replaced all the incandescents with LEDs. Lasted about three days before I took them out. It remains as my only game with incandescent bulbs. I have a bunch of 44/555 bulbs from the past that I have to use on something Although, I haven't needed to replace a bulb on that pin in over three years :O

I've changed all my games to LEDs except this one, and perhaps my original MM (debating that one).

I've owned two LOTRs, and the first one I did with warm 2 SMDs from Comet and it looked great. But the original incandescent just feels better on this game.

Aren’t there now LED’s (besides the ones you mention) that are designed to virtually match the look of the old incandescent bulbs?

With an LED board and better quality warm LED's you can come fairly close but to my eyes it still isn't the same...... and costs money. For me the math just doesn't make sense to try and come close.

Don’t forget swapping to LEDs also lowers the heat and power demands put on the wiring connectors and boards, which are now 15+ years old.....

Did mine with LED OCD, warm white LEDs, and a few color LEDs on some inserts and to highlight parts of the backboard. Couldn’t imagine going back to regular bulbs....

It's definitely possible with modern LEDs along with an LED OCD to do it tastefully. The key is using single smd, warm white bulbs for anything above the playfield and only use colors where you are merely enhancing what is already there, not arbitrarily adding purple bulbs or whatever lol.

The OCD by default runs the bulbs at 85% which softens them even further. Q

I only have 1 incandescent left in mine, the Ringwraith red tinted flasher. I think it still holds very true to the original feel of the game.

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I am also with you guys on this, the incandescent bulbs feel better on LOTR.

Are people using the LED OCD GIzmo with led's in the GI? Do they look fine without it?

I am not using the GIzmo, GI works great.

No gizmo in my LED'd LOTR. I color matched.

I just put an NVRAM in our machine. Love it. My wife is a better pinball player than I am, she destroyed the Ring in 36 seconds, but then the batteries gave out. That was sad. She was urine'd off to say the least

When we went back in and re-worked the settings we left extended attract mode on. I have read that this can stress the game, and not to use it if it's a location machine.

Anyway, last night I had it on and I noticed that the display was just going blank. And the only light blinking was the Barad-dur light (which is part of the extended attract mode display). So I turned the game off, turned it back on and it did the same thing. So then, went into settings, set that to OFF and it still did it. Turned the game off, turned it back on this morning and it hasn't done it since.

Extended attract mode in this game goes through the lore poem, and uses various parts of the playfield as it does it. It's cool, but I wouldn't leave it on. For good measure, this morning, I reset the cable for the display.

But anyway, I have only added a four ghost Army of the Dead platform above the POTD. It looks really cool. That's the only mod. Game ROM's are 9, as I bought it. It is remarkably clean and in remarkably good shape, almost like new, but I may be somewhat subjective. Only issue I have ever had with it is the right VUK. It gets quirky and will not eject the ball from time to time. And just in the last two weeks, I had to replace the pop-bumper flasher transistor on the board, as those flashers were not working anymore. It took me longer to take the board off, and put it back in the box than it did to remove the old one and solder the new back on LOL.

I am the second owner of this game, bought it in early 2007 from the original owner who had to sell it because of space consideration. It's a great game, and I recommend it to anybody that has the money to find, and then purchase, it.

oh btw, no LED's yet. Not sure if I want to go there, and it's my wife's call. It's her game, I just work on it

I did LED and OCD in my previous LOTR. I went with 2 SMD warm from Comet, and although it looked great, it doesn't look like stock.

So with 1 SMD, have you found that playing with the OCD settings can get it looking close to incandescent?

1 SMD Warm White with LEDOCD and GIzmo, some color LEDs in inserts and backboard. Lighting effects look perfect with OCD.

LOTR2 (resized).jpg

For me, the bigger difference is the colour, not the fading effects. Seems the colour on the SMDs is still which white than incadescent.

There's a huge brightness difference between single and double smd bulbs. I posted a pic, you tell me. I think it still very much feels like the stock lighting.

Here is the same shot one with LotR stock and one with LEDs...

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The LED looks more white/yellow, and the incandescent looks sort of white/orange. Of my 7 games, all of them are LED except for MM and LOTR. I think I'm going to change over my MM to 1 SMD warm, and I might keep LOTR stock because I just think it fits. Can't go wrong either way though!

Decided to play a quick game this evening. Had everything done and just needed a few more shots for ROTK (even had DTR flashing).

Just couldn't pull it off!

Have a question about Witch King. How many shots are needed? I swear I hit at least 12-14!

You must immediately combo the shot for it to count! Left ramp and then right ramp, or right orbit and then right ramp. It takes 4 combos and its a pain, but it can be easier if you stack it with a multiball.

I have put Comet's Sunlight LEDs in the GI and color matched LEDs in the inserts in all of my pins until LOTR came along. I have left the incandescents installed and moved my Pinstadiums into it. With the @Pinstadium adjusted to a slight orange/red tint everything is beautifully illuminated and the soft dimming effects of the incandescents look right. With a ColorDMD, Pinstadiums, and a Pinnovators Sub connection with external powered subwoofer I'm happy.

Well, actually, maybe I also need a POTD figure or two and some brass speaker grills and that cool Pinball Life spinner-flasher-eye-mod-thing and those cool wood Pingravings Middle Earth map instruction cards and. . .