My JJP Hobbit machine arrives today

[Metalzoic]

Smaug Edition. Ordered it on 12/1/2012 so it's been 3 years and 8 months since I ordered the damn thing.

Wish me luck on it arriving in one working piece and that we can even wrangle it into the house without breaking it.

 

[Heretic]

good luck and enjoy

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Have fun. And if you've not already played it, expect long ball times. That was my impression at least, from the one game I played on a regular Hobbit. The table does not like draining.

 

[Fungi]

Smaug Edition. Ordered it on 12/1/2012 so it's been 3 years and 8 months since I ordered the damn thing.

Wow. I paid off my car in less time than that.

 

[Metalzoic]

Wow. I paid off my car in less time than that.

Ha! Funny you mentioned that as I bought a car a couple weeks after I bought the table and It's paid off soon in December...
Damn that is a long time.

 

[Kolchak357]

Have fun. And if you've not already played it, expect long ball times. That was my impression at least, from the one game I played on a regular Hobbit. The table does not like draining.

That's my impression as well. But I really liked the pin a lot. I much prefer it to WOZ.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

That's my impression as well. But I really liked the pin a lot. I much prefer it to WOZ.

Yep, they learned a lot from WOZ (particularly that less > more, and more <> better). The rules on WOZ are so deep it's impossible to even know what's going on. At least in The Hobbit you get a sense of getting somewhere pretty quickly.

The biggest drawback to both the JJPs to me, though is the display - sure it's lovely to look at, but when you're playing pinball, you only glance at the display for less than a second when you get the chance. This is why DMDs stayed around so long, not because the tech wasn't there to do something better, but because in the end that's the right size of display to get just enough at-a-glance info that can be absorbed in the fraction of a second you look at it.

 

[Slam23]

Our national pinball association sent some investigative reporters (pinheads all of them) to play the one that arrived at the distributor to post an article in our magazine (yes, we have a glossy! ). To summarize: they were impressed by the graphic design, the open playfield (in comparison to the somewhat cramped one from WOZ) the fun gameplay and the depth of the rulesheet. The last aspect was also a bit of a negative if you compare homeplay to exploitation (this is a Dutch term for pinballs that are placed in public places, don't know if it translates properly to English), because people who casually encounter a Hobbit will be somewhat perplexed by the rules perhaps. For homeplay it's an ideal machine. They talked for example in how getting to multiball is not that hard, but really scoring big points from it means stacking (the right) modes (31 in total I believe!) with it and that is definitely an advanced strategy. I really like those kind of things for home machines. So enjoy [MENTION=607]Metalzoic[/MENTION] ! I'm in the happy circumstance that I know the guy who designs the video for the display (and also did the playfield and some of the art direction), and he gets all the JJP machines he works on as part of his salary. And he lives one street away from me.....

 

[Kolchak357]

Didn't realize it had that many modes. Wow! I'd love to see that in TPA.

 

[karl]

Best of luck with your Hobbit, Metalzoic. I was told may, in March. Then July, in May. So it can't be to long now, right

3 years and 8 months?? :O

Compared to you, it feels like I just ordered mine (October 1st, 2013)

Just watched a clip of the latest code. The first mini wizard mode - Into the fire - has been added to the code, and it looks absolutely fantastic. So much code already in the game, and yet so much still to come

It starts ca 15 min. into this video:

 

[Metalzoic]

Well it arrived safely. No loose bits or disconnected parts. No dings, scratches or damage at all. No adjustments needed to be made to anything. Fired up and worked perfectly once it was all setup.

I have it set at 7 degrees and it certainly isn't slow. It's really, really, really fun. It has way more of an ebb and flow than most pins. It can be fairly calm one moment as the balls moving around, but you're not really hitting anything, playing mellows hobbity music. Then you nail something and all of a sudden the music changes, gets louder, the sub kicks in, shaker kicks in, screen goes nuts, sound effects and monster shrieks blare out, monsters popping up all over, 5 balls flying around with sling axes chopping. It gets intense.

Everything about it is so much more intense in person with the volume up than I expected from videos.

So far I'm very happy. The friend that helped me set it up was blown away. Never plays or thinks about pinball, but played this for hours and decided he needs one. Ha!

Sent from my SM-G935V

 

[Kolchak357]

Happy to hear you are loving it. Especially after all the wait time.

 

[karl]

Big, big congrats. Happy to hear that you are enjoying it!

Have fun, and give us another report when you have played it some more.

 

[Metalzoic]

Cleared the first 5 goals and got to the mini-wizard mode Into The Fire.
Pretty cool as all the goal arrows converge on the center of the screen and explode into the "Into the Fire Text" and Gandolf yells "Out of the frying pan and INTO THE FIRE!" (Maybe he doesn't yell, but I have the volume up so it was damn loud.
Then it all goes bat-**** crazy as it dumps all the balls and tries to strobe and flasher you into a seizure. I lost it fairly quick though.

And I already thought normal Smaug multiball was pretty intensely done. Damn fun!

 

[Metalzoic]

Just got Smaug Multiball, then stacked on Beast Frenzy multiball, then stacked on Feast Frenzy multiball for Triple Multiball Madness! Believe me this video does not even remotely convey how bright, flashy and intense it is when you're playing it in person.

Shortly after this my Wife just missed the shot to start Into The Fire mode for her first time which is even more bat**** crazy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpFuSzX4yLA

 

[karl]

Thanks for the video. Great quality on the footage.

Game looks really fantastic!

Do you have the playfield protector? The playfield looks really shiny.

The video quality on the screen also looks really impressive. PS! The coding must have been a Herculean task, with all those stacking opportunities. And more to come

 

[Kolchak357]

Thanks for posting the vid. The lighting looks super nice.

 

[Metalzoic]

Thanks for the video. Great quality on the footage.

Game looks really fantastic!

Do you have the playfield protector? The playfield looks really shiny.

The video quality on the screen also looks really impressive. PS! The coding must have been a Herculean task, with all those stacking opportunities. And more to come

Yeah I have the playfield protector on it. It is super shiny, but has also picked up ball streak and scratches you can see if you get down low at an angle. Still, those are all scuffs that my playfield itself didn't get.

I'm surprised the footage came out well. I grabbed my phone and started filming as soon as I got multiball then handed it to my wife when she walked in the door.

Sent from my SM-G935V

 

[Metalzoic]

Thanks for posting the vid. The lighting looks super nice.

The lighting is something to behold. Into the Fire about blinds you.

Sent from my SM-G935V

 

[Kolchak357]

I hear that a lot of code has been added since I played it. How do you feel about the coding and rules as it is now? Does it feel finished?