A short clip of the gameplay. Multiball in action.
Big thanks to Phil at Pinball Heaven for making this happen!
Available in 1080p
Big thanks to Phil at Pinball Heaven for making this happen!
Available in 1080p
Pinball info
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The Hobbit gameplay video
- Thread starter Big Phil
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Nice
I still think, as with WOZ, there is just *way* too much going on with the huge screen. You glance at it when playing and it's just info overload.
Sent from my D5503 using Tapatalk
I still think, as with WOZ, there is just *way* too much going on with the huge screen. You glance at it when playing and it's just info overload.
Sent from my D5503 using Tapatalk
Great to look at when someone else is playing.
I'm looking forward to seeing and playing one. Everything I've read so far says that it looks great but gameplay is limited, is that fair?
I'm also not a fan of the huge TV on the backglass though I can see a case for a continuously visible area for stuff that players often go into status update for during play - like bonus size, progress towards goals etc. Not a ****ing novel though.
No doubt the software updates to follow will make it better, along with some instructions like ideally a Bowen tutorial or similar. I just hope it doesn't have too many WOZ features in the final version (like interminable outlane savers)
Guys please post your opinions and impressions in detail.
I'm also not a fan of the huge TV on the backglass though I can see a case for a continuously visible area for stuff that players often go into status update for during play - like bonus size, progress towards goals etc. Not a ****ing novel though.
No doubt the software updates to follow will make it better, along with some instructions like ideally a Bowen tutorial or similar. I just hope it doesn't have too many WOZ features in the final version (like interminable outlane savers)
Guys please post your opinions and impressions in detail.
I'm surprised no one has posted a mini review yet. Surely it was the star of the show?
Personally I like the idea of the big screen but you really do need great source material to work from. The Walking Dead would have looked awesome with one, so would GOT. I'm really interested in how they will use it for "dialled in". It could be a big albatross around their neck if it's not done well. JJP employees dressing up to shoot their own version of Taken would be interesting.....
Anyway back to the Hobbit. What's it like? How good is the code? WOZ was a stinker when it first arrived in the UK but I'd hope JJP have made the best use of the delays and got better code this time round. Any idea when they will start shipping to customers? Summer time?
Personally I like the idea of the big screen but you really do need great source material to work from. The Walking Dead would have looked awesome with one, so would GOT. I'm really interested in how they will use it for "dialled in". It could be a big albatross around their neck if it's not done well. JJP employees dressing up to shoot their own version of Taken would be interesting.....
Anyway back to the Hobbit. What's it like? How good is the code? WOZ was a stinker when it first arrived in the UK but I'd hope JJP have made the best use of the delays and got better code this time round. Any idea when they will start shipping to customers? Summer time?
Be good to see some Safe-Cracker meets Banzai Run style gameplay elements going on up there. Even a quick game of puzzle Bobble would be a start. I don't feel that lovely monitor is utilised to it's full potential just displaying scores, progress and the odd fancy (and distracting) video clip. Give me a multiscreen multiball you bastards!
Bride of Pinbot 2.0 was the star for me
That game is frickin awesome!!!! 
Didn't get a lot of time one it but it looks very pretty, the code seems weak at the moment but it looks like they'll be a crazy amount of stuff to do when it finally gets there. Tbh it almost seemed like there's too much stuff going on....it's going to be very complicated. The game played nicely although was a bit slow and floaty as the steepness wasn't particularly cranked up.
Some of the cool features I liked were:
- The pop up monsters that come out of the playfield, they look good and are used a lot.
- The drop target skill shot where it cycles though the DWARF targets popping them up one at a time and you have to hit the one that's up.
- The diverter that comes down on the two ramps making it a sort of u-turn shot
- The third flipper on the upper right seems completely pointless at the moment and I can't see how it can be made useful through code
- The Lock roll over buttons in the middle of the playfield (like the ones on WCS that light the goal) deflect a slow moving ball and can cause SDTM drains.
admittly whilkst watching someone play and seeing the honeycombs fill on the display I did here myself saying "I have a P please Bob"
Looking forward to playing this at Tilt Birmingham soon.
Well done Kirk for taking the trouble and expense to site this brand new game in his excellent Cafe, and of course to Phil P for organising this game making it to the UK so soon.
Well done Kirk for taking the trouble and expense to site this brand new game in his excellent Cafe, and of course to Phil P for organising this game making it to the UK so soon.
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Its at Phil's expense in Tilt! But an excellent way to promote the game.
^^^ Wot he said, so long as you have a lot of time on your hands...
Tis very pretty though...
Some thoughts from the few games I played on it, and a similar amount I watched.
The only features I saw / partially understood where:
Multiple skillshots changed with the ring button.
Multiball - light lock by hitting the rollover targets (which could be very temperamental) shoot right ramp 3 times.
Beast Frenzy - when the ball rolls down any of the 4 (FOUR) return lanes a pop-up beast (similar to the goblins on MM) pops up on the opposing side. Shoot enough of them for a 2 ball multiball
Ring Button - located in same position as fire button on AcDC. Can be used to collect awards (displayed on screen). Once used requires a certain number of switch hits to reactivate. Awards I saw included, postpone lock, postpone mode start, points, attempt backstab and light Thorin.
Light Dwarves - done by hitting drop targets, but no idea what happens when all dwarves have been lit - despite me seeing someone else do it.
Modes - Not sure how you activate these, but you start them by hitting the left ramp. Can further increase time by hitting the left ramp throughout the mode.
Book - again not sure how this is lit, but you turn a page (on the small screen) by hitting the right ramp.
Left kickback is of variable power dependent on how long you hold the ring button. Used in some modes.
There seems a lot less unused/covered playfield compared to WOZ. Maybe they listened to complaints about WOZ?
It does look very nice and played OK despite being way to shallow. I found less on the screen, and it was more visual, compared to WOZ meaning you only needed a quick glance to find out what was happening.
The main thing I didn't like was that you appeared to be able to start everything at anytime and in any order. I often had a mode, multiball and Beast frenzy running at the same time. I prefer it that you have to start things in the right order to be able to get the benefit of stacking (as in almost every other game I can think of you must start a mode before starting multiball)
Definitely needs more time playing it to understand what's going on, as well as almost certainly an update to code.
The only features I saw / partially understood where:
Multiple skillshots changed with the ring button.
Multiball - light lock by hitting the rollover targets (which could be very temperamental) shoot right ramp 3 times.
Beast Frenzy - when the ball rolls down any of the 4 (FOUR) return lanes a pop-up beast (similar to the goblins on MM) pops up on the opposing side. Shoot enough of them for a 2 ball multiball
Ring Button - located in same position as fire button on AcDC. Can be used to collect awards (displayed on screen). Once used requires a certain number of switch hits to reactivate. Awards I saw included, postpone lock, postpone mode start, points, attempt backstab and light Thorin.
Light Dwarves - done by hitting drop targets, but no idea what happens when all dwarves have been lit - despite me seeing someone else do it.
Modes - Not sure how you activate these, but you start them by hitting the left ramp. Can further increase time by hitting the left ramp throughout the mode.
Book - again not sure how this is lit, but you turn a page (on the small screen) by hitting the right ramp.
Left kickback is of variable power dependent on how long you hold the ring button. Used in some modes.
There seems a lot less unused/covered playfield compared to WOZ. Maybe they listened to complaints about WOZ?
It does look very nice and played OK despite being way to shallow. I found less on the screen, and it was more visual, compared to WOZ meaning you only needed a quick glance to find out what was happening.
The main thing I didn't like was that you appeared to be able to start everything at anytime and in any order. I often had a mode, multiball and Beast frenzy running at the same time. I prefer it that you have to start things in the right order to be able to get the benefit of stacking (as in almost every other game I can think of you must start a mode before starting multiball)
Definitely needs more time playing it to understand what's going on, as well as almost certainly an update to code.
Had a nice bit of playtime with it last night thanks to @chris b , and with a few sets of eyes watching what was going on it becomes easier to figure things out.
@Wayne J 's post is pretty spot on, but just to elaborate on a few points:
Skillshot can be changed with the ring button
- Hit the moving drop target (in DWARF bank)
- Hit the LOCK rollover/s
- Hit the ELF target bank
- Hit the lit inlane
Once you're started you'll want to qualify and start a mode. There are a number of ways to qualify modes
- ELF drop targets (lights multiple Elf modes)
- MAN drop targets (lights multiple Man modes)
- DWARF drop targets (you see where this is going...)
- Left ramp (Gandalf modes)
- Right ramp (Bilbo modes)
- Radagast hole (Radagast modes)
..and so on for the major shots
Once modes are qualified it lights a number of hexagons in the grid in a grey colour. One of them will be blinking, and shooting the right ramp (when it is lit as 'MODE') will start that mode. You can change the lit mode by shooting the left ramp (BOOK)
If you've already spelled LOCK (by hitting the rollovers on the playfield) then you can use the ring button to toggle whether the right ramp is lit for LOCK or MODE. We were generally starting a mode before multiball, though as Wayne says, you can start multiball and then bring a mode into it. With a long enough multiball it looks like you can actually qualify and play through multiple modes whilst in multiball (which is fair enough I think given the huge number of modes) but only one mode running at a time.
There are LOOOADS of modes. The little book on the playfield gives a short summary of what you should be shooting for in the mode and how it scores. The mode countdown timer can be boosted by shooting the left ramp (TIME)
Software I would say is much more complete than people give it credit for. Huge number of modes are implemented and playable. The only things we noticed were
- One of the modes (Windlancer was it?) wants you to shoot the right ramp, where it should then bring the ball to the kickback on the left, but it wasn't activating the kickback (so it sent the ball to the drain!). Time out this mode for now!
- There are magnets at the top of the orbits that don't currently seem to be used
- Right orbit is a deadly shot. Whips round and brings the ball right between the flipper gap. (This could be where those magnets come into play).
- There is a diverter at the top of the ramp which currently isn't used.
@Wayne J 's post is pretty spot on, but just to elaborate on a few points:
Skillshot can be changed with the ring button
- Hit the moving drop target (in DWARF bank)
- Hit the LOCK rollover/s
- Hit the ELF target bank
- Hit the lit inlane
Once you're started you'll want to qualify and start a mode. There are a number of ways to qualify modes
- ELF drop targets (lights multiple Elf modes)
- MAN drop targets (lights multiple Man modes)
- DWARF drop targets (you see where this is going...)
- Left ramp (Gandalf modes)
- Right ramp (Bilbo modes)
- Radagast hole (Radagast modes)
..and so on for the major shots
Once modes are qualified it lights a number of hexagons in the grid in a grey colour. One of them will be blinking, and shooting the right ramp (when it is lit as 'MODE') will start that mode. You can change the lit mode by shooting the left ramp (BOOK)
If you've already spelled LOCK (by hitting the rollovers on the playfield) then you can use the ring button to toggle whether the right ramp is lit for LOCK or MODE. We were generally starting a mode before multiball, though as Wayne says, you can start multiball and then bring a mode into it. With a long enough multiball it looks like you can actually qualify and play through multiple modes whilst in multiball (which is fair enough I think given the huge number of modes) but only one mode running at a time.
There are LOOOADS of modes. The little book on the playfield gives a short summary of what you should be shooting for in the mode and how it scores. The mode countdown timer can be boosted by shooting the left ramp (TIME)
Software I would say is much more complete than people give it credit for. Huge number of modes are implemented and playable. The only things we noticed were
- One of the modes (Windlancer was it?) wants you to shoot the right ramp, where it should then bring the ball to the kickback on the left, but it wasn't activating the kickback (so it sent the ball to the drain!). Time out this mode for now!
- There are magnets at the top of the orbits that don't currently seem to be used
- Right orbit is a deadly shot. Whips round and brings the ball right between the flipper gap. (This could be where those magnets come into play).
- There is a diverter at the top of the ramp which currently isn't used.
Woz has far less going on than this one display wise. It will only be a matter of time to get your head around what's going on and to learn the game.
I think it looks really nice, lots of effort has obviously gone into this one and it's probably the only machine of late that is actually worth the price tag.
All round nicely polished BUT I have said from the start it just looks too easy. Not easy to complete a deep rule set but just keeping the ball in play. Deffo a lonely mans home game or time limited balls for tickets & ops.
Just a couple of things to add to @Wizcat 's post.
I had had the windlancer fail to kickback - wasn't happy
Also saw the orbit short go sdtm a few times as well
I did however see the diverted on the centre ramp working, but haven't a clue which mode it was in, it was @ronsplooter who was playing at the time.
I had had the windlancer fail to kickback - wasn't happy
Also saw the orbit short go sdtm a few times as well
I did however see the diverted on the centre ramp working, but haven't a clue which mode it was in, it was @ronsplooter who was playing at the time.
Yes and that girl would have had the highest score of the weekend at 8bit flip by about 120000
Had a good session on the hobbit last night, thanks to mr @chris b . My best score of the night 766K, enough for 1st but not grand champ which went to another friend with a score of over 1 mill!
Really enjoyed playing it, as with most games needs to be played where you can hear it properly and played for a good few hours straight to get to understand the rules. The amount of modes on it is truly amazing and some of the things they've managed to get a 5 drop target bank to do are very impressive.
As an example one mode has the 5 drop target bank setting and dropping the targets in an almost wave type pattern to open and block the left up kicker shot. Very very impressive (from a hardware and software perspective) and the noise it makes when running this is seriously cool!!
Looking forward to watching how this game progresses updates wise, as it has all the elements to one of the best to date.
Really enjoyed playing it, as with most games needs to be played where you can hear it properly and played for a good few hours straight to get to understand the rules. The amount of modes on it is truly amazing and some of the things they've managed to get a 5 drop target bank to do are very impressive.
As an example one mode has the 5 drop target bank setting and dropping the targets in an almost wave type pattern to open and block the left up kicker shot. Very very impressive (from a hardware and software perspective) and the noise it makes when running this is seriously cool!!
Looking forward to watching how this game progresses updates wise, as it has all the elements to one of the best to date.
paul garner we also managed to advance to ebour by hitting the spinner enough times this started super spinner for 60 seconds then when timed out you could progress further i assume for other things
sorry kate but you are now down to second on the score board now
sorry kate but you are now down to second on the score board now
