finally got LOTR in from granny's garage on Monday but too late (plus bad back after the move) to unfold and play it, so first time i fired it up tonight after purchasing a good while back .... due to laziness and other games and other crap and life getting in the way. it's filthy but was nice and cheap (imported from Italy while £/E rate was good) so some problems expected. in preparation i watched the
long-ass Valinor-strategy video on my way home from work today just to familiarise myself with all those fantastic sounds and lights, get my juices flowing.
batteries from 2010, green on one end, luckily all contained in the holder. removed and cleaned up, installed remote holder velcroed to the side wall. all fuses correct and good. checked the plug had an earth and seemed to be wired in properly to the game. no wires loose on transformer. booted up ok and DMD even worked after i realised i put the ribbon cable on backwards first time round. nearly all lamps work, most flashers work, every switch that i could test worked fine, display perfect. playfield and every plastic is thick with muck and grime and dried novus and all sorts of grit and insect parts, the finger swipe test led to a black fingertip wherever i tried it, even the back of the translite and along the habitrails. just running my palm over the playfield it felt bumpy and bitty from dried on crap. cab contained lots of bits of old busted up springs and washers and switches and bulbs and metal filings and glass and arcade tokens and nuts and more assorted dusty gunk in it, but seemingly no transistors or caps or solder splash, and the boards themselves look lovely and untainted, so fingers crossed i got a bargain. i only actually played a couple of balls, as all the rubber is shot to bits, the flippers are weak as a kitten and one of the flipper bats is even cracked ..... but i had a pleasant evening tinkering and look forward to getting it all gleaming and playable. i will be putting together a shopping list as i take it apart to clean it and put back together. think i may need a couple of plastics replaced, anyone got spares for sale or trade?
looking forward to a few weeks of fixup followed by some serious pinball fun. but first a little drinky i thinky
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Started out with a bit of Iron Man followed by some Avatar (which absolutely kicked my ****). Then a bit of Robot until a post came loose (still working out the last few snags after the restore) which is now playing great with the new flipper coils and finally some Tommy to finish off 
