Went to see the Ironman2 film at the Imax the weekend it came out, and my brother took delivery of a Stern Ironman at his house near Chicago. Had played it during the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown RMPS tournament in Golden Colorado. I'm not in the same league as the serious tourney players there.
IM is a fun game, but more random than LOTR due to the two playfield magnets and a "war machine" kickback. It could easily kick my arse, nearly every time! I only once got to the final "do or die" mode, after making all the other modes, and then drained trying to make the shot as it counted down from 50Mil (I think). I think I like slower paced games, although the theme is great. Great sounds and light show, should earn well on location.
Back to LOTR LE, I fitted the Shaker Motor today kit (502-5027-00 rev B.) and it was fairly easy to do. More on the shaker later once I get my shots back and can get further into the game.
A couple of points if you fit a Shaker to a LOTR LE:
- The tiny PCB (printed circuit board) needs to go somewhere else than where the instructions show, or you need to mount the shaker motor further away from the side of the machine towards the coin box. Otherwise you can't get the cover off the shaker motor without taking out the PCB. No big deal.
- The #8-32 screws that hold the cover on didn't fit. I think they weren't tapped out correctly on the motor. I just changed to some self tapping machine screws.
- The BRN-GRY wire didn't exist on my LOTR LE harness. The only wire in the back of the cabinet that looked correct was BLU-YEL. It did have a center connector on the same size molex plug, so I went for it and it worked.
The shaker "blips" when you make certain shots, like adding the FOTR characters and making the right shots during modes. The choreography of the game play and the Shaker Motor is outstanding, like when the doors shut at the beginning of the "Gandalf vs. Saruman" mode. This is a great add-on for the price. About $170 at Pinball Life, if they have them in stock. Costs more from a Stern distributor, e.g. pinballsales.com quotes a RRP of $290 for the same shaker motor kit but have decent prices on NIB Stern games.
Flasher changes:
Bought some 4+1HP flashers at RMPS from Cointaker.com. Amber Flasher LED in the
two "helms deep" flashers. Trying an Amber one in the backboard ring flasher, and I may put one under the sword lock when I can get to it. Yellow/Amber #906 bulb for now. There's also an
Orange LED flasher behind the Eye at the top of Barad-Dur. About the only original #906 flasher left will be under the playfield at the "DTR" insert.
I also bought a slower color-changing #44 LED for the Palantir, but it doesn't work on the game.
