# The Hobbit Underside Tour | Episode 5

**Source:** Jersey Jack Pinball  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2017-01-28  
**Duration:** 7m 57s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WrN4sCH5u0

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## Analysis

Butch Peel from Jersey Jack Pinball provides a detailed technical tour of The Hobbit pinball machine's underside, explaining the playfield mechanisms, lighting systems, coil architecture, and switch types. He highlights the game's 11 drop targets (requiring 22 coils), dual magnet system, RGB LED insert lighting, and various switch technologies (micro, leaf, and optical). The video emphasizes the complexity of the playfield engineering and sets up future detailed maintenance and troubleshooting content.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] The Hobbit has 11 drop targets requiring 22 coils (one to kick up, one to knock down each target) — _Butch Peel explaining drop target mechanics; he counts them: three on left side, three on right side, five across middle top, three on lower left, three on lower right, five in center = 11 total_
- [MEDIUM] The Hobbit uses more coils than The Wizard of Oz due to the drop target system — _Butch Peel stated: 'there's a whole lot of coils more coils even than on The Wizard of Oz used in The Hobbit'_
- [HIGH] Drop target shuffle/walk feature is patented — _Butch Peel: 'that we patented that it's a great great feature in this game'_
- [HIGH] The Hobbit has two magnets mounted on the same bracket at the top of the playfield — _Butch Peel describing magnet placement and function for ball control into hobbit holes and pop bumpers_
- [HIGH] Smaug motor is almost entirely above the playfield, with only the motor sticking out underneath — _Butch Peel: 'this giant Beast that spins around and talks to you and all this thing he's virtually all above the Playfield the only thing you see here is the bottom of his motor'_

### Notable Quotes

> "there's a whole lot of coils more coils even than on The Wizard of Oz used in The Hobbit because we've got to set drop targets and knock drop targets down each one of those drop targets is going to take two coils"
> — **Butch Peel**, ~2:15
> _Explains the engineering complexity and mechanical intensity of The Hobbit compared to previous Jersey Jack title_

> "every one of those drop targets has to have a single coil to kick it up and a single coil to knock it back down again so that we can individually control those and kick them up and down and walk them around the Playfield and reset them like your shuffling cards just real fast motion"
> — **Butch Peel**, ~3:00
> _Details the patented drop target shuffle mechanic that defines The Hobbit's gameplay_

> "all of the inserts on the center have RGB LEDs that we can make any color we like"
> — **Butch Peel**, ~1:30
> _Describes the lighting architecture separating general illumination from playfield inserts_

> "an opto is an infrared Optical switch has a transmitter on one side a receiver on the other side anything that breaks that beam in between there makes the switch"
> — **Butch Peel**, ~7:00
> _Educational explanation of optical switch technology used extensively in The Hobbit_

> "I'm all for those so kind of a special sort of coil is a magnet we have two of those in The Hobbit game they're up here at the very top they're mounted to the same bracket"
> — **Butch Peel**, ~4:30
> _Personal endorsement of drop targets combined with magnet system explanation_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Butch Peel | person | Jersey Jack Pinball employee/representative providing technical tour and explanation of The Hobbit playfield mechanics |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer producing The Hobbit; source of this video content |
| The Hobbit | game | Jersey Jack Pinball title being detailed in underside technical tour; features 11 drop targets, dual magnets, and patented shuffle mechanic |
| The Wizard of Oz | game | Previous Jersey Jack title referenced as comparison point for coil count and mechanical complexity |
| Smaug | product | Large motorized toy/mechanism in The Hobbit that spins and talks; motor mounted mostly above playfield |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Drop target mechanics and patented shuffle system, Playfield lighting architecture (RGB vs general illumination), Coil systems and electromagnetic mechanisms, Switch types (micro, leaf, optical/opto)
- **Secondary:** Magnet system for ball control, Smaug motorized toy design, Future maintenance and troubleshooting content planning
- **Mentioned:** Comparison to The Wizard of Oz engineering

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.85) — Butch Peel is enthusiastic about the engineering (particularly drop targets), professional in tone, educational in approach. No complaints or criticisms present. Emphasis on feature innovation (patented shuffle) and technical achievement.

### Signals

- **[design_innovation]** The Hobbit features a patented drop target shuffle mechanic that allows individual control of 11 drop targets with 22 coils, enabling 'walking' effects across the playfield (confidence: high) — Butch Peel explicitly states drop targets are patented and describes the shuffle feature: 'kick them up and down and walk them around the Playfield and reset them like your shuffling cards'
- **[technology_signal]** The Hobbit uses a dual-lighting system: white general illumination LEDs (non-color, separate voltage controller) around playfield edges, and RGB LEDs on all center inserts for color-changing effects (confidence: high) — Butch Peel detailed separation: 'General illumination have white LEDs that do not change color all of the inserts on the center have RGB LEDs that we can make any color we like'
- **[design_innovation]** The Hobbit incorporates dual magnets mounted on same bracket at top of playfield to intelligently route balls into hobbit holes and pop bumpers based on shot direction (confidence: high) — Butch Peel: 'two of those in The Hobbit game they're up here at the very top they're mounted to the same bracket and they actually have a big screw on the end of them...can grab the ball when it comes around and drop it into either a hobbit hole on this side or drop it into the pop bumpers'
- **[gameplay_signal]** The Hobbit has substantially more coils than The Wizard of Oz due to drop target architecture, requiring 22 coils just for the 11 drop targets plus additional coils for other playfield mechanics (confidence: high) — Butch Peel: 'there's a whole lot of coils more coils even than on The Wizard of Oz used in The Hobbit because we've got to set drop targets and knock drop targets down'
- **[technology_signal]** The Hobbit uses extensive optical (opto) infrared switches for drop target status detection and ramp shot tracking, with U-shaped optos on each drop target and paired transmitter/receiver pairs on ramp sides (confidence: high) — Butch Peel explained opto mechanics: 'every single one of these drop targets has its own opto associated with it...when the drop Target raises up it breaks that beam and tells the the game that the drop Target is in the up position'
- **[content_signal]** Jersey Jack Pinball is producing a multi-part educational video series on The Hobbit's playfield, with intention to expand into detailed maintenance, troubleshooting, and problem diagnosis content (confidence: high) — Butch Peel: 'we're intentionally staying at a very high level on this overview...we're going to do that in videos down the road and show you some more in-depth information about this let you be able to see when problems are coming see when you when you have a problem how to fix it'
- **[design_philosophy]** Jersey Jack Pinball's design approach prioritizes player perspective and experience when engineering The Hobbit's playfield mechanics and visual presentation (confidence: high) — Butch Peel: 'remember everything in these videos are with the players perspective in mind'

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## Transcript

[Applause] [Music] hi Butch peel with Jersey Jack pinball again in this video we're going to tour the underside of The Hobbit Playfield I've got a game here with The Hobbit Playfield pulled up against the backbox and on the side over here I've got a rotisserie device set up with a hobbit fully populated Hobbit Playfield that we can reference back and forth and remember everything in these videos are with the players perspective in mind so so this is the bottom of the Playfield and the top of the Playfield kind of messes it up when we tip it up like that so let's take a look under the Playfield first the pops out of you here is all the wiring boy that's a lot of wiring a lot of big mechanisms here a lot of things going on under this Playfield as uh you notice the first thing of course that comes to your eye is the lighting you got a color lights in the center of the Playfield and you got white lights going around the outside the white lights are the general illumination lights and on Hobbit that's a separate system so those are run off of a different uh controller and voltage so General illumination have white LEDs that do not change color all of the inserts on the center have RGB LEDs that we can make any color we like so when we look on the upper portion of the Playfield to show what that looks like down here at the bottom here are three acrylic rods that go up through the Playfield they have a single white LED behind them that we can control the intensity on and so we can turn those up and down make them blink on and off do all those sorts of things but they don't change color and so on under all the Plastics on the Playfield are those General illumination bolts in the center of the Playfield all of the inserts those are going to be RGB LEDs so every one of these is on a a big board here if I look back onto the main Playfield here this board here has this giant printed circuit board has all of these inserts on it so every one of those has an RGB LED associated with it so we can keep track of the locks and all those types of things change color so all the color in the center of the Playfield white around the Ed edges and that gives the whole Playfield a lot brighter look so next thing we see on here is a lot of coils there's a whole lot of coils more coils even than on The Wizard of Oz used in The Hobbit because we've got to set drop targets and knock drop targets down each one of those drop targets is going to take two coils now so the coils are these big drum looking things here under the Playfield every one of these is going to kick and do something on top of the Playfield make the ball move really fast they're very powerful they're going to do some really really cool things with the ball on the Playfield surface some of them are going to push things up out of the surface some of them are going to reset drop targets some of them are going to kick flippers so this motion right here under the Playfield kicking this coil is going to cause this motion so each one of these drop targets there's three here there's three here there's five here go back to the main Playfield over here there's three on this side there's three on this side and there's five across the middle up here so those 11 drop targets take 22 coils to control so every one of those drop targets has to have a single coil to kick it up and a single coil to knock it back down again so that we can individually control those and kick them up and down and walk them around the Playfield and reset them like your shuffling cards just real fast motion very cool feature again that we patented that it's a great great feature in this game and I love drop targets personally so I'm all for those so kind of a special sort of coil is a magnet we have two of those in The Hobbit game they're up here at the very top they're mounted to the same bracket and they actually have a big screw on the end of them cu the pole in that magnet goes up through the Playfield surface so that magnet can grab the ball when it comes around and drop it into either a hobbit hole on this side or drop it into the pop bumpers on this side so what that looks like over here on this play field you have the magnet here way up at the top here that drops the ball grabs it on an orbit shot drops it into the pop bumpers and then one through here that grabs it when it comes by here and drops it into this Hobbit Hole down here so it can come up one of the vertical up kickers so Motors in this game there's one big motor to talk about that's the one for smouth so this small little square motor here is all you see of smog underneath the Playfield so what do you see above the Playfield this giant Beast that spins around and talks to you and all this thing he's virtually all above the Playfield the only thing you see here is the bottom of his motor sticking out from underneath the play field three screws right there he comes completely out the top of the play field so next up is switches if you look through this this massive wiring and and mechanical Mayhem here you can see a switch here every once in a while most of them around the edges if you look at these switches here on the edge When A ball rolls over these they have they're a micro switch they stick up through a slot in the Playfield surface when the ball rolls over that it depresses that and makes the micro switch click and that's all that it takes to register a switch those on the Playfield look like these two little Rings sticking up through these slots right here all the ball does roll over one of those and it knows it made one of those switches another type of switch under the Playfield are Leaf switches a good example of those on the Hobbit are these four rollovers here in the center those are the rollover buttons in the center for lock and that's where you see above the Playfield are these four rollover buttons and they're clear so they have an RGB LED behind them and we can light them in whatever color we want too so all you see those those uh buttons sticking up over the Playfield very much like The Wizard of Oz with the characters and the Toto in the in the outlane same sort of of of feature there but now what happens the ball rolls over that and it it makes the uh metal contacts of the switch come together and makes it contact so another another leaf type of switch would be our our slingshots they're up here alongside the the slingshot coil they show really well over here you got these two switches one bottom one top that come together when the ball hits the the sling forces them together and tells the slingshot to kick the ball away from there so the last type of switch underneath the Playfield are optos there's a lot of optos in The Hobbit game because every single one of these drop targets has its own opto associated with it an opto is an infrared Optical switch has a transmitter on one side a receiver on the other side anything that breaks that beam in between there makes the switch so in the case of an opto on these drop targets we use a U-shaped opto so the transmitter and receiver are here and opposite one another we have a fin on the back of the drop Target when the drop Target raises up it breaks that beam and tells the the game that the drop Target is in the up position when it falls it knows the beam is open and it knows the drop target has been knocked down a great example of optos in The Hobbit is the ramps the steel ramps have holes cut in them on either side and they have a pair of optos a transmitter a receiver so you have an optical infrared switch here the transmitter and receiver going back and forth when the ball goes in between it knows that that beam has been broken and can tell you that the ball went up this side of the ramp and there's also a setup back here for making it all the way around that ramp same thing on this side so there's opos all over on this Playfield surface also so we're intentionally staying at a very high level on this overview I want to tell you in great detail about all the coils in the game how they all work how the switches and everything is wired together all the all the RGB LEDs and the GI system we're not going to go too far into that in these videos we're going to do that in videos down the road and show you some more in-depth information about this let you be able to see when problems are coming see when you when you have a problem how to fix it how to get it working again and keep your game running tiptop shape speaking of a game running in tiptop shape get out there and play it challenge somebody to a game of [Music]

_(Acquisition: youtube_auto_sub, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: bdcd18b5-dd2c-4773-a4cb-6297f0c40df0*