Middle Earth

More than one playfield variation has been identified. The most consequential difference between them is the position of the upper left flipper, a change that also caused the adjacent playfield plastic to be resized. This flipper was moved from being offset lower than the right flipper to being offset higher. This design change also seemed to be an opportunity to make some artwork changes. One notable change is the placement of the words "Same Player Shoots Again" in the gap between the lower flippers, repositioned from being left-justified in that gap to being right-justified. For each type of playfield, we have itemized the characteristics that are different from the other playfields, if read from top to bottom. Pre-production playfield (shown here) Same Player Shoots Again is left-justified. Upper left flipper is offset lower than upper right flipper. The center plastic (immediate left of upper left flipper) is larger, not smaller. The animal on this center plastic is facing left, not right. Perimeter around pop bumpers are painted rings, not a wide band of unpainted wood. The animal next to the left pop bumper is brown, not green. The playfield color in front of the upper drop target bank is blue, not red. Top plastics have sky color of light purple, not blue and dark purple. Left slingshot plastic background colors are orange and purple, not solid purple. Yellow art trim not yet added. The unpainted playfield areas are brown, not white. The cardholder trim is a lighter color, not darker, than the major color. The inserts for the standup targets are white, not green. Flyer playfield, small image, bottom of page 3 (shown here) No noticeable changes from pre-production playfield except the unpainted areas look white, not brown. The upper left flipper is still offset lower than upper right flipper. The adjacent center plastic is still large and the animal is still facing left. Flyer playfield, large image, pages 2-3 (shown here) The upper left flipper has been moved to be offset higher than the right one. The adjacent center plastic is now smaller and the animal is still facing left. The unpainted areas are still white, not brown. Production playfields (shown here) Same Player Shoots Again is now right-justified. Upper left flipper is offset higher than upper right flipper. The adjacent plastic is still the smaller size than before. The animal on this smaller center plastic is now facing right, not left. Perimeter around pop bumpers are still the painted rings, not a wide band of unpainted wood. The animal next to the left pop bumper is now green, not brown. The playfield color in front of the upper drop target bank is now red, not blue. Top plastics have sky color that are now blue and dark purple, no longer just light purple. Left slingshot plastic background color is now solid purple, no longer orange and purple. Yellow lines of art trim have now been added (left outlane, right inlane, 500 w/l near left slingshot, 100 w/l and 1000 w/l near bottom drop targets). The unpainted playfield areas are once again brown, not white. The cardholder trim is now a darker color, not lighter, than the major color. The inserts for the standup targets still are white, not green. Production variation (shown here) This playfield has two differences that are unique from the other production ones: The inserts for the standup targets are green, not white. The pop bumper areas are unpainted white wood, not brown, and this unpainted area extends outward beyond the pop bumper platter approximately one inch all the way around. This game is one of two such games that the owner had during 2000-2002 The owner, who last had this game around 2002, placed translucent red ring protectors to protect this unpainted wood. In the pictures shown here, we can see that the red rings do not quite have the diameter of the unpainted area and a very thin outer circle of white wood can still be seen. The owner reports he has seen two games having this unique playfield many years ago and wonders if they were Later Production changes, perhaps in response to excessive pop bumper wear. For these two games, he did not notice any differences in cabinet or backglass art. No cabinet serial numbers were recorded.