Big Bang Bar
Capcom, 1996
Wizard Blocks
Williams, 1999You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider gdonovan.
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Quoted from Ballypinball:he plucked $4500 price out of his arse based on stern prices at the time
and Gene told me himself as I had ordered 5 games from him, he lost $1500 a game, actually he said $300k he lost
he was selling the extra BBB for more money at the time, and Kingpin was more expensive, he said they had sanded the FPGA or reverse engineered it for Kingpin
"Told you himself"
I would take anything said by Gene in regards to money as dubious at best after reading eight pages here about him. Working with car salesmen, "we lost money on this deal" is one of the oldest canards in the sales business.
Logically it makes no sense after losing $250,000-$300,000 to turn around and spend MORE money to buy 12 used machines just to harvest their circuit boards and sell 12 more BBB.
I'll be generous and assume the "final 12" were sold for more than $4500 though.
Gene was a shrewd guy with his money, your going to tell me he was so tight with a buck and he could get change from a penny but lost money on every BBB he sold and enjoyed it so much he made 12 more? Nah bro, not buying that. I see the later ones being a cash grab since everything was no doubt lying around already paid for and just waiting for boards.
I would be more inclined to think that Gene "lost $1500" meant that he expected to make $1500 more than he did per unit, he still profited just not as much as he schemed.
Stern NIB was $3300-$3400 at the time, $4500 for BBB was premium price and Gene obtained a lot of the parts dirt cheap.
Quoted from Mr68:I'm on their list of Kinpin buyers and actually prefer that they use P-ROC. I don't care about original parts, I just want the game and upgraded to modern works for me.
Why on earth would anyone use vintage electronics from the 90's? That would be crazy when there is over the counter generic hardware available.
Quoted from Azmodeus:After reading through this thread and keeping up with it, I realized.
Big Bang bar is the one they need to remake. Talk about printing money.
Seems to me the major factor in the desirability of BBB is its exclusiveness, play wise seems to be no big shakes.
Unless they update the rules I don't see a pile of them running out the door as the exclusivity is gone.
Polish and balance the rules, add a color DMD and it might give it some legs.
Parties of the originals will be happy as will folks buying the 2.0 version.
Quoted from JustEverett:Color DMD is available for BBB. The BBB I've played a few times has color dmd, and it looks great!
Sell it with one out of the box I'm saying.
Quoted from Mr68:You got my attention with your comment following the for sale announcement. I have always assumed that Planetary Pinball got Gene's personal game as a part of the bankruptcy. Obviously my assumption is now wrong.
I find it odd for him to have sold his unique game as it was very personal to him.
Not surprised at all, it would have been seized and auctioned off if still in his possession correct?
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West Chicago, IL
Victoria, BC