I have the illustrious INVOICE # 20! That means all of you have me to thank for this project getting done. I'm the one that met the 20 game minimum threshold. Thanks goes to my bank who also had some issues sending this, otherwise I would have been in much earlier and would not have received this glorious distinction.

Huh?

First of all, BoP isn't a Sys11 (I don't think). Isn't it considered a WPC like Funhouse?

Second, Sys11 games are awesome. Swords of Fury anyone?!?

Third, BoP has long been viewed as a cool game with an interesting playfield and an overly simple ruleset. I love shooting the various loops on BoP, but they just aren't very rewarded from a scoring standpoint. This kit re-works the rules to force you to utilize the rest of a pretty cool and fast, combo-oriented playfield.

To be fair, I wish the new software was much more "build the bride" oriented, rather than the somewhat sterile space shuttle theme, but it does allow you to easily swap back and forth between BoP 1 and 2 software. That said, we have not seen the final software yet, so hopefully they will implement more of the Bride feeling into the new game, but even if not, they are still providing the ability to play 2 completely different game within one platform with no playfield swapping, etc.

It has now gone from crazy to creepy!

Yeah, completely new ruleset for the 2.0 game with fully integrated color DMD. Makes it a completely different, deep game. And user select-able at the start, you can revert back to play the original game rules without swapping anything. I just wish it would get released some day.

Good news, but probably means I'll be lucky to get mine here in the US by the end of the year.

I don't think any of the parties involved are under the illusion that WE care about the sticker.

Wow, I don't think any of us were expecting major bugs out of the box. I assumed sending this to one person was to test their install instructions, not to see if their code worked.

Can you imagine what we're all going to feel like if we waited this long, with all the piss poor communication, and then the kits are buggy as hell? You'd think all that downtime waiting for stickers would have allowed for some internal QA testing...

Does anyone know if Herg's LED and GI OCD boards will work with this kit? I have them in my game and would prefer not to lose them with the 2.0 upgrade.

Agreed. Rudy is cool and I like how he follows the ball and taunts you, but I sold mine a while back and don't regret it. I thought I might regret selling it once I heard the 2.0 rumors, but I still don't really care.

Wait, are you saying the code is not complete? I thought the code was virtually done on this game. I certainly was not expecting to get a preliminary version of code, especially given how much extra time they've had compared to the original timeline given.

WOW! This was what you guys said you were adding when we talked to you at expo 2013. I was under the impression that you were further along than this back then, much less over a year later.

At least as far as I'm concerned, this was completely unknown. I'm frankly shocked that the game is incomplete at all, much less as preliminary as it sounds.

Yeah, this suggests one of two things to me. Either DP completely prioritized TBL at the expense of BoP 2.0 and that's why there hasn't been progress (even though I thought they were further along than this last year). Or, as you suggest, they're having trouble in general completing projects.

Like you said, this was a "software only" project and it's this half-baked? I'm blown away. I feel completely deflated over this project at the moment.

Given recent developments (discovery that the code is severely unfinished) I would't be overly surprised if nobody knows some of these things yet.

OK, we can argue semantics, but given what everyone thought to be the state at expo 2013, and in light of the "severe" delays, everyone expected this game to ship essentially code complete. The fact that there are modes missing, there's no metamorphosis, no wizard mode, etc is significant and I'd bet nobody that pre-ordered expected this state of release.

I'm not a Stern fanboy (I've only owned 2 Sterns in a decent size collection) but if you even want to go by their timelines we can. Everyone bitches about them because you buy a game at release and then wait about a year to get code updates. Two things there: First, their code updates are changing/adding rules, but typically not still needing to complete major chunks of the game. This appears much more incomplete to me. Second, at least with Stern they have your money, but you have a game while you wait for updates. In this case, they've had our money with a promise to ship in Q2. I'm probably going to get my game 9+ months late and I'll still have to play the code waiting game. Not cool. On top of that, anyone who looks at this can see definite reason for fears that DP's priority is TBL, not BoP. This gives me concern that I'll ever see what I felt was going to be the end product.

I hate to be so negative. I'm not a big forum venter, but between this bombshell and the other downer news about one of my other pre-orders, I'm feeling pretty bitter about the under-delivering as of late.

Seems obvious to me. This was their proof of concept to be "viable" when they did the TBL announcement. Other than the color, what's being described as the current state of the code sounds like exactly where they were over a year ago at expo 2013. It never occurred to me this would ship with incomplete code. As you and others have pointed out, this being a software only project and it shipping with code more incomplete than Stern games is inexcusable. I'm concerned that if this couldn't get the attention needed to complete it when it was their "only" game, how is it ever going to get done once they release it to people and they have TBL and DP3 in the works?

You should take your father's advice. Many of us have played the game. Is it cooler than the original BoP game code? Sure. However, things that were asked of DP at expo 2013, are still not implemented. One of the first questions someone playing the game asks is "when does her face move?" This is the fundamental physical feature of this game. They said more than a year ago, "we're going to add metamorphosis and other modes." Well, they still are not in there. A Bride game that doesn't leverage the moving face is severely handicapped.

When you put everything together (pre-payment, game delayed 9+ months, very poor communication, unfinished code, etc) this is why people are disappointed. So, do your father one proud and dig a little deeper before you tell us we don't really know what we're talking about.

Yeah, don't get me wrong, I still think this is cool. However, the fact that it's been stagnant for over a year and we're getting something incomplete is a huge bummer. Just doesn't leave me confident that they care enough about this project to bring the passion they started with. I feel like they're on to TBL / DP3 and BoP 2.0 is more of a hassle for them right now. I hope I'm wrong.

Unfortunately I think you're right on the money.

That's exactly what is so frustrating. Compare this current state from how DP described the code at expo 2013 and there's a huge gap. They talked about all the modes they were going to add, metamorphosis, wizards, and how deep and complex the game would be. There are a few nice modes now, but it does not strike me as deep or complex what-so-ever. Real letdown.

True, but it is still limited and fairly repetitive. What it has gained in playfield shot variety, I unfortunately feel like it has lost in personality. I sincerely hope that changes soon.

That's kinda my point regarding being repetitive. Over a year ago they promised a deep and extensive ruleset. I hope that is still the plan, but this does not fit that description.

This doesn't have anything to do with having the stomach for pre-orders or seeing the big picture. I was in on the original BBB and I'm on RAZA, so I know all about being patient. It's about following through on the expectations you set. This is far from a DP-specific issue. Unfortunately we've all been lemming enough that none of the companies respect us as typical real-world consumers. It's our faults for conditioning these companies to think it's OK.

Delivering BoP 2.0 almost a year late, in a state far more premature than they led people to believe it would be is not the right way to do business. I'm still hopeful that the end product will be cool, but I can't say they've instilled the confidence that they'll carry it through. Yes there were licensing issues, but there were months after expo 2013 before they ran into those issues, and there have been months now since those issues were resolved in principle. However, there hasn't really been any perceivable progress on the game code. You may be cool with that, but frankly you shouldn't be.

100%

DP has pooched the BoP 2.0 thing and I don't understand why so many are willing to give them a pass. They can still right the ship, but that doesn't excuse how poorly they've handled this up to now. They had unforeseen issues for sure, but they could have dealt with the situation much better than they did.

Here's hoping we're all happy in the end.

You're definitely right, however, there has been a huge uptick in people buying and/or restoring BoP based on the kit. For example I sold my old bride and bought one with a diamondcoat playfield.

Over a year ago they said they were going to add it. However, nobody knows at this point. Why doesn't anyone know? Because throughout the BoP 2.0 process DP tends to go dark when there are upset people brewing. I swear they could do themselves (and us) so many favors by simply communicating.

I'm assuming their realistic intentions are not a gloomy as things feel, but for whatever reason they don't seem to care about addressing the concerns of their customers. With the Jpop and Skit-B fiascoes flaring up all around them, you'd think the way to deal with this would be obvious. Well...unless their answers would be worse than what people are speculating.

Thanks for posting the contents of the email. Good to hear they say it's all coming.

And 85vett, I totally agree. Even a little communication would solve so many problems. As an example, I've been in on P3 from the early days. It is REALLY behind schedule. But Gerry sends out regular state of the union emails and explains what they're doing, etc. This has been enough to keep my enthusiasm up and fully supporting Gerry and the P3 movement. It really didn't take a whole lot.

I know everything happening with DP couldn't be discussed publicly, but a similar approach, like what was in the EU kit email, is all it really takes. I want to be a DP fan again, I really do. Good thing is they really don't have to do a ton to win me back over.

It just stays on one face now. I know they "intend" to include metamorphosis in the future, but even that I believe is only as a wizard or some other event further in the game. The one thing that kept the original BoP cool despite the shallow rules was the personality and the coolness of leveraging the face transitions. If the faces are only used deep into the game, that is a huge missed opportunity. I don't see why they don't at least use different faces incorporated into different modes. Based on what I've seen so far, I'm afraid all the personality of the bride is gone and now it's just this game about fueling the shuttle. I'm interested to see how/when things develop.

I agree, I like the music from last year's version much much better. Not sure exactly when or why it changed. Would be cool if we could use that original score instead of the current one. It was much more upbeat and not so dreary.

The music is different than it used to be. We don't need it in our houses to determine that, nor to have an opinion about which we like better. I didn't say "boring as hell" (that was another post), but why can't people comment on music after hearing it? If he said the gameplay was boring as hell, you'd be right to say "wait until you have it" but with music, um, you just have to listen to it.

I have certainly tempered my enthusiasm over this project during the last couple months, but I'm still eager to see where it ends up and hopeful it will someday meet the original expectations. I'm an early pre-order and have played the game multiple times at several shows, so I feel I'm entitled to have an opinion about the game. That said, I don't understand why there are so many people, like you, that apparently feel this game is above critique.