Hey Mike - I can tell you what my experience was with TBL. First off, as you mentioned the game is stunning. I actually couldn't believe they were able to put together a machine that looked that good in such a short time (considering they aren't a major player yet). The lines were quite long to play (20-30 minutes) but it was worth the wait. The display showed "pre-alpha" for the software so that was early. The display itself is phenomenal, and reminded me of a colored version of the large Sega display (just bigger). There were 3 lines but often 1 or 2 of the lines halted due to glitches. The only glitch on the machine I played was the ball sometimes wouldn't register on a switch, most often the bowling alley start. A nudge would fix it, no big deal at all.

As far as gameplay, I thought it played excellent. The shots flowed very well, and the flippers were fairly strong. The right ramp shot up to the mini-playfield was a little tough but not impossible. The mini-playfield was fairly easy, just trap the ball and shoot at either the standard target or down the hole to start the bowling alley. I think I bowled maybe 4 times, and got a strike once. The rest of the shots were pretty safe, but I saw some pretty quick ball times from others. I had a fairly long game and started multiball (3 shots up the left ramp) but nothing happened (early software I would guess). I played one game of TWD and ended up around 70m, so I think both games had similar ball times (for me at least). One thing to remember, they had the tilts set to 10 so you could shake the game if the ball got stuck. I may have tilted on another game as I was really getting into it. I really liked the tilt warnings, a graphic of a drink wobbling on the DMD. Also, the sounds were really good. To me, the game played very similar to a Stern or any other modern pin - just a tremendous effort so far, and I really loved the game. It didn't seem overly easy or brutal, pretty well balanced in my opinion.

If I were buying this game, I would be very happy with the results so far (and it will only get better).

You can tell the game was made with perfection in mind. For example, the details in the bowling alley under the playfield were amazing. It had the diamond graphics from the movie, along with a variable ball rolling mech so it wasn't too easy or too hard. The white Russian glass on the playfield looked real with ice and everything. I'm so glad I waited in line to play it. You're absolutely right, I cannot believe this is their first game.

You won't have to wait too long to play it, one of our local guys is getting one!