I can't wait for it to arrive. I wonder what game they'll make next?

# 25 is in the House! Not a scratch that I can see and it works like a charm through the first few games, as best I can tell. Just a couple of quick notes as people set their games up, hopefully this might be useful.

1 - The game is heavier than it looks and backglass is the heaviest I've ever lifted.
2 - When removing the backglass, there is one yellow connector to disconnect, but if you pull the glass out too fast, the middle of that wire has a black connector that will pull out of its socket on a board and you won't have any sound until you plug it back in. No biggee, but the weight of the glass surprised me and I didn't realize it had pulled from the board until I started playing.
3 - When uploading v45 (mine came with v44), it's not only necessary to download it into the game using a USB, but also to enter a second game setting to load it up or activate it. I didn't expect that second procedure and didn't figure it out until I couldn't increase the slings setting higher than 15, though instructions said to set at 25. Anyway, it's intuitive what to do, so it didn't take but a minute to figure out. It does take a bit longer than a Stern to boot up when you turn the game on, just FYI so that you don't panic, as I skipped at least two heart beats waiting for something to happen after I turned it on. Oh, there's not enough room to use a long USB, in fact my Cruzer barely fit.
4 - The clearances are tight. The backglass fits in tight, the key to lock the door is tight, and the glass. I don't mean tight in a negative way, just well put together.
5 - Beautiful playfield and screen. The music seems outstanding to me so far, I like how it seems to rotate each ball, from what I can tell. The scoop shot looks tight, though I haven't really had a problem hitting it yet.
6 - So let me explain something about the rug. It's a little longer than I expected and a bit scruffy looking. I'll get that in place once it has some time to uncurl. I'm not sure, but they might have already had a Marmot pee on it.
7 - Expect the "F" bomb and others in about half of the quotes. So, if you plan to engage family mode, remember to adjust that setting right after you upgrade software and increase the slings strength, especially if you have little ones around. I don't, so I spent 5 minutes hitting the flippers after my last game listening to dozens of different quotes from the movie. They are awesome!

The game play is superb so far. the hardest shot, if there is one, two games in, is the right ramp, but I'm sure I can dial it in. Then be on your guard because the ball passes by that upper flipper very quickly. I think I missed the ball about half the time as I was in a trance staring at the beauty of the rest of the game and the blinking lights, thus too slow with the right flipper button. I've attached a few pictures. I installed PDI glass, so they should be fairly clear. Even the agony of waiting for the game after ordering on day one and FedEx screwing me out of getting it this past weekend, has all passed away. Now I've just got to update my profile and add the game to my collection (I didn't want to jinx myself by adding it until it arrived) and go put some more time on it. I hope all of my fellow limited urban achievers get their games soon too!

P.S. I think I heard a little slow guitar of Hotel California when my last game ended. Nice, a little Eagles music to rub salt under the old Duderino's skin.

Playfield_PDI_Glass_(resized).JPG
The_Dude_on_Screen_(resized).JPG
Setup_Next_to_Bar_(resized).JPG

Good idea. I'll do that next time a I play. Though, it's not so much flipper strength, as my bad aim. I was bricking a lot of shots my first few games. It takes a little while to get used to.

Here's an updated report after playing a few games. I've thrown few gutter balls on the upper playfield, so I'm definitely not a golfer:

- It's possible to trap the ball behind the upper playfield flipper. However, the flipper quickly isn't active to the flipper button once the ball isn't in play (a good idea which I support, by the way). So, I waited for a ball search, but still no joy, no movement of that flipper, so it required a glass removal. Hopefully, a future software adjustment can tweak that, such as reactivating that flipper for a bit, or not killing it so quickly in the first place.
- It took a tilt to remove a stuck ball in the alleyway in the back of the upper playfield that hit the opening at the perfect speed to get stuck. It's only happened once in about 12 games though.
- The ball release in the lower playfield seems too slow and weak. I can't say for sure, cause I've only hit it twice and had quite a few of Jackie's White Russians in my belly at the time. So, I'm going to condition this note until I can do some further experimentation and clear up old Duderino's mind a bit. You know of course, that I've got to stick to a strict drug regime to keep my mind limber.
- I think they need to add a little diversity to the ball save call out. I'm hearing that a lot....well, cause I suck as a pinball player.
- I love the kickback in the left outlane, "trampoline mode."
- That slow Eagles guitar bit of Hotel California plays often, in fact it might play after all games. It's so cool.

Also, I'm totally clueless on the rules of the game so far and play to remain that way until the code advances a lot. I've hit many different multi-balls: Nihilist, rug, and numerous characters oriented. Though, I seem to flail around after they start, not knowing what to do yet. I really like the "ignorance is bliss" time right after getting a new game. It's kind of magical, so I'm happy to keep that going for a while.

Potential gaps or not implemented or seen yet: I've seen nothing on Bunny so far, only a quote on finding a toe. Certainly no cute feet changing gears to the beat of Viva Last Vegas. That could be mode in itself, right? The Nihilists are only in a multi-ball so far. Nothing yet from the Sheriff of Malibu. I've seen only one thing about Duderino getting his head slammed in a toilet and no Chinaman peeing on his rug. Also not appearance of the Marmot in the bathtub yet. Nothing yet on the other private eye in the Volkswagen. Also, what happened to that laughing creep at Maude's place, he's just got to be in the game? We need to see those things, or maybe they're saved for later or I'm not getting deep enough into the game yet.

The bowling ball release. Thanks for the info, I was wondering about that. I didn't notice very well because I was also fumbling around trying for the ball launch button. It was really caught off guard when it started.

My flipper wouldn't activate at all once I figured out the ball was stuck behind it, or it could be I didn't know what I was doing.

The ball was moving slowly and got slightly caught near the exit from behind the Dude's car where it would next pass to the flipper. It's only happened once. The next time I'm under the glass I'll examine that area more closely.

Yeah, hopefully these things will get into the game in the future. I could see using Knox Harrington, the video artist's laugh during some drain sequences, such as losing all multiballs around the same moment or not getting a single hit on a target in the upper playfield while a ball is up there. The reactionary Sheriff could be a good minor hurry up mode of some sort, starting with examining the Dude's only ID, a grocery store card and if the objectives aren't made in time, the Dude gets hit in the head with a coffee mug or kicked in the side a bunch. I also can't remember seeing any major reference to the ransom payment which involved Walter's undies and the Dude's car getting wrecked and shot up. That would also be great to see. There's sooo much potential in this theme.

I've not yet had problems with this or difficulty registering hits with the rug. Though, I haven't leveled my game yet, so that might impact it. I did take your advice and increase strength to the flippers and now I'm tearing the ramps up from the left flipper, even sometimes backhanding the left ramp from the left flipper. I do need to slightly adjust the right flipper though as it's a little high in resting position.

Overall, the game is more beautiful and fun on day 2 than it was on day 1. DP really nailed this one.

I was so excited that I took the few hours before mine arrived to setup like I was a surgeon. I had a large path cleared to where I would unbox it next to where I wanted it. I had a Dude shirt on and my box cutter was handily at the ready along with a short stool for accessing the top of the box to unload that part. My 5/8" socket wrench to install the legs was laid out next to a thumb drive loaded with game code. Plus, I had nearly memorized the instructions and had a sheet of PDI glass at the ready. I've never been that organized before.

Yes!

Well, it was $8,500 as I recall, so at least that's 15%. Yes, it looked like regular glass to me, so I swapped out a piece of PDI from a lesser played game. It's one of my favorite movies, so I was willing to spend the extra dough, as I suspect was the situation for most of my fellow little achievers.

The game seems to have hundreds of call outs and sound effects at present, from numerous scenes of the movie, nicely placed into game play so far. You can cycle through many of them and others probably not yet implemented, between games using the flippers. Keep in mind that the code is only 45% complete at present.

However, there aren't many geared towards game play instructions that I can remember. Personally, I don't like too many of those types of call outs anyway, because they can get irritating over time. TWD has a few great ones, such as "there's a s@&t load of points on that ramp." Other games, not so much, "shoot the pyramid."

I suspect more will come as the game code is deepened, but since most of these games will be in a home environment, I'm not sure they're really needed as much as usual. Most initial owners will also see the code develop over time and have the rules and shots figured out incrementally.

Also, DP's artistic take on this game seems very "elegant" so far, for lack of a better word. I wanted to use the word "tasteful" but that didn't seem right given the movie's profanity. . The play field, lighting, call outs, music, and video clips are all nicely blended and uncluttered. It's more of an immersive "experience" than I'm used to in my other games. I don't know how better to describe it right now. Perhaps one of the other limited achievers can step in and add more about the feel of the game and call outs from their perspective.

Here's a further update after playing a couple of games with your question in my mind. There are more game play prompts than I realized. The display is used nicely. When starting one of the many different rug modes it tells you what to shoot, though I hadn't noticed until now. It also tells you how many shots remain to start rug mode. The Sam Elliot sound alike also alerts you to a few things, such as each time you get a White Russian drink or can lock a ball.

There are also several bowling challenges in the lower playfield, including the moving spare. That continues to kick my butt. On another note, I've just noticed that my after ball bonuses are always 6,900. That's cute! The center rug shot progression and scoop mystery awards (only being available part of the time) kind of remind me of Tron a little bit, though the game is not as fast. I love the music, it's nicely done.

So, what's the report so far fellow limited achiever? Did you tell the delivery driver that this aggression will not stand? Does the new rug really tie the room together? Has your drug regime kept your mind limber enough to set up the game?

I think the shipment options varied by location. In the Tampa area I was able to pay extra for 2 day FedEx. Of course, with my luck it was really 5 days. You're a lot closer to PA and in a city, so that doesn't make sense to me either.

They've been past 27 for a while. I've got game 25 and it floated across the Atlantic and has been in my house for about 2 weeks. I think there were games as high as 30 in that first container. They did have that mandatory Dutch vacation recently though.

There are multiple rug modes and all seem pretty well done. I confess that I've not advanced far through them though due to quick drains after getting them going.

Congratulations! It didn't take them long to get my #25 to me last time. Be careful removing that back glass to update code, it's surprisingly heavy.

Speaking of which, has anyone had a tiny screw roll out of the car garage area? I pulled the screw off the mini playfield, but I haven't dug in yet to see where it came from.

Another New Shit newsletter has dropped. Hopefully, it's okay to share (note, this paste didn't include the graphics, such as the screenshot of the new car bash choices):

"Production Update
With the holidays coming up we would like to give you an update about The Big Lebowski™ pinball production. Unfortunately we are experiencing a delay in the current batch as we encountered a production error of the Middle Main Board (MMB). The MMBs are produced in-house by our manufacturing partner ARA. We noticed during tests that there were several electrical breakdowns on the second batch of MMBs. ARA is investigating what went wrong and this has proven trickier than we all hoped for. The good news is that the first production batch works fine so there are no suspicious MMBs in the delivered games. Once ARA finds the mistake we will unpack the games that are ready and replace the MMBs before shipping them. We really want to be sure that the games we deliver have a 100% working MMB!

Software Update
We are working on a new software update which will soon enter the testing phase. The new update will feature all new car modes, numerous rule improvements and of course bug fixes. More details will be provided when the update is ready.

Pinball Magazine
In issue number 4 of Pinball Magazine, you can read a 17 pages interview with Dutch Pinball. It covers the development of our game in great detail. There is also an interview with Jean-Paul de Win with 5 pages about the artwork of our game. Great stuff to read!

You can order a copy of Pinball Magazine at http://pinball-magazine.com/shop/

Click on the pages below for an sneak preview of the Jean-Paul de Win article and the Dutch Pinball interview:

We wish you great holidays and a happy 2017 with lots of pinball!

Please follow us on Facebook too. We also post news at:
https://www.facebook.com/dutchpinball

We'll send out more updates as soon as we have more 'new shit' to show you guys!

Until then, stay tuned.

Best regards,
Team Dutch Pinball"

Supposedly, DP is presently capped out at 300 due to a contract at this time. Rumor is that they might make more if interest is there, or maybe they won't. Hard to say right now. I'm not sure if DP even knows yet.