There are 2 options on the TBL, right? Taken the deal or sink. Why would this take more than 10 minutes to decide?
I'm thinking they choose the latter, they just don't want to ruin their holiday by announcing it.

This is not that unlikely ... if the two parties decide to proceed with what DP have told us that ARA have offered, it is hard to imagine procession without the terms for and responsibilities of both parties being absolutely set in stone.

I'm sure they want to negotiate the best terms for themselves as possible. No change of ownership with retained employees/management is ever easy or fast. There will be a lot of reps and warranties on the transfer and new employment agreement that will need to be entered into.

I'm sure they don't want to publicly announce they are leaping at the first set of documents generated because they are so desperate. No upside for them personally in doing that. It's a process, who knows where or when the process will end.

Tastes like chicken

The process ends 1 of 2 ways:

1 - TBL get's completed and delivered...as promised.

2 - TBL goes up in smoke, and reputation of all those involved is trashed (regarding pinball).

Do the right thing DP. You may have gotten burnt, but this is YOUR project, your livelihood. Deliver it, and let it become one of the all time cult most collectible pins out there...or not.

Or 3. When speculators like you finally stop posting and just let the facts come out as they will.

-1, FWIW, the thread is all for entertainment.

eggbert52 already has his game and even has it for sale at practically double what he paid.

Dude, no one cares.

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The Dude looks much more inviting than the MOTE(L) down the block. I'll bet they do good business.

By the hour?

"Or 3. When speculators like you finally stop posting and just let the facts come out as they will."

Or 4...I'm a dick.

Pretty sure speculation is what this thread is about. And when someone has your money a couple extra years, I'm pretty sure you can speculate all you want.

One was recently posted FS in FL for $14k, not sure if same one.

Here's the problem with that. If you are going to pay crazy premium like that, then unless you just have too much money you're gambling that DP are done after shipping only these 50+ TBL's, and thinking you'll end up with this super rare and desirable machine...

BUT if they only ship 50+ units then you end up with a machine with 40% code, no replacement parts, no future support, etc. Basically a beautiful dead duck machine from a defunct company that gave it a good try.

So it's lose-lose, IMHO. The only way TBL's will command that kind of money on the secondary market from level-headed collectors is if DP makes their 300 TBL's (finishing code, stocking a functioning service dept, etc) and moves on to make another title, and another...

Here is the logical fallacy in your argument; there are level headed collectors out there, but in this case all you need is ~10-15 "money is no object I WANT I WANT" collectors and you now have a 30K game.

If I were the speculating type, I would be tempted to buy each of these that is for sale. Corner the market and become the BIG lebowski myself .

But I'm content just being a little dude and saying fudge it... lets go bowling.

...about your opinion.

The code is complete. All games could use more code but TBL is complete as people who actually have the game have already stated.

Could you explain where you got this 40% number?

I think everyone could definitely agree that it could use more ... also DP had said that further features and other bits were being worked on. So that would suggest that at least until the latest debacle and Koen's possible cessation of work, future updates were intended.

I'd say BoP 2.0 could really do with some further tinkering, despite now having a bunch of updates.

If it's confirmed that it's not to enjoy any more updates, I think that's likely to prove quite off-putting to some. Particularly for sales beyond 300 if DP and ARA do bury the hatchet and tie up.

Code is 100% complete? That's news to me. (And news to the few owners I've recently spoken to).

If code is now complete, then it's definitely not to the level of most modern machine code depths.

Nevertheless, the rest of my point stands. They only ship 50 machines, DP goes under, then the machine will still be a dead duck machine with no replacement parts and no market for anyone to make new ones. Can it be kept running? Sure! But with great effort and refabbing your own specialized parts.

For me, if DP goes under then the PREMIUM value these guys are asking for their TBL's goes down with it. That's the quagmire of betting on it being super rare and paying a giant premium now.

While "complete" is not necessarily the right word, the current code with the rug modes is a pretty solid, fun game that I would never get sick of. If the code never goes beyond this - it's still better than a lot of sterns, or other machines.

Noted. 40% is definitely shooting low, then. Probably tough to put a % on it.

"Complete code" is an ambiguous term, obviously, as people have claimed WOF, CC, CP, etc have 'complete code' in that it functions, has modes, has mulitballs, etc.

I can agree with this. But to claim only 40% was unfair and misleading.

I don't see TBL owners losing out whether the remaining licensed games are made or not. TBL will be highly collectible regardless - just look no further than Magic Girl for an example of what very limited (and REALLY incomplete) games are commanding in price.

And if TBL owners just wish to keep it, they have what most consider to be a fun game with a great theme, great art, and truly unique features. Parts will be available too. They may be expensive, but they will be available one way or another.

No, it isn't using the pretty-much-universal software programming and naming scheme that TBL appears to employ. Version 1.0 is the typical reasonably complete release milestone in that numeric scheme, and it usually goes beyond it with bug fixes and refinements. DP on their forum lists the current TBL software at 0.48. All the parts may be programmed to work, but the software and game play is a long ways from complete in the eyes of the original programmer.

True, I personally wouldn't put any number estimating how complete TBL coding is (e.g., the 40% put out here), rather I'd leave it at pointing to the software version number.

You and Rubberducks make some good points and I appreciate that.

I guess I'm being optimistic about future code no matter the outcome and that may be influencing my opinion. DP is using a P-ROC system and it would seem to me other people could easily pick up wherever the code was left off.
Feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken but that's been my understanding all along and one of the reasons I was attracted to this project.

In order for anyone else to pick it up, they'd at least need to release the source code. Such a release would likely need to be approved by ARA if they become 51% owners of DP. It'd be hard to make a business case for this, since it's basically giving away a bunch of IP for free, and it's unclear that they would get anything in return. That said, presumably someone could rewrite the code from scratch using a replacement CPU.

Claiming the "Code is complete" is itself also misleading.

40% I think is what I got from an owner I spoke to, and I think he derived that from the current code revision, as rubberduck stated, rev 0.48.

I think we can all agree that 'complete code' is a very ambiguous term and tough to claim on a machine in early stages of production, and putting a % on incomplete code is equally as tough.

As an aside, the one posted FS in FL for $14k is not eggbert's, which is listed here FS at $16,8k. I think eggbert is just fishing for a sucker and doesn't expect it to sell, but if it does then he'll be happy to take their $. More power to him.

I'd say 85% complete

I say forget this and watch the movie instead Dudes.

Yup, I barely care about this game anymore...of course I still want it on principal...I paid for it...but honestly, I'd rather just watch my Blu-Ray and that's all I need in Lebowski-land.

I'm with Monkey on this...all the car modes and character modes are done. you can complete nihilists, and the bowling alley is working properly. It only looks liike the Dude abides is not done. (albiet there are a ton of things that would still enhance the game, combo shots, refinements, etc....)

Pure speculation as I have not talked with anyone from DP in months.....
I think the code is done and DP is holding it back until things get resolved with ARA. Its one of the last cards they can play.

I do hope this is the case. Koen has been working on code for TBL as well as BOP 2.0 for past few years, I am thinking the TBL code has got to be close to being finished, if not, whats been going on for the past 2 years?

I have never heard anyone say WOF is complete.... I think you may be reaching here.

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Wheres the update Lebowski?

short work week due to holiday.
working with ARA on a solution - can't disclose details - we're sure you can understand.
working hard on other things but can't disclose at this time
talk to you next week with an update

Dutch holiday was end of last week. Looks to be another one next Monday. Not that these really factor much anymore given the current status.

Maybe it would be easier to be patient if someone could provide us the dates on the calendar which are not Dutch holidays. Thanks!

What is this holiday bullshit!? It don't matter to Jesus!

ARA don't roll on shabbos!

ARA don't roll on (insert day of the week).

This is definitely dragging out longer than I expected! It's been over a month since they started having meetings behind closed doors to settle their business relationship and still nothing to show for it. I'm really wondering if either party gives a shit at this point?? Has anyone talked with DP or ARA recently? Any news to share with anxious pre-owners like myself as to what progress has been made this week/last? UHG

They better give a shit unless they want about 300 enemies, a few of which are ready to start lawsuits.

Guessing it's more like 249 enemies, and 51 bff's for life

Those 51 bff's are going to dwindle quickly as stuff breaks and they find they can't get replacement parts.

I've been pretty patient, but damn this is getting old. If DP wants to be an ongoing business (and I hope they do), they need to make a deal with ARA or someone and soon.

No one will want to do business with an unpartnered/unfinancially backed DP on future projects regardless of how this shit show ends.

Yep. Just like the 9 KingPins, One Loch Ness Monster, and 2 Pinball Circus' that seem to still be working and Oh Yea...drawing huge dollars whenever they are up for sale.

Agreed that there will always be a "collectors" market for rarities- look at Magic Girl. For those that want to play however they'll be shit out of luck unless something gets worked out.

says the guy that owns one....

Of course! Why wouldn't I?

The main OS is open source, for everything else you could use this:
https://pypi.python.org/pypi/unpyclib/

Would be very surprised if they went with full disk encryption or anything like that (is there a dongle?), but having said that some licenses will request that you implement some form of DRM when using their IP.

I see eggbert52 's is still for sale. GLWTS