And you never know - the games manufactured in China may turn out to be better in certain ways than those previously manufactured by ARA in the Netherlands. Or not; it's somewhat of a crapshoot at this point.

Either way, per sd_tom 's point, after being stuck on the TBL roller coaster for years, I'm happy to be able to roll the dice.

Yup I get it makes sense, and I’m with you guys, better than not having them made at all.

If we would see this unit as preproduction type and compare them with the 5 units at dpo 2015 where several needed repairs first day of the show (not unusual for preproduction) and this one holds up the whole day without a single issue (only found left flipper to start loosing power in the evening) than I say thumbs up to Xytech

Made in China doesn't have the same connotation as it did years ago. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Any stuck balls? We have a lot on location and most of the time the machine is out of order is b/c of that. We've let DP know what those are so hopefully they've got fixes for those since that's the only regular issue we have with the TBL we have on location which BTW has been earning pretty well and hasn't had many other issues...

I haven’t seen the glass off even once but am not constant looking at it. Allthough it’s a pretty sight

Quick update....

I didn't see the glass off once for any adjustments or stuck balls. After playing it and giving it a pretty serious going over, I couldn't see any place where a corner was cut. I would say build quality is the same as the ARA games.

Only difference I could tell was the additional power to make the Walter ramp. I will be playing it much more today and will post later on.

Besides TBL playing well, this show is over the top. I will be back.

Can anyone post some video of TBL from the show?

You played the machine with last upgrade code? DP should share it shortly.

Just played it again...no new code running and I stuck ball...also noticing the shoot again light is always on. Don't think either is a big deal. The head tech guy from xytech is coming today.

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Yep, it had its first time glass taken off. A flat cable came a little loose and had to be pushed back on. That’s it.

So, still going strong. Only advised Barry to increase the power to the left flipper. The right one felt more strong as left one.

Last week I dropped my Lebowski off with a pinball technician due to my ongoing issues with the bowling alley. With some help from Barry he was able to get everything working, and I collected it and brought it home yesterday. I got it home and for one game everything was working perfectly. Unfortunately during the second game all the solenoids died simultaneously during gameplay, and none worked during test. I raised the playfield and the red fuse LEDs for F01, F02, F03 and F08 weren’t lit, despite none of the fuses appearing to be gone. I tried removing and reseating all the connectors, thinking that something could have come loose in transport, but this only made things worse – now when I start the machine I get the ‘P3-ROC NOT FOUND PLEASE CHECK CONNECTION & POWER’ message on the LCD.

When I power on the machine the blue LEDs on the p-roc light up, so I assume that the power is ok, and all other connections seem solid. Has anyone had a similar issue? It’s frustrating - everything was finally working correctly for a brief moment, and now the machine won’t even boot!

I was hoping for a Dutch-built game, but at the end of the day, it'll still be a Dutch-made game.

I think it would be hilarious to see a bootleg TBL on Alibaba.

funny, it could happen!

P3-roc not found is a connection issue. USB on computer to p3roc USB. Try to disconnect/reconnect the USB cable

I've tried this a few times with no luck. It was working fine until I disconnected and reconnected the a couple of the power cables running to the main board on the playfield, but the fuse hasn't gone and the blue power LED still comes on. I'll check the USB cable again but I must have disconnected/reconnected it 3 or 4 times already.

I'm also occasionally getting a strange screen I haven't seen before when I boot the game - it disappears after 10-15 seconds or so and then resumes normal loading up until the PROC not found screen. Has anyone seen this before?

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That is just the normal bootloader. It will show this screen if you disrupted the previous boot. This works as expected.

Thanks, that's reassuring. The strange thing is it comes up maybe one in every five times I boot the machine now, despite the fact that I always turn the machine off at the PROC not found screen. Weird.

So based on reports from this last weekend, Xytech Lebowski's are officially happening?

Technically Nothing is official until products are rolling out but it does appear they have a plan to make that officially happen again!

I´ve been at the DPO and fortunately stood next to Jaap (Dutch Pinball) and Mirco (Playfields) when they talked about delivering some playfields in January. Jaap additionally told me that they would start a smaller production with Xytech, when the prototype which they presented during the convention seems to be solid enough. So I really think it´s about to happen. But there´s one little problem: I played both pins within 20 minutes, first the classic machine and then the Xytech-prototype. In my opinion they played different. The classic one felt brilliant, like a W/B or a JJP and we loved it. The prototype much more felt like a Stern. The gameplay and the details on the playfield are still great but I didn´t feel that worthy somehow. That´s a pity because we were surprised how much fun that pin was in general. I hope the Chinese can built it a bit worthier until January.

I don’t care how it plays just that I get mine and it works.

I'm curious about this, owning both W/B and Sterns. IMHO, the playing feel has been mostly regarding mechs (such as flippers, coil strength choices, etc.) vs. other factors. What do you feel is lacking in the gameplay feel exactly? Responsiveness? Solidity of game parts? Sounds or vibrations? I'm just curious what you think from an electronics manufacturer would have changed to make a different feel.

I played also both machines and the "original" was a bit smoother.

The xytech-prototyp felt not so smooth and the rug had some problems... Also the right flipper had some issues.

The gameplay was the same as the original but not so smooth.... And it felt a bit clunky...

Exactly. Smoother is the right word for the original machine and the sounds/vibrations of all mechanical parts felt more solid. The funny thing is that I had some issues with the left flipper finger. It got stuck sometimes in the upper postion and was lacking a bit when coming back. To describe it in points I would say the original machine was a 10/10 and the new one a 7/10 when all the issues are fixed.

and as they opened the coindoor of the prototype, it was very parse assembled.
Hope they can increase the quality.
But for me the Dialed In was much more fun then the TBL

I also said hello to Barry when he had a pile of playfields heading to the parking lot. I mentioned to him that I had Euros but he wouldn't sell me one....looks like they were heading to the factory.

Does anyone have the .45 software update link handy?

Barry show me the inside of the china model.
I can tell you that the quality looks great, no chinees junk but quality parts.
Small boards so you don't have to swapp half of the machine.

Those figures sound great to me. A prototype and it's already 7/10....holy shit!!

Yes but Dialed In has Red and Ted, TBL has the DUDE! lol Would have Loved to see JJP snake this title but the theme is Priceless and a cult favorite!! While nobody loves to see the words Made in China, can we think of many if any Electronic products that are not made there and preferred over any other country? As I type this on my iPhone.....

IMO the flippers weren't correctly adjusted (and AFAIK they're using identical parts to the ARA one), and power was also lacking.

Rug had no problems when I played, but that was first thing on Saturday morning.

I hope they will made progress and build a solid machine.
But i hate the point that there is no European Distributor

Be patiënt. You Will be served. At the moment there are no tbls on sale anyway.

See if this works, it's from an August 2016 e-mail:

http://dutchpinball.us3.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=9eee7a6360316059f8bee9561&id=36a27ab316&e=1e146d34a4

Note, you also need to install all preceding updates between what came on your game and the most recent update of .45. So, .41 through .44 for instance.

^^^^^^^^^
THANK YOU!

I played it on Saterday morning at the DPO and I thought it played well. The prototypes at the DPO a few years back had problems shooting the lock (ramp) well, but this one I could shoot the ramp easily. The right ramp was a bit harder to make, but that's just a harder shot to aim right: a well aimed shot would make it easily. To me the game felt right and shots felt good.
At Saterday the rug was working well. I don't know if things had changed after that time. It was being played non-stop, every time I walked by (and so was the 'original' non-Chinese model, which I hadn't played this DPO).

I played the Xytech prototype on Sunday morning and I think it was solid built and played smooth. The Donny loop when shot from the left resulted in several sdtm drains, but it seemed to me that could be fixed with bending the metal ball guide at the right side end. I've played the game on a test location quite a bit and the Xytech game seemed to be working more correctly. I didn't notice any inconsistencies during gameplay. So far so good

Jaap did a seminar on Sunday afternoon. Hopefully video will be available soon. Getting TBL made is priority #1 for them.

The flippers on the xytech games have EOS switches, where the ARA games do not.

In the Who's Working On What section on the Pinball Magazine website I added a summary of the Dutch Pinball seminar with a few corrections that Jaap just told me over the phone: http://www.pinball-magazine.com/?page_id=34. The TBL details can be found in the notes for November 13.

That's interesting.

So nobody took video of TBL at DPO? Don't recall seeing any links. ARA vs Xytech is what I wanna see.

Rens and I were talking about this. I know in a video you couldn't tell the difference. There really wasn't anything to show.

I never had a chance to get inside the game, so I don't have any pics inside the cabinet.

There were a ton of people taking pictures and videos so I am sure there will be a video posted somewhere soon.

Related, unrelated
http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/lists/every-jeff-bridges-movie-ranked-worst-to-best-w509731

There may be a European distributor.... well for as long as Britain is in the EU

This was the biggest issue on the one I have so glad to see they fixed this!

Oddly enough, I’m not sure they are implemented in software yet...

The flippers shoot a tab bit crisper but are still lacking the quick response to post pass normally.

Luckily, my post pass skills suck, so I won't notice!

Dear Rens,

Welcome to our regular update of the production of The Big Lebowski™ Pinball!

In our last update we informed you that we would test the Xytech machine at the Dutch Pinball Open that was held on November 11 & 12. It was a great show with 470 pinball machines in a beautiful venue: the Evoluon in Eindhoven.

We had two games (old & new) lined up and the players couldn’t tell which one was an old model and which one was the new one. If we asked the players, some pointed out the game on the left and others pointed out the game on the right. The game looks great and plays great.

The past weekend was an endurance test for the game and the results and notes will be communicated with Xytech as soon as possible so Xytech has time to build three new engineering samples which will be inspected personally by Barry early December when he visits the factory again with Cor Hagens (project leader of Xytech). If the new engineering samples are up to spec Barry will assist Xytech to prepare for production.

As soon as Barry, Cor and the Xytech production engineers are satisfied with the quality of the engineering samples and determined how the line will be set up for production, the production engineers will instruct the production team (about 10 employees) to assemble the machines. The first weeks the production engineers will accompany the production team.

Barry will be in Suzhou until mid December. After his trip we will send you the next update.

We hope you are as happy as we are that the Xytech TBL performed so well!

Till next update!

Barry and Jaap

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