I don't mind. We, uh the corporate we, are fucked. DP spent all the money. They aren't giving us any of the details.

I am not so sure that the deposits at Nitro are refundable as I emailed Tommy 2 weeks ago to get mine back. Then I find out he is involved in some kind of scandal.

I think his current scandal is of the non-financial variety.

I thought they had offshored this project to People's Republic of China or North Korea or something.
I guess that didn't happen.

Is there any possibility someone could make this loss into a win? Or is it like a bad Cryptocurrency investment. Lost

Someone could, only takes money!

All scandals are of the financial variety.

I am really sorry this is happening to you and the EA crew. You are part of a great group of people who deserve better, including the Top 40 who actually got their game.

I am still shaking my head over Barry and Jaap's decision to go to China for production. That decision (combined with others) would be the pilot episode of "WTF Were They Thinking?!"

China happened after DP had fallen out with their first production manufacturer and were already out of money, so at least it wasn’t the cause of their troubles.

I know the story; it is why I got a refund. They should have resolved their issues with ARA instead of jumping ship to another supplier with whatever money was left.

They don't even have the guts nor decency to tell us they pissed it all away.

We did not watch our buddies die face down in the muck, so these strumpets....

They don't really need to. They showed their spending priorities early on when they only had prototypes.

We saw them pissing it away in real time at their extravagant party at Expo 2014.

I think it would probably be smart to get your deposit back. (if you can)

Is anyone over there in Europe willing to take some time to retrieve the publicly available court case regarding DP and ARA?

I will chip in to pay for travel costs and for your time. I am sure there are a few people here willing to do so as well. PM me if you are up for getting the information or willing to chip in for travel reimbursement to the person who does it for us.

There are some active Pinsiders from Netherlands - ask them?

More importantly, what are the statute of limitations over there? It feels like right now we are being stalled for time.

How is that 49% ownership looking right about now?

From two years ago (May 2017):

"In this week’s update of Dutch Pinball and the production of The Big Lebowski™ Pinball we want to share a condition from NiVoGe. When they invest in this project and let ARA start up the production process they demand 51% of the shares of Dutch Pinball. We are discussing what are the pro’s and con’s with our consultant and as soon as we know if this is acceptable or not, we will let you know.

We will send out another update next week.

They strung this and drained all of our money through bogus salary draws and ''other operating expenses". They should really face criminal charges in my opinion.

I begged them to take the deal. Stupid bastards.

For real!
RTR posted a poll where 227 Pinsiders voted for DP to take the 49% deal vs. 44 who said DP should go silent, shrug their shoulders, and stand strong for 51% or more.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/dp-values-your-advice-on-tbl-vote-here

How do you know they don't know their fathers??

Very clever. How's that working out for you?

QSS

Their fathers pre-ordered TBLs & disowned them.

Lemmy and the Ramones are my fathers , all in one !

Talked to Jaap at DPO 2007 , told me he singed in a Rock band and that they were doing some Ramones covers sometimes..

I found that cool !

2017 !

I don't know what the hell is going on (like most of the rest of us) and I have been wondering if they are revisiting the ownership offer after hearing that there was a new "positive" development.

They could sell a lot more than the initial 300 machines (EAs and regular units via deposits at Cointaker and Nitro) so they could turn the project into a profitable one if they produce enough units.

Was there a final court ruling?

I had not heard, but thought it was close.

Supposedly there was, but we haven't been told anything.

For those looking to get up to speed, here's the official news from Dutch Pinball since last November:

crickets.gif

You are giving DP too much credit Tuna. At least the crickets make noise.

Did anyone hear the news? There is going to be a Big Lebowski sequel starting John Hamn and by the time its all done I'm sure Bridges and Goodman will end up in the flick. So this might give new hope to their being a revival of this pinball machine.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5974030/reference

well .... according to link it's has been in post production for 2.5 years. Safe to say it won't happen. I've got one question for Barry or Jaap. All I want to know is ... https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/e78e53b0-9643-4292-9986-124e199ad00d

NSNL In 5mins!!

"Dear Kim,

It has been a while since our last update, for which I apologize. There have been a lot of things going on. I will try to address everything in this update below.

First of all, I'd like to address the health of my colleague and dear friend Jaap. As you all know, last year Jaap was diagnosed with, treated for, and then cured of cancer. Unfortunately, a couple of months ago, a new scan showed the disease was back. The new scan showed multiple metastases, and the doctors indicated there is nothing they can do at this point. I won't go into all the details, but you will understand I was, and still am, devastated by this news. I really can't describe how much this sucks.

Following this awful news, Jaap and I discussed what we would do with Dutch Pinball and his involvement as an associate. We decided that it would be in Jaap's best interest to step away from the company to avoid a complicated situation in the future. The paperwork for this was taken care of last month, and now Jaap is no longer (officially) involved with Dutch Pinball.

...

I know you are all waiting to hear the verdict of the court case with ARA. Unfortunately, the judge ruled in favor of ARA... Now, I can go on and on with details why the judge decided this and how much this sucks, etc... But right now, this is what it is, and besides going in appeal against this ruling, we can't do anything about it. I have discussed all the details with my attorney and the time it would take to go into appeal. He told me it could easily take another year(!). [...] Waiting another year after all this time is really too much for me right now. After all things that have happened and also the terrible news about Jaap made me decide to try something else to figure out this debacle... So once again I've tried to come up with a solution to settle things with ARA and finally get this over with. I contacted the person involved directly - without attorneys - and after a long discussion and some negotiations we have - for the first time in years - reached an agreement!

As you will all agree, this is great news. But there are still some things to take care of before we are completely out of the woods. The settlement we agreed upon means that we have to pay off ARA, and in return we will receive everything Dutch Pinball related that ARA has stored in their warehouse: A number of finished and unfinished games and the complete inventory of parts. Besides that, the court case will be voided and this means there will be no more legal issues that prevent us from continuing our business and start building games again; first The Big Lebowski™ Pinball of course, and hopefully many more beautiful games in the future!

One of the most important things to make Dutch Pinball a viable business again is liquidity. The only way to get things moving again, is to deliver Early Achiever games parallel to selling new games to customers. I know this means you still have to wait a bit longer, but it also means that - against all odds - you will receive your game. Along with my accountants I am working on a prognosis/forecast how long it will take to do this and our first calculations are very positive. At this point I can't give the exact planning yet, but as soon as I do, I will communicate this. I understand this is not the most ideal solution for EA's, but otherwise Dutch Pinball would most certainly go bankrupt, which would inevitably have resulted in nobody getting a game.

From now on I will send out updates more regularly. I really am very sorry for the lack of updates the last couple of months. I hope with what you have read above, that you have a little bit more understanding for this.

Thanks for the continuing support and for your incredible patience.

Barry"

Hmm...well this would be an interesting turn of events. Regardless of the mess with the company, etc, it sucks to hear about Jaap and the prognosis.

Let's see him put HIS money where his mouth is and get this sorted out. I really hope there will be good news for all of the EAs and this awesome game.

Very sad news about Jaap!!!

That assumes 'getting the EA games built' was their top priority.. which clearly it was not.

Oh, boy. "We have to find more people willing to send us money. Hopefully enough of them will do this so that we can eventually get machines to those who already gave us money."

So... it's all hinging on DP funding everything up front. We've heard this song before...

Thx for sharing Kim

I want one of these fucking games and I hate the torcher that this has become..

F'ing morons. How's that 51% deal sounding now, stubborn ass mofos....

...and yeah I'll be the a-hole who says it...after all the lies and BS, I'd want to see proof that Jaap is sick again. For all we know, it's another con to get out of this mess. He's probably on a hydrofoil with Andrew Heighway and Kevin Kulek.

I'll buy one NIB when I can pay cash and carry. No financing!

I’m sick too, can I sign paperwork to get out of my ten games?

Show me a game and I’ll show you some money

And yeah, I want the game as well. After the EAs get theirs, I'll gladly pay you for a machine, once I know the game is already built. No "We'll gladly build you a game tomorrow, for money today" anymore with Dutch Pinball.

Hold on a minute. Recent rumor on the street was DP had lost the case and the money was gone. Both of those things are bad, right? Then Barry admits they lost the case and that money is owed to ARA. So things are bad, right? Then Barry says there is good new and bad news. Good news is some games and parts are available. Bad news is ARA must first be paid. Therefore some (all) of the pre-made games/parts will need to be sold to generate cash for ARA in order for the court order will be cleared. So to be clear ... ZERO EA's are winning here. There is going to be one hell of a dog and pony show coming from Barry, but the fact remains ... he is putting lipstick on a pig and trying to sell it to you as a Danish Bride.

This sounds to me like worst case for DP and that the judgement was structured to make ARA whole. DP and it's customers are F'd Up the Royal Ass. I have stated this many times in these threads - once the case goes against DP, the hostage games will be sold with the money given to ARA. DP will still be underwater and ARA will walk away. ARA won't work with these AssClowns again. The license has expired and while Barry doesn't mention that, I'm 99% certain the license will never be renewed for Lebowski pinball again. EA's are still out everything they are out now.

Add to this mess the lawsuit by secret group. Once some real assets are collected by DP by selling hostage games ... Will DP pay off ARA debt in full? Will DP pay lawsuit folks off and only part of what they owe ARA? Jackie Treehorn says DP also owes money to suppliers and vendors all over town. Won't they be entitled to a slice of this income?

Barry might have the best plan in the world for digging out of this hole - something akin to building three games and selling two to give one free to EA or some other ridiculous bullshit plan, but no contract manufacturer will touch this project with a radioactive pole. They will want to see a valid licensing agreement and healthy bank account, not some school papers from little Larry. The only positive from this whole debacle is news the hostage games/parts will be sold. Don't expect any long term customer support from DP or replacement parts once the inventory is depleted.

Would I trust DP to send me a machine if I paid them for one? NO

Would I trust a distributor to act as a liquidator by warehousing physical inventory, taking my money and shipping a machine? Probably

Would I pay more than $7.5k + $1k shipping for a TBL

Have hostage games been inspected and accepted by DP? No

If ARA needs to be paid in order to release the games/parts, where would they come up with that money? I would think their credit rating is pretty low at this point.