Have you ever stripped an entire Playfield top and bottom And disassembled all the mechs for cleaning / restore? There’s a TON of parts, and given there’s no manual for TBLthat I’m aware of, there’s currently no help to assemble all this so that’s quite a lot of work to put together enough documentation for someone to get it out together correctly. It’s unlikely all the little needed screws, nuts, washers, etc ( maybe even a few critical parts) would make it into every cabinet. Some of the pf divets could be off, all kinds of assembly crap could go wrong. They’d HAVE to have full harnesses supplied but that leaves a ton of soldering. If you e ever restored a game fully you know how critical all the tear down pics are. W/out those,and without any memory in the harness to lay it out, and with (likely) missing parts and similar but different hardware pieces.... yeah that sounds like a friggn nightmare. The instructions would have to be damn good with full color pics.. talking something like a DILE manual quality here.

If I were an EA I'd probably settle for the parts. At least I'd be getting something instead of just watching other people buying my game over and over again.

Barry could build one himself and take pics at every step, making sure any additional parts not already there are sourced and included... then issue an e-manual. the snag is the wiring harness and the fact that people will make mistakes and blow boards... interesting cost saving idea, but not practical I fear...

There is a far completed assembly manual made by Barry in the ARa and Xytech period. Seen some pages of it. Looks good and was made in solid works and comes with detailed drawings.

But far completed is something else as completed and even with a full manual this would be a hell of a job without training. We are talking here about 1000s of parts per machine I think. A technical no-go for most EA’s I think.

And last but not least, there are not parts for complete 200 games. Some parts yes (saw many lcd displays and computers for instance) but not 200 cabinets for instance. It’s like 6 truckloads of parts though and for sure a very very good start but not 200 games complete in parts unfortunately. This was also mentioned in last NSN.

Didn't Barry write a complete assembly manual for ARA ? I remember reading something about that.

What manual did ARA use to build them?

Was this DP and coin-taker deal a few months of planning?

D9989A2E-296C-49F3-99C2-D06D2FADF2AA (resized).jpeg

I still say that is a troll. Maybe the same guy that is selling one for $25k on Facebook.

Really? This will never happen
I feel really bad for EA's you got royally fcked

Agreed. At that point they would be better off selling off all the parts to the 90ish owners and Returning that money to the EA group to move on from this Long company investment.

You’re making all this too complicated. K.I.S.S. What if some EAs don’t want to put in another 1K. Do they go to the back of the line? I don’t see anything that helps for now other than volunteering labor assistance if you’re close to DP.

Yeah, I mean that’s a point (were they to put this together and offer the option) but I don’t know that a pile of parts in a cab is a huge improvement over nothing if it’s near impossible to assemble.

Apparently TILT Pinball Bar in Minneapolis is going to have this game within the next week or so...

Anyone know if they were an EA or are they ‘new money’? Cuz that would totally suck.

New money

Big props to them for putting it on route. Are there any others left in the world available for public play?

There’s at least 1 in Seattle

No ... there was 40 people who jumped at the chance to buy one for $12,500. If it sold out in 30 seconds then obviously the price could have been much higher. What if they said the price was $15,000 I think all 40 would still be sold. What if they said $20 or $25k would they all sell... I think the answer is NO! However I think 10 would, 8 would, just because people paid 12,500 to buy them means nothing to establish the value.

The real question is are their people out there willing to pay 20 to 25k or more for the game? If so how many?

I have this game, I wonder if I should keep it or sell it. If someone is willing to pay 25K I guess I would sell.

I can't wait to see how many people are willing to pay over 20k for this game. I guess we'll find out.

My friend, Gene in San Francisco has had his TBL on location for the past three years or so. He has a fantastic mechanic keeping the game alive and they have been passing along engineering fixes/suggestions to Dutch Pinball. Suggestions, I'm told, that DP actually incorporated into the new designed machines for the now failed China build.
Sunshine Laundry in New York has two TBL's, also from the original delivered 50 machine lot, but both have sat broken for a very, very long time now. (years?)

Wait, 2 TBLS in NYC and both aren't working? Whats the problem? With 50 games out there I am sure someone else had the issue and fixed it. Did they try?

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/a-lotta-ins-a-lotta-outs-tbl-maintenance-thread

Not seeing any info on the issues in the NYC machines so I guess they didn't check pinside!

Has ARA been "made whole"? Or do they still have claims?

ARA issues over, all done.

I guess it shouldn't be surprising that a first effort from a failed company would be less than reliable!

I understand the license love, but anyone willing to pay over 15k for a game that's proven to be problematic from a dishonest/failed company is simply chasing rarity. If the Sunshine Laundry folks in NY can't keep the games running, well...

I actually heard that the operator was an EA who decided to pay full price for a new game.

Is this confirmed? I know that DP has stated that the lawsuit has officially been settled, but for some reason I thought that DP might still owe additional money to ARA under the settlement agreement even after the existing games were all sold off. Can't remember what I read to give me that understanding, though.

The arrangement is for ara to be whole... the thing was people assumed the game sales alone covered what ara needed... but there is inference in Barry’s language that it took the game sales PLUS more money to make ara whole. But ara should be whole now. As usual... Barry is not saying how he plans to finance his new plan for ongoing operations...

As for other people they owe money to... who knows.

As I’ve mentioned previously, the sale of the games would be satisfy DP’s outstanding debt to ARA and that the parts they would be receiving would be - free and clear Per recent communications, that indeed is the situation.

I’ve repeated that the licensing was set to expire soon (Dec 31,2019) and while I didn’t think there was a snowball’s chance in hell of DP extending the license, Barry reports he did it.

So Barry is free from this reckoning and is sitting on a pile of parts. He has always planned to end up with parts and a plan to build and sell as many of those parts into as many games as he could to make some running money. I don’t think he will be able to build 10 games from the pile of shit inventory that he thinks is a gold mine. But we shall see because building pinballs is hard. Any old fool can’t do it.

At this point I say HALT! DP owes 190 prepaid games and now has a treasure trove of parts. BUT they are planning to build and sell those games to new buyers. Huh? Mmmm. This is so criminal it isn’t funny. Has anybody reported this conman or his ongoing fraudulent behavior to the authorities, man?

DP is insolvent, yet they have not been forced into bankruptcy. How about getting a cease and desist against this unscrupulous raid of company assets as it pilfers and builds and sells to new buyers, without giving games to those that bought them - the EA’s. That is a crime, right? Anybody?

DP was paid to build and deliver 190 games and is years late delivering them and has not had meaningful communication with these buyers. Word is they’ve got a stash of parts and plan to begin manufacturing soon. Hooray you think, I’ll finally be getting my game, you lucky EA.

No DP, is ignoring you and trying hard to pretend you don’t exist. They have a large inventory of the parts needed to build your game and who know what kind of labor to build your game now. Barry will look out for you and make sure the game is up to snuff, right? Haha, Barry is going to take the parts for your game that he hasn’t yet built and you paid him for 4 years ago, and he will be selling the finished game to someone new.

But don’t worry because DP’s iou for delivering you a TBL is still worth as much as it has ever been worth. Now DP might not be able to talk to you much over the next year because they have a big order to fill - building TBL machines for some paying customers.

1-800-CALL-THE-COPS

If that is the TBL that was at Alamo theater in SF then it’s has been pulled out 3 months ago. And the last time I played it, the rug mech was dead and the machine was quite beaten up.

I hope he puts it back on route somedays I did make Gene very rich with my piles of coins !

It was also turned off in March when I dropped by the Mission Drafthouse to check it out. I hope he’s able to get it back on it’s feet.

Free and clear - yes, that's the settlement. What the monies needed for that settlement has not been addressed.. your statement is not based on citable sources.. just your read on it.

The rest is just you circling over and over about old crap to hear yourself talk I guess... not worth even addressing.

My TBL will be back out once we rebuild the subway. Not sure when that will be but can let folks know. The rug is pretty much demolished so I'll probably leave it bare for the time being or wrap it with a faux rug

Damn. Hoping this added income bolsters DP to finally trickle product to EA’s, but that’s a pipe dream.

Overall the games we have from Dutch needed a ton of work. I am not sure about the new games but certainly the first batch had QC issues,at least in our batch. We have been testing one to go back out for a while and it always has or develops issues with stuck balls or unrecognizable switches etc. There is a lot to the game and I don't ever want to represent a product on route that is not working correctly.

Wow, your last statement is what customers want to hear! I wish more owners took the pride in their products as you do! You are setting the example and will always be rewarded for it! It’s nice to hear something that sounds genuine these days. Too many others just out for a buck and have lower standards expecting others to just except them.

Thanks for the kind words. I can't say I'm perfect because we have over 500 Pinballs on route but I can say if I know about an issue it's either addressed within 7 days or it's off site. There are many reasons for this but truly our reputation as an operator is the most valuable to me so I'd rather you not have a game to play or a switched out game than a broken one.

Again not perfect but I feel we do a great job and our staff overall cares about the games as much as our customers do.

Also to take it a step further. We teach our locations about how to troubleshoot basic issues. This has made for a much better experience overall for our customers. Not perfect but better.

500 pinballs! that is insane.

That's on site. Yes it is insane.

No. That's awesome!

Didn’t look anywhere close to 500 pins when I was there last month...someone is prone to exaggeration!

He has more than one location....

I guess in the UK 'Insane' = 'Awesome'

Podcast just released today. - Dutch Pinball with a 2-hour interview with Barry Driessen.

http://www.podcastgarden.com/episode/special-bonus-podcast-dutch-pinball-past-present-and-future_148459

If that's really the plan, then Barry's finally gone full Kulek. What'd they talk about for the rest of the two hours?

EDIT: Having now listened to the full two hour podcast, I think @dkjimbo's summary was off on several points. FWIW, here are my listening notes:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-big-lebowski-preorder-club/page/210#post-5185714

Host: come on, you’re joking right
Barry: no I’m quite serious
Host: aww come on
<2 hours later>
Barry: I mean it, I’m serious
Host: I still think you’re joking. Thanks for listening everyone and be sure to subscribe and smash that like button

What you're forgetting is that other people can also listen to the podcast and hear that what you're saying it total bollocks...

I haven't had two hours yet to listen -- what does it actually say? Does Barry have a legitimate plan?