Thanks for the vid JustLikeMe.

It's great to see the progress that's been made in the past few months. I'm anxious to see what is up next for DP after TBL.

Thanks for the vid JustLikeMe!

Curious, how many are on the preorder? I placed a deposit with Melissa at CT. No hurry, just want a general timeframe, months, years...?

Awesome video and thanks for taking the time to record and post! It's amazing the nuance in the game now from when I last played it about 19 months ago at Expo 2014. I especially like the extra ball and end of game videos. I can't wait for this one to get here.

There's a Big Lebowski thread here on Pinside started by RTR where preorders and their numbers are listed.

Original soundtracks? People were crying over original soundtracks? I'd play this pin to the soundtrack of a gerbil crawling from Richard Gere's anus. Fan-fuckin'-tactic vid justlikeme. -Henry Winkler

Great video!

Game is looking better and better. Anticipation meter rising.

The more I hear the instrumentals, the more I like them. I'm not saying that I will not try to install the original songs (if possible) but right now I feel that the replacements are nothing to cry over. On one level, instrumentals are actually better because all the speech will sound better not clogged up with singing (if that makes any sense)

High points in the video:

-I like how the rug mods are coming together. (was a bit scared about those because it is easy to fuck them up)
-All the custom animations are really nice and suits the theme well. Super impressed by those so far.

Will be interesting to see how the game handles it when multiple things are happening at once (that's another scary thing about games like TBL and The Hobbit with all the lcd options. Easy to just make a confusing mess out of all the clips with a lot happening at once)

So far it looks like the animation artist is right on the button. The balance with clips and animation looks to be just right.

How many music tracks is there in the game now? I hope that they decide to add even more music to the game in the future.

More awesome music please

Looking forward to more videos and reviews.

troubling thoughts...

Yeah loving the animations as well, which helps add some definition to the modes. Light shows are good too so far.

Ok, a few quick thoughts while I'm on lunch.

- I'm no longer worried about replacing the instrumentals with the soundtrack. The instrumentals work well with gameplay, and with the number of movie clips that play I think it would be distracting/confusing to have tracks with vocals. If someone else makes a custom code I'll probably give it a go, but I think the overall quality of the music is good enough to live with.

- The build quality is pretty impressive. Feels much more solid than Stern, and whilst I never had a B/W NIB, I can't imagine they came out looking this good. The decals in particular surprised me - extremely glossy, really nice finish. I was shocked by the weight of the backglass when I removed it - has a real weight to it.

- I did have a few issues with the machine out of the box but Barry was very responsive and the main issue was resolved within an hour or two. Couple of small things I still need to work on but I'm not concerned in the slightest. I'm sure the testing / quality control will only get better as they come across more issues.

- The display is fantastic. Much prefer it to the large monitor used in JJP machines.

- The light show in attract mode is incredible in person. The light shows in the game aren't quite there yet, but I'm sure they'll improve with time. I'm sure we all agree that it's more important for DP to focus on getting the modes in first before making everything pretty.

- The one exception to the above is the lightshow during Nihilist Showdown - very cool. As Hensbrooker mentioned earlier in the thread the GI pulses in time to the soundtrack, and it reminds me to a degree of Strobe Multiball in AFM, though clearly not as challenging.

- The rug modes are cool - variety of shots depending on the mode, and after each successful shot another clip from the movie is played to further the scene. In the 'This is What Happens' rug mode you have to shoot the car on the upper playfield, and after each successful shot to the car the upper flipper dies so you have to get it back up there again which I thought was a nice touch.

- The game is much more difficult than I thought it would be. There's one really dangerous shot - Donny - as the ball comes around the loop very quickly, and heads SDTM. Have to nudge to save every time. Similarly the rug skillshot send the ball around the loop in the other direction extremely fast and has on occasion gone SDTM. Shooting the shot to light the bowling letters on the upper playfield is difficult too.

- Following on from the above, reaching the Wizard Mode is going to be a real challenge. I have a feeling that collecting all bowling balls via the bowling toy is going to be the hardest goal to achieve.

- The rug toy does need a strong hit to register. Barry advised me to loosen a couple of screws under the playfield which certainly helped, but you still need a good direct shot.

- The movie clips etc are really well integrated and extremely varied. All the scenes you'd expect are present. Really no need to worry going forwards.

- The system menu is very straightforward and easy to navigate. Very impressed.

Gotta get back to work, but if anyone has any questions I'll answer them this evening. I'll also upload another video overnight (uploading kills my download speed which I'll need this evening) and I'll post it in the morning. Can't wait to get home to get a few more games in!

I'm very jealous Dude. But also very grateful for the video and your insights on the game! Thanks for your time and effort on these.

I guess in retrospect, the concerns regarding a potential lack of clips from the movie were unnecessary as there seems to be lots of them incorporated into the gameplay. Very cool DP!

Well, I think it was good we whined about the clips when they were talking about the music tracks making certain clips unavailable. It was after us complaining I think they went back to Roger and got the permission to remove the licensed music from the clips. But hey, that's just my opinion man.

Game is looking great now!

Was playing a Kiss this weekend and noticed a number of ball saves activated for very short periods on specific shots, (bigtime sdtm from the ball shooting out of the mouth.) a quick ball save, 1-2 seconds may be a solution

On the music I agree too since there is enough vocal action out of the game + clips which could get lost when putting in the original songs... But what I thought of what would cover the whole is to implement a Jukebox function, so you can upload your own set of songs (or by just sticking in an USB stick) which will play during attract mode! Will drop it @ Barry

On the Donny lane STDM issue... I only encounter such an issue when getting the "Honor Donny" rug mode and then shooting the Maude lane. It seems like the ball gets to hyper speed and really bounces off the flippers. It almost always creates an air ball bouncing around the lower area. More then often ending up in the outlane.

If your STDM problem comes out of rollback balls I would recommend to adjust the endpart of the ball guide a bit so the ball ends up on the flipperbat. I mention this since I do not encounter the same problem as you.

Thanks for your thoughts on this - the SDTM problem doesn't come from rollback balls, but instead when I make a successful shot to the Donny lane. It loops around, comes back down the Maude lane to the left of the right ramp (Walter) and then goes SDTM.

When you shoot the Donny lane on your machine, which flipper does the ball return to when exiting the Maude lane?

Sorry guys, I won't be able to upload another video this evening. Just tried to record a game which turned out pretty good - grand champion high score, 4 x multiball, 2 x nihilist showdown, few rug modes - and after the game finished I realised my phone had stopped recording after the first two minutes because it's out of space. Very frustrating. Will try again tomorrow!

No worries. Thanks for posting. Good to see finally more activity from those who already have the machine.

Will now get even more restless to have mine

TBL is awesome, only thing missing is a cool and rotating topper! What do you think guys?

TBL_(resized).jpg

Ball returns at the tip of right. Does not leave that much, but it's enough without nudging.
Again, please check if you can adjust the end of the ball guide. Just a bit should do the trick.

Pic of how close the guide runs the pole:

image_(resized).jpg

Real milestone now, first troubleshooting posts between two owners . Finally made it!

Think DP have really nailed the display. Best of the current displays. Can you imagine how much better GB would have been with this screen/movie cuts etc??????!

Could not agree more. I would like to see other manufacturers follow suit with their displays.

Played ES-05 today with one of the BL team at home. What a wonderful machine!

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I uploaded another video overnight - still not playing very well, but I do briefly get to Nihilist Showdown and play a pretty bad four character multiball.

It's strange, I don't seem to play that well when I'm recording. The next game I played after this one I set a new GC score and got the five character multiball! Ah well. I'm away for the next couple of nights but I'll try again next week.

Thanks for this - I did check and the ball guide is as close to the post as on yours. I had the machine at 6.5 degrees but raised it to 7 degrees last night and this seems to have helped - the ball only goes SDTM occasionally now. What's strange is that when I get a rollback it always comes to the tip of the right flipper, but when I loop the shot by shooting the Donny lane the ball seems to come away from the guide slightly on the way down. I'll play around with it.

Thanks. So how is the walter ramp to shoot? I saw you back hand it once but not from a controlled ball. And did making it 7 degree pitch for your Donny shot mess with being able to make the ramp more/less?

Walter ramp can be difficult - not much harder to shoot with a 7 degree pitch but not a guaranteed shot from a ball trap on the left flipper. I haven't tried increasing the coil strength on the left flipper so may experiment with that. Don't think I've managed to backhand it on purpose - not sure if it's possible given the angle.

Thanks for posting the vids JustLikeMe! Easily the best that I have seen of the game. They have really got me excited again about getting mine. I notice that you are not going bowling. It seems like the bowling alley is accessed all the time in all of the other videos that I have seen. I know DP mentioned that they have been setting the game up for shows and such to feature the bowling mech. How do you have your machine configured with regards to bowling? Are you avoiding bowling or is it that rare of an occurrence in a standard setup machine?

The deal with the bowling and shows is the menu system let's you configure how many letters are already spotted for the shots. I think for TPF they had B-O-W-L-I .. maybe even the N.. already lit, so 1-2 shots to start bowling.

Imagine the default is zero lit so 7 shots is going to make a big difference.

I love though how they are using the bowling alley additionally as a giant RGB insert for setting the mood of a mode / nihilist showdown.

Definitely glad to see it is going to be a challenge. Early on, I was afraid it would get overused in the game.

Noticed that too. Looks sweet!

Thanks for the video. Do I spot a scoring issue right at the beginning? You make the skill shot and the score stays at 10 points...

This is one of my main questions as well. I've been to several shows that had TBL and the games I played all had issues with flipper stregnth. For those of you who own production models, how is it? If the coils are adjustable it shouldn't be a big deal.

I've upped all three flippers two notches.

Plenty of strength now and there's still a few notches open.

I also lowered the scoop and slings pulse.

Big Lebowski has landed at the Northwest Pinball & Arcade Show! It wasn't on last night during set up, I'm looking forward to playing it today.

pshow_nitro_booth_(resized).jpg

I had heard that there was an issue with flippers getting weak after alot of consecutive plays. That have been with the old boardset though. Has this been a problem with any of the production games?

Thanks

Brian

To be honest, I'm avoiding going bowling. The one outstanding issue I have with the machine is the bowling alley - the opto doesn't register and therefore I fail every challenge. Barry is helping me troubleshoot the issue and it looks like they're going to have to send me a new opto board. It was working when it arrived but only for the first few games.

Lighting lets go bowling can be done via a skill shot which immediately puts the ball on the upper playfield - shooting the shot that loops around the bowling alley immediately qualifies the mode. In the long term I think this will be the skill shot to go for, because I find it easier to open the rug in normal play than light lets go bowling, but for the time being its kinda pointless. It's definitely not going to be as common to get as it is in videos from shows.

The default, at least to get it lit for the first time, is three or four shots I think.

Not sure - possibly! Hard to pay attention to the scoring when you're playing and to be honest I haven't really watched the videos I've uploaded properly.

Do you have any issues with the ball going SDTM from the Maude lane after shooting the Donny shot? It's happening less now I've raised the machine level to seven degrees but it's frustrating when it does happen.

If I'm not mistaken in BOP 2.0 the skill shot is given as bonus points at the end of the ball. Maybe it's the same with TBL?

Yeah, with BOP 2.0 it tells you what you scored in the skill shot, but it's not added in until the bonus, at the end, which is awesome if you get 2X bonus.

Just played my first game on the Big Lebowski, fun! I liked the music, no flipper strength problems on this one.

Standing in line right now waiting for my first ever play of TBL. Looks great so far!

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Update: Game just crashed for the 2nd time in an hour.
Supposedly due to a loose connector last time.

I played the same game when it was in Edmonton a few weeks back. it had some issues from time to time, but Tommy was able to get them straightened out. This is one of the very early machines I believe, I think its serial number was like ES-1 or something. it gets a lot of play on weekends like this. I played it for a solid hour on the last day of the Edmonton Expo when i had it all to myself and had no issues other than the right flipper sticking a little bit occasionally if i held it too long.

All is well again and just played! Great looking game and solid feel. Not easy, but I was able to get it up the right ramp a number of times and finally got bowling started. Very cool!

I haven't heard "Lookin' Out My Back Door" in the new code. Are the various tracks accessible in the menu?

The bowling mech is hugely impressive from a technical standpoint but somewhat of a waste like the lower play field on Ac/dc.

Great job on the videos and it's cool to see in home use play.

The video is awesome to me. Absolutely love it and if the theme was a must have for me then that might seal the deal regardless of the other negative issues.

Every video of game play I've seen looks very "clunky".

And the "instrumentals" versus what it used to be in the original version? It's not loud enough and it sounds terrible to me. Somebody needs to patch the originals in with Pinball Browser. It's awful.

I hope they sell a bunch overseas, I don't see the excitement now or people lining up to drop over $9k here in the US.

I'd like to play it, don't want to own it, but for those that do, congrats on the fact that its finally shipping.

Opposite for me. I've played early versions twice in the US and that combined with the videos from the latest code has me actively looking to acquire one.

How much are you willing to pay to acquire one?

Video is great. Negatives to me are the rug shot, bowling play field and the horrendous instrumentals along with the "clunky feel".

I think you gotta really love the theme over everything else to justify this one.

I feel you have to repeatedly talk shit about the game even though you have also repeatedly said you have no interest in buying it. Just go away.

I was in on day one at Expo. Fully paid. Then thankfully got $$ back after Phil gate.

I haven't "repeatedly" done anything except follow this from day one.

I'm always interested and looking for a reason to own any pin. Don't like my realistic opinion, go F yourself.