Quoted from fosaisu:

Assuming they sell through these TBLs, there will be 80 or 90 out there, bringing it closer to Alien numbers in terms of a self-supporting community of owners.
I don't know what the state of Alien code is, but from playing TBL a couple of dozen times at TPF, the code felt pretty complete to me. Of course there's no comparison to Alien where the coder is actively engaging with the owners on Pinside. But if I were a buyer I'd be more worried about hardware failures than about the code.

Quoted from flynnibus:

shipping from Europe was through CT in the original scheme... see https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-big-lebowski-preorder-club/page/52#post-3460909

My wager is the 40 games are being shipped via container to CT... some are allocated to Nitro, the rest to CT.

Quoted from f3honda4me:

The 40 pins are the property of ARA. So I don’t see how this would play out any different in the US. The pins are effectively being sold by ARA through DP and CT. ARA was the debtor that won their lawsuit.

Quoted from whitey:

I feel bad for all that invested money in TBL pin . But very curious where the game’s end up

Quoted from VividPsychosis:

That’s a cool story and all, except, as usual completely uninformed. My game and 19 others will ship today.

Quoted from Dkjimbo:

but its not "sinking the ship your on".....anyone with a brain and a basic calculator can see the ship is already sunk. Legal action can force further resolution. this inaction is just a sad resignation and a false hope. Again - the Zidware ship had sunk...now look....all of those people are getting cash or free games from Deeproot. It doesn't hurt to TRY!! so what gives? again I say, what is this sad Stockholm syndrome like behavior that leaves blind faith in the hand of known liars, cheats and criminals?? If watching YOUR game get sold off to someone else at a premium price doesn't call you to action or inspire some sort of engagement...nothing will....its a really interesting study on human psychology really. very very hard to explain rationally what is going on here. Some people are OVERJOYED at the moment unboxing new games and boasting to the world, others are deeper and deeper in the hole but seemingly unwilling or uninspired to do anything about it.

Quoted from Londonpinball:

Is Cointaker giving anything to the EA’s from his profit in this scam?
Maybe Cointaker can donate his Profit to the EAs.
That would help the EAs recover pennies on the dollar .
Not offering the EA’s first shot at games is lazy
Not offering the EA’s the profit is heartless

Quoted from Pinhead1982:

DP owns the rights/ code etc... for TBL
DP has to pay ARA for loosing court case.. Judge didn’t award the Pinball’s to ARA - they awarded €€€€ in which DP had to pay.
Only way DP could settle was to come to an arrangement with ARA to release games to sell to get them their money..
Did ARA contact CT.. Don’t think so,
DP contacted CT to get one financial transaction for the pins... far less
Messy..

Quoted from JodyG:

I am not sure my opinion of Cointaker will ever be the same after this. Sure, they can come on here and say "we are just doing our job", but the fact of the matter is that they were complicit in selling games off that were paid for and designated for EA's with EA numbers physically attached to them. They fact that CT is so nonchalant about it really bugs me.

Quoted from seenev:

What fee did you get for each of the 40 games sold? How much will you get for future games sold? I think everyone here is interested in transparency. People in this thread are claiming you are making nothing from this. You say you have 3 EA machines due to you... I'm curious to know where you are in the balance after collecting fees on EA games sold to new buyers.

Quoted from Tomass:

It still makes no sense that the EA's were not given the first chance at buying these 40. Then they could be the ones flipping these to make themselves whole since no one else is going to do that. It would have taken, what...2-3 days to go down the list and at least offer that to them?

Quoted from tktlwyr:

I thought someone once said that "making pinball is hard"? I've always considered this every time the next great boutique company announces their plans. Someone is going to make Predator in his basement, send money. I'll pass. JPOP is making games, send money. I'll pass. Alien pinball is being made, send money. I'll pass. This brings us to Mr. Lebowski and guess what? I passed. I haven't lost one preorder dollar because I work hard for my money and I'm not going to lose it to vaporware by financing someone with no experience manufacturing who wants to make a pinball machine. With the various issues that the established manufacturers experience, why would you send money to anyone who doesn't have the experience? You know what someone else once said? "A fool and his money are soon parted."
That being said, some of you tools bring CoinTaker into this? CoinTaker has been nothing short of a stellar vendor/distributor who continues to innovate and provide reliably to this community year after year. Melissa and Chris have always had their clients' backs and were smart enough to hold the customers monies in escrow until their customers' games were ready. Yeah, let's pile on one of the most respected vendors/distributors in the hobby because some people sent Dutch Pinball their money directly (wow, this complicates matters...sending money internationally and then attempting to sue a foreign entity, doesn't it?) and Dutch Pinball didn't deliver. I guess that's Coin Taker's fault, too? If someone had to have the latest, greatest boutique game and didn't think through where they were sending thousands of dollars, that's NOT CoinTaker's fault. It sucks people didn't get their games but they also were extremely careless with their money because they were blinded by their obsession with this hobby. They need to look in the mirror and the rest of you SJWs need to stop pointing the finger at CoinTaker.
These games were going to be sold regardless to satisfy DP's debt with ARA and guess what? Pinball collectors were going to buy them and some would get flipped for a profit. That's the way the world works. It's not ARA or CoinTaker's responsibility to make EAs whole. It's also not the responsibility of those collectors who ultimately took delivery of these games. That responsibility solely lies on DP. That's where the finger needs to be pointed not at the distributor who delivered games for their customers.

Quoted from kvan99:

You need to raise your standards....

Quoted from Dkjimbo:

I heard that too. I cant believe anyone would have backed out considering they can easily sell at a HUGE margin. It is a zero-risk / huge reward situation for those who can stomach the bad press of being a flipper on the machine under the circumstances. You cant get that kind of return with zero risk anywhere else!

Quoted from pinballslave:

If you can explain what he's done to make him a crook then your words might have some weight behind them... any chance of you doing that?
If you're not up to it, any of your thumbs-uppers to you troll post care to elaborate?

Quoted from Yelobird:

I think you meant to type 40 games. The second batch was paid for again with New money. He was broke long before that.

Quoted from pinballslave:

I don't know exactly... lawyers fees, payment for the first 95 games plus the 1/2 million euros worth of parts, setting up the Chinese production, promotional events, licencing... and some bottles of Kahlua I guess...

Quoted from pinballslave:

My view would be that if he's serious about making more games then code updates will be a lower priority than getting the production going...

My view would be that if he's serious about making more games then code updates will be a lower priority than getting the production going...

That sucks more than not getting a TBL after paying for it!

Quoted from luvthatapex2:

The game was coded a long time ago. This is not a new game. The programmer is GONE, but is the code complete? Is there a wizard mode? Does everything work? If there are existing bugs or features missing I would agree the game needs code updates but that's not been stated anywhere I read.

Quoted from adamross:

Current code is thin, fingers crossed there's an update in the future.

Quoted from flynnibus:

So its been over a month since this game was delivered. Have there been any other batches since barry went in-house?