How can anyone really know any real figures ? 400 is a big call .....?? Were people paying deposits when they were signing up.? If so, does anyone know how much the deposits were ?
I am going to rent the movie cause I remember the cast, but not the movie. Maybe that will answer some questions about the pinball design.
I don't know much about Dutch Pinball but do they have a factory like JJP or Stern or are they going to get the machines made by another manufacturer ?
If they have a factory, does anyone have a link to a video or photos of their factory.
Is there any info on how they have raised capital to get a workforce together like JJP have and what about tooling etc.
Are they using planetary pinball parts or doing their own etc.
They have a massive task ahead of them IF they have anything close to 400 pre-orders etc.
Have they given delivery dates ? Etc.
They seem to have thought outside the square with TBL.
I never thought a 16 yr old movie title would work but it seems to be very popular.
Is there a single owner of Dutch Pinball or is it a consortium of people ?
How long have they been around for ?
As I said, I know little about them.
Do they have any big USA names on their design team. Whoever designed TBL must be clever and have some good experience. Maybe someone could start a Dutch Pinball thread and cover a lot of this stuff for members who may want to know more incase they wanted to buy a TBL Pinball.
Really Cavey.... I know you stated some positive stuff but it's how you start off sometimes, you talk up Stern sales and them doing great without known facts, just enjoy the ride and do some research and learn a bit about them or you could start a thread - Dutch Pinball and see what people post. There are articles around about their design setup and the team.
http://www.dutchpinball.com400 was the figure coming from talk from the private TBL party and their was 3-4 of the DP team there as well as being present at Pinball Life's show with a machine and it was the highlight of the show, with alot of people being wowed. There was 2 private TBL parties and only people that had paid a deposit were allowed in and could bring one friend so on both nights it looked to have a good crowd. Exactly 1 year ago it was a mystery of who they were as they had the countdown timer for around New Years to release info. The guys did the DMD version of Pinbot which is selling well and pretty sure the dutch guy that does the lcd animations for JJP is part of DP team as well. If anything they are way in front of Stern with a lcd intergration. Before that they started with using Proc and developed their programming skills. They are all keen pinballers with apparently some nice collections. You would be surprised that there is a healthy pinball community in Holland:
- Ministry of Pinball parts supplier
- Dutch Pinball
- Jonathon who writes the Pinball mag
- another small team building the real Timeshock pinball
- Robin you owns and runs Pinside (the biggest Pinball forum around)
They brought over 3 working proto types in early code so people could touch, see and know they are the real deal. I think that alone is impressive and a big expense but the best way to secure confidence and support.
As for designers, pretty sure their team are, no big name US designers, but if it is a good layout and good game play with good art a designers name shouldn't matter once people play and see and start talking about it. Sometimes companies use well known designers to speed up the confidence.
