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Bonus Podcast: Dutch Pinball - Past, Present and Future

PodcastAnalysis updated 2d ago2 hr 1 min listenBy Martin Ayub, Jonathan Joosten
From the creator

Pinball Magazine editor, Jonathan Joosten, and Pinball News editor, Martin Ayub, discuss the past, present and future of Dutch Pinball in a 2-hour exclusive interview with Barry Driessen (Owner of...

Listen on Pinball News and Pinball Magazine Podcast

Highlights

  • Big Lebowski was announced anonymously at Pinball Expo October 2013 by Barry and Yap with flyers distributed by hired bunny girls
  • Dutch Pinball secured 185-250+ early achiever pre-orders after Expo 2014, with 55 games ultimately shipped to early achievers before production halted
  • ARA demanded approximately €1,000 additional per-unit cost after initial games shipped, creating the core manufacturing dispute
  • Dutch Pinball blamed a non-existent board defect to prevent early achiever pickups in June 2016, buying time during ARA negotiations
  • ARA's cost overruns were driven by underestimating material costs and assembly labor, not just hourly rates
  • Zytec (Chinese manufacturer) was contacted and produced a prototype; a Zytec game appeared at TPO Expo alongside an ARA unit with comparable quality
  • ARA's lawsuit filing occurred during Dutch Pinball's Zytec startup phase, blocking the China pivot due to capital constraints and legal costs
  • Court hearing regarding ARA dispute occurred December 5, 2018 (a Dutch holiday), with judge pressure to resolve rather than ruling
  • Dutch Pinball maintains they had a solid contract with ARA at agreed price and strong legal position despite timeline disputes
  • Phil's US operation involvement ended in refunds of buyer down payments, creating early skepticism but not lasting loss of confidence among most early achievers

Notable quotes

“making pinball is hard. And even if you have a company with many years of experience, it still is very, very hard.”
Barry Dreesen
“I mean, I think everybody thought you were the saviour of pinball bringing out this wonderful licence and such a great product but then after that there seemed to be a bit of, well a lot of doubt introduced”
Martin O (interviewer)
“Yeah, of course I regret it. I mean, I think I know some people think we're liars and try to con people and our Ponzi scheme or whatever you call it. But, of course, I regret that stupid excuse.”
Barry Dreesen
“every problem can be fixed. And I'm normally, as you might know, pretty positive about stuff. So I thought, well, come on. This is going to be, you know, negotiations for a week, maybe two weeks, and then we can start again.”
Barry Dreesen
“You know, with all the different materials, you have your wooden playfield with plastics and then metal parts, and especially the wood is always a little bit different. You have some margins and stuff like that. And it's also really a very time-consuming production.”
Barry Dreesen
“I think they have 60 or 80 years history. But like some wise man once said, making pinball is hard.”
Barry Dreesen
“I think I was contacted more like incidental by SciTech and it was you know right at the time that we thought this is never going to happen with ARA”
Barry Dreesen
“I think the reason that it didn't go through with Scitech was mostly financial. The cost of starting up and the free money or the capital that you had available”
Barry Dreesen

Entities

  • ARA· company
  • Dutch Pinball· company
  • Zytec· company
  • December 5, 2018 court hearing· event
  • Dutch Pinball Open· event
  • Factory tours February & June 2016· event
  • Penthouse parties· event
  • Pinball Expo October 2013· event
  • Pinball Expo October 2014· event
  • TPO Expo (Eindhoven)· event
  • Bride of Pinbot 2.0· game
  • The Big Lebowski· game
  • Lebowski's bar, Utrecht· location
  • Barry Dreesen· person
  • Jonathan Juson· person
  • Martin O· person
  • Phil· person
  • Yap/Kun· person

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