History TroubledProduction / Pinball

->''I’ve been doing this for a really long time now, and it’s been an absolute rollercoaster of ups and downs... You know, I would hate to see it all go to waste, but at the same time I’m not going to ask anybody for anything to keep it going either.”

** The Pinside thread turned into complete ''pandemonium'', with people both infuriated at Dutch Pinball and some now more reluctant than before to get the game after reading what Weinberg said. Dutch Pinball ended up having to send emails to its customers, apologizing for what happened (but denying some of the allegations Weinberg made), and assured them that the licensing issues would be worked out for the game.They announced that they had brought in Creator/RogerSharpe, an expert in marketing and licensing, in order to assist in development of ''The Big Lebowski''. Later, [[http://www.pinball-news.com/games/biglebowski/index3.html as Pinball News reported,]] Dutch Pinball released the final version of the playfield that was approved by Universal.

** Their first project, ''Lost Vegas'', was announced in 2010 as a conversion kit for Bally’s ''Dolly Parton'' pinball machine, switching out the original artwork and sounds to a DarkerAndEdgier theme of strippers in a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas. About a year later, sketches of the backglass art were released to the public, but many people were not impressed and criticized the art style. The team ended up having to let their original artist go in search of another who could produce something of better quality. They set their eyes on pinball artist Creator/GregFreres, but he was too busy with work on ''Pinball/WhoaNellieBigJuicyMelons'' for Whizbang Pinball to help, and was still unavailable later as he had joined Stern Pinball's team. Although the software for Lost Vegas is apparently complete, the trouble with the art has since been keeping the game in DevelopmentHell.

->''I’ve been doing this for a really long time now, and it’s been an absolute rollercoaster of ups and downs... I would hate to see it all go to waste, but at the same time I’m not going to ask anybody for anything to keep it going either.”

* Despite being in the pinball business for quite a while, Stern has has a few troubled productions under their belt.

* The ''[[Pinball/FamilyGuy Shrek]]'' machine was originally intended to be a quickly-made, small-budget project using the design and rules of the ''Family Guy'' pinball machine, [[PaletteSwap changing the artwork and sound]], after receiving requests from operators to make something more family-friendly. Stern, the producer of the ''Shrek'' pinball machine, found itself staring down the legal gun barrel from both Creator/DreamWorksAnimation and Music/SmashMouth, the latter due to the machine's use of the song "All-Star." In order to comply with all of the rules set forth by both groups, from finding soundalikes approved by the voice actors of the movies themselves, to Smash Mouth's ban on {{Cover Version}}s (meaning Stern had to pay the record label for far more than what would've been needed to record Stern's own version), ''Shrek'' took twice as long as projected to complete and ran to the budget of a normal machine despite reusing a layout and rules from a previous machine.

** Another project, ''Hammer of the Godz'', was a conversion kit for Bally’s ''Vector'' game, and was announced in 2015. The game ''sort of'' was based off of LedZeppelin, but not really, according to Stu, Classic Playfield Reproduction’s Art Director (the playfield had images of the band members, but everywhere else, the game had more of an original theme to it, due to the potential costs of licensing the band). Of course, as chronicled on its Pinside thread, the game was criticized because it looked too generic and the artwork was not what many expected from a Led Zeppelin game. The kit is still in development, though the prospect of the game turned some consumers off, and along with a handful of Stu’s comments on the thread, who lashed out to those who gave constructive criticism to the game.

** The Pinside thread turned into complete ''pandemonium'', with people both infuriated at Dutch Pinball and some now more reluctant than before to get the game after reading what Weinberg said. Dutch Pinball ended up having to send emails to its customers, aplogizing for what happened (but denying some of the allegations Weinberg made), and assured them that the licensing issues would be worked out for the game.They announced that they had brought in Creator/RogerSharpe, an expert in marketing and licensing, in order to assist in development of ''The Big Lebowski''. Later, [[http://www.pinball-news.com/games/biglebowski/index3.html as Pinball News reported,]] Dutch Pinball released the final version of the playfield that was approved by Universal.

** The Pinside thread turned into complete ''pandemonium'', with people both infuriated at Dutch Pinball and some now more reluctant than before to get the game, upon reading what Weinberg said. Dutch Pinball ended up having to send emails to its customers, assuring them that the licensing issues would be worked out for the game.They announced that they had brought in Creator/RogerSharpe, an expert in marketing and licensing, in order to assist in development of ''The Big Lebowski''. Later, [[http://www.pinball-news.com/games/biglebowski/index3.html as Pinball News reported,]] Dutch Pinball released the final version of the playfield that was approved by Universal.

** Shortly after, Dutch Pinball sent emails to its customers, assuring them that the licensing issues would be worked out for the game. They announced that they had brought in Roger Sharpe, an expert in marketing and licensing, in order to assist in development of ''The Big Lebowski''. Later, [[http://www.pinballnews.com/games/biglebowski/index3.html as Pinball News reported,]] Dutch Pinball released the final version of the playfield that was approved by Universal.

** Their first project, ''Lost Vegas'', was announced in 2010 as a conversion kit for Bally’s ''Dolly Parton'' pinball machine, switching out the original artwork and sounds to a DarkerAndEdgier theme of strippers in a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas. About a year later, sketches of the backglass art were released to the public, but many people were not impressed and criticized the art style. The team ended up having to let their original artist go in search of another who could produce something of better quality. They set their eyes on pinball artist Greg Freres, but he was too busy with work on ''Pinball/WoahNellieBigJuicyMelons'' for Whizbang Pinball to help, and was still unavailable later as he had joined Stern Pinball's team. Although the software for Lost Vegas is apparently complete, the trouble with the art has since been keeping the game in DevelopmentHell.

** Their first project, ''Lost Vegas'', was announced in 2010 as a conversion kit for Bally’s ''Dolly Parton'' pinball machine, switching out the original artwork and sounds to a DarkerAndEdgier theme of strippers in a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas. About a year later, sketches of the backglass art were released to the public, but many people were not impressed and criticized the art style. The team ended up having to let their original artist go in search of another who could produce something of better quality. They set their eyes on pinball artist Greg Freres, but he was too busy with work on ''WoahNellieBigJuicyMelons'' for Whizbang Pinball to help, and was still unavailable later as he had joined Stern Pinball's team. Although the software for Lost Vegas is apparently complete, the trouble with the art has been keeping the game in DevelopmentHell.

** Their first project, ''Lost Vegas'', was announced in 2010 as a conversion kit for Bally’s ''Dolly Parton'' pinball machine, switching out the original artwork and sounds to a Darker and Edgier theme of strippers in a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas. About a year later, sketches of the backglass art were released to the public, but many people were not impressed and criticized the art style. The team ended up having to let their original artist go in search of another who could produce something of better quality. They set their eyes on pinball artist Greg Freres, but he was too busy with work on ''WoahNellieBigJuicyMelons'' for Whizbang Pinball to help. When another opportunity to pick him up opened down the line, he had already joined Stern Pinball’s team and had to decline on the offer. Although the software for Lost Vegas is apparently complete, the trouble with the art has been keeping the game in DevelopmentHell.

* The ''[[Pinball/FamilyGuy Shrek]]'' machine was originally intended to be a quickly-made, small-budget project using the design and rules of the ''Family Guy'' pinball machine, [[PaletteSwap changing the artwork and sound]], after receiving requests from operators to make something more family-friendly. Stern, the producer of the ''Shrek'' pinball machine, found itself staring down the legal gun barrel from both Creator/DreamWorksAnimation and Music/SmashMouth, the latter due to the machine's use of the song "All-Star." In order to comply with all of the rules set forth by both groups, from finding soundalikes approved by the voice actors of the movies themselves, to Smash Mouth's ban on {{Cover Version}}s (meaning Stern had to pay the record label for far more than what would've been needed to record Stern's own version), ''Shrek'' took twice as long as projected to complete and ran to the budget of a normal machine despite reusing a layout and rules from a previous machine.
* ''Captain Nemo Dives Again'' by Quetzal Pinball was originally announced in March 2012, but changes to the operating system, playfield mechanisms and material, and the manufacturer pushed back its release date. November marked the time when the first customer would receive the game, which left many customers hopeful that the game would finally be arriving. However, ball trough and game decal issues delayed it even further. Eventually, the game was finally released in 2015.

** Shortly after, Dutch Pinball sent emails to its customers, assuring them that the licensing issues would be worked out for the game. They announced that they had brought in Roger Sharpe, an expert in marketing and licensing, in order to assist in development of ''The Big Lebowski''. Later, [[http://www.pinballnews.com/games/biglebowski/index3.html as Pinball News reported,]] Dutch Pinball released the final version of the playfield that was approved by Universal.

** Shortly after, Dutch Pinball sent emails to its customers, assuring them that the licensing issues would be worked out for the game. They announced that they had brought in Roger Sharpe, an expert in marketing and licensing, in order to assist in development of ''The Big Lebowski''. Later, [[http://www.pinballnews.com/games/biglebowski/index3.html as Pinball News reported,]] Dutch Pinball released the final version of the playfield that was approved by Universal.
* The ''[[Pinball/FamilyGuy Shrek]]'' machine was originally intended to be a quickly-made, small-budget project using the design and rules of the ''Family Guy'' pinball machine, [[PaletteSwap changing the artwork and sound]], after receiving requests from operators to make something more family-friendly. Stern, the producer of the ''Shrek'' pinball machine, found itself staring down the legal gun barrel from both Creator/DreamWorksAnimation and Music/SmashMouth, the latter due to the machine's use of the song "All-Star." In order to comply with all of the rules set forth by both groups, from finding soundalikes approved by the voice actors of the movies themselves, to Smash Mouth's ban on {{Cover Version}}s (meaning Stern had to pay the record label for far more than what would've been needed to record Stern's own version), ''Shrek'' took twice as long as projected to complete and ran to the budget of a normal machine despite reusing a layout and rules from a previous machine.
* ''Captain Nemo Dives Again'' by Quetzal Pinball was originally announced in March 2012, but changes to the operating system, playfield mechanisms and material, and the manufacturer pushed back its release date. November marked the time when the first customer would receive the game, which left many customers hopeful that the game would finally be arriving. However, ball trough and game decal issues delayed it even further. Eventually, the game was finally released in 2015.

* ''Captain Nemo Dives Again'' by Quetzal Pinball was originally announced in March 2012, but changes to the operating system and playfield mechanisms, manufacturer and playfield material pushed back its release date. November marked the time when the first customer would receive the game. However, ball trough issues and game decal delayed it even further. Eventually, the game was finally released in 2015.

** Weinberg went on Pinside and unleashed a flurry of revealing posts about Dutch Pinball. He stated that he got in on the project to help the company out of licensing issues. However, before he even had the chance to help, he had to deal with complaints from customers who had not received conversion kits for Dutch Pinball's previous ''Bride of Pinball 2.0'' project. He then accused Barry Driessen, a designer at Dutch Pinball, of withdrawing money from the company for personal use. Weinberg stated that he was forced to put back the money himself, along with Dutch Pinball’s project manager Jaap Nauta, buying parts from around the world his credit cards and shipping things from his FedEx account.

* Dutch Pinball’s production of ''Pinball/TheBigLebowski'' has not been without some difficulties, mainly due to licensing and the falling out of one particular member of the development team.

** Weinberg went on Pinside and unleashed a flurry of revealing posts about Dutch Pinball. He stated that he got in on the project to help the company out of licensing issues. However, before he even had the chance to work on them, he had to deal with complaints from customers that they had not received conversion kits for Dutch Pinball's previous ''Bride of Pinball 2.0'' conversion kit project. He then accused Barry Driessen, a designer at Dutch Pinball, of withdrawing money from the company for personal use. Weinberg stated that he was forced to put back the money himself, along with Dutch Pinball’s project manager Jaap Nauta, buying parts from around the world his credit cards and shipping things from his FedEx account.
** He claimed that Julie Margules, the NBC/Universal Brand Assurance Manager, was angry over Dutch Pinball’s loose usage of film assets, which pushed the boundaries of the company’s licensing agreement with Universal Studios. Although Weinberg worked to sort out the problems, to his dismay Dutch Pinball continued showing the game in public with blatant licensing violations, including a display in New York City to members of the Professional & Amateur Pinball Association (PAPA), which was then filmed and posted on the Internet. This was the final straw for Weinberg, who decided that, to reduce Dutch Pinball’s debt, he would refund as many pre-orders as he could, and then promptly announced his departure from the company.

* Dutch Pinball’s production of ''Pinball/TheBigLebowski'' has not been without some difficulties.

** Weinberg himself went on Pinside and promptly unleashed a flurry of revealing posts about Dutch Pinball and the development on the game. He stated that he got in on the project to help the company out of some licensing issues. However, before he even had the chance to work on them, he was forced to deal with complaints from customers that they had not received conversion kits for Dutch Pinball's previous ''Bride of Pinball 2.0'' conversion kit project. He then accused Barry Driessen, a designer at Dutch Pinball, of withdrawing money from the company for personal use. Weinberg was forced to put back the money himself, along with Dutch Pinball’s project manager Jaap Nauta, buying parts from around the world on his credit cards and shipping things from his FedEx account.
** He claimed that Julie Margules, the NBC/Universal Brand Assurance Manager, was getting irritated of Dutch Pinball’s loose usage of film assets, which pushed the boundaries of the company’s licensing agreement with Universal Studios. Although Weinberg worked to sort out the problems, to his dismay Dutch Pinball continued showing the game in public with various licensing violations, including a display in New York City to members of the Professional & Amateur Pinball Association (PAPA), which was then filmed and posted on the Internet. This was the final straw for Weinberg, who decided that, to reduce Dutch Pinball’s debt, he would refund as many pre-orders as he could, and announced his departure from the company.
** Shortly after, Dutch Pinball sent emails to its customers, assuring them that things would be worked out for the game. They announced that they had brought in Roger Sharpe, an expert in marketing and licensing, in order to assist in development of ''The Big Lebowski''. Later, [[http://www.pinballnews.com/games/biglebowski/index3.html as Pinball News reported,]] Dutch Pinball released the final version of the playfield that was approved by Universal.

** He claimed that Julie Margules, the NBC/Universal Brand Assurance Manager, was getting irritated of Dutch Pinball’s loose usage of film assets, which was pushing the boundaries of the company’s licensing agreement with Universal Studios. Furthermore, Universal threatened to pull the license completely from them. Although Weinberg worked to sort out the problems, to his dismay Dutch Pinball continued showing the game in public with various licensing violations, including a public showing in New York City to members of the Professional & Amateur Pinball Association (PAPA), which was filmed and posted on the Internet. This was the final straw for Weinberg, decided that, to reduce Dutch Pinball’s debt, he would refund as many pre-orders as he could, and announced his departure from the company.

* ''Captain Nemo Dives Again'' by Quetzal Pinball was originally announced in March 2012, but changes to the operating system and playfield mechanisms, along with troubles regarding the manufacturer and playfield material, pushed back its release date. November marked the time when the first customer would receive the game, but ball trough issues and game decal delayed the game even further. Eventually, it was finally released in 2015.

* ''Captain Nemo Dives Again'' by Quetzal Pinball was originally announced in March 2012, but changes to the operating system and playfield mechanisms, along with troubles regarding the manufacturer and playfield material, pushed back its release date. November marked the time when the first customer would receive the game, but game decal and ball trough issues delayed the game even further. Eventually, it was finally released in 2015.

* ''Captain Nemo Dives Again'' by Quetzal Pinball was originally announced in March 2012, but changes to the operating system and playfield mechanisms, along with troubles regarding the manufacturer and playfield material, pushed back its release date. November marked the time when the first customer would receive the game, but game decal and ball trough issues delayed the game even further. Eventually, it was finally released in 2015

** ''Captain Nemo Dives Again'' by Quetzal Pinball was originally announced in March 2012, but changes to the operating system and playfield mechanisms, along with troubles regarding the manufacturer and playfield material, pushed back its release date. November marked the time when the first customer would receive the game, but game decal and ball trough issues delayed the game even further. Eventually, it was finally released in 2015

* The ''[[Pinball/FamilyGuy Shrek]]'' machine was originally intended to be a quickly-made, small-budget project using the design and rules of the ''Family Guy'' pinball machine, [[PaletteSwap changing the artwork and sound]], after receiving requests from operators to make something more family-friendly. Stern, the producer of the ''Shrek'' pinball machine, found itself staring down the legal gun barrel from both Creator/DreamWorksAnimation and Music/SmashMouth, the latter due to the machine's use of the song "All-Star." In order to comply with all of the rules set forth by both groups, from finding soundalikes approved by the voice actors of the movies themselves, to Smash Mouth's ban on {{Cover Version}}s (meaning Stern had to pay the record label for far more than what would've been needed to record Stern's own version), ''Shrek'' took twice as long as projected to complete and ran to the budget of a normal machine despite reusing a layout and rules from a previous machine.

* The Skit-B project, which is to make a pinball adaptation of ''Film/{{Predator}}'', pretty much ''imploded'' over the first half of 2015. The project began in 2011, before many other companies and groups decided to make their own pinball machines, and they got a lot of support for being, at the time, the only possible competition to Creator/{{Stern}}. Skit-B had shown prototypes of ''Predator'' with its own gimmick: dark modes lit by ultraviolet light, a la Creator/{{Sega}}'s ''Viper Night Drivin''', and they announced they could make 250 machines for roughly $6,000 each. Hype was so big that pre-orders quickly ran out.

* Creator/JohnPopadiuk has found himself a CreatorKiller in ''Pinball/MagicGirl'', which was intended to be his MagnumOpus. Rather than joining up with Stern or Creator/JerseyJackPinball, Popadiuk, after a short time with toy company Zizzle, [[StartMyOwn founded his own company]], Zidware, in 2011 with ''Magic Girl'' announced, followed by ''Alice in Wonderland'' and ''Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland'', with prices for each table ''beginning'' at US$16,000. Popadiuk was notoriously secretive about these projects, which was initially welcome, but people started getting suspicious when, by 2014, he still had very little to show for them except empty cabinets.

* The Skit-B project, which is to make a pinball adaptation of ''Film/{{Predator}}'', pretty much ''imploded'' over the first half of 2015. The project began in 2011, before many other companies and groups decided to make their own pinball machines, and they got a lot of support for being, at the time, the only possible competition to Creator/{{Stern}}. Skit-B had shown prototypes of ''Predator'' with its own gimmick: dark modes lit by ultraviolet light, a la Creator/{{Sega}}'s ''Viper Night Drivin''', and they announced they could make 250 machines for roughly $6,000 each. Hype was so big that pre-orders quickly ran out. By 2014, however, Skit-B had gone completely silent and were no longer going around conventions showing off their games. The red flag came up, however, when on Skit-B's site, all mention of the ''Predator'' name and the logo had vanished, which Kevin Kulek, the leader of the team, explained was due to request from 20th Century Fox. Later, Kulek would confess that [[MultipleChoicePast he either misinterpreted the permission obtained from Fox or never had permission in the first place]] and that Fox was taking legal action. Furthermore, the team could not find a way to produce the number of machines Kulek had initially promised. By this point, Kulek was the only person left on the team, the others having quit in frustration or to distance themselves from Kulek, who by now had become a persona non grata among every pinball company and infuriating fans, particularly those who had already paid Skit-B thousands of dollars and were unlikely to get it back. Pinball News had a talk with Kulek about this situation. [[http://www.pinballnews.com/comment/predatorpinball2.html You can read about the incident from Kulek's point of view here.]]
* Creator/JohnPopadiuk has found himself a CreatorKiller in ''Pinball/MagicGirl'', which was intended to be his MagnumOpus. Rather than joining up with Stern or Creator/JerseyJackPinball, Popadiuk, after a short time with toy company Zizzle, [[StartMyOwn founded his own company]], Zidware, in 2011 with ''Magic Girl'' announced, followed by ''Alice in Wonderland'' and ''Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland'', with prices for each table ''beginning'' at US$16,000. Popadiuk was notoriously secretive about these projects, which was initially welcome, but people started getting suspicious when, by 2014, he still had very little to show for them except empty cabinets. He then revealed that he had run out of money for the project, despite the large amounts of pre-order money he received. In addition, his artist and his programmer both stepped forth that Popadiuk had not yet paid them. At the end of his rope, Popadiuk had to sell the rights to ''Magic Girl'' to another company, Pintasia, and put ''Alice in Wonderland'' and ''Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland'' on indefinite hold. Pintasia, upon receiving Popadiuk's work and bringing him in as a consultant, found out that ''Magic Girl'' was in such an incomplete state that Pintasia would require another two years to get it to a condition good enough to bring to consumers. During this time, Popadiuk had undergone a CreatorBreakdown, writing a long, somewhat angry, somewhat coherent plea not to sue him and giving the people who pre-ordered his other two projects an ultimatum to switch to ''Magic Girl'' at a loss. Nate Shivers, of the Coast 2 Coast Pinball Podcast, [[http://www.podcastgarden.com/episode/episode-167-help-me-help-you-or-this-plan-aint-magic_48514 was livid over this statement]] (though Pintasia would then step in and ease up on those pre-orderers, canceling out the loss to switch over and providing Popadiuk with legal defense).

Small pinball manufacturers--and would-be manufacturers--over the 2010's have had so many problems, they've cast a shadow over its entire fanbase. Not that the big manufacturers weren't immune either.