Hello again, Special Win Lit. I'm Ryan Claytor, your Multimorphic Correspondent. This week, I'd like to talk about the P-Rock and its successor, the P3-Rock board set, as they relate not to one-off games, but rather to manufactured pinball games. There are a number of companies producing games on the market today that are using Multimorphic boards in their production games. Just to name a few, American Pinball, who have produced Houdini and Oktoberfest, Spooky Pinball, who began using multimorphic boards starting with Total Nuclear Annihilation and Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle, Circus Maximus, the company developing Python's Pinball Circus and a remake of Capcom's Kingpin, and pinball manufacturing newcomer Suncoast Pinball, who are producing Cosmic Carnival. So not only does this help multimorphic with a substantial revenue stream, But even better for the consumers, what it means is that any machine they buy from any of these manufacturers has the same control system as the other ones. Which is really helpful because if a board goes down on one of these machines, let's say a wire comes unsoldered and shorts out the board. You can either go to Multimorphic.com and order a new one or you can borrow a board from one of your other machines. So there you have it. Multimorphic is not only developing their own revolutionary custom pinball platform with the P3, but also quickly becoming the backbone of the custom-built pinball community and even new pinball manufacturers. This has been your Multimorphic Update. I'm your correspondent, Ryan Clayton. Stay innovative. Jersey Jack Pinball will be waiting until September 8th upon Jack Gunnery's return to the United States to comment on the playfield situation regarding chipping and rippling of some of those playfields. We do have a new code update for Willy Wonka. Over at Stern Pinball, we've got a new code update for Jurassic Park that can be downloaded and played right now. And when asked for a similar comment regarding playfield chipping and or rippling, Zach Sharp of Stern Pinball told Jeff Patterson of This Week in Pinball that it's not a widespread problem reported by Stern customers. And finally, as we see the Big Lebowski pinball machines arriving and being unboxed in the United States, Barry from Dutch Pinball is offering additional information regarding his plans for the company moving forward. And that's kind of where I wanted to transition to, Bill, if you don't mind. We'll start off with a little Dutch Pinball update. Now, for those of you that aren't up to date on what's going on, Dutch Pinball was a company that really started, I want to say, four or five years ago. They offered the Big Lebowski as a pinball machine that was going to be on the market. Fast forward nowadays, you have about 200 people that put in $8,000, $9,000, never received their game because of an issue that was going on between the manufacturer, ARA, and Dutch Pinball, the company, Barry & Yap. What ended up happening went to litigation. It was found that Barry and Yap owed money to ARA. And in order to pay and settle that lawsuit, they sold the games that were being held that had been manufactured by ARA. There's like 30 or 40 of them. And they did not go to the original purchasers. They went to new buyers to generate new money to go back into the company in order to hopefully facilitate the early achievers, which were the people that put money out in the first place and did not receive their games. So in essence, the games were resold to new buyers that were originally paid for by the original early achievers. Now, this is an update that Barry, because Yop is no longer with the company, he was battling or he is battling an illness. And he has stepped away from the company in agreement with with Barry. So Barry issued the following statement, Bill, and he says in the and I'm going to quote this. In the last update, I informed you on the settlement I've reached with our former manufacturer. and two weeks ago we managed to complete the settlement. This means that the lawsuit is off the table and all the games and the parts that are in the warehouse are now ours and also fully paid for. With this first round of financing, we're now ready to getting things up and set up again to build games. I'm very happy with the trust of Cointaker, and Cointaker is the distributor, just side note here, that is selling the Big Lebowskis or sold the Big Lebowskis for the second chance market. Yeah. He says, I'm very happy with the trust of Cointaker and some of my very close friends and family who made this possible. He goes on to say, due to the holiday, three weeks at ARA, we had limited access to the warehouse, but fortunately, we managed to get the games out and some of the parts that we needed to finish them. Last week, the first games were shipped. The rest of the games are now ready as well, and they'll be shipped this week. I know it's a bittersweet moment, but it's also the start of a new beginning. We can now truly focus on the future. On Monday, next week, the holiday will be over, and then we can start with the transport of all the parts. We're already checking the list of parts, and we're taking stock of how many parts we have to build games. Some parts are here for 200-plus games, but some other parts were bought, quote-unquote, lean, and this means that we have to order the new parts as we progress. In the next weeks, we'll be busy preparing everything for production, arranging our production facility, counting parts, putting all parts in our inventory system, checking the assembly, instructions and sorting things out, the tools needed, etc. We will start small and we'll expand over time to build more games. We have a couple of locations in mind where we want to restart our business. We still have to decide which location is best, and we hope to get this figured out this or next week. And then finally, he says, another thing I want to inform you about is something that I get a lot of questions about the license from Universal Pictures. I'm happy to report that we've extended the license. And that's for the big Lebowski, right? Yes. for now it extended until December 31st of 2020 I keep you informed on how things are progressing in the coming weeks And if you have any questions please let me know You can always email or call me Kind regards, Barry. So we're not going to dedicate a whole episode to this, but I think it's important to talk about because we have been covering this Dutch pinball situation. And just when you think that they're dead in the water, something resurfaces. And now you've got games that are resold, not to the original buyers. And then you think, OK, well, now this situation is kind of come to an unfortunate. You would think you would think an unfortunate close. Nine lives doesn't describe this situation. No, no. So there's a lot of questions. And first, let's let's take it from from the top or let's take it from the bottom or let's take it from any way that we can. First of all, the license for the big Lebowski was extended to December 31st, 2020. Great. I mean, do you really care, though? Well, I find it fascinating that after everything was said and done, and I imagine that some people had probably reached out to Universal at some point saying, listen, your name is on this. This is your license. I did not get this game. I was kind of ripped off. I still don't have my game. But yet they were still able to retain the license for the Big Lebowski through Universal Studios. And what kind of smoke did you have to blow up their butt to get that license and retain it? I guess money talks, but isn't money – Okay, but money talks. Yeah. Okay. But here's the thing here. with that money talking, that money should be going to build the other games for the people. Well, the counterargument is this is preventive measures, or this is measures being taken, survival tactics, in order to get these games to these early achievers, which we can talk about down the road. But what I'm trying to figure out is, one, how much was the Big Lebowski license? They had a couple million dollars to start up with, so it makes sense that they could have attained it. after everything was said and done and after all the problems that had transpired, what conversation was had where Universal thought it was a good idea to extend the license? And if it's not a good idea for them to extend the license and they just didn't care, they just wanted the money. It makes me wonder what licenses are out there where people that hold the license, the licensee, they don't really care. They just want to get some cash. I'd like to get a list of those licenses because then, I mean, I'm sure there's some diamonds in the rough. Big Lebowski kind of has a cult following. Oh, absolutely. And it's a popular movie. how about this bill uh he he with help from family and friends him extending the opportunity to restart the company is now uh something that could come to fruition what are your thoughts on that i i think it's all a scheme i do i heard there's just been too many lies about this whole thing first it was a board issue then the truth came out then blah blah blah blah i'm so over this situation and i'm pissed because i like the game i know you do all right so you know let me put that biased off to the side yes i do love the game but with all the crap that's gone down and how many people got burned i'm just out if you really wanted one and i know that you did if it was a clean purchase i know you could have gone in on one and i know it just wasn't something that doesn't sit well with me it doesn't sit well with you and and i guess into your point and i and i agree with you whereas the trust factor is not there from the very beginning and even if there were not any ill intentions the the the way in which barry and yop carried tried to run this business was a failure yeah but you know dude so i have an analogy for that all right okay i'm quoting my dad here the road to hell is paved with good intentions at some point you got to shut it down so let's just say they actually do find a warehouse they have enough parts to make 50 games right so they make 50 more on top of whatever they've produced you know some of those lead times on parts can be three to nine months out depending on what you're talking about how are they going to sustain a business for six months you know let's just cut you know split the difference at six months between three and nine sustain a business that isn't profitable to begin with while you're waiting for these parts i don't see it i i don't know i don't see it happening maybe i'm wrong maybe they're going to make all these people whole and life and that's the hope Right. I mean, this is one of the few situations, a few times that you you hope to be wrong with your intention or with your intuition on this. I mean, because I would love for this to all work itself out. But things that you're saying right now make absolute sense to me as well. I mean, so friends and family helped with sounds like a bailout. Absolutely. To avoid to avoid, you know, any type of further litigation or to avoid a huge debt. I can understand the thought process from that point being I'm given a second chance and I'm going to make good. But to me, when I'm just kind of running some basic numbers, the company is going to require additional funding. And it's not all going to come from selling new games at $18,000. Because what happens, how do you sell those games until they've been manufactured? Because at this point, they're in absolutely no position to request a preorder or to run a preorder model. because largely between Dutch pinball and highway pinball, they've ruined the pre-order model concept for a new startup company. Burned it to the ground. So for this company now to generate additional income, unless there was a huge amount of investing that had happened between family and friends and they had a silent investor that's going in, I don't know what silent investor would put a lot of money based on how the company was run in the past. I just don't see where these games would be built unless there was another influx of cash. And then when those games, let's say you build another 10 games, right? You still have 10 games. Let's say they funded 10 games to be built. They had enough parts to build 10 games. Right. And let's say they had enough parts for 10 games minus a couple things and minus the cabinets because we know they don't have cabinets for the games. Okay. So let's say they need to put another $3,000 in to make another 10 games. So they need $30,000 for another 10 games. And I'm just throwing this out there. When those games get built, guess what? They're not going to the early achievers because those games need to be sold in order to generate more money, in order to make more games that need to be sold, in order to generate more money, in order to make more games. And then finally, at the very end of the road, when potentially enough money has been made to start facilitating the early achiever orders, what's the drive to do that anymore? Because the market's tapped. There's no more interest in the game. and I doubt that there's enough money left in profit to make 200 games for the early achievers. Well, all right, so let's think about this. Totally agree with you, but here's the other thing too, okay? So let's say there's a – how many people do you think right now would buy the Big Lebowski? I'm sure there's a handful. Throw out a number. More than a handful. Throw out a number. I think – what do you mean? Like with a pre-order concept, they're just people that are interested in buying the game? Dude, we have a warehouse full of Big Lebowskis sitting. Depending on the price point, I think that – $15,000. Let's go $15,000. At $15,000. Okay, so at $15,000, I think you lessen the buyer pool. I would say maybe $50,000 to $75,000 would sell at $15,000. Now, if you got closer to $10,000 or $12,500, I can see that easily doubling or tripling. But at $15,000, that's a lot of money. That's what Batman Super Ali costs, though. At this point, it's kind of an antiquated pin, man. I mean, it's got an LCD, but the pin's five years old. Oh, it is. You know what I mean? It's not like it's anything new and groundbreaking that we haven't seen. So let's just say you found 100 buyers at $15,000. Okay. Right? Fair enough. And you could find, you know, and you've already bumped it up $3,000 from the initial price now. Yeah. Right? So in theory, you could probably get those other 80 games built, right? Or get close, maybe, depending at $12,000. Is it 80 or is it like 200? I don't know the exact numbers. But here's the thing. Even if you could get all those made and walk away with your hands clean, you've generated no money to bring another game to the market. Well, and that's the other thing. It's an unsustainable way of doing business. It is. And then you also have to take into consideration this guy's going to have to pay himself. He can't work for absolutely nothing. I mean, he's going to have to pay bills. But he already got paid, which is the pisser in this whole deal. But let's just say, and again, we don't know any of this. So this is pure speculation, but I think it's not far-fetched speculation. It's not shock value speculation. I would imagine most of the money that was given, that couple million dollars, is gone or spoken for. Maybe it was spent with the best intentions, but like you said, those intentions don't always lead you in where you need to be. I just don't see – you talk about a sustainable business model. It doesn't make sense. The losses have to be cut, and you would actually, in my opinion, you'd have to start brand new with something else, and you'd have to wipe the slate clean. And that's unfortunate for those that are still holding out hope. And that's who I feel sorry for. Yeah, I know. Hopefully it wasn't a huge hit to him, and this was just a lot of play money, but still. This reminds me of real estate. I sell you a piece of property for $15,000. I still have a copy of the deed and sell it for $15,000. You get burned. That dude gets to keep his property, and I'm not going to jail for fraud? Right. How does that work? I don't know how it doesn't work. Now, Dennis Creasel, on the last episode of the Eclectic Gamers podcast, he recommended that maybe litigation for those that have not gotten their games isn't. something that should not be considered because at this point if you're pretty certain you're not going to get anything even pennies on the dollar is something back and the moral victory of litigation is something that you know might let you rest your uh head on the pillow and sleep the sleep of the just when we go back to the situation though you know barry says there's parts to make 200 new games but then there are parts that need to be ordered so what what vital parts are there what parts that are common parts like rubbers and stuff like that for slings i mean that are being considered. He's looking for a new place to manufacture the games. Now, unless you've got a lot of staff, that's going to be more overhead to get like a manufacturing, you know, facility set up facility. You would imagine that he said start small. So that makes me think that you're building out of a basement or building out of a garage or or maybe renting a small space from a larger space in order to get the line rolling. Does he have employees? Does he have friends and family that now have a financial interest in the company are they going to be put to work in order to see those dollars have a return on their investment to donate their time to not make a not make a dollar back exactly so i don't see it either and then uh and then you know finally it's this will they have the audacity to put a pre-order model in place for people to reserve these games and if they do what distributor out here is going to present a pre-order model and with a straight face be able to ask for money for this company to come up. I want to be clear that I wanted this to work out. And it's simply because you never want to see anything like this in pinball. We saw the disaster of highway pinball and how it folded. And that was so unfortunate. Now, we went through this a couple of times. There's been like this emotional roller coaster with highway pinball. But it seems like when stuff hits the fan, they dangle a carrot. And when I say they now, it's Barry. And there's always this silver lining. there's this light at the end of the tunnel. And if you just hang with me on this, we are going to make this happen. And that would prevent me, I think as an early achiever from, from trying to, to get into some type of litigation against Barry, because where I might with my mind, think that there's no way that it's possible with my heart. If I wanted that game. And if I thought that I was being a supportive friend, that maybe I would be treated differently. Maybe I would be taken care of because I was a supporter. and I just don't know that that is going to happen. The reason that we're bringing this up on this podcast is because we have a pretty good, close relationship with a lot of our listeners. There's a listener that I know that contacted me that had an opportunity to buy a Big Lebowski on the resale market, the ones that came through CoinTaker. He ultimately decided it just wasn't worth it. I just, I don't see where this goes. Let me ask you this. Do you think that there will be another 10 Big Lebowskis ever built?