Happy Friday everyone. I've got some happy news to end the week. Yesterday afternoon, Dutch Pinball announced that it has finally completed manufacturing all of the remaining Early Achiever Big Lebowski pinball machines.
For those of you who aren't familiar with what the Early Achiever games are, Dutch began taking deposits for The Big Lebowski pinball back in 2014. The game was very well-received by the pinball community, as it should have been - great game. This resulted in a number of pre-orders being placed for the game, many of which were paid in full.
Dutch ended up running into big problems with the contract manufacturer that it was using to build games, nearly causing it to go bankrupt. To its credit, Dutch fought its back away from near-death. It did so by producing Early Achiever games for its original customers in-house alongside new Lebowskis, which it used to finance the operation.
As of today, all of Dutch's original customers have been made whole. It is still manufacturing newly ordered Lebowski pins in its newly expanded factory as it moves towards releasing its second game likely in late 2024.
According to Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Dutch is rumored to be working on two new titles, the first of which is a limited run of Alice in Wonderland, based on the incredible early Zombie Yeti art that was created for a never-produced Zidware game by John Popaduik. Despite all of the controversy surrounding Zidware and its multiple attempts to make games, there's something about JPOP's games that some people still love.
If you look in the picture below, you'll actually see an Easter Egg for Alice in Wonderland on one of the shirts in the group photo. I've zoomed in on it in the second pic.
The other rumored upcoming Dutch Pinball title is a pin based on the beloved movie franchise Back to the Future.
So congratulations to Barry at Dutch Pinball for fighting his way back with the company and to EA customers for getting their games. Very impressive. I'm looking forward to seeing what the Conpany has next.
"Dear pinball friends,
I am very happy and proud to say that we have finally - after all these years - finished paying our old debt... the Early Achievers are done! Today we built and boxed the last EA. Tomorrow they will be transported to the US.
It was a longer road than we thought, but in the end we made it and now we can carry on with our heads held high with new exciting projects in the future!
I would like to thank all Achievers who have put up with us all these years and have been eternally patient with us. I am very grateful to all of you.
My special thanks goes to CoinTaker Pinball. Without the trust of Melissa and Chris we would never have been able to do this. I love you guys.
Barry"
