The Big Lebowski Pinball

[Jeff Strong]

Anyone who hasn't see the movie yet needs to immediately drop anything and everything they have planned for the next 117 minutes and watch it...like right now, man.

And if you end up not digging it...

 

[Richard B]

It reminds me more of Gottlieb's Strikes 'N Spares: http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?gid=4336&puid=32859

Considering Strikes 'N Spares was somewhat popular among bowling alley owners (and no one else) to put in their establishments, as it's also a bowling theme, The Big Lebowski has a chance of catching on with that group too. The Big Lebowski WILL be better than Strikes 'N Spares though.

As they said in the ad, this is just the sub-playfield, like BH, HH, or ACDC LE. The rest of the table will be much different. I wonder if it will feature swearing (or at least the option to turn it on), as they used the f-word in this trailer alone (and they made quite extensive use of it in the film itself.)

 

[Kolchak357]

I don't see how they could avoid the swearing. I'd agree with your guess of a family mode option.

 

[night]

"Shut the 'bleeb' up, Donny!"

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

As they said in the ad, this is just the sub-playfield, like BH, HH, or ACDC LE. The rest of the table will be much different.

Of course, I know it's the lower playfield. Something like that is where it belongs and not as the main thing like it is with Strikes 'N Spares.

 

[ER777]

The layout of this table actually looks really good. The boutique guys are really ratcheting up the competition with some good designs. This isn't quite to the level of Wrath of Olympus but its close. With the recent MMR news it makes you wonder if these guys might contract Stern to build the mchines and get these cranked out pretty quickly.

If you get a spare, the frame is worth 10 + the number of pins knocked down during the next ball. If you get a strike, the frame is worth 10 + the number of pins knocked down on the next ball + the number of pins knocked down on the ball after that.

That's all there is to it, except the tenth frame where you may not get a third ball unless you at least make a spare. Otherwise you've completely explained the rules in two sentences.. Its not complicated at all, requires maybe a 2nd grade education. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone being confused by scorekeeping in bowling. Were the people you saw getting confused by it also trying to chew on the bowling balls between frames?

 

[Zaphod77]

Yeah bowling scoring is simple when you understand it. the 10th frame is a special exception, because if you get a strike, you are allowed to bowl two balls to add on to your score, even though you finished the frame. if you get a spare you get to bowl the additional ball that the rules require you to add to the frame. In both cases these extra balls don't really have a frame of their own, they just add to frame 10's score, so they can't extend your game any more.

 

[mpad]

Love this table!
In case you missed it - factory tour
http://www.pinballnews.com/games/biglebowski/index4.html

Nice video at the end.

 

[karl]

I must say that I am so glad I got back in on TBL.(after all the troubles a year ago) Looking even more forward to this one than The Hobbit. Both of them are shaping up to be great games.

The new clips and reports only strengthen my belief in this title. Wish I could have been there at the party

Have you tried it in person, mpad?

 

[mpad]

No, sadly no. I hope after the release my pinball place will aquire one...

Great movie quotes, the videos are nicely done.
Also the tech and toys are very cool.
That it comes with its own rug is just the icing on the cake.

 

[DaPinballWizard]

I have. Played them both at Expo last year. They had Hobbit and Lebowski there. I pre-ordered Hobbit. Spent most my time there trying to play Hobbit. Lebowski was cool, love the movie too. But liked the Hobbit way more. I think I ordered the right one.

 

[Slam23]

I played a bunch of games on pre-production (near factory-ready) models. I was a bit torn. On the one hand I loved the theme, the art, the toys, the cutscenes intermixed with gameplay and the overall feel of Williams-like quality. On the other hand, it played a bit heavy and therefore missed some flow. It's quite hard to make ramps for example, balls often don't make it. Those could be things that will be fixed in the production models but Barry (Driessen) told that they were aiming for hard gameplay. I guess this fits the mold of the home-market, a pin should have long-lasting appeal. I would have gone for more depth in the ruleset and aimed for more flow. But we will see, it's still a beautiful pin and I'm proud of my fellow countrymen that they will pull this off!