Date: 7th October 2024

After announcing the title of the game four months ago, Dutch Pinball Exclusive today revealed their first release, the much-anticipated Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Dutch Pinball Exclusive is a joint venture between Dutch Pinball’s Barry Driessen and Melvin Brouwer-Williams. The company is housed in a factory opposite Dutch Pinball’s building in Herkenbosch, Netherlands, and aims to run smaller, limited runs of high-end machines.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is their first product. The design is an evolution of the game created by John Popadiuk for his Zidware company and offered to buyers before the business collapsed. The physical assets and intellectual property from that company were purchased by Melvin.

Based on the classic 1865 children’s book by Lewis Carrol, the game’s cabinet, backbox and translite artwork package is based on original line art from the Zidware version, created by Jeremy Packer (a.k.a. Zombie Yeti). Some modifications have been made to that original composition and a rich colour palette added.

The left side of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
The left side of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

The game is priced at €12,999 including 21% VAT in the Netherlands (€10,743/US$11,794 excluding VAT), only comes in a single version and is limited to a maximum of 500 machines, of which 300 are allocated for sales in North America.

The right side of the game
The right side of the game

The left and right side of the cabinet feature the same artwork. Not so for the backbox sides.

Left side backbox artwork
Left side backbox artwork
Backbox artwork
Right side backbox artwork

The metal pieces – side rails, lock bar, backbox hinges, legs, speaker panel trim, shooter housing and coin door – are all powdercoated in glossy blood red.

The lock bar and coin door in blood red powdercoat
The lock bar, legs, shooter housing and coin door in blood red powdercoat

Both cabinet sides sport two flipper buttons. One operates the game’s flippers as usual, while the other operates a spinning disc ball save device. More on that shortly.

Cabinet artwork
Right side cabinet artwork
Left side artwork
Left side artwork

The side rails are laser-etched with the quote by Lewis Carol, “If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t.” Both left and right side rails feature that same quote, rather than the right one completing it with “And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?

Both side rails are back lit with controllable RGB LEDs using a mod system from Stumblor Pinball which allows you to program the colour effects. This same system provides a means to hook into the game and add either your own mods or those created by third parties.

The front of the game
The front of the game with, curiously, Dutch Pinball (not Exclusive) speaker grilles

The backbox features a large grinning Cheshire Cat topper which features LCD displays to provide animated eyes and a reflective back panel.

The Cheshire Cat topper
The Cheshire Cat topper

The shooter rod is also a custom sculpt – presumably depicting the handle of the Vorpal sword which (spoiler alert) Alice uses to behead the Jabberwock in the Through the Looking-Glass book.

The sword handle shooter rod
The sword handle shooter rod

So, what is on the playfield?

The playfield from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
The playfield from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

There are artworked mirror blades installed as standard on the inner sides of the cabinet. Also standard is anti-reflective glass, both over the playfield and in the backbox over the translite artwork.

The artworked mirror blade on the left side
The artworked mirror blade on the left side
The artworked mirror blade on the right side

The game features a fairly traditional flipper area, with the game’s only two physical flippers fed from a single inlane on each side. There’s also a single outlane on each side, but above each one is a spinning disc. This is activated, and the direction controlled, by the second flipper button on each side of the cabinet.

The flippers area with outlane spinning disc ball savers
The flippers area with outlane spinning disc ball savers
The left side including the spinning ball save disc
The left side including the spinning ball save disc

The slingshot and lane guide plastics all feature hand-painted 3D sculpts by Lior of The Art of Pinball. In the pictures below you will see how there are many more such sculpted models throughout the game.

The Cheshire Cat sculpt over his scoop
The Cheshire Cat sculpt over his scoop
3D toadstool sculpts on the slingshot plastics
3D toadstool sculpts on the slingshot plastics
Yet another 3D sculpted playfield plastic
Yet another 3D sculpted playfield plastic

There are several prominent features on the playfield, but the biggest is the upper playfield.

The upper playfield
The upper playfield

Fed from an upkicker and draining into the centre ramp return, the upper playfield packs a large number of targets and gameplay features. Rather than using traditional flippers, the upper playfield uses the ‘Magna-Flip’ concept first seen on Twilight Zone to control the ball with a pair of player-controlled electromagnets.

The magnetic flipper locations
The magnetic flipper locations

The upper playfield packs in a saucer, a horseshoe captive ball, the upkicker scoop, three standup targets and three rebounds.

The upper playfield
The upper playfield

The game includes RGB lighting throughout – both for the inserts and for general illumination – allowing the look and feel of the game to be dynamically changed.

The upper playfield in green
The upper playfield in green
The whole upper playfield
The whole upper playfield

Below the playfield is a semi-circular bank of six standup targets, access to which can be blocked by a solitary drop target.

The array of standup targets below the upper playfield
The array of standup targets below the upper playfield

There appears to be no means of controlling the ball’s movement here, but the promotional information for the game describes a ‘hidden magnet under the main playfield that interacts with the ball’.

At the back left of the playfield is an animated model of the Jabberwock. This mythical creature doesn’t feature in the original Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland book, but turns up the the sequel Through the Looking-Glass which was published six years later.

The Jabberwock model
The Jabberwock model

At the base of the model is the entrance to a below-playfield ball lock. The locked balls can be seen through a small window.

The ball lock entrance in front of the Jabberwock model
The ball lock entrance in front of the Jabberwock model
The view of the locked balls
The view of the locked balls

The lane in front of the Jabberwock features more of the custom sculpts. There in the form of street lights.

Moulded street lights line the lane
Moulded street lights line the lane
More of the street lights
More of the street lights

Another custom model in the game is the Mad Hatter’s pocket watch.

The pocket watch model
The Mad Hatter’s pocket watch model

This incorporates a circular IPS LCD screen which allows the watch to not only show the time, but to include animated effects and show in-game hints to the player.

The watch's glass cracks
The watch’s glass cracks
The top half of the playfield
The top half of the playfield

Further down there are two more banks of standup targets spelling out E-A-T and M-E.

The E-A-T standup target bank
The E-A-T standup target bank
The M-E targets
The M-E targets

Here’s how Dutch Pinball Exclusive announced their first game:

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Pinball

Introduction:
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (also known as Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 English novel by
Lewis Carroll.

The story centers on Alice, a girl who falls asleep in a meadow and dreams that she follows the White
Rabbit down a rabbit hole. She has many wondrous, often bizarre adventures with thoroughly
illogical and very strange creatures. She encounters the hookah-smoking Caterpillar and the Cheshire
Cat, and she attends a strange endless tea party with the Mad Hatter and many others.

Just like the black and white book from Lewis Carrol lead designer Melvin Williams took John
Popadiuk jr’s (aka JPOP) black and white concept game and created a new chapter in the pinball
history. The game went from a few pieces of paper to a true masterpiece in full color with 2024 state
of the art technology. Melvin not only wanted to create the best ’90s feel pinball machine but also
create something that is a work of art, just like a beautiful painting for your home. Every time you
look at something, you experience new thoughts and emotions.

Launch the ball and enter the world of Alice:
Flippers and Playfield: Two flippers and a multi-level playfield
Mini Upper Playfield: Featuring two magna-flippers
Multiball Modes: 2-ball, 3-ball, and 5-ball multiball
Ball Savers: User-controllable motorized ball savers at both outlanes
Lighting: Fully RGB lighting for both general illumination (GI) and inserts

Special Features:
o Powder-coated side rails, legs, lockdown bar, coin door, and speaker panel frame
o Illuminated laser-cut apron
o Laser-cut protectors and metal ball guides

Art and Design:
o Fully 3D-sculpted and hand-painted art plastics by Lior, designed with art direction from Melvin (industry first)
o Extra 3D-sculpted mini IPS LCD display on the playfield for additional instructions
o 3D-sculpted shooter handle
o 3D-sculpted animated topper

Playfield Enhancements:
o All mirror-polished ball guides
o Motorized Jabberwock arm movement
o Hidden magnet under the main playfield that interacts with the ball
o Physical 3-ball lock under the playfield
o Three pop bumpers

Interactive Elements:
o Full RGB interactive side rails (industry first)
o Full RGB lit-up shooter lane plastic
o Special app created by Stumblor to customize your own RGB light show for the side rails. His mod board comes with extra ports for you if you wanna get creative with the game or get familiar with Stumblor mod boards

Visual Quality:
o Non-reflective playfield glass
o Non-reflective translite glass for richer colours and 90% less glare than a conventional translite (industry first)
o Direct art-printed mirror blades (industry first)
o Hand-drawn artwork

Additional Features:
o Fully integrated shaker motor
o Magnet-plated apron score cards
o Ruleset interesting enough for the experienced player yet understandable for the casual player
o Individually numbered (1-500) plaque (to be revealed)

Conclusion:
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (AAIW) is a pinball machine crafted in the style of the Bally
Williams pinball machines from the ’90s era we all love, and it stands its ground against the best of
them. While it follows the best principles of those classic machines, it incorporates modern
techniques like fully controlled RGB LEDs, a large LCD display, a deeper yet accessible ruleset, and
more.

It truly brings the world of Alice to life as envisioned by Dutch Pinball Exclusive and is genuinely a world under glass

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is available to order from Dutch Pinball distributors worldwide. Many distributors have already been taking non-refundable pre-order deposits and have filled their allocation of machines, however some have opened stand-by lists in case any buyer has to drop out.

Dutch Pinball Exclusive have now release a promo video showing some of the game features as well as music and voice calls. Here it is:

The game will is expected to make its first public appearance at the upcoming 40th anniversary Pinball Expo show in Schaumburg, Illinois. The team of Melvin, Barry and Rens Hooijmaijers from Dutch Pinball Exclusive will be presenting a seminar on the making of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland at 5pm on Friday18th October.

If you can’t make it in person, Pinball News will have a recording of this, as well as all the other main seminars on our Pinball News Videos YouTube channel.

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2 Comments

  1. Quentin

    10th October, 2024 at 5:14am

    So happy to see this come to life, what a great theme, what a great design. Hopefully one model will be available at the silverball planet in Osaka.

    Reply

  2. Tom

    10th October, 2024 at 11:11pm

    Looks interesting, but too much money for my pay grade.
    Wonder how well the video modes incorporate into the gameplay.
    Surprized more MFRs are not using public domain IP.
    Winnie the Pooh, maybe, A few more years possibly some 1930’s movie IP comes available.

    Reply

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