Think you're dedicated? Meet the inventor of BulletBall and BulletBall Extreme • Hacker News Board

Re: Think you're dedicated? Meet the inventor of BulletBall and BulletBall Extreme

#21

Post by kyro » Sat, May 17, 2008, 3:29 PM UTC

whacked_new wrote: post #15

mjnaus wrote: post #10

Come on, this is just bullshit. How the heck does some spend 26 years and a small fortune on putting together a simple table and buying some balls? My 14 year old nephew could have build him that table for 10 bucks and some ice cream...

I'm not impressed, but after reading this article I have some respect for the guy. At least he went through lawyers, patents, and manufacturers. However minute, he must have done some homework about table size, ball size/weight/bounciness/color, and he's spent 100K on tours for his market research. If anything at all, he's got guts to make something that looks ordinary into something "professional." That said, I stil…

I had the same question a while ago and found that the only difference between BB and BBE were the rules.

Re: Think you're dedicated? Meet the inventor of BulletBall and BulletBall Extreme

#22

Post by axod » Sat, May 17, 2008, 3:31 PM UTC

Who thought up the name snotr.com? :/ Kind of an interesting name...

Re: Think you're dedicated? Meet the inventor of BulletBall and BulletBall Extreme

#23

Post by blogimus » Sat, May 17, 2008, 3:37 PM UTC

axod wrote: post #22

Who thought up the name snotr.com? :/ Kind of an interesting name...

well, if you look at it from a certain perspective, snotr could lend a natural backward progression from flickr, eh?

Re: Think you're dedicated? Meet the inventor of BulletBall and BulletBall Extreme

#24

Post by michael_dorfman » Sat, May 17, 2008, 3:47 PM UTC

ejs wrote: post #12

rms wrote: post #11

Interview with the BulletBall guy. He is much better off than TV suggests. http://www.realitytvmagazine.com/blog/2006/03/30/american-in...

TV likes to sensationalize everything, I give this guy credit for taking the jump that many people would just never even try. From the interview link: "During the first 22 years since BulletBall’s conception, it was like a hobby, a game played among family and friends on weekends, during vacations, or summer picnics and parties. I actually invested too much of my life working for Corporate America 5-6 days a week, an…

Still, it seems that there was about four years between the time he quit is job and when he appeared on the Reality TV show, and during that time he apparently spent about $30,000 on this-- I'm a bit surprised that he wasn't able to either a) find an angel willing to buy some equity (so that the inventor could devote himself to marketing this without having to live out of his car) or b) get a clear enough message that although he personally seemed enamored with it, this game idea wasn't going anywhere.

Re: Think you're dedicated? Meet the inventor of BulletBall and BulletBall Extreme

#25

Post by 9oliYQjP » Sat, May 17, 2008, 3:57 PM UTC

All he has to do is paint the balls with funny cartoon characters and start selling them in Japan. Kids can collect all 150 different balls. They'll be a hit there, and in a year and half after launch they'll be an even greater hit in the U.S..

Re: Think you're dedicated? Meet the inventor of BulletBall and BulletBall Extreme

#26

Post by zach » Sat, May 17, 2008, 5:29 PM UTC

Coincidentally, Nathan Myhrvold independently conceived of BulletBall three years ago in a roundtable with 7 PhD's. Boy, were they surprised when they tried to file for the patent. I guess it was an invention whose time had come.

Re: Think you're dedicated? Meet the inventor of BulletBall and BulletBall Extreme

#27

Post by gojomo » Sat, May 17, 2008, 5:52 PM UTC

The game doesn't look that bad... a sort of mix between air hockey, ping-pong, and handball. Though, just looking at him crouched over to play makes my back hurt. And enthusiastic players slapping away with their hands and forearms might cut or bruise themselves quite often on the table edges.

And, it's got some problems as a bar or arcade game -- every point results in the ball rolling away on the floor somewhere to be retrieved, and there's no clear path to making it coin-operated.

Re: Think you're dedicated? Meet the inventor of BulletBall and BulletBall Extreme

#28

Post by mudge » Sat, May 17, 2008, 5:58 PM UTC

I found this interesting because I own the domain name bulletball.com

Re: Think you're dedicated? Meet the inventor of BulletBall and BulletBall Extreme

#29

Post by gojomo » Sat, May 17, 2008, 6:14 PM UTC

Considering this some more, I think this guy is brilliant. He understood that for TV, what was needed was a melodramatic story. By playing up the 'insane dedication' angle, whether they loved or hated his invention, he ensured maximum memorable/emotional impact.

And thus he's getting secondary news coverage, like here.

I suspect he wanted that far more than their money, because if we assume (like he does) that Bulletball is fun to play, the real key to its success will be increased awareness.

Re: Think you're dedicated? Meet the inventor of BulletBall and BulletBall Extreme

#30

Post by hhm » Sat, May 17, 2008, 6:17 PM UTC

gojomo wrote: post #27

The game doesn't look that bad... a sort of mix between air hockey, ping-pong, and handball. Though, just looking at him crouched over to play makes my back hurt. And enthusiastic players slapping away with their hands and forearms might cut or bruise themselves quite often on the table edges. And, it's got some problems as a bar or arcade game -- every point results in the ball rolling away on the floor somewhere to…

Well, you can pay to get balls to play with.