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

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..

Interview with the BulletBall guy. He is much better off than TV suggests.<p><a href="http://www.realitytvmagazine.com/blog/2006/03/30/american-inventor-passes-on-bulletball-but-keeps-the-table/" rel="nofollow">http://www.realitytvmagazine.com/blog/2006/03/30/american-in...</a>

I believe him, Bulletball is going to be a success. Only it will be as the title of a mockumentery that the man unwittingly authorizes. Hours of film of the mentally tortured game inventor are edited into an 112 minute runtime box office smash, the man having signed away his rights for a small shooting fee, ostensibly for allowing them to document the rise of his sport, gets virtually nothing. In the end our tragic inventor takes his own life several weeks later with a shotgun recently purchased at a pawnshop, none of the hostages were harmed.

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?<p>My 14 year old nephew could have build him that table for 10 bucks and some ice cream...

Well, that was depressing.

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

The point isn't that the idea was bad. Anyone could see that.<p>This was a demonstration of a level of passion and perserverence you rarely see any more.<p>I'd like one good idea from this board and 3 people like him. Nothing would stop us.

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.

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

I am Marc Griffin, the inventor of Bulletball. Just wanted to say hi and glad to know people are still talking about Bulletball.... I guess the "act" was emotional enough afterall :) Go to DUSTWEB.com and there is even a video version of the game being developed! any questions and I can be reached at bulletballgame@yahoo.com<p>P.S. Obviously I didn't go out and commit suicide after the judges ripped me apert on national tv. But it wasn't fun to go through either.

Peter Johns sums it up perfectly: "You can lose everything, but whatever you do, don't lose your mind."

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.<p>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.

I live in a van down by the river!

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

I finally got to the bulletball website. It looks like a fun game.

A friend sent this to me. I thought it was a great lesson for entrepreneurs.<p>If I could channel that kind of determination...<p>If the above link doesn't work, try YouTube: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOOw2yWMSfk" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOOw2yWMSfk</a><p>The official site: <a href="http://bulletballgames.com" rel="nofollow">http://bulletballgames.com</a>