Wait, what? AFAIK they haven't submitted a patent for that. Gerry Stellenberg on the other hand has submitted *lots* but never seems to get them accepted due to prior art.

If you look at the financials they posted at the start of this month, they seem to think they have over half a million in intangible assets (so designs/IP/trademarks, valuable things with no physical presence), which is laughable if you ask me. Much more likely that they saw a massive hole in their budget and tried to plug it with 'creative accounting'. Here's the other thing, Andy loved to point out that the machinery was owned by them. If that's the case, how come their physical assets are now valued 60% lower_ than the previous year?

Do yourselves a favour and have a good read of page 4 of this pdf:
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08087382/filing-history/MzE3NzI0NjY3MWFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf&download=0

Says it right there:
intangible assets 549,882 GBP, up from 353,065 last year.

Last years tangible was 140,529, this years is 83,721. Even with depreciation that doesn't add up, so I'm guessing they either sold some of the machines or never owned them in the first place.

(The formatting on that table seems to be a bit screwed though, the numbers in bold should all be in the same column)

Capture (resized).PNG

How did that advice go for the Predator guys?

I mean, 'scare off the investors', really? You think that 20 people requesting refunds is their biggest worry right now? pfft

My apologies Gerry, I had indeed checked after I wrote that message and saw that a few had come through. Still had to laugh when I saw one of them got knocked back with them citing 'Mr & Mrs Pacman' as prior art lol.

I did try and have a look for the Williams interchangeable playfield one (ie Pin2k) but I couldn't find it, I have a feeling it's lapsed by now anyway. I definitely couldn't find any from Heighway.

My (limited) understanding of it was that like a lot of other companies, HP and HP Sales were setup so HP would manufacture the machines under contract to HP Sales, people would pay cash to HP Sales. If it all went titsup, HP Sales would be liable and could be dissolved and it wouldn't effect HP. It looks like they never bothered doing it this way round and instead money was paid straight to HP.

From what I recall it was a similar setup with JJP

It gets stranger still, have a look at this playlist on the Heighway PInball (sic) youtube channel: