Quoted from TreyBo69:

Do you have more of Wizards Blocks? That's the best picture I've ever seen of the playfield.

Quoted from dougram69:

This topic hits home so closely, I am compelled to post. Some may find this interesting. It’s a walk in time from Gene’s purchase of Williams rights to production of Big Bang Bar and after, from my experiences with him. His struggles, his genius moments, his sad but funny moments, and the moments of a guy who was in over his head, but pulled through. He used misdirection at times to buy more time from pin community, to the legal folks at Williams, his competitors and others. He tried to do a lot of horse trading to get by an succeeded. I will try and write this in installments as it spans from January of 2000 to 2008. In the end you may not respect how he conducted himself, or his motives, but he did get some things going and reproduced BBB in the end.
My brother and I got into the pinball hobby in November of 1999. We met some real great folks and local pinheads in Chicago. Some great guys like Chris W., Terry and Dave N., Brad C., John “It’s Money” K. and others. Even associated with Pat C. for a time. Miss the late night pin sessions and greasy pizza. In January of 2000 I met Gene and his stepdaughter Kim at some pin show. I got to be friendly with them both, and Kim started to reach out to me and others for pin advice and technical advice at times. Just kind of worked out that way. I don’t remember the month but later that year, Gene announced he was the one who purchased the Williams rights to produce parts and games. Williams and others will dispute he had game building rights, but it was unclear. At this time, he was awaiting the arrival of two semi trucks filled with the remains of the Williams parts inventory. Kim reached out to me and my brother and a few other persons to come down to Bloomington, and help with sorting the inventory. I had no idea what an event this would be. From the amount of NOS parts to the massive bins they were stored in. We were completely unprepared for this task. In the next entry I will go through what arrived, the months it took to inventory everything, and realizing how much more than just parts were received. Williams just dumped everything into this trailer, parts or not. Will also talk about the super hot and freaky A frame building where all the Capcom stuff was stored. Holy cow there is a lot to cover. More to come.
Note, I want to go on record right now that the one person who was with us during inventory, found all the BBB artwork, mechanical drawings, parts inventory list (with parts cost and vendor who produced the prototype parts), manuals, schematics for playfield, color charts, everything you would need to go into production by accident. He was in the Capcom building and found this in a drawer. This individual can remain anonymous if he desires, but it was his pressing and suggestion to re-build BBB. Gene at the time was more consumed with the Williams inventory task ahead, and money he laid out. He didn’t have the heart or cash to tie up into another big project. He thanked this fellow for his insight and tabled it for a later discussion. I and my brother were totally disappointed he did think it was worth the effort at the time, but it did come true in the end. More on this later.
Thanks
Dougram

Quoted from I_P_D_B:

Thank you, Whysnow, for your permission via PM to let me post any/all of the three images into the IPDB.
Once I do that, I was hoping to note each image with the year, or month and year, when the images were made, and where. I like to do that, if I can, for the unique pieces that make rare appearances. I assumed they were somewhere at Gene's house or compound.
You did not recall when, but said those pics "were all in the main 'house warehouse' (what most would refer to as the weight room)"
Can anybody help us, to come up with the year (if not month and year) when Whysnow would have taken those pictures? I presume, Whysnow, that they were made all in the same visit and probably during some open house event?

Quoted from Isochronic_Frost:

Looking back, don’t you wish you went to the bank, brought a huge wad of cash and bought as much as possible? I mean, damn, King Pin and everything!
That was one incredible, once-in-a-lifetime chance. I can’t wait to see your photos!

Quoted from yancy:

That's his mindset in a nutshell from all the stories I've heard.

Quoted from ralphwiggum:

Hilton tends to get selective memory for reasons still unknown... Luckily he documents it on pinside so you can get the full story. He went with Tom (roc-noc) because Tom got the invite from Gene, and Hilton offered up free services to get to see the collection. Tom is a really good guy who wouldn't give anyone the short end of the stick.
Here is the original thread discussing the auction of the remaining IPB inventory-
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/180-pinball-machine-lot-50000?tq=&tu=Whysnow

Quoted from ralphwiggum:

You actually did, to me, in person. But I am sure you selectively forgot your conversation with me as well.
Truly man, it's all good. I have said it before and I will said it again.... I don't care about any of the stuff you spout off (there is way too much to even try to keep up) but I won't stay quiet when you attack others that don't deserve to be attacked.
I am glad you think highly of Tom, reading it here is a different tone that what you spoke to me in person.

Quoted from ryanbrooks:

Why does every topic on Pinside turn into a hate fiasco like this is?

Quoted from pinballlife:

I'm yet another guy who took some great pics ~2008 when all the parts went to PSPA and again ~2012 when all the parts (and machines and some tooling) went to Planetary.
Circa 2012 (can't actually remember precisely what year it was) I received a full tour, not hosted by Gene but by the company responsible for selling his assets during the bankruptcy, of the house and all of Gene's building before Planetary took possession. I had been to Gene's compound and satellite building many times before and thought I had seen everything, but on that day I was taken through several rooms and buildings I had never been in before. In short, it was a crazy, surreal world this man had created.
I hope I still have the pics somewhere, but I fear they may be lost for the same reason so many pics are lost; digital black holes. If I can find them I will post them here.
Terry.

Quoted from Isochronic_Frost:

He invited you along yet never let you come over and play?!? What a tool!
That’s practically common courtesy!
I get most my muscle to come along for any pinball picks up merely on the promise that we will spend the rest of the day in my arcade playing my collection after pickup!

Added yesterday: Edit: I guess this isn’t entirely true!
Continue reading for the full story.

Quoted from ralphwiggum:

Sorry man, that is where the line is drawn. I will never lie, ever. It's how I was raised, and how I raise my kids. Like I said before, you either have super terrible memory, or just talk so much shit all the time, you don't remember what you have said. If your memory is truly that terrible, you may want to see what can be done about that. If it is because you have skewed the balance between fact vs. volume, dial back the volume and focus on the facts.
One of us is a real-life local (regional?) punchline, and the other of us is a cartoon punchline. I sleep well at night knowing I am just a cartoon.
The last 10,000 words (as always) are all yours. Good luck character assassinating me, you will need it.

Quoted from Bryan_Kelly:

Me and a couple friends also took the tour. I took no pics but the other guys did. Maybe Brian Millard has them?
It was obvious Gene had no interest whatsoever in selling anything, no matter what you offered. He just loved knowing they were all his.
The sad thing was, we weren't allowed to turn any of them on. So many of them had water and corrosion issues. Something like 700 games just sitting there rotting.

Quoted from Isochronic_Frost:

Damn!!! You guys seriously weren’t kidding.
That’s kinda sad seeing him standing with 4 or 5 copies of the same game, just sitting on them to show them off too people.
Some very cool titles in the mix.
He even had an Orbitor 1!
I think many of us understand the thrill of having a cool, curious collection, especially rarities and coveted goods. But as stewards of history, I feel we do a disservice to these fantastic machines by keeping them stashed away and not fixing or enjoying them. Sad he left many of them in dire states of disrepair.
Gene sounds like a wild guy, after years of reading about him, I had been hoping to meet him at a show, and was very sad to hear of his recent passing

Quoted from pinball_keefer:

I THINK you mean "just before Rick came in and assumed possession of everything he legally bought at a federal-government-forced auction due to Gene being a massively leveraged college-town slumlord who got into unbelievable financial trouble from bank margin calls and IRS inquisition when they got wind of his mostly-cash business during the crash of 2008."

Quoted from pinball_keefer:

I probably wouldn't care if he hadn't personally tried to screw me over.

Quoted from Bryan_Kelly:

I'd like to think there's something good in everyone, but it's hard to say that about Gene. The man just seemed to want to screw every and anyone he dealt with.
Some say he was such a wonderful guy to be able to make BBB and he must have lost thousands doing so. I call bullshit. I've talked with some who were involved in the process and they say it wasn't anywhere close to as bad as Gene claimed. And most of why it cost him extra was because of himself. He took for granted he could just go to suppliers and they would make him the parts he needed. With some he could but with some others, they basically told him to go fly a kite. They may have told him to go do something else to himself, but I'm trying to be polite. They knew of his reputation and refused to work with him no matter what he was willing to pay.
Here's another story, if you really want to know what the guy was like. Once Gene had most of the BBB parts he needed, he was ready to start assembly. Problem is, he had no idea how to do that. He then hired a very prominent individual in the pinball community to help with this. This guy set up various assembly stations and told Gene he would hang around and help until 10 games were made. In return, this individual was to get a BBB for free. I forget the exact details, but after 8 or so were made, Gene told him he wasn't needed anymore. When asked about the free BBB, Gene said sorry, you only helped with 8 not 10. This individual did eventually get a game at maybe half the cost.
And trust me, this individual isn't the only one to get screwed by Gene while making BBB.

Quoted from yancy:

Looks like a glorified driveway. Wouldn't be surprised that if you build a new street on your own dime, the city lets you name it (within reason).

Quoted from Mr68:

Yes she is and your question prompted me to call her just now. She's 80 years old, in good health and living on her own in Gene's childhood home.
She's one of the sweetest ladies you could ever meet and she misses her husband very, very much. Gene married way above his station.

Quoted from pinballlife:

Rick put in the original bid and anyone could have upped that bid until the sale deadline.
I looked over every inch of what was for sale and decided to not place a higher bid. There was a lot of value there, but there was also years and years of work to get it all moved, organized, identified, pictures taken, loaded to a website, etc. To attack the *project* properly, one would also need about another 5000 square feet of warehouse space.
At the end of the day I guess I just wasn't up to the challenge.

Quoted from pinballlife:

It's not my place to say what the winning bid was since it was not PBL.
I was simply clarifying that other bids could have been made once the original bid was placed. Were they? I don't know. I didn't end up raising the bid. That's my business and I feel comfortable sharing that bit of info. Beyond that, I am not at liberty to say, sorry.
I found it odd that Gene had so much stuff left in ~2012. About 4 years earlier he had supposedly sold everything to another pinball parts seller(s), yet he still had rooms, no buildings, full of parts in his possession when I took the pre-bankruptcy tour of his properties in ~2012.

Quoted from pinballlife:

but he died penniless in a rundown ramshackle place.

Quoted from Mr68:

Another insightful question, Hilton.
It did bother Gene.
Periodically over the last few years of his life, myself and others would get a phone call from Gene.
He had lost everything with the exception of his parents home that he and Georgie lived in and that house small and run down. His calls were disguised as some type of purpose but really he wanted to talk about glory days or some fantasy scheme he had for a come back. But I could tell that his life had no direction, nothing for him to control and no one seeking his attention. He seemed desperate to be relevant again but I think he secretly knew it was over.
It's all very sad and I've reflected on that as a life lesson for my own failings as a person.

Quoted from colonel_caverne:

I didn’t know him and i really would like to know who he was (at the beginning of his pinball story). Distributor, employee in pinball industry ...?

Quoted from Aphex:

Also Hilton can you make those videos you posted public again?

Quoted from pinheadpierre:

And the legal grounds for asking someone to remove a personal video of a bunch of pinball stuff is what?