Predator scam ripped the heart out of the preorder pinball community. Bankruptcy reCOrdiNgs after the fact have helped some to heal.

Alien was like a meteor that took the money and then crashed to Earth without delivering pinball machines to LE buyers and ended up being a burning ball of fire and smoldering smoke.

DP created deep wounds from its decision making and poor money management. It remains on life support, refusing to die until someone shows mercy and puts it down.

RAZA & MG & AIW - Shit Show!

The Aussie JJP Distributor closing and taking deposits was a big scandal, but is largely forgotten because JJP took care of it's AU LE customers. It wasn't the best outcome but it was resolved.

Stern had ghosting inserts on GOT, SM and GB. While the problem is controlled, they created an industry first - playfield exchange program.

PREDATURD!

Shit game, no license, no C corp or LLC, price was too low, and they were getting government assistance while sitting on half a million of stolen money.

Think you mean DP (Dutch Pinball) not AP (American Pinball).

Mike could build a 5 level playfield of back to the future with a real Jaws 3d Hologram that ate the ball and magnetic hoverboard and delorean bash toys and a train that ran around the playfield and a cup holder that popped out the cabinet like the 80s cafe, and also came with a working futuristic pepsi bottle... I still wouldn't buy it.

Mama K. (The Legal Department) was preparing to set up an S Corporation as they were expecting a factory comparable to what Bally had.

Thankfully he never gained any real traction here on pinside to get to the point of requesting deposit monies from pinsiders for anything despite the best efforts of the local Aussie forum shills on here at the time.

http://www.supplierblacklist.com/2016/05/18/rapide-3d-ionnoi-digital-ltd/

PS: I posted this link a couple of years back as a piece of pertinent information for pinsiders to consider, but it was arbitrarily deleted as irrelevant so we'll see if the "general forum consensus" has changed since then.

No need to add to this.

mmr cgc dont give a shit about dodgy printed insert playfields

Kind of feels like picking at a scab here.

But I think we all need to remember the past. Some of these mistakes I personally don't ever want to forget. Or the people who made them. It falls under the category;

Don't be fooled by the same trick twice. To me. As well as other categories.

You tell em AZ!!!!

John Trudeau - that was a REAL scandal...

Still is, the trial date just got pushed back another month the other day.

I still think the best scandal was python building zingy bingy without approval and then presenting it to the Japanese leadership. If memory serves it is a big reason that they shutdown the pinball division.

Never trust a mama's boy.

Yes, but sometimes you can't help it.

I've said this in other threads in the past, but what I learned from these (and my loss to jpop) is that there is nothing magical about the pinball BUSINESS. It's hard numbers, and a tough business. There isn't magic fairy dust and magic beans making for easy or tons of profit.

I went against my own business judgment in the past, somehow being fooled that the business realities were different when everything else didn't make sense or add up.

In the end it was a cheap lesson for me, as I'll be applying the same critical eye to anything I'm involved with in the future, and it can get very expensive outside of pinball.

Mama K was sure proud of the futon that everyone here bought her.

^
Wise words to live by.

Those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it.

He talked to someone named "Ethan Hunt". I would swear that was the name of someone in a series of action movies, perhaps one recently released. Heh

Light the fuse and cue the MI theme music:

(Ionnoi Digital = Homepin under an alternate trading name also Katana Trading Company )
coincidence (resized).jpg

Interesting Mike says thanks to benheck and JPop, wonder what Ben thinks .....

drjJCUP (resized).jpg

Haven't followed Homepin thread but isn't the software fixed and unable to be updated?

yes have to send your board back to a distributor for updating, but it has been stated that code is complete

Big Dick

An immaculate Baywatch with no legs.

I think "meh". Glad to be acknowledged I guess.

I Bet you would rather be acknowledged with a cheque?

A name cheque isn’t quite the same, somehow.

He would rather be paid for his work with a royalty cheque at least

50cents for every game sold in the U.S.A. So that should total about 13bucks.....

Don't forget that old board design was open source. But it bugged me that he denied using it for so long.

Batman Super Duper LE monthly_software_updates

JJP POTC - Spinner-gate

Pinbox (Nucore cracked, hacked, and stolen)

Did Captain Nemo ship all orders out?

Don't let it bug you when it sets fire to someone's house

Legal action always brings with it it's own set of scandalous hand luggage.

1)
https://jade.io/article/67601

The Australian High Court case that defined whether a domestic pinball distributor had sole exclusive rights to import and offer for resale pinball machines from a manufacturer simply because they had signed and paid for an "exclusive agreement" with that manufacturer. They didn't - even after taking it all the way to the highest court of appeal in Australia.

It still has legal ramifications almost 30 years later in 2018 for current Australian pinball distributors who instead have to rely on blocking supply channels at a manufacturer level rather than legal enforcement at a distributor level.

2) The AussieArcade moderator who threatened to launch an international lawsuit against pinside unless all the critical posts about Homepin were removed and a public apology given. Not surprisingly the lawsuit never materialised and the posts are still in place over a year later.

More comical than anything else and not really worthy of mentioning compared to case number one, but only for the fact that the vexatious litigant in question is also the IFPA country director for Australia so if you have ever made less than fawning public commentary about Homepin/Thunderbirds you can forget about hosting an IFPA approved event in Australia.

Conflict of interest much?

No, the judgement didn't question their had distribution rights or its exclusivity... that case was about Avery trying to block their actions under claims of copyright. The conclusion was summed up as Avery were not the exclusive rights holder of the copyright, hence had no standing to pursue litigation under copyright. It didn't change or challenge their exclusivity agreement with regards to distribution.

It was a fault that Avel tried to use copyright law to enforce their own commercial agreements.. no werkie.

Williams, not Avery... would have to be the one to take action against the grey market under copyright claims.

I presume you mean Avel Pty Ltd, since Avery makes printer decals.

Avel wanted their Williams distributor agreement to cover the importation and resale of all new AND used Williams branded pinball machines into Australia and to prevent Multicoin (a competitor) from importation of such.

They used copyright infringement and the Copyright Act as the basis for their legal argument to cover that but the underlying motivation was the recognition and enforcement of a distribution agreement as exclusive and all encompassing.

Had they simply gone to court and used the merits of the private agreement itself as an argument it would have been rejected at first instance in the lower Federal Court on public policy grounds and incompatible with the then Trade Practices Act (now superceded by the CCA) as conduct likely to result in a substantial lessening of competition.

Had the copyright argument been successful at the time and not rejected under s202 as groundless then current distributors here could foreseeably use this argument today as a legal basis for preventing the importation of both new and used machines at a domestic level and the pinball landscape here would have been far different for both new and used commercial machine importers.

As it stands, there is nothing to legally prevent at a domestic level either an individual or a busines from importing used (obviously) or new pinball machines into Australia besides finding a willing overseas supplier.

Does anyone remember what the title was of that PinSide thread where Gene (or perhaps Wayne?) got lambasted about the MM reboot failure? I've been looking for 15 minutes but can't find it. It's a glorious read.

Can we add the Bond SLE to this list?