Quoted from Zitt:Sorry; I disagree. Look at the layout of the "demo" playfield... and the production machine.
The layout is too similar - maybe some minor adjustments to address bad geometry.
JPOP did get a salary for a while under AP... until they figured out he was a hack.
Look; I get it... you wanna like your games. It's your right to stick your head in the sand or choose to ignore it.
It's also my right to voice my concerns about them taking a bad-blood game and make it a reality.
Very similar to Pinball Brothers trying Alien. DeepRott doing Zombie game from ?JPOP?. Now all someone needs to do is Predator.
Simply put; I have zero faith in companies copying an infamous game to try and profit. Leave a bad taste in my mouth. You don't have to agree; but it is a concern for some of us.
Different cabinet design, different playfield design, different board system, different lighting system, different art, all-original code, all-original sound. Sold without pre-order money and distributors were instructed not to take deposits. It was manufactured. It actually works... and it continues to receive solid support to this very day.
It's a completely different game.
As Ben Heck, who knows more about the backstory of this than you or I, said: "John's Houdini wasn't a game. Shots to nowhere, targets in places you couldn't hit, static laser cut "toys" that did nothing. It was a proof of concept built like a final product whose only goal was to trick a company into bailing out Magic Girl."