Sorry, I had misunderstood. Retracted.

Gene could still go and do his scheduled speech but he would not be able to sell anything unless the trustee gave him permission.

So how does this effect MMR? Doesn't he own several patents for MM?

I was going to ask more generally, where does PPS factor in all this? Doesn't PPS have the rights to all the stuff Illinois Pinball did?

MM14 isn't affected, making the game and selling the parts aren't the same.

Nice try.

no

pinball licenses are drop in the ocean compared to the slot money.

Making BBB was one of Gene's more proud accomplishments. At his age, I think accomplishing something great IS enjoying life. Shame you don't know Gene well enough to understand that...

Wish you would take your own advice and leave the industry.

If you had taken it up the ass as many times as those who've dealt with Gene over the years, I hate to say it, but you'd be celebrating too. Someone should write a book about Gene sometime and you'd understand.

I understand unfortunate events occurred , but gloating about it on the forum is pretty "_________"

This is one thing Ive luckily avoided my entire life, so far....

colonscopydoc.gif

"Unfortunate events"????? You don't know the half of it.

About time you said something more substantive than "YAY LOOK AT ME I'M A DICK!"

Jesus. Was that really so hard?

Feel free to fill me in at MGC, Ill buy the beer! Actually Im bringing a ton with me, you like Bourbon Ales?

Trust me, it will come eventually.

One of the privileges of getting older...

Didn't Gene sell a giant lot of his pinballs under a pole barn last year for like 100k? If he's still struggling, he must have really underestimated costs. God bless Gene's efforts for what he's accomplished, but he doesn't seem to be good at manufacturing profitably.

That sucks. I'll miss seeing his booth at TPF.

gene does have rights to a bunch of WMS patents, but as Rick indicated, none of them apparently cover MM.

I'll be the one with a beer in my hand. Spotted Cow please.

When Wayne was going to build his games it was told that Gene owned the rights to the ball trough design used on MM, as well as the plastic triangles to deflect balls that fall back down the 2 plastic ramps so it doesn't always roll SDTM. Did Rick buy those patents, or did they expire, or how is that working for MMr? At one point during that project it was even told that Wayne would be allowed to include the plastic triangles but folks would have to pop rivet them on their games themselves on delivery...

I'll try to make an analogy.

Let's pretend that you buy a car from a dealer. You sign a contract which says you bought the car and the contract is activated which you make the down payment. You make the down payment.

Next the dealer refuses to deliver the car, instead only lets you have the spare tire and hubcaps. He says he'll give you rest of the car when you make the final payment, never mind that the contract states the car is yours to drive (but the title is the lien). So hesitantly you continue to pay the payments.

Meanwhile you find out that the dealer is driving your car for his own personal use. Not only that, he is renting it out to others to drive as well. You tell the dealer he is devaluing your car and you demand he stop. He doesn't.

Then when the last payment is due you tell him you want the car and some compensation for him using it. He then tells you that you must sign a new contract which gives him unlimited use of the car whenever he wants. You tell him no, you tell him "here is the last payment so give me my car". He says since you didn't want to sign a new contract that he is calling off the whole deal.

So you're standing there with a spare tire and hubcaps and he is standing there with your car and your money. Even after 4 years you tell him you'll make the last payment provided you get compensation for the devaluing of the car. He ignores you.

Tell me if you had a deal like that if you would not be happy to hear about his financial demise?

Crap, another car-pinball comparison.

But how nice are the hubcaps?

Why the analogy? If that's what he did to you then tell the true story. To those of us who don't know the public celebration of another man's failure is just a little distasteful.

I'm fine with Bryan saying what he has, and then quietly refraining from stoking the fire on further. It's fine to say that you weren't a fan of IPB, not everybody was.

What bothers me is that if you have something concrete to say, say it. If it doesn't belong on the forum, don't allude to it constantly or else it just makes you look like a jerk with nothing to actually present on the matter (whether or not that's true is a different consideration). Make a strong case for your criticisms or save them for a private time.

There is a club called the GENE POOL of those he had bad deals with..I am Gene POOLER #1 there is a large list .

I did the unsuccessful playfield dance too. In the end I did get a pair of nice MM and FH playfields, but missed out on others I had put deposits on. It sucked, but I'll forgive most anything since he gave us BBB and I've found some buried treasures digging through his piles of old NOS parts.

I imagine Mike's deals were for far more involved things than a playfield pre-order.

There is a long line of BUSINESS deals (not customer transactions) that IPB screwed people over on that have resulted in a lot of bad blood and lack of empathy.

Right, but that's business. This really isn't a business forum, it's an enthusiast forum. That's why I say that they might as well come out and say it, or just express disappointment and move on. The metaphors and such are just nothing but fodder to stir up fans and critics.

Also, I think all, even the biggest fans of IPB, can agree that Gene never had any good business sense when it came to pinball. He had assets and the means, but not always the best process.

IPB disappearing is probably still a net loss for the community, however.

Glad I got my Dredd topper last year. looks like that'll be the last of it. A shame really, I was hoping we would re run a few backglasses.

Most of the business owners in pinball ARE enthusiasts. I am one. Did it occur to you that if you own a business and you have litigation that there are certain things that are best unsaid?

FWIW, I have been approach with a book deal. If it goes through it will be a tell all and it will be quite entertaining I assure.

I left out the part that in the end it turns out that the dealer had taken the car and run it into the ground. Then he sold parts off of it so that all that was left was the shell. Then he tried to settle the matters by offering the shell to you for more than what was owed to him.

I can already see the tens of people that will be lined up to buy the tell all book of Illinois Pinball. It's magnificent.

All twelve of them : )

I have actually heard that it will be EPIC!

Brad

Shasta and deli meats for all!

Like or hate Wayne, if it weren't for him the flow of parts starting in 2005-2006 would have never happened. If you were in the hobby before 2005 you will remember that the dark days of pinball parts were between 2000 and 2005.

I think this thread is destined to disappear soon.........

I'll only buy the book if HUO

So someone tell me what IPB or Wayno could or can do that Rick cannot do now.

Why? Everyone here is being quite civil. Absolutely NO reason for it to disappear!

Jaz

I think a documentary like The King of Kong is in order here.

I am just waiting for the good news. Is someone about to start making a bunch of high quality parts when they were previously unable to do so?

Correct. And I'm still sitting a brand new pair of plastic triangles that I had to buy to ship to Wayne. They've been to Australia and back now since I got my refund. Maybe I'll frame them and hang em from the rafters like a retired jersey. Another $35 to Wayno and down the drano.......

Same here - the gold plated one is nicer than the original IMO

What were the dark days of pinball parts? I have only been in for 2 years, and I by typical stuff - bulbs, rubbers, flipper rebuild kit. I have been lucky and not had to replace anything "big". But , in the dark days, could you get those things?

They were only dark if you weren't resourceful. Not a ton of aftermarket parts out there (especially playfields), but plenty of great resources for those who could get stuff done on their own. Ballsofsteel was an amazing resource for artwork, and there were companies that were making repro parts (under the table). While there was a ton of poor quality stuff out there, there was a lot of good stuff out there as well. The one company I was actually disappointed to see get "Wayno'ed" was the outfit out of Brazil that was making plastic sets and toppers. While their repros weren't 100% accurate, I remember picking up complete plastic sets for Fishtales and Demolition Man for about $75 shipped each, and all of the toppers from the Data East games for around $40 each (Jurassic Park, LW3, TFTC, etc.)....

Repros were tough to come by, so getting some parts meant hoping for someone to put some NOS or used but in good condition parts up for sale. It still exists to some degree, but it's better now than it has ever been. It can still be awful trying to get some plastic sets for lots of games...imagine that applying to a wide range of parts, even for WMS and Bally games.