As an owner of an original Fathom (greatest overall early SS pin imo) I have been following this thread from the sidelines from the beginning. As someone who got “deeprooted” I have taken an even stronger interest in Haggis and their 2nd title. I have been on both sides of the preorder fence so just wanted to share my opinion.

With deeproot’s RAZA and the benefit of hindsight, I was clearly thinking more with my heart than my head as I really liked the theme and art package and took the risk by sending my $500 deposit for a RAZA arcade edition…no regrets. My strategy was to minimize my financial risk, as the arcade editions had the smallest deposit required, and to be a late build, which the arcade editions were. I also didn’t add any options to keep the total cost down. Even back then when I was a deeproot supporter, which leads to the point, there was ZERO chance I would have ever sent them one dime more than my deposit until I saw others ahead of me receiving and unboxing complete and working RAZAs. I knew and made that decision from the beginning.

Back to Haggis…
Yes they have shipped some Celts so they are definitely NOT deeproot. However, asking for final payments when they have only shown a gameplay video of a prototype is not a positive sign that they are financially sound at this point in time. Hell, deeproot did the same exact thing with RAZA. Steve Bowden and Quinn Johnson did what Haggis just did with Fathom, which honestly means nothing.

So from the outside, thinking with my head and not my heart, it’s pretty obvious what Haggis has been doing and the position they are in. The preorder money for Fathom gave them the capital needed to build Celts and now they need more capital to build the Fathoms which is why they are invoicing those that sent deposits. This is a very slippery slope and not something I would do and would not have done with RAZA regardless of how much I wanted it. Haggis is basically upside down or behind the eight ball if you will. As much as Damian seems transparent and honest, I don’t believe for a second that he was being truthful with the Fathom production timeline when deposits were taken. The VERY premature Fathom remake announcement was a money grab to ensure their short term survival to at least get some Celts out the door. The goalposts have moved significantly time and time again since then. This is a very dangerous time for Haggis. That being said, some may want to send their remaining balance to increase the chances that their mermaid is built by giving Haggis the short term capital they need to survive. However, much more needs to happen to ensure their long term success. Bottom line, in my opinion Haggis needs to show much more than what they have before anyone should send any additional money to them. It’s just not wise, but it’s your money not mine so do as you please. I don’t want to come across the wrong way, just something to think about and to be cautious about.

To be clear, Haggis is not deeproot and Damian is clearly not that f*ck Robert. Haggis has produced a beautifully made pin as I’ve seen a Celts in person. I just hope those that have skin in the game with a Haggis Fathom think with their head and not their heart, especially when original Fathoms exist and can be acquired! I wish Haggis the best and I hope everyone invested gets to unbox a shiny brand new Fathom! Good luck to all!!!

…and as always take my two cents worth a grain of salt.

Since I’ve never paid any attention to him and these are my own thoughts, my own experiences, using my own words…I guess the answers to your questions are no and no??? And I kind of liked the amount of words I used as I thought they were necessary to explain and share MY opinion…sorry you thought there were too many.

Never said they were…just sharing my thoughts.

There are zero similarities…other than they both have 1 1/16” steel balls in them. It literally ends there.

A few days ago I had the pleasure of servicing a Celts and came away with some thoughts and perspectives about Celts, Haggis, and how it ties into the Fathom remake…

Too long don’t read!

Make no mistake that the build quality, finish, and attention to detail is excellent. They really did design and engineer successfully many new features to service the machine. There are also a few missteps along the way that are disappointing such as the backglass latch being too long which scraped the paint off the custom backglass and the side channels for the playfield glass being lined with felt. The felt was already ripped and chunks of it jammed in the rear of the channel from getting caught on the top corners of the glass itself. Also, the lock down bar looks nice with their logo, but is made of plastic or fiberglass so I just hope it holds up. One other thing that was an unnecessary expense and caused an issue was the bottom of the cabinet also had a high quality finish and there was no reveal. The smooth surface with no reveal creates a slick surface with nothing to prevent it from sliding off of a pinball dolly. A rubber mat will be used in the future. The extra bells and whistles such as the see through rear of the backbox logo and the lit acrylic covers within the cabinet are very nice touches and something that separates them. The acrylic playfield is showing signs of wear at the flippers, so if you own one of these keep it clean and change the balls regularly! The underside of the playfield was very neat and clean looking and the only issue I ran into was more slack was needed for the HDMI cable that goes to the playfield display. It would occasionally pull out of the device in the base cabinet when the playfield was returned to its normal position…no biggie to resolve. As far as gameplay goes, in my opinion of course, it’s an inferior version of Total Nuclear Annihilation. It’s less exciting, engaging, fun, cool, and hopefully the code changes as the diverter to gain entry to the top half of the playfield seemed underutilized. The feel of the flippers and overall gameplay felt good. All and all I was very impressed, but I am concerned about their BOM and price point.

Haggis wanted to differentiate themselves from their competition by wanting to build a better “mouse trap”, but this may prove costly. It was said repeatedly that the numbers just didn’t add up regarding deeproot, which I didn’t want to hear. Lol I am now feeling that way about Haggis, the numbers just don’t add up. The time that they have been in business, R&D, their new facility, equipment, profit margin per unit with all the very nice bells and whistles, and the very low number of games shipped just doesn’t make sense for long term survival as a business. These mermaids better ship soon and just as important the next remake better be right behind it to keep the production line moving. I’ve heard repeatedly from other Pinsiders that pinball is primarily a manufacturing business…so true.

As for Fathom, I’m not buying the reason that games aren’t shipping is due to parts and labor shortages. That would make sense if they were slowly trickling mermaids out the door, but just one??? I believe that this was basically a prototype that shipped out and the video of it boxed up was just another attempt to get those with deposits to pay their remaining balances. As I said in an earlier post, until I saw a steady stream of mermaids shipping they wouldn’t see another dime from me. But you do you. And if they are being affected by supply and labor shortages, how long can they stay afloat? I believe they are having financial difficulties and need some investors to step in…I mean how could they not??? They seem to be doing something special so if they are running out of working capital hopefully someone notices what they’ve accomplished so far and gives them life. Or maybe I’m wrong and all is well and a pile of them will ship out by June 1st…I sure hope so!!!

Included part of my last post from 6 months ago above.

I’m very sorry to see what’s been going on with those of you that have pre-orders on the Mermaids, it sucks as I’ve been there. My last post was 6 months ago and it seems basically very little has changed. Complete silence from Damian (yeah yeah he’s a nice guy) and games not making it to the US in any meaningful quantity is not good considering how much time has passed. Haggis timelines have become laughable at best…not even in the ballpark of what customers were told. The only positive is that Haggis has not dangled the next carrot (the next remake title) asking for more pre-order money to keep afloat. That’s good that more people won’t be sucked in to this mess but also a bad sign that possibly Damian knows Haggis is a sinking ship and why bother. At this point I don’t see how this financially succeeds without a tremendous amount of long term financial backing or Damian being independently wealthy. As said many times before with many of these start ups…the math just doesn’t work. As far as supply chain is concerned…every other company is still producing pins even if it’s been a struggle. I simply think Damian’s well is dry. Once again, like I said 6 months ago, maybe all is well and that boat is just about full and leaving the dock tomorrow! If so, why hasn’t this been communicated to his customers??? Not good at all…things definitely are looking grim for Haggis. Mermaid spots hitting the market is also not a good sign.