Wonder who's going to give jpop a job in the industry after this mess clears

Good luck with that. Probably gonna take a lawyer or judge to make that happen.

Well maybe not on anything but if he is talking about a pinball machine he is involved with, at this point, I think it's safe to say that you cannot trust anything he says. At least I wouldn't.

I have a feeling that actions and results are the only thing that will generate any amount of trust from the pinball community towards him at this point.

And frankly, even if he does get games made, there is no way that I would ever personally buy a game from him considering the way that he appears to treat his customers. I can't even fathom what game support from Zidware looks like. If it's anything like the process of getting solid info from him, game owners will have to fly their games to his shop to get any help with them.......

I think that is kinda why he started his own pin company in the first place. I heard no one would hire him.

They wouldn't give him one before the mess. I think he might be the only "B/W days" guy capable of and wanting to make pinball machines that hasn't worked for Stern, JJP, etc. Those guys know what's up. It's the same reason John K. hasn't had another animated show since Ren & Stimpy and Ripping Friends. Everybody loves his art and admires his talent - but everyone knows he's insane & can't work within a budget or schedule.

R&S was my favourite childhood cartoon. I own the comic books from #1 to about #30. Guy was amazing. How about a JPop Ren & Stimpy pinball next?

John K raised money via crowd funding for a short cartoon. Two and a half years later still no cartoon.

Sometimes creative types need a dreaded supervisor/producer/manager not only to keep the project on task but also for someone to fight against. Creatives love to prove non-creatives wrong.

Nice, it just better have the log topper. images.jpeg

autoplunge better be a shiny red CANDY-like button
05-01-09Stimpy-777068[1].jpg

Your probably right about the insane part but do you think Stern would let him build what he wants to build? All 4 of his W/B games were insane when it came to the artwork and even the layout. They were wanting in the rules and ToM was unfinished. What I have seen of the artwork and game layout of MG from this thread is fucking incredible. There is no way cheap ass Gary Stern would let him build it. But, maybe it is just because he is nuttier than a squirrel farm

Great news that he picked up the phone! Was worried he was going underground. Thanks for all your efforts with him.

Too bad that this whole experience is, "over and over same song."

Your the man Ice.. Thanks!
image.jpg

Call Gary Stern "cheap" but he's successfully running a business and MAKING GAMES. He'd probably go out of business if he let Jpop do whatever he wanted. This isn't just arts n crafts for fun....it's commerce and manufacturing. How many games has Stern put out since MG was announced? 10?! I'd rather have 10 games I can actually PLAY than Jpop's loopy daydreams.

In any case, this has nothing to do with Stern. Jpop HAS the freedom to make the game he wants...but he's incapable without the infrastructure of an actual pinball business!

Exactly!

Amen.

Uh, yep. Simple is almost always true.

Always have, always will. Time waits for no one.

12 games built if you count MM remake and Whoa Nellie...

You can't count what has not happened. Still; TEN.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/medieval-madness-le-078-is-in-da-house

11

Sorry man! I know how hard this can be, my wife was only 28 when she was first diagnosed with cancer. I rember feeling like I had been punched in the stomach when we got the news and that feeling didn't go away. Tell your friend don't ever lose faith miracles do happen.

Just thinking about all this puts the whole JPOP thing into perspective...."it's only pinball"

Amen.

No pictures yet, but I'm sure we are about to bump the number up to 11.

Indeed.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/any-update-on-mmr-production/page/103#post-2320596

11

After every phone call everything seems fine with John. Then you realize he just knows what to say to make you believe. Nothing has changed, it's been groundhog day for years. He's the same guy that blew you off and caused this shitstorm the last couple days, no phone call is changing that.

I never thought anyone could compare JPOP to Steve Jobs, but he has one hell of a reality distortion field.

He may seem motivated in your talks with him, but without answering any of the tough questions to the public, himself, I wonder just how motivated he is?

Hoping your assessment of John's "motivation" is accurate.

I wasn't part of the phone call so I don't know what was said, but John has said a lot of things these past several months, so I'm looking forward to something demonstrable about how things are going to be different.

ps: Sorry, Ice, to hear about the bad news on the family front.

This is beginning to sound like a story form American Greed. Next up JPOP.....

My wife was diagnosed two years ago with kidney cancer. They caught it early and she is back to 100% sans one kidney.

The rollercoaster of emotions is really tough, but an event like this puts life into perspective.

Why in the world would u give jpop any trust right now? He's fucked he knows he's fucked.. Force him to take the help

That's the problem. You can't force him to do anything. You could sue but that takes a long time and would probably result in the company dying. When you hand a full payment for a startup pinball company you are putting your faith in the owner. If they have no experience manufacturing a pinball it's high risk. its reasonable to think John had a good idea since he worked at bw. But he worked with a huge team and it appears his expertise is only in design. He's an obvious neophyte when it comes to running a business (not paying and pissing off lots of vendors, communications, etc.)

Any news on whether contractors and vendors owed money will be paid up?

This should be the focus. No other discussions should be had until this is 100% completed and everyone who is currently owed money is fully paid. Only then should you move onto other topics like game programming and hardware building.

True, but at least to our collective benefit, people he's influenced over the years are now doing great work. My primary example would be the Mickey Mouse shorts that Disney shows these days. They seem very obviously John K influenced but are real and actually totally great for the most part.

There probably could be people influenced by JPop as well, but the economic realities for producing pinballs is a little different from producing filler on one of the biggest multinational's primary network. And also, I'm still not sure exactly what that style IS. Have a good artist? Swoopy ramps? Use music from Mystere?

Unless jpop sent Ice a video clip of the pin exhibiting any action, nothing has changed.

Ice seems to be trying but IMO he's overconfident in his ability to impact John's situation and that was clearly evidenced by Ice attacking him again when he went a few days without getting a call. Again, kudos to him for trying but I don't believe he'll have any material impact on the situation without starting a lawsuit which again I think would mean game over.

I don't think Ice is "overconfident" at all. He is merely smart enough to know legally this will do nothing for the people waiting for their machines, and he is putting in his own time to see, if at all, what he can do to put this thing back on it's tracks. If and when we find out the truth about finances then it can be assessed and either get Jpop the help he needs or simply let everyone know time to stick a fork in it.

Software, obviously. Oh, wait!

Sorry, I must have been thinking about somebody else.

As more comes to light another concern is simply manufacturing them. Wooly, TBL, Predator,MMr and JJP all made fully working prototypes before the big task. Jpops not even at the starting gate. Only JJP and MMr have made it past point A so far and it was long and ugly road. Both with more in place to do it as well.
With all these burned bridges how is this going to happen?

I applaud Iceman's efforts here. But do you really believe that Jpop is simply going to roll over and open his books to him? - I hope I'm wrong but I'll go on record right now and say, no he wont.

I'm saying if and when 68. Eventually the truth will have to come out but it would be in everyone's best interest to get this info asap, and if he's not willing to give Ice the "state of affairs" and prove where it stands financially then what's the whole point of ice going through this exercise? Trust me he is not there to waste his own valuable time and I will assume, since D is a smart boy it is exactly what he is working towards

JPop is in this position because nobody can wrangle him. If Gary Stern can't wrangle him, Ice probably can't either. I was going to go on a long winded rant again, but basically anything short of JPop putting himself on live-cam so we know he's working will make this project move forward. Maybe you can talk him into making a reality show.

I was on a reality TV show and let me tell you it's not as real as one would think. I have faith in Ice to either get this info as quickly as he possibly can and or clearly come to the conclusion we need to legally shut it down. There is a fast way of doing this and it's called bankruptcy. We don't need to go into the ins and outs of bankruptcy as it would not achieve the desired results however the tool is there and can be used effectively.

Hey just noticed approaching 2 million points ........I talk or write too much And yes this is a shot at all those approaching 15 million plus!

Ice has a good amount of financial sophistication and transactional experience. If JPop lets him Ice can help...of this I have no doubt. Will JPop let Ice help him? Who knows but of course Ice is going to be optimistic about it.

Optimism is the only way to approach situations like these with struggling projects if you want them to see the light.

LMAO, what a horrible moment for me to post in here...right after that post. Ha!