Thanks chessiv I had been trying to start at the beginning and just did not see anything that seemed official from him. I was looking at the high score initials and such. Nothing seemed to make sense.
So a huge post always on fire! Just more curious lately I guess.
I will stay back on the sidelines now. I was never in the game to begin with.
Oh and is this the same guy that was promoting Alice in Wonderland??
Whatever happened to that story.?

Two words: rabbit hole.

One word: Grift.

John scanned it -- or rather, one of the plastic test samples I sent him. This is the original sculpt. I also sent him a painted sample, I'll see if I can find a pic.

New facebook post from JPOP:
image.jpg

Yay! So who's coding it, who's building it, when do they ship?

Imagine that.

He posted a similar pic on the MG blog as well.

At this point I would be happy if JPOP sent me all the parts! I will build the game myself and then I will find someone to code the damned thing.

So is he working 7x14 on those ramps? Is he chiseling aluminum? Is that way he isn't responding to anyone? He must be super busy in his shop working too hard to take care of customers and vendors.

Maybe he is using the same ramps for both. He can sue himself for damages.

Use PRoc and get Eric to write the code. With what he did with CCC he could write a incredible ruleset for MG

Hey it's progress.

Based on Eric's knowledge and experiences with/of Jpop, I don't see that happening, ever. To be honest, I don't think a single software developer or vendor who is aware of what has gone on, will do any work for him without payment upfront. Oh, and I don't think many would do it even under those conditions, unless they also know the existing vendors have been paid. I wouldn't.

To be fair he had to melt down all the pop cans to make those aluminum blocks, BEFORE he started to form them with his hand files.

Found a colour pic of the proto I sent to John

Keep in mind this was kind of a "sketch"

20130607_084521.jpg

So your telling me there is a chance?

I wonder who he found to machine some aluminum for him for free.

if you mean him finding someone who does not know what has gone on, then yes, I guess there is a chance. If you mean someone who does, well, as I said money upfront, but first he needs to pay those who have been stiffed. I know personally I would not be comfortable getting paid by John upfront for future work, when I know others have not been paid for work/product already delivered. I'm sure there are some out there who would, but that just not jive with my ethics, and knowing Eric, I'm pretty confident it does not fit with his.

While I might be off by my low-ball pricing of a few bucks per ramp (it would be if you had your own vacuum forming machine, but clearly the budget doesnt' allow when it was spent on an internal CNC and laser engraver), let's say even $20 each (most ramps are $80 because of R&D, scrap rate, etc)...

I CANNOT believe he milled permanent tooling out of ALUMINUM for TWENTY machines!! I've worked at multiple companies that prototype 100 clamshells from a CNC'd wood positive (hand sanded / polished) for the pilot run before they go into full blown tooling (which JPOP should never be doing).
ohgeez-1.gif~c200.gif

Crap, just ask Josh how he vacuum formed the bowl for his casino game, guarantee it wasn't machined aluminum.

John Popaduik was too busy to review his open invoices before expo. He made me feel like a ass for asking to get his account up to date. As he was very busy getting ready for expo. Well I did not want to be at fault for him not having the game ready for show. ( you know it would take 15 minutes to review the invoices that have been sent to him several times)

Now 7 months later, I am the jerk for giving him my money and support for 4 plus years and wanting answers and paid.

Pretty messed up if he has been paying himself without paying for ordered parts.

Congrats to Ben Heck and Spooky for showing how it's done! The sad thing is what John told me as why Ben was no longer part of the project. Looking forward to Ben's next game! Way to go Ben!

I would change the dates to "in your dreams" or something else witty like that. Why should Pinside partake in John's fantasy world with estimated dates? John has proven himself not worthy of estimates since he lives for himself with little regard for other's feelings.

I do also like the X'ed out idea as well.

Vacuum forming in the kitchen . . .

http://www.pinballcontrollers.com/forum/index.php?topic=1338.0

It does take time to get the wood sanded smooth enough as every imperfection will show, but certainly for prototypes it wood works great. For the roulette wheel, Nelly did the woodgrain hydrographics for me to give it the right look, so was less critical to be perfectly clear, although it was surprisingly clear.

Even if john ultimately wanted the higher quality of the aluminum, would seem to make more sense to start with wood forms until you were sure you had everything correct, if not, pretty expensive to make a new aluminum one -- so hopefully either he did wood first, or maybe he got it right the first time

Sorry to hear that and thank you for posting here what's going on. Here's to hoping you're made whole.

That Ben gets things done ? Can't have a man like that on board.

LTG : )

Unbelievable. Pathetic.

I might be crazy but it seems like there is a pattern developing here regarding how JPop deals with his suppliers.

Is that block of machined aluminum paid for, or is he stealing it like he's done with so many other suppliers?

And the correct answer is: A and B.

It was paid for.

.

I think the plan is a lot more than 20 machines (MG).

Disclaimer: I don't know Sh!t

Truly sad and indefensible.

Which was what?

Unbelievable, especially with the "Ben" a fit of time. Since Ben has a game designed and got them built and shipped!

Yeah, it's a simple math problem.

Games Spooky has designed, built, and shipped: 1

Game Zidware has designed, built, and shipped: 0

Spooky will have game 2 out, and Zidware will still be sitting at 0.

Has there ever been an aluminum ramp before? Seems like it would wear and deposit dirt all over the playfield? That is why stainless steel is used, because it is so hard.

It is not an aluminum ramp, it is an aluminum form, for vacuum forming plastic ramps.

Someone more experienced than I can chime in but I believe the aluminum is the "negative" and plastic is formed from it. So it isn't an "aluminum ramp".

My bet is they're aluminum dildos, odd angle of the picture just makes them look like ramp molds

OK, my bad. Plastic ramps are fine. In fact they keep the playfield nice and clean compared to steel ramps in my experience.

This post on The Magic Girl Pinball Blog is a little more descriptive...

https://magicgirldev.wordpress.com/2015/05/09/pinball-aluminum/

Pinball_Aluminum.jpg

Not that I want to be a Debbie downer but if he's not talking to cointaker who he promised 25 personal games and multiple customer sales, parts for his games, and a mg buyer serious flags should come up...
My 2 cents is this... Spending about $2500 to have the molds made and vacuum form about 6 ramps for the three prototype games to make them look complete.... Then because he's showing some minor progress he can stand off law suits or customers saying he's scamming and stealing money...he can stretch this out another 6 months by falsly showing the new ramps in the game and flipping video would then come to light... Then he can drag it out another 6 months to a year pretending he's setting up for production... But really he can't afford to build the games.. It's a dog and pony show hoping to get more money to keep the boat afloat from robbing Peter to pay Paul... Just my guess.. I'll repost this is 6 months

lol, the comments. Half people kissing his ass, the other half trying to sell their spots to get out ...

It's really shitty of him to not pay people who helped him, glm, cointaker. Not refund money. Not update customers. But he can make a big thing out of ramp molds? John, you are burning your reputation to the ground. It's not fun watching it happen. At this point if a real manufacturer hired him I wouldn't buy any of his games out of principal.

I love the "No second tries here" line.

That's definitely something said by someone that has never engineered anything to production.

Over the years I've learned the best thing I can do for a project is to fail a lot. Why does he think rapid prototyping is so popular? If you can reduce the time required per test/dev cycle, the entire thing gets more efficient.

IMO, one of the best ways to waste time and money is to try and make the first time perfect.

I can appreciate the description as not everyone knows the manufacturing side of certain areas, but "no second tries here."?

PHRASING.jpg

Lets not forget expo is five months away... He needs the ramps to be done to bring the game there and have people drool over it... HE STILL CANT AFFORD TO BUILD MG...

"No second tries" -- thus the reason you first do wood molds

Holy moly time flies.....

ie: the people John hasn't blocked from his phone.