Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is in the public domain. Disney does not own the copyrights to the story itself and neither is Jpop basing his version on the film so no licencing needed. So technically it is an original theme for a pinball.

Personally, if he did do a licencing deal, I think licencing the, "Amercan McGee's Alice," video game and basing the artwork on it's visual style would be super epic.

I agree everyone needs to be able to decompress from time to time. I don't have skin in the game but if I did, the question that begs to be asked was how was it funded? Not john's time but there was obviously artists time involved. As pretty as it is, I can't imagine it was a quick sketch either. When there has been additions to mg production numbers because of costs, every nickel counts in my book. That would be my issue if I was an owner of his games.

maybe someday this will be the RAZA/MG owners club.

Anyway as for Kiss, I'm sure it was not wasted time, he likely gained some experience with design and such, as you can see the LCD placement is similar to the games he will be making.

John told me (when I enquired about AIW) I asked if the money from AIW was being spent on the first two games that he was building a company (and infer the R&D behind the game (money) is comingled).

And like CV which is how old...

so you're saying CV has a LCD or that programming a DMD (as in CV) is the same as programing for full color LCD cartoon animation?

Nope I am answering to what you said not what you changed to ; )
Placement

The only big licensed theme I would want John to ever consider is Calvin & Hobbes incorporating original art from the great Bill Waterson of course. There still to this day hasn't been a Hobbes doll manufactured so that would be a feat.

18.jpg

EDIT - Fine... I would accept My Neighbor Totoro as well...

11465_my_neighbor_totoro.jpg

How the hell are you going to have a Miyazaki based pin illustrated by....not Miyazaki. LOL.

*edit* I know you said original for C&H but still, kinda funny to think about either of those being handled by outside artists, or without their direct hands involved.

Get that fucker out of retirement... Get that fucker to make new art for a Pin... Problem Solved...

LOL

How many do you think he could sell, maybe 10?

Do what.... C&H or Totoro? lol.

C&H could make a cool pin, but the extreme risk of screwy voiceovers is....very high. Could see that turning into a train wreck real fast.

Can't speak for Totoro...never seen it, but Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke definitely have some interesting things that could be worked into pinball. Besides... JPOP is already selling games in the sub-50 total region already. How's that any different?

I'd be in on AIW for sure if I had the money, and if the business model this whole company is operating under wasn't so questionable. It's not exactly a "dude" appealing theme, and I don't really think it has a lot of mass appeal either, but you just never know..

10 Gazillion

Well, you JPop preorder guys can at least take some solace in knowing that you aren't the only ones who are having issues:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/predator-a-scam

Rob, you are the white knight of pinside Christ man, you either like stirring up shit or just troll on the weekends since you have nothing better to do.

There are a good amount of core folks here that spend their time on pinside vs FB. They read all the threads, participate and pay attention. So when they call out things folks have not noticed for the benefit of the group its a good thing.
I think the word of the day is Community.

Like I said, white knight of all preorder and unreleased games.

Thanks! I do my best.

I don't do FB, but speaking about spending time on Pinside.... I find these days I'm spending more time here on this forum than actually playing pinball. I guess there's something wrong with that but at the same time maybe it shows it doesn't matter how many machines you have as long as you can live through Pinside. Thanks to Pinside, I was at Expo while at home in New York, I'm enjoying the ups and downs of every pre-order even if I'm not on the list, I get to B.S. with so many good people....and that's just the beginning.

So with all these posts, the one thing I've never heard discussed is anything about the software and the new system. I have no doubt whatever Jpop does as a designer/artist will look awesome; I think TOTAN and TOM are some of the best looking games ever! However, I'm really concerned about the software and rules, as you don't have to look any further than any Stern or JJP thread to see that good software can make or break a machine. Just look at past threads for WOZ, ACDC, Star Trek, Avengers, etc. and those companies have arguably the two most talented software coders in the industry working full-time on the games.

So if Jpop is still getting his cabinet and white wood together, how far along can that be? Has anything been mentioned with his new willingness to share information? If so, I'd love to hear about who is doing it and progress to date. CCC, AMH, WOOLY, Predator and TBL show amazing talent is out there, but look how long those guys have been working on them. Even if his design was "finalized" tomorrow, I can't see the software being done for a long time. Thoughts from anyone in the know?

He's got a Mission

Jpop got sidetracked with Ben Heck on BHZA, got sidetracked with KISS, got sidetracked again with AIW, imagine if he focused all that energy on MG? 17 happy customers!

The people who put down a deposit/paid for game in full have to sign an NDA. That isn't really a great marketing strategy to get additional sales..

John isn't a phony fancy pants PR specialist... He's an Artist.

Maybe his new games won't be the most popular things around, but they will be the best.

P.S. ~ After playing CV tonight I frickin' hate the video modes and firing the cannon so much in that game. God Damn John! Why!? That pin would have been almost too perfect without that crap

No it's 40-50 now. And it's confirmed 21 since the last time it was 17 total.

Exactly, This was the first sign of something way amiss

I believe in the CV home rom you can disable the video modes and skip through the animations by pressing the flipper buttons.

Disagree. Personally, I think AIW, being subtlety dark in nature, lends itself quite awesomely to a pin. Especially true for those of us who can't wait to see the artwork for it.

Comparing this thread with the Predator one, this thread was going nuts just a week ago but calmed down because John let it be known he got the message loud and clear.

Positive progress is being made to address our concerns, it isn't business-as-usual any longer. Time will tell, but the main thing was that we got enough to put our minds at ease for the time being.

Man this would fix so many problems. First, production for JPops games and second JJP having a great game designer and artist.

Fail

I've seen production numbers 13, 16, 17, 19, 21, 25, 26, and 40-50 published in various articles, web sites and discussion forums. I'm sure one of those numbers is accurate.

Interesting thought...I wonder how many current customers would complain if he dropped the price by 40-50% and produced 10x as many? It would be a mixed reaction of "oh no I lose exclusivity" and "I get MG plus another game for free" followed by hundreds of happy new customers... all pending proper manufacturing setup, which will help provide incentive and timeframe guidance for Jpop to get his first game to completion.

I think 90% of the 17-21 would complain a lot. They did put up all the money, part of which was for exclusivity. I know three of the 17 that wouldn't be happy.

Regardless I'm sure the 17 will be happy come December when they see the complete game

Hope not, because then I'll absolutely not buy his product regardless of what it is.

As a RAZA buyer I would accept a discounted machine in return for allowing him to make a deal to sell them openly. It would be better for pinball, better for me getting support later for my machine since it would be a far better business. I'm not sure if John can make a real go of things the way he's doing it now.

Don't worry it's not

Why? Because I feel like JJP, as a company, doesn't respect the community or their customers. Which sucks. WoZ is a fun game, Hobbit has potential, but their pricing practices and how they interface with the community at large is a total joke. I'd rather have no information at all than to be fed BS constantly. The utter arrogance of how their communications are handled is beyond a caricature of Jersey at this point. The fact that they think they can do ridiculous things like threaten legal action over fan mockups... etc...etc...etc...etc.. the list just goes on and on. I will support the ops that choose to buy their games. I will not buy their games, end of story. There's no sign of any intent or will by them to change it...

Not going to discuss that any further on this thread, as it's been done to death elsewhere and this thread isn't for that, but you asked. There's no sign of any intent or will by them to change it.

At least I now know I am not the only one who sees these things.

"Hey, it's only pinball"

Hyper limited quantities of these games is for the birds. Zidware should sell as many games as they can in the span of when a certain title is in production. Original buyers should be rewarded with cosmetic upgrades and possibly a cheaper pre-order price than the rest. Magic Girl should go down to the RAZA price point.

You are a douchebag if you don't want as many people to enjoy these cool new games.

He needs to team with someone. Be it JJP, Stern, Spooky. Maybe not Stern.

If he doesn't do this, I realistically can't see any games being made. Not in the qtys required anyway.

If he starts making them in his workshop, realistically how many could he make a week? One?

When JJP started production, they were reported to be making two machines a week (!!) to start. And that's a company with lots of employees, lots of resources, etc etc.

Hypothetically, if he teamed with JJP/Spooky to build them, he could work in the factory doing the final QC to make sure that he was happy with each machine before dispatch.

It's the only logical way to move forward with this project. The only reason not to do it this way would be ego or greed (you'd think you'd make more $$ if you can do everything yourself...however, if you sell nothing, maybe you don't ...)

rd.

Stern doesn't go out of their way to come onto the forums and slap people with lawsuit threats and call them idiots. They also don't randomly jack up the price of their games after the price has already been announced.

I'm not begruding anyone their Jpop games, no matter how they get produced. I'm waiting on AIW and to see what becomes of it. I have no interest vested or otherwise in BHZA, and while Magic Girl is a theme I'm very interested in, 17k for a pin is not something that I will EVER be willing to do.

Wonder what that price tag was in lost sales.

When someone sells a nib Stern Gary doesn't come on the forum and say the machine will not have any warranty support like Jack did when someone tried to sell a nib WoZ.

I don't think John has changed anything regarding open access to more info or real timeline. He's just quieted the restless natives.

What did you expect a week after this all blew up? I believe John has started taking some significant steps toward resolving the issues his customers currently have. He has announced that he is working with outside sound and sw partners and has brought on a project manager. Now there is talk of a partner with significant backing. These last two steps show a willingness to at least have some outside influence on his accountability.

Wait a month and then check this post again. I bet he's back to zero communication and non-delivery by then.

It's been a single week. He did make a declaration that MG will be shown in December (a Lebowski type reveal), and that he is working on a raza timeline.

I didn't expect it all to be done in 24 hours.

A frankly, once MG is shown, that will put a lot of this to rest and he'll have demonstrated he can get something done.

There's been a few other blog posts this past week, but they are more of the type that we normally see on there, so I don't credit those as signs of change. But if there is no RAZA timetable posted in the next week or so, I'll be asking about it publicly again.