John Popadiuk update thread……MAGIC GIRL, RAZA, AIW…..

I've fallen about 50 pages behind so my apologies if this has been covered, I may never catch up at this rate. But I exhausted this avenue after the botched December 17th reveal. I filed the claim, I uploaded about 20 documents. I received several letters over the course of the last 5 or 6 months but ultimately they sent a letter about two weeks ago that said all my documents had been sent to zidware as they will be preparing a settlement offer and to accept any settlement they offer. And they will not represent individuals in civil disputes.

basically they forwarded the complaint to JPOP and to accept any offer he makes because they won't help. Go ahead and file the complaint but if you're just doing it to make yourself feel better try Jack Daniels instead.

You couldn't make this stuff up!

Interested to see MG latest videos as proto looked to play a little clunky.

Not keeping up with this thread

but if PINTASIA is getting somebody to build this game for them then it is no longer a handmade game
thus not worth the $$$ being asked
if these game were being made at a more reasonable price, then maybe more people would sign up

None of this passes the smell test.

SKITWARE!

a perfectly blended mess of Skit-B and Zidware.

I am a fully paid up RAZA "owner" but I never got any email informing me about any new offer on the table. Also have great difficulties to join the FB owners group. Are other non-US buyers having similar problems? Can anyone help?

message MR68 to get on the FB group.
message wcbrandes about the Pintasia proposal.

Many thanks. Did that already but will do so again.

Morning Everyone! I thought i'd post a few vids from previous RAZA Development first today, as I worked on multiple projects. Of course MG was the furthest along, but the other games should not be forgotten, especially as more RAZA slots were originally sold i believe. I have a video here of me talking through the changes for the service mode framework to get it working on RAZA. i.e a port over MG->RAZA. I was wanting each game to maintain the same look and feel etc.

Next video is one of the RAZA attract mode. Running on my dev laptop

These videos are from Nov 2013

We're getting distracted from the REAL story here. John took our money, and is now scrubbing the internet.

John was "building" the games, John has every cent of yours and much more of mine. Probably why I'm posting on here. After being lied to and cheated. But building pinball is hard. John Popadick, paying himself first was EEEasyyyy. Paying vendors, hard.......

Jpop's way of doing things has been a huge failure. At this point it's about getting something than nothing.

On a long list of shameful behavior, that he won't respond to you of all people at all is right up there.

We haven't seen a lick of remorse, and wherever he is, he's probably got some excuse that you were treating him badly (ie: YOUR fault). That's been his reasoning for dumping everyone.

Frolic, lighten up. Making pinball is hard......

Quote from John " People will not remember how long it takes they will remember the game"

Kidding about the "lighten up". John needs to man up about whats happening!

His character or lack of seems to be receiving great harm.......

Chris, how much input did John have on those rotating flasher lights, and the pop bumper lights with the under lighting?

Just asking, because he implied he co-created them with you? Well, not implied, said exactly that:

"The Spinz® Flasher was created by myself and Chris from Cointaker."

Just wondering if that was true.

http://pinballinventor.org/

What does this mean? Re-loading'?

And contact address is new@zidware ?

It means everything that WAS there is now gone. And his multiple facebook accounts are deleted.

Useful information- thank you. That rules out the consumer complaint strategy IMO.

After a lot of thought and research, I've now decided to join the class action lawsuit against Zidware/Mr & Mrs Popadiuk. If you want to join it too, here are the details:

___
I am aware that the office of attorney Zane Smith has been contacted by a significant number of persons who have placed deposits or deposited monies with Zidware. His office is handling these claims on an individual basis but grouping them together in the lawsuit currently pending in Cook County Circuit Court in Chicago Illinois. They are taking these cases with a $500.00 nonrefundable retainer and a 25% contingency basis [i.e. you pay $500 only, and they take 25% of any judgments etc later].

Contact details:

Zane D. Smith
Zane D. Smith & Associates, Ltd.
415 N.LaSalle – Suite 501
Chicago, Illinois 60654
(312) 245-0031
(312) 245-0022 – Fax
zane@zanesmith.com
___

Go for it, guys! It may likely lead to nothing financially, but IMO it's the right thing to do, and the best of a lousy set of options for vaporware 'owners'. TBH I find it hard to believe that this is where the MG/RAZA 'journey' has ended, but it's the reality and we have to deal with it. Time for action.

Obviously he's afraid of legal action. Either still coming, or threat of it (likely both).

I know Tigerlaw posted previously that this can be construed that he's destroying evidence.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Also, failure to keep adequate corporate records is a slam-dunk offence. I don't think Jpop could have handled this much worse.

He can delete whatever he wants off Facebook. Law enforcement can still get all of his posts, deleted or not.

REALITY IS JPOP STILL HAS YOUR MONEY.

It is NOT all gone. Add it up and atleast 25-50% remains. He has lied to you for years so why do you think he is telling you the truth now.

If the money is all gone then he has been funneling to his owne personal accounts and this is not legal.
He is likely stupid enough that he has been commingling with personal account which will open him up to much greater harm.

Seems like this lawyer is offering a good low cost option. $500 and only 25% of what they secure.
I have not done due diligence to see if he is any good but it is nice to have cases consolidated for cost effectiveness and also since they are likely to work harder when they have a greater return from more people using them.

Contact details:

Zane D. Smith
Zane D. Smith & Associates, Ltd.
415 N.LaSalle – Suite 501
Chicago, Illinois 60654
(312) 245-0031
(312) 245-0022 – Fax
zane@zanesmith.com

Nail meet coffin.

I gotta agree with the SnowMan.

There's no way that he has spent $1,000,000 just on development, stock and leases.

It's been what now, 3 full years since this started?

Simple maths says 1,000,000 / 3 = $333,333,333 per annum / 52 = $6500 per week expenditure if it is all gone, and the bank account is ZEROOOOOOO.

The money has to be in his own account as wages, or still in a Zidware account.

As I've said a number of times, I find it hard to believe someone could blow through $1m in 4 years unless they have a huge drug habit or the driveway is full of Ferraris. Neither of those seem to be in evidence here.

JPOP said he didn't have enough money to build the games.

He may have $400,000 ... That is not enough to build ALL the games (MG, RAZA, AIW)

It'd build some of them though.

Honestly I think it all just got TOO HARD for him, and he folded like a deck of cards and put the cue back in the rack.

Hopefully it all comes out in the wash one day.

rd.

Can someone start a new facebook page and put some/all of the info back to remind the general public what a piece of work JPOP is?

or 108 pinball machines!!! lol wish u would take another epic journey so we could read another "best thread ever" instead of this stuff.....

RD and Hilton, re spent money. I agree. Like Riot or Spooky, or Skit-B it's not necessary to spend several hundreds of thousands of dollars to make a prototype machine or a full production ready pin like AMH.

John is mental in that he rents out a multi thousand dollar workspace and takes 3-4 years of farting around.

maybe he paid himself a salary, which is not part of the agreement, the agreement was for John to provide a pin in exchange for a certain amount of money. Just like Stern, JJP, PPS, Heighway, Spooky (etc) and another thing you buy. The contract was not an employment contract for John. It was not a living wage contract, whatever his end was that doesn't matter, even if he had to break even or take a loss that's all his problem, and he should have done some calculations and looked at his burn rate, if it looked like he was not going to make it to the finish line, he should have cut back on expenses or even features from the pins if they were not feasible at the selling price. People would rather have one or two less bells and whistles than to have his company go bankrupt and not get any pin or any refund.

Geez Honch - Bill is a good guy. He has a good reputation. Pinside has become RGP. Most of these posts are negative. Ive only counted about 3 of the last 100, that at most said, hey we might have a shot lets see what unfolds until June 30.

The ponzi scheme theory is BS. That's the truth.
A ponzi scheme takes new investments and promises a bigger return that is possible - you all a promised the the same return - a game - no more, no less.

Well looking at Johns first 'great excitement' letter, the idea was to have 199 priced at $16k and then an unlimited number at $12k (or some number to be determined later).

The idea is the new owners don't want to give away free pins to cover John's liabilities, so they were INFLATING the price of the pins to build in the refunds.

As I said before if you are on MG and paid $12k you will get a $10k pin (what it should cost) for an additional $4k new money that's not a bad deal. But if you were supposed to get a RAZA and you paid $6.5k and you need to pay anohter $9.5k to get a $10k pin, it's not such a great deal.

Soooo many things have to happen first and successfully for this to work out, there is no point even getting worked up about what the price is or what people have to pay for the new deal.

-Zidware has to live
-Game has to show and demo well to generate interest
-A manufacturing plan has to come together
-BOM has to work out to something that can make profit
-Final pricing that the market can support and still generate profit

Everything can fall apart if any of those steps don't come together.

So I'm not going to get into a twist about money or anything else that might happen down the road, since it's pretty unlikely.

Seems like vendors are popping out of the woodwork. They might be able to help paint the picture of how much John actually spent.

Creating a game is where the expensive labor is. It wouldn't take that many contractors to blow through 1.5 million in four years, or even three years if we go by the fact sounds like the money ran out a year ago.

Based on what I've been told, John was "frugal" with everyone (before they stopped getting paid completely), which makes burning through the cash that much more confusing.

The jpop defenders have always said our cost estimates were way off and he had plenty of money left over, but then explain where the hell the money went then.

The other thing we used to be told was there was plenty of money still to be paid by pre-orders. But if that was the case, then the solution to all the problems was there. All he had to do was finish SOMETHING and re-invigorate the buyers.

Had John brought the same Magic Girl that is going to be shown next week, and brought it to expo, or TPF, or anything in the months previous, might have changed everything.

Just doesn't make sense. and maybe there is no sense to be made.

You are right

If he had a mostly finished prototype people would line up to pay him money

Like the TBL it all turned to shit

Indeed, but that would require to actually pay your contracters, and it seems JPOP skipped that part.

Who has control of the MG prototype, and where is it today?

It should probably have a tracker on it.

I know it goes without saying and the gesture will be greatly appreciated; whoever is going to the NW show from pinside please remember to take some recordings of Magic Girl in action and post it on here for us East side folks. I know our European and Asian pinside members are also dying to see the game in full light as well .

Thanks for that.

I'm on another "epic journey" through Scandinavia as we speak. Played (very badly) at the ifpa world champs and tonight I'm playing in a comp in Finland with my Finnish mates.

I didn't do a thread this time. I'll do another one when I go back to the States for Expo in October.

PS just found the sweetest Metal store here in HELLsinki. \m/

rd.

image.jpg

Even severly over inflating cost guestimates.

Total cash brought in >> 1.2 to 1.6million

Rent for shop (has he been there for 4 years?) 4k per month = 200k in rent
Shop Equipment (assume purchased from the videos we saw) = 60-100k
Payments to some vendors for limited total parts (what are we talking 3-5 total prototypes) 60k
Payments to coder, artists, sound guy, etc (from what we know this was limited) 100k
Salary for Jon (should have been zero, but with the size of his ego) 100k per year = 400k

Absolute worst case he still has 300k in the bank.
He still has all of the shop equipment which has retained most of its value.
He would have a very difficult time justifying a 100k salary given the comparables of other well known designers.
The IP is worth something to the high dollar colectors.
The prorotypes are also worth something and if they do not all disappear would like bring high bids at auction.

If forced into bankruptcy there is likely the ability to prove/find 300 to 900k still remains. (some paid in salary but likely able to prove this was not part of the agreement and he will owe this back, esp given his likely cominggling of accounts)

This means .50 on the dollar possibly returned for each person that paid him.

I would assume that with Pintasia stepping in they have structured a deal on the Jpop side where they will claim to be a vendor/supporter and will be a secured debtor. They are blowing through money like crazy (claiming 100k in the past week!!! WTH? How is that even possible? ).

Wake up and realize the angle you are all being sold on. Jpop is scrubbing the internet in order to make your jobs harder to get him. Act now and do all you can to get the ball rolling as quickly as possible. I would say the best thing you can do is to force him in to bankruptcy ASAP.

We're trying to apply reason, logic and accountability to someone who clearly has none It's like arguing with a drunk person when you're completely sober.

Businesses fail and lose investors money all the time. Sad thing here is if John would have been open with people back in 2013 he could have gotten the help he needed before it all went to seed.

"Here are my games, let's do a round of funding based off this"

Instead of:

"My companies going under who wants to buy the scraps?"

After all is said and done, this behavior illustrates he has not a speck of integrity. Having worked with many small businesses people, I have seen 99.9% pay their vendors/contractors/employees/bank before they ever take a salary - sometimes for years.

Would never do business with anyone like John. Speaks volumes of his charcter.

Ben is right and he took in somewhere around the 925k mark. He has burned through this as far as I could tell but perhaps someone should hire, and fast, a forensic auditor to make sure where it all went. Shouldn't take the auditor very long at all to figure this out.

There had been talk of "more Magic Girls" for YEARS.... He even sent a letter to the owners saying he was considering it, and I had received a letter saying I could possibly get one.

So he knew YEARS ago the numbers didn't add up. And here we are today. Totally avoidable.

or lack thereof

People keep asking "why didn't we see this year's ago?" and seem to be missing the point that it seems not that much has changed over the last six months or so on the development end. Two things:

1. Building a prototype of a game is certainly hard, but ultimately very much an achievable goal. Just walk around the P-ROC area of Expo and you'll see lots of evidence to that fact. What usually stops people is lack of funds, time, or expertise. For the prototype phase John had access to a surplus of each.

2. Manufacturing and ultimately shipping machines in any significant quantity is apparently Very hard, if not borderline impossible. Stern, JJP, Spooky.. If you require flippers I don't know that we can count DayOne . Unless you roll up your sleeves to get it done like Spooky did, or have an amazing relationship with Stern or JJP I don't know how you get it done without being Very creative. That creativity would have to require a lot of funds, flexibility, and strong relationships in the industry. I think by the time it got to this point, these were resources in short supply.

I question this. As an example, earlier this year my company took a construction company that owed us approx. $6000 to court. It cost $75 for the sheriff deputy to summons the owner, a few hundred dollars for court costs and WE WON! The judge even added the court costs into the ruling. Then the construction company filed bankruptcy. We asked our attorney if there was anything we could do to recover anything. He sent us a reply of "no" and a $500 invoice for his time. So, we're out closer to $7000 rather than $6000.

I think I'd keep my hand off the fire button until Pintasia asks for money (which they said they won't).

Exactly, and I said as much in the Vonnie D thread. I mean, Vonnie D dabbled in synthetic narcotics and is facing a 20 year stay in the big house but what does all that have to do with building pinballs? Nothing. And Vonnie D is the best chance we have of seeing Pinball Gremlins get made. I just wish people would listen to what Vonnie has to say and stop all the negativity. What he did in the past has nothing to do with the present.

http://web.archive.org/web/20150415121342/http://pinballinventor.org/

A snapshot of the site cached from 04/15/2015, you can see these for most deleted sites.

EDIT: Not that he isn't "Trying" to get rid of it...but for anyone interested in seeing some of the site he used to have.

The large $ are think were spent on prototype parts - ie. machine this mech and lets see how it works, redraw, remake, try again - almost every part on this game, from side rails to apron to the spikey bolts were custom made, likely at larger costs that you realize. Spooky is standard parts, except for a few specific 3d stuff (Ghost, upper lanes, a few brackets underneath PF) and the powder coat ramps. Most all else was not in need of parts drawings, protos, or re-protos for tweaks. I think most of the time and $ were put into design, drawings and custom part making.

Bill, Maybe I missed it, but you can't tell folks the details of the agreement w/ John because you signed an NDA that those details wouldn't be made public?