That art is beautiful. Love how you incorporated the Love Gun girls on it. As an 10 year old looking at that album cover back in 1979, they filled my dreams for years.

Ugh, this thread......

Bill, please follow up with me about taking a serious look at this game with industry professionals. After talking to me on the phone last Tuesday you said you would follow up with me via email but you have not. I know you have a lot on your plate, but this project deserves the prospective it deserves before moving forward.

Just went to zombieyeti website. Wow!...just Wow!

Metallica comes to mind fairly quickly. (Categories: Designer/Coder/Artist/Musician)

Yes I think we all agree ZY's art would sell well as stand-alone, an is a way to recoup any potential lost money on pinball art that doesn't make it to production.

I absolutely love that Kiss backglass art! And the Bill Murray was limited to 15? Damn.

Zombie Yeti, may I suggest an idea to you? There are several pinball machines that are beloved by collectors that have lackluster backglasses or translites. An artist of your caliber could likely draw custom backglasses that would really improve the look of the game and would probably sell very well. People even like to just hang that stuff on their wall. Might be something to think about!

Judging by how much he liked to talk to lawyers, I'm certain he did that. Based on how shitty of a businessman he is, I also expect he fully pierced the veil and his personal assets would be on the line assuming competent counsel goes after them. Business ownership is all fun and tax games until somebody drags yer ass into court and you have to explain yourself.

Really cool stuff, nice!

Custom translites would be cool for many games. Or maybe some re-themes. It seems to be forgotten these days but way before Donnie did Metallica he did Hellacopters and the original Metallica re-theme of Earthshaker.

I was thinking the same thing, haven't played wwe, but it sounds like it's kind of a dog. I can see the ring being slow and used too much but could that be fixed with code? What if stern hired zombie to make a crazy ass zombie mutants wresting game with kick ass art work, would that give that game enough traction to get get the code polished? Just spit balling here. And actually same applies to TWD in my opinion, but with zombie's artwork it checks another box. Stern is in the mod business these days.

With $5895 paid for AIW, thinking i was "almost" done sending money?

Now i have to send another $10.000 to receive magic girl if i switch.

I live in the netherlands europe,i will need to hire someone in the usa that physically picks up the machine for me,does anyone of you know someone i can trust and send $10.000 to?

It is too dicy for me as i can lose more and i will be the laugh of the netherlands??

The way i saw it working during my time there was Matt was doing the graphic screens for the display and your good self was doing the playfield & cab art. I could never get an answer off John as to why he needed 2 different art guys, but i guessed it was because of your own preferred areas (obviously not the case now real info is out).

This is another prime example of what i've been talking about with the silo nature of being a contractor there. Non-one ever spoke to anyone else, or even really knew what anyone else was doing. Everything went through John via the Zidware dropbox shares. So sad....

Couple of new videos to show:

Firstly a video describing how the diagnostics built into the system was working. This was a development video that i would upload to the dropbox shares for John benefit and also (i assumed) would be shared to the owners blogs (which i did NOT have access to)

Next, a test video forhte jackpot lit lamp effect. Again this was shot for development reference purposes and to be shared on the owners blogs.

Again i am still working my way through all my archived files so there will be more to share. I am doing this as a means to help myself with some much needed therapy and give something positive for all the people involved, as well as show what i did. The upcoming demo of the game will certainly be interesting

I watched the Adobe Inspire video through Zombiyeti's website. What a great video, and it takes you to JPOPs studio/workshop. There is a separate video about the collaboration of the two. Fascinating. I think if I had seen that video before I would have been lining up to order a pin. I'm glad I'm only seeing it now. Fantastic artwork.

It is MADNESS to continue to send money to this guy,........MADNESS!!!!!

I'd rather set fire to my feet and chew them off.

lol. How about Tricky Bitch?

So much of the ill will could have been avoided had John been more honest about everything. He could still go a long way to repairing his reputation by coming clean even today. Most people don't want to think of him badly. It will not solve all the legal headaches, but could help with 80%. Enough that he could show his face again at a pinball show.

Basically do this:

-Stop blaming anyone else
-A real apology
-In hindsight, when did you realize this was mission impossible
-Why did you continue with the charade
-Talk about living with the lies, how deep it went, how you treated the people closest to you
-How did you hope it would end, once you knew you'd never be able to do it on your own
-Explain what thought/planning went into the budget/numbers
-What kind of BOM did you come up with, and how did you think you could get it done?
-What went through your mind when you were challenged by your customers with good questions and how you dealt with that
-The reasoning of treating your vendors so badly
-Did you think you could recover
-Talk about how you didn't see yourself as a bad person, but your actions could only be described as being a bad person

I could keep going actually.... there is a lot to be mended. It was years of deception, lies, poor choices and terrible behavior. I believe most people want to forgive and move on though. But it's up to John to do anything about it.

I agree, Frolic. Sometimes people (at the very least) just want to see some remorse.

Totally agree. JJP has set a totally new standard for quality and fun.

Frolic, well written.

Frolic- I agree totally. Frankly, if Jpop had bothered to communicate properly and honestly, I wouldn't have sued. Ironically, it was the 'do not sue' clause that pushed me the last inch to sue. Even in the final twitches of Zidware's life, he was trying to play it clever with his beloved legal agreements. Major fail. NDAs, purchase agreements. Never had that with other pinball purchases. That alone should have warned me off bothering with Zidware.

Jpop has behaved in an abominable fashion, and is now, what, running away? A coward as well as a scoundrel.

I remember Jpop telling me he was setting up that pinball school, and also volunteer-run manufacturing in UK and Europe. Of course, we now realise that was just a front to get people to work for free. Which goes back to the point, what exactly did he spend the money on? Hopefully his accounts will be audited and we'll all find out in due course...

popcorn.jpg

Seriously though, I have no dog in the race, but it is interesting to see the photos and videos that have come out since this change. At least things are trying to be done.

Hope all are made whole and these can get made for the people that want one.

Chris

He was being sarcastic...

You would like RGP even more

From photos of John's shop I'd guess 200k of the money went towards wide format printer ink.

The first dozen banners you hang on the wall that say "Believe Wow Zap!" don't do anything, but once you get to around 30 productivity skyrockets to 5% efficiency.

Totally?

I think you could be very successful with pinball-style art prints. I love what you did for these titles and look forward to seeing what you come up with!

AcDc please.

I'm not getting the apology sentiment. Would it really help if he apologized for jerking us around for months/years when he knew for a LONG time he had no money or intention of actually building anything. Would it help if he apologized for continuing to take money from people only a few weeks ago when he knew they weren't going to get a machine? When he stopped paying people who worked on the project? When he stopped returning phone calls or answering questions? Could he not have apologized to people one at a time? Let's face it, he did what he wanted, he played art and crafts for a few years and took a good salary on our dime. He didn't give 2 shits about accountability for anyone's money enough to even keep decent records. He didn't include us in any of the buy-out talks. He didn't give refunds. He legally protected himself from any personal liability. He didn't abide by his contract. He didn't show buyers any pictures or videos like he promised. He didn't update his blogs as he promised. He misled and lied about completion dates and reveals. He blamed everyone and their mother for everything that went wrong.

In my opinion he had known for a long time that he was going to screw us and put on a charade because he was too spineless to be honest with us. He has no moral compass, integrity or character. He is a piece of sh*t and will remain unforgiven by me. I hope he goes broke and goes to jail, probably the only time he will have to think about what he did wrong.

I'd like to see a couple pinball shirts with zombieyeti art

Oh, for certain it would not satisfy everyone. I also suspect one is not forthcoming (certainly one of any real value), so it is moot.

I don't see that this matter has been certified as a class action. IMHO, if it was going to be brought as a class action, it would have been better served to do so in the United States District Court in Illinois. The case caption doesn't even reference it as a class action (but I have not seen the actual complaint -- perhaps someone would like to share it here).

And. Getting a Judgment is one thing - collecting it is an equine of a different hue......

Not at this point. Maybe initially when he realized he created his very own Titanic. Unless of course he knew from the very start that he was sunk and just didn't care. Problem is, a lot of people say they know it's a risk sending cash to a "start up", but I don't think the risk is ever very real to them until something like this happens.

Looking back, I wouldn't have sent my money in if I had considered it "at risk". I was that confident.

So.... lesson learned.

Give me ONE example of how he showed any remorse for anything he has done so far? In my opinion he is a sociopath and a criminal.

I wasn't in on it and I thought it was a lock that they were going to be made.

There aren't any, that's why people want his hide.

I'd be happy to talk to people about filing a class action in the United States District Court. I think there's a basis for allegations of fraud and embezzlement counts which *could* be excepted from bankruptcy under 11 USC 523, in the event there is a bankruptcy (or more than one) filed. Apparently the case which was referenced in this thread earlier was dismissed. Not sure why.

I like zombiyeti's KISS backglass more than the new Stern one. No offense to Kevin, but zombie's has more character to it. Maybe there's an opportunity for zombie to team up with CPR for alternate translites.

100% agreed! More eye candy with Yeti's version.

Why the F are you downvoting me for this post JIFFY? are you stupid?
You no-profile nobody,what is there to downvote?
It is just a question for help to the pinside community?
swallow a pinball !

No,swallow a bag of them

John should apologize

Yep...and as long as that apology is accompanied by a $6,500 check, I'll accept it.

Conversely, the only reason that I asked for a refund is that I had my doubts that the pin would either be very, very late, or not made at all. I thought it was more likely that it would just be very late, but would be built and delivered eventually.

I always figured Magic Girl would get done, and that would put everyone's minds at ease. Worst, and expected case, was that he would produce more MGs.

When Alice was announced, and deposits taken, I started to see it as a shell game, but still figured the earlier games would get done, financed by the last one.

By the time Alice was announced, I had stopped sending money in.

Oh well.

John should figure a way to deliver what he sold or refund all of the money he took. Not like he's new to pinball or a teenager. Apology and explanation would be nice, but I'm sure a man with any decency and character would take responsibility and would make everyone whole one way or other.

You're not alone in thinking like this about unproven pinball manufacturers. I can't tell you how many people here have said something like, "Worst case predator rules suck." Or something like that about their pre-order pin. I've corrected a few reminding them worst case is you lose your money.

Well, they all talked a good game, that's for sure.