This might help you squeeze a King Kong out of someone.

I'm not following the reasoning behind the sticker confirming this position. They did say they designed 2 prototypes, so it was 19 complete and "2 imperfect" or something along those lines. I personally don't see AP making more for JPop under pretty much any reasonable circumstance, I could be wrong of course.

Not always the case. Each state has blue sky laws on capital raising. These are designed to protect those that can't afford or understand an investment (requiring people be accredited investors is a common requirement).

I'm not suggesting these blue sky laws are applicable in this matter, just making an observation that not all avenues of capital are legal/appropriate.

I'm here as well. How long are you in town for?

Let me know when you're coming back. We will have a cigar and a scotch.

I agree. Will look at it tonight.

Do we know what they are selling for now? I've not heard of any sales since the first one that sold a couple days after it was delivered. How many have changed hands now in total? Just curious.

Do you have a link to the eBay listing?

I wouldn't joke about that. It is reasonably foreseeable that this auction may end in a winning bidder that won't pay, making the game be re-listed. Everyone who makes a joke along those lines will be an instant suspect if that happens.

So you dropped out of the litigation as well? Wasn't it just a video deposition, you were never going to have to travel were you?

Well, that sucks. His attorney, I'm guessing, basically said the victims had to fly in to the place where they brought the suit so JPop's lawyer could question them. The sheer inconvenience of that (and cost) will help JPop sliver out of liability as his victims won't want to incur the cost.

Oh? What's been happening in the case? I haven't heard a word in weeks.

Is that about what Stern pays these days as well? Seems likely more than Stern pays, I recall a few years ago people thought Stern paid about 80k a year base to their full time designers; I do not recall what info that estimate was based on, if any.

It’s not like the other designers had a say in who their co-worker was, in fact JPop was already there when they got hired (he may have helped them get the job for all we know). The other desigers I’m sure are happy to have a job for their skill set and I’m happy for them, everyone has bills to pay and mouths to feed.

While I understand everyone’s amazement that JPop keeps popping back up, let’s not begrudge other designers their paychecks or claim they take some moral high ground for the community and turn down a job/paycheck I’m sure they need.

Ha! That would be great to hear but I don’t see his ego allowing him to travel down that path. In his mind he’s apparently still the victim somehow and the people that supported him with pre-orders are bad people who have mistreated him (hence him actually suing many of them...and doing his whole victim blaming act...deplorable behavior in my view).

I’d love to be proven wrong and see him change but I think we’ve all moved past expecting that.

Alas, this bankruptcy of Zidware is unlikely to have much in the way of negative personal results for JPop. He long ago made it past the lookback period where the trustee or court would claw back any preferential transfers or over compensation to executives or things along those lines (at least based on the information that is out there...granted I did not follow the lawsuit nor read the bankruptcy filing...).

Good! I had forgotten they had pierced the corporate veil. Thanks for the reminder. I hope they have pursued and succeeded in a garnishment of his income from Deep Root.

Speaking of Deep Root, I did have the chance to play the prototype RAZA at HAAG. I thought it was a good game with some decent ideas and shot well. Had RAZA come out when scheduled it would have been a head turner and really collectible. Pinball has just moved forward too much since those days. When you look at what has Deep Root has put together with the prototype RAZA next to a Jurassic Park or JJPOTC the difference is readily apparent, in my personal opinion.

Deeproot made a good game, I enjoyed their RAZA...but looking at it next to a Jurassic Park Premium... Of course, the RAZA was a prototype so we will see what happens in the production model.

The thing that got me with RAZA was it had a regular wood playfield; with all the discussion on their playfield I figured it would be ceramic or hard plastic or something like that. Doesn’t seem like it would be fundamentally more durable than anyone else’s playfield but perhaps it has a better coating. Dunno.

Does JPop still control the Zidware website?

I wonder if John is still drawing a paycheck from Deeproot. Surely he was contract labor as opposed to an employee and he is not drawing a salary at this moment. Who can say though, the guy seems to land on his feet no matter what he does. He must be magical when giving a presentation one on one.