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Quoted from Xerico:If you cannot ship any of the merchandise ordered by the customer, you must refund the entire amount the customer "tendered," including any shipping, handling, insurance, or other costs
Last company I worked for, they would pre-sell products we were still working on (salesmen would actually estimate it without consulting engineering first), and as often projects go sometimes you run into stumbling blocks. On one project, I was talking to the IT manager in charge of our website and he's like "Yea, if we're late shipping a product, we don't just get pissed off customers. A customer like Sears or Walmart will fine us $10k/day until we ship product". It's amazing how much wasn't communicated at that company (including hard deadlines or schedules). It's no wonder why it's having such hardship and people quitting left and right, it's being run by idiots.
Quoted from VacFink:I really read this as Zidware is having a fling with Burger King. That seems much more plausible. I mean you have that big silent type mascot, flame broiled profits, and lots of greasy bad taste left on all of your customers, seems like a match made in heaven.
Quoted from Concretehardt:You sir have lost a good customer who believed in you enough to give you money years in advance for your games.
Below is a pic of the first and last JJP game I will ever buy!
Good for you to stick to your guns and vote with your wallet. I was pretty close to buying a Woz when it first came out and my wife got to play it at an arcade. She loved the theme, she loved the look of quality and the RGB lights. I was hesitant to spend $7500 on any machine, and seeing constant ball jams of the prototype at expo set me uneasy. Then I started seeing the one on location have bad reset issues (had to unplug the balloon pop bumper to keep it stable), I saw trees break on the pop bumpers, I heard stories of owners having issues with the rainbow light board, and I was convinced it simply wasn't worth the money if that was the sort of quality they were putting out.
John has added a "preview" site for magic girl now
http://www.pinballinventor.org/games/magicgirl/preview/index.html
He's gone as far as uploading images of all the artwork, and embed quicktime movies (that PC users typically can't see), and giant .WAV files of game music (oh but then a few mp3's mixed in, just to be consistent)
How to increase your google search ranking:
http://www.mtu.edu/umc/services/web/seo
Whoever is running that site, add links back to all the high search rankings:
http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?searchtype=advanced&ppl=John%20Popadiuk
http://www.pinballinventor.org/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnpopadiuk
https://pinside.com/pinball/archive/john-popadiuk
John Popadiuk
http://www.johnpopadiuk.com
clearly google hasn't indexed the site at all. If you google "www.johnpopadiuk.com", it won't even find it.
Quoted from Fulltilt:Bing does....
so does dogpile and yahoo.. Hmm, wonder what's google's deal?
Quoted from PinballHelp:edit Wikipedia and create a page for John Popadiuk. There is not a page there for him. Wikipedia has the highest Google pagerank. You can put the full gory details of his business/dealings there as long as it's done in a neutral tone and has appropriate citations. It's funny that there are articles for many designers but not him.
someone has edited circus voltaire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirqus_Voltaire
Annnnd... Now there's a wikipedia entry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Popadiuk
Quoted from MrBally:Love the salary as well as net worth info. LLLLMFAO!!!!!!!
I'm liking that he has a wikipedia page now. Not even from a "make him visible" standpoint. I think every designer should have one because information about them is scattered. I need to go back and listen to the podcasts he was on to fill in more information.
Quoted from frolic:Is he still at his shop every day playing around with foam core?
I would imagine the local hobby lobby know him by name by now
"Ah yes Mr Popadiuk, how many reams of foam core will it be today?'
The popadiuk wiki is result #3, which links to johnpopadiuk.com website. I say mission accomplished.
Quoted from frolic:he'd try and book a seminar
but of course.. you know, he has to update everyone on his progress this past year. emptying out bank accounts, letting other people finish his magic girl and ship it for him, talk about the lawsuits, how it's all pinside's fault why he couldn't finish.
And don't forget about the website updates!
Oh how ironic if dutch pinball were shipping pins by October, and they post a sign "this is a shipment rug reveal"
Quoted from RyanStl:I know it was from last year , but that should be updated ASAP
You're lucky if he updates it a month beforehand, or even updates the classifieds google spreadsheet
Quoted from benheck:prosumer CNC and 3D printers don't hold much value, wide format printers hold none
dam, looks like I need to keep an eye on auctions in the bartlett area then
Quoted from PinballHelp:Yea, you're too far out, we can't provide you DSL
I've also heard stories where people will order a T-1 line for a month, then cancel it. In order to provide a T-1 line, that requires them to run the lines and equipment. Then since the backbone is there, you can order a more affordable service like DSL.
Quoted from Fulltilt:thread_is_dead.jpg
But, there are still updates going on for Alice:
http://www.pinballinventor.org/feed_aiw.html
His last post is sounds like he's having a brain aneurysm as he writes:
"After the posts and rubbers go on then we can start to add playfield plastics and other parts on "top". In this cas the caps that cover the bumper bocies. These will have a bight "dual-sided" led lamp board installed!"
Quoted from vid1900:He is a renter.
Quoted from benheck:He RENTS that house he lives in?
I don't think so, there was a whole discussion how he's been late paying his property tax because he negotiates a lower price. I don't know any renters that pay property tax.
Sorry if this is a repost, but not everyone reads the Skit-b thread:
Don't know if this is relevant, but Michaeal Jordan JUST won a court case against Dominick's (A chicago based grocery store that went bankrupt a couple years back) for using his likeness without permission back in 2009, to the tune of 8.9 million dollars (Jordan isn't even keeping the money, he's donating it to chicago charity because he wasn't interested in money, just defending his name).
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/13486052/supermarket-chain-pay-michael-jordan-89-million-use-name
Sounds like safeway has to pay since they owned Dominick's at the time, but it proves even bleak cases can still prevail. Perhaps if lawsuits for both Kevin and JPOP go through, even if they don't "have any money left", they'll at least be financially responsible to pay it. Whether that means jail time or a permanent wage garnish by federal law until the money is paid back, either way justice will be served.
maybe john can design some lamps
http://makezine.com/2015/08/27/heres-why-you-should-prototype-with-foamcore/
Quoted from frolic:my games must have (and do) better artwork, cool theme, more features and super cool cabinet look to attract and keep customers
Must be from the private blog?
better artwork: Heighway did some improvements, I'd say they're up to late 80's art. John had better artwork because he paid a good artist
cool theme: debatable. Magic girl (from what I gather based on in completion) is simply a sequel to theatre of magic. Magic is cool, it'd be cooler if it were licensed, like Penn & Teller. RAZA is a complete bastardized joke. AIW is timeless, but it's also been done to death (it's also 150 years old)
more features: If... ya know, you finished getting all those hyped up gadgets that had to be turned off in settings because they weren't finished.
super cool cabinet: that needs custom glass, and barely clears the shooter rod
keep customers: Yes, it would probably be cheaper to buy glass from JPOP since he would have been buying it in volume, versus someone contacting a glass company and buying a custom piece of tempered glass for $100. He would have customers for life.
Quoted from hank527:Apparently him and his wife are having issues. This is the reason for the van statement
"I am 53 years old, I am thrice divorced, and I live in a vannn down by the river!"
jpop_matt_foley.jpg
Quoted from benheck:effect making it look like work was progressing
Quoted from frolic:make work
Reminds me of the "do nothing machine". You can crank it all you want and put work into it, but ultimately it does nothing
Quoted from JoeinNJ:Currently we are battling a court complaint filed by 20 owners and sadly it is taking much of my time and what resources I have left (which I told folks it would), and has pushed away 3 fantastic partner companies in the past months besides Pintasia
Well with sincerity like that, I think all 20 owners should drop their lawsuit immediately. Also if you truly have 3 other partners that are making serious offers to invest in this "rob peter to pay paul" business structure, I'd like their contact info. Surely these guys would invest in the brooklyn bridge at this point.
Quoted from beatmaster:will he be at the pinball expo?
Doubtful.. He may show up to pinball life pin-explosion, he can play pinball and get some free grub and beer (he showed up last year), plus it's a slightly shorter drive.
Quoted from PinballHelp:Why bother worrying whether he apologizes or not? Even if he did, it would be meaningless
it's sort of the same thing on the show "catch a contractor". Either it's a half apology, the apology isn't sincere, or even if it is sincere the homeowners could care less after he tried screwing them over.
Quoted from Wolfmarsh:His landlord is probably banging on the door.
I don't remember which side he knocked out a wall, but either his neighbor moved out, or he lost half his space
http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/19259438/37-Sangra-Ct-Streamwood-IL/
He was 39, so 37 would be to the left (west) if you were standing at his door
Quoted from ZenTron:How many Sterns have been released since JPop took his first deposit? I can do the leg work if i know date first deposit was sent in.
His announcement on RGP was July 23rd, 2011. If you don't count vault editons, or premium/LE (just new titles), they've made 13 titles in that time frame (soon to be 14 once GOT is shown):
http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?mfgid=303&yr=2011-2015&sortby=name&searchtype=advanced
Also since mid 2011, At least 5 other pinball companies have formed (4 of which have shipped games)
Spooky - built over half the first run
Heighway Pinball - Has starting shipping it's first title
Jersey Jack has shipped Woz, is trying to finish the Hobbit
Chicago Pinball has shipped "some" MMr's
Dutch pinball is getting their factory setup and will ship as soon as the code is finished
Quoted from QuickSilverShelby:Hey don't forget Wooly.
Wooly is not a "company", but I still give him props for building 4 prototypes (still more than magic girls built). I also didn't include Skit-b because it was never a "company", and I don't think there was ever more than one prototype built (he ordered parts for the first 10).
Quoted from CraigC:I think he moved back to Australia last i heard.
Sure about that? Linkedin says he went to WMS gaming 5 months ago:
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/cameron-silver/2/550/2a3
Quoted from Coyote:I noticed recently that one of his blogs was timing out for me, like a DDOS attack or server down. I can't find the page/site now - was wondering if anyone else noticed that
Not just you, and it's not the domain, it's the server down (or he deleted everything off of it). If you do a reverse IP search (208.109.181.41), same page comes up.
Quoted from Fulltilt:He drives a f&%king minivan
What happened to the volvo SUV? Or is that his wife's?
Quoted from Concretehardt:toyotaboy said:
What happened to the volvo SUV? Or is that his wife's?
We bought his wife a car too?
that's what he was driving 3 years ago, unless he traded the Volvo in for a minivan?
Maybe we can find someone to dress up as the hagg from the princess' bride?
Booo! Booo! Bow down, bow to the king of slime, the king of filth. rubbish! Boo! booo!
Quoted from C2CPinball:There is a story to tell here
a very LONG story, you might have to split it up into 3-4 shows.
Quoted from mrgone:jpop starts the interview
I'll be damned, I never thought he'd do it. Time to reserve 2 hours to listen.
He's contradicting himself!
* "I didn't setup zidware to manufacture pinball" - Ummm.. then why did you double your warehouse, and specifically show a floorplan for manufacturing (and a photo of a carpeted nest for the backbox assembly)? Or does he not consider building low volume "manufacturing". I guess that means spooky isn't a pinball manufacturer.
Admits having 8 engineers.. 2 engineering volunteers, other 6 paid. Was supposed to pay anyway, I think Applejuice is still waiting for a paycheck
He sure likes to dodge the issues. "Risk it all, american dream". Yea, but most people risk all their own money, not others". And what the hell was that John McAfee comment? That had nothing to do with the company, that was personal issues with drugs and murder. How about you google something before you make a dumb statement like that which has nothing to do with running companies poorly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McAfee#Legal_issues
"magic girl, zombie adventure, alice in wonderland.. that was the 3, there was no plan after 3"
Sooo.. Kiss concept, the cat bowling, the supposed EM project, those were all hobby projects he had time to work on because the 3 he was focused on was going so well?
OMG, now he's claiming people that worked for him left and went to work for Stern?? I would love to know the names of those people (besides maybe zombie yeti possibly getting hired to do artwork). Even if that is true, any smart person would. At least Stern actually pays their employees.
Quoted from CoinTaker:playfield & programing) 75% to 95% MG complete
"If I move a post, it might affect artwork".. Umm, that's why you do artwork LAST!!
Quoted from OzarkKing:(*disclaimer*) I really like Cirqus Voltaire.
I prefer it virtually, allows you to quickly make subtle changes that make it play a bit differently
cirquis_jpop1.jpg
Quoted from someoneelse:it took him 10 years to finish WCS
You know, this is an odd thing to hear. I mean think about that, it means he started in 1984 when there wasn't even alphanumeric displays being used yet (and space shuttle had just come out with the first vacuum formed ramp). 1994 DMD was out for 2 years, so that means 2 display technologies went by during the development of WCS94? Maybe what he means is he tinkered "a design" on his own time for 8 years, then when they approached him to make a soccer game because it was coming to the US, he took that design and stepped it up?
Quoted from Kneissl:I see Ice Castle in the ipdb.. None built. Is Ice Castle wcs? Anyone know more of the story?
I think he briefly talked about this on spooky's pinball podcast. Not a lot of detail on it, other than it barely made it past the whitewood stage. Supposedly there's a photo in one of the pinball books
Quoted from rai:Maybe he's trying to sell the cabinets and hinges and such?
Sell the cabinets to who? Only his goofy playfield needs that steep angle (and custom cut glass)
Quoted from BMore-Pinball:why won't anybody help me??? No sure, but the last time I checked, everybody that works for me expects (and does) get paid. Who has the time to provide him the free labor he requires?
Yet there were people "like me" and many others who were perfectly willing to help and work for free with no expectation of anything in return but experience, and he insulted me by complaining I didn't pickup a phone instead of repeatedly emailing him (yes, because a phone is so much more efficient than replying to an email at your own convenience). I bet to this day he still doesn't realize how many people he pissed off. It sure seems like he got completely overwhelmed by just managing the business alone, nevermind trying to design a pinball and acquire vendors that could build parts for him. Combine that with him being a control freak and insisting things only be done his way and micro-managing, and how could you possibly expect this project to ever get done? This is 100% John's fault, whether he wants to simply call himself a "bad business manager" or not. Common sense says you don't turn away help when you ask for it on a podcast and at the end of every Pinball expo presentation, and then add to the insult at the end that "nobody wants to help me"
Quoted from DCfoodfreak:I will just keep yelling shame at him. Loudly and pointing!
You need to add a bell ringing each time you say shame #gameofthrones
Quoted from Rarehero:John said he wanted to get the story out before he "falls on his sword" ...should we put John on suicide watch? How dark can this story get...
There's multiple meanings to it:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fall_on_one's_sword
1. To commit suicide by allowing one’s body to drop onto the point of one's sword.
2. To resign from a job or other position of responsibility, especially when pressured to do so
3. To voluntarily take the blame for a situation
I'll take number 2&3
Quoted from benheck:Stern may be the only company in America that PREFERS to hire men over 50, and yet he turned down a job there (spoiler warning! because they offered less than he was paying himself)
Quoted from asay:I don't think he meant for any of this to happen....he is just stupid/delusional and has absolutely zero business sense.
This is the #1 reason why I have zero sympathy for him. He let his ego get the best of him, and now he's going to pay for it one way or another. If he were smart, he would have followed Steve Ritchie's path when Williams closed. Get a crappy job to pay the bills, sell signed merchandise on your website to help fund the difference, work on playfield designs, and when Stern asks you if you want a job, you say.. YES!
Did Barry Oursler decide "Hey! I'm gonna start my own pinball company!", no.. because he knows he couldn't do it. He took a joe job, sold every HUO pinball machine he ever worked on to pay bills, and now that boutique pinball is in full effect he's doing a playfield layout for Heighway Pinball instead of owing everyone a million dollars.
Quoted from BMore-Pinball:Looks like he changed his website - http://www.pinballinventor.org/
took down all links to anything
Yes, looks like he's revamping the layout (why I couldn't possibly guess), but all the sublinks still work:
http://www.pinballinventor.org/feed.html
http://www.pinballinventor.org/news.html
http://www.pinballinventor.org/press.html
Looks like he's also adding things (mod and truss weren't there before). Is he attempting to sell mods for existing games? or is attempting to sell his "truss system" from the Kiss prototype to another pinball company?
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:l4csEzZ3fuoJ:www.pinballinventor.org/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
zidware_9.28.15.jpg
Quoted from Strange:Magic Girl looks amazing to me. I routing for all of Zid's game to be finished, but MG especially. The sound and art are above and beyond and if it ended up playing as well as any of John's BW games with modern rules I wouldn't complain. John's games might not be the absolute most popular from the pinhead community but they are definitely some of my personal favorites. Heck, CV to me really is the greatest pinball ever. Very unique experience for a very unique game designer. I'm sure something will turn up to help these games come along eventually, and if they are some of the best pin games ever created and the financials get sorted and people get games, I'm sure the saltiness of the current situation will dissolve and eventually be forgotten, while the cool games will be remembered.
Are you typing from a parallel universe? In what world are any of his games going to get finished? Or did I miss the
looks like there's finally some movement on court dates #wiki
playfield glass shall be custom
CAD allows you to measure cabinet virtually
barely clears the polished knob
Quoted from Wolfmarsh:He isn't some astronomical level of genius that has been consumed by his mind and unable to function. He is like millions of other smart/creative failures.
The part I can't wrap my mind around (well I sort of can, he chose to refuse help or shunned those that could help and has absolutely no business sense).. Chuck Emery has never designed a professional pinball, never manufactured one in his life, yet here him and his wife are both doing just fine supporting themselves, shipping pinballs every week (and donating to charity). John "designed" 3 of the top pinballs Bally ever made, and yet he couldn't finish 3 of his own designs. And I don't think it was just running out of funds, anyone can design a good playing flipping whitewood in their basement, seems like his Magic Girl layout didn't even play real well, likely because he designed it in solidworks and didn't test. As ben said, John pushed the (make a flipping prototype out of foamcore), yet it seemed like John only used foamcore to layout playfield art, we didn't see flipping machines until it was cut from real wood.
Again, I reach out to any pinball podcaster out there, please get some of John's ex-coworkers on the show to get their side of how things ran back in the late 80's and early 90's at Bally Williams, I don't think a clear and complete story has ever really been told.
Quoted from sp005:Any chance we can have him banned/removed from the hall of fame:
Aha! There's the source of the ego! John announces Magic girl in July 2011, then receives a plaque in October. It's all Pacak' fault
jpop-2011_pinball-expo_plaque.jpg
Quoted from jonnyo:But am I reading this right? He's at Expo?
No, everyone is speculating. We're taking bets, it's 3 odds he'll at least show up to pinexplosion for the free food. If his brain wakes up on the delusional side of the bed this morning, he may show up to Expo with "something".
Quoted from examiner:Where's the second income coming from?
His wife works at a hospital in the cancer section according to Google searches.
I stopped by zidware on Tuesday on my way home, there was a SUV parked in front which I found odd at that hour.. also seemed to be one of those POD storage units in a parking spot.
Quoted from Honch:It was always a scam, no two ways about it
I know people have looked at the numbers, but seriously let's look at magic girl all by itself (before the numbers increased) to see how crazy this all really is.
Magic girl announced mid-July 2011. $17k each x 13 units = 221k. Let's assume since Stern spends 1-2 years to develop a new title (with hardware platform already existing, framework already existing, parts and CAD models already existing, vendors already lined up, employees to handle all the coding and sub-designing already in-house), that if you're a startup then it will probably take you a MINIMUM of 2 years.
$90k/year John salary
$15k/year in rent (for only first half before expanding)
Without paying a single artist or programmer, you've nearly eaten up funding in the first 2 years (without even having funding to physically build).
RAZA announced february of 2012:
http://pinballhead.com/ben-hecks-zombie-adventureland-pinball-available-for-pre-order
Hmmm. That would mean he likely paid programmers and artists similar salaries as contractors the first year (to the tune of $55k each over the year which isn't unreasonable), and ran out of money and quickly jumped to the next scam (err.. game title) because he needed money.. err, I mean he needs to keep the programmers and artists busy while he manufactures magic girl.. I mean attempts to finish a prototype in 4 years.
Call it a scam, or call it clueless how business works.. Hell, I wonder if he ever balances his checkbook. He's probably one of these people that thinks as long as there are checks in the checkbook then there must still be money left.
Quoted from rubberducks:there should be a reasonable chance of one of the companies acquiring the art and music assets For Magic Girl at the very least. All 3 themes were very strong and the IPs very well liked
Normally yes, but who would really be interested at this point? All 3 projects are so tainted at this point, would anyone really want them? To me:
Magic girl: seems like a re-hash of theatre of magic that didn't really innovate nearly what was promised.
RAZA: Needs to go back to being BHZA. Whatever mess that became RAZA, I don't think anyone is intersted in.. In fact if I were Ben (since it's his likeness), I'd seriously build a pin themed as him being some sort of super hero. Maybe a takeoff from Junkyard where he collects junk parts from around his workshop and builds something to battle with.
AIW: The original story is unlicensed, and really anyone could build a pinball theme around it. In fact, riot pinball announced a couple years ago that they were going to do one:
http://riotpinball.com/node/3
Quoted from hank527:I thought Jpop had new investors?
He does, in his mind. That rich guy is going to buy his million dollar art any day now
monopolyman.jpg
Quoted from rosh:The wheels of justice move slowly, but at least they are moving.
They should have just abolished all lawyers like they said they would
Quoted from TigerLaw:I really want to see a video deposition of JPop. Will be awesome.
agreed.. I'd even settle for artist sketch chalk drawings
court_sketch1.jpg
Quoted from TigerLaw:JPop can't manufacture anything so obviously he wasn't involved in a successful project
Also JPOP never said sorry in the first place to say "not sorry"
I think this one might be more fitting
b177c898-5cc0-431c-8119-6d5497c57b86[1].jpg
Quoted from Concretehardt:Well it looks like John killed his AIW progress thread yesterday, from what I have seen it was the only game he was showing any updates on. The RAZA & MG pages havnt had an update in nearly 6 months...
http://www.pinballinventor.org/feed_aiw.html
It was up 2 days ago:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:kaawWfgKwBIJ:www.pinballinventor.org/feed_aiw.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
He hasn't updated AIW in at least 2 months.. maybe he's clearing that chunk of the website so he can upload a completely new template and a foam update!
Quoted from ForceFlow:Is reality finally starting to set in?
Nah, now the entire site is gone. Last time this happened, the entire site got revamped. If you go to the IP address you get the same thing
208.109.181.41
Another possible answer, he's moving DNS servers around:
http://www.wallpaperama.com/forums/_wyxrww.html
Quoted from Rarehero:*Crickets* ...is this bastard in jail and/or homeless yet?
expect the court system to drag on for at least another year:
https://w3.courtlink.lexisnexis.com/cookcounty/FindDock.asp?NCase=&SearchType=2&Database=1&case_no=&Year=&div=&caseno=&PLtype=2&sname=Popadiuk&CDate=
His website is miraculously back up, but nothing's been changed.
john always complained about pinside comments of his work. Just think, in a few years he'll be forgotten and few will ever talk about him again. Wish granted!
Quoted from pinballrockstar:I have
one day an idea for "low impact" housing for people displaced by storm, or
war
Or displaced by being out of work.. John is going to be living in one of these soon:
Quoted from frolic:The dig at AMH is completely hilarious in light of almost every AMH has been delivered to every customer at this point.
And every AMH has gone up in value by about $1k
Quoted from frolic:John's been spending time on his website again.
http://www.zidware.com/inventor/index.html
Interestingly, the C2C interview links are now gone.
The rest of the self felating press links are there, like his favorite, "The Next Steve Job's of Pinball?".
Note: store is empty, only magic girl had a click able link in games, and pin development is 404'd, just as it should be
Quoted from pinstor12:Has he ever finished anything?
He's been known to finish a cup of coffee on occasion. These days he's probably finishing a bowl of ramen.
Quoted from rosh:And it is more than a year later, so they have now had twice the amount of time, and not sure they are even at 90% now. And of course this is a team of folks working TOGETHER.
Part of that time was spend on re-doing artwork that wasn't approved, sound/music that wasn't approved. they also took the prototype split boards and combined them into large single piece PCB's. I thought the same thing, but there's a lot of work behind the scenes that has nothing to do with code (but is a part of it) that most people don't notice (or wouldn't know unless they tilted up the playfield). I believe there's photos on pinball news somewhere.
Quoted from dgoett:Found this photo from my expo 2014 photos I took
I missed that year. It's amazing he couldn't even bother to attempt to color match the leg protectors, or trim the bottom to fit his custom cabinet.
Quoted from frolic:that was RAZA he was talking about....75% done
75% done for a cabinet and a foam core playfield layout (still nothing flipping yet)? I don't know how you can possibly under-estimate a timeline that badly. He worked for a pinball company, surely they had timelines.. especially a time sensitive product like pinball.
Quoted from frolic:you would literally be better off starting from scratch than trying to save this mess have proven true
Stern did.. they made ghostbusters and hired the same artist with few revisions, and PACKED the playfield with more art than I've ever seen on any pinball.
Quoted from TecumsehPlissken:its been confirmed he is out of that building
If you search "zidware inc", it now lists it as his home address:
http://listings.findthecompany.com/l/26190068/Zidware-Inc-in-Bartlett-IL
It also says $220,000 in yearly revenue and 4 employees, and his business title is now "Advertising Promotional Products and Services"
Quoted from benheck:Considering all he ever accomplished was cabs and art, there's no reason he couldn't have stayed in the basement and saved loads of money.
Not true, he built 3 crappy playing magic girls.. but with 750sq feet that could also easily fit that down there.
Even if John had just watched like 2-3 episodes of shark tank, he'd know that nearly EVERY new business starts at home, whether it be making pinball machines or baking cookies in a home oven. Until you get a feel for how something is going to sell, what it's going to take to build something (money, labor, vendors, distribution channels), you have no business renting out space with someone else's money.
To this day, I'll never understand what he needed all that space for. He even had multiple desks, yet I don't think anyone but him (and maybe the occasional volunteer to build mechs) was ever in the shop. Programmers, artists, mechanical guys all communicated through email or a quick zidware shop or coffee shop visit.
Quoted from TigerLaw:Anyone figure out how much he was paying himself and his family out of the company each year before the money ran out?
I thought it was pretty much confirmed he was paying himself 90k/year? I don't know if he was paying his wife anything to be secretary of the company. Brandes would know for sure, he saw the books.
Quoted from benheck:Bill went into the details last summer, after NW Show and Pintasia fell through.
Quoted from DS_Nadine:Uh,... KISS? Ok, just HOW MANY PINBALLS did this man announce while not finishing ONE?! o.O;
don't forget pussycat bowling
2bf7a311b157e4ab8fa93586f79f34caa77114c2[1]_(resized).jpg
Oh and apparently a makerbot pinball:
http://gamecenter.nyu.edu/three-questions-with-john-popadiuk/
Quoted from goatdan:this could have been a success had he actually partnered with someone to do this, and when in the past he worked within that environment he did find success.
that partner would also have to have been an accountant / payroll person because as many have said, it seemed that the moment John recieved pre-order money he thought of it as "his money". As Ben, and many business people say.. if you get paid upfront, you've lost the motivation to finish. See "catch a contractor" as an example:
Quoted from stangbat:I found the posts by Zaxxis that list all the domains John registered. What a flake. Think if John spent time actually getting shit done instead of dreaming up things that will never see the light of day. But getting shit done is hard. Sitting on your ass dreaming all day is much easier.
thanks stangbat for reposting zaxxis domain searches.. Went on the wayback machine, and many pages aren't archived (but some are):
https://web.archive.org/web/20141217030425/http://creationgames.org/
https://web.archive.org/web/20150420104915/http://pinball1977.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20130703225229/http://rockstarpinball.com
https://web.archive.org/web/20150228190926/http://pinballscrapbook.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20141218122800/http://zidbook.org/
https://web.archive.org/web/20141217171407/http://makerjohn.net/
https://web.archive.org/web/20160305164224/http://nanoschool.org/
Perhaps more fuel for the lawyers to prove the case that 14 hour days 7 days a week wasn't completely focused on fulfilling contracts.
Quoted from ArkhamB:There is a lawsuit?
I asked nobody wanted to give me an answer.
got bored so I googled zidware. Apparently John didn't even draw his own company's logo, he ran a contest for others to create one for him:
https://99designs.com/logo-design/contests/zidware-custom-pinball-usa-needs-amazing-logo-171342
zidware_logo_contest_(resized).jpg
It was the silver package, so count another $500 down the drain for capital funding.
WTF? pinball manufacturing? It's 41 sangra court, his old address was 39 sangra ct (possibly the expansion next door?). Last I heard the owner of all those buildings was selling it off. Maybe he's using a fake address to establish a location? Also the name listed "Dhavalkumar Vasani" is too common to pinpoint who it is.
This story about Hennessey racing has many parallels in a similar story (what's up with seedy people named John?). Yes Hennessey actually made product, but it sounds like he's going down a very slippery slope full of lies:
http://jalopnik.com/ex-employees-say-hennessey-is-a-bigger-mess-than-you-ev-1778134112
“management issues”
"will he pay me? I need the money so badly I need to do operation for my mother. John made my life so bad"
"repeatedly told in emails that the refund was on the way"
"John had to be a rock star"
"If you were out of state, man you were fair game"
"Also on site is the Hennessey Tuning School. That came under fire last year after a Reddit user who said he was attending the school on the GI Bill called it “a ripoff” where the cars they worked on were “pieces of shit” and students did little in the way of wrenching."
"Hennessey is of a hardworking man, a “devout Christian” who never wanted to incur debt and is currently working very hard to make things right"
Money from foreign clients was used to fund other projects and/or builds, or sometimes was used by Hennessey personally, according to a subset of employees, as some of the more rank-and-file employees said they really had no idea where money went. Sources differed on the opinion as to whether taking deposits from overseas clients and not delivering cars were actual, intentional acts, or just the result of mismanagement.
Clients’ cars would sit in the shop for months or longer with little or no work being done on them. The time the cars would be sitting would usually be measured in months, and occasionally a year or more. When the clients would eventually call and complain, they’d be put off or ignored until they threatened to demand refunds.
Quoted from frolic:He probably spent weeks designing the stamp for those envelopes, special ordering it, stamping the envelopes
He could have modeled the stamp in solidworks (if he knew how to do something like that) and 3d printed a stamp (with the makerbot he already bought). But knowing him he drew it in Autocad and spent the money on a rubber stamp. Wonder how many revisions he had on the rubber stamp before he was satisfied enough to mail it out?
Another example of a pre-order gone bad. A $100 3d printer project got funded to $600k, partner embezzled most of the money out to buy himself a house. The video is quite sad when they confront him and explain where the money went.
http://www.3ders.org/articles/20160511-peachy-printer-owner-embezzles-of-kickstarter-funds-to-build-himself-a-house.html
Think about how much forgiveness John might have gotten had he filmed a similar video
Quoted from TigerLaw:He also claimed he was "battling" Pinside and it was consuming his time. I'm still not sure how exactly he was battling Pinside but whatever...
Don't forget about the 100 emails he got everyday, so why don't you pickup a phone if you needed to get a hold of him, except he ignored those calls and just let his voicemail box get full.. unless it was a new buyer or someone was praising him, then he'd talk his ear off for 2 hours because you know.. he's busy.
Quoted from rai:Instead of going the Spooky rout which is simple, probably off the shelf hardware and cabinets and lighting. John wants to build a space shuttle (meaning no cost is spared). So he creates or attempts to create a pin that is not feasible within a budget. I mean after all the space shuttle was probably not built with a limited budget rather it was build with whatever it takes approach. IOW if John had made a few games with ZY as artist and with modest equipment like Spooky hardware/software, it seems more feasible that the projects would be successful. Of course they wouldn't be the nee plus ultra of pinball world. But I'd say people would rather have Spooky level pins than nee plus ultra nothing.
Honestly, even if John had gone the Charlie way (go ahead and reverse engineer the PROC control board), but use standard flippers, legs, cabinet, inlanes, trough, etc etc etc (IE pretty much what stern does on a typical project), and even if he designed it at home, not a studio, but still somehow managed to convince 12 buyers to pay $17k each for a "JPOP exclusive", I STILL don't think there was any way it was going to happen. $17k x 12 = $204k. Assuming he finalizes his layout, does one art layout (not multiple revisions), pays a programmer for a year to do code and work out bugs, you're still spending at LEAST $100k (and you still haven't bought parts, or assembled anything), and John still hasn't paid himself. No matter how you look at the math, it never would have worked at the quantities he was aiming for. Even Terry building 30 "pin games", and paying meager salaries to more than half a dozen people, he barely broke even at a $2k price point for what's a very simple game compared to a full fleshed out pinball.
As far as I know, John never had a clear business plan, never had a clear BOM, never had even a rough schedule timeline, hell never kept a logbook of reciepts of who paid what. There's no way this business could ever have worked.
And I don't post this as a "what were you buyers thinking", I get how smooth talking and convincing John is. Looking back, it's amazing he allowed himself to accept so much pre-order money knowing full well he had to make good on promises stated in contracts.
Quoted from Roostking:Charlie way (go ahead and reverse engineer the PROC control board), Thats kinda shitty if it went down that way?
To clarify, I don't mean Charlie reverse engineered PROC (ben designed the Pinheck board from scratch, longhorn engineer manufactured it and still does). I was comparing the way Charlie started (only designing a board and using as many off the shelf components as possible and 3d printing everything else) was the way JPOP SHOULD have gone about it. And yes, JPOP was trying to reverse engineer (from what I remember) the PROC board so he could keep costs down and wasn't locked into depending on a third party to provide the boards. He was also using a raspberry pi to keep costs down and eliminate fans running on a full size PC.
Quoted from iceman44:There are a ton of comedy gold nuggets in this you tube video looking back on it, one being the "kick starter" failure he tried right before MG.
Quoted from dgarrett:So any more news on what the hell this is? In streamwood, about 2 miles from JPop old shop.
http://american-pinball.com/
Hmm, someone should pop by that address to see what's up. google street view shows a typical industrial park building
https://www.google.com/maps/place/1448+Yorkshire+Dr,+Streamwood,+IL+60107/@42.012041,-88.1520817,17z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x880fa9c7bd5e8f49:0x4288ec6f782e3afc!8m2!3d42.012041!4d-88.149893
Whois lists an abuse contact:
http://www.tcpiputils.com/browse/domain/american-pinball.com
1.602.716.5396
That phone number brings up this guy:
http://www.allthepeople.net/adam-spriggs
Is he paying someone to work on his website this time? or making more promises of free pinball machine to get monkeys to do his bidding?
Quoted from epthegeek:He needed a mechanical engineer more than most things, but he definitely needed other things as well.
He had more than one, but he ignored them, so nothing got done. His biggest downfall is delegating what he was supposed to be known for (artist), and not delegating very well where he needed help (mechanical, electrical, programming).
Quoted from iceman44:Honestly, his biggest downfall was not paying you guys. Cheap bastard that wanted it all for himself.
I never wanted any money, I was totally fine with experience and helping with the project. I quit caring when he ignored me and coped an attitude.
Quoted from Compy:So for anyone wanting to do a bit more detective work, feel free to apply for any one of the jobs listed at American Pinball Inc.
http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=American+Pinball+Inc&l=Streamwood%2C+IL&from=vj
If he's hiring staff, he must be ready to roll. Also:
Oh look John, this is how you run a company
[Manage, planning & organizing production process, drawing up a production schedule]
[Ensure that the production is cost effective; estimate costs and set the quality standards]
Quoted from dgarrett:nobody would be impressed walking into that "company headquarters" for an interview.
Any questions?
Yes, do you have 401k and health insurance?
Ha ha ha! You're funny!
Quoted from vdojaq:OK, so who here wants to go apply for some pinball job(s) and report back with the interview/findings?
I'm sure like every pinball company there are NDA's that are signed so it would be a waste of time except for that person to have that knowledge to themself.
Quoted from investingdad:Pinball built in China? Dear Lord...that's going to make any QC issues at Stern look like child's play.
Every cell phone, computer and tablet is built in china. Do you not have any of these things? parts and assembly are fine in China, SO LONG AS YOU HAVE A MANAGER that is keeping an eye on things because they will try to veer away from the design intent every time to save pennies, even if it means compromising quality or function. I imagine it will work out just fine for Homepin, but it's also easier to fly over to china from Australia vs the US.
Quoted from frolic:yet are still acting all weird and covert
If you're referring to the flipped sign, it's not that unusual. There is another pinball type company in the chicago area in a rented office, and if you drove up to it you'd have no idea there was anything pinball related there.
found this in search today, some company named planet design, established in Algonquin?
http://illinois.50us.info/155554-planet-design-studio.html
The Telephone Number of the Company: 6303722812, (630)372-2812
Email: jpopadiuk [a] yahoo.com
Phone Number: 6303722812, (630)372-2812
Fax Number: null
Website: IDPLANET.COM
Email: jpopadiuk [a] yahoo.com
Company Name: Planet Design Studio
A Brief Description of the Company: Planet Design Studio is a U.S. company in ALGONQUIN, Illinois, belongs to Designers industry.
Quoted from lllvjr:American-Pinball™ to Launch its First Pinball Machine at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas on September 26th
Chicago, IL – September 26, 2016 - American-Pinball, manufacturer of arcade games and amusements, is excited to announce the world-wide release of Houdini - Master Mystery™ pinball machine for the home, arcades, gaming centers and magic collectors. The unveiling will take place September 26th at the Venetian Las Vegas hotel on the eve of G2E, The Global Gaming Expo
If this is true, why aren't they listed as a vendor at the show?
http://www.globalgamingexpo.com/Show-Info/Exhibitor-List/?kw=american&startRecord=1#
Quoted from lllvjr:There's your answer guys
all makes sense now. Scott Golberg was the public relations and promo manager at zizzle! It's come full circle
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/22/AR2006112200991_pf.html
Dhavalkumar is listed as the agent for the business. Probably not a good idea to use your home address
http://www.bizapedia.com/il/AMERICAN-PINBALL-INC.html
Quoted from benheck:is Houdini even a good theme? Maybe for a 1930's nickel game
Or you're harry anderson from night court.. Honestly if someone came out with a penn & teller pinball game and had some of their famous tricks (maybe the 3 cup fake out using dropping platforms and VUKS to move the ball around), and lots of cursing by Penn I would be ALL IN!
Quoted from MinusWorlds:So there's now 7 reviews of American Pinball, but the "likes" have gone up 19 since the announcement. That's seriously disappointing. A lot of shit being talked on Pinside and not a lot of action. It takes 2 minutes to write a review to warn the pinball community
A lot of people are tying JPOP to this company, which though is most likely true, hasn't been proven yet.
Ita quite possible American pinball knew little to nothing about johns history. Mike pacek (a huge player in pinball seeing how he runs expo) knew nothing about a million dollars disappearing. He assumed it was just a failed project.
Quoted from Nelly:It's not just the removal of the Zidware logo, other things have been repositioned/resized. Do they have access to the original files or is ZY helping out again?
If ZY sent layered photoshop art, John is capable of manipulating... Just not capable of clean hand drawn art.
Quoted from benheck:Maybe the new money man thinks they'll make enough on Houdini to take the loss on MG?
Quoted from DCFAN:Wasn't there some problem with the original design where the glass would hit the shooter or something else when removing or installing the glass?
No, but it was VERY close.. I remember watching a video of him showing the glass being removed, and saying something to the affect of "It's very close, but it worked out", and everyone commented "Umm, I thought the cabinet was designed in solidworks? Seems like something that arbitrary like glass size and shooter rods clearing could have been figured out before you made prototypes?"
Quoted from John_I:I'd imagine he would have a hard time even coming up with a list of "rightful" MG owners after all this time. Those bar napkins have probably all run through the wash in the pocket of his pants by now.
Those napkins are as good as receipts
Global gaming expo exhibit starts tomorrow for public, today are only for those in the trade. I imagine nobody is going to see anything utility tomorrow
Quoted from iceman44:I wonder why they would make a big deal about announcing the Houdini pinball machine, set it up in an empty hotel room in Las Vegas, and then not let anyone see it?
Strange indeed, not Corn's fault.
Not to mention ship a 300lb pinball machine 1400 miles.. or wait, do they allow that as a carry-on now?
Quoted from Captive_Ball:Unlike the January batch, these playfields were printed on thicker 15mm wood (great). Also, unlike the January batch of playfields, someone changed the type of wood primer to an oil base sealer and the 25 playfields were no longer compatible to our acrylic urethane automotive clear coat. All playfields (25) were sent back to American Pinball
Wow! nearly an 1/8" too thick, and why would you ever use oil base sealer on a wood playfield that's about to be clearcoated? that just screams of fish eye. I can just imagine some of the conference calls with John (if he actually picks up his phone).
JOHN!!! first you lie to us about a nearly complete houdini and magic girl playfield, then you lie to us about owning the rights to these 3 games and the cabinet design, now these playfields are trash!
At some point even a reputable company has to run the numbers and realize there's no salvaging this. They should cut their losses with John, design a new cabinet, a new playfield with Balcer, and move forward. They should draw up a contract that says they own all his work thus far, and by agreeing to it they agree not to also file a lawsuit against him for perjery.
John is nothing but a pudding head that doesn't deserve a designer title. At the very most, he should only be allowed to design small mechs and pitch them to pinball companies (which have to be proven to work with life testing).
Quoted from hardware:Correct me if I am wrong as I haven't been following closely. None of your comment is based on facts, but speculation?
what's speculating?
Ben inspected the houdini playfield at expo, there's no way any of it could ever be playable without a ton of work
Bill Brandes spent 6 figures over a year ago which gave him rights to all 3 games
The playfields could possibly be stripped, but usually once oil penetrates wood it will always rise back up during clearing.. plus being .09" too thick, that means a LOT of sanding, including the inserts (or I could be wrong, maybe standard parts would be just fine with that extra thickness).
Also anyone else find this image disturbing?
Quoted from merccat:Wait... you can patent the position of an LCD? While I know nothing about patent laws, common sense tells me thats just stupid.
Quoted from CactusJack:the part I don't get is how Jpop could patent what was already patented by WMS:
that patent was filed in 1998, and design patents are only good for 14 years unless renewed (which also require improvements on the original design). I remember talking to John, and how he was designing a new ball trough in case the William's patented trough didn't lapse in time.
Quoted from flynnibus:The WMS patent is surprisingly narrow...
There's positives and negatives to being specific...
Being specific means you can greatly lock someone else out of a feature
Being specific can really lock you in, which prevents you from innovating (and someone else can bypass your patent by accomplishing the same thing in a different way on at least 3 of the claims)
I work in the outdoor power equipment industry, and you would be amazed what Stihl patents. They've actually patented weight distribution on a DC chainsaw, locking most of their competitors out of the market because of battery location.
Quoted from Astropin:Why do people want rare things? Seriously....I don't get it.
New rare things, I don't get either. If it's something old (that I also enjoy) that's rare because so many have been destroyed over the years, that I get.
Quoted from s1500:Saw this on the vpforums. Would be interesting to see a virtual version of MG, I'm assuming with all the shot problems straightened out
Just released on future pinball. Plays pretty crappy (beyond JPOP's layout). There's some weird skipping of the ball, or some random magnet messing with it.. also obviously it has none of the correct sounds or animations, but it's... playable sorta?
http://www.pinsimdb.org/pinball/table-23127-magic_girl
If you haven't already, everyone should listen to the latest "this flippin podcast", where Tommy interviews Applejuice (aka Jim Askey), the programmer from the UK about the magic girl project
http://www.podcastgarden.com/episode/episode-34b-jim-askey-speaks_91485
"John was against auto launch and ball save... he thought ball saves were for people who couldn't play very well"
Johns games were never intended to go on location, the warranty even expressed it would be void by doing so.
Quoted from Rarehero:Every single person who comes over to play pinball is confused by ballsave. They either walk away and I have to go "no no no no you're still up!", or they see the ball pop out, they grab the plunger, it auto launches...and they're confused. And then every single time after that, they ALWAYS grab the plunger when the ball comes back for a ball save...they never get used to the auto plunge.
But autoplunge is often used for virtual multiball lock (because it's easier to manage than a physical ball lock, especially when you're dealing with multiple players). Also I played BOP 2.0 about a week ago at a friend's house, and it was weird having an old game with modern rules, and you had to manually plunge the virtual ball locks.. couple times I was like "Oh, I locked a ball that didn't involve the mouht".. BOP 2.0 would benefit from adding an autoplunger and an extra channel to control it.
Quoted from benheck:Next question: Is MG using the Zidware boards, and do enough exist to build 25 games? If there aren't enough of them, can more be bought from the vendor? If there are enough, is the code shippable? If code isn't shippable, can the programmer be convinced to finish it?
if you listen to this flippin podcast with applejuice, it sounds like he sent the playfield back but STILL to this day not gotten paid for his services because John claimed the parts got damaged in shipping, so I'm guessing the answer is no
http://www.podcastgarden.com/episode/episode-34b-jim-askey-speaks_91485
Quoted from PinSinner:Can someone tell me why in the hell they would make all those finished cabinets, before a game even existed? Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems like the wrong way to go about it.
I would have assumed the cabinets and artwork would be the last thing to complete during the development of a pinball machine.
"They" are a company that has no idea how pinball design works (or trusted John when he probably told them the playfields WERE done). John (who is a consultant on this project) also doesn't know any better (even though he worked for Bally for 10 years) , hence why artwork was done on 3 games before the layouts were tested and verified.
Quoted from benheck:At what point does the amount of money wasted on a "star" like JPOP exceed the original value of their accomplishments?
Well let's see (keeping it simple)
Voltaire: 2,704 units
SWE1: 3,525 units
TOTAN: 3,128 units
TOM: 6,600 units
WCS94: 8,743 units
Assume his salary in the 90s was $50k/year, and his development time was 2 years a piece (since he worked there 10 years), divide that into 24,700 units.. His $500k salary over a 10 year period (half of what he stole in only 5 years to accomplish nothing versus finish 5 machines in 10).. If you figure the average machine in the 90s sold for $3k, that's 74 million dollars in net revenue.
74 million / 500k = $148 per machine.
Million dollars invested into zidware= (cannot divide by zero)
I'd say he's far past that point.
Quoted from benheck:Toyota, designers back then made a lot more than they do now. Figure more like 150k.
No wonder why he never made a deal to work with Stern (if that even ever happened), I'm sure adjusted for inflation, nobody at Stern makes $250k (volume isn't there), probably lucky to clear 100k.
and why he chose $90k as his salary.. In his mind, it was still a paycut. "Yes! I shall pay myself.. eighty.. No ninety thousand a year, and I shall hire artists and programmers, and volunteers shall come do my bidding.. and I shall build a giant office and production floor from scratch with my own two bare hands, and I shall blog about progress. but FIRST! I shall design the greatest pinball cabinet in the hisTORY OF PINBALL!!"
Bizarre, he's starting to do website updates again. He's claiming Magic girl is in production, and zombie and alice are in development. "In production" implies you are currently building them.
http://www.zidware.com/pinball.html
Quoted from vdojaq:I would have to assume anyone here local to Streamwood IL could take a ride over and ask for an update or to see an update? That's assuming anyone is even there. While the chance is remote, it could be that AP is in "radio silence" mode.
Even if someone was there, if you asked about magic girl, I guarantee the response would be (based on expo):
"We are a contract manufacturer. If you want to know about magic girl, please contact zidware"
Quoted from Coyote:Maybe I've been out of the loop, but what is "Pintasia Design"?
The wiki is pretty up to date
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Popadiuk
Quoted from frolic:ZW reserves the right to change the terms of this warranty without notice. v2
Ha! Even his pointless warranty page has revisions, just like the artwork
Quoted from pinballrockstar:They are getting build,rocky road,but it is happening
Are you insane? How do you figure? If AP is completely re-designing the houdini playfield, the artwork, the cabinet, the hardware (both mechanical and electrical), what does John even bring to the table? Sure, John could pay AP to build them, but with what money? (especially with court fees he's shelling out to defend his lawsuits). And EVEN IF he had money to build them (assuming they are ready to go, which they are not), you think AP wouldn't be pissed at this point paying John as a contracted worker for the past year, only to throw that money out the window (AND waste the past year of development)?
Quoted from pinballrockstar:I paypal you $25 if they don't get build,you paypal me $25 if they get build.
If 2017 ends( let's give em a year )we'll see who has to pay who,let pinside be our witness
If at least 5 magic girls (with completed playfields and reasonable code) ships in 2017, I will happily send you $25, so deal
Quoted from pinballrockstar:Sounds like i am winning $25 bet with toyotaboy!
If there is video showing it has "reasonable code" and not a box of lights, then absolutely I will follow through on my bet
Quoted from NJGecko:didn't Cointaker get the shaft
From what I remember (and I could be wrong, all of this info is muddy at this point), John accepted something like $6k worth of LED bulbs (IE production quantity), and cointaker was never paid for those as far as I know. They also had multiple machines on order.
Quoted from Cornelius:So let's just say, for poops and giggles, that MG ends up being a fantastic game. Will any members of the angry, pitchfork and torch wielding mob end up apologizing for all the crap they've spewed throughout this thread, or is it, you know, all a part of making pinball (which is hard)?
I don't have any money in this game, but I will give John props for 2 things:
1. He really did continue to work on MG, and supposedly finished them. Can't fault him for taking this long since he's likely building them by hand, by himself (or with very little help)
2. He actually used "humility" in his email. I don't think he's ever admitted any wrong doing, or apologized.. ever
However with that said, he's horrible at keeping customers up to date (or even replying), he's taken money from new customers when he knew he could never fullfill previous orders (at least not within a reasonable amount of time). When pintasia crashed, he stripped the zidware website, turned off his facebook and linkedin page, and appeared to have just gone into hiding. If he somehow manages to make vendors and the 2 other groups of buyers satisfied, it will be the greatest comeback in history. It won't excuse his past, but it will certainly buy some forgiveness.
no doubt the game is beautiful.. does it function? Can't wait to see video of gameplay (if someone is willing to do so).
That spinning disc in the left outlane sure looks 3d printed (I can see the typical build lines). I sure hope he at least used ABS or nylon, because PLA is going to wear really quickly, or plans to give everyone a bunch of spares (and the STL file to print more in the future).
Quoted from InfiniteLives:laughing out loud about the shooter lanes lack of a groove. just insane.
Doubt I can find it, but didn't someone mention at some point that the shooter rod didn't line up with the ball with the groove in early prototypes? (because John put the rod 1/2" above playfield, but didn't allow for the ball sinking into the groove). I'm guessing he didn't write notes down to move shooter the rod down 1/4" before they cut 20 more cabinets, and he went "welp, ole John messed up again".
Quoted from vid1900:there appears to be a bunch of Molex connectors that are not connected to anything, near the rear of the playfield. Does the schematic show what these were intended for? Switches? Coils? Magnets?
Imaginary features inside John's head that will never come to light
Quoted from iceman44:I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of John
In what way? Everything about him has been revealed:
* He can't really draw beyond rough sketches, he can only collage other's work
* He has ideas, but has a hard time actually implimenting them
* He can't stay focus
* He doesn't work well with others
* He suggests to foamcore to prototype, yet I've never seen a foam prototype that was anything more than a static art piece
* Every layout (whether it's williams, or attempted MG or Houdini) has ball hangups (or paths that go to nowhere)
If you see ever hear about John again, it'll be as art director (if he's so lucky).. not as a designer... He's had too many chances.
Quoted from Taxman:Here are some low rez flyers. (one #44 bulb, white rubber ring and real bumper cap)
don't forget the promo video:
Quoted from Tilt:Saw someone ask about the manual incase their was issues in the future. So I thought I would just post a picture of every single page of the manual of the magic girl I just got
Heyyyyy... that url doesn't work
http://www.zidware.com/setup
Quoted from Pinballlew:Do you have any drawings of the lower playfield rotating idea you would share?
He showed part of it on his ustream 4 years ago:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/25967283
Quoted from Cornelius:WC Fields said something, can't quite remember what it was...
"A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money"
"If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it"
"Attitude is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than what people do or say. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill."
"It’s morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money."
Quoted from benheck:the MG owners just won
Mayyybe.. If you figure $16k at 4% interest, that's $20k in 6 years... So everyone made the same as putting it into a CD bond (unless of course the value exceeds $20k).
Quoted from fattrain:I'll just beat everyone to the punch...
It's mine. Let the shit show begin
ebay.com link »
That's so crazy, you have the same mirror on the wall as Ka-need-a.. what are the odds?
Quoted from flynnibus:AP was 'nothing' before John/MG. It's an entity started out of another man's resource pool that had zero to do with pinball
They did get a LOT of attention quick, can't deny that. However, if they simply hired Balcer (or any existing pinball designer other than JPOP) from the get-go, I think they'd have nearly the same attention but be 9 months ahead of the game. Unlike other startups out of basements, AP actually has financial backing.
Quoted from Jeremy8419:In this day and age, it seems like it would be more prudent to start with a base pinball program, program the pinball game you envision, all the objects physics and rule codings and whatnot will already be correct at that point, and then transfer such into the creation of a real pinball game.
Quoted from DanQverymuch:Still, just because a game shoots well virtually doesn't mean it will using actual physics..
See Wrath of olympus. He started out virtually, and most of the shots were about 90% good. The only reason you need small tweaking the real world is because virtual physics aren't perfect, but they are dam close.
If I remember right if you do it on visual pinball it translates to PROC very well (I believe you can run real PROC hardware to control the virtual one, then just transfer wires to real hardware)
Quoted from Cornelius:But while we're on the subject: if MG was a well-thought out game that delivered on the promises JPOP made, would it be pinball at its finest?
If JPOP followed the above dream with: next we're working on AIW/Zombies, those with preorders should expect their games by summer '17, would it be pinball at its finest?
If Skit-B actually secured the license to Predator and didn't run off with with a bunch of peoples money, would it be pinball at its finest?
I don't think MG could ever have come close to what was being promised. However, let's just assume for a moment that every magnet worked, the tiger saw blade was motorized, there were no dead ball stucks, PERHAPS it could have been one of the best pinballs ever
BHZA would have been pretty cool had JPOP not burned his bridges with Ben, and some of those features actually came to life (and Matt Andrews did some killer artwork). The ridiculous collage of robby robot, clowns, zombies and horrible pukey GI colors turned that game into a nightmare. Seems like when he changed directions, a lot of owners were pissed it changed direction so badly.
Predator had some nice coding features, the playfield layout wasn't all that special (plus the standup targets were too far apart and the ball would sometimes get jammed in-between). The idea of building a boutique pinball for only $4800 seems unrealistic unless you were willing to wait for Kevin and a couple of his buddies to get 2 built per week in their basement.
support page seems to be slowly getting updated..
http://www.zidware.com/inventor/support.html
You can now download the full manual (home version only available right now)
http://www.zidware.com/inventor/docs.html
Or you can download the warning sticker sheet, including inspected by Lloyd Christmas, or the FBI warning
http://www.zidware.com/inventor/decals.html
Most of the wiring diagrams
http://www.zidware.com/inventor/charts.html
Quoted from HighProtein:Why not haha, it's still from the genesis of JPOP's mind originally...
Because John already has too much credit as it is for the titles he started at Williams that others had to finish for him.
More website updates, looks like a parts section is coming soon?
http://www.zidware.com/inventor/index.html
Quoted from zombieyeti:but can someone tell me if there's a pull quote along the lines of '...pinball's hard, man...'?
quite the opposite:
“I’m proud of the work,” Popadiuk says in a phone interview from his mother’s home in Canada. “I’m not proud about it taking so long and destroying my career. But, I’m proud of the work.”
Quoted from gorgar007:http://www.popsci.com/curious-story-magic-girl-would-be-greatest-pinball-machine-all-time
Saw this today not sure if it made its way to pinside yet.
/\ Literally 13 posts up, 18 hours ago
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Quoted from BC_Gambit:Kaneda buys it just to say he did, and be the only person in history (likely) to have two MG's side by side in a NY apartment
He'd have to put it in storage then. He's trying to sell his arcade games and replacing the floors so they aren't sleeping on the pullout couch every night. Brenda is normalizing him.
Quoted from CNKay:http://www.zidware.com
What's new in the way of MG rules, support, tweaks. Lol etc.. His site under revamp again?
What a flake.
Aw, I miss break dancing girl stock photo
Quoted from Pinballlew:Doesn't an original idea become yours upon the first sale of the idea. I believe it does then getting a patent through the government helps seal the deal?
It used to be that whoever had the first dated documented proof of an idea would get granted a patent. Because that's easy to fake, they recently changed the rules about a year ago so now it's the first to patent.
Anyone can design and sell anything, but if you aren't protected by patent another company can come along, file a patent, reverse engineer your product, and sue you for the design.
Quoted from Mbecker:If this affects the p3 shipment another reason to be pissed off at jpop. I assume though if he decided to sue over infringement that there could be a legal battle and the patent award could be thrown out if it's deemed invalid?
Quoted from Aniraf:the game doesn't get old...it is just awesome. Then I look at his other gays...all amazing
I wasn't aware he had other gays, but that explains a lot
Quoted from Aniraf:has Popadiuk been shamed into never producing another game, or is there still a bit of hope that these games will be completed?
Unless he finds another rube to finance his projects, I highly doubt it. You should probably go here to learn more:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Popadiuk
Quoted from Aniraf:Can someone hook him up with a competent builder/business person as I think his designs are quite impressive
American Pinball is happy to produce pinballs. First John has to come up with a design that actually functions.
Quoted from dgarrett:we all discovered JPop has nothing to do with art
adding insult to injury, Linda deal is a guest on the latest spooky podcast where she talks about doing the art on CV and theatre of magic. Sounds like she confirms John only art directed, didn't do any actual art. So if you like "JPOP" art, but can't afford zombi yeti, sounds like Linda might be available.
http://www.spookypinball.com/podpress_trac/web/1804/0/Spooky_Pinball_Podcast_88.mp3
zidware.com suspended?
zidware.com_suspended (resized).jpg
google cache from 2 days ago still shows the HTML page, but the images are gone:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:6UYgeIe2ZW0J:www.zidware.com/inventor/index.html+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
I mean.. it's not down, it's suspended. That only happens if your website is using up huge amounts of bandwidth, your website caused a virus on the server, or you didn't pay your bill on time. I'm guessing it's the latter.
Did some popadiuk googling, this came up on some website to complain about neighbors (he doesn't have complaints, maybe he should):
John A Popadiuk
Vice President - Caputo's New Farm Produce, Inc.
Michelle M Popadiuk
Vice President - Caputo's New Farm Produce, Inc.
Larry David Boyd
Myriad Inc - Management Consulting Services
A. I don't think they're both vice president, nor do they work for Caputo's
B. Are they renting out the basement now? Who's Larry?
Quoted from solarvalue:anyone know what it is?
Yet another project he started among everything else that was going on. The story I remember is he was trying to create a lower cost pinball with basic scoring that he could code much faster since there was no DMD animation and could focus on very basic rules. Every concept John comes up with has one little interesting design, in this case a clear apron so the artwork could extend down further. Unfortunately it seems as though John gets bored with a project very quickly, and it's on to the next project before finishing the first one.
Quoted from bounoun:A clear apron, what a genius
I said interesting, not innovative.
Quoted from frolic:What's he doing with his days?
Going to court, and managing a produce company apparently
Quoted from MrBally:Funny, I was there but did not attend the banquet to witness it. I thought he was inducted but couldn't find it on the Expo website.
towards bottom of page
http://www.pinballnews.com/shows/expo2011/index5.html
Quoted from rommy:Also personal liability was found, corporate veil pierced. Told ya JPop. If you don't run it like a business you can't use it to hide behind. That is what the Court found.
Is it safe to assume that zidware was never setup as an LLC either? Legally speaking, if you setup a contract and you dont' fullfill it (and can't refund), I assume you are liable personally. I also assume if he can't pay (or get a giant loan or sell off his house), that he could serve jail time for fraud?
Quoted from iceman44:Now you have to go find the "liquid" unprotected assets
if i remember right he bought a full size cnc to cut his own playfields and cabinets, plus theres a commercial plotter. maybe auction off all the printed zombi yeti artwork revisions too. any other projects he was working on, any other pinball machines he owns (i know of at least one).
Quoted from vdojaq:From reliable sources in the industry and I will leave it at that.
Don't ask who that might be because I am not saying.
Either believe it or not, I really don't care.
If I am wrong, so be it.
i heard similiar info but passed through grapevine not direct. nevermind the overhead of factory and salaries, the monthly interest alone on the debt from the investors is shocking if true.
Quoted from Rarehero:You don't mix potentially catastrophic personal views when trying to sell a product, unless you're absolutely OK with decimating your sales
Charlie is a perfect Mentor of good PR. He could easily bash other pinball companies for their business practices, but he doesn't even do that because he wants to build bridges, not burn them down. Every new business venture is tough, last thing you want to do is make it a steeper hill to climb.
1200 units for a game that took almost 3 years to develop isnt great.. also JJP has a lot of overhead from investors, so they really need a win. hope the changes to POTC doesnt affect sales. i really want them to survive knowing the next 2 titles, especially with willy wonka supposedly bumping ahead first.
candy is dandy but liquor is quicker
help.. police.. murder
the snozzberries taste like snozzberries
you get... NOTHING! YOU LOSE! GOOD.. DAY SIR!
Quoted from Fulltilt:Man, he's got some big kahunas to show up in front of this crowd...
He may not have a choice, he's part of the deeproot team. Robert might have told him he has to show up. Of course he didn't show up anyway when he was part of the American Pinball team.
Quoted from Jjsmooth:I say leave him up there. Should make for good cinema.
Can we add cosplay to expo like MGC has?
Quoted from HighVoltage:Magic Girl for sale in Seattle for $14000. Is that the original price? This guy's not trying to cash in it seems.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/some-interesting-craigslist-finds/page/13#post-4660474
Well if you knew a working version of magic girl was possibly coming out from deeproot, wouldn't you try to dump it too? It's sort of like a year ago when you started to see people throw up their monster bashes for sale.
Quoted from Kkoss24:I’m not trying to be ignorant , but I’ve only been around 2 plus years .That being said ,what’s the real deal with JPOP ?IMO his earlier pins were different from the norm in a real good way .I really wanted to see him in the mix with current pins because of his unique style .It blows my mind what that Roger did .It’s a mix of gigantic testicles mixed with a overdosing of stupidity but still .I guess what I’m asking is why he wasn’t hired by an established company prior ? Whatever anyone thinks , he gathers more attention than any other designer by a country mile which is what’s so confusing about this story .
Ocassionally I google john's name just to see what comes up.. Apparently his daughter interviewed him on some random podcast a month ago?
https://archive.storycorps.org/interviews/interviewing-dad-popadiuk-donna-popadiuk-interviews-john-popadiuk
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