I doubt you'll get many flames from the Americans, we know our justice system is fucked. 1 out of every 100 Americans is in jail.

People voluntarily gave their money to Jpop. People don't volunteer to being mugged. There is a key difference.

John is not "free to go" - he will wind up in bankruptcy and lose some assets. He has also lost the respect of most pinball fans.

Sir, your opinion sucks. (IMHO)

At least he won't get in trouble for banging his secretary.

you don't know the half of it, brother

The US justice system barely has enough room to hold real murderers and rapists. It is quite literally a revolving door system (unless you're a repeat offender, 3 strikes, or did something horrific). If he was found criminally negligent and sentenced to say 2 years. He might serve a few months. Its just way it is, not enough room for all sentences handed out.

Well, it's not really fair to compare the US to Canada in regards to incarceration rates. Why?

Demographics.

Yes, the U.S. Incarceration rates look horrific compared to Canada, but you're comparing apples and oranges. If you adjust for racial differences the numbers are quite different. Sad, but true. Demographics.

Oh, I wasn't comparing to Canada. I have no idea what their incarceration rate is. I do know 1 in every 100 doesn't feel right, something else is going on. We already know that though.

Nah. John couldn't care less because he has no skin in the game.

Would you say he has trouble getting his horse in the race?

I know someone that bought more than one of each game and they are in deeper than anyone else.

Hoooooooly......shiiiiiiii.........

Yeah, that's not someone who's just gonna walk away and move on.

The guy that stole the wallet a) acted with clear intent to steal, and b) removed the choice of the other person.

In the case of Jpop, he never held a gun to your head, and he did work on pinball stuff.

Yeah they are not in on AIW but have multiple MG's plus a prototype and more than 1 of RAZA.

I'm not at liberty to say. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink...

Talk about being balls deep in this thing. Holy shit!

This thread is stupid now.

*My Only possible regret was to not have asked a hardball question or two
towards the end of my interview with JPOP last year.*
-I missed my flight to do the interview (not a huge deal but since I did miss it, I had a little more time...)
-I don't know if it could have saved anyone any possible grief to know more of
the current progress/projection of "progress"/% done of magic girl/financials roughly of how it was doing/etc...
-He was quite up-beat, he seemed truly into the process and dedicated to it.

Part 1...

Part 2...

Now!?

Well played.

I don't think all of his squirrels are running up the same tree

I'm curious what the tipping point was.

He was definitely a few coins short of a full credit.

image.jpg

Well, prototypes exist at least. He bought one of those??

!?!?!??!?!?!?!!

I'm at a loss for words. Actually I'm not, but everything I've written (and then erased) is just insulting to whoever did this. Just gonna keep quiet...but YIKES.

Jailhouse lawyers are mildly entertaining until they keep repeating garbage as gospel over and over.

Wonder what Jpop is doing now. Waiting for all his trial dates. He probably still has a following of fans not in on his new pins. You would think he would sell what ever is left on Ebay for art, etc. Quickly to free up some more cash for his legal battles ahead, or to continue taking a salary.

I have to hope anybody who had the cash ($70K ish?) to speculate on pinball games has to at least been dimly aware that one of the possible outcomes was "you get nothing". Even if he was doing it "for the good of pinball" rather than to flip for $$$, there is willing support, then there is blind trust.

One of the lessons from the book "smart trust" is don't extend blind trust in situations where if your trust is betrayed you are unwilling to accept the outcome.

And as far as John goes, he is sort of like Willy Wonka, without the surprise gift at the end:

Sad all round, I think the Wonka analogy might be too fitting. Secret shop tours, promising the world, leaving a bunch of devastated forever changed "fans" in his wake...

My nephew embezzled 1.2 million dollars from the family business over a 7 year period. After a 2 year investigation he was given a 5 year prison sentence plus ordered to pay the company $500.00 per month for the rest of his life. My four brothers and sisters read witness impact statements showing e-mails my nephew had sent them threatening bodily harm. The judge doubled the sentence to 10 years.
He was released three weeks ago after serving 6 months.

I had a 'friend' about 15 years ago who did all kinds of horrible internet mail fraud stuff. Would sell things then never ship them, etc. big ticket items. Probably 20-30k worth of stuff. Eventually he got busted, a bunch of people got together and it went to trial, he lost, and served about 3 months in a halfway house. So he got out every day for work, church, all kinds of stuff. Basically he just had to be in a certain building by 8p.m. Doors weren't even locked. He never paid any of the 'restitution'.

Its a gone dead train, yeah its a gone dead train,

Only now?

I don't feel quite so "restricted" under my NDA anymore....

To all of those who are in on Zidware machines; I sure hope youknowwho does not try to take legal action/ COuNtersue you for violating an NDA.

Not nearly enough.

Maybe he'll kick me out.... take my money and I'll get no machine... I'm pretty settled on that part at this point.

Maybe I could find one or two points in that contract that John has violated too... ya think?

"The cake is a lie", f&@king Ben knew it all along and tried to warn us all... No one took his hints srs

I'm the idiot who sent him $9500 in good faith.... I guess in the long run it was a just that....

I really hope you're joking.

That NDA isn't worth wiping your ass with.

As for all the photos ... I get why people are mad at John, believe me. But see all that shit? He was working the whole time. In a totally half assed, never-gonna-finish way of course. But it wasn't fraud. It was just giving money to a crazy artist with no grip on project management. Yes, he lied. He's a bad person. Etc etc. But you're just not gonna send him to jail for any of this. In my not a lawyer, just a person thinking through the logic capacity of course.

I have zero clue how a lawsuit would go, but I guess we'll find out!

Yeah... THAT'S what they should worry about

Yeah, that's not a bad comparison. Wonkadiuk?

That thing I'm working on...

BHZA was going to have a lower PF with rotating "stages". 3 scenes on a circle so it's rotate 120 degrees per cycle. (Flipper and ball mech stay put, area with targets move)

Idea was you were working your way through my lair, you'd beat one "room" them move on. Third "stage" was a Zombie Reactor or something you bash X times to win.

Now everyone knows what the porthole was for - to see a glowing light.

Did you ever think it yourself: "I've finished five things and he's half-way through one thing"?

Hey Ben, welcome to the "Violate the NDA Agreement Club"!

I remember watching a video of you two working on this very early on. Since these projects were on lockdown from the beginning, the videos were the only way for us outsiders to get a glimpse of anything. Every once and a while somebody would post that you two were working on the game and I would watch the feed. Never, ever thought it would all end up like this.

Man I still get wood looking at the ZA cabs & Backglasses. No wonder I threw in lots of $$$ in. I was thinking with the wrong head

Anyone else get a little tingly feeling down low?

Please keep violating the NDA. He didn't keep his end of the deal, why should you? I love seeing pictures of this stuff, not unlike John Troudeau's whitewoods, or crazy proposed Nazi tanks/figher planes, etc that never got off the ground.

I do remember the triple 120 degree mini-playfield. A good idea, that hopefully someday someone will implement.