I'm not even sure how "great" these zidware games were going to be. Take away ZombieYeti's art, and what is left? The disaster showing of Magic Girl at the NW show showed the reality. And 4 months later, he can't even show MG again, because it sucks.

Otherwise he'd be outside expo with an extension cord on the sidewalk showing his great game and how everyone got it wrong.

Didn't you hear him explain this - he still hasn't gotten any feedback from the show! lol....

Hell, even if the game turned out to her decent (it isn't), then what? He's got no money to make it... this thing is dead regardless.

btw, I'm clearly in the minority, but I didn't even think the artwork was fantastic.... ZY's stuff is great to look at- no question- but it didn't seem to mesh with the game.... I saw nearly zero redeeming qualities in that game. Put a fork in MG.

Yes, thank you. What was the point of the interview? To let John say whatever he wants? To let him ramble with excuse after excuse? I'm sorry, but TWO hours of drivel and zero pressing questions to make that snake squirm was disgusting to listen to.

Which is precisely why I chose not to listen to it ...

What I found most striking about the interview is that JPop didn't seem to have any empathy whatsoever for his customers that paid him thousands of dollars and have nothing to show for it. It was like he was thinking, "well, making a pinball was harder than I expected, but I was really trying so why should anyone be upset with me?" Like he has no responsibility to actually produce a product at the price point he advertised and collected. Definitely in his own little world...

You guys are a tough audience. We all knew that the interviewer was gonna have to kiss ass or this thing wouldn't have happened at all.

You don't like it? Get your own podcast and talk Jpop into coming on your show, and somehow get him to sit there for 2 hours while you berate him. Good luck with that.

It would be spot on if you remove the "not"....

Lying to customers IS the way I work, to make them go away for a while."
-John Popadiuk, Jr

You call what Jpop did, a "mistake?"

Maybe he's trying to sell the cabinets and hinges and such?

After all every other maker was doing it wrong, maybe that's the real reason he brought just empty cabinets to Expo last year, and still can't show a playable prototype after yet another year, but the cabinets sure are nice.

This whole fiasco makes me want to start a podcast to do just that! So I'm going to actually consider your well wishes to be sincere, 'cause I'm gonna need it!

Sell the cabinets to who? Only his goofy playfield needs that steep angle (and custom cut glass)

I emailed a link to the C2C interview to Zane Smith this morning. I got an email back from Zane immediately saying he had already listened to the entire interview and was all over it.

Yes, or at least the legal office of Zane Smith and his staff might believe so.

Several people have posted how the found the interview appropriate and beneficial. A controversial interview should boost Nate's ratings despite cries of boycott.

I'm not in on this project but I feel for the people who are. After listening to that nut job ramble on about the la la land he lives in it made me want to puke. I just got the sense that he is blaming everyone else and I think he should of been called out on this.

All I got out of this interview is this guy is a wacko. No wonder Stern didn't hire his ass.

I kept thinking: Who's "we"?

I'm going to guess that Nate's inbox is going to be chock full of all sorts of e-mail. I bet he could do an entire show of just that segment.

After listening, I have a guess as to why he left it unedited.

I really do hope people don't lost their money that they invested but after listening to that interview.......I have my doubts.

you guys know this podcast is the only reference on the Zidware site that something is wrong right? We can thank Nate for this, so not more people get suckered in "investing" in these machines. So instead bashing Nate we should thank him.

going back and reading the first few pages of this thread is interesting.

WOW no doubt lol

My wife (not a pinhead) overhead some of the podcast yesterday morning. She asked "what's that" and I gave her a 30 second summary of the backstory.

After listening another minute or so, her only comment as she walked away was "he doesn't sound very sorry".

addtext_com_MTUzMjA1NDAwNzk.jpg

Just finished the entire podcast.
What I get is the John is 100% over is head with what he tried to do.
He just didn't have an ounce of a clue on what it takes to build a business.
He jumped in blindfolded and assumed he would be able to build machines and the business from scratch.

I don't understand how anybody at all gave this guy money. If you read the posts at the start of this thread, there was questions back then about programing, building etc.... If you just examined his limited run model, you could of easily figured out it would not work.

He also is all over the place when asked about the status of the machines. 80% done, no let's call is 75% done. Then he says we are almost there - 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?

I will be totally amazed if these games ever see the light of day or anybody gets $1 back.

Really a sad situation, it seems he had/has the best intentions but he is really ignorant about basic business stuff. I don't think he gave the business basics any thought at all.

For me personally, I was sold on the mythology of "jpop". His "30 years" in the business. I figured if anyone could succeed at this, it would be him. Frankly, watching jpop early on made me lose confidence in Predator (another game I was in on) and thankfully got out of that.

He sent out a big "buyers kit" with 10 pages of legal documents, NDAs, a schedule... how would we know at the time that it was all a charade?

Then of course were the lies, some of the most recent ones I posted recently in this thread. You had a guy hiding his work, and lying about the rest.

Hindsight is 20/20, but I don't kick myself too much for being deceived then, we simply had no idea.

You guys are victims, you didn't do anything wrong.

There is literally nobody to blame other than John Popadiuk.

It is a pity John does not see it that way.

Hate to stir the pot but really have a felling that doing this interview is justifying himself as it will be OK to be at EXPO.

What ya think??

I will just keep yelling shame at him. Loudly and pointing!

I really hope he shows, and I really hope you do.

If you can stress him out to the point of a mental implosion, you might just do some good.

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"

Q: "If a customer who had money in on one of your games called and asked you John, what's going to happen, I sent you my money on whichever game, what should I expect?"

A: "Oh! Well, you know, I mean, like I said a bit earlier, the the, you know, the money that's come in has been invested or spent in the normal course of business the last four years, and um, you know, I've kind of been putting in what money I have and I'm still talking to some, some other groups, and so, you know, that's a really hard question to answer. I don't know that answer, so, um, I don't know how to fix it just with a stroke of a pen or one phone call. Other people could. I mean, I just, you know, I just don't have that ability, um, you know, to do that. It's a big problem."

He went on to say something about "reaching out" to everyone he knows, "and they know, I sent them all letters, and they all got it, and you know, everybody's just kind of keeping to themselves." Says that if someone had contacted him for help he would because it's kind of a "small group, kinda like a bunch of pirates."

You need to add a bell ringing each time you say shame #gameofthrones

Just out of curiosity, what part of the "business" was he in after Williams stopped making pinball machines?

Well, we all know about the zizzle, which, regardless of what we think of the product, actually shipped.

He designed games for Zizzle, then made two iOS apps. I'm not sure what he for the +/-5 years between Williams and Zizzle, though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Popadiuk

I was unaware he was involved with Zizzle. I was just curious what he had done since Star wars episode 1.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnpopadiuk

According to his linked in page, he did some teaching during the gap between Williams and Zizzle.

Gosh, for your sake I hope JPop shows at Expo. You will get to see the real Hwawonyu that us Northern VA pinheads know and love.

I don't think that would have been better. Why would it have been?

So the choir can feel preached to? Everyone, literally EVERYONE, except John, knows that everything that comes out of his mouth is straight up bull$h*t.

I listened last night, and was conflicted about it, but in the end I think Nate made the exact right call: give John uninterrupted time to dig himself further into a hole, so that if anyone out there still thinks there is some shred of sanity left in him they have this shining example to prove otherwise.

dupe

Everyone sueing Jpop should be thanking Nate right now. If that interview doesn't show gross business negligence than I don't know what does.

For those arguing that an interview on a pinball podcast where John looks ridiculous is somehow helping him prove his case that he's still working, I just don't buy it. What judge will say "Oh, you did a podcast? Well carry on then." Your anger at Jpop is completely warrented but shooting the messenger won't help.

Finally, saying that this is essentially the same thing you heard from Jpop in the past misses a huge point: namely that you spoke to him in the past. A lot of the community never heard John speak about this stuff, we didn't have his number and weren't in the club. So, getting the chance to hear his insane views first hand has benefits to the community as a whole.

In the end, I think this will help the lawsuits and gives a lot more people information they wouldn't otherwise have had.

There seems little doubt he is continuing to work, which is just further support that he is delusional. He has no money and no plan on how to ever get these built, but he is plugging along as if all is good. He is clearly waiting for a deus ex machina event to save the day, but those only happen in fiction -- which I guess is the world John lives in.

At their hourly rate, I would listen to it too.

Hmm.

Thats a fair point.... And a better one than I was trying to make criticizing Nate. You're right. It does put John "on the record" more completely than he's been before (at least without piecing together dozens of emails, blogs, etc).

I still think Nate could have "corralled him in" a bit AND should not have been so deferential, but I suppose those at stylistic points. If Nate doesn't naturally have the ability to challenge someone in conversation, I guess your destined to get what amounted to a 2 hour stream-of-consciousness blog from Jpop.

The ONLY apologies I heard, or "sensed" I was hearing, were ones that sounded like this: "I thought xx, but... a) I should have known differently but I was caught up in the thing, or... b) no-one told me, or... c) I'm just a worker bee type designer, what am I supposed to know about business, or... d) I'm an outright idiot." This is the scariest type of person to work with in a business deal... they'll reassure you and build your confidence with their reputation and "expertise", but then be the quickest to apologize for their own shortcomings and lack of expertise!? as an excuse for gross negligence. I can totally understand how people were drawn in... and it's very sad.

Hey, JPop, ever hear the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector who ripped people off? He took responsibility for the error of his ways, and told Jesus "Anyone I have cheated, I will pay back four times the amount."

Unfortunately, JPop, you're the "hypocrite, whose conscience has been seared as with a hot iron."

Agreed. October 22, 2011 John Popadiuk, my favorite pinball designer, was inducted into the Expo Hall of Fame along with Mark Ritchie. It was a great way to launch his company in 2011.

It would only come out later that Jpop was conceived during an LSD orgy on top a nuclear waste dump. He was birthed by Swamp Thing, then raised and then abandoned by circus people.

(Edit) Cirqus people

Stop disrespecting Circus People : )

I added the "Duke's Neon" information about the business that he started and quickly closed. There was an article about it in one of the hobbyist magazines. He also ran ads in both Game Room Magazine as well as Pin Game Journal for this business.

How many titles have come out from Stern since this J plop adventure started? Just watched the GoT on twitch. Yeah jpoop was mentioned!! Nothing nice.