Apparently he wasnt, as he turned it around on that first vid, quite effectively I might add.

Special K, Courageous AND Confident!!!

Seems he can defend himself...

It's attention, of course he enjoyed it

I had to look up synonym's for special as was surprised this was taken in the way it was somewhere in another post.

'SPECIAL - better, greater, or otherwise different from what is usual. Synonyms: exceptional, particular, extra special, unusual, marked, singular, uncommon, notable, noteworthy, remarkable, outstanding, unique, owner of MG'.

Huh now there's a wanted ad for MG linked to this thread. This hobby...

Think any of the voice actors got paid for the call outs?

I don't think JPOP does either.

He may have never gotten it out of novice mode

Good lord you guys just can't get enough of bashing Kaneda, can you? Regardless of him being banned, he still has a presence here because people keep bringing him up. If people think he craves so much attention, then why do they keep giving it to him? He's been banned for over a year and yet people still aren't happy.

If anyone else had done a review of this game or posted videos, everyone would be singing their praises, regardless of how they thought the game shot. But instead, since he was the one that gave everyone a first-look at the game, he still sucks and the game is even more awful because of it? I thought he did a pretty damn good job giving an unbiased, professional look at the game - more than any we have gotten of it in the past 5 years. I understand why people don't like him and why he was banned, but come on... At least be a little appreciative that he gave everyone a great look at the current state of the game. If you don't like him, then don't listen to his podcast or watch the videos. Your choice.

In regards to the game, not only does it really look beautiful, but I personally think it is still possible for it to be brought up to it's fullest potential. It seems like a lot of it is "there" and, granted, for the price tag and delays, it shouldn't have to be finished by the owners, but it does look like there is a great game somewhere in that machine. You can just see the potential and I strongly applaud the wonderful efforts of ZombieYeti, Matt Andrews, Applejuice, and all of the other artists that had a hand in getting it this far! It's a shame that so much was derailed and mismanaged by John, but it's hard to deny that the game could have been (and still could be) something really cool!

Did Zombie Yeti ever sell prints/posters of the backglass art? Maybe he could make a little $ back from this train wreck by selling some?

Dr Dave...wrong

Rob Barry

He sold art from that look/character... but not the BG itself AFAIK.

Well said on all counts. I never heard or saw Kda until those vids, and... well he can obviously take whatever he dishes so I'll give him credit for that. His approach and review was reasonably objective and open-minded. A lot of things I could chuckle at and say "ha ha, you dope the answer is...." but then I'm sure I'd make similar mistakes despite knowing better, yet I'm not nearly as entertaining.

As for the game: I agree there seems to be a bitterly tantalizing prospect here. The play seems a bit more stop-and-go than the prevailing philosophy these days, but I have to admit it seems to shoot better than expected, and the game put some amazing speed on the ball. Even the missing shooter groove seems excusable given the inserts in the lane and the loop at the end. What applejuice describes for the ramp stack loop, doesn't seem like objectives that anyone has yet figured out to test. In fact, the whole game seems like an enigma waiting to be unlocked and maybe that's where the magic would be.... assuming it all works?

That it likely does not is a crimeful shame. For the princely sum required, things should work! Then again, almost every recent Stern has had obvious issues that "should" have been debugged in development too. So if some amount of debugging is par for the course these days, has a pin ever been released with so much mystery to discover? No rule sheets, no instructions, no nothing? I'm sure there's far more than 19 people who'd love to tinker and figure out such a mystery box - think about how many stories told and movies made have indulged that concept. It's a timeless tale so ironically enough that's what the value seems to be... however unintended all the same.

It will have to be an open-source abandonware project at this point. The core seems solid enough with some rough edges and questionable decisions to polish out, if the community can come together. The resources are out there. Since I'm not fortunate enough to play or see one, let alone discover and debug and contribute, I will be very interested to see how it shakes out and evolves over time.

When you read about these kinds of things in other realms - the last unfinished works of novelists and composers; concept cars that don't quite make it to production as intended; unreleased tracks from famous bands; etc... - those always have a mystique about them that transcends the work itself. This game, for all its sordid history, no matter how it ends up, will forever be just like those.

I assume all 25 games will shoot very differently. It is obvious they were put together haphazardly and again just to stave off legal stuff.

I have to think that each one will have its own seperate issues.

The biggest win here is that applejuice seems very willing to assist and passionate about seeing things through to the end. That will be a huge win for any owners of the game.

I am amazed at the selfless gesture. If I was applejuice I would ask for a set fee from each owner for code polish and make a security feature which is required to unlock so people cant share the code without paying so he can recoup costs (or just make a flat fee on the whole lot of games; 20k for cost to polish). The real problem being that he still should be getting a game and that is what will really be needed in order for him to fully polish.

I think there is a difference between 'bashing' and a little bit of light banter. Especially as he seems like a guy who takes it in his stride and hams it up.

This is the trouble with the internet - so many inferences, many which are miles out.

I have enjoyed watching his MG videos and sometimes listen to the occasional podcast. Anybody who promotes themselves this heavily will receive positive and negative attention - it just goes with the territory.

In reality, in real life, many on here would probably have a drink with him at shows. But, this is the internet

To be honest, i'm amazed that American Pinball was able to pull this off, and I think they deserve a ton of credit and respect for it. It's not perfect, I'm sure there's tons of issues with each machine both from major design flaws to workmanship problems while they were constructed... but the bottom line is, they produced what nobody thought they would be able to, and made at least some effort to make John's problem 'right' with the customers.

Still tons of problems, other machines, etc. but i'm amazed they were able to pull this off, or even willing to. I hope their first proper game under their name benefits from some of the respect they deserve for pulling off this project.

Agree with this 100%... nobody is perfect... Big thanks to K for making this interesting and entertaining. Two thumbs up for the vids and commentary.

Please lets be clear on this. This is not an American Pinball product. This is a Zidware/Popaduik machine 100%. AP only produced the parts per Zidware design. And for whatever reasons AP is now distancing themselves from Zidware/Popaduik.

Anything found good or bad about this machine is the sole responsibility of Zidware/Popaduik.

Fair enough. Whether it's bashing or light banter, I still stand by the fact that if it was anyone else who provided this info, commentary, video, etc., no one would have anything negative to say about that person like folks have about Kaneda. He's just the messenger and people are still shooting at him...

I mean, they won't even allow his videos to be posted (which is totally relevant to this thread and on-topic) and I certainly didn't find them to be self-promoting. He was honest and upfront about the game and kept the focus there. Like I said, professional.

Correct. Nobody seems to understand that.

There seems to be very little, if any, difference between these completed machines and the original prototype.

it's not the people bashing him giving him attention. he spent thousands of dollars and a fair amount of effort pretty much for the sole purpose of getting himself mentioned on Pinside. it wasn't bashers who brought him to the forefront of this conversation, it was people posting his videos and freaking praising him for indulging in his own narcissism. and make no mistake, in case anyone has forgotten, he is a dopey dim bulb, a textbook narcissist, and a serial liar. there's a reason he's banned from every community he's ever taken part in online.

it's not for Kaneda's stupid sake that people are objecting to that nickname. equating special needs children to Kaneda is hurtful and insulting to a group of children who are already struggling. please try to grasp the most basic element of the complaint before deciding to crusade against it.

you and i and everyone else know your insult has zero to do with the cereal. you are referring to special needs kids. and you're only doing so because you think you probably couldn't get away with calling him "retarded", but it is the exact same intent. the cereal argument could not be any more disingenuous.

like i said above, you are equating kids who have problems and needs and conditions with a lying narcissistic douchebag. it's not Kaneda who is demeaned by your words, but kids like my son who will no doubt endure plenty of bullying as they grow up and perhaps even be called "Special K" themselves at some point (i'm sure whoever does it will try out the cereal defense too).

So you give the credit for finishing the game to John? I don't. AP got involved, and the game happened. They deserve all the credit and none of the blame, in my opinion.

Of course they're distancing themselves, they got involved with him not knowing what they were getting into fully... and then made the best of it, and delivered the game. They just proved their integrity with this, in my opinion. No other manufacturer would touch this mess with a 10 foot pole, but they stood behind what they said they would do and delivered. Quickly.

That's because you apparently don't know the HISTORY of this character and the forum. It has nothing to do with these new videos. There's a reason he's been blocked from every pinball/arcade forum...not just this one.

I know like most people here you just want to POST for posting sake but there is a reason they have this policy towards the guy (or anybody that behaved as he had). The site's founder tried to explain it earlier but hey... let's just keep endlessly posting about the same issue.

Personally it bores me...as it did a year ago.

You've twisted my meaning. Please carefully re-read my words. That said, I agree with the base of your reply.

For around $15-16,000 dollars, it appears pretty much on-par with the Batman66 SLE pin.

Batman might have the edge on the centerpiece/main mech, with Magic Girl being further ahead with code.

Wow, you honestly think that he spent upwards of 16k just for attention on Pinside? You don't think it had anything to do with the fact that he genuinely was interested in the game and liked it for the artistry and the story? You don't think that perhaps he took the risk and bought someone's spot because he had inside information months ago that AP was getting involved and might actually make shipping the games a reality?

You're making narcissism out to be a lot more influential than it might actually be in this case. He's been a long-time fan of John's work on previous machines and has said that many times. Maybe he just wanted in on John's rarest game when the chance came up and he thought it might actually see the light of day and worth the risk...

haha, yes. absolutely. hell, he spent $60k on a Hellcat for more or less the same purpose.

Yes, very yes.

I am really bothered by suppliers not being paid for MG, at the same time this game is being produced. Normally. they could file a lien or sue for payment. Fat chance collecting from J "deadbeat" POP though, so they won't. My concern increases whenever I read posts from applejuice explaining rules and strategy, knowing he was taken advantage of before, and feeling he is beginning to be taken advantage of by MG buyers now, who want their game coded further. This is only natural and not a potshot at them. Applejuice is a big boy and can make his own decisions, and I am not a MG buyer, so this doesn't directly concern me. But it still hurts and I feel badly for the vendors. Hoping it works out for everybody involved.

Yeah, I actually am WELL aware of the history. The time that I have been on Pinside isn't reflective of how long I've been around the hobby. I also know about why Robin won't let him back on. I don't have any issues with any of that and agree that the horse has been beaten dead on that topic.

I was just making a point that it's pretty childish for people to continuously bash someone who isn't even an active member of this community and happened to provide a professional look at a machine hardly anyone has seen or will see in person.

It would be cheaper (and faster) to ship a person from the UK than a pin to the UK.

What if a MG owner (near a major airport) hosted Apple for a week to work on the game, and all of the owners crowd-sourced payment and the plane ticket?

I'm not sure a week is going to cut it. You're probably looking at several months to finish the code.

I suppose a week might be enough if you put him in a hole and lower l̶o̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ food down to him in a basket.

Curious to know why you believe that.

Because code development takes much, much more time than the layman assumes. Read the Mythical Man Month if you really care. Otherwise just know "it'll be easy to code <blank>" is a sentence non-programmers use far, far too often.

Edit: Not to mention, the majority of project timeline estimates are far undershot. So commonly so there's a field of jokes about it: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1658:_Estimating_Time

I write code for a living.

i've never developed code for a pinball machine, but i am a software engineer .. a week seems to me like an incredibly short timeframe to develop new features and fully test and debug them, especially when you are dealing with a complex mechanical system whose testing can't be automated for the most part. but again i don't really know anything about pinball development.

Haha. So funny. He just can't be held down.

As do I. You should know as well as anyone that deadlines are rarely met, 70-80 hour weeks are not unheard of, and "easy" is a word that should never be used without a deep and intimate knowledge of the code base.

Excellent additional points. A week might be possible to add some modes if you're not interested in testing them, developing any lightshows, including call outs etc. but I wouldn't call that "finished".

Given the feature set that applejuice has explained it does remain unclear how much of the game isn't done; he's said that the upper mech isn't likely done, but I was curious to understand why "GotAQuestion" answered like this:

You're probably looking at several months to finish the code.

In other words... how does he know? Does he have a game?

Haha yeah I know about that story too. Honestly though, it shouldn't matter to anyone what he does with his own money. He earned it.

In the case of Magic Girl, we should all just be glad we got a chance to see it in more detail and hope that it gets fleshed out more over time. It would at least be a little bit of a brighter end to a miserable journey for some people. I just also hope that ZY and Applejuice as well as the AIW and RAZA buyers could be made whole somehow one day.

Fine, but maybe you shouldn't say "you're probably looking at several months to finish the code" unless you've actually looked at the code and assessed what remains.

It's a safe statement for more or less any project in a questionable stage of development. Even small projects with few requirements are rarely fully finished and tested in a week. Big projects? Never.

You apparently have not played BM66 with latest code update. Hitting the commissioner Gordon target as many times has you can to maximize you batphone hurry up award rule kills all of magic girls rules combined. And that is just one example of many.

Would you expect any less from Mr. Lyman Sheats Jr.?

A week to assess what remains to be done isn't unreasonable, if that's how the time was to be spent. Finishing code might be another matter. But a blind assumption that it will take 'months' to finish code probably isn't wise. From a developer standpoint this is what we always tell management, but that's another story.

FWIW I had thought the Special K comment was directly/ originally coined based on either the breakfast food or the slang name for ketamine.

I never once thought it as an insult or regarding mental faculties.

Just sayin', the world is open to broad interpretation and intent is often hard to read.

I personally think it is a funny ass nickname and guessing he will embrace it.

On the side note, I am happy we all get a glimpse at what this game offers and if it took him spending 20k to get the game and garner the attention then so be it. Self serving but also one of the cooler things he has done.

Keep in mind he also took it on as an investment. That is what he seems to do and after the attention wears off I am sure it will be sold.

i take you at your word that you misinterpreted the intent of the nickname, but i do not believe for an instant that he meant it in any way other than a play on the term "special ed".

I see there's a wanted ad for a Magic Girl already. So I guess there's still demand for them, at least at a niche level.

No, it has nothing to do with cereal, but are you going to go after Kelloggs because they use a name that "might" upset your child? Nah, didn't thinks so. You sir, also have no clue as to what my intentions are or were. And I NEVER considered calling him retarded. The only thing disingenuous is your stance.

That is your opinion. Does not make it fact, nor does it make your opinion correct.

Are you referring to inclusion programs and academic services for exceptional student education?