There's a lot of things "he might as well have" done. He might as well have worked as a Subway sandwich artist the last 5 years.

Here's another blast from the past jpop quote:

The Best Pinball Owners!

Forgot to mention on this forum I think I have the best pinball owners period. You guys are willing to put up with a lot of extra bulk to allow mw and my team to create pinball again, a notch or 2 above the rest of the pinball crowd. We try to work honestly, ethically and appreciate every day this special time in pinball. The only way we can say thanks is to create amazing pinball. From art, to design to all the other small things most others miss.

"From art, to design to all the other small things most others miss"... that sums it up, really. Was all about the art and design, and small things (vents, hinges) and never about, you know, actually delivering machines to anyone.

And it's a real knee slapper now that he specifically mentions "honestly and ethically"... why even bring that up? Just a part of his continuing narrative since the beginning. He was never honest about the state of things, his progress, his bookkeeping, or anything else.

And ethically? Drawing a salary and delivering nothing once all the funds had been paid to himself? Stiffing all the contractors and leaving them high and dry?

He was the one that brought those words up.

I can see jpop showing up for free eats at pinball life.

I looked up the term sociopath... found some interesting ways to spot one:

Look for a lack of shame.

See if the person is constantly lying.

See if they are able to stay eerily calm in spite of circumstances.

See if they are extremely charming -- at first.

See if the person is exceptionally intelligent.

See if the person is manipulative.

See if the person has a huge ego.

See if the person has few real friends.

uh.... jpop is "promoting" an appearance on Coast2Coast???

http://pinballinventor.org/feed.html

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NATE... for the love of God, at this stage with everyone's money flushed down the toilet and lawsuits flying.. this is not the time to give him a softball interview talking about his career.

It WOULD be the time to put the SCREWS to him and get answers that he doesn't want to give. That would be the only kind of interview worth doing at this stage.

It's the classic jpop ego to even promote this before it happens. Just like announcing Wired was going to interview him.

Nate, there are some people involved in this, myself included, who would be happy to give you whatever research info you need. We've seen John tell "his side" of the story a few times now in some emails... I think he has to be challenged, he can't just spew his deluded version of things.

Well, take the ~$million in pre-order money he's collected to start. Then add on unpaid vendors.

oh boy. not even sure if I want to listen.

Hmmm. this was what I was afraid of.

Forget manufacturing, he never got a completed prototype done for any of his games.

Was he asked a single tough question about the straight up lies and deceit?

Listening to John wax poetic on "making pinball is hard" for 2 hours doesn't sound like a great way to spend 2 hours.

Bummer.

I'm not going to listen either. This is why I stopped calling him back in the day, he'll talk your ear off and we know his version of things.

You called it, Kim.

This is why the interview is a giant let down to all of us that have been on the jpop ride, we know his MO and knew what was going to happen before it happened.

I'm not listening to the podcast out of some sort of protest against C2C, just that I've been burned enough by jpop to not give him 2 more hours of my life if all I'm going to get out of it is "I'm not a good CEO" and "Making pinball is hard".

I guess part of me also hoped that since John was putting himself out there, something he is NOT giving his customers, since he won't talk to them, was I'd get some sort of pleasure in seeing him squirm by being asked about how much money he personally drew from the company, why he isn't taking phone calls from customers, or even vendors like Cointaker, why he took Alice money from people long after he knew he wasn't able to deliver ANY games to ANY one, etc....

I think there was a hope it would turn into 60 Minutes, because if there ever was a time and place, this was it . There was also concern made before the podcast about what would happen, we were told don't worry, Nate knows what he'd doing (to that effect). I think that is true, Nate knows how to make C2C, and C2C isn't and won't ever be 60 Minutes, and we shouldn't have projected onto him a desire to get all 60 Minutes.

Ah, this interview was recorded in 2013... that's the only way the above makes sense.

This is funny, that he says he didn't lie, and the next thing he says is a lie.

Because he also hid (not lied) and obfuscated (not lied) about the situation, no one even knew how bad things were until the very end. Hell, you listen to this interview TODAY, and his version of things, and he's got Magic Girls ready for production soon.

Too bad he didn't have a tax professional offer to step forward and help him navigate that. No one offered to help. No one said a peep here on pinside, no tax lawyers around, no nothing.

So he's left writing letters to the Governor about his bad situation. Good gravy.

Pinside has approx 30,000 users and 4000 or 5000 login every day. And we know Pinside is just 1 slice.

Funny how not delivering product turns off the money tap.

I've posted some of John's own words earlier in the thread, but I feel the need to repost to show the kinds of deceit we as the owners were dealing with. It was definitely not "ah shucks, I'm behind schedule, Sorry I don't know what I'm doing"

Posted Oct 23, 2014:

Just an update, I have a new project manager starting today and we will see how he fits in. He is a pinball guy, so most of the parts he knows, but not so much my process or style and is a PM for a large company. We have set a date to show magic girl, on a rug, for mid december and I will now work on the raza schedule and report back soon which will be after that. I still have some vendors to talk to and I am creating the transition plan for the Mission software guys.

I will still give updates on the block and try to make them meaningful as to rules and features, like TBL guys did.

As some have noticed we are actually farther along then it might appear, so the work now is to identify the missing items and get them done. Items kept in a haze are obviously my fault and I need to do better. But also there are so many disconnected parts of pinball making, it’s hard to keep straight unless you are in it daily. So for the RAZA play field I have ramps to shoot, game tweaks and finish as well as other upper features and general gameplay. Most of the art is complete and needs to be readied for printing. Still working on the other items from earlier in the week too. Jpop

Posted Nov 20, 2014 re: RAZA

At this time I would like to reveal the full game around the first week of January. Should be in good shape by then and able to have it all put together as a machine. We are finishing the back box insert panel and wiring along with other small details and cab parts, like the inner side cabinet “zombie” panels and the game controller enclosure. The topper is almost finished and ready to be installed and we have the final reactors ready to drop in. Cutting the portholes needs to be done.

Posted Jan 17, 2015 re: RAZA

I wanted to get back on the blog with some updated news and events, to let you know what we have been working on and what is being completed. Currently still on track to show a fully built Zombie Adventureland game in February. Most of the design work and art is up to date, along with much of the lcd screen art, test mode system, sounds, and other items. As reported previous we are doing separations now for the play field and back glass. So you will get a good feel for what the game will be like. We are still waiting for vendor parts and other items we have to finalize, as there are so many small details to deal with in pinball, along with making sure the game looks really nice!

Posted Jan 14, 2015 re: Magic Girl

As we continue to add more information, photos and videos to the reveal site for MG, we have the run of cabinets being made and will begin production setup on March 3.

THIS is why emotions are high, and why it's not good enough to let John tell his version of things, and not call him on the carpet.

And here's the quote I want to get made into a t-shirt:

"Lying to customers is not the way I work, to make them go away for a while."
-John Popadiuk, Jr

Oh, I can believe he lives in his own deluded fantasy land. I also believe the lies he told were so deep, he lied to himself. But that is not a pass, and that does not let him off from answering for that.

That he actually said something on C2C to the effect of "I never told a lie" is a knee slapper.

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.

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.

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

He's been clinging to the "I never give up" narrative, so likely it would be a bankruptcy ("falling on sword" = "giving up").

Probably 80% of us would have been satisfied with a heart felt apology (call each person up), ownership of his mistakes, and then go bankrupt and move on. He seems incapable of that and is scorching the earth because of it.

I just don't see the designs being worth anything. Not with custom everything. It was a fool's errand from the beginning.

But you have the one thing he craves... the respect from the pinball community. Plus the ability to do whatever you want next in pinball. Maximum respect, Ben.

I think he'd be happy taking someone else's money (rich guy) to pay to keep going, but I suspect if he won the lottery or had an inheritance, he would not use "his" money to make things right.

Capture.JPG

There are less than 30,000 pinsiders TOTAL. 500k in paid downloads would be a transcendent pinball game.

There once was a pinball designer named John,
who fiddled till all the money was gone,
He had plenty of blame,
for everyone but his name,
His life's work was trashed as he rambled on.

Jpop's updated his website again, new front page, which links to the C2C interview for some reason. How can he pretend to be running a business but link to a 2 hour monologue of how screwed up everything is?

http://pinballinventor.org/

He also has a press page with the Adobe videos and some other stuff.

I have to wonder if this is all for the legal defense.... just digging in about how this is not a scam, but a failed business.

You know, based on everything we know of him and how he thinks, it will be easy for him to dismiss the "stole" and brush off the whole thing talking about all the work he did, blah blah blah. I think the gut punch comment should be more like:

How do you sleep at night when you paid yourself hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary and delivered nothing to those people?

Hard to defend that statement.

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Stats show more than 20 people participating.

That's the thing, his delusions mean he is still trying to get money from people. He's complained about how everyone stopped sending money in. He would have accepted those checks if they showed up. He blames Pinside for ruining things. This thread is what opened everyone's eyes and stopped the madness.

He blames this thread for ruining investors getting involved.

Hell, Bill knew better than most what a clusterF was going on, but still got sucked into wasting tens of thousands of dollars trying to save something that could not be saved.

This thread reflects the reality of an F'd up situation. A situation that is still ONGOING.

Another new user who is intimately aware of everything Pinside. Hmmmm.

Apparently there was "insider" knowledge that Jpop was a loon, but that was not known to the wider community until just this past year, and even just this past month with the C2C interview. So, I don't blame us pinheads who were excited to be in on something cool.

I appreciate the shout outs. I'm just a guy who tried to hold jpop's feet to the fire. I had hoped early on we might be able to force some change to how he operates. We didn't know at the time that it was all over well before Expo '14, and here we are a year after that and there is still no closure.

I don't think any of us can be shocked he is so shameless to show up. He probably thought C2C was a good interview as well.

His DIY offer really symbolizes the complete clusterF of a project. Just completely clueless.

Apparently the Magic Girl that went to the NW show hasn't been touched since it came back.

You would think anyone with half a brain (yes, I know who we're talking about), and with the intention to save things (which he says he's still there "working" every day to save everything) would have spent the last 4 months since the game came back fixing whatever it needed to have gotten it to some point it could have been brought to Expo, and try to change the narrative about what is going on.

Hell, I imagine most of the people involved in the lawsuit are Magic Girl buyers, since they are out the most money. If he was truly trying to avoid the lawsuit, wouldn't the logical thing to do be to finish MG? I know logic is out the window.

Even if he was afraid of showing his face at Expo, you get that prototype running and invite people to see it.

Instead, we got 4 months of who knows what, 7x14, and all the cash burn associated with keeping that shop.

I wonder what anyone else might have accomplished in 4 months, working full time, trying to complete a prototype pinball.

It just never ends.

He's found a nice place for the pod.... down by the river.

Thanks for the insight. At least that explains the "why" it sat at his shop since then. Also explains why John would revert back to sanding white wood. Also basically seals the deal on any sort of "saving" this that he would pretend can still happen.

This entire situation is an indictment of crowdfunding. A million dollar raise by "kickstarter" is huge, for ideas in someone's deeply unqualified head.

Pre-crowd funding, John might have shopped the idea around to traditional backers, and MAYBE someone puts a team together, finances the project, with John as a "designer" but nothing more, and certainly accountable to the guy writing the checks. And the whole thing would only happen if there was a business plan about how any of this makes sense and could be a viable business.

Instead we got none of that, for an idea that likely would have not gotten past the business plan stage because it just never added up (certainly not as the business John created).

This whole thing will make me a wiser investor in future businesses though. And one thing I'll make certain is that the person being financed has skin in the game, not just content to operate a failed business while my money pays their bills.

Good grief.

Can't wait till this is over and he's bankrupt.

2015-06-24-profit-wut.jpg

Considering John seems to want to "keep on working", likely this WILL be pushed for as long as possible. The people I know who have visited him recently all say is he still there working.

We will likely be in this thread at the end of 2016 still wondering what is going on.

The only thing I suspect is he will leave the shop, move back to his basement or garage or wherever he started, but still be tinkering a year from now.

Another owner I know. I'll let them speak for themselves but my impression was John is living this movie moment:

giphy.gif

Second hand reports I've had are that he's still showing stuff to prospective suckers who didn't learn anything from Bill's effort and think there is something to save.

That's the same zidware, he made apps before getting back into pinball. His "Pinball Wizard" is listed there, as well when viewing source who can see his same hand coded html using tables that he uses on all his pages.

Looking at the apps, they are all dated 2009, 2010... so yeah, just before he decided it was easier to ask people to send him several hundred grand.

Nothing new posted to the blogs for over 1/2 a year. John can pretend all he wants he is still working on this and that the lawsuit is an unnecessary distraction, but in the end there are no games.

Thanks again to Bill for the only "reveal" we ever got. Without that, there would still be people clinging to the cult of John about how amazing what is in his shop is, and that he's going to shock the world.

This thread is more entertaining. Guaranteed .

Some might argue he has some obligation to let the people who fronted him a million dollars know what is going on.

I was curious, so I jumped back 1 year in this thread... had to go all the way back to page 58.... so we've had 300 pages in the year since.

This is what we were talking about 1 year ago:

For shits & giggles, I'm reposting what John posted on his blog exactly 1 year ago. This was only a few months before the Pintasia "I don't have any money left" announcement, and the fact that RAZA was NEVER close to completion (I've highlighted a few places), and MG was barely playable:

Zombie Winter Update

I wanted to get back on the blog with some updated news and events, to let you know what we have been working on and what is being completed. Currently still on track to show a fully built Zombie Adventureland game in February. Most of the design work and art is up to date, along with much of the lcd screen art, test mode system, sounds, and other items. As reported previous we are doing separations now for the play field and back glass. So you will get a good feel for what the game will be like. We are still waiting for vendor parts and other items we have to finalize, as there are so many small details to deal with in pinball, along with making sure the game looks really nice!

All these important items will be posted separately and continuing on until all is shown. A lot of work has been accomplished and I need to get it out. I can only ask forgiveness in all of this, as a pinball designer (that is what I am really), I am trying to do what has never been attempted ever, to make the pinball community more vibrant and exciting for all while building the best games I have ever been apart of. That is what I want to do, and all the work and platform we have made has come from a blank sheet of paper.

Zidware is (in process) of bringing on some pro help including Chris in PR and Chad in operations, communications and pinball help in the studio. They both have a solid approach to getting information out and being out in front for updates and going out more to Pinside, Pinball News with timely updates as they happen. We do discuss a lot of what is going on to plan a way that will work in the future.

Obviously I need others who have a good feel for what you and the pinball community need as far as updates, communication and interaction. I do the best I can. With the current workload it is very hard for me to keep up in these items, and plow thru game development items which is the prime focus. Everything is vital though ultimately.

Also we are agreed here to begin to show all items and features related to the game. For example, we have ended up with a larger inside cabinet wall next to the playfield, and decided to create “interactive mirror blades” (I call it 4D play), which are part reflective, part illustrated decal, and part mechanical. So for raza we have the monster on the left wall and the zombie-shock ferris wheel on the right as part of this new pinball feature.

Also it looks like we will be able to have the new lcd mini play field as I talked about earlier. A good source of quality / affordable lcds has been found along with the new Invidia Graphics Control board to drive things, that has a rocket graphics chip section we are testing. Our current patent application covers lcd devices in the playfield space, as a back panel, play field or interactive device.

The development blog will be used less, starting in February, as we will move all news and information to the Zidware web site, and more frequent posts to Pinside or Pinball News. We would update with game info, pictures, inside pics and other basic items as we move towards setting up for production planning in April.

Part of our task list for this winter was review where things are dev wise and also visit some other small boutique manufacturers to see their shop, operations, and get our space set up. We are almost complete in the design of our efficient build space to handle game assembly. Talks have gone on with some potential partners to help us grow a bit and provide added experience, value, but this never goes fast enough. Also the factory facility where we make our cabinets and playfields, has about 4x more square footage of extra manufacturing space with a dedicated team of production help (if we need it) who have experience building complete games for Sega, Raw Thrills, Global VR, Namco and other companies.

Also Adobe® Systems Incorporated (makers of Photoshop and Illustrator) have created a really interesting feature on one of my artists, Jeremy, and came to the shop to film us working. This feature was slated for release this March, but they pushed it for January release to iPad and the website because it caused so much internal excitement. We use mostly Adobe® products in our game design process.

http://inspire.adobe.com/2014/12/18/zombies_yetis_pinball.html

Ok, back to work for me now. I will try to get caught up on internal items as best I can, and keep moving forward. Actually the game building (as we have completed much already) is something I feel we have a good handle on, as we move forward to make high-quality custom products as the focus now is on showing the completed game to all. I have learned putting a pinball game together is not the same as putting together something of quality. Jpop

Knowing the ego on this guy, it's a bummer he got to felate himself with the Adobe feature, but I'm glad he never got to do his big reveal standing beside his machine at NW and after that the ruse was up and he was persona non grata and doesn't show his face anymore.

Boy those people sure did you a kindness.

And John's version of things is people don't step up to help him and that's why this failed.

Thats-Gold-Jerry-Gold-Kenny-Bania-Seinfeld-Quote_(resized).png

I actually know Mike Hanley, and he visits (or did) jpop pretty regularly, and it was his "reality distortion field" reports to me about how things were going, which were contrary to the reality I knew was going on, that I realized John lies to his best friends. Then I knew what a big problem we had. Too late, obviously.

Aaron, I'm curious... with everything we know now, do you think there was any way to "save" John's games had he sent a MG playfield to you a year ago?

Was enough of it completed to even take it to a finished state? Or was it impossible?

That's my understanding. Was curious to hear Aaron's thoughts though. Or was it another "bullet dodged" like some of the others and would have turned into a nightmare.

The one thing I get comfort from is knowing he ran out of (our) money. No more free ride. No more making more money from "not" making games than those who are. From what's been said, he's been out of money for over a year. A year of his life wasted. His delusions and ego finally got the best of him and there's no one left to bail him out.

True. He's still out there "trying to make it work". Translation: Trying to find someone else with money.

He's blamed this thread for ruining things for him previously. Just imagine all the additional money and people hurt by throwing more money at him.

That Pintasia announcement alone said the games had years left to complete them. And those were his own words.

Besides, Pinside has a "drain" feature. Drain away.

This is the bed he made.

That's like those people posting to the MAD Amusements thread "Well, I'VE never been ripped off by him".

This isn't some story of a customer that couldn't be satisfied and is now ripping you a new one on yelp. This is 100+ people screwed out of a million dollars, much of it sent under false pretense ("games will be built next month", "playable prototype behind the camera", "these people are now on my team", "big reveal coming at expo", etc), and a huge chunk of which went straight into jpop's pockets for delivering NOTHING. He did not fail honorably.

Yeah, I'd suggest his "friends" take a good look at themselves if they're ok with this.

This is what's so infuriating about John's version of events, saying no one would help him. In reality he probably had more people willing to roll of their sleeves and get this done than probably any other business i can think of. That is in spite of the fact that John really doesn't deserve anyone's help.

Thanks for the insight. Based on the clusterF John has created, I'm going to say you probably were one of the lucky ones and didn't have your own business ruined by getting involved with him.

Good luck with FAST, I hope it works out.

Of course he would. Free money, no skin in the game, pay yourself until the money runs out and then shrug your shoulders. What's not to like?

Well, for fun I decided to revisit StevenP's posts in this thread.

Some interesting exchanges...

This is pretty funny now, as we are apparently on the cusp of a ZombieYeti pinball being released, and it ain't the one he worked on for 4 years with John. The dig at AMH is completely hilarious in light of almost every AMH has been delivered to every customer at this point.

And now that we're a year past the nuclear meltdown of zidware, apparently all of the work there HAS been proven worthless, no one has been able to figure out a way to save it, and the much hyped mystery prototype was exposed as completely lackluster.

This was repeatedly thrown back at all the doubters, that there was a "virtually complete" game sitting in his shop, but here we are.

Some people use that as a trick in small business, instead of listing yourself as President, you list it as a lesser position, to make it look like the organization is bigger than it is. Otherwise it appears like a 1 man show, even if it is.

With jpop officially unable to make good with his customers, yes, I'd call any money he's paying anyone "dirty" money. That was handed over in good faith, to pre-order a pinball, not to fund jpop's delusional patents.

Even at bottom basement rates, in the end that is our money he's got and is paying for patent work. And what do we get out of this? A big fat zero.

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?".

Yeah, I don't think John would have been able to buy the years of quiet from his owners without the ZY bread crumbs he kept dropping for us.

Even at the end, he kept going back to the ZY well, to try and buy more time.

I guess because that was the one thing he kind of knew how to do, art direction. Although with an unlimited budget and no deadlines, for endless revision.

Can't believe (I still can't) that the delusional bonehead was all thrilled about bringing empty cabinets to expo after 3 years of development, and then stood around while everyone felated him (at least in his own mind).

be careful with the image search on that one

Here was John's blog post 6 weeks before that expo:

“well we are working on a nice update for Expo. the artwork, design and other items are being finished. designing and brainstorming ideas does not stop in a game process for me. at WMS items would be removed or added during the late stage or during the pro to run if earnings are low. if I see something that will work, and we can squeeze it in then we will. I would say we are about 75% complete and I would like to do a nice reveal in October. Jpop”

And that was RAZA he was talking about....75% done. summer of 2014. har har har.

Of course Magic Girl was 95% done.

This is my takeaway as well. It was an expensive lesson for me, but I hope it saves me from a much bigger loss down the road (business investments, etc). No more putting my money into something "on faith".

Also never again will I put money into something where the principle has no skin in the game. If your house is not on the line I'm not putting my money in and letting you operate a failed business off my money till the money is gone.

Why don't you add googly eyes?

googly.png

And we wonder where all the women are.

Yeah, I don't see Ben staying involved having changed the outcome. John never would have allowed Ben to 'get shit done', and definitely wouldn't have made Ben privy to the money situation and cash burn. There was no saving this from the get go.

The only thing I didn't like about the game concept was your name over the title since that was confusing. But I liked "crazy Ben Heck" taking over an amusement park of zombies. Seems somewhat realistic .

It's funny now too looking back, knowing what we know. When John presented the change from "BHZA" to "RAZA", he never said anything about why that was. Or, the real reasons at least. It did give him more reasons to spin his wheels and revise the artwork umpteen more times though, which I'm sure he was happy to do.

So I'll finally have a ZombieYeti game when my GB LE shows up.

I guess that will be John's true legacy... beyond becoming "the most hated man in pinball"... that he brought ZY to pinball. I'm sure GB will not be the only ZY game, we will see more.

Initially we thought ZY would never get a pin because all games are licensed and you can't get licensors to approve new artwork, but at least we now have 1 licensor that will (is it Sony?). Probably doesn't change things with some of the other movie companies, but maybe we can get some others, likely never Fox or Disney (Marvel, Star Wars), but hopefully some future Sony properties will allow him to do it again.

Haven't seen it first hand but considering he was way behind on his rent before Bill paid for it, he obviously fell behind again and had to leave.

Over the last several months there were reports of potential investors coming to look at the games, but as per usual nothing panned out.

I don't know how many investors have come in to look at it, but it seems like none of them learned anything from Bill's decision to walk away. Everyone still thinks there is something left to save.

And the fact that now there's been I-dont-know how many potential investors/saviors and NONE of them see a way forward. I know that John would just love to "walk away" at this point, and have someone absolve him, and even with that there is no deal.

I'm sure the numbers that have been kicked around by Ben and others, about how you would literally be better off starting from scratch than trying to save this mess have proven true.

I just wish this farce would end already.

HOLY F__K!!!! That makes my blood boil.

He has learned NOTHING, he takes ZERO responsibility for this mess.

It's 2016... he has delivered nothing to anyone. The money is all gone. He has no way out. And he wants to threaten his customers? Just when you thought this couldn't get worse.

Not sure how it benefits anyone other than John to hide this thread, especially when he is still trying to get money out of people.

I think that's been John's plan for some time. There's been rumors, one after the next, of interested parties coming through to look at it. It's actually pretty shocking to keep hearing that there's always "Someone else".

At this point a lot of experienced people have looked at it, well heeled people, so what the latest person thinks they can pull off that the previous people couldn't... i have no idea.

If someone wants to give John a big check, have at it. Enjoy the blinky lights.

I think it was Ben that broke down if you subtract John's (alleged) salary, and then the shop rent for the same amount of time, and multiply that over the 4 years, how little money there was left over for pretty much anything else, and certainly nothing left to build games.

It's so laughable that his defenders then would argue about how John was so frugal... keeping the heat low on this huge shop, where he rented the other side and built a door... for nothing (other than junk storage).

Then you consider the stories of John writing the Governor of Illinois that the taxes were too high and preventing him from being a success.

He's got lots of blame for everyone but the guy in mirror.... who's the real victim here.

I reviewed the blog, because I remember him talking about the door and taking over the space next door.

This was march 2014. Expo "Empty Cabinets" was October 2014. Even in these blog posts he mentions the RAZA cabinets.

So basically, he rents the space next door, busts open the wall and builds a door, and then the next 5 months are spent building the empty cabinets that he brought to expo. And was so deluded he actually blogged "Great Pinball Expo Week", before the shit hit the fan.

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I had to refresh my memory on the Governor letter... it was from C2C quoted above. That interview is now 6 months old, and yet he was claiming them to be "REALLY CLOSE" to MG production. just like always.

The best part of the pussy cat bowling story, was when the url was uncovered originally in this thread, and that picture was posted, the website was changed literally an hour or 2 later the same day and all that info was removed. It gave us conclusive proof John was lurking in this thread and watching it in real time. And the thread was moving pretty hardcore then.

Add USPTO to John's list of blame targets. All part of what is holding him down.

But hey, John DID get his patent for his cabinet design! That and 2 bucks will buy him a coffee! Good thing all those months were spent on that patent.

This was never going to succeed with John running things, in charge of bank account, etc.

He announced he brought on a project manager, but then stopped taking his calls. He was never accountable to anyone, including us.

I don't have the agreement in front of me, but there was an initial date given, and words to the effect that if the delivery date changes, that will be communicated to the customer.

He doesn't have the right to disappear for years and pretend he is still working on it, not updating his customers or answering their calls. All blogs have been abandoned, his facebook deleted, website not updated.

So, any lawyer in court will make mince meat out of his "I'm still working on it" defense.

This was sent out May 23rd, 2015.... happy anniversary dead Pintasia announcement

RE: PLAN OF ACTION FOR PURCHASERS OF MAGIC GIRLTM, RAZA AND AIW

That deal is (long) dead, but we're still here, and John is still toiling away some where today. He sure knows how to run out the clock.

The wounds never closed up... nothing has changed!

Oh well.... as I've said before, John has/is continuing to waste prime years of his life now. Prime work/earning years. That money he took from us while he was on the ride will be a pittance to what he lost. Think about how you did this past year in comparison. He's screwing himself now more than he's done to any one of us, so take whatever you like from that.

Interesting development. I googled the phone number, this came up:

http://www.b2byellowpages.com/company-information/099365272-american-pinball.html

Also found this:

https://app.oneteam.net/Profile/american-pinball-inc-7HK98

Says business start date was nov 2015.

I had heard rumors around that time about another rich guy (next in line of many), and John even told a MG owner I knew that he could have his machine by January (har har).

I googled the name registered, and matched someone in Illinois, and possible connected to this company:

http://www.us-tech.com/RelId/988747/ISvars/default/Aimtron_Growing_at_Home_and_Overseas.htm

http://aimtron.com/who-we-are

Who knows what the status of any of this is today.

Even more interesting, former WMS alumni Ron Sommers now works at Aimtron:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ron-sommers-61149913