One thing I can't figure out, is why have the Mars Attacks alien on a game called Zombie Adventureland?

Is an alien a zombie? Not in my books ...

Is a zombie an alien? Hmmmm ... Probably not.

If the game was called "alien anal probers from outta space!" then sweet as.

But aliens don't really fit the zombie theme IMO.

rd.

Ponzi scheme anyone? Look, there was no way Jpop was ever going to make enough money selling 17 MGs to pay for the design, art, coding, parts, and manufacturing effort. I'd hope his customers would be less interested in the investment value and more interested playing his games outside of 17 people's basements. WTF hobby are we in exactly?

"Retro Atomic" I guess means Mars Attacks in Martian.

marsattackslist.jpg

Wish I could, but as discussed in another thread I just sent my last $1k to pre-order Disney's Frozen pinball from this really nice gentleman on Craig's list. He assures me he's legit and I'll have the game in no time, but he hasn't designed 3 A-Title pins while at Willams.

denver.craigslist.org link

Sorry, I won't get off topic again, but I couldn't resist.

Wow that is awesome... the new and improved icy mt WH2O!

Lol, its just a ripp off from mars attack.

What a shame.

I respect what you're saying and don't necessarily disagree with you, but understand Magic Girl sold at a $17k price tag when BBB was trading at $12k and ACDC BIB could be purchased NIB for approximately $7.5k. Nobody can honestly say that regardless of how talented he is, a $17k price tag on a JPOP game didn't significantly factor in the intrinsic value of exclusivity. Heck, why does ACDC BIB and LTBR trade at a significant premium to a premium if not for that same reason?

He was off for sure. But there's no way he could know he would have to start everything from scratch and have no vendor support from the ones helping others

Someone is gambling with a ton of start up capital (7 figures+) btw 2 pre-orders and interest free to boot.

At the time it was 17 magic girls. There was no talk of other games just the 17 mg games and that was it. So investment was there in exclusivity. If he pushed the game out in a year or two the game would be worth more then the 17k the day it shipped. That's what drew the deposits, and his talent as a great designer.

Magic Girl was initially just 13 games according to RGP.

From the beginning I figured Jpop was a little off his rocker when he wanted to make only a handful of MGs. Fact is, pre-ordering an unmade pin at a price higher than almost any other pinball machine in existence is worth is a hefty risk, the success of which had to parallel BBB at its peak, or it would be a bad "investment." If the game fails, Jpop's customers stand to lose thousands (there are plenty of small run pins that go for little $), and if MG succeeds as a great and beautiful game, it will be a shame because most people will never get to see or play it, which defeats the whole purpose of making an arcade game.

The high pricing of BIB/LTBR tells us it is more than possible to make more than 2 digits worth of a game and still command a high price... *if* the game is a great one.

Yes then 17 then 21.. Now 40 something

I thought the aliens were zapping people/animals on earth turning them into zombies? If not that, then yeah WTF!

Regardless of how nice/HUO/CQ my pins are (and I have a beater or two) one thing I don't do is baby my games. My pins are meant to be played and enjoyed. With that said, when this game is finally released, anyone in the area or visiting is always more than welcome to call ahead and enjoy as many games as you'd like on MG.

Is there a video stream around from JPOP's session at EXPO 2014?
I checked Jared's great streams but there is non of JPOP.

I was watching the live stream and for some reason it wasn't on during JPOPs presentation. Pinball news will have the audio in a few days.

Hold ON WTF, I have NEVER been notified the number of magic girls was increasing to 40, I've been waiting 3 years, I emailed John last week and asked you if this was true, you never replied, no problem I'll call you, but IF this is true, you have some nerve increasing the number now after 3 years, we had a contract, If you do this you are breaking the contract, how about some answers?

Best wishes to anyone with an order.

It's all about the journey.

Expo 307.JPG

Expo 288.JPG

meanwhile, enjoy some music

I'm sorry, the phone number you are trying to reach is no longer in service....

If he hasn't changed his mind again this is the plan I'm told 40 ish...

"Protoype Cabinet -DO Not Move" sticker...
-or what; you might damage the contents?
lol

The angry mob has spoken...does not matter if you are Stern, PPS,JJP, DP, SkitB, Heighway, Spooky, JPop, Roit (I am sure I am forgetting a few others) subpar customer service, poor build quality along with incomplete code and S&M I got handcuffed excuses will not be tolerated. Plus the preorder system that keeps your money indefinitely BS has finally come to an end thanks to at least one manufacture out there. Now with more choices than ever, we are going to vote with our dollars. And the masses will have no loyalty unless it is earned. A lot of us feel betrayed with over promising and under delivering.

I'm in on RAZA and AIW. I Would not hesitate one bit to pick up someone's spot on Magic Girl. So for the MG skeptics, just PM me and we'll try to work things out with the 3 parties.

Mauro-

A 3 yr journey only to discover it is Mars Attacks? Am I missing something besides the kewl hinges? Come on Missing the use of $10.5K RAZA to $17K for MG is a lot of money IMO.

The patents have long ago run out on those WMS parts.

In the USA, Design patents last 14 years, Utility patents last 20 years

http://www.uspto.gov/inventors/patents.jsp

50

I don't think this has anything to do with "patents", but more so JPOP doesn't exactly have a 3d library of all those components for doing a layout, that had to be all modeled up from scratch. Like he's said, he's had to build everything from the ground up, including lining up vendors

However both Spooky and dutch pinball built a company from the ground up and have something to show for it in 2 years or less.

Vid1900, this one is for you.

If utility patents have expired, which I agree with you they have. If many to most of the parts he needs are readily available through vendors (Marco, PBL, PPS direct, etc) and when we're talking about only 25-50 machines is there any reason out there he can't simply buy 50 of each part he needs through them? Cover up he's the buyer if he's concerned out being blocked by PPS. Why the need to have a third party re-invent the wheel?

Now for the new parts unique to the game, ok, I understand. Although it's not incredibly difficult to find a vendor willing to produce them, even a low run. There are always vendors who didn't win their bid to produce the components for the next PPS, JJP, Stern game not necessarily due to quality, but because of price. Those vendors need work too and are willing to service the low hanging fruit of the JPOPS. Of course I understand JPOPs machines may have a few high tech mechs, but that will not be the majority of the components so let's put that aside for the sake of this discussion.

Why would PPS be blocking Jpop?

It's not like he is violating any patents.

It's not like he is stealing stuff out their backdoor.

If anything, PPS could/should be an ally selling spare parts, translights, cab decals, for Jpop's games.

Exactly and he should not have said "we are planning for a big reveal at Expo" or words to that effect, I was expecting no less than a fully working prototype or two.

'Plan 9 from outer space' had aliens reanimated dead humans (zombies).

But I see your point in that this game lacks direction or has changed directions so many times it's hard to figure heads or tails.

100% agreed. I just threw it out there to prevent anyone from starting "conspiracy theory."

So if this was you, you'd agree...buy the parts that are readily available to everyone and move on?

I'm sorry Iceman, what's the offer you're referring to?

I must admit I'm not sure I understand why he's redesigning parts that can be bought off the shelf, or if it's just some unique parts and he's using off the shelf B/W flipper-pop bumper-etc assemblies ?

I was under the impression that the reason that MG was $7K more than RAZA was mainly due to it's rarity at 13 (13 when I bought in) and thought that was why it was $7K more. Humor me, but if the numbers were equal (100 RAZA's & 100 MG's), I hope it becomes obvious that MG was worth $7k more than RAZA and that's why it was $7k more and not because of it's exclusivity...otherwise you could buy RAZA and take the $7k and buy another nice machine. What I don't like is going back on your word and saying your building a certain amount of games and then 3 years later changing it.

Considering you are an owner and finding out the number was upped; I would say effectively communicating fundamental changes to his owners would be high on your list too

Still, if he said 17 pins and now it seems as if he will sell more than that, I think that's a breach of contract from John's part and owners should be able to get a refund based on the fact. He did a similar thing with RAZA when he added 25 Cointaker editions at the last minute.

Myself and others have ask MANY times for updates, including status updates and revisions to the production schedule. It's always either deflected or ignored. I'm livid about the way the magic girl project is being handled.

What I see in post #519 is the "Mars Attacks" guy, a hot green chick who looks like she's from the original Star Trek series and Godzilla. Where are the sweet, sweet Zombies?

QSS

As well you should be. I'm afraid Jpop is turning into the WWE of pinball.
randy savage.jpg
QSS

WWF might not be 'real', but it is more real than a bunch of empty wooden cabs with metro Mars Attacks sideart.

So on the additional 25 MGs he is producing (bringing the number up to 50) at this point in time what is the total amount that those 25 owners were required to pay, or have paid? I'm assuming like RAZA the full amount wasn't required yet?

Payment in full was required for the original 25 in August of 2012, I'm not sure about the additional 25.

I'm not sure how the patents work and I do know he had issues getting the ok for certain things.

I didn't say pps... But like jack he couldn't get certain vendors. One company that was supposed to build a amp for jack said yes. When stern found out the pressure was out on to say no cause he also did stern stuff. Which made it land into my hands. Things like that happened to jpop for sure

Was there a time when he was trying to build with b/w style parts? I thought his intention from the beginning was to design all new parts.