Time for some humor. Going back to the Idiocracy post a few pages back, maybe we can commission a movie about this whole situation? Every time I read about someone going to talk to JPop or trying to help him only to fail, I think about the storyline Apocalypse now. Brilliant young officer gets a command and is suddenly out of control and operating completely outside of reality. Ice would be Martin Sheen and Jpop would be Col Kurtz. The crazies could be the fanboys on Facebook. Maybe Coppola will come out of his winery to make it?

He is delusional.

Spent 6 hours in the car with 2 other Pinsiders today. Skit-B and JPop definitely occupied some of the conversation.

I really hope you guys get money or games from JPop. Another Skit-B ending would be great harm.

No response from JPop today or yesterday. I asked for a refund and he is ignoring me. I asked for a refund on Facebook yesterday and still have no response, although at least now I know he has seen my request for sure on FB and ignored it.

It looks like your options at this point are to pursue legal action or just take the loss.

Heh heh, you don't know Rommy.

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5 refund requests, 5 no responses.

You'll alway bat 1.000 on that request.

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That was funny, have had bad experience with Comcast.

Hope you guys get some resolution soon.

The calm before the storm.

Jpop just posted an email on RAZA blog:

I received an email from an owner this morning, “John call to action, a group (person) is gonna’ charge you with fraud and take you down”. He was nice enough to send along, told me to reply “fast”. In respect to the group, which I hold high, I thought I would repost to our blog only here as it is an honest reply at this time, and what appears on the outside is not always what is happening on the inside. Am working hard here everyday despite all the external pressure coming today and this is my best. Am surprised I have not dropped dead. I will keep doing new reports for game progress, new features, more pictures, flipping, etc. And keep on the website.

Again my apologies as I did not get into pinball now to make enemies by any stretch or become a felon, and am posting here so all can read my words sent just a bit ago. Was trying not to do the “mushy” posts anymore but just show real game progress. Jpop

“”””Hi,

Thanks for the email. As I mentioned before I have been battling the “pinside” group for months now (since the DP downfall began in public) and it has done the most damage to my work, apart from anything I have missed or do poorly as a business owner. In many cases people (many not owners) have severley damaged my business, reputation and exploding my customer base with their public statements, rants and “toxic” posts. Also been harrased by phone, computer, email, text or incited by posters online, which is a criminal offence today.

All of this sadly has taken away from pinball making time here, as there are only so many hours in the day ( I do still work 7 x14). i do post what I can to the blog and to people’s email. Still get 100+ per day. Obviously my door is always open, and I have refused only 1 person from a tour here ever.

We do have some “viable” negotiations still ongoing (all documented in emails and legally – not fluff) to partner and/or get more funding to keep the company strong and moving ahead. As the “pinside” wave has helped to cause many of my customers to stop support, except for a few and actually has halted some other investors or big orders coming in for new game sales for open games. I feel pinside and a lot of the posters (many in an NDA – many behind fake names) are all liable in some form. Obviously I cannot discuss openly any deals until it’s news, and choose not to bait people with false hopes. There are a few owners that know “all” and I trust them for feedback. Some I thought i could trust but was used. We recently had to “no-reply” to a awful pinball deal (in works for months and looked promissing) that came our way. My attorney and I were genuinely sad and dissapointed. Some of the discussions are now very amazing and all would benefit, but sadly nothing is fast or signed. Luckily since the beginning of the project we have a long trail of development to refer to as record, and the work is really far along and looks good. Been as open, honest, sincere as I can in this now “crowded” and “competitive” pinball world. But yes I am not done, and I “suck” at being on “internet time” for communication. Not new news, I have been told this and agree. My brain is just wired differently as an artist, and i am no social network maven.

Obviously there is nothing I can do to stop people from going after me legally or pressing charges at any time for anything in America, personally or in business. I have that same right to go after my critics or anyone. But certainly anything big would shutdown all work here immediately, as my time would be needed for legal items I am sure and to protect the work and pinball IP which is substantial. I probably could not afford either to hire lawyers needed. Never been sued or charged in the past “for anything”, lead a quiet (somewhat) peaceful career, so I have no experience at all, other than the attorneys make out fine financially and not all attorneys are to be “trusted” as I have learn firsthand.

Also was told, in person, a group of owners wants to force a close of my business, buy the assets at auction, and then resell or license to a larger group. My response was that if these “Wizards” have a positive deal ready, in writing, to now show the hand, tell the group (under NDA) and not wait. Could be a longterm “win-win”. My goal is to complete these pinball machines and of course listen to all ideas to move it along in a good fashion.

I have copied my advisor on this as well, as a “very good” friend and legal guru since day one. My goal was to make good pinball machines for people, the pinball community that have supported me with kudos and funds my whole career, but it has not been the journey as I thought. But ultimately I understand I am the guy at the top and accountable. I do not have all the “correct” answers today, I am very sorry but still 100% on it as I speak.

about what?

Yeah, seriously not happy about some of his comments.

omg, he is seriously blaming pinside for all his troubles.

Yes.

Wow. At last, the reason the first game isn't done and you're dicking around on game three has been revealed! Pinside! Damn you Pinside!

Not just blaming, but those are some very thinly veiled threats of legal retaliation for "Great Harm" to his business.

Edit: Since he is obviously referencing StevenP with that last paragraph, I sure would love to hear his thoughts on suing JPOP's critics for damaging his business.

wow...

i hope that whatever group is pursuing him redoubles their effort...

Wow. Best of luck to you guys.

Instead of going after JPop, you should clearly go after pinside instead. After all, he believes anyone with a negative opinion of JPop and Zidware is liable for this whole disaster.

"Not my fault" is basically the same line that Skit-B hangs on to.

Sadly, I think a fisheye photo of an art sample would have been more confidence-inspiring. Thanks for posting.

Man, it'd be rich if this thing explodes and Jpop is the one doing the suing.

Also, who is the 1 person who got turned away from a tour? I'd love to hear from that guy!

TheKorn. He wouldn't sign John's NDA.

What a poorly constructed message to his owners. Talk about stream of consciousness. It seems the prospect of a legal entanglement rattled mr. Pop into sending out that sloppy reply. I have to wonder if his legal advisor slash guru perused that wandering cop-out of an excuse.

News flash jpop, pinside is your customer base. A-hole.

Translation:

I am still fiddling around. Pinside has foiled my master plan. I am really broke. I have an attorney. No, I am not kidding; I really need some money. If you know someone with money, bring them to me. Yes, I am serious, I have an attorney. Thanks for the money so far. Let me keep fiddling.

That's about how I read it as well sadly.

One would expect he would answer the primary questions everyone has:

1) How much money is left?
2) How much money has been spent and on what exactly has it been spent ((ie. how much have you paid yourself in salary and/or consulting fees JPop)?
3) How much money is needed to build out your first game (ie. do you have to steal from Peter [Raza, AIW] to pay Paul [MG])?
4) Can you generate a real timeline set with actual goals along the way? Something other than, "games will start being produced in two months". A real path to manufacturing needs to be laid out.

Ohhhh, such a martyr.

If I remember correctly, the 'battle' started around the time of the DP rug reveal, vs JPop cabinet reveal at expo. And for him to say that Pinside (or the battle with Pinside) has done the most damage shows how out of touch he is with reality. He is the only one to blame for his customers being unhappy.

There's another threat in there too. He's not going to respond. If you force him to respond legally, he won't build your machine.

To be up front, I've got no $$$ in pre-orders. For my taste, it was always a very bad gamble; and I'm sad to see it true. The response written in the blog only confirms fears, not settles them down.

You can't blame the community or PINSIDE; when you failed to deliver over and over again. The community was very patient actually.

How is he distracted, when he apparently does not respond to anyone?

Negotiations? Why? Was there not a viable business plan going into this? Just proving that the $ are gone.

Sorry, could not help but post; I found the response BS.

Cliff's notes version:

Pinside sucks, and it's Pinside's fault that the games are not further along than they are.

I've never been sued, can't afford an attorney (can't trust them anyway) so if anyone has the balls to sue me, the project will be shut down.

I have nothing to add at all in terms of actual progress on the games. But I'm still working on them 24/7 and plan to complete them, at some unknown time in the future. My heart is in the right place, but my brain is wired different, so give me a pass.

Please bring all offers for investors to me as soon as possible as I'm out of money.

Bingo!

I'm not a buyer and I don't know what the contract looks like and if Jpop is now in violation of it. It is not like he has committed fraud, like Skit-B claiming a license they did not have, and collecting money under false pretense, so not sure where there are a legal grounds to go after him, other then missing a contractual obligation.

What would concern me as an owner, is that it is clear from his post that he is running out of money and from what has been seen publicly, it does not seem like machines are heading out the door.

Is it really pinside that is preventing people from buying his new machines, or is it the fact that he has yet to deliver a single machine? I'm going to say the latter.

I like the shot at those under NDA, who he now believes are speaking in violation of it. I would somehow suspect suing a vendor or contractor over violation of an NDA when he has defaulted on payments, is probably not going to have the results he thinks.

I do find it interesting that he says that pinside and these other activities are causing him to lose so much time, yet there seems to be little communication coming from him as a result, so not sure what this is causing him to spend time on.

There is an old business adage that "when no one knows what you are doing, they assume you are doing nothing" -- certainly around here, where the silence can be deafening, there is tendency to assume it is worse then nothing.

Anyone who has actually worked a hard 7x14 knows that it's not sustainable. That's 98 hours of work a week. That's two full time jobs and a part-time job.

I refuse to believe he has done 100 hours of work a week for the past several years.

Just do the math: 100 hours a week x 52 weeks a year x 5 years = 26,000 hours of work. He just stated that he can't get a single pinball machine done with 26,000 hours of work. Wow.

Wow. Blaming his customers and POTENTIAL customers for his own failures.

John, it's this simple:

COMMUNICATE!!!!!!!!!!!!

When you don't, conversations that you don't like will flourish.

You don't respond to your own customers! If you did that, and issued refunds for those requesting them...no one would be so pissed at you!

I think it's interesting that while many of us viewed the efforts of the owner's groups to be trying to work with John for several months to try and find a path forward, he views is as "Battling" them. I guess you can stick a fork in any solution where John just hands the project off to someone else. It is clear to me that he will never let someone else take over the project, and is effectively saying he will spend every last dime of pre-order money he has left suing those who try to take it from him. The message is clear: "Come at me and I will burn this house down".

The line about the "long trail of development to refer to as record" seems to be a direct response to claims of fraud.

Pretty much identical to the questions I said Kevin needed to answer. If John doesn't want to be sued, he better have a very accurate accounting of everyone's money to show it all went directly towards producing these game(s). Unfortunately, this will get very complicated because John kept starting new projects before finishing the first. So someone who financed game #1 may suddenly have been financing the development of game #2 (how he splits up his accounting for time spent on each game will be a mess.) Also, unlike Kevin I'm sure John was smart enough to actually incorporate so his personal finances are likely protected.

In the end though, I'm not sure there are any criminal charges here? He wasn't using someone else's IP for free and he didn't misrepresent anything in order to get people's money?

He seems to interpret the NDA as saying that you can't talk negatively about the projects on a public forum.

Production plan / Shipping dates.

If that was criminal I think Jack could have been sued as well, no? (a few times.)

Imagine how different things would be right now if there was a flipping MG. Not shipping. Not done. Just flipping with some music and lights. Lebowski at Expo style.

FAST could have done it over a weekend.

Would have staved off so much negativity. If he's looking to sell out it would have been a huge boost.

But nope. Had to be stubborn and refuse help. And now he's f%^ked and blaming anyone he can. Such a pity.

Edit: Sorry, forgot to bleep myself, my bad!

Difference is, Jack refunded $$ when asked. ...and communicated.

I certainly agree with you here but the point is when did JPop start ignoring refund requests? Before or after the last "promised date" for something? It's up to the detective(s) to determine criminal intent but I suspect it will be harder in this case than it was in Skit-B's case.

There's no criminal charges or fraud. You could probably sue to try and get some money back for non-delivery, but that's it.

This is a bad business deal for all involved and we'll have to eat our losses. John will be remembered for using up over $1 million of the community's money and never showed a playing game for all that money and years of time.

Yep. It sure did seem to sound like a confession that he has spoiled most if not all the funds already.

Definitely:

All this is a damn shame really

I find this contemptible. The pinside wave is a wave of customers and vendors sharing their stories. All of the stories have been corroborated and unfortunately for John, his bad behavior came to light.

I'm speechless at this point.

I'll say it: the end is very near.