Perhaps the sign that you missed was, "stop" your endless posting.

I don't believe that Jpop has ever "seen" the books. At this point I would be surprised if he kept them and even paid taxes.

This has probably been covered before, but this thread is so huge, its next to impossible to find:

What is the best estimate of how much cash JP was actually paid? Are we talking in the low 100's thousands or millions?

Two thousand posts in a week?

Im not sure the few times constitutes beating a horse but whatever. If it was excessive my oppologies.

As for your pintasia quote, I fail to see how that answers whether John was paid from pintasia to use the license. I understand why you would infer what you have. If that's the case no one has said as much. If that's truly the answer to the license agreement, it seems like a simple reply to a simple question.

Everything i have said about my time at Zidware is the truth. If you want to ask me a direct question then please do so. I hold my business integrity highly. Please ask anyone who has worked with me, or any of the other vendors who worked with me and or Zidware.

To summarise i worked with Zidware on a signed contract between June 2012 and May 2014 and wasn't paid for the last 3 months of that contract.

I've been there... Between the "oh promise me" and the "next week it will all be all right" it's enough to make you lose your faith in your fellow man.

That's when it's time to negotiate for the seat of acad, and the lathe and (3) table saws, and a pen plotter....

Yeah it was a long time ago, when pen plotters were useful....

What I can't follow is why are WC and Pintasia both posting?

Is Pintasia actually Bill posting about himself in the third person?

Surely it'd make sense to only have one person talking on behalf of the business.

Be it

A/ Bill

B/ Bill talking about himself in the third person

C/ mystery person talking about Bill.

Amazing to blow through $100,000 in a week one pinball machine.

Once I spent $75,000 in a day on pinball ... But I got 36 machines in return.

rd.

hey thats like, just over 2k each. nice haul.
edit: good value here in (aust)

The problem is how do you negotiate anything if they refuse to speak to you? ....

Ok, so i've been going through my archives looking through the videos, pics, docs that i have backed up. I feel that I should start sharing more of what I have now, seeing as i remained quiet for 3 years, 1 year after my contract ended in the hope that Zidware would resolve its problems, depts and be able to finish the games it started. I take my business integrity very seriously. Then, Zidware makes an announcement that they are selling the licence somewhere and John gets to have a new job free from the old company and liabilities and no-one even knows i did any work....

This is where i draw the line, god damn it ............

Also, to update on the Pintasia and Bill front. (I still want them to succeed) I haven't had any reply from my emails on Tuesday, or the Skype chat Bill said he would sort out with me. I appreciate they are busy, but i just want people to tell me the truth and give me honest answers to honest questions. I had enough BS with Zidware.

I have found an mg attract mode video from 16th December 2013 which is now available via this link:

Please note that any video i post is not meant to be a promotional video, they will all be development videos meant only as a reference for further development. Also, if anyone is unhappy with me doing this then please get in touch directly. I am not out to cause trouble, just lift the secrecy vail and help myself with some much needed therapy.

Thanks

That's the most obvious explanation of all of this, otherwise he would have stayed in his garage and saved $200k in rent over the last four years.

He had a documented job offer from Stern at $50k plus and turned it down. There are people on here, and at Stern that can confirm this.

If you are going to post this potentially eye rolling "good Samaritan" stuff then you need to do it under your real name. This cloak and dagger stuff got old and childish a long time ago. You defend "Pintasia" under the name Pintasia (claiming you are from the entity) but won't say who you are? Ridiculous.

You just spent an inordinately long time disputing these accusations but you do it behind a screen name? This just gives the accusations more weight.

Don't begrudge some of the people for trying to seek *some* kind of monetary solution for this mess... have you seen the kind of money people (apparently foolishly) sent this character?

Maybe its Sabrina

Just wanted to say thanks to all for the kind words and support - and for those supporting Bill and this last ditch effort to save MG. I get the skeptics on here - I don't blame you considering the road to get here... honestly - I'm prepared for the worst - but I can't say enough how heartbreaking it is/will be if this doesn't work out. Lots of torment to get the art done - all endured to see the end result...

That said... I'm concerned that lack of viable conspiracy theories might slow this thread down... so I'll just leave this here

What are those three rings on the right side of the playfield? I have seen them in several pictures here but can't figure out what they are for.

Thank you......I feel your pain......

Same here. No contact from Pintasia, but I a) haven't emailed them and b) don't think that they really need to talk to me just yet anyway. Maybe once they get to the BOM portion - assuming anything is left (or needed) of the work that GLM did.

Again, this is just for transparency, nothing more.

If it costs this much to get an already flippable prototype to a show, is this idea with Pintasia even remotely possible without anybody getting left holding the bag?

Here are a few more files i have found from the development archive.

First up is a dev video showing operation of the top rollover lanes. I took various videos to test out different features effects and sounds etc

Next is a video i took for showing the testing of some motors on the aux coil tests in the service mode.

Finally, some game play video that i shot some time before i got the ramps, install them and made updates for their inclusion. Its quite a short vid and i don't really shoot much, but please appreciate that this was just another dev video for testing out certain features.

I will continue to look for other vids and pics to post on things that were developed during my time there.

Applejuice thank you for posting these videos.

Wow this is really impressive work Jim! Thanks for sharing. The lighting is very nice and the screen complements the gameplay well. Its really the programming that makes the game come alive.

Did you work on the music and animations too?

MG definitely has a Popadiuk vibe. Do you know who did the music for the game?

Rob Barry
Same as Totan

I believe John had Rob Barry from WMS doing sound. Another artist (not Jeremy) was doing screen animations.

Troubleshooting would have been a breeze.

Sounds like all his games.. Tom, cv,Totan rolled in one

Exactly what I was thinking.

Did I see "Unicorn Fur Collected"?

Thanks Applejuice! There you go - the playable whitewood no one new existed because no one was "allowed to talk". Absolutely baffling why John didn't bring this to Expo '13 or '14.

Exactly my thoughts

It's the Duke Nukem Forever of pinball!

Right down to company folding, and someone swooping in to slap it together at the last minute.

Music was done by Rob as Eric mentioned. There were also a few animation guys who created flat screen graphics or full length animations that i put into the screen side. There was some 'coding' in the screen end as well as the game end. I always thought of it in similar terms as a pin2k team setup (in my head). As i mentioned before everything went through john and the dropbox shares, so i never really got to speak to anyone directly.

I spent along time on the service mode, because it was very useful to have all the tests written for building the prototypes. It was also a good thing to work on whilst waiting for more digital assets or mechanisms etc.

True story, Apogee/3D Realms' offices were about 2 miles from where I sit typing this, replete with a big bio-hazard symbol cut in marble laid into the lobby floor. When they were going belly up, a Scared Stiff popped up on Craigslist in my ZIP, at a price that was nothing spectacular. But the listing claimed the machine was never on route. I recognize where it is and drive over. The one lonely, sad guy left to box up all the stuff and clear the building before the padlocks got slapped on the doors, was trying to get the machine sold b/c he had no idea what else to do with it. The machine had been a gift from Bally/Williams in 1996 or so, to Apogee. They sent it in the box and the Apogee guys set it up and played the absolute shit out of it over the years. They also threw the keys away with the box, so the glass had never been off once. It was a wreck. I have never seen a non-routed machine that was more blown out.

This video explains why StevenP and PDXmonkey have been telling us for a while that there was a playable game there. This is hard to understand.

Applejuice - do you know what else John had in mind for the rules? How much video animation is already done for the game?

Your post is so vague it's alarming. Stop trying to dig up stuff on Pintasia and Sabrina Wei? Why? What exactly are you denying from that pastebin link? Did this Sabrina work for those companies known to be perpetrating Ponzi schemes?

You have to admit that there is another Sabrina Wei in BC that is a CFO that is accused of ponzi activity when Pintasia is proposing to take over a ponzi scheme and take preorder dollars. I urge every person to read the pastebin link

http://pastebin.com/DE1knCKH

Then re-read the full pintasia post and see if the blanket denials and deflections, generalized shaming for questioning Sabrina and appeal to stop trying to look up info on Pintasia staff doesn't make your hair stand on end a bit. We are past blindly trusting people because they are community members and seem nice and good and honorable. It's time to do real due diligence.

And keep in mind, Pintasia isn't "not asking anybody for any money," They are, according to John's e-mail, talking about making a grab for the remaining pre-order dollars for all 3 games. With no prior record of ever manufacturing a pinball machine. If they fail, they can walk away just like John is. This is very very dangerous, and an even worse investment for almost double the money most people already put down on John.

People are going to call me an asshole for talking ill of such a nice guy (which maybe Bill is) but if people get burned again, they need to accept that this is a bad gamble and they deserve whatever the outcome is for it. Better do your research and make sure the odds are in your favor.

But, Greg, honestly, you don't have a decision to make about the current deal on the table - we all have an interest in things ending well for people we know that do have $ at risk, and go well for all of us as a whole, because it sucks to have a hobby be a thorn in your side, it should be fund, so it does hurt, emotionally. Posts over and over saying the same thing just adds to the downer side of that dead horse. Lets bury the horse instead of standing in a circle around the horse saying what a shame that horse died. Lets move on so that we can stop wasting time on the past.

And re: many posts on soured on the hobby - or even my ToM. John doesn't mean that much to me - the company of Bally made those games, not John. I'm certainly not going to feel bad talking to other pinheads at shows, or playing my collection or playing in tourneys. This will be a footnote in a pinball book someday, but I'm not bailing b/c of John P - why give him that power of your happiness about pinball?

If pinball makes you stressed or mad - only then should you walk away from it.

i guess im in the minority, but i didnt mind the slapped together game. : P

This is LITERALLY Twilight Zone status. How do you have a flipping whitewood, for years!, and not bring it to a show (any show!) for anyone to see?

I have to think that so much of this NONSENSE could have been avoided if that had happened. But, I guess if he was bringing it to shows he wouldn't be of the mindset to fiddle with hinges for months.

This is all so sad.

The secrecy was to protect patents/designs of what again? What is in the game that has never been seen before?

If anything, it shows exactly how much of a good and well meaning guy John was not. He had a flipping whitewood 2 years ago and instead of delivering machines, he pigeon-holed the design so he could live off the deposits while he tried to entice Stern or JJP to buy him out so he could retire. What a despicable human being.

That last Duke Nuke sucked ass.

That's for sure.

Unfortunately, this is the sad truth. Lawyers, accountants, consultants, trustees. etc. will all get paid their share before the creditors. Below are a few examples of the staggering fees paid in some recent, high-dollar bankruptcies:

Lehman - $4+ Billion (expected to reach upwards of $8B when complete!!)
Bernie Madoff - $700 Million
Enron - $800 Million

Good thing he did not bring this to shows. He would have collected even more deposits and might have announced another game by now. This show may have gone on another two years before the music finally stopped.

No kidding - this may have saved the project with an expo 13 or 14 reveal.
Why didn't he do that????

Anyone know what he was sharing with JJP and/or Stern in terms of development progress?

The other scenario is that he brought it to shows, got a bunch of people pumped, which got Stern/JJP actually excited and hopeful about manufacturing it.

I didn't mind DNF but it was gifted to me on Steam so free can skew one's judgement. I would LOVE to know the entire story behind that mess, somebody should Kickstart a documentary.

You know that impression you get when someone's asking about something and you know they want to be invited along? "Oh Mad Max, I wanna see that, I'm not doing anything Saturday..."

Well that's how John sounded about JJP or Stern anytime they came up "Oh, they should be hiring REAL designers..."

He actually blamed Spooky for torpedoing a supposed deal he had with Jack (this was like 2 years ago) which, even if true, was his own fault for involving me or Chuck in any capacity (it IS true Jack hates us)

I'd love to play this game, or see it made, but at this point it seems like that crappy car you had as a teenager, and at a certain point you're better off taking it to the dump than putting more money into it.

Was it BC or just 'canada'? I didn't recall seeing things specifically saying BC... but that copy/paste hack job was so impossible to digest I probably only viewed a 1/5 of the content.

One thing we do know is... google her name and you see just how common it is. So I'm gonna need more than just 'canada' + 'same name' to call them the same people.

The same way you make your own customers sign a NDA to buy your stuff... or have warped ideas like putting your game in public voids the warranty.

Why? the game still wouldn't be finished... he'd still not be paying vendors... there'd still be no end in sight. The secrecy is annoying - but it's not what kept the game from being finished or steered how the guy spent money.

Look at Hobbit.. all the showing of early stuff has delayed the game significantly as well (can argue for better or worse...) - but it certainly didn't help Hobbit get to the finish line or JJP being more reliable or sustainable. Those are zidware's problems.