Quoted from DCFAN:

Was JPoop making this game as a tribute to his ego?

Quoted from jlm33:

Seen from a bystander, it is even worse to see that thread spiraling down into name calling and bickering than to know that so many of you lost your money.

Quoted from pinballrockstar:

Rai,it must feel supergood that you listened to your gut feeling,wow,while i actually transferred an extra $2000 dec.2014...i cannot help but feeling sooo stupid,no progress,nothing,silent AIW blog and no red flags...

Quoted from rai:

3-4 years ago, John sold a game called MG to be built sometime circa 2013. Said game was limited to 13 copies making it uber rare, later he upped the number to 26 copies. He charged $16k for this limited edition game.
A short time later he sold another games called BHZA in slightly higher numbers 99 later increased to 124, at a price of $10k. Later the theme and title of the game was changed to RAZA, this was also supposed to be completed around 2013.
Later John added another game AIW to be completed, accepted deposits and payments on that too.
All during this time, John kept everything as hidden as possible, said he was working super hard and the pins were going go be great.
Also during this time, John made a Kiss pin which he had no license for, did not collect any deposits for, so he used all the other money collected to fund this game.
John from time to time would show a few bits and pieces of the game, but never anything as finished as a white wood or even a basic alpha prototype.
Many customers began to get worried or frustrated when 2013 came and went and no games were delivered, ditto 2014. To dissuade people from seeking legal means of getting refunds from John for breach of contract, failure to deliver. John had people post that they'd been to his workshop and the games were comming along well and were worth waiting for.
When this began to wear thin, John promised that at the 2014 Expo in October he would do a big reveal. Then at that expo John brought two totally empty cabinets. People freaked out.
So John promised he'd have real prototype reveals in Dec 2014 and January 2015 for MG and RAZA respectively. Predictably John showed nothing whatsoever.
People like myself said John was bluffing and he had nothing to show, while people like PDXmonkey said there were 95% complete prototypes and he'd played them and all was well, just taking longer than expected.
More time goes by, presumably dozens of people demand refund and/or start legal proceedings against John, John says he's working 14 hrs a day 7 days a week and is tired or perplexed that he's also getting hundreds of emails or texts or phone calls a day regarding the lack of progress. But things are still good.
Then maybe 3-4 weeks ago, John posts a letter saying he's completely broke, no one will get a refund and he's allowing an outside entity (shell) assume production of MG and that they can only proceed if you all (owners) agree not to sue anyone and any owners of RAZA and AIW should forget that, but can now get a MG for $16k (less what you have paid towards RAZA or AIW or MG) and that MG will no longer be a super rare game of 26 units but perhapse 199 and then an unlimited number after that.
People rush out an unfinished alpha prototype of MG to the NW show that has most features disabled, that is broken down most of the time at the show, that no one is able to even make a ramp shot except with glass off by hand, that has a laminate playfield that is totally warped or not stuck down properly.
I think that's this whole thread in a nutshell. Insiders like PDXMONKEY please correct anything I missed or was untruthful about.

Quoted from Mocean:

Look, I get that you were pressed for time so the switches didn't go in, but the point is that John wasn't pressed for time prior to this. Worse, Jim is owed some 5-figure sum and in this opportunity for him to at least get some possible free press or future business, people see of his code in a situation in which it cannot be it's best.
To Markmon's prior comment about (paraphrasing) "ball search being easy to code" and "magnets being hard to code" --that's totally backwards. Moreover acceleration and hold magnets are literally impossible to code for when many physical switches aren't in place.
I get that you did a lot for the machine to get it to the show, and I don't think there's any sane person who doesn't appreciate that, but you need to stop responding like the machine was built in three days and that there was only three days in which to build it, especially when responding to people who had either worked on it or invested in it literally /years/ ago. OMG, yes, a /million/ times better that the machine made it to the show in any form. Yes, I get that it was incomplete for any number of reasons, but you cannot reasonably expect people to not voice their displeasure at that situation.
If Jim says he had a prototype almost a year ago and asked for those switches to be installed a year ago, what really kept someone over in that palatial zidware facility from making that happen? Perhaps it points to the idea that the end game was a buy out and for someone else to just "finish it up" --not necessarily out of malice or greed-- but whatever the reason, clearly functional details like these weren't a high priority for some reason or another.
This whole situation is sad.

Quoted from markmon:

are you a developer?

Quoted from markmon:

are you a developer?
Your statement above you are indicating they a ball search is more difficult to code than coding magnets? That's crazy. The p-roc framework already has a built in ball search timer. All you need to do is add the coils to fire. Even if none of this were present it's easy to add timer and have switch events reset the timer (a bit simplified but you should get the point).

Quoted from pezpunk:

and those people that got on to the titanic .. what a bunch of chumps! and who in their right mind would get on the hindenberg, since it was about to explode? didn't they know hydrogen is flammable? (/sarcasm)

Quoted from shlockdoc:

Is the artwork Yetti is selling property of Zidware? It's Alice in wonderland, I don't understand the process here.

Quoted from zr11990:

What was Theatre of Magic II? I never heard of that one. I did however buy a ToM PF from JPoop a few years back. He said he was working on a secret project and I could never tell anyone about it. I didn't know anything other than it was a secret project so it made no difference to me. He seemed like a complete fucking squirrel to me then. Maybe ToM II was a game that has complete code and made some sense.

Quoted from rai:

3-4 years ago, John sold a game called MG to be built sometime circa 2013. Said game was limited to 13 copies making it uber rare, later he upped the number to 26 copies. He charged $16k for this limited edition game.
A short time later he sold another games called BHZA in slightly higher numbers 99 later increased to 124, at a price of $10k. Later the theme and title of the game was changed to RAZA, this was also supposed to be completed around 2013.
Later John added another game AIW to be completed, accepted deposits and payments on that too.
All during this time, John kept everything as hidden as possible, said he was working super hard and the pins were going go be great.
Also during this time, John made a Kiss pin which he had no license for, did not collect any deposits for, so he used all the other money collected to fund this game.
John from time to time would show a few bits and pieces of the game, but never anything as finished as a white wood or even a basic alpha prototype.
Many customers began to get worried or frustrated when 2013 came and went and no games were delivered, ditto 2014. To dissuade people from seeking legal means of getting refunds from John for breach of contract, failure to deliver. John had people post that they'd been to his workshop and the games were comming along well and were worth waiting for.
When this began to wear thin, John promised that at the 2014 Expo in October he would do a big reveal. Then at that expo John brought two totally empty cabinets. People freaked out.
So John promised he'd have real prototype reveals in Dec 2014 and January 2015 for MG and RAZA respectively. Predictably John showed nothing whatsoever.
People like myself said John was bluffing and he had nothing to show, while people like PDXmonkey said there were 95% complete prototypes and he'd played them and all was well, just taking longer than expected.
More time goes by, presumably dozens of people demand refund and/or start legal proceedings against John, John says he's working 14 hrs a day 7 days a week and is tired or perplexed that he's also getting hundreds of emails or texts or phone calls a day regarding the lack of progress. But things are still good.
Then maybe 3-4 weeks ago, John posts a letter saying he's completely broke, no one will get a refund and he's allowing an outside entity (shell) assume production of MG and that they can only proceed if you all (owners) agree not to sue anyone and any owners of RAZA and AIW should forget that, but can now get a MG for $16k (less what you have paid towards RAZA or AIW or MG) and that MG will no longer be a super rare game of 26 units but perhapse 199 and then an unlimited number after that.
People rush out an unfinished alpha prototype of MG to the NW show that has most features disabled, that is broken down most of the time at the show, that no one is able to even make a ramp shot except with glass off by hand, that has a laminate playfield that is totally warped or not stuck down properly.
I think that's this whole thread in a nutshell. Insiders like PDXMONKEY please correct anything I missed or was untruthful about.

Quoted from Mr68:

FYI. Over 14,000 comments in this thread and I cannot recall a single one of them that I found helpful to the owners.

Quoted from Lauro0521:

I don't feel like reading all this but what's all about ? Sorry newbie and lazy lol

Quoted from markmon:

It does not.

It is not blocked off. The mech is from the top with a small post. It is not a big playfield mech that moves the ball like the genie lamp. It's not even attached to the playfield. It's more like a spinner. The ball should be able to spin the mech and move up the ramp no problem.

Quoted from eggbert52:

Do you have $16K? Maybe someone will read it to you.

Quoted from spfxted:

You said redundancy twice....

Quoted from NYP:

Hey what's with the pointy leg bolts ?

Quoted from Mr68:

Meet me at Expo for a mano a mono drinking contest. I'll have whiskey and you can have your usual umbrella drink.

Quoted from Mr68:

Some of the guys here are so arrogant and insensitive with their know it all comments. I keep reminding myself that each one of you has made a bad decision or two. Or a hundred... Nobody's perfect, even Warren Buffet has had his share of failures.

Quoted from Mr68:

Thank you. About the only thing I learned was John Popadiuk is a liar face to face, one on one.

Quoted from NYP:

Hey what's with the pointy leg bolts ?

Quoted from Manic:

Man if those things really are an off the shelf part (maybe from a bike shop?) I'm gonna slap some of those on the machines people tend to play when they stop by. It should stop my friends from trying to show me a death save on my beloved toy

Quoted from PinballHelp:

...You're comparing the people who pre-ordered MG/RAZA/AIW to Warren Buffet?

Quoted from hank527:

And yet people on here still defend him. It's unbelievable to me. John P is the worst thing that has happened to pinball in the last 20 years. Maybe ever. Though he did kill almost any new pinball startup that request money up front without a working prototype.
I cannot stand the man.

Quoted from pinballrockstar:

Rai,it must feel supergood that you listened to your gut feeling,wow,while i actually transferred an extra $2000 dec.2014...i cannot help but feeling sooo stupid,no progress,nothing,silent AIW blog and no red flags...

Quoted from DCfoodfreak:

No red flags in Dec 2014??? Oh lord man!

Quoted from doughslingers:

I still can not get my Magic Girl refund and its been since the last day of Expo when I signed its release. I hated to let it go,even sold BBB back in Feb to raise money on another tax issue. I still believe its coming, just like my kids believe in Santa. I hope it arrives soon to pay for the NEC digital projector that cost me almost 80k and Magic Girl is a large part of my down payment. Please John don"t disappoint my kids, we want to open by June for peak drive in season.

Quoted from brent149:

Yet he clearly used all that collected money to finish his Kiss prototype.

Quoted from zr11990:

All this and no one has located JPoop and beat the living shit out of him? I find that amazing. Im thinking there should be someone named Vinnie looking to break his legs.