Seems appropriate, but maybe reserve it for balls that flail around for a suspiciously long period of time before draining without accomplishing anything

Not to be confused with a "Kulek", where you stick your money in the coinslot and are not awarded a game...pushing the coin return button does nothing.

So then the correct usage would be:

" I had a great ball 1 & 2, but Jpopped the third. I tried to play again but the machine kulek'd my quarter."

Edit, not trying to make light of anyone's situation. I just feel these two have earned a place of distinction in the anals (sic) of pinball history.

Chris, I gave you a thumbs up for your post, but I strongly recommend that you delete the above portion.

You guys who are in on the lawsuit should not be discussing much about the case online at all, but especially with regard to anything discussed between you and your attorney. It could be considered a waiver of the attorney-client privilege, and even if not, could be used against you in some way.

Oops deleted. Thanks Rob!

Pinballs you also might want to edit your post to remove the quote from Chris as we should probably assume johns Lawyer (that we owners are paying for) is reading this thread.

I took care of it.

Thanks Gweem!

This assumes Popaduik even has a lawyer, and isn't just standing up in court waving his hands around saying "It's Magic!".

What a Tool

Another thing to consider is that JPop really cannot claim ignorance or incompetence. Not when you look at his public post history, where he chastized other pinball manufacturers and people for not having the resources to make machines. He clearly stated before that he was fully-aware how difficult it is to produce a game. So I think in court he'd get his butt handed to him by his online testimony that would contradict his current claims. It seems to me there's overwhelming evidence of intent to defraud. That is criminal. Money crossing state and international lines ups the ante. There are plenty of reasons for there to be a criminal case. If people want their money back, all they have to do is get that going. I'm sure JPop would much prefer to live poorly than in prison.

That is just how public figures are.

The more a politician speaks out against a certain lifestyle, the more likely that they are deeply involved in that lifestyle.

sen-larry-craig.jpg

LOL, passed throught MSP yesterday and will be through there several times in July. I went through MSP (when Northworst was the primary carrier there) a few days after the "Wide Stance" incident. AH's like me adorned the special stall with tons of TP over the door, walls and porcelain receptical. Too funny.

I was hoping you'd say they've installed a plaque or historic marker on the stall ...

I believe the entire restroom was eliminated a few years ago. It was the one by the long gone main concourse arcade. That one had an EBD that I would play when my connection times allowed it.

I played the Stern Mustang in the arcade in the C Concourse yesterday. In really nice shape. Won two replays . The Rolling Stones looked to be in good shape too. Mick was in one piece. Only two pins there these days.

That sounds about the same as it was a year ago when I was there. IIRC there was a LoTR with 1 flakey flipper. I'll find out in 9 days what the update is.

As for the infamous stall, I got a shoe shine & inquired and he told me which one it was.

Ah, a "shoe shine".

I did not know that's what the kids were calling it these days.

According to the updated court docket, the Popadiuks hired Venis & Copp LLP as legal counsel for all 3 defendants.

https://w3.courtlink.lexisnexis.com/cookcounty/FindDock.asp?NCase=&SearchType=2&Database=1&case_no=&Year=&div=&caseno=&PLtype=2&sname=Popadiuk&CDate=

They filed an appearance and paid their court fees on June 24th.

Venis & Copp is a small, general practice law firm in Chicago with both litigation and bankruptcy experience.

http://www.venislaw.com/

Great, I'm sure bankruptcy Will follow. I'm curious as to whose money it is.

Please keep us informed!

How crazy unreal this is?

I sincerely hope everybody gets their money back and the Pops can work on the chain gang for life.

You know,it does not matter if the Pops were evil or just stupid,it is THEIR decision to start building these pinballs because they were sooo convinced of themselves..
If you fail,you oughta pay everybody back because you failed(miserably),we did not fail...THEY failed...face the rest of your life in debt,pay the people back,sell your house,live in a box,bad luck for you...YOU were so convinced to pull it off? we just trusted you??

..

Eating crickets...

Labowski...

Game on a rug...

The entire zombie genre...

Man, the guy just does not get it. Is he really that thick?

The bulk of his response was all the time he was spending on patents. And I'm sure that was bang on accurate. Wasting months and months, burning cash, $7500 monthly draw, shop rent... working on patents. A lot of good that did anyone (except John's free ride).

Designing a part takes X amount of time.

Drawing patent diagrams (so your buddy StevenP can be an enabler by filing it for you at very low cost) takes X more amount of time.

This is time wasted because NOBODY CARES. Even if you have a good idea (which John didn't) people will just engineer their way around it. Patenting something early on makes sense, but who actually thinks the highest volume days of pinball are in the future?

But remember John was paranoid (and needed money) Maybe he hoped Stern would steal one of his ideas (that he stole from old EM's) and he'd get a windfall!

I'm gradually learning about Jpop's proclivities, and I'm sure more to follow. Such a waste. He focused on the wrong things, and focused too much generally in an OCD, autistic manner.

Over the years I've found that people who make it a point to tell you how hard and long they work, don't work hard at all. JPop sure liked telling everyone that he was the hardest worker in pinball. Guess what? Complete bullshit.

I've never seen anybody mangle so many metaphors.

There's "don't work harder, work smarter". He apparently worked really hard and accomplished nothing, yet Ben can make a 1/2 sized pinball machine on a lunch break.

The patents & such aren't relevant to pinball today. Yes, the world has changed. It is a much smaller hobby. And to paying customers, they really don't care about patents & IP and all that fuddy-duddyness. Complete code, which has impact on play? Yes. Spike-end bolts for the legs? No.

I had forgotten about the eating crickets line in that response of his - genius! I remember seeing his post and thinking he had a lot of nerve to be angry with the people who had sent him a ton of money.

Well, Python did say that "Popadiuk is a chameleon!" so maybe he DOES eat crickets! Mind blown.

Hole'up.. Imma gonna fire up my JPop-to-English translator here and see if we can figure out what he really meant:

"Although some may feel that if we are not posting then we are all sitting around driving our Beemers to Starbucks.

"I know that 'sitting around driving' doesn't seem to make any sense, but actually I've invented a new car seat that spins around while taking you to the nearest coffee shop. I can't go into more details until I've finished spending $20,000 filing a patent on it. So if you see me at Starbucks, know that I'm working on important technology."

"And By 'we' I mean, me and my ego. And my ego would never fit in a BMW and drink something so common as coffee. You guys have no idea about us."

Not so and I feel very slighted as I work harder than most everyone I know.

"I worked last night almost to eleven! That p.m.! Spinal Top isn't the only one that goes up to eleven. That's very hard!"

While people are at home watching football or sports today, I am in the studio (as every day) working on pinball in it’s totality. Something I love to do.

"I'm writing a screenplay called, 'Pinball In It's Totality'. It's the story of a brilliant pinball designer, who drops out of high school after flunking out of English, with a dream of creating the most-best pinball game that ever was rugged, but he is persecuted by common people who like football or sports. It's bad enough being persecuted by one group of people, but both football fans and sports fans are too much for the brilliant pinball designer and he has to go on a magical quest to protect his kingdom by making an arteous journey through a verocious forest of haters in order to acquire the mystic shield of asset protection. Along the way he befriends a group of rag-tag adventurers looking for their courage, heart and brains who help him. I can't tell you more until after its copywrited, but I am pre-selling tickets to the first show."

I know it takes a huge effort to do this all,

"When I say 'huge' I mean like it takes a solid three inches of effort. Most people only have about two inches of effort. I know. I've been around. I teach classes on this stuff. Three inches is like 50% more effort than most people."

as well as the fine support from my fans, and am up to the task.

"Today's task will be to take Zombie's artwork, draw a lightning bolt on it, and take it to 'Deck the Walls' in the mall and get it professionally-framed for the office. This is how I give back to my fans. You're welcome. You're very welcome. Yes, I will probably be selling limited editions of that, my artwork. Yes, you can pre-order it with a check. Sorry no Paypal."

Case and point, how do we fill in spare time. Eating crickets….no.

"Did you know that spare time is measured in cases and points, and not crickets? This is why I'm John Popadiuk, the most famous pinball designer of them all. I spend all my time making sure all cases are pointed so you don't have to. Other pinball designers might be 'eating crickets' with their spare time, but I am busy pointing cases and casing points so that Magic Girl will be the most amazing game you've ever seen. All our cases and points are CUSTOM MADE, just for YOU. Again.. you are welcome."

Well we fill it with more invention, design and new ideas.

"Screenplays, spinning BMW seats, pointed cases, cased pointers, professionally-framed artwork! I don't care if you're a football fan or a sports fan, we will blow you away with our inventions, design and new ideas! But, sorry, there will be no crickets. I don't do crickets."

More than is really possible.

"Yes, you heard right. I, John Papadiuk, routinely achieve the impossible. In fact this morning, I actually was up at the Crack Of Don. Are other designers up at that crack? I don't think so."

Pinball building takes oodles of time, a week seems like a day.

"I may have slipped up and revealed another one of my soon-to-be-patented inventions: the Magic time-brain-dilation-zidmatron, which can take a week, make it seem like a day, yet suggest that it feels like more than a day and somehow makes sense. Don't try to understand it. It's one of the many things that are not really possible that I can do."

I may not get to emails for a while as I average 125 each day or more.

"I apologize if I do not respond sooner. But I'm involved in some very important business discussions with my new Nigerian parts supplier, DR PEPPER OJ RUMSFELD OBAMA. I'd love to tell you more about the exciting new business venture Zidware is engaged in, but it's secret and I can't let any of my competitors find out."

We now have 6+ other makers of some type of custom pinball (I was the only one 2 years ago)

"Now that there are four other 'makers of custom pinball' this explains why my game is being delayed. I had to take some time away from building MG, RAZA and AIW to teach those other guys how to make pinball machines. It's what I do. I'm John Papadiuk. I give back to the community. You're welcome."

, and most of them are using the old WMS style of cabinet and cabinet fittings.

"Those idiots are relying on parts designs that have stood the test of time, are cheap, well made and easily available..."

We also talked about this back at the start, but decided to spend the time and money creating our own look, brand, design and cabinet features. I am very pleased.

"We on the other hand, have decided to 're-invent-the-meal' and are brewing our own entirely new, much more expensive, unproven cabinet design that will take much longer to produce assuming we can find someone to produce it. I will then spend another $20,000 to patent this custom design in order to please myself. I like pleasing myself. I am very pleased."

At this time we are having the pinball cartons designed and some samples being made.

"Once I have a sample pinball carton designed, I will stand before it and bask it the glory of its designer, pull out a lamp I bought at Goodwill, and ask the magic genie inside to reproduce those cartons and fill them with the most amazing pinball machine you've ever seen. For I am John Papadiuk, doer of things that are more than possible!"

A pro box for a pro game. Again something not hugely riveting but still 2 companies with a small design team to accomplish this.

"It takes two companies with a small design team to produce a cardboard box. So don't you criticize me. Have you ever made a 'Pro Box(tm)' Check-mate. I rest your case!"

Similar for some other items and things we are doing, the future of pinball. Our future as a hobby.

"I appreciate your faith in me and my ability to represent the future of pinball. As you can see, there's every chance I will let you down, but that's likely to happen because I am John Papadiuk, I work to eleven, get up at the Crack of Don, and I just got a new rug for my office! The future of pinball is safe and in my hands."

Obviously patents need to be protected, and we felt with our new light system it was worth the time and effort.

"One of my biggest fans is my patent attorney. If you all could see what he sees, you'd understand why I do what I do. It's worth it. He gets me. He understands why this technology is important and he spends a lot of time and effort too."

Especially for the coming years ahead and some of the game themes we want to do or people we want to partner with.

"Ok, I'm sorry. I have no freakin' idea what I am talking about. For a moment there I drifted off and was thinking about cream corn. Why is it so tasty? Why has there not been a 'Creamed Corn'-themed pinball machine? Oh wow. I smell pre-order #4 cooking! Oh wait, where was I? "

In this case there are dozens more “secrets” behind the scenes we keep quiet, and some really big negotiations in the works and off the blog for good reasons.

"You can see why it's important to keep these things secret. I've already said too much and given away too much of our great, unique ideas: cardboard box to put the game in, different leg bolts that cost five times more than regular ones, our Nigerian government partner, and an industry-first cricket-free pinball game! I've said too much. This e-mail will self-destruct in both 5 or 211,783 seconds."

All of this is important to what we are doing and reflected in the game design ultimately. It’s just not about a playfield.

"Playfields are soooo overrated. I invite you to marvel at the design of our 'Pro Box(tm)'. Yea, we did that. Who else has a Pro Box(tm)? Custom made cardboard. Sample. Going to be many more. You're welcome."

So for me the quiet time, which is no blogging, is full of work, invention and design. We never stop creating and the Mac computers we use are but a tool and not the source of our genius. Chirp…Jpop"

"I like the quiet time. That's when my wife goes to sleep and I get to watch Nick at Night. It's the source of our genius: Pro Boxes, time-brain-dilation-zidmatron, spinning seats, creamed corn, zombies, jesus, alice in wonderland, crickets.. HA! Fooled you. Still no crickets! Case And Point. You're welcome."

Ok, just my 2 cents.

But, wow his rug interpretation is so Asperger's ..........just so literal.

Anyway, to me it helps explain a lot of which doesn't make sense otherwise.

I was thinking inferiority complex. All these new and "better" designs for simple parts, so his game stands out. Never satisfied, obsessed with beating the competition and stealing their thunder. The KISS mockup, knowing the rumors of stern KISS... It was about proving himself.

Edit: oh, and the 'jpop' should be when you somehow flail it around without hitting a switch long enough and it goes into a live-ball ball search... Now THATs embarrassing.

With only the one non working prototype should magic girl be delisted as a game in the pinside list of games? If not, should we add the infamous Ben heck mini pin?

I would NOT delist it. Let it stand as a testament to his failure.

Everyone that played the game at the NW show should review it as I have. 14 more reviews submitted and it'll appear on the Pinside Top X list.

Why is no one waiting out in front of his house, Jpop's and coming up to him.....Saying "Where is my money"?
And saying, "let me escort you to the bank to collect the money you took from me? just wondering ?

That's the problem right there.

"Fans"

They're your customers bud ... Not "fans" You ain't a rock star. You ain't a movie star. You worked in a pinball factory 20 years ago.

Get off your ass and go make some pinball machines. Or give your "customers" their money back.

rd

Probably because doing 20 years in prison for kidnapping and robbery is worse than not getting a pinball machine. It may be justified, but that doesn't make it legal.

Yep. Due, legal process is the way to go.

Keepin' it legal, man.

Nah,

Nah, there are a few others down F concourse, unless they recently removed those. Terminal 2 has a few too.

There were two sets of restrooms In the main concourse (mall area) now there is only one set.

I recall (but I could be wrong) that the removed set is where the incident took place. It did not take place in any of the lettered concourses where gates are located.

I've listened to this interview quite a few times,
http://www.pinballnews.com/shows/expo2013/johnpopadiuk.mp3
it stuck out 33:43 when he said "Originally we were a little more of egyptian theme,
the egyptian box of wonder... and we changed... We Literally Spent A Long Time With This Egyptian Theme,
we had a pyramid, and all into the garbage it went...

I myself wonder, how much time we spent on this???

http://www.pinballnews.com/shows/expo2013/

Also says "John has set up a 900 sq ft studio in his home to work on the game, which has a new, patented cabinet design". Perhaps he should have kept developing his game in his home studio instead of squandering money on 6,000 square feet of rented space.

Near the remaining MSP arcade, the restaurant to the left of the Burger King has really good shakes (but they cost a fortune) Ask at the bar.

I don't think John's [shops] were quite 6k sq feet, but still, considering how much was done off site and the non-volatile nature of stuff he did do, no reason his basement shop wouldn't have sufficed right up until production.

I'd visited his basement shop, and then the first real shop. What boggled my mind was all the JUNK he filled it with. Sure, everything from his basement moved over, but where did the rest of it come from? Storage lockers? Barn finds?

Heck yes, I support this idea. If you played Magic Girl give it an honest rating...let's see where it ends up (ain't gonna be pretty).

he needed to burn that cash on rent to show he truly planned on delivering the machines. the cost of scamming i guess?

That makes the most sense to me.

I once saw a scam artist put up billboards advertising a small casino he (best I could tell) never planned to actually open...the billboards were lined up from the airport to his supposed location. He spent some cash advertising...he raised some serious money too (but not from my clients).

Same thing we are dealing here....

Done

The shop was all part of his massive ego. There was a blog post that a New York photographer had come and taken a series of photos of the shop.