Quoted from benheck:I had my cell phone number accidentally show up for a split second on a device in an episode of my show. It was a very annoying few weeks afterwards.
555-HECK?
(Topic ID: 92436)
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How common is it to do "PR Work" for someone who doesn't pay you or rarely communicate with you?
I didn't know that unsolicited pro bono PR was such a thing?
1 month later
Is there a FAQ yet?
a) What's the estimated cost to finish the single prototype game that you plan at showing at conventions? (You might want to factor in the cost of travel and convention attendance, along with any expenses and salaries you're paying yourselves.)
b) How much did it cost to license the game from Zidware? How much does Zidware get per game if the game goes to production?
c) How much money is there left of the pre-order deposits/payments?
d) How much money is uncollected (the quoted price of the games minus pre-order payments)?
e) How much unpaid money is owed to existing manufacturers, suppliers, contractors?
f) What's the estimated cost to go from a showable prototype to a machine that's ready to manufacture?
g) What's the estimated cost to build a single machine?
The way I see it, the investors stand to lose everything they're putting in if the game never goes to production, and even if it does they're not guaranteed a return on their investment. Assuming they can build a finished game that is ready for production, where does the money to build it come from? Can this game be built with existing funds and the remaining unpaid balances of pre-orders? If not, the money to build this game is going to have to come from an investor willing to risk a lot of money or from new buyers who are willing to risk their pre-order payments. With the history of this game and other pre-order shenanigans, how many people are going to send in pre-order deposits for a game created by an exiled designer and being built by a clandestine group with little or no applicable credit to it's name? People were originally on board with this high (possibly over-) priced game because it was a limited edition game, being built by a respected designer. Neither of those things are really selling points anymore.
The only way I see a prototype generating enough pre-order interest, is if it gives free bl0wjob$.
Oh, and it looks like there's a new built-in "Fraudster-bot" on Pinside that sends you private message alerts. It asked me to post the following "information". [1] Make of it what you will. I managed to make it about halfway through before I lost interest. IMHO, there doesn't need to be a nefarious angle behind the new "Pintasia Group". This game is already sunk, and to keep stringing people along and potentially involving additional investors suckers is just adding insult to injury.
[1] http://pastebin.com/DE1knCKH
homer_lie.jpgQuoted from PINTASIA:So for those people who are the naysayers and can't stand the fact that someone has truly stepped up out of the goodness of their heart to help the pinball community and want to just try to dig up stuff to hurt Bill and Pintasia...stop, just stop. You don't realize how many people have called us as fellow pinheads to say, are you out of your mind to try to take on this project and these responsibilities?!?
Maybe, just maybe they are right. If the pinball community can't appreciate a good samaritan and would rather see Zidware crash and burn with all their customers receiving zero in bankruptcy, maybe that is what should happen, then everyone can look back and understand what Bill was actually trying to save them from. And yes, should Bill and Pintasia drop this, everyone can count on John Popadiuk to control and make the games from that point forward! Right now, Bill is calling the shots and John has been removed from the scene. Take your pick...
messiah_complex.jpgQuoted from frolic:So far they haven't asked me for anything, other than a bit of time. Talk about spinning your wheels.
If there was a round of crowd funding happening, then their background and character could be put under the microscope. Right now it makes no sense to scream bloody murder about it other than for the sake of drama alone.
Does this game get built without significant pre-order deposits?! At some point over the next 2 years ("As it stands today, the anticipated timeframe until production of MG is approximately 2 years or sooner." -- JPop), Pintasia is going to come to this forum and start asking for pre-order deposits. Crowd funding is inevitable.
Quoted from frolic:People are acting like these NEW people took $1M of our money and ran their business into the ground.
See you in 2-3 years, 11,000 posts and another $1M in pre-order deposits squandered ("I have agreed to independently consult with the Licensee for continuity to complete the pinball designs for all 3 games. -- JPop") 
For Christ's sake! Zidware? Pintasia? They're the same people! Doesn't anybody notice this? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!
Quoted from gcp:If you re-read the post from Pintasia, it was a complete non-denial. In fact you are exactly right - it did an excellent job of implying that it was a different person, without actually saying anything that can be called out as factually incorrect.
Like I said in my initial post, I didn't read through the walls of texts or follow any of the links. I was just passing along what a user named "Fraudalert" had sent me via a personal message. I assume "Fraudalert" is someone who is paying close attention to this thread, and may even be someone who is actively posting. It could be anyone. It could even be me?! ("The IP address is coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE!")
Out of curiosity, I just went back and slogged my way through most of the message. Nothing stands out to me that connects the Sabrina Wei (SW1) of Pintasia to the Sabrina Wei (SW2) that is connected to Daniel Filho and his alleged Ponzi schemes, other than a shared name.
If the two Sabrinas can't be connected by anything but a shared name, I don't see any point to the implied allegations by the anonymous "Fraudster" tipster.
On another somewhat related note, does anyone know if John will remove the drawing of his lucky cat from the playfield or double-down and add a second cat?
Quoted from YKpinballer:The youtube videos show who the Sabrina Wei connected to Daniel Filho is, and multiple pinsiders have confirmed that they have met her in person and that both Sabrina Weis are the same.
OK, thanks. Wow. Very interesting...
Did someone say something about making a movie?
What are the chances that 2 potentially interested "executive producers" are in this thread right now!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2055593/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast
movie_magic.pngBest of luck Bill! I don't personally think you're out to screw anyone over, I just don't understand how this project could possibly work in a strictly financial sense. Of course, that might be why I'm not a Millionaire Businessman and you are?!
Quoted from SunKing:My guess is that Bill does not want everyone to know how much he paid Jpop for the license.
He was made an offer that he couldn't refuse.
Offer-he-cant-refuse.pngQuoted from benheck:Take John to the NW show, and have a charity Dunk Tank he has to sit in.
Weird. I was about to post the exact same thing.
5 Pintasia Credits for 5 Balls.
dunktank.jpgThat translite is beautiful. I'd buy that MG art on a t-shirt!
Make it a limited edition shirt (1 of 199) and price it at $159.95 dollars.
Where do I send my pre-order money for the shirt?
Quoted from lllvjr:Just my opinion, but I would like bill to keep the game after nw show... Hold on to it, let Jpop get upset and mad cause he doesn't get to control it anymore..let him chase u will a law suit to get it back... Send it to every one of the 19 mg buyers to keep for a month at their houses over the next year..... Why am I the only one thinking this
"I don't have your Magic Girl. It's in Bill's house..."
its_in_bills_house.jpg 1 week later
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I've re-read the JJ post about 3 times and can't believe how out of touch with reality he is.
He makes it sound like the buyers and anyone that ever played a pinball machine should have cashed in their retirement funds and sent it directly JPOP so that he could keep the journey alive.
Sheesh...
With marketing slogans like "big toys that nobody needs" and "money to burn", if I was trading Pinball Futures, I'd be shorting JJP stock.
1 week later
Quoted from CubeSnake:WHY has not ONE person who has been screwed attempted to visit him at his place of business??!? And NO, I do NOT mean "pay him a visit" with your Uncle Guido
My Uncle Guidio is a sweetheart and he wouldn't hurt anybody. He's a bit of a shut-in so he likes it when I take him for long car rides.
1 month later
Quoted from toyotaboy:Sorry if this is a repost, but not everyone reads the Skit-b thread:
Don't know if this is relevant, but Michaeal Jordan JUST won a court case against Dominick's (A chicago based grocery store that went bankrupt a couple years back) for using his likeness without permission back in 2009, to the tune of 8.9 million dollars.
I think I get what you're saying...
Michael Jordan could use that $8.9 million dollars to help JPop get Magic Girl into production and shipping by Christmas!
Anyone have his email address?
1 month later
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11 months later
Quoted from Russo121:In cowboy days, a posse would be mounting up about now.
Have you seen any good cowboy movies (aka westerns) lately?
I just rented Bone Tomahawk on DVD and it was OK.
1 week later
4 months later
Quoted from InfiniteLives:laughing out loud about the shooter lanes lack of a groove. just insane.
SpecialK thanks for all the videos. If you get an hour or so... Go through applejuice 's feature list at http://magicgirlcode.org and figure out what works and what doesn't. Also a small request.. Brenda is a great Magician's assistant and if she could throw in a random "they're after me Lucky Charms!" it would be GRRRRR-EAT!
p.s. Love the dog cameos.
For around $15-16,000 dollars, it appears pretty much on-par with the Batman66 SLE pin.
Batman might have the edge on the centerpiece/main mech, with Magic Girl being further ahead with code.
Quoted from BD_Designs:Wow, you honestly think that he spent upwards of 16k just for attention on Pinside?
Yes, very yes.
Quoted from pezpunk:you and i and everyone else know your insult has zero to do with the cereal. you are referring to special needs kids.
Jesus... how do you make it through an entire day without getting offended at nearly everything you see/hear/read?
The first definition returned by Google for "special" is "better, greater, or otherwise different from what is usual".
Outside of the "Special Olympics", the word "special" doesn't even appear on: http://www.globaldownsyndrome.org/about-down-syndrome/words-can-hurt/
Quoted from applejuice:I want my own game, here in the UK. Simple.
Send Ben and John by container ship (along with the raw materials) to the UK to help you build your own Magic Girl!
Quoted from gtxjoe:FWIW I had thought that the Special K comment was directly referring to people with developmental disabilities
FWIW, I didn't.
He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named probably does have developmental disabilities, but they're on an entirely different set of pages in the DSM-5 guidebook.
But then again... don't we all?
I enjoy listening to his podcast, because they're interesting (the ones where he doesn't personally insult/harass people --- those are extremely cringe-worthy and I don't listen to those or skip through them) and he does a decent job of "reporting the news", so I can catch up on Pinside/pinball while out walking, on the bus or doing yard work.
Right now he's the dorky kid at school who's mom got him the cool new video game system for Christmas, and everyone wants to be friends with him.
(Full disclosure: I was that dorky kid.)
Quoted from o-din:Apparently you do.
I think of it as outsourcing the job of keeping up to date on Pinside, so I can spend more time arguing with people on Reddit.
Quoted from s1500:....or they just want a faster vehicle. We're on the forums where LE chest beating is common.
Anyone who gets their thrills by driving 130 mph on a public road, where other drivers' lives are needlessly put in danger, is acting like a huge douche.
Quoted from pezpunk:i have been warned to stop posting about this, so i expect to receive a permanent thread eject (at least) for this post. i'm willfully ignoring a moderator request -- it's the first time i've done so on purpose and it makes me sad
Quoted from bounoun:why isnt zombieyeti selling more art of magic girl ? i want the translite so bad...
I'd buy a pinball t-shirt.
Quoted from solarvalue:Sorry, but can someone please post the link to the best gameplay video currently available, thanks.
Check out Pinballs post above. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/jpop-update-thread%e2%80%a6%e2%80%a6%e2%80%a6%e2%80%a6%e2%80%a6mg-raza-and-aiw%e2%80%a6/page/442#post-3614548
Right now the best bet is around 16 minutes of gameplay from this Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHK9MuIlhSb0a3HaCfG0wcQ
Quoted from pezpunk:at $20k starting bid? no, it won't sell. too soon.
Trying to dump it before everyone knows it's just a box of blinking lights with bolted-on flippers.
With the recent death of Bill Paxton (Game Over Man), I'd put my money on Bill Paxton pinball. It's much rarer, works 100%, and everything skyrockets in value posthumously.
Why does this game have any value at all outside of maybe the scrap value?
It's not the completed game that buyers were promised. I don't see how it's a "great story" like K-Dizzle keeps blabbering on about... it's a rip-off scam without a happy ending where the con-artist released a barely functioning prototype in an attempt to avoid legal prosecution. It's possible that community members, owners and Jim/Applejuice/sauce could spend time and effort to improve it's play-ability. At that point though, how much of the game is a JPop game versus a community-built homebrew pin? Sure Jim/AJ/AS could write more code for it, but at what point is he made whole along with all the others who were ripped off by JPop? Who cares about "nice art" (which is subjective, and discounts all the great pins out there with "nice art" that are much less than $16,000), when it's not even something you'd want to turn on and play to satisfy your desire to flip?
Missing code is bad enough, I hope it doesn't set a new industry standard for releasing unfinished pins without working mechs.
Will this even be considered "a JPop game" at this point? He had 5 to 6 years and couldn't complete it. If the community and Jim (the original coder) decide to complete, they should get the credit.
Makes you wonder how much credit he deserves for any other "JPop game"?
Quoted from iceman44:They should have made another 30 MG's like John had originally planned to do, auction those off to satisfy the Raza and AIW debts, Yeti, Applejuice and the vendors.
Why wasn't that done?
And diminish the "value" of the original MG 19?
Well, then a rich oil tycoon should buy up all of the remaining Baywatch pins and throw them off a roof, only keeping the top 20 machines that are in the best condition and working order.
Baywatch was expertly designed by Joe Balcer, with beautiful hand-drawn art by Markus Rothkrans. It has 4 flippers, 4 ramps, numerous working toys/mechs and 5-ball multi-ball. About the only thing Magic Girl beats Baywatch on is the color LCD, but unlike Baywatch's beautiful orange, value-sized DMD... the bottom 2/3 of the LCD on Magic Girl is un-viewable to the player.
Let's say there are 400 left and we offer $2,000 each. We then run a fund-raiser where we let men/women/children partake in throwing a pinball machine off of a 20 story building and watching it crash into the concrete below. Let's say we charge $20 for each of the 180 pins we are destroying. Because we're not in this for the money, we're just enthusiastic collectors, we'll donate that money we raised to charity. We'll also let people sift through the discarded parts and take all the working flippers, coils, magnets, rubbers, etc. Now we have 20 of best looking and playing Baywatch pins left in the entire world which I'm going to conservatively give a value of $40,000 to $60,000 each.
When all is said and done, our initial investment of $800,000 has left us with $800,000 to $1,200,000 of value plus all the money we raised for charity destroying the less fortunate Baywatches.
Quoted from Chitownpinball:Special K is loving all this attention.
He says he wont flip it... But we know better.
Quoted from jlm33:"It's still in the box and unopened".
No wonder! One can't be disappointed by missing game features that way.
Maybe it's like that cat in the box?
As long as it's in the unopened box, it's simultaneously both unfinished and finished until the box is opened and the pin observed.
Quoted from cooked71:Great way to build hype. Costs nothing to advertise in order to create a value. Doesn't matter if it sells. Up to $55k is now the benchmark price for MG. If I manage to get one for $40k, what a bargain.
Serious question... If I went on Craigslist right now and listed a Baywatch for $100K is the new benchmark price for a Baywatch $100K?
Quoted from vdojaq:I recorded a podcast with him yesterday morning. I am sure that will stir things up.
Good guest appearance.
If the next Magic Girl video's monologue begins with Brenda eating a bowl of Lucky Charms, I will donate $10 to Pinside.
Hopefully it's a video where they get a tournament player on that thing to give it a real once-over.
Quoted from spfxted:Make it $20 and I'll make it happen!
Throw Bubba in there eating cereal and you have a deal.
Are there MG buyers who want the working game they were promised or are they just happy to have something that is allegedly worth several times what they paid?
Can we add a new smiley-guy for drunken posts?
(in case the GIF doesn't attach properly: http://forum.ampprod.com/images/smilies/alc.gif
Quoted from fattrain:I'll just beat everyone to the punch...
It's mine. Let the shit show begin
ebay.com link »
While I don't expect it to sell for that, I encourage serious buyers to contact to me directly.
You should put down "interesting trades considered" to tickle their buying bone.
1 week later
Quoted from Pinballs:Anyone contacted by a supposed WSJ journalist called mcgroartyp? I had a phishing PM, with no contact details included. Not terribly professional TBH, and could be anyone.
SpecialK said on his latest podcast (timestamp: 35:02) that he's "doing interviews" for MG. Maybe he dropped your name?
'mcgroartyp' could be this guy?
http://topics.wsj.com/person/M/patrick-mcgroarty/7352
https://twitter.com/patmcgroarty
Quoted from Whysnow:I too got the similar and cryptic pm. I assume troll bait given the lack of professionalism and ignored.
SpecialK mentions you at around the same time in his podcast when talking about his "media relations regarding Magical Girl", so the WSJ is probably one of the two places he contacted.
JPonzi ended up screwing everyone to some degree.
* Parts manufacturers didn't get paid.
* Employees/contractors didn't get paid.
* MG buyers didn't get what they paid for. *
* RAZA/AIW buyers didn't get anything.
* Investors lost their money.
I'm listening to 'Ponzi Supernova' on Audible about Bernie Madoff and even after his trial and conviction for running a $65 BILLION dollar Ponzi scheme, Bernie (from prison) claims "he's a good guy, and he was just trying to help people make money". THEY ALL DO! I've watched every episode of 'American Greed' on CNBC and time and time again these guys all say the same thing after they've been caught and convicted... "I'm not a bad guy, I really was running a legitimate business!".
*It's entirely up in the air on what the future value of MG will be. It could be ridiculously valuable or worth much less than the original price tag.
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