The bizarre thing is that technically Zidware is still up and running.

Sure he hasn't delivered a game, and the deal with Bill is dead, and right now there is no real prospect of anything. But until legal action proceeds, he can continue to roll along in this delusion.

He can keep doodling, keep taking money, keep looking for a white knight, he could even dream up the next game he's going to sell. The only way the madness can end is if he is pushed by some court action.

And one asset most have forgotten about is Zidware's Pinball Wizard! game which is still on iTunes.

meddling_kids.jpg

Depends on how one looks at it. Was there supposed to be just 13 machines originally (with no prototypes)? Are these "prototypes" just unfinished machines and they really are the ones that belonged to buyers 1-4 (if John had ever finished them)?

It will blow if John now decides these are prototypes that were never intended to be delivered to anyone on the customer list and he's now going to sell them to other people.

"Player 1, Ball 2 ..."

Wait, I never even got my first ball!

Yes you did!

No I didn't .....

Kruger Family might be an interesting theme ... Freddy Kruger and his family (grandma, kids, etc.)

You'll notice assembling/manufacturing is never mentioned.
Guess it's not an important milestone.

More vague/odd wording.

"The zombie games went out at $9995". Went out? They never went anywhere. Makes it sound like they've been shipping.

But is that price a quote to sell one, or is he just rambling about the past.

The part "more like pinball art" is dead accurate!

Notice the link: "Chapter 2"

... Chapter II ... Chapter 11 ... aaahh!

I agree, I don't know why people even consider buyers as "investors" rather than customers.

Let's for a moment pretend that it all had gone well and "believe" that Jpop was successful and Zidware had shipped those three machines, was profitable and was making more new machines...

CUSTOMER:
If someone has paid money towards Magic Girl, then Zidware would have shipped it, MG would be in their house and the transaction would be complete. At that point there would be no further relationship with Zidware unless the person gave more money for another machine.

INVESTOR:
This implies that the person put down money for the long term. What do they get back for their money? If they put down MG money, then I assume they are expecting an MG, but what else?

Is there anything in the agreement where they would hold a share of Zidware until they sold out? Would they get a share of any future sales/profits? Did it say they were providing seed money to Zidware in hope they "might" create a machine, but there was risk of nothing ever being built.

Based on everything we've heard it appears to be the former: they were just simply a customer in a pre-order model.

If this thing ever gets to court, I'm sure that letter will be featured.

The only way he could talk around it would be if conditions changed... IF he could get a big time investor throwing money at it with a plan, etc.

It was really a perfect storm of a bunch of small stuff:

- He's a designer, but he's not able to do the engineering, programming and all the other tasks it takes to build a machine. He can't do a new machine from start to finish solo
- He doesn't know when to finalize a design and stop tweaking
- He doesn't work well with others
- He's not good with the business end and seemed unable to take on and work with someone who had those skills
- He's not focused.

and the fact he's a dreamer who wouldn't accept he was doomed to go off a cliff was like throwing gas on the fire.

Well, he did color match the scissors sitting inside the cabinet.

Well, it did give him more space, but it was all just half-finished games.

The Pussy Cat Bowling thing also looks like a response to Big Lebowski ... "oh, they want a bowling theme, I'll do one too"

He definitely needed someone to do the boring business side, while he did the creative side.

However, you still need to resolve two other issues: the ability to manufacture it; and also locking down the design so it can go to production. He seemed to have trouble calling the design done and moving it to the manufacturing process. He always seemed to have yet another idea he wanted to try out.

I don't know that his ego/personality would have let other people make those decisions and given them the space to get the job done. I don't he would have liked someone having to edit his design because something wasn't feasible.

^
boo-yeah!

"wink"

At first they announce themselves as a completely unrelated and new thing ... so why the desire to even deal with MG?

My guess is that these news games will be based heavily on the Jpop games. When they do reveal, people are going to look at them under a microscope and say "heh - that is the art for MG, the ramp from RAZA ..." If there are elements of those games in AP's games... well, you can't just use the assets from another company without it linking back in some manner.

The plot thickens...

Pity I wasn't there with my 20x zoom

Theatre of Magic was originally intended to be David Copperfield ... so he's already done the sleight of hand.