Edit: Self moderated - deleted

-Steve

I guess we should also round up and convince owners to sell off all their VW beetles.
Because we all know who contracted Ferdinand Porche to design that.
Oh wait, it's the most popular and mass produced car in history, despite its history.

It doesn't affect the pins whatsoever.
The machine is not the man.
He's a scumbag who deserves whatever comes his way. That's all.

The cyber police found him to download kid porn people.
Nowerdays the police sets bait too if they see your ip adress is involved in dark stuff.
They'll make sure they have a case before they arrest you...
I have a 10 year old daughter,that makes it real easy to settle my opinion.
Burn!

I have 4 favorite pins in a niche in my gameroom,2 john popadiuk machines and
1 john trudeau...friggin' great..
I am not too happy about that at the moment.

Deleted my comment after reading the one above

Keep in mind, every game John designed, wasn't just him that worked on it. By dissing him, you are also dissing the other 75 people that worked on that particular game. Don't let one bad apple ruin it for everyone else. You have the software team, sound team, builders, art department. Why should they be dissed because of one? Doesn't make any sense. Just like when something bad happens with guns...all of a sudden guns should be banned because 1 person didn't have their shit together? Get real. Or blaming MTV beavis and butthead, because someone has a stupid child that thinks acting out cartoons isn't stupid as all shit. It's the cartoon teams fault, and MTV's staff fault, because their child is stupid as all shit. Don't let one person ruin things for everyone else. And you guys are early to be pointing fingers. Let this play out. Might be getting your panties in a twist for no reason.

It'll probably happen.. All it will take is one fucking prick to tip off a reporter and they'll start searching. And Stern needs to be prepared for when it does.

-Steve

Stern is never prepared maybe now, with Zach. A helluva starting task.

I wish my first name translated into "Delicious"

This is EXACTLY what they should say, if asked, IMO.

-Steve

There's so much shit going on over here, I would seriously doubt it... At least nationally anyway.

-Steve

You mean the guy with the overpriced Creech ? If your going to sell your Pins because of this , at least price them like you really want them gone.

Exactly. Especially with all the love and hard work that Zombie Yeti put into Ghostbusters, why would someone throw him under the bus as well when he did nothing wrong. When I look at GB, the first thing that comes to mind is one of my favourite movies of all time. When I look at the package art, I always say what a great job Zombie Yeti did. None of this changes for me despite the recent news...

Pretty sure it sold within a day or so. Must not have been priced that bad.

And let's be real, we all know people won't have a fire-sale when there are plenty of those that still want to buy them.

Stern won't put anyone on "leave". That only happens to cops under investigation. Anyone arrested for this will be fired, full stop. If you sell amusement devices traditionally associated with kids, you can't be perceived to even be 1% uncertain; he will be fired and will never work in pinball again. Probably won't ever work again if he somehow is found not guilty, which I doubt he will be.

A guy who worked in the same factory as me about 10 years ago was arrested for the same thing and it was in the local newspaper. The day it all came out he came into work on a nightshift, no one talked to him, people bumped into him aggressively etc and his car tyres were slashed. He didn't make it through the shift and was never seen there again.

If people want to sell their Trudeau games, then that is their right to do that. I don't agree or disagree with that action because it is a very personal decision.

I'd be lying if I said I don't feel right about having Ghostbusters in my house.

Listing to Nates latest podcast made me feel sad for him. He obviously remembers something that relates specifically to these new allegations and feel like he let it slide. This brings home a serious point how does someone get to the age of 69 with no apparent history of this sort of activity. To me it's a mental illness and there would of be some signs early on. I can see a lot of stories comming out if JT ends up being convicted.

Regarding Steve Ritchie's comments, they are just pathetic. The reason child abuse became an endemic issue in organizations such as the church/scouts etc... is because members of the public just wanted to ignore it and sweep it under the carpet. Not dealing with the problems in society does not make them go away it allows them to fester and gives a level of tolerance to these people's actions.

I feel pain for Steve and all the other employees of Stern, they are innocent and must feel totally betrayed. However my real sympathy and thoughts lie with the victims of abuse. Steve should man up an apologize for his words. This is not the 1950s society does not just put on blinkers and turn a blind eye to the truth surrounding you. If that is what he believes then I hope he is out of touch with the 99% in this community.

Regarding Stern I think they need to come out with a simple statement to the effect that JT is suspended without pay until the investigation is concluded. They also can not release a new game and attribute him as the designer while this is still in the courts.

We talk about pinball being a small hobby but Stern has to have been turning over close to $50 million in sales per annum. They are not a small company and need to act like any medium to large enterprise would in this matter. professional and restrained but with no ambiguous statements that what has occurred is wrong and they will not abide this sort of behavior in their organization.

How can a post like this regarding this particular subject get down voted?

I don't think I have ever questioned the integrity of so many people on Pinside before, but there is some very questionable voting going on in this thread.

How can anyone not agree that child exploitation of any kind is not sick, deplorable and a disgrace? This stuff is truely one of the worst sides of humanities ability to harm themselves.

I understand how it could feel unsettling. This is a crime that's absolutely bottom of the barrel disgusting and disturbing... it's 100% natural to feel repulsed by any association to it. Especially in a situation where one aspect of that association is a physical object that you own.

Keep in mind, the soul of any game associated with JT is built around an entire team of folks. In the case of Ghostbusters, yes JT had a say in the physical dimensions of the shots. But you can guarantee that decisions made about the game's ultimate design and composition involved lots of experts. Your experience playing the game is driven by its amazing art, sound, light show, rules that guide how you play the game, mechanical parts that are born from decades of use across the industry, and a theme that's the creation of Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd... etc. Those elements that aren't the born from JT's mind. In fact, one could argue that a combination of sound, dots, art, and rules draw you into the game more than JT's arrangements of shots.

I never felt right about you having Ghostbusters, either.

Sometimes there are signs of this issue and people simply choose to ignore it. They ignore it out of convenience or ignorance... perhaps they don't want to get involved... the list of reasons is lengthy. I would actually assume that someone along the way (as Nate eluded) knew something or saw something suspicious. Perhaps more on this will come out as this case becomes more public.

clear

Several podcasts, several pinball websites/blogs, several facebook pages, and several pinball & arcade forums all have discussions going. Deleting a thread won't make it go away, unfortunately.

You cannot bury history unfortunately, they also tried doing that after 9/11 by removing the WTC and it's images from films and such. What happened, happened and now has to be addressed.

If this forum does delete this thread to hide said accused charges, that also in a way is saying it's ok what you are accused of and we'll over look that mistake. NOT GOOD!!

A pinball machine is a group effort. It's not like his image or voice are in the games or there is some subliminal pedophile manifesto buried in the artwork or sound track.
Not a huge fan of his games but if someone has a collector's quality TX Sector they can't stand looking at any more please let me know.

Trudeau's signature is on the playfield.

Why? Because in America he is innocent until proven guilty. The post you are referencing contains phrases like "This isn't a mistake" and "the likes of this scumbag". How exactly does that poster know it's not a mistake at this point? If the accusations are true and he turns out to be guilty then fine, label him a scumbag all you want at that time. But right now he is only accused of these crimes, and if he turns out to be innocent or the charges were greatly trumped up then you will have helped to destroy the man's reputation for nothing. The least we can do is wait for the evidence to come out and a conviction or acquittal before turning into a bloodthirsty mob.

My JD, FT, Flintstones, and Creech were all made by Williams employee #89 Pablo.

I understand that (I work in IT) but why "discuss" it further ?

I get what you're saying, but you're going to have to focus on the rest of the machine's aspects. It's a Stern game made by a Stern team. Yeah, Trudeau was part of that team... but I'd be willing to bet Gomez had a final stamp of approval on bringing that game together. Lots of very talented people have their finger prints all over it.

Why not discuss it further? This kind of topic shouldn't be swept under the rug.

Nothing to do with sweeping it under the rug, never said that.

Who does Stern send out to the shows to talk about the machines? The head designer.

Because this is a discussion forum dedicated to pinball and pinball related topics.

Unless you're the OP, requesting that a thread be shut down is ridiculous. If it bothers you, simply drain it and move on.

To be blunt, It's a news story that directly impacts Pinball. And Pinside is a forum dedicated to discussing Pinball and all its topics. This story impacts the collectors, the distributors, the artists, the coders, the designers, the manufacturers, and its history. While it is an incredibly sad and unfortunate story, many people want to discuss it.

Luckily for anyone who does not want to participate, Pinside has many tools available that help customize a user's experience on Pinside. The best one is the "drain function".

Those that do not wish to see his topic, or any other, are empowered to remove it from their own feed using the "drain function".

Those that wish to discuss the topic are still able to view and participate.

Simple as that.

Marcus

The legal system operates under this assumption.

Nobody here is legally required to assume anybody is innocent, and it is their right to believe anybody is guilty, unless they are placed on a jury or otherwise work within the legal system I'd suppose.

This thread is a clear demonstration of that. Free thought and speech are still allowed and constitutionally protected, unless anything has changed this morning (these days you never know). And of course, not everybody here is an American either but that's a different can of worms.

How much do you bet this comes up in the Predator pinball court case?

Innocent until proven guilty.

2 counts, does that mean only 2 pictures/video's containing child porn?

I work in IT and I have seen 3 cases of child porn. They had thousands of CP pics/photos each. 2 were not prosecuted as they were government employees the one that was got 20 years I heard.

In the photos at the top, you can see the report that says "...numerous computerized files depicting child pornography." So definitely not just 2 images.

ask Pete Townshend for his thoughts on this. :/

First I will clarify that I do not know much about the police and legal system in the US. I know its very different than up here in Canada. I have a daughter and a son that are both highly competitive gymnastics athletes. As great as the sport is, it is plagued with these predators. My daughter's gym had a coach arrested for molesting athletes and friend close to my son had a coach arrested for manufacturing child pornography. I have fairly decent knowledge of how these cases are built and how they link together these guys. I will say this, I know a mother that had to read all kinds of shit online about it could have been this or that and wait till the facts come out. Her daughter had to go to school with everyone talking about it. The police sat her down and said these are the pictures we need you to identify your daughter and we can tell you they are all over the internet. They then begged her to say nothing, to let them go out and try to make cases against all the people online and it takes months. She had to listen to people defend the guy and say nothing. For months she had to listen to people say it was bullshit. The police told her we will say nothing publicly against him beyond the charges and he is innocent until proven guilty. I believe everyone deserves the right to a fair trial. I also know up here in Canada the kind of evidence it takes before they will arrest someone. So I am not going to hold my breath for this guy. If he is cleared I will happily post that I was wrong.

I will add her daughter was very lucky in that all the pictures were taken with hidden cameras. It is much worse for most.

Because we feel like it?

In fairness, the stuff that bothered me had little to do with politics as much as it was about hate and intolerance.

Which is one reason why if these charges are true, it seems fairly consistent with what I've seen in the past. A disregard for the welfare and respect of others, especially those who are innocent and undeserving of being mistreated.

Pete is not "innocent." He admittedly used his credit to card to access child pornography online and was disciplined for it. But hey there's also that NBA player I keep hearing about.

And Paul Rubens! I'll be the first to admit that Pee-Wee got a raw deal on that one. So yeah maybe JT is just a fan of kitschy vintage erotica and has a copy of the Rob Lowe sex tape.

So who is going to find the thread that Nate Shivers referenced in his podcast? I found the "Stern Hires John Trudeau" thread, but didn't see a post in it that matches what he recalls.

Someone on here probably saw or noted the same post... or has the know-how to roll back a thread to see if a post was removed?

If you can't see beyond it, that's understandable. I wouldn't be surprised if there are lots of others that feel that way.

I remember what Nate remembers. I looked and could not find it. Pretty sure it would take a Mod/Robin to find out for sure.

Manimal had discussed this earlier in the thread from a knowledgeable position. I've been a police officer for almost 15 years and agree with his statements. The investigators charged what they immediately had and can amend the charges and add more counts at the preliminary hearing.

Make no mistake. A forensic expert in the field of computers is going to go through his hard drives. This takes time and can't be completed on the scene.

Yeah it was sold in under 24 hours. It was mine. Sold to the person who could get it out of my house the soonest. As I explained in that thread I work with kids and didn't feel comfortable having it in my home. Trudeau was my favorite designer. CFTBL was my favorite game. Didn't want it under my roof, available to kids to play. Perception is reality often and my perception of his games has changed. I hope in the end it was a big mistake, but as it has been explained odds of that happening are highly unlikely at this point. The game had lots and lots of $$$ in mods on top of being a pretty nice CFTBL to begin with. Genesis will hopefully be sold shortly as well. Everyone is entitled to do as you wish with his games, but for me, it was simply a personal choice I didn't want them in my home.

I still own a Congo that is on location in a bar where only people age 21+ can access it. I'm not selling that at this point, but I don't see myself really playing it there anymore either and when the location gets tired of the game it won't come back to my home.

I don't believe Pete was "disciplined for it". I believe he was cleared of all charges.
Just sayin'.