Jpop has been calling vendors trying to buy parts

You know your desire levels are out of control when you start to consider owning a game from a guy that stole a million from his customers. Greeeeeeeed.

Shameful that expo would support this asshat, or that some people would buy one.

I know I'll go up in flames for saying this but, here we go. I see little difference in what Jpop has done and what Stern has been doing for years. To clarify, Jpop took the money all at once without giving you the product promised regardless of intent. Stern has been bleeding everyone for years with machines that have unfinished code, terrible playfield and electronic QC defects they never bother to remedy but, bottom line is neither have delivered the promised product. Stern is overlooked; looked upon differently because they're an established producer when the only distinction I can see between acts is the length of time. Yes I know the argument is that at least Stern has produced a product however in complete or defective it is; fact is it still isn't what you ordered and likely never will be.

Bottom line, never buy a game prior to it's release or completion period.....both lead to unhappiness.

I think you're off base on this. Jpop delivered nothing. Stern deliveres. It might not be as good as you hoped for, but it's a functioning game that can be put on location.
Jpop just bit off more than he can chew and a handful of investors lost. But it was clearly a high risk investment. If jpop did pull it off and MG was a masterpiece, those investors would have cashed in.

I don't think you'll go up in flames. It's just plain wrong.

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The game concept was real based on my networking in the industry, but I had no idea of was prototyped, let alone a sample prepared for Expo. That was news. It was originally scheduled for reveal in 2017, or at least that was the plan.

I guess AP wanted to make ripples in the pond, and shake the tree of collectors. Even if it is produced the market is starting to saturate with new titles. At least one or two boutique companies are going to lose, and potentially fail out of lack of sales causing closures.

This Expo situation will just accelerate the next market stall.

If American pinball has go a real flipping prototype to release I will be impressed. They must have some real talent in their organisation. From what I have read and heard on podcasts, jpop had basically f..kall to show for all the money he scamed off people, besides some cool zombie yeti artwork. If even 10% of what is mentioned in the press release is true, and they have an actual working game, then who the hell built it? This is a pretty small community, wouldn't someone on pinside have know if they had actually built a flipping proto type? My guess is if anything is show, it will be all glitter and no gold, I.e non working display model only. Might be wrong, just seems so far fetched that someone could bring jpops ideas to life in such short a time. The people with this sort of skill sets are very limited, and are most likely already happily employed by Stern or JJP. As has already been quoted "making pinballs is hard". Doing a press release and applying for a trademark, not so much. Fortunately everyone will know exactly how much of this is bullshit and how much is fact in just a few short days.

My sympathy lies with those that got ripped off in the whole JPOP shit storm. Reading this thread, must be reopening wounds that haven't healed yet.

As someone who has had to cut out three narco family members (and had to sell my America's Most Haunted to pay the down payment on a house to move away from them), I have to say some of the signs are there, but I personally have not followed all of the drama nor have seen the evidence of narcissistic rage so (edit) am not yet convinced.

That said, once you have been burned by true Narcissitic Personality Disorder family members, you start seeing them everywhere and steer clear of them (a certain presidential candidate, anyone?). The scary part is that they ARE everywhere, but most of the time you are not on their radar and so are not their target.

If Kaneda is a Narco, it appears Pinside is his target. If you really want to scare him away, you need to find the source of his narcissim (what hurt him early in life), expose it, and he will run away in fear that you can actually hurt him. (Kinda like Kryptonite for Narco's) That said, I'm gonna keep listening to his podcast.

I always suspected this of Hillary. Thank you for confirming.

SWING and a miss. Strike one.

This is some truthful stuff here.

Cash in Advance would be the only terms acceptable. Then stiff him and send nothing. When he calls (after dozens of emails that a vendor should not answer), ask him how he likes a dose of his own medicine?

Er, both I think!

That Expo would even CONsider it shows that it's all about money, not about the love of pinball.

Expo is just a neutral venue that should not take sides.

Unfortunately that is not the case. If they allow someone that stole millions of dollars from the community to come promote a new product then they are fully aware of the possible outcomes and pretty sure they could be held accountable depending on what goes down.

Aside from that it is a bad and tacky move on their part. It is obviously just about selling more tickets to Mike. Sad but true.

Don't forget to post your comments and reviews on American Pinball's Facebook page. Only 6 reviews so far...

Can't they just delete them like Stem does?

what a ridiculous statrement. jpop gets zero dollars when collectors sell WCS, TOM, TOTAN or CV to each other.

ok - I'll peek my head out against my better judgement... I truly hope JPOP can redeem himself here for the sake of his family and pinball's reputation... but unless the previous project(s) money-vacuum is addressed, i don't see any benefit to support this ...or a win coming his way...

And as a side note - while I realize pissing on Stern is fashionable here, comparing the 2 is just plain out of touch from my experience...

5 years of working with JPOP yielded misdirection, frustration, untruths, (late & later no payment)& and outright theft in the end (or was that a meta magic themed marketing approach?) ....while a 6 month team project with Stern yielded a fantastic experience & a pin that I'm pretty proud of. And keep in mind, I actually lean toward supporting the little guy over the big guy any day of the week...

Just my skewed perspective from my experience, though.

So unless all who paid in on MG & RAZA are made whole at some point - I don't know how anyone can support this project.

I'll slowly back into the shadows now...

Keep in mind that one of the promoters banned Illinois Pinball after a little spat ($20k) and went so far as to taking a file photo of the Illinois Pinball top guy, which had been used for years on the Expo website and modified it with some nasty words and even went so far as to have an arrow pointing at him with the word "Kill". This was on the Expo website.
Thus, Expo isn't always neutral.

Typically you can't delete reviews. Comments, yes.

Me too.

I say bring it to Expo and let the public decide... flush out JPop.

And sooner than most people think and it wont be a surprise to some.

There is a tonnage of information that never makes it to Pinside until its too late or intended. A lot of people in the know don't post or read here and for very good reasons.
And not to go off topic but most of you would be shocked to learn of the dirty tricks that goes on behind the scenes by seemly good guys.

Look, if American Pinball is going to be the phoenix that rises from the ashes from Jpop's disasters and misdealings, AND makes good to make everyone whole who paid for any of JPop's pipe dream machines, then I am all for this. Remember, these were deposits for products, NOT investments for product development. If anyone here doesn't think JPop has skin in this venture(American Pinball) and is ONLY an employee, I have some swamp in Florida to sell you.

Unfortunately, there is probably a .001% chance of this happening otherwise we would be getting MG & RAZA by American Pinball. Instead, we will get Houdini and the magic trick already happened, the money vanished.

If JPop is present for the unveiling at Pinball Expo, I fully expect an all out loud verbal barrage towards American Pinball that could turn very ugly and deservedly so.

It will matter and the dumb F that puts money into this sham is about to find out its money flushed down the toilet.

Jpop, working by himself to develop a pin, CAN'T put out a "killer game", at Bally Williams, with the help of many others some decent pins were made.

A few idiots might line up and buy because they are worried about the pin falling apart and the excellent support and service they will get after the fact.

What a F ing joke this whole idea is. It'll go right up in flames like the last time.

This whole scam represents Jpop trying to skirt the illegal ponzi scheme he perpetrated the first time and think that people will be dumb enough to fall for it again. Of course there will be some idiots, like i said. True idiots.

Anyone can prototype a game - you don't need to be industry vets to do so. They already had like 80% of the mechanical game to start with too. Building a game isn't pinball voodoo. Designing a fun, durable, reliable, game in VOLUME and be profitable... that's the voodoo part.

Try making that argument if you are on the bad side of Mike.

Exactly. It would be like no longer selling or buying Williams pins because you are protesting that they shut down their pinball line to produce slot machines. Or not listening to the beach boys because Charles Manson hung out with them. Williams didn't rip anyone off and The beach boys didn't murder anyone.

Stop and actually think about it. People still actively pursuing those games and the fact that they cost so much shows that there is still a market for that type of work. Why do you think American Pinball is working with JPOP? So yes, the continued demand and purchase of those games does in fact create demand for more of JPOP's work and makes foolish people see $$$. Many people, you included post that JPOP is tainted, shouldn't be touched, should be ran out of pinball. But then you turn around and say that these games are before that, they are not tainted because they were before this, he doesn't get anymore money for them, etc. Those games are what caused people to give JPOP money for magic girl, RAZA, AIW. Those games are what currently caused American Pinball to work with him. Those games staying popular will continue to cause the JPOP stench to linger on for many years to come.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with anyone buying any of JPOP's old games, but they are certainly part of his checkered history and also what lead to this situation. So if you truly believe JPOP is tainted, a thief, a terrible person, etc. I'm not sure how you could own any of them. That's just my opinion though, everyone has a right to their own.

That we know of...

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story....

I can see you being right back in line for another one. You seem like a really good dude, but you have to admit that you can't help yourself when it comes to new pinball. Hell, at one point your entire previously owned list was vaporware.

people trading games he happened to work on decades ago while an employee of Williams does nothing for him or his financial situation. any benefit is completely nebulous and insubstantial. it's not even a net benefit in terms of the very dubious notion of helping his reputation, since the game exists and gets played either way whether it's traded or not.

buying a NEW game that gets built, one that he designs or has a hand in designing, which puts money directly into his pockets -- or even entertaining that notion -- is obviously many orders of magnitude more directly helping this scumbag thief.

the two concepts are not equitable.

I have fond nostalgia for wcs94, remember playing it when it was new, long before being in the hobby and knew who any designers were. 5 years ago I longed to own one, I wouldn't want to own one anymore.

Lol, you seem to think a lot people opinions are "absurd" and "ludicrous" while treating your own as facts. I respect your opinion, I have a right to mine.

i edited those lines out - needlessly confrontational.

Not bothered at all. You make lots of good posts, you just are very strong with you opinions. Nothing wrong with that.

as you can see i'm a serial editor. sorry!

I'm surprised no one has pointed out the very distinct (and non-standard) similarities between this and Magic girl.... particularly the shape of inlane plastics, placement of lights in outlanes, the weird spring thing in the right outlane... see the highlighted areas and compare for yourself. Seems to be "taken" liberally from the Magic Girl design... Granted pinball generally steals liberally from its past... however this very much looks like it could closely resemble magic girl....

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And AIW, thanks for weighing in providing that perspective Yeti.

By starting this new company through this other person, John is clearly attempting to wipe out the prior sham and start over.

So nobody is ever going to be made whole, it is what it is, and the result now is that John will never get back to pinball, despite this effort here.

Haha........that's a definite NO. I lost $4k on this one, its not about the $$, I lost a lot more in Vegas two weeks ago, its about a bad time in pinball and a terrible actor that is trying to parade himself back into good graces as if nothing ever happened.

I have had great luck otherwise with "new pinball", and stuff like this makes me sick and will lessen my enthusiasm for "new pinball" in the future.

If you really see "little difference" between JPop and Stern, you are a <personal attack removed by choice after thinking better of it>

Beach Boys played a small but key role in helping Charles Manson establish his following. And Mike Love, I gotta think he's had somebody killed over the past few decades.

As far as Jpop, hey whatever. Most of us didn't lose any money on the previous fiasco and most of us won't consider it some kind of capital crime if someone wants to buy a new machine he is involved with. Sorry, but that's the truth.

Thumbed up because I agree, because of your uncharacteristic restraint

I stopped reading after this.

Simply. Won't. Happen.