Leave it to Jpop to make me get a sick feeling in my stomach when I hear formerly cool themes like "Magic", "Houdini", or "Alice In Wonderland"

There was a guy on the radio 20 years ago every night, that used to do interviews every night, and it was always somebody pretty crazy that he was voicing himself. So every night he'd interview himself as a character, but never told anybody (although you could figure it out if you listened to a couple shows). Anybody remember that guys name?

It might be public domain since he passed so long ago, does anybody know how that works? If you think about it, historical figures they use all the time for ads, etc. Abraham Lincoln, etc.

Now we KNOW J Pop's working with them.

"Alright John, now, you know we're a new company, and you've got so much experience in the industry. What do we need to do to get going?"

John - "Well, it's simple. First thing you do is build a few cabinets, slap some vinyl art on the side, then the money starts ROLLING IN. That's basically the plan for the first 3 years"

If they did... it would be because the game is the closest to finish... so if they're able to make 16 and make those 16 people happy, they can start the preorder money running in again for the next title by promising to finish the zombie game next. Classic Ponzi scheme stuff

If they meet self imposed deadlines they'll be in rare air with Stern, and Spooky.... both companies making a profit.

I love Pinballnews, but this quote just really gets me

" Scott went on to tell me that they had worked together at Zizzle, and he was amazed at how many different ideas John had with. "

Why in the world do people keep worshipping at the alter of Jpop? He came up with some creative stuff, but there are probably a dozen famous designers capable of the same thing, and likely many more sitting at home on the couch.

The first, first rule of inventors is that ideas are a dime a dozen, the hard part is turning an idea into reality and Jpop has proven over and over again that he's incapable of that.

I dont' know all the legalities, but regardless I think it's suicide if American Pinball doesn't completely make everybody involved with John whole, to use John as a designer on their tables. They have to know this, so they must actually intend to make everyone whole.

I wouldn't have gotten into the shit storm if I were them, but I wish them luck and hope they do well, they've got a tough, tough uphill 'credibility' battle on this, and even if people are made whole they'll still have a bad taste in their mouth that is now intertwined with American Pinball.

You may know good sir, doesn't David Copperfield own a TON of Houdini props?

... and it'd be done UNDER BUDGET, and AHEAD OF SCHEDULE. And have more tacky, gold block lettering.

That's very cool that so much of the collection ended up in at least one place, sucks it's private but at least it's together and taken care of instead of scattered around the world.

You would think a museum in Vegas would be very profitable!

What is it with Jpop, and constantly showing off artwork printed on pieces of paper and not applied to a game? He'll probably have whatever poor sap he's got drawing this stuff make another 20 revisions that will be printed out on another 20 pieces of paper between now and whenever this company gets sued out of business.

It's like Groundhog day

That's the question I keep wondering. He's a good designer, but he's not "Here, let me throw money at random people until you're out of bankruptcy' good... and he's got a history of being unable to finish projects.

I like the way these guys operate. They stuck their foot in their mouth with the "MG" thing... went silent for awhile, and then out of nowhere ship the completed game to get out from under it. Now they're a little silent about Houdini, I'd imagine they're going to pop up with a nice playing prototype soon. They seem to be capable of moving faster than most companies, which could be good or bad. Fun to watch, I wish them well!

This is nothing short of amazing, really. Fully populated, fully custom playfield with toys everywhere, art created from scratch, full custom ramps from scratch, code from scratch, hardware from scratch... in 4 months.

They ain't playing around.