I'm honestly confused.

Is this all bullshit or is there any chance it's real?

Someone who has done the homework please chime in!

I can assure you he is not

That's the real fun - can you imagine if this actually happened...and then Zidware "buyers" were told to go F themselves? Why wouldn't that happen if it were a different company?

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.

I'm not talking about that at all. I'm talking about the idea that "Anybody who buys this game is a monster after what he did to so many pinheads, and will be shamed by the community!!!!"

If they actually produce a game some people will buy it and most of us will happily seek it out to play it.

And of course I wouldn't buy something like this, I've never spent more than $4,000 on a pinball machine.

I would agree that if they are expecting to fund this venture on the strength of a demo game and a shit-ton of preorder money they probably won't have any luck at all or people stupid enough to go for it. But if they have the cash to get the assembly line rolling?

Game on, baby! Wouldn't even surprise me if YOU bought one, you seem to love throwing around exhorbitant amounts of money in this hobby.

This is exactly what literally 99 % of home pinball buyers want. It's clear as day.

Give it up already, for CHrist sake. For the love of God man.

At this point, would magic girl "owners" be willing to simply accept those purty empty cabinets and call it a day?

They do look pretty nice!

What are you doing, Dave?

I'm not sure anybody was ever incredibly excited about those ridiculous magic girl cabs that were so big you'd need a cargo van to haul around. It seems that American Pinball's sweeping reforms are getting this project back on the right track!!!

Where do I send my money? Can I PayPal $10,000 to the 847 phone number?

TOM is better than it's reputation around here, which isn't surprising since it's collectors here, not players. It may not show up in competitions but that doesn't mean it isn't a fun game. It's my favorite Jpop game and the only one I'd really care to own again.

His best and most balanced all around pinball game is probably WCS, but we all know Steve Ritchie and others finished that project, and the game gets pretty old pretty fast at home.

TOTAN and CV are pretty and nice novelties but I'm not a huge fan of either. EP1 is a turd and Pin2K, which always sucked, was Jpop's idea.

As to why people were willing to give Jpop tens of thousands of their dollars on a prayer I have no idea, except to think people didn't want to be left behind on the next BBB.

THanks Tim. Nice goatee too! Very hip.

I wonder if he's wearing sandals (his feet are cut off).

What a strange, strange story this whole thing. I can't help but think it'll end up in the Crock Hunter dustbin of history, but at least we'll always have the flyer (like Crock Hunter, coincidentally).

Nice working sending him out there to get the scoop! I'm trying to figure out of if Tim is under the spell or if he groaned at the non-flipping nature of it. I guess we'll have to wait till he comes back in 29 days.

It does remind me a bit of their decade-old "coverage" of croc hunter.

goatee Tim was so proud of his scoop there's practically no critical analysis in the piece, it's pure puffing of something that invites nothing but cynicism from anybody with any familiarity of the situation.

I think the "press" that covered this event got there on a Desert Bus!

This is a person who takes stalky creeper pics of THE WRONG GUY (at an event where everybody is wearing name tags!!!) and bases an entire sartorial argument on it.

We aren't exactly dealing with Carl Bernstein here when it comes to Tim.

They threw this thing together in a matter of months, and I doubt any of these newbie carpetbaggers behind this are decent pinball players.

Here's a prediction using the same stupid lingo I keep seeing here...This thing will "shoot" like shit. But if it's crammed with enough gimmicks and light bulbs that might be enough for folks.

We have about a billion pinball manufacturers all of a sudden and people have forgotten one of the main reasons Bally/Williams and Stern put out decent games for so long - factories and design rooms filled with people who are great pinball players and lifetime worshippers at the alter of the silver ball - people who can play others' designs and their own and help with some feedback on how to make the games "shoot great." These pop up entrants into the pinball gold rush don't have this at all, they are just cranking out playfields and code and hoping for the best. That's going to come out in the wash.

Given all the things he's said, how the Hell did they get Ben Heck to pose for that flyer? The game looks a little rough on there, but we all know how hard it is to Photoshop some actual legs onto a mockup.

What in God's name is a Real Solenoid Quickstep, and why is it good that all American Pinball machines will have them?

Only if it Shoots Great, just like the original! By the way I currently own two Stars, and we are trying to find a third so we can have a IFPA Stars tournament next month.

There's so much bullshit and doubletalk on that ridiculous poorly-rendered photoshopfest flyer.

There's not an ounce of love nor authenticity on that thing - just a bunch of pop up carpetbaggers with no affection for pinball trying to turn a quick buck during the gold rush. The only pinball guy is clearly JPop, and that should scare the shit out of anybody who's thinking of investing $7,000 in this.

Jack NEVER would have attempted what he did when the economy was in the shitter, which is why Stern was cranking out econocrap like CSI, 24, and NBA.

Give me a break. In 2011 the economy was in much better shape than when Stern NBA came out, and that pinflation began "bigly" in 2010, but whatever. I'm just glad we have 18 pinball companies dedicated to "making pinball great again" today. Cause you know, it sucked ass so much before.

But come on, that Flyer though. Who knew that "designed and built in the USA" and "escaping milk bumpers" were such attractive "features?"

Drops the mic

Nah he gave us a little more than that, frankly.

EVERYBODY here is an expert on bill of materials and the exact cost of what it takes to build a pinball machine.

Why do people keep saying this?

Dude has been dead 100 years. You wouldn't need a license for a Grover Cleveland pinball either

Believe me, licensing isn't even the parking lot of the ballpark that concerns of this project are in.

All they have to do is keep spoon-feeding "scoops" to jobless losers posing as reporters, and they'll be able to keep the buzz going for a while. But eventually they will need to supply an actual, working, saleable game in a public setting. How much time can they possibly have to do that before people move on to the next scam? A year?

At this point I can't imagine people will have the patience.

Three words bro:

Real. Quickstep. Solenoids.

Believe me, it's gonna be worth the wait!

ignore button

If you guys are suggesting that the Houdini revealed to exactly one person - an employed "pinball journalist" desperate for affection who won't ask any questions - was basically a redo of the KISS lightbox and that's why nobody was allowed to play it or come within 5 feet of it...

Hey, how about those Blue Jays!

Another Jpop stinker.

It's unique, very cool looking, with lots of fun features.

But for good players it quickly becomes a slog, in that it's a fun game but lacks replayability. as soon as you start whupping it on the reg it really loses its charm. And that doesn't take long to happen.

Yeah, more or less. But I don't get sick of TOM, I really like that game. It's his best playfield design and while simple I like the rules.

But in general his games lack replayability, in a big way. And these were games produced in a factory full of seasoned pinheads and industry people. I can't help but think any possible future JPop games produced by a company of newbies are gonna be terrible. I'm sure anybody who spends $7000-$15000 on one will find a way to convince themselves that's not true so it really doesn't matter.

I'm just pointing out the bar is set incredibly low on any Jpop project. And actual, flipping game that functions correctly with the glass on will be a success as long as the game is pretty and there's lots of magnets.

Can Jpop and his band of naive moneyed newbies pull that off?

We shall see.

I'm thinking pop bumpers have worked pretty good over the past 70 years or so. Probably wasn't worth the 3 years and million dollars to come up with this novelty.

You think the occaisional spoon switch adjustment is obnoxious? Can you imagine the weekly eddy sensor adjustments?

I just go by the games. It's not really tough to suggest that his games have crappy rulesets.

As far as future games go, he's the ONLY guy with any experience in the industry on this American Pinball Team. So the rules are suddenly gonna get better on his stuff?

Good luck with that.

"magic rug" huh?

I'm sure Houdini is going to be an unconditional success.

American pinball is a cOmplete joke and a I pity anybody getting their hopes up on this.

But hey Corny Tim was impressed.

Because they are a bunch of greedy newbies with money trying to hop on the gold rush. They have no love for pinball. They have no creativity. They are just trying to milk some cash out of what they have been convinced by jpop is some kind of bubble and gold mine.

It's a cynical enterprise and absolutely the LAST thing pinball needs rignt now. There's no love here just opportunism, and they think they can somehow make it work with jpop when it's clear all he has to offer now is fairy tales and failure.

Good luck.

That's all well and good. But did anybody shed light on what a real quickstep solenoid is?

Joe is like the 10th guy to be convinced - on John's assurance - that a Zidware/Jpop game is 75% done. The 75%+ crew always ends up working for him/with him.

I think at least 75% of us know how this is going to work out.

Have even AP claimed they are "truly passionate about pinball?" That's obviously not why they entered the fray.

If there were no Jpop they wouldn't be ahead or behind. They wouldn't exist at all.

I agree. Rich people looking for a hobby and convinced by John they could make a quick buck by working with a legend. This is quickly gonna reveal itself to be a major headache (it probably already has) and this will turn out to be another pie in the sky failure. Sorry gang.

But someone will end up with a cool Houdini playfield to hang on their wall. Any justice and it'll be Corny Tim or some other intrepid journalist!

This is what I've been saying. No love. No passion. Ultimately, no pinball.

This company is doomed to failure and we will all be better off when this curious enterprise is just an odd footnote and fleeting memory.

In like 3 months, probably.

It's simple all right.

AP should fold up shop, write off how ever many thousands of dollars they've already thrown in the fireplace, and just like all the "owners" of MG, RAZA, and AIW, and Bill, whomever it was that got screwed behind the scenes at Zizzle, and god knows who else, curse the day they met Jpop and get on with their lives.

That's really the only option that makes any sense.

Houdini will never see the light of day and I'll be absolutely shocked if American Pinball ever produces a machine.

Consider it addition to the hobby by subtraction.

And the fact that I haven't posted in 10 hours could mean I was having a three-way with Giselle and (content edited).

Probably not though.

I'm sure they are deciding if they should regroup or just do the smart thing and pack it in. And if they pack it in don't expect a press release.

I'm starting to think we will never find out what a real quickstep solenoid is

Oh as long as you around I don't think we have to worry about that.

I don't imagine you'll hear anything from AP - not even another press release that looks like it was put together by an 11-year old in his first photoshop attempt - ever again.

For all the tough talk and revenge fantasies, nobody here is going to ruin their life and the lives of their families by going Death Wish on Jpop. Pretty simple. In the end, it's just money and pride, and neither of those things are worth it.

That last line just doesn't work. Needs fewer syllables.

The right ramp doesn't "shoot" amazingly nice. Perfect shot rejects are common due to the sharp angle.

Their flyers are getting way nicer.

It boggles the mind that this charade continues.

That they will actually mass produce a pinball machine.

I think the position of AP nutswinger is filled and we haven't even seen the game yet. All other applicants can look for another job.

And Balcer did a bunch of 90s Sega games. They are gettin' the band back together!!!

You guys wanna buy this thing be my guest. Still seems like a johnny come lately cash grab to me but unless the market collapses there's surely a market for this thing at $7,000. And no denying they proved it can be done quick...all the other non-sterns seem to be taking years to churn something out.

Looks like they put the right team together.

It's a hastily thrown together project funded by some bored billionaires trying to move out some product while people are still happily doling out $7,000 for new games. It's a cash grab. Unless you think they are going for a Nobel prize here?

Yes...whatever the motivations behind this project its nice to know there are some people with a little good old fashioned pinball passion behind it.