Ok I think this has been beaten to death now. Yes, they knew the background of John. However, it's not suicide to take this on, even if they don't make MG AIW and RAZA owners some kind of deal. There's plenty of people that either know a little about john, nothing about john, even some that probably know the whole story that would still jump on Houdini if it turns out to be a fun pin to play. The IP issues and what Bill owns or Zidware owns is another story.. but what I see is:

If Zidware owns the patents/IP, than the lawsuit has to be resolved. Of course AP realized this, and John would easily jump on board @AP probably for cheap pay if it meant he got to continue making pinball and his lawsuit potentially is settled. So 26 MG's are planned to be finished in hopes of the lawsuit being settled. Than AP can use all the IP/patents from Zidware, unless there's potentially more lawsuits from Raza or AIW investors... however they likely would just turn over investors credits (probably not 1) to a different title from AP. Than they guarantee some future sales. Who knows, maybe they'll finish Raza and AIW and plan on making up losses thru the rest of the sales on those games. It seems like AP def. has significant capital backing already.. so losses could be absorbed now and made up with future profit. If they pull this all off they got a ton of early PR coverage.. even bad coverage can be good.

Yes -- complete agree with you Vdojaq.

Realizing that the big thorn to pull out is the lawsuit. I doubt there's too much stipulation as to how MG has to play once delivered although it makes sense that they would want to deliver a decent product.. probably just a bit stripped down from the one shown at the NW show where certain mechs & placements didn't even make sense mechanically.

For the rest of the investors, at this point no one was expecting to get *anything* so getting credit on a different game (or possibly even the same game they put $$ down on) is a win. Of course some people won't be happy with this, but I'd take a hot tea in liu of a cappuccino if I've paid and there's no refunds.

I DO wonder about the vendors that weren't paid though -- which I think mainly relates to MG, possibly the art on AIW or RAZA? Just totally screwed? AP really has no reason to pay them unless they worked something out with John already regarding that as well.

But what's the point? They are only making 26 to satisfy the lawsuit. There's really no 'revealing' to take place.. they just need to get the customers their machines and call it a day with MG.. at least for now. Also my guess is that with the stripped down features and such, people will probably rip it apart if they did a 'reveal' before shipping them. It's easier for them to let the owners evaluate... if the revealed them and the people bringing the lawsuit weren't satisfied than they have another problem to fix.

It doesn't make it all right but they HAVE to settle the lawsuit before Houdini can Be sold because of the patents involved. If they can jump that hurdle, then raza and aiw builds or credits on deposits can be assessed. One step at a time.. But Houdini ain't going anywhere until that lawsuit gets fixed me thinks

Exactly. If "zidware" delivers mg than they fulfilled their obligation. Question is do owners say f you and not accept it and continue lawsuit or accept the machine and drop it? They will have to decide together I believe? Or majority? At this point though I don't see what the end product is of the lawsuit if there's no money at zid to pay back.. A mg machine is better than nothing

Is there a link to the ap talk? They did a talk right? Curious where it came out that they were now trying to distance themselves from John? Also did someone from the lawsuit group mention that not all parties were going to be satisfied with an mg delivery? I'm confused about what happened at expo -- cointaker initially posted they were impressed but obviously no mg delivery for them are they still expecting one soon?

Was this recorded? I'd love to see the seminar with AP. Link anyone?

Thanks!! I guess I'm guilty of leaning too heavy on Pinside for news

Thanks for the post NeilMcRae!

By "they" you mean jpop and that's all he has -- 25 empty cabs, some screwed up Playfields that couldn't be cleared, and the nw show "prototype" that likely hasn't changed much since.. so unless a miracle happened or sometjing big usgoing on behind the scenes it ain't that close

You're talking about mg? Where are you getting said information, you speak as if you are getting first hand updates??

Lexi might look a bit dated having been in dev for what since 2012? But the games for that platform on Lexis heels -- I am betting they look much less "dated". Besides, dated can still be a ton of fun. Dialed in still some sounds like a lot of fun from those that have played. Lexi gets tough love because of the new concept, I think people will come around on it though

I'm not disagreeing with you on this - but my point was missed. Lexi is the pilot game -- multimorphic has been a lot more concerned with so many other factors than art and the dev time has been very significant. Now that many things have been worked out and once manufacturing is going smooth the future p3 games should be able to concentrate more time/energy on cool art and gameplay features. ESP. True for those that have taken the role of 3rd party game devs.

Great write up -- wish you could get this from other manufacturers! I suppose this game in particular has such a crazy back story though that perhaps it makes it quite a bit more interesting to hear -- it's cool to hear the stories directly from the coder. I'd love to hear more stories like this on past or present games. How cool is it to directly interact with the customer base/audience and possibly incorporate some feedback through an online dialogue!?!

A lot of love for Houdini so far- sounds like final game will be a blast!