What I have the hardest time understanding is the boutique pre-pay model. Why can't these guys get an escrow account for pre-purchase money and then use that as the bait to get VC? A hard money lender at 15-20% would really light a fire under their asses and get them moving a lot more than $750k in a bank account. It's not unrealistic to expect timelines out of these guys when they're sitting on your money. The only reason for a lack of transparency is because something is fouled up. If they would just be honest and up front about their problems, they could probably find a lot of cheap help to solve them. But I suspect that all this smoke and mirrors BS comes from a lie. Otherwise, there would be no need to hide your problems.

They all should be crowd-sourcing solutions, not cash.

_{Post edited by SadSack: Because birds aren't necessarily bad.}

You are just plain wrong. WHy would you think anyone sitting on a million dollars of customers' money would have 3 or 4 minutes per month to actually think about and type a short update? You must be crazy.

BTW, I'm thinking the license holdup has something to do with arnie and Jessie "the mind" having an ego battle.

I see at least one of those.

He's probably on vacation. He probably has no idea this conversation is so damning and he probably couldn't care less after he trotted out the old one-off to shut the whining babies up. I bet he's buying a round of pina coladas out on the baha right now.

I'm just kidding, but not really.

This is the first time I've found myself agreeing with Kaneda. When others mentioned stockholm syndrome they hit the nail on the head. If you look at these things with impartiality, reality IS obvious. How many will be happy to trade in their semi-transparent space killer for a couple of middle-aged sexually-ambiguous establishment nerds?

Hence the use of "impartial". I don't know these guys and have absolutely no knowledge of their character or financial position I can only judge situations by the evidence before me.

The skit-b team might be the greatest guys in the world, but that doesn't mean they can't screw up with other people's money. It happens all the time. Has any of them ever successfully carried out a large project on their own? It's just like J-Pop's deal where a certain set of skills is insufficient to carry a project out in totality. It's not like these guys intend to screw up. How many times have we heard "was harder than they thought" WRT new pinball manufacturing? Of course it's harder than you think. That's why you need a team with varying skill sets to see a large project through.

Some people thrive under the diverse pressures of managing and completing a project.. others, not so much. Do you think it's easy for someone to say, "Yes I have your money, but things aren't going well and I'm going to have to change the deal I originally made with you. BTW, I don't have your money to give back so you are stuck with whatever we come up with."

It takes a long time to admit this is the case and a longer time to figure out how you are going to sell the change. You can only buy time so long and when it catches up with you, you don't get the luxury of trust as you sit there on your thumb.

Didn't anyone at expo ask about production and delivery timelines? Or like with J-pop are you all afraid of the guys who hold your money?

Wrong answer. A timeline is different than a statement of status. There must be a problem if a timeline cannot be provided. The question is how large of problem.

I'm very sorry your illusion of a homogeneous group of pinball peaceniks was destroyed by a few simple observations that fly in the face of invested true believers. Maybe the internet just isn't a good thing for you.

So where can I learn more about this machine in case I want to buy one (or maybe even an abandoned spot in line)?