This reminded me of Matt's side topper skull dealies.

predator.jpg

Just need to put a Predator in the middle of the street in Russia, someone will get some dashcam footage of it being hit by a meteor or something.

Hey kaneda, so don't buy one.

Last time I checked you joined this forum after it was long sold out, and you can't even get one, unless you're here in this thread to announce that you're an ass and are jumping in line by throwing cash at someone. So why don't you flit onto some other flavor of the moment like you do and stop crapping all over Predator, which you haven't even played?

You don't even own a pin and now you're an expert on building them? Spend less time worry about how other people spend their money and maybe play some pinball instead, that's what we like to do here.

That strikes me as a less than perfect attitude. This a limited boutique game. You generally pay more for that than a mass market product. You don't want to pay for it? Don't. But this is a limited title and one thing you're paying for is exclusivity. Like it or not.

You think WOZ is expensive now, imagine if they had only made 250 of them (insert joke about how that's all they've managed to make). What's JPop charging for his crazy limited games? $10k?

Are they using UV LEDs to light it? Because frankly UV LEDs suck balls. They're really practically useless.

Surely I was more polite than that!

Looks like they have a big ass UV tube in there now, wasn't that LEDs before? Should see a noticeable improvement from that.

I played a Viper Night Drivin with those balls at Expo last year, and they definitely feel different. They're lighter, can't be helped, so they just don't shoot and bounce the same as a normal steel pinball.

Might be a real difference between UV reactive pigments like those games have that are still visible to the naked eye vs the hidden UV art that Predator is using.

I don't mean to be a dick, but don't buy it then if you don't care for it.

I totally get the gripes about inlane covers and LEDs and art etc. It's all fixable kind of stuff, people want it to be the best it can be. But the actual design of the pin was known from the get go. Kevin's a great player, and he came up with his playfield layout vision, including a dangerous shot right smack in the middle. If it's not your style, then pass. Theme is great and all, but you play the game, and if you don't dig doing that, walk. It's not like it's going to change, that's a done deal now.

And time. Don't forget the time part. You can't have the game being worked on, taken to shows, and other things all happening at the same time. I understand people are impatient, but this is the ship you signed up to sail, a very small run from a very small company. Kevin can't just pick up the phone and call his marketing department to make a video with the boys down the hall in engineering.

I get super stressed out if I'm just a day or two behind in mailing translite orders, I have to think Kevin is battling major stress right now, trying to make everything as good as he can, while knowing he has people waiting in the wings who might bail at any moment, creating headaches and worry. Does anyone think he's kicking back on his couch, firing up a fattie, and playing Towerfall Ascension with anyone who's around to help with Predator?

If $250 or even $2750 is a lot of money to you, maybe you're not in the right game. These pre-order boutique things aren't for people who can't afford to wait, in all senses of the words. You're going to end up with something rare and unique. Hopefully really fun too.

It's not a game for me personally, I've only followed because I find the whole process fascinating, but I respect what Skit-B is doing here a lot. Predator came out in 1987, and this is a game that aside from having a DMD (and deeper rules) feels like it belongs to that era. Imagine being in an arcade, playing F-14 Tomcat for a while, and then walking around the corner and finding Predator. Your mind would be blown. IMHO that's the mindset you should have if you want this game in your house.

Exactly.

And yet none for your (critical) well reasoned post above. Why stoop to petty swipes like that? You're obviously capable of expressing yourself, but that was a cheap shot. I can tell you that's why I downvoted.

That's the proper Dude-like attitude to have I think.

lol, you of all people here talking about paying in full is pretty good.

Nah, he said it just right, given the history of the phrase in the US. (Jokes! Not trying to get political!)

Haha, true enough.

That poster is a limited edition print by Mondo. I forget the edition off the top of my head, maybe 250. Mine is still sitting in the shipping tube, I haven't even cracked it open yet, really need to do that. Generally Mondo prints can be found on eBay, people get in on the limited buying window (usually sell out within 5 minutes) and flip them, for better or for worse. IIRC the original price was around $50 or something, expect to pay twice that probably.

If you're into it there's a matching Prometheus print, I didn't care enough about it to get the matched set.

Edit: Here's one for $84, not too bad ebay.com link: Alien MONDO POSTER REGULAR By Martin Ansin Ridley Scott

No problem, I have a handful of Mondo prints, but they're sadly all sitting in shipping tubes, I really need to get them framed and up. Alien, Forbidden Planet, Evil Dead Army of Darkness, and a LOTR Witch King, would be nice to get them all in a row in my office.

Heh, of course you want to see it. I feel like I showed this to you already once actually, but here it is:

LaurentDurMondoFullprint-FPlanet188.jpg

It's not a gift, it's a business transaction. Needs to be done by the book, this is a real company that has to track everything and pay taxes.

There's a time window when you, as a vendor, can refund Paypal. 6 months maybe, I forget. If you do it in that window then you can just click refund, and Paypal reverses the fees, all the money goes back, everyone is set. Plenty of time for basic "I changed my mind" decisions before committing.

Outside of that window you have to eat the fees.

I don't really see how it could be considered fair for you to put a deposit down to hold your spot, and then however much later, way past 6 months, you decided hey, I'm bailing, give me the money back, and yet you expect Kevin to pay for it.

As for what was agree to before, no idea.

So much for bumping up my D-bag rating with centerflank.

Right, 60 days, I think I remembered the 6 and said 6 months, but you're right. Paypal even shows you a little table of how the refund breaks down, including how they're canceling the fees.

The truth is with Paypal you're paying for convenience. Considering how small the fee is it seems like a non issue to me, unless you're really standing on principle. Yes, you're out the few bucks, call it a "changed your mind too late in the game fee".

I do all my translite sales through Paypal (they were a giant pain in the ass about it at first too, locked up my account and everything because the activity spiked) but when I sat down and figured out my margins and what I needed to charge to make it all worthwhile etc I just factored that % into things. SkitB just set a price, there was no "Paypal only" part of their model.

birdie.gif

I guess he didn't technically say which year that April would be in. Here we are though, a year later, not a single machine built.

Here's hoping people start getting their games before April 2015.

I really hope the games start shipping any day now, and that everyone gets theirs. I'm not rooting for it to fail at all.

But I do think it's important that as a community we don't just try and pretend things are all good when they're not, that we hold people to come to us with their hand out accountable, and that we don't forget the lessons that come with that. And that does mean reminding ourselves sometimes.

IMHO Kevin has burned through all his understanding and slack cards. How long ago was it that we saw piles of parts and were told to guess how many games that was? (I think the answer was what? 10?)

We know cabinets are done, we saw the pics. We know Kevin picked up playfields from Chuck.

Whysnow says he could build a game in a day. So ... what's the hold up now? Don't you think we should be seeing pics of games being built?

Kevin had time to design a whole new pinball, whether Aaron is taking over Experts of Disaster or not it's not like he can say he's been so busy he couldn't write up a post or take some pics and send some emails. You don't design and build a new pin complete with art over a weekend.

So we shouldn't focus on beating anyone down, we shouldn't laugh at people who have money on the line, or gloat about not having skin in the game, but I do think we should say "hey, where are the games you promised? where are the pics? what exactly are you doing now with the money you took from this community?"

Those seem like legit things to ask, that benefit us all.

Really though, who cares what Rai's intent was? It doesn't change anything.

Kevin hasn't shown a single game being built, a year after saying it was time. That's just the fact. If I had money in on it I'd be emailing him to say stop farting around with Experts of Didgeridoos and get building the game I paid for!

Even if the art is fixed and it looks like a fun game is anyone going to order a different a pin from Skit-B if Predator still hasn't shipped yet? You'd be mental to even consider it. I'd feel better about pre-ordering game 5 from Jpop than that, at least I'd probably get to see some art that looked good for the game I'm never going to get.

What? Proof for that allegation?

And what would contacting someone do if the game was actually being built anyways?

I believe that you got those PMs, I don't believe that anyone made any phone calls.

Regardless, if Kevin has the license fair and square I can't see what some anonymous internet dork calling up a company to ask them about it would possibly do.

Non-snarky, serious answer? Kevin.

Even Jpop is sharing more in public than he is, and that's not a good thing. Do you think if he was actually building games that he wouldn't want to show that? All we've seen is a little pile of parts, that's good for a tiny fraction of the total games. And then what?

Well here's the bottom line for me: If Kevin has the license, free and clear, and it's all good so he can make games without any risk, then how would someone making a phone call ruin anything?

"Hello, Fox? Um, did you license Predator to some guy named Kevin? Oh, you did? Uh, thanks."

What would happen? "Someone called about the license! Quick, take it away!"

However, on the other hand, if the call was made and Fox said "We don't know anyone named Kevin." and things really were put at risk? Who's fault is that? Someone who made a phone call, or someone who didn't actually have the license?

There's just no scenario where this isn't on Kevin.

And that's the whole theme here, there's no reason to be pointing fingers at your fellow Pinsiders. No one here took any money or made any promises. Asking what's happening, nicely or more frustrated, is a perfectly legit thing to do.

No one should be mocking anyone who's in. If you got out and got your money back then maybe don't rub that in. I feel for everyone with cash down on this. It will suck if you don't get a game or your money back, and anyone who laughs at you deserves a temp ban from the site if you ask me.

But just because you're worried or want to see it happen is no reason to circle the wagons around Kevin. He made a lot of promises and took a lot of money, and then he's effectively vanished. It's a bad way to do business, and it's a bad way to treat a community.