Right. The implication is that somehow it was "worth the thrill."

We ALL took the same high-adrenaline thrill ride. Some of us just got on the ride for free while others spent thousands of dollars.

Yeah I really don't understand the whole gambling mentality. I think people like NoMonkey do this because they have their bases covered and can say "Told you so!" in either outcome.

I told you Robturd would pull through and make my game!

or

I told you it was a gamble. Oh well, I just lost a few hundred dollars I was already planning on losing.

Sadly this whole "gambling" mentality is on full display right here for all future scammers to read.

People that are wondering why pinball attracts these scammers, look no further.

FOMO and ego (look at what I have, are you jealous?) fuel these rip off artists.

It's really bizaare how proud some of these marks are about how they were "ride or die" on these projects.

Not good people. Good people do not support liars, thieves, and con men.

Nope.

Top Ramens are the main prison currency. Sometimes tobacco too, although it's been banned from most prisons.

I actually was secretly rooting for these pins to see the light of day. There would have been so much chaos because even if Robert wasn’t getting owned by the SEC, there was no way Deeproot could survive into a second pin. That means we would have seen RAZAs for sale at $50k on the market and everyone would have lost their cookies. All the things you keep coming back to Pinside for.

You’ve handled this loss with dignity, grace and humor. Respect given Sir.

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Seconded!

Pre-ordering RAZA was not a gamble.

When you gamble, you at least have a chance at winning.

FOMO and the BBB story definitely was what got me into RAZA during the original zidware phase. As much as $10k was at the time for a pin, I knew it was a "now or never" decision as I wouldn't pay BBB prices later for it. I wanted a Zombie game. And I was a jpop fan (like a lot of us were, or at least the Wonka fantasy version of him we had in our heads).

I wish the original zidware blog was still up, to review that about when things started to crack. It wasn't just Expo 2014 empty cabinets, that was definitely the "Emperor has no clothes" moment, but the suspicion and doubt were creeping in.

From memory, it was a slow drum beat of John simply avoiding the questions he didn't want to answer. And that suspicion continued to feed on itself.

But not before I happily sent him $6500.

https://magicgirldev.wordpress.com/

You forgot Fruit Stripe gum. The flavor lasts 2 minutes but gets rid of that fellow inmate aftertaste.

oh man, remember he saw lebowski pinball with the rug, but didnt get the connection so he put a random rug under one of his pinballs in the studio?

I don't think he ever saw TBL, lol, he thought people just liked rugs and bowling. Which leads us to pussycat bowling, yet another fake game from JPOOP. He has an amazing disconnect from reality from what I've read

This was already at a point where he has taken money for MG & had nothing to show for it. How come that didn’t set off any alarms for you.

JPOP .... RIP .... pinball career is dead!

Never say never! It's worked twice. The next time will just be a little different. The refund idea was a really nice addition this past time.

If you get past the last 9 years of disasters known as JPOP, to find the last machine John “designed” which was actually produced and was a good game, you’d have to travel back to the nineties. No, I am sure that JPOP’s pinball career has been over for a long time now - r.i.p.

I wonder if Jpop had anything to do with killing Zizzle? That would have been strike 1.

Zidware MG, RAZA, AIW - strike 2, 3, 4.

Pintasia, strike 5.

Houdini/American Pinball, strike 6.

Did I forget anything? If not, that makes Derp Poop his 7th pinball failure since the B/W days ended.

While thinking about how toxic John is to anything or anyone he touches… nobody would want to hire that guy, right? Only a moron would hire him, yes? Or someone who doesn’t want their company to survive and has decided to ensure it goes belly up. Someone who might benefit from having their company blowing up. Sound a little bit like the plot of the Producers? Well not really but he’s a real life nuclear wrecking ball.

With all that said, I DO see a future biz opportunity for John for companies to hire him when they need a factory disaster to draw attention away from whatever scam they are running. So he’s got that going for him.

yeah # 6 is really like #6 & #7 with #6 being the separate action by AP to build and ship 21(?) fake MG’s to fulfill Zidware contractual obligations and keep customers at bay. #7 is hiring JPOP as lead designer of AP and assigning him to design Houdini and then firing him when he wouldn’t take his thumb out of his ass.

So deeproot was life #8 and JPOP is literally on his 9th and final life. If you believe in that sort of thing, like me.

I mean they did produce 2 RAZAs. That’s like hitting 00 green on roulette

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His opening proposition of how many games he would build never made sense from day 1 (being a business- not just a homebrew guy). It’s like the 750k/m burn rate moment for deeproot. It made no sense what so ever to make a viable business — yet people refuse to face simple maths that show the story was untenable.

People need to stop burying basic maths about business plans simply because they really want to believe and think ‘this guy is different!’

Everyone has bills to pay… and the money isn’t free. That doesn’t change because they have a cool idea…. The maths need to work or the course is set.

I'm wiser now because of it .

Honestly, if I put myself in the mindset back then... there had been no pinball failures yet. It was rainbows and unicorn time.

That's the biggest lesson, and why I had zero room to give to deeproot. I didn't bother signing their zidware agreement because none of this made sense. Some people did get a refund, so my hardcore suspicion didn't pay off as well as it could have. But at least I've never lost money again.

Yeah the goodwill refund path never made fiscal sense… and i even said they wouldn’t pay (when they launched it)…. But he did in fact. Of course now that we know he basically had money to burn and zero-fcks about actually making a viable business it makes more sense how he could gamble by making that cash-out offer

It’s easy to throw money around when it’s not yours.

It’s a Lloyd Christmas suitcase of money moment

Did you not get $6500 worth of value from the private users group and one on one conversations with the legendary pinball designer Jpop?

I sure learned a lot for the money I spent. Now I am wiser and will be that evil guy warning others as long as companies are not solvent.

May RAZA die it’s much deserved death and may John sweep floors for his future career endeavors.

Yeah but the "needle-mover" is that his guy was "rich." "Rich" trumps logic for many, many people, which we've seen over and over again over the last few years.

The fact that he could be a fraud, that math still applies, that the rules of science still apply does not seem to enter into anybody's mind.

"This guy is rich!!! Of course this pinball company that makes ridiculous promises and can't possibly survive at the rate it's going mathmatically will be a success!!"

1) jpop wasn't rich
2) rich business people don't stay rich with stupid choices. The same basic principals still apply.. the math monster must be fed.

People keep hiding from that reality in their blind-faith. Remember, if the math doesn't work, we'll just have to 'wait and see...'

Okay, from now on I'll remember. If the math doesn't fit the business is s**t.

trademark that it’s good.

Best new quote. We need T-shirts for this.

Heighway
Deeproot
Vonnie D
Skit B
Zidware

If the math doesn’t fit, the business is sh$t

Slight tweak: If the math's not legit, the business ain't shit

or the expanded version ... If the math's not legit, the business ain't shit and it’s time for a bong hit!

If the math's not legit
the business ain't shit
The staff smell like armpit
it’s time for a bong hit
Hit it and quit!

Honestly, you can apply it to anything, "If the math ain't legit, the (insert topic) ain't Sh$t"

Back in my days as both an engineer, and then in business development, my favorite response was, "the math doesn't lie"

Or how about :
I hate to be blunt
But Jpop’s a c**t

Meet number 9 !

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Please refresh. What was the debacle surrounding that Pintasia show?

Pintasia isn’t a show. It was a company formed to “save” Magic Girl.

They captured Robert’s likeness quite well.

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Considering the price development on new games, this is bad. The two top dogs, could do with more competition.

Despite the promise of "Ferrari at Kia prices" the deeproot prices were above market, and rising fast (they announced the pre-order prices were "intro").

Pinball is not like other businesses, where competition drives prices down. In pinball, everyone will keep raising prices no matter how many players there are.

Ok, I’ll bite. Very few industries have been lowering prices in the past year. Have you tried buying a house or car lately? Food? Taking a vacation? Seems everywhere I turn the price is higher than it was a few months ago.

Demand for pinball is red hot, how can manufacturers not raise prices and take advantage? They will need those profits to survive the next downturn. I also would not say there is a lot of competition, there’s one major producer and three or four smaller players who can barely produce more than one game at a time.

And , as always , vote with your wallet . When you feel it’s too much - don’t buy it .

Yeah, we've sure seen our share of that lately