Quoted from BobLangelius:Does there exist a material you can take a sledge hammer to and it will not leave a mark? Maybe my understanding of sledge hammers is flawed?
Maybe i'm just using the hammer wrong???
Maybe the material is water?
Things that make you go Hmmm...
My guess is the sledge hammer is metaphorical. Because why would you need to use one to test a pin? Normally you'd want the testing of switches, mechanisms and lighting to work flawlessly. Notice how that wasn't mentioned? Robert said he was choosing his words carefully so as not to be accused later of stating something incorrectly. But he wishes to maintain a veil over the new concept.
If the system implements vr and the patents help protect the rules, scoring, layout, sounds, lighting and formatting of data in virtual world, then one could use a virtual sledge hammer on it all day long. What the hammer probably means is that the game will be built to be robust.
Robert was kind enough to respond to my follow up questions above and that helped rule out some possibilities. My theory is if you need 30 new patents to build a pinball, then you are talking about deploying a totally different technology. My hunch that virtual reality plays a big part could explain some other clues given. You don't need a big factory if you are making simple playfields with a few mechanisms. You aren't concerned about parts shortages. New games will cost considerably less. A library of programmed modules can be implemented easily and development cycle time is shredded. Impossible real world conditions are no longer a limiting concern, allowing you to replicate Hans Solo freezing as an example effect. Robert could issue instructions to the team to create something extremely difficult and expect it in 30 days.
This hybrid vr pinball concept would help explain why JPOP was a needed hire. Customer base is expanded well beyond the walls of current pinball players, many of which may not be interested in this concept. While foregoing purchasing one, they still would be interested in playing it on location. JPOP had been working on and thinking about some kind of virtual pinball concept over the years. It wasn't given much attention in all the reporting to date and it never gained traction, but my guess is that Robert had some ideas on how to make it happen and JPOP will be helpful developing the tools and processes to be used. That also could explain why Robert said John's best days are ahead of him.
If it is a hybrid vr pinball, some pieces still don't make sense. Why do you need five days to explain it? Why are the only themes being initially pursued JPOP's original designs? Why is Deeproot offering to work a compromise to make Zidware customers whole?
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