(Topic ID: 203700)
Linked Games
Alice in Wonderland
Zidware Pinball USA, 2013-
Celts
Haggis, 2021
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Magic Girl
Zidware Pinball USA, 2017
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Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland
Zidware Pinball USA, 2012
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Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland (Arcade Edition)
Deeproot, 2020
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Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland (Xtra Edition)
Deeproot, 2020
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Madison, WI
Ottawa, ON
This is what happens when people are deluded and think they have charisma and a ‘reality distortion field’ like Steve Jobs. Anyone else worked in a place where magical deadlines come from on high from the ‘visionary leaders’?
What is ironic is that we are at a point where pinball is so hot that Stern has a backlog a mile deep. If deeproot had just designed great games — no B.S. innovation that no one was asking for — they’d be in good shape. They had the design talent and experience. Hell, even that Cosmic Carnival company achieved more.
Dennis Nordman seems to be a good canary in the coal mine!
Quoted from dr_nybble:If deeproot had just designed great games — no B.S. innovation that no one was asking for — they’d be in good shape.
They may have designed great games. We'll never know, since pinball is a manufacturing business, and they didn't build anything.
Auckland
Quoted from Rarehero:Heighway actually had a factory & got some stuff built. I think the amount of money Andrew ran out of is tiny compared to what RM has wasted….but if you’re underwater by any amount, you can’t pay people…and if you can’t pay people, you’re done. The second RM hired tons of designers & a huge animation team, it was over.
What if it's something insane like there never was a huge design team? Just a bunch of employees on the books and the investment money got funneled that way? Might be possible if RM owned his own payroll company. They had five years, two guys could have easily done everything that has been seen. Some of this seems like more than a failure.
this-whole-thing-stinks-to-high-heaven-eddie-murphy (resized).pngSeems appropriate that a company notorious for missing its own self-imposed deadlines would furlough its employees rather than having the sack to look them in the eyes and lay them off.
Why continue to drag employees along at the very unlikely prospect of a return to work? Does Robert just want one more missed deadline, for old time’s sake?
Crazy idea; pay for an Uber Eats delivery to the Deeproot location, leave instructions to the driver to call you when arrived and ask for picture of the front door. I just finished all my $30 credits... Who has some left?
I truly feel sad for everyone involved here. Pre-order people kept in the dark and lied to, employees talent wasted, 575 fund investors seeing a much lower return, JPOP not banished to some career which he actually might have talent for (it ain’t pinball), even RM, obviously talented enough to raise a $42M investment fund, but not talented enough to realize he knows nothing about building a pinball or running a manufacturing company. He may not escape this unscathed. You look at those kind of resources and it just makes anyone sad. What could they have been put to better use doing …. lots of things that weren’t RAZA. Nobody won here, absolutely nobody at all. That’s just a damn shame.
There are those who have accused me of treating deeproot unfairly or playing favorites. But I assure you that's not the case.
And I give you my word that next month, when Gary wordlessly takes down facebook.com/sternpinball, linkedin.com/company/stern-pinball-inc-, the accounts of affiliated businesses, his own personal and professional accounts, and redirects all Stern phone numbers to a recording that picks up after one ring and doesn't allow the caller to speak to anyone or even leave a message, or when Jack does the same with facebook.com/JerseyJackPinball, linkedin.com/company/jerseyjackpinball, and all of the JJP equivalents, I will be the first one to stand up and publicly call it "Not Good."
Quoted from Mbecker:On the other hand, maybe he finally furloughed people until parts show up so he’s not continuing to blow salary watching Jpop dream big and sip star bucks. Only blowing thousands on rent then
Gold star for Mbecker from 18 days ago
Quoted from blueberryjohnson:Gold star for Mbecker from 18 days ago
Haha! I forgot I said that. All the stupid decisions he’s made .. at least this one makes sense. It does seem he furloughed not only because of parts but the uncertain timeline and trajectory or said lawsuit (assuming it exists..).
Quoted from JStoltz:Why continue to drag employees along at the very unlikely prospect of a return to work?
This wasn’t the first time! The stories…Apparently in early 2019…before I worked there. An employee went to the Utah labor commission and complained about missing/late pay. The office sent an agent over to verify the situation. Afterward, Robert called a meeting and chewed everyone out. “How does it help anybody here if you report this stuff? It doesn’t. It just hurts us all.”
I’m Paraphrasing. Like I said. I wasn’t there.
Quoted from Mbecker:Haha! I forgot I said that. All the stupid decisions he’s made .. at least this one makes sense. It does seem he furloughed not only because of parts but the uncertain timeline and trajectory or said lawsuit (assuming it exists..).
He’s furloughed many many separate times over the last two years.
@scandell, when you were there, how would you break down the percentages of staff that thought Robert was:
Awesome
Awful
Fine
Cringeworthy
?
Of course feel free to create your own categories if those aren't the best primary ones.
Anyone actually read the 575 fund:
https://sec.report/Document/0001652459-20-000001
What's strange is people like ICE keep talking about this 40 million dollar fund, but according to that page only 4.8 million of possible 37.5 million has been sold as of this past December.
pasted_image (resized).png
I don't know how much Robert has saved up over the years, but 4.8 million plus 1.8 in PPP loans = 6.6 million
If they are truly easily burning a million dollars/year currently, they have easily burned 3+ by now (not including building upgrades, larger staff he once employed like dennis nordman, dozens of artists). The numbers don't lie.
Also how do you furlough employees if you have PPP loans? Isn't that the point of that, so you don't have to furlough employees?
Quoted from toyotaboy:Anyone actually read the 575 fund:
https://sec.report/Document/0001652459-20-000001
What's strange is people like ICE keep talking about this 40 million dollar fund, but according to that page only 4.8 million of possible 37.5 million has been sold as of this past December.
[quoted image]
I don't know how much Robert has saved up over the years, but 4.8 million plus 1.8 in PPP loans = 6.6 million
If they are truly easily burning a million dollars/year currently, they have easily burned 3+ by now (not including building upgrades, larger staff he once employed like dennis nordman, dozens of artists). The numbers don't lie.
The Monthly burn rate was nearly a million not yearly. RM confirmed 750k each month. Was ICE the guy that bought 2 premium RAZAs at 10k each full upfront to DR?
Quoted from nate1981s:The Monthly burn rate was nearly a million not yearly. RM confirmed 750k each month
Yes Robert made that claim at some point, and maybe during the very early stages he could have spent that for a few months. Unfortunately I don't believe anything Robert says based on his track record, I believe in real numbers. Bottom line is the money has to come from somewhere. They owe a fiscal report every December, sure hope there's still money to show in 4 months.
Quoted from nate1981s:Was ICE the guy that bought 2 premium RAZAs at 10k each full upfront to DR?
No, that was someone else. Personally I'd rather we focus on Deeproot, RM, Jpop, etc
Quoted from toyotaboy:Anyone actually read the 575 fund:
https://sec.report/Document/0001652459-20-000001
What's strange is people like ICE keep talking about this 40 million dollar fund, but according to that page only 4.8 million of possible 37.5 million has been sold as of this past December.
[quoted image]
I don't know how much Robert has saved up over the years, but 4.8 million plus 1.8 in PPP loans = 6.6 million
If they are truly easily burning a million dollars/year currently, they have easily burned 3+ by now (not including building upgrades, larger staff he once employed like dennis nordman, dozens of artists). The numbers don't lie.
Also how do you furlough employees if you have PPP loans? Isn't that the point of that, so you don't have to furlough employees?
pasted_image (resized).pngIn other scenarios I'd probably consider these guys to be ambulance chasers. But in THIS case... hmm
Quoted from BMore-Pinball:I think they are just fishing
Not sure if you read the whole article, but it would seem they are exposing themselves to a lot of liability if were/are just fishing.
The referenced 7% sales fee, when applied to the $41.5M of funds sold is nearly $3M. So Robert received an early payout, before events occurred. deeproot may have finally gone tits up. Investors lost everything. RAZA customers lost their downpayments. But Robert Mueller should be fine with his nest egg. JPOP is also fine, receiving 3 years of salary for noodling.
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