Alice in Wonderland
Zidware Pinball USA, 2013
Celts
Haggis, 2021
Magic Girl
Zidware Pinball USA, 2017
Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland
Zidware Pinball USA, 2012
Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland (Arcade Edition)
Deeproot, 2020
Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland (Xtra Edition)
Deeproot, 2020So is anyone else coming to the conclusion that RM actually was planning to build and sell pinball machines? Only he had his head so far up his ass he had no idea this was going to go this way?
I wonder how much the lack of sales of raza actually was a gut punch? Because in the end, he had run out of runway.
Quoted from Rarehero:Yup, and she’s pregnant or just gave birth. Who’s he going to steal from to pay for that?!
Oh don't worry Robert. She will "save herself for you" while you're in the Gottlieb Big House.
She most certainly won't run 3 milliseconds after her citizenship clears.
Quoted from frolic:So is anyone else coming to the conclusion that RM actually was planning to build and sell pinball machines? Only he had his head so far up his ass he had no idea this was going to go this way?
I wonder how much the lack of sales of raza actually was a gut punch? Because in the end, he had run out of runway.
I've never not thought he was trying to make games. If he were, why run all this criminal risk diverting tens of millions of dollars to rent buildings he didn't need, buy machinery he couldn't use, and pay employees he was incapable of managing?
I think he absolutely wanted to make pinball machines. I just also think he is a world class dipshit who fucks everything up (because he's an idiot).
That was the gist of my letter. I received nothing. It's a 280lbs freight item. There would be proof of delivery and signed for receipt if I received my game.
I'd happily take one of the prototypes in lieu of a refund, but I got nothing.
Quoted from snakesnsparklers:"I did not receive this merchandise. Signed, NashtyFunk"
Then they will go back to DR to provide proof of delivery, which they won't be able to.
Quoted from JodyG:Ukraine in-laws? Holy shit, he bought a mail order bride!!!
Hey, that's something else Robert has in common with Andrew H. (East european wife).
Quoted from blueberryjohnson:But he was all the way in the Ukraine. He's not a miracle worker!!
I think that was out of the country, visiting family, but I don't think he was in the Ukraine... Far more likely that he was getting tips on raising money from his uncle in Nigeria.
Quoted from Oldgoat:I think that was out of the country, visiting family, but I don't think he was in the Ukraine... Far more likely that he was getting tips on raising money from his uncle in Nigeria.
He also had to swing down and see how his diamond mines were doing in Africa.
Hardly any vax so pleny of people to cough on him. Win win.
So here's another thought re-reading through all that. Robert was the only one that can send out payroll (clearly because if he allowed an accountant to handle that, they would see what he was doing). When he was in the Ukraine he couldn't remotely access it (looks like September 2019). Wouldn't that alone be a red flag to employees even before payroll got spotty while he was in the office? If anyone watches Shark Tank what does Mr Wonderful always say when a startup is nearly run all by one person "So if you get hit by a bus tomorrow, what happens to my investment?". If Robert got run over by a bus, or his plane crashed, or his passport got denied while overseas.. How does the company continue to run?
Quoted from toyotaboy:When he was in the Ukraine he couldn't remotely access it
Doesn't it seem more likely that he just couldn't make payroll, and was fabricating an excuse to cover it? With someone like this, it's dangerous to take anything they say at face value.
Quoted from frolic:He keeps referring to the cash "pipeline". Money he's waiting on to make payroll, pay expenses.
I'm deducing what that really was was the INVESTMENT money from little old ladies, literally showing up and being lit on fire immediately.
There will be books, TV shows, movies about all of this before this is done. It's amazing.
Seriously... that was the first red flag for me reading all this. He keeps talking pipeline and cash activities in a business that was completely in pre-launch phase. What pipeline of sales activities was he pushing on people as their monthly float? That right there should scream robbing peter to pay paul. I guess at one point they even talk about Utah looking for contract work... did he really setup utah with NO OTHER WORK but pinball?
Unless he pitched people that their 'pipeline' was DR pinball's own investment pile people should have been running like mad at that point. I mean, one message even talks about pitching the 575 fund at the event? Holy cow what a shitshow.
It's amazing to see what efforts he went through to put up an image of legitimacy while all along skipping the simple fundamentals.
Quoted from ufotofu:Doesn't it seem more likely that he just couldn't make payroll, and was fabricating an excuse to cover it? With someone like this, it's dangerous to take anything they say at face value.
100% (I suppose, if you want to get technical, 99.99%).
This wasn't the first payroll problems rodeo. Lest we forget these messages from earlier the same year.
Quoted from blueberryjohnson:Happy Halloween!
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Quoted from benheck:Napkin math, 40 or so employees over 3 years, plus rent... 750k burn/month seems plausible... Still gets you nowhere near $60m. More like 30.
Where did the rest go? Paying off old investors? (Ponzi scheme)
You mean creative accounting! 
Quoted from benheck:Napkin math, 40 or so employees over 3 years, plus rent... 750k burn/month seems plausible... Still gets you nowhere near $60m. More like 30.
Where did the rest go? Paying off old investors? (Ponzi scheme)
Well he spent several million to enjoy himself and to enrich family, loans to friends and family, etc
A few million in assets that still exist, like manufacturing equipment and expensive gaming laptops for employees. Surely he has some company cars and wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a company boat.
In one of the docs he did buy like $10m of the insurance investments he was supposed to be spending the money on.
The rest, I’m guessing paying out investors and some of his other debts/loans
His new business registration for Utah reported 63 employees, and I believe ppp filings for Texas reported at least 40. Depending on duration and overlap, that's considerably more than an average of 40 staff.
Of course, one effective means of reducing salary expenses is to not pay people.
Read a handful of those Robert screenshot messages to employees - why in the world didn't more employees leave sooner ? Or was there only 4 or 5 people there who hung in for god knows what reasons. Nothing but crapola and then not paying people with a pipeline of excuses. Wow.
Quoted from NoQuarters:Read a handful of those Robert screenshot messages to employees - why in the world didn't more employees leave sooner ? Or was there only 4 or 5 people there who hung in for god knows what reasons. Nothing but crapola and then not paying people with a pipeline of excuses. Wow.
Maybe because it paid well (when it did) and there was rarely a sense of urgency to actually accomplish much. Cushy job for a lot of people.
It sounded like the Utah office was entirely come in when you feel like it, work on whatever, and check out mid afternoon.
Robert tricked a lot of people into believing his bullshit. I can see a few people falling for this once, maybe even twice.
Just that soldering machine and pick n place machine were 6-digits and I doubt they worked hard to strike bargains on the pinball machines and other items that are in the building(s). Good thing the Banning auction didn't happen back when Robert's pockets were lined with money or they probably would have gone broke a year sooner.
Quoted from NoQuarters:why in the world didn't more employees leave sooner ?
Most people are relatively meek. They trust those in authority, and believe they’re lucky to have any job they work at, and don’t want to upset the apple cart. And a lot of people in the creative space do struggle to find good jobs. There might only be one or two firms that do the kind of work the Utah shop did in that area. So if you are doing this very specialized work and few firms do it in that area, and you need your family for childcare or are committed otherwise to that city, you take a lot of abuse before you’d leave.
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Standard proviso for these such things: I can't speak to their authenticity and leave it to the reader to evaluate for themselves
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Reading thru these posts one thing comes to mind. The movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
Robert is master bullshit artist Lawrence (Michael Caine ) and jpop is ruprecht “the monkey boy.”(Steve Martin)who is more of a blue collar grifter being taught by the master.
A948CD77-EAF0-47F7-9420-12202EE1CD27 (resized).jpegQuoted from blueberryjohnson:His new business registration for Utah reported 63 employees, and I believe ppp filings for Texas reported at least 40. Depending on duration and overlap, that's considerably more than an average of 40 staff.
That's assuming those numbers weren't fluffed up a bit to get some of that free PPP money.
a.gifQuoted from ultimategameroom:Reading thru these posts one thing comes to mind. The movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
Robert is master bullshit artist Lawrence (Michael Caine ) and jpop is ruprecht “the monkey boy.”(Steve Martin)who is more of a blue collar grifter being taught by the master.
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Hilarious movie!
Quoted from ForceFlow:That's assuming those numbers weren't fluffed up a bit to get some of that free PPP money.
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The Utah registration info predates covid.
Well I checked out when this ass just took the IP and threatened to sue me? for what you stealing something and saying its yours? Then I realized this guy has 60 to 100 employees, probably more than Stern, and they haven't produced anything but a box they bought from another manufacturing company and stuck their name on it? Yea this guy was a business genius!
Quoted from wcbrandes:Well I checked out when this ass just took the IP and threatened to sue me? for what you stealing something and saying its yours? Then I realized this guy has 60 to 100 employees, probably more than Stern, and they haven't produced anything but a box they bought from another manufacturing company and stuck their name on it? Yea this guy was a business genius!
Movies make us think criminals are smart. Most aren't. When you look at something like deeproot and wonder "how did he think he would get away with this?".... Well you're wondering that because you're smarter than Robert.
We need a new category for Failed/Unproven pinball companies. Ballarama is the latest dreamer, SKit-B, Deeproot, whatever Vonnie D's venture was called, Zidware...
They don't belong in the same category with Game Manufacturers until they ship a completed game.
Quoted from jeffspinballpalace:How’s Robert’s car wash business going? Have they already laundered $60M? My how time flies.
You know, going back to Breaking Bad, an arcade seems like a better way to launder money than a car wash.
Mostly because an arcade draws a consistent amount of electricity regardless of income, whereas a car wash's variable income would be reflected on the water/sewer bill.
Seems easy to audit if you're the DA. Get records from a clean business run that against income and water usage of suspect, discrepancy is evidence. Or at least to establish probable cause for further warrants, water usage would be a public record.
Quoted from frolic:I was curious what I was missing out on. Maybe time to upgrade.
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Yes. But do you think they could handle the PinRod?
Looks like an initial investment is cheaper than a CE or SLE. Surely maintenance is higher and the decommissioning costs are steep. I am thinking if one had access to diamonds that could pay all debts from cradle to grave. Would like to see a pic of RM with a pickaxe working in the diamond mines. 
Quoted from frolic:I was curious what I was missing out on. Maybe time to upgrade.
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What could possibly go wrong?
Quoted from blueberryjohnson:I feel like the recent deeproot dumps have been so massive and steamy that some meaty morsels didn't get the attention they deserve. So I've decided to go back for closer reads to extract some choice nuggets.
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“We have over $40MM in [non-liquid] assets backing up the enterprise…. So it’s not a matter of the company being strong or weak.”
This guy over here gauging the strength of a company on how many investors he misled, rather than, you know— the…. strength of the company.
Quoted from JStoltz:“We have over $40MM in [non-liquid] assets backing up the enterprise…. So it’s not a matter of the company being strong or weak.”
This guy over here gauging the strength of a company on how many investors he misled, rather than, you know— the…. strength of the company.
Maybe that's a different forty million dollars. After all, as noted in the first screenshot, he used a majority of his own money to cover other shortfalls.
Quoted from toyotaboy:So here's another thought re-reading through all that. Robert was the only one that can send out payroll (clearly because if he allowed an accountant to handle that, they would see what he was doing). When he was in the Ukraine he couldn't remotely access it (looks like September 2019). Wouldn't that alone be a red flag to employees even before payroll got spotty while he was in the office? If anyone watches Shark Tank what does Mr Wonderful always say when a startup is nearly run all by one person "So if you get hit by a bus tomorrow, what happens to my investment?". If Robert got run over by a bus, or his plane crashed, or his passport got denied while overseas.. How does the company continue to run?
How does the company continue to run ? Actually with Robert out of the picture it might have run better than with him there. I mean really it couldn’t be any worse with no one in charge versus him in charge could it ?
Quoted from blueberryjohnson:Maybe that's a different forty million dollars. After all, as noted in the first screenshot, he used a majority of his own money to cover other shortfalls.
Even if it’s $40MM he earned through legitimate business (for example, several very large bake sales or a couple sizable paper routes), it’s nutso to claim the amount of money (legitimate or otherwise) backing your shitty business somehow makes it a “strong business.”
“Hey guys I know we can’t make payroll because I overextended the company with an expensive studio in Utah and just make bad decisions in general. But don't worry! The company is VERY strong! If you want proof, look at all this money that wasn’t generated by the company!”
Quoted from blueberryjohnson:Maybe that's a different forty million dollars. After all, as noted in the first screenshot, he used a majority of his own money to cover other shortfalls.
It was “his own” money after he moved it from the investment account to his own personal bank account.
Quoted from pookycade:How does the company continue to run ? Actually with Robert out of the picture it might have run better than with him there. I mean really it couldn’t be any worse with no one in charge versus him in charge could it ?
I’m having fun imagining him showing up to “work” each day, walking into his swanky-for-no-reason office and spending 6-8 hours at an over-specced gaming laptop, drafting up one of the many (alleged) messages he sent about not being able to make payroll that week.
Quoted from JStoltz:I’m having fun imagining him showing up to “work” each day, walking into his swanky-for-no-reason office and spending 6-8 hours at an over-specced gaming laptop, drafting up one of the many (alleged) messages he sent about not being able to make payroll that week.
Then he's like "well, I'm late for this month's Disney cruise to impress my mail order bride. See ya'll in a week!"
Quoted from benheck:Movies make us think criminals are smart. Most aren't. When you look at something like deeproot and wonder "how did he think he would get away with this?".... Well you're wondering that because you're smarter than Robert.
So the buyers in the other thread are not as smart as RM
Quoted from pookycade:How does the company continue to run ? Actually with Robert out of the picture it might have run better than with him there. I mean really it couldn’t be any worse with no one in charge versus him in charge could it ?
Lol, you just gave some guys in the other thread hope..
Quoted from NashtyFunk:That was the gist of my letter. I received nothing. It's a 280lbs freight item. There would be proof of delivery and signed for receipt if I received my game.
I'd happily take one of the prototypes in lieu of a refund, but I got nothing.
When did you submit your deposit? What about dr at the time, despite this thread, caused you to send 10gs for this game. It's fascinating how people's minds work.
Quoted from blueberryjohnson:Master class in trust building.
I nominate blueberry for best use of highlighting.
Quoted from frolic:Ukraine Brides
And I can't decide between third one from the left top row and first one from the left second row.
Quoted from soren:So. What catagories should be used in the PinScum(tm) trump card game.
Pre-ordered games not delivered...
Stolen money...
Game designers quiting...
Divorces...
Debt to vendors...
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Unpaid staff.
I'm sorry but people should flee at the first sign of not being paid. A few years ago at a previous crappy employer, I was told that the government did not have enough billable hours on contract to cover all of my work, but I was still expected to cover all of my hours but in the interim I would only be paid for 20. I told my boss thank you very much, I'll be here next week Monday and Tuesday but at 1200 on Wednesday when I hit 20 hours for the week I will consider myself laid off, will depart the premises, and will pursue other opportunities. Mysteriously, the next day they found the money and told me they would pay me for all of it.
Left that job about a month later when other unethical things came up. As a project manager I should not be encouraged to get people to quit and come up with new ways to get people to leave to replace them with greener employees as a part of my compensation structure.
Bobby Big Boy gets $5,821.74 per month for three months, broken down as follows:
$1,810 for child support
$1,542.46 for health insurance
$249.28 for other insurance
$2,220 for reasonable living expenses (including but not limited to groceries, utilities, etc.)
He also gets $20,000 from now until February 13, 2022 for his criminal defense
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