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, 2020And apropos of nothing, here's some reading on Federal COBRA law, a related "Texas COBRA" law, and deeproot tech employee numbers:
https://www.twc.texas.gov/news/efte/cobra.html
Screen Shot 2021-11-17 at 10.24.56 PM.png
Screen Shot 2021-11-17 at 10.25.11 PM.png
https://www.federalpay.org/paycheck-protection-program/deeproot-tech-llc-san-antonio-tx
I still have a hard time wrapping my head around there being 47 employees at deeproot around PPP loan filing. Wonder how true they is!
Quoted from Inside:I still have a hard time wrapping my head around there being 47 employees at deeproot around PPP loan filing. Wonder how true they is!
They hired a net 20 more people after the major payroll issues that lead to many leaving too....
Quoted from Inside:I still have a hard time wrapping my head around there being 47 employees at deeproot around PPP loan filing. Wonder how true they is!
Could one of the staffers answer that?
I'd be curious what the range of staff numbers were over the years as well.
Quoted from DudeRegular:They hired a net 20 more people after the major payroll issues that lead to many leaving too....
And don't forget, those numbers mustn't include deeproot studios or policy services inc, as those entities have their own separate ppp filings (four of them)
Quoted from blueberryjohnson:And don't forget, those numbers mustn't include deeproot studios or policy services inc, as those entities have their own separate ppp filings (four of them)
Ya doesn't smell fishy at all. Not one bit.
Quoted from DudeRegular:Ya doesn't smell fishy at all. Not one bit.
And of course, taking PPP loans requires employers to retain jobs (and presumably pay employees). And half of DR's 6 PPP loans totaling millions of dollars have already been forgiven.
I wonder what the penalties are for violating these terms? And I wonder if anyone has info that deeproot tech, deeproot studios, or policy services, inc. violated or may have violated any of them. Because one can easily report those to the government online at various places. Among them: https://sbax.sba.gov/oigcss/, https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form, and https://www.pandemicoversight.gov/contact/about-hotline.
Quoted from Inside:Newest filing in the court docket:
Third Party Silicon Drive Office Venture, LLC (“SDOV”), the owner of the building where
Defendant deeproot Capital Management, LLC (“Deeproot”) leases space for its operations (the
“Leased Space,” which includes all space that Deeproot has leased from SDOV), respectfully
moves for permission to access the Leased Space for purposes of showing the space to prospective
buyers. SDOV is currently trying to sell the building. A prospective buyer has asked to enter and
inspect the Leased Space. It is possible that this prospective buyer or other prospective buyers
may request additional similar visits. No property of Deeproot will be removed or destroyed
during the visits. In addition, no records of Deeproot will be accessed or reviewed. While SDOV
believes the contemplated visits do not violate the Freeze Orders entered in this matter (see ECF
#7, 21, 23), out of an abundance of caution, SDOV requests permission from the Court to access
the Leased Space as described in this paragraph
Sounds like a local should swing by to kick the tires on a lightly-used 47,000 ft2 facility. Will be exciting to finally see beyond the parking lot!
Quoted from blueberryjohnson:Sounds like a local should swing by to kick the tires on a lightly-used 47,000 ft2 facility. Will be exciting to finally see beyond the parking lot!
I’m sure Iceman has been through the trash multiple times already 
Quoted from russdx:I’m sure Iceman has been through the trash multiple times already
actual dumpster diving that might pay off!
So just to be clear, people who know about such stuff: If deeproot had more than 20 employees at the time that termination letter was written it would have been illegal for them not to participate in COBRA as they wrote they did not?
Quoted from blueberryjohnson:So just to be clear, people who know about such stuff: If deeproot had more than 20 employees at the time that termination letter was written it would have been illegal for them not to participate in COBRA as they wrote they did not?
Yes. You still have statutory rights even if a company says you don’t. COBRA also doesn’t cost the company any money other than administrative overhead so it’s extra petty to deny it.
Quoted from Inside:COBRA also doesn’t cost the company any money other than administrative overhead so it’s extra petty to deny it.
COBRA Kai, among the heretofore undisclosed "to-be-announced" deeproot titles.
A down-and-out pinball designer seeks redemption by reopening an infamous pinball design dojo, reigniting his rivalry with a mythical python.
Happy Friday.
Today concludes my The Five Days of Deeproot. And in true deeproot fashion, it will end disappointingly. Had I thought of this gag Monday instead of Wednesday I would have better rationed content throughout the week. Ah well.
However, unlike deeproot I will still deliver something: a few follow-ups from one employee on things posted from another. Enjoy.
1. The original plan for assembly was to have a virtual reality guided instruction. So assemblers were to put on a headset and follow a virtual reality instruction to know where to grab parts and where to put them. But I think that went out the window after missed pay in 2019 and the people working on the project left.
2. Craig was the one who directed construction of the expensive manufacturing area renovations that then could not be used due to the lease.
3. That poster is 100% right on that Sean was a janitor who was given a big title and all sorts of nonsensical power. That's what I told you guys before, that Robert named his friends to the high positions. I loved the part about licking the ground Robert walked on, because I seriously thought Sean was in love with Robert. I don't believe Sean actually ever did anything. When several of us reported a broken toilet, his "repair" was to remove the "out of order" sign and tell everybody it worked fine.
5 Day of Blueberries has a nice ring to it. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading every scrap of the employee’s stories and perspective.
Quoted from blueberryjohnson:Today concludes my The Five Days of Deeproot. And in true deeproot fashion, it will end disappointingly.
Thank you for sharing and to those that supplied the details. It's been amusing to me to see how accurate the skeptics were, even if the SEC stuff was unknowable.
Quoted from blueberryjohnson:The original plan for assembly was to have a virtual reality guided instruction. So assemblers were to put on a headset and follow a virtual reality instruction to know where to grab parts and where to put them. But I think that went out the window after missed pay in 2019 and the people working on the project left.
Wow.. he really doesn't have a clue what it takes to pull something like this off does he? He's also never visited a manufacturing facility, it's not a lab. Manufacturing can often be a very dusty place. Just the unpacking of boxes and ventilation alone creates dust like you wouldn't believe (which would be great for external cameras on headsets that have to support augmented reality). Right now with covid most manufacturing facilities aren't even wearing safety googles much less VR headsets because with masks it fogs up lenses.
Quoted from blueberryjohnson:That poster is 100% right on that Sean was a janitor who was given a big title and all sorts of nonsensical power. That's what I told you guys before, that Robert named his friends to the high positions. I loved the part about licking the ground Robert walked on, because I seriously thought Sean was in love with Robert. I don't believe Sean actually ever did anything. When several of us reported a broken toilet, his "repair" was to remove the "out of order" sign and tell everybody it worked fine.
I once worked at a company where the owner hired all of his family. We already had a shipping/receiving employee, but since his nephew needed a job and wasn't very smart (he also did a lot of drugs) he became the 2nd receiving guy/ sort of janitor (at a corporate building that didn't actually do any of the assembly so there wasn't that many packages going in and out). You can imagine how little work he actually had to do. He was also very racist, but you couldn't say anything because he was family. Owners of companies need to get a clue about hiring lazy family members.
There’s something beautiful and poetic about wanting to use virtual reality to pursue a manufacturing strategy that was so separated from physical reality.
The VR manufacturing comes from the same dumb place as the THX certification. All about giving himself a boner at the thought of it and the salivating about what he can include in his next pitch deck.
Quoted from blueberryjohnson:2. Craig was the one who directed construction of the expensive manufacturing area renovations that then could not be used due to the lease.
It's really too bad they didn't have any competent lawyers around that could help with understanding the lease.
Quoted from Haymaker:Virtual reality assembly? JFC this story gets more and more absurd by the day.
Wait until you hear about the DronePin delivery option!
I heard it was called "octo-manufacturing" because they were developing a "Doctor Octopus" limb system for all of their assembly workers...
I have a question for former deeprooters:
When Robert posted this, September 2020, knowing the reality of what was going behind the scenes, what was the internal reaction to it and what was morale like?
In a normal company, I'd imagine everyone would be feeling ready to "go to war" with fighting words like this from a proper leader and with a product and plan in place. But I have to imagine most everyone thought "wtf?".
What happened in the days following that led to the cancelled reveal?
I'm curious when Robert was forced to face reality and what that was like.
pasted_image (resized).pngSpend hundreds of hours creating vr experiences so the guy 30ft away doesn’t have to train 5 people for 30mins…. Such genius ideas can be had when you are spending someone else’s money.
Quoted from benheck:Augmented Reality could be a killer training tool, I think there's a big future for that (example, a pair of glasses that overlays information when you pick up a certain tool)
Speaking of tools whatever happened to Jpop?
Boeing has been messing with this kind of tech for quite some time now, specifically when making wiring harnesses.
Obviously Robert had the vision to realize this tech was ready to scale way way down. 
Quoted from blueberryjohnson:But I will say jpop was working on a theme that I thought was the best theme out of the 10000 Robert wanted to do.
Was that a clue?
10,000 Leagues Under The Sea? What an awesome machine that could be!
Quoted from flynnibus:Spend hundreds of hours creating vr experiences so the guy 30ft away doesn’t have to train 5 people for 30mins…. Such genius ideas can be had when you are spending someone else’s money.
For small simple manufacturing it does sound stupid. Still, it would be pretty funny to see octo number of people bumping around with big googles on their head trying to put together a pinball machine.
Virtual reality assembly is not as silly as it sounds and quite a few manufactures use it for manufacturing / repairs ie BMW etc..
But they do it the right way not the deeproot way
Quoted from russdx:Virtual reality assembly is not as silly as it sounds and quite a few manufactures use it for manufacturing / repairs ie BMW etc..
But they do it the right way not the deeproot way
It is extremely silly when your first starting out a company and every single thing you plan to do is some pie in the sky dream. I can understand why huge established companies could find such things useful and/or implement them
Quoted from russdx:Virtual reality assembly is not as silly as it sounds and quite a few manufactures use it for manufacturing / repairs ie BMW etc..
But they do it the right way not the deeproot way
Virtual reality? Or did you mean Augmented ?
Quoted from benheck:Augmented Reality could be a killer training tool, I think there's a big future for that (example, a pair of glasses that overlays information when you pick up a certain tool)
This is something that started even 4 years ago when Vive/Oculus came out (was it microsofts AR glasses?), but it just...hasn't seemed to take off as much as I thought it would - even now. I agree that I think it could be huge, especially with the move to more remote work - for however long that lasts.
Quoted from Zablon:This is something that started even 4 years ago when Vive/Oculus came out (was it microsofts AR glasses?), but it just...hasn't seemed to take off as much as I thought it would - even now. I agree that I think it could be huge, especially with the move to more remote work - for however long that lasts.
But THE META VERSE!
Quoted from russdx:Virtual reality assembly is not as silly as it sounds and quite a few manufactures use it for manufacturing / repairs ie BMW etc..
But they do it the right way not the deeproot way
Yes, BMW had a demo 14 years ago:
This is where they are today (still looks like it's in development)
Companies like BMW run VERY clean factories, and they do because they are prestige and can afford to. A pinball company has to run as lean as possible because it's thin margins building a pretty low volume product by comparison of most manufacturing companies. But I guess since Robert thought he was going to build more machines than any company in history, gotta start big with the assembly too.
Quoted from benheck:If a major auto manufacturer can't nail it, a fat crazy lawyer who only cares about art sure as hell won't.
To be fair, he also cares about gold mining in Africa and obscure soccer teams.
Final tidbits for the week:
Omg I totally forgot about the AR assembly and training… thankfully i think he was convinced against that pretty quickly.
As for the stuff he posted online. Every single time he posted anything most of the office were just facepalming.
As someone else noted earlier, almost 100% of the skeptic comments made about deeproot over the years were so spot on. And I wanted so badly to interface with the knowledgeable people on pinside but “we are working on top secret stuff here at deeproot if Stern or JJP knew about the pinbar we would be done for!”
Quoted from benheck:But THE META VERSE!
'Metaverse' is a bloody awful name: it implies self-awareness.
Quoted from EternitytoM83:Why is his signature a pretzel?
I wonder if he’s ever told someone to “Xav it for the judge, pal!”
Quoted from EalaDubhSidhe:'Metaverse' is an awful name that implies self-awareness.
According to Webster's dictionary, "meta" refers to self-awareness and "verse" is a musical term for part of a song.
Together they amount to "singing one's own praises" . . .
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