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American Pinball....

Saw something about this at the weekend on Pinside and was thinking of you Jim.

It kind of started here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/american-pinballhoudini-will-be-at-pinball-expo when Mike Pacak announced there might be a new JPop machine appearing at Expo. Naturally, the **** hit the fan and Mike seemed a bit ignorant of the whole situation.

In asking for clarity it was then that American Pinball announced they'd 'make good' on JPop's bad credit. And most amazingly (at least with Magic Girl) - by the end of the year?! So yes, if nothing else the timescale sounds ridiculous. Plus no mention of the other machines (RAZA, AIW?), plus no mention of vendors that JPop was in debt with.

American Pinball seems doomed to instant failure. But who knows. Maybe they really do have incredibly deep pockets, and if that is the case then it could be the best thing to happen for a long time...
 
A kick in the teeth for sure. I know how being 'pinripped' feels but on your level, i'd be laying mushroom clouds. I wont even own a Jflop game because of that c*nts trick he pulled. It'd be like owning Jimmy Savilles Rolls Royce to me.

Looks like a group of folk are planning on confronting AP at the upcoming expo. I'd certainly like to see what transpires, but you can put money on Jflop not being there.
 
http://www.pinballnews.com/news/americanpinball2.html

No wonder they were hiding up in a hotel room. Pinside has the pitchforks out for JPop (and for good reason). However, the angry mob should hold off rather than hassling AP and effectively lessening their chances of actually receiving their promised Magic Girl machines. If AP succeed, perhaps they will honour the other machines jpop took money for. Fingers crossed for all of you with money in this. I listened to an interview with jpop last night. He really was incredibly naive as a businessman, I don't think he meant to rip anyone off but he clearly hasn't a clue how to run a business.
 
JFLOP - best pun yet. Love it.

I've never run my own business, although I have a few close friends who have/do and have spoken at length about it. But to me, the basics seems simple enough:

MONEY IN minus RUNNING COSTS minus MATERIALS needs to be greater than ZERO.
Delivering GOODS or SERVICES in return for PAYMENT is the core definition of a commercial business.
 
I hope everyone out of pocket is made whole, plus interest.

I also hope for the ability to breathe fire and have dragon wings on my back when i wake up tomorrow but it's just not going to happen.
 
I wish them all the best. However, they won't get a penny off me until I see something good, for sale, that interests me & is relatively affordable.

The current market often feels like a cartel, because pinballs really shouldn't cost £7000!

And it desperately needs new design blood, so I hope they invest properly in that area.

They certainly sound like the Apple of the pin-world, vs. the others, with the business acumen and manufacturering prowess.
 
they should sort out those out of pocket first then promote the new game from a fresh start. shame no millionaire could step in and help with the Predator debarcle. And thanks for the post about Savilles roller. I had a nightmare vision of a "fix it" pinball with a rocking off its axle seedy caravan a la the engine in Corvette

back to topic.. Alice in Wonderland - very interested to see that one. £7 grand Houdini? nah Ill stick to TOM and PM
 
I don't get why a new company would get involved in Popadopalopadiuk's previous screwups, bad reputation, debts, etc. Why not just get him to design them a new pin on the quiet and pay him a consultancy fee for doing that - surely not associating themselves with his previous shambles would have been better from both a cost and PR perspective? I know this wouldn't help those who lost money with his previous efforts, but, as a new company on the scene, why take on all that baggage as your problem.
 
Anyone know the the seminar scheduled for 9am today over at expo is going to be streamed by anyone?
 
I'm steaming it - asked them about your situation and they said it's down to zidware not American pinball
 
What a total ****ing joke.....

They haven't got a clue, expect pinside to burn them down by the end of the day.....
 
There must be some scope to sue the shiz out of AP for using intellectual property not paid for? That is assuming they use stuff you wrote, Jim.
 
There must be some scope to sue the shiz out of AP for using intellectual property not paid for? That is assuming they use stuff you wrote, Jim.

We shall see. I hear they've got new hardware for houdini, but that remains to be seen. I'm most interested to see what code base and hardware gets shipped with the 25 magic girl games...

I'll be chatting again with tommy on thisflippipodcast soon, i'm going through my zidware story with him, the highs and lows etc...
 
Houdini is an original layout.....

How do we explain the spinner and target position then

Magicgirl proto on the left, houdini on the right

spinner.jpg
 
We shall see. I hear they've got new hardware for houdini, but that remains to be seen. I'm most interested to see what code base and hardware gets shipped with the 25 magic girl games...

I'll be chatting again with tommy on thisflippipodcast soon, i'm going through my zidware story with him, the highs and lows etc...

Did you get them to sign one of them thingies MD thingie? That's what our customers have to sign when we do new designs
 
can't imagine that these machines see the light of day, American pinball don't even own the IPR now!
 
can't imagine that these machines see the light of day, American pinball don't even own the IPR now!

Not getting into that one. I've been on enough journeys. If you want to hear my story with zidware and what i worked on during the 2 year contract tune into thisflippinpodcast this week
 
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