The Aussie Pinball Arcade
Aussie Pinball Forums => Technical Matters => Nucore => Topic started by: Chuck on October 06, 2008, 04:26:03 AM
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Expo 2008 - quick recap
After a good ten hours of much needed sleep I’m ready to tell you what happened at Expo. As Don and I drove from Michigan we spent the three hours discussing what questions people would probably ask. How much each of us would talk (anyone who knows me knows that I can do my fair share of talking.) The funny thing is we were preparing for what might happen at the Fireside Chat. We had no idea that there was excitement waiting for us when we walked in the hotel.
So Don and I arrive and went looking for Mike Pacak. We found him almost immediately and were surprised to find him very nervous. Mike can be fairly animated every time I’ve seen him but this time he was as animated as a cartoon cat walking on hot coals. He proceeded to tell us how wayne had been in contact with him a number of times trying to shut-down our presentation and that none of those attempts phased him. What had him very concerned was an email wayne sent him. He handed the email to us, we read it, and told him it was more of the same. He also mentioned that Williams head council and patent attorney would be sitting in the audience for our chat (the plot thickens…) So our first order of business was to settle Mike down =) Lucky for us Roger Sharp from Williams was about 50 feet away. Months ago we contacted Roger to make sure Williams had no problem with what we were doing (you can read the story on pinballnews.com) Roger knew of some rumblings going on about us and our product. I thought it was a good time to ask Roger if he knew that Gene Cunningham claims to have purchased a pinball 2000 patent when Williams sold him the part business. I think Roger was very surprised to hear this information. This was the “secret” information that we would later reveal at our chat. Wayne has been telling the world that he was the sole owner of the pinball 2000 patents and that the only things Gene owned were a ball through and some other non-essential patent. More about this later. Roger asked us for the patent number, which I provided. I reminded Roger that we wanted to be completely legal and make sure we were breaking no laws or infringing on anyone’s IP. He was very friendly as always then ran off to make a phone call Fortunately that settled Mike down and all was well.
We had five hours until our chat and thought we would look around and relax a little… HA! Jim from PinGame Journal cornered us. We spent nearly an hour telling him what was going on. Our moderator Gary Flower came by to go over the game plan. He informed us that Wayne wanted him to make a few statements. I said I had no problem with that as long none of them were lies. I ran back in the seminar hall where we had our machine setup and a professional (I believe) photographer was taking pictures of my machine. I told him he might want to come back when the computer was installed (we never left the computer in the machine while we weren’t near it.) After all that fun was over at was 5pm. Don and I wanted to grab a bite to eat. We ate and then went back to the hall to install the computer and test the machine. Everything worked perfectly. WOOT! Time for a shower.
At 7:15 we went back down to the hall to check everything. No problems. Larry DeMar showed up and I introduced myself. He is a legend in the gaming industry, Robotron, Defender, Pinball 2000, slots, this guys has done everything. I asked him to try the emulator out. He said, “YOU GUYS ARE CRAZY!” I acknowledged and asked what he thought after playing for a few minutes. He said, “This is INCREDIBLE! I have all the technical knowledge about this system and I COULDN’T DO THIS! YOU GUYS ARE CRAZY! ” He was smiling and laughing all the while. Of course I was smiling too =) They added a last minute seminar at 7:30 so we had to get off stage. The seminar ran just a tad long so we scrambled to get in place. Our moderator started speaking before we were done setting up the camera so that was a little hectic. The seminar will be available shortly on pinballnews.com so I’ll let you listen to that yourself. It was a huge success, I couldn’t have been happier.
After we were done they had the Williams guys get back up on stage with Don and me for photographs. I thought a couple of people might take a picture. I think everyone in the hall with a camera came up to shoot pictures of us for about 5 minutes. I felt like Brittany Spears getting out of a Bentley! After that everyone ran over to the machine to try it out. I was talking to Cameron Silver and someone said, “It seems to have shutdown…” I immediately went over and the machine was really hot. I rebooted it and it ran again. A few minutes later, black… I installed an Alpine 150watt amplifier just under the computer and though it was causing the cpu to overheat. We found out later that we had lost a case fan and it was indeed overheating. Luckily I brought a spare computer and took the fan out of it. The computer was rock solid all night Friday after that. I’m glad to report that we had zero bugs, zero non heat related crashes, and no weird anomalies. I haven’t checked the audits yet but judging how the playfield looks it got a ton of plays. The machine wasn’t idle for more than 2 minutes for the 6 hours we had it available for free play.
I wanted to take this time to thank everyone for their overwhelming support of our hard work. It’s time like this that makes all the work well worthwhile. It seems wayne isn't the only one holding Pinball 2000 Patents afterall...
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Thanks for the update Chuck! Looking forward to the pinballnews.com recording. #*#
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Fantastic update Chuck -thanks for sharing that info. Congratulations that all went well for you. Do you envisage any more legal woes or is that it now? When will it come to market?
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Chuck - I guess you are a bit of a "Rock Star" now mate ? Congratulations to you and your team for the success of the project and reward for all your hard work.
I guess this is only the beginning ? Once the "word" gets out I'm sure you won't be able to keep up with the demand.
The "Big Picture" for pinheads is the fact that Nucore had the facts in front of them when dealing with the negativity that typically surrounds every Bally / Williams project. Now we have a product that would never see the light of day otherwise.
Thanks for the update..
#*# #*#
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Chuck - I guess you are a bit of a "Rock Star" now mate ?
It's funny you should say that. I've played in rock bands for 20 years. There was one time about 19 years ago that I actually played an arena (Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek MI - The Kellogg Cereal company headquarters is right across the street.) After we were done playing a ton of teen-agers came up and I signed autographs for about 10 minutes. Signed one girl's blue jean jacket *%* Although I've never actually been a "rok star" I have experienced some of the rock star fun !*!
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This is great stuff Chuck! And being a "Rock Star" in the pinball world must be a real buzz!
I'm stoked to hear that this system looks like it will be available to P2K machines out there... and that Wayne isn't the only one with the patents... LOL
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This is great stuff Chuck! And being a "Rock Star" in the pinball world must be a real buzz!
I'm stoked to hear that this system looks like it will be available to P2K machines out there... and that Wayne isn't the only one with the patents... LOL
I'm sure that now that Nucore have "tested the waters" with the issues surrounding patents, the floodgates will open and other projects can eventuate. Too many "smoke and mirrors" and not enough facts.
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I'm sure that now that Nucore have "tested the waters" with the issues surrounding patents, the floodgates will open and other projects can eventuate. Too many "smoke and mirrors" and not enough facts.
It is unfortunate that this has been the case for so long... I hope you are right that other projects will now eventuate - it can only benefit pinball as a whole.
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Great update. Just curious, the system is also designed to open up the door for new P2K games but is the legal issues for say (not that this would happen but assume) Stern decided hey I want to use Nucore to make a P2K system and sell it. I mean is the whole projected glass and all copyrighted and how about even Nucore? Either way great job.
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Hey Chuck,
I LOVED reading your post - fantastic news!!!
Ive always taken the view that he who shouts loudest often has the least to say. It seems some have shouted but your system and inside knowledge have spoken for themselves.
A triumph for you and all pinball
Well done mate...... we are not worthy!!! #*# ^^^
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Thanks for the support everyone. The patents are the real issue with making a new game based on pin2k. And with Gene also owning a patent for everything pin2000 something might just get made. Regardless of whether you love or hate Gene when he says he will make something he does make it as evidenced by BBB. I think he's itching to make another pin and with Kingpin on hold I just might have something to scratch that itch =)
The audio of our chat on pinball news should be fun. I can't wait to hear what I said.
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Now that would be a ground breaking development. A new title based on P2000 architecture with Nucore.. We can only dream... ^^^
But I think the "Can do" approach of Chuck and Co will ensure it has the best possible opportunity.
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Yeah this is just great. I would prefer it to be that say me and the guy down the street with the PhD in computer programming type of thing could make a P2K machine especially after previous experiences with Gene but I can't complain if something gets done.
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Thanks for the support everyone. The patents are the real issue with making a new game based on pin2k. And with Gene also owning a patent for everything pin2000 something might just get made. Regardless of whether you love or hate Gene when he says he will make something he does make it as evidenced by BBB. I think he's itching to make another pin and with Kingpin on hold I just might have something to scratch that itch =)
The audio of our chat on pinball news should be fun. I can't wait to hear what I said.
As the lucky owner of BBB123 I've seen what his determination can do and sure would be ready to pony up on a "Nucore P2K"!!!
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Just finished listening to the broadcast,it all sounds very exciting and I hope it all pans out as you expect.The few things I noticed where,Has Gene's patents been verified by someone apart from his lawyer and if so how unprofessional are WMS they sell the patents to a game to someone who thinks he has the sole rights to it and wants to protect those rights then at the final hour the smoking gun comes out and it turns out they have sold another patent for the same thing just worded differently to someone else and WMS no nothing about it,In my opinion WMS has done this on purpose,sold the rights to 2 parties knowing full well that they dont get along and that way no more pins can ever get made and to justify there reasoning for pulling the plug on Pinball
Goodluck hope it happens for all our sakes
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Williams acknowledged that Gene does indeed own the patent and he does have full pinball 2k rights.
I don't believe wms intentionally sold patents to both although it sure does fit nicely in the conspiracy theory. And as far as wayne saying he had an exclusive, it's very hard to tell whether he thought he really did or just lied about it like so many other things. I'll leave that for you to decide.
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An odd predicament!
Just say that 2 people do own full rights to pin2K ( if thats possible).
Would you need permission from both? What if one says yes and the other no - how does that pan out for your situation? Would that stop your project dead in its tracks? or would 50% endorsement be enough for you?
Of course, if one party is unwilling to state just what or how much they own rights to, its very difficult to determine exactly what you can and cannot do, unless you are willing to get verification via legal means.
.. A possible long, drawn out case that may get expensive. This would of course tie you up for sometime.
LOL- have i just answered my own question? Conspiracy abounds!
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That was a whole lot of questions.
I'll answer this later ;-)