here is a leter from Jack that a pinsider posted today, which yes I have copied it and posted here but fitting to being posted here and Jack is definitely trying
"For all of us and for me most of all - it has been a crazy two years.
I know that is true of all of you as well. Many of you have suffered
in a way defending me or JJP to the people who said we would never
even build a game. They were wrong, you were right, Thank You! I think
this little post is more for me today than you but it's posted here
anyway.
There are all kinds of people and many on forums have to express their
anger or negativity. Some of the same people see me in person at shows
and gush for a picture with me or my autograph. People….It's probably
true on the stamp collecting Group too as people are people. Still, we
are focused on the positive as you cannot create and grow from a
negative. More dreams have been killed by doubt than by actual failure
and the game is reality, failure was never an option.
I've lived this every day a billion times over and I have not
regretted it yet. I guess having games now, that stage is passed. I'm
the most critical customer of JJP and the one with the least patience
as I've done it the longest. As we move into this delivery stage of
games there is a lot of satisfaction in what we have done so far. I'm
very proud of our Team and their Passion and dedication.
At the show in Italy a couple of weeks ago a customer who ordered
ECLEWOZ and saw it for the first time remarked that he was amazed,
something we love to hear. He went on to say that it would probably
be the worst game that JJP ever makes. That's to say we will get
better as we go along in the coming days, weeks, months and years. I
took his comment the right way, he gets it.
We had to set deadlines so that there were targets for those vendors
and for our people as well. I guess the game could have been designed
forever and never completed but it is designed and completed, except
for the ongoing software development which is going well and that will
be seen to completion and to our satisfaction of what we know the game
will be.
Deadlines we missed or moved, or got moved for us or in spite of us,
I'm truly sorry. I take responsibility for that. I know it caused some
issues for certain people but in some cases, I had to have trust.
Sometimes, not that much was in my direct control. Welcome to
manufacturing in the USA, 101.
We had no clue what we were going to design. It is way more than any
of us thought it would be. We have learned a lot. Maybe I have finally
learned not to believe every vendor's promise or to pass them along so
quickly as Gospel, sorry again.
The most important thing is the honesty and transparent nature of what
we have tried to do. To include all of you in the many details, ideas,
trials, ups and downs as we went along. It's been painful sometimes
but you all deserve to know what I know and I've answered your calls
and e mails- always. It is the making of the sausage and thanks for
the many calls and e mails and texts of support too numerous to count!
Much of what we did would up on the desks or in-boxes of our now many
competitors' moments after being written here and it still does. Some
spoken words wind up twisted or out of context. It gets posted on
other forums to be ruminated about and stomped on no matter what we
do. That's part of what any forum brings, good and bad. We get e mails
forwarded to us about what our competitors are doing too, about their
new secret "cool" designs, licenses they sign, Mustangs or not or in-
progress artwork or playfield lighting or their price increases or
whatever distractions right from their own vendors or employees so it
works both ways. I really could care less what any of them do, good
luck, live and let live. I only care about what we are doing.
I'll never look back at this game and say it was crap. It is our best
effort to date and we will learn from it, we will support it and we
will improve upon it with our next game.
We are not perfect, nobody is. This is a mechanical device and my
saying for many years is "if it's not broken, it's not pinball".....
What I did say and do say is we will support whatever we built and we
will strive to satisfy our customers and reward our players, always.
If we missed some shows, if I could not get there or we could not get
games there, I'm sorry too. We will make it up as we move forward,
it's hard to do it all sometimes.
I have been pleased that the games on location have been working well
and have been making money. Most weeks they have been going up every
week and they have been attracting new players which is something we
all hoped for. Those with them on location know this to be true. I
have not spoken to Zach since he received his WOZ about a week ago and
he posted this on our group the other day:
----
Zach T View profile
More options Mar 29, 12:01 pm
So, the WOZ at Nickel City San Diego is just killing it. I have never
seen a new pin earn this much, this fast. In the first 10 hours at
Nickel City WOZ out earned what Tron, Simpsons, South Park, and LW3
made combined last week!
Currently WOZ is making more than any video game on the floor,
including the drivers. There are a lot of redemption games that
aren't earning this well. We're going to have to collect WOZ twice
this week because the coin bucket isn't big enough for us to go a
full week between collections!
The game is a huge hit with all of my casual players. Usually, when
someone walks up to play pinball who has never played it before they
play one ball and walk away. I have yet to see that with WOZ. The
big LCD display is definitely helping new players understand the game
better.
More options Mar 29, 9:06 pm
Yes, the kids just love it. I'm seeing entire families playing WOZ
together. I've never seen a reaction like this for a pinball machine
before. It's fantastic. The pinball crowd has definitely been
playing it a lot, but I would never make this kind of money off of
just the pinball crowd.
Zach
Palomar Amusements
----
In recent days since AMOA, several operators and distributors have
called or e mailed to order WOZ. Many have asked for ECLEWOZ as well
as they want the latest and greatest for their location......We are
sold out with a growing waiting list. Word is getting out in the
industry side of things and that's good. They are OK to wait as we
have lots of people before them to deliver games to, a good problem
for us to have. Drew came back from AMOA with orders for over 150
games with many new distributor requests. One keeps calling daily
looking to pickup games in the next week or two, he just woke up to
what we have been doing for two years.
Keith sent a code update last night that in size is three times as
large a file as what is currently in the latest games out now! I
cannot wait to download it later and play the game today.
These games we built here this week, maybe ten of them, it is not like
taking a loaf of bread out of the oven and handing it to you. They
need to be burned in and tested and we need to make sure they are
right before you get them. That's what you deserve. I came to some
reality decisions late yesterday and in spite of me missing another
self imposed deadline I decided that the good of the product was more
important than the calendar.
So we all decided yesterday as we left that the games in the building
need to burn in for a few days. Plus the code, well, while tested, WE
did not test it. Keith always sends us older code than where he is in
his game so it's been tested.....but giving real customer #1 a game
and on and on.....we want to make sure games are right.
Real pickup customer #1 was fine with getting his game a few days
later. He is going away on vacation next week anyway. I talked to a
few others and they all say the same. They want their games but they
want them to be right or as right as we humans here can make them.
It's pinball. We don't want to be Boeing - making airplanes that
people fly on that matters in life and death situations - this is a
pinball machine for goodness sakes. And no, I did not call everyone
yet.
If you want a game that is not built with passion, detail, care and
respect for the people who are waiting for them, then there are other
options available but not from us. We have a winner here. It's almost,
almost done at the one yard line. I need to remember what Bryan Kelly
told me and don't screw it up now after all this time......another
few days - even a week or two - if that makes the difference, that's
what I need to do.
We want real production boards in the real production games that
customers get. Building games to completion has been difficult without
our production board sets which are obviously on their own timeline
despite what I was told about mid to late March, it's now the week of
4/8. I ordered them on January 11th.....frustrates me but better right
than wrong but it is coming at least down to days now not weeks or
months. The board house in Pennsylvania has been setting up and
running various boards. It's a daily string of questions about various
parts, orientation of connectors, etc. so they make ten of each board
and we get them and approve them and they make them….all takes time.
Needs to be done right the first time, it's a $1,560,000 order so I
don't need mistakes.
Can't rush greatness, or our board house at this point…..so if I
shipped a couple or even five or six games today which I could if I
really wanted to and then there was a week or so lull, maybe worse
than waiting a week or two and having twenty or more tested, better
coded and completely working games. In hindsight I should have said
what Eugene Jarvis told me to say - it is done when it's done or
something similar but we are almost there.
I went to E3 and Seattle in June with a box of lights that Keith had
to start with a keyboard. I went to PPE with the flipper strength not
set right, I went to Expo with incomplete code and IAAPA with a better
version of incomplete code and we won a Brass Ring Award. We have
games on location kicking ass and the game is not done, just imagine
what happens in the next few days and weeks, holy cow, it's gonna' be
nuts!
I'm going to get criticized no matter what I do. I can take it, I have
a pretty thick skin. Just dont slander or libel me or my company or my
people or family. I've done it for 37 years with God's Blessing as
long as I'm able to do it, maybe another 37 years but it is getting
easier, not harder.
Creating this Group was also a great thing, like creating the game.
Just like an extended family.....Not perfect but pretty good I must
agree. You all have the patience of Saints and as these games start to
ship the level of "crazy" will go up. I know the conversation will
shift to different subjects, my un-boxing party is when, Is Jack
coming, my this is that is that or my wife and kids won't let me get
near the game to play it, etc, etc...all good
We are Pinball People and I'm proud to call you our customers,
supporters, believers, investors and most importantly, friends and we
look forward to meeting more of you and getting your games to you.
I'm thankful to my wife and family and to my Faith and sincerely to
all of you. Please know this, we are and will continue to do our best.
Our Passion is Pinball and we have been Blessed to create this game
for you!
Happy Passover/ Happy Easter/ Happy Weekend.
Much more to come."
