Is the age of the pre-order over?

[Pop Bumper Pete]

Surely this HAS to be the end of the pre-order from any company without a strong track record?? Personally I'm tentative about JJP.

it took 2 1/2 years for Jack to deliver Woz
it was 2 1/2 years a go that he started taking deposits on The hobbit, game still has not shipped

it is a track record, not a strong endorsement of a company

[Pop Bumper Pete]

posted on Pinside

Dear Fellow Zidware Customers,

Pintasia Design Inc. is the Licensee to MG, RAZA and AIW. We want to share with you who we are and why we are here. We are in the same boat as you. We have interests in both RAZA and MG. By investing our own resources of time, money and efforts, Pintasia on a best efforts basis will do everything that they possibly can to help get back what we all lost to Zidware. To be clear, Pintasia is a third party, and is not a part of Zidware the company or their liabilities.

Pintasia is a newly formed company set up to bring the best talent in all necessary facets of pinball to produce extraordinary games ready for production:
• Business Development - Bill Brandes: business restructuring, real estate holdings, commodities, investment fund
• Finance & Operations - Sabrina Wei: investment banker, business consultant, Deloitte & Touche alumni
• Art Design - Zombie Yeti, artist for MG, RAZA and AIW
• Technical Support - Jim Martin, service and support for machines
• Consultant* (Game Design) - John Popadiuk, Zidware Inc.
• Legal Counsel (USA) – Jordan Litwin, Meltzer, Purtill & Stelle LLC
• Manufacturer – TBD, must be proven quality manufacturer
• Programmer – TBD, must have experience with deep rule sets
 * John Popadiuk is strictly a Consultant, he has no interest in Pintasia and does not make any business decisions. His role is strictly defined as artistic design for the completion of the 3 machines in progress.

The agreement provided by our attorney was to quantify Zidware customers enabling us to plan a viable business structure. We have extended the deadline to June 30, 2015, please use updated agreement attached.

We are not asking for money now, and we hope to delay additional payments until production is confirmed. This will largely depend on the manufacturing agreement we enter into. We will release the information upon successful execution.

The Collector's Edition was set at 199, not to encourage an upsell but to allow the opportunity for all Zidware customers to get in on the limited run which will feature special elements. We stress, it is not necessary to have 199 MG-Collector’s Edition ordered to commence production, nor are we forcing anyone to convert from their current title.

The reason we created the Magic Girl Classic is to get possible new sales quicker on a machine that is nearly complete, these potential profits in turn will allow us now to confirm 1:1 credit for RAZA and AIW purchasers.

Our next communication will be strictly answering questions arising from this correspondence. This endeavor was strictly born out of the desire to get the money we all lost to Zidware. We have spoken to many of you personally in the last few days, the positive responses and encouraging words have been absolutely amazing. We want to thank everyone who has lent a hand to help out. For those who we haven’t talked to yet, we invite you to call at your earliest convenience.

Look forward to speaking with you personally,

PINTASIA DESIGN INC.

so, the 'white Knight' has no experience building pinball machines, nor experience building anything

nobody has been contracted to build
 nobody IS programming the software

and some people think that this will somehow work????

[pinball god]

If you're thinking of pre ordering pinball, send the cash to me and at least I'll post photos of me spending it on holdays etc

[Pop Bumper Pete]

People who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it

Big bang Bar. Gene designed nothing, had parts made . machine still took 3 years and a lot of favors, to pull it off
Wayne never had a factory when he took deposits for Medieval Madness remake. With no manufacturing experience, it took many years before the idea folded
JJP, had manufacturing experience, but no engineering or programming expertise, took 3 ½ years (he had been working on this a year before his announcement) to get the game rolling off the assembly line. Electronics not up to standard and found to not be able to handle pinball life

If  Mike (Homepin) was not an electronics genius and had decades of experience, there would have been no way I would have gone in on TAG

People need to look deeper, beyond the promise, before handing over the well earned $$$

[Strangeways]

People who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it

Big bang Bar. Gene designed nothing, had parts made . machine still took 3 years and a lot of favors, to pull it off
Wayne never had a factory when he took deposits for Medieval Madness remake. With no manufacturing experience, it took many years before the idea folded
JJP, had manufacturing experience, but no engineering or programming expertise, took 3 ½ years (he had been working on this a year before his announcement) to get the game rolling off the assembly line. Electronics not up to standard and found to not be able to handle pinball life

If  Mike (Homepin) was not an electronics genius and had decades of experience, there would have been no way I would have gone in on TAG

People need to look deeper, beyond the promise, before handing over the well earned $$$

Brilliant post. A reality check for those that have faith in these boutique projects. The way Mike has handled TAG is exactly the opposite of all the failed (and possibly failing) ventures. Keep your eye on circus Maximus ass well   

[Homepin]

Thanks for the votes of confidence guys, it is appreciated.

The one BIG issue that affects me with all of these others having problems is that I get inundated with inquiries asking me every question you can imagine and then some. This takes valuable time away from me overseeing the work to move forward.

There are so many different things to sort out on a daily basis I couldn't begin to describe them.

[Strangeways]

Thanks for the votes of confidence guys, it is appreciated.

The one BIG issue that affects me with all of these others having problems is that I get inundated with inquiries asking me every question you can imagine and then some. This takes valuable time away from me overseeing the work to move forward.

There are so many different things to sort out on a daily basis I couldn't begin to describe them.

I can just imagine what you have to put up with !

I think I receive 2-3 calls a day along the same lines..

[andypinboy]

Thanks for the votes of confidence guys, it is appreciated.

The one BIG issue that affects me with all of these others having problems is that I get inundated with inquiries asking me every question you can imagine and then some. This takes valuable time away from me overseeing the work to move forward.

There are so many different things to sort out on a daily basis I couldn't begin to describe them.

When I saw Nino's post THIS is exactly what I thought of - Homepin would get plenty of questions. Btw Mike would it be fair to say you are adopting the Gottlieb model in a loose sense (reading that they made all their own parts to prevent supply disruption)? Also, are your coils ready to purchase or still coming?

[Pop Bumper Pete]

Jersey Jack gave a speech at a US convention this weekend
supposedly has only presold 1500 Hobbits
still no shipping date

I guess many people have stopped drinking the kool-aide

[skywalker]

Jersey Jack gave a speech at a US convention this weekend
supposedly has only presold 1500 Hobbits
still no shipping date

I guess many people have stopped drinking the kool-aide

Yes maybe presold 1500, How many have wanted refunds back, lucky if he sold Real 500 IMHO