Is John Popadiuk really working on Thunderbirds Pinball?

[Cow Corner]

I am curious for those still in on the game how they feel if Jpop is the designer given that in the USA he took over $1 million US dollars of peoples money to design and build Magic Girl, the Zombie theme, Alice in Wonderland as well as a full art foam layout Kiss pinball for his dying mate and then declared bankrupt with everyone losing their money and a major law suit in the process.

Would you really want that tag associated with your game?

I don't play any Jpop games anymore because of all this MG Raza business, he is a crook and he belongs in a jail. There is no way in the world I would ever play a Jpop game again let alone buy one.

[swinks]

Would you really want that tag associated with your game?

I didn't even realise I used tag - double meaning  

[Pop Bumper Pete]

I am curious for those still in on the game how they feel if Jpop is the designer given that in the USA he took over $1 million US dollars of peoples money to design and build Magic Girl, the Zombie theme, Alice in Wonderland as well as a full art foam layout Kiss pinball for his dying mate and then declared bankrupt with everyone losing their money and a major law suit in the process.

Would you really want that tag associated with your game?

I don't play any Jpop games anymore because of all this MG Raza business, he is a crook and he belongs in a jail. There is no way in the world I would ever play a Jpop game again let alone buy one.

don't hold back now, tell us how you really feel ;)

[Cow Corner]

I am curious for those still in on the game how they feel if Jpop is the designer given that in the USA he took over $1 million US dollars of peoples money to design and build Magic Girl, the Zombie theme, Alice in Wonderland as well as a full art foam layout Kiss pinball for his dying mate and then declared bankrupt with everyone losing their money and a major law suit in the process.

Would you really want that tag associated with your game?

I don't play any Jpop games anymore because of all this MG Raza business, he is a crook and he belongs in a jail. There is no way in the world I would ever play a Jpop game again let alone buy one.

don't hold back now, tell us how you really feel ;)

I always will, life is too short to do otherwise.
 

[pinsanity]

People still buy Woz, despite the Bumper debacle
IMHO Jersey Jack held some responsibility over that (he knew there was a problem months before it became public)

Except that JJ didn't leave customers in the lurch when it all went pear shaped down under. A compromise was reached whereby the deposit monies were consolidated into a a number of rescue edition units which were successfully delivered. None of which affected me by the way, since I ordered direct after refusing to transfer my deposit to the local distro when he couldn't provide details to my satisfaction of the "trust account" in which the monies were being held.

Compare that to the super duper balls which definitely don't work in games with magnets (and may have flaking issues) even after apparent extensive prerelease testing in a BSD. Not to mention the clandestine manner in which it was handled by quietly recalling them via distros with no public announcement from the manufacturer until called out on it on pinside.

Still waiting to hear about the results of the inhouse testing as to why they magnetise by the way.

Whilst we are making further comparisons, you bailed on WOZ before the first US units began shipping at the 2 year 2 month mark since you were apparently tired of the empty promises and delays, it is now 2 years and 8 months since TAG was announced and in summary to show for it we have a few bags of pop bumper parts and flipper coils, some artistic angles of cad drawings and a gif image of one side of a pinball backbox.

When do you call this one, PBP?

[Pop Bumper Pete]

When do you call this one, PBP?

people pushing me will probably make me stay in longer

[pinsanity]

Just putting it into perspective for you, since you were the one who tried to draw comparisons with JJP in the thread.

Sometimes we lose that sense of perspective, based on blind faith and misguided loyalty.

No need to PM me either with cryptic terse responses.  

[Pop Bumper Pete]

Actually it was two years six months for Jack
It has been two years five months for Mike

IIt seems that two years six months is the lenghth of my patience

[pinsanity]

http://aussiepinball.com/index.php?topic=10908.0
June 28/29, 2013 first announcement so we are a week away from 2 years and 9 months.


JJP
January 11th, 2011
with first batch of completed US units being delivered in March 2013.

[pinsanity]

Admittedly though my WOZLE didn't arrive until the following January since my order was in the back half of the preorder pack. 

But in the meantime I had playfield art, cabinet art, playfield assemblies and not to mention visual proof of the assembly line and the machine in action to bide the time while I waited.

[Pop Bumper Pete]

Nah, I looked up my email
As you said, woz announced early January, I ordered four days later
I asked for my money back mid July 2013


I am fairly sure that my Thunderbirds invoice is for late October 2013

[pinsanity]

IPDB has WOZLE Emerald City version with an April 2013 release date but like I said these were nearly exclusively US customers.

http://ipdb.org/search.pl?any=wizard+of+oz&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick#5800

There was further delay in getting production ramped up to a decent output per day from that point.

[Pop Bumper Pete]

If it means so much, look up the WoZ thread, I did post when I pulled out

The first four games had shipped to Australia and were stopped by customs
The Bumper meltdown was about to happen

[pinsanity]

Not doubting when you pulled out as I can't verify that via an external source anyway, just clarifying the production timing between the two manufacturers and the extent of the comparable progress with their product..

Peace out.  

[pinsanity]

Since you edited your post after I went to bed and I don't have the luxury like our resident number one Stern fan of sitting up all night I'll simply add that those early machines which Bumper got were prototypes with early proto code (Pinballheaven in the UK received some as well as their UK distro as per the video below with an upload date of March 29,2013) and as such are not fully representative of the final product.

After watching the gameplay below at the time I was sorely tempted to ditch my order but held on until the production units started making an appearance the following month in the US (from memory it was a half truck delivery but a delivery nonetheless) in conjunction with the fact that there was so much else about the machine to that point which JJP had released that that was sufficient to convince me to stick it out.

My question to you is, particularly given the established comparable timeframes now is where is the motivation and incentive for you to do the same with the current "manufacturer" if all you are getting to date is vague allusions to a mostly designed playfield (which you haven't seen), one side of a backbox in gif format and some bags of generic parts and manufacturer stamped coils?

By this point JJP had released video of actual working game models of the spinning house, the witch, the flying monkey mech, the tree pop bumpers et al not to mention the cabinet and playfield art. For a TAG machine that is supposed to be "toy heavy" and was going to go all out on that fact where are those pics and video to motivate and incentivise both new and existing buyers? Oh right its all hush hush non disclosure licensing issues, just like the designer.