Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

Tucson Pinball Podcast – Episode 79 – CAD Monkey

Tuscon Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·17m 55s·analyzed·Jul 14, 2026
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 (batch) · $0.018

TL;DR

American Pinball hiring signals industry growth; Zidware history warns of design startup pitfalls.

Summary

The host discusses American Pinball job posting for a junior pinball designer, reflecting on his own CAD experience and what the role entails. He pivots to a detailed historical account of Zidware, John Popadiuk defunct company, and the cautionary tale of Magic Girl and Raza (Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland), which collapsed due to poor project management and non-payment. The episode celebrates recent industry hires like Ryan Tanner at Stern and notes the importance of bringing new talent into pinball design as veteran designers age.

Key Claims

  • American Pinball was acquired by Amtron (electronics company based in Chicago area) and has been revitalized with new funding and leadership

    medium confidence · Host mentions Amtron as electronics/circuit board company that originated American Pinball, implying recent acquisition/reset

  • American Pinball previously laid off most staff except small assembly team, was clearing warehouse inventory before the buyout

    high confidence · Host directly states 'American Pinball basically hit the reset button. They let everybody go a while ago except for like a very, very small assembly staff'

  • John Popadiuk (J-Pop) designed World Cup Soccer, Theater of Magic, and Tales of the Arabian Nights at Bally/Williams in the 1990s

    high confidence · Host states 'in the 90s, he worked for Williams and he designed World Cup soccer, Theater of Magic and Tales of the Arabian Nights'

  • 16 Magic Girl machines were built at American Pinball facility during Zidware era, each with minor/major variations

    high confidence · Host: 'John made 16 Magic Girl games at the American Pinball facility... most of them were different from each other in some random way'

  • Stern recently hired Ryan Tanner as a game designer known for unconventional playfield layouts

    high confidence · Host: 'We just saw Stern post that Ryan Tanner just got hired as a new game designer'

  • Jeremy Packer (Zombie Yeti) was contracted for Zidware work without full payment and is now art director at Stern

    high confidence · Host: 'Jeremy has been interviewed a couple times... yeah, I think John was just like Googling zombie artist... zombie yeti had a huge ordeal of like not getting paid... now he's the art director at Stern'

  • Magic Girl was pitched as an exclusive $15,000 game when Stern games cost $3,500, requiring multi-thousand-dollar deposits

    high confidence · Host: 'it was going to end up being, I don't know, like a $15, 000 game when Stern was putting out games that were like $3, 500'

Notable Quotes

  • “American Pinball basically hit the reset button. They let everybody go a while ago except for like a very, very small assembly staff and then they hired a new overall manager.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~2:30 — Establishes American Pinball's recent organizational collapse and reorganization before acquisition

  • “If they're looking for a junior designer and they're going to collaborate with the design and engineering team, who is the senior designer at American Pinball right now?”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~1:50 — Identifies gap in American Pinball's design leadership, suggesting rebuilding is underway

  • “J-Pop has this mystique because a lot of people kind of describe his designs in a single word as whimsical. His ramps, they have this nice like waterfall side to side, like flowing river waterfall effect.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~8:00 — Characterizes John Papaduke's design philosophy and aesthetic signature

  • “The code didn't work at all. And, you know, there was like this whole like owner's efforts to try to actually get them to work once John was out of the picture.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~11:45 — Highlights technical and software issues with Zidware machines even after John's departure

  • “Yeah, I think John was just like Googling zombie artist or something. And he found my name and he reached out to me and zombie yeti had a huge ordeal of like not getting paid.”

    Jeremy Packer @ ~12:30 — Details Zidware's unprofessional contractor relations and payment failures

  • “I could give you two games, like snap my fingers and I can explain them to you. Like it would take a little while to draw them up and get all the CAD done, obviously.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~4:45 — Reveals host has two game concepts ready for development, showing the bar for entry-level design

  • “It sounds like they're well funded and they're well intended at this point and that's always a good thing to have in Pinball manufacturing.”

Entities

American PinballcompanyAmtroncompanyJohn PopadiukpersonJeremy PackerpersonScott DanesipersonRyan TannerpersonStern Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: American Pinball acquired by Amtron (electronics company) and undergoing organizational rebuild with new management; previous near-collapse with mass layoffs suggesting financial distress before acquisition

    medium · Host: 'somebody bought them and kind of hit and reset on that' and 'American Pinball basically hit the reset button. They let everybody go'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: American Pinball posting for junior game designer position; Stern recently hired Ryan Tanner Petch as game designer; industry moving to address aging designer demographics

    high · Host: 'American Pinball put up a job posting... looking to hire a junior pinball designer' and 'Stern post... Ryan Tanner Petch just got hired as a new game designer'

  • ?

    historical_signal: Zidware collapse serves as industry warning about design-driven boutique manufacturers; John Papaduke's slow development pace, pre-order mismanagement, contractor non-payment, and resulting litigation created market lesson

    high · Detailed account of Zidware's rise and fall; lawsuits; Magic Girl and Raza projects; Jeremy Packer non-payment; facility being reused by American Pinball

  • ?

    industry_signal: Industry recognizing need for new designer talent as veteran designers age; recent hiring by Stern and American Pinball indicates shift toward recruiting from homebrew/hobbyist community

    high · Host: 'people were just like man if we don get some new blood like when these guys all retire like what going to happen... I think that kind of got people going on the management side saying, okay, we can find people'

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.012

0:00
Wayne's World! Wayne's World! Party time! Excellent! What's up everybody? Welcome to episode 79 of the Tucson Pinball Podcast. Welcome to Wayne's World. About a month ago, American Pinball put up a job posting and I recorded an episode about it and I hated it. And it was mostly because I recorded kind of late at night and I was trying to pay attention to my vocal volume. And I just kind of like, yeah, I was listening to it. It's like, you can barely hear me on some stuff. And so we're going to try this again and we're going to do this with slightly better show notes. And yeah, we're just not going to we're not just going to read the job posting and then comment on it. And I kind of have a little bit more of a collective thought on this one. So, yeah, like I said, American Pinball posted on Facebook and don't know where else, if anywhere else, that they were looking to hire a junior pinball designer. And it was in person in the Chicago area, which instantly eliminated my candidacy because I'm not leaving Tucson. But yeah, it was still kind of cool because I did have the whole little five-second daydreaming about being a pinball designer. That would be kind of fun.
1:23
But yeah, anyway, so it wanted some experience in Fusion 360 and SolidWorks were the two that they called out. Didn't really say how much experience on that side. It said it was going to collaborate with design and engineering team, assist with design, prototyping, and development.
1:43
And I read it a couple times and then it kind of dawned on me. It's like, well, wait, if they're looking for a junior designer and they're going to collaborate with the design and engineering team, who is the senior designer at American Pinball right now. Because if you're not super in tune with the pinball goings on, American Pinball basically hit the reset button. They let everybody go a while ago except for like a very, very small assembly staff and then they hired a new overall manager. And they were piecing together games and shipping a couple games out at a time. Just kind of clearing out some legacy warehouse items, you know, just putting games together with whatever, you know, full bomb lists of parts that they had left. And it didn't seem like they were going to do much. It's like, well, they're going to make as many games as they possibly can and then just close. And then somebody bought them and kind of hit and reset on that. So that's cool. That's exciting. So, Amtron is an electronics company based out of the Chicago area, and they do circuit boards and stuff like that, and that was kind of where American Pinball originated, and it made total sense. Well, I mean, kind of, sort of. You don't just start a pinball company just for fun, but it made sense that they were in that family of businesses because Amtron designs and manufactures circuit boards, And that's one of those things that pinball companies, if you are using somebody else's board that's not your design or not your fabrication, it's probably fairly expensive compared to if you have an in-house design and you're having like a board house make those boards for you. But you're paying a small fraction of some other supplier's costs to you. So that made sense. But then nothing ever really came of it. They used P-Rock boards, which the complete board set for homebrewers is several hundred dollars per machine. Granted, if you're getting large quantities, it's going to be different.

Zidware collapsed due to John Popadiuk slow development pace, pre-order payment disputes, and resulting lawsuits

high confidence · Host: 'he was working... needing to pay the bills... he started asking for more and more money... Everything fell apart. Some people sued and they did win'

  • The host has 17 years of CAD experience in Creo and AutoCAD and is a senior mechanical design engineer

    high confidence · Host: 'I have 17 years of experience in Creo and AutoCAD... I'm a senior mechanical design engineer by title'

  • Scott Danesi works for Pinball Life (parts distributor) doing CAD/reverse engineering while guest designing for other manufacturers

    medium confidence · Host: 'Scott Danesi... he still works for Pinball Life, which is the parts distributor... he does CAD stuff and he like reverse engineers brackets'

    • [name withheld pending review] @ ~16:30 — Expresses optimism about American Pinball's new leadership and resources

  • “You're just like, all right, there's no design work involved. There's just converting red ink into black ink. And on the PDF when it comes out.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~6:15 — Defines the distinction between creative design and mechanical CAD documentation tasks

    • Zidware
    company
    Pinball Lifecompany
    Magic Girlgame
    Razagame
    Williamscompany
    Pinsideorganization
    Elwinperson

    product_concern: Zidware Magic Girl machines had non-functional code even after John Papaduke's departure; owners had to attempt repairs/fixes post-production indicating fundamental software development failures

    high · Host: 'The code didn't work at all. And, you know, there was like this whole like owner's efforts to try to actually get them to work once John was out of the picture'

  • $

    market_signal: Zidware's boutique model priced Magic Girl at ~$15,000 during era when Stern released standard games at $3,500; premium justified by exclusivity and custom nature; represents market segment willing to pay 4x premium for limited production

    high · Host: 'it was going to end up being, I don't know, like a $15, 000 game when Stern was putting out games that were like $3, 500... That was the draw'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Zidware's failed artist relationships: Jeremy Packer (Zombie Yeti) went unpaid; Ben Heck objected to unauthorized likeness use; indicates project management and legal compliance failures at design stage

    high · Host: 'zombie yeti had a huge ordeal of like not getting paid' and 'Ben came out on Pinside and was just like, yeah, I had to ask John to stop using my likeness'

  • ?

    technology_signal: American Pinball junior designer role requires Fusion 360 and SolidWorks CAD experience; indicates 3D CAD-driven playfield development workflow is standard in modern pinball design

    high · Host: 'it wanted some experience in Fusion 360 and SolidWorks were the two that they called out'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Ryan Tanner Petch's homebrew designs feature non-standard playfield geometries: short front-to-back depths with side-exit/re-entry ball paths; represents emerging design philosophy challenging conventional rectangular cabinet constraints

    high · Host: 'he's done really short front to back playfields with paths coming out the side of the cabinet and going back into the cabinet, coming out of the box type of situation'

  • ?

    content_signal: Host re-records episode due to audio quality concerns; indicates podcast quality standards and host attention to listener experience

    high · Host: 'About a month ago... I recorded an episode about it and I hated it... because I recorded kind of late at night... you can barely hear me'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: John Papaduke's design signature characterized by 'whimsical' approach; waterfall-effect ramps with flowing, slowing ball physics; visual/mechanical elegance over speed; creative constraint-breaking

    high · Host: 'J-Pop has this mystique because a lot of people kind of describe his designs in a single word as whimsical... His ramps, they have this nice like waterfall side to side, like flowing river waterfall effect'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Zidware Magic Girl production built 16 units with intentional/unintentional variations: different ramp geometries, prototype component substitution; suggests inadequate production standardization or design iteration during production run

    high · Host: 'most of them were different from each other in some random way... some were a little bit more major. Like some of the ramps were a different geometry... It was almost like he was just throwing prototype parts all together and cobbling these games together'

    • 3:55
    But then I don't think they ever really got into their own board sets. But anyways, whatever. Back to the job posting.
    4:05
    So it had, you know, kind of, if you've ever looked at like a job posting in the last couple of years, It kind of had some of the pretty standard non-quantifiable things. You've got to work well with others. You've got to be a highly motivated individual in the fast-paced environment. You know, that kind of stuff.
    4:23
    But it didn list a degree or work experience You know you have to have this many years You know you have to have your Ph in underwater basket weaving and two years experience Something like that
    4:35
    I thought it was kind of interesting to see something like that because a lot of times when American has posted stuff, it's been assembly, manufacturing or quality. I don't remember if they had a posting for their new leader of the pack type of position. I don't even know what they call them. I don't even remember the guy's name. I apologize for that. But anyways, my ears kind of perked up and I looked at it and I was just kind of like, you know, because for that split second, you're like, maybe.
    5:08
    But yeah, amongst other things like this, this wouldn't work out anyways. But the reason why it piqued my interest is because I have 17 years of experience in Creo and AutoCAD. And Creo is a 3D modeling program, parts, assemblies, drawings, everything like that. I'm a senior mechanical design engineer by title. And I work with these parts and all the way up to large assembly management type stuff. And I do both the modeling and the drawing side on some very, very expensive products that they only go one way. They do not return to Sender. But yeah, so I did have that little bit of a daydream. I was like, oh, that'd be kind of cool. And I was like, you know what? It sounds like it sounds really hard. You know, like I have like maybe I have two layouts that I could do like right now. Like I've had them jotted down on a notepad for years and I've refined them. I've got notes on a couple different like flow paths and mechs and game rules and stuff like that. Like I could give you two games, like snap my fingers and I can explain them to you. Like it would take a little while to draw them up and get all the CAD done, obviously. But like I've got two games ready to go. But then if you make that a career and you're just like, man, okay, you're expected to put out a game every 18 to 36 months. At a smaller place that maybe has two design teams like. After a little while, like that might be might be a little bit harder than, you know, my my excitement would allow for. But anyway, so like I my whole daydream side of things is like I think being a guest designer the way Scott Denisi was. I think that would be cool because he's he still works.
    7:00
    For Pinball Life, which is the parts distributor up there. And he does a lot of he does CAD stuff and he like reverse engineers brackets and stuff that are no longer available. But, you know, people need them for their 20,000 Adams families that are out there. You know, hopefully they're hopefully there's still that many out there. Probably not, if we're being honest. But, you know, people still need brackets because parts break because steel balls will smash into stuff and eventually break stuff. And you replace the balls every, you know, six months, 12 months, whatever it is. But you're not replacing those brackets and stuff on the inside until they break. And eventually they will. So you got to have vendors that have that. So Scott DeNisi is doing that. But he still has done a couple designs. And I think that would be a pretty sweet side gig, if you will. So no disrespect to anybody that they're trying to look at or hire. I'm super curious who's going to get this position because we just saw Stern post. So it's kind of like a nice thing that I did have a little delay on this. We just saw Stern post that Tanner Petch just got hired as a new game designer. And if you've never seen anything of his, he has an imagination, let me tell you. But he's done several homebrew projects and they are typically not like your normal pinball stereotypical shape and size and layout kind of thing. He's done really short front to back play fields with paths coming out the side of the cabinet and going back into the cabinet, coming out of the box type of situation.
    8:42
    Really, really off the wall cool stuff. So that'll be exciting. So you know I remember a couple of years ago everybody was just like not everybody but people were just like man if we don get some new blood like when these guys all retire like what going to happen And I think around the time that Elwin started at Stern that kind of started that process of hiring folks I'm not saying Elwin is a spring chicken or anything, but like he's a newer person to the industry. And I think that kind of got people going a little bit on the management side saying, okay, we can find people. Like this isn't that bad and let's just be wise with everything and life will be fine. So I think seeing these hires that we've seen over the last couple of years is just, you know, it's great in general. So really excited to see what comes out of all that stuff. Um, but aside from the, the, you know, brief little daydream of being a pinball designer, um, that made me remember something that I had totally forgotten. Um, so once upon a time there was a company called Zidware and this was, I don't know, 10, 12 years ago, something like that.
    10:00
    And they were developing a game that turned into developing a couple games. And I remember I mean I follow a lot of small companies on Facebook just in case they post you know just to see what's going on like you get way more information from a lot of the news sites or just inside in general people talk going to shows like you'll get more information than that than a company putting something out on on their Facebook page. But anyway, so Zidware was hiring for a handful of positions and one of them literally said CADmonkey. And I get the tongue-in-cheek kind of jokiness of it. Like it's not meant to be insulting. It's just kind of, you know, sometimes you're just given a bunch of sheets of paper and it's like, make these changes. You're just like, all right, there's no design work involved. There's just converting red ink into black ink. And on the PDF when it comes out. And that's that's all there is to it. So that's more of like the the robotic, not monotonous, but it's it's a very robotic process. And you're just like, OK, like this is it's the the less sexy side of of doing CAD stuff. But but anyway, so like so I kind of I got the tongue in cheek joke. I appreciated the humor a little bit and I actually made a post and I said, hmm, sounds interesting. And then Zidware made a comment that said you should apply.
    11:33
    And so let's talk about what Zidware was real quick and then I can get off memory lane. So Zidware was owned and like single staffed by John Papaduke, J-Pop. And in the 90s, he worked for Bally Williams and he designed World Cup soccer, Theater of Magic and Tales of the Arabian Nights.
    11:58
    And J-Pop started with Magic Girl at Zidware. And it was like, I remember when I was on Pinside really, really early on, like people were talking about this Magic Girl. And it was almost in this hushed tone, as hushed as reading text can possibly be. But people wouldn't expand on it. And it turns out that there was this owner's website that John was posting updates on because he was being really secretive. And it was this club, right? And it was really expensive anyways. And he had to put a deposit down that was a couple thousand dollars. And it was going to end up being, I don't know, like a $15,000 game when Stern was putting out games that were like $3,500, brand new. So huge change in price and it was all sorts of exclusivity tied into it. Like that was that was the draw, you know, and J-Pop has this mystique because a lot of people kind of describe his designs in a single word as whimsical. You know, his his ramps, they have this nice like waterfall side to side, like flowing river waterfall effect. And it slows the ball down a little bit and adds a little bit of style to it. He's a very, very creative individual, but he takes forever to do stuff. And that was the problem that Zidware had. So he was working working working renting this place out and needing to pay the bills So he started asking for more and more money from these pre people on Magic Girl And then he expanded that into newer games And the second one was called Ben Heck Zombie Adventureland And Ben came out on Pinside and was just like, yeah, I had to ask John to stop using my likeness because he just found me on YouTube and I didn't approve this. Like, I'm not on board with this. And so that got changed to Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland or Raza. And that was like this alien theme, you know, aliens invade and it takes place at a theme park, you know, so it's kind of like, you know, picture yourself at Six Flags and then aliens come crashing in and panic ensues. Like that's kind of what it looks like.
    14:09
    So, yeah, he started asking for more payments on top of that. The pre-order people got really worried. Everything fell apart. Some people sued and they did win.
    14:20
    And then Zidware liquidated everything. But John made 16 Magic Girl games at the American Pinball facility when American Pinball was just starting up.
    14:33
    And most of them were different from each other in some random way, like small details on some, but some of them were a little bit more major. Like some of the ramps were a different geometry, even though the start and stop points were still the same. Like the path was different and it was almost like he was just throwing prototype parts all together and cobbling these games together. And the code didn't work at all. And, you know, there was like this whole like owner's efforts to try to actually get them to work once John was out of the picture. So that's kind of the funny like full circle moment is like, yeah, American Pinball is, you know, rising from the ashes.
    15:10
    And in the same facility that J-Pop had once kind of put all these games together. It was a total collapse. Everything on the Zidware side, it was unfortunately tragic how bad that all went down. But we did get at least one good thing out of that. We got Zombie Yeti, and so his name is Jeremy Packer, and Jeremy has been interviewed a couple times on this subject alone. And he's like, yeah, I think John was just like Googling zombie artist or something. And he found my name and he reached out to me and and zombie yeti had a huge ordeal of like not getting paid and stuff like that. So going back to that whole job posting, like I totally dodged a bullet, even if it was just going to be a side gig for when I was not a side gig, but like kind of a part time thing, because it certainly wasn't going to be a full time job that Zidware was asking for. So, you know, 10 hours a week, whatever, when I was just starting out as a young cad individual. Like that wouldn't have been that big of a deal in my day to day.
    16:19
    But yeah, there were other people that were like, hey, this is my full time gig and I'd like to get paid for it. So kind of dodged a bullet on that one. But, you know, the outcome is we got Zombie Yeti who did art for Ghostbusters, Iron Maiden, Ninja Turtles, Godzilla, Avengers Infinity Quest, Deadpool, probably more that I'm forgetting about. And now he's the art director at Stern. So, you know, not the greatest uplifting story, but definitely got a few gems out of that one. So really excited to see who American Pinball ends up hiring, if they're a name in like the hobbyist industry and the homebrew side of things, you know, or if they're just this total unknown and, you know, they're just like, hey, yeah, I just I have a, you know, experience and sure, I can I can put stuff together. I don't know anything about pinball, but let's give it a go. You know, like it could be anybody. And I think that's kind of the fun. So hopefully they announce who it is and hopefully it's fairly soon and we can kind of get to know that individual and see what American has in store for us because it sounds like they're well funded and they're well intended at this point and that's always a good thing to have in Pimball manufacturing. So we'll see what happens. All right, party on. Party on, Wayne. Party on, Garth. It's Wayne's World. Party time. Excellent. Woo! Woo!
    17:47
    And we're clear.