What was the Aussie site or guy that was taking tables and re-selling them?

Isaac Sauvage

Isaac Sauvage

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This blew up here... a year and a half ago, maybe?
I think all his self-promotion threads were moved to the staff area, which is maybe why I can't find them now.

Anyway, I just saw the following scam operation on Reddit, and it reminded me of that guy:

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com www.reddit.com

If it's the same operation (Retroplay Australia), he's moved on to taking orders for vpin machines and just keeping the money without delivery. Like some kind of narcissist, you can even see his face plastered all over the site and his Twitter feed.

Too bad he also brings dishonor to a great guitarist's name. :(
(Pink Floyd alert)
 
Upvote 0
Thought there might be some feedback on this from staff or anyone else who's heard about these scams, but I guess not? (and I'm still really curious if it's the same scammer from 1.5yrs ago)

Part of why I posted this was as a general warning to the vpin / PB community, and also to help people track this guy's scams (because likely there'll be something else in future), as he's basically doxxed himself pretty good with name, image, location and business.

Alternatively, I'm happy to take down the thread if what I'm doing is perhaps counter-productive?
I'll give it a couple more days...

Thanks, folks.
 
Not sure if it was the same guy who caused this community so much problems, but I hope it was.
 
xenonph said:
Not sure if it was the same guy who caused this community so much problems, but I hope it was.
Click to expand...
I seem to recall Terry being griefed in particular by the original guy, as he was directly profiting off of mssr Red's tireless labor and latest breakthroughs. (geez, what is it with people who go after selfless creators like that?)

IIRC the guy kept obnoxiously spamming threads, offering his 'tremendous deal' of a site subscription to this and the other major pinsim sites.

Anyway, in the mod forums, if you do a search for "scam," I'm thinking the guy's threads and site should come up a couple times within the timeframe mentioned?

Not looking to painfully rehash anything here, just curious if it's the same site, i.e. the same guy.
I'd like to help the community stay aware of this jackass, if possible. Or maybe it's indeed two different jackasses, lol...
 
I found out about this last Wednesday in a post here..

Bootlegger Dave has gone broke!

I feel like this is great news for the general vpx community. Don't buy from people who sell bootleg content. They are shady people and can take your money and run with it, as has happened in this instance. There are quite a number of people who paid money to him, got nothing and now he's gone un...
vpuniverse.com vpuniverse.com
 
Warnings are always good. Always new people coming around that do not know the history.
Of course some common sense will quickly show those who stick around that this is a hobby so, why pay to some random guy to get virtual pinball working?

I don't follow links to this kind of "news" though. I don't think they deserve my pity, forgiveness, empathy or sympathy and of course my time.
 
Seems like karma will come and collect eventually, that's such a scummy thing though - keep all the money and not refund their monies back. Though I did see this on google when searching for it - "As of 16th January 2023, Retroplay Australia is in liquidation. Make sure you perform a chargeback with your bank or credit card immediately - you will not get your order or refund via Retroplay!"
 
namine2021 said:
Seems like karma will come and collect eventually, that's such a scummy thing though - keep all the money and not refund their monies back. Though I did see this on google when searching for it - "As of 16th January 2023, Retroplay Australia is in liquidation. Make sure you perform a chargeback with your bank or credit card immediately - you will not get your order or refund via Retroplay!"
Click to expand...
True, altho last time I checked, the sucker is still taking orders on his site. There's even an announcement about a "January sale" IIRC.
 
Retro-play, to have closed so quick, somebody big has come after him. either the tax office or a copyright holder
 
Pop Bumper Pete said:
Retro-play, to have closed so quick, somebody big has come after him. either the tax office or a copyright holder
Click to expand...
Yo Pete, do you remember if it was the very same a-hole who was selling... what was it?
A subscription service to other peoples' FP & VP tables?
(remember that?)

This was like a year+ ago, and he was stupidly aggressive about the whole thing, like these sites were trying to crush his 'healthy, business model,' lol.

But yeah, I gotta admit, matey, I'm weirdly curious about how this plays out for him.

Sorta like-- "what can go wrong being a shameless sociopath?"
 
I remember a bunch of us brainstorming on how to stop this guy a few years ago.
I actually sent an email to the guy who created the BASS.dll that is included with the Visual Pinball Install. (Tried to think outside the box.)
I informed him that his program was being included with merchandise that is being sold. A clear violation of the Terms of the Agreement you click when installing the program.
He sent back email thanking me for my concern, and they would check it out.
Never heard back after that.
Had to try something as this guy was a menace to this community.
 
xenonph said:
I remember a bunch of us brainstorming on how to stop this guy a few years ago.
I actually sent an email to the guy who created the BASS.dll that is included with the Visual Pinball Install. (Tried to think outside the box.)
I informed him that his program was being included with merchandise that is being sold. A clear violation of the Terms of the Agreement you click when installing the program.
He sent back email thanking me for my concern, and they would check it out.
Never heard back after that.
Had to try something as this guy was a menace to this community.
Click to expand...
Do you reckon it's the same guy?

IIRC, the evidence got moved to the staff-forum like 1.5 years ago, sorry for being such a doofus. I think it's in there... somewhere..?
 
Isaac Sauvage said:
Do you reckon it's the same guy?

IIRC, the evidence got moved to the staff-forum like 1.5 years ago, sorry for being such a doofus. I think it's in there... somewhere..?
Click to expand...


If anybody would know if it is the same guy, I think @TerryRed would know, as it was the same guy who made a bunch of names here to harrass him.
He made his site seem like real authors were signing up, but they were all fraudulent cloned names made by him.
 
@Isaac Sauvage

Here are his known IP addresses and usernames, all blocked and spam reported here long ago...

Here's a current listing of his names and IP addresses, the bold ones are the most recent, I added the new IP to the discouraged IP's.
VirtualPinball
VPD (Registered with a connected Google Account)
DaveBridgford
AnnieArcade
DAZIACOK
Terryfagerty
VPDAU
49.182.112.175
49.197.246.216
115.64.248.80
118.208.132.84
118.209.244.150
118.209.254.120
124.148.83.132
124.171.75.65
203.220.76.12
Click to expand...
 
namine2021 said:
Now that's funny, I did not know that he was the one behind VPD (that site that went offline a year ago)
Click to expand...
Do you remember the full name so I can check it out on archive.org?

"VisualPinballDirect.com," maybe?
 
it was virtualpinballdownloads VPD and tried to mimic VPU it was run by Damian Holmes AKA MPA ( which is still going ) retroplay was run by Dave Gilmore, but i think they were into something together cos retro play was plastered all over VPDs site selling packs and machines. Extreme gaming cabs are the other Australians that still do cabs with tables and arcade machines.
 
namine2021 said:
Now that's funny, I did not know that he was the one behind VPD (that site that went offline a year ago)
Click to expand...
he wasnt that was run by Damian holmes who still runs MPA
 
Ian (WVP) said:
it was virtualpinballdownloads VPD and tried to mimic VPU it was run by Damian Holmes AKA MPA ( which is still going ) retroplay was run by Dave Gilmore, but i think they were into something together cos retro play was plastered all over VPDs site selling packs and machines. Extreme gaming cabs are the other Australians that still do cabs with tables and arcade machines.
Click to expand...
So-- not seeing any links, past or present, for "VirtualPinballDownloads.com"

Did I stuff up the name, there?

Also... "Damian Holmes," hmm.
Not saying it's not authentic name, but...

Sheesh mon, maybe I should message Abs DelFuego on this..
 
xenonph said:
If anybody would know if it is the same guy, I think @TerryRed would know, as it was the same guy who made a bunch of names here to harrass him.
He made his site seem like real authors were signing up, but they were all fraudulent cloned names made by him.
Click to expand...

VPD was ran by Damian Holmes who still runs MPA made fake account on VPD as you said for TerryRed, Nailbuster, even me when we were World of VPX, to make it look legit he just wanted the tables to put into packs and then charged people to access tables on his site.#
 
Isaac Sauvage said:
So-- not seeing any links, past or present, for "VirtualPinballDownloads.com"

Did I stuff up the name, there?

Also... "Damian Holmes," hmm.
Not saying it's not authentic name, but...

Sheesh mon, maybe I should message Abs DelFuego on this..
Click to expand...

No he took it down because he got so slatted by us all, basically set up a VPU Look alike charged people to access it then shut it down, no support when tables didnt work either pointed them to vpu, VPf or here.
 
So one day, given yer time, matey,
check out Abs DelFuego? (he's Melb-based)

One of the greatest scam-baiters of all time!

(not to mention, such a lovely, smart, awesome matey)
 
So apparently Retro-Play HAS come back but under a different name. It looks like now they're calling themselves "ArcadeDrives"
 
namine2021 said:
So apparently Retro-Play HAS come back but under a different name. It looks like now they're calling themselves "ArcadeDrives"
Click to expand...

Really, i couldn't find any information on this.
 
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