Saturday, January 09, 2010

Isis: the plot thickens

I just got an email from someone named Andrew Molloy regarding the Isis puzzle. I post it here with his permission and without comment, except to say that I am not terribly surprised:

I just read your blog on the Isis adventure. Interesting to see negative feedback from a customer's point of view. I have nothing to do with the Isis puzzle, but I designed their "NKryptor" puzzle (the physical part of it). You may find their business practices dubious for the customer, but they're also pretty dubious from inside as well. I was a self employed contractor and I got royally stiffed by them. As did another contractor who came on board for the electronics of that puzzle and then went on to design the Ramisis. It's essentially a one man driving force in that company called Andrew Reeves, who basically takes advantage of people and then takes all the credit. It doesn't surprise me at all that his method of squeezing out the money is by "extorting" the customer and forcing personal details from you. It may not get passed on but it doesn't stop him from sending you details of his own ridiculous pyramid schemes.


Mobius said...

It may have been only a few years ago but it's definitely taught me valuable lessons. For one, in business get everything in writing, verbal agreements aren't worth the paper they're written on. In my case my flaw was I was too trusting and didn't want to "rock the boat" for fear of losing work. In hindsight I should have pushed for my money straight away or simply stopped working for them.

Jay said...

So hang on....

Isis 1 had to be reversed engineered.

Pyrahunters was written by Maher with me doing the graphics work.

Nkrytor was designed by you, electronics done by another person and the internal game done by me and Maher again?

When I 'worked' for Sonicwarp, he always told me he was the designer of various puzzles (including the NKryptor).

Maybe you, me, Maher and Ade should pool together and start looking into Theft of Intellectual Property.

I know I always had a section written into my contract about if Sonicwarp stopped selling any of my stuff, all intellectual property would automatically revert to me. However, that's on the assumption that he paid for any intellectual property, because if he didn't, he did actually own any IP.

It's like going to buy a fridge and going to the shop "I'll pay you later". It doesn't mean you own the fridge!

Mobius said...

Interesting. I was even asked to help with reverse engineering the Isis 1 (still have the pieces of one he sent me). Think they got a professional firm or something to do it in the end.

I did think it was strange why he'd need to reverse engineer to get the plans when he told me originally he'd designed it. I think it's definitely a stretch to say you designed something when you give a vague idea to someone to actually design it.

The guy that did the electronics for NKryptor has now set up on his own with Revomaze and emailing him since apparently wasn't exactly treated well either. Pretty much same as me.

I bet he now probably claims he created the related computer games.

I'll have to dust off my contract and look at it, although it was very specific to only "Sonicwarp Ltd" and I believe they're now trading under a different name.

Jay said...

Ironically I emailed Revomaze to ask if I could have a look at it (professional curiousity call it).

I doubt I will now, as he's had his fingers burnt by Andy Reeves as well.

In regards to your contract: Should still be valid as even all of Sonicwarp Ltd literature states "Sonicwarp Ltd - Part of SonicGames", which means it still exists in some incarnation.

Now the question: Do any of the sub-contractors/consultants for Sonicwarp ever get paid?

It seems not.

I'll give Ade & Maher a shout as well, see if they want in on the action (I assume they will!).
I've already emailed Anthony (the Gent who put up all the money for Sonicwarp to launch)

If I could figure out how, I'd PM you my email....