enoofu Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 Looking at gamegavel it looks like its mostly dead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 I'm honored to "officially" be a Top 10 Hater Brigader! "Hater Brigader". That needs to be an Activision patch. Wow, wouldn't that be great?! I can see it now: a modified Kaboom patch, with an AtariAge logo on the bomb! And then... 33 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingonwheels Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 Colecovision itself issued a statement on the matter today, confirming that the Coleco Chameleon project is no more. "The update that you were all anxiously awaiting: Retro VGS has decided that the work that they have created is not sufficient to demonstrate at this time," it explained. "Consequently, we can no longer proceed with the project and the Chameleon project will be terminated. "This separation is amicable. We wish them luck in the future. We thank the gaming community for their continued support, input, vigilance, and trust." http://www.gamespot.com/articles/retro-coleco-console-terminated-update-big-news/1100-6435276/ 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thierry Henry Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 not by mike, just another youtuber. You're referring to that Gamester81 vid? I have no idea what he was attempting to do there. Besides a whole bunch of other contradictions, he starts off by saying the goings-on with the Coleco Chameleon cannot be defended. And then ends up defending them anyway by insisting that Mike Kennedy should somehow still be afforded the benefit of the doubt. But people shouldn't get too worked up over this because...you know....starving children and ISIS. BTW, I'm still waiting for that meme to do the rounds. ;p 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enoofu Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 I believe the worst mistruth is that Mike was hyping this for Christmas 2016 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
galax Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 Why did Coleco/Chris Cardillo gave a statement to Engadget (Kris Naudus), that did a poor research on the story?Chris Cardillo should have posted Coleco's statement here on AtariAge whose members saved them from more embarrassment if this was allowed to continue RobertFame, gratitude - a Jedi craves not these things. What are you guys going to do now that the drama is over. You'll have to go back to playing video games for your entertainment fix. I got a MiST last week and am behind on some soldering projects... Colecovision itself issued a statement on the matter today, confirming that the Coleco Chameleon project is no more.We discussed that about 20 pages ago and are have now returned to the jokes and memes. I went to that link again though and found that even Kevin Bow has become a hater, his anger has turned inward against both Coleco and Mike! And then... I love it! 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 And then... I like it! Thanks! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaysWithWolves Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 This may have flew under the radar, but for completeness in this tale, I found out that Mike Kennedy tried another IndieGogo in the past. He tried to raise a bunch of money for GameGavel, but it must not have got too far. https://web.archive.org/web/20120507022859/http://www.indiegogo.com/GameGavel It was flexible funding, so I assume that he got whatever amount was ultimately pledged. I couldn't find an archive of the completed campaign, though. There were a few posts on this on various forums (such as DP), but it didn't really attract any attention. I hadn't heard of this either. That thread on DP is foreshadowing, and it's from mid-2012: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaysWithWolves Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 And then... hater-brigader-patch-full.jpg I see you have a prototype. Please put on Kickstarter so I can throw money at my screen. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
galax Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 It was flexible funding, so I assume that he got whatever amount was ultimately pledged. I couldn't find an archive of the completed campaign, though. It Stayed at $25. This archived page lost the stylesheet but confirms that: https://web.archive.org/web/20120606212833/http://www.indiegogo.com/GameGavel $25 Raised of $100,000 Goal 0 time left Better looking archived page with 19 days left: https://web.archive.org/web/20120516074831/http://www.indiegogo.com/GameGavel?c=home The pitch made no sense: "We gave lifetime memberships to 6,000 people for free, so you can pay $500 for the same thing". They claim to be "Helping gamers buy & sell since 2008 without the high fees of eBay" but eBay has never charged me a $7.99/month seller's fee? It was met with skepticism everywhere else that he posted about it: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=234213 Then why do you need to ask for donations? http://atariage.com/forums/topic/197499-gamegavel-reaches-out-to-its-crowd-with-indiegogo-campaign/ If it was so great you wouldn't be this desperate for money. http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=3&threadid=69766 Mike - be careful, solicitations like this are illegal in some states, possibly all. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toiletunes Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 It is slightly disappointing RVGSinc can contact Coleco/RWB, but not make an official statement of their own- Don't the fans and believers deserve better than a blank missing page? When a physical business closes, they put up a sign. All we got here is an empty building. WTF? The supporters deserve better than this. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tep392 Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 It is slightly disappointing RVGSinc can contact Coleco/RWB, but not make an official statement of their own- Don't the fans and believers deserve better than a blank missing page? When a physical business closes, they put up a sign. All we got here is an empty building. WTF? The supporters deserve better than this. Maybe his lawyer told him to STFU. You know, to reduce risk of lawsuits. 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prince_david Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 Just so you guys know, the Facebook page is probably "unpublished" right now. Why? Mike probably has to remove all mention of Coleco from the Facebook page and the easiest way to do that at your leisure would be to unpublish the page. This leaves Mike with the "likes" when he republishes the page, at least I believe so. It is very likely that Mike will be back with something else. Maybe he got one of those "Under new management" banners you see outside of ailing businesses. I am not privy to that information. I did contact him (probably went straight to his trash bin) in relation to purchasing RETRO Mag from him. As you all know, I co-own Retro Gaming Magazine- a competitor to Mike's product. Removing any chance of truth to rumors that I could be forced to change the name of my site would rather nice in my eyes. This saga is far from over though. If you listen carefully, you can almost hear Mike thinking up a new plan. I really don't know. I can't imagine Mike coming back with something after this fiasco. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VectorGamer Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 ^ Holy shit! This is the first I've ever heard of that! Thanks for posting it! From what I recall, GameGavel did have some sort of an early adopter incentive. I think the first people to get on board got a lifetime privilege to sell things without ever having to pay listing fees or something. To my knowledge most of the sales on GameGavel are from people who were fortunate enough to get in on this. So even if the site could be described as "active" it makes very little money. I remember when he was giving them away as I was one of the lifetime sellers. Looking at gamegavel it looks like its mostly dead I raised thousands of dollars in the purge of my video game collection last year and not for an instant did I trust GameGavel to get me top dollar for my auctions. I sold everything on eBay - the only auction site you need to use when you're a seller. You need buyers and sellers for a marketplace and GameGavel has neither. I checked out their forums a few weeks ago and it's a ghost town. Please tell me Retro VGS won't be back. I don't think I can survive another 300 page thread. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKMike Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 (edited) Atari Age Kill Screen!! Edited March 9, 2016 by UKMike 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VectorGamer Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 Coleco Chameleon is trending on Facebook it's funny reading the posts. Here's the link but I don't know if it'll work for everybody https://www.facebook.com/topic/Coleco-Chameleon/108312192526808?source=whfrt&position=1&trqid=6260059665181840455 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Monkey Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 Looking at gamegavel it looks like its mostly dead I've checked in on it over the years to see if it was worth buying or listing anything on there - turns out it was the "go to" place for Mattel Hyperscan... as that seemed to be the only stuff listed whenever I checked... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gentlegamer Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 (edited) When the site made the name change from CTCW to GG was when everything went to hell and MK thought he was gonna take on Ebay and Amazon. Even the lifetime free memebers had to add credit card information to their accounts? Why would he need my credit card info if I'm never giving him any money? That seemed pretty shady to me. It was that and MK's egotistical approach of GG not just being an alternative to ebay\amazon but it was going to take them head on that led to me personally no longer using CTCW\GG. It was clear to me back then that the man had more than a few screws loose in key locations of his noggin. That and he was entering sellers accounts and messing about without their knowledge. I can say that for a fact as he did so to my GG account and I caught him red handed doing it. He said sorry but the damage was done. I have no clue how many others he did the same to as I can only attest to my own account mistreating. Kennedy also promoted that absurd "Guiness Book of Records World's Largest Video Game Collection" auction on GG a while back. Palmer Luckey made a legit offer of $90k, but they wouldn't take it, and I think it ended with a troll bid of $750k that was never paid. Edited March 9, 2016 by Gentlegamer 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 Atari Age Kill Screen!! Ugh, Tapatalk. AtariAge has a nice mobile view, I would use that instead. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Great Hierophant Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 Retro VGS / Coleco Chameleon Winners, Redeemers and Losers, a non-exclusive list Winners : AtariAge forum members, CUPodcast, Kevin Horton/kevtris, Frank Cifaldi, Companies that made no agreement with RVGS (Atari, Konami, Amiga etc.) Most of these should be obvious. AtariAge has rocked throughout this epic saga and its members have provided insight and investigative results with the CC. The CUPodcast has always maintained an appropriately critical, yet informed approach to this story. Kevin Horton got out as soon as he realized that the RVGS team had no idea what they were doing and well before the Indiegoogo campaign, has provided insight and has the hardware knowledge and skills to create an FPGA-based console. Frank Cifaldi has been credited by others for exposing the CC, even though that may not be accurate, it has done his reputation no harm with the mainstream. The companies MK contacted to license games for his console that did not sign on had the good sense to keep far away from it. Redeemers : PikoInteractive, Collectorvision, Coleco, former Retro Magazine staffers, some online news sources (Polygon, Engadget) Redeemers may have been too uncritical or unquestioning of the motivation, goals and capabilities of RVGS or too defensive when the evidence of fraud was mounting. However, eventually admitted their failings and provided valuable insight into the saga. Coleco deserves credit for withdrawing their support before the deadline. The online news sources fall into this category because they were too superficial in their reporting at first but eventually reported (not with perfect accuracy) on the reasons why the CC was not what it appeared to be. At least they got something right, late to the party though they were. Losers : Patrons of GameGavel and RETRO Magazine, John Lester/gamester81, John Carlsen, Mike Kennedy, Steve Woita and other members attached to RVGS The first category are unfortunate, even though they are only indirectly affected by the RVGS/CC. It seems like MK may have taken the RETRO money (and certainly its credibility) to fund CC, so it isn't looking good for the last two issues to be published or for a third run. GG has been moribund and its association with MK will only damage it further. As far as the rest go, the Johns' apologies do not seem sincere. Lester has continually ping ponged between apology and non-apology, seemed to spend half of his apology video blaming Pat and Ian/CUPodcast and asking to give MK the benefit of the doubt after the capture card debacle. Carlsen looks like he padded his resume, blame everything on MK and was out of his depth with designing the Retro VGS. Woita and the rest of the RVGS headshots have not distanced themselves from MK, even at this point. This suggests that they either don't care about their reputations or maintain a misplaced loyalty to MK. 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 The mainstream gaming press, tech blogs, YouTube gaming channels user lapped up the marketing. Do a quick search for "Coleco Chameleon" from before the DVR card discovery if you don't believe me. Like the average Facebook user, and unlike most people around here, they weren't skeptical or critical about the project at all, at least not until we had found definite proof of the fakery. I think that was what was the most depressing thing about this ... I would argue that Mike's constant running of his mouth got him a lot of attention, which I would consider a marketing success, including a lot of supposedly reputable press outlets repeating his sales pitch without question. On the day that Engadget ran its (provably false) story about Atari licensing for Chameleon, the Twitter echo chamber retweeted and spread that story all over the place. People like that Kevin Bow "true believer" on the RVGS Facebook page refused to be convinced by evidence, in part because mainstream press didn't want to report forum talk as "news." Even some of us in the hater brigade had trouble following this fast-moving discussion thread in real time. It wasn't until Pat and Ian, who are way more popular than us, started talking about Chameleon did the real truth start to trickle out. There was still a shadow of a doubt when the Kickstarter was late, but their "we are making it even better" post did us the favor of including an obviously fake mockup. Had they not done that, we would have been waiting for Coleco to weigh in, and even after Coleco put a fork in it, it wouldn't have been nearly as satisfying an ending without the photo trickery! The biggest lesson here, I think, is that chumps and suckers are easily swayed by press releases and shiny pictures. This project should not have gotten NEARLY as far as it did. It should have been laughed at and forgotten from the get-go. The power of a persistent loudmouth should not be underestimated. 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dj_convoy Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 Yes; when everywhere started parroting the "COLECO is back!" stuff, I got worried. The COLECO branding and the refusal of Mike to correct the impression (that he himself gave) that the original people behind the ColecoVision were back and ready to turn the gaming world on it's ear were what pushed me into being an "official Hater Brigader." I'm stunned how well buying the use of the name papered over the previous failure to launch. During that whole thing, I think the only reasonable piece published online (not counting Carl's efforts) was the Ars Technica piece in December. 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VectorGamer Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 There are a lot of questions to be asked which hopefully a documentary gets made and answers most of them. Mike Kennedy knows the whole truth about this project. Didn't someone post a while back that they could've made a prototype for under $1500? If that's the case, Mike always had at least 3 people on his team and between them they couldn't pony up the dough to fund a prototype? And then when the Chameleon happened, his "staff" ballooned to how many people? And still between them they couldn't fund a prototype? So a lot of people feel that "he had good intentions" at the start of this project. I just don't know about that. He wouldn't fund the prototype and despite the deception and lies what was the rush? Why not cancel the Toy Fair since he didn't have a prototype? Why post a PC card as the "prototype"? Maybe he was just a #fraud from the very beginning. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+madman Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 I went to that link again though and found that even Kevin Bow has become a hater, his anger has turned inward against both Coleco and Mike! image.jpegimage.jpegimage.jpeg I'm starting to wonder if Kevin Bow is a shill account. His only Facebook friend I can see is Gamestr81 and he's "liked" Retro Magazine. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 (edited) As far as the rest go, the Johns' apologies do not seem sincere. Lester has continually ping ponged between apology and non-apology, seemed to spend half of his apology video blaming Pat and Ian/CUPodcast and asking to give MK the benefit of the doubt after the capture card debacle. Carlsen looks like he padded his resume, blame everything on MK and was out of his depth with designing the Retro VGS. Woita and the rest of the RVGS headshots have not distanced themselves from MK, even at this point. This suggests that they either don't care about their reputations or maintain a misplaced loyalty to MK. That was a good roundup of winners/losers/redeemers, I agree with most of it. The remainders defy easy categorization in my opinion. A person doesn't necessarily have to publicly speak out against a friend's scheme gone wrong. We expect all this transparency because Mike was such a bigmouth all the time, giving us lots of stuff to talk about. Gamester81 doesn't seem capable of thinking this through, least of all on video -- I don't think he's a villain or anything, but I'd be embarrassed to be him. I doubt someone goes on YouTube every day if they're too thin-skinned though, I wouldn't worry about him. He's friends with Mike and wants to forgive ... I don't think he quite grasps how outrageous that seems. Why he went on camera in the first place is a mystery to me, but I guess Gamester81 gotta be himself. Carlsen is a goof, I think he's already distanced himself from the project, and has taken snarky little sideways swipes at it without explicitly calling out his former associates. He knows it would make him look bad to do that, so it makes sense for him to continue to do what he has always done (just take one look at his resume): accentuate the positive, minimize the negative, move on to the next thing without getting too attached. These skills would serve him well in Washington DC! Combined with his technical experience, he should have little trouble finding the next paying gig. Woita has been silent, and seems more private than Mike or the YouTubers. If I were him, I'd avoid the spotlight and maybe put up a blog post to the effect of "I still think it was a good idea, and I wish we could have executed it better." It doesn't sound like he gets caught up in internet drama. Edit: Oh yeah, almost forgot the "headshots" (as in publicity photos, not as in firearms). I guess that's because they've been completely silent. I can't even look up their names anymore since the site is down, but I'm sure someone has saved a copy. What were they thinking, and would they give an interview to Triverse Carl? Edited March 9, 2016 by Flojomojo 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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