S1500 Posted June 21, 2017 Share Posted June 21, 2017 So we have podcasts for discontinued consoles, current consoles, and an informercial for a console yet to be produced. This I gotta hear. For best results, listen to it at 3am on a weeknight. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newsdee Posted June 23, 2017 Share Posted June 23, 2017 It's interesting to hear some of those podcasts with the knowledge of what happened later. That early RGR on the early details RVGS had the guys going in all directions and you feel they are focusing on the wrong things. Like how important it is to have a cart connector that will last 50 years... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted June 23, 2017 Share Posted June 23, 2017 They never even got their story straight, which made it clear they had very little chance of developing and delivering anything. That's not how professional product development works -- or even a good Kickstarter. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cernex Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 So I've started listening at work to a bunch of a Retro VGS/Coleco Chamelon stuff podcasts and YouTube stuff. You may be asking yourself 'why in the hell would you subject yourself to that?' It's a good question. I decided to do so for three reasons: 1) Things happened SO fast and furious during the height of it that I missed a ton of stuff and info on what people were saying. 2) As a historian, this kind of stuff fascinates me. 3) Over a year has passed since the end of it, which is a good mark for retrospective, I'll have some thoughts on what I've learned tomorrow, when I'm done listening, (there's over 75 things to listen to!) but I will say this: I usually just listen to The Unnecesary podcast's videos when it comes to that (specially since they were on it from its "humble" beginnings to its spectacular crash and burn), but hey, I will gladly listen to some more. Have a youtube playlist? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulBlazer Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 The YouTube playlist I used I found by just doing a search for 'Coleco Chameleon playlist'. It had about 60 videos in it that someone organized in timeline order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 I usually just listen to The Unnecesary podcast's videos when it comes to that (specially since they were on it from its "humble" beginnings to its spectacular crash and burn), but hey, I will gladly listen to some more. Have a youtube playlist? Pat and Ian were late to the party. StopDrop&Retro is the best in terms of YouTube coverage, but to get the whole thing, you should read this thread from the beginning. It's not so big when compared to Chernow's Hamilton and it has more twists and jump scares than a Stephen King novel. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pipercub Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 Loved both of their work during the escapade. Recently at UK Mike's suggestion I gave Famicom Dojo #124 a listen again and I really suggest to anyone that they listen to that episode again now that a year has passed, http://famicomdojo.tv/podcast/124 What you will experience knowing what you know now, is what the very few of us that knew the whole thing was fake at the time experienced. How anyone could have taken that smoke and mirrors BS seriously is a jaw dropper. This interview is the peak of delusion, buzzwords and BS being strung together and endless claims of this deal or that deal. Sometimes even in one sentence the story changes! For example the molds saved them both 250k and then it was 500k, between 15-20 developers like Konami were contacting them a week for a total of 200 developers. Give it a listen, you will be completely blown away that nobody verified any of these claims or called BS on the contradicting claims. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 Loved both of their work during the escapade. Recently at UK Mike's suggestion I gave Famicom Dojo #124 a listen again and I really suggest to anyone that they listen to that episode again now that a year has passed, http://famicomdojo.tv/podcast/124 What you will experience knowing what you know now, is what the very few of us that knew the whole thing was fake at the time experienced. How anyone could have taken that smoke and mirrors BS seriously is a jaw dropper. This interview is the peak of delusion, buzzwords and BS being strung together and endless claims of this deal or that deal. Sometimes even in one sentence the story changes! For example the molds saved them both 250k and then it was 500k, between 15-20 developers like Konami were contacting them a week for a total of 200 developers. Give it a listen, you will be completely blown away that nobody verified any of these claims or called BS on the contradicting claims. Got another link? That one has gone down the memory hole. Edit: here ya go. Web version (needs Flash) Direct link "ACK!" 404 File Not Found We're sorry, the file you have requested could not be found. Please try again. Some possible reasons for this error are listed below: The page you have requested was inferior and destroyed like the rabid dog it was. The page you have requested was probably moved long long ago, and we're too lazy to set up a redirect page for your convenience. The web site you are trying to reach no longer exists. Ha, yeah right... You can't tpye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elmer Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 (edited) There's a typo at the end of Pipercub's link, try this ... http://famicomdojo.tv/podcast/124 <edit> Whoops ... late to the game, you've already posted the link! Sorry. Edited June 28, 2017 by elmer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 It's amazing to listen to the obvious bullshittery and wishful thinking. I remember different versions of this pitch from so many places back then. If only this passion and energy were channeled into something productive or real, that would be something to see. Maybe not anything anyone would want to buy, but still ... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaysWithWolves Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 I know others have suggested it, but I also think the molds are cursed. They slowly change the owner and his perspective of the world. If this story was a modern-day horror, the very first thing we may see is a homemade video tape of someone happily and innocently acquiring a rare artifact. We saw this video when Kennedy bought the molds. I don't know why; I don't know how, but I think the goddess Bastet is involved. She was the Egyptian Goddess of cats, and took on several different forms from human, to cat-headed to the beloved domestic cat. She wouldn't be just the goddess of Egyptian cats; she would watched over them all--including South American. She was also known as the goddess of protection, joy, dance, music, and family. But what if something went wrong? What if a talisman fell into the smelting buckets when they were about to form the Jaguar molds and twisted her into something more sinister? Or released into the steel a "dark twin" which was a mirror image of Bastet? What a cursed cat may look like: What a dark mirror-image may look like: The kicker--nay, proof--is her name in hieroglyphs. It is of a woman playing a video game on a rabbit-eared TV set! I rest my case. And, I think I may spend too much time on the Innernets, sometimes. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godslabrat Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 My notes from when The Interview was originally posted on AA: “Ed [Gueiss] thought it was not a great idea”.- 4:00 “Indiegogo has been courting us”, lots of insinuation that IGG was just so much cooler than kickstarter- 6:30 Oh, BTW, we don’t have a prototype and that’s a problem with Kickstarter – 7:27 “We use Indiegogo because they’re LOCAL” – 10:00 “We’re going to fabricate the boards in the US.” - 10:30 “We’re dealing with serious specification. This thing has to last a lifetime.” - 13:17 “As much technical detail as you like…” - 18:26 “Can’t go into too much detail, we have a lot of patentable technology” - 19:53 Mike is in love with the sound of his own voice and won’t stop talking about Legos despite everyone else being bored - 25:00 “Absolutely no bugs!” - 27:08 “Our minimal goals will give us a very capable system” 28:10 - (Note, they just spent several minutes hyping FPGA, and the original goal of the IGG did NOT allow for the FPGA tech) “THE ARCHITECTURE IS VERY WELL DEFINED” - 35:30 “Stuff is being developed right now.” – 36:20 1:20:20 "Getting games on this is turning out to be the LEAST of our worries!" 1:25:10 "We've learned a lot by keeping this as open as we can." I'm quite amused, even after all this time, that the Retro VGS crew kept weeping over the current state of gaming and its expendable titles. It's actually a fair observation, but their response is to say "Wouldn't it be terrible if my Genesis games stopped working? We should make a new cartridge system!" Instead of, you know, observing that your Genesis games DO still work, and are a fairly solid platform. I think one of the biggest mistakes made in this project was to envision an entirely new console, rather than embracing one that was already loved by fans. People DO have fond memories of playing Sega Genesis games. No one has fond memories of playing "RVGS" games. This is where their console becomes a solution looking for a problem. You want people to buy into your dream because they don't like modern gaming, but the product you offer doesn't really address their concerns in any meaningful light. Listening to all this, and knowing what we know now, all these guys sound like crooks. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 I don't necessarily think they're crooks or criminals. But it looks that way because they are trying to apply common business philosophy to making money via retrogaming - which they don't know Shit from Shinola. The end result is a bunch of fumbling around and patchwork and promises of grandeur. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dj_convoy Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 I don't necessarily think they're crooks or criminals. Well, y'know. Not at first. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 They never got the chance to hurt anyone, because of all the times they shot themselves in the feet 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StopDrop&Retro Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 Pat and Ian were late to the party. StopDrop&Retro is the best in terms of YouTube coverage, But no, I wouldn't say they were late to the party. They were with it from the beginning but chose to delay their opinions/rant out of professionalism. I remember them explaining that it in their first piece about the Retro VGS, people had been requesting they give their thoughts and they decided to wait. It's worth tracking down the YouTube version of it because I recall seeing Pat being visibly uncomfortable during the segment and not saying much initially. Pat used to write for Mike's magazine, they were still on good terms at that time and he didn't want to offend him. They tried really hard to keep it professional and pulled it off well. Then of course Mike responded with a personal attack and that's when the gloves came off from then on out. We all approached this from our own angle and they had a legit reason to hold off. I went into it as someone who only knew Mike after backing the first year of his magazine and knowing that he could never pull this off, so I had no reservations. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 That's an excellent point -- fortunately the peanut gallery here was (appropriately, IMHO) skeptical from the start Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godslabrat Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 But no, I wouldn't say they were late to the party. They were with it from the beginning but chose to delay their opinions/rant out of professionalism. I remember them explaining that it in their first piece about the Retro VGS, people had been requesting they give their thoughts and they decided to wait. It's worth tracking down the YouTube version of it because I recall seeing Pat being visibly uncomfortable during the segment and not saying much initially. Pat used to write for Mike's magazine, they were still on good terms at that time and he didn't want to offend him. They tried really hard to keep it professional and pulled it off well. Then of course Mike responded with a personal attack and that's when the gloves came off from then on out. We all approached this from our own angle and they had a legit reason to hold off. I went into it as someone who only knew Mike after backing the first year of his magazine and knowing that he could never pull this off, so I had no reservations. It's for this reason I think it will be very *interesting* to compare the final coverage of the PolyMega with the initial cautious coverage of the Retroblox. I don't want to put words in Pat & Ian's mouths, but I have a hunch what they'll be saying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 It's for this reason I think it will be very *interesting* to compare the final coverage of the PolyMega with the initial cautious coverage of the Retroblox. I don't want to put words in Pat & Ian's mouths, but I have a hunch what they'll be saying. Smoke and Mirrors makes a console not. This goes for Coleco Chameleon, Retroblox/Polymega, Lythium (who has been eerily quite as of late), and yes, AtariBox, who refuse to announce anything and all clues pointing to some sort of "Internet of Things" 1984-esk spyware box. So let us reflect on what is confirmed and real. Retron77 is real. Atgames Flashback Activision Gold / Atari Flashback Portable / Sega / et al is real. SNES Classic Mini is real. The rest of the stuff is just hype train with no conductor or locomotive on the fast track to rolling off a cliff. Chameleon was a fitting title. It used it's cloaking mechanism to vanish into thin air. Bravo. I'd even pay to see an illusionist of that caliber, but thanks to AtariAge, I got to see a great magic show for free... 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 Yes yes! Since these little places insist on playing showman like the big dogs, here's some free advice for would-be entrepreneurs: shut your piehole until you have something to show and ship. For example, we all know Apple likes to put on a big show to announce their new thing, marketed out the wazoo. But unlike the vaporware joints, a week or two later, they SHIP THE THING they've been showing. You can buy it, and it usually works like expected. Be more like that. Unless the "product" you're actually producing is hype and maybe extra funding, in which case DIAF. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulBlazer Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 Yes yes! Since these little places insist on playing showman like the big dogs, here's some free advice for would-be entrepreneurs: shut your piehole until you have something to show and ship. For example, we all know Apple likes to put on a big show to announce their new thing, marketed out the wazoo. But unlike the vaporware joints, a week or two later, they SHIP THE THING they've been showing. You can buy it, and it usually works like expected. Be more like that. Unless the "product" you're actually producing is hype and maybe extra funding, in which case DIAF. I'm usually good with these, but....DIAF? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cybercylon Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 They never got the chance to hurt anyone, because of all the times they shot themselves in the feet With the way this dragged on, more like hacked at their feet with a very dull axe. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dj_convoy Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 An axe you could buy in different colors with a low serial number. Listening to a couple of minutes of the Famicom Dojo thing, the only time Mike really comes to life and is really excited is when he's talking about the collectability of the Kickstarter exclusive carts, which is what pissed me off about this thing in the first place. He was SO EXCITED to make a console for collectors, as opposed to one for gamers. The collectability aspect seemed to be his primary concern. Also, name dropping everyone ever who had made a retro-style game. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godslabrat Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 I'm usually good with these, but....DIAF? Die in a fire. And yeah, it's the most humorous (and the most frustrating) part of these projects that the figureheads want to act like Captains of Industry, when in reality, they're little kids playing "business'. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 I know we discussed this already, but 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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