Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

This is awesome!!!

 

If you do nothing else, download the app and give the theme song at the title a listen, it is killer!

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

I think what UK is getting at is that his project will be more centered around the behind the scenes and first hand accounts that were never referenced once by the "media" that I can recall, utilizing primary source material (official documents, legal filings, interviews with participants, photos, etc.) rather than using secondary sources or reactions to the events. That said, a hugely pivotal moment in the story (DVR card ID) could not be told without the community here being represented as a first hand participant rather than a reactionary entity to events, no doubt the role this forum constitutes primary source material . I am sure the details can be worked out in crediting the forum and those in the discussion. A huge help, unless I am speaking out of turn for UK, is that anyone who has any primary source material that can disclose could contribute greatly by sending it along to him.

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

I have said, quite a few times, that one of the two questions MK asked when he called me up about this thing was if I thought there was a market for it. I told him that I did not think it was viable. I am not against the idea of carts at all, many of us in this thread have shelves full of the things that all still work and can never be altered or revoked by any party, and we love the games with whatever bugs they may have. The Ataris and NESs that we play to this day didn't turn out to be useless heaps without constant updates until support gets pulled. The whole of cart based gaming certainly isn't a bug infested nightmare we want to forget. If I walked into a store and saw a premium console, with cart based media, that played games other than FPS/sports/unrealistic racing games no firmware/software updates to screw with mods/hacks etc. and there was a slew of quality launch titles I would be a buyer. But I think that the number of "me" out there is quite small, the market as a whole does not agree with me, it went the direction of STEAM and I have to admit that is so.

 

The NEO-GEOx was a pretty good example of the hardware side of such a product, although the business side turned into a real train wreck. Had the console adhered to the original concept and not grown into the hydra that it did, and had the business side been conducted ethically and honestly it could have had some very small market success that would have been respectable, but it went the other way. Even if everything were done right the thing was never going to be sitting on the shelf next to the XBox or PS4. But placed in the hands of an idea man trying to bluff through the crowdfunding gatekeepers, well 3 companies, 2 names, and a dumpster fire later (BRILLIANT TERM!!!) we see the result.

 

I for one think that there is a good documentary to be found in this, much along the lines of King of Kong and for the same reasons. The story is one that is accessible and relate-able, it has heroes and villains and like all true successful and engaging villains the villain is the hero of his own story from his point of view. It touches the ongoing crowdfunding world which is evolving from the wild west and has a success/failure story line in which success means two very different things. One team trying to bring the thing to market by cutting corners, smoke and mirrors prototypes, and business entity shell games is pitched against the opposition trying to prevent them from getting away with it. Imagine how engaging a documentary would be flipping back and forth through the story threads as the viewer watches all of the events and key players striving toward their team's goals with the countdown to the moment Coleco pulls the project following the 3rd fake prototype, then the solemn aftermath with all that came would be a compelling ending. And how could I forget, the whole unresolved mysterious Mr. Lee question not being answered. I will say it again, BTB and SDR should partner up on this thing.

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

Before I head out for new year's eve I thought I would check up on this. So, here we are. A year ago we were coasting into the holidays with the announcement that the Coleco name had been applied to the third company to have the RVGS assets transferred to it and MK asking for all to be forgiven in the spirit of Christmas. Tearing out hair out while yelling to the world it was all fake. Retro Mag was in B&Ns and the media was regurgitating RVGS press releases without question. Allot of 1 year anniversaries are coming up, the NY Toy Fair fake, the DVR card disaster, and the eventual collapse of the whole thing. I am sure more laughs are to come. As mentioned last page, the whole time the media quoted tweets, press releases, and never looked one inch beneath the surface, even getting all the facts wrong in the end. No media member ever contacted anyone involved, and they didn't even gather basic source material! Really, not once did you see public docs from the businesses created published, not one basic of journalism that would have been expected.

 

But where are we now? The truth is out there. RetroGaming Roundup is healthier than ever and you bet we are proud of the guys that stepped up! RETRO is off the shelves and on Patreon. And most importantly, Coleco who was so unfairly beat up by this is staging their own triumphant return with their own expo! https://www.colecoexpo.com/

 

And Atari Age is still the forum of record.

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

 

As I've said before, this now reads like somebody's idea of a sick joke. I'll say this much for Mike: after all that's happened over the past year, it takes a special kind of hubris (if that's even the word for it) to keep on coming back for more.

 

 

https://youtu.be/3vcJlnCtIeo

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

So if $9500 worth of backers are on-board, and MK starts to put an issue together, but then the backers get bored/scared/wise and withdraw at the last minute before it's shipped, MK is gonna be left with a mountain of magazines coming from the printers that noone wants, and he's had to pay for by remortgaging his house/back alley blowjobs

 

For that to happen you would need to have angered and offended an entire community to the point that they would register and pledge-withdraw in sufficient numbe...... oh! I get that now!

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

The spin is always interesting, as quoted here MK said the mag was a healthy growing product that would not need crowdfunding, yet there he is on Patreon spinning it as a subscription management service. And on Patreon because he can't dare show up on Kickstarter or Indigogo, and his name and picture are not present anywhere on the Patreon page, and with his passion for self promotion knowing he is toxic to his own project and not plastering his name and face on it has to be level 10 heartburn.

 

Then you have the removal from being sold in B&N, it was spun as what, that they were going to a larger distributor, I guess that was Patreon?

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

"Patreon had been courting us for months"

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

Knowing now that Brandon, and John Carlson were both sold a total line of BS I take a slightly different view of them now. I imagine Brandon had no disclosure about my status or previous agreements and was told something like "Yeah, yeah, Brandon your in charge of the writers and their content". In Carlson's case I am sure he was never told about any planning or effort and that the whole thing as it stood was presented as an original idea developed to that point by Socal with slight assistance from Steve. Trying to see it from Brandon's side he calls this guy up to give an assignment and gets told to go $^#* himself, and Carlson, same sort of thing, what a crap storm all out of trying to get something for nothing from so many.

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

The way it keeps getting delayed to make it even better, Issue#12 will be the best thing in the universe!

 

Out of curiosity, to those that have read the eleven published issues, when do you think it jumped the shark? Was it after a certain person left, or maybe the best-of collection (retroretro?) Having never read it, I think the tipping point was seeing 35 copies of the same issue on eBay as a retailer's bundle. Seriously, as a retailer, I'd want like maybe five. Maybe.

The shark was jumped before the first issue was printed, and I have to confess I didn't see it, neither did UK Mike and Willie as well. The way it was presented to us by Socal was that he had this idea for a magazine and was going to kickstart it. We were all asked to be writers and there was allot of discussion about how the magazine and the show would have a synergism, the first part of that (the show helping the magazine get funded) was a daily utilization of the RetroGaming Roundup social media and lots of talk on the show about the project as it went through the promotion and kickstarter phases. The payback was supposed to be several things, among the things planned were a rundown of show highlights including funniest lines, interesting bits, a full page advert, and transcripts of interviews done on the show.

 

As the kickstarter moved forward I noticed that Steve Sawyer was no longer involved and I asked Socal about it, it wasn't an ah-ha moment but rather one of mild curiosity and he gave me the line about how Steve wasn't really involved other than writing some stuff and wasn't really a part of it. I recalled the two of them co-creating the project right in front of me during the week of E3, they were bantering back and forth developing the idea but it didn't put up a red flag because there was no history of dishonesty and people leave projects all the time, teams change, and it didn't stand out. In hindsight it was the template for things to come, buddy buddy pep talks, partners that do most of the work and are suddenly dropped for new ones and declared to be minor players if even that, isolation of team members so that all communication went through Socal, and shifting sands of ownership. In reality Steve was soft fired from the mag by virtue of just not being involved as somebody new was brought on board, that somebody was Mark Kaminski who is a legitimate talent in print and digital media, and of course the project was presented to him as an original Socal idea not not the co-creation involving Steve as well. So Steve watched as his project went through kickstarter and got funded with him excluded, and it pushed him over the edge so he made death threats against Socal. The only side of the story we got was from Socal, that Steve had some crazy breakdown and was making these threats and that the police took it seriously coming to his house and some sort of protection at E3 since that was where Steve threatened to find him at.

 

So the mag went forward with Mark taking the helm as the talent and a few other team members brought onboard with some Chameleon style changes in lineup, including the addition of Brandon who I had never heard of. As the first issue was being planned I had an arrangement already made with Socal that my first piece would be a deep dive into the technical aspects of Computer Space, and out of the blue this guy named Brandon calls me up and starts telling me what would or would not happen and I didn't even know he was part of the mag. So I filled him in that as part owner of the company that was producing the mag and having a pre existing agreement on what my contribution would be that this conversation was over. Then Socal called me to start smoothing things over and such and it was pretty clear that he had been telling a different story to different people but again, without a history I chalked it up to chaos and the pace of trying to take on such a big project as a first timer so we worked out a compromise and things went forward. When the first issue arrived I went through it and saw that other than being placed mid-way on a top ten podcast list that the show was totally absent from the mag, but Gamegavel was lavishly plugged. I called up Uk Mike and he had the same reaction, so we had a long back and forth with Socal and lots of excuses were made that actually raised suspicions that something was not right. Finally we ended up on skype and we kept giving him one simple statement, why was the other side of the bargain that the show would be integral to the magazine abandoned? After over an hour of bringing the discussion back to that he simply said that he screwed up and would fix it. The next issue was the same thing, and we came right back to the same discussion and we got a very formal, impersonal and arrogant email that magazines simply do not have podcast content and that was that. Tensions got allot higher at that point and he was flaking out on the show, missing recordings and blowing it off for the most trivial of things, listen to the episode "Surf Dogs".

 

After another shuffle of the team at Retro and more of Socal very clearly communicating that we were down the org-chart and not dealing with him directly UK and I dropped out, Mark (not knowing any of the details as to why) made a very kind and heartfelt request that we return to writing for the mag while Socal resisted saying we were hotheads and such. After one more issue of the same Uk Mike, Willie, and myself all dropped out for good. Mark will have to tell his own involvement in detail but Socal tried to alter the agreement of stock distribution, there were lots of threats, "checks in the mail", "he was difficult to work with", and of course the standard denigration of Mark's contributions. Since then the downhill tumble of the mag has been pretty public. In hindsight the mag project was run just like the RVGS/Chameleon other than that the prototype was real. That was why the scam was so clear to us as the RVGS/CC unfolded, the mag's history suddenly came into focus and everything was right there in plain sight.

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

 

No wonder they changed their name. That WiiU controller (which was also the "prototype" CoCham controller) is known, proven trash. Good catch!

 

 

Not even the writers of Breaking Bad or Orange is the New Black could have put together such an ill fated and well linked storyline, WOW, just WOW.

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

ethernet is not a physical standard, and manifest's itself on many different forms of cabling

 

rule 1: connectors do not indicate standards

I am very much oversimplifying my point and you are catching me on (legit) technicalities, I should be more clear. I am saying they designed it around assumptions about the physical connector meaning that the rest would comply with the connector.

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

As a practical reference, STERN pinball used the physical Ethernet connector to relay CANBUS data between boards in the machine. Imagine what an idiot you would be if you released new Ethernet modules based on the assumption that your physical connector would be the same pinout and data scheme?

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

OT, but the buttons and joystick can be disconnected entirely from the main board and swapped out easily. Since all of the controller logic exists in a glop top, modding the existing schematic is futile. The start/select/turbo switches, pots, and indicator LEDs are all through hole so one only needs to cut all the traces to the switches on what I presume is a dual layer PCB. Remove the 9 foot cable and use it as a replacement cord for an official NES Mini controller if you want.

 

Next you'll need a 556 (dual 555 timer), CD4021 (8-bit parallel to series shift register), appropriately valued resistors, caps to recreate the NES Advantage schematic on a small breadboard. For a good turbo function, I would recommend tuning the oscillator circuit so that the range is between about 4-20Hz with the built in pots. I'm not sure what the exact range is on an original NES Advantage but if I decide to do this mod I'll definitely measure a real one and find out. Run wires directly to the switches and pots on the solder side of the PCB. NES extension cable or worn out controller to supply the cord, and you have a functional NES Advantage using real arcade parts.

So a company created a glop top IC designed to interface the NES mini to a controller predicated on the ASSUMPTION that the electrical connections and data lines would be identical to the physical connector used by Nintendo on a different project? Never considering that Nintendo might say "Hey, this connector is cheap and reliable, lets use it" and the discussion ends there?

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

Got a back channel communication that Socal is working on a guide to the NES Mini, and that Nintendo legal is taking an interest.

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

If the project had been funded...

 

The BEST CASE SCENARIO would have been for Mike to order clone SNES or Genesis boards, or a Beaglebone-type board, slap them into Jaguar shells, and call it a day. This would have achieved the barest of the bare minimum to be able to say he fulfilled his promises. Granted, Mike would never be able to achieve all the features of the RVGS he'd claimed, but that ship had already sailed. The best he could do would be to deliver a product that said "You bought a system, here it is."

 

I gotta disagree with that. The crew over at RVGS had one simple agenda, fake their way past the gatekeepers and then take that money to build the real thing. The problem is that the same mismanagement and B movie like technobabble was what they would have taken to the far east fab plants to have them design and produce it for them. The Chinese plants are a chore to deal with for the most savvy of organizations. They do all sorts of moves like swapping components, materials, and specs and pocketing the difference, you send a list of 10 questions and they cherry pick 4 and slow roll the rest until you are deadline or budget crunched, it takes an eagle eye and a firm hand to get the right product on the boat at the end of the process. Picking the right entity that can deliver the product and ensuring they do so was a skill set completely absent from the core group and the phantom cloud of Linkedin participants. They would have been eaten alive and left with insufficient money to make a second try. Partial refunds, MAYBE, a sob story similar to the mysterious Mr Lee, CERTAIN.

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

Oh, now I recall that post, very nicely done!!

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

 

Mike Kennedy:

Quote

That "Deliver On Time" title was added at the last minute by our PR firm. And I guess we can all debate what "On Time" means. In a sense it is On Time. Even if in name only. The future of what that means remains to be seen. If this product, with the Delivered On Time name on it, becomes a success at some level, then what will that mean? Is it "On Time" then? Is there a future in that brand to bring out or lend their name to other "On Time" products? I really don't think most are reading much more into it other than, "Hey, it would be cool to see that On Time name back on a new product." The Retro-Bit Generations RETRO Edition with Digital Magazine Downloads will be the first "On Time" forward thinking product to adorn that brand name and none of us know where it could take the brand. It was never our intention to indicate this was anything but a licensing deal.

 

Whoa, wait, hold on a sec, stoppy mcdroppy rotrovsky (copyright SDR), is that an actual Socal quote, or is someone doing a very clever parody. A PR firm? To suggest it was a major company and not just one guy in his garage. I ask because is is almost too perfect. It is oblivious to the author being a cartoon villain in the hobby, the author obfuscates and plays semantics with crystal clear terms like On Time, then seasoned with delusions of mediocre success, and concluded with explaining away intentions *again* with a plural that isn't real. It is certainly the sort of thing that I would expect Socal to write, which makes it almost too perfect that he did. Maybe this is actually a Socal post, is there a link to a legit place this was posted?

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

The link worked for me, consider yourself debuffed.

Balls blown off.

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

 

And most people are fine to talk big game online but when it comes down to face to face IRL interaction they don't say shit. It's pretty sad really. Scold him online all day long but not dare say a word to his face? Pretty cowardly for those that fit that bill IMO. Also, for MK to still show up to video game events like that shows he has no shame. I really hope someone called him out in person and it's just not made it's way to the interweb news yet as he fully deserves it.

 

Well, we did book a double booth at Portland and asked to be placed across from him, but he backed out.

 

So he was there, no doubt another one of these prairie dog moves like that post he made about Sean, then pulled down, looking to see if the coast is clear. Well the coast isn't ever going to be clear. He burned bridges and stepped on so many toes that there is an army of eyes on him. Despite the most recent wall of text he has been sending around crowing about the mag's health and new ventures, and believe me it is the usual spin like the delay of the kickstarter due to the thunderous response etc., we know he can't go near crowd funding/ writers all walked/ the talent left (same ones he blamed for slowing the mag down)/ writers are so alienated he had to recycle interviews/ that mag is a zombie.

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

 

I was just going to post that. Ok so Mr Lee is out of CA... But MK is still here. Even if Sean made it, Sean wasn't at the booth, he wasn't at the toy fair, he didn't get banners and T Shirts made Sean wasn't the face and mouth piece of the chameleon... I just can't get over that post, like he's doing the retro world a favor by letting us know Lee is gone when in fact Mike was the mastermind the whole time.

 

Another post that should not be lost in the noise. Plenty of jokes here which is fine, lots of guessing and BS too, but there are multiple primary sources here that should have gravity because they are speaking from actual involvement and provide clarity on what really happened. As BTB points out, there is no footage of Sean at a trade show making obviously false claims and presenting 3 fake prototypes as real. And need I remind you of MK's wall of text where he claimed all he wanted to do was show the CC playing multiple systems in the open, clearly ignoring BTB's video proving otherwise.

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

He's more pissed about Sean scamming him than him being caught trying to scam us. Even if Sean is at fault (whatever, minor detail, IMO) Mike still has to answer for the whole fiasco. There's really very little I care to ask Sean specifically.

 

We had many hours of conversation with Sean over the last few months, most of it pre-interview stuff as we looked deeper into the two remaining questions. The gist of how I would sum up Sean's role is that there was a shifting sand of pseudo specs, buzzwords, wild claims, fake courting and "in talks", departing, arriving and under the bus team members, on which no project manager or engineer could have possibly brought any project to fruition on. Sean was willing to give MK what he asked for all along and what was rejected by the various other hardware guys on the project, smoke and mirrors. When companies attend shows it is not uncommon to have a mockup, a few Xbox shells with PCs under the podium, but they aren't trying to claim they are the hardware in development back at the lab, nor are they asking for other people's money based on such a parlour trick. From what I have heard from multiple people, I firmly believe that Sean gave MK a mockup that MK asked for, which he promptly went out and told the world was actual hardware. And then posted the very pics Sean told him not to allow, any more than MS would want pics leaked of commodity PCs under the podium. Ask us how we know! Actually it was a Nintendo booth agent that tried to chase us out of Play Manchester after catching them with their pants down, but I digress. Much like Steve sawyer's story about how MK high jacked their mag was true, but damaged by Steve's stupid actions of threatening MK, I think Sean's history makes the story seem more complex than it is, I believe that MK asked for something anything to show and Sean did just that followed by MK telling the world it was something else.

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

Well at least you can see his posts, that @^$%@# of crap dumped me like a hot potato even though I did nothing to him or spread any info he shared with me on the RVGS / Chameleon workings (he used to call me quite often to talk about what was going on) At one time Mattel was being talked to for a brand, thank goodness that did not happen! Bad enough the Coleco brand has been tarnished by this narcissistic fool. I only wish I opened my eyes sooner and not been so gullible. I hope I never see him at a show I attend, there will be a colorful exchange of words........

 

What I found priceless about that post is the way he spun the *He's a scammer. Right lads!* as if he isn't held in worse regard than SR! If I recall correctly; "And to think he was at a recent SC3!", heck damn near the whole post is almost word for word what was being exchanged about MK just a few weeks ago! I wonder if he copied that post the way he copied Chris's apology and thanks to the community for helping spot the way RVGS was scamming them?

 

PS; You can tell Willie is spun up when he @^$%@#'s piece and spells out crap, "piece of @^$%@# would have made allot more sense, just sayin. **ducks**

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

It's especially damaging for the current owners of the Coleco name, because the prestige of the name is about all they really have to offer. If I understand their business model, they want to take finished products, developed and manufactured by someone else, and slap a Coleco name badge onto them for marketing purposes, in return for a percentage. There's no benefit to the original creator unless the Coleco name really carries a lot of weight, but now, the only context in which most people have heard the name in the last twenty years has been in association with Mike Kennedy. I would think that would make it a net negative: "Coleco??? You mean those 'Chameleon' guys? The ones who let that joker run amok with their branding, and who let him try to pawn off an old SNEZZZZZZ in a Jaguar shell as a new game system, right in their booth at Toy Fair ... literally under their very noses??? No thanks!" Doesn't leave "Coleco" with much of a reason to exist.

 

Mike Kennedy is like a cloud of corrosive gas, attracted by money: he seems harmless enough from a distance, but he is evasive and elusive and burns everyone who comes close to him. As "an entrepreneur through and through," the winds of fate will inevitably carry him to another harebrained business venture in another niche hobbyist market with lots of disposable income floating around. I only hope the people there are more careful.

 

That is a very important point, and one I hope is not lost in the noise. The most disgusting thing MK did post CC was his claim that he was the only one who suffered any consequence as a result of the debacle that he created and later blamed on that mysterious mastermind. River west Brands Coleco property suffered an enormous impact, and Chris was darn lucky to keep his job, and even then being at the helm of such a fiasco is not a career enhancer.

 

Antipreneur is a more accurate term than entrepreneur.

 

I don't find any fault in RWB's business model, brands fail and *can* later return to popularity like Pabst Blue Ribbon for example. If you buy the right brand that later has a resurgence you could make a fortune, I wouldn't mind guessing right on that one.

 

I had quite a few talks with Chris as the train wreck was developing, he was honest and eager to do the right thing from understanding what he had put his name on right through taking transparent and meaningful action. He didn't flinch from reaching out to the people exposing the lies, he listened, learned and verified, and then took action. Funny thing, I was on the phone with Chris the morning after the DVR card was identified continuing a group discussion that included former insider Willie as well, when Mk tried to call me shopping around his "I'm so shocked story". I was struck by the honesty and character that Chris was demonstrating at that moment. There has been some discussion about Coleco's motives and intentions during the NY Toy Fair-DVR-end era and at least from my involvement I can say that Mark was quite concerned about his brand and Chris acted with the utmost integrity.

[Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?]

I doubt Nintendo will have the same steely eyed captain of industry grasp on the situation.