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Pipercub

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Posts posted by Pipercub

  8. Posted

    “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

     

    That is why I posted this, it is so telling. I knew quite allot about the business dirty dealings when this interview as done, and as I said we had a checklist of things that we wanted to get Socal on record admitting to but we didn't have to since Steve nailed the main points. What we didn't know was how completely effed up the program was at that moment, we knew they had a chaotic situation but we had WTF moments that shocked us. The big one was when we asked about the supplier for a specific component and got the "we are not ready to reveal our supplier relationships" line. When that came out I muted my mic to yell "holy *% they have nothing!"

     

    First of all, at those minuscule volumes of components the website of usual suppliers covers volume discounts well above the largest proposed RVGS shipment volume. There are no relationships at that volume level.

     

    And, there are a finite number of suppliers of these components. If I say I am purchasing parts for my muscle car and you say, who Jegs, Summit racing? and I answer with I am not ready to reveal my vendors, you know I am doing nothing because those are the sources. Your not giving away secrets by naming the vendors, by concealing it you are revealing you have nothing planned.

    • Like 8

  10. Posted · Edited by Pipercub

    If you listen to our pre-indigogo interview with that version of the RVGS gang Steve details what his role (and other people) was, and it is all true. Steve was very hands on and involved in the discussions we had both individually and in conference calls in the early days. Steve is no dummy, he originally did firmware type development before games and is a capable guy. I don't know exactly where the FPGA came from because that was after I was out. Steve and I had very similar thoughts on the original hardware design, he was thinking clearly. After I was out, I have minimal knowledge of the extent of his involvement. I know that he was on conference calls, and wasn't name only but that is about all I know. In all my dealings with Steve he has been a level headed nice guy, if I had to place my bet on any theory it is that he let his passion for the project cloud his judgement and he didn't see the signs until too late.

    • Like 5

  11. Posted · Edited by Pipercub

    That is one of the biggest unanswered mysteries of this fiasco. I can't recall the exact point it happened at but Retro Mag tweeted that they weren't going to crowd sourcing because they had private backing, then moments later the RVGS facebook posted something totally contradictory but I can't recall for sure, anyone? Obviously the private funding was BS, but what was the move? They still had to go the crowdfunding route so why claim they had funding?

  12. Posted

    Thanks for (re)posting it, somehow I missed it and it's a fantastic take on the whole thing. He does (very politely) demolish the project completely though :) but he presents it in a positive way to help future projects avoid repeating several mistakes.

    His analysis would be spot on had he been talking about a different project, the problem with it is that he doesn't even touch on the project never intending to develop legitimate hardware until they were funded by deception with "smoke and mirrors". I think his video would have applied had the crowdfunding gone through, after the money was spent and there was nothing to show for it, the thing would have failed for those reasons as well as being tied up in court.

    • Like 3

  13. Posted

    "Don't bother investigating for themselves"??? Excuse me, but this is AtariAge you're talking to. Let's not forget that, while the "gaming press" was busy lapping up Mike's every word and reprinting his press releases as news stories, the people here were the ones who were doing the hard investigative work, watching his every move and unmasking his lies at every turn. It's because of the efforts of people like Albert, Kevtris, Pipercub and UKMike, triverse, SD&R, pxlsicle, btbfilms76, and many others, that the truth about Mike was uncovered and spread like wildfire. Were it not for that, Mike's first IndieGoGo campaign may well have succeeded, or he might have made it to Kickstarter and succeeded there. As Pat Contri observed on the #CUPodcast, that would have been a catastrophe for such a small and close-knit hobby as ours. We are not a mob, we are a self-policing community, and in this instance, I'm glad we succeeded in chasing away a huckster and a fraud.

     

    Quoted for truth. Perhaps one of the most useful and to the point posts in this thread. As I have said earlier one of the core beliefs that Socal had was that he had a voice through the press and some sort of self anointed standing that would carry more authority and have a greater reach than ours (and by ours I mean any of us who knew the truth or were on a path to the truth) and that we would go unheard outside the gates while the crowds roared for him inside. The "official" video gaming press was a shameful failure in this whole débâcle, they are nothing more than talentless hacks on a treadmill of cut, paste, quote, add their bio at the bottom and bang it up on the site so they can move on to the next one. Even when they finally changed the story from cut,copy,paste about how wonderful it was to cut,copy,paste of how it was a fraud they never once got the facts right. If you do a Google search on the topic and read the first two pages of articles you would believe that David Giltinian leaving Retro Mag and Frank Cifaldi tweeting the news of fake prototype #3 were the key moments that turned the tide. Funny enough word is even Socal was astonished that the story was David Giltinian leaves Retro, Chameleon console collapses.

     

    The youtubers and podcasters weren't that different, obviously they didn't have direct knowledge, OK fine, but neither they nor the "official press" did one ounce of investigative journalism! None of the people jaybird3rd mentioned above were ever contacted by anyone to ask about the details. Imagine what the media reporting would have been had they contacted those sources (and I would add Clay and John Carlson to that list) and interviewed them to get primary source material. There were a few notable exceptions, Pat and Ian at #CUpodcast, and our own SD&R took the time to research and communicate. There may have been a few others as I recall, but the overwhelming majority just guessed and guessed wrong. I just hope that if someone ever decides to do the book or the documentary on this that they read ever word of the threads here on AA and reach out to the primary sources and get the facts first hand. I still nominate BTB and SD&R as my dream team for the documentary.

    • Like 13

  15. Posted

    We exhibited at the Revival classic gaming expo in the UK this past weekend, had a great time playing games, drinking beer, and talking to listeners. We showed off the NY toy fair prototype at our booth and it was amazing just how many people knew all about it. Some knew every detail, some knew the big picture but over and over there was instant recognition, it really is a global thing. I experienced the same when I stopped into some gaming stores in Germany and France, they all heard of it. For someone that wanted to be a famous figure in video gaming he sure pulled it off, be careful what you wish for.

     

    http://retromash.com/2016/08/03/revival-solstice-july-2016-retrogaming-event/

    • Like 12

  18. Posted

    And might I add, my comment was not passive aggressive, that is not how we roll, we are aggressive aggressive if we don't like something. We have always been pro community and do wish everyone the best if they are trying to do something for the community.

     

    Lets face it, the REAL bad guy here is STOPDRPANDRETRO, for not pointing out the kingmakers that we are. If you don't kiss our ring then down you go!

    • Like 5

  19. Posted · Edited by Pipercub

    We get a constant stream of emails from people asking for attention to their projects, all of them very important to the creator, but it is impossible to address them all as there are HUNDREDS. But Socal's empire steering into the ditch was all his own doing, and not attributable to one of the many projects sent to us not getting covered. If you want to believe it is go for it. TBH it sounds like a pretty cool project, and best of luck with it in all sincerity, but the CC downfall was its own ecosystem.

    • Like 1

  21. Posted · Edited by Pipercub

    StopDropandRetro is correct, what I said weeks ago was that it was going to be a collection of interviews, and your partially correct.... I later pointed out he did the press release announcing that trying to put a positive spin on the matter (it being all interviews), obvious implication being no writers will work for the mag. Nothing about that was relating to the Chameleon scam.

    • Like 6

  23. Posted

    Like my bud Pipercub kept trying to hammer into my thick headed skull (he will use you and burn you) was totally true. Even went as far to make a passive aggressive comment on the Gofundme campaign a viewer of mine set up to raise 100 dollars for the minicades mike sold off on me (money was donated to Oscar Toledo's Family, CoolCV creator, to help with medical expenses for their premature infant and wife being diagnosed with cancer)

     

    Looks like he may be leaving the hobby for good, I see he is selling off lots of his stuff on ebay.

     

    I enjoyed RETRO magazine and being a part of it in the beginning, but now dont give a rats ass about it. I would rather read the import magazine Retro Gamer and pay the higher price.

     

    Pattern recognition makes for good engineering and science! But as I said you did nothing that I didn't do, or Chris C. and as I told him, hey I have this asshat money! Do not be hard on yourself. And yes, that comment was in keeping with the I am the aggrieved party here theme. I promise you, if MK took your call he would swear up and down he did nothing wrong and that what he did was good for you and that he was looking out for your best interest.

     

    No way he is getting out of the hobby, he has a personality I will say is Laura H. style. So, to explain, one of our local flying clubs is an airport booster club. We fund and do what the county will not at the local airport. This woman Laura was the treasurer and at the end of a year we found the treasury was empty! ALLOT of money had gone missing, were talking about aviation. She was confronted at a meeting and her explanations were absurd, someone must have hacked the account! No, your signature is on this withdrawal slip and so forth. Finally she was given the choice, return the money or we contact law enforcement and within days there was a deposit to the club account and we thought well we won't see her again! WRONG, next meeting she struts in like nothing ever happened! And to this day just walks around as if nobody knows. Sure she is the laughing stock and reviled but you wouldn't know it from her public behaviour. Same here with MK, struts out into public while people text and snicker as if nothing is wrong.

    • Like 5
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