rob_ocelot

Hopefully they pull the plug on this sooner rather than drag it out over the next month. The longer it stays up the more likely that mainstream non-videogame press is going to notice and use it as humour article click bait. More headlines means more google results with the co-founders names attached to it.

Fair enough. I was more commenting on how Mike's statement about these mysterious Paypal refunds might make people who have already pledged get cold feet and bail as well. Doesn't take much to get something like that snowballing. Mr. Kitchen's pledge reversal isn't a good sign, especially when they were really trumpeting his support.

Perhaps when a really large (>$1000) pledge is refunded it trips something automated at Paypal? Mr Kitchen's refund may have started an avalanche, both of automated Paypal refunds and of people who see the messages about mass Paypal refunds and attempt to pull out before their money disappears.

I suspect there actually wasn't a "plan B" because when you're drunk on your own Kool-aid and convinced yourself that your awesome project cannot fail because it's your idea and it's awesome a backup plan doesn't ever occur to you. The attitudes and actions on display when the ship hasn't even fully sunk sort of give it away, IMO.

A little insight about Kevin. I've known him for more than twenty years and it's been my observation he's primarily motivated by curiousity rather than money for a lot of his projects, the FPGA console included. Sure, everyone would like more money and Kev deserves to be compensated for his (quite often pioneering) work but he really didn't start the project with the end goal of giving the finger to his day job boss. I'd say he's shelved a good 90% of the hundreds of projects he's done over the years (sometimes he's gracious enough to show us a few morsels on IRC) -- by shelved I mean completed and works but details not released because he felt he could do it better, or incorporate more functionality or better ergonomics. Many such projects would have been commercially viable and would have been 'good enough' for an Asian manufacturer to produce as products intended for game piracy. He would rather use his own funds to finish a project than take money from others upfront with a promise of completed work sometime in the future. On a few occasions I've had to really pull his ears and motivate him into commercially releasing a product he felt wasn't ready for prime time but there was enough demand from the gaming community -- the Vectrex 3D game adaptor for LCD shutter goggles springs to mind. I don't know Mike very well but my cold reading of how he presents himself and in particular his behavior and attitude on these forums and facebook leads me to believe his motivations are the polar opposite of Kevin's. The absurd amount of money being asked for in the fundraising campaign essentially (and boldly) requests that you enable him and his co-founders to quit their day jobs and work full time on this for approximately three years. That's going well beyond merely asking for help in bringing a product to market especially when they've already burned through the money they could have used for a prototype on other more esthetic things. Those Jag moulds might as well be Groundskeeper Willy's retirement grease. I have no idea why they didn't extend a full partnership to Kevin in this venture, but it looks to me like splitting things three ways was more important than bringing Kevin into the fold as a fourth and potentially key partner. The antics and the finger pointing of the last few days only serves to highlight just how misguided the underlying philosophy was for this project. I wonder if things would have been different if they had asked for $50k or $100k and maybe an initial batch of 500 consoles?

So you have a Hardware Guy, a Software Guy, and a Marketing Guy. Each one of these guys plays a role but each one also keeps the other two in check. Case in point, when the Marketing Guy goes off the rails making wild promises that are technically impossible to achieve it's the Hardware and Software Guys that need to speak up and inject some reality before things get too far out of hand. When the Hardware Guy is stuck on a specific problem or wants to tear everything down and start fresh because he's found a better, more elegant way of doing something the Marketing Guy needs to step in and bring things back on track towards the agreed upon endpoint. Common to both of the above dynamics is COMMUNICATION. It looks to me like one part of the trio was making decisions and changes without the input of the other two. Even going into the IGG campaign the specs shown on their web site conflicted with those on the IGG site. Things were changing so quickly and so last minute that these guys didn't know whether they were coming or going. Sloppy and unprofessional doesn't even begin to describe it and they should have postponed the fundraising until they got their shit together and more importantly got everyone reading from the same page. A consistent vision was vital to the success of this project. For Mike & Co: If you really think that some people speaking objectively and in some cases negatively about your product on a forum is the cause of the current flatline in the funding campaign then this whole venture was truly dead in the water long before the campaign began. If twenty people on one forum was all it took to sink the whole thing then you really need to take two steps back, be brutally honest and ask yourself these questions: "Was the product strong enough?" "Was there a coherent vision and did we effectively communicate that vision to everyone?" and "Did we make a strong enough case for why people should give us their money and trust?". If you can't answer these questions objectively and honestly then you really dont 'get it' and you will learn nothing from this setback. I kind of wish Kevin had waited a few more days to speak up -- so you couldn't pin this failure to make it off the launch pad on his much-needed honesty. In ONE POST he provided the necessary technical clarity that you refused to impart to your audience for six months straight. Now you are looking for scapegoats. At one point you were saying that you were OK with Kevin using his cores in your product and in other competing products. A day later and your tune has changed to "Kevin threw us under the bus" and his work is shoddy, amateur, and unfinished. Kevin hasn't changed his side of the story one bit. Yours is all over the map.

Well, I was trying to be generous. The IGG camPain (not a spelling mistake!) has 44 days left. I figure 3/4 of the way through some reality would break through the distortion field surrounding the Retro guys. Besides, someone who was willing to dump a key partner and shuffle the hardware specs the day BEFORE the campaign started is also just as likely to begin slinging mud before the campaign is over. edit: Besides, how was I supposed to know things would plateau after only 24h?

HDMI for sure. Composite I think is necessary as well for those 'quick and dirty' tests. Analog audio for the people using HDMI to DVI adaptors. I know they are cumbersome and add expense but you have more than one type of customer here. One the reasons the RPi is so popular (other than it's cheap) is that you can hook it up to both the best TV in the house and the crappiest CRT you have in the basement in a pinch. 16-bit support would be one of the biggest selling points of this system. There's other things to consider, including licensing the tech to larger companies for more mainstream products. Shoot for including the largest number of systems whose FPGA cores you can muster within a rigid timeframe and don't get distracted trying to add "just one more" near the deadline. I know you're not like this, but I thought it was worth adding -- especially when everyone and their dog is demanding every system imaginable to be packed in there. I'm going to make one large request... Vectrex support. (You knew I was going to ask!) If theres any system that needs the FPGA treatment it's this. Why? 30+ year old failing systems and current emulation isn't perfect. A new hardware platform for vector games on HDMI displays with antialiasing would also help the homebrew community. Some guys have bought the Vectrex IP but they haven't been able to get anything off the ground other than a crappy phone emulator -- this may also help them preserve the Vec/GCE legacy. (Note: this plea is mainly for the bennefit of new readers to this thread. I've discussed the details of Vectrex FPGA support with Kevin a long time ago and periodically bug him about it. He usually doesn't tell me to get lost )

I have a feeling those Kotaku and Gamasutra articles might not come. The stench of the last year of gaming press scandals hasn't fully blown away. No online mag worth their salt is going to want to be singing the praises of a sinking ship lest they get pulled down too. Anyone reporting objectively on this mess will have to stand up to the accusations of dogpiling because, mark my words, RVGS are going to be playing the blame game in about a month or so.

Conversely, I think they may have inadvertantly left a very nice niche market open for someone like Kev to swoop in and capitalize on. Almost everyone remotely interested in retrogaming is watching -- even if it's the gawkers just for the schadenfreude. You have probably the largest captive audience of retrogamers you could possibly get short of a con with free booze and strippers. Someone who right now can produce what RetroVGS apparently cannot will have not only everyone's attention, but as a bonus a lot of the heavy lifting required to get that attention has already been done. Mike's treatment of Kev on these forums on the eve of the IGG campaign may have been the lynchpin for some who were undecided about their support of the project.

Further to that, the first few times they have to recall thousands of games, reprogram them, and send them back to already pissed consumers who can't play their game they will likely stop that practice. Are they going to pay shipping costs both ways for consumers too? Who is going to do the bulk of the reprogramming, the game testers they've hired? (way to make the shittiest grunt job in the industry even shittier!) Maybe Retro could fix 7800 Impossible Mission and mail it to me as a test run...

Way upthread someone stated they didn't think Mike was a scammer or a con man. A scammer would be doing his best to convince you to give up your money even though he doesn't actually have anything of substance to sell you. He will tell you is that he is "a regular joe, just like you" and while he lacks anything substantive he will play up intangibles like 'gumption' and 'moxie'. A scammer knows how to manipulate you on an emotional level and make you feel guilty for not indulging them. The best scammers will make you think that their family will not eat tonight because of you and that by not supporting them now you might as well be taking a dump on the graves of his ancestors. A scammer thrives on making things so unclear only they can make sense of it for you, and will go on the attack when someone else steps in and offers clarity. They are the first to blame their failures on others and will run away at the slightest hint they may be held responsible. Car salesmen use tricks like this all the time and they are pretty mild as far as scammers/con men go. I think RetroVGS has ticked a number of those boxes. Not all of them, mind you.

Those deck chairs look better over there on the right ------>

Something that doesn't sit right with me is that after Kev injected some reality into the proceedings Mike chimes in and then exits the discussion permanently -- leaving people with the impression that Kev was on board and bailed leaving them in the lurch. When (not if) the IGG campaign fails to meet the target and the blame game starts I doubt anyone at RetroVGS will be pointing fingers at themselves and looking objectively at their own failings. That same economy with the truth I highlighted above will likely be focused on this thread and people like Kev, which will be a shame. No lessons will be learned by those who are the most in need of it. So we have a guy who actually made something that works versus the guys who thought their time and energy was better spent deciding if the product should come in grape unicorn flavour with sparkles. I'm sure you can tell whose back I've got when this hits the fan...

Do IGG and KS have any sort of protection against the campaigners shilling support to make their campaigns appear more successful than they actually are? There must be nothing more frustrating than for a campaign to be stuck at the 95% mark -- that alone would be too tempting for a campaign owner to shill a few extra sales to put it over the top. (and no, I'm not implying that Mike & Co. are doing this)

If people are this willing to part with their money for what's basically (at this point in time) air trapped in a collectible Jag case then I might be in the wrong line of work...

My honest .02 after seeing that video... "Can we borrow your game store tonight after closing? It's urgent!" *The stuff Wiota is talking about is two generations behind what they already decided to abandon a week ago. *The same game clips in the same order, none of them actually running on the hardware. *I nearly burst out laughing when they say "bombarded with cut scenes" and at that exact moment one of the cutscenes for Tiny Knight is on. *What is up with the 'make the music louder for 20 seconds' after the fade to black at the end? It reminded me of those guys who decide to best way to evaluate a stereo is to turn it up obnoxiously loud in the store. My take on the whole situation: "I got a great deal on Jag moulds and cases. We gotta dream up a widget to put inside so people will buy them. I don't care what it is, but it's gotta sound good".