How has this not been posted yet? Retro VGS

[ninja_gaiden2015]

So, yeah, guess that makes it okay to be mean-spirited and dog pile on them. Oh, no, wait, this isn't your forum, so how about let's not all be assholes?

 

..Al

 

Agreed. Even though I had serious concerns about the Retro VGS team promises vs reality, I don't wish harm on Mike and the guys. They are people at the end of the day.

[ninja_gaiden2015]

Damn, I totally missed NG:Dev Team walking away from the project yesterday. Ouch.

 

*Edit to add link

 

https://www.facebook.com/ngdevteam/posts/949327558456852

 

I will admit I thought that it would have been awesome to own a copy of Gunlord on cart, but the end of the day the system and game was the same cost as an MVS or AES cart. I just think the whole thing is sad really, as NG:Dev team make some great titles. It was a bit of a coup to get them on board and a major part of the interest in the console (along with the FGPA cores).

 

Here is the info for people. The only good thing is that they may be making reprint of DC titles:

 

• 

  Mace Manuel Start making dreamcast games again please. Let's be honest, that planned Retro VGS game of yours isn't going to happen.

  4 · Yesterday at 02:47
• • 

    NG Dev Team Yeah, we already moved on. We will do reprints of our old DC stuff soon.

    7 · Yesterday at 10:30 · Edited

[zredgemz]

I would like to have mike try again once he gets his ducks in a row, i like the idea granted it may never fully take off but if he can put his passion into good use maybe he can get some devs to make a few titles to show off on the prototype when he starts another campaign.

[Keatah]

 

Dudes could have bought out the stock of those xGameStations and put a project box around it. They can be programmed in BASIC. Everyone wins. http://www.xgamestation.com/view_product.php?id=47

 

Could have used something like that and said it's running prototype software. That'd be good enough. Everyone knows reference designs can be, and are, modified and tweaked into real working products. Been that way since I built electronics as a baby back in the RS days.

 

 

What's with this "productive conversation" stuff going on right now? I thought we were supposed to have a back-patting party, or something?

 

Productive conversation is the way forward. Back-patting party? Why'd we be doing that?

 

 

I was pretty surprised to see that they returned to reality so quickly (I figured they'd let it go another week at least). I am not sure what to think of the revamped version they spoke about. I suppose I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and at least try to evaluate it objectively if/when they relaunch it. But I agree with those who think they need to make some apologies and reconnect with the community, because I think their reputation is in danger of becoming unsalvageable if they don't. I also see this whole fiasco as an important moment in the retro gaming community. For years now, lot's of people have viewed us a mere demographic to which numerous unnecessary and shoddy products could be sold. There have been some diamonds in the rough, of course, but there have also been so many irritating cash grabs that I've lost count. I think the fate of the Retro VGS will show future "entrepreneurs" that they just can't assume that we'll buy something because it is "awesome" and "retro." We are instead a discerning bunch who will gladly support projects that improve the hobby, not just increase the value of a collector's portfolio. It seems like it is Kevtris' moment now....

 

Yes mostly that. Their reputation may very well be damaged among the communities and members and gamers that exist today. But there is still an untapped audience out there. Many tech companies really give up on marketing to certain demographics after they've run their course and purchased x-amount of material.

 

Example: Apple doesn't give a shit whether I but an iPod anymore. They won't go though the effort of listening to their older customers any further after they've bought several products. The amount of time Apple would need to spend marketing to us is out of balance with the reward Apple would receive. Much better to just blindly mass market to the younger and less educated crowd en'masse.

 

Regarding marking stuff "awesome-retro" in attempt to appeal to an older crowd just doesn't cut it. All it does for me is tell me you don't know what real retro is like. Real Retro is Astrocade, Apple II, Colecovision, Intellivision, TRS-80, Atari VCS, and likewise. Real Retro is made of small tight code. Not this bloated Unity crap. Anybody can do Unity games. And that adds to the amount of shit we have to wade through. Ughh.. I don't know where to begin. Don't want.

[ninja_gaiden2015]

I saw this golden tweet from Ian from Pat the NES Punk "Completely Unnecessary Podcast". This was the guy who was accused of being drunk by RVGS team on facebook:

 

 

Just an Ian ‏@pxlsicle Sep 24

I'm in talks with Jaleco and Sunsoft

• RETWEETS10
• FAVORITES58
• 

5:01 PM - 24 Sep 2015 · Details

Reply

Retweet

Favorite

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[Jagaroth]

(from the fb post)

 

I wonder what adjustments to their 'team' (as far as I know, the hardware team is just 1 guy) will be? I have not been contacted and I will not work on this project for them, especially since I won't get paid unless it's funded, and because I don't want to work for free so someone else can make potentially a lot of money off my work, with me seeing a relative pittance.

 

If I'm going to work on something of this magnitude, it's going to be on my own terms, my way. I will still license my cores to them, but I doubt they will want to pay my fees for them. After all, they can just go to the Core Store and pick up a few. I'm not the only game in town.

 

The plans to work on my Zimba 3000 hasn't changed and I still plan on doing it. I got a lot of work ahead though to come up with something I think is viable to sell for a reasonable price.

 

One good thing that's come of this huge debacle though is a bunch of old friends I haven't talked to emailed me about it in the last week or so. That was awesome :-)

 

So, once this thread dies down, is there an easy way to keep track of what's in store for your future? I'd like to see how your project progresses.

[Albert]

So, once this thread dies down, is there an easy way to keep track of what's in store for your future? I'd like to see how your project progresses.

I would subscribe to this thread:

 

FPGA Based Videogame System

[RVG_Steve]

In other searching around to see what's being said elsewhere, neo-geo.com saw this post detailing Kennedy's previous crowd funded project Retro Magazine. Reading that and looking at the Retro Magazine year 2 kickstarter page, it might be a blessing in disguise that RVGS isn't happening for the backers and the team alike. It looks like they began shipping out backer rewards a few weeks ago - 9 and a half months after the campaign ended - and only days before the RVGS was supposed to hit kickstarter itself? That wouldn't have looked good with a new campaign running, to have all that outstanding. It seems like in the 10 months or so they've shipped 3 of the 6 issues of the magazine and one free one (the missing one from the previous campaign?). If the comments section is anything to go by, struggling to manage 1200 backers and their magazines, badges and other trinkets is so difficult to accommodate, well, the neo-geo.com poster puts it best:

 

If Mike K. and his staff of 20+ "industry insiders" can't properly manage a video game magazine publication (especially after nearly 2 years... what the hell is taking so long to make a 72 page magazine???), what in God's good name could anyone expect Mike K. and TWO other "industry insiders" to effectively manage a VIDEO GAME SYSTEM?

 

 

I've been following this fascinating thread for some time now as a lurker. Back on page 85 (a whopping 6 days ago lol) I saw someone actually quote my post from Neo-Geo.com. I decided it was time to finally sign up and share a few thoughts.

 

First of all, I want to say I wish Mike Kennedy and his team well. I certainly wish no ill will toward Mike, who before this I've always considered to be a nice, stand-up kind of guy. It was obvious to any outside party member though that Mike was in over his head. I'm glad they decided to pull the plug, but am disappointed at the lack of an apology. I'm also not sure if the damage has already been done.

 

I backed his project RETRO Magazine for years 1 and 2. I have to say it started out a bit rocky but saw some decent improvements around issues 5-6-7. However, the last two issues have been quite disappointing, and that's generally how I feel about the magazine. I feel a little duped, a little cheated and at this point, I doubt I'd back a year 3 (if there even is one). To summarize my NG.com post on RETRO Magazine:

 

1. It's not really retro. It focuses on modern games with a retro spirit. That's fine and dandy if that's a small part of the magazine but instead it's the main focus. I was expecting tons of 8, 16 and 32 bit retrospectives and such. Really, haven't gotten much of that.

2. The lay-outs are horribly bland. I mean, I wasn't expecting early-mid '90s GameFan, but when you take 2-3 months to make one issue, I expect a little bit more pizzazz. Too many pages have a white or black background and gives off a really dull look.

3. The big one... ever since summer 2014 they fell off the wagon in terms of releasing an issue every other month. They've fallen way behind and it's a case of fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

 

To put it into perspective:

 

They used to label the date of each issue. They stopped that because it'd look bad to point out something they don't want pointed out (i.e. the delay). Issue 10 is the next issue up, and I haven't heard a PEEP of it yet. Mike Kennedy promised to fulfill his duty of having the 12th issue out by December 2015. Um, it's almost October and issue 10 isn't even out yet. So RETRO would have to go issue 10 October, issue 11 November and issue 12 December. Yeah, I seriously doubt that's going to happen. What baffles me is they have a team of 20+ professional writers and 2 months to crank out a 72-page issue. What's the cause for such lengthy delays? It's simply head-scratching other than... there's a lack of vision, direction and passion toward the project. It's like once it got funded the writers went "oh crap, now we actually have to work on a printed magazine?" I've tried to be supportive, but the last few issues have totally been bleh and forgettable. The covers are awesome but everything else about the magazine is so bleh.

 

Mike Kennedy was nice enough to give my little fansite (RVGFanatic) a shout out on a Twitch broadcast in late 2013. I've also made Letter of the Month two different times for RETRO. I have a bit of a "connection" to Retro in that regard, but I've been so massively disappointed in the product. Simply put, it's not what I signed up for... and ironically, it seems to be the theme for the Retro VGS and how that morphed from one idea to something completely different (and far less appealing). Had the Retro VGS magically got funded, I really doubt it would have satisfied people based on how I've seen Mike Kennedy handle Retro. From paying customers not geting their issues to the lengthy delays between issues... it's absolutely head-scratching! I hate to sound like I'm piling on the guy especially when he's down, but the truth is, he seems to jump from one project to the next. Which is fine and dandy when you leave the previous project in a good spot... but RETRO Magazine is far from being in a 'good spot." It's kind of been a mess to be frank. It could use a TON of improvement, and I hope Mike would see to it that it gets better before he dives headlong into yet another project, much less the launch of a VIDEO GAME SYSTEM.

 

Letter of the Month #1

 

 

 

Letter of the Month #2

 

 

[IrishNerdLife]

I believe it is certainly for the best that the Retro VGS team pulled the plug for now. I don't however believe they will be able to revive the project without some sincere apologies to the retro communities insulted especially the individuals they attacked directly, such as Kevtris and Pat Conti.

 

I would also like to commend Kevtris, PikoInteractive and Pipercub for coming out and sharing their insight into the project with the community. It would have been easy for them to sit on the side lines and see how things worked out since they could have profited from the venture. Instead they chose to highlight the issues with the project so that potential investors could make a more informed decision. Amusingly it was only through these individuals that there was any real transparency to the campaign.

 

From the start I wondered why Pipercub wasn't involved. Having listened to him since he had a guest segment on Retro Gaming Radio it is abundantly clear he should have been one of the key hardware guys behind the project. It makes sense to hear that he was involved before being erased from the record so to speak. This also raises questions regarding the comment Mike has made about bringing back the original hardware guru since neither Pipercub nor Kevtris seem to know what he's talking about.

 

I guess the good things to come out of this has been the amount of great reading provided in this thread. I could go on, but this post is long enough and I've already expressed my thoughts on YouTube (I won't link to it since it's my first post). I'm curious to see what direction Mike will go next, but frankly I think Kevtris' project is the one to invest in.

[PlaysWithWolves]

 

Productive conversation is the way forward. Back-patting party? Why'd we be doing that?

 

I was being sardonic about Kennedy, et al, believing we wanted to see them fail just for the sheer spectacle of it. I also was contrasting the reality that most of the conversation post-fail was actually productive, and not the celebration that Kennedy and gamester81 and others implied would happen.

[AE35]

 

 

I guess the good things to come out of this has been the amount of great reading provided in this thread. I could go on, but this post is long enough and I've already expressed my thoughts on YouTube (I won't link to it since it's my first post). I'm curious to see what direction Mike will go next, but frankly I think Kevtris' project is the one to invest in.

 

Next post will be your second, please include Youtube link

Edited September 30, 2015 by AE35

[Algus]

The problem with covering your ears and screaming is that you miss what was actually going on. The wrote us (and Neogaf, and others) off as "haters." some of that was certainly going on but for the most part people were sharing their ideas on what could improve the project or make it better. It led to some pretty interesting discussions about the type of tech we might like to have for playing older games as well.

[PlaysWithWolves]

I've found it to be generally a pretty tepid response here considering how much Kennedy "exaggerated" and the awful things things he and gamester81 said about people in this thread.

 

Forgiving is good, and we certainly don't have to "kick a man while he's down", but can we save the pedestalling for when he's actually earned back some trust?

[ninja_gaiden2015]

I've found it to be generally a pretty tepid response here considering how much Kennedy "exaggerated" and the awful things things he and gamester81 said about people in this thread.

 

Forgiving is good, and we certainly don't have to "kick a man while he's down", but can we save the pedestalling for when he's actually earned back some trust?

 

The exaggerations about the involvement of developers (Capcom, Konami and Sega - the list goes on) was what got me the most annoyed/dissapointed/upset.

 

In the interview that Mike did with Lon Seidman at 37:15 odd minutes, after listing the Capcom, Konami and Sega titles to hit Retro VGS Mike said that the "was talking to David Siller" after listing off David CV he said He "may be coming on to develop a new mascot platformer for us ... and we are really on the fastrack to that and keeping him on board to be director of publishing"

 

As we saw earlier on this thread, David Siller came out to deny that he ever agreed to develop for the console, yet alone a mascot. Whether the intention was to get money out of people or just a crazy imagination, it ends up as a lie

 

[IrishNerdLife]

 

Next post will be your second, please include Youtube link

 

Lol well it's actually my third post now, which if popular culture has thought me anything, means everything's game

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soD1NwPVv-s

 

 

The exaggerations about the involvement of developers (Capcom, Konami and Sega - the list goes on) was what got me the most annoyed/dissapointed/upset.

 

In the interview that Mike did with Lon Seidman at 37:15 odd minutes, after listing the Capcom, Konami and Sega titles to hit Retro VGS Mike said that the "was talking to David Siller" after listing off David CV he said He "may be coming on to develop a new mascot platformer for us ... and we are really on the fastrack to that and keeping him on board to be director of publishing"

 

As we saw earlier on this thread, David Siller came out to deny that he ever agreed to develop for the console, yet alone a mascot. Whether the intention was to get money out of people or just a crazy imagination, it ends up as a lie

 

 

 

This was definitely one of the biggest mistakes they made during the campaign. Why on earth would you even bring up companies like Capcom and Konami supporting a startup console. Right now the big three console manufacturers aren't exactly getting bowled over with support from Konami! Mike shouldn't have said anything about them at all; nobody would have expected this support. Instead he comes across as either incompetent or willingly deceitful with these claims. Then to have David Siller come out and basically say he does not want his name associated with the system when he is supposedly going to be creating a mascot for it?!?! This has surely got to be mistakes you'd find in the beginnings guide to marketing. Put simply don't talk about something that isn't confirmed.

Edited September 30, 2015 by IrishNerdLife

[philyso]

Whether the intention was to get money out of people or just a crazy imagination, it ends up as a lie

 

 

 

I agree, the guy is definitively a liar and I would never trust him again or believe anything he says in the future. I get some people say he was nice to them or that they still feel sympathy to him, that he is just too much passionate, etc... but I think this is delusion and that as long as people will keep forgiving such behavior, he will continue to do the same and never change.

 

I don't think there have been any acknowledge on their side of the mistakes and fake claims that have been made so this is really not a good sign and, looking at the latest interview, it's clear to me the main purpose of this project always was for them to make money and get back into business, over everything else.

 

From what Steve is saying in the interview, being an independent game developer is kinda hard for him nowadays, which is likely the main reason why he wanted a new "retro" platform to be able to sell his old 8-bit games again or make new ones (something John likely does not care about at all, the different vision and opposition between the two of them being very perceptible in the interview, while Mike clearly had no preferences about the technical means and the goal as long as some "expert" tells him it will work and there are new people in retrogaming community getting hyped by his new ideas). So I find it surprising when the IGG page said that 10% of the minimum goal (195 k$) was going to cover their salary for upcoming year (that's 65 k$ /people/year) and it was supposely generous because it was actually "half of their normal wages" ?

 

 

 

 

 

What baffles me is they have a team of 20+ professional writers

 

I can see a pattern here :-/

Edited September 30, 2015 by philyso

[boxpressed]

Carlsen leaves the team. From his Facebook:

 

"As Mike had alluded yesterday, after about seven months of hard work I have recently decided to leave the Retro VGS team.

Before I go, I would like to thank every one of our loyal and vocal fans, including our critics, for showing us that you care about our project. I would especially like to thank our backers for their willingness to fund our massive development project and to wait a year to be the first to play our new video game system.

I have enjoyed reconnecting with Steve Woita, who was my colleague at Mediagenic 25 years ago, and getting to know Mike Kennedy, whose warmhearted enthusiasm for retro gaming brought our team together and built a community around it.

Together, we learned a lot, both good and bad. We learned how to offer high-quality, modern games on high-performance cartridges for reasonable prices. We learned how we could offer a system that performs more like a PlayStation 3 than a Raspberry Pi 2 for only a negligible difference in price. (By the way, I don’t mean to knock either of these two great products by making these comparisons.) We learned the costs of shipping complete systems individually to nearly anywhere in the world, and that it costs significantly more than stuffing tube socks into a flat-rate box. Although we already knew we would save massive up-front development costs, we learned how much re-using the former Jaguar case adds to the price of each unit. Over time, we learned each others’ strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, we also learned that outsiders would fraudulently claim to be part of our team and accept credit for our work, sometimes while defaming it and us in the process.

Despite all this, I still believe that video games can once again be reasonably free of defects before they are released, just as Nintendo did with its Seal of Quality program, and that cartridges can extend the maximum size of physical distribution media beyond what has remained stagnant for nearly a decade. As we’ve seen through a recent patent, Nintendo appears to be on the right path.

I have enjoyed working and solving many of the unique and interesting problems this project has presented, and can only hope that I’m granted a similar opportunity in the future.

Although I am saddened that this work has not yielded a viable product, I take pride in knowing that we created a good design and offered it at a fair price through an honest campaign, and made many friends in the process.

Sincerely yours,

John Carlsen"

[davidmt]

This has been a very interesting last couple of weeks, and have been following this thread closely. I'm glad to see the project has been pulled as I believe it grew quickly into something way beyond reality. The team should step back, forget about all the FPGA core technology and focus on a core product that can be realistically delivered and know who the audience is.

 

Who is the audience for a product like this? In my opinion, its two groups of people:

- The "homebrew" developer, many of whom are active on AtariAge and creating new games for the Atari 2600, 7800, Coleco, Dreamcast, and others.

- The "retro collector" who enjoys buying, collecting, and playing these new endeavors.

However, I even question how big of a market there is for this as there is a lot of nostalgia around these homebrew games and being able to play them on the consoles we had in our younger years. Will that same feeling carry forward for a new "retro themed" console?

 

I don't think many people are interested in buying a cartridge version of say, Shovel Knight to play on this console. I can play it on Steam, my Wii U, or Playstation already. And there has been tons of talk about the update/DLC issue, which is something that just wouldn't be a solution here.

 

Realistically, this type of product will appeal to a small group of people for a very dedicated purpose. Sega and Capcom would never seriously look at this as a viable platform. When I heard that mentioned, I knew it was getting out of control.

[cimerians]

 

I take pride in knowing that we created a good design and offered it at a fair price through an honest campaign, and made many friends in the process.

Sincerely yours,

John Carlsen"

 

 

 

Ehhh..don't know about that.

[PlaysWithWolves]

An awesome prototype and perhaps a little showing of humility would go a long way in Kennedy's redemption, IMHO.

 

They admitted they need to address many of our concerns, which seems like a good first step.

 

 

"Together, we learned a lot, both good and bad. We learned how to offer high-quality, modern games on high-performance cartridges for reasonable prices. We learned how we could offer a system that performs more like a PlayStation 3 than a Raspberry Pi 2 for only a negligible difference in price. (By the way, I don’t mean to knock either of these two great products by making these comparisons.) We learned the costs of shipping complete systems individually to nearly anywhere in the world, and that it costs significantly more than stuffing tube socks into a flat-rate box. Although we already knew we would save massive up-front development costs, we learned how much re-using the former Jaguar case adds to the price of each unit. Over time, we learned each others’ strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, we also learned that outsiders would fraudulently claim to be part of our team and accept credit for our work, sometimes while defaming it and us in the process.

 

Unnecessary ding at kevtris (and Pipercub?) is unnecessary?

What does "offer a system that performs more like a PlayStation 3 than a Raspberry Pi 2" mean?

 

I did wonder if using the old Jaguar cases caused more problems than they solved with airflow and designing the electronics around the case.

[IrishNerdLife]

Okay so apparently the haven't learned anything from this if they think they were offering a great product, running a great campaign and made lots of friends! Also the system was going to cost more than a PS3 and have less features. Not too sure I would be comparing the Retro VGS to the more powerful and cheaper PS3 when the specs provided, ARM + RAM, is more like Ouya territory.

 

"we also learned that outsiders would fraudulently claim to be part of our team and accept credit for our work, sometimes while defaming it and us in the process."

 

I have no doubt he is referring to Kevtris and Pipercub here. Can't say I recall any defaming going on. I guess they were planning to use their big shot lawyer to target them

What an ass.

 

 

 

Unnecessary ding at kevtris (and Piperclub?) is unnecessary?

 

That is certainly an unwarranted ding at Piperclub too. Mike Kennedy basically admitted he had been involved in the RGR interview

Edited September 30, 2015 by IrishNerdLife

[philyso]

 

Together, we learned a lot, both good and bad. We learned how to offer high-quality, modern games on high-performance cartridges for reasonable prices. We learned how we could offer a system that performs more like a PlayStation 3 than a Raspberry Pi 2 for only a negligible difference in price. (By the way, I don’t mean to knock either of these two great products by making these comparisons.) We learned the costs of shipping complete systems individually to nearly anywhere in the world, and that it costs significantly more than stuffing tube socks into a flat-rate box. Although we already knew we would save massive up-front development costs, we learned how much re-using the former Jaguar case adds to the price of each unit. Over time, we learned each others’ strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, we also learned that outsiders would fraudulently claim to be part of our team and accept credit for our work, sometimes while defaming it and us in the process.

 

I don't understand who or what the last sentence is referring to (what credit ?) but it does not seems like that guy learned ANYTHING from this failure.

All I see is the same egotripping, bashing of people who likely confronted him technically and full denial of his own technical weakness.

 

"a system that performs more like a PlayStation 3 than a Raspberry Pi 2 for only a negligible difference in price"

yeah, sure

 

Hopefully, we have this great "prototype" video he made as a testimony.

Edited September 30, 2015 by philyso

[boxpressed]

I did wonder if using the old Jaguar cases caused more problems than they solved with airflow and designing the electronics around the case.

 

It really does seem that the acquisition of the Jag molds led to where they are now. I recognize that engineering often has to take a backseat to visual appeal in any consumer product, but there didn't seem to be a workable compromise here, particularly with the feature creep. They ought to put a trunk on that dental camera case because it is a true white elephant.

[dommie]

An awesome prototype and perhaps a little showing of humility would go a long way in Kennedy's redemption, IMHO.

 

They admitted they need to address many of our concerns, which seems like a good first step.

 

 

 

Unnecessary ding at kevtris (and Pipercub?) is unnecessary?

What does "offer a system that performs more like a PlayStation 3 than a Raspberry Pi 2" mean?

 

I did wonder if using the old Jaguar cases caused more problems than they solved with airflow and designing the electronics around the case.

 

More like trying to design a car by starting first with an existing body shell, and that car shell is Karmann Ghia. It just doesn't work that way. The plastic housing is the last thing you design, and it's essential a box to hold "everything else" that you were supposed to have already made. To try and engineer it the other way is just obtuse.

[Risible]

 

Carlsen leaves the team. From his Facebook:

 

"As Mike had alluded yesterday, after about seven months of hard work I have recently decided to leave the Retro VGS team.

Before I go, I would like to thank every one of our loyal and vocal fans, including our critics, for showing us that you care about our project. I would especially like to thank our backers for their willingness to fund our massive development project and to wait a year to be the first to play our new video game system.

I have enjoyed reconnecting with Steve Woita, who was my colleague at Mediagenic 25 years ago, and getting to know Mike Kennedy, whose warmhearted enthusiasm for retro gaming brought our team together and built a community around it.

Together, we learned a lot, both good and bad. We learned how to offer high-quality, modern games on high-performance cartridges for reasonable prices. We learned how we could offer a system that performs more like a PlayStation 3 than a Raspberry Pi 2 for only a negligible difference in price. (By the way, I don’t mean to knock either of these two great products by making these comparisons.) We learned the costs of shipping complete systems individually to nearly anywhere in the world, and that it costs significantly more than stuffing tube socks into a flat-rate box. Although we already knew we would save massive up-front development costs, we learned how much re-using the former Jaguar case adds to the price of each unit. Over time, we learned each others’ strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, we also learned that outsiders would fraudulently claim to be part of our team and accept credit for our work, sometimes while defaming it and us in the process.

Despite all this, I still believe that video games can once again be reasonably free of defects before they are released, just as Nintendo did with its Seal of Quality program, and that cartridges can extend the maximum size of physical distribution media beyond what has remained stagnant for nearly a decade. As we’ve seen through a recent patent, Nintendo appears to be on the right path.

I have enjoyed working and solving many of the unique and interesting problems this project has presented, and can only hope that I’m granted a similar opportunity in the future.

Although I am saddened that this work has not yielded a viable product, I take pride in knowing that we created a good design and offered it at a fair price through an honest campaign, and made many friends in the process.

Sincerely yours,

John Carlsen"

 

 

I have to say, after reading this I think anyone would be a fool to put money towards any project these guys did in the future. They honestly seem to think they ran a good campaign and it was only through outside intervention they were brought down. They are deluded.

 

Seriously, this flabbergasts me.