Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?

[Keatah]

I so wanted the rvgs to be a real thing and collect carts for it. This is just a huge disappointment. Ill have to wait for kevtris to finish his I hope it doesn't take years. I back the the starforce pi also and it didnt make it also.

 

What happened with the StarForce Pi? Why didn't it make it?

[Andromeda Stardust]

One more time for old times sake:

 

Cograts to the entire AA forum and everyone who participated in this thread for cracking this nut!

[Raticon]

I believe someone else posted this idea way back:

 

He should totally licence the Channel F from Fairchild, and in the spirit of the times we live in make it "unique, personalised and all about YOU"

 

It would be the "F You"

[+madman]

I so wanted the rvgs to be a real thing and collect carts for it. This is just a huge disappointment. Ill have to wait for kevtris to finish his I hope it doesn't take years. I back the the starforce pi also and it didnt make it also.

You do realize it was only going to play games that already existed on other consoles? If you want to play RVGS/Chameleon games you can pick some of them up here:

https://www.pikointeractive.com/store.html

[StopDrop&Retro]

Where is the final S.H.I.T. parody video?

 

If he's going for historical accuracy, the next one could just have the Nostalgia S.H.I.T. Marty on camera for like 30 seconds with silence. Then he just walks in, takes it away without saying anything, and then you get another 30 seconds of silence.

[Bill Loguidice]

 

What happened with the StarForce Pi? Why didn't it make it?

 

I think it was a nice idea, but probably not turnkey enough. The reason why I backed out is that I built something just like it myself from a Pimoroni kit that I got off Kickstarter quite a long time ago (the Picade Mini Arcade cabinet - http://armchairarcade.com/perspectives/tag/picade/).

 

I recently did back the indieGO! console on Kickstarter (the Odroid XU4 version), because it did seem to be a bit more turnkey and had a few other features that I thought might be convenient for when I don't want to use original hardware or something else: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/681890174/indiego-all-in-one-retro-game-console-raspberry-pi/description . In any case, the success of that and other products proves that a Kickstarter for something resembling a console can work and doesn't have to be a total disaster. Of course, I'll know for sure if/when they deliver, but they appear to be most of the way there.

[Keatah]

I was once a candidate for the Jr Darwin awards. Number one cardinal rule of electronics kits: One should never play with electricity from the mains!

 

Once I also shocked the fire out of myself and nearly made my heart stop with a circuit running off a 9 volt battery. I hooked the relay (blue box) so that the coil broke the circuit as it energized, which besides generating a ton of audible wideband RF noise, created a powerful inductive kickback pulse that created a mysterious tingling sensation whenever I placed my index and middle fingers across the relay terminals. It was then I learned that I had a fairly high tolerance for electrical pain. I then took the transformer block from a 9V AC adapter that I previously dissected, connected the low voltage secondary coil in series with the relay coil. Then I grabbed both ends of the high voltage primary winding in either hand, and instantly both my arms felt like they were on fire and my heart seized up for about half a second. It knocked me the hell back, but luckily my heart did not stop, and I did not black out, but i remember laying there on the floor for ten, fifteen minutes, too scared and fatigued to get up, trembling and feeling cold and clammy, beads of sweat dripping from my forehead, and I felt a tingling sensation in my forearms and fingers that persisted into the next day. I never told my parents about it but that night quietly thanked the Lord I was still alive. My parents were both out of the house, and had my heart stopped, nobody would have been there to revive me until hours too late. The transformers in those little DC adapters that reduced the lethal charge in the walls into something that was safe to play with could also convert a harmless circuit into a lethal voltage when operated in reverse.

 

I later attempted to use said power brick in reverse to light a light bulb, but alas, the transformer was useless for converting DC power, and even if it could, my small bank of AA batteries could never have provided sufficient juice to illuminate the luminary.

 

EDIT. Sorry if this is OT. I stepped out for a couple hours because real life responsibilities.

 

 

Ehh, a little bit of sidetracking and off-topic is a good break. Especially now that the thread is winding down.

 

 

On no less than 4 separate occasions, maybe 5, I had the cops and fire called out to my house to "investigate" my electronics and model rocket experiments. I wasn't even 10 years old yet.

One time I took apart the motorized Christmas tree stand and filled the gearbox with cream cheese, I loved watching it squoosh through the gears. I got careless and touched something and blew myself across living room floor. I was not even 5 years old at the time.

It was after failing and again at these high voltage experiments that I decided that "power" circuitry wasn't my forte. I then took up playing more and more with communications electronics. And eventually got degreed in that.

 

For those of you interested in other uses of FPGAs, look into communications and soft-radios and radar. And vision systems too - especially for self-driving cars. They're really quite versatile and soon every CPU will have some form of array on-chip.

[galax]

Sorry if this is a repeat, haven't noticed it mentioned in this massive thread or on the first page.

I was looking at the Retro magazine page and skimmed through the podcast posted on 2/20. Starting at 53:30 they start talking about the Toy Fair booth, and at 56:20 someone says "I'm here. This is not an SNES."

 

http://readretro.com/features/talk-retro-24/

A bit more of a transcript, paraprhased from 56:00 or so:

 

One thing I wanted to address, from my own video at the booth, people commented "too bad it's an SNES in a Jaguar shell". I'm here, at the booth, I know it's not an SNES. I know that it can look that way, because the games that were on display were SNES games, even using SNES controllers too. The prototype for the Coleco Chameleon was there, it just wasn't in a working build. Other that that it's a really cool machine. Some of the facts: this was basically like a proof of concept to be shown to retailers. It's a really cool idea, and something that a lot of people seemed very excited about. Take all the rumours and negativity that you see, especially Youtube comments, take all of that away and experience the console for yourself.

People are being negative because they don't have their hands on the system. They've only seen gameplay videos, but they don't have it in their hands, so doubt enters the picture.

Yeah they were drinking deep from that Kool Aid...

[PlaysWithWolves]

Mike actually accomplished something extraordinary, though: at every single step in this entire process, through every iteration of this project, he somehow found a way to do everything completely and totally wrong. That has to be some kind of record.

 

It really was something to witness. RVGS failure: Somewhat forgivable, I guess. Same plan for round two?

 

 

 

BTB gets first crack at the documentary.

 

 

 

That must have been what Pat and Ian were referring to. They called the guy out (I think it was Daniel Kayser) for insisting that it wasn't an SNES even though he never saw the board and didn't know any more than anyone else:

 

Could be, though part of his TalkRETRO podcast #24 was horrible with its shilling. Note the last sentence of the description, hater:

 

 

The intro of TalkRETRO podcast #26 is funny and sad. He completely walks back and says he knows nothing of the inner workings of the Chameleon and he won't be addressing it further in that podcast.

 

[Natimus]

The COLECO Chameleon twitter account is still up and running...

My theory is that:

 

1) you cant temporarily take down a twitter page to rework it, like you can with fb, without deleting it

and MK is still planning the comeback of the year decade CENTURY and doesnt want to lose his follower count.

 

or the much, much, simpler, funnier guess..

 

2) This "professional" "Retro expert filled" bastion of a company....forgot their twitter password.

[galax]

You do realize it was only going to play games that already existed on other consoles? If you want to play RVGS/Chameleon games you can pick some of them up here:

https://www.pikointeractive.com/store.html

There are also new and re-released console games just waiting to be collected right here: https://www.atariage.com/store/

 

Modern retro cartridge gaming didn't begin or end with the RVGS/CC, however much Mike Kennedy wanted to "corner the market".

[8bitforlife]

 

I think it was a nice idea, but probably not turnkey enough. The reason why I backed out is that I built something just like it myself from a Pimoroni kit that I got off Kickstarter quite a long time ago (the Picade Mini Arcade cabinet - http://armchairarcade.com/perspectives/tag/picade/).

 

I recently did back the indieGO! console on Kickstarter (the Odroid XU4 version), because it did seem to be a bit more turnkey and had a few other features that I thought might be convenient for when I don't want to use original hardware or something else: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/681890174/indiego-all-in-one-retro-game-console-raspberry-pi/description . In any case, the success of that and other products proves that a Kickstarter for something resembling a console can work and doesn't have to be a total disaster. Of course, I'll know for sure if/when they deliver, but they appear to be most of the way there.

I did not know about this indieGO! All-in-One Retro Game Console. The guy who is making the starforce pi is making a limited run for some of the backers who really wanted it which i was one of them.

[Chuck D. Head]

"News outlets" around the internet may not be giving AA members proper credit for their part in bringing this down, but Google's search algorithms know the scoop; an image search for Coleco Chameleon mixes a delightful portion of everyone AA profile pics in with all the pictures of fauxtotypes and computer rendered consoles. There is even an screen cap of a mini-rant by CPUWiz!

[8bitforlife]

You do realize it was only going to play games that already existed on other consoles? If you want to play RVGS/Chameleon games you can pick some of them up here:

https://www.pikointeractive.com/store.html

It was more of collecting potential indie games that might of been released on it in cart form like shovel knight or something to that like it. But was just a pipe dream thats been crushed.

[dj_convoy]

 

I think it was a nice idea, but probably not turnkey enough.

 

 

That was my takeaway from the project; it was most of the way there but not enough for me to lay down our funds.

[7800fan]

How many times have Airword proto surfaced but without any proof it is real?

 

I'm sure this won't be the last time we'd hear of this proto project. Sometime in the future it may pop up again but under the hood it's just something like Pi running emulators and the cart are just dummy shell for looks.

[+madman]

It was more of collecting potential indie games that might of been released on it in cart form like shovel knight or something to that like it. But was just a pipe dream thats been crushed.

Shovel Knight is available in physical form on the 3DS. Tons of indie games are available on retro platforms that you can collect. What's wrong with collecting things that actually exist today?

[RupanIII]

That was me Mickcris, i have an email from someone else at Coleco, Mark T, confirms what I asked him.

I asked him to clarify the Polygon article because it appeared to be properly citing him but out of context/sequence and it appeared to imply that a prototype had been examined.

That is merely the pictures we all saw on the web and their engineers reaction which Chris already described on the podcast.

Then that this is over early because RVGS said they would not be able to demonstrate a product at this time, a day before their deadline, so Coleco hit the button and cut ties, made press releases.

 

I asked him to clarify because I felt Polygon's subpar article was making it seem like Coleco was now saying they had looked at something in person, which they confirmed, reaffirming their press releastes and social media statements, that RVGS stated they would not deliver one.

Just catching up with thread so someone else may have commented on this already, but I think they may be talking about Chris Cardillo's chat with his engineer friend. The one that made the frying pan and spark plug comment.

[8bitforlife]

Shovel Knight is available in physical form on the 3DS. Tons of indie games are available on retro platforms that you can collect. What's wrong with collecting things that actually exist today?

I have it for ps4 and 3ds and backed it on kickstarter. There is nothing wrong with it as I do. I was just caught up in the idea of return of carts for a new system. I collect many things.

[8bitforlife]

How many times have Airword proto surfaced but without any proof it is real?

 

I'm sure this won't be the last time we'd hear of this proto project. Sometime in the future it may pop up again but under the hood it's just something like Pi running emulators and the cart are just dummy shell for looks.

At this point it probably would of been better for mike to scrap the new hardware before toyfair and just had done this in the jag shell. People probably would of bought it but it wouldnt of made a ton of money.

Edited March 8, 2016 by 8bitforlife

[galax]

Shovel Knight is available in physical form on the 3DS. Tons of indie games are available on retro platforms that you can collect. What's wrong with collecting things that actually exist today?

 

There's no need to make a cart for a modern system that's any bigger than the 3DS/PSVita cartridges. It could of course be made as small as a microSD card. In fact a whole system can pretty much fit into the size of a Jaguar cart; look at the Raspberry Pi and PS TV.

 

If a game was released as a real cart you wouldn't have any updates, DLC, bugfixes etc. that you would have on other platforms. A modern cart system is a weird idea that seems somewhat cool at first but ultimately isn't practical- a bit like releasing a laptop with a mechanical typewriter keyboard, or a cellphone with a rotary dial.

[8bitforlife]

 

There's no need to make a cart for a modern system that's any bigger than the 3DS/PSVita cartridges. It could of course be made as small as a microSD card. In fact a whole system can pretty much fit into the size of a Jaguar cart; look at the Raspberry Pi and PS TV.

 

If a game was released as a real cart you wouldn't have any updates, DLC, bugfixes etc. that you would have on other platforms. A modern cart system is a weird idea that seems somewhat cool at first but ultimately isn't practical- a bit like releasing a laptop with a mechanical typewriter keyboard, or a cellphone with a rotary dial.

They could add a sd slot to each cart for updates to said game. But I am no hardware guy its just a thought.

[carlsson]

I was looking for a defunct console maker that started with "D", but no dice, so I offer up: The V-Tech DungBeetle.

 

Dick Smith starts with a "D", and incidentally also used to rebrand and sell VTech computers and possibly also whatever consoles they made (Dick Smith Wizzard = VTech Creativision). However Dick Smith is now shutting down loads of stores in Australia and New Zeeland, so perhaps a new system is the last thing they would invest in, even if Dungbeetle might be appropriate for a company on its way going down.

 

(VTech itself seems alive and fairly well, although they mostly do children's toys these days)

[Chuck D. Head]

 

Dick Smith starts with a "D", and incidentally also used to rebrand and sell VTech computers and possibly also whatever consoles they made (Dick Smith Wizzard = VTech Creativision). However Dick Smith is now shutting down loads of stores in Australia and New Zeeland, so perhaps a new system is the last thing they would invest in, even if Dungbeetle might be appropriate for a company on its way going down.

 

(VTech itself seems alive and fairly well, although they mostly do children's toys these days)

 

Hmm, well I was just thinking that a V-tech sounded just desperate enough, but since there is already a precedent relationship, Dick Smith it is! (at the risk of confusion, with all the dicks already involved in the project)

Edited March 8, 2016 by Chuck D. Head

[some_canuck]

the v-tech socrates was a decent edutainment console, too bad they couldn't code worth crap and the platform was rife with lag. seems they've moved on to android tablets for kids, and interactive dolls.