Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?

[leathco]

I saw the images. He may have removed them due to the checks having personal info on them, and hopefully he will black out addresses than reupload them.

 

EDIT: well the whole page is gone now.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G530A using Tapatalk

Edited April 6, 2016 by leathco

[Shawn]

 

For a second I thought you were talking about someone else we know...

 

It sounds to me like Mike and Sean fit together like peas in a pod. Here's an idea- how do we know one was trying to scam the other? Maybe Mike and Sean were working together to fabricate a convincing prototype that would fool Kickstarter and eventually their backers and Mike thought if anyone can help him pull off that scheme it would be Sean? Then if/when all goes to hell you have a fall guy ready to take the blame.

 

If the scammer got scammed that is just poetic justice at it's finest.

[Dan Iacovelli]

I saw the images. He may have removed them due to the checks having personal info on them, and hopefully he will black out addresses than reupload them.

 

EDIT: well the whole page is gone now.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G530A using Tapatalk

that makes seance he prob did blacken out the address or acct number

[cybercylon]

Wow... just when I thought the drama was dying down... I came home to more pages of posts....

 

I think the only two things that make sense to me are:

 

- Mike deciding not to venture back into the console business. Mike I really hope you mean that and find something else to venture into to make you happy. I hope you can understand though if there is still a lot of doubt and things that don't add up, and for many reasons, there isn't going to be a lot of trust from this scene no matter what you say. Lots of finger pointing that I would not even try to sort out.

 

- Albert has the molds, etc. Good. They have a safe home, and that is the best that could come out of this.

 

Not much more to say so...

 

End of line.

[SoulBlazer]

 

No, it's news to me, and something I need to spend some time investigating on my own. I don't catch everything that happens here on the forum, and it seems much of what took place around Sean happened elsewhere. The information seems to be out there, at least, and some people are willing to talk about it, so that's good.

 

No problem, I know how big this site is and how busy you are, just curious. The last thing I want to see is AA get involved in anything in even the slightest negative context.

[phoenixdownita]

I saw the images. He may have removed them due to the checks having personal info on them, and hopefully he will black out addresses than reupload them.

 

EDIT: well the whole page is gone now.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G530A using Tapatalk

What I saw is that two had numbers on top right corner of them (1008 and 1012 if memory serves) but the third looked different.

Two had Retro something inc printed as the heading (the ones with the numbers) on the top left corner of them, the third had it written in ink.

AND, one of two of them had a clear fingerprint (a thumb or something) ....

I really wanted someone to 3D print one of those "thumbs" and send it to me so I can suck on it every time I think about this thread (my little "sore thumb" I'd call it)

 

His signature was scrambled on all 3 checks, I can't remember if routing/acct number were edited or not but assuming Lee is half the bad guy portrayed that data is now all over the dark net anyway ..... just saying.

[bikeguychicago]

 

Goodbye

 

You say yes, I say no

You say stop, and I say go, go go

[jaybird3rd]

EDIT: well the whole page is gone now.

Don't worry, the images have been saved. (They didn't show any signatures or account/routing numbers.)

[Flojomojo]

Hi Mike, I'm late to this discussion. Are you still reading the forum?

 

In the end, I am the only one that has lost anything, money, potential opportunity and my reputation in this hobby.

 

In that case, would you mind answering a few questions? That would take us a lot farther down the road of understanding the whole truth.

 

1. What made you think it was a good idea to ask for money, twice, before having anything to show? Did you figure that everything would take care of itself once you were funded?

 

2. Did you ever actually have the rights to make any of the games you featured in the Chameleon sizzle reel, such as the Intellivision and Colecovision multi-packs? What was the nature of the contract, if any (percentage of sales, up-front licensing, etc)? Did you tell Gizmodo that you had rights to Atari properties? If not, who did?

 

3. What were the plans for the USB versions of Colecovision and Intellivision controllers that never came to light?

 

4. Why was Coleco Holdings led to believe there was a viable product in that shiny Jaguar shell? Should they have gone to the expense of printing flyers and sharing their booth with you at Toy Fair?

 

5. Who made the decision to delete critical comments on the RVGS Facebook page, and block people from commenting? Who took down the bogus 2nd "prototype" minutes after it was outed here on the AtariAge forums?

 

6. Was any money paid to any other hardware engineer besides Sean "Lee" Robinson? If not, what was it about Robinson that made him more worthy of this amount of spending than the people who came before?

 

7. What happened to the "team" that you proudly splashed on the Chameleon page? It seems that their contributions were much smaller than those of the hardware engineer(s). Why were they named while the hardware engineer(s) were not?

 

8. Who paid for your trip to the NYC Toy Fair?

 

9. You ask that we not consider this issue when thinking about the Retro magazine. Why not? The same guy is in charge, and you have already taken money for that venture.

 

10. What happened to your partners in GameGavel and Retro magazine? Have they been cut out of their share of any profits, as has been suggested elsewhere? Will they be compensated in any way?

 

I feel that if you're going to come here and try to explain yourself, you should be able to answer all of these simple, direct questions. I am prepared to believe that someone played you, but from where I sit, it seems likely that you were an enthusiastic participant, every step of the way.

[Amstari]

They were deleted as soon as it was noticed that he was still writing checks after the DVR fraud was confirmed.

 

Mikes story about being conned is falling apart already.

[toiletunes]

7:22 pm - check images go up.

7:30 pm- asked why did you pay Mr. Lee on 2/29, that was AFTER we knew the DVR console was fake

7:47 pm- the pictures are GONE.

 

Simple as that.

[Giltygear]

I have seen some of the checks Mike paid to Sean, he said I could post them, but I'll allow him to do that himself. They are three separate checks totaling $7,000 between January 8, 2016 and February 29th, 2016.

 

..Al

 

This is what this whole fiasco has come to? Taking pictures of checks to validate a story?

 

Time to lock this thread and MOVE ON.

[phoenixdownita]

Don't worry, the images have been saved. (They didn't show any signatures or account/routing numbers.)

OK, so as there are no numbers or signatures, just payee and amounts what's to take down?

[thanks btw]

[phoenixdownita]

 

This is what this whole fiasco has come to? Taking pictures of checks to validate a story?

 

Time to lock this thread and MOVE ON.

As it was already said earlier, take your own advice and move on.

Let us to gloat and bask in the light of this epic disaster, call it the worst case of schadenfreude if you so like but locking the thread is out of the question.

I'd say instead it is time to update the first post with direct links to the most recent events.

[Cybermario]

 

TTime to lock this thread and MOVE ON.

 

Thats what Mike wants. This must remain open.

[Reaperman]

Are we absolutely sure it was sean robinson?

Sounds equally like the work of "some puerto rican guy" or maybe ray finkle in drag.

 

Perhaps this "sean robinson" was also running the facebook page and namedropping all over the place too.

Maybe he was in a kennedy disguise doing all those interviews, while the real deal was innocently tied to a chair in his own basement thinking of ways to help orphans.

 

I'm a pretty stupid guy, but even I'm not quite stupid enough to buy any of this.

[bretthorror]

 

This is what this whole fiasco has come to? Taking pictures of checks to validate a story?

 

Time to lock this thread and MOVE ON.

 

If it wasn't for this thread, some people would still believe Mike's sob story despite the fact he continued paying this so called scammer after the DVR was discovered. Mike just can't pull a fast one on the collective group that is this thread, and if not for the thread, what is the likelihood stuff like that would have been found out? It's absolutely necessary to keep this going until this stuff has been sorted.

 

And after today's revelation, it's pretty much still as batshit crazy and full of lies than it ever was, only this time Mike appears to be dragging another guy through the mud despite paying him after a phony proto was proven!

[StopDrop&Retro]

Are we going to have to wait another month for Mike to explain this one??

[bretthorror]

Are we going to have to wait another month for Mike to explain this one??

 

Can he use "it was post dated"? Haha

[dj_convoy]

Hi Mike, I'm late to this discussion. Are you still reading the forum?

 

 

In that case, would you mind answering a few questions? That would take us a lot farther down the road of understanding the whole truth.

 

1. What made you think it was a good idea to ask for money, twice, before having anything to show? Did you figure that everything would take care of itself once you were funded?

 

2. Did you ever actually have the rights to make any of the games you featured in the Chameleon sizzle reel, such as the Intellivision and Colecovision multi-packs? What was the nature of the contract, if any (percentage of sales, up-front licensing, etc)? Did you tell Gizmodo that you had rights to Atari properties? If not, who did?

 

3. What were the plans for the USB versions of Colecovision and Intellivision controllers that never came to light?

 

4. Why was Coleco Holdings led to believe there was a viable product in that shiny Jaguar shell? Should they have gone to the expense of printing flyers and sharing their booth with you a booth at Toy Fair?

 

5. Who made the decision to delete critical comments on the RVGS Facebook page, and block people from commenting? Who took down the bogus 2nd "prototype" minutes after it was outed here on the AtariAge forums?

 

6. Was any money paid to any other hardware engineer besides Sean "Lee" Robinson? If not, what was it about Robinson that made him more worthy of this amount of spending than the people who came before?

 

7. What happened to the "team" that you proudly splashed on the Chameleon page? It seems that their contributions were much smaller than those of the hardware engineer(s). Why were they named while the hardware engineer(s) were not?

 

8. Who paid for your trip to the NYC Toy Fair?

 

9. You ask that we not consider this issue when thinking about the Retro magazine. Why not? The same guy is in charge, and you have already taken money for that venture.

 

10. What happened to your partners in GameGavel and Retro magazine? Have they been cut out of their share of any profits, as has been suggested elsewhere? Will they be compensated in any way?

 

I feel that if you're going to come here and try to explain yourself, you should be able to answer all of these simple, direct questions. I am prepared to believe that someone played you, but from where I sit, it seems likely that you were an enthusiastic participant, every step of the way.

I wish I could "like" this over and over.

[Great Hierophant]

Mike Kennedy does not need a shovel, his mouth buries himself deeper and deeper every time he opens it to address the issue.

 

Those checks went up and down almost in the blink of an eye. History repeats itself, MK only knows a couple of tricks and repeats them over and over again. Anyone who got a chance to save the images should post them.

 

Although the Jaguar molds have been saved by Albert, MK's reputation cannot be saved. Even if you believe every word of his post today, would enough people trust this man with their money for a Retro Magazine Year 3? I think not. The links on AtariAge to GameGavel for each game entry in the rarity guide have gone, a sign that his other major venture will wither and die. I suspect he will not be particularly welcome at gaming events or trade shows in the future unless he buys a ticket.

Edited April 6, 2016 by Great Hierophant

[shawnphase]

exactly. this thread serves as a warning for people who may choose to do something as innocuous as even pick up a copy of retro magazine at a bookstore. this guy still cant be bothered to do good business with people even with that. instead, he went on vacation and i guess it shows in the mag the effort he's gotten used to putting forth.

 

i went to the fb for retro mag just now, and he's still deleting comments there where he is shilling issue #11. but theres certainly still comments showing from really pissed off people who never got their copies of the mag or just arent into it. if mike has time to prune this fb account in such a manner at this point, leaving (most likely) honest criticisms and leaving supports of it unhappy, well it speaks for itself how he feels about this hobby. that $10k that he allegedly got ripped off for, its not anything compared to all the people he's snookered at the swap and flea markets.

 

 

[toiletunes]

Well- thanks to this thread, I have more 'Likes' than Posts. Maybe now I qualify for the Religion &Politics forum.

[Flojomojo]

Those checks went up and down almost in the blink of an eye. History repeats itself, MK only knows a couple of tricks and repeats them over and over again. Anyone who got a chance to save the images should post them.

 

January 8, 2016, check 100 (looks like a starter set, since the account holder name is handwritten, not printed)

$2,500 for "Hardware Design"

January 21, 2016, check 1008

$1,500 for "Prototyping"

February 29, 2016, check 1012

$3,000 for "Product Development"

I can't tell that they were cancelled (the reverse side would be better for that), but presumably the thumb print belongs to the person cashing them.

[Great Hierophant]

Much obliged Flojomojo.