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Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?


phoenixdownita

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My main question: Is there a way to get this thread off of my "My Content" list?!!

 

But while I am here...

 

I can't believe this is thread is still alive.

 

The Chameleon was a stupid concept from the beginning. If somebody wants a cartridge based system, there are classic systems (and even SD carts for most).

Why would I want to purchase a 2600-quality game for my new Chameleon? (especially if it's a lame knock-off of an old VCS game). Why would I want a ColecoVision-quality game to play on my new system?

Why would I just not play 2600 quality games on my 2600/Harmony or emulation, play Coleco games on my CV and AtariMax, etc..?

 

Why not buy new games for old systems? There are system clone, such as the Retron series if the original systems are not easy to obtain.

Why would I want a semi-modern cartridge-based system to play games on?

For a mid-quality system, why not just play on the Ouya (sp?)?

How about the Gp2x? It's about GBA quality and open source.

 

I just don't see the Niche here.

 

I just don't get it. This never seemed close to viable product. I don't get the confusion as to why it failed.

 

This whole project does not deserve the attention it received.

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I wasn't going to post this here, but after recent events I think I need to. I wrote an article for RGRs blog about how Mike can actually reconcile with the community at http://retrogamingroundup.com/blog/?p=1246.

 

Mike, if you want to come clean, I would highly recommend reading that article. You did a lot of good for this community in the past, and I'm sorry that a lot of that good hasn't been brought up in this thread, but remember the bad things people do ALWAYS will outweigh the good, especially when we see what looked like a complete reversal in personality from you.

 

Kennedy's credibility is so bad that people even question his story about Sean/Lee and if the checks are real. Do you realize how awful that is? He may well have been scammed thousands, and the "number of cares" most people give equals zero.

 

It's mostly his own fault too. He may have been able to come back after RVGS, but I'm pretty sure his chances to redeem himself are now gone.

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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? The plan WAS TO HAVE SOMETHING TO SHOW for the Kickstarter.

 

**and yet a wee before, with absolutely nothing that works at all you wanted the Jagbar to record your video, and Collectorvision to sign contracts mere days before the start. Where were you going to get a working system in a couple days?

 

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? Of course. "I thought I had bought an Intelli FPGA from Sean and he told me he was getting Intelli games running on our software/hardware. "

** yet you had never seen any of those running, so you had no idea wether/how well any of that was going to actually work.

 

For Coleco we were lined up to either attempt to buy the FPGA core from Kevin or license the emulator from Oscar -

** so here the answer is obviously: nope, we had nothing at all.

 

The reporter from Gizmodo happened to be in our booth waiting to interview us while we were all having a lengthy conversation with Atari who had come to the show specifically to talk with us. They wanted to have a multi cart available at the launch of the Kickstarter as well and we all shook on it in the booth - Ben, Chris and myself. She heard the whole thing. It was then after the show we were in further discussions with them when they said to do this they would need a guarantee upfront of like $50K to do the deal -- something they didn't mention in our booth. We were in the process of working through this when the clear proto fake was shown which ultimate ended all communications with them. And they weren't happy with the news of the SNES in a shell, obviously.

 

**cool. on the Atari stuff you're not at fault. I'll givbe you that no problem.

 

3. What were the plans for the USB versions of Colecovision and Intellivision controllers that never came to light? We were going to contract with Interworks Unlimited to create these controllers.

 

**did you have a contract? Or it was just somehting you intended on doing? You announced it as being a sure thing.

 

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? We were all led to believe this. If I had known before going to the show that my $4k that I paid Sean in January was getting me a SNES in a shell, I wouldn't have gone to the show and cancelled.

 

** and once you discovered you got an SNES in a Jag shell, instead of just telling people then you got scammed, and make yourlsef look like a fool, you decided to just push through and pretend everything was fine.

 

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? At the time I was convinced that we had real software running the games. I felt these comments were false based on what I was being told by a master manipulator. I will apologize again for this. I had complete and total trust in this guy, as did Steve Woita who had lots of phone interaction with Sean. It was inconceivable to us at the time that he was lying all along about everything he was or wasn't working on.

 

** here you contradict yourself. Right after Atari Age discovered the DVR capture card inside the jaguar shell the 2 most damning pictures were immediately erased. And you went completely silent after that. At that moment it didin#t seem very important to go after sean and protect other people who might get scammed by him right? You said yourself you wouldn#t have payed him had you known it was a DVR card. Did you believe there was hardware in there or not?

 

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? Nope. It was all for equity until I started paying cash to Sean. John Carlsen started the first RetroVGS company with me shortly before he quit and we were almost equal partners. That company was started and dissolved a few weeks apart. When I needed to make sure Sean was able to work full time the month before the fair to make what I thought was going to be a real prototype we discussed what would be needed to make that happen and we agreed on the $4K.

 

** I'm glad you feel no remorse for having wasted time from multiple people with empty promises. I'm sure what they feel is completely different to what you feel by being fooled by this "Lee" guy. You also don't answer why is "lee" so special that you were willing to pay him but no one else.

 

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? There contributions weren't small. Ben was securing retailers, Phil Adam was working with Interplay and Blizzard to secure deals on HD remakes or 16-bit cart collections of their earlier hits (Phil used to be President of Interplay back in their hayday and is also very close with the execs at Blizzard). Paul Wylie has a logistics background and was working to setup all our domestic and/or overseas manufacturing. I was setting up relationships with Arrow Electronics and others to begin supplying us our parts, etc. There was a lot going on while I thought I had a competent hardware team working on the hardware. Lots of wasted effort and I can assure you none of us knew the crap Sean was pulling. And remember, Sean didn't want to be mentioned as working on this project, wanted to remain "behind the curtain". Steve Woita was mentioned.

 

**Again, I'm glad you're the only person to lose anything with this whole (ad)venture. It would suck to drag a dozen people down with you, waste their time and money based on the fact you were making wild promises about a product you didin't have at all. It's not like it' your responsibility to deliver what you promised right?

 

8. Who paid for your trip to the NYC Toy Fair? That come out of a small investment by a family member.

 

**Another person who lost nothing, since you're the only to have had any financial loss in this right?

 

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. The magazine is running great right now. I removed those that were cause for our delays the first year and we have been trying to catch up. We are printing issue #11 this week and they mail out directly from the printer so most subscribers will be receiving their second to last issue. We have a 200 page RETRO Replay: Best of Years #1 and #2 coming out next followed by Issue #12. We will be continuing with year #3 but not using crowdfunding to do it. Here is a free discount code (used during checkout) so any of you can download any of our issues and check them out at http://www.ShopReadRetro.com. Code: atariage. I will remove the code in a week so get them while you can and see for yourself if you like it or not. They look much better in person.

 

** Good to see you don#t need crowdfunding for the magazine anymore. Congratulatons on your success.

 

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? Partners in GameGavel aren't really partners, they are friends ...

 

**I'd like to understand your definition of "friend". Seems to be a bit different than mine.

 

Sorry for the poor format of the reply, and the very obvious nature of my comments. At least this time it doesn't look like this is going to last long. And doesn't seem like I'll ever need to do another video on this whole thing. I'm glad this is "over", at least in the sense that we don't need to expose any more tries to raise money for inexistent projects, and figure out what the hell "Lee" the mysterious hardware developer stuffed into a Jaguar shell this time.

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Kennedy's credibility is so bad that people even question his story about Sean/Lee and if the checks are real. Do you realize how awful that is? He may well have been scammed thousands, and the "number of cares" most people give equals zero.

I was wondering if anyone asked him who set up the console at the toy fair. The person who did it put the controllers through the small holes on the front of the clear display case and plugged them in. That person knew the controllers were plugged in and not "hardwired."

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Kennedy's credibility is so bad that people even question his story about Sean/Lee and if the checks are real. Do you realize how awful that is? He may well have been scammed thousands, and the "number of cares" most people give equals zero.

 

It's mostly his own fault too. He may have been able to come back after RVGS, but I'm pretty sure his chances to redeem himself are now gone.

I understand that. I know my thoughts are unpopular. I know MANY people can never forgive him. And I also know that his recent posts haven't really helped him. And I also spoke out and posted that as well.

 

But, for those of us who actually talked to Mike years back and remember who he used to be, I wanted to throw it out there. There's been a LOT of hate in this thread, and yes, he deserves it. But I don't think there's anything wrong with someone still asking him to come forward with the truth and to remember why he is here in the first place.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G530A using Tapatalk

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I don't get the confusion as to why it failed.

 

I think what you don't get is the various topics at hand, probably because you've read very little of the thread.

 

"why it failed" is not on the agenda.

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There's been a LOT of hate in this thread, and yes, he deserves it. But I don't think there's anything wrong with someone still asking him to come forward with the truth

 

Interestingly enough, what you call "hate" is just people "asking him to come forward with the truth"

 

This is basically what we've been mostly asking these 400 pages of "hate".

 

And yet, so many pages later, so much time later, all we get are more excuses.

 

And for the magazine it's actually very concerning, because his behaviour in regards to it seems to be very similar to what he does in regards to the console.

 

We hear: "The mag is doing great. Everything is fine. The delays were guy's Y fault, don't worry, I've already thrown him under the bus."

 

Instead of: "I'm really sorry we had some delays, and I know some people haven't got their copies yet, If you haven't please contact me, we'll solve it ASAP. I would also like to thank guy X and Y who worked with us to make this, but we did some changes in staff trying to improve our quality for the future. Also I heard some people were not satisfied with the content, we'll consider all your suggestions, so please keep any criticysm you have comming so we can improve in the future."

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exorcism, I hope.

 

 

 

Let me know if such services are required. And I even offer the option to completely destroy the subject or leave it unscathed. If any burials are involved I can get that set up, too, through this guy I know.

I can help as well. I am an ordained Dudeist priest, and am a member in good standing in the First Presleyterian Church of St. Elvis the Divine.

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I am just glad this whole fiasco is done as leods said, the shell tooling is in good hands with Al, what he will do with them who knows.

I knew mike from the hey days of chase the chuck wagon, before it changed to game gavel and he was a great guy.

there are scammers all over the place and its too bad that mike was the one got hit, those of who pledged got our money back

so I have no reason to complain.

its best thing to get things in writing before handing out money for any project, and to me it seems mike didn't do that and he just

did it verbal,which won't hold up in court.

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Interestingly enough, what you call "hate" is just people "asking him to come forward with the truth"

 

This is basically what we've been mostly asking these 400 pages of "hate".

 

And yet, so many pages later, so much time later, all we get are more excuses.

 

Maybe the word I am thinking of is anger instead of hate. Either way, the words I used right after that were "he deserves it".

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G530A using Tapatalk

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It's truly sad to see so much drama and angst in a hobby of all things.

 

I know. I just said this a little while ago..

That's because some people are not looking at it like a hobby, but instead as a way to make money. Buncha capitalistic interlopers if you ask me. They're not doing it for the love of the hobby like most modern-day homebrewers do.

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I think what you don't get is the various topics at hand, probably because you've read very little of the thread.

 

"why it failed" is not on the agenda.

Ah.. I was a little frustrated with shortly after conception, because I didn't see a market for it. The problem I am having is that I already clicked "Ignore This Topic", but it continues to show up in my "My Content" section whenever a new post comes up. :(

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The problem I am having is that I already clicked "Ignore This Topic", but it continues to show up in my "My Content" section whenever a new post comes up. :(

That's your punishment for participating. :D

 

We've been wishing for "Ignore This Topic" to work with My Content since 2011:

 

atariage.com/forums/topic/179144-want-to-ignore-topics-at-aa-heres-your-chance/?p=2239715

 

atariage.com/forums/topic/230229-ignore-topics-under-my-content/

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Ah.. I was a little frustrated with shortly after conception, because I didn't see a market for it. The problem I am having is that I already clicked "Ignore This Topic", but it continues to show up in my "My Content" section whenever a new post comes up. :(

 

ouch, I can see that being a PITA especially with this thread. At least you taught me something new - I'd never seen "My Content" before just now :lolblue:

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[..]

 

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? At the time I was convinced that we had real software running the games. I felt these comments were false based on what I was being told by a master manipulator. I will apologize again for this. I had complete and total trust in this guy, as did Steve Woita who had lots of phone interaction with Sean. It was inconceivable to us at the time that he was lying all along about everything he was or wasn't working on.

 

[..]

 

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? There contributions weren't small. Ben was securing retailers, Phil Adam was working with Interplay and Blizzard to secure deals on HD remakes or 16-bit cart collections of their earlier hits (Phil used to be President of Interplay back in their hayday and is also very close with the execs at Blizzard). Paul Wylie has a logistics background and was working to setup all our domestic and/or overseas manufacturing. I was setting up relationships with Arrow Electronics and others to begin supplying us our parts, etc. There was a lot going on while I thought I had a competent hardware team working on the hardware. Lots of wasted effort and I can assure you none of us knew the crap Sean was pulling. And remember, Sean didn't want to be mentioned as working on this project, wanted to remain "behind the curtain". Steve Woita was mentioned.

 

[..]

 

#5

I still have problems with this. Nobody has to feel sorry for my infantile mental capacity and all that. But, pray-tell, 1 guy against a bunch of message forums full of technically superior intellects? C'mon man. Someone's judgment was pretty bad.

 

And if this judgment is pervasive throughout the project, there'd be more fail points ahead if by some miracle this got to kickstarter funding.

 

#7

This seems like a lot of brouhaha. A lot of "stuff" going on and nothing getting done. Whereas true talent works quietly. I'm dismayed that so many non-tech things were happening when there wasn't even a real product to show.

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This needs to be an actual game. Text, RPG or Adventure hack... this has got to happen.

It's a pity that Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett aren't here anymore.

 

IMHO, Mike Kennedy has definitely earned himself a place on the Golgafrincham B Ark.

 

Every time that he opens his mouth to try to explain things and to justify his actions, he just seems to be determined to put his foot in it instead.

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LOL! A punishment it is.. Thanks for the answer, even if it's not the one I wanted to hear. HAHA!

I will continue to be punished with political crap on Facebook, and AtariAge will be the Chameleon.

 

It does inspire me to come up with a worthless product and follow through, because I can see that there's a market for it.

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It's a pity that Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett aren't here anymore.

 

IMHO, Mike Kennedy has definitely earned himself a place on the Golgafrincham B Ark.

Disinfect the phones!

Edited by Inky
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