StopDrop&Retro Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Why would anyone develop anything new using so many SNES parts? All at once? While trying to sell it as "NOT a SNES"? I call this a "Mike-ism." You can tell that with the way his mind works he gets fixated on something and he doesn't seek out or listen to other opinions or advice. Then when he's done, he pats himself on the back and doesn't think two or three steps ahead to consider a more critical interpretation. He thinks every idea of his could and should be a full page advertisement. The funny thing is that if he had used something like the Gamerztek SNES clone he could have gotten away with it. It doesn't have the overhang behind the cartridge port and just has RCA out. Then again, mickcris still would have figured out he's using a SD2SNES but at least his "It's not a SNES Jr, it's ARM+FPGA" could have been more believable. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenixdownita Posted February 17, 2016 Author Share Posted February 17, 2016 Dee Snider Can Do What COLECAN'T - My guest blog featured on NintendoLoveAffair.com From your signature I guess now it makes perfect sense to be on NintendoLoveAffair.com 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROFLcade Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 The new CU Podcast is up!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deOe1y2arJk 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Is there any good news out of this mess? Will Kevtris make a console? That's where I will vote with my $$$$. I would buy from Kevtris any day before I buy a Chameleon. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 The new CU Podcast is up!! Those rampaging drunkards?! (But seriously, I was about to post this myself! Watching now ...) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xiaNaix Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 So then technically the controllers could not have been hard wired if they were attached to extension cables. If he had a bare SNES Jr. board inside that Jaguar shell, which he obviously did, the extension cable was likely plugged into the connector on the board. I've seen enough marketing b.s. in my time that I'm sure that could be interpreted as "hard wired" by a PR person or a politician. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Those circular holes in the plexiglass look a tad on the small side to allow for the hardwired controllers to pass through... It might just be the perspective, but that controller on the table is pretty close to the plexiglass. How do they manage to put the console under there? 01.jpg02.jpg The SNES plug is half as long as it is wide, so I'm sure it would be easy to pass through a hole 1 1/2 inch or so in size by turning it sideways. But if the controllers were truly "hardwired" into the Chameleon, then you are right, they would never have fit through those holes. Add that to the evidence pile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROFLcade Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Those rampaging drunkards?! (But seriously, I was about to post this myself! Watching now ...) Yet another good thing for me that came out of going through that entire RVGS thread.....I never knew about the CUPodcast, and now I'm watching it fairly regularly. It's great!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 I'm not down at all with a wired controller anyways in this day and age. A large part of the reason I'm tired of older hardware is the controllers aren't wireless and much too short. Hopefully they put a really long cable on it to match today's big screen world. Wires are nice though provided the cord is long enough. Suppose NES controllers all came with non-removable NiCd batteries and infrared diodes (using tech available in the 80s. Do you think any of those would still work without being tethered to the charge adapter? Heck no. Batteries in wireless controllers will eventually fail and once the Li-Ion batteries are beyond spent and only have a 10 minute life when fully charged, you'll be forced to tether to a cord playing modern consoles some 20-30 years from now. That's if the consoles still work and haven't had a HD crash or corrupted firmware. And your secondhand games will be bugged to hell without the day one updates... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dj_convoy Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Pat and Ian killed it, here. Just crushed it. They stated: 1) Why it's a scam 2) Why it's BAD that it's a scam 3) Why the concept itself is flawed, even if it weren't a scam 4) Why, even if you're into this, it's not a good idea to be There's nothing else to add, really. They broke down the sham console used at Toyfair, why that's bad when they make it to Kickstarter, what we will likely see on Kickstarter, why the pricing tiers don't make a lot of sense and, beyond all that, if you somehow still think this is a good idea, the reality of support for this thing. Thanks, guys. 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Wires are nice though provided the cord is long enough. Suppose NES controllers all came with non-removable NiCd batteries and infrared diodes (using tech available in the 80s. Do you think any of those would still work without being tethered to the charge adapter? Heck no. Batteries in wireless controllers will eventually fail and once the Li-Ion batteries are beyond spent and only have a 10 minute life when fully charged, you'll be forced to tether to a cord playing modern consoles some 20-30 years from now. That's if the consoles still work and haven't had a HD crash or corrupted firmware. And your secondhand games will be bugged to hell without the day one updates... I'll take modern wireless controllers every time. The only time the batteries are an issue is when the controller is sealed, like with the PlayStation 3 and 4 controllers. The Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Wii U controllers don't suffer from that, and the two Xbox controllers offer multiple battery (or wired use) options. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StopDrop&Retro Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Pat & Ian did a good job, as always. I'm so glad that Mike insulted them last time, had he not done that they probably would be a lot more cautious and just avoid discussion where possible (Pat knows Mike). The gloves are off and they can speak their opinions without holding back. Mark my words- pissing off the CU podcast was Mike Kennedy's biggest mistake. As much as he and his clan want to blame AtariAge or Triverse for all of his problems, CU podcast people who follow this console outnumber us 100 to 1. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Great job of Pat to expose this myth to the larger mass following of Facebook users and others who likely don't troll the forums. I'm sure the podcast link will get posted multiple times to the Chameleon page by good Samaritans, and subsequently deleted by Mike. Usually when playing cops and robbers, the robbers win out because there's more of them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Indeed, great job by Pat and Ian! I'm glad that they share my fear that, if Mike and Co. keep the goal low enough on their Kickstarter campaign, and if they can reach enough of the uninitiated who don't know any better, they could actually succeed at getting this thing funded. I'm also glad that they share the same sense of outrage that many of us are also feeling. They conveyed it very well. I'm tempted at this point to go on to say what I really think about Mike Kennedy and the entire Coleco Chameleon project, but in the interests of keeping this civil, I won't. Suffice it to say that, after everything that has happened, this is a project that is irredeemably tainted. Whatever good ideas or intentions it might have started with, it deserves to die. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 Did he actually say the words "FPGA core" though or just "core?" Yes: "We are running his games through our custom written SNES FPGA Core." https://www.facebook.com/RETROVGS/posts/947612635308007 I suspect this is all just a matter of semantics. For example, I can say, "I am driving a Ferrari." Now, at the moment, I'm not actually driving a Ferrari. I'm sitting at my desk, typing. Nor do I actually own a Ferrari. Nor have I ever driven a real Ferrari. And it's completely unlikely that either will ever happen. However, in video games, I drive Ferraris all of the time. And I'm pretty sure the last car I drove in at least one of them was a Ferrari. So in a sense, I am "driving a Ferrari". It could also be an issue of tense. Perhaps it should be read as, "We are (planning to, at some point, going to be) running his games through our (forthcoming, hopefully) custom written SNES FPGA Core (later, someday)." Or, it could also be a matter of location. Like: "We are running his games through our custom written SNES FPGA Core (back on our hardware developer's kitchen table, but it wasn't ready, so right now we're running it on a SNES)." He's reportedly been working on this project since 2012. That's almost enough time to have earned a degree in electrical engineering, and certainly enough time to have at least taken a few training courses. Or written a book... 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiLic0ne t0aD Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 ^ Good way to put it. He does seem to know how to tapdance around questions pretty good though, typical businessman/PR stuff. Then again, you can only word it so many ways.. hopefully the truth will come out soon enough. I'll keep eating my popcorn though in the meantime. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenegg Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 Looks like they did another clean up round on their FB page. I got banned in the process. My posts were never mean and I didn't spam their page (I had 6 - 8 posts since the Toy Fair). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chorne27983 Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 Looks like they did another clean up round on their FB page. I got banned in the process. My posts were never mean and I didn't spam their page (I had 6 - 8 posts since the Toy Fair).Were you the one that posted the podcast link? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenegg Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 Were you the one that posted the podcast link? Nope. I hadn't posted there since Monday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 There actually is a book like that for real. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 If he had a bare SNES Jr. board inside that Jaguar shell, which he obviously did, the extension cable was likely plugged into the connector on the board. I've seen enough marketing b.s. in my time that I'm sure that could be interpreted as "hard wired" by a PR person or a politician. Surely it was hard for them to wire it.. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cybercylon Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 Also, I'm only going to say this once. I know some of you feel strongly with regards to how Mike and company are handling themselves. You are free to express your opinions and facts on the subject, but I ask that you do so respectfully. Stating, "I decided I'll make Mike Kennedy's life hell, because in My Religion killing Mike Kennedy will save all the children in Africa", even in jest, goes over the line. Besides being unnecessarily mean-spirited, it is easily taken out of context, and not everyone will understand the attempt at humor. We're talking about video game consoles here, so let's try to keep this discussion in context. Thank you, ..Al I was one of those that brought up mental health many posts back. I wan't trying to make fun of him, but it was probably not a good idea to bring it up in the first place. We all have our stuff to deal with. As someone that has had chronic insomnia for the past 20 years, I know on a bad day, I don't use the best judgement in the world (nothing too radical, more like take things the wrong way, make a stupid financial decision, not let go of things when it is just best to let it go, etc). I know I am late with this, but yesterday was one of those days to stay away from the send button. He just keeps giving himself more and more rope to hang himself with, doesn't he? Now he can't even back out later and say "Why no, I was referring to the FPGA in the multicart; I never claimed there was an FPGA in the console!" or "The FPGA in the console is doing other tasks; I never said it was actually running the games!", as some of us predicted that he might. Probably not, but there's no excuse for that, either. He's reportedly been working on this project since 2012. That's almost enough time to have earned a degree in electrical engineering, and certainly enough time to have at least taken a few training courses. Back to talking about the hardware.... During the day, it did come to my mind of whether he is confusing a software emulation core with an FPGA core. You are correct that he should know the difference. What is Mike's background again? From his Linked In profile, sales and marketing. Okay... one of my jobs is to provide technical support to people that use fairly complicated microscopy imaging systems and the software to go along with it. Ideally, I train them so they are independent. Some people take to this more easily than others. Others... well, computers, imaging software, etc isn't quite their thing. They are not stupid or anything. Some just need more hand holding than others, and when they try to explain things to someone else, a lot of terms get mixed up. Given that he has been involved on the gaming scene, yes, he should now the difference, but some people never truly get technical stuff no matter how long they have been at it. So would it be out of the question that the real prototype is what has already been pointed out.... and FPGA to handle input and software to handle the emulation. As was pointed out... no different than the Retron 5 et al. Doesn't do much to differentiate this product with is out there other than maybe the ability to run older Coleco and Intellivision games via a modern connection... something the other retro consoles don't do out of the box. If this really does involve the software route, then I hope this team licenses things correctly and asks for permission. Also, assuming there is a hardware guy/gal, he/she should be setting Mike straight before anything comes out of his mouth. He/she might have to do that multiple times. With everything I have read and seen, I am not sure understanding technical things is a strength Mike has. If that was all true, there is still no excuse for what looks like might have taken place at the toy fair. Some have said that he might have panicked and stuck an SNES jr inside the jag shell at the last second.... maybe, just maybe the real prototype wasn't running correctly. Then he should have fessed up if that was the case. This thread would have been much smaller. The deception makes things real fishy. About the controllers.... so an extension cable might be the thing that is hardwired. That is the only thing that explains how he gets the console under the plastic case and the controller wires through the hole and how he could change a cartridge. Or is that the only explanation. I can't tell a thing by those pictures, but could an entire SNES Jr board with the controller ports fit inside that case? I could not find a picture of the Jr's logic board. iFix it only has a guide for the first SNES. No need to hardwire a thing maybe.... Protecting the retro community. If this thing makes enough on Kick Starter and the end product remains a rather shady, how much does this really hurt the community in long run, big picture, etc? It's a niche product as it is, and I think it is really up to a potential buyer/backer to do a little homework before committing that money. Their foolishness if they don't. And for those with more means, that amount of money might not mean much if this end up being a smoke and mirrors POS. That said, I think there is little chance of this thing getting funded because just enough will do a little research. So if this is not on the up and up, Mike looks even more foolish and some fools have been parted with their money. Can't protect everyone. And if this is really all lies, I will then doubt the number of "fans" on social media. I pretty much doubt 99% of what appears on social media anyways so what is to stop a few lackeys from making a mess of account and making it look like there is more support than there really is. Lastly... Piko, I am glad to see that some of your stuff is on Steam. I'd rather they also be on GOG as well, but I understand if that isn't going to be the case. Any chance more of your games will show up there? And you have plans to use Higan in future projects? Interesting to see how that will turn out. That is pretty much it from me until we see what happens with the actual start of the kick starter and others can speak more freely. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xiaNaix Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 (edited) I suspect this is all just a matter of semantics. Like I said before, the most realistic scenario is that this will be just like the Retron5 and RetroFreak consoles. Those contain both an FPGA and an ARM Processor. The FPGA does things like read the rom data from the cartridge slot for the emulator (ARM version of Libretro/RetroArch) to run. So his statement of "We are running his games through our custom written SNES FPGA Core" is technically accurate. They probably have custom code on the FPGA to read the SNES cart into memory. The SNES emulation core in Libretro takes over from there. Surely it was hard for them to wire it.. If he had a SNES Jr. board inside the Jaguar shell, which is pretty obvious he did, this is what it would have looked like for that controller to be "hard wired" to. I'd imagine that wouldn't be too difficult even for him. Edited February 18, 2016 by xiaNaix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chorne27983 Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 Like I said before, the most realistic scenario is that this will be just like the Retron5 and RetroFreak consoles. Those contain both an FPGA and an ARM Processor. The FPGA does things like read the rom data from the cartridge slot for the emulator (ARM version of Libretro/RetroArch) to run. So his statement of "We are running his games through our custom written SNES FPGA Core" is technically accurate. They probably have custom code on the FPGA to read the SNES cart into memory. The SNES emulation core in Libretro takes over from there. If he had a SNES Jr. board inside the Jaguar shell, which is pretty obvious he did, this is what it would have looked like for that controller to be "hard wired" to. BEB1EEAD-906F-2BBE-C3A48AC2B8BBAEA3.png I'd imagine that wouldn't be too difficult even for him. You keep bringing up the retron and retrofreak as having a FPGA and that they do. However, Mike has stated that they have a custom written SNES emulation core for their FPGA. That is a far cry from what the retron and retrofreak are using it for. The system shown at the toy fair was a SNES Jr in a jaguar shell so your point is moot regardless. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaysWithWolves Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 These next couple of weeks are going to be a rough ride. I still can't fathom how all this is happening again. Patrick H. @DarkSamus79 1h 1 hour ago All I need is a jaguar shell to make the #ColecoChameleon prototype. @PatTheNESpunk 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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