PlaysWithWolves Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 That's assuming what "COLECO" says is true, that "they deserve a chance to defend themselves," and that we will receive satisfaction or closure out of anything they show or tell us. Nothing in this project's history leads me to trust anyone involved. Anyone else think it's rather irregular to make a public Facebook post about how you're treating your licensee? Where comments are permitted and encouraged? I encourage everyone to go in there and post a big HAHA reaction (hold down the "like" button to see these options) like I did. They're probably only doing this to protect the name and seem like they are championing for truth, justice and the American way. There's a chance that should no prototype be produced their reputation will improve after this, even though it seems they did not do due diligence at any point before that FB post. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horseradish Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 are the little slapfights over? I hope they are fwiw I'm enjoy the videos provided by the users here, including SD&R's, makes the work day go by quicker. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BawesomeBurf Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 OK, so triverse's website is back, but there's no sign of the Carlsen interview there. :-/ Yeah, I've been looking for it too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 They're probably only doing this to protect the name and seem like they are championing for truth, justice and the American way. There's a chance that should no prototype be produced their reputation will improve after this, even though it seems they did not do due diligence at any point before that FB post.I guess they can try to have it both ways by doing that. If they kill the Chameleon they save their name. If they double down on it (which seems equally likely), they give RVGS the public benefit of the doubt, especially if they never show us what is really in there. All of this takes place under their own media pages that they can control, unlike Kickstarter or AtariAge. Speaking of "due diligence," check out the February 11 entry where they address their glossy Toy Fair brochure, in which they misspell "Colecovision," their flagship product. "As with any great work, there are always rough drafts and final versions and there are a number of steps in the proofing process ... Thank you all for your support and feedback." Ha ha! Real spin doctors at work there. Masterful wordsmithing! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
galax Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 OK, so triverse's website is back, but there's no sign of the Carlsen interview there. :-/Yeah, I've been looking for it too. Hey don't use up all his bandwidth before he even posts the interview; I'm sure he'll link to it from here when it goes up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 Hey don't use up all his bandwidth before he even posts the interview; I'm sure he'll link to it here when it goes up What's the etiquette for sharing stuff like that? I assume triverse gets a little something for ad traffic when people view his page directly BUT If his hosting plan craps out if there's too much traffic, that's not helping anyone Triverse, would you be mad if someone pasted it here, so long as there's attritibution back to you? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekRumpler Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 I just got a subscription as thanks for this resource. While Coleco Chameleon brought me here, I actually first heard of the site from a professor at my alma mater, Miami University. He was teaching a course on making Atari 2600 games and I signed up but had to drop it because I needed the tuition money for a for-credit San Francisco trip my last semester. I always regret not taking that course since the San Francisco trip didn't lead to me getting a job in San Francisco. :-/ Thanks so much for this site! I don't know how long I'll stick around, but as an indie game developer myself I want to figure out how to make retro games. Since I develop for console (Wii U, but I am also authorized to develop for Xbox One) I think it would be cool if I could get to a point where I could put emulated original games on console. But for now I am just using Construct 2 and making retro-inspired graphics in Aseprite. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 I just got a subscription as thanks for this resource. While Coleco Chameleon brought me here, I actually first heard of the site from a professor at my alma mater, Miami University. He was teaching a course on making Atari 2600 games and I signed up but had to drop it because I needed the tuition money for a for-credit San Francisco trip my last semester. I always regret not taking that course since the San Francisco trip didn't lead to me getting a job in San Francisco. :-/ Very cool about the professor mentioning AtariAge, sorry you weren't able to take the course! Thanks for the subscription, glad you are enjoying the site. ..Al 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 unless I use the "Nuke it from orbit" button, which erases someones entire existance. Shhhh! We don't talk about that in front of the peasants! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
galax Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 What's the etiquette for sharing stuff like that? I dunno, it does feel a bit weird to be waiting around for someone to share information because they only want to post it on their own site and not here. Probably all about click-throughs and traffic etc. Still I'd rather have people who run their own sites posting links to them and talking to us on here, than not coming around here at all. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-WZ- Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 Ok been lurking on this one since page 50 thereabouts, entertaining stuff. I am still curious / rather baffled about one thing : how hard is it to put together a working prototype, really? Am not talking about the FPGA core business - say you just want to slap a R-Pi or similar inside your jag shell, and fiddle with it until you have a working OS + a couple of emulators. This is not what they promised, but surely a basic emulation box would make a better prototype than *nothing*. I am not experienced at this stuff - hell last time I even assembled a PC was like 10 years ago - but I get the feeling that even I could whip this up in two weeks tops. So really, how much work would this be for a decent tech? A day? A week? Using existing software I mean. I am trying to understand why they did not even try. Does not compute. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newsdee Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 You can download (the contents of) an SD card for the RPi that boots into a front end with preinstalled emulators. If you know what you're doing you can probably setup a Linux distro from scratch that auto boots into an emulator frontend in half a day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 As for CPUWIZ, that's just his sense of humor, so please don't take that particular statement seriously. I wouldn't take most of what we say seriously. The Mods here are a bit different than on other sites. Sure we're here to keep law and order, but we're also classic gaming enthusiasts just like you are. We're human (well most of us, I suspect that at least one of us is a highly intelligent computer program), we joke, we razz people, we have fun. You'll know when we're being serious though, we make sure of that. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cybercylon Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 I should try, I am sure Al can undo it easily enough, unless I use the "Nuke it from orbit" button, which erases someones entire existance. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 Ok been lurking on this one since page 50 thereabouts, entertaining stuff. I am still curious / rather baffled about one thing : how hard is it to put together a working prototype, really? Am not talking about the FPGA core business - say you just want to slap a R-Pi or similar inside your jag shell, and fiddle with it until you have a working OS + a couple of emulators. This is not what they promised, but surely a basic emulation box would make a better prototype than *nothing*. I am not experienced at this stuff - hell last time I even assembled a PC was like 10 years ago - but I get the feeling that even I could whip this up in two weeks tops. So really, how much work would this be for a decent tech? A day? A week? Using existing software I mean. I am trying to understand why they did not even try. Does not compute. They've already burned that bridge down. This is meant as a full-on retro experience, wires and cartridges all the way. The original concept had 9-pin retro controller connectors in addition to USB. Their selling points have been collectible durable cartridges, no configuration, no updates, no internet, just plug and go like ancient systems from the 1980s and early 90s. Software emulators like you can put on a Pi aren't faithful enough, hence all the FPGA talk. They want to intentionally hobble modern technology so it's more like old technology, and they want people to pay old-timey prices ($30 and up for cartridges) for the privilege. Don't try to make much send of it, because it's irrational. There's a person called StopDrop&Retro on this forum that made a nice YouTube video about a magical place called RetroLand, where 16bit still rules and life is Mayberry simple. http://youtu.be/IujP9GDcp-Y It's worth a watch, more thoughtful than the typical "dork ranting at camera" stuff in this genre. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cybercylon Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 Are you aware of the Retron 5? When I get around to working on gathering information about playing older games, the Retron 5 will be one option I will cover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cybercylon Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 Thanks for the subscriptions, they are appreciated. As there is zero advertising on AtariAge, the subscriptions and sales in the AtariAge Store are what pay the server bills and other related costs to keep AtariAge online. It will be interesting to see the spike in bandwidth usage due to this thread alone. ..Al Next pay day, me thinks I will pony up for one. I wouldn't say this is more entertaining than Netflix, but it has been a comic relief from some of the real things that are not comical. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyD Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 You can download (the contents of) an SD card for the RPi that boots into a front end with preinstalled emulators. If you know what you're doing you can probably setup a Linux distro from scratch that auto boots into an emulator frontend in half a day. Yes, the RetroPie project is a pretty good example of one to try: http://blog.petrockblock.com/retropie/ pretty straight forward to set-up. I've used quite a few times now on various emulation projects. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 Correct me if I'm wrong, but Mike hasn't taken any money for this project yet, right? So no one is out anything at the moment (other than time spent reading this insane thread). That's at least some good news. I think the comparisons to Ponzi and Madoff are a bit out of line. Ok here's my take on everything that's been going on from what I've been able to glean from reading all these pages: I've met Mike a few times at various shows and he seems like a nice guy. My take on this is that he really REALLY wanted to make a super cool retro console but just didn't have the expertise to pull it off (technical or managerial it would seem). So once he got in over his head he started looking for ways to buy time while he figured out what the heck to do (hence creating the fake prototypes). In my opinion this is where he went wrong. He should have admitted that this whole project wasn't going to happen, eat the cost of everything he'd invested up until now, and gave up for the time being. But it appears he thought he could BS his way through things until he found a solution, which obviously didn't happen (let that be a lesson to everyone, the AA community is really good at sniffing out BS). Now he's in a real bind as his BS has been exposed and there's really no way forward even if he had a real prototype handed to him tomorrow (who would buy it? Who would trust him?) so he's run off to hide somewhere until this blows over. The problem is, he's involved with a real company (the company that owns the Coleco brand) and they're not going to let him off the hook that easily since their name is also being dragged through the mud. I really don't envy him at the moment, he's in for a rough ride I think. At least all of this came out BEFORE he started the Kickstarter. That could have been an even bigger disaster. BTW what ever happened to all the Indie Go Go money he collected from the other project, was that all refunded? I assumed it had to be. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 The IGG money went back to the "investors." It had to run the full 30 days even though they ended early, but everyone could request (and was promised) a refund at any time. Tempest, you're probably right in your assumptions, but "nice guy" Mike Kennedy aside, I doubt anyone will get a straight answer about anything now. There's so much ego, embarrassment, and hurt feelings in everyone involved. Agreed that "off with his head" is not a proportional response to his "crimes." 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutsy Doodleheimer Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 I am really glad to see a lot of people subscribing to this awesome site, as well as a lot of newcomers here. I have been here for 4 years and regretfully wish I would have joined sooner and I was just about to enter my Senior year when Atari Nexus started (remember that) before the change over a few years later. I became a subscriber last summer and paid for the two year subscription. I may even tack on another 2 years on top of the one I am at for 3 and a half plus years remaining. It is $50 well spent. And Albert really deserves every penny. What he has done for us is awesome and I absolutley want to return the favor for him. I am not enforcing anybody to do this but even as little as $5 will help out in dividends. A 2 year subscription is paying just a fraction over $2 a month!!! And you get awesome benefits including a discount at the store! I have met a ton of awesome people here and learned so much from many. I am happy to call this nuthouse like a big family. Most of us are all goofy and have a wacky sense of humor but we are like a big family here. 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 I am really getting tired of people walking over Skype, it just isn't fair. I am working with it on a daily basis. Works nice when it works. But it crashes regularly and the interface is most non-intuitive for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 No politics please. But aren't election campaigns just like this disaster? Lots of promises and announcements and no delivery. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sqwirral Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 You have no idea how long it's taken to finally reach the end of the thread, but I did it. I did it. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newsdee Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 It's worth a watch, more thoughtful than the typical "dork ranting at camera" stuff in this genre. +1 insightful and interesting comparisons. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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