Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?

[+Random Terrain]

I honestly apologize, I had a bit to drink. My wife had consultation for surgery today, likely has breast cancer.

 

I don't mean to be a downer or rain on anyone's parade, life just gets real tough at times. Believe it or not you guys here at AA entertain me daily; it's a much appreciated distraction. This whole MK debacle has been a real must-needed diversion. Why couldn't he just lie and stall a bit longer?!

 

I thought you might have done it on purpose since we were just talking about spelling and grammar. Either way, I can't think of everything, so you gave me another section to add to the page and that's a good thing.

 

 

 

Also, Random Terrain: Did you cover ONTO vs. ON TO?

 

Thanks. I just added it:

 

randomterrain.com/rt-grammar-errors.html#onto_on_to

[Andromeda Stardust]

My 2nd and final video on the matter...

Needs more Carnival Zone music.

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

Go L yourself!

With pleasure... :lol:

[RupanIII]

You guys may want to consider putting it inside this readily available shell, from the developers of the Jaguar hardware.

http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?166376-Multi-System-What-s-this

 

You also need the marketing team from Game.com. so you can make ads stating amazingly inspiring slogans like "it plays more games than you idiots have brain cells"!
http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=453362

 

 

And you can't go wrong either getting the team behind "the worst console if all time":
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gizmondo

Jokes aside, reading the fates of those machines show you how bad the CC could have become if it went ahead. Cutting the project now is probably a good thing even for those who were pushing it.

[PlaysWithWolves]

Nice shout-out from the Examiner in the article "Holders of Coleco brand name ask for public opinion on mini-arcade revival".

 

Excerpt:

 

 

 

 

 

[Andromeda Stardust]

You guys may want to consider putting it inside this readily available shell, from the developers of the Jaguar hardware.

http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?166376-Multi-System-What-s-this

 

 

 

Wow, that's got to be the ultimate nerd collectible. Like a Duck Billed Platupus and a Colecovision and NASCAR had a baby together...

[EvilDragon17]

 

 

Reality is beginning to invert upon itself. The first sentence of the article:

 

 

"It’s starting to look like you may never get your hands on a functional Coleco Chameleon, but another crowdfunded console is shaping up nicely: an open source handheld called the Dragonbox Pyra."

 

Hehe, nice

I didn't think it's a good thing being mentioned in one sentence together with the Coleco Chameleon... but I guess it's okay like that

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

Hehe, nice

I didn't think it's a good thing being mentioned in one sentence together with the Coleco Chameleon... but I guess it's okay like that

Haha, like a cross between a Palm Pilot and DS...

[Bill Loguidice]

 

Hehe, nice

I didn't think it's a good thing being mentioned in one sentence together with the Coleco Chameleon... but I guess it's okay like that

 

Considering all of the issues with their previous Pandora handheld and delivery/quality control, it's probably more appropriate than it has any right to be.

[+remowilliams]

I believe this is a related species.

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

 

 

 

 

Great, now I want one of those for my desk.

[EvilDragon17]

 

Considering all of the issues with their previous Pandora handheld and delivery/quality control, it's probably more appropriate than it has any right to be.

 

Well, what were the quality control and delivery problems since we have taken over the Pandora production years ago...?

[StopDrop&Retro]

^ I agree. Most of the delivery horror stories are all because of one shithead. And yes, people did have to wait a long time to get theirs.

 

I've heard of some early quality control issues like cases that didn't always line up all the seams perfectly and I think there was some long term issue with the screen hinge. But this isn't a first-party device, so you can't expect Nintendo build quality. For being a hobbyist handheld it's an amazing machine even today. I don't know if I'll ever own one but I always keep an eye out.

[Flojomojo]

I'd love a mass-market clamshell Linux mini-laptop, but I would prefer for it to be made by a company that is big enough to support it. When I dropped my New 3DS down the stairs, Nintendo fixed it for me without hassle or expense. If I break my iPhone screen, there are several Apple stores near me that can fix or replace it the same day. I don't really want to take that chance with a $500 handheld that was built by a tiny team of semi-pros.

[+remowilliams]

I've heard of some early quality control issues like cases that didn't always line up all the seams perfectly and I think there was some long term issue with the screen hinge. But this isn't a first-party device, so you can't expect Nintendo build quality. For being a hobbyist handheld it's an amazing machine even today. I don't know if I'll ever own one but I always keep an eye out.

 

I got case/control issues and a hinge/screen issue that was never solved. Won the lottery on that one.

[enoofu]

I don't think that many people care if a small company makes their products vs a large company

 

Just that people expect smaller companies to be more open on giving system details, be professional. and give details on their business model

 

 

 

CC was a project that probably had no Engineers, ran by marketing people unless we can find Lee or Steve Woita speaks up

[SoulBlazer]

StopDrop&Retro, on 18 Mar 2016 - 3:02 PM, said:

^ I agree. Most of the delivery horror stories are all because of one shithead. And yes, people did have to wait a long time to get theirs.

 

I've heard of some early quality control issues like cases that didn't always line up all the seams perfectly and I think there was some long term issue with the screen hinge. But this isn't a first-party device, so you can't expect Nintendo build quality. For being a hobbyist handheld it's an amazing machine even today. I don't know if I'll ever own one but I always keep an eye out.

 

Curious, what do you mean by 'one shithead?'

[wf_]

I haven't had any problems with the two Pandoras I ordered years ago. It's really easy to have no problems with something you never received!

 

But all ire goes to Craig. I give big props to Evildragon for what he's been able to scavenge out of that mess.

[Flojomojo]

I remember Craig from the old GameBoy hacking days. It's a drag that he got in over his head and the way people talk about Mike K seems very familiar.

[StopDrop&Retro]

 

Curious, what do you mean by 'one shithead?'

 

That's a soap opera. I don't even think I know all the details. But from what I heard, two guys from the project took preorders for the amount of units they'd be able to offer- Craig (in the UK) and ED (EvilDragon in Germany). You have to remember that this whole thing started way before Kickstarter was ever a thing. So people just sent money to these guys. Craig took more orders than he was supposed to and spent the money. So that left ED with the burden of satisfying his own orders and then becoming the Mother Teresa of open source handhelds to try to make things right for people who ordered from Craig. I think they were able to help those people victims get units at a discount with a donation page or something.

 

ED really is a candidate for sainthood, hats off to the guy. I didn't know about the Open Source handheld scene at that time but if I did I think I would have put my money down and probably been suckered by Craig. I didn't get into the scene until the GCW Zero and it was because I've followed the open source handheld scene that I knew Mike Kennedy was full of shit since day 1. Guys like ED work hard and they'll show off their progress along the way. You can get an appreciation for what a real work in progress looks like. Mike had none of that, the guy knows nothing about how difficult it is to make a game console. It was a get-rich-quick scheme from the beginning. You guys were crazy for ever giving him the benefit of the doubt, I could smell his shit from two blocks away.

 

I don't know if anyone was ever able to go after Craig, but after that whole mess he had a Kickstarter for the iControlPad 2, which was sort of like a Pandora keypad you attached to your iPhone. I actually got an iPhone 4S instead of a 5 because I was hoping to get one of these when they hit the market! But that turned out to be another bullet dodged. He claims he ordered most of the parts and ran out of money.

[Andromeda Stardust]

I remember Craig from the old GameBoy hacking days. It's a drag that he got in over his head and the way people talk about Mike K seems very familiar.

Got any links to some really old but oh so juicy forum threads about this "Craig" guy? Not enough drama as of late...

 

 

That's a soap opera.

Okay thanks. Craig seems like a class act. Still it seems he got the ball rolling far further along than MK ever did...

[Gentlegamer]

With pleasure... :lol:

 

[Newsdee]

Got any links to some really old but oh so juicy forum threads about this "Craig" guy? Not enough drama as of late...

 

I think most of it was on the GP32X forums; the site is dead but the forums were moved to the same hosting as the Pyra forums. Here's one old thread to get you started:

https://www.pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/a-further-update-on-preorders-18th-of-november-2012.69033/

 

Edit: there's a TL;DR summary post at the very last page of the thread before it got locked. Funny that people started complaining about grammar of other posters towards the end...

Edited March 19, 2016 by Newsdee

[Schizophretard]

I could smell his shit from two blocks away.

You live two blocks away from him?

[leods]

 

That's a soap opera. I don't even think I know all the details. But from what I heard, two guys from the project took preorders for the amount of units they'd be able to offer- Craig (in the UK) and ED (EvilDragon in Germany). You have to remember that this whole thing started way before Kickstarter was ever a thing. So people just sent money to these guys. Craig took more orders than he was supposed to and spent the money. So that left ED with the burden of satisfying his own orders and then becoming the Mother Teresa of open source handhelds to try to make things right for people who ordered from Craig. I think they were able to help those people victims get units at a discount with a donation page or something.

 

ED really is a candidate for sainthood, hats off to the guy. I didn't know about the Open Source handheld scene at that time but if I did I think I would have put my money down and probably been suckered by Craig. I didn't get into the scene until the GCW Zero and it was because I've followed the open source handheld scene that I knew Mike Kennedy was full of shit since day 1. Guys like ED work hard and they'll show off their progress along the way. You can get an appreciation for what a real work in progress looks like. Mike had none of that, the guy knows nothing about how difficult it is to make a game console. It was a get-rich-quick scheme from the beginning. You guys were crazy for ever giving him the benefit of the doubt, I could smell his shit from two blocks away.

 

I don't know if anyone was ever able to go after Craig, but after that whole mess he had a Kickstarter for the iControlPad 2, which was sort of like a Pandora keypad you attached to your iPhone. I actually got an iPhone 4S instead of a 5 because I was hoping to get one of these when they hit the market! But that turned out to be another bullet dodged. He claims he ordered most of the parts and ran out of money.

Was this iScamyouPad Kickstarter made before the new prototype rules? All they have is a render that doesn't even Show the Keyboard letters. lol

 

did it really raise 200k? seriously, 5 years of decent wage... but the most amazing Thing is People would donate to a guy who already ran with Money once. Mindblowing. Croudfunding has become a joke. We allerted poeople about the RVGS, but truth is Projects just as bad go up there every day.

[StopDrop&Retro]

^ It was one of the last hardware projects to not have a prototype. The prototyping rules weren't in place until late September of 2012. So they just barely made it in by about a week before the new rules went into effect. Mike's fascination with the OUYA was the reason why he thought he could get on Kickstarter the first time with the RVGS. On NeoGAF he famously said "we're light years ahead of them!" when referring to their 3D renders and wooden conceptual controllers. This is why he invested so much into 3D renders, his idea was to mimic the OUYA pitch as much as possible. But of course that plan was doomed to fail because he didn't realize OUYA launched before those prototyping requirements were in effect (and they had shown a working prototype in the pitch video anyways).

 

Gaming hardware was big after the OUYA success so it was a gold rush and consumers were willing to dish out money to be a part of "the next big thing" in gaming whether they had a working prototype or not. It's scary to think that the RVGS might have succeeded had Mike launched it back around 2012. All kinds of stupid shit was getting funded back then.

 

It's funny but also kinda sad to look back at these failed projects because the warning signs are so obvious to us now but back then consumers were way too trusting and didn't look for any further information beyond the pitch video. There are still red flags today that won't be obvious to backers until a few years down the road after they feel the sting of a failed project.