Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?

[AtariLeaf]

 

It's always game on, on the Internet.

 

Just saying, I know Mike personally. I've met him, traded with him, talked with him on the phone, mostly around 2002-2003. If I look at this from the perspective of a person I know, even as a friend, rather than as an Internet person I don't know, I'm willing to say what positive things I can, rather than sharpen the axe with so many others.

 

I'm not making any judgement about truth or culpability.

 

If you had a favorable opinion of someone who you knew and one night they tried to break in your house and steal your stuff, would your opinion still be the same? That's what we have here. I used to like Mike too. In fact he sent me a bunch of free stuff from a little youtube contest he was running where he gave away everything he found one day at the fleamarket he went too and it was a lot of great stuff. But that was then and this is now. I wouldn't trust him to watch my cat since I'd be worried he'd just sell it when I'm not around.

 

EDIT - Just to be clear, I have no problem with ianoid, he's always seemed like a stand up guy on AA

Edited April 10, 2016 by AtariLeaf

[godslabrat]

It's always game on, on the Internet.

 

Just saying, I know Mike personally. I've met him, traded with him, talked with him on the phone, mostly around 2002-2003. If I look at this from the perspective of a person I know, even as a friend, rather than as an Internet person I don't know, I'm willing to say what positive things I can, rather than sharpen the axe with so many others.

 

I'm not making any judgement about truth or culpability.

 

Ian,

 

When I say I get where you're coming from, I mean it. I've been talking to you longer than you've been talking to Mike, going back to RGVC. If we had to talk about you in the same vein as we're talking about Mike, it would bother me greatly. FWIW.

[Flojomojo]

Oh, Mike Kennedy

If it really were simple

We wouldn't need you.

[toiletunes]

making Lee look bad

just makes you look worse instead

you hired the guy

if it's that easy

to find out he's a con man

then why didn't you?

[Vanta]

I am not surprised in the slightest that Mike is back and his only focus is clearing his name and not, you know, apologising.

 

I read the entire sob story and honestly, I don't buy it at all, Mike has thrown others under the bus to save his own skin before I see no reason why he wouldn't do the same again.

 

A couple things really, really bug me about this, too.

 

1) Lee gave Mike the photos to post, according to Mike, thus it was Mike that pulled the photo once it was shown to be a pci card, it's also Mike who shut down commenters from responding to the news, all the while keeping silent while people were out for blood.

2) Claim of being in a hotel room wondering if he should open it and look inside - again this is bullshit, he would have to disconnect the controllers to set it up in the clear box, and since they were just snes pads he would have needed to open the shell and physically remove the connectors from the snes mini board, there really was no 'SHOULD I OPEN IT' he knew damn well all along, a custom pcb wouldn't have Nintendo printed on it.

3) He mentions that his wife heard part of a convo in their car, how fortunate for him to have such an independent and unbiased party to coroborate his story..

4) where are the scans of bank statements showing these withdrawals?

5) If I had been made aware that I just got scammed out of close to 10k, I would be in the nearest police station filing a report, here's a list of things I woldnt be doing:

 

* blocking the people that uncovered the fraud from commenting

* covering up the reveal of it by deleting posts and images

* taking several days to get back to coleco on their request to see the hardware

* doubling down and deleting everything when coleco make an announcement about pulling out

* jumping in to my trailer home and taking a month long vacation.

 

 

I would however do the above if I was guilty as sin and wanted to try my best to hide the truth and keep coleco onboard, then hide everything to do damage control once shit had hit the fan, and run off from responsibility with a month long vacation to think of an excuse that paints myself out to be the victim while 'that other guy is to blame' while making it clear I deserve your pitty and forgiveness but I won't actually apologise

 

Color me not in the least bit convinced, and frankly, even if it's true, Mike you are guilty as sin for not only your inaction but your actions during and after each time things we revealed to be faked.

 

You get zero sympathy from me and frankly I hope you pack your bags and leave the retro community for good.

[mgman]

 

It's always game on, on the Internet.

 

Just saying, I know Mike personally. I've met him, traded with him, talked with him on the phone, mostly around 2002-2003. If I look at this from the perspective of a person I know, even as a friend, rather than as an Internet person I don't know, I'm willing to say what positive things I can, rather than sharpen the axe with so many others.

 

I'm not making any judgement about truth or culpability.

Yeah, like others have pointed out, positive dealings or opinions of someone does not absolve all the bad things they've done. I don't see how you can disregard all that's happened in favor of that one little period from over 10 years ago as if that holds more weight. Marginalizing everyone who opposes as the Internet, despite how constructive and valid much of that opposition is, doesn't do your credibility any favors.

[elmer]

I hope this has been obvious since the IGG campaign. They put that thing up without Hardware specs. Not just without a prototype, but without any kind of actual hardware description except for "it plays cartridges".

To be fair ... if you go back and look at the record, there were actually some minimal sort-of-specs on their website that got removed just before IGG, and then there were some more minimal sort-of-specs that were posted on IGG after John Carlsen's video and his mention on FaceBook that he was using a RockChip dev board.

 

Here's what I noted back then (please forgive the auto-coloring that I can't figure out how to disable) ...

 

            RETRO VGS                        OUYA
CPU         1.6GHz Quad Core ARM Cortex-A9   1.7GHz Quad Core ARM Cortex-A9
RAM         1GB DDR3-800                     1GB DDR3-800
PROTOTYPE   Manufacturer's SoC eval board    Manufacturer's SoC eval board
OS          We won't have one (NetBSD?)      Android
CONTROLLER  Yes                              Yes
CARTRIDGE   Yes                              No
COST        $300                             $100

As for the more-recent Coleco Chameleon ... not a damned thing was mentioned about the specs that I can find.

 

 

We were just pointing out the obvious flaws that indicated that if this project got funded most likely the outcome would not be pleasing.

Totally agreed!

 

***********

 

Now, since we've got as far as poems and haikus, let me bring things down-market with a limerick ...

 

There was a man from Nantucket,

he looked at the fake and said "phucket".

I know I've been scammed,

I'm sure it was planned,

and I bet it all ends in a docket.

[enoofu]

Retro VGS Official Specs (LOL) can be found here, your missing the FPGA

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/retro-vgs#/

 

Only things they announced for Coleco version

Still has FGPA, HDMI, and at least 4 USB ports for controllers

(LOL or a SNES Mini without any of that or Capture Card)

[phoenixdownita]

As for the more-recent Coleco Chameleon ... not a damned thing was mentioned about the specs that I can find.

...

Well, a Cyclone V was thrown in the mix (or under the bus, you choose) when Mike hinted at what kind of FPGA they were thinking of using.

No doubt it was named because kevtris stated he was thinking about using it, unsure if it was Mike "fabricating" it or Sean told him so ....

 

I believe there was a wonderful meme from reaperman about the CC along the lines "Can it do that? Sure, just buy it" that exemplifies the kind of thinking that was going on ... "just buy it" LOL.

 

EDIT:

 

Found it (Feb 18):

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/247145-coleco-chameleon-hardware-speculations/page-70?do=findComment&comment=3444474

 

 

Reaperman was being clairvoyant (Feb 19):

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/247145-coleco-chameleon-hardware-speculations/page-76?do=findComment&comment=3445254

 

[+MattelAquarius]

I want to be rich

Now, and without risk to me

Give me your money

[phoenixdownita]

Here's a link to an old pipercub post about Mike's many companies, (yes I like beating dead horses but Sean is not involved in those):
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/247145-coleco-chameleon-hardware-speculations/page-111?do=findComment&comment=3450403

System designed and molds purchased under this company: GAMEGAVEL LLC Entity Number:201029410278
Assets move to this company one month prior to launch: RETRO ENTERTAINMENT TECHNOLOGY, INC. Entity Number:C3823713
Assets were moved to this third company that is selling it as the Coleco Chameleon: RETRO VIDEO GAME SYSTEMS, INC. Entity Number:C3850998

Because, who doesn't need 3 companies when it is all transparent and done by the book?

[dj_convoy]

I would ask anyone stopping to say "hey, give MK the benefit of the doubt" to look back at this thing in it's entirety; particularly looking at Pipercub and UK Mike's posts about this whole affair. They are much closer to the man and situation than 99.99% of us.

 

There is more to this than some weirdness with fake protos and cashed checks and whatnot. There's a whole series of patterns and events. There's way more to this than "internet" dogpiling and "hate."

[phoenixdownita]

[Edited post above:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/247145-coleco-chameleon-hardware-speculations/page-346?do=findComment&comment=3488315 ]

[toiletunes]

Kennedy: Thank you for revealing the scammer as soon as you knew. I'm sure anyone he ripped off during the entire month of March will come to appreciate your timely efforts.

[Nutsy Doodleheimer]

Back to the drawing board for the next failed project.......

 

[Hey Nice Pants]

I watched this saga from afar, as the whole thing exploded everywhere, like everybody else.

 

What really interests me is the hopes, dreams, and world Mike Kennedy lives in. It is truly a Utopia, and a sight to behold. It is like my grandpa telling me how great the good ole' days were. To be very honest, I want to live in that world filled with stacks of magazines, carts, ice cream, magic, and sweet, sad music all around me. It brings a tear to my eye.

 

Reality should never get in the way of building a better world. It's OK, Mike. I'll help you clean up the smoldering mess around you. Go ahead, make your pitch on how you are the victim of progress. I'll be your friend.

 

Let's have some ice cream, while we play the 16-bit version of Call of Duty.

[Shawn]

 

 

Let's have some ice cream, while we play the 16-bit version of Call of Duty.

 

[AtarinDave]

Back to the drawing board for the next failed project.......

 

 

BEST....

PROJECT....

EVVVVVEEEEEEEERRRRRRR!

 

I'll buy three for $1000.

[mgman]

Back to the drawing board for the next failed project.......

 

Your electrical tape job needs a lot of work, there. I know an expert on this you could contact, he goes by the name Mi - ah screw it, I don't want to inspire the next business venture

[pxlsicle]

If you eat the "all natural" peanut butter, meaning that it doesn't have emulsifying agents, then you have to either keep it in the fridge or you have to stand there mixing it like crazy every time you want to use it. I mean, if you eat Skippy or JIF or whatever then that's totally cool, but there's a reason why some people put their PB in the fridge.

The reason is they are godless heathens! I eat all natural PB and I stir it like crazy! Pat's wrong and I'm right!

 

I don't really care I just like to give Pat shit. =]

 

/way off topic

[pxlsicle]

Ian, I feel your pain, I really do. I appreciate your revisiting the story one more time on the podcast. I would have preferred it if Mike had let this story stay as dead as it obviously was, and of course, it's still dead in the sense that this particular console project won't be rearing its head again. Mike says that he "officially tabled" the venture, but since there was no way forward for him after Coleco pulled their license, it was hardly his decision. A lot of the discussion that's happened since then has involved countering Mike's revisionist history, and while that's important, I'll admit that it's a little too "inside baseball" to be of interest to anyone who hasn't been following the story in detail—and probably to most of them, too.

 

There are three factors that keep me interested in it. One is that Mike is trying to recast himself as someone who had noble intentions but was laid low by a scammer and is now heroically going after him like some kind of vigilante. It's pretty clear that he's actually trying to shift the blame for his failures to an unsympathetic figure while whitewashing his own history. That seems to indicate that he wants to remain involved in the community to some extent—otherwise, all he'd care about is getting his money back—which merits further watchfulness.

 

Another factor is the desire to understand more fully what happened and how and why it happened. There is something to be learned from every failure, but this one is especially instructive, and there are bound to be more "retrospectives" written about it. As we know, Mike managed to snare several prominent people, set out to bilk the community for millions of dollars, and came dangerously close to succeeding. And as StopDrop&Retro points out in a recent video, this kind of thing is likely to happen more in the future as our little hobby grows more mainstream, unless we're all a lot more careful. The better we understand this project, the better we'll be able to identify others like it in the future and the better we'll be able to avoid its failures in our own projects, so digging out every lesson we can is worth the effort.

 

The third factor, of course, is good old-fashioned schadenfreude. I'll admit that this is especially sweet given how insufferably belligerent and arrogant many of the principles involved were during the time this project was a going concern. For example, let's take this dude ...

 

TalkRETRO24-featured-790x443.jpg

 

That's Daniel Kayser from Episode #24 of Talk RETRO, the official shill podcast of RETRO Magazine, in which he set out to "school da haterz" by "counter[ing] the negativity surrounding the Coleco Chameleon with stone cold facts from David [Giltinan]'s trip to the New York Toy Fair." If that doesn't make you wish you could punch someone in the face over the Internet, nothing will.

Your reasons are valid and I love a big glass of schadenfreude as much as the next fellow but it's nice to have a spot open now for other topics of interest that would normally be filled by Wacky McRetro's Nirvana Console

[toiletunes]

Asked for a fresh chance

made the same mistakes again

nothing more to say.

[Flojomojo]

Back to the drawing board for the next failed project.......

 

The lack of symmetry is really quite daring, I think your industrial design is going places. I like how it can use several styles of cartridge, and that you recognize that the GD-ROM and Lock-On Technology MUST be preserved for our children. I saw a Toys R Us shipping truck a few weeks ago and am very interested in having them deliver mass quantities (please consider this a firm commitment). I look forward to having you shut up and take my money.

[+madman]

I was just thinking, did we ever find out who that shill for Mike was that posted on here? Was it Sean? Was it Mr. Lee? Was it someone just trolling us?

[jaybird3rd]

I was just thinking, did we ever find out who that shill for Mike was that posted on here? Was it Sean? Was it Mr. Lee? Was it someone just trolling us?

Yes! Albert exposed him earlier in this thread:

 

I just discovered that the user Janus, who had been trolling in this thread (including repeatedly calling people here "haters") until I finally kicked "her" out, is actually Mark Kaminski, who works for RETRO Magazine. Janus had a previous account by the name Mr Retro, although he hasn't used that one since last September. In this interview with Mike Kennedy and Mark Kaminski, Mike Kennedy states about Mark:

 

Yeah, well, thanks for having me on. We brought Mark Kaminski around: hes our co-founder and Creative Director as well, responsible for what we print on these pages, and for pretty much anything to do with how it looks and feels and tastes and everything

[...]

 

Mark is now posting on the Digital Press forum using the same Janus persona. Here's the text of the post I just linked:

 

I really want the Coleco Chameleon and I really like Mike. I was a long time listener of his show, gamegavel, RETRO, met him at a expo. He's a nice guy. People are suggesting that he is some evil thief and that is just wrong. I know I'm new here, so I'll probably get booted. People can't stand to believe he has a following.

 

 

Kaminski's "Janus" account on Digital Press (which has since been banned) actually used a picture that was stolen from a real woman's social media profile. Classy guy, and exactly the type I'd expect to see working for Mike.