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Retroblox


omnispiro

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Why don't you start a thread about your console, instead of talking about it in a thread talking about another one. :?

 

And I'll probably say the same thing about any emulation console, you can just use a PC.

 

Hehe, once our site update gets pushed, I will. ;)

 

Just making sure we have a lot of real things to show you guys, before I "officially" start talking about it, know what I mean?

 

I respect you guys. :)

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I would love it if one of these clones was released that gave me access to systems I wanted but didn't want to fuss with the original hardware. So far, none of them have, but I'm not disparaging the concept.

Edited by godslabrat
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I would love it if one of these clones was released that gave me access to systems I wanted but didn't want to fuss with the original hardware. So far, none of them have, but I'm not disparaging the concept.

 

I think I might get in on the retro gaming cash grab.

 

You should definitely wait for my book, "Is There Something Like the Real Thing?: The Definitive Retro Gamer's Guide to Clones, Romboxes, and Emulator Setups"

 

Early kickstarter backers will get rebranded Ikea shelving to house all their modules. Basically I'll slap on some cheap pixel art decals to give it that custom flair. Higher tiers will include a VGA grading style service where I will assess how whacked out the connector pins are for Retron 5 owners. They'll get a #'d score and polycarbonate encasement for display purposes.

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I think I might get in on the retro gaming cash grab.

 

You should definitely wait for my book, "Is There Something Like the Real Thing?: The Definitive Retro Gamer's Guide to Clones, Romboxes, and Emulator Setups"

 

Early kickstarter backers will get rebranded Ikea shelving to house all their modules. Basically I'll slap on some cheap pixel art decals to give it that custom flair. Higher tiers will include a VGA grading style service where I will assess how whacked out the connector pins are for Retron 5 owners. They'll get a #'d score and polycarbonate encasement for display purposes.

 

Throw in some LED spinning rims that play the Super Mario Overworld theme. Bam. Money

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maybe all the knowledgeable dudes here at atari age should kickstart a retro system, that would be cool and I would trust the people here more than the Chameleon lot

some of member's are programing Jaguars, if they did a retro system that didn't go any higher than the 16 bit era (32x, Jag) it could be reliable and stable and not demanding to much

Edited by D.Daniels
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I forgot to post this earlier but there has already been a CD based console emulator that runs on Android. It was called the indieGO!. It had a successful Kickstarter last year and HOLY SHIT it's seems to be shipping!! From the few reviews in the comments it also seems to be well received but I'll wait for a bigger and more accurate consensus. Not bad if true though.

 

But it also highlights one danger in all of this. When I see a Pi console doing these things like running games off CD, it doesn't make me want to rush out and order their version. It makes me want to learn how to do it myself for the experience and to save a few bucks. They've proven it's possible and that's all I care about.

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If this console turns out to be really good would you still use your old consoles or just play all your games on this one ?

In my case, I would keep using my old consoles and computers, there's a nostalgia factor that can't be removed in my case.

 

It's all about the search, look for the game/s, look for the system, hook it up, turn it on, put the cart or disc in, listen that sound or music, close your eyes and for just a couple of seconds you are back to that time when you played it for the first time.

 

On the other hand, other people don't like physical media and it's a way for them to play those games. That's market segmentation.

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I forgot to post this earlier but there has already been a CD based console emulator that runs on Android. It was called the indieGO!. It had a successful Kickstarter last year and HOLY SHIT it's seems to be shipping!! From the few reviews in the comments it also seems to be well received but I'll wait for a bigger and more accurate consensus. Not bad if true though.

 

But it also highlights one danger in all of this. When I see a Pi console doing these things like running games off CD, it doesn't make me want to rush out and order their version. It makes me want to learn how to do it myself for the experience and to save a few bucks. They've proven it's possible and that's all I care about.

 

 

IndieGo seems to be a decent attempt. I didn't back it, but if it continues to develop, I might pick one up later. They also offered to sell just the console OS, letting the user design their own rig. I like that a lot.

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Wow, just finished reading that article. That "Jack" guy's a real scumbag, knocking off KS projects beating them to market simply because he has access to capital. :razz:

 

Figet Cube does look cute though...

 

Right or wrong, it's a solid lesson for entrepreneurs about the dangers of waving your product around before you're ready to deliver. Big talk leads to big risk.

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Right or wrong, it's a solid lesson for entrepreneurs about the dangers of waving your product around before you're ready to deliver. Big talk leads to big risk.

Well I ordered a figit cube from Antsy Labs. As an adult with severe ADHD it may help with my chronic nail biting issue if I have something to play with in my hands.

https://www.antsylabs.com/products/fidget-cube

 

Also how else does an entrepreneur get funding if he/she doesn't put his/her product out there? :ponder:

 

The original is almost always better than the knockoff anyway, with few exceptions...

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Okay, I just got a nasty feeling in the pit of my stomach. This thing goes on display at SoCal tomorrow, but questions aren't due to be answered for TWO MONTHS? Oh, this has a very, very Kennedy feel to it.

If you're a big player with a proven track record, like Nintendo, you tease a little, show a little more, then make an announcement, before you do a massive release and hopefully sell enough product to everyone who wants one. I get the sense that many people think this is easy. It's difficult, and expensive, and even big companies can flop hard.

 

If you're a no-name, and you want the world to take notice of the cool thing you've already made, I think it's smarter to polish up your product before showing it off, then allow the word to spread. If you can get a buyer/producer, so much the better.

 

If you're a no-name, and you've got nothing, you can talk all you want, and hope that someone funds (but does not steal) your idea ...but we've all seen enough vaporware promises to be very, very skeptical -- especially with RETRO games, where most people who care already have ways to play the old games.

 

This Venn diagram from the Retro VGS discussion is still applicable here -- the market for this is not big.

 

now_venn_now_vennfws7m.png

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The Vega+ didn't do any teasing / announchements that I'm aware of, and the fundraising was an instant success. I think Retroblox should me clear about their product. It's still vague to me. [armchair ceo]They lose momentum this way[/armchair ceo]

 

Clearly, they need more crap like this

 

Guys,

We have been boiling down all the discussions on a variety of forums and on Facebook and taking a hard look at our cost, price vs. capability. Originally, over a year ago this was going to be a system based largely around the architecture of the Beaglebone Black. At this time we had discussed pricing in the $150-$180 range. Soon after this, Steve Woita decided we need to do something that's not been done before and make a consumer product that is FPGA enabled as this would give immediate development paths to a wide variety of home brew game developers who could continue making games like they know how, for the systems they are familiar with and have a no-cost port of those games onto RVGS. Hopefully, bringing these games to a bigger audience allowing them to make more money so they can keep making more games. I hope none of you can argue about that :)

Next, since we don't want the success of RVGS to lie only in the hands of smaller homebrew game developers who are making incredible retro games for the classic systems, we wanted to make RVGS capable of playing the best of today's retro inspired games coming from a great group of Indie developers around the world. And just because these games look RETRO, they are in fact, quite large, many in the 1-2GB range. So we have had to take considerable time and effort to design a system that will play a wide variety of games coming from a wide variety of developers using a variety of oldschool to newschool programing techniques and using today's mostly inefficient game making suites like Unity and Game Maker.

RVGS will also have its own native core and tool chain that developers can work with as well. This is something still being worked on and SDKs will be available soon after the campaign ends. The bottom line is RVGS will have more than enough ways for devs to bring their games onto the system. That has always been the goal of my hardware team who by the way have been designing video gaming hardware and/or software for their entire careers. And the barrier's to entry are free as every RVGS system will be a dev console right out of the box.

We have addressed the flash issue and will be able to use masked roms up to a max game size of around 128 MB which will cover lots of ground. But, for games larger than that we have been working on other higher capacity storage options that will make our games last a lifetime. But its been extremely challenging working with today's technology which is largely becoming more and more disposable. Believe me we have looked at every option there is and worked with the largest electronics distributors and Flash manufactures directly to determine the best options available for our long term storage needs.

As far as whether or not we are leaving the FGPA inside RVGS. The answer is YES. Removing this part of our hardware will significantly reduce the value and capability of this machine. We have yet to announce, but will have a variety of inexpensive cartridge adapters that will allow you to play your original games (and using your original classic gaming controllers) from your collections in RVGS using only the highest quality, read that lots of GOLD, cartridge connectors made here in Southern California. You won't have to worry about sticking in your prized copy of Air Raid into the RVGS cartridge slot. AND RVGS will be a great system to play all the existing newer and upcoming homebrew titles for Atari 2600, Intellivision, Colecovision and NES (possible 16-bit consoles in the future, however, no reliable cores for these have been made yet). This is all a by-product of having an FPGA enabled system. Imagine plugging in a USB keyboard and programming and saving your programs like this was an Amiga computer? This will all be possible with RVGS and its FPGA component. Not to mention this FPGA will be used by game developers to do things never seen before in a video game. As they become more and more familiar with what we are providing them, you will see games here that you won't see anywhere else.

We are making a product for the ages and one that will have loads of value straight from the box. RVGS will be made right here in Southern California with only the highest quality parts on the market. Give us the time to prove what this will do and I am sure eventually, all of you will want to have this sitting beside your favorite game cartridge based consoles from yesterday. Regardless of what you all might think, we have spent tons of money, time and effort getting to this point.

Carry on . . . . . . .

- Mike

 

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My head is still spinning on how they haven't even really shown anything.

 

inb4 you guys tell that to me too. Wait 1 more week. You shall see, my precious.

I'll give you a pass because I don't really know anything about your project and you've made no real effort to tell us. You're working on something and you're keeping it quiet until you're ready to make a real announcement. I respect that.

 

What doesn't work is the approach of saying "HAY GUISE! LOOK AT THIS AMAZING BLOW-YOUR-BALLS-OFF THING I'M ABOUT TO MAKE! SEE HOW SHINY IT IS AND HOW THE RENDERS LOOK SO COOL! GIVE ME MONEY RIGHT NOW. Oh, wait, despite calling so much attention to myself, I don't actually have anything concrete to show, just some pretty pictures."

 

Retroblox basically has the next 48 hours to steer this info campaign in the right direction. They can either use their reveal as a starting point for full transparency, or they can go full Mike Kennedy. Whichever path they pick, I don't see them changing course once they begin.

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