philyso Posted April 8, 2017 Share Posted April 8, 2017 (edited) Maybe name was too close to Retrobox which is supposedly a deposed trademark https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=96516&p=678123 I'm changing the name of the project because retrobox is a deposed mark. Also, it has been the first name of a project from libretro/retroarch guys, abandonned because of name rights issues. So the name of this project will not be retrobox anymore. https://www.libretro.com/index.php/after-retroarch-v1-1-retrobox/ Edited April 8, 2017 by philyso 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cybercylon Posted April 8, 2017 Share Posted April 8, 2017 All sorts of possibilities exist for a new name and they can keep the retro part and put it with an animal just like someone else did Retro Rat, Retro Raven, Retro Roadrunner, Retro Rook... that last one could be a good fit if this is all just smoke and mirrors, rook as a verb means to swindle or cheat. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stewart_Pidd Posted April 8, 2017 Share Posted April 8, 2017 All sorts of possibilities exist for a new name and they can keep the retro part and put it with an animal just like someone else did Retro Rat, Retro Raven, Retro Roadrunner, Retro Rook... that last one could be a good fit if this is all just smoke and mirrors, rook as a verb means to swindle or cheat.. ...or they could call it the "Houdini." 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaineb Posted April 8, 2017 Share Posted April 8, 2017 All sorts of possibilities exist for a new name and they can keep the retro part and put it with an animal just like someone else did Retro Rat, Retro Raven, Retro Roadrunner, Retro Rook... that last one could be a good fit if this is all just smoke and mirrors, rook as a verb means to swindle or cheat. Like Retro Chameleon? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elmer Posted April 8, 2017 Share Posted April 8, 2017 Lol, are they delaying the Kickstarter to make it even better? This is all just a little too convenient. They were contacted by another company? Who can't be named? Who apparently has zero internet footprint? Who has a product similar enough as to cause confusion? And they would rather go through a substantial re-branding? Yeah, it just *stinks* of the kind of thing that Mike Kennedy would pull, doesn't it! OTOH, I'm a little less dissmissive than you, and wouldn't be at all surprised if one of the many, many "Blox-this" or "Blox-that" trademark holders didn't manage to scare them off. Whether true or not, they still come out of this looking bad, either for not doing due-diligence on their desired name, or in stalling for time. And when I see ... After considering this matter carefully, and in order to stay laser-focused on building and growing our brand, we have decided to transition out of the name RETROBLOX and have been working towards coming up with a shiny new name and brand which will carry this and many other projects forward in to the future. ... We’re happy to announce that we have successfully raised a significant amount of working capital, enough for us to take the product to 100% completion before the first day of the crowdfunding campaign begins. ... then, if we're willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and accept this as true ... Gawd knows what DRM-infected and subscription-based online-connected monstrosity they're planning to try to sell in order to justify the "investment". 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted April 8, 2017 Share Posted April 8, 2017 Retro-Vape would be a better name. All the cool kids have e-cigs. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 Retro-Vape would be a better name. All the cool kids have e-cigs. Vaporblox! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 Yeah, it just *stinks* of the kind of thing that Mike Kennedy would pull, doesn't it! OTOH, I'm a little less dissmissive than you, and wouldn't be at all surprised if one of the many, many "Blox-this" or "Blox-that" trademark holders didn't manage to scare them off. Whether true or not, they still come out of this looking bad, either for not doing due-diligence on their desired name, or in stalling for time. And when I see ... ... then, if we're willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and accept this as true ... Gawd knows what DRM-infected and subscription-based online-connected monstrosity they're planning to try to sell in order to justify the "investment". My sentiments exactly. If this thing actually does show up out of the ether with DRM encumbered software, I'm going to laugh and spend my money elsewhere. Gotta include that Internet of Things and a server to dial home to because someday it will be "retro." If it works at all... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stewart_Pidd Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 Vaporblox! Quick, copyright the name! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 You know.. I don't give a hoot about branding or anything else. Back in the day I bought the Apple II not "because Apple" but because it had A2-FS1 (among other reasons). But branding wasn't an influence. Hell I was too young to know what 'branding' was anyways. And it's true. Make a good product that has no DRM (now that it has been bought up) and build your own brand on the merits and capabilities of the machine. It won't effect me one way or another if they build brand now prior to selling. No matter how hard they try. OTH an example is kevtris built his own 'brand' built through reputation. That's a good thing. And select emulators, too, have done the same thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kismet Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 You know.. I don't give a hoot about branding or anything else. Back in the day I bought the Apple II not "because Apple" but because it had A2-FS1 (among other reasons). But branding wasn't an influence. Hell I was too young to know what 'branding' was anyways. And it's true. Make a good product that has no DRM (now that it has been bought up) and build your own brand on the merits and capabilities of the machine. It won't effect me one way or another if they build brand now prior to selling. No matter how hard they try. OTH an example is kevtris built his own 'brand' built through reputation. That's a good thing. And select emulators, too, have done the same thing. DRM should be about protecting the integrity of the software, not about making it a pain in the ass to media shift. eg, preventing cheats/trainers/hacks being used during online multiplayer. Single player games with no leaderboards and no internet connectivity, who cares what some pathetic player does during single player mode, they're only cheating themselves (seriously why would you pay money for a game, and then just cheat your way to the end?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godslabrat Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 "We don't have a functional prototype, but we're ready to plan a media empire." I've never heard that before. Not once. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 Single player games with no leaderboards and no internet connectivity, who cares what some pathetic player does during single player mode, they're only cheating themselves (seriously why would you pay money for a game, and then just cheat your way to the end?) Don't blame the players on that front for their supposed lack of skill. Blame the developers for making tough-as-nails games bitd, to the point of cheap hits and ridiculously unfair gameplay. So if someone uses a Game Genie to beat Battletoads on their NES, more power to them for seeing it through to the ending. Even Nintendo conceded that some vintage games were too hard, giving players access to save states on Virtual Console starting with 3DS and Wii-U. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xiaNaix Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 They didn't even file the trademark until January of this year. Brilliant strategists and geniuses they are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 "We don't have a functional prototype, but we're ready to plan a media empire." I've never heard that before. Not once. Simple As That 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 They didn't even file the trademark until January of this year. Brilliant strategists and geniuses they are. Lasted all of 3 months, less a week. The filing and abandonment dates listed on the trademark app would make a nice tombstone. Retroblox Born January 12th, 2017 Deceased April 5th, 2017 Rest in Peace. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbd30 Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 (edited) Don't blame the players on that front for their supposed lack of skill. Blame the developers for making tough-as-nails games bitd, to the point of cheap hits and ridiculously unfair gameplay. So if someone uses a Game Genie to beat Battletoads on their NES, more power to them for seeing it through to the ending. Even Nintendo conceded that some vintage games were too hard, giving players access to save states on Virtual Console starting with 3DS and Wii-U. The only part of Battletoads that can be unfair is the random mines in stage 5. Sometimes they're unavoidable. Otherwise it just requires a lot of practice and memorization. Well shit, today's gamers will happily dump 100+ hours into the latest Zelda, Pokemon, first person shooter or whatever... and then get mad that they can't beat a NES game in an hour. EDIT: Oh yeah, there's also the rat race glitch that occasionally soft locks the game. That is also unfair. Edited April 12, 2017 by mbd30 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NinjaWarrior Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 So is the Retroblox Dead or what? Or is it delayed to get a Prototype on Kickstarter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godslabrat Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 They're waiting for Indiegogo to start courting them! Lol Seriously, they're clearly buying time. Retroblox may or may not need to change their name, but they didn't have a prototype ready and this is a convenient excuse for some downtime. It would also be a really nice smokescreen if they wanted to just disappear forever. When you don't even have the name to be tied to, you can make a pretty clean break. Not a bad idea, jsut sayin'... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 So have we seen their "Major Announcement" yet, or is that still coming soon? Agreed about disappearing in a puff of name change smoke. Or with a difficult-to-Google name such as "Good Technology." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 Well shit, today's gamers will happily dump 100+ hours into the latest Zelda, Pokemon, first person shooter or whatever... and then get mad that they can't beat a NES game in an hour. It was a different world then. A whole lot more stuff to do in Breath of the Wild compared to say NES Zelda. Such a huge overworld, I just get lost in the game... Also in BOTW, you don't waste a metric ton of bombs (which were very limited inventory in the original) blasting the walls looking for a random breakable tile somewhere on the map to access the second dungeon. How am I supposed to know to blast a specific tile on a specific screen in order to progress in the game, rather than aimlessly wander the map taking cheap hits from respawning enemies until I game over? It's not like some NPC will pinpoint me the exact spot where I have to set the bomb... Yeah, it isn't that games were just brutally difficult back then; occasionally adventure/RPG games, even some platformers gave you literally zero instruction or guidance, so in pre-internet days, Nintendo game counsellors could literally milk their parents phone bills for the 1-900 tips hotline... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daschewie Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 (edited) Their could be copyright issues for a FPGA Core on a SNES, SNES and a lot of it parts which could of been designed by FPGA which would add a copyright along with the patent Which would mean if someone designed a FPGA it could fall under a Derivative Work Believe the above is stopping people from releasing a public FPGA since it unknown if it copyrighted and difficult to track some of the parties down I think FPGA is considered hardware and would be covered by patents instead of copyright. Since you are not modifying existing source code when reverse engineering hardware, I dont think it can be considered Derivative Work. BIOS on the other hand is copyrighted. It is legal to make and sell a Sega Master System FPGA computer due to expired patents. However the copyright on the BIOS is not expired, and you will get in trouble if bundled with the system. Edited April 13, 2017 by Daschewie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daschewie Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 (edited) The people that can't afford the $450 consoles are probably going to buy 2 or 3 cheaper consoles that add up to $450 or more.. If you look at system launch prices with inflation take into account, I think people are more then willing to pay $450. The prices below are from this article: http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/10/04/comparing-the-price-of-every-game-console-with-inflation Magnavox Odyssey $570.44 Atari 2600 $790.92 Intellivision $873.97 ColecoVision $436.78 Atari 5200 $671.39 NES $445.44 Sega Master System $437.32 TurboGrafx-16 $386.53 Sega Genesis $367.11 Neo-Geo $1,147.68 Edited April 13, 2017 by Daschewie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StopDrop&Retro Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 ^ Hi, Mike. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elmer Posted April 16, 2017 Share Posted April 16, 2017 "We don't have a functional prototype, but we're ready to plan a media empire." I've never heard that before. Not once. Does anyone else get the impression that what these Retroblox ThingySomething guys really want to do ... with all their talk of branding and future-products and investors and copy-protected downloads and the app-store-like interface they showed ... ... Is to actually try to set themselves up as the Retro-Gaming-Kings and produce some "branded" hardware that eventually emulates all the popular and out-of-production machines, and lets Publishers/Rights-Holders sell DRM-protected ROMs and CD images of their back-catalog titles on the RetroBlox ThingySomething digital storefront (for an Apple-like 30% fee, of course)? Kinda like Mike Kennedy, but without his idiotic idea that established companies would want to develop new games for some underfunded niche console. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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