Coleco strong-arming homebrew publishers and fan sites

[Schizophretard]

 

Consider this the reminder. Also we DO NOT NEED "Coleco Humor" threads either on this forum. We have already had to remove two of them. Thanks for your understanding.

 

I'm confused on this because the Chameleon thread allowed humor and still does, was based on something just as serious and very related(almost the same topic even), was about Coleco, and wasn't removed. In other words, since it has been ruled out here and with creating new threads I'm confused on rather or not I would be going against this ruling since it isn't universally applied. Is it just this thread and new ones but still allowed in old ones? Where is the fun allowed?

[Flojomojo]

I think the difference is that Chameleon/RVGS was an unreleased project with something to prove, while Coleco is behaving in an adversarial way. This thread exists mainly to inform of Coleco's bad behavior. Some messaging discipline is needed lest poor little Coleco feel it's being picked on.

[Schizophretard]

I think the difference is that Chameleon/RVGS was an unreleased project with something to prove, while Coleco is behaving in an adversarial way. This thread exists mainly to inform of Coleco's bad behavior. Some messaging discipline is needed lest poor little Coleco feel it's being picked on.

"Coleco" was buddying up with Mike Kennedy when he was acting in an adversarial way and waited until the very end to break the relationship. It is the exact same behavior now except they don't have another party to break a relationship with because they are doing it directly. And both situations are equally hilarious.

 

Edit: Also, the other thread was just about speculating on the specs and if message discipline was needed to keep it on topic then most of what was revealed would have never happened. I think humor also helped to keep people engaged with the topic.

[enoofu]

I think the difference is that Chameleon/RVGS was an unreleased project with something to prove, while Coleco is behaving in an adversarial way. This thread exists mainly to inform of Coleco's bad behavior. Some messaging discipline is needed lest poor little Coleco feel it's being picked on.

Coleco Chameleon thread became to toxic to quick and had a bunch of new members posting to the forums

 

"Coleco" was buddying up with Mike Kennedy when he was acting in an adversarial way and waited until the very end to break the relationship. It is the exact same behavior now except they don't have another party to break a relationship with because they are doing it directly. And both situations are equally hilarious.

Coleco/RWB loved the attention they were getting by the media so they viewed the RVG deal as positive

[Schizophretard]

Coleco Chameleon thread became to toxic to quick and had a bunch of new members posting to the forums

 

Coleco/RWB loved the attention they were getting by the media so they viewed the RVG deal as positive

 

New members and subscribers was a bad thing?

[The Evener]

 

 

I see what you mean. The only difference between Ben's and the Flashback I believe is the color patterns don't match up.

 

Yes that's true but take a look at what Ben actually sent to RWB

 

 

Here's what I sent them in 2008.

 

 

Again, the original (and only) Coleco portable I made was in 2005, by commission for a customer who was not associated with RWB.

 

And yes as some have mentioned it was a heavily modded original Colecovision, not a new machine. And by looking at the dates on these provided logo files, RWB contacted me over 2 year after I built the one-off.

 

Here's the Flashback mark

 

 

Unless I missed it earlier in the thread, I don't think any other users have seen Coleco Industries use the lower case font for spelling out the colour ColecoVision mark. The one Ben created is all lower case and bears a rainbow spectrum that repeats with "Coleco" and "Vision" - a red-blue spectrum. The one found on theFlashback and subsequently submitted as proof of use in commerce bears this exact pattern - lower case and repeated red-blue spectrum. As far as I can see, Coleco Industries always capitalized and their rainbow spectrum did not repeat -- it essentially hits blue on the O and then goes "backward" ending in pink-red on the "N."

 

 

Unless my eyes are fooling me, RWB used your own originally-created version of the ColecoVision mark. And as far as I can recall, they wanted to compel *you* to pay them money when you shared your mark. Whatever happens with the application, I think at a minimum you are owed money - and although I'm not a lawyer, you may enjoy some legal rights as author for your creation since you did not create this mark as an employee of RWB.

Edited June 14, 2017 by The Evener

[Andromeda Stardust]

Perhaps Ben signed away his rigts in whatever agreement he had with Coleco. Now he has shared the original files right here on Atariage. Lawsuit time???

[enoofu]

 

New members and subscribers was a bad thing?

Just that a lot didn't know the forum rules

[DuggerVideoGames]

Perhaps Ben signed away his rigts in whatever agreement he had with Coleco. Now he has shared the original files right here on Atariage. Lawsuit time???

I don't think it matters what rights - if any - Ben signed away in a contract when the contract was drawn under false pretenses.

[Schizophretard]

Just that a lot didn't know the forum rules

That applies to any new members.

[Northcoastgamer]

I think humor also helped to keep people engaged with the topic.

 

 

I must agree. There has to be some humor along the way. Better to laugh at most of this nonsense than to get all worked up about it. Some folks get a little edgy. A good laugh lightens it up and it's good for the soul.

[Pipercub]

I don't agree with restricting the humor, going down those alleys actually lead to productive discoveries sometimes, but rules is rules and the moderators have the final say.

 

What always hits me as a red flag is when people start calling for a thread to be closed, lots of that happened during the Chameleon debacle when major revelation after major revelation was still to come. Just who's interest is served by closing a thread, I think the answer is clear, and I can't help but be suspicious of that.

[MrBeefy]

I'm not new to AA, but I'm new to the CV part due to all this. It has me in the mood to try and track down a CV. And I found out about the system Opcodes working on.

 

I appreciate the humor but it is nice to come here and see updates on new news as opposed to fun distractions.

[SignGuy81]

Looks exactly the same to me. Ben had nothing to go on and designed it himself I believe he said, so this means for sure they used his logo because there is no way they would be this exact.

EDIT:

Image I got and added to Ben's for comparison is on http://colecotoys.com/press-page/

Edited June 14, 2017 by SignGuy81

[HkryCrkStudio]

 

Unless my eyes are fooling me, RWB used your own originally-created version of the ColecoVision mark.

 

So............ the ColecoVision mark that Coleco Holdings is licensing out for a fee to anyone who wants to use the ColecoVision mark.... is not the ColecoVision mark.

[TPR]

I apologize for trying to take away any of the humor or making it seem like I was trying to control the direction of this thread. I'm man enough to admit when I was wrong and will retract my statements, unlike Chris Cardillo, and again I apologize.

 

My reasoning was that I felt this thread was a little more serious since it directly impacts members of this community and the homebrewers that had built it up. And while I appreciate poking fun, I personally felt that ColecoVision condoms and a Cardillo enema may have been going a bit too far, because the last thing we would want is to give any additional ammunition to those who claim anyone here is bullying or harassing and I wouldn't want anything to reflect poorly on our community.

 

That being said, those are my own personal feelings and I get that other people will feel differently. The humor is welcome, but all I ask is that maybe we try not to take it THAT far? Is this too much to ask? (Serious question, not being sarcastic!)

[the80sgamer]

 

That being said, those are my own personal feelings and I get that other people will feel differently. The humor is welcome, but all I ask is that maybe we try not to take it THAT far? Is this too much to ask? (Serious question, not being sarcastic!)

 

I would agree. Keep the humor in good taste so as not to stir any trouble.

[The Evener]

 

So............ the ColecoVision mark that Coleco Holdings is licensing out for a fee to anyone who wants to use the ColecoVision mark.... is not the ColecoVision mark.

 

Ka-boom!

 

At least not the one used by the Greenberg family during the marketing of the ColecoVision circa 1982-1985 or thereabouts.

 

While one of the original marks used lower case as seen above, it appears to me that Ben created a new variant for the horizontal (side-by-side) version that features all lower-case letters and a rainbow spectrum that features a blue O and a blue N (unless someone found prior art examples where Coleco Industries did the same). According to my recollection and limited research, I have only ever seen Coleco Industries use a "capital C - capital V" rainbow mark that begins with a pink/red C and ends with a pink/red N.

 

Ben mark:

 

 

Coleco Industries mark:

 

 

 

Edited June 14, 2017 by The Evener

[StopDrop&Retro]

Maybe you should remind people that we have the ability to remove individual users from any given thread?

 

OoOOoohhh!!! NOW you tell us.

[Northcoastgamer]

I agree with the seriousness as well. This is very serious. Some folks are more serious than others and some folks have a more colorful humor. But the one thing I find most humorous, here's a company claiming to be the "creators" of Colecovision and Cabbage Patch Kids/Dolls yet, they have a guy in an ad holding an X-box controller not a CV controller. A company that has no games developed what so ever yet they seem to be taking a lot of credit for Sydney Hunter. Here's a company that uses other pictures on the web for other promotional purposes. All these claims but they have no games, no system, and no controllers to take their own dam pictures for their promotions and advertising? It's just like the title of his book, " Study Less and Earn A's Without Effort". They buy these trademarks and employ the same ideology. Spend less, advertise less, use other peoples success/work and rely on the strength of the trademark name etched in peoples memory from the past.

[HkryCrkStudio]

 

Ka-boom!

 

At least not the one used by the Greenberg family during the marketing of the ColecoVision circa 1982-1985 or thereabouts.

 

While one of the original marks used lower case as seen above, it appears to me that Ben created a new variant for the horizontal (side-by-side) version that features all lower-case letters and a rainbow spectrum that differs from the Coleco Industries-based colour mark (unless someone found prior art examples where Coleco Industries did the same). According to my recollection and limited research, I have only ever seen the capital C capital V rainbow mark that begins with pink/red C and ends with pink/red N.

 

I believe you are correct sir, I dare say with my limited research also, however I only ever recall the COLECO over VISION mark all in lower case, and the single line COLECO VISION mark with enlarged C and V and a very subtle space between the words. I can't recall any of the original material using anything but those 2 configurations.

[Pipercub]

I apologize for trying to take away any of the humor or making it seem like I was trying to control the direction of this thread. I'm man enough to admit when I was wrong and will retract my statements, unlike Chris Cardillo, and again I apologize.

 

My reasoning was that I felt this thread was a little more serious since it directly impacts members of this community and the homebrewers that had built it up. And while I appreciate poking fun, I personally felt that ColecoVision condoms and a Cardillo enema may have been going a bit too far, because the last thing we would want is to give any additional ammunition to those who claim anyone here is bullying or harassing and I wouldn't want anything to reflect poorly on our community.

 

That being said, those are my own personal feelings and I get that other people will feel differently. The humor is welcome, but all I ask is that maybe we try not to take it THAT far? Is this too much to ask? (Serious question, not being sarcastic!)

 

Much respect for that! My view is that the humor and satire really did lead to very productive results. StopDropandRetro went down the satire road but ended up creating some of the best overviews of the situation. Well done.

[phoenixdownita]

Dunno,

box has the rainbow duplicated top to bottom, while console single line has the "Vision" rainbow mirrored at the "O" whereabouts

Not sure all 4 variants were valid trademark or not or only the 2 on the box.

 

[CPUWIZ]

It's called symmetry, which is what Ben broke.

[enoofu]

New Coleco is starting to become the spiritual successor to Digital Homicide

 

Digital Homicide tried the same thing with Jim Sterling, which sued him for reviewing one of their games

 

 

Warning the video has swearing

Edited June 14, 2017 by enoofu