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CollectorVision Phoenix Kickstarter is now live!


Bmack36

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It's kinda a pact we made some years ago. And without these various checks and balances I'd be on a special episode of hoarders. So.. it isn't all bad! Must maintain focus on my existing platforms which aren't too numerous.

my wife and I have the same pact... it must be a common ground gamer thing. ;)

 

oh man, if i bought every shiny thing i saw i'd have quite a few things lining the old nest!

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The core would almost certainly play them if they were on cartridge, it's be just like any other cartridge. But, for ROMS, wouldn't the core have to also emulate the stuff inside the melody/harmony cartridge? I'm not aware of any 2600 core that does that.

 

But correct be if I'm wrong.

Thanks Keetah - that was my thought too. I don't expect the 2600 core to play any games that require an extra chip that's not emulated in the FPGA (I would assume Pitfall 2 would not play off the SD card either). If there is a plan to accept 2600 carts and games with extra chips run without issue, I'm in! :)

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I don't know much about the inner workings of FPGA, but for the controller ports, pins 1,2,3,4,6 and 8 have pretty much universal functions. The functions of pins 5, 7 and 9 tend to vary and occasionally 8 does. Is it possible to vary these functions per core, using either the FPGA architecture or by a physical switch or simple interchangable chip that would insert behind the controller ports on the unit? I just bring this up because it seems like it would be inexpensive to add an interchangeable wire re-route chip that would make it a true Atari 2600 controller port (or SMS, MSX, etc., as they come along). If it were a small interchangable module chip it could be sold for the cores as they are made to give better original peripheral compatibility for various games to offset the cost of adding it and it could completely replace their older console. Then again, maybe it isn't practical with whatever is going on inside or more costly than just adding a wire re-routing slot.

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I don't know much about the inner workings of FPGA, but for the controller ports, pins 1,2,3,4,6 and 8 have pretty much universal functions. The functions of pins 5, 7 and 9 tend to vary and occasionally 8 does. Is it possible to vary these functions per core, using either the FPGA architecture or by a physical switch or simple interchangable chip that would insert behind the controller ports on the unit? I just bring this up because it seems like it would be inexpensive to add an interchangeable wire re-route chip that would make it a true Atari 2600 controller port (or SMS, MSX, etc., as they come along). If it were a small interchangable module chip it could be sold for the cores as they are made to give better original peripheral compatibility for various games to offset the cost of adding it and it could completely replace their older console. Then again, maybe it isn't practical with whatever is going on inside or more costly than just adding a wire re-routing slot.

 

It's just a bit more than reprogramming or rewiring the pin i/o. You should ideally have any necessary A/D and D/A converters along with any buffers/switches to determine whether a pin is input or output, and WHAT it is supposed to sense or generate.

 

The FPGA can do some of that, but the voltage and sensing range may be limited. So with a little bit of custom-for-vintage-videogame-controllers circuitry you can have 100% compatibility. Now none of these parts are expensive. It comes down to the designer if they want to take some time and go the extra mile. Or say 90% of the games are playable and call it a day.

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insertclevernamehere, on 23 Oct 2018 - 4:26 PM, said:snapback.png

So that's the wife's rules? Aka "The Boss"? Come on. Just tell her how Kickstarters work and that no money is paid unless they reach their goal and that CollectorVision are an established, trustworthy company and delivery of the console is pretty much guaranteed etc etc.

 

Delivery of the product is not guaranteed in any Kickstarter. Sometimes you have a scammer like Mike Kennedy who take the money and run. Other times you have reputable people with the best of intentions that have things go wrong and run out of money before they can deliver to all the backers. When you have to manufacture in China, there is always a risk something will go wrong, or the company will take your money and not deliver what they promised.

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It will initially be through the sd card. We do plan to have a cartridge adapter as well.

Awesome. I had wondered why companies haven't made a type of OG Retron for Atari, Coleco, Intellivision, Odyssey, etc. I had felt the Atari VCS has a lot of missed opportunities, as does the Retron 77. And the new Intellivision is interesting but I think support for physical media is integral in a successful retro set. I had a hard time justifying backing this at first. I love the Coleco but I am not the biggest fan of the controller and would hope to mod something like an Atari Jaguat controller but when I saw mention of Atari 2600 compatibility, eventual development of good controllers, and now the future possibility of cart adapters makes the Pheonix a no brainer!
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insertclevernamehere, on 23 Oct 2018 - 4:26 PM, said:snapback.png

 

 

Delivery of the product is not guaranteed in any Kickstarter. Sometimes you have a scammer like Mike Kennedy who take the money and run. Other times you have reputable people with the best of intentions that have things go wrong and run out of money before they can deliver to all the backers. When you have to manufacture in China, there is always a risk something will go wrong, or the company will take your money and not deliver what they promised.

 

Agreed. That's why I've never done a Kickstarter before but for the Phoenix, I just couldn't resist.

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Sometimes you have a scammer like Mike Kennedy who take the money and run.

 

I thought Mike Kennedy delivered on his two Kickstarters? I was under the impression that all the issues of Retro Magazine made it out the door. Or am I thinking of a different project?

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I thought Mike Kennedy delivered on his two Kickstarters? I was under the impression that all the issues of Retro Magazine made it out the door. Or am I thinking of a different project?

 

I thought there was a third year of Retro Magazine that he raised money for but never produced. Or maybe it was the authors who wrote articles and were never paid. The point of kickstarter would be to get the magazine published for the first year. Then after that you sell the magazine and sell subscriptions. It doesn't make any sense to kickstart an already existing magazine. Kickstarter is to fund new projects that have no other viable path towards funding. The Retro Magazine could sell magazines, subscriptions, and advertising once it became a real magazine after the first year. Maybe they could get an exclusive contract to only be sold at a specific store chain.

 

With Retro VGS/Chameleon the funding was so low for the kickstarter, that they cancelled the campaign early rather than be embarrassed. Then they tried it on Indigogo with flexible funding, and they got less money pledged then the kickstarter, and then they cancelled that campaign early rather than be embarrassed.

 

My point is had the kickstarter reached the goal they would have taken the money and run.

 

Only Mike Kennedy knows if it was a complete scam from day 1, or if it started out with good intentions, and turned into a scam.

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I thought there was a third year of Retro Magazine that he raised money for but never produced. Or maybe it was the authors who wrote articles and were never paid. The point of kickstarter would be to get the magazine published for the first year. Then after that you sell the magazine and sell subscriptions. It doesn't make any sense to kickstart an already existing magazine. Kickstarter is to fund new project that have no other viable path towards funding. The Retro Magazine could sell magazines, subscriptions, and advertising once it became a real magazine after the first year.

 

With Retro VGS/Chameleon the funding was so low for the kickstarter, that they cancelled the campaign early rather than be embarrassed. Then they tried it on Indigogo with flexible funding, and they got less money pledged then the kickstarter, and then they cancelled that campaign early rather than be embarrassed.

 

My point is had the kickstarter reached the goal they would have taken the money and run.

 

Only Mike Kennedy knows if it was a complete scam from day 1, or if it started out with good intentions, and turned into a scam.

????????? Sorry, but this jumps from one assumption to the next.

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????????? Sorry, but this jumps from one assumption to the next.

 

I think putting a capture card in a Jaguar Shell tells us everything we need to know. Then they put a SNES Jr pcb in the "working prototype" which could only play SNES games, and could only use SNES controllers.

 

Mike Kenendy had a successful kickstarter for Retro Magazine in year one. He got greedy, and saw kickstarter as an ATM where he could get free money. Rather than sell magazines and advertising in year 2, he went back to the ATM. And when he got to Retro VGS/Chameleon he either went back to the ATM to fund the development of a working prototype, or he just went back to the ATM with no intentions of making any real console. Only he knows what his intentions were.

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????????? Sorry, but this jumps from one assumption to the next.

 

Exactly.

 

My point is had the kickstarter reached the goal they would have taken the money and run.

 

It's one thing to make fair and accurate statements about what happened with Mike Kennedy's ridiculous campaign & prototype, but to say the guy stole people's money is not correct and not based on any factual occurrences. He actually didn't take any money at all for the VGS/Chameleon.

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I thought there was a third year of Retro Magazine that he raised money for but never produced. Or maybe it was the authors who wrote articles and were never paid. The point of kickstarter would be to get the magazine published for the first year. Then after that you sell the magazine and sell subscriptions. It doesn't make any sense to kickstart an already existing magazine. Kickstarter is to fund new projects that have no other viable path towards funding. The Retro Magazine could sell magazines, subscriptions, and advertising once it became a real magazine after the first year. Maybe they could get an exclusive contract to only be sold at a specific store chain.

 

With Retro VGS/Chameleon the funding was so low for the kickstarter, that they cancelled the campaign early rather than be embarrassed. Then they tried it on Indigogo with flexible funding, and they got less money pledged then the kickstarter, and then they cancelled that campaign early rather than be embarrassed.

 

My point is had the kickstarter reached the goal they would have taken the money and run.

 

Only Mike Kennedy knows if it was a complete scam from day 1, or if it started out with good intentions, and turned into a scam.

 

As I remember the events, the RetroVGS never got a Kickstarter campaign started because there was no working prototype. The campaign launched on Indiegogo, which has no working prototype requirement. Their campaign was "fixed funding", which meant they had to raise the $2M they asked for from backers they could get any money. They failed miserably and no backers lost money. Then they went back to the drawing board, came up with the Coleco Chameleon but after AtariAge members discovered two faked prototypes, the Chameleon died. The Chameleon never got a crowdfunding campaign.

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Exactly.

 

 

It's one thing to make fair and accurate statements about what happened with Mike Kennedy's ridiculous campaign & prototype, but to say the guy stole people's money is not correct and not based on any factual occurrences. He actually didn't take any money at all for the VGS/Chameleon.

 

I never said they stole people's money. I said they wanted to steal people's money, but there were serious questions about the prototype, and the campaign was no where close to getting funded, so they cancelled the campaign to save themselves the embarrassment of a failed campaign. Wasn't there a Mr. Lee or someone else who worked on the system that got scammed out of money they put into the project?

 

I think I remember that they said they would do do a Kickstarter, but instead did an Indigogo, which caused people to question whether they had a working prototype. Then when they renamed it the Chameleon they said they were going to do a Kickstarter because they claimed they had a working prototype, but they were exposed as frauds, so the Kickstarter never happened.

 

They didn't necessary have to pay anything to Coleco Holdings for the rights to the name. They could have promised a percentage of sales in exchange for the naming rights. And because they never sold anything, they never paid anything to Coleco.

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I would def. be interested in this, but there is no way I can do 200 (for the system) before early November. If it were for the end of the year, then I could pull it off.

 

Sorry if this has already been asked, but I see the delivery date for the system (in the 200 dollar) range is Jun of 2019. So I wonder - if I miss the kickstarter, which seems likely, can I reserve a system at a later date and still be able to get some of this June 2019 batch for 200? Or does the price increase if we don't make it into the kickstarter?

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insertclevernamehere, on 23 Oct 2018 - 4:26 PM, said:snapback.png

Sometimes you have a scammer like Mike Kennedy who take the money and run.

 

I think that sounds like stealing money and running. But silliness aside Kickstarter is better than Indiegogo. You are less likely to lose money and get your item. In fact the last thing I backed came out 3 months early.

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