MrBeefy Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 (edited) So I didn't back the cab with Bob's Rainbow Brite game like I thought about. However I haven't heard any news recently. Anybody know what is going on? I would like to get Bob's game. Edited February 14, 2019 by MrBeefy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 It looks like the Kickstarter shipped recently. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/903316019/coleco-evolved-mini-arcades/comments Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPR Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 Yeah, they shipped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 +1. I would still like to buy one if available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 Now that these are shipping, I really hope that this doesn't mean that dickhead Cardillo has spare time on his hands to start in on the ColecoVision community again. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColecoJoe Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 Now that these are shipping, I really hope that this doesn't mean that dickhead Cardillo has spare time on his hands to start in on the ColecoVision community again. I have a feeling he's done with retro ... it was the flavor of the month for him. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 I have a feeling he's done with retro ... it was the flavor of the month for him. I sincerely hope so. And if that is the case I wish he would release the Coleco and ColecoVision trademarks. Surely he must realise by now that there's no making any profit of significance from them. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColecoJoe Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 I sincerely hope so. And if that is the case I wish he would release the Coleco and ColecoVision trademarks. Surely he must realise by now that there's no making any profit of significance from them. Does he even have that kind of power? I think the company he works for owns the IP ... he's just probably an investor face type of guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 I could be wrong, but he certainly acts like he has at least a partial stake in the Coleco part of the Dormitus Brands empire. He calls himself a Partner. Of course, he also calls himself the CEO and Owner of Castle Windows for the past 24 years, or since he was 18 or so. I think he's a big picture kind of guy. I just watched five minutes of him shouting and swearing in his big movie, so maybe I'm a little biased. Dude is a bit of a dilettante. Perhaps he should work his way through the other names. Underalls could use the Cardillo touch. Underalls is a women's activewear brand. Relaunched in October 2018, the company is best known for its patent pending leggings with built-in underwear in two models: The Original and The Newbie. Underalls is based in New York City and retails its products via underalls.com. The company is committed to sustainability, with almost every pair of Underalls being made from recycled plastic bottles. In addition to recycled plastic bottles, CC could make some of their products with recycled mini-arcades, cartridge shells, and bootleg GI Joe toys. You know, for kids. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBeefy Posted February 15, 2019 Author Share Posted February 15, 2019 I wouldn't mind getting the RB one if it ever hits store shelves. Anyone cracked one open to see what's inside yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 I wouldn't mind getting the RB one if it ever hits store shelves. Anyone cracked one open to see what's inside yet?A couple of mini-RB puppets on strings! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imstarryeyed Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 According to tracking both of my units just left Los Angeles on their way to Texas. I will post a picture unless someone beats me to it first. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opcode Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 My guess that the whole point behind the minicades had more to do with them finally getting some actual use of the Coleco and ColecoVision trademarks. Noticed that they used ColecoVision with the minicades? Makes no sense other than being a specimen for them, so they can't be contested in court. Looks like we really scared them... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opcode Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 Candidly speaking, Cardillo destabilized the brand and community for good. It is a dead brand while they hold it, and I feel very uneasy investing more on something that I have no control and can be potentially hostile towards me. And the fact it could change hands to someone or a group that is even more hostile don't make me any more comfortable. I believe that is happening to all Atari era brands. Thus OMNI ASAP for me. It was good while it lasted. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 Prior to this, they were selling low-tech plug and play retro football games. I feel like it's been irrelevant since the real days of the colecovision. By overplaying his weak hand, Cardillo merely exposed what a weak position they're in. Their advanced beginner hobby type work reminds me of Cardillo's "Jersey Mint Records" http://jerseymintrecords.com What the hell is this supposed to mean, "fully functioning?" "The Jersey Mint is a fully functioning independent record label with artist whose music ranges from Pop, R&B, Hip Hop and Dance." It's as if Castle Windows marketed themselves as "legitimate businessmen." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted February 18, 2019 Share Posted February 18, 2019 (edited) The coleco brand never had much value even in the 1980s; that's why nobody bought it during their bankruptcy sale. Technically, Hasbro aquired the coleco brand name along with the toy lines they bought; did they actually use the name? And it's not even known what became of the colecovision ip. Coleco's videogames (and table tops) required additional licensing which were generally more valuable than the coleco name. Would you buy something just because it said Atari (some would); more would likely buy something that played Asteroids, Centipede, or Missile Command. And that's the difference between Coleco/RWB and others. Regardless of the brand value Coleco/RWB has no video game IP. Wouldn't these minicades be more practical as handhelds. Would it sell less if it didn't have the old tabletop form factor? Edited February 18, 2019 by mr_me 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opcode Posted February 18, 2019 Share Posted February 18, 2019 I would say, probably irrelevant at this point. They may release some more to leverage the tooling, but I guess it is all too little money for someone who was talking about 20,000 units on ToysRUs alone. Better keep doing “movies” and “rap” while dad pay the bills. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imstarryeyed Posted February 20, 2019 Share Posted February 20, 2019 (edited) OK I am going to try to do an objective review regardless of my opinions of the ownership of the current brand holder... =-=-=- Ok as promised, I just got my Minicades in via FedEx this morning and decided to take a few pix and share my opinion on them. At this time I am not doing a review of the actual game but mostly of the packaging and build of the units. The packaging was nice but pretty much the same on all sides except the back so I took some pics to show the most important sides. The boxes have a matte finish and not a shiny one, given the colors and designs they look ok, but somewhat dull. However that is just a matter of taste. The size of the units is about the size of the original units but I do not have one near me to take a side by side compared to the original molds. I do however like the look of these units very much. The weight is surprisingly heavy, I was expecting a really light unit but these feel heavy like an original unit with the batteries installed. The plastics do not feel or look cheap and have a grain to the plastic and is not the non matte as the original but this is not a problem and does not take away from the overall appeal. The units are rechargeable and come with a charge right out of the box as well as a mini USB cable. The artwork is quite attractive and the colors chosen for the cabs and artwork fit spot on to the unit, I am quite happy with it. The buttons and switches have a solid feel to them and don't feel loose or cheap. The joystick has a very short throw and feels kind of unpleasant to use, but it does function well and moves the character on the screen without any problems. The original joystick on the vintage units had too much of a mashy throw and these ones have not enough in my opinion. The manuals are done in color and appear to be made ok but often come bent or mashed, something the factory did no doubt. I would have liked the manuals to be put into a vinyl zip lock bag to keep it from being treated so badly. The front of the unit has a little switch next to the headphone jack. The headphone jack works well and serves the purpose and the switch next to it turns on and off the sound for both the headphone jack and the built in speaker. The volume is set to a good level and there does not appear to be any way to raise or lower it like I would expect. The screen looks good and bright and does not have problems or missing lines or pixels and has a good back light that works well for the units. The LEDs indicate the power being on and the other one I assume is a charging light, but I have not tried charging it yet so I may be wrong. The games themselves I only played for maybe 2 minutes but I have to say Bob "PacManPlus" from our own 7800 board here did a great job on Rainbow Brite, he really made a great looking Legend of Zelda clone, I only wish he could port it to the 7800 cart format but can't due to licensing issues. So this appears to be the only way to play his game, which I am ok with that. The Robotech game does appear to be just the GBA game without any modifications, even down to including the "linking" options via gameboy advance cable and NO it does not support it and just gives a communication error if you try it. The one player game works well and the 4 buttons on the unit are to control the robot modes and work well. I think I like the Rainbow Brite one a lot and feels like a real game made for this, but I am a fan of Robotech and the game, while lazy put on the system, is still a fun game and plays well on this unit. I am happy to own both of them and do not regret this purchase even a little bit. I hope this mini review is helpful to you.. Edited February 20, 2019 by imstarryeyed 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serguei2 Posted February 20, 2019 Share Posted February 20, 2019 (edited) So they put a Gameboy Advance game Robotech in the Minicade. What a shame. Did they keep ''Licensed by Nintendo'' or they removed it? Edited February 20, 2019 by Serguei2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted February 20, 2019 Share Posted February 20, 2019 They certainly look retro/vintage, I'll give them that. If I liked the form factor more, I'd get one and convert it so it played my favorite games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imstarryeyed Posted February 20, 2019 Share Posted February 20, 2019 (edited) ... Did they keep ''Licensed by Nintendo'' or they removed it? I booted up again and did not see any Nintendo Logo just the Harmony Gold splashscreen with Robotech.com address.. The game does black screen for a few seconds on bootup so my guess is that they blackened the screen to hide the Licensed by Nintendo bit. There was one thing I forgot to mention and that is that both of my units have something small rattling in the unit, it sounds like a tiny piece of plastic possibly extra from manufacturing but definitely something. They said they had a manufacturing problem and had to fix some and send them out, not sure what the problem was but they either forgot about removing it or introduced it when they did the fix.. I will have to remove whatever is in there one day when I feel like opening them. They were not packed well in the shipping box, imagine a box that just barely fits both of those units boxed with no room left for packing material, I was just lucky the FedEx delivery person did not feel like playing kickball with the box or these would have arrived in terrible shape. They do feel good enough to use for modding and since its a horizontal screen would work well for many applications. Edited February 20, 2019 by imstarryeyed 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColecoJoe Posted February 20, 2019 Share Posted February 20, 2019 Man my eyes can't handle a screen that small. Are you actually gonna play these things or just display? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick3092 Posted February 21, 2019 Share Posted February 21, 2019 (edited) If all they did was pirate the Robotech GBA game, it would be spectacular if someone could prove it and Nintendo got wind of them selling a GBA clone/emulator. They do not hesitate to take legal action on anything even remotely approaching their property. Edit: Specifically anything that would infringe upon a proprietary BIOS, which I believe is generally required for GBA. But I could be wrong. Edited February 21, 2019 by nick3092 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swami Posted February 21, 2019 Share Posted February 21, 2019 It looks like Harmony Gold is selling the RoboTech mini arcade to the public at this site: https://robotech.com/store/product/coleco-robotech-macross-saga-mini-arcade-game I don't know what became of the Rainbow Brite one. It would not surprise me if it was discontinued, since the Robotech one outsold the RB one by, like, 5 to 1 on the kickstarter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiLic0ne t0aD Posted February 21, 2019 Share Posted February 21, 2019 It's pretty funny they threw "ColecoVision" on the front of the manual, right under the Coleco logo. I get that they own the rights to use both of those words or whatever, but it seems like they'll just slap "ColecoVision" on anything that they put out at this point. Pretty silly.. :/ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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