I don't usually do this on here, but go fuck yourself you clown. Put up or shut up. I'd like some solid evidence or clam up as you're bordering on libel/slander.
You have nothing but bullshit and speculation on his part. Mike, guilty as hell as it looks at this rate, but Piko, no.
NinSega, what is your proof that Piko Interactive have any involvement in this scam? They have been quite honest and upfront with everyone over on AtariAge and on their site (they have a blog section). Their story has not changed depending on what day of the week it is, they have not bounced around the topic and have stated matter of factually where an NDA contract was in place and they could not discuss further.
I have been covering the RETRO Video Game System/Coleco Chameleon for over a year now. I have covered Piko's games for longer than that. I remember when the original crowdfunding campaign was due to start- it was on IndieGoGo. The day before, may have been day of, the campaign to start, Piko backed out due to concerns with something they learned from the team involved in making the console. They stood up, said no, and stepped out rather than continuing on knowing there were problems with that iteration of the console (I cannot say the same for CollectorVision).
Piko joined the project again, as they were prior- just a third party selling games for a console. They posted their thoughts on the Toy Fair unveiling and since then over on AtariAge.
I have yet to see a post anywhere complaining that Piko Interactive never delivered their game. There are posts all over the place from people that bought Jaguar shells from Mike but had nothing but problems (incomplete orders, or not receiving anything at all). Same for backing the Kickstarter for Mike's magazine- people not happy about the lateness in the issues coming.
I personally run a site called Retro Gaming Magazine and sometimes, 3 or 4 a month, I get an e-mail from a mad subscriber to Mike's magazine. I reply with the explanation that they have the wrong retro magazine, give them the proper one and send them on their way. It is a shame as it appears as the console took away so much from the magazine, which was at one time the perceived high watermark for retro gaming publications.
So please, explain what your reasoning is that they are scam artists like RVGS Inc?
Coleco Chameleon, Coleco Holdings and the Real Coleco, because you deserve to know.
Needs one? I'm actually afraid it could have one. Credibility has been lost. I would like it to stop there if you catch my drift. Mike just needs to stop. Just stop right here and move on. We don't need a "brutal ending."Originally Posted by celerystalker
Not even. It's done. No good can come from any further pursuit in this endeavor even if a prototype magically manifested right this second. It just needs to stop for everyone's benefit.
Last edited by TonyTheTiger; 03-01-2016 at 07:24 PM.
At first, I'd have agreed. After two fake Chameleon prototypes, one at a trade show, this has become fraud. If they are leveraging non-disclosure agreements to keep developers from talking legally, they deserve legal repercussions for the intentional use of fraudulent materials in order to gain financial backing and build partnerships.
Obviously it's a Kickstarter (where everything gets suspected of being a scam, despite the fact that usually only the most obvious of scams end up actually being scams) and we don't have much information and it's the internet where everything gets overblown, but I think you guys are overreacting. I realize this is hardly the only site that is defecating itself over this.
Before anybody calls me a plant, know I have my own reservations, despite the fact this is right up my alley (more for the 'chameleon' than the cartridges- we'll have to see just how open this sucker is because I don't have much interest in the steam games and homebrew they have on board right now, I'm more looking at it for the emulation, and not the Retron5 because of their disgusting theft of hard work however high quality of a product they pumped out (and also I have like 5 other devices I could run RetroArch off of) and no ROM support, I have no love for cartridges, I'm just not a very nostalgic person I suppose, I prefer digital myself). I've used this site as a research and lurked it for 5+ years.
The PCBs don't look that similar, to be honest. It's kind of all silicon to me but I still see a few points of divergence- and even one is enough to discredit the hypothesis that it's a capture card. Firstly is the light- why would they even bother with it if it's just a PCB? Secondly is the cartridge- am I supposed to believe it's just resting on the capture card? Third is our white box near the bottom next to the big black chip on the bottom- it stands taller on the prototype. Fourth are the yellow port lookin'-thingies- where are they? Fifthly, I don't know what's near the front there but it's definitely not on the capture card.
You have to remember that people had to go digging through patent archives to find something that resembled it. It wasn't like someone saw it, and thought, "Hey, if that doesn't look like a dang ol' HICAP50BCCTVDVR CAPTURE CARDTM?" Someone reached REALLY hard to find that capture card. And now I'm wondering why they wouldn't just use the SNES Jr. PCB again.
RE: supposed SNES Jr. prototype; that seems like a more interesting story to me, but I still don't buy it yet. Even if it was an SNES board, it would be extremely easy to find and would probably be pretty convenient for use as a power supply and such. We don't even know if there IS a Jr. board in there and we sure as hell don't know if it's JUST a Jr. board. Kennedy said he would sort this out, so we'll let him sort it out. He (or whoever is taking care of the Twitter) also said they would prove the games were running off of their prototype I believe yesterday. Everyone just needs to give them some breathing room. If they don't come through with anything or more bullcrap then we can put the X on them.
Trust, but verify. I'd also like to remind everyone that this is the same internet that craps itself every time a 3DS game gets announced because "OMG the graphics look horribal!!" because they don't understand how resolution scaling works. The same internet that crapped itself when a new Metroid game got confirmed because it wasn't Prime 4. Not because it WAS Prime 4 and it looked horrible, but because it WASN'T Prime 4.
Yeah. They could've announced Dread and Prime fanboys probably would have still whined.
He probably used a capture card because that's probably what he had laying around. I've been sensing an increasing case of raw panic in the shenanigans since the first "prototype" video. Everything makes sense once you imagine a solo non-tech savvy guy putting together whatever he can hours before his homework is due.
On the bright side, while he pissed off a lot of people by lying to them and wasting their time he hasn't actually swindled anyone. If he ends the charade now and doesn't move forward with the Kickstarter at the very least he can bow out without ever having taken a dime.
I'll give the first Indiegogo the benefit of the doubt as a big dream gone sour without any ill intent, meaning he can at least maintain the dignity that would come from cancelling his new Kickstarter plans and not try to take money from people while now knowing for sure that he can't deliver. At this point a Kickstarter would certainly fail but given the recent events it would be a failed swindle. I hope he has the integrity to at least stop at the point of engaging in a bald-faced scam.
Last edited by TonyTheTiger; 03-02-2016 at 02:23 PM.
He isn't scamming anyone, and we don't know if he's lying or wasting anyone's time. He even SAID it was only the power supply and video that weren't finished and that's why the ass end of a SNES was stuck on there. I imagine he said as much if anyone asked him about it at the show.
RE: the PCB size comparisons- PCBs tend to be pretty samey in size and I wouldn't take them seriously.
EDIT: You mean the one with the messy desk? They fired that guy. He was the reason why it was going to cost more than a Wii U and not $150 like it does now. They have multiple people on their team, even if Kennedy isn't "tech savvy". It's not a one man operation. They've been trying at this way too hard for it to be a scam.
This has to be some sort of trolling. New account with 2 posts, both defending some of the most obvious fakes imaginable. PCBs are not kind of "same-y." They have easily identifiable components that have well-defined functions. Trying to enforce ignorance on people won't work. There are engineers here as well as hobbyists. When I look at an arcade pcb I have to fix, I don't have to guess at which one I grabbed off of the shelf, even if they have the same edge connector.
There are so many ways the team could have put this all to rest. Photos of the pcb from multiple angles. Hell, they only left the cart in the shell on the latest one to cover up that there's not even a cartridge slot on that pcb. They are well aware of the criticisms and have chosen not to address them. That's why this is obvious trolling. No one being objective is that dumb.
I'm actually not trolling, and it dismays me that someone would assume I'm trolling for having a difference of opinion (though of course this is the same forum in which someone took an april fool's day joke about a butter monster personally so that's neither here nor there).
They're hardly "some of the most obvious fakes imaginable". This thing is much further along than, say, the Phantom.
PCBs are VERY same-y. They're silicon with random pillars and bumps on the top. But regardless, I was referring to size, which is all the conspiracists had to go off of.
You don't know there's not a cartridge slot.
Just wait. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I'm not even standing by what I'm saying very firmly here.
'just wait' - said the scameleon team NEVER
SoCalMike has a new alt.
If nothing else, there's a similar lack of understanding of electronics. The only way those posts are legit are if they are written by someone who not only has no idea what they're looking at with a pcb, but has chosen not to look any deeper as well. If it's trolling, it's silly and transparent. If it's honest, it's sad. There is literally nothing random about a printed circuit board.
Man, you genius. You complete genius. You did a good job there, implying I'm a plant. That was really original of you. Your mom must be so proud, I'm actually proud by proxy already. You're a genuine credit to the race.
You're right about one thing- I don't know much about PCBs, but I know enough to say the resemblance isn't enough to jump to conclusions.
Your point?
Yeah, this will probably be my last post because I had underestimated just how stoogey this board actually was. Later.
You don't know enough to sat that. Every single component on every pcb is specific in both placement and function. The capacitors are holding charge to keep specific nearby components functioning properly. The resistors are regulating the flow of electricity to keep the current within acceptable range. Edge connectors exist to allow connection to other components, and so on. A console pcb and a capture card perform far too different functions to share that many components and placement. It's not jumping to a conclusion in this case. It's a factual observation that the pcb in that shell is in no way a console pcb.
The burden of proof on a project like this is on the development team trying to use these fakes to build funding and business partnerships, and it would be the simplest thing in the world for them to take five minutes and shoot photos of the functioning prototype from multiple angles and upload them. It would take literally less than five minutes to shut the whole world up. They don't because they can't. They can't deny that the new prototype contains a capture card. They can't deny that the toy fair unit was a Super Nintendo, because that's what they are. It's not up for debate, so they don't debate it. They delete, skirt the issue, and say, "just wait, it's going to be awesome."
What would have been awesome would have been not using fraudulent materials to try and build a business. People would have waited. People wanted to believe, and to support this project. The backlash is so vehement because of the flippant disregard for the intelligence of the potential backers to insultingly think that none of us were going to recognize the problems with the hardware. Retro gaming enthusiasts repair broken hardware. We rebuild arcade pcbs and cabinets. We flash roms to replace corrupted ones, we remove lockout chips, and we build gaming PCs. This tech isn't a mystery. It's stuff people recognize because they are familiar with it. Your lack of familiarity does not make them wrong. You're choosing to ignore it because you don't understand it or just so badly want it to all be real that you're ostensibly closing your eyes, putting your hands over your ears, and singing the national anthem.
Which nation?
I like to think it's Strong-badia. I haven't watched Homestar Runner in ages. Come toooo the place where tropical breezes bloooooow...
I don't know anymore than anyone else posting on this, none of us were there, but I am currently interviewing John Carlsen and will have the interview available sooner than later. I brought up the cost of the system originally, the infamous YouTube video, etc and well, it is not what we were led to believe. Take that as you will because at the end of the day, it is the word of each against the other. The point is, Mr. Carlsen breaks his silence soon.
Coleco Chameleon, Coleco Holdings and the Real Coleco, because you deserve to know.
Good for him I'd like to hear more. All said what is out there is damning, and will be hard to bounce back off of for those already set in their minds about it. But say for argument they go ahead with it, somehow get the funding, get this to market not so much just online but at all those 2nd hand and some new gaming item shops around the US and beyond, they'd probably do fine if and only if it's cheap and the games are too (I'm talking like $20-30 carts) which ooze quality.
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