RIP RetroVGS/Coleco Chameleon: Retro Console Epic Disaster (2015-2016)

[Tanooki]

They made that Coleco Head to Head plug and play system that nobody remembers or cares about. Does that count?

http://www.amazon.com/Coleco-60501-Head-Video-System/dp/B000VS6G7W

I remember seeing it at Walgreens and even when cleared out for like $10 I thought it wasn't worth it. Before they did this around the same time or a little before partnered with Sega to do a handheld that ran SMS and Game Gear games on it, the core is super similar to the one ATGames uses for their SMS/GG released handheld (and tv plug n play) does too. Maybe Sega owned the emulator and just gave it to ATGames since it's not flawed like their Firecore Genesis emulator.

I did a peek, came out back in 2006: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleco_Sonic and amazon helps too with reviews --> http://www.amazon.com/Coleco-Sonic-Handheld-Game/dp/B000IO6LEC

I looked at game lists and the Coleco has 20, the ATGames has 30, but they both share the same 20 games and they behave 100% the same, so it appears maybe ATGames took the old core from Sega and added 10 more games to it, good stuff like Ristar for instance. Coleco at least in the last 10 years did put out one thing worthwhile. :)

[badinsults]

You have to remember that the Coleco branded company that put out those units is not the same as the Coleco brand they are using now. The "Coleco" brand was purchased by some random guy back in November, and he is the one putting the funding behind this. Said person has no prior experience in the video game industry, but he has apparently put out a couple of rap albums.

The Retro VGS people have a lot to prove if they want this thing to be successful. They have burned so many bridges amongst the target audience that I think it is unlikely that it will be possible.

[FieryReign]

Oh shit. Coleco is basically one lame-ass white rapper? J Fontaine? Never heard of em.

Why does every rapper think they can be an entrepreneur without even making a name for themselves or payin any dues first?

This shit ain't happenin.

[Emperor Megas]

Oh shit. Coleco is basically one lame-ass white rapper? J Fontaine?

I almost spit coffee across the screen! THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME! LOL

[Tanooki]

Holy c(rap). Ugh... this I didn't know about the new owner only from November. Thought they might have had it for awhile as Coleco has been lingering in hell ever since Cabbage Patch Kids kind of went towards just being an irrelevant random kids toy from the crack house binge buying frenzy of the 80s they had. So much for the hopes they had some clue what to do given that decent Sega handheld I owned they made as I enjoyed that thing. Hopefully the guys music ability translates in a media/sellability experience thing needed to drive this new old style console or they're boned.

[Gameguy]

You have to remember that the Coleco branded company that put out those units is not the same as the Coleco brand they are using now. The "Coleco" brand was purchased by some random guy back in November, and he is the one putting the funding behind this. Said person has no prior experience in the video game industry, but he has apparently put out a couple of rap albums.
That doesn't help things, the name was already worthless with the prior owner unless you're talking about anything made back in the 80's. That's all people care about when hearing about Coleco, it's the same with the Atari name now.


Oh shit. Coleco is basically one lame-ass white rapper? J Fontaine? Never heard of em.

Why does every rapper think they can be an entrepreneur without even making a name for themselves or payin any dues first?

This shit ain't happenin.
It actually gets better if you look into it further. There's a music group that goes by the name ColeCo, and it's frequently written as Coleco. One of their albums is titled "Thrillhouse Forever".

http://nuwavepony.com/2013/09/06/coleco-thrillhouse-forever-ep-janet-jackson-brandy-kelly-price-and-deborah-cox/

Of course when we hear Thrillhouse we all think of something else. There's no way to look at this Coleco branding without lols.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPsdxR0zzNE

[Gentlegamer]

It keeps getting funnier!

[Az]

Oh shit. Coleco is basically one lame-ass white rapper?

If he was black we should take this Coleco product or his music more seriously?

[stardust4ever]

Oh shit. Coleco is basically one lame-ass white rapper? J Fontaine? Never heard of em.

Why does every rapper think they can be an entrepreneur without even making a name for themselves or payin any dues first?

This shit ain't happenin.They've got so much money they don't know what to do with, so they make bad investments that no venture capitalist on Earth would back. :pimp:

[Greg2600]

You have to remember that the Coleco branded company that put out those units is not the same as the Coleco brand they are using now. The "Coleco" brand was purchased by some random guy back in November, and he is the one putting the funding behind this. Said person has no prior experience in the video game industry, but he has apparently put out a couple of rap albums.

The Retro VGS people have a lot to prove if they want this thing to be successful. They have burned so many bridges amongst the target audience that I think it is unlikely that it will be possible.

:-/ Nice try. I suppose ColeCo is a musician but has nothing to do with this.

As has been the case for at least a decade, Coleco is owned by River Brands West through it's Coleco Holdings LLC subsidiary in Chicago. Mark Thomann of River Brands has already been interviewed about the Chameleon.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN3s1ogBm80

It's the same group that licensed the At Games console, as well as reproduction Coleco hand helds. There was no change in ownership.

[Tanooki]

So now I get two stories. If the Coleco holdings now is the one from around 2005~ then the Coleco handheld I had then really is the same one likely that they've slowly off and on re-released through the ATGames model with the 10 added games to its stock I have in my drawer of my desk here. Perhaps someone could get an interview with them again and ask why the hell they don't fix their Genesis emulator so the game saving works and the sound isn't so off key in some games. I'd love to see that one answered.

He's talking of a coleco flashback 2.0, probably too much to hope it would have a cart slot on it. I'd buy that. I used to emulate the hell out of that console in the mid 90s and it has some fun stuff coleco and third parties made too (of which those aren't all on the box now.)

[badinsults]

:-/ Nice try. I suppose ColeCo is a musician but has nothing to do with this.

As has been the case for at least a decade, Coleco is owned by River Brands West through it's Coleco Holdings LLC subsidiary in Chicago. Mark Thomann of River Brands has already been interviewed about the Chameleon.



It's the same group that licensed the At Games console, as well as reproduction Coleco hand helds. There was no change in ownership.


Alrighty then.

http://www.paramuspost.com/article.php/20151116193122623

[Bojay1997]

Alrighty then.

http://www.paramuspost.com/article.php/20151116193122623

In fairness, he is a "home improvement titan".

[stardust4ever]

Alrighty then.

http://www.paramuspost.com/article.php/20151116193122623

One comment posted from one month ago:



Portnoyd • a month ago

Hope he likes losing money when the RetroVGS tanks.
:sob:

[Gentlegamer]

Choo choo!

http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=33018&d=1455408134

[stardust4ever]

Hi Gentlegamer. I've been following the thread over on AtariAge.

For those not in the know, Mike showed up at the Toy Fair in New york, with his "prototype" running SNES homebrew games. After careful scrutiny, it was determined that the prototype cartrdige in the slot was an SNES flash cart, and the console had naught more than an SNES mini crammed inside it. Photo/Video evidence provided by Mike himself showed a cartridge slot that closely matched that of the SNES, that the system was being played with "hard wired" SNES controllers, and was powered by a cheap knockoff 3-in-1 power supply and a Nitnendo style AV cable, with similar spacing that matches the back of an SNES Mini.

When questioned on Facebook, Mike stated that he had an FPGA core inside simulating the SNES code. That is a blatant lie as the actual hardware was determined with 98% certainty by the AtariAge community, to be an SNES Mini running inside the Jag shell. Mike and Company have actually designed nothing themselves: an SNES console form Nintendo, a shell from the Atari Jaguar, and a clone Wii-U controller that doesn't currently work with anything...:beaten:

[Steven]

This whole train wreck has been uncomfortable to follow.

[Tupin]

Oh wow. What happened to all those cardboard circuit designs?

[Tanooki]

Hmm makes you almost want to sue someone for fraud and wide scam con man games with peoples time, money and efforts to help if all he can do is essentially wedge the SNES-2 inside a Jag shell he paid a lot for. I'd say neuter him, but it's probably too late to stop that from being any good.

[buzz_n64]

Hi Gentlegamer. I've been following the thread over on AtariAge.

For those not in the know, Mike showed up at the Toy Fair in New york, with his "prototype" running SNES homebrew games. After careful scrutiny, it was determined that the prototype cartrdige in the slot was an SNES flash cart, and the console had naught more than an SNES mini crammed inside it. Photo/Video evidence provided by Mike himself showed a cartridge slot that closely matched that of the SNES, that the system was being played with "hard wired" SNES controllers, and was powered by a cheap knockoff 3-in-1 power supply and a Nitnendo style AV cable, with similar spacing that matches the back of an SNES Mini.

When questioned on Facebook, Mike stated that he had an FPGA core inside simulating the SNES code. That is a blatant lie as the actual hardware was determined with 98% certainty by the AtariAge community, to be an SNES Mini running inside the Jag shell. Mike and Company have actually designed nothing themselves: an SNES console form Nintendo, a shell from the Atari Jaguar, and a clone Wii-U controller that doesn't currently work with anything...:beaten:

Oh wow! This keeps getting better and better! This is going to go down as the most infamous laughable game console project of all time.

[Niku-Sama]

What kind of train do you think this would be?
Steam? Diesel electric? MagLev?

[Steven]

In other news I have yet to receive the next issue of Retro and it's been like a 6 month delay between issues. This is (was?) Mike's other baby. It crashed pretty hard, sad to say :( I funded it two years and doubt there will be a third year at the rate they're going...

[stardust4ever]

What kind of train do you think this would be?
Steam? Diesel electric? MagLev?
Steam Locomotive, of course. The others aren't "retro" enough!

[Greg2600]

I think had they simply been demo-ing the games, whether with an SD2SNES or later Piko Interactive's SNES pcb, would have been fine. However, fraud aside, how do you show up to Toy Fair with something so incomplete? This is a "proof of concept" that in normal product development would not make it out passed the initial pitch meetings. Pretty gosh darn embarrassing. I'm a retail buyer, I walk up, and your controller can't even work with your device? We all know why.

Supposedly ALL will be revealed with the Kickstarter in 2 weeks (which ought to be fun)! Early bird I think is a console with a game or two for $135.

PS: Supposedly the double issue of RETRO is shipping as we speak, although that was a week or so ago that I read it, and still haven't gotten mine.

[badinsults]

They basically showed off three commercial SNES games that Piko has managed to get a license for. Two of those games were even commercially released back in the day (the other, Apocalypse II, was leaked on the Internet over a decade ago)! I'm willing to bet they set their kickstarter amount to something ridiculously low (like $100,000). That will be low enough that enough suckers buy into it and it succeeds. Even pointing out that they basically showed off a SNES inside of a Jaguar shell is not enough to discourage the true believers.

[Tanooki]

What kind of train do you think this would be?
Steam? Diesel electric? MagLev?

Bullet train, as in but the... or to the skull.

[Emperor Megas]

This is just SO outstanding!

[Steven]

PS: Supposedly the double issue of RETRO is shipping as we speak, although that was a week or so ago that I read it, and still haven't gotten mine.

Same here; I also read that and haven't received anything yet. The whole thing has been horribly mismanaged and honestly, the magazine is marginal at best. It's not what I expected when I pledged to support it on KS. If there even is a third year I am not giving them another penny. It shouldn't take this long to make a 72 page magazine.

[Daltone]

So... At the moment this is a SNES wedged inside a Jaguar shell.

What is it supposed to be, hardware wise? I've read through this thread, through what I guess is the website and I am still not clear. Is it a SNES with some soured up components? The website says 'play classics and new', which implies it will play (some?) old stuff?

[bb_hood]

They should just make new SNES games and we should all just pretend its a new system

[stardust4ever]

Same here; I also read that and haven't received anything yet. The whole thing has been horribly mismanaged and honestly, the magazine is marginal at best. It's not what I expected when I pledged to support it on KS. If there even is a third year I am not giving them another penny. It shouldn't take this long to make a 72 page magazine.

Yeah I paid for six issues in year 2, recieved a total of 3 mags in all of 2015. Honestly, I hope they can get something out on paper with all the commotion about RVGS. Should they write an article covering their own Chameleon scandal, it will be exactly the kind of gloating self-praise I would expect from them at this point. A last trophy of good will to their dying fanbase that cannot be posthumously retracted due to it's permanence as print media. And why wouldn't they make out a 2-page spread advertising the Chameleon? Better yet all 72 pages? That's free advertising! LOL

[Steve W]

I'm willing to bet they set their kickstarter amount to something ridiculously low (like $100,000). That will be low enough that enough suckers buy into it and it succeeds. Even pointing out that they basically showed off a SNES inside of a Jaguar shell is not enough to discourage the true believers.

Are there any true believers left? I've never heard of any positive comments from anyone about this machine. People do nothing but crap on it, and for obviously good reasons. I think all of the true believers are people who are actually working on the damn thing. I don't think anybody in their right mind wants to financially back this disaster. Considering that much more flexible and well-rounded machines like the Ouya have tanked, I'd be shocked if this thing ever gets decent funding and even more shocked if it really makes it to market.

[TonyTheTiger]

When the first campaign collapsed I was more than willing to give the benefit of the doubt that the team was just in way over their heads. But to watch this second go-round engage in such shenanigans, it now looks like straight up deliberate deception. It's like the goal now is to lie their way to a successful Kickstarter in order to salvage their reputation. My advice to Mike Kennedy would be to just get out now. Close shop, save as much face as there is to save, and avoid the sunk cost fallacy by accepting that any further pursuit of this project is throwing good money/reputation after bad. I said it before but I'm actually more worried about the crowdfunding campaign succeeding, as unlikely as that is. Right now Mike Kennedy hasn't actually taken a dime from anyone which gives him the opportunity to make a clean break. Once he's actually holding people's money, it gets a lot messier. It seems like the mindset is "if only I had $$$ I could make this come true" but it's become plainly obvious that these guys are not equipped for this undertaking and the ensuing quagmire once money changes hands will only make matters worse. And I don't want to see this get any worse for anyone involved, not backers, not Mike Kennedy, not anyone. There's really no shame in bailing right now. It's the sensible and ethical thing to do.

[Steven]

When the first campaign collapsed I was more than willing to give the benefit of the doubt that the team was just in way over their heads. But to watch this second go-round engage in such shenanigans, it now looks like straight up deliberate deception. It's like the goal now is to lie their way to a successful Kickstarter in order to salvage their reputation. My advice to Mike Kennedy would be to just get out now. Close shop, save as much face as there is to save, and avoid the sunk cost fallacy by accepting that any further pursuit of this project is throwing good money/reputation after bad. I said it before but I'm actually more worried about the crowdfunding campaign succeeding, as unlikely as that is. Right now Mike Kennedy hasn't actually taken a dime from anyone which gives him the opportunity to make a clean break. Once he's actually holding people's money, it gets a lot messier. It seems like the mindset is "if only I had $$$ I could make this come true" but it's become plainly obvious that these guys are not equipped for this undertaking and the ensuing quagmire once money changes hands will only make matters worse. And I don't want to see this get any worse for anyone involved, not backers, not Mike Kennedy, not anyone. There's really no shame in bailing right now. It's the sensible and ethical thing to do.

Agreed. Unfortunately Mike is too caught up and hell bent on seeing this through to the very bitter end. I don't see this ending well for anyone involved. It's a train wreck you can't help but gawk at.

[badinsults]

Are there any true believers left? I've never heard of any positive comments from anyone about this machine. People do nothing but crap on it, and for obviously good reasons. I think all of the true believers are people who are actually working on the damn thing. I don't think anybody in their right mind wants to financially back this disaster. Considering that much more flexible and well-rounded machines like the Ouya have tanked, I'd be shocked if this thing ever gets decent funding and even more shocked if it really makes it to market.

If you go to their Facebook page, there are pleny of people who still believe. Of course, it is very slanted since they have deleted all of the posts that point out that they are showing off a SNES in a Jaguar shell.

[Steven]

If you go to their Facebook page, there are pleny of people who still believe. Of course, it is very slanted since they have deleted all of the posts that point out that they are showing off a SNES in a Jaguar shell.

It's one thing to like and comment on FB, it's another to plop down 150 bucks or so. We'll see what kind of true support they have in two weeks.

[JSoup]

If you go to their Facebook page, there are pleny of people who still believe.

Facebook?
You mean that place where millions of people click like on anything and everything and then forget about it the next second?

[Tanooki]

I like your retort. >:]

[triverse]

I am new as far as posting here but I have been a member for a fair bit and a lurker from time to time. I am one the first people to call B.S. on the RETRO Video Game System/Coleco Chameleon (going back to February of 2015). I cover this thing on my site, Retro Gaming Magazine. I wish it was a tale of happiness and great fulfilled promises but all it has been so far is a trail of broken promises and swerves at every opportunity.

All they had to do was be honest. Now one full year into covering this thing and they are still incapable of just telling the truth.

[stardust4ever]

I am new as far as posting here but I have been a member for a fair bit and a lurker from time to time. I am one the first people to call B.S. on the RETRO Video Game System/Coleco Chameleon (going back to February of 2015). I cover this thing on my site, Retro Gaming Magazine. I wish it was a tale of happiness and great fulfilled promises but all it has been so far is a trail of broken promises and swerves at every opportunity.

All they had to do was be honest. Now one full year into covering this thing and they are still incapable of just telling the truth.

Thanks Triverse. This was discussed over at Atariage, but it appears to me they are releasing a proprietary SNES clone with custom form factor. There is also talk of "16-bit ports" of the Colecovision ad Intellivision games. It's telling. If they do simply release a proprietary SNES clone, for $150 retail, well that is highway robbery. It would be trivial to port any games over to SNES, and $150 for a clone, it had better be HD or give us something extra to make it worth the purchase price. If it's just like a Super Retro Trio or Retro Duo or something with custom cart port, that would be sad.

Feel free to join the party at AA. 250 combined pages and growing. Bring your own :popcorn:

Chameleon thread [current]:
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/247145-coleco-chameleon-hardware-speculations/

RVGS thread [locked]:
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/235430-how-has-this-not-been-posted-yet-retro-vgs/

[Tanooki]

It wouldn't be sad it would be flipping hilarious after all the lies and blown smoke if they just didn't even bother to re-invent the wheel, just stole it off the mobile home out back they took up shop in to act like players.

RGM familiar with that site and you have been kind of the open minded at least in news posts and fair with these clowns. I've long wanted to give some benefit of the doubt but the more stupid crap they show and dodge talking about it's basically impossible to be fair anymore unless you're just blind, naive, or like being robbed for sport.

Also a post on your site by a mod off a story recently from the show said something like it would be great to see all these spread out stories put into one article to expose the mess, AA has it all in that set of threads linked above, but it would take time to read. The thing is it's an old school forum like this, but that also means it has the most competent old school types into this who can sniff out a rat and not just that, but prove or likely prove the lie too with their own tech expertise. From what i read there, off and on in bursts, I can't see why or how Coleco has got wrangled into this crap let alone continue to support it as it would damage their label if anything.

[triverse]

Thank you, Stardust, for the links. I am aware of the threads on AtariAge, I am "triverse" there too (in fact, most forums if you see "triverse" posting, it is me). I am the guy that was the recipient of one of Mike's longest posts, around 1,000 words, in that locked thread. After he posted that, I did rib him a bit with some replies but I basically stopped writing about his console effort for a bit since he was obviously taking my criticism personally.

For those that missed it, here is the massive comment:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/235430-how-has-this-not-been-posted-yet-retro-vgs/page-196#entry3399140

I would like to stress one simple fact. In all of the content I have made available about the RVGS/Coleco Chameleon, Mike Kennedy has requested one single edit which was in my first article (removing mention of Konami, Capcom, Sega, Bandai Namco and John Romero "working on games" for the RVGS). I mean, in the interview I did with them (over 14,000 words total- I spent over 20 hours transcribing it) Mike requested many things removed (things that are still not public and I won't make them public because I was asked not to).

I don't wish ill will on anyone. I am not on a witch hunt, just a hunt for the truth here.

[Tanooki]

The truth is out there. (X-Files) ;). **queue music**

[stardust4ever]

Thank you, Stardust, for the links. I am aware of the threads on AtariAge, I am "triverse" there too (in fact, most forums if you see "triverse" posting, it is me). I am the guy that was the recipient of one of Mike's longest posts, around 1,000 words, in that locked thread. After he posted that, I did rib him a bit with some replies but I basically stopped writing about his console effort for a bit since he was obviously taking my criticism personally.
Sorry if my post wasn't clear. I was directing comment at you in the first half of the post, and directing the rest of Digitpress or anyone who wanted to sift through 6000+ comments in the two massive AA threads in the second half of the post.


For those that missed it, here is the massive comment:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/235430-how-has-this-not-been-posted-yet-retro-vgs/page-196#entry3399140

I would like to stress one simple fact. In all of the content I have made available about the RVGS/Coleco Chameleon, Mike Kennedy has requested one single edit which was in my first article (removing mention of Konami, Capcom, Sega, Bandai Namco and John Romero "working on games" for the RVGS). I mean, in the interview I did with them (over 14,000 words total- I spent over 20 hours transcribing it) Mike requested many things removed (things that are still not public and I won't make them public because I was asked not to).

I don't wish ill will on anyone. I am not on a witch hunt, just a hunt for the truth here.Yeah I remember that post. Classic open-mouth-insert-foot moment for Mike Kennedy as usual. I imagine much of the things he told you were in the midst of public interviews which you conducted with full intention of sharing publicly. Mike spouted some things that harmed his reputation during the "public" interview, then later wished to retract his statements and exact words by requesting they be stricken from the record.

Um, sorry, but the internet does not work that way. Once something is out there, it is out there, and even if you gave into his wishes to remove or edit publicly available content, someone likely would have already saved a local copy to their hard drive (either by text or screenshot) and reposted the content in a forum somewhere. Just like the countless times people have screengrabbed Facebook comments to preserve them before Mike and his posse started hitting the delete key.

Lastly, I am kind of thankful for the AtariAge policy of one hour time limits for editing posts (at least for non-subscribers), or posts such as post #4899 by Parrothead (aka Mike Kennedy) would in all likelyhood be self-censored after he slept on it a bit. Mike name dropped all of those developers like they were on board, when in fact any real agreements or deals, if they existed at such early stage, would likely have an NDA clause signed by both parties.

Triverse, you went to great lengths to conduct unbiased interviews with Mike Kennedy, and much of the exposé incidents that resulted were based on fact checking of words or phrases that came out of his own mouth during the interviews. Journalism should never be censored IMO, unless statements or remarks are a threat to national security or the welfare of persons involved.

[TonyTheTiger]

I don't sense any malice or greed here. This reeks of pure desperation. I wouldn't be surprised if Mike Kennedy had many sleepless nights leading up to the Toy Fair before cramming a Super Nintendo inside his shell and praying nobody called him on it. It's like he's trying to fake it til you make it, figuring that if the crowdfunding succeeds he can then pay people to produce all the shit that he so far pretended already exists. What I hope he realizes soon is that any attempt to play catch up only digs him deeper. If he won't stop then I hope the Kickstarter fails for his benefit because I don't want to see what happens when he's holding a quarter of a million dollars of other people's money.

[badinsults]

If they were smart, they would cancel their kickstarter now to avoid embarrassment. I still think they will proceed, though, hoping there are enough suckers out there that will overlook all the problems they have had during the past year.

[TonyTheTiger]

But what happens then? That's what baffles me. What do they expect to accomplish if by some miracle the Kickstarter funds?

After a year of Three Stooges caliber tomfoolery the best they can do is play Emperor's New Clothes and demo SNES games running on an SNES while expecting us to believe there's a mysterious custom FPGA core doing all the work. This would be silly enough even if we couldn't see the ass end of a Super Nintendo sticking out of the back. Clark Kent puts more effort into his disguise. Even rudimentary modification could have hidden it better which makes me think this was done the night before. Which also makes me think there is no "hardware guy."

Even if he isn't deliberately bamboozling anyone, this is not someone who is capable of managing such a project. So what happens when this funds? The likeliest scenario is Mike Kennedy hires some people to start from scratch and mismanagement plus unforseen challenges ultimately causes the money to dry up halfway through. Does he really think it's all smooth sailing after the Kickstarter?

[stardust4ever]

This Pat and Ian podcast was posted on the AtariAge thread. Anyone in doubt of why contributing to the upcoming kickstarter is a bad idea needs to watch this...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deOe1y2arJk

[Tanooki]

Do we really have to watch pat, that guy has far more issues than Mike ever would in his head. I'm sure we could get an abridged version that isn't a half hour of self aggrandizing blathering.

[stardust4ever]

Do we really have to watch pat, that guy has far more issues than Mike ever would in his head. I'm sure we could get an abridged version that isn't a half hour of self aggrandizing blathering.

No, you and I already knew the truth. I just watched it for the popcorn.:popcorn:

But if this podcast convinces someone from not buying into this sham, more power to them. I am saving up for a RetroUSB AVS, personally.

[Tanooki]

Fair enough, one head case tossing another under the bus I guess is fair game. They're both just full of equal parts shit and themselves and must be the center of attention or things get weird.

[Greg2600]

FWIW I just received issue 10 of RETRO today!

[fluid_matrix]

I don't know about you guys, but I'm donating the full amount of my next paycheck towards the Chameleon.

[stardust4ever]

FWIW I just received issue 10 of RETRO today!
Me too. There is an ad for the Coleco Chameleon Kickstarter on the second to last page of the issue. I uploaded a scan to Atariage but I won't hotlink it here to save Albert the bandwidth because the image is large.

Here is a direct link to the post I made:
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/247145-coleco-chameleon-hardware-speculations/?p=3443523

[Tanooki]

Wow issue 10? They're behind right? It may literally RETRO by the time they wish to get out all the promised issues. ;)

[Steven]

Wow issue 10? They're behind right? It may literally RETRO by the time they wish to get out all the promised issues. ;)

Another crappy issue. I flipped through it in 3 minutes and didn't read a single page. Nothing grabbed my interest. Bland layouts as usual. Zero NES, SNES or Genesis coverage (what I was hoping to see when supporting). We did get a piece on Halo though, because Halo is super "retro." Awful.

Yup issue 10 when they should be on issue 13. Mike promised last year to catch up and have issue 12 out by December 2015. I wasn't surprised when he failed to deliver, pardon the pun.

[TonyTheTiger]

We did get a piece on Halo though, because Halo is super "retro." Awful.

To be fair, the original Halo is about as old now as the original Zelda was when Halo came out. And I'm pretty sure Zelda was "retro" in 2001.

[Tanooki]

Perhaps we're at a point when new names are needed? Some thing of retro after a date, many others think it's age + non-3D in style since the type game between the two is very different.

[TonyTheTiger]

Kind of pointless, really. Add more terminology and watch people argue over those words in a decade just like today. It's just something we have to deal with. Gen X and Y were spoiled by the fact that we got in on the ground floor so felt like authorities on what counts as "old" in what was effectively a brand new industry. That's not entirely our call anymore when babies born alongside the PS2 are learning to drive now. Whenever I hear 30 and 40 somethings bitch about 10+ year old shit not being old enough to count as retro, I think these people have forgetten just how fast the turnover was from console to console, with a good bit of "get off my lawn" for good measure.

[Tanooki]

Well you could say the same with comics and old baseball cards, and then we got the stuff broken up into golden age, silver, and modern since eventually certain styles were solidly set other than color/print quality.

Perhaps the pre-3D systems should be golden, silver for the earlier than life-like 3D boxes, and then when you hit the PS3 type era it's just old games as time goes on. But you're right, it's splitting hairs and people will battle over it at least for a time and some for good. I don't much appreciate the get off my lawn types anyway, just kind of need to shut up or go away if they're that bent out of shape over it. I may not appreciate much of what is made today due to the emphasis on a few semi or completely mindless genres getting the limelight, but I do find things I really can get into, just less, and I think that's a good thing because it gives more time with the game just like being a kid with an allowance you do with what you got and play the crap out of it (or get rid of it and use the funds to replace it in time.)

[Steven]

To be fair, the original Halo is about as old now as the original Zelda was when Halo came out. And I'm pretty sure Zelda was "retro" in 2001.

True. I was just venting my general overall dissatisfaction with what I hoped the magazine would be. It lacks the spirit of a good gaming magazine. It feels sterile and considering the long delays, you just expect it to be more than what it is. Delay us AND put out a lackluster product? Shame.

[triverse]

May I suggest the mag I produced a while back? We stopped only because of not enough staff to write articles. I am also looking for writers (site and mag) and pay if anyone knows how to throw together some interesting content.

http://retrogamingmagazine.com/buy-rgm/

I will be back in a bit (date night) with some discussion on the Chameleon. Those Kickstarter tiers are stupid.

[Emperor Megas]

After a year of Three Stooges caliber tomfoolery the best they can do is play Emperor's New Clothes and demo SNES games running on an SNES while expecting us to believe there's a mysterious custom FPGA core doing all the work. This would be silly enough even if we couldn't see the ass end of a Super Nintendo sticking out of the back. Clark Kent puts more effort into his disguise.AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!


Do we really have to watch pat, that guy has far more issues than Mike ever would in his head. I'm sure we could get an abridged version that isn't a half hour of self aggrandizing blathering.lol

[stardust4ever]

May I suggest the mag I produced a while back? We stopped only because of not enough staff to write articles. I am also looking for writers (site and mag) and pay if anyone knows how to throw together some interesting content.

http://retrogamingmagazine.com/buy-rgm/

I will be back in a bit (date night) with some discussion on the Chameleon. Those Kickstarter tiers are stupid.

Thanks Triverse. I need to check yours out. I seriously doubt there will be a year three even if they finish issue twelve. Retro magazine (brought to you by the creators of Chameleon) is a big fucking mess, pardon my french.

Chameleon, on the other hand, passes beyond absurd, far beyond even ludicrus. I honestly don't think a single word adjective exists to describe it!

[Steven]

Thanks Triverse. I need to check yours out. I seriously doubt there will be a year three even if they finish issue twelve. Retro magazine (brought to you by the creators of Chameleon) is a big fucking mess, pardon my french.

Chameleon, on the other hand, passes beyond absurd, far beyond even ludicrus. I honestly don't think a single word adjective exists to describe it!

Yeah, as bad as RVGS was... They have outdone themselves this time. RETRO also introduced a new editor in chief. I believe that marks the third new editor in ten issues. Yikes. Also, whatever happened to Ed Semrad? He was on board early on and one of the reasons I placed my faith in the Kickstarter. Now he's gone and so are the large variety of longtime industry insiders. Meh. No excuse being that ho hum when you spend 4-5 months on an issue.

[triverse]

Ed Semrad, and many of other industry veterans bailed around issue 4 to 6, if they made it that long. Not counting the high turn over rate of the editors, they have really lost a lot of talent in the mag. Shame too as, whether we like it or not, RETRO Mag is the torch bearer or the retro scene as far as magazines go thanks to their success on Kickstarter.

[Tanooki]

Triverse if you're looking to resurrect that magazine of yours online and need a writer I may be able to assist as I did it for a few years last decade for the Advanced Media Network, which reformed into Kombo (which has since been bought and reorganized by another group so the old data is gone unfortunately.)


Also in general, on the whole deal with RETRO magazine from the Karma Chameleon crew (burnt karma that is) I've never trusted that crap. I'm sorry, but fine you needed A kickstarter to get going, but if you're so badly managing your money and your resources that you need to panhandle a second year worth of print, you need to stop. The fact they found (sorry) enough chumps and suckers to help them write off another year despite also trying to directly (as one should only do) peddle their magazine directly to consumers and failing should have been writing on the wall clear enough for the 'See Spot Run' type of readers to know it's time to walk away. RETRO deserves no extra funding without directly earning it nor do they deserve a third year in print without being reorganized properly to stand and survive on its own, and if it can't, it needs a final good-bye issue and be done with it.

[stardust4ever]

Triverse if you're looking to resurrect that magazine of yours online and need a writer I may be able to assist as I did it for a few years last decade for the Advanced Media Network, which reformed into Kombo (which has since been bought and reorganized by another group so the old data is gone unfortunately.)


Also in general, on the whole deal with RETRO magazine from the Karma Chameleon crew (burnt karma that is) I've never trusted that crap. I'm sorry, but fine you needed A kickstarter to get going, but if you're so badly managing your money and your resources that you need to panhandle a second year worth of print, you need to stop. The fact they found (sorry) enough chumps and suckers to help them write off another year despite also trying to directly (as one should only do) peddle their magazine directly to consumers and failing should have been writing on the wall clear enough for the 'See Spot Run' type of readers to know it's time to walk away. RETRO deserves no extra funding without directly earning it nor do they deserve a third year in print without being reorganized properly to stand and survive on its own, and if it can't, it needs a final good-bye issue and be done with it.

If they can't even get bimonthly issues out on time (#10 should have been the december issue with their star wars focus) then time to fold the towel. Also I tried to give Game Gavel a try on several occasions, a few times I shopped for games and the selection was paltry with maybe a few dozen games total for less popular systems and very little of it good stuff.

But at least Game Gavel was legit and didn't pretend to be something it's not. Retro mag never wowed me and rarely covered any homebrew developments or other stuff. But RVGS/Chameleon is a downright sham. It's so bad, they'll be hard pressed to attract any customers for future endeavors.

[Tanooki]

I didn't want to drag Game Gavel into it because it may be limited and it may be small, but it works more or less. I've tried to sell a few times before and every time I got no bites, but I also wasn't doing what the site seems to have been forced into, specialty stuff. Trying to peddle common US release carts on there just doesn't work, rarities, or perceived rarities(games made expensive by fools) they'll move yet I can't speak if they would as well as ebay with the highest bid with a low user base compared. I have bought from it a couple times, from Japanese importers as I got some fun GB games cheaper and faster than ebay would have done. GG I think is good and needs to exist, and it has had some high profile rarities hit the news like protoypes or one of those boxed Stadium Events games too, but anything else it seems this guy has touched has turned to garbage in short order.

Maybe a better way to spend his time and money would be to make GG more public, more welcoming, and a damn good sight with a lot more users where any gamer can feel free to peddle or buy free of ebay. That would be a good service and help clean his name and rep up I think to a degree.

[Daria]

I didn't want to drag Game Gavel into it because it may be limited and it may be small, but it works more or less. I've tried to sell a few times before and every time I got no bites, but I also wasn't doing what the site seems to have been forced into, specialty stuff. Trying to peddle common US release carts on there just doesn't work, rarities, or perceived rarities(games made expensive by fools) they'll move yet I can't speak if they would as well as ebay with the highest bid with a low user base compared. I have bought from it a couple times, from Japanese importers as I got some fun GB games cheaper and faster than ebay would have done. GG I think is good and needs to exist, and it has had some high profile rarities hit the news like protoypes or one of those boxed Stadium Events games too, but anything else it seems this guy has touched has turned to garbage in short order.

Maybe a better way to spend his time and money would be to make GG more public, more welcoming, and a damn good sight with a lot more users where any gamer can feel free to peddle or buy free of ebay. That would be a good service and help clean his name and rep up I think to a degree.

Yeah but didn't Mike Kennedy just pay off Chase the Chuck Wagon and slap his logo on their pre-built infostructure? Although having two competing sites for the same niche audience was pointless and merging the two communities was the best possible move for both parties involved.

[bangtango]

Yeah but didn't Mike Kennedy just pay off Chase the Chuck Wagon and slap his logo on their pre-built infostructure? Although having two competing sites for the same niche audience was pointless and merging the two communities was the best possible move for both parties involved.

It has been several years, but to the best of my knowledge, I believe Mike had the Chase the Chuckwagon domain and bought out Game Gavel. He took their name and kept using the Chuckwagon web set-up he already had, ditching the layout Game Gavel had. I used to be in contact with the Game Gavel founder (some fella named Jason), because I was one of the very first to sign up on the original Game Gavel long before Kennedy owned it and won a couple of their initial contests, but have since lost touch with GG Jason.

I was on both email lists and remember Mike saying he thought the original Chuckwagon name he had for the site was too confusing and limited his audience so he would be using Game Gavel after the buyout. Jason from Game Gavel was a nice guy, but I never had any communications with Mike.

[Daria]

It has been several years, but to the best of my knowledge, I believe Mike had the Chase the Chuckwagon domain and bought out Game Gavel. He took their name and kept using the Chuckwagon web set-up he already had, ditching the layout Game Gavel had. I used to be in contact with the Game Gavel founder (some fella named Jason), because I was one of the very first to sign up on the original Game Gavel long before Kennedy owned it and won a couple of their initial contests, but have since lost touch with GG Jason.

I was on both email lists and remember Mike saying he thought the original Chuckwagon name he had for the site was too confusing and limited his audience so he would be using Game Gavel after the buyout. Jason from Game Gavel was a nice guy, but I never had any communications with Mike.

Oh you're right. I got the names confused. And yeah Jason was a regular here and is a good guy. I still see him on Facebook now and then.

[Tanooki]

I had no idea how to answer that reading your first post there, but that explanation makes a lot of sense and I'm glad it was there as I had no idea. I don't follow all the Mike drama as it's just headache inducing and time can be better spent since I don't have any money invested in his shenanigans. Personally I wish his retro console wasn't just a long string of false approaches and probable lies as I would have loved to have seen that hit the market and do nicely as a niche device and given the price it and games could have been I'd have been on board. Right now I'd have to be given one as a game/system reviewer to bother as I could, not having my wallet personally screwed, be objective about it still.

[Niku-Sama]

This train got diverted down the wrong track.
Some one tell the conductor!

I didn't see any mention of the kick-started progress of the chameleon.

[stardust4ever]

This train got diverted down the wrong track.
Some one tell the conductor!

I didn't see any mention of the kick-started progress of the chameleon.

You are in the wrong thread. See here:
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/247145-coleco-chameleon-hardware-speculations/

All in all, whether the Kickstarter fails or succeeds, I have little faith that Mike and Co can pull off a real console. Most likely based on what they showed off at the Toy Fair, it will be a Super Nintendo and/or Genesis on a Chip, with select homebrews and acquired licenses from Piko and Collectorvision. They'll pay some cut rate Asian developers to port select Atari, Coleco, and Intellivision FB titles (which were already licensed by ATgames) to 16-bit format, and they will be rubbish much like the original Flashback conversions. I recon 30 games on one cart for $30 or so, about the same professional quality level you would expect from Action 52 NEs or Genesis, possibly a step higher since they're reportedly porting "good" games. They'll probably have cheap clone SNES controllers with propritetary plugs, possibly 9-pin Famiclone pinouts (Nintendo in a 9-pin format), and a proprietary cartridge slot, possibly PCIe with a Jag case, and if we are lucky, release pin adapters to play old school SNES and/or Genesis games on it.