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

[Atarileaf]

I stopped watching Gamester after he had a video talking about how it isn't fun to really collect anymore due to price and then has a video with his friend that buys as many games as possible then puts them on ebay for more. It just annoyed me and then most of his videos as you say are him shilling all the time. Still seems cool but I have plenty of other options on youtube so it isn't a big deal.

That friend is Joe from Atari2600.com who has almost completely ignored his online store to concentrate on ebay. So many people contact him about his site and they get no response or they place an order and get nothing and have to try to get their money back. Gamester seems to be aligning himself with some unpopular people right now.

[Tanooki]

Well if he's doing that odds are there's some form of compensation involved unless he's a total fool and doesn't think people will catch on to his soured rep and stop watching. That is pretty bad that one guy has a site and won't run it just to do ebay. Close it if it's that much of a problem.

[sfchakan]

I have the same opinion on Gamester81. It seems like most of his videos are shilling, either his new products or someone he knows. Very rarely does anything else make it to the channel.

[Tanooki]

Honestly, I thought that was the point of his channel. Isn't it?

I've watched maybe 5 videos of his and the reason they popped up was I was unsure about a product/game whatever it was and did a google-video search and he'd pop right up in the youtube offerings. I'd kind of fast forward though some of the mindless yapping and just get to what I was trying to find out for whatever I was looking up. I think that's all I've ever seen was product being covered, none of the shilling for friends, just product. If he's supposed to be some informed game reviewer or someone talking up the past, I've not see much evidence of intent the little I came across him. I figured companies thought he was a trust 'retro' gaming reviewer of products and companies just mailed him free junk to review and hope he'd be positive about it. I did it well over a decade ago a few times for stuff like the n64 adaptoid when it was still made and an earlier gameboy type flash kit. I got the item for free, and the supplier got an honest review and I did point out shortcomings and flaws around all the good.

[sfchakan]

Go back to his earlier videos and it's just another guy talking about random retro games and hardware. He'd pull a random console off a shelf and do a video on it.

[Tanooki]

Well then I guess it's maybe just a clear case of someone who got enough subscribers he ended up making a nice side job out of it being paid in cash or with a nice constant flow of free stuff he'll turn around and talk up/review on his spot there as compensation. He's a paid shill.

[Graham Mitchell]

Met him at CGE a few years ago. Seemed like kind of a douche.

As for the RetroVGS, I'm not all caught up on the drama, but even without the BS I thought this thing was gonna go the way of the Ouya the second it was announced. I bet all these games will be on PSN anyway. And NGEV and their Amiga games aren't gonna help anything.

They need talent on the level of 80's-90's Capcom or Konami in their stables, and exclusive rights to the games. Otherwise, put a fork in 'er.

[JSoup]

Reposting from vbender, which reposted it from elsewhere:

Backing history:

Day 03 (09/21): 172 backers, $60041 raised
Day 04 (09/22): 186 backers, $66188 raised, +$6147
Day 05 (09/23): 187 backers, $65956 raised, -$232
Day 06 (09/24): 193 backers, $67580 raised, +$1624
Day 07 (09/25): 192 backers, $65970 raised, -$1610
Day 08 (09/26): 188 backers, $64920 raised, -$1050
Day 09 (09/27): 191 backers, $65145 raised, +$225
Day 10 (09/28): 192 backers, $63825 raised, -$1320

[Tanooki]

Hah wow a week and up 3800 and with all those losses. I've never seen such a response before to a kickstarter type panhandling thing like this but they really were asking for blow back. It seems each time something fresh and ugly hits the press you can watch the money promises get revoked. With that trending over a K a day loss, perhaps if people just kept finding more gems to have out there within a month they'll have nothing to show for it.

[nusilver]

From their Facebook page:

Hey Everyone! It’s clear, in its current state the RETRO VGS Indiegogo campaign is dead in the water and thusly will be shut down early. Once the Indiegogo team explains to us how we can do this, the plug will be pulled and all of you who have contributed will receive a refund post haste. Or you can go in and request a refund from Indiegogo right now.

The good news is we aren’t giving up and have made some adjustments to our hardware team, which includes the involvement of other hardware gurus who were part of our venture in the very beginning. We will also be lowering the price while maintaining most of the cool features you all want.

We will be back in the near future with a prototype RETRO VGS system, front-and-center playing our games on our cartridges and with our USB controller. Sit tight, be patient and RETRO VGS will return.

Thanks again for your support, patience and understanding while we regroup and prepare for the relaunch of a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter.

[Tanooki]

Hmm hopefully they actually listened and aren't just blowing smoke.

[Gentlegamer]

I've been following this project at Atari Age. My reaction:

[DreamTR]

This isn't a "new" idea as others have been done before but the following up was the issue at hand.

KevTris's old idea would be great; he just didn't realize people actually would purchase the thing.

The problem is for a console like this with not even a prototype it's easily 2 years out and then the issue of the games being released are pure waste. There is no way people will spend the amount of money on that system unless you've got the rights to something that would ONLY be on that system (Socks the Cat or something weirder) that people "possibly" may purchase.

It is so obscure that no one is going to care except for hardcore collectors. People keep giving money to people that keep starting these things, so in all honesty SoCal Mike is actually a pretty smart guy when his own money is not being utilized. Everyone is paying for his time and his work.


When the Generation NEX came out new games were to be developed and released for the Famicom part of the system. The company just didn't have enough fundage and the Generation NEX took so long to come out in the first place there were so many QC issues and at that point the decision was made to shut it down, but it had a lot of promise. That would have been a better option because of the Famicom games coming out in the US on store shelves (retro stores) and it already having built in wireless that could have been used for rumble in games and a built in library of almost 2,000 Famicom and NES games.

I have been out of the loop on a lot of stuff for awhile. Each time I dig back into it I see a lot of things that are funny to me:

Hipster NES kids
Hipster YouTube people that review games and don't even know that you can't use Zappers on LCDs
People that like "craft" beer, burgers, and arcades, but only go once in a blue moon to something that has all that
Angry garage salers that hate resellers only to resell themselves
People that ask stupid questions on Facebook groups about buys of possible retro and arcade stuff
People that post "finds" all the time and get mad if someone else calls them out and shows them up
People that use Kickstarter/indiegogo/gofundme for things like this and everyone keeps falling for it and others like it.

[Tanooki]

Nice seeing you, and yeah you pretty much caught up well with those last few lines of your post

It's a shame KevTris didn't realize it, as his costs were far less than this mess that just imploded. I kind of forgot about Generation NEX but that did have a lot of potential to do some good but they just couldn't sustain it as the damage was done, kind of like how Dreamcast was a great thing but Sega was already well beyond not dying.

[Berserker]

Had they come with anything that appeared remotely credible, with a more reasonable price and funding goal, people would've been all over it. But there was never any clear picture of what they wanted to do other than that of cartridge-shaped things being put into a console. It was like everything else was thought of on the spot to fill in the gaps.

[DreamTR]

Had they come with anything that appeared remotely credible, with a more reasonable price and funding goal, people would've been all over it. But there was never any clear picture of what they wanted to do other than that of cartridge-shaped things being put into a console. It was like everything else was thought of on the spot to fill in the gaps.

And that's spot on. Other than, "we want to make a console", they don't have experience with it but you have a lot of people that do the same thing and make themselves "part of the scene" or become more important (or seem more important than they really are).

I worked in product development for a system (the NEX), accessory development, wrote for a video game magazine for a number of years, etc. I am a multi brick and mortar business owner right now with 3 well established arcades in the South, but you don't see me have bios about all this and try to make myself seem a bit more important than I really am. (I am more of a grumpy person that calls out bs but hides in the shadows these days) In general, I like the hobby. I like video games. Etc. I am sure SoCal Mike has(d) great intentions for this, but inexperience can catch up to people and as it is with someone else i will not name that makes himself look like the most important person on earth with "not asking for coverage" (lol) a lot of this can come back to bite you in the ass.

I still don't get how anyone thought this was a great idea. I understand saving the money on the tooling (tooling costs are expensive) but you know, there is literally nothing concrete planned except for hopes and dreams here. If people want to pre-order that like they do for vaporware pinball machines and lose their money, so be it. I'll just wait until it (anything) is actually released.

[Greg2600]

This project had two major flaws, one from the outset, the other just grew and grew.

Purpose: Why make this system, and who will buy it (putting costs aside)? RVGS never could answer this cleanly. Is it a game system for collectors who enjoy having new CIB games (almost regardless of quality)? If so, can they sell to enough of those people (no chance)? These questions were never properly answered. If they had been, they would have been better able to identify their target audience and market to them.

Leadership: Obviously Mike Kennedy was the driving force on this project from day one. Over time he enlisted the help of John Carlsen and Steve Woitka, as well as others such as Gary Kitchen and Kevin Kevtris Morton, et al. That being said, Mike has been accused and/or proven to over exaggerate supporters, over promise features, and ridiculously over react to criticism. In fact it was so bad that on the Carl Williams interview (below), he took a swipe at Kevtris, which shocked Steve Woitka (had no idea there was any problems), before being stopped by John Carlsen. Carlsen had to interrupt Mike several times, to either stop him from veering off topic, or correcting things he said. I like Mike, his magazine is a great read, and he's 110% passionate about retro gaming. However, on this project in particular, he was a complete disaster. His interaction with the public was mind boggling. Plus he seemed to fail to keep his partners properly appraised of the growing negativity.

[Graham Mitchell]

Hey dreamTR, I loved my genNEX. It got me into famicom collecting. I appreciated it for what it was.

[Steven]

IMO it makes more sense for them to create quality new games for SNES, Genesis, NES and such. Tons of users already, and diehard fans of those systems are always looking for new quality software.

But I guess they wanted their own system and their own unique branding. Understandable, but not very feasible. Honestly, I love retro gaming but I love it my way. And my way certainly doesn't include buying a new system made in 2016 at $300 (or even $200) to play retro-styled games. I got my SNES (the king of retro IMHO)... I'm good. But if you made a new game for SNES, now I'm ready to buy...

[Kevincal]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmBI9Vrn7lo