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

[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/247...-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.

[celerystalker]

This all seemed pretty cut and dry, but since I hadn't personally looked deeper into the situation, I had declined to weigh in. Today I had time while my son was napping.

Sweet lord.

Everyone still associated with this debacle needs to re-evaluate how they make life decisions. The gall it takes to put something like that out for display at a toy fair where people can see it is astronomical. One would think that the core consumer for a device like this would be the die hard classic gamer who is sorely missing cartridge gaming, and would like to play new content in the classic style. That kind of player, though, can see through this sort of bullshit without effort... but to compound it, you're only drawing more attention to the lack of new hardware when you aren't showcasing new software that utilizes it.

I have to believe that the core customer they're actually targeting is a combination of rube and some fictional casual consumer who misses the good old days but doesn't really know anything about them.

The fact that they are doing literally anything at all other than apologizing is insulting and shameful.

[Tanooki]

I have to believe that the core customer they're actually targeting is a combination of rube and some fictional casual consumer who misses the good old days but doesn't really know anything about them.

The fact that they are doing literally anything at all other than apologizing is insulting and shameful.

Point.
Set.
and Match.
(On both lines.)

Line 1: Duh. It's the same reason all those shitty clone boxes for like 15 years now have existed from the god awful Yobo products to the Retrobit and Hyperkin crap on a chip setups. They're priced for rubes and casuals who remember the old days when they bought/got cartridge games or their family hand me downs and enjoyed that stuff and want to pass that onto their kids or relive it again. Even the well working $130-140 Retron5 (which at least 99% of the time represents very well and beyond in HDMI) still looks cheap to the rube when you could end up buying 3 clones or a GBA+NES(+honeybee), SNES, and Genesis for far more cash. They have no clue the things are shit, and having not played in like 10+ years they won't even realize in most cases the audio or visuals are off, or think a game that fails is just an old turd and take it back for a swap out. It's clear this is meant for all those 2nd tier shops who resell goods whether it's just games or a combo ma/pa or half price books like shop. You see all the used games of the 80s/90s, then you see this flashy new 'safe' product versus the higher(usually) priced originals you may stupidly feel may break anytime over age and undetermined use being used (or horrid price of a new out of box one.) You're all in when you can not only re-live the era with old stuff, but whoa the Chameleon shows up and has 'new' old stuff. WIN WIN.

They need to do far more than apologize I think at this rate, but that would be a friendly start. The mystifying bit to me is how they're screwing with people who know better. At least be semi-honest with them so you can get the funding as the rube isn't going to even know probably what a kickstarter is let alone one exists unless they accident upon some google top story link or some video game page with an article about it. THey need to piss off the retro gamers AFTER they get the cash, not before hand because the rube won't even know or care at this rate as it's not in a shiny box at the store to buy.

[stardust4ever]

What's a "rube?"

[fluid_matrix]

What's a "rube?"

^^this

also, somebody should seriously take their SNES Jr. and stick it in a Jag shell and sell it as the only known Chameleon prototype on eBay. Profit!

[stardust4ever]

^^this

also, somebody should seriously take their SNES Jr. and stick it in a Jag shell and sell it as the only known Chameleon prototype on eBay. Profit!

I assumed by the usage in Tanooki's post, it was someone who didn't understand what was going on, ie noob.

So I looked it up. I wasn't far off the mark,
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rube

Simple Definition of rube
Popularity: Top 30% of words
: an uneducated person who is usually from the country

Full Definition of rube
1
:* an awkward unsophisticated person :* rustic
2
:* a naive or inexperienced person

As for SNES Mini in a Jag case, at least one AtariAge member has partially disassembled their Jag and SNES Mini for a photo op. It's buried in the Chameleon thread and I don't feel like digging through dozens of pages atm.

EDIT:

[Tanooki]

Meaning #2 was it. The local unknowing bumpkin they can sucker with the console. Funny observational humor pic.

[fluid_matrix]

As for SNES Mini in a Jag case, at least one AtariAge member has partially disassembled their Jag and SNES Mini for a photo op. It's buried in the Chameleon thread and I don't feel like digging through dozens of pages atm.

I was aware somebody had already put one in the Jag shell. I'm saying somebody should actually sell one on eBay as the prototype. Some dolt would probably be dumb enough to pay big bucks for it.

[Tanooki]

I could see that actually work, and worse, I don't think a good enough case could be made for fraud as the seller could just point to the images in the Atari Age thread and the news around online about them using a SNES inside a Jag shell to prototype show off that thing at the Toy Fair. It would be an interesting battle of deceit.

[Gameguy]

I have to believe that the core customer they're actually targeting is a combination of rube and some fictional casual consumer who misses the good old days but doesn't really know anything about them.

Sounds like hipsters.

[stardust4ever]

I was aware somebody had already put one in the Jag shell. I'm saying somebody should actually sell one on eBay as the prototype. Some dolt would probably be dumb enough to pay big bucks for it.

Sounds like a good waste of plastic and retro game systems to me. To complete the illusion, they would want to hack a Super Mario World PCB into the Jag shell.

[bb_hood]

The RetroVGS protable is a atari lynx shell with gameboy guts

[celerystalker]

The RetroVGS protable is a atari lynx shell with gameboy guts

I think you mean an FPGA system with a "working Game Boy core."

[stardust4ever]

I think you mean an FPGA system with a "working Game Boy core."

I think MIST has one.

[Niku-Sama]

I think you mean an FPGA system with a "working Game Boy core."

I think MIST has one.

oh I just watched something about fpgas and Gameboys last night. lemme find it!

found it!

https://youtu.be/IimFxG-n8O8

[Tanooki]

Ooooh gameboy got to watch it.

I can't wait until this bubbles over though the frothy ride to that point is amusing. At this rate a shovel won't even do for the grave being dug as only a back hoe could keep up now, but for how long?