How has this not been posted yet? Retro VGS

[Greg2600]

I agree the RVGS lacks focus and that probably hurts the product when they're trying to get attention either from the media or potential backers. It's like trying to sell a Swiss Army Knife but you can't show it, you can only describe it.

 

There could be a hole in the market to fill if they could ditch all the extras and market the RVGS as a second home for homebrew cart developers. The homebrew cart scene is fascinating but unless you preorder on the first run you end up paying outrageous prices on the used market. If they could make the RVGS into an affordable ($150) console that has homebrew carts at an affordable price ($40 and under) and with steady production runs, then they might find a market. And, yes, I know this idea is included in their whole muddy schtick. But it would help them to focus on that part and concentrate on signing on with those developers instead of going in a million different directions trying to scoop up supporters wherever they can find them.

 

A homebrew console for $150 CIB is not possible. We do realize that's what a SNES or Genesis cost 25 years ago, and sold by corporate giants?

 

And what, Mike will sell his Retro VGS at wallmart? Seriously? Do People actually buy that crap? amazing...

 

Sorry to burst your bubble man, neither are these jokers. You aren't going to find the RETRO VGS in a retail store like Walmart, Gamestop OR Best Buy even if this thing did get funded. You aren't going to walk into a Target and find the Target Exclusive colored system for $399.99. Does Mike know that you escaped from Retro Land? I bet that Kid Chameleon and Aero the Acrobat are already on their way to take you back as we speak.

 

I never said they get it to market, I've been skeptical since day one. I am NOT a backer. I felt the price would be too high once they crunched all the numbers, and it is. My point is to GET it to mass distribution would require far too high a budget than would ever make sense. My point was that many are labeling the RVGS team basically as hucksters, and they are not. They had a concept, and researched it well, but it's a concept that isn't going to sell.

[Octane]

I don't think the wheel needs re-inventing. We don't need a new console to run something new if anything you want to serve the retro community make a better console to run all the old stuff. HDMI is a must.

 

Basically a Modular FPGA Retron (Abet done properly and not NEXing it like Hyperkin did.) adding in download content (Like the Ouya should have been) with new and original developers.

 

Modular/Addable cores to support everything with cartridge support, hell add a CD/DVD add on for you CD generation. Make your own propriety controller, USB dongles to support original controllers. Group your cores as best you can charge $99 for the system and $49 for a core. Add Cores for systems that have never made it to all in one consoles, Atari's, MS, GG etc

 

You want to go into the cartridge business don't re-event the wheel help developers release there games to cartridge on the system that suits them best SNES, Genesis, Gameboy, Atari 2600 - it going to run on your super system and appeal to others that own the original. And/Or make it downloadable compatible supporting new and old games. (Much like the Wii U does) Companies love reselling older games for $5-$10 digital download and not really doing anything.

 

And make a whole heap of snazzy colored shells for the Jaguar so not to waist your number one prized item while your about it.

[Greg2600]

And yet, I think KevTris' angle has a better chance at hitting the shelves than this thing does, purely from an economic prospective.

 

KevTris-style FPGA emulation is near 100% accurate, works with a huge library of old games people already own and love, and has a homebrew community that already caters for it. So a console like the Analogue NT has a really nice niche carved out already. Sure you can argue 500 dollars is way too much for an NES clone. I wouldn't pay for it either. But I wouldn't buy an iPhone, nor do I have a huge NES cartridge collection. If we were talking accurate Sega Megadrive clone, I could be parted with 150 bucks give or take easily. If I had a collection worth 4-5 digits, 500 bucks is pretty cheap.

 

Now my point is, there is money to be made in these niche markets. Console clone makers and hombrew developers alike. And people, whether they buy a clone or just use their old NES can have fun in this niche market.

 

What I find kind of impossible, economically speaking, is for something like the retro vgs to succeed. It's trying to be everything that modern gaming platforms are, without differentiating on anything at all. No way it can compete with android on price. No way it can compete on AAA titles with Sony or Microsoft. And no way it can beat the old consoles on nostalgia factor.And without differentiating on anything, no way it's gonna sell enough pieces for developers to make exclusive titles for it. Targeting the Genesis or the (S)NES, already gives you a huge install base compared to this.

 

It needs to target a niche market for it to gain an install base as I see it.

 

Kevtris will be able to produce his units and sell them online, but they won't be "FCC-approved" nor sold in a Gamestop. Clone/accurate hardware is not what RVGS was supposed to be anyway. They are marketing an indie game console that uses cartridges like the old days. I think there IS a niche for collectors out there, IF the games are good. If they could get the popular indie games, collectors would be buying it. Would 5-10K of them buy to be able to make it profitable, that's another story.

[001 Influence Device]

 

Kevtris will be able to produce his units and sell them online, but they won't be "FCC-approved" nor sold in a Gamestop. Clone/accurate hardware is not what RVGS was supposed to be anyway. They are marketing an indie game console that uses cartridges like the old days. I think there IS a niche for collectors out there, IF the games are good. If they could get the popular indie games, collectors would be buying it. Would 5-10K of them buy to be able to make it profitable, that's another story.

 

It's not a matter of FCC approval at all. It's purely economics. It's something like how apple's market share will always be small compared to android, but at the same time be as profitable (or more) than all android devices put together. For a collector to want this, it has to succeed first.

 

(If cartridge-only is the sole objective, make an android device, remove google store and online capabilities, and sell the android indie games optimized for cartridges. Instant game library, 0 cost for devs to port stuff over etc)

[bretthorror]

As I pointed out to Mike on Facebook in the run up to this project, there are other groups and entities supporting physical releases, including small publishers and companies like IndieBox, Gamers Edition and others. Creating a whole new platform to support physical releases was both unnecessary and ignorant of the marketplace. It would have been a much better use of the time and resources to create a company that helped small developers publish games on physical media with high quality packaging and media.

 

 

 

Wow, I had never heard of IndieBox until you posted that and I'm almost certainly going to give it a go for six months. It's a shame the Canadian exchange rate is so damn terrible right now, but even at $32 a month shipped in my currency, it's gotta be a lot of fun. I sort of wanted the VGS to be exactly this - I'd buy a new game (or at least new to me) in physical form just to keep the old fires burning every month. Except this is cheaper, gives more and doesn't require me to spend $350 on a console to start. It's winning all around. I reiterate, this is my problem with the VGS. These guys think they're gonna have a new console and they're going to be thought of as Gods when places like Humble Bumble are literally giving games away and this IndieBox is a wet dream for physical fans at a staggeringly low price. VGS just can't compete with all the labour of loves out there from developers and fans. And to boot their games have to be well reviewed to even be considered for physical release.

 

 

And yet you support Kevtris's system which does exactly that?

 

 

 

KevTris is not developing a retail-oriented product. This is not a dis-qualifier on his part, but he will not be able to take what he's selling, and distribute it to Wal*Mart. Hence the far higher cost. Should they have sought outside backing instead? Perhaps, but that's probably not realistic. The goals are different, Kev is just building a box that does X, Y, Z, for a niche audience, which he's fine with. Retro VGS are attempting to build a new "consumer" game platform. Whether that's viable or not (probably not), that's the gist of it. I said from the beginning I never thought a retail-driven model was possible.

 

People are supporting Kevtris because they're tired of 900 consoles being hooked up with crappy coax. And VGS stands to benefit from the emulation because from what I understand to encourage developers, the NES FPGA will make the system believe a VGS cart with an NES rom on it is a native game and will play that game and so on. So they require those cores to get games in their library. So they're piggybacking on what would be already existing homebrews.

 

I know you're defending the VGS guys for making a "real product" and that's fine, but these guys just aren't thinking things through. People will take the Retron 5 at a lower cost over this at any store, hands down. The most hardcore of the hardcore would want the real cores for HDMI out, but those people are gonna find it without the help of any retail outlet. You seem like a smart guy and you're covering an interesting base, but fuck, the 32 bit emulation station VGS for $350 retail PLUS cart adapters is so absurd you may as well dispel their delusions of grandeur and not waste your breath defending them. Could they not run a small operation to get the product out there and then worry about FCC stuff to get them into stores? I'm genuinely interested because I know zero about that side of things. I guess I just always saw this product as what dripped down the crack of Ouya's kickstarter's ass and never in my wildest fantasies did I ever think this would make it to stores, maybe Gamestop or Amazon at best. Maybe that's why I lost interest in their product - it wasn't the down home, cozy idea I originally pictured it to be. I thought it would be a console for us all, not just for 3 guys to gather fan investments to hopefully become rich.

[AtariTexas]

 

And what, Mike will sell his Retro VGS at wallmart? Seriously? Do People actually buy that crap? amazing...

Do I get 0% financing if I use my Wal Mart card?

[CGQuarterly]

I guess this is mostly aimed at Greg2600 but is also just a general commentary on how I feel about this situation at this point.

 

If the RVGS guys are making a console that can be sold at Target, Wal-Mart, etc. then they should be able to get venture capital to fund their start-up. They expect us to collectively take the same risk that a venture capitalist would take, but we get none of the potential reward (a piece of the company). I'm not going to spend time typing out the reasons that this isn't like most crowdfunding campaigns that have a product, but just need to generate pre-orders to fund production.

 

Mike Kennedy is trying to act like some kind of Steve Jobs of the retrogaming world. He's a nice enough guy, and I've been defending him to a degree in this thread, but as much as I understand him to love retrogaming, it is also obvious that he looks at this community with dollar signs in his eyes. How often does he come here just to shoot the shit with his fellow retrogamers? He comes here mostly to promote his latest ventures.

 

My opinion of the man has changed markedly in the past couple of weeks. He has no problem collectively throwing us under the bus, blaming us for his failed business venture, and lashing out at YouTubers who dare to question what he's doing.

 

I personally support Kevtris because he is making a hobbyist system, by hobbyists and for hobbyists. It was never about the price for me. Comparing people here supporting Kevtris vs. not supporting the RVGS is total apples & oranges.

[Flojomojo]

At the end of the day, they want us to buy a new console to play games our old consoles are perfectly capable of and we already own them. If it's 50 bucks for a true 16-bit game on the VGS, why not just buy a SNES homebrew of it and be done with it? It's like they want to control the retro homebrew scene with their own console. It just makes no sense for anyone but them since they are the ones to profit.

Absolutely. Let me beat the dead horse a little bit more.

 

Mike Kennedy talks about physical media as the good old days, as if it were better than the present day in every possible way, and that modern technology is "separating gamers from their games." He goes on to cherry-pick the things he likes about old-fashioned ROM cartridges. I'm frankly STUNNED that there are 193 people, who are so blinded by nostalgic wishes for days gone by, that they can't see the RVGS cash grab for what it is. RVGS have attempted to turn all of the negatives about cartridges into positives -- for themselves.

 

Nice things about cartridges

Sturdy

Collectible

Look good on a shelf

Load instantly

Can be kept in collectible boxes with paper extras

Can be easily traded, transferred, sold

 

Bad things about cartridges:

Expensive

Difficult to duplicate or back up

Scarce

Must be physically shipped

Can only be used in one location at a time

 

Nice things about cartridges FOR RVGS (but not anyone else):

Expensive -- but if people expect to pay more physical media, and RVGS gets a cut

Can be produced in different colored shells -- exclusive to RVGS

 

Difficult to duplicate or back up -- RVGS could sell multiple copies to collectors

Can be configured via proprietary lock-outs or obscurity to only be manufactured by a few people, so that RVGS can profit from the platform exclusively

 

Scarce -- because cartridges are difficult to duplicate, RVGS can manipulate quantities of stock and charge more for certain serial numbers

 

In contrast, modern digital media is often (but not always) cryptographically locked to an individual account or device, cannot be traded away, and sometimes takes a long time to transfer. But there are upsides:

 

Nice things about digital media:

Often cheaper

No need to worry about sturdiness of you can make copies

No artificial scarcity

Purchased media can be made available on multiple devices

Content can be downloaded/transferred/duplicated without need of physical shipment or visiting a store

 

I have found his work amateurish at best. I know it's popular to bash on "haters" nowadays, but sometimes I think it's ok to say to someone that has too many bad ideas and schemes, "hey, maybe business isn't for you and maybe you should stop wasting your time and money and that of your family and friends on ideas that have no future". I personally believe there are such things as bad ideas and bad products and all of the good intentions in the world won't bring back money or time that has been wasted.

 

He's got a dream. Maybe he really believes in what he's doing. After all, he organizes retro events and is probably susceptible to overestimating the size of the community because of seeing throngs of retro gamers all gathered together. Or maybe he's a greedy idiot who thinks he can retire after one last big heist. It doesn't really matter since the indiegogo campaign is going to flop hard, but I sure hope he's humbled by this stupid exercise. At least Kevin Horton and his ideas got a little attention as a result of this.

 

Maybe that's why I lost interest in their product - it wasn't the down home, cozy idea I originally pictured it to be. I thought it would be a console for us all, not just for 3 guys to gather fan investments to hopefully become rich.

That's for sure. What's curious to me is how so many people are comparing it unfavorably to the OUYA. I think that's a mistake. OUYA had a vision, they shipped a product, on budget and more or less on time. They even got it into retail stores like Target. There were hundreds of amateurish retro-style games for the machine, a few professional mobile ports, and it was quite capable as an emulation station. It could also run media players. It was pretty easy to root or side-load software. I think it would have been a lot more appealing to me as a consumer if it simply used Google Play out of the box instead of its own proprietary store, but that's how they were trying to make their business grow. That's the part that reminds me of RVGS, but OUYA was so much more. They had hardware, they could communicate, they had lots of games at launch, everything had a demo, and everything worked.

[StopDrop&Retro]

A homebrew console for $150 CIB is not possible. We do realize that's what a SNES or Genesis cost 25 years ago, and sold by corporate giants?

 

Consumers want value for their money. And no, the intangible value of supporting the underdog does not have value in the minds of consumers.

 

Is it tough to get the product to $150? Yes. But maybe it could be done if they weren't so stubborn about earning the "Made in the USA" title (which few consumers value anyways) and maybe if they weren't making $70 in profit on each one or if they weren't planning to divert profits to pursue an empire built on patents.

 

If Mike wants to make his console into a $2,000,000+ success, then he can't expect to rely on sympathy from everyday consumers because it doesn't work that way. OUYA (which Mike loves to compare success to) was a multi-million dollar success because it understood the market and made their console $99 because of it. Price is a huge concern to consumers, as Mike is finding out right now.

[leods]

Absolutely. Let me beat the dead horse a little bit more.

 

 

Yeah. And then there's DRM free digital:

The pros: Everything

 

The cons: You Need an Internet Connection.

 

I think it's worth it...

 

Oh right, but then you Need to know how to opearate a Windows machine to Play the games, and you have to do your own backups. So it you're a complete moron you're better off with cartridges that are easier to use and won't require (or allow) you to make backups.

 

Did I Forget to cover anything?

 

 

 

Consumers want value for their money. And no, the intangible value of supporting the underdog does not have value in the minds of consumers.

And specially since the market HAS Options out there. You can buy a PS TV for 100 bucks, and physical games for it in the range of 10-50 Dollars. And guess what? It's considered a flop. It has more games than the Retro VGS, more funcionality and is cheaper.

 

And that's not even getting into the obvious fact anyone with a brain already realyzed: you can buy an actual Retro console for cheaper. What's the Point of paying a premium for this one?

 

As both guys I just quoted already said: It's great for the RVGS Crew, it's NOT great for the customer.

Edited September 28, 2015 by leods

[+5-11under]

 

Kevtris will be able to produce his units and sell them online, but they won't be "FCC-approved" nor sold in a Gamestop. Clone/accurate hardware is not what RVGS was supposed to be anyway. They are marketing an indie game console that uses cartridges like the old days. I think there IS a niche for collectors out there, IF the games are good. If they could get the popular indie games, collectors would be buying it. Would 5-10K of them buy to be able to make it profitable, that's another story.

 

I don't think getting the FCC certification is really a big deal. At least it shouldn't be if you're smart about it. As long as designers use decent/standard/good/proper components, design the circuit and PCB properly, and possibly do some of their own preliminary testing (or find someone to do some preliminary testing), it should "only" cost a grand or two. This assumes you're not intending to send a signal wirelessly (like in wireless controllers). It's not peanuts, but for 500-5000 units, it's not too bad.

[Flojomojo]

Yeah. And then there's DRM free digital:

The pros: Everything

 

The cons: You Need an Internet Connection.

 

I think it's worth it...

 

Oh right, but then you Need to know how to opearate a Windows machine to Play the games, and you have to do your own backups. So it you're a complete moron you're better off with cartridges that are easier to use and won't require (or allow) you to make backups.

 

Did I Forget to cover anything?

Yeah, you forgot to say that in 2015, the kinds of retro games we are talking about (oldies, indies, and emulation) can run on low end commodity hardware, the likes of which were unheard of in Retro Land. In the days of Retro Land, a PC was an expensive, difficult-to-build beast, requiring expensive Windows licenses and thousands of dollars worth of hardware. You'd have to dick around with IRQs, AUTOEXEC.BAT files, and tweak the CONFIG.SYS files. Hard drive storage space was expensive, internet connectivity was a huge luxury, sound cards were not included and would need to be manually configured for each game, and controllers weren't great.

 

I have a massive collection of GOG and Steam and Amiga and other things running on my $200 HP Stream laptop computer. Unlike RVGS, it has a built-in screen, can receive updates, can use external storage, and will work with just about any USB controller in the universe. It's made of blue plastic and is way more games console than RVGS could ever hope to be.

 

You could run my software on a fancier machine, but it's safe to say that my cheesy little laptop has thousands of times the potential over our favorite topic of discussion.

[bretthorror]

Absolutely. Let me beat the dead horse a little bit more.

 

Mike Kennedy talks about physical media as the good old days, as if it were better than the present day in every possible way, and that modern technology is "separating gamers from their games." He goes on to cherry-pick the things he likes about old-fashioned ROM cartridges. I'm frankly STUNNED that there are 193 people, who are so blinded by nostalgic wishes for days gone by, that they can't see the RVGS cash grab for what it is. RVGS have attempted to turn all of the negatives about cartridges into positives -- for themselves.

 

 

That's for sure. What's curious to me is how so many people are comparing it unfavorably to the OUYA. I think that's a mistake. OUYA had a vision, they shipped a product, on budget and more or less on time. They even got it into retail stores like Target. There were hundreds of amateurish retro-style games for the machine, a few professional mobile ports, and it was quite capable as an emulation station. It could also run media players. It was pretty easy to root or side-load software. I think it would have been a lot more appealing to me as a consumer if it simply used Google Play out of the box instead of its own proprietary store, but that's how they were trying to make their business grow. That's the part that reminds me of RVGS, but OUYA was so much more. They had hardware, they could communicate, they had lots of games at launch, everything had a demo, and everything worked.

 

 

I don't know why people talk crap on the OUYA at all - I own 2 because it's so easy to emulate and the only real negative I have with it is the controller. But I use my Wii ones for emulation and unfortunately MAME requires me to use a wired stick. With that said, let's pretend the VGS controller was the best one ever, it's still wired. Which sucks. Hard. OUYA was $100 for the whole she-bang. Fuck, CoD and its DLC is about that much per year. It's a pretty easy impulse buy, but anyone with half a brain knew it wasn't going to overtake the big boys - but it was gonna make emulation easier for us. I agree Google Play was essential for success.

 

 

Consumers want value for their money. And no, the intangible value of supporting the underdog does not have value in the minds of consumers.

 

Is it tough to get the product to $150? Yes. But maybe it could be done if they weren't so stubborn about earning the "Made in the USA" title (which few consumers value anyways) and maybe if they weren't making $70 in profit on each one or if they weren't planning to divert profits to pursue an empire built on patents.

 

If Mike wants to make his console into a $2,000,000+ success, then he can't expect to rely on sympathy from everyday consumers because it doesn't work that way. OUYA (which Mike loves to compare success to) was a multi-million dollar success because it understood the market and made their console $99 because of it. Price is a huge concern to consumers, as Mike is finding out right now.Yeah, som

 

I agree, what people gloss over is I believe it said 12% of the campaign's goal would go in their pockets. So each guy is gonna make 75K a year and then 4% or something is gonna go towards an office and equipment, so that's 75K office rent for a year. Do they not have a fuckin' basement or garage or something? I realize all their funding goals are for pre-orders (even the $10 donation is for store credit), but I just don't believe in crowdfunding unless you're busting your dick. I'm talking maintaining a regular full time job and then doing your project the rest of the time. Afterall, people are trusting you with their money, they're doing you a favor, not the other way around. Projects like this are better suited towards people like Kevtris would seemingly would do the stuff anyways on his own time because he's genuinely interested.

[triverse]

Do you have a way to find it in itunes? I tried searching and can't find it. I started listening on youtube, but podcast is way easier at work. Thanks.

I don't have iTunes installed, nor an iOS device handy but there is an iTunes subscribe button on the right, towards the bottom of the Podomatic page-

http://retrogamingmagazine.podomatic.com

[StopDrop&Retro]

I agree, what people gloss over is I believe it said 12% of the campaign's goal would go in their pockets. So each guy is gonna make 75K a year and then 4% or something is gonna go towards an office and equipment, so that's 75K office rent for a year. Do they not have a fuckin' basement or garage or something? I realize all their funding goals are for pre-orders (even the $10 donation is for store credit), but I just don't believe in crowdfunding unless you're busting your dick. I'm talking maintaining a regular full time job and then doing your project the rest of the time. Afterall, people are trusting you with their money, they're doing you a favor, not the other way around. Projects like this are better suited towards people like Kevtris would seemingly would do the stuff anyways on his own time because he's genuinely interested.

 

Preach! It's one of the most disturbing parts of the way he engineered his crowdfunding effort. He looks at these crowdfunding efforts and sees that their pitch video takes place in a big office and in the Gamester81 interview he basically says that because he sees that he's entitled to that work environment as well. If he becomes a crowdfunding superstar, then he's entitled to a big office.

 

But as you asked, why do they even need an office? Isn't a big part of the development funds going towards outsourcing development work? I'm betting if you pressed Mike for an answer as to why he needs that much for rent the answer will be "well, because that's how much they're charging at the old building Atari used as their headquarters!"

[+remowilliams]

37 Days left. Looks like they have either disabled likes and comments on their Facebook page or they finally blocked me. Comments on the IGG have seem to come to a grinding halt with the exception of the three uber-fans that mostly post incoherent cheer leading.

 

 

Saw this over at NeoGAF, seems appropriate...

 

 

[InnovaX5]

I found my OUYA at a thrift shop for $20 and it was like new condition. Hell, the controller still had the plastic on it. Ironically it was the bronze KS exclusive unit as well and I don't think it was ever as much as turned on. Since then I've backed two Raspberry Pi kickstarter projects to go with the one I slapped in a mini-arcade style setup. I also really like the PS TVita, in fact I own more Vita games than I own XBox one + Xbox 360 games. I love the remote play that the Vita and PS TV offer as well. They're cheap consoles that do pretty much spot on what they said they would do.

 

I can see the other side of the coin as well. Yeah, the PS TV is lacking and it was very irritating before the work around with compatibility. I see why the Ouya fell in part due to its property e-shop. Not many people really wanted on screen games that they played on a tablet. No one liked the lackluster features of the PS TV. People disliked the poor scaling to their massive tvs on both consoles.

 

The RVGS isn't even sure what it wants to be. They're asking for $2 million and none of us knows what it's going to do right now. Hell, the team doesn't even know what its going to do. If you're comfortable in putting up current generation console prices for a mystery box wrapped up in a colorful jaguar shell then power to all 194~ of you.

[Flojomojo]

I just don't believe in crowdfunding unless you're busting your dick.

LOL. Yeah. Not sure I would have put it that way, but I agree!

 

I don't have iTunes installed, nor an iOS device handy but there is an iTunes subscribe button on the right, towards the bottom of the Podomatic page-

http://retrogamingmagazine.podomatic.com

Direct link for triverse's podcast in iTunes http://retrogamingmagazine.podomatic.com/rss2.xml

though I think the transcript is a much better use of your time if you just want to hear about RVGS.

[+madman]

Heading out for a work event, but I'm polling the campaign hourly via a cronjob, here are the changes today since midnight (CDT):

"time":"09-28 00:00" "campaign_raised_amount":"63825" "campaign_funders":"192"

"time":"09-28 11:00" "campaign_raised_amount":"64194" "campaign_funders":"193"

So basically one new funder so far today as of 5:00pm CDT.

[98PaceCar]

Mike Kennedy is trying to act like some kind of Steve Jobs of the retrogaming world. He's a nice enough guy, and I've been defending him to a degree in this thread, but as much as I understand him to love retrogaming, it is also obvious that he looks at this community with dollar signs in his eyes. How often does he come here just to shoot the shit with his fellow retrogamers? He comes here mostly to promote his latest ventures.

 

Very well said sir. From the auction site (a moderate success at best, I browsed it once or twice but never found anything worth buying) to the magazine (I read 1 issue, didn't even bother to open the rest) to this, he's simply trying to cash in on the gaming market. That in itself isn't necessarily a bad thing, but after a while people will see through his charade of being a part of the community and realize he's full of hot air, which is exactly what's going on now.

 

Had any of his past business ventures actually generated something positive and meaningful, I think he would have had a much greater chance of success. It's too bad too, at a lower price or without all the vitriol he's spewed towards the community, I would have bought one just to support a new company doing something cool. <shrug>

[goldenegg]

 

Direct link for triverse's podcast in iTunes http://retrogamingmagazine.podomatic.com/rss2.xml

though I think the transcript is a much better use of your time if you just want to hear about RVGS.

 

 

Hearing the tone of their voices when answering questions adds a lot. I highly recommend people listen to it.

[CGQuarterly]

Had any of his past business ventures actually generated something positive and meaningful, I think he would have had a much greater chance of success. It's too bad too, at a lower price or without all the vitriol he's spewed towards the community, I would have bought one just to support a new company doing something cool. <shrug>

 

That's how I feel, too. He has existing business ventures in GameGavel and Retro Magazine. Instead of trying to grow either of those, he moves on to the next thing.

 

GameGavel is a joke. Gamers like us all seem to hate eBay, yet nothing comes along to eat into it even a little bit. Mike could probably expand it by making it completely free to sell there for the foreseeable future, and just make money off of AdSense. Then once there is an expanded user base, start charging something. I remember that he had lifetime free accounts when he first launched the site (and in fact I have one) but that went away pretty quickly.

 

If I'm being totally honest, I've never read a single issue of Retro. I backed it purely because I thought it was a good idea, and then re-upped my sub for the same reason. I think that all of my issues are still sealed in their little plastic mailer baggies. Not because I'm trying to keep them "collectible" but because I just read Retro Gamer instead. According to some, the magazine ain't that great. So why not work on improving and expanding it? Retro Gamer exports their magazine to the US, and Barnes & Noble carries it, so it must be at least moderately successful (and it's something like $14 per issue!) So are you telling me that Retro has hit its ceiling? He had some big names writing for it, like folks from USGamer (ex-EGM folks). Work on getting the magazine into b&m stores and try to actually turn a profit on it.

 

Mike seems really good at coming up with ideas. He's not good with the follow-through. If history is any indicator, if the RetroVGS ever did launch, it would have the same half-assed support that Game Gavel and Retro do.

[AtariLeaf]

 

Very well said sir. From the auction site (a moderate success at best, I browsed it once or twice but never found anything worth buying) to the magazine (I read 1 issue, didn't even bother to open the rest) to this, he's simply trying to cash in on the gaming market. That in itself isn't necessarily a bad thing, but after a while people will see through his charade of being a part of the community and realize he's full of hot air, which is exactly what's going on now.

 

For whatever reason, as I'm reading this I suddenly had a vision of Hoyt Axton as the dad in Gremlins with his crazy get-rich-quick-scheme inventions

 

[Shiru]

 

Kevtris will be able to produce his units and sell them online, but they won't be "FCC-approved"

Why this is stated as a matter of fact? Getting FCC approval isn't some magic that is only available for chosen ones, and it does not necessarily cost as much as you can read in the interview. I'm totally sure this won't be the showstopper would kevtris decide to aim retail stores.

[CPUWIZ]

Why this is stated as a matter of fact? Getting FCC approval isn't some magic that is only available for chosen ones, and it does not necessarily cost as much as you can read in the interview. I'm totally sure this won't be the showstopper would kevtris decide to aim retail stores.

 

It isn't rocket science either and doesn't cost $50K.

 

READ: https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/398