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How has this not been posted yet? Retro VGS


racerx

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I can't even remember at this point, but I think it was an interview where they specifically mention the 2600 expansion. It's been so back and worth with this stuff I can't remember when was what and what was when, but they also said in an interview that they don't need over their regular goal necessarily to include FPGA. In fact, it could have been from the same portion of one interview. Unless I misunderstood what they were saying. I'm sure it was the yappy guy who mentioned it, not the more deep voiced, succinct one of the bunch. Then again, I could have misunderstood. I know you're taking this more seriously than me in keeping things straight, I'm kind of just watching something I was rooting for go up in flames.

John talked about the FPGA/ARM emulation in my interview and mentioned and the Atari 2600 was mentioned specifically here.

 

"Carl: Obviously fans are going to understand games rather than a bunch of technical talk. At the base funding, can you ballpark what kind of games that the FPGA would support? Are we talking first generation like Atari 2600 or…?

John: At the lowest level, we are not doing any hardware emulation in the FPGA. That FPGA is just providing our circuitry for the functions we need to perform."

I was not sure if that was where you were sourcing your info from or not.

 

I am doing my best to keep things correct in this as I am approaching this as a journalist following an ongoing story.

 

Also, for those that wish to know, David Siller:

"Mike: Yeah, yeah, again, we have contacts. I have been talking to David Siller who uh, you know David Siller don’t you, Carl? He was with Martin on at–

Carl: –EGM–

Mike: –EGM originally, he was the first Sushi-X and was in the publishing business, but then David Siller went onto develop, was lead developer on Aero the Acro-Bat and Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel, he did Maximo–

John (interjecting): Those are games that we developed at Iguana, by the way.

Mike: Yeah, yeah, he has forty or fifty games to his credit and you know, he knows all of the Japanese developers that are looking for work in fun things. We have talked with David about bringing a team together and working with Steve, and doing in-house development of new platformers and new characters. We’ve got these great contacts, these guys are semi-retired, but they still know what to do and how to make a game, and these guys were masterful at it, as was Steve, back in the day. Again, we have got the connections, we have the contacts."

Mr. Siller has denied any involvement with the RETRO VGS:

https://www.facebook.com/martin.alessi/posts/10153658428134375?comment_id=10153659130954375&offset=0&total_comments=10&comment_tracking=%7B"tn"%3A"R2"%7D&pnref=story

Their story is unraveling. Fast.

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One of the biggest problems with the whole campaign is that they have no idea what they're designing themselves, nor who the target market are. So you can be forgiven for thinking it will emulate classic systems in the FPGA, and also for thinking that it won't - because both have been either explicitly or implicitly touted over the last few months.

 

For me personally, an FPGA-based console that emulates classic systems is exactly what I'm looking for. OTOH I am completely and utterly disinsterested in an ARM-based console with (or without) software emulation (plenty of those out there already). So to run a campaign that may or not have have an FPGA is, to me, like someone starting up a campaign that may produce an apple, or may produce an orange. No way in hell I'll be even tempted to fund that.

 

And it's pretty clear to me that regardless, the funding level will have very little bearing on what they do actually produce (FPGA or not) given their lack of competence or honesty up until now. "Sorry guys, we were going to stick a big FPGA in there, but we decided it was going to cost too much for no gain, and we've gone in a different direction. But thanks for your pledge, you'll be receiving the product you didn't want in a few weeks."

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He, Kevin B and Roberta are my favorite 3 uber fans. There are a few more but they're easily the most entertaining. I believe he called me Jackie Chan, lol. I regret telling so many of my friends about the RVGS before the IGG launch. I feel like I owe all of my friends I told about this an apology and a payment for any emotional damages.

 

My conspiracy theory is still that all these face-less facebook posts and people using animals or video games as profile pictures are just Mike Kennedy himself with zero filter for his bs. Its just too coincidence they have next to no "friends" and mostly new accounts for me.

 

The uber fans are the best. If you visit Roberta's page you'll see that she's one of those militant Tea Party types that thinks the government's spying on everyone and taking away our guns. A Retro VGS would be perfect for her to live off the grid.

 

Kevin B is another story entirely. I was convinced for the longest time that he had to be Mike using a fake account but I never posted it because I had no definitive proof. But he does live in the same city as him (or very close by) and I thought it was weird that the guy comments every day but has a bare page and doesn't like anything except for the Retro VGS and the car wash he works at. I'm pretty sure it's not Mike just because his sentence structure and grammar makes it seem like most of his education consisted of cave paintings. But I still wonder if he knows Mike personally.

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QUOTE

Finally! After two days of being stuck in the 90 plus page section, I've caught up to page 121 this morning. Now that Triverse has his interview out, I'm kinda hoping that this post slows down a bit. I agree that we are beyond beating a dead horse. Anyone else think that our witch hunt should be put on pause until future updates are posted (if they do indeed keep going until the campaign ends?). The things I appreciated coming out of this thread were learning that Retrousb/Bunnyboy have been quiet due to his HDMI NES project (which will get my money likely whenever it comes out) and now keeping an eye out on what Kevtris has in store for the future.

 

You can feel free to stop beating the dead witch horse. All I see here are valid opinions and people gathering together to sort out facts. Also, a sense of humor you may not be used to with only 4 posts.

 

Geez, dude! I was just trying to show a little sympathy for the Retro VGS guys. I really don't think they are this evil entity we have to defeat. I was excited about the project until all the last minute changes. I've been reading for the facts, too. Plus, I've enjoyed the parodies. Not a way to make a person feel welcome and perhaps not post again...

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One thing that I'm not sure people know about it, but wanted to mention since DRM-Free games were brought up:

 

You CAN play your Steam games in offline mode (without a net connection). Yes, that means you can't update or get achievements, and you have to have it downloaded. But the games will work just fine with just the Steam program (which is really just a bunch of files) with no need for a net connection.

You can also use Steam to make a backup copy and burn it on a DVD or save it to whatever. After that you can head over to thecoverproject.com and print out a spiffy cover someone designed or design your own using a template from there and put it in a DVD case. So not only would you be able to display your collection, but you would be backing it up as well. It may not look as cool as those big boxes PC games used to come in, but they still look good on the shelf.

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The uber fans are the best. If you visit Roberta's page you'll see that she's one of those militant Tea Party types that thinks the government's spying on everyone and taking away our guns. A Retro VGS would be perfect for her to live off the grid.

So, while I may have my own special opinions about "militant Tea Party types" and would love to share them with everyone, it's best to keep politics and religion out of discussions here. In fact, that is one of the few rules here in the forum (I'm going to add, "Don't be a dick" soon enough). A long time ago there was actually a Politics & Religion forum. It turns out that a group of grown adults, who, most of the time seem like reasonably civil people, turn into raving, irrational lunatics once politics and religion enters the fray. So, please, keep politics out of the discussion, and there's no reason to attack Retro VGS fans (militant or otherwise) that are posting on their Facebook page.

 

Thanks,

 

..Al

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Sorry, sorry. I was trying to describe a personality type, you're right I don't know if she has that affiliation it's just the personality type that was heavily implied.

 

 

 

Edit: oh and as long as we're talking about people on their Facebook page, I wonder who "Adjustin Beaver" is.

Edited by StopDrop&Retro
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It's all moot now but wouldn't their Expansion module #1 for A2600 just work as a cart dumper ala retron5/retrode et al? Also just like "Retro Video Game System," the name "Expansion module #1" for an A2600 cartridge adapter sounds so original. Oh wait, they are basically knocking off a 33-year-old Atari knock-off and using the exact same name to describe it. :roll:

 

And I suppose they steal the emulators too like Retron5 did, but because the authors had no money, they couldn't sue, and Hyperkin knew that. Otherwise, they are producing emulators in house that will suck worse than the Yobo/Retrobit/Hyperkin NAOC clones, and Jaks-Pacific, ATGames, or Neo Geo X ARM emulation combined.

 

Then too, if you want the Rolls Royce, the FPGA breakout board is another $200 expansion kit. :lol:

 

But if all this dead horse kicking has taught us anything, the interest exists for a new cart based console. What form factor, I have no idea, but I still feel something good will come out of it. The horse is already decomposed into compost. Let's plant something tangible already...

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Also, for those that wish to know, David Siller:

"Mike: Yeah, yeah, again, we have contacts. I have been talking to David Siller who uh, you know David Siller don’t you, Carl? He was with Martin on at–

Carl: –EGM–

Mike: –EGM originally, he was the first Sushi-X and was in the publishing business, but then David Siller went onto develop, was lead developer on Aero the Acro-Bat and Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel, he did Maximo–

John (interjecting): Those are games that we developed at Iguana, by the way.

Mike: Yeah, yeah, he has forty or fifty games to his credit and you know, he knows all of the Japanese developers that are looking for work in fun things. We have talked with David about bringing a team together and working with Steve, and doing in-house development of new platformers and new characters. We’ve got these great contacts, these guys are semi-retired, but they still know what to do and how to make a game, and these guys were masterful at it, as was Steve, back in the day. Again, we have got the connections, we have the contacts."

Mr. Siller has denied any involvement with the RETRO VGS:

https://www.facebook.com/martin.alessi/posts/10153658428134375?comment_id=10153659130954375&offset=0&total_comments=10&comment_tracking=%7B"tn"%3A"R2"%7D&pnref=story

Their story is unraveling. Fast.

 

...ouch, that's pretty damning. I kinda knew that at some point the name-dropping of developers would catch up with him. I found that the claims made that 150 developers had reached out to him directly on their indiegogo was a bit far-fetched:

 

"Thankfully, we have had significant outreach from over 150 developers all interested in bringing games onto RETRO VGS. Most saying they never thought a chance to have their games on cartridges would never happen. We also have inroads to the mainstream gaming developers and publishers and believe that if we can prove there is still a solid market for "new" cartridge based games, then they will be happy to bring their big name, legacy games onto the system. We now need all of you to show them there is a market and that you want to see some of their franchises brought back to life on RETRO VGS."

 

I love classic retro games and wish all of these pie-in-the sky of games-in-development/secured by Mike was actually true. I wish that all of these promises of releasing sequels in the style of the originals (like mega man 10 etc) were actually true and didn't just exist in Mike's Retroland

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Looks like I've been blocked from commenting on the FB page, and all my comments have been deleted.

 

"We value your feedback, as long as you agree with us and don't ask any embarrassing questions."

 

Maybe we should all report the page as a scam? ;)

Edited by tcdev
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A long time ago there was actually a Politics & Religion forum.

 

Is that gone now? Wasn't it a hidden forum that people had to request access to, or am I thinking of a different website? I seem to remember specifically never asking for access because I didn't want to see people who I liked and thought highly of getting into P&R debates with each other. I have more of an old-school mentality where by you keep your political and religious opinions private. But again, I may be thinking about a different website.

 

And to get back on topic, that bit about David Siller is pretty damning. How many other developers that Mike brags about are just people who he's casually spoken to?

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Is that gone now? Wasn't it a hidden forum that people had to request access to, or am I thinking of a different website? I seem to remember specifically never asking for access because I didn't want to see people who I liked and thought highly of getting into P&R debates with each other. I have more of an old-school mentality where by you keep your political and religious opinions private. But again, I may be thinking about a different website.

 

And to get back on topic, that bit about David Siller is pretty damning. How many other developers that Mike brags about are just people who he's casually spoken to?

 

Yes, it still exists.

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Jibbajaba, I can personally attest that Konami, Capcom, Sega, Bandai Namco and a few others are NOT working on "new" titles in many key retro franchises. I wrote an article about it when Mike first mentioned those names, specifically, connected with the RETRO VGS over on NintendoAge's forums. I then followed up that article by calling those companies and after a bit of phone tag with various community managers, PR reps, devs I am connected with inside, was told by all but Konami that they have no idea who Mike was nor any idea what the RETRO VGS was. Konami PR reps did say that Mike did visit with them but they did not agree, admit or imply that Konami would be developing games for it in any way (taking that to mean licensing out properties or making new games or porting). They did say that they told him when he has the system launched to come back with sales figures, sell through on accessories, etc to show an installed userbase and if they would forward the information to their headquarters in Japan where the final decision would be made. That is a FAR FAR cry from what Mike was implying in his, now edited, post on NintendoAge. It is at least a company that did admit to him visiting though.

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And to get back on topic, that bit about David Siller is pretty damning. How many other developers that Mike brags about are just people who he's casually spoken to?

 

.... It might be a stretch, but do you believe he has spoken to 150-odd developers that have given a positive or neutral response? But don't forget that in addition to the 150-odd developers he also has legit major inroads with additional developers with rights of existing franchises:

 

 

"Thankfully, we have had significant outreach from over 150 developers all interested in bringing games onto RETRO VGS. Most saying they never thought a chance to have their games on cartridges would never happen. We also have inroads to the mainstream gaming developers and publishers and believe that if we can prove there is still a solid market for "new" cartridge based games, then they will be happy to bring their big name, legacy games onto the system. We now need all of you to show them there is a market and that you want to see some of their franchises brought back to life on RETRO VGS."

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That's interesting. I wish I could see what Mr. Siller wrote. I don't have a FAcebook acct.

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Jibbajaba, I can personally attest that Konami, Capcom, Sega, Bandai Namco and a few others are NOT working on "new" titles in many key retro franchises. I wrote an article about it when Mike first mentioned those names, specifically, connected with the RETRO VGS over on NintendoAge's forums. I then followed up that article by calling those companies and after a bit of phone tag with various community managers, PR reps, devs I am connected with inside, was told by all but Konami that they have no idea who Mike was nor any idea what the RETRO VGS was. Konami PR reps did say that Mike did visit with them but they did not agree, admit or imply that Konami would be developing games for it in any way (taking that to mean licensing out properties or making new games or porting). They did say that they told him when he has the system launched to come back with sales figures, sell through on accessories, etc to show an installed userbase and if they would forward the information to their headquarters in Japan where the final decision would be made. That is a FAR FAR cry from what Mike was implying in his, now edited, post on NintendoAge. It is at least a company that did admit to him visiting though.

 

Do you have a link to that article that you investigated all of this? I am pretty impressed with your research I must say :thumbsup: :)

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I also find it interesting that despite of all the PR stuff, the campaign does not seem to having much public attention. The promo video at YouTube is still under 10K views, in ten days, with about 100 persons cared enough to like or dislike it. Even if each view would be from an actual person who'd pledge $100 (pretty good average), that would still be not enough to fund the campaign. And considering realistic expected convertion rate of about 2% at best, which is the case, they're doing pretty well with average pledge being $320. There is just not enough people interested or aware of the campaign, and even with that average it would need to be about 6000 pledges, which is very far from ~200.

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