Octane Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 (edited) Tell them if they want more backing, they better buy the Dreamcast name and logo from sega and call this bad boy the Dreamcast 2. Gotta beat mike to the punch before he can unveil his disc based retro game machine to the world with the CDI molds that he just bought. Too late.... http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Sega-Dreamcast-2-Wants-Answer-PC-Gamers-Wishes-106737.html http://www.projectdream.co/ The pocket full of dreams fight of the century. Celeco Chameleon Vs Dreamcast 2 And the rights to the Hyperscan disc drive. That thing was amazing and was marked wrongly. 4 years before the whole Skylanders, Disney Infinity, Amiibos blew away all sales forcasts. Mattel where fools. Edited December 22, 2015 by Octane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaysWithWolves Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 (edited) Do video game cartridge fetishists like to keep VHS and Betamax tapes, LaserDiscs, 8 track tapes, and audio cassettes, too? Tapes stretch and break inside the player; which itself needs cleaning and demagnetizing. In the case of vide tapes the player also needs tracking adjustments. The only way that I can think of they may have been superior to CDs or DVDs is that--like albums--they were analog rather than digital. Still, there does seem to be a niche demand for 8-tracks: http://www.8-track-shack.com/ Also laserdiscs -- at least as long as long as there are versions of movies (like Star Wars) that haven't been re-released in said format. Or just for fun, because wackiness comes in all flavors. Edited December 22, 2015 by PlaysWithWolves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 To me, the ideal plug and play "holy grail" type device (and yes, likely based around Android) would be something like the RetroN 5, but instead of playing games off catridges, it could just run ROMs. I would imagine at some point someone somewhere will take that next logical step. Or best of both worlds. Like the Retro Freak. The Japanese Retron5 that doesn't suck. Dump your games to ROM format and unplug the console from the big cartridge dock and take your games with you. Or load ROMs directly via the MicroSD card... I bought this last night. Get one while they're still in stock... http://www.play-asia.com/retro-freak-standard/13/708vvt http://www.play-asia.com/retro-freak-premium/13/708vvv I just received a $50 coupon for the Razer Forge TV console. This company purchased the Ouya assets this summer, so they're making their Android box compatible with Ouya games and controllers. It's also compatible with Google Play games. That's a very large collection of quality software right out of the gate. The box costs $100 by itself, or $150 bundled with a controller, and that's before the coupon and free shipping. http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-forge-tv I already have a lot of stuff like this already, but this looks pretty neat. Neato. I'm definitely an Ouya fan/supporter. How do you get the $50 discount coupon for Ouya owners? Without using subjective, emotional language like "soul," can someone explain to me why Android mini-consoles aren't favored by retro gamers? I can see why the "hardcore" PC and big-console crowd don't like them, but to me, the FireTV, AppleTV, and many formats of AndroidTV seem like the true heirs to old-style console gaming. They're simple, they have style, they have gobs of new games, they have emulators for old games, they have decent controllers, they're well supported, and they're inexpensive. No Atari dental shell, no cartridge port, either. Agree to disagree? I love me some cartridge ports! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 (edited) Like the Retro Freak. The Japanese Retron5 that doesn't suck. Dump your games to ROM format and unplug the console from the big cartridge dock and take your games with you. Or load ROMs directly via the MicroSD card... I bought this last night. Get one while they're still in stock... http://www.play-asia.com/retro-freak-standard/13/708vvt http://www.play-asia.com/retro-freak-premium/13/708vvv I was waiting for a review of that one before pulling the trigger since the majority of information has been in Japanese, and sparse at that. Do you know if it works with flash carts? You're indicating that it loads ROMs from microSD directly, i.e., without any workarounds? EDIT: Just ordered the Premium one. I was able to confirm that it can run ROMs for supported systems directly from the microSD card. Hopefully the Japanese language thing is not too impenetrable. Edited December 22, 2015 by Bill Loguidice 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
108 Stars Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Too late.... http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Sega-Dreamcast-2-Wants-Answer-PC-Gamers-Wishes-106737.html http://www.projectdream.co/ The pocket full of dreams fight of the century. Celeco Chameleon Vs Dreamcast 2 This is no laughing matter! After all, the initiator of the project got his friend request by Yuji Naka approved! Sure, he may not have worked for SEGA in years. Sure, I know several people personally that are on his friend list too and he never talked to them or knows who they are. Sure, he has almost 5000 of those "friends". But hey, he accepted the request, he is practically on board! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 I was waiting for a review of that one before pulling the trigger since the majority of information has been in Japanese, and sparse at that. Do you know if it works with flash carts? You're indicating that it loads ROMs from microSD directly, i.e., without any workarounds? EDIT: Just ordered the Premium one. I was able to confirm that it can run ROMs for supported systems directly from the microSD card. Hopefully the Japanese language thing is not too impenetrable. Funny how the Premium was not in stock when I ordered so I got the standard, but I've got plenty of USB adapters for my game controllers so I don't really need the dongle. It would have been nice if they could have worked it into the main unit though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Funny how the Premium was not in stock when I ordered so I got the standard, but I've got plenty of USB adapters for my game controllers so I don't really need the dongle. It would have been nice if they could have worked it into the main unit though. Indeed, there is no perfect device. I have adapters as well, but figured it was high priced with the shipping anyway, so why not go for the whole magila. I'm assuming that this system will also support Game Gear, SG-1000, and Mark III ROMs, because they sell a separate cartridge adapter for those that I didn't bother to spring for. While I was debating about using a PS4 controller with it (which requires a USB cable), I'll be curious if the Xbox 360 wireless adapter (or Xbox One for that matter) works with it. I really would prefer a good wireless solution for those times when I don't want to bother with controller extension cords. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
108 Stars Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Because I think my question was not noticed much, let me ask again: Was there any reason given John Carlsen left the team? Any drama? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Indeed, there is no perfect device. I have adapters as well, but figured it was high priced with the shipping anyway, so why not go for the whole magila. I'm assuming that this system will also support Game Gear, SG-1000, and Mark III ROMs, because they sell a separate cartridge adapter for those that I didn't bother to spring for. While I was debating about using a PS4 controller with it (which requires a USB cable), I'll be curious if the Xbox 360 wireless adapter (or Xbox One for that matter) works with it. I really would prefer a good wireless solution for those times when I don't want to bother with controller extension cords. It has been confirmed to work with an SMS Mini adapter, so I can use my SMS games on it. And obviously it support NES games by adapter too. But I'm most excited about Turbo/PCe... Rounding the price up one penny, the list price for standard is $170. The premium with controller dongle is $245. That's a $75 surcharge for the dongle. Not sure it's worth that honestly. With FedEx shipping, the total was around $191, and amazingly it will be arriving before Christmas! Also since they claim to support PS3 out of the box, it is a fine controller for console emulation, so I may use one of mine on it with a USB mini cable, or a PS digital (the original without the thumb sticks) with adapter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StopDrop&Retro Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Because I think my question was not noticed much, let me ask again: Was there any reason given John Carlsen left the team? Any drama? Here's his outgoing Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/notes/john-carlsen/retro-vgs-news-from-john/10153662213057520 It's pretty much accepted that making the "RVGS First Quick Demo" on his own without Mike's input or approval was what kicked him out. It also could have been some of Kevtris' insider reports which indicated that Carlsen didn't know what he was doing and didn't know the proper resolutions and frame rate of original hardware. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
108 Stars Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S1500 Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 So now there's the Dreamcast 2. I now wish to announce my latest product I will be vaporwaring, coming maybe never. The Emerson Arcadia Deluxe! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dj_convoy Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Those Dreamcast 2 people... wow. Even more starry-eyed than Mike, if that's possible. Kind of sad, really. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Did you see the video that I linked to a few pages back? Sweet Jesus! This is the gift that keeps on giving! Thank you! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Iacovelli Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 jaybird, that video says it all lol love the classic facepalm on the one guy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 To put that video in context, here are some links to their earlier videos on the RVGS:Retro VGS Controversy, Part 1Retro VGS Controversy, Part 2Retro VGS Follow-Up (this was shortly after the IndieGoGo campaign was cancelled)Retro VGS Rebranded as Coleco Chameleon (this is the most recent one) (If you're wondering about the jokes about drinking: Ian can be seen with a beer in the first two videos, which prompted Mike to brush off their criticisms and dismiss them as "drunkards." The parody videos by Game Escape reference this, too. It's especially ironic because Mike himself always seems to have a drink in his hand.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StopDrop&Retro Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Here's a new article from someone who spoke to Mike recently: Coleco Chameleon continues quixotic quest for contemporary cartridge console "Where I thought I would get the most support is from cartridge-based communities. It's been the complete opposite," Kennedy said. "These communities are the ones that are the most dead-set against it, at least the ones publicly talking about it." Kennedy said he takes responsibility for letting John Carlsen, the head of hardware for the old incarnation of the system, lead the team towards bloated features and a sky-high price. "[Carlsen] priced us out of the market," Kennedy said. "[He made] a Rolls Royce of a system that no one would pay for." In October, Carlsen also worked on his own to put out a baffling demo video showing what seemed to be a barely functional prototype of the system that didn't win many fans in the community. While the core FPGA powering in the original Retro VGS design was rather affordable, Kennedy says, Carlsen insisted on loading the system with costly and unnecessary design quirks that quickly drove up the price. Those include an obfuscated six-layer PCB that cost $100 to $150 on its own—a "monstrosity of a board that filled a Jaguar shell," Kennedy says—internal hardware that converted an HD signal to optional analog output (for old-school TVs), and a $14 AC adapter to power it all. As the leader of this project, he should. Especially because Carlsen was just following orders as their "hardware guy" Kennedy promised a sub-$200 price for the Chameleon and said he'd "like to come in at the $150 range" if possible. The new system will be refocused on the original vision of playing 2D sprite-based games like those you'd see in the "8-bit to 32-bit" days. A new crowdfunding effort will likely ask for a more reasonable $250,000 to $300,000, Kennedy said, before debuting a prototype at New York Toy Fair in February. Déjà vu? That brings up the specific storage capacity for those cartridges, which is still up in the air. While Retro VGS was originally talking about games up to 1GB, that has been reigned in to focus closer to a 100MB range these days, Kennedy says. That should be plenty of space for 16-bit-style games—SNES titles topped out around 48Mbits in the '90s. But it could be a tough limitation for games built-in inefficient environments like Game Maker and Unity, which can add a lot of bloat to even simple games. They also included a link to one of my videos! Very cool!! That might be putting it mildly: This sprawling 186-page Atari Age threadgives some idea of how quickly people in the classic gaming community soured on the concept after the big reveal. Other forum threads and YouTube videos throughout the community have a similarly skeptical air. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sega_SHARK Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Those Dreamcast 2 people... wow. Even more starry-eyed than Mike, if that's possible. Kind of sad, really. Um yeah... The "Dreamcast 2" supporters. wew. When I first started poking around old console forums I stumbled on Dreamcast Talk. It's a decent forum group, they showed me how to get my Dreamcast back online to play weekly games of Quake 3 and Phantasy Star online. A lot of those forums were dedicated to troubleshooting online connections, how to get the most out of a VGA box, hidden gems in the game catalog... It was a good mix of hardcore fans of Capcom fighting games, Shmup enthusiasts, and people who wanted to get the DC back online. ...and then there were a couple of people who got off on the idea that Sega had a secret new console in development. It seemed every week they would post new "evidence" to support this, and every time they would be BTFO by rational people. I honestly couldn't tell you if they were trolling or if they really were that batshit insane. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raticon Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 I know the feeling. I can hardly count all the times people, both online and in the real world has told me stuff like "Commodore is releasing a new computer!", "Atari is releasing a new console, the Raptor!", "Nintendo is re-releasing the NES!" and other such assorted stuff. I can now check this Dreamcast off the list too, even though it seems to at least have some real people behind it.I am sure pretty much all of you saw this bogus pic a couple of years back: 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dj_convoy Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 (edited) Um yeah... The "Dreamcast 2" supporters. wew. When I first started poking around old console forums I stumbled on Dreamcast Talk. It's a decent forum group, they showed me how to get my Dreamcast back online to play weekly games of Quake 3 and Phantasy Star online. A lot of those forums were dedicated to troubleshooting online connections, how to get the most out of a VGA box, hidden gems in the game catalog... It was a good mix of hardcore fans of Capcom fighting games, Shmup enthusiasts, and people who wanted to get the DC back online. ...and then there were a couple of people who got off on the idea that Sega had a secret new console in development. It seemed every week they would post new "evidence" to support this, and every time they would be BTFO by rational people. I honestly couldn't tell you if they were trolling or if they really were that batshit insane. When I first joined SEGA 16, there were one or two people like that; they absolutely INSISTED SEGA had something coming. Nope. I (mostly) like SEGA 16 and Atari Age because they are places to celebrate what has been and is coming for what has been (particularly here)... I don't like this pie in the sky bs wishing for stuff that will never happen. There's no point shitposting on forums waiting for the Orbi/Dreamcast 2/Raptor/the new AMIGA that will set everyone straight/etc. It's a waste of time and hope; particularly when some of these people get so keyed into the potential, they can't see the reality. Why invest so much emotion into something that won't happen? Back to Mike (back to reality): He seems so hurt that we haven't all embraced this vision, whatever it is. Obviously, that's where Mike is... keyed into the potential and oblivious to the reality... except that he is actively trying to, let's be nice and say "mislead" people with this nonsensical COLECO branding. Any tiny bit of sympathy I may have had is LONG gone.The more I see these random articles saying "COLECO is back," the angrier I get. The Dreamcast thing made me about hit the ceiling; SEGA has naught to do with it (and won't, obviously), but at least one place was already making it seem as if that were not the case. Ugh. To be fair, the ARS Technica piece SD&R posted above flat out lays out the reality of the COLECO situation. Mike still doesn't seem to grasp certain fundamentals, tho'. Also, he has no problem throwing former team members under the bus. Edited December 22, 2015 by dj_convoy 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
108 Stars Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 The Dreamcast thing made me about hit the ceiling; SEGA has naught to do with it (and won't, obviously), but at least one place was already making it seem as if that were not the case. But... but Yuji Naka accepted their friend request on Facebook! This is serious! About Mike Kennedy... well, it sounds like he is using Carlsen as a scapegoat. Kennedy initiated the project, it is his job to define what it should offer and what it shouldn't. If Carlsen really had the leverage to blow up the system like that, then he must appear a whole lot different in person than it appears in the rather akward videos I have seen of him. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMaddog Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 This is what I typed on Facebook in response to the Dreamcast 2... I'm getting sick of these "old game systems are coming back" posts on Facebook because they are NOT the old game systems. That Coleco Crap that was on last week? That's a rebranded Retro VGS after a failed Kickstarter that doesn't even have any games...let alone ColecoVision ones. And how could Sega be releasing a console-"slash"-PC when they're struggling even in the mobile game department? Does no one ever do fact checking anymore? You want to play old games again, then buy the orginal console, a Flashback or use an emulator... 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dj_convoy Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Feature creep was a problem... but not the ONLY problem. For posterity's sake: Name dropping potential devs asking for money to fund a company, not build a console placing emphasis on the collectibility of the console itself (and the games) as opposed to being worried about selling fun games to people aggro deflection of criticism / blaming everyone but themselves (for awhile, it was all AA's fault, then Kevtris, now Carlsen) feature creep / making promises that were impossible to keep instructing devs to release "bug free games" the whole concept being a classic solution in search of a problem 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+5-11under Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Feature creep was a problem... but not the ONLY problem. For posterity's sake: Name dropping potential devs asking for money to fund a company, not build a console placing emphasis on the collectibility of the console itself (and the games) as opposed to being worried about selling fun games to people aggro deflection of criticism / blaming everyone but themselves (for awhile, it was all AA's fault, then Kevtris, now Carlsen) feature creep / making promises that were impossible to keep instructing devs to release "bug free games" the whole concept being a classic solution in search of a problem Feature leap I would call it - it became whatever you wanted it to be. Having nothing concrete besides a case. Definitely what you said... a solution in search of a problem. From what doesn't seem to be significantly better than things you can already buy. Is it significantly better than a SNES or Genesis or Retropie? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dj_convoy Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 (edited) Sure, why not ? It's better than the best thing ever and more, besides. Edited December 22, 2015 by dj_convoy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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