Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?

[wf_]

Personally I believe Coleco wanted to get into this project because they knew it wasn't going to be successful, and wanted to get the name Coleco visually out again for the cheap.

 

Chris is new at the holdings company. I'm sure the relative buzz of the project especially before the indiegogo was a draw to the RVGS in any case, and if not in the technical know just going by the marketing it was putting out, is understandable. I also have my suspicions that Coleco has put money into Retro.

 

 

 

I think Coleco is hoping MK will miss the deadline and they won't have to go to the expense and trouble of having to find the "top men".

 

Finding Top Men^{TM (Top Men™)} seems to be the responsibility of Mike & Co, not of Coleco, at least from reading the quotes of my prior post. Mike's got some serious burden on him, with a serious deadline. If his company and Coleco have a contractual agreement, and I can't imagine that's not in place, there could be some actionable schadenfreude going down soon.

[Natimus]

Yep, when BTB posted it himself when he uploaded it, and when he posted the whole script.

I figured, I missed a few days of my new favorite entertainment source and didnt check the around 80 pages i missed lol.

It was during the capture card being found out...

Thank you very much, I shouldve figured if you guys can find that card, then you definitely wouldnt miss something like this..

You detectives would give batman a run for his money.

[PapaStu]

Also email addresses, correlated with friends from Digital Press, which is another fine retro forum.

Janus only has one IP on DP (and only 4 posts, that I think were all made pretty close to each other). I can compare IPs w/ Al but I don't think it matters. Just looking at the registration email was a dead giveaway. IPs can be hard anyways because most people don't have static IPs and if they're going through some kind of IP masking, then it wouldn't matter doubly so. After 'her' first few posts, it was radio silence. It won't matter now. I banned him because of image theft and pretending to be someone they're not. DP is Janus free for the time being.

[Amstari]

While we wait for the report...

 

This Chameleon has been left in storage for 99 million years.

 

http://www.sciencealert.com/the-world-s-oldest-chameleon-was-just-uncovered-in-a-99-million-year-old-amber-fossil

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

Yes, this.

 

Given the choice between 100 pieces of dross (early 1978 VCS "numbered cartridges") and a curated list of home-brews, oddities from different systems, and fun, give me quality over quantity. Or both!!!

 

The Activision Anthology on GBA has yet to be topped IMHO.

Yes but will most AA homebrews work with Flashback emulators? Anything that uses DPC+, RAM, or undocumented opcodes or requires extremely tight timings would likely fail on a Flashback, emulation or not. Also many homebrews are copies of various arcade games, whether they use the IP or not. Would something like Space Rocks, Space Investigators or Pesco fly on a commercially released product? Not trying to crap on AtariAge by any means, but since a lot of homebrews are just superior ports of Arcade games from back in the day, a C&D order from a major corporation would be a serious blow to homebrew. I'm not a lawyer, and it may not even be an issue if characters or audio are changed. I'm not a copyright lawyer, but I still remember when Princess Rescue got pulled and potentially Zippy could be in danger of getting axed too.

[phoenixdownita]

So I am a little bored atm, let's play what if!

 

What if by Thursday the RVGS guys show an amazing proto of an FPGA based console that even uses the CaptureCard for good measure?

 

Yeap .... that bored. The mind wonders and the impossible becomes just improbable!

[Flojomojo]

So I am a little bored atm, let's play what if!

 

What if by Thursday the RVGS guys show an amazing proto of an FPGA based console that even uses the CaptureCard for good measure?

 

Yeap .... that bored. The mind wonders and the impossible becomes just improbable!

I believe there are several of us who have volunteered to eat socks, hats, underpants and the like if that would come to pass.

 

Drama!

[enoofu]

He probably does have proto boards or at least off the shelf production solution by now, as quite a few companies make FFGA with USB and HDMI boards

 

But their is no way he would make money at 135 or 150

 

Also doubt he will have cores outside of open source

Edited March 8, 2016 by enoofu

[Newsdee]

Turns out the capture card was connected to a wintel box fully architectured to create the signal that goes into HDMI, because the FPGA only has conposite out, these things are complex mm'kay?

[Great Hierophant]

 

Chris is new at the holdings company. I'm sure the relative buzz of the project especially before the indiegogo was a draw to the RVGS in any case, and if not in the technical know just going by the marketing it was putting out, is understandable. I also have my suspicions that Coleco has put money into Retro.

 

 

 

 

Finding Top Men^{TM (Top Men™)} seems to be the responsibility of Mike & Co, not of Coleco, at least from reading the quotes of my prior post. Mike's got some serious burden on him, with a serious deadline. If his company and Coleco have a contractual agreement, and I can't imagine that's not in place, there could be some actionable schadenfreude going down soon.

 

I think I confused "Top Men". I meant the engineer(s) that Coleco would employ to inspect the prototype, but looking at it again I think that "Top Men" may refer to MK's hardware guy(s).

[enoofu]

Turns out the capture card was connected to a wintel box fully architectured to create the signal that goes into HDMI, because the FPGA only has conposite out, these things are complex mm'kay?

Obviously the return of full motion video

 

[StopDrop&Retro]

I have the movie The Hoax playing in the background and I'm amazed at how topical it is to Mike right now.

 

For those who don't know- it's the true story about an author who's trying to sell off an official biography of Howard Hughes. But it's a hoax, he and his accomplices know it, and he thinks he can get away with it if he plays his cards right.

 

I can just imagine Mike trying to feed BS his COLECO partners while he's sitting on this ticking time bomb that's just waiting to expose him.

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

I don't know how much genuine interest there was as opposed to purchased interested. In light of all of today's technologies and the ability to simulate the home-gaming-with-cartridges "experience", why would anyone want real cartridges with all their disadvantages? Disadvantages companies are too quick to monetize. Because cartridges!

because for all practical purposes, "carts" are indestructible. If only RetroVGS/Chameleon were not incompetent buffoons, they would not put the "cart" before the "horse" (game) and it could have been some really cool niche system with a dedicated following with lots of homebrewers or indie developers on board. One thing, if you can actually get a new cart-based system to a devoted fanbase of hardcore gamers/collectors, you will likely earn high sell through with each game released. but thanks to the incompetence of Mike and Company, the sheer stink of bullshit surrounding the RVGS/Chameleon has not only wrecked Mike's chances of success, but anyone else who comes along in the future with similar concept.

[enoofu]

Don't think this project has hurt anyone else going forward, it probably helped as it shown you can't skip steps

 

As a lot of it haters are going to buy this for example

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKZIoq7pp34

[Lost Monkey]

I just discovered that the user Janus, who had been trolling in this thread (including repeatedly calling people here "haters") until I finally kicked "her" out, is actually Mark Kaminski, ...

..Al

 

I am so shocked.. I thought for sure that was sarcasm. I even liked some of those posts.

 

The Jaguar is strong with these ones...

[thevnaguy]

I built one of these. A bit spendy but well worth it.

http://www.retrobuiltgames.com/diy-kits-shop/porta-pi-arcade-wood-kit-hd/

 

My personal Porta Pi with ebony wood stain:

http://stardust4ever.deviantart.com/art/Raspberry-Pi-Arcade-DK-playing-DK-535882030

Cool! Check these out, built by my co-admin on the Arcade USA facebook page

[shawnphase]

[Andromeda Stardust]

I just discovered that the user Janus, who had been trolling in this thread (including repeatedly calling people here "haters") until I finally kicked "her" out, is actually Mark Kaminski, who works for RETRO Magazine. Janus had a previous account by the name Mr Retro, although he hasn't used that one since last September. In this interview with Mike Kennedy and Mark Kaminski, Mike Kennedy states about Mark:

 

 

You can look at Janus' posting history here. Here are some select quotes from him:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so on..

 

Mark is now posting on the Digital Press forum using the same Janus persona. Here's the text of the post I just linked:

 

 

..Al

I was sooo wrong about this person. I thought they were legit, but just had a misguided passion for RVGS/Chameleon. Please forgive me...

[Keatah]

Have you thought of upgrading your mini-arcade to R-Pi 3 ?

[Gentlegamer]

 

[InnovaX5]

He probably does have proto boards or at least off the shelf production solution by now, as quite a few companies make FFGA with USB and HDMI boards

 

But their is no way he would make money at 135 or 150

 

Also doubt he will have cores outside of open source

Or maybe he's on vacation - on an island sipping margaritas? Maybe he had a Disney Land vacation booked for the launch of his kickstarter and he's living it up with Mickey Mouse. Maybe he doesn't care about any of this and has moved on to planning his next business endeavor. Retro Television maybe? Family Matters reboot produced by Retro Television Company Inc? Maybe he'll become a Retro music label, like Rhino? I doubt we'll hear anything from him again at this point. The Coleco Chameleon page will be slowly deleted and Mike will ride his magical cartridge back to Retro Land.

[+Random Terrain]

I am so shocked.. I thought for sure that was sarcasm. I even liked some of those posts.

 

The Jaguar is strong with these ones...

 

I also thought he was pretending to be a member of the Church of the Holy Chameleon as a joke. Didn't know he was a wild-eyed member.

[wf_]

Or maybe he's on vacation - on an island sipping margaritas?

 

It worked for Commodore.

 

 

There has been a lot of internet rage at and around this trainwreck. But can you imagine if Mike dares to show his face again, and the first words from his mouth do not include "Sorry, we lied?" People are going to flip their lids.

[willy-beamish]

Beat me to it!

[+Nathan Strum]

I believe there are several of us who have volunteered to eat socks, hats, underpants and the like if that would come to pass.

 

Whose underpants?

 

He probably does have proto boards or at least off the shelf production solution by now, as quite a few companies make FFGA with USB and HDMI boards

 

I highly doubt this. I think you're giving him far too much credit for having any sort of idea what he's doing.

 

At best, he might have one of these:

 

 

There has been a lot of internet rage at and around this trainwreck. But can you imagine if Mike dares to show his face again, and the first words from his mouth do not include "Sorry, we lied?" People are going to flip their lids.

 

He won't. I don't think that he actually believes that he lied. It's all justifiable somehow - a proof-of-concept, a prototype, a mock-up for a photo shoot, whatever. It all makes perfect sense to him - everything that he's done, every step of the way.