Retro VGS Game Console

[Punch]

Yeah, I found the whole "this is a cartridge" thing a pathetic attempt at super obvious misdirection. Nobody has forgotten The Cartridge. We have have 3DS, digital cameras with SD card slots, USB drives, etc (as well as SNES). You'd thing they're trying to bring back the steam engine or something. 

I keep assuming they are going to put a sd card equivalent in a large plastic case and call it a cartridge, that'd seem to be the cheapest manufacturing option.

I once bought a USB drive from Sandisk that actually had a Micro SD card reader inside (yes with an SD slot hidden inside, not soldered) lol. The NeoGeo X did that too if I recall correctly so I don't see why not... besides the low quality.

[SignOfZeta]

It doesn't really matter how they make it*, it will function** the same way. The old way of giving direct memory access to whatever is on the cart died with...GBA, maybe? Now everything is built like a CD and compressed to f*ck and back to save space. This is why cart games have load times now. It's certainly possible to do things the old way, plenty of non-gaming equipment is still made this way, but considering it took them a f*cking YEAR just to get to the point where they are shoving SNESs into Jags like some kind of f*cked up Thanksgiving Turducken I doubt we'll see this.








* they won't make it.

** it won't function at all.

[Lost Monkey]

Hang on, has anyone mentioned Underpants Gnomes? I ask because that's exactly they these tools are. They have the idea "A game system somehow invented by us so that we get all the money", but the important part where they actually figure out what the spec is...that's just completely ignored by them and they don't seem to have a problem with it.

Yeah, I think that was on page two of the original 140 page thread on AA...

[SignOfZeta]

We're so behind...

[esteban]

It doesn't really matter how they make it*, it will function** the same way. The old way of giving direct memory access to whatever is on the cart died with...GBA, maybe? Now everything is built like a CD and compressed to f*ck and back to save space. This is why cart games have load times now. It's certainly possible to do things the old way, plenty of non-gaming equipment is still made this way, but considering it took them a f*cking YEAR just to get to the point where they are shoving SNESs into Jags like some kind of f*cked up Thanksgiving Turducken I doubt we'll see this.








* they won't make it.

** it won't function at all.

I can't add a single word.

[elmer]

For your amusement, "Pat the NES Punk" weighs in with an excellent 33-minute summary/expose/rant ...

[NightWolve]

What a perfect ending to their video. 

[SignOfZeta]

I can't believe you guys prefer the video versions of Podcasts. That's totally foreign to me.

[MrBroadway]

I can't believe you guys prefer the video versions of Podcasts. That's totally foreign to me.

Gimme a written article over either any day!

[SignOfZeta]

I can't believe you guys prefer the video versions of Podcasts. That's totally foreign to me.

Gimme a written article over either any day!

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/12/coleco-chameleon-continues-quixotic-quest-for-contemporary-cartridge-console/

I asked this guy to do a follow up, he said he might. This was before the Toy Fair thing. I kinda hope he does because Ars Technica is probably the best site of its kind. I also kinda hope he doesn't because this level of total failure probably isn't worth their time.

I mean, never mind that they took a 25 year old system that Nintendo made, shoved it into a shell Atari made (well, they reproed that, to be fair) and some pirate carts to Toy Fair trying to increase interest.* Forget that. Just look at how *bad* of a job they did scamming people. They couldn't even convert the SNES pads to USB connectors, which you could do pretty easily. They could have had an auto executing flash cart. They could have used paint instead of electrical tape. They could have run a micro PC which can emulate anything and would put out HDMI. They could have demoed more believable games. Rough emulators rarely run high end first party FX2 games like Yoshi's Island with %100 accuracy, that's common knowledge! These people have the technical accumen of cave men...which is actually pretty normal for even the most esteemed people in the world of marketing.







* They were really interested in SNES in 1990, Mike. You should have brought it then.

[mickcris]

It amazes me that they botched this worse than the 1st effort already.  They really should have stopped after the 1st attempt failed.  Wonder if when this fails, they will come back for a 3rd round.  He seems determined to use those jag shells for something new.

[NightWolve]

He seems determined to use those jag shells for something new.

You don't understand, you just don't understand... Those Jaguar molds were not destroyed for a reason.... Something intervened to prevent their destruction... Providence, my friend... Divine providence, Mike Kennedy was meant to come together with his team of losers and resurrect that shell in order to succeed where Atari failed, to, by God, give it the proper glory and place in history that it deserves!!!!! BELIEVE MAN!!! BELIEVE!!!

[SignOfZeta]

I believe that if they don't f*cking quit it somebody's going to jail. They've been lucky so far, nobody has given them any money. If they do get some investment they'll actually be responsible for producing something, and they have ZERO clue how to make anything. They've been at this a year now and all they have is a SNES taped to a Jag shell? f*ck, man. I have no idea how to make a game system, but I'm pretty sure if I researched it for a f*cking YEAR I'd have a better idea than these clowns.

They must be counting on some magic bullet, a trust fund kid, a senile millionaire. They must think someone is going to save them, technically and fiscally, but nobody competent could stand working with them and rich people have less pathetic things to invest in...like fake Neo Geo carts or VHS tapes.*









* OK, more well respected although equally pathetic things to be sure.

[Mathius]

Zeta, thanks for the link to Ars Technica. I'm hugely impressed.

[esteban]

He seems determined to use those jag shells for something new.

You don't understand, you just don't understand... Those Jaguar molds were not destroyed for a reason.... Something intervened to prevent their destruction... Providence, my friend... Divine providence, Mike Kennedy was meant to come together with his team of losers and resurrect that shell in order to succeed where Atari failed, to, by God, give it the proper glory and place in history that it deserves!!!!! BELIEVE MAN!!! BELIEVE!!!

I concur.

The Lord works in mysterious ways.

You have restored my faith in VGS.

I can't believe you guys prefer the video versions of Podcasts. That's totally foreign to me.

Gimme a written article over either any day!

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/12/coleco-chameleon-continues-quixotic-quest-for-contemporary-cartridge-console/

I asked this guy to do a follow up, he said he might. This was before the Toy Fair thing. I kinda hope he does because Ars Technica is probably the best site of its kind. I also kinda hope he doesn't because this level of total failure probably isn't worth their time.

I mean, never mind that they took a 25 year old system that Nintendo made, shoved it into a shell Atari made (well, they reproed that, to be fair) and some pirate carts to Toy Fair trying to increase interest.* Forget that. Just look at how *bad* of a job they did scamming people. They couldn't even convert the SNES pads to USB connectors, which you could do pretty easily. They could have had an auto executing flash cart. They could have used paint instead of electrical tape. They could have run a micro PC which can emulate anything and would put out HDMI. They could have demoed more believable games. Rough emulators rarely run high end first party FX2 games like Yoshi's Island with %100 accuracy, that's common knowledge! These people have the technical accumen of cave men...which is actually pretty normal for even the most esteemed people in the world of marketing.


* They were really interested in SNES in 1990, Mike. You should have brought it then.

Zeta, I love every single damn word you have posted in this damn thread.





Update: I re-read the linked Ars article and I found the bit at the end particularly prescient:

Over and over again in our interview, Kennedy tried to stress how much he and his team have learned from Retro VGS' recent troubles. "I see the last three or four months as market research," he said. "We've listened to the criticism. We're aware we brought a lot of that on ourselves. But we've learned. We're going back to bring out what we wanted to bring out before all the feature creep set in."

"Market research" from which his team has "learned" important lessons.

Indubitably.