Dreamwriter
Member
www.indiegogo.com/projects/retro-vgs
Goal: $1,950,000
Campaign Video
What is Retro VGS?
A brand new game console designed to play modern retro-style games from cartridges. The idea is to return to a simpler time, when you just plugged a cartridge into the system, turned it on, and started playing. No forced hour-long patch downloads, no operating system to navigate, and you truly own the game. No need to worry about the game ever being removed from a digital store, or worse the digital store being taken down. The cartridges are being designed to survive a long time, 20 years and longer. They are also great for collectors who want snazzy physical copies of new games.
That looks a lot like an Atari Jaguar...
There's a good reason for that: the Retro VGS guys bought the original tooling Atari used to create the Atari Jaguar case and cartridges (along with paperwork giving them the rights to the designs). Not only is that just plain cool, this saved them a ton of money getting their own tooling designed and manufactured. They only had to change small things (like removing the Atari logo from the cartridges) and having a new back panel made.
What's up with that controller?
The controllers are being made by InterWORKS Unlimited. It's basically a Super NES controller with handles and a pair of analogue sticks. Yes, this is the same controller that was made for Wii U and got bad reviews, but those bad reviews were for wireless problems, but on this system they are wired. The system has normal USB ports so you can use whatever controllers you want, or keyboards or whatever. And it also has a couple of the old Atari/Genesis controller ports, and the hardware will automatically work with any controllers that were ever designed for that format.
Is this like the Retron 5?
No, the Retro VGS is primarly for playing brand new 8-bit or 16-bit style games. It's more for playing modern titles like Shovel Knight than old ones like Donkey Kong. Having said that, they have announced a future set of cartridge adapters that would let you plug in and run old game cartridges from different game systems.
So how much is it?
Of course there are multiple pledge tiers, but the base prices are $299 for an Early Bird Special limited to 500 black units, with the regular base price being $349 for the campaign-exclusive colors. For that price you get the console, a controller, and a pack-in game.
What's in this thing that makes it so expensive?
The Retro VGS is build around a combination of an ARM CPU and an FPGA. The chips were chosen to be powerful enough to run modern games - while a game like Shovel Knight might look like an NES game running on a SNES, it's actually a full PC/modern console game that requires a significant amount of power. The Retro VGS team wants developers to be able to use their game engine of choice to make games for it, including big ones like Unity. Note, it's still supposed to be for retro-style games, so don't expect to see Call of Duty graphics on there.
So it has an FPGA...what does that mean?
The Retro VGS is designed around a unique setup - it's got an ARM CPU but also an FPGA. An FPGA is basically a reconfigurable hardware chip - you can configure it to be any type of hardware you want, as long as you have the correct core for it. For example, an NES core would turn the chip into a combination of the NES CPU (RP2A03), its PPU (RP2C02), and whatever other connections would be needed. This is more than simple emulation, it's actually sort-of turning the FPGA into the actual hardware chips (tech-heads, don't tear me down for my oversimplification!)
The idea is to get as many retro-style games to come to the console as possible. If an indie developer has written a new NES or Genesis game, their game can run on the Retro VGS with literally zero changes; the cartridge loads up the correct core into the FPGA and then loads their game onto it. They could even use an altered FPGA core - you want an NES that could display better colors than the original system could, so your game isn't quite so limited, that's an option. The FPGA can also act like a graphics/sound card, so a game can be written to run natively on the ARM CPU with the FPGA handling graphics and sound.
Why IndieGoGo and not Kickstarter?
Since the announcement of this campaign, IndieGoGo has been trying to convince Retro VGS to use them, presumably offering extra incentives. In addition, IndieGoGo charges less for a successful campaign, and doesn't have as many limitations as Kickstarter. Two specific Kickstarter rules were problematic: Kickstarter doesn't allow campaigns to use renderings of what the final product will look like, or to hold hardware campaigns that don't show off functional running prototype hardware. Kickstarter's head of games told Retro VGS that they could do their campaign there anyways, ignoring those limits, but Retro VGS knows some people would complain and make a big deal about it if they did so.
Does this mean if they don't reach their goal they still get the money?
No, Retro VGS is holding what's called a static fixed-funding campaign. This works exactly like Kickstarter - they must reach their goal or they get nothing.
How is IndieGoGo different than Kickstarter for pledgers?
There's two big differences: First, pledgers can choose to use PayPal. Second, when you make a pledge, you are charged up front for the amount, rather than at the end of the campaign. You can still raise your amount to move up to different pledge tiers, but to move down to a cheaper tier, or to cancel your pledge altogether, you have to fill out a customer service form, they say they'll process the refund in one business day. If the campaign fails to reach their goal, all pledgers get their money automatically refunded within 5 days.
ANNOUNCED LAUNCH TITLES
TINY KNIGHT - free pack-in with the system
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbFjBmVT_J4
SONGBRINGER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRPpQYGJsZ4
READ ONLY MEMORIES
http://vimeo.com/121575119
SYNDEY HUNTER AND THE CAVERNS OF DEATH
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewtfl24vCik
ADVENTURE IN THE TOWER OF FLIGHT
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNXD8QRCu6Y
SUPER 3D NOAH'S ARK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK7pzzmsCxQ
GUNLORD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdqXxf1O1pA
INFERNAX
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhrojXnR5jI
KNIGHT'S CHANCE
http://youtu.be/e0VxABaIWfI
Where is the campaign?
www.indiegogo.com/projects/retro-vgs