• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Retro VGS, cartridge-based retro game console now on IndieGoGo

Wow. I'm all for mild jabs and such but this is pretty sickening. Parody or not.
Teaming up with ISIS? Seriously? That's just bottom of the barrel and not funny.

Reading their visitor comments section, one of their main vocal supporters/backers has pulled his pledges.

This is a trainwreck Mike. Pull the campaign and try to salvage any image you have left.

I was honestly expecting that joke to go somewhere along the lines of "We considered Kickstarter and IndieGoGo but we've decided on using GoFundMe because we want our intentions to be clear: give us your money."
 

NeOak

Member
I was honestly expecting that joke to go somewhere along the lines of "We considered Kickstarter and IndieGoGo but we've decided on using GoFundMe because we want our intentions to be clear: give us your money."

dead2.gif
 
Damn, back down to ~$65k. This thing is dead. I still say this Saturday they'll announce an end to the campaign, they have to save face.

It's a modern day console downfall disaster and we're front-and-center watching it play out in real time. Fun for us, terrible for the team. Poisonous perhaps to other homebrew console projects getting support in the future even if they're magnitudes more well planned and deliver a better experience for the old-school enthusiast gamer than Retro VGS.
 
D

Deleted member 10571

Unconfirmed Member
Damn, back down to ~$65k. This thing is dead. I still say this Saturday they'll announce an end to the campaign, they have to save face.

It's a modern day console downfall disaster and we're front-and-center watching it play out in real time. Fun for us, terrible for the team. Poisonous perhaps to other homebrew console projects getting support in the future even if they're magnitudes more well planned and deliver a better experience for the old-school enthusiast gamer than Retro VGS.

It would be sad if it wouldn't feel so deserved. I'm 100% sure that if there will be another, actually well-planned, transparent and straight-forward retro console Kickstarter, led by trustworthy people who don't seem like greedy dicks, they will have no problem funding it. The audience is clearly there.
 

mosaic

go eat paint
Mike Kennedy
5 hours ago
Hey Everyone,

We have confirmed, according to our IGG rep that Paypal is canceling some pledges for no reason(having to do with something triggering their fraud dept), and we are discussing with them now. We found out when one large backer said his pledge was reversed and he told us about it. Have any of you had this happen? If so let us know as we don’t know if it’s an isolated incident or happing frequently.

We will keep on keepin’ on!

Mike
Oops. Speculation here, but if true, it sounds like a bunch of people recently signed up with PayPal just for the IGG and maxed their daily limit...
 

Sorcerer

Member
It would be sad if it wouldn't feel so deserved. I'm 100% sure that if there will be another, actually well-planned, transparent and straight-forward retro console Kickstarter, led by trustworthy people who don't seem like greedy dicks, they will have no problem funding it. The audience is clearly there.

Are they really greedy dicks though? I think they just got carried away and over ambitious.

If Mike had stuck to his original plan, he could have had a neat inexpensive Retro console that maybe people would have loved. Once he developed a trust and a fanbase, he could have proposed his more lofty ambitions a few years down the line. And he might have succeeded. But you got to start somewhere first and you can't practically change your plans overnight especially without a prototype.
 

lord

Member
I've been lurking this since the last thread, And man FPGA sounds like such an amazing technology , I would love to own a device based on it with several high quality cores, I would even pay the $300, fuck it. This is not it though, I was excited to see if the campaign would come through with all the promises but... Huge disappointment, God that video , two minutes thanks to random stuff, some industry anectdoes and then a little bit about the actual project. Just terrible, guess they hoped the idea was so good everyone would just throw money at it.

Hope kevtris releases that device, I would throw down some hundreds for that device for sure.
 

Lothars

Member
It would be sad if it wouldn't feel so deserved. I'm 100% sure that if there will be another, actually well-planned, transparent and straight-forward retro console Kickstarter, led by trustworthy people who don't seem like greedy dicks, they will have no problem funding it. The audience is clearly there.
I don't think they are greedy dicks, I think the negativity of this is pretty bad and undeserving for the most part, the price is a issue though and should be lower.
 

Kawika

Member
Which one's did you play? Phantasy Star 2 & 3 haven't aged all that well, but I think 4 is still highly playable even today.

I think it was 2 & 3. Unfortunately, I can only emulate 4 so I don't get into those as much as playing with the real carts. Maybe Sega will do a 3D Classic for the 3DS.

I don't think they are greedy dicks, I think the negativity of this is pretty bad and undeserving for the most part, the price is a issue though and should be lower.

I don't think they are greedy either but I think the negativity isn't even because of the price (although, for some, I am sure it is), I think the bigger issue is that they didn't' have a working prototype. After things launched we found out that they brushed off the dev of the main selling point for some.

I honestly don't think all is lost, but the RVGS crew could do well by some of us who were excited about the project by having a public "mea culpa.' Tell the people what went wrong, what they will fix it, work on something to show people who are interested and then only then ask for crowd funding.

Mistakes were made and we have all made them in our lives. These people don't need to be crucified for their actions. I like a good redemption story. At the same time, if they kill the project and realize this isn't something they can do and go on to work on other projects, I would wish them the best. My hope is that they regroup and learn and find a way to get something more focused and try again (or not).
 
I don't think they are greedy dicks, I think the negativity of this is pretty bad and undeserving for the most part, the price is a issue though and should be lower.

Not really.
I wouldn't call Mike and crew "greedy dicks" (especially since they didn't use flexible funding and were upfront about their decision not to use Kickstarter when the time came) but I do question that sort of thing when they're unwilling to go in on a prototype.

The rest of the post was spot-on, though.
This campaign was in no way well-planned or straight-forward and in many ways not transparent. Mike had a lot of communication but failed to address (directly) the simple fact that there was no actual prototype until it was impossible to deny anymore, never discussed any kind of tangible specs whatsoever (because they didn't exist), etc.

It was certainly deserving of that negativity, and if a campaign that resolved these things were to launch, even a revised RVGS campaign, I'd definitely be willing to give it serious consideration.
 
They were *very* transparent - too much so for their own good, in fact, otherwise the price thing wouldn't have been as big of an issue (since they never would have even mentioned the original $200 goal), they wouldn't have had problems with Kevtris (since they wouldn't have tried to come up with ideas to lower the price without that pricing backlash), and they would probably have been on Kickstarter (since they wouldn't have revealed so much to get people talking about a potential lack of prototype). It would still have been a hard campaign to be successful, due to the $400 pricetag, but I think it would have at least had a chance.
 
I'd prefer too much transparency to not enough.

That's why I said "in many ways". Mike did a pretty good job talking about the ins and outs of what was going on and providing explanations for their decisions on pricing and using IGG and what (theoretical, non-specific) parts they wanted to use for the system but that doesn't really account for the lack of transparency in the places it really mattered. Mike didn't talk about prototypes not existing until the subject was completely unavoidable. Until then he just kinda talked around it.

Sure, we'll give you a $299 pricetag but we won't tell you the specs because we don't even know what parts are going into this thing because it doesn't exist yet.
Look at these nice Jaguar shells though! Contribute today!
 
Sure, we'll give you a $299 pricetag but we won't tell you the specs because we don't even know what parts are going into this thing because it doesn't exist yet.
Look at these nice Jaguar shells though! Contribute today!
They gave the specs long ago (and had the PCB fully designed and ready to be manufactured for prototype), but after they dropped the price by $50, they changed them to "pending revision". You're right, they probably don't know exactly what's going into it because they felt they had to drop the price at the last second.
 
They were *very* transparent - too much so for their own good, in fact, otherwise the price thing wouldn't have been as big of an issue (since they never would have even mentioned the original $200 goal), they wouldn't have had problems with Kevtris (since they wouldn't have tried to come up with ideas to lower the price without that pricing backlash), and they would probably have been on Kickstarter (since they wouldn't have revealed so much to get people talking about a potential lack of prototype). It would still have been a hard campaign to be successful, due to the $400 pricetag, but I think it would have at least had a chance.

I don't think it would have. All of the drama and bullshit is sort of masking the fact that a $300-400 console with very little promise by way of support and who's only real advantage or claim to fame is "it plays carts like in the old days" was doomed to fail. There isn't enough of a market for what they are trying to do, especially not at that price.
 

Risible

Member
I think they've poisoned the well.

I was interested but on the fence. Seeing how they've handled this debacle has turned me off to any future projects they may have a hand in. I feel like they have no idea whatsoever about running big projects after seeing this clusterfuck of a campaign.
 

panda-zebra

Member
They were *very* transparent - too much so for their own good

There's a difference between being transparent and announcing every new idea that crosses your mind before running it past the hardware guys and thinking through the implications.

the price thing wouldn't have been as big of an issue (since they never would have even mentioned the original $200 goal)

$150 originally. Then possibly $180. Then maybe $200. Then actually $300.

EDIT: According to this podcast, it was originally hoped to be $99 but with a much lower spec.

they wouldn't have had problems with Kevtris (since they wouldn't have tried to come up with ideas to lower the price without that pricing backlash),

It was originally an FPGA console that simulated many systems and allowed homebrewers to come together on the one platform by doing what they always do, only with a much wider audience. They increased the price because of all the other hardware they were throwing at it (that kevtris attempted to dissuade them from) as they attempted to make it into a device that could allow for ports of modern pixelated indie "retro" games.

and they would probably have been on Kickstarter (since they wouldn't have revealed so much to get people talking about a potential lack of prototype).

It wasn't people talking that made them go indiegogo, it was a member of this forum demonstrating that he knew more about the requirements for ks campaigns than those intending to gain $2m+ from one.

they probably don't know exactly what's going into it because they felt they had to drop the price at the last second.

Which is when they left kevtris out in the cold and, as Mike put it, he "threw them under the bus" by detailing how that went down.
 
I don't think it would have. All of the drama and bullshit is sort of masking the fact that a $300-400 console with very little promise by way of support
They announced 10 launch titles, that's decent support for a launch, especially considering with a successful Kickstarter they would have gotten more.

It was originally an FPGA console that simulated many systems and allowed homebrewers to come together on the one platform by doing what they always do, only with a much wider audience. They increased the price because of all the other hardware they were throwing at it (that kevtris attempted to dissuade them from) as they attempted to make it into a device that could allow for ports of modern pixelated indie "retro" games.
When was "originally" in your mind? Because the first I heard of this 6 months or so ago, it was going to have an ARM chip in it. Up until the price drop, there were no major hardware changes in the last few months. Maybe back in 2014 it would have been an FPGA-only system, dunno.
 

panda-zebra

Member
When was "originally" in your mind? Because the first I heard of this 6 months or so ago, it was going to have an ARM chip in it. Up until the price drop, there were no major hardware changes in the last few months. Maybe back in 2014 it would have been an FPGA-only system, dunno.

I don't particularly want to subject everyone reading to a WoT history of RVGS from the horse's mouth, but I intend to be thorough and I've not seen it done so far around the forums, so with that...

I'm not sure anyone on the outside knew what was intended to be inside until Kennedy posted on April 15 at AtariAge with a message from Woita:

parrothead@AA said:
To answer the question will the RETRO VGS be PC/Linux based or Android based. The answer is neither as we are going the FPGA route. My partner Steve Woita puts it best:

- Steve Woita, "To answer the question: "What language will games be in? " My answer is: It depends. If a developer wants to make a Neo Geo game, they would include an HDL file that configures the FPGA to operate like a Neo Geo. The developer would code their game to run against the Neo Geo platform. This HDL code along with the actual Neo Geo game will be on the cartridge. Once that cartridge is placed in the RETRO VGS, it will become a Neo Geo and play that game. So in this case, the language is: 68000 and Z80 code. If you wanted to do a new 2600 styled game, you'd include a 2600 HDL file that configures the FPGA to replicate the logic of the original 2600 hardware and then you'd include your new 2600 game on that cartridge too. These two files are then paired up on the cartridge and when plugged into the RETRO VGS, will turn the console into a 2600. So the language that would be used in this case is: 6507 (6502 with less address space). Does that help explain things a little "bit" more?"

Their FAQ later added to the above with a short mention:

RVGS FAQ said:
Oh and we’ll have a nice little ARM chip for some more fun stuff.

In the same post above, Kennedy went on himself to add:

parrothead@AA said:
Note, we aren't doing this so much for hardware emulation of older software, but more importantly, giving developers of various levels the ability to program their new games using what they are already familiar with (Atari, SNES, NES, GENESIS, etc.).

Until this point, it was an all-systems-in-one machine designed to bring all homerbrewers and maybe even the guys who made the originals BITD (and here, from another close contact) under the same roof. At this point, the following comment is telling:

parrothead@AA said:
In a sense we might also be able to replicate an Android system and open this up to Unity developers as well.

This is where the spark seems to have ignited to head away from the all-things-to-all-men approach in favour of exploring RVGS as a modern indie box. Decisions made since this time lessened the emphasis on the FPGA side of things and in favour hyped the faux-retro modern indie "pixel" stuff.

Later that month, these were his words:

parrothead@AA said:
We are still working hard on the system specs and hardware. This is no easy task and we know we can't please everyone.

Suggesting some realisation of a need to balance the desires of their interested fanbase, afterall, everyone on board so far is looking to this FPGA all-in-one machine.

By July, the wording of comments coming out of the RVGS camp was markedly different to the all-in-one/existing homebrewers/celebrity old men stuff:

parrothead@AA said:
This system is not going to be cheap. It will be as next gen as you can get in a cartridge based console. It will have plenty of capability to run even the biggest Retro indie titles coming to market now and in the future.

Here, I think it's safe to assume they've turned the corner and it's the ARM that's the core of the system and what they see as the key to their success. It's also hinting heavily at new pricing being inevitable - likely as a result of expanding the capabilities beyond what was intended before.

FPGA is not dead, though, as he later posts:

parrothead@AA said:
We are also counting on developers to create their own cores so we will not only be relying on cores for existing systems. This is where it will get very interesting, seeing what developers do to push the hardware.

FPGA is still there (although accompanied by some rather overly-optimistic wishful thinking it seems).

Early September was when it became fully clear that they didn't see a future for the machine without modern indies on it:

parrothead@AA said:
Next, since we don't want the success of RVGS to lie only in the hands of smaller homebrew game developers who are making incredible retro games for the classic systems, we wanted to make RVGS capable of playing the best of today's retro inspired games coming from a great group of Indie developers around the world. And just because these games look RETRO, they are in fact, quite large, many in the 1-2GB range.

So FPGA?

parrothead@AA said:
As far as whether or not we are leaving the FGPA inside RVGS. The answer is YES. Removing this part of our hardware will significantly reduce the value and capability of this machine.

...but...

Here it seems like he's no longer interested in the homebrewers putting out 2600 and Neo Geo games etc. on his cartridges, as they will have adapters for the real thing, as in response to this question:

AA user said:
Why would a developer do something idiotic like that? They'd just go ahead and make a regular VCS game and publish it on a cartridge that way. Then you'd use the Adapter (which includes the HDL VCS core). Anyone buying a modern-day VCS cartridge is likely to have a VCS anyways.

He posted this reply:

parrothead@AA said:
This is correct. Now that we've introduced the cart adapters that will negate the need to port any "Legacy" system's new(er) games to our carts. We'll update the FAQ.

So that's all us homebrewers out of their main masterplan and back to doing stuff as normal, albeit with the possibility of a wider audience with the correct adapter for their RVGS, as he later posted:

parrothead@AA said:
our plan is to have a centralized location, ecommerce shopping cart site, to sell the games that can be played on our system, from our proprietary carts to homebrews on original carts from their respective systems.

After this point and the crow funding campaign is imminent, a post on facebook showed their current position:

Jonathan Lopez: Ah i see . Is it compatable with every retro game like nes , snes , genisis, master system etc ?
RETRO VGS Potentially in the future, but main focus is playing this new wave of retro games coming out ..... On cartridges.

And that's the transition from FPGA all-in-one to pixelated indies on cart. This is the point where it seems kevtris posts his feelings to AA, as it seems his role is a stretch goal add-on at best.
 
The ARM was mentioned on podcasts before April, and it was also at that time they were talking about discussions for making the FPGA more powerful but at a higher cost, powerful enough to handle PS1-level gaming. They said at the time they really wanted to do it, but weren't sure about the price increase.
 

panda-zebra

Member
The ARM was mentioned on podcasts before April, and it was also at that time they were talking about discussions for making the FPGA more powerful but at a higher cost, powerful enough to handle PS1-level gaming. They said at the time they really wanted to do it, but weren't sure about the price increase.

FFS, I'm not saying there was no ARM, I'm talking of the emphasis, it's role, and the extent of its capabilities.

The reality you present with your posts does not fit the timeline of RVGS PR.

Can I get that on cart please?

Would that be masked ROM, regular flash, 100-year-supaflash, mini disc, or a sneaky little hidden hard drive in there?

All potential "cart" options at one time or another
 

ultrazilla

Member
I want to add that the name calling and other personal mud slinging Mike has endured isn't fair at all. From being called "scam artists" to "idiots", it's not deserved at all. The only thing he's guilty of is not swallowing his pride right now and taking the campaign down to reboot it.

As was mentioned above, there is very CLEARLY support for a system such as this.

I want to play a system like this again. I'd love to collect the cartridges and be able to pop them in and play them instantly. Whether it'll be on a RetroVGS system or a system from Kevtris, or someone else, you can BET someone out there is watching what is happening with the RetroVGS campaign and learning from it to launch their own system.

Mike-again, no amount of interviews will change the fact that the current campaign is DONE. It's suffering. Put it out of it's misery quickly and pull it.

Put together a leaner campaign to fund a working prototype. This campaign would obviously fund the console as well as getting a few games working on actual cartridges.

Once you have a working prototype together, start bringing in all those developers wanting to develop on the system, get them kits to start porting/making their games for it. The key being here keep the COST DOWN. I think between $150-$250 TOPS is your sweet spot for pricing on the system and going by other comments, seems to be the general consensus. Do NOT go anywhere near a $300 price point.

Launch a positive P.R. campaign showing off the working prototype and games(being played on the system) hype the eventual launch of the Kickstarter.

Relaunch the system on Kickstarter. With an actual working prototype, you shouldn't have a problem reaching the funding you're currently trying to get now 2-3 million.

Otherwise, I guess we wait for someone else to come along. :/
 
EDIT: According to this podcast, it was originally hoped to be $99 but with a much lower spec.

Thanks for finding that! I didn't know about that podcast.

It's actually one of the most revealing interviews. Some of the nuggets I took away:

-He talks about meeting with Konami and Mattel.
-Mike Mika was going to make a retro game maker cartridge, now THAT'S an idea they should have stuck with
-He wanted the KS campaign to not only get the console off the ground but also about 10 launch titles (maybe that's why he's had such a high funding goal in mind since the beginning?)
-He wanted the console to be delivered by the early second quarter of 2016
-He wanted to ask Howard Phillips to be on their "advisory board"? Really?
 

Bar81

Member
Ok, it appears that they've taken down visitor posting on their RetroVGS Facebook homepage. I can't find it anywhere.

Apparently that's all that was holding them back (the "haters" posting on their facebook page). IGG funded campaign here we come.

I actually feel sorry for them at this point - it's gone to pure farce now.
 

_Ryo_

Member
Reading through this thread, I just don't know what to say. A lot of missteps with this whole thing.

And now blocking visitor posts?

The charade continues, I guess
 
Reading through this thread, I just don't know what to say. A lot of missteps with this whole thing.

And now blocking visitor posts?

The charade continues, I guess

They're in complete damage control without realizing the more they do, the worse it looks. They'd rather do that rather than admit fault.
 
I'm all for optimism---but the reading for some of these posts is like looking back through a warped portal in time to the sorts of sentiments and statements that I'd be expecting from folks when SEGA gave up the ghost on the hardware front. The sensible things of all sorts sound good sure, so blindingly logical that for a fraction of a second the dissonance hits you deductively even, but it was a given that the dye had long since been cast...

From the sum of the lot of this, it is something of a paradox as it stands: This team wouldn't be the sort that'd act on these general good ideas after the fact to where All Is Well, because seemingly there's no way such a team would've then been capable to engineer things to the present, horrid state in the first place.

I don't know anymore if they were actually trying to reach an actual audience per se, as opposed to a nebulous ever-present emotional/philosophical current that amounts to something like a futuristic luddite that is just omnipresent---grasping at modern-future tech to create a bubble of flawed recollections and understanding of the Good Old Days of classic tech.

For each various thing this was supposed to be at a given time, I just can't see a situation where any of them happen in a realized form beyond kevtris and/or other people aside from the team as it now stands---they are in far too big and spiteful a bubble of their own designs now.
 
The last CUpodcast has a good roundup of all the problems with the Retro VGS.

http://thepunkeffect.com/cupodcast-...-game-production-mighty-no-9-demo-delay-more/

Have you seen their response?

nespunk.png



Pat was visibly uncomfortable and it's safe to assume that was because, as he explains at the start, he knows Mike personally. He was still professional and respectful but honest about a topic his fans wanted him to discuss.

And Mike responds to that with complete fucking disrespect. How wonderful.
 
Have you seen their response?

nespunk.png



Pat was visibly uncomfortable and it's safe to assume that was because, as he explains at the start, he knows Mike personally. He was still professional and respectful but honest about a topic his fans wanted him to discuss.

And Mike responds to that with complete fucking disrespect. How wonderful.

Good lord, they're playing the victim card that everyone is out to get them. They just are too blind to see that there are extremely legit reasons why they have issues.
 
RETRO VGS via Facebook said:
No PR campaign could fix the underming of this project (from the beginning) from the haters in the world in this hobby. We've all seen it countless times before and this is just another one one of those times. These same haters are there dissing anyone that wants to go out there and make the gaming hobby a more fun place and I can't for the life of me see where their motives lie. One thing PR people would do is ban people and keep these public attacks at bay, and that is one mistake we've made in the beginning to show transparency. Big mistake and one we are learning from.

Jesus this shit show is getting worse by the day. I would have never guessed Mike Kennedy and the RETRO team would act and respond in the manner they have over the past several days. I even feel now like I got clowned for backing year 1 of the RETRO magazine. What a complete fucking trainwreck this has been.

Forget doubling down, they are tripling down on this absolute clusterfuck of a dream they are attempting to sell. They are playing the victim card to a fucking T about how they were so transparent about everything and how it bit them in the ass. If they wanted to be transparent, they should have openly stated that they have zero fucking hardware and zero fucking clue on how they are going to build this high end dream console.
 
$65k and 39 days left. Don't think it's gonna hit their target.

Cmon guys, salvage what little 'anything' is left and try again. We will forget this all happened. This system can happen.
 
Have there been any comments from Steve Woita or John Carlsen?
Everything that I've seen regarding the VGS so far has been through Mike (which makes sense), but I'm curious to see how they feel about how things are going.
 
Interview with Mike Kennedy from Gamester81's Youtube channel.

https://youtu.be/WmapDzXBA70

I haven't listened to all of it yet. I just wanted to give everyone a heads up.

There are some interesting moments in that interview. Wait for the interview with Carl to go live. I'm almost positive that Mike set up the Gamester81 interview to help shore himself up in preparation for Carl's interview to go live. I'm going to try to go through this one again tonight and isolate all of Gamester81's questions so we can compare them to the topics Carl went over. Just everything discussed here was about Mike covering his ass.

Here are the things I found interesting:

20:30 He talks about the cardboard mock up. Says others "turned it around to say that we had a working board" which is funny because as I remember it, that's the point when we suspected you don't have a prototype and wouldn't be on Kickstarter because of it. Some of your supporters claimed you must have a prototype based on blind faith in you, and you sure didn't correct them, you let them be proven wrong when you launched your campaign.

23:30 He says this is going to be a small volume system. More on this later.

30:50 Admits the crowdfunding results are discouraging.

32:20 Here he retells how he read the Kickstarter rules I reposted here on NeoGAF. So it's confirmed, he didn't understand the prototyping requirement before planning to be on Kickstarter.

33:10 Here he talks about the OUYA not having a prototype but it's so funny because he's trying to play dumb and says "did OUYA have a prototype? ... I don't remember if I saw one?" but in here he was vehemently arguing that OUYA didn't "technically" have a prototype. He's so full of shit.

34:15 "we're light years ahead!" There's that phrase again! Take a shot!

38:30 Says he wants his product on retail store shelves, I thought this was a low volume system?

43:00 At current prices, he'll be making $70-90 profit on each console. He says the profit will be used to "fund the company" according to him other Kickstarters that begin with a prototype already start with a company, so we need to fund his. He's so fucking strange, he never wants to be compared to the OUYA but wants to be them so badly.

44:20 He admits the campaign is proving there is no market for a cartridge based system, says this opportunity will never happen again. He also said "DO THE MATH!" which I found very funny. Also confirms he paid $6k for the Jaguar tooling and defends them not having a prototype or anything else because then they would be "working for free" and that his team has currently "done everything we can"

49:30 Talks about explaining the console to kids at the expo. But the way he describes it sounds like the kids went to the booth, saw a screen with games playing, picked up the controller on the table and were confused when it didn't work. Poor kids, they just want to try out some games at an expo and instead they get a lecture.


EDIT:
Have there been any comments from Steve Woita or John Carlsen?
Everything that I've seen regarding the VGS so far has been through Mike (which makes sense), but I'm curious to see how they feel about how things are going.

Yes, they chime in every now and then in the Facebook comments. John does more of the defending. Also all three were on the Retro Gaming Roundup podcast, which I think was their last podcast before the campaign launched. All three should also be in the interview with Carl.
 
Have you seen their response?

nespunk.png



Pat was visibly uncomfortable and it's safe to assume that was because, as he explains at the start, he knows Mike personally. He was still professional and respectful but honest about a topic his fans wanted him to discuss.

And Mike responds to that with complete fucking disrespect. How wonderful.

Completely and utterly ridiculous.
 
He is dead wrong about there not being a market for a system like Retro VGS. Kevtris's idea is already generating much more goodwill and support from the community, and a FPGA console designed to play homebrew games designed for older hardware, if done right, could have a big following. But Retro VGS is flat out failing on all points to bring a solid, cohesive vision with some tangible substance at this point of the life cycle.

People want a cartridge-based retro-style console. They just don't want the Retro VGS. "Do the math" on that one, guys.
 
I like Gamester81 a lot but I hope people realize he is completely biased. His team is making the pack-in game for the system and he's a backer of the system. This interview feels like an ad in a lot of ways.

Also, John made a point about the negatives of patching by saying it took him over 30 minutes to download Super Mario Maker's day one patch. BS. That thing was incredibly small and took around two or three minutes to download . I wish certain people who have a problem with aspects of modern gaming would ease up on the hyperbole. Edit- Apparently, other people have had issues with this patch taking a long time to download, so I apologize for my misinformation on this point.
 

Risible

Member
Given their responses there's no way I'd trust these guys with 2 million dollars. Not in a "it's a scam way" but in a "that money will be pissed away on mismanagement" way.
 
He is dead wrong about there not being a market for a system like Retro VGS. Kevtris's idea is already generating much more goodwill and support from the community, and a FPGA console designed to play homebrew games designed for older hardware, if done right, could have a big following. But Retro VGS is flat out failing on all points to bring a solid, cohesive vision with some tangible substance at this point of the life cycle.

People want a cartridge-based retro-style console. They just don't want the Retro VGS. "Do the math" on that one, guys.

The problem is pricing and support. Would you trust a relatively small upstart to have the ability to convince third parties to support the system? I wouldn't.
 
They've essentially become the first console project to actually go damn near all New Age Medicine as far as their marketing, PR, and trying to interact with the world and rightful critics at large strategies haven't they? Good lord...

The only trope missing for this thing to become a complete monument to missing the mark and trying to tap into people would be a MLM angle.
 

coughlanio

Member
I was really behind this system from day one, even to the point where I was running a site called RETRO VGS Club, and started a podcast just before the campaign went live, but as soon as I saw the campaign, I just had to pull the plug on everything.

Living in Europe, the system works out at over $500 once you factor in duty/VAT and shipping. Wasn't going to happen. After seeing all this recent shitfuckery going on, really glad I bailed when I did. Mike did seem a cool guy, but it seems like he's turning when backed up against a wall like this.

I wonder if this bad publicity will trickle back on the magazine?
 
Top Bottom