Coleco Chameleon

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Mar 06, 2016 9:40 pm

This is a retro game machine that.... appears to be a scam:

https://motherboard.vice.com/read/crowd ... -is-a-mess

Funny thing, I contacted the guy someone involved in this last year when he was calling it the Retro VGS. He was asking developers to write him for info on what it was. He never wrote me back. It's weird that this has been scammy, because as far as I know, GameGavel.com is a legit auction site. Sad to see, but at the same time cements my desire to never really support another Kickstarter again.

RealNC · Post by **RealNC** » Mon Mar 07, 2016 6:38 pm

I've heard about this one long ago in a few podcasts, and followed it since. The system didn't seem to make a lot of sense. A cartridge-based system in 2016? Why? Games are going to be way more expensive because of that, and you can't update them. They're in ROMs. The dude behind this was claiming that games that come in cartridges have no bugs, and that's why he wanted a cartridge-based system. As if the cartridge is the magic thingy that somehow makes games bug-free.

Then the developer he had hired to develop the FPGA cores for the system (SNES, Genesis, etc.) just left and washed his hands clean of this mess.

Then, he demoed a "prototype" that clearly had an SNES board crammed inside a Jaguar case, with lots of duct tape covering the rear (so that the SNES board that was sticking out wasn't clearly visible.) The developer had left, so that's the only way he could have put the "prototype" together. There was no FPGA core that could be used.

So even if this isn't a scam (many people still give him the benefit of the doubt), this thing makes zero sense. A system that runs cartridges on SNES and Genesis cores plus its own core, and new games being developed for it and shipped on cartridges.

Who would ever need or want that? For existing cartridge games, there's already the Retron 5 system; it's been out for a long time already. And virtually nobody wants new games to come in ROM cartridges.

It was a stupid idea to begin with.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Mar 07, 2016 8:51 pm

Around a couple years ago, I could have seen the appeal in the cartridge thing because, hey, it'd be nice to have out and have displayed.

After moving three times in a little over a year I am long since past that.

It's too bad, I think that almost every iOS and Android game I've played has been terrible. A console (not one that requires cartridges, but a console) that supported HTML5 / JavaScript games could be cool. This, please, cannot be that.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Tue Mar 08, 2016 6:52 am

A cartridge-based system makes great sense... for the people selling the consoles and cartridges. Not so much for consumers. For the people making and selling them, they make a profit on the console, they make a profit off the games, and they potentially make a profit from licensing. Win, win, win. Game programmers get to have their games purchased and played by collectors, and collectors have something physical to collect. I'm not saying I'm the market for this, but there is definitely a market for this.

Buuut, yeah. He got caught not once but twice trying to dupe the very people that would be buying his product. Mike was an active member of the retro podcast community and not only runs Game Gavel but also Retro Magazine. It is sad to watch people jumping ship from all his projects.

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Tue Mar 08, 2016 2:45 pm

Did anyone notice that game manufacturers claimed games were so expensive because people pirated them, and as games either
* went onto cartridges that indiuviduals can't copy
* could not be loaded unless cryptographically signed and/or
* required a live Internet connection and an on-line serial number verification
the prices never went down eveough this cut piracy?

As there is no real maret for these devices, there is no reason to be recreating old games or old systems as there just isn't that much relevance / interest today, and because there are plenty of outlets even for indie games today, some which didn't even work, as I found out.

Any of you heard of the OUYA? It's an Android-based game console about the size of a 4" cube. I bought one and while it's still around, it never caught on. But it did have an advantage in that it would have a low barrier to entry for development, the general public never heard of it so people didn't buy it, thus very few games were made for it.

Seeing things like that tells me, building retro devices cannot be a viable strategy for a real game product, when brand new, state of the art, low barrier to entry game devices like the OUYA die on the vine.

But let me add something (tangentially) related to the Coleco Chameleon:

(Sung to the tune of Karma Chamelleon by Culture Club)
Game playing on TV screen, all the way
If I listened to your lies would you say
I'm a man without cartridge attraction
I'm a man who doesn't know
How to buy such a contraption
You came and go
You came and went

Colo Colo Coleco Chameieon
You came and go (or went)
You came and go
Playin' would be easy if your colors
Weren't out your ass
Black Gold and Ash
Black Gold and Ash

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Tue Mar 08, 2016 6:04 pm

I didn't read any of that, but today Coleco officially announced that they have cancelled their partnership with the developers of the Chameleon. They gave the dev team 7 days to come up with a working prototype that didn't involve a Super Nintendo or electrical tape.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Tue Mar 08, 2016 7:43 pm

Flack wrote:I didn't read any of that, but today Coleco officially announced that they have cancelled their partnership with the developers of the Chameleon. They gave the dev team 7 days to come up with a working prototype that didn't involve a Super Nintendo

"We can do this, team! We can do it!"

or electrical tape.

"Guys? G-guys....?"

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Wed Mar 09, 2016 6:17 am

Apparently a bunch of related Facebook pages were deleted last night along with the Chameleon's website sooo...

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Wed Mar 09, 2016 10:36 am

They weren't deleted, they're just well-camouflaged.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Wed Mar 09, 2016 9:31 pm

A lot of people don't know this, but deleting posts works like how not having sex does in Back to the Future. It's like the things never happened!! The scam just faaaades away!

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Thu Mar 10, 2016 8:37 am

pinback wrote:They weren't deleted, they're just well-camouflaged.

That was a "Chameleon" joke, by the way.

That was the joke.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Thu Mar 10, 2016 3:54 pm

And your true colors, shined through.

They were beautiful. Like a rainbow.

RealNC · Post by **RealNC** » Fri Mar 11, 2016 12:01 am

Ah, yes. Chameleons can camouflage. I totally forgot.

Good banter!