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February 2016 Retro Gaming Article


February 17, 2016 Retro Gaming Blog Post:

The “new” Coleco may have debuted a Chameleon prototype console at Toy Fair

Coleco Chameleon - Remember When. Play again.
A Retro VGS prototype console - still in an Atari Jaguar case - branded as Coleco, appeared at Toy Fair as the Chameleon. Show us the PCB!
I love the idea of a cartridge-based game console in the midst of the awful state of video gaming's eighth generation in which games are regularly released incomplete. If I'm paying for a new game, I want a completed game. I understand the value of the developer being able to tweak or add more to the game, but that notion has been abused to the point at which consumers feel like beta-testers... after paying for the completed game!

Cartridge-based games were final. There were no patches or DLC (fixes). The game was complete at release. Certainly some games were rushed and glitches did happen, but today's reliance on "fix it in post" is ridiculous and borders on fraud.

Retro VGS has an Uphill Battle Ahead

Chameleon's success is hinged on transparency with backers - show the PCB!
Yes, I'd love to see a simpler game console; one that booted instantly and played games from carts. The Retro VGS folks have a great idea, but ran into difficulty with proof of concept. After having the gall to try crowd-funding $2 million without a working prototype, their indiegogo campaign fell apart fast. Gamers understand the awesomeness of the Retro VGS concept, but we also know how hard it is to develop hardware and sign up enough game devs to create the necessary games to make the system viable.

Let's face it- optical discs became the standard for game media due to large storage capacity at a lower cost. They are easy to create, duplicate, and distribute. Aside from that, they are slow, fragile, and necessitate complex mechanisms as the backbone of modern consoles. My Atari consoles (2600, 5200 & 7800) from the 80s all work wonderfully today. Try getting an Xbox to fire up 35 years from now! And lets not even get into their game's reliance on external servers that often shut down when profits dwindle.

Coleco booth at Toy Fair

The Face of Gaming is Forever Changed

Gaming has changed drastically since the days when I could sit in front of a CRT TV with a Colecovision. While nostalgia makes me yearn for the Chameleon to succeed, much of my zeal for it comes from a great displeasure in the state of gaming in 2016. Time will change everything, but that doesn't mean that the past is inferior in some way.

The surge of interest in all things retro validates it's prominence, but modern economics won't let those golden age dreams come back. For a new console to be successful, it needs a great price point, a must-have game at launch, and a solid roster of launch titles to support sales of the hardware. It also needs to exist in the real world - not as a fanboy prototype. Show us the PCB or go home.

What turned the Retro VGS indiegogo attempt last year into a charade was their insistance on presenting unrealistic specs & capabilities, changing the premise, and doubling the price. It was an amateur attempt and put the Retro VGS team in an unenviable position.

Such a project doesn't need backers, it needs investors - ones with lots of money. Kickstarter can help gauge interest in the Chameleon, but it won't become a viable product without investors.

Everyone knows Coleco is like Atari. both are iconic brand names that have little relevance in today's gaming era. Using such brand-recognition makes me suspicious. Putting the Coleco name with the former Retro VGS console seems misleading at best. Are we to believe that those behind the Colecovision have returned to bring cartridge gaming to the masses? Even today's Atari is smarter than that.

A Great Idea Requires Great Execution

There have been several stories from respected media outlets running stories about the "return of Coleco". There is no return. It's a brand resurrection and I find the whole thing lacking the needed transparency for the success of the Chameleon. This is the same nonsense that doomed the Retro VGS indiegogo campaign.

I really like the Retro VGS concept and would love to see them beat the odds, but they need to overcome their crowd funding mistakes from last year - in a big way. Siding with "Coleco" won't cut it. Show us the prototype's PCB. A proto is largely to solidify proof of concept concerns. Show us the PCB. That's the guts of this project. Let us see it. There is already speculation about the "protrusion" from the back of the case at the Toy Fair demo. Show the PCB!

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