Coleco Chameleon

[VideoGameCritic]

Gentlegamer,
I don't know what lulz is. English please.
Also, send the link to the Atari Age thread.
Thanks

[scotland]

The AtariAge link is both in the Ars Technica article and here
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/235430-how-has-this-not-been-posted-yet-retro-vgs/

Its huge - about 200 pages. You could probably just read from page 175 on when Coleco gets involved for the recent thoughts.

Nah, I don't do ROMs really.

That's fine. We've had the discussion around here, and some folks want to pick a fight over it. I recognize that ROMs and the emulators that play them are part of the equation for many people, but not for others, and leave it at that.

More importantly playing the games on the RetroVGS was supposed to be just like playing it on original hardware, not the less than perfect reproduction we get with emulators.

First, the system's original purpose was to be a new platform for new games, not another retro machine. Its not going to be a nest of cartridge slots like the Retron 5, because its only got a single slot by using that old Jag shell. Your existing library of cartridges is not going to work anyway.

However, maybe they could make multicarts of older system games in their pin layout. Let's say that for $35, they make a multicart of about 10 TG-16 games. Maybe $10 goes to the rights holders of those games, $15 for production costs in making the cartridge, box, art, etc. That leaves $10 for the Retro VGS people. That would give them a pipeline of games to make by mining older libraries and not depending on new games that may or may not come, and a reason to sell the console at near cost. Maybe that would work. I'd spend money to have Neutopia I and II with save points and HDMI out.

Correct me, but the FPGA is a chip that can be used to hold soft processors cores, to be like little systems-on-a-chip. http://nintendolegend.com/2015/09/interview-kevin-kevtris-horton-on-the-retro-vgs/ Here is an interview with Kevin Horton talking about the FPGA core in September. "The “core” is everything that encompasses a virtual “system”. i.e. an Atari 2600 core would be everything that makes the FPGA operate like an Atari 2600. The Colecovision core would reconfigure the hardware to operate as a Colecovision, and so on."

The FPGA does not run a Colecovision game on an original Colecovision, but rather on a soft processor core configured like a Colecovision. This is still a form of hardware emulation. Someone has to design the soft processor core to be like a Colecovision. Its still going to be less than perfect, isn't it? And hardware emulation is not going to be as customizable as software emulation, for instance, letting us pause games that never had that feature, or creating save points.

I don't wish to be sour on this. If it turns out great, then they can have my money with a smile. However I'm from Missouri on this one.

[Shapur]

Your existing library of cartridges is not going to work anyway.

What I had heard, and I may be way off because like I said the info has been confusing, was that there would be cartridge slot adapters. Only one cartridge slot and separately sold plug in Game Genie like cartridges for the various other system so that the original carts would work.

The FPGA does not run a Colecovision game on an original Colecovision, but rather on a soft processor core configured like a Colecovision. This is still a form of hardware emulation. Someone has to design the soft processor core to be like a Colecovision. Its still going to be less than perfect, isn't it? And hardware emulation is not going to be as customizable as software emulation, for instance, letting us pause games that never had that feature, or creating save points.

I'm no engineer so I'm just going off what I've heard. It was my understanding that the re-configurable FPGA is going to produce results much closer to the original chips than software emulation. By realigning its logic gates it is supposedly recreating the actual IC's of the Colecovision board. I'm sure it wont be 100% compatible because even slight difference break compatibility for some software but it would be closer than a normal emulator. You are right about the flexibility. By recreating the original hardware you are only gonna get what was there and no more. No filters, scanline generators, save states, nada.

[scotland]

Here is a post from someone who understands the tech, the same Kevin person.
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/235430 ... try3325199

The slot adapter is an okay idea, or a piggy back cartridge. All of those might end up being vaporware though.

[Gentlegamer]

Gentlegamer,
I don't know what lulz is. English please.
Also, send the link to the Atari Age thread.
Thanks

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lulz

Get with the times, gramps.

[Rookie1]

The real question is who is going to develop for this thing, who is going to manufacture evertyhing, who is going to distribute, and who in their right mind would carry this thing?

It just seems like one big pipe dream.

[LoganRuckman]

I gotta say, though no patches sounds great on paper, it does have a disadvantage. A broken cartridge game will always be broken.

[starblazers]

The price is going to be $200 to $250. That is not including shipping.

[scotland]

It just seems like one big pipe dream.

You are correct sir. Apparently there was not, is not, and shall never be a Coleco Chameleon.



From what I gather, Retro VGS showed off the Coleco Chameleon at the New York Toy Show in February, but there were suspicions that it was a just a SNES unit duct taped inside a Jaguar casing. To dispel those suspicions, Retro VGS released a clear case image of the Coleco Chameleon....but some Sherlock Holmes types at Atari Age spied that what was inside was actually a pre-existing board, as seen above. The company that currently owns the Coleco name quickly pulled out, and Retro VGS may have gone off the grid for a time.

[Fingers dripping ink]

Retro VGS and Coleco Chamleleon are dead. That's what you get for lying.