Coleco Chameleon Kickstarter Delayed Amid Accusations of Impropriety
After the Retro Video Game System was unable to secure funding on Kickstarter last year, the dream was rekindled in December with the announcement of the Coleco Chameleon, a new console from the industry veteran, born from the ashes of the RVGS. With the big name behind it and a promise from the creator that more care would be given to showing working prototypes to fans, things were looking rosy for the system. Unfortunately, some commentators in the retro gaming community have suggested that things aren't quite what they seem.
The suggestions that something was amiss started just a few days ago when the company announced that the Kickstarter, due to start next week, was being delayed to improve the system.
We’re delaying the Kickstarter for the Coleco Chameleon to make it even better! Last week during Toy Fair in New York,...
Posted by Retro Video Game Systems, Inc. on Friday, February 26, 2016
There's nothing wrong with that you might think, but it's the images attached to the post that drew unwanted attention. Eagle-eyed readers of the Atari age forums spotted something that they felt wasn't quite right with one of the images:
Yes, the electronics inside the shell seem to be a particular off the shelf DVR card. The implication of this is that the demonstrations that have been shown are pre-recorded footage and the unit is not functional as expected. The image in question has since been removed from Facebook
There's already been a suggestion that other hardware had been put into the shell at a previous trade show on the same forum. At the time, it was suggested that the shell of the prototype device contained a SNES Jr Console and not the FPGA based hardware that was promised. This second reveal is a damning blow for a company trying hard to gain the support of the fans who will ultimately be responsible for funding the device.
It gets worse for Mike Kennedy's company though, as Coleco themselves are now interested in the reveal.
Chameleon Product: We are thankful to have a large group of passionate engineers and retro game enthusiasts who follow...
Posted by Colecovision on Wednesday, March 2, 2016
If the allegations prove to be true, then it would be the case that Mike Kennedy has simply been trying to scam loyal fans of not just Coleco, but retro gaming as a whole. Whilst we hope this isn't the case, we shall reserve judgement here at GameGrin until we hear the results from Coleco's inspection, which of course, we will make sure you are the first to know about it.
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