Yeah, I don't think a simple brand name change is going to save this. I really think the only way they could make this compete is if it is a simple, low cost device for which titles must be developed from the ground up. If they stick with their hyper ambitious goals of hardware-emulating multiple systems and a price point of 400$ or whatever it was, then they're nuts. Completely nuts. The brand name seems to hint that they are not in fact going to simplify their goals. (chameleon changing to match environment etc.). I don't really want to see a repeat of the retrovgs campaign, it was kinda ugly, and kinda sad. Because the germinal idea of it all (a new retro system) IS appealing, that's why it has my attention. It's just the team won't listen to the very people who might buy it. I hope they prove me wrong, though, I suspect the end result will be a hobbyist system with a niche market. Which wouldn't be bad...it'd just be..what is actually possible in the real world with an idea like this.
*edit* on the flipside, I suppose if their goal is to make one system that is hardware compatible with most major retro systems and all the games for them...then homebrew would simply be an option, not a requirement, for the success of the system. Make it compete with the retron 5, the avs, etc. but support all systems perfectly on hardware instead of being an emulator with a database of official games. I could see the appeal of that too.
They just gotta DEFINE it. It must either be:
-a simple system for which titles must be deveoped from the ground up. a truly new "retro" system, with its own library and own personality
OR
-a mega hardware platform emulator which would play NES, SNES, genesis, n64, etc on and on and on, with true hardware emulation. That'd be worth 400$ because you'd get something like bunnyboy's avs, but for every system (up to, say, snes, max. n64 is probably a stretch). And it'd still be open and you could build homebrews for any of those systems.
But it MUST NOT
-also include modern hardware for running unity based games (or whatever modern framework). That'd be worthless and stupid because most everyone already has the ability to play these sorts of games on their PC, phone or steam box. It'd also conflict with their desire to have no online connectivity in most cases.
Edited: 12/17/2015
at 05:20 PM
by GradualGames