Carl: There is a lot of concern about the prototype, is there going to be any update before this 40 days that is left in this campaign, is there…will…maybe a chance of a rewording ,maybe a lower -tier offered for a prototype to be created?

John: Setting a lower goal?

Steve: He means a lower goal for a prototype only, is that what you are saying?

Carl: Yes, sir.  There is a lot of concern because there is no prototype available.  That is what a lot of people are citing…

John: Well, yeah, we are not showing a prototype.  I have a lot of stuff that is working sitting on my kitchen table.  So far, we have shown none of it.

Carl: That is why I was asking. Mike, he reads Facebook and such, and there is a lot of verbal concern.

Mike: I think, Carl, the big thing, that is, creating a prototype for a consumer product, is hugely expensive.  Don’t think for one second that when Sony creates a product that they are spending a few thousand dollars on a prototype.  They are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.

John: It is also a lot of time.  When I got hired at Sony a few years ago to create the small PlayStation, that is something we had running on an eval[uation] board for, like, the first six months there.  It took me a good year, year and a half, to actually get this into reasonable prototype state.

Mike: We are not saying it is going to take that long, but I mean, again, we have put a lot of free time into this point.

John: We have been developing this on our own dime.  I have been full time on this for more than six months already.  Working these long hours to get this together, when we are not showing stuff…I have to bite my tongue here.

Steve: So, Carl, I want to be clear that we are all draining our accounts to do this.  Hopefully, someone out there will appreciate that.

Carl: Right, I understand the financial situation ya’ll are in.  That is why I wanted bring up the prototype.

Mike: Yeah, let me just say one other thing too is, having a prototype by no means guarantees that backers are going to get anything.  Look at Oculus Rift: they had prototypes coming out of their ears.  That product hasn’t been delivered, it got purchased by Facebook.  Now, the reason everybody bought this game on Kickstarter has changed, they wanted it to be a gaming machine and now Facebook is using it for communication and all sorts of things so, you know, again, that was a huge. They raised a couple million dollars.  Again, that probably hurts us, it doesn’t help us, because those people haven’t received those yet, I don’t think there is a plan for them to receive them.  They helped bring it to life.  They had a prototype.  You know, there are lots of projects, when you crowdfund something it is a risk.  There are games out there that they show a working level.  You know, I crowdfunded Sword of Fargaol like two years ago and I haven’t gotten the game yet.  I love Jeff McCord, but I am not yelling and screaming at him every day ’cause I haven’t got this game.  You know, it takes a long time.  Things take time.

John: Our publishers, they have games they can show. You know, I can put an image on my screen here using a processor maker’s dev board.  You know what? It takes a lot to get all of this integrated on a board that we can put in that shell, that is kind of where we are at right now.

Mike: To put a cartridge into.

John: Yeah, exactly.

Steve: Hence [lost in cross talk]–

John: –circuit boards, bundles of wires and test equipment and it is an ugly ugly process that I am sure most people are not even going to understand if they see it.  If they see a bundle of wires, they are going to say, it works but it doesn’t fit in the Jaguar shell.

Mike: Not bringing Ouya into this, but they used crowdfunding and that is where the similarities stop.  Right off the bat.  They didn’t show a prototype either, she said they had one and they showed a dev board.

Steve: [protests Ouya topic]

Mike: I know, we are not going there, but we are being compared to that so I wanted to quickly say, go watch their video.  No prototype, it was smoke and mirrors.

Steve: I don’t care what anybody is doing, I just know what it takes for us to do this.  So, this is where we are at, Carl: we are trying to raise this money to build it; hopefully it works.

Mike: It has been designed, we are ready to rock.  We’ve got suppliers ready to get us parts, we’ve got a contact manufacturer and board PCB assemblers, and board makers, ready waiting and willing to start, hit the ground running.  I kind of thought maybe we if all things went great and we hit our goal in a couple of weeks and instead of waiting for the 45 day campaign to go out we could start rolling.  Instead we are battling all of this stuff, that um, I guess is just par for the course when you are transparent and you are doing a crowdfunding thing.  Again, I give Steve and John a lot of credit for coming into this with me because this is not how they are used to operating.  They are used to operating for big companies that have more money than God–

John (interjecting): Or not, I have boot-strapped.

Mike: John started as a small business that grew into a large business.

[Skype issues hit hard]

Carl: We can go ahead and finish the interview here.  Steve, let’s start with you: is there anything you want to say to the fans?

Steve: Well, I hope you guys like what we are doing here old school style [Sky problems] –instantly when you plug it in.  I hope we have a new avenue for indie developers, and new source for games to come out.  Stuff that doesn’t rely on updates, that is what we are trying to do.  About all I have to say, I hope we can do it.

Carl: John?

John: I basically agree with Steve.  What we are trying to do here is trying to bring back some responsibility in game publishing and just not wasting people’s time and money in forcing them to be the game testers.  We want to build something that brings fun back into video gaming.

Mike: I will end by saying thanks to everybody regardless of the drama that is out there. Again, you are all passionate as are we.  I hope you can tell that it comes through on this.  We all want the same thing.  I really believe that we have the team and product that can do this.  I don’t know if it will ever happen again, really.  Lastly, again, I want to bring some of this culture back for even the younger gamer generation to have an opportunity to have a wall of games twenty years from now, that means something to them.  Kids these days, they don’t know, they are not looking that far ahead. We didn’t, you know.  [Skype problem] –joy is brought us all over the years, that is the sappy answer.  I get pretty emotional thinking about it.  We are really passionate, we have an awesome product, you know, it is going to be a shame if a vocal minority crater this deal, and that is really it.  We are trying to do a great thing and bring a lot of fun to the world, how people can turn that around [lost to Skype issues]?.

[Thumbs up all around signaling end of interview]

If you wish to support the RETRO VGS IndieGoGo campaign, please visit IndieGoGo.

Previous RETRO VGS coverage here on RGM:
RETRO VGS Sees Immense Social Media Backlash as Crowdfunding Project Begins
New Hardware- RETRO Video Game System in Development
Prototype Designs of RETRO Video Game System Shown, New Developer Confirmed
First Game for Retro Video Game System Announced, First Screenshot Here
RETRO Video Game System and the Looming Identity Crisis Within
Rumor: Shovel Knight Could be coming to Retro Video Game System, RETRO Talks with Retro City Rampage
Possible Method of New Game Releases for Retro Video Game System Revealed

Carl Williams

It is time gaming journalism takes its rightful place as proper sources and not fanboys giving free advertising. If you wish to support writers like Carl please use the links below. https://www.paypal.me/WCW https://www.patreon.com/CarlWilliams

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