Post by SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman on Jan 2, 2019 6:05:35 GMT -5
Hi, everyone! I'd first heard of this a couple months ago and it already looked like a shitshow, but the following video really highlights the ludicrous extremes this situation reached. To call it a train-wreck barely does it justice. And yet, the story might still have a happy ending eventually. Check it out. Trust me, even if you're not a Spectrum and/or don't know anything about the story, it's worth watching the entire thing:
Bit of context for those unfamiliar: back in the very early days of video gaming - as in, pre-Great Video Game Crash -, European gamers mostly played on computers rather than consoles. And in the UK, one of the most popular of those was Sinclair's ZX Spectrum. Even for the time, the graphical capabilities of it were pretty outdated, but it apparently had a fantastic selection of games, was easy to use (at least relative to other home computers of the time), and it was one of those where you could easily code and program your own games on.
Flash-forward to 2015, a company called Retro Computers Limited (or RCL as they are commonly known), decided to bring it back with the ZX Spectrum Vega, a home console emulating the old computer, which it funded via IndieGogo. The campaign was a success and while there was some criticism, namely the fact that you couldn't plug a keyboard to the console, meaning you had to use a controller and couldn't play it as on the old computers, it was generally very well received.
In fact, from what I could gather, it seems to be one of the finest examples of these "Mini" console things: not only is it for a very old and semi-obscure system that's difficult to get a hold of these days, let alone in working condition, and then good luck finding one of the games in working order as well, especially considering those were on bloody tapes, and while emulators for it do exist, those can of course be a bit of a crapshoot, so Spectrum fans were very pleased to have something more reliable they could use. On top of that, it came pre-loaded with no less than 1000 games, meaning again, it wa smore reliable than emulators as you didn't have to fumble some way of adding your own ROM files to play your favourites. So far, so good, then. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, emboldened by the success of the original Vega, the same company decided to get to work on the Vega+, a handheld version of their system. Again, Spectrum fans rejoiced. A handheld version of their favourite nostalgic computer?! With 1000 games right from the get-go? This was a dream come true for them. And with the first console being an inspiring crowdfunding success story, people rightfully trusted RLC to do them right. Since it worked out the first time, the new console was also crowdfunded, and much likes its predecessor, the new campaign quickly reached its goal.
Unfortunately, two of the leaders of RLC couldn't agree with the rest on what direction to take the project and quit as a result. And this is where things start taking a nose dive. These two were then replaced by two individuals whom... how to put it politely? Oh yeah, to quote Red Letter Media, I don't wish to imply fraud, I'm just talking about extreme fraud. Criminal fraud. What followed was a downwards spiral of lies, endless delays, lies, absence of evidence that the project was even really being worked on, more lies andPOP Stations blaming every single thing that went wrong on the former directors (especially one of them) despite them no longer having anything to do with it for years and some of the issues being downright impossible to have been caused by them.
Bit of context for those unfamiliar: back in the very early days of video gaming - as in, pre-Great Video Game Crash -, European gamers mostly played on computers rather than consoles. And in the UK, one of the most popular of those was Sinclair's ZX Spectrum. Even for the time, the graphical capabilities of it were pretty outdated, but it apparently had a fantastic selection of games, was easy to use (at least relative to other home computers of the time), and it was one of those where you could easily code and program your own games on.
Flash-forward to 2015, a company called Retro Computers Limited (or RCL as they are commonly known), decided to bring it back with the ZX Spectrum Vega, a home console emulating the old computer, which it funded via IndieGogo. The campaign was a success and while there was some criticism, namely the fact that you couldn't plug a keyboard to the console, meaning you had to use a controller and couldn't play it as on the old computers, it was generally very well received.
In fact, from what I could gather, it seems to be one of the finest examples of these "Mini" console things: not only is it for a very old and semi-obscure system that's difficult to get a hold of these days, let alone in working condition, and then good luck finding one of the games in working order as well, especially considering those were on bloody tapes, and while emulators for it do exist, those can of course be a bit of a crapshoot, so Spectrum fans were very pleased to have something more reliable they could use. On top of that, it came pre-loaded with no less than 1000 games, meaning again, it wa smore reliable than emulators as you didn't have to fumble some way of adding your own ROM files to play your favourites. So far, so good, then. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, emboldened by the success of the original Vega, the same company decided to get to work on the Vega+, a handheld version of their system. Again, Spectrum fans rejoiced. A handheld version of their favourite nostalgic computer?! With 1000 games right from the get-go? This was a dream come true for them. And with the first console being an inspiring crowdfunding success story, people rightfully trusted RLC to do them right. Since it worked out the first time, the new console was also crowdfunded, and much likes its predecessor, the new campaign quickly reached its goal.
Unfortunately, two of the leaders of RLC couldn't agree with the rest on what direction to take the project and quit as a result. And this is where things start taking a nose dive. These two were then replaced by two individuals whom... how to put it politely? Oh yeah, to quote Red Letter Media, I don't wish to imply fraud, I'm just talking about extreme fraud. Criminal fraud. What followed was a downwards spiral of lies, endless delays, lies, absence of evidence that the project was even really being worked on, more lies and
