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Indiegogo Halted Retro Computer Campaign (bbc.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report on BBC: Crowdfunding platform Indiegogo intervened to stop a handheld retro computer console campaign from acquiring further funding, the BBC has learned. The Spectrum ZX Vega+, backed by Sir Clive Sinclair, had achieved its original crowdfunding target. But then Indiegogo halted further fundraising because of delivery delays and a lack of communication to backers. The project's organizers had asked the BBC not to reveal the development. The BBC understands no consoles have been delivered to backers, despite a pledge last month that they would "ship after 20 Feb 2017." And the company behind the project -- Retro Computers Limited -- suggested these details might put its team at risk.
At risk of litigation?
I feel like there's some random headline generator being developed and we're all being used as test subjects
Apparently, sometime in the last two years, some of the directors left the company and started suing the remaining board for various things causing some strife and chaos. I have their original product, the original Vega that plugs into the TV console. It works well, and I got it on sale so it wasn't horribly expensive. It got good reviews, and many were excited about this new handheld version coming out--then something happened. Support simply vanished: the user forum disappeared, never to return; emails to the staff were never read or returned; and the promised OS update never arrived. Meanwhile, they were still shipping plenty of the old Vegas, constantly promoting the Vega handheld, and updating their twitter feed. Despite all the problems, they assured everyone that everything was fine.... except the product was getting delayed and delayed and delayed. Something weird is up with them--it's like the company is only half alive.
The BBC understands no consoles have been delivered to backers, despite a pledge last month that they would "ship after 20 Feb 2017."
Technically, at this point as long as they ship they have fulfilled their promise as it is after 20 Feb 2017. It could be a month from now or 2 years, but they've still met their pledge.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Funny, I would think indigogo would have done something to Aubrey and the Monohm crew responsible for the seemingly vaporware Runcible... they promised to "Get better" at updates, but their last update was literally a pat on their back for even trying to build it, and an acknowledgment that they suck at updates... Last time I fund something like that..
From all sorts of forums a synopsis seems to be
Two guys set up the idea, do the first Sinclair vega sign up with two other guys to do the vega plus, making four directors of a company
Original guys Have an idea, do a totally unrelated Commodore type project (the64) for a different company, still haven't been paid for the original vega or new vega work
Two other vega directors get the grumps, get legal,
Two original directors quit well before crowdfunding campaign finishes / hands over money
Two vega directors try to take the originals shares
Then the fun happens
Summary from publicly written stuff
Two guys start a company,
Two other guys bought in as equals to help with logistics and promotion basically do their best to screw the original blokes and run off with the business....and get handed half a million poinds of crowdfunding for..intentions to deliver unknown...licences unpaid, wages unpaid, original vega stock profits unaccounted for
All seems rather dodgy for the current owners of the Vega business
Is this a point where a large-ish failure could threaten the reputation of the platform itself? The bulk of people don't care about "funding development" of a product, they want a product.
If they start believing that crowd sourcing is faring with danger then the platform will die.
Maybe indiegogo need to step in, freeze any funds they still have and block all other campaigns by the same people (the new Psion type thing?) before pressuring the, for refunds or product.
Us old-timers who grew up with Sinclair machines are shocked: late, under-performing and funky keys and you expected anything different?!
Every Sinclair machine has had a horrible keyboard: the ZX-80 and ZX-81 was diabolical; the Spectrum 16K / 48K awful; and the Spectrum+ & QL merely horrible.
Every single machine was late, buggy and idiosyncratic enough to make you wonder if Sir Clive simply should get a better dealer.
BUT they were cheap and relatively robust. The BASIC manuals were typically better than anything else available. There was lots of software and other people who owned them. As an introduction to computing, the Sinclair machines were wonderful. I credit my ZX-81 for being the launch-point for where I am today (ERP technical consultant).
It was a horrendous system even for the time period in which it was released. It's color palette was terrible and the attribute clash was ridiculous. It's sound/music was just a bunch of beeps. Compare that to the Famicom which came out in '83, it had both better graphics and sound, faster loadin, not to mention the games were fundamentally better despite less RAM. The Commodore 64 is similarly superior and its price dropped quickly.
WTF is wrong with people who put money into Kickstarter, Indiegogo or whatever?
Surely the deal is clear enough. You put your money into a speculative venture. Development and/or manufacture of a thing that does not exist yet. It may come to fruition or it may not.
Why on Earth are they kicking like infants when it all fails?
Me, I have backed a few projects on Kickstarter. Because I think it's a neat idea, because, well, I want one. I checkout who is behind it. I check their track record. I place my bet, or not, accordingly.
In this case, supported by Sir Clive Sinclair, makes me giggle.
Uncle Clive was famous for late delivery and products that were cheap skate and hardly functioned at all.
Kickstarter should be doing something about Robert X. Cringely's Mineserver project. Advertised in September 2015 as "unlike many Kickstarter hardware projects, for the $99 Mineserver virtually all development work is already done so risks are minimized. If we had cases we could start shipping tomorrow.", and promised to ship in time for Christmas 2015, they still haven't shipped a single unit. The most recent project update was November 2016 when they promised to start "shipping the week after next". There hasn't been a word from them since then. Backers have over-run the comments section on the last three posts at his blog, and he's not uttered a peep about it since promising in comments "more on that in a few days" back on January 10.
Comments have been pretty entertaining. There's a rumor that the delay is all about trying to program these little servers to secretly mine bitcoins for the Cringely clan in the background while pretending to be Minecraft servers.