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#Post#: 242--------------------------------------------------
RCL Update 25th November 2016
By: milinks Date: November 25, 2016, 5:47 pm
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The RCL Update of 25th November 2016:-
At our backer launch at SMS’s Electronics' factory in Beeston on
October 20th we showed the Vega+ for the very first time. We
were able to show the working electronics and some of the guests
at the reception were expert Spectrum games developers enjoyed
playing some of the games (usually their own!) for the first
time on a portable Spectrum device.
In early November we presented the first completed units of the
Vega+ at the WIRED2016 event in London. The reception there
amazed us because it turns out that the Vega+ was very popular
with the many youngsters who tried it. Previously we had
expected our market to be mainly people who remember the
Spectrum from their youth and have a nostalgic pull towards our
product for that reason. But it was the young people at
WIRED2016 NEXT GENERATION who mostly monopolised the Vega+
units we showed there. Youngsters who were brought up on other
games platforms know intuitively how to pick up play the games,
and they can start to do so within a few seconds of picking up
the Vega+.
Assembling and playing with these first units we identified an
improvement we believed was essential to the Vega+ gaming
experience. An improvement that would make the feel of the
product far better, including a correction in the design of one
of the buttons making it more robust and able to withstand the
rigours of extended game-play.
This change has caused a brief delay while we improved the
product and we have now completed the necessary revisions. We
have also produced the first batch of custom made modified
buttons and will be spending the next few days manufacturing
units, using the already completed electronics and the newly
modified buttons. As soon as we have completed the necessary
tests to ensure that the revised Vega+ is now perfect, we will
be able to announce our delivery schedule.
So to be clear the product and gorgeous designs that you have
already seen remain unchanged. It is purely to do with the
response time and durability of one of the components. We know
that you all want to know a delivery date and we really want to
ship to you – but the most important thing to us is making sure
that the Vega+ is as brilliant as you deserve it to be.
#Post#: 243--------------------------------------------------
Re: RCL Update 25th November 2016
By: milinks Date: November 25, 2016, 5:48 pm
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Soo........any thoughts, either here or on chat
#Post#: 250--------------------------------------------------
Re: RCL Update 25th November 2016
By: Jools Date: November 26, 2016, 6:36 am
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I think we all think the same or similar, this isn't the update
we asked for or were promised. RCL on the recent comments and
when delaying responding until this update stated the update
would answer all questions and "much, much more".
However reading the update on it's face value I have to say that
the idea of using sub-standard buttons that have apparently been
custom made is laughable. I am buidling a handheld device to
play the RetroPie emulator and currently selecting buttons.
There is a world of resources out there to supply gaming
specific buttons that are built to last. I can only imagine that
the buttons RCL had made were not by a manufacturer familiar
with arcade/gaming button requirements. However without details
the issue is not clear the issue with robustness of buttons is
with one or more or with the housing catching etc.
On the response time, umm response time on anything to do with
gaming is critical, screens, keyboards, joysticks, arcade
buttons all refer to their response time as a critical feature,
this can be affected by the internal architecture of a device
but not to the extend of a poor piece of HID (Human Interface
Device) hardware. This should have been immediately apparent of
first test as critical inputs would be missed and anyone that's
even played a small amount of game time will know the feeling of
delyed responses from crappy hardware.
One final though, well done if you've read this far (sorry no
prizes), is that 5 months ago RCL showed an early prototype
video of a cased prototype vega+ with the infamous cracked
screen that lots of people commented on. RCL apologised and
stated "we have been putting all of the screens through some
serious testing to make sure they can stand up to all that game
play" wow impressive testing durability of screens for gameplay.
But they didn't test their buttons at all?
On screens, RCL state the screen is a Sharp LCD, now I am
looking at screens for my device and I've searched for a Sharp
screen that matches these specs, but cannot find one, I have
found a screen that visually is close to the one shown in the
prototypes on the Arrow site, Arrow being the campaign
certifier. This would make sense as this is one of the benefits
of getting Arrow to certify your campaign is they help
prototyping hardware. But why test a screen you're not going
into production with?
Anyway, I do have a life and so do you, I hope, so I'll shut up
now and hopefully see more positive, informative, friendly
updates from RCL in the future.
By the way, if anyone wants details of my device, post me a
message. It's all open source hardware and software and I will
pass on all my component shopping research.
Cheers
Jools
(Jolyan on Indiegogo)
#Post#: 251--------------------------------------------------
Re: RCL Update 25th November 2016
By: Peeto Date: November 26, 2016, 6:59 am
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Jools - I give up. I will not punish them with my questions.
They will punish themselfs sooner or later.
#Post#: 253--------------------------------------------------
Re: RCL Update 25th November 2016
By: Jools Date: November 26, 2016, 8:06 am
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How very Zen of you Peeto, you are undoubtedly the Master Po of
the community. :)
#Post#: 255--------------------------------------------------
Re: RCL Update 25th November 2016
By: Peeto Date: November 26, 2016, 8:58 am
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Jools ;D
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