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#Post#: 278--------------------------------------------------
(RCL) Interview with the Inquirer 28Th Novermber 2016
By: milinks Date: November 29, 2016, 9:33 pm
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This is the post of the interview with RCL published by the
Inquirer 28th November 2016, put here for ease of reading, and
opinions etc...
The original page article can be found HERE.....
HTML https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2478567/zx-spectrum-vega-production-is-delayed-as-rcl-hopes-for-christmas-release
HTML http://www.theinquirer.net/IMG/617/357617/spectrum-vega-atic-atac-370x229.jpeg
HTML https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2478567/zx-spectrum-vega-production-is-delayed-as-rcl-hopes-for-christmas-release
[RETRO COMPUTERS LIMITED (RCL)
HTML http://retrocomputerslimited.com
has confirmed that there is to
be a further delay to the ZX Spectrum Vega+, the handheld
version of last year’s ZX Spectrum Vega, a recreation of the
iconic 8-bit computer.
The problem was revealed on Friday night on the project’s
Indiegogo
HTML https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-sinclair-zx-spectrum-vega-plus-console-games#/<br
/>page. The team explained that playtesters had identified a
problem with one of the buttons in the small production run that
had already taken place, which led to the decision to pause the
full-scale production, pending a change to the component. RCL
will also retroactively fit the new button to consoles already
manufactured.
The statement said: "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."
This latest delay has caused understandable disquiet amongst
backers, fuelled by an ongoing campaign of "extremist" social
media activity including Twitter and Facebook attacks making
claims that the project is in trouble, including personal
attacks on members of staff and allegations of bad business
practice strenuously denied by RCL and its staff.
Whilst the INQUIRER is keen not to give this sort of thing
oxygen, we are keen to make sure that the facts as we understand
them are crystal clear. Some commenters have implicated us,
suggesting that we "lied" because we quoted RCL as being able to
offer a delivery date of "days not weeks", which was true at the
time that we attributed the quote, but for various reasons has
now slipped.
We were also accused of Reviewing
HTML http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/review/2476479/zx-spectrum-vega-hands-on-review<br
/>a prototype, not a production model. Both these claims have be
en
fanned by a small group of Twitter users whose accounts seem in
most cases only to be used for anti-RCL Tweets.
We'd also point out that we described it as a "hands-on", which
is a term that the INQ has used for the past fifteen years to
differentiate between an initial review in situ (such as the
launch) as opposed to a full review.
We spoke to Suzanne Martin, Managing Director of RCL and asked
her to clarify some of the burning questions from backers.
Firstly, that version of the console we reviewed. Do you still
say that was a production model?
"It was a short, initial production run. Some of the units were
given to testers, and a group of young gamers, it was them who
pointed out the problem with the component."
Why didn’t the INQUIRER spot this problem?
"You only had the console for an hour to review. The problem is
to do with extended use and long-term durability and so it was
those playing for hours at a time that picked it up".
What happened to the rest of the production models in that first
batch?
"They are being adapted with the new buttons too."
And is the full production run in progress?
"No, we have paused for further testing. It won’t restart until
we are happy with the product. It’s frustrating, for us too, but
we’d rather it went out to backers as the best product it can
be."
So does that mean Christmas delivery is off the table?
"We still hope to get some units out before Christmas, but being
completely honest, we can’t promise that until we get the test
results back this week.
"This was a completely unforeseen incident at the last possible
moment. This is the nature of a start-up business in the
consumer electronics arena, and given some of the things that
have happened between the Vega and the Vega+, it’s a credit to
the team that it’s nearly ready at all, though we’re very sorry
to the backers that we’ve slipped from our original projected
delivery date.
"Even big companies like Apple and Nintendo have delays – the
difference with crowd-funding the delays are public”
What sort of "things?"
"We can’t talk about a lot of it as there are legal proceedings
in progress. But much of the story is documented already
HTML http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2467530/specwars-accusations-fly-as-the-world-of-retro-zx-spectrum-gaming-gets-ugly<br
/>and more will come to light later. Our advice is that
'post-truth' applies to the Vega+ story. Don’t assume everything
you hear about us is true.
"We’re still determined to bring you the product and make it the
best it can be. Unfortunately, we are being actively hampered by
an orchestrated internet hate campaign, legal red tape, and we
are in the process of recovering a sum of money which is
unaccounted for in relation to sales of the original Vega – this
relates to the period before I took over as Managing Director."
Eeek! But what about customer money?
"It’s safe. It was ringfenced from the beginning and anything
you hear otherwise is completely untrue. The disputes are about
the proceeds from the original Spectrum Vega. Retail of the
Vega+ will happen after all the backers have their machines.
"In the meantime, the £20,000 donation we made to Great Ormond
Street Hospital was made from profits from the original machine.
We intend to honour our pledge to continue donating part of RCL
profits in relation to the sales of the Vega to them.”
One other matter of concern is that when there have been
problems, comments have been deleted from your Indiegogo page.
Generally, that’s not the done thing.
"True. It’s not something we do lightly. Much of what has been
deleted is rude, multiple posts (sometimes over 100), attacks on
other backers and offensive. Some of it comes from elements that
are not only known to us, but to Indiegogo as trollers and
spammers.
"We’ve worked closely with Indiegogo over what we should do and
are only deleting posts that break their community guidelines,
after confirming with Indiegogo that it was the right course of
action.
"Anyone who leaves constructive criticism, questions or concerns
will be respected, but we can't promise to respond directly to
them all individually. We also get bucket loads of supportive
messages telling us that people want the product to be right and
not rushed."
The main complaint is the lack of communication over a delivery
date. What do you say to those people?
"The delivery date was set pre-resignation of the original
management team. Because of this we had to start from scratch as
none of the previous work was handed over.
"We have been cautiously optimistic throughout the production
period. Imagine if we’d given a delivery date of this week and
then found the button issue? People would be understandably
angry about that instead.
"We've opted to stop giving delivery dates until we are 110 per
cent certain that we are going to meet them.
"What we do want to make clear is that we’re all working harder
than you can ever know to get you the console in a form that’s
worthy of your investment as soon as possible and thank those
who have kept the faith despite understandable frustration.
"We’re genuinely as sorry as anyone for the delay. We’re also
sorry on behalf of all those spreading the misinformation that
is floating around, and we’re sorry that we can’t currently
explain why in more detail.
"We will deliver. It will be brilliant. In the meantime, don’t
believe everything you read elsewhere on the internet. This
remains a labour of love for all involved and we are passionate
about exceeding your expectations."
Retro Computers Limited (RCL) has asked us to point out that two
former directors of the company have publicly distanced
themselves from the Spectrum Vega project and are now trading as
Retro Games Limited (RGL), a separate business with no
connection. As such they do not speak for RCL or the Vega or
Vega+ brand. µ
#Post#: 279--------------------------------------------------
Re: (RCL) Interview with the Inquirer 28Th Novermber 2016
By: Peeto Date: November 30, 2016, 4:39 am
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Now her answers looks professional and diplomatic. Suzanne
Martin looks like right person. Can we clone her to have more
Suzanne Martin at RCL ?
#Post#: 286--------------------------------------------------
Re: (RCL) Interview with the Inquirer 28Th Novermber 2016
By: IngDuenas Date: December 2, 2016, 2:30 pm
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Hello guys,
I agree with the article, I think RCL's explanations are
reasonable. RCL posted today just a video and of course it
started another chain of requests for refunds, complains, etc. I
just had it with those guys so I guess I sort of lost it when I
posted in the Vega+ crowfunding page :)
RCL is almost there, we can see it and if it miserabily fails
(what seems unlikely at this point) so be it, some of us waited
30 years for something like the Vega to show up, is it not worth
waiting a little longer?
Being a developer myself I understand how bad the RCL folks must
feel, I guess because of the money involved they thouht to do
this out of love for the Speccy and nothing more. I know if I
were in their shoes I would have refunded the complainers just
to stop with the negative comments.
Cheers,
Jav
#Post#: 288--------------------------------------------------
Re: (RCL) Interview with the Inquirer 28Th Novermber 2016
By: Jools Date: December 4, 2016, 4:57 am
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Jav, if people feel they have been let down or not treated
correctly, they have the right to question or complain. This is
their right.
If you feel happy with RCL, this is your opinion and your right
to feel happy.
But what is your right to tell others they are wrong or have no
right to complain? How others feel may be due to completely
different circumstances and situations which you are not aware
of.
You will notice there are far less people complaining through
the Indiegogo page than before, this is due to two reasons, some
have given up trying to ask questions or voice concerns, some
have been blocked. Do you think its right to silence those that
question your actions?
Jools
#Post#: 290--------------------------------------------------
Re: (RCL) Interview with the Inquirer 28Th Novermber 2016
By: Cuchulainn Date: December 4, 2016, 5:29 am
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We just have to hope that the backers will be the first to get
the devices.
Last year by the Recreated ZX-Spectrum (by Elite) it went wrong
after all when
3th party sellers placed orders also.
HTML http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-07-08-when-kickstarters-go-bad-chasing-down-the-recreated-zx-spectrum
#Post#: 291--------------------------------------------------
Re: (RCL) Interview with the Inquirer 28Th Novermber 2016
By: IngDuenas Date: December 6, 2016, 9:09 am
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They surely have their rights, I am not questioning that but I
have seen many very agressive posts or just downright rude, I
think that is not the way after all, it is a public enterprisse
and some people, like me, are bothered by that kind of comment.
They can address their concerns directly to RCL. All we now know
for sure is delays have happened but we all seen footage of good
working almost finishd models. As it has been said over and over
again, the nature of crowfunding is like that, we are not
dealing/investing in a well stablished company but just a bunch
of folks trying to create something new. If one reviews just the
computer manufacturing companies of the Speccy era, one can see
that Apple, Commodore, Sinclair, etc., they all ran into
troubles that caused delays for most models (Amiga, delayed by
the ownwer ship of the Amiga chips, the QL, delayed for months,
the MacIntosh, delayed because of Steve Jobs' obsession for
perfection and the list goes on an on).
I constantly run into technical issues when developing my
products which for the most part are based in previous work, I
have a few decades of experience designing electronic devices
and I still face design issues that sometimes takes weeks if not
months to correct. Just recently, I designed a new RGB capable
LED display using a new type of LEDs named WS2812, the display
works fine but the most basic effect which is the right to left
scroll flickers and I have not been able to correct it yet! I do
know now why this happens and I find it unacceptable to ship a
product which is not 100% as I intended it to be, the delivery
has been halted until I can fix that (or change the basic
concept of how I handle the shifting). I only know that well
about delays, hate them but happens as part of the process.
I still think RCL will deliver, we will have or Vega+, I much
rather have a good, revised, working product rather than
recieving something that breaks down right away. Is my reasoning
so of?
Cheers,
Jav
#Post#: 292--------------------------------------------------
Re: (RCL) Interview with the Inquirer 28Th Novermber 2016
By: Jools Date: December 7, 2016, 5:49 am
---------------------------------------------------------
It's been said so many times but I will say it again and I
imagine keep on having to say it but...
The issue with RCL is not, NOT, the delay but the level and
detail of their communications with backers. (nothing else)
There are people that paid for the main perk with the assumption
that the would have the device as a xmas present. This is
reasonable, irelevant of whether they were treating Indiegoog as
a shop or an investment opportunity. But this is NOT the issue.
However just to clarify the other point, RCL are not just a
bunch of friendly guys trying to do us all a favour. They are an
established Ltd company govern by UK company law and this is the
second product they have produced. The first being the ZX Vega.
On that last point, the ZXVega+ is just an iteration of the
ZXVega and this is important as it should have been just an
interation but RCL separated themselves from the original team
that designed and built the ZXvega so they had to start from
scratch.
On starting from scratch, I am building a handheld gaming device
from scratch, I started it two weeks ago when the hole 'much
much more' update debacle happened. This is of interest here as
it gives some indication to what RCL are gaining, to correct the
thinking we need to give them a break.
My device consists of:
Raspberry Pi Zero £4
12 Momentary Switches (buttons) £24 (+£6 prototypes)
64GB Micro SD £16
Bluetooth Dongle (£4)
WiFi Dongle (£6)
Adafruit 3.5" 480x320 TFT Touchscreen £45
Stereo flat pan speakers £6
Raspbian OS Free
RetroPie Emulator
HTML https://retropie.org.uk/
(this emulates all
these systems
HTML https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Supported-Systems)
I do plan to 3D print a case once the custom PCBs are finished
So I am building a one off device for the same price as the
vega+ but mine will be ready before xmas. around 5 weeks working
odd evenings and occassionally at weekends.
Now obvioulsy RCL are not using these costs, it's a fraction,
and all production run costs are covered by the campaign so
there will already be (or really should be) considerable profits
just from the campaign, retail will be the real profit
generator. This is where crowdfunding campaigns really win as
the financial backers are not stock or IP holders, so once perks
are given the campaign owner is free to run. I have been engaged
with venture capital and angel backers on multiple projects and
this is where those backers will demand they are in the loop and
expect hefty returns on investment. So our requests for
information are pretty petty and RCL are really the winners
here. We do NOT need to feel we owe them somenthing for their
valient efforts.
I've got here and realised I've written too much, but if your
reading this, thanks, I don't expect many will but I will get
replies saying, back off, leave our heroes alone they are trying
their best to give the world what the world has been waiting 30
years for... no they're not.
Jools
#Post#: 293--------------------------------------------------
Re: (RCL) Interview with the Inquirer 28Th Novermber 2016
By: Peeto Date: December 8, 2016, 2:08 pm
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OK guys, so they just fired me out of backers, given my
proactively refund, which I never asked for. I asked them to
cancel it. What can I say more.
#Post#: 296--------------------------------------------------
Re: (RCL) Interview with the Inquirer 28Th Novermber 2016
By: Jools Date: December 9, 2016, 4:07 am
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Just replied to your other post on this, my main questions is
did you at any point ask for a refund, if not then they can't
offer or provide a refund.
Interested to know how they refunded as we paid Indiegogo and
they can't offer refunds on this now RCL have the money. A lot
of people are having trouble getting refunds.
Jools
#Post#: 297--------------------------------------------------
Re: (RCL) Interview with the Inquirer 28Th Novermber 2016
By: Peeto Date: December 9, 2016, 4:26 am
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I never ever asked for it. I told them my honest opinion without
beeing rude, that this campaign is misusing good brand name zx
spectrum for this scandal and they marked my contribution as
refunded off indiegogo. I told them, I am not asking for refund,
but for honest information on progress, after this I was out.
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