ZX Vega +


mr.miyagi said:
I was a backer too and would love to get one that i could assemble myself, but I understand why ED just cant hand them out cause it's technically still craigx that owns them isn't it?
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Well, in my mind the whole thing got effectively liquidated and we were the creditors that paid for everything. And therefor the ones owed any cash and assets that were left

It wouldn't be Craig though that you are thinking of, it would be Link's company, he became the meat in the sandwich who Craig used as he had a US company.
 
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If the company got liquidated properly (which is unlikely, but still an exercise for those following along), then the companies direct creditors should have been paid first, as far as I can recall of the process*. That might well be ED as he paid for the boards from the PCB makers, and was due payment from the ICP2 compnay which they never paid, but I can understand why he's want a proper guarantee of that, and lawyers don't come cheap.

* I'm afriaid kickstarter backers who according to the contract don't have a direct legal agreement relating to a finished unit in all cases don't count.
 
I had no idea that any quantity of iCP2 PCBs existed at all. That's a revelation to me. It'd been a long time since I'd really mulled over that whole debacle. I was charmed by Craig into doing the visual design for ICP2 - since I was heavily involved (as a volunteer) in curating the iCP forums here, and did a lot of documentation, web design, graphic design etc back in those days - resulting in this image:

512a99d5714b45e4b60c5e99ce019e33_original.jpg


From which all the renders, etc were derived. I was behind touches like the brushed aluminium faceplace (I'd been inspired by something else, I forget what now) and even had pretty detailed ideas about how the shoulder buttons would work.

I never saw a penny for that (rightfully so in hindsight), and have loathed to talk about the whole thing in public since I wasn't involved save for that one image, and of course it all went to hell in a handbasket and I'm just another casualty in the fallout. If the campaign had been successful, and he'd ever acknowledged me as a designer I'd like to think it'd have been a high point of my career back then. Alas it all went to hell and I found Raspberry Pi.

I'd probably line up to buy a PCB, though, as a memento of a bygone era.

*sigh*
 
The way I remember it, money was dished out by Link to everyone to buy parts and the PCBs etc. So there should not be anything owing to them.

Anyway, hopefully ED can talk to Link and get back to us. As I am keen to get one of those PCB''s and parts that should belong to the backers
 
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I opted with link years ago for a discount off the pyra ($80 IIRC?) for the icp2 contribution instead of a refund or pcb. No idea if that will ever happen or not.
 
levi said:
If the company got liquidated properly (which is unlikely, but still an exercise for those following along), then the companies direct creditors should have been paid first, as far as I can recall of the process*. That might well be ED as he paid for the boards from the PCB makers, and was due payment from the ICP2 compnay which they never paid, but I can understand why he's want a proper guarantee of that, and lawyers don't come cheap.
Click to expand...

I have been paid for the parts and PCBs, but the mass production never started... as we never heard anything from Craig regarding the case and keyboard (the only things that were missing).
The PCBs had prototypes and were working fine - but no idea what happened to case and keyboard.
And Nubs had never been ordered as well - until they couldn't be produced anymore at some time.

I think it's up to link to decide what will happen with those PCBs - there were plans to offer them to ship those out to the backers at some time, if I remember correctly
But even using the cheapest shipping service (around 4 EUR), that would be a whopping 12000 EUR just to ship those out.
And I don't think there's money left.

gadgetoid said:
I had no idea that any quantity of iCP2 PCBs existed at all. That's a revelation to me. It'd been a long time since I'd really mulled over that whole debacle.
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Well, MWeston did his job, I did my job, DaveC did his job. So PCB design was finished and tested (and ready for mass production), case was designed (though we never knew in what state the production was)... well, and we don't know ANYTHING about the keyboard.

My guess is: Price was set too low (I had that fear from the very beginning) and the case molds + dome cap keyboards were too expensive for that.

SNESFAN said:
I opted with link years ago for a discount off the pyra ($80 IIRC?) for the icp2 contribution instead of a refund or pcb. No idea if that will ever happen or not.
Click to expand...

That's planned as soon as Link sells the Pyras (which will happen after the preorders).
But I am sure I can work out a deal with him as well, so if you preordered, we should be able to get you something back.
Not right away, but sometime in the future.
 
@EvilDragon

I think a number of backers who want a PCB and parts would be ok with paying the 4euro shipping including myself. Have you spoken to Link about it?
 
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EvilDragon said:
My guess is: Price was set too low (I had that fear from the very beginning) and the case molds + dome cap keyboards were too expensive for that.
Click to expand...

Yeah, looking at the price of 8BitDo controllers these days (damn they look good) I'd say it was seriously lowball on the price for something that's not mass production.

Looking back at the chronology, or at least what little I have left since most of my communication with Craig was over IM which I've long abandoned, I'd say it was rushed to market. For starters it was just a couple of months shy of being able to launch on the UK Kickstarter (it launched September 13, 2012). The news that Kickstarter would launch in the UK before the end of the year was already public since July, and a date confirmed early Oct - https://www.kickstarter.com/blog/kickstarter-in-the-uk - the weird arrangement to start a US-based Kickstarter just doesn't gel right with "you could have waited less than two months."

I also never had any say in the refinement of prototypes, it seemed to go direct from my concepts/2d renders to a 3D render and then prototype/production without me so much as seeing a grubby 3D print, much less anything else. I think it should have clicked at that point that, even if it had shipped and been successful, I'd probably have had a battle on my hands to get anything Craig promised. But then I never had it in writing- so more fool me, I guess!

I think Craig used whatever credibility he had left to pull a fast one and bring a whole lot of people- who trusted him rather more than we should have- along for the circus. I'm not bitter, I'm just disappointed because it could have been something cool.

Oh well, for a tidbit of history here's what little I could find in my email outbox:

icontrolpad-design-b1b-outline.jpg icontrolpad-design-b1b.jpg icontrolpad-design-b1a.jpg icontrolpad-design-b1.jpg pinch-release-ratchet-clamp.jpg slide-n-lock.jpg icontrolpad-design-b.jpg icp2-proto.png icp2-design-a.jpg
 
You have no idea how the Pyra will be :D

Well, reading the article, a lot could be improved via software.
LCD Backlight is usually being controlled by a PVM - and you can usually set the frequency via software. So the flickering could be fixed.

Same for the freezes - could be that some driver is not initializing properly and causes an issue at some time (which causes the unit to freeze) - or make it LOOK like it's frozen!
Heck, we've got the very same isssue with the Pyra right now - but you'll find out more after my blogpost which will follow later today :)

That said, this won't help with the ugly case, bad DPad and buttons or sharp edges...

I especially loved the inkjet printed paper :D
 
Yes, this thread is an outrage we should just have one forum with one topic and one thread entitled "General Discussion" and just talk about everything there!

The buttons on the VEGA+ are an absolute travesty, the one thing I really appreciate about the Pandora (although it makes my hands numb after a while) is that the buttons are near perfection. Also EvilDragon went on at length to knock the nub mouse control on the Pandora when showing off the Pyra nub mouse control, but I find the Pandora nub mouse to be really, really usable. Better than most similar sized computers and nipple-mice I've tried anyway.

And what's the deal with the back of the VEGA+?! Does anyone have one? Is it using flippin' D batteries!?
 
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