Coleco Chameleon continues quixotic quest for contemporary cartridge console

New name, new logo, same Jaguar shell...

Regular readers may remember an odd little story we ran back in May about the Retro VGS game console project. Sporting a plastic shell made from the actual original Atari Jaguar molds, the new system was being designed to support new games made with an old-school, 16-bit aesthetic. Oddest of all, those games would be distributed on old-fashioned, solid-state cartridges made to last for decades.

Just over half a year later, the Retro VGS console is no more (though the company behind it still bears the same name). It's been replaced with the Coleco Chameleon, a rebranded version of the same idea that dredges up a well-known name from gaming's "ancient" past.

That rebranding is somewhat necessary, given the poor reputation the Retro VGS had garnered in the classic gaming community during its short pre-life. The system failed to get much buy-in during an aborted Indiegogo crowdfunding effort in September, raising just $80,000 of a hefty $1.95 million funding goal. For context, the Ouya only asked for a minimum of $900,000 in its initial Kickstarter (though Ouya shot past that number to receive $8.6 million in crowdfunding).