Hand-held Kickstarter

[bobjones1980]

Here is a kickstarter for a handheld steam machine something people might be interested in https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sm ... am-machine

[Jistuce]

Yeah, that stinks of fraud to me. Or a bewildering naivete, a la OpenPandora.
BTW, most of those "as seen on" references they have aren't anything resembling coverage, just reprints of a press release they made when it was the Steamboy.

[Jarno]

I agree with justuce, if there will be a handheld steam machine, i am sure valve will make it thierzelf, besides steam machines require full gaming pc power, and that is not on a handheld decide

and the switchable buttons make no sence, the steamcontroller only allow you to define 4 buttons (one in each corner) or trackpads with press function, so not 6 like shown on thier removeable buttons,
on top of that the use nintendo configuration there, and nintendo is know to defend thier copy right like crazy (even asking streamers to pay extra)

[Jistuce]

I agree with justuce, if there will be a handheld steam machine, i am sure valve will make it thierzelf, besides steam machines require full gaming pc power, and that is not on a handheld decide

and the switchable buttons make no sence, the steamcontroller only allow you to define 4 buttons (one in each corner) or trackpads with press function, so not 6 like shown on thier removeable buttons,
on top of that the use nintendo configuration there, and nintendo is know to defend thier copy right like crazy (even asking streamers to pay extra)

Good catch on the six-button layouts!
I wasn't aware of that restriction. I just thought it was dumb because the buttons would start getting really tiny.


Devil's advocate time!
The button layouts and cross pad aren't trademarked. Pretty sure they aren't even trademarkable(though not positive, I've seen some utterly insane trademarks awarded). And Nintendo's patent on a single specific implementation of a directional input is long expired, though this would be non-infringing anyways as they're using a fundamentally different mechanism and sensing technology.




While we're picking at it, though...
The 1080p display is just stupid for the level of power they can fit in there. There's some impressive embedded x86 parts lately, but nothing that I'd trust to do modern games at 1920x1080. It's there to bait people in(and placing it as a stretch goal is, to my mind, calculated to entice people to give them money now instead of waiting and buying a production unit later/not getting robbed when it all comes tumbling down.)






Really, the best way to find out if these guys were on the level would be get ahold of that AMD director they quote and find out if it was a legit quote and how reflective it was of an actual working relationship. As it's the only thing in there that isn't about the "Steamboy" press release(and I suspect it's either fabricated or equally distant from current events and actual product).

[DarrickSi]

Interesting project. Did it get off the ground?

[bobjones1980]

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/smac ... pc-games#/