On 21st of June 2016 Paul Andrews and Chris Smith issued a press release confirming their resignations from Retro Computers Ltd on 8th April 2016, this being prior to the company having received any funding from the Indiegogo campaign for the proposed Vega+ console, and their complete isolation from any management and business of the company since then. For clarity Andrews and Smith still retain a (joint) 50% shareholding in Retro Computers Ltd.
The company has of course since received more than £416,000 (roughly 540,000 US dollars) from that campaign, more than was budgeted to be required for the Vega+ project. In recent weeks Andrews and Smith have received increasing numbers of emails addressed to them, from public backers of the Vega+ console, and members of the press with questions relating to the production status of the Vega+. As a result of these inquiries received and their concern for the backers of the project, several weeks ago Smith and Andrews (via their solicitors), posed multiple questions to the current directors of Retro Computers Ltd (again, through their solicitors), including as to the status of the proposed Vega+ project (preparation, software, production, time scales, etc.) and also the financial resources of the company to meet the expected costs of development and production, and so on.
Sadly Retro Computers Ltd has failed to respond at all to these requests (or indeed to earlier similar requests) and have not provided any information or answers to Andrews and Smith. Andrews and Smith therefore felt they had no choice but to publicly distance themselves from Retro Computers Ltd, and make it very clear that as they have no knowledge, control or say, in anything that has happened in the company since they resigned on 8th of April 2016, they are unable to answer any questions relating to the company or its projects.
They therefore regretfully ask enquirers to contact Retro Computers Ltd directly for any questions and queries on the Vega+ console. As Andrews and Smith are involved in ongoing unrelated legal matters against Retro Computers Ltd, they such cannot currently comment further beyond this point. Who knows what this means for the Vega+ console, but one hopes it still comes to market on time. It’s something that we have been very interested in, especially as US gamers who never got to experience the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.
The Indiegogo page for the project also features a number of concerned backers voicing a number of issues in the comments section. With the September launch nearing people seem to be getting a bit worried. Fingers crossed everything turns out fine, especially for those that invested money.
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