Skunkboard v3 für Jaguar jetzt für Vorbesteller!

Hello again,

We are writing you again to give you an update on the production of the third and final run of SkunkBoards. Unfortunately, we need to report another delay, however we have a lot of positive news about their progression.

The chip that we were waiting for is from the company Amtel. At this point in time, Amtel has missed their latest date for shipping their chips. Unfortunately, the way that the SkunkBoard is designed, the particular Flash chip that Amtel provided is a relatively unique design, and without it a large and costly redesign of the board would be necessary. The cost to this would be so high that we would lose thousands of dollars on the production and sale of these, something that as a small company where we produce things like this because we are fans would be impossible to cover.

We were concerned about missing the May 15th date when we were informed of a delay with the chips. They were supposed to have arrived at our facility at April 25th. They did not arrive that day, and it took us a week of phone calls and phone tag to hear that Amtel was again promising the chips would arrive in approximately a month. At this point, Amtel has missed four different deadlines on this particular chip, and we feel as if even though we have another date, it is not a date which we can trust. Since we determined this approximately a week ago, we started to look at our options, not wanting to email everyone until we had some sort of update with some more concrete information.

The good news is that as of today, we have found and sourced a replacement chip that will not require a redesign of the SkunkBoard from a company in China, and it is reported that it was shipped to us this morning. There are some risks with doing this, such as receiving the wrong part, but we feel that this is the best chance that we have as of right now to produce these in a decent amount of time.

To try to be very up front with what is going on, both Tursi of HarmlessLion and myself are going to be making regular updates to the following thread at Jaguar Sector II:

jaguarsector.com/index.php?showtopic=31942

Please note that when we started this project, these chips were shown as in stock and available at the provider which we were using. In talking about this project already, both Tursi and I have no interest in ever doing a project like this without having a guarantee that all of the necessary parts have been double checked. We greatly apologize for this delay.

If you wish to cancel your order, you may do so at any time. If you wish to hold onto your order however, we have decided that everyone who has pre-ordered a SkunkBoard will get a free copy of the Dreamcast game Cool Herders from Harmless Lion and GOAT Store Publishing for waiting out the delay. If that isn't enough, if you order anything else at the GOAT Store, we will include a free copy of Feet of Fury. Games start as low as $0.24, so you can get another great independently published Dreamcast game for pennies if you wish!

Also, if you pre-ordered a box and / or instruction manual separately a SkunkBoard, these items are getting put into production right now, and we will ship them as soon as we get them in hand. We believe that this will be within the next three weeks. We had delayed production in case the missing chip issue forced us to cancel the entire project, but now that we believe that we are on track again, we will be putting these into production as quickly as we can to get them to you. We will also be revealing both the box and cover of the instruction manual designs in the upcoming weeks.

We greatly apologize for this delay, as it is something that sadly seems to have been unavoidable. We thank you for your support, and we hope to have these in your hands as soon as possible! If you have any questions, please feel free to email me back directly, or head to Jaguar Sector II so that we can answer them. Again, we greatly apologize, and thank you for your support of Harmless Lion and GOAT Store Publishing!

Skunkboard purchaser,

I’m writing with great news! As of today, we have confirmed a date for the final pieces of the Skunkboards arriving, and we have set a shipping date for all of the Skunkboards -- this coming Saturday, November 5th!

As a reminder, as a special thank you for ordering this batch of Skunkboards, we will be including a free copy of the Harmless Lion Dreamcast hit Cool Herders! If you wish to purchase any other items in the GOAT Store for your game room or collection, we can ship them at the same time as your Skunkboard -- simply use the code SKUNKDLY before Thursday night at midnight, and you’ll get 10% off your order... and, we’ll also include a free copy of the GOAT Store Publishing and Cryptic Allusion game Feet of Fury.

If you’re more interested in Jaguar stuff, we have a huge selection of Jaguar titles in stock. You’ll also want to become a member and sign up for our mailing list, as we have two more special Jaguar projects that we’ll be announcing in the next month!

Speaking of special Jaguar projects, we have a very limited number of the Carousel International test consoles for sale. These test fixtures were used in the creation of the SkyCopter and Speedster II cartridges, and have a special prototype arcade connector. If you remove the arcade connector, you can use the console as a stock console. The price for these consoles is $45 apiece. Please email me back directly if you are interested in purchasing one of these rare pieces of Jaguar history, and I can make arrangements with you!

We thank you once again for being patient with us throughout the delays and chip issues that we have had completing this run of the boards, and we expect that you will enjoy the final product in just a little over a week!

--
Dan Loosen
the GOAT Store, LLC