Thanks! It was a fun project to cover and later on my own channel I'll have to do a retrospective explaining what led me to figuring out that they were using a windows tablet. It's a pretty interesting part of the story that I've never shared.
Literally. You pay money to have a small online zoom meeting with a random dude every now and then and that's it, otherwise you're dealing with an AI voice most of the time. Why not just spend money on an actual personal trainer in person?
I was wondering about that, but Steam Deck was announced in July 2021 a couple of months after Smach went under. I seem to remember though that it was well known it was coming for some time before the official announcement. So they could well have got wind of it and decided to shut up shop ahead of it being announced.
Funny thing, us moustached cheese-lovers call an obvious scam a "piège à gogo" = a "gogo" trap... Always made me smile a bit with all of these indiegogo scams.
@@zembryoz So that's what that means. So a literal translation is something like "traps aplenty," which is a delightful way to describe something obvious.
41:59 StopDrop&Retro also found out Paco Jimenez may not be an actual medical physician in this rabbit hole he jumped through. Why he lied about this is still really confusing.
Wow, this video was like made for me lol. Watching Stop Drop & Retro was how I even learned what Crowdfunding was. I don't even know how many times I've rewatched his videos, probably one of my favorite RUclipsrs that never uploads anymore. Ever since I found your channel, I'd been hoping that you would cover this since I've never seen anybody talk about it in its totality.
Appreciate that mate. I chatted to him a few times and he helped with this video. We are now in talks to do some collaborations too :) he's a busy guy (we both are) so don't expect them anytime soon. But do know, we are both not done with this sorta content :D
I remember the series of videos Stop Drop and Retro made about this thing. Weird how things have changed for handheld PCs. Years ago, they were all little, niche thing with only a few legit products and a lot of scams. Now you have big companies like Valve and Asus making them. I wouldn't be surprised to see other, even bigger companies getting in on it.
The switch shown that handheld is still a thing. Remember this was back in the mobile gamers are the future, never mind most of the audience doesn't carry over. Also the steam machine was horrible and I found out pc games outside shooters don't work too well on the couch with a controller
Handheld PCs die and come back every 10 years or so. There were a bunch of them in the XP~Vista era, but tech wasn't advanced at the time, so the low power chips could barely run anything.
Not until companies like Asus stop failing at it, would be my guess. It's relatively easy to put Windows, a GPU, a controller and a 1080p screen into a device you can hold in your hands, which seems to be the model for non-Valve competitors. It's difficult right now to make it _mobile,_ that is, with battery life that makes "handheld" meaningful.
To say the progress in the handheld PC marketplace has been amazing would be an understatement. It felt like for at least a decade there was a core group of PC gamers who desperately wanted a handheld PC and all the manufacturers thought gamers just want gaming laptops. Every now and then there would be a rumor that Xbox would create a PSP like device. I'm sure a lot of people got scammed by Smach Z because they were just so tired of waiting. Then along came the Steam Deck and now we have no shortage of handheld PCs!
Yeah, _"we can't process your refund till we're done production"_ sounds like a variation on a pyramid scheme. If you need money from people demanding refunds to fund initial production, then the obvious conclusion is that you have nothing to sell.
If you view this from the right angle, it basically looks like Valve was so fed up with waiting for the Smach Z to be released that they just made their own portabl Steam Machine... I know that's not what happened but one can imagine
I remember seeing some guy Stop Drop Retro talking about this I think. All I can think of was "the Smach Z tripped and fell on top of horse dung so the Steam Deck could run".
That Spawn Wave bit brings me back. If we ever expand Kick-Scammers into the realm of Patreon; - Sonic Omens: A rather bad, but impressive Sonic Fangame that was exposed for withholding builds behind a paywall, hosting ads on the game’s GameJolt page, planning false copyright strikes on negative reviews, stealing music from Cars 2 the game, weaponizing fans into stalking critics on Discord & Twitter, and plagiarizing a former team artist’s in-development comic for a thrown together pilot. - Weegeepie: for stealing assets from GLITCH Productions (or to be precise; the co-founder’s Mario-centric Machinima channel; SMG4) and putting it behind a $120 monthly paywall. (on top of some rather demonetizing stuff regarding “Little Girls”)
I still remember that old junk. I'd never expect Valve to do the thing the Smach Z team failed to deliver. After the failure of Steam Machine, a lot of people don't expect Valve to make their own PC "console" ever again. I still dig the modular touchpad attachment idea though.
Valve's mistake with Steam Machines was relying solely on native Linux games. While there's actually a good bit of native Linux games today that wasn't the case back then. Remember, Steam Machines debuted before Proton. If Steam Machines already had 2+ years of Proton development, and perhaps didn't use Debian as a base, they might have been as successful as the Steam Deck.
@@antikommunistischaktion that was definitely a downside, but even that *may* have been fine if they produced them themselves at a good price like the deck. I mean most consoles launch with an anemic library. Alas Valve didn't want to take that risk (apparently) so....
@@chasejulia I'm kind of glad they didn't take the risk back then. IMO Linux gaming and the Steam Deck are in good places today specifically due to the failure of Steam Machines. Imagine if Valve didn't have the drive to develop Proton and Pressure Vessel. I highly doubt that many triple A studios would have pushed Linux releases even if the Steam Machines were hugely successful. Steam Machines walked so the Steam Deck could run.
I think in context a lot of people were lead to believe in the Smach Z because of other companies also getting into that handheld PC sphere. GPD launched their Indiegogo page for the GPD Win in 2015 for example, and that did ship as a Windows handheld PC in 2016. And to add that it wasn't their first project. Not to mention the whole UMPC craze from the mid to late 2000s kind of spurring this idea of an ultra portable PC. Perhaps if the company didn't keep moving their goal posts and just made a UMPC that was kind of a handheld console at first (kind of what GPD did), they wouldn't be the complete joke they are now. Literally why not gut a Sony Vaio UX (2006) and slap Steam OS 2 on it? That shit came out in 2015 with Big Picture mode.
I hope that since the idea of a handheld Steam Machine was redeemed by Valve, someone can redeem the concept of modular tech. I guess Framework kinda is... sorta.
The way I see it, it did start off as a scam because a crowd funding project starts with the campaign and that was already fraudulent in multiple ways.
I have a question... why do people do this? Instead of just saying "sorry, it's not coming out" and going dark, why do scammers/dishonest people continue to string people along and make up more and more fabrications to prolong the ruse - sometimes for years afterwards? Surely this is the least efficient thing to do, and just makes it more likely that you will be caught or do something that will land you in hot water? What is the end objective to this behaviour?
It's moderately harder to lie to yourself if you admit the truth to everyone else, it's moderately harder to skate from scam to scam if you don't lie to yourself as to how you're just a temporarily embarrassed future success, and it's truly hard for a lot of these people to imagine a life that's not skating from scam to scam.
think about it like this: if they straight up said "sorry it's not coming out", they would get a massive influx of refund requests and could legally land in hot water. But by saying "it's coming guys, promise" they can hang on to that last subset of believers AND maintain plausible deniability, plus eventually some people will just forget about it
Honestly, I think scammers have an addiction. Illegal activity is pretty much the only way to go from rags to riches with the way the world is right now. So yeah, of course they would string it along.
@@QWERTYCommander I think that's where my issue is. If you want to go from rags to riches, as soon as the scam is done you'd cut your losses and be right onto the next. My confusion is around those who pull off the scam, but then stay around for months and years afterwards in an attempt to convince the marks that it wasn't one. I think the other two folk who commented offered some interesting perspectives as to why someone might go about it in this long and drawn out way.
Because of (shown in the video) big MOLA investor who backed them since the beginning. The scammers get to enjoy the ride (as funded tech venture company) on top of continue collecting preorder money from unsuspecting people. In the end, MOLA pulled out most likely after discovering the ongoing charade. If not mistaken MOLA pulled out months before the scammers announced bankruptcy. The charade is hiring hardware developers to create a good enough prototype for public showing so they could pull more customers. The scammers did it with Rhombio, continue the same pattern with next hardware developers but with no intention of completing it. That is why Phawx's unit was unfinished. The ruse about being in production is to, again, find more new preorders and keep the backers calm.
That 2018 E3-day-one trailer...! I know it was the least of it, but the face-plate's plastic crusting and peeling in what's supposed to be the glamor-shot closeup is just 😗👌
Sigh I did back this project back in 2016.. .and of course never got anything or a refund. This and the Dragonbox Pyra really disappointed me. Of course the only gaming handheld during that time that actually did get released was the GPD Win so props to GPD for actually making their device and still going on to this day with the GPD Win 4 and Win Mini!
i really appreciate how good your videos are!! great production, and you don't waste my time with filler. when slope uploads an hour video, there's an hour of stuff to talk about! i wish more youtubers did this
This was 100 percent a scam. It became obvious it was a scam by them knowingly covering things up. People who are actually acting with the best intentions wouldn't do that.
i cannot believe it took me until this video to realize "smach" is literally short for "steam machine" i remember when this whole thing was going down i was wondering what the name itself actually meant 😮💨
I think my Dell steam machine was one of the many pieces of hardware associated with Valve, I bought 3 (Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam Controller), everything they've built now has been like a iterative yet clunky design process. Maybe that's just because of how they're structured. That's the good and bad in working with a Decentralized company like Valve, you have a lot of freedom, and you can go right to the company owners and say "I have a cool gaming thing I want to build", and if the idea is interesting enough, they give you the development capital needed to make a prototype of whatever you wanted, and if they like it, it becomes "Steam X from Valve". The other side is because you have all this freedom, you have to coordinate with different people to get them into the project, and run it. You are the project manager, and you will have people with more time and seniority at Valve pull people from your project to work on theirs, and the "Bosses" don't say shit because these people, in Valves environment, earned that right. Weeeeeeeeee ANYWAY CROWDFUNDING SCANDALS ARE DOPE, I WANT TO HAVE ONE OF MY OWN SOMEDAY
Man I'm still salty that proper modular smartphones didn't become a thing. (as an aside, Project Ara was originally a Motorola project; they then got bought up by google and later sold to Lenovo, sans Ara)
I had been following this console for a while until GPD popped onto the scene and wiped the floor with these tomato Smachers. Glad I never looked back, and all I could do is laugh in 2020 when everything was FINALLY coming down to the end.
I had been following the whole Smach Z ordeal ever since I graduated college. I recall being excited for the idea and how the Switch had competition. That was before I learned about the GPD Win. Fortunately I simply waited out, then years later just randomly found Stop, Drop and Retro's videos where I ended up following it further. The kiss of death for me was around the same time they declared bankruptcy, the Steam Deck got announced. I pre-ordered it right away and never regretted. The Steam Machine may had been a bust, the Smach Z being even bigger blunder, but the Steam Deck came out and works really nicely. Even got the OLED model years later. And would ya look at that? Healthy competition with the ROG Ally and the Legion Go. Even GPD's new hardware looks nice. It was a wild ride but I'm glad to had held out thanks to the Early Worm Effect that SDR put out.
I don't think this was completely a scam, but an incompetent team that didn't know what they were doing. They blew too much money for making ads, gaming conventions and hotels, instead of R&D. They got drunk off their own hype.
I remember the whole mess that was the Smach Z from back in the day, but I never knew that it was still going up until 2021, last time I heard about it was around 2018. If anything the one good thing to come out from this scam is that it proved that there was a market for a product like it, I imagine quite a few companies used it as an example that there was a public eager for a real gaming handheld PC and quite a few r&d projects got greenlit as a consequence, it might have even been the thing that motivated Valve to jump in and create a "Steamboy" themselves.
I was there for all this. Wild times. Now gaming umpcs are mainstream and there are way more options and reputability but the magic and community is gone.
I totally forgot about this whole scandal. Great video. I remember following the project in its earlier years (around 2016 I think) I (thankfully) wasn't a backer because I was a broke high school student at the time, but the prospect of a handheld PC capable of running console quality games interested me. Then StopDrop&Retro released his videos exposing the scam. I had assumed that the project went under, but I had no idea it only happened (publicly) just two months before Valve revealed the Steam Deck (which I'm a proud owner of).
Hearing about the Smach Z failing really makes me take a better perspective of my ROG Ally. I absolutely love that thing and it’s honestly great for what it is
@@slopesgameroom btw I haven't watched your channel in a while, I've been busy... You really have a screen presence full of charm and charisma! Gonna go through what I've missed soon.
Smach Zimps. Perfect 😂 Great video as always, Dan! Knew about this whole thing from Stop, Drop & Retro and it's great to see a doco covering the whole thing.
The discovery that they just put a video capture card in a transparent shell was so funny. That is a lot more embarrassing than reusing a Windows tablet IMO.
@@ccricers fact they found out the card very quickly was amazing, there was a guy involved with the thing and actually wrote a book on it which I got a while back
Now i noticed the stop drop retro voice cameo hahaha, thanks slope for getting the man to work in this year I just noticed most of the update smach posts were his voice haha
I'd only heard of the Smach Z after the GPD Win 2 had launched. The Smach Z was appealing, but it had not been launched, so I didn't do much beyond keep my eye on the official website. I did manage to watch one or two of the Phawk's videos, before they were removed. I had completely avoided all of the Smach Z drama.
I love how this is a video about a product that had to change its name due to a bigger tech company featuring a technology that had to change its name due to a bigger tech company and in the video your advertising a personal trainer company that more than likely had to change its name from co-pilot because of Microsoft copilot a bigger tech company hahahaha
I remember being so excited for it when it was announced. But things got worrying when it started becoming sort of like "Well heres the prototype, but like...its gotta be attached to an actual gaming computer to run" Then that was all I remember that ever came of it. It was all just a smaller screen and controller with no real info of what it might even be able go run.. they kept saying triple A games and stuff but nothing came of it. At the time, the idea of a handheld with computer power, the closest you could get was GPD or even just getting a PS2 and making it into a handheld which there was a few DIYs
I’ve followed Stop, Drop & Retro for years. I understand that he has other stuff to worry about, but I’d love him to make more videos. I was intrigued by the Smach Z when I first saw it. I’m not defending Smach, because I think they are dodgy as hell (look at S,D&R’s videos for their investment sources), but developing a handheld PC in the early to mid 2010s would’ve been quite difficult. They would have likely had to fit whatever chipsets they could get and make the best use of them. Valve are large enough that they could likely go to AMD with their requirements and AMD would design a chip to fit those requirements. Now, years later, I have a Steam Deck and love it.
34:46 Actually this is absolutely wrong and it legally couldn't be advertised as such. Saying it's "the most powerful handheld ever" suggests there will never, EVER be a handheld more powerful and consumers would be within their rights to return the Smach if one more powerful was released due to false advertising.
Incompetence turned into panic, so they decided to get scammy. I mean, just saying that as briefly as I possibly can. I remember all the fuss over it. Also, great video, thanks for giving me something to watch before sleeping lol!
steam machines existed originally as a response to windows 8 and microsoft trying to move to an ecosystem like ios to get the cut from all software sales. a lot of things happened in response, like adobes current up yours billing model etc.
So is that when Microsoft introduced the horrible UWP file format? Basically stripping away all the customization and user freedom that made Windows so popular in the first place. Since the Windows Store seems to have flopped, Game Pass PC is the only remnant of that file system.
@@fattiger6957 yes and the fullscreen start menu meant to guide you towards apps and the store and that whole metro ui api system for the 'apps' that could be made to run on the arm windows 8 machines(or rather i should say the arm win8 machines could only run those, not even windows mobile applications despite the system being perfectly capable of running them). windows store is now actually a somewhat decent way to install some stuff(actual windows parts and regular windows applications). too bad the ui still suffers a lot from them trying to guide people to the store to install certain stuff from there etc, so if you want just a traditional windows experience with windows 11 you need explorer patcher, openshell etc to get a movable taskbar and start menu that's like before. win8 wasn't that bad once you got a start replacer though, in other ways it was better than 7 but they really screwed it up. if they didn't mess with the start menu and shoving metro ui in your throat. it could have been a really well liked windows release.
I watched while I was laid up from a leg reconstruction when SD&R covered it and this gave me so much nostalgia! The KickShaming series was my favorite and I hope it comes back one day! Loved your stuff Stop, Drop, and Retro! I'm not one to rush but I await your return!
Whats funny is that Valve got the last laugh; the smach team started off by ripping off valve, only for valve to actually make what the smach should have been, and even cheaper.
I remember seeing it's one of its Kickstarter being released around the same Time as the gpd win 1 but also seeing smach z continue to post delays while gpd kept releasing successors. Seeing the win 3 deliver on its promises and was wild. Especially with its size. The only problem with this video is the gpd is not a steam deak clone.
@21:08 the soldering iron in that picture looks exactly like the ultra-cheap 14$ iron I recently ordered at amazon. I wouldn't expect any professional manufacturing company to rely on tools of that grade. In a first test, the thing worked, and seems to be an upgrade from the failed cheap 15W iron it is supposed to replace, but I have serious doubts in the longevity of that product and I don't expect any precision from the integrated temperature regulation.
Ironically, I think a Dell prototype killed this project off. Dell had put out a prototype of a handheld called the "Concept UFO" in January 2020 that really got the whole modern handheld PC thing rolling. I already had the GPD Win 2, but their Win 3, Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally, and the rest all blow the doors off of the Smach Z. I think Smach Z knew they would never be able to compete with the 6840U, 7840U, 8840U, etc., so they strung their followers along as long as possible and then declared bankruptcy.
Glad for the shout out to my man Stop Drop And Retro! Smach Z is such a shitshow of a story, and i been following it ever since SD&R started covering it.
The information offered at 17:25 ish makes sense when you see the flexible goal under it - 189% of 265k goal raised. So it being the absolute total, not a portion, makes sense.
Ngl after 2020 the Smach Z was doomed. A history of delays and issues with a worldwide pandemic basically shuttering a bunch of what this team can do conpared to Microsoft or Sony (Who remember,dropped their consoles during the pandemic) was basically the death sentence for this product Add that with the fact that even IF they did drop in 2020/2021 it would be outdaded as hell. Not to mention months later Steam would announce the SteamDeck ,which makes this look like a god damn Tiger electronic handheld in comparison
Your videos are always a wonderful treat of information, fun, and way more interesting than I ever expected. You always seem to dive deep into the topics and quickly became a favorite of mine to be excited anytime I get a notification of anything new! Have a wonderful day! 😊🌍❤🕺🏻🐶
Wow, I'm surprised and honestly glad I never heard of this when it was announced. I was obsessed with the idea of portable games at the time, and I luckily bought a GPD device to scratch that itch instead of backing this mess.
Ah yes, I remember this, I wanted this to be real at one point, was a huge fan of the idea of stuffing a steam controller in a handheld form factor (which thankfully, we got, from valve). Didn't know that the Phawx deleted all his Smach Z videos, since he was literally the most reputable (and only) person to have gotten their hands on the device, though very unsurprised, once the Smach team announced the project was fully dead there was no real reason to keep it up, ESPECIALLY when two months later, the steam deck gets announced. I just know Phawx got a lot of flack for being a supporter of this massively failed, and embarrassing handheld, so washing his hands of it was probably a no brainer.
The problem there is "washing his hands of it" means publicly renouncing it, after the manner of Pontius Pilate. Silently scrubbing your RUclips channel of your now-embarrassing videos isn't washing your hands of it, it's trying to get people to forget that you ever mentioned it in the first place.
It's a scandal, not really because they never made it. A few prototypes were floating around, if I remember the Phawx has one. What happened IMO was the cost per unit was too high compared to what was raised from funding.
I love my Steam Deck. Who knew it would be such a great emulation platform? If it ONLY played Steam games then it'd be worth the money, but it also plays PSX, PS2, PS3, Xbox (not 360 though), every Nintendo, every Sega.... you name it!
Click my trainwell (formerly CoPilot) link go.trainwell.net/SlopesGameRoom to get 14 days FREE with your own personal trainer!
Given up pushing the sucking stick?
No
i am mr rombio and i approve of this
Garbage and overpriced. But hey, sponsors whatever the cost.
@@DimerNL ima go ohio
I only heard of the smach Z because of Stop Drop and Retro, so it's nice to see that you gave him a shout.
Sounded a little bit like his voice reading out the tweet url at 8:41
SD&R never dies
He just takes really long weed naps
Early Worm Effect at its finest.
Same here.
@TheVHSReviver
He's done some voice overs for Slopes before. :)
Stop drop retro was a goat for covering this real time
Agreed
Thanks! It was a fun project to cover and later on my own channel I'll have to do a retrospective explaining what led me to figuring out that they were using a windows tablet. It's a pretty interesting part of the story that I've never shared.
@@StopDropRetro I remember watching it live and then seeing you drop off the face of the earth when the steam deck released
@@HeyItsJonny I've made several steam deck videos, including one about its announcement, I didn't fall off the earth because of it.
@StopDropRetro Well, steam deck does what smach-zdon't! So I'm not surprised it was the focus of the channel. Big fan btw, thanks for entertaining us.
"But before we move on to the main scam of this video, here's Trainwell..."
😂
Why in the world don't people use uBlock Origin and SponsorBlock? Can't remember last time I saw an ad or sponsorship.
Literally. You pay money to have a small online zoom meeting with a random dude every now and then and that's it, otherwise you're dealing with an AI voice most of the time. Why not just spend money on an actual personal trainer in person?
I heard that sponsorship and thought "Oh...this is gonna be Betterhelp but for fitness, isn't it?"
The moment the Steam Deck was announced, I knew the final nail in the coffin of the Smach Z had been driven.
I was wondering about that, but Steam Deck was announced in July 2021 a couple of months after Smach went under. I seem to remember though that it was well known it was coming for some time before the official announcement. So they could well have got wind of it and decided to shut up shop ahead of it being announced.
Funny thing, us moustached cheese-lovers call an obvious scam a "piège à gogo" = a "gogo" trap... Always made me smile a bit with all of these indiegogo scams.
Un attrape-nigaud!
that's kind of perfect
Wow, that's spooky. It even kind of looks like "Pledge a gogo" to my eyes.
A gogo means "a lot" or "in abundance". It's a commonly used suffix.
@@zembryoz So that's what that means. So a literal translation is something like "traps aplenty," which is a delightful way to describe something obvious.
41:59 StopDrop&Retro also found out Paco Jimenez may not be an actual medical physician in this rabbit hole he jumped through. Why he lied about this is still really confusing.
It's a Spanish thing. In many circles, titles are very important.
@@QFredfons not just Spanish. You can find a lot of Germans with pretend or faked Dr. titles, especially politicians.
Smach Z sounds like a console from Hypnospace Outlaw.
The Smach Z has a hackblood charge!
Gives a serious case of beefbrain
Wow, this video was like made for me lol. Watching Stop Drop & Retro was how I even learned what Crowdfunding was. I don't even know how many times I've rewatched his videos, probably one of my favorite RUclipsrs that never uploads anymore. Ever since I found your channel, I'd been hoping that you would cover this since I've never seen anybody talk about it in its totality.
Appreciate that mate. I chatted to him a few times and he helped with this video.
We are now in talks to do some collaborations too :) he's a busy guy (we both are) so don't expect them anytime soon. But do know, we are both not done with this sorta content :D
Thanks! I'm planning to start uploading again soon, need to work out my schedule first.
I remember the series of videos Stop Drop and Retro made about this thing.
Weird how things have changed for handheld PCs. Years ago, they were all little, niche thing with only a few legit products and a lot of scams. Now you have big companies like Valve and Asus making them. I wouldn't be surprised to see other, even bigger companies getting in on it.
The switch shown that handheld is still a thing. Remember this was back in the mobile gamers are the future, never mind most of the audience doesn't carry over. Also the steam machine was horrible and I found out pc games outside shooters don't work too well on the couch with a controller
Handheld PCs die and come back every 10 years or so. There were a bunch of them in the XP~Vista era, but tech wasn't advanced at the time, so the low power chips could barely run anything.
@@marcelosoares7148ya, but they're likely here to stay at this point
Not until companies like Asus stop failing at it, would be my guess. It's relatively easy to put Windows, a GPU, a controller and a 1080p screen into a device you can hold in your hands, which seems to be the model for non-Valve competitors. It's difficult right now to make it _mobile,_ that is, with battery life that makes "handheld" meaningful.
To say the progress in the handheld PC marketplace has been amazing would be an understatement. It felt like for at least a decade there was a core group of PC gamers who desperately wanted a handheld PC and all the manufacturers thought gamers just want gaming laptops. Every now and then there would be a rumor that Xbox would create a PSP like device. I'm sure a lot of people got scammed by Smach Z because they were just so tired of waiting. Then along came the Steam Deck and now we have no shortage of handheld PCs!
Had a friend call me a ludite for not "believing" in the smach z.
Still friends?
@@joejoe2658what's wrong with slopes?
@@joejoe2658 What the fuck.
@@joejoe2658 Wtf
@@ridhosamudro2199nothing, this is just a troll looking for attention
This reminds me of that family restaurant that got caught selling popeyes chicken as their own and got shut down 😅
O wow. That sounds juicy.... Not the chicken, the stoey
@slopesgameroom
I mean Popeyes chicken is pretty juicy tbf
Yeah, _"we can't process your refund till we're done production"_ sounds like a variation on a pyramid scheme. If you need money from people demanding refunds to fund initial production, then the obvious conclusion is that you have nothing to sell.
Popeyes is overrated. I prefer Mary Brown's chicken (A Canadian chain).
How do you even pull that off profitably?!
“ this old broom has had 17 new heads and 14 new handles in its time” 😂
Is that an Only Fools and Horses reference? Sounds like something Trigger would say Dave
"How the 'ell can it be the same bloody broom, then?"
Ship of Theseus paradox if you're a simpleton.
@@throningermine8 there it is in the picture what more proof do you need???
Went to the comments for context thanks. are there episodes of this on RUclips?
I forgot that the Smach Z even existed. This was years before the Steam Deck.
I think even the creators did too
Hahahaha you beat me too it
@@superpan218 That, and that one other scam, the PGS ("REVOLUSHUN, NAO!")
i was going to go with "it existed?"
The way the plastic looks on the controller like the steam logo is cool actually
If you view this from the right angle, it basically looks like Valve was so fed up with waiting for the Smach Z to be released that they just made their own portabl Steam Machine...
I know that's not what happened but one can imagine
I remember seeing some guy Stop Drop Retro talking about this I think. All I can think of was "the Smach Z tripped and fell on top of horse dung so the Steam Deck could run".
Used to check back to his channel every now and then
he mentions stop drop and retro in the video
That Spawn Wave bit brings me back.
If we ever expand Kick-Scammers into the realm of Patreon;
- Sonic Omens: A rather bad, but impressive Sonic Fangame that was exposed for withholding builds behind a paywall, hosting ads on the game’s GameJolt page, planning false copyright strikes on negative reviews, stealing music from Cars 2 the game, weaponizing fans into stalking critics on Discord & Twitter, and plagiarizing a former team artist’s in-development comic for a thrown together pilot.
- Weegeepie: for stealing assets from GLITCH Productions (or to be precise; the co-founder’s Mario-centric Machinima channel; SMG4) and putting it behind a $120 monthly paywall. (on top of some rather demonetizing stuff regarding “Little Girls”)
I still remember that old junk. I'd never expect Valve to do the thing the Smach Z team failed to deliver. After the failure of Steam Machine, a lot of people don't expect Valve to make their own PC "console" ever again.
I still dig the modular touchpad attachment idea though.
Valve's mistake with Steam Machines was relying solely on native Linux games. While there's actually a good bit of native Linux games today that wasn't the case back then. Remember, Steam Machines debuted before Proton.
If Steam Machines already had 2+ years of Proton development, and perhaps didn't use Debian as a base, they might have been as successful as the Steam Deck.
@@antikommunistischaktion that was definitely a downside, but even that *may* have been fine if they produced them themselves at a good price like the deck. I mean most consoles launch with an anemic library.
Alas Valve didn't want to take that risk (apparently) so....
@@chasejulia I'm kind of glad they didn't take the risk back then. IMO Linux gaming and the Steam Deck are in good places today specifically due to the failure of Steam Machines. Imagine if Valve didn't have the drive to develop Proton and Pressure Vessel. I highly doubt that many triple A studios would have pushed Linux releases even if the Steam Machines were hugely successful. Steam Machines walked so the Steam Deck could run.
I think in context a lot of people were lead to believe in the Smach Z because of other companies also getting into that handheld PC sphere. GPD launched their Indiegogo page for the GPD Win in 2015 for example, and that did ship as a Windows handheld PC in 2016. And to add that it wasn't their first project. Not to mention the whole UMPC craze from the mid to late 2000s kind of spurring this idea of an ultra portable PC. Perhaps if the company didn't keep moving their goal posts and just made a UMPC that was kind of a handheld console at first (kind of what GPD did), they wouldn't be the complete joke they are now.
Literally why not gut a Sony Vaio UX (2006) and slap Steam OS 2 on it? That shit came out in 2015 with Big Picture mode.
Yes that's explained in the video we all just watched in slightly different language
These long-form deep dives are always great. I know next to nothing about Kickstarter so it's amazing to hear about these monumental gaming scams.
It wasn't a scam. It was just a failed attempt at getting a handheld to market.
Wtf, never heard of that device. Thx buddy
What a vibe lmao
The Smach Z makes me appreciate the Steam Deck even more.
The steam deck is quite legendary
@@slopesgameroom I've been enjoying mine even if I only got it in September.
I hope that since the idea of a handheld Steam Machine was redeemed by Valve, someone can redeem the concept of modular tech. I guess Framework kinda is... sorta.
@LOC-Ness no not kinda sorta clown weirdo
@@LOC-Ness clown
The way I see it, it did start off as a scam because a crowd funding project starts with the campaign and that was already fraudulent in multiple ways.
I have a question... why do people do this? Instead of just saying "sorry, it's not coming out" and going dark, why do scammers/dishonest people continue to string people along and make up more and more fabrications to prolong the ruse - sometimes for years afterwards? Surely this is the least efficient thing to do, and just makes it more likely that you will be caught or do something that will land you in hot water? What is the end objective to this behaviour?
It's moderately harder to lie to yourself if you admit the truth to everyone else, it's moderately harder to skate from scam to scam if you don't lie to yourself as to how you're just a temporarily embarrassed future success, and it's truly hard for a lot of these people to imagine a life that's not skating from scam to scam.
think about it like this: if they straight up said "sorry it's not coming out", they would get a massive influx of refund requests and could legally land in hot water. But by saying "it's coming guys, promise" they can hang on to that last subset of believers AND maintain plausible deniability, plus eventually some people will just forget about it
Honestly, I think scammers have an addiction. Illegal activity is pretty much the only way to go from rags to riches with the way the world is right now. So yeah, of course they would string it along.
@@QWERTYCommander I think that's where my issue is. If you want to go from rags to riches, as soon as the scam is done you'd cut your losses and be right onto the next. My confusion is around those who pull off the scam, but then stay around for months and years afterwards in an attempt to convince the marks that it wasn't one.
I think the other two folk who commented offered some interesting perspectives as to why someone might go about it in this long and drawn out way.
Because of (shown in the video) big MOLA investor who backed them since the beginning. The scammers get to enjoy the ride (as funded tech venture company) on top of continue collecting preorder money from unsuspecting people. In the end, MOLA pulled out most likely after discovering the ongoing charade. If not mistaken MOLA pulled out months before the scammers announced bankruptcy. The charade is hiring hardware developers to create a good enough prototype for public showing so they could pull more customers. The scammers did it with Rhombio, continue the same pattern with next hardware developers but with no intention of completing it. That is why Phawx's unit was unfinished. The ruse about being in production is to, again, find more new preorders and keep the backers calm.
An hour-long Slope documentary on a failed crowdfounded handheld device? Yep, looks like my evening is fully sorted out!
That 2018 E3-day-one trailer...! I know it was the least of it, but the face-plate's plastic crusting and peeling in what's supposed to be the glamor-shot closeup is just 😗👌
I still like the idea of modular phones... it blows my mind how cool we are with spending a grand every 2 years on these things...
Sigh I did back this project back in 2016.. .and of course never got anything or a refund. This and the Dragonbox Pyra really disappointed me. Of course the only gaming handheld during that time that actually did get released was the GPD Win so props to GPD for actually making their device and still going on to this day with the GPD Win 4 and Win Mini!
yikes
GPD got lucky. Smach team didn't. Them's the breaks.
i really appreciate how good your videos are!! great production, and you don't waste my time with filler. when slope uploads an hour video, there's an hour of stuff to talk about! i wish more youtubers did this
This was 100 percent a scam. It became obvious it was a scam by them knowingly covering things up. People who are actually acting with the best intentions wouldn't do that.
It was 0% a scam. It was a failure, sure, but their intention was to bring a handheld to market.
They failed but they tried.
Cheers for recognizing Stop, Drop & Retro part in exposing this debacle. Very decent thing to do.! 🏆
I'm really glad to see this scam featured! It's fun to hear it all retold from someone else's perspective
@@StopDropRetro True indeed! I’d STILL like to see you do beginning to end autopsy of the Smach Z saga! Take care brother! 🤙
"Ferrari Red for me, please! VROOM VROOM!"
That made me laugh a little too hard.
I’m very happy that my 5 second contribution to this hour plus video had that effect on you. 🫡
i cannot believe it took me until this video to realize "smach" is literally short for "steam machine"
i remember when this whole thing was going down i was wondering what the name itself actually meant 😮💨
I think my Dell steam machine was one of the many pieces of hardware associated with Valve, I bought 3 (Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam Controller), everything they've built now has been like a iterative yet clunky design process. Maybe that's just because of how they're structured.
That's the good and bad in working with a Decentralized company like Valve, you have a lot of freedom, and you can go right to the company owners and say "I have a cool gaming thing I want to build", and if the idea is interesting enough, they give you the development capital needed to make a prototype of whatever you wanted, and if they like it, it becomes "Steam X from Valve".
The other side is because you have all this freedom, you have to coordinate with different people to get them into the project, and run it. You are the project manager, and you will have people with more time and seniority at Valve pull people from your project to work on theirs, and the "Bosses" don't say shit because these people, in Valves environment, earned that right.
Weeeeeeeeee ANYWAY CROWDFUNDING SCANDALS ARE DOPE, I WANT TO HAVE ONE OF MY OWN SOMEDAY
Man I'm still salty that proper modular smartphones didn't become a thing. (as an aside, Project Ara was originally a Motorola project; they then got bought up by google and later sold to Lenovo, sans Ara)
Never heard of any of this but I do have a GPD device so I guess I lucked out. Thank you for compiling all this
I had been following this console for a while until GPD popped onto the scene and wiped the floor with these tomato Smachers. Glad I never looked back, and all I could do is laugh in 2020 when everything was FINALLY coming down to the end.
I had been following the whole Smach Z ordeal ever since I graduated college. I recall being excited for the idea and how the Switch had competition. That was before I learned about the GPD Win. Fortunately I simply waited out, then years later just randomly found Stop, Drop and Retro's videos where I ended up following it further. The kiss of death for me was around the same time they declared bankruptcy, the Steam Deck got announced. I pre-ordered it right away and never regretted. The Steam Machine may had been a bust, the Smach Z being even bigger blunder, but the Steam Deck came out and works really nicely. Even got the OLED model years later. And would ya look at that? Healthy competition with the ROG Ally and the Legion Go. Even GPD's new hardware looks nice.
It was a wild ride but I'm glad to had held out thanks to the Early Worm Effect that SDR put out.
I don't think this was completely a scam, but an incompetent team that didn't know what they were doing. They blew too much money for making ads, gaming conventions and hotels, instead of R&D. They got drunk off their own hype.
Many such cases
Why are the buttons so low, my arthritis riddled gamer hands are screambing
“Steam deck clones” while showing the GPD Win 4, vague emotional pain (/lh)
Unrelated, that beat with the Valve guitar was EXCELLENCE
I remember the whole mess that was the Smach Z from back in the day, but I never knew that it was still going up until 2021, last time I heard about it was around 2018.
If anything the one good thing to come out from this scam is that it proved that there was a market for a product like it, I imagine quite a few companies used it as an example that there was a public eager for a real gaming handheld PC and quite a few r&d projects got greenlit as a consequence, it might have even been the thing that motivated Valve to jump in and create a "Steamboy" themselves.
I was there for all this. Wild times. Now gaming umpcs are mainstream and there are way more options and reputability but the magic and community is gone.
I'm one of the suckers who never got my money back, and even paid for the upgrade to the best specs.
A$1700 down
Damn bro... Well I can't get your money back BUT I can wish you a wonderful day! =)
That, I'm afraid, is the gamble.
I totally forgot about this whole scandal. Great video. I remember following the project in its earlier years (around 2016 I think) I (thankfully) wasn't a backer because I was a broke high school student at the time, but the prospect of a handheld PC capable of running console quality games interested me. Then StopDrop&Retro released his videos exposing the scam. I had assumed that the project went under, but I had no idea it only happened (publicly) just two months before Valve revealed the Steam Deck (which I'm a proud owner of).
Hearing about the Smach Z failing really makes me take a better perspective of my ROG Ally. I absolutely love that thing and it’s honestly great for what it is
Indeed. The Ally is a beast :D
Shout-out SDR, love that guy, I wish he made more videos. Honest, realistic dude with a great voice!
Yeah, he's awesome. Super chuffed to have him involved in this video
@@slopesgameroom btw I haven't watched your channel in a while, I've been busy... You really have a screen presence full of charm and charisma! Gonna go through what I've missed soon.
Thanks! I'm hoping to start uploading again soon
Smach Zimps. Perfect 😂
Great video as always, Dan! Knew about this whole thing from Stop, Drop & Retro and it's great to see a doco covering the whole thing.
💘 the Earthworm Jim sound effects throughout the video LOL 🤣
I fondly remember the Stop Drop & Retro vs Smach Z saga
"Alright, we're here, just sittin' in the car
I want you to show me if you can get far
Step on the gas!"
I wonder how about a retro vgs, coleco chameleon vid...when that happened i was entertained for ages as it kept getting worse lol
The discovery that they just put a video capture card in a transparent shell was so funny. That is a lot more embarrassing than reusing a Windows tablet IMO.
@@ccricers fact they found out the card very quickly was amazing, there was a guy involved with the thing and actually wrote a book on it which I got a while back
Well done. Thank you for spending the time on this.
i thought the whole thing had died by 2019 what the heck
edit: omg ofc they got into nfts as soon as they dropped the project
Now i noticed the stop drop retro voice cameo hahaha, thanks slope for getting the man to work in this year
I just noticed most of the update smach posts were his voice haha
I'd only heard of the Smach Z after the GPD Win 2 had launched. The Smach Z was appealing, but it had not been launched, so I didn't do much beyond keep my eye on the official website. I did manage to watch one or two of the Phawk's videos, before they were removed.
I had completely avoided all of the Smach Z drama.
I love how this is a video about a product that had to change its name due to a bigger tech company featuring a technology that had to change its name due to a bigger tech company and in the video your advertising a personal trainer company that more than likely had to change its name from co-pilot because of Microsoft copilot a bigger tech company hahahaha
I remember being so excited for it when it was announced. But things got worrying when it started becoming sort of like
"Well heres the prototype, but like...its gotta be attached to an actual gaming computer to run"
Then that was all I remember that ever came of it. It was all just a smaller screen and controller with no real info of what it might even be able go run.. they kept saying triple A games and stuff but nothing came of it.
At the time, the idea of a handheld with computer power, the closest you could get was GPD or even just getting a PS2 and making it into a handheld which there was a few DIYs
Being there for this live was so dumb and hilarious. A good trip down memory lane lol
Your choice of background song brings back such great memories
Fake Tommy cameo FTW!
I’ve followed Stop, Drop & Retro for years. I understand that he has other stuff to worry about, but I’d love him to make more videos.
I was intrigued by the Smach Z when I first saw it.
I’m not defending Smach, because I think they are dodgy as hell (look at S,D&R’s videos for their investment sources), but developing a handheld PC in the early to mid 2010s would’ve been quite difficult. They would have likely had to fit whatever chipsets they could get and make the best use of them.
Valve are large enough that they could likely go to AMD with their requirements and AMD would design a chip to fit those requirements.
Now, years later, I have a Steam Deck and love it.
34:46 Actually this is absolutely wrong and it legally couldn't be advertised as such.
Saying it's "the most powerful handheld ever" suggests there will never, EVER be a handheld more powerful and consumers would be within their rights to return the Smach if one more powerful was released due to false advertising.
Incompetence turned into panic, so they decided to get scammy. I mean, just saying that as briefly as I possibly can. I remember all the fuss over it.
Also, great video, thanks for giving me something to watch before sleeping lol!
Is youtube still supressing videos mentioning HEMEJNAHJ-19? maybe susan forgot to toggle that off when she left.
steam machines existed originally as a response to windows 8 and microsoft trying to move to an ecosystem like ios to get the cut from all software sales. a lot of things happened in response, like adobes current up yours billing model etc.
So is that when Microsoft introduced the horrible UWP file format? Basically stripping away all the customization and user freedom that made Windows so popular in the first place.
Since the Windows Store seems to have flopped, Game Pass PC is the only remnant of that file system.
@@fattiger6957 yes and the fullscreen start menu meant to guide you towards apps and the store and that whole metro ui api system for the 'apps' that could be made to run on the arm windows 8 machines(or rather i should say the arm win8 machines could only run those, not even windows mobile applications despite the system being perfectly capable of running them).
windows store is now actually a somewhat decent way to install some stuff(actual windows parts and regular windows applications). too bad the ui still suffers a lot from them trying to guide people to the store to install certain stuff from there etc, so if you want just a traditional windows experience with windows 11 you need explorer patcher, openshell etc to get a movable taskbar and start menu that's like before.
win8 wasn't that bad once you got a start replacer though, in other ways it was better than 7 but they really screwed it up. if they didn't mess with the start menu and shoving metro ui in your throat. it could have been a really well liked windows release.
If you use a tablet motherboard and a Steam controller cut in two, it is technically a modular system 😜
I watched while I was laid up from a leg reconstruction when SD&R covered it and this gave me so much nostalgia! The KickShaming series was my favorite and I hope it comes back one day! Loved your stuff Stop, Drop, and Retro! I'm not one to rush but I await your return!
Whats funny is that Valve got the last laugh; the smach team started off by ripping off valve, only for valve to actually make what the smach should have been, and even cheaper.
I remember seeing it's one of its Kickstarter being released around the same Time as the gpd win 1 but also seeing smach z continue to post delays while gpd kept releasing successors.
Seeing the win 3 deliver on its promises and was wild. Especially with its size. The only problem with this video is the gpd is not a steam deak clone.
I’ve just gone ahead and ordered an OLED Steam Deck. I should have it tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to it!
another great documentary, thanks slope!
@21:08 the soldering iron in that picture looks exactly like the ultra-cheap 14$ iron I recently ordered at amazon. I wouldn't expect any professional manufacturing company to rely on tools of that grade. In a first test, the thing worked, and seems to be an upgrade from the failed cheap 15W iron it is supposed to replace, but I have serious doubts in the longevity of that product and I don't expect any precision from the integrated temperature regulation.
taking other handhelds out of the equation, i can only imagine what the backers were thinking when the steam deck was announced then released.
Ironically, I think a Dell prototype killed this project off. Dell had put out a prototype of a handheld called the "Concept UFO" in January 2020 that really got the whole modern handheld PC thing rolling. I already had the GPD Win 2, but their Win 3, Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally, and the rest all blow the doors off of the Smach Z. I think Smach Z knew they would never be able to compete with the 6840U, 7840U, 8840U, etc., so they strung their followers along as long as possible and then declared bankruptcy.
I'm so glad to see The Real Tommy is still getting some voice over work.
14:38 True 10 fps gaming in the palm of your hands right there!
Around 2015 the steam deck would have started research phase.
Glad for the shout out to my man Stop Drop And Retro! Smach Z is such a shitshow of a story, and i been following it ever since SD&R started covering it.
Thanks! I hope to make new vids soon
Can you do videos on successful handheld gaming PCs like the GPD Win handhelds or the AYANEO line?
The information offered at 17:25 ish makes sense when you see the flexible goal under it - 189% of 265k goal raised. So it being the absolute total, not a portion, makes sense.
I always pronounced it as smach like Mach speed not smash😂
And I remembered this thing vaguely, I always figured it was just canceled or something.
As someone who bought a GPD Win 2 while this was all happening, I can confirm it was hella awesome.
"Wouldn't that be something?"
Ngl after 2020 the Smach Z was doomed. A history of delays and issues with a worldwide pandemic basically shuttering a bunch of what this team can do conpared to Microsoft or Sony (Who remember,dropped their consoles during the pandemic) was basically the death sentence for this product
Add that with the fact that even IF they did drop in 2020/2021 it would be outdaded as hell. Not to mention months later Steam would announce the SteamDeck ,which makes this look like a god damn Tiger electronic handheld in comparison
Theres something immensely satisfying about watching this while playing my steam deck oled
Your videos are always a wonderful treat of information, fun, and way more interesting than I ever expected. You always seem to dive deep into the topics and quickly became a favorite of mine to be excited anytime I get a notification of anything new! Have a wonderful day! 😊🌍❤🕺🏻🐶
Thank you so much for this :D I love making these videos so I'm glad so many people enjoy them :D
Wow, I'm surprised and honestly glad I never heard of this when it was announced. I was obsessed with the idea of portable games at the time, and I luckily bought a GPD device to scratch that itch instead of backing this mess.
Good that Valve finally decided to make their own hardware because this nebulous standard thing was a whole trainwreck
Excellent video. Really well researched and edited.
I remember hearing about this and thinking to myself, maybe I should just buy one of those tablets and build my own 😂
Ah yes, I remember this, I wanted this to be real at one point, was a huge fan of the idea of stuffing a steam controller in a handheld form factor (which thankfully, we got, from valve).
Didn't know that the Phawx deleted all his Smach Z videos, since he was literally the most reputable (and only) person to have gotten their hands on the device, though very unsurprised, once the Smach team announced the project was fully dead there was no real reason to keep it up, ESPECIALLY when two months later, the steam deck gets announced. I just know Phawx got a lot of flack for being a supporter of this massively failed, and embarrassing handheld, so washing his hands of it was probably a no brainer.
The problem there is "washing his hands of it" means publicly renouncing it, after the manner of Pontius Pilate. Silently scrubbing your RUclips channel of your now-embarrassing videos isn't washing your hands of it, it's trying to get people to forget that you ever mentioned it in the first place.
It's a scandal, not really because they never made it. A few prototypes were floating around, if I remember the Phawx has one.
What happened IMO was the cost per unit was too high compared to what was raised from funding.
"if you remember" from the video describing it directly to you? the one we all just watched and you're commenting on?
@@MegaZeta - Huh?
@@MegaZetaI'm commenting without watching.
I keep waiting for that big bombshell of the SteamDeck being announced part of the vid. I really want to see the reaction of the backers to that.
I love my Steam Deck.
Who knew it would be such a great emulation platform?
If it ONLY played Steam games then it'd be worth the money, but it also plays PSX, PS2, PS3, Xbox (not 360 though), every Nintendo, every Sega.... you name it!
But doesn't play hsr...😢 Or gta v apparently?
@@NanoscopicSize Games I can live without.
I'm early! Good way to start my day. Great vid as always!
Congrats on the fitness journey. I immediately noticed you looked thinner then I saw the sponser and it all makes sense. You are looking great!
Ahhh Triggers Broom. The modern day "ship of Theseus"
The IndieGoGo page even says they raised “189% “of their 200 something thousand dollar goal which is definitely not 744k lol
Stop Drop and Retro was a great channel. You two could do something special teaming up sometime.
Thanks! I plan to start uploading again soon