So Vinh _did_ talk to SNK about DavidG:

aria · Mar 25, 2013

Just to catch-up on backstory: when the AF3/PSII drama was breaking out, Vinh Trieu (owner of Arcade Shock) was very skeptical of their authenticity and of DavidG's story in general. Vinh used to visit the Torrance offices of SNK a lot while in college and has even met E. Kawasaki during one of the legend's visits to the US office. Vinh's always had his own set of connections.

So jump to last year: As the brouhaha was growing, Trieu said he would talk to SNK once e3 was over during one of his business visits to Japan. Time had passed and I know I was getting impatient.

Well, this email from was passed to me, it wasn't considered confidential but I've cut out stuff not related to the DavidG issue:

To give you an update, I was in Osaka in Sept and before showing up in person, I sent them an email asking for a statement and they agreed, but when I got there, I was interviewing the SNK Development team and didn't ask simply because it's quite embarrassing. More than that, they are focused on the future, not the past and the drama it presents.

A few top SNK Executives who have been there a while do not recall any David Garrett and more importantly, they said there were no non-Japanese engineers that ever worked for SNK.

Spoke with Eli Davalos a few weeks as well, who was at SNK from 1991 to the closing of SNK NEOGEO USA, which was around 2005. Given everyone knows everyone at SNK, she has never heard of the guy, especially, someone who was in her division. She was a Senior Tech at SNK Torrance before becoming President of SNK NEOGEO USA MVS Division, so she knew all the people in there.

Anyhow, it's a shame that he wouldn't just come out and say he made a mistake. He seems to make great products and the NEO GEO Market could use such talent. He may never reveal to you who he really is, but from doing some research, some of my contacts that did visit Ray Young back in the day say that David G was his main guy when developing the Phantom. Ray's son wasn't the head honcho. They worked together on this with David G.

Discuss!

cdamm · Mar 25, 2013

well, crap.

here we go again.

aria · Mar 25, 2013

cdamm said:
well, crap.

here we go again.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.

Sex Machine · Mar 25, 2013

Shit just keeps getting deeper.

Craig · Mar 25, 2013

where's david been at since tonk asked to be banned?

Lemony Vengeance · Mar 25, 2013

If there's anyone int community that could have done this digging properly, it's vinh.

Sex Machine · Mar 25, 2013

I wonder what this "proof" is that supposedly made TonK believe that he was in fact employed by SNK.

Teddy KGB · Mar 25, 2013

It's just confirmation of what we already kind of knew. Not surprised.

Thanks for passing along the email B.

scrubsy · Mar 25, 2013

This should be all the proof you needed if you weren't convinced before. He lied about working there, he faked the carts (or stole the fakes from someone else) & if I were the buyers I would be after him now more then ever.

wataru330 · Mar 26, 2013

Dayyyyyyyyyyyyyum.

Orpheus · Mar 26, 2013

The irony if this fucking Mc.G character being some run off from Ray wouldn't be lost on any of us and wouldn't surprise me much at all.

It's shit like this that makes our hobby (and the scene that represents it to a degree) carry the reputation that it does. Just one of the negative side effects that the money brings.

By the way, can some one give me the short short version of why there is a negative perception (or truth?) about Vinh?
I wasn't around much when that shit hit the fan.

SSS · Mar 26, 2013

Sex Machine said:
Shit just keeps getting deeper.

Not really, the guy specializes in converters and made a fix for the phantom 1. This is hardly a revelation.

Sex Machine · Mar 26, 2013

Like I said, I wonder what "proof" he could have possibly have put forth if true, to make people believe his shit.

hyper · Mar 26, 2013

further proof that davidg is completely full of it

what is shawn's take on all this? why does he continue to support this bootlegging fogot by carrying the 161 in 1 homecart?

wataru330 · Mar 26, 2013

hyper said:
further proof that davidg is completely full of it

what is shawn's take on all this? why does he continue to support this bootlegging fogot by carrying the 161 in 1 homecart?

Maybe they are hommys.

Andy Is A Bastard · Mar 26, 2013

Didn't someone (Shawn, I believe) call David !Arcade! 2.0? If he worked with Ray Young, doesn't that make him more of an !Arcade! 1/2? 1.5? Revision B?

Shawn · Mar 26, 2013

I already stated what I thought through dozens of posts when these games went public and those opinions haven’t changed. It was only through selling DavidG’s productions that Chamane was able to receive a partial refund ($20k of $25k paid, $5k TonK chose not to refund), and yes, this service was provided through the NeoStore. That covered a 100% net refund on DavidG’s behalf to Chamane. Now if TonK wanted to make an effort to repair his rep, he should refund Chamane the $5k commission he took.

Vinh and I share the same opinion of DavidG in that he can make some great products. My concern is that such products should be marketed with full disclosure for what they really are so that consumers know exactly what they are purchasing. In this case, the converter and multicart were both advertised as unofficial and made in Canada, and they were priced in a manner that the new owners can recoup cost through resale should they wish.

Andy Is A Bastard said:
Didn't someone (Shawn, I believe) call David !Arcade! 2.0? If he worked with Ray Young, doesn't that make him more of an !Arcade! 1/2? 1.5? Revision B?

!Arcade! 2.0 seemed more appropriate because the latest products are technically next generation.

malignantpoodle · Mar 26, 2013

I'm surprised that none of the buyers have lodged a criminal complaint.

SSS · Mar 26, 2013

malignantpoodle said:
I'm surprised that none of the buyers have lodged a criminal complaint.

And do what? Call the Mounties? They're too busy wrangling the wayward moose to give a crap about counterfeit video games for a defunct console

Fox1 · Mar 26, 2013

SSS said:
And do what? Call the Mounties? They're too busy looking for maple syrup thieves to give a crap about counterfeit video games for a defunct console

Fixed!

rcantor77 · Mar 26, 2013

So lets play devils advocate on this before the pitchforks come out again...

A few top SNK Executives who have been there a while do not recall any David Garrett and more importantly, they said there were no non-Japanese engineers that ever worked for SNK.

Well I am sure that is quite true... in Japan. We all know that is not the case for SNK USA so an irrelevant comment.

Spoke with Eli Davalos a few weeks as well, who was at SNK from 1991 to the closing of SNK NEOGEO USA, which was around 2005. Given everyone knows everyone at SNK, she has never heard of the guy, especially, someone who was in her division. She was a Senior Tech at SNK Torrance before becoming President of SNK NEOGEO USA MVS Division, so she knew all the people in there.

It does seem strange that if this is actually true that no one can recall the name. But we are talking about 20 years ago... if I cast my mind back 20 years to were I was working when I left school, I can't remember everyone's name either. Although it is frustrating that we have not found anyone that knew DavidG at SNK (if he worked there), we shouldn't just trust someones memory that easily.

Anyhow, it's a shame that he wouldn't just come out and say he made a mistake. He seems to make great products and the NEO GEO Market could use such talent. He may never reveal to you who he really is, but from doing some research, some of my contacts that did visit Ray Young back in the day say that David G was his main guy when developing the Phantom. Ray's son wasn't the head honcho. They worked together on this with David G.

Now this is the only comment in that email that makes perfect sense to me... there has been far too much secrecy and cover ups with this whole affair and David needs to start being more honest and open with everyone... he will get alot more respect for it. Whether it proves things one way or another.

What I do find frustrating, is that both Billy and John have both said that they have seen proof... so if David wants to put this to bed once and for all, then that proof needs to be shared with everyone.

rcantor77 · Mar 26, 2013

Craig said:
where's david been at since tonk asked to be banned?

David is still about, look at his profile.
I just don't think he knows what to do anymore... until he opens up with some hard facts, no one is ever going to believe anything he says.

theMot · Mar 26, 2013

Ok, so the games are fake, but how did he get his hands on all of those spare snap lock cases and shells? Surely you would need some kind of contact in SNK to get you hands on those?

Sex Machine · Mar 26, 2013

He has no proof, tony called him out on his bullshit too. He's a liar and a scammer.

IDCHAPPY · Mar 26, 2013

aria said:
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.

So it appears...

So Vinh _did_ talk to SNK about DavidG:

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