The Phantom lives?

[Jason Becker]

Well it looks like the Phantom is a legitimate product or at least at real attempt at one and not a hoax. Not sure it it will be able to make or not but an interesting idea.

http://www.1up.com/article2/0,4364,1434779,00.asp

[TomChick]

Does anyone know what games were on the list (www.phantom.net/publishers.html) before it was taken down?

-Tom

[Jason McMaster]

Last time I looked, they didn't have any. Only the Phantom knows...

[Silverlight]

Does anyone know what games were on the list (www.phantom.net/publishers.html) before it was taken down?

I can only tell you the general characteristics.

It was a mishmash of six-month-old PC games (i.e. Rise of Nations), random stuff that's even older, and low-budget type content like the educational stuff from the Reader Rabbit guys, and games out of some Christian-oriented publisher. I didn't see anything there that suggested real success in getting publishers to commit to the platform. In fact it was almost like the kind of list you'd get out of people trying to sell you a PC emulator for Mac or something.

In fact I'd almost be willing to say that it was (A) put up in a real hurry (B) not edited and (C) contained at least one publisher that they didn't actually contact. Maybe Microsoft, who I can't see possibly supporting this thing. It was really in general just a totally amateurish job, which explains why they took it down.

[Trixie]

I think this is the list (www.armchairempire.com/videogame-news/multi-platform/January-2004/phantom-games-list.htm).

[Jason McMaster]

Oh Jesus, It's got all the HOMM games. Tyler will definately buy one.

[Murph]

There's actually some good stuff on there from Atari.

Neverwinter Nights? Civ III? Some of my favorites!

[Jason McMaster]

Gothic 2

[Raife]

Flying Heroes! Where's Tom?

Here's their FAQ (www.phantom.net/faq/default.asp).

[Ben Sones]

Does it magically turn your television into a suitable display for all of those PC games? Because I'd buy one if it does that, but I doubt anyone at all will if it doesn't.

[awdougherty]

At least they locked down Pool of Radiance 2.

[DennyA]

But now you have that competing, open-standard rig that Apex and Alienware will be doing that's supposed to play virtuall ALL games.

My big hesitation on these, of course, is the inappropriateness of the display and lack of extra value vs. a game console or dedicated PC. I saw the Apex rig running some text-heavy games at CES and the display looked good -- but they were running the units connected to HDTV LCD screens, so it was probably a digital signal.

[Ben Sones]

Yeah, I'm sure it will look dandy on high end televisions. But I'd guess that anyone that can afford to drop several grand on a TV already has a computer capable of playing all of those games, if they want one. I'm still not entirely sure what demographic they are trying to target with this system, and I don't think they are too clear on it, either.

[Jason Becker]

Interesting bit info on the newest Phantom team member.

From IGN:

January 23, 2004 - In a move that can only be seen as shocking, Kevin Bachus, one of the founding members of the Xbox project at Microsoft, has joined Infinium Labs as president and chief operating officer, according to Gameindustrybiz.com. Infinium Labs is the company set to launch the much talked about Phantom gaming console.

Besides being a founding member of the Xbox, Bachus was also Microsoft's first director of third party relations for the console. He later left the company - along with another founding member of the Xbox, Seamus Blackley - to form Capital Entertainment Group.

[DennyA]

I know Kevin from way back... If they were trying to lend an air of legitimacy to the company, they made a good move.

That said... I think the Phantom will bomb even worse than the Apex/Alienware CD/TV game devices--and those are going to be pretty spectacular bombs in their own right.