Nintendo's possible rival...

[Teo]

The phantom, lousy gaming, but internet access. Wireless mouse, keyboard, and controller.

[PinkFloydYoshi]

Ah, I was talking to a couple of friends about Infinium lab's Phantom a year ago and he say's it's gonna be a patetic attempt at entering the gaming franchise.

I've just looked at it again after a good few months and it's changed from what it was before. It used to be bulky and quite ugly. Now, it resemble's the new design NetGear Wireless Lan stuff. Grey, Sleek, and really nice.

The Phantom's Features (Directly off their site):
* Non-proprietary development platform (Windows LEVEL UP ! !® Embedded ) - Does not require developers and publishers to incur any additional development costs

Does this mean my console is gonna start bluescreening me? By the way, what it means by 'Embedded' is that it's built into the hardware instead of being installed on a physical disk making starting times virtually instant.

* Powerful digital rights management (DRM) solution that ensures seamless delivery of digital content to consumers while protecting against piracy

Is it iTunes MP4 Compatible? DRM is only used when downloading a song legally from a provider such as MSN Music club or iTunes.

* Try, rent or buy games on demand

Sony had a similar idea... It fell through...

* Broad range of titles appealing to the entire family

Depending on the developers willing to develop for it, mind you, if it's running LEVEL UP ! !, it'll run any PC game. The first console to lag because the graphics are too good.

* Personalized user experience: multiple user profiles and parental control features

Kinda come's standard with Windows LEVEL UP ! ! really...

* State of the art design and technology

Is that a feature?

* Multi-tiered subscription service that meets the needs of casual, moderate and hardcore game players

Like the other consoles then...

'Coming November 2004'

Yeah right...



Whoa, that's Unreal Tournament 2004! Atari have changed sides, only bad for Sony...



AAHA HA HA! One controller port!

Technical Spec's (Again, directly from the Infinium Lab's site):

* AMD® Athlon™ LEVEL UP ! ! 2500+ central processing unit (CPU)
* NVIDIA® GeForce™ FX 5700 Ultra graphics processing unit (GPU)
* NVIDIA nForce™2 Ultra 400 platform processor
* 256 MB RAM
* 40 GB local content cache
* Microsoft Windows LEVEL UP ! !® Embedded Operating System
* Dynamic, personalized user interfaces customizable for age, gender or technical expertise
* Lapboard, mouse and game pad included

* HDTV and Dolby® Digital 5.1 compatible
* Works with any consumer-standard broadband Internet Service Provider (ISP): DSL or faster

It won't work on Dial-up then?

Bah, it's too good to be good but if it's gonna have Unreal 2004 for it, i'll be getting it but I seriously doubt it that Nintendo have to worry. This console is aimed at the really high end Hardcore gamers that have too much money to waste. (Like me, Although, I still like to play on the Mario and Yoshi games, alot more... I''ve had Unreal 2004 for a month now and I haven't played it in a few weeks...)

[Bry]

Bear in mind that the Dreamcast also used a form of embedded Windows (CE aka Custom Edition) for some of its games. The console actually carries the Windows logo on the front.

That said, the dreamcast has had some of the most unusual crashes I've ever found in a game. Such as the sky turning pink and large streams of code flashing across the screen.

[PinkFloydYoshi]

BryUK said:

Bear in mind that the Dreamcast also used a form of embedded Windows (CE aka Custom Edition) for some of its games. The console actually carries the Windows logo on the front.

That said, the dreamcast has had some of the most unusual crashes I've ever found in a game. Such as the sky turning pink and large streams of code flashing across the screen.

Wow... I'd like to see that, lol.

Thing is, people still use Dreamcast, online. The only reason dreamcast wasn't so popular was sega's previous console being a drastic failure. The Saturn. After that, people started to lose faith in Sega.

I don't like the idea of using a Microsoft operating system to power a console, in a way, it's good because you can play game's you've bought for your pc and have them work, straight away, running at top resolution, etc...


But, Microsoft Operating system's, Crash Very easily when put under pressure...

[Bry]

Well, I wouldn't count on it running just any PC game off the shelf. Just as the Dreamcast couldn't run a PC game. What it really meant was, as is described here, development time for games producers. They don't have to spend a fortune on SDK's and the special development hardware as well as deal with how the hardware works.
Even if it is the full windows LEVEL UP ! ! package and so could have normal PC games installed on it, I wouldn't be surprised if a touch of software here or there wouldn't lock it out from doing so. Might sound silly, but companies do some very strange things.
Like how Sony were determined to and eventually did shut down the Bleem emulator. A tool that still required an original Playstation disc, so all it really did was open up the potential PC and Dreamcast markets to Playstation software sales. Sony still shut it down.

The Dreamcasts failure wasn't just about Sega's reputation, its just the way the market has gone. Sony and the Playstation brand are now so well known that people will buy them because of the badge. Probably part of the reason why we see "Playstation 2" and "Playstation 3"

I don't really think there is room in the console market for a 4th competitor. There never has been before and it doesn't so signs of changing, especially with Sony's dominance. The main market which the Phantom seems aimed at should mostly be satisfied with the Xbox already.

[PinkFloydYoshi]

Somehow, I don't think Sony is gonna shift as many ps3's this time round. They've already been slammed for stealing the 'Dual-Proccessor' concept from Microsoft, and looks as though, they're gonna be slammed for stealing the disk reading techneque that GC uses for it's PSP (Don't let the caddy fool you).

I could give you the 'Sale' plan for the PS3 too. PS3 won't do as much as PS2 did, Well, the Standard version. The Standard version will NOT have DVD playback, network access, or Hard drive. The Ultimate Home Entertainment Package will include all of these and will be sold for (My estimate) $680. The standard pack, despite it's distinct lack of features, I imagine will be around $420.

This time round, both PS3 and XBOX launch at the same time. (within a month of each other...) So this time, we get to see the fools separate from the hardcore gamers.

Yeah, I hate the playstation. it very quickly became the most prone to break down console out of the lot with my service record of 17 repaired units. I've still yet to open an xbox or GC...

I've only ever opened up Playstation consoles because they've broken down. I have not had any other console bought to me and I know quite alot of people with XBox's and a few people with GC's...

[Bry]

Oh, I think you'd struggle to find a console less reliable then the Playstation. To be honest, I'm not overly fond of any Sony laser unit. To give an idea, my first playstation died after about 3 years. And it was one of the middle ground models, not an early one.
My original Sega Mega-CD2 is 11 years old now and it still works just fine. Same for my Saturn which is 9 years old.
The laser on my Sony NetMD died just after the year warranty ran out.

Though I have had to open up the Dreamcast several times... Sega made a little design flaw on the western versions. They replaced the Japanese liquid cooling system with a fan and the DC gets a bit hot inside. There are about 4 connecting pins on the underside of one of the boards and they have a habit of heat warping every so often resulting in constant resets when the contact is lost for a moment. Easy to fix though, you just clean the pins and straighten them out.

But yes, before I turned self-employed I worked at an electronics shop which was an agent for a place that repaired consoles. In my 2 years there I saw probably about 25 PS2's brought in for repair, mostly laser units. About 10 Playstations.
I only ever saw one Xbox brought in (because some idiot plugged a Chinese Xbox into the UK 240volt mains. Kaboom) and I never saw a broken Nintendo of any description.

Anyway, I think you hit the nail on the head though. A huge chunk of PS2 sales are people who don't know anything about hardware or specs. Sony made a complete hash over the PS2 launch and still came out of it smelling of roses. Despite Sony's best efforts, they've yet to suffer a Saturn.

Even this new PS2 model, which is completely incompatible with their practically brand new Hard-drive add-on, is being crowned as the greatest technological improvement in years. Though I'm sure you'll know as well as I do that a huge chunk of the PS2's size is taken up by that massive empty expansion port.

[Teo]

I'll stay loyal to Nintendo, but I am getting a phantom!!