Next-gen console scrapped

I predicted this when it debuted. Just like what happened to that last ghost machine... Only that was too long ago and I forgot its name, heh.

Something with a 3 in it? I dunno.

Last year\'s E3 was the Phantom\'s coming out party.

Infinium Labs, the company behind the on-demand video game service, spent millions of dollars for an elaborate booth meant to quiet growing speculation at the time that the service -- and the system that powered it -- were non-existent.

To an extent, the gamble worked. While gamers still had doubts about the company after the show, seeing a working prototype and a smartly designed keyboard and mouse unit bought the company some breathing room.

But this year, the Phantom is nowhere to be found at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the gaming industry\'s top deal-making and media event.

In a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Infinium Labs said there\'s a good chance it won\'t raise enough money to launch its key product in time, putting its existence at risk.

"The company believes, based on past performance, that there is a high likelihood that sufficient capital will not be available ... and many or all of these milestones will be missed and the launch date will again shift and/or the company will go out of business," it said in the April 20 filing with the SEC.

It goes on...

What the hell was the name of that other system, probably like ten years ago now....

-Dan

[clips]

when they first announced that phanthom crap it sounded like they was on some shady s**t...no big loss

Originally posted by Eiksirf
I predicted this when it debuted. Just like what happened to that last ghost machine... Only that was too long ago and I forgot its name, heh.

Something with a 3 in it? I dunno.



It goes on...

What the hell was the name of that other system, probably like ten years ago now....

-Dan

Are you talking about M2 or ProjectX?

I thought this was announced ages ago. Everybody knew The phantom wasnt going to make it. Im sure statements by Infinium were given before.

I dont know of any other console with a 3 in it but i remember when Indrema (L600) was supposed to come out. That was fairly interesting.


I dont know what this one ^(above)^ is but perhaps it was concept art. The one i remember is this one (below)

Yea it was the M2. I just thought of it, too. It\'ll be great if it comes out:

Annouced May 2nd 1995, the M2 was originally intended to be a 64-bit add-on system for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer but then became a separate system. Developed by the same team (Opera) that created the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, the system was initially called the "3DO II" and "Bulldog".

The 3DO company later sold the technology to Matsushita for US$100 000 000 and left the hardware market to focus only on software. Matsushita further developed the technology and called it M2.

A few prototypes of M2 video game consoles exist, made by Panasonic (Matsushita Group) and Goldstar (LG Electronics Group). In 1997, Matsushita decided not to go ahead with a video game console as they didn\'t think the market was ready for another system as the three giants (Nintendo, Sony and Sega) already had a strong dominance of the market.

The M2 technology was instead used in Matsushita\'s DVD multimedia systems (announced 16th 1998), however it is unknown as to whether DVD players incorporating this technology were released. It is also believed that the technology may have been used in smart appliances.

Several games had been developed for the system including D\'s Diner 2. Had the system been released (and at a reasonable price) it probably would have outdone the PlayStation with its far better graphics and other features.

3DO/Matsushita M2 Technical Specifications

CPU: IBM/Motorola Power PC 602 Dual CPU @ 66MHz
RAM: 8MB
Cache Menory: 32KB
BUS: 520 MB/second, Dual 33MHz
Graphics: High-Speed Texturing, High Quality Filtering, MIP Mapping, Z Buffering, Anti-Aliasing, Alpha Channel: 128 degrees or transparency
Resolution: 640 pixels x 480 pixels, 24-bit colour
Polygons: 1 000 000 per second (textured triangles)
Pixels: 100 000 000 per second
FMV (Full Motion Video): MPEG 1 (VHS Quailty)
Media: 4X CD-ROM
Storage: Memory Card 128KB - 32MB
Expansion: PCMCIA (modem, etc)

[Evi]

This is incredibly old news. It didn\'t come out because of stupid business decisions. Moral: Don\'t make stupid business decisions.

[Living-In-Clip]

There was........
Phantom
M2
Infantium
etc.

I still have old magazines with M2 Demos (pictures) in them. They looked great but im not sure if they were real time.

It would be interesting if some small off shoot console actually made it.

Not exactly a scrapped console.But I remember the days of the Black Belt add on for the Saturn and the Katana console that never saw the light of day.Well not exactly since they were replaced by the beautiful Dreamcast.

ahh yes the indrema, I remember they were taking donations from people to help support it\'s production, scams are cool.

[Evi]

They were almost bankrupt by the time launch came around...and then they needed millions more to launch. They sort of f*cked themselves over.

I kinda wish this system found a niche market.  I hope at the very least they sell a standalone version of that kickass lapboard they created.  I even emailed them about it.

Originally posted by Unicron!
Not exactly a scrapped console.But I remember the days of the Black Belt add on for the Saturn and the Katana console that never saw the light of day.Well not exactly since they were replaced by the beautiful Dreamcast.

Black belt & dural were competing designs by Sega of Japan & Sega of America.  Japan\'s edition was selected (Dural), which became the Saturn.  The Black Belt was gonna use an IBM powerpc cpu and 3dfx GPU.  I\'m not sure what Katana was, I think that was arcade hardware?  Or the codename for the dreamcast?

Katana was Dreamcast.

Originally posted by JBean
Black belt & dural were competing designs by Sega of Japan & Sega of America.  Japan\'s edition was selected (Dural), which became the Saturn.  The Black Belt was gonna use an IBM powerpc cpu and 3dfx GPU.  I\'m not sure what Katana was, I think that was arcade hardware?  Or the codename for the dreamcast?

?

I remember the "story" kind of differently about Black Belt and Dural.