The Phantom - myth or reality?

Where?

 

I remember the game video on ign or something. And a platformer game of some sort with a fox or a tan rabbit jumping around.

 

I mentioned that on my first post it was at an E3 event a while back and there is or at least was a video on the net of it running because I've seen it before had two guys testing it out. I'll try and dig around

Edit

I don't believe this is the one I watched but its similar

http://www.gamershell.com/tv/7075.html

 

There was pictures of it and the lapboard running UT2k4 in an old Game Informer I had. I don't have them anymore I don't think, but I'll keep an eye out. It could have been a mock up though. I also remember seeing something about it on TechTV before, Unreal 2k4 again.

 

Hey really many thanks guys! Really! Its intresting to see how it evolves! And i still think it would be great to own such a prototype!

 

At the E3 where Phantom had a gigantic two-story booth (2005 maybe? 2004?) they had the slimmer "model 2" version running. It wasn't behind closed doors or anything, it was accessible to any E3 attendees.

Yes, they had Unreal Tournament 2004 running on a Phantom, but it was just the demo, the game was not licensed. They were showing off their streaming encryption technology that allowed users to launch games with only a partial download, while the rest of the game downloaded in the background. I'm 99% positive this was Exent encryption, which has since been used in products that are actually real (in fact, we use Exent here at GameTap).

There were some other games installed on the Phantom units, representing titles that were actually signed. All of these titles, without exception, were small casual games. At a later CES they had the first Thief running, and the representative confirmed to me that they had indeed signed a handful of Eidos titles, though by then I learned to not believe anything an Infinium employee told me.

Assembler, if you're reading this thread, the E3 mentioned above is where I did that funny audio interview. Do you still have that by chance?

 

Must have been 2004, can't recall seeing anything Phantom at E3 2005.

 

yeah but who would have the early units and would they part with them?

 

I bet theres a bigass pile of phantom units and other stuff somewhere.

These flash startups that implode after the funding is gone dont have any control on the stuff they had, and when the shit hits the fan and the office closes every employee grabs whatever they can before leaving.

I knew a guy in school that had a box full of those cat shaped scanners from some dotcom startup. His older brother got them when the company went bankrupt and the damn things were a dime a dozen cuz they were given for free as some sort of synergy between that startup and some magazines.

 

I can put your hand in the fire on that.
Thats exactly what i was thinking. So the next step would be to get in contact with those guys. But how?

 

Does anyone really work there? Did someone get paid in money there? I sure someone here knows someone.. If they new there was good money on the line. I know i am down for it.

 

There are phantom units but its really just a prototype case and PC hardware inside. Intel 845chipset I believe is what was in them.

The CEO, Tim Robinson I believe was his name, is hard to get in touch mainly due to the fact that he's under investigation by the SEC for possible investment fraud. Look up HARDOCP & Phantom fiasco on google and you'll know what I'm talking about. The guy has a history of doing startups for "cutting edge technology" and then magically the projects cancel.

 

And it is for these reasons and more that it is hard to talk to any former employees right now.

 

The funny thing about these projects is that while in a big company none but ex-employees from R&D would have access to this kind of proto material, in startups pretty much everybody gets to see the product, specially poorly administered startups like Infinium.

For example, this friend's brother was a telemarketer for the company that made the CueCat (that was the name of the scanner btw) and while he wasnt involved in R&D nor distribution, he did get a lot of the things when the whole project went down.

Granted, the CueCat did reach mass production and distribution, but the whole project was much bigger than the Phantom, and a lot more people was involved.

Infinium on the other hand I doubt it had more than 30 employees at its peak, so I'm sure that if we could get the names and contact information we would be able to reach them and see if they are interested in an offer.

Even if a startup has a fancy office, several employees and a nice objetive, that doesnt means the whole thing isnt just a front for something that in any other enviroment is simply called a scam.

Actually what he did is nothing new. Founders for these shaddy startups tend to pump the funding dry for personal expenses, then they declare the project is cancelled becos they're out of funding.

Obviously they usually cancel it after a new request for another round of funding is denied by the investors.

Unless they were in cahoots with Tim theres no reason why they may be afraid to talk about the phantom.

Plus if as many startup employees they were paid with stocks instead of actual money I'm sure most of them must be pretty pissed at Tim and would be more than willing to give us information (or stuff) about the project.

 

wow didnt know it went down like that

 

So, key witnesses in a federal investigation are free to discuss the details of the case willy nilly?

 

well at least it is a start.. so who here knows anyone there?

 

Yeah, lets see if there's some chance to dig some coffin up.

 

its name kinda describes itself.