>O<>O<
Since the late 70’s, gamers all over the world have had their own specific wish lists of what they wanted in a console. From how their dream console should have looked and what features that console should have had. It’s natural to dream up the ideal piece of technology that could cover one’s own specific needs and very often, those needs show up when there is a particular disadvantage in one or all of the consoles that have already been released. Who the hell would want a PS2 when you could have had a PS3?
===
The Phantom, by Phantom Entertainment
Expected Cost:
Never officially announced but just to make ends meet, they'd have to charge $700 for the console
Why was it awesome?
The Phantom was such a great idea because it was purely a content delivery service console. In other words, gamers wouldn't have to worry about buying and losing CDs or cartridges but could instead download everything via Phantom's rumored internet delivery service. Phantom boasted that the console would have been able to play PC games and future games as well. In 2004 the graphics on this thing would have absolutely blown away the PS2 and Xbox and upon release it would have dominated with the sheer number of games that were offered, including PC games and the games that were manufactured solely for the console. To make the Phantom’s case even stronger, users would only have had to pay a dirt cheap monthly fee to download a selected number of games per month from Phantom’s On-Demand service. Don't take our word for it though; check out the video:
Why wasn't it released?
Phantom Entertainment began taking pre-orders from prospective customers and sending out thousands of communications claiming the console and content delivery service would be ready by the beginning of 2005 prior to actually developing the service, licensing games, or finding retailers to sell the console. The reason that was such a dick move was purely because Phantom Entertainment’s great idea was simply a great idea; nothing more than some marketing hype whose biggest selling point hadn’t even been conceptually designed yet. Phantom delayed the console time and time again while they hemorrhaged money due to lawsuits filed by the SEC for pushing penny stocks, blowing $62.7 million on marketing for products that were never released, and greatly over-paying design and marketing consultants. In the end, Phantom Entertainment spent a paltry $2.5 million on the development of the Phantom itself. For those of you who aren't savvy in the console development arena, $2.5 million would most likely get you a console blueprint and a couple of half-assed demo systems to show off at game shows. After years of patting themselves on the back and blowing millions of dollars on the development of a console that would have brought the video entertainment market to its knees, Phantom had one last card up their sleeves…
… a fucking lap keyboard.
The Indrema L600, by the Indrema Electronics Company
Expected Cost: $300
Why was it awesome?
The Indrema L600 was designed to be a step above the PS2 and Xbox. The console whooped the bastard children of Sony and Microsoft in several different areas such as graphics power, hardware flexibility, software library, and HD capability and came with a web browser, MP3 storage device, DVD player, and video recorder to boot. To top it all off, it offered consumers a way to upgrade the console’s hardware in contrast to the overly expensive and lame peripherals that were being sold by the other major system vendors at the time. The biggest selling point of the L600 was the fact that Indrema not only allowed unlicensed game development for the console, they condoned it by packing in a fully-featured, functional software development kit to enable extreme hobbyists and/or gamers to make their own titles. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo allow hobbyists and underground developers to make their own titles too, but only at an obscenely high price tag.
Why wasn't it released?
Indrema finally called it quits in April of 2001, about $10 million short of keeping their own damned company alive. It turned out that most of the development work was falsified and thus simply vaporware. Indrema received no support from commercial software companies either, since their console was supposed to work at nullifying high price tags for their own commercial software. The L600 couldn’t survive in the competitive gaming market because they were opposed to suckling at the teats of the industry overlords.
The EVE, by VIA technologies and Ministry of Mobile Affairs or MOMA
Expected Cost: Under $500
Why was it awesome?
The EVE was supposed to be a Palmtop mini-PC that would have played movies, music, and games. The only thing at the time that came somewhat close to this was the PSP, which did NOT have a hard drive and did NOT play movies that weren’t on a UMD diskette. The EVE would have came equipped with a 20GB hard drive, 533 MHz Eden-N processor, flash card slot, USB 2.0 port, 802.11b wireless connectivity, and a 4" LCD screen which would have ran at 640x480 max resolution, along with the ability to download games on-demand from the GameDweller network. x86-based architecture complete with embedded Windows XP allowed downloading of games along with the option of playing PC-based titles. All in all, this thing was set to be more featured, more powerful, and more compatible than the competition.
Why wasn’t it released?
Well it turned out that prior to marketing, branding of the product, and creating a following, someone forgot to do a trademark search. A company in Iceland called CCP, Ltd had already registered the name. In response to the company in Iceland requesting that they change their name or face a lawsuit, MOMA decided to put their work on hiatus. Here is the message from their website:
“Error 404: page not found bulletin:
If you are looking for a page that belongs to the Ministry of Mobile Affairs Inc, please note that due to a trademark issue this website has been temporarily suspended. The Ministry of Mobile Affairs’ mobile gaming product, formerly codenamed “Eve”, shall be renamed and this website re-launched. “Eve” is in fact a registered trademark of CCP Ltd., an Icelandic company. We appreciate their graciousness in notifying us of the issue in a cordial manner.
All of your bookmarks and old hyperlinks will work once the website is re-launched, so there is no need to update your hyperlinks during this temporary service interruption. We estimate this website will be back on-line in mid-July 2004”
Who’d think that a trademark issue could scrap an entire project?
Gamepark XGP, by Gamepark
Expected Cost: $300
Why was it awesome?
The XGP ran on a Linux-based operating system, it was equipped with wireless internet functionality, 32 MB MORE RAM than Sony’s PSP, TV-Out, could download commercial games, and was equipped and supported with homebrew user-created content. Later concept models included a screen that popped out and swiveled similar to Sony’s Clie PDA. Not only was the XGP small and sleek, it gave die-hard enthusiasts the opportunity to develop their own games for free which, of course, is an option Sony and Nintendo would like to stay away from.
Why wasn’t it released?
As of March 2007, Gamepark declared bankruptcy and for a brief amount of time, seemed to be selling footwear.
Ericsson Red Jade, by Ericsson
Estimated Cost: Around $150
Why was it awesome?
The Red Jade would have combined both handheld gaming and PDA functionality using a 64-bit processor with mobile connectivity, Bluetooth options, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, GPS capability, MP3 player, built-in camera, and the ability to play DivX movies. Aside from those options, the Red Jade would have also had graphics on par or better than Sony’s original Playstation or Nintendo’s N64 and, similar to our other candidates on this list, the console would have allowed the downloading of games through a secure system, cutting software prices by at least 33%. Ericsson’s only real competition would have been the Gameboy Advance which of course, only played cartridge-based games.
Why wasn’t it released?
Ericsson invested over $10 million in developing the handheld but a shitty economy after September 11th hit Ericsson with a dose of reality, forcing them to lay off 22,000 people and scrap the project.
===
This list encompasses what gamers would have wanted since most of these systems were made by die hard fans with backgrounds in technology that took that leap of faith and tried to fight the good battle against the Microsofts and SONYs of the world. Unfortunately for all of these contenders on the list, they either went totally bankrupt or lied profusely. In the end, we’re really getting a taste of what the largest companies want us to eat, not what we might really want. The harsh realization is that if you’re not a an enormous company, your chances of developing and releasing a system that can whomp the popular competition are slim to none.
-Gamal
Comments