The Phantom

[Hoagie_one]

[jakejake28]

LOL

that seems to about the truth,y'know. just a pc with a gamepad really.

[LunarLoveLust]

Nice  

My favorite PA will always be the Claw Shrimp, what about everyone else?

[pointdablame]

PA is always amazing.

The phantom however.... is not.  I predict it crashes and burns in a few months. Unless of course their marketing is so good that they can convince people to pay hundreds of dollars for the priviledge (sp?) of downloading decade old card games.

[jakejake28]

The phantom however.... is not.  I predict it crashes and burns in a few months. Unless of course their marketing is so good that they can convince people to pay hundreds of dollars for the priviledge (sp?) of downloading decade old card games.

i doubt that Infinium Labs (never heard of 'em, but i don't see them as financially powerful as nintendo or microsoft) has the money to invest. look at nintendo, it took all that money, all theyre popular franchises, and all of their cult following for gamecube to even compete with xbox, and not even come close to ps2. do you think that Infinium Labs even have near that? i dont.

heres a link to gamers.com and a lil into on this Phantom:

http://www.gamers.com/news/1448541

heres the Phantom home page:

http://www.phantom.net/

[Hoagie_one]

Have you guys seen the POS nokia Ngage?

Thats an embarassment

[pointdablame]

Once again, Penny Arcade says what everyone is thinking.

[3dmacman]

LOL

that seems to about the truth,y'know. just a pc with a gamepad really.

Two words, x-Box.

[jakejake28]

Two words, x-Box.

no more really than ps2, tho.

[DaveMMR]

I predict it crashes and burns in a few months

I predict it won't even see the light of day.  Much like many "super consoles" that were hyped and faded away.  

But none of these competitors really stand a chance.  The video game biz has usually been a two horse race (or two horses and a straggler).  SNES vs. Genesis, NES vs. SMS, N64 vs. Playstation.  Of course systems like Turbo Grafix 16 and the Saturn were the third wheels in many popular console battles.  

The only reasons we've managed to keep three systems healthy now is because Microsoft has tons of money and Nintendo is kept alive by its loyal fans and its Gameboy.  Of course, if Nintendo can get some better input from their old nemisis Sega, instead of remakes of Sonic (and yes playing the Sonic collection on a Nintendo system still seems strange to me) then that might be what they need to reclaim their old glory.  The new F-Zero is a small step in the right direction.

Sorry, I like waxing about the home console industry.  

[Frostillicus]

That pretty much sums it up.  I remember when this phantom was announced ages ago - everyone thought it was a hoax.  Maybe it still is (pay per play??).  and the Ngage is just silly.

[eightbit]

Two words, x-Box.

no more really than ps2, tho.

I'd call the xbox a pc wanna-be but I wouldn't give that label to a PS2 or gamecube... The hard drive is what sets the xbox apart from every console to this point.

[jakejake28]

I'd call the xbox a pc wanna-be but I wouldn't give that label to a PS2 or gamecube... The hard drive is what sets the xbox apart from every console to this point.

but the 2 things that come with the xbox, ethernet and hdd, are both available for the ps2... plus, the ps2 has the whole linux, keyboard, mouse thing coming (or already out). the only dif is that the xbox is built in, whereas the ps2's are external.

oh, and yes, i am in denial

[eightbit]

but the 2 things that come with the xbox, ethernet and hdd, are both available for the ps2... plus, the ps2 has the whole linux, keyboard, mouse thing coming (or already out). the only dif is that the xbox is built in, whereas the ps2's are external.

oh, and yes, i am in denial

What does the PS2 hard drive cost?  

For $6 you can buy a xbox USB adapter and plug in many USB devices, like keyboards, mice, memory cards, zip drives...

PS/2 has Linux coming?  Xbox has it today along with more support from the modding and programming communitys than any device has ever seen before.

[Lilwolf]

It might make some money.  Why?  If it's a cheap PC with a decent video card.

It coudl end up being a better version of the xbox that plays all PC games.

of course you have to buy the games from them.  But if they all come out.. it might not be all that bad.

Question is if they will be able to sell almost all PC games for it pre-configured for the system....

but why doesn't it have a cdrom drive?  Then it might be worth it?

Also note.... Its ONLY available with broadband.... Hope they don't mind only selling in cities.

[Mooters]

The PS2 has linux out for about $200.

Heres the link to the Hardware section of perchase
http://www.us.playstation.com/purchase/hardware/
The Linux kit info.
http://www.us.playstation.com/hardware/more/SCPH-97047.asp

[paigeoliver]

Two words, x-Box.

no more really than ps2, tho.

I'd call the xbox a pc wanna-be but I wouldn't give that label to a PS2 or gamecube... The hard drive is what sets the xbox apart from every console to this point.

Sure, the X-Box has a hard drive, but the programmers act like it isn't even there. As far as I have seen it hasn't changed to modern console load time problem one bit. I mean, you would THINK they could install the common menu screens of the game to the hard drive, so it doesn't have to load for 10-20 seconds for each menu screen (GT 2002, or maybe it was 2003 is the specific title I am talking about), but NOOOOO, you have to wait through a bunch of "loading" screens inbetween each and every race. So what is the hard drive for? So you can have 4,976,234,862,389 save games?

[Howard_Casto]

That's not true.  The xbox hardrive is used extensively, just not for what you are wanting.  It's main use is to store the massive expansion packs available for some games through xbox live.  Also some games cache the massive levels ahead of time so that the game won't lag.  

But, if the game is a multiplatform game then it won't take advantage of it.  Why?  Because the programmers don't really care and coding a lot of xbox specific code just to decrease load time by a few seconds isn't top priority.  

My 2 cents on the debate.  Is the xbox a fancy pc?  Definately.  What about the others?  Yup both are.  Think of the ps2 as a sony viao and the gamecube as a really cheap mac.  You can look it up, the architecture on all three is very computer like.  The harddrive point isn't an issue.  Nintendo decided to leave theirs out to keep down costs.  As posted before sony offers a kit.  It's an old timer compared to the other two and the lack of a stock harddrive is signs of that old age.  

But people don't make fun as pc consoles are a very good thing.  You see third gen consoles are at the point to where pcs can actualy display more impressive graphics than them.  Thus using pc parts in future consoles is only natural as they can deliver high performance at a low price.  Plus it makes for a fun hack.  

[paigeoliver]

That makes sense Howard. But those load times just killed the X-Box for me. I grew up on NES, which didn't have load times (but then the SNES started up with those annoyingly long producer logo screens that they made you watch, and sometimes there was like 8 of them).

[Frostillicus]

That makes sense Howard. But those load times just killed the X-Box for me. I grew up on NES, which didn't have load times (but then the SNES started up with those annoyingly long producer logo screens that they made you watch, and sometimes there was like 8 of them).

Heh, it it really bothers you, you should install the games to the HD and play them from there...like 20x faster

I think it's nothing compared to how slow the PSOne was myself.

[paigeoliver]

I never really played either the original Playstation, or the PS2, besides maybe a few minutes on some store demo units. It just never seemed to me like either system had any must have titles.

[eightbit]

That makes sense Howard. But those load times just killed the X-Box for me. I grew up on NES, which didn't have load times (but then the SNES started up with those annoyingly long producer logo screens that they made you watch, and sometimes there was like 8 of them).

Normally I don't put down other peoples opinions but thats the stupidest arguement against the xbox that I have ever heard.

Thats like saying my commodore64 was better than my current 2ghz laptop because it turned on instantly and I didn't have to wait for it to boot up.

[eightbit]

The PS2 has linux out for about $200.

Add the cost of the PS2 to that, you might as well buy a PC. The xbox makes a very cheap linux PC. Especially now that you can load Linux on it without putting in a mod chip or voiding your warranty. Well technically loading Linux would void your warranty but you could reverse all your changes and remove Linux so that they couldn't tell that you did it.