Bringing a brand new machine to market is extremely troublesome, and particularly so in a subject already dominated by monstrous gamers like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. There had been many the explanation why the Phantom by no means got here to be, however a rare prototype of the console that nobody knew existed is now up for public sale.

First introduced in 2002 by a startup known as Infinium Labs (that may later be renamed Phantom Entertainment) the Phantom console was promised to be a revolutionary new platform that eschewed discs and cartridges in favor of utilizing the web to ship titles by what can be the world’s first on-demand online game service utilizing downloads and subscriptions. Downloading video games to a tough drive in a console is commonplace at present, however when the Phantom was introduced it was a revolutionary concept, and one which was in all probability forward of its time as smaller arduous drive capacities and restricted entry to high-speed web within the early aughts posed important challenges to the Phantom coming to fruition.

The quantity of hype behind the product, the dearth of purposeful demos and licensed video games, and funding challenges additionally contributed to the Phantom by no means going into manufacturing and ending up on numerous vaporware lists yr after yr. A working prototype was demonstrated at E3 in May of 2004, with guarantees the console would go on sale in November the identical yr, however the launch date slipped many times, and in February of 2006 it was introduced that the Phantom was delayed indefinitely—its destiny to at the present time.

At Quakecon 2004, a prototype of the Phantom console was destroyed on stage by Kyle Bennett whose web site, HardOCP, had been sued by Infinium Labs after it ran a narrative that was crucial of the corporate, which finally misplaced effectively over $60 million in any case was mentioned and executed. It was considered one of simply two items identified to exist that function the Phantom console’s authentic design. The different unit surfaced at a pc restore store in Florida in 2015, as reported by Ars Technica.

If you’re a collector of doomed know-how, a working prototype of the Phantom console is now up for bidding at Heritage Auctions, with ‘working’ being a really free description of what it may possibly do. The console, basically only a PC in a flowery case, powers up and its LED faceplate glows blue, however all of the {hardware} does is play a brief promotional demo reel when linked to a display. We’ve reached out to Heritage Auctions to try to affirm if this was the prototype found in 2015 in Florida, or a 3rd attainable iteration, and can replace this story after we know extra. But you’ve acquired lower than a few weeks to make a bid and add this sufferer of the console wars to your assortment.