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Speaker 1: Hey there, it's Jonathan Strickland, and I'm here to introduce

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Speaker 1: a playlist of ten episodes of my podcast tech Stuff

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Speaker 1: that are all about entertainment and entertainment related fields, from

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Speaker 1: video games to television series, two films to internet videos

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Speaker 1: from yesteryear. So I hope you guys enjoy these episodes.

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Speaker 1: You can go to the tech Stuff podcast page and

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Speaker 1: subscribe to listen to all sorts of episodes about tech

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Speaker 1: from all realms, and hopefully this will provide a little

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Speaker 1: bit of entertainment, a little bit of education, and probably

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Speaker 1: more than a few puns, because that's kind of how

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Speaker 1: I roll. Enjoy this playlist. Welcome to text Tuff, a

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Speaker 1: production from my Heart Radio. Hey there, and welcome to

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Speaker 1: tex Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive

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Speaker 1: producer with I Heart Radio, and I love all things tech,

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Speaker 1: and we are closing out our entertainment playlist with an

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Speaker 1: episode about an infamous piece of hardware, the Phantom game consoles.

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Speaker 1: So this episode is called the Phantom Zone. This one,

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Speaker 1: uh became legendary in tech circles as people began to

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Speaker 1: do some detective work to figure out what exactly was

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Speaker 1: going on. And if anything was going on, really fascinating

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Speaker 1: stuff I hope you guys enjoy. So what was the phantom, Well,

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Speaker 1: it is meant to be a next generation gaming rig

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Speaker 1: that would bring PC gaming to the living room back

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Speaker 1: in two thousand three two thousand four, and it opposed

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Speaker 1: something fairly revolutionary in the process. Now, today, if you

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Speaker 1: were to unveil a gaming device that required you to

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Speaker 1: download all the titles to a hard drive, you probably

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Speaker 1: wouldn't raise that many eyebrows. It's not uncommon for a

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Speaker 1: gaming PC to lack an optical drive, after all, most

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Speaker 1: gaming rigs I've seen these days don't have an optical drive.

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Speaker 1: And digital delivery of games has been growing in popularity.

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Speaker 1: I mean, just take a look at steams numbers, They're incredible.

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Speaker 1: There's still a market for physical copies of a game, however,

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Speaker 1: particularly since you can potentially sell or trade in old

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Speaker 1: games if you use physical media. But overall, I'd say

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Speaker 1: the trend has been to move toward more of a

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Speaker 1: digital download experience. So if I said I was going

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Speaker 1: to launch a brand new console that could only stream

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Speaker 1: or download games, I probably wouldn't leave very many people

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Speaker 1: scratching their heads today. But the same was not true.

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Speaker 1: Back in January two thousand three. That's the year a

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Speaker 1: new company that was called Infinium Labs announced it was

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Speaker 1: bringing a gaming console called the Phantom to market. Now,

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Speaker 1: this was months before Steam would launch, let alone become

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Speaker 1: the dominant online market for computer games. In two thousand three,

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Speaker 1: it was pretty much common practice to go to game

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Speaker 1: stores or big box outlets to purchase computer titles. So

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Speaker 1: when Infinium Labs brazenly announced the company intended to turn

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Speaker 1: the home gaming market on its head, they got a

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Speaker 1: lot of attention. Now, ultimately the story would be followed

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Speaker 1: by controversy, anger, and finally mockery, and it includes allegations

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Speaker 1: of fraud or at the very least ineptitude. It involves

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Speaker 1: the company that changed its name and switched tracks to

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Speaker 1: create a totally different product than the one that was

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Speaker 1: promising to consumers. So we're really going to dive into

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Speaker 1: the story of the Phantom and what actually happened. Now,

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Speaker 1: our story begins. You guys know me, I like to

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Speaker 1: always dive further back than when the actual stuff happens.

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Speaker 1: Our story really begins almost a decade before any mention

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Speaker 1: of the Phantom ever hits the public in the early

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Speaker 1: nineteen nineties in St. Louis, Missouri. They're a man named

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Speaker 1: Timothy Munroe. Roberts was working at a computer store and

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Speaker 1: he had a customer named Andrew Gladney, and the two

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Speaker 1: of them began to talk about an idea for a business.

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Speaker 1: This was not the business that would become in Phenium Labs, however.

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Speaker 1: It was instead to create a data hosting service and

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Speaker 1: an early Internet data hosting company. They called it the

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Speaker 1: Savas Communications Corporation s a v v I. S now.

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Speaker 1: Gladwell put up the majority of the starting capital. He

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Speaker 1: had a pretty healthy trust fund to draw from. It

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Speaker 1: was left to him by his grandfather, who has a

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Speaker 1: founder of a company that made a little soft drink

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Speaker 1: called seven Up. Together they got the business up and running,

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Speaker 1: and the company saw some early success, with Robert's landing

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Speaker 1: a big deal with Apple Computer Incorporated. And landing Apple

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Speaker 1: meant Savas had some areous market buzz behind it, and

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Speaker 1: they soon secured several other big contracts. Roberts, however, had

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Speaker 1: decided that he wanted to try and do something else,

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Speaker 1: so he left Savaths in ninete and went out to

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Speaker 1: start a new business. Now this time, this was a

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Speaker 1: web hosting company called in Tira I n t I

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Speaker 1: r A, also based out of St. Louis, Missouri. Some

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Speaker 1: of the concepts the company pushed were predictive of the

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Speaker 1: cloud computing craze that would follow a few years later,

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Speaker 1: but perhaps it was a touch too early for the company,

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Speaker 1: and coupled with the dot com bubble bursting in the

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Speaker 1: early two thousand's, it ended up not surviving. It filed

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Speaker 1: for bankruptcy protection in two thousand one. Oddly enough, Roberts

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Speaker 1: had already extricated himself from the company at that point,

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Speaker 1: selling off most of his stock, which in hindsight might

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Speaker 1: seem like it was a bit of a tip off.

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Speaker 1: Roberts had left in Tira around so a couple of

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Speaker 1: years before the company went under, and he went on

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Speaker 1: to found another company, this time called Broadband Infrastructure Group Corporation,

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Speaker 1: also known as Big b a G. The company's mission

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Speaker 1: was to act as a sort of incubator for tech

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Speaker 1: companies and develop communications businesses. According to the St. Louis

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Speaker 1: Business Journals, this is still happening in St. Louis, Missouri now.

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Speaker 1: According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Big raised about

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Speaker 1: eighteen million dollars from investors in two thousand and it

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Speaker 1: even sponsored a race car during the Indianapolis five hundred

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Speaker 1: that year. There are also stories of lavish parties, expensive wines.

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Speaker 1: In fact, part of the bankruptcy proceedings because spoiler alert

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Speaker 1: Big went out of business to part of the bankruptcy

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Speaker 1: proceedings include the auction of twenty four models of Chateau

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Speaker 1: Lafitte Rothschild, which was a worth about twenty four thousand dollars.

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Speaker 1: Within nine months of raising those millions of dollars, b

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Speaker 1: I G closed. Now that led to Robert's getting some

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Speaker 1: heat in St. Louis See I changed it to St.

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Speaker 1: Louis for this part, and soon he had folks at

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Speaker 1: the state and federal and city levels all asking some

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Speaker 1: really tough questions about his entrepreneurial efforts, and undaunted, he

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Speaker 1: picked up stakes and he moved to Florida near Tampa.

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Speaker 1: He started a new company called Infinium Labs, and on

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Speaker 1: January two thousand three, he started the company two thousand two,

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Speaker 1: by the way, but in two thousand three, on January twenty,

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Speaker 1: company issued a press release about their plans. It's a

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Speaker 1: short one, so I'm going to actually read the press release.

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Speaker 1: A Tampa Bay area technology company, in Phinium Labs Corporation,

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Speaker 1: will develop and market a new game console that will

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Speaker 1: outperform the Xbox Sony, PlayStation two, and GameCube. The company

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Speaker 1: plans to market a high performance gaming console and delivery

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Speaker 1: system to provide consumers with options and capabilities that are

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Speaker 1: not available in today's marketplace. The console will appeal to

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Speaker 1: the hardcore gamer and the high end consumer electronic purchaser.

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Speaker 1: Then next generation game console provides a robust, fault tolerant

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Speaker 1: delivery system that supports games on demand, game rentals, game demos,

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Speaker 1: seamless upgrades, and patch management. The game console is an

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Speaker 1: always on broadband device. It is easy enough for children

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Speaker 1: to use independently, yet so advanced it exceeds the needs

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Speaker 1: of hardcore gamers. Infinium Labs was formed by veteran entrepreneurs

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Speaker 1: who have a successful track record in building large scale

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Speaker 1: companies and advanced architectures for supporting massive e commerce and

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Speaker 1: enterprise applications. Combining skills from tell COO, data communications, digital

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Speaker 1: rights management, software development, and security, the management team brings

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Speaker 1: together a unique array of skills to develop the most

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Speaker 1: robust next generation gaming console and delivery network on the market.

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Speaker 1: The Infinium Labs game console features a high tech design

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Speaker 1: and offers ease of use for the variety of game

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Speaker 1: players worldwide. The on demand delivery system will appeal to

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Speaker 1: hardcore gamers as well as casual users. The unique design

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Speaker 1: architecture allows for delivery of a large number of games

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Speaker 1: and the ability to participate in online massive multiplayer gaming.

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Speaker 1: Key features include fastest console on the market, broadest selection

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Speaker 1: of preloaded games, cross platform capabilities, stay of the art

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Speaker 1: design and architecture, advanced accessories and wireless capabilities, online connectivity

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Speaker 1: for multiplayer gaming, seamless upgrades and patch management. A multi

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Speaker 1: tiered subscription service that meets the needs of casual, moderate

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Speaker 1: and hardcore game players, demo games before purchasing or subscribing

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Speaker 1: games on demand, and game rentals. The advanced system provides

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Speaker 1: game developers and publishers a secure and efficient software distribution system,

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Speaker 1: and Phendium Labs intends for game developers and publishers to

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Speaker 1: reap greater profits using this new game delivery system. And

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Speaker 1: Phideum Labs has engineered its prototypes and expects to unveil

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Speaker 1: the new gaming console in March of two thousand three.

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Speaker 1: The company intends to launch the game console to the

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Speaker 1: US consumer market by No. Member two thousand three. Remember

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Speaker 1: that date. And Phenium Labs has chosen Florida as its

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Speaker 1: corporate headquarters. Florida has emerged as a leader in support

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Speaker 1: of technology companies with its e Florida initiative. Offices will

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Speaker 1: soon will open soon in Silicon Valley and St. Louis, Missouri.

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Speaker 1: About in Phenium Labs and Phenium Labs Corporation was formed

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Speaker 1: in October two thousand two as a global entertainment gaming company.

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Speaker 1: And Phinium Labs mission is to market a gaming console

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Speaker 1: and delivery system that will be the performance leader in

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Speaker 1: the game playing entertainment industry. The company will market a

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Speaker 1: robust game console that will appeal to a wide audience

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Speaker 1: with its ease of use, quality assurance, and robust delivery systems. Now,

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Speaker 1: we could probably say today that those promises we're a

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Speaker 1: little astounding for their time and perhaps even a bit boastful.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you're talking about the fastest game console on

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Speaker 1: the market. Back in two thousand three, this was a

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Speaker 1: new company, untested in this space, setting out to challenge

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Speaker 1: entrenched companies like Sony and Hindo. And then you had Microsoft,

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Speaker 1: which was relatively new to the video game console market

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Speaker 1: at this point but had already established itself as a

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Speaker 1: powerful presence in the industry, and the features the press

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Speaker 1: release listed were extremely innovative at the time. I'm sure

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Speaker 1: the gamers out there recognized that many of those features

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Speaker 1: are now standard on several consoles. For example, both on

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Speaker 1: the Xbox One and on the PS four, you can

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Speaker 1: sample some games and even get some titles as part

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Speaker 1: of a monthly subscription service. So that kind of stuff

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Speaker 1: today isn't innovative, but at the time it was a

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Speaker 1: totally different way of doing business. So the promises being made,

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Speaker 1: while advanced, we're all features that would later on become

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Speaker 1: standard and video game consoles. It's just that in two

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Speaker 1: thousand three, this was a really wild idea, and it

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Speaker 1: raised questions was the world ready for an always on

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Speaker 1: internet connected console? Now? Judging by the resistance gamers put

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Speaker 1: up when Microsoft first said the Xbox One was going

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Speaker 1: to follow that same model and being always on broadcast service,

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Speaker 1: I think it's safe to say that, if I can

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Speaker 1: two thousand three, the world was not ready at that point.

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Speaker 1: Because it wasn't ready when the Xbox One came out.

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Speaker 1: More importantly, was the technology ready or did the company

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Speaker 1: make promises that would have been impossible to deliver upon

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Speaker 1: even if it had been established as a play big

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Speaker 1: player in the space up at that point. In other words,

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Speaker 1: if this had been Sony or Microsoft, would they have

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Speaker 1: been able to pull it off? Or was this just

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Speaker 1: a promise that no one at the time could deliver upon.

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Speaker 1: We'll take a look at more details about the unveiling

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Speaker 1: of the Phantom and what happened in the wake of that,

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Speaker 1: but first let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. Now,

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Speaker 1: before I get into all the controversy that surrounds the Phantom,

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Speaker 1: I thought it would be a good idea to talk

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Speaker 1: about what it was supposed to have inside of it,

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Speaker 1: what kind of connectors it was supposed to have, you know,

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Speaker 1: how it was going to connect to your television, and

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Speaker 1: talk a little bit more about the subscription service and

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Speaker 1: the online element to this, to kind of get an

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Speaker 1: idea of what exactly was supposed to come out. Now,

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Speaker 1: keep in mind that not all of this ever materialized. Also,

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Speaker 1: this is dependent upon technology of the early two thousand's

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Speaker 1: even the TV technology at the time. So there's some

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Speaker 1: things that you would have considered would have needed to

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Speaker 1: be standard that we're not included, like h d m

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Speaker 1: I is not a component on the Phantom spec list,

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Speaker 1: and that's largely because back in two thousand three not

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Speaker 1: such a big thing. But other things that you don't

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Speaker 1: see as much anymore, like composite or component video that

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Speaker 1: definitely was part of it. So for the standard components

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Speaker 1: of the Phantom, because you could also get optional components

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Speaker 1: added on, or at least in three you could. In

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Speaker 1: reality you couldn't get anything. The standard components were supposed

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Speaker 1: to include a custom operating system on a Windows XPE kernel,

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Speaker 1: so that custom operating system was to make it proprietary,

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Speaker 1: kind of like the operating systems you would encounter on

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Speaker 1: other video game consoles, and it would end up locking

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Speaker 1: you into the Phantom's ecosystem. It was supposed to have

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Speaker 1: an a m d Athalon xpred plus central processing unit,

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Speaker 1: which would have approximately one point eight giga hurts of

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Speaker 1: CPU power, and it was supposed to have an Nvidia

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Speaker 1: g Force f X fifty undred Ultra graphics processing unit.

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Speaker 1: Was also supposed to have an Nvidia enforce to Ultra

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Speaker 1: four hundred motherboard, two hund fifty six megabytes main memory,

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Speaker 1: forty gigabyte hard drive, Dolby Digital five point one surround

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Speaker 1: sound onboard, radio frequency wireless modules that would allow you

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Speaker 1: to connect things like UM wireless mouse or wireless controllers

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Speaker 1: or wireless keyboards to this and S video r c

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Speaker 1: A or component video connections also composite as it would

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Speaker 1: turn out a Ethernet port so that you could actually

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Speaker 1: plug that into your Internet connection that was supposed to

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Speaker 1: always be connected to the Internet, so you need to

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Speaker 1: have something a wireless controller, a wireless keyboard and mouse

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Speaker 1: to USB ports and for controller ports. Then there were

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Speaker 1: some optional components you could add on to that which

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Speaker 1: would include extra controllers either wireless or accorded ones, a

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Speaker 1: keyboard and mouse with charging, base station storage expansion for

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Speaker 1: additional game storage, so you could double the amount of

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Speaker 1: storage space on there in theory, a DSL modem, a

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Speaker 1: cable modem, a wireless WiFi card, memory upgrades, speaker sets,

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Speaker 1: and flat screen displays. So in other words, you could

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Speaker 1: go from something that you were supposed to just hook

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Speaker 1: up to your TV to something that would have potentially

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Speaker 1: multiple screens, although as far as I can tell, they

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Speaker 1: the graphics card wasn't necessarily set up to support multiple displays,

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Speaker 1: but that doesn't mean that it couldn't happen. One thing

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Speaker 1: the Phantom did not have was any sort of portable

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Speaker 1: storage drive. So there were no CD drives, no DVD drives,

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Speaker 1: no cartridges, no floppy disks, nothing like that was ever

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Speaker 1: supposed to go into the Phantom. All material was meant

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Speaker 1: to be downloaded or streamed directly to the console. Now

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Speaker 1: you may hear some of those specs and say, well,

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Speaker 1: that just sounds like it's a PC, and really, when

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Speaker 1: you get down to it, that's what the Phantom was.

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Speaker 1: But then, to be fair, all video game consoles ultimately

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Speaker 1: end up becoming variations on the concept of a personal computer.

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Speaker 1: The big difference is you've got some changes in architecture.

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Speaker 1: Something like the PlayStation four has an architecture that's different

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Speaker 1: than most PCs. Uh And with a console, you typically

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Speaker 1: are stuck with the hardware that the system came with

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Speaker 1: when it first launched or whenever you bought it. So

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Speaker 1: if I go out and buy an Xbox one today,

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Speaker 1: it's hard for me to upgrade that I can probably

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Speaker 1: upgrade the storage by adding external storage, but I'm not

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Speaker 1: going to be able to upgrade the processor or graphics

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Speaker 1: cards or anything like that. With a PC, you can

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Speaker 1: actually upgrade components, at least until you bump up against

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Speaker 1: limitations like you've got stuff that's going to be too

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Speaker 1: big for the size of case that you have, or

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Speaker 1: the motherboard will no longer support it, something along those lines,

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Speaker 1: And technically you could keep on swapping out components are

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Speaker 1: essentially building a new computer at that point rather than

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Speaker 1: just upgrading. But it is a possibility, but consoles are different.

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Speaker 1: You pretty much have to wait for the next generation

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Speaker 1: to buy up and and increase your console's capabilities. The

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Speaker 1: Phantom was meant to play PC games, so that was

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Speaker 1: one concern a lot of people had early on, was

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Speaker 1: that if this in fact was to be a standalone

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Speaker 1: video gaming console for the living room, that would allow

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Speaker 1: you to play PC games in the living room, something

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Speaker 1: that a lot of people have been trying to do

295
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Speaker 1: and in fact today are still trying to do, like

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Speaker 1: steam boxes are essentially that same kind of a pre coach. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Even though you know that was the mission statement, everyone

298
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Speaker 1: was pointing out, well, what happens when the games get

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Speaker 1: too advanced to run on the hardware of the Phantom

300
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Speaker 1: You would have to upgrade somehow, and you could do

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Speaker 1: some upgrades through firmware, but that's not going to make

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Speaker 1: the processor work any faster necessarily, or make the graphics

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Speaker 1: card work harder. So that was a big concern, was

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Speaker 1: that if, in fact, this is essentially a customized personal

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Speaker 1: computer running some proprietary software on top of it, then

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Speaker 1: what happens when the games get too advanced. Now, as

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00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:38,479
Speaker 1: it turns out, there was never a need to answer

308
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Speaker 1: that question, but it was one of the early ones.

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Speaker 1: And as I mentioned earlier in this episode, the console

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Speaker 1: never hit the market, so some people would refer to

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Speaker 1: it as vaporware. But all the components existed. The stuff

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Speaker 1: that they talked about really did exist. I mean, all

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Speaker 1: of those different elements you could go out there and buy,

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Speaker 1: so there was never a problem with that. There's just

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Speaker 1: there was no consumer product that featured all of those

316
00:19:02,359 --> 00:19:05,159
Speaker 1: in that configuration as a Phantom console. There are a

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Speaker 1: couple of prototypes or show models that Infinium Labs would

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Speaker 1: trot out at various events like C E S or

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Speaker 1: E three, and there's some debate in online circles as

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Speaker 1: to whether those prototypes represented a real effort to create

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Speaker 1: a phantom console or if they were in fact just

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Speaker 1: a run of the mill PC inside a customized case.

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Speaker 1: In some cases, it wasn't even that. According to one

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Speaker 1: story I was reading, a games journalist went to E

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Speaker 1: three and saw a demonstration of the phantom console, and

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Speaker 1: it sat down next to u representative from Infinium Labs

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Speaker 1: who was going to give a demo of the whole thing,

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Speaker 1: and they had the console sitting in front of them,

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Speaker 1: and they tried to launch a game and it didn't

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Speaker 1: work out properly, And as it turned out, the representative

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Speaker 1: actually revealed to the games journalists that the game itself

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Speaker 1: was being run on a PC behind the cabinet, That

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00:19:59,600 --> 00:20:02,840
Speaker 1: the console that was on display was in fact a

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Speaker 1: dummy console. It didn't do anything. It just had some

335
00:20:06,240 --> 00:20:09,760
Speaker 1: lit up letters that spelled out phantom, but there was

336
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Speaker 1: nothing going on inside of it. Now that's not to

337
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Speaker 1: say that every single instance was a fake console with

338
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Speaker 1: a real PC behind the curtain, Wizard of Oz style,

339
00:20:21,880 --> 00:20:24,359
Speaker 1: but at least according to that one report, that was

340
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Speaker 1: the case. Now, as it turns out, years after the

341
00:20:27,480 --> 00:20:31,320
Speaker 1: Phantom controversy had kind of fizzled out. Ours Technica would

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Speaker 1: run a piece about a reader named Eddie Schlessinger who

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Speaker 1: worked at a computer repair shop in Venice, Florida. Now remember,

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Speaker 1: Infinium Labs was originally located off Florida, and around two

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Speaker 1: thousand twelve a customer brought in this weird PC console.

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Speaker 1: It was branded a Phantom, So apparently this customer had

347
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Speaker 1: bought the set from someone else who had no idea

348
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Speaker 1: what the heck this thing was for the princely sum

349
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Speaker 1: of two hundred dollars. Now, considering that it may be

350
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Speaker 1: one of a kind, or at least maybe one of

351
00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:07,040
Speaker 1: a dozen or so, that's not bad. Lessenger had a

352
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Speaker 1: chance to crack it open and look under the hood

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Speaker 1: and see what was there. Now, Remember Schlessenger was telling

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Speaker 1: Ours Technica about this a few years later, I think

355
00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:19,680
Speaker 1: it was so about three years had passed so, according

356
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Speaker 1: to Schlessenger, inside the prototype was a motherboard supposedly made

357
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Speaker 1: by a sus That's what Schlessenger thought, had the Nvidia

358
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Speaker 1: f x a g P video card that had been announced.

359
00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:37,280
Speaker 1: It had some d DR ram um, some of the

360
00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:39,639
Speaker 1: ports on the back were working and others were just

361
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Speaker 1: for show. It had video outputs for composite component and

362
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Speaker 1: S video connectors, which again these days we had probably

363
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Speaker 1: just use hd M I instead. It also had audio

364
00:21:49,680 --> 00:21:53,040
Speaker 1: output jacks for optical co acts or r c A connectors,

365
00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:57,080
Speaker 1: and there were four USB ports. The system was not

366
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Speaker 1: in working order, so he ended up making some modifications

367
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Speaker 1: to it, and he even installed a Phantom promo video.

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Speaker 1: He took a video that had been circulated on the

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Speaker 1: internet for a while and he used that as sort

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Speaker 1: of the load up screen for the console, so that

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Speaker 1: the customer could say that he owned a working Phantom console. Now,

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Speaker 1: it sounds like a lot of the stuff in Finnian

373
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Speaker 1: was claiming the Phantom would include found its way into

374
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Speaker 1: that prototype, which is something. At least not all those

375
00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:28,480
Speaker 1: sports were working. But then if the company wanted to

376
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Speaker 1: create a proof of concept to kind of show how

377
00:22:30,600 --> 00:22:33,639
Speaker 1: the system would work, it might only focus on the

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00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:37,080
Speaker 1: necessary components to get to perform as needed for a demo.

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Speaker 1: So in other words, if you're shopping it around trying

380
00:22:39,960 --> 00:22:42,600
Speaker 1: to get some investors to give you money, you might

381
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Speaker 1: have a mock up where it's not a fully functional unit,

382
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Speaker 1: but you want to show off the concept so that

383
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Speaker 1: you can get the funding to complete it. That doesn't

384
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Speaker 1: necessarily mean that the company is shady or suspicious in

385
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Speaker 1: any way. Presumably the finished product would have included all

386
00:23:00,680 --> 00:23:03,000
Speaker 1: of the working components that were being talked about in

387
00:23:03,040 --> 00:23:05,880
Speaker 1: their press releases. Now, that would also mean customers would

388
00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:08,520
Speaker 1: get a keyboard and mouse in what Athenium Labs was

389
00:23:08,560 --> 00:23:11,600
Speaker 1: calling a lap pad. And this was an attempt to

390
00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:14,119
Speaker 1: make it easier to play PC style games on a

391
00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:17,879
Speaker 1: home television in your living room. Many PC games are

392
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Speaker 1: compatible with game controllers, but some games, like first person

393
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Speaker 1: shooters or real time strategy games tend to work best

394
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Speaker 1: using a mouse and keyboard approach. If you use a

395
00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:30,840
Speaker 1: controller and you go up against someone else who's using

396
00:23:30,840 --> 00:23:33,879
Speaker 1: mouse and keyboard, you will probably find your petuity handed

397
00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:37,360
Speaker 1: to you. So what about the online service part of

398
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Speaker 1: this whole package? Will Atheneum Labs plan to operate a

399
00:23:41,280 --> 00:23:45,440
Speaker 1: Virtual Private Games Network or vpg N And this is

400
00:23:45,480 --> 00:23:49,359
Speaker 1: a special type of virtual private network or VPN. And

401
00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:51,560
Speaker 1: you may have used VPNs for work or for your

402
00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:54,480
Speaker 1: own computers. For those of you who are unfamiliar with

403
00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:57,440
Speaker 1: the idea, let me give you a real quick, high

404
00:23:57,560 --> 00:24:01,480
Speaker 1: level rundown. So a VPN create it's a private network

405
00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:05,880
Speaker 1: across a public network. So take the Internet for example,

406
00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:08,760
Speaker 1: that's a public network. Anyone can hop on or off

407
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Speaker 1: at any time. Private networks require access to machines on

408
00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:16,520
Speaker 1: the network itself, so like a physical private network is

409
00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:19,600
Speaker 1: completely separate from any other network, or it only has

410
00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:23,360
Speaker 1: very controlled portals to other networks, and the only way

411
00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:25,720
Speaker 1: you can get on that physical network is if you

412
00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:29,120
Speaker 1: have access to a machine that's connected to it. Um

413
00:24:29,119 --> 00:24:32,960
Speaker 1: a VPN simulates that it's not a true private network,

414
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:37,520
Speaker 1: but through code, creates a situation that is essentially like that,

415
00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:41,680
Speaker 1: and it can send that communication across a larger public network.

416
00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:46,560
Speaker 1: This means communication across the VPN is encrypted to protect

417
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Speaker 1: data from snoopers. Otherwise you might as well just use

418
00:24:49,560 --> 00:24:53,160
Speaker 1: a public network in the first place. It's typically used

419
00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:57,919
Speaker 1: by businesses to allow remote employees access to company intranet systems.

420
00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:01,360
Speaker 1: Other folks might use a VPN to communicate securely with

421
00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:05,159
Speaker 1: other people or to access services that might otherwise be

422
00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:08,200
Speaker 1: blocked in their real physical location. So you might log

423
00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:11,280
Speaker 1: into a VPN and use that in order to access

424
00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:15,080
Speaker 1: something that otherwise you would not be able to touch

425
00:25:15,359 --> 00:25:18,000
Speaker 1: from wherever you are. It's really handy if you happen

426
00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:19,800
Speaker 1: to be in a country that has a, you know,

427
00:25:20,119 --> 00:25:24,560
Speaker 1: a more nanny state kind of approach to guiding how

428
00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:28,640
Speaker 1: the Internet should be used by the population. So why

429
00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:32,240
Speaker 1: would Athenium Labs want to operate a VPG n Well,

430
00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:35,600
Speaker 1: mostly it's to lock a customer into an ecosystem. And

431
00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:37,879
Speaker 1: here's how the business plan would have worked if it

432
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Speaker 1: had ever launched. You decide you're gonna go out and

433
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:43,960
Speaker 1: buy a Phantom console. Actually, you can have a couple

434
00:25:43,960 --> 00:25:48,359
Speaker 1: of different options. You could purchase one for ad dollars

435
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:52,600
Speaker 1: at least that was one of the amounts quoted, which

436
00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:56,680
Speaker 1: is actually incredibly cheap. Or you could rent it. Or

437
00:25:56,720 --> 00:25:59,400
Speaker 1: you could sign up for a two year subscription agreement

438
00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:03,800
Speaker 1: with Infinium Labs on their Virtual Private Games Network, and

439
00:26:03,840 --> 00:26:05,760
Speaker 1: if you subscribe for two years, you would get the

440
00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:09,920
Speaker 1: hardware for free. So the subscription would cost twenty nine

441
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:13,840
Speaker 1: dollars a month, and for that you would be able

442
00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:17,320
Speaker 1: to use the Phantom network to download games, uh to

443
00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:21,000
Speaker 1: stream games, to play games online with other people. You

444
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:23,600
Speaker 1: would have access to a suite of games right away

445
00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:26,000
Speaker 1: that would be included with your subscription fee, so you

446
00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:29,600
Speaker 1: wouldn't have to pay any extra for a certain library

447
00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:33,440
Speaker 1: of games. If you wanted games that were beyond that library,

448
00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:36,200
Speaker 1: and Infinium Labs had secured the rights, you would be

449
00:26:36,280 --> 00:26:39,159
Speaker 1: able to download demo versions of those for free, and

450
00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:41,160
Speaker 1: if you wanted to purchase it, you could do so

451
00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:44,800
Speaker 1: through infinium labs as online store and download the game

452
00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:47,639
Speaker 1: directly to the console. The console would keep track of

453
00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:50,080
Speaker 1: how much storage space was left, and it could even

454
00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:53,480
Speaker 1: dynamically manage it. So if you started getting close to

455
00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:56,280
Speaker 1: your limit, Remember you've got that forty gigabyte limit. Let's

456
00:26:56,280 --> 00:26:58,359
Speaker 1: say you start getting close to that. These days, it

457
00:26:58,359 --> 00:27:00,639
Speaker 1: wouldn't take long at all because games are so huge.

458
00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:03,520
Speaker 1: But let's talk about two thousand three, two thousand four.

459
00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:06,520
Speaker 1: You start getting close to that forty gigabyte limit, well,

460
00:27:06,680 --> 00:27:10,359
Speaker 1: the Phantom would end up deleting older games that you

461
00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:13,520
Speaker 1: had not played in a long time, but the service

462
00:27:13,560 --> 00:27:16,119
Speaker 1: would keep track of which games you had purchased, so

463
00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:17,960
Speaker 1: if you ever decided you wanted to go back and

464
00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:21,200
Speaker 1: play an old title, then you could download it again

465
00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:24,680
Speaker 1: for free because you had already purchased it previously, so

466
00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:26,479
Speaker 1: there'd be a record of the fact that you had

467
00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:27,879
Speaker 1: bought it before and you wouldn't have to buy it

468
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:31,239
Speaker 1: a second time. Now, in many ways, this is how

469
00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:35,880
Speaker 1: subscription services like Xbox Gold memberships work today. The business

470
00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:39,919
Speaker 1: plan sounded actually pretty solid. It was very innovative for

471
00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:43,440
Speaker 1: its time. There'd be incentive for gamers to subscribe month

472
00:27:43,480 --> 00:27:46,879
Speaker 1: after month because they could get access to the games

473
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:50,400
Speaker 1: within the library, as well as a chance to buy

474
00:27:50,760 --> 00:27:54,320
Speaker 1: other brand new games, possibly at a discount because you're

475
00:27:54,320 --> 00:27:57,360
Speaker 1: not buying them the physical media, although now we know

476
00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:00,440
Speaker 1: that doesn't always work out that way. You don't always

477
00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:03,119
Speaker 1: get a discount just because you're not buying, you know,

478
00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:06,240
Speaker 1: a disk. It can be just as expensive or sometimes

479
00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:09,320
Speaker 1: more expensive to buy the digital version, which is infuriating

480
00:28:09,320 --> 00:28:11,320
Speaker 1: for a lot of people. There were also hints that

481
00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:14,679
Speaker 1: game titles could come out a little earlier, so you

482
00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:17,879
Speaker 1: could get them much quicker than you would if you

483
00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:19,320
Speaker 1: were to have to go to the store. There was

484
00:28:19,359 --> 00:28:22,439
Speaker 1: no danger of them selling out. You didn't have to

485
00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:26,000
Speaker 1: worry about pre registering for a game and hoping that

486
00:28:26,080 --> 00:28:29,200
Speaker 1: the the local game stop or whatever game store you

487
00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:32,240
Speaker 1: would go to would have enough copies on launch day.

488
00:28:32,320 --> 00:28:35,439
Speaker 1: You could just download it, so there were definitely, you know,

489
00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:39,040
Speaker 1: reasons that a gamer might be interested in this. Although

490
00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:42,320
Speaker 1: the thought of having to pay an ongoing subscription service

491
00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:44,400
Speaker 1: to keep using a video game console that you had

492
00:28:44,400 --> 00:28:47,040
Speaker 1: already purchased rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

493
00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:51,680
Speaker 1: It was an idea that maybe wasn't quite ready yet.

494
00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:56,960
Speaker 1: So on the business side it sounded fantastic because you

495
00:28:57,000 --> 00:28:59,920
Speaker 1: would have a company that would have an incoming stead

496
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:04,120
Speaker 1: flow of revenue because it's not just selling a console

497
00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:07,240
Speaker 1: once to a customer. It's selling a console and then

498
00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:11,520
Speaker 1: offering a subscription service and then getting a monthly subscription

499
00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:15,240
Speaker 1: fee from that customer, and then you put that across

500
00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:19,480
Speaker 1: thousands of customers. That's an incredible revenue stream and it's

501
00:29:19,520 --> 00:29:22,840
Speaker 1: obviously one that works for a lot of game developers

502
00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:26,200
Speaker 1: today and game consoles today. But at the time, again

503
00:29:26,440 --> 00:29:31,360
Speaker 1: it was a pretty uh radical idea. Now, on top

504
00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:35,240
Speaker 1: of that, using a proprietary approach for games distributions solved

505
00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:38,640
Speaker 1: another problem the company would otherwise encounter. So this is

506
00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:42,760
Speaker 1: another reason for that virtual Private Games network. The Phantom was,

507
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:46,480
Speaker 1: as I said, essentially a PC connected to a television,

508
00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:51,440
Speaker 1: so without any sort of proprietary overlay, nothing would necessarily

509
00:29:51,440 --> 00:29:55,600
Speaker 1: stop gamers from downloading games from other sources outside of

510
00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:58,000
Speaker 1: Infinium Labs. If you could just log into the Internet

511
00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:01,160
Speaker 1: and maybe go into a Torrent site, if you had

512
00:30:01,160 --> 00:30:04,200
Speaker 1: a bit Torrent installed on your Phantom, you could end

513
00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:07,280
Speaker 1: up pirate in games if you wanted to. But by

514
00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:11,200
Speaker 1: having that proprietary layer on top that was encoding games

515
00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:14,880
Speaker 1: in a way that only in Phinium Labs machines would run,

516
00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:18,440
Speaker 1: then you didn't have to worry so much. You know,

517
00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:21,240
Speaker 1: people couldn't just take their their Phantom and make it

518
00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:23,640
Speaker 1: do anything. They were limited in what they could do

519
00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:27,560
Speaker 1: with it. So it's a kind of a special purpose PC, uh,

520
00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:30,200
Speaker 1: or at least you could reduce the number of people

521
00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:32,280
Speaker 1: who are using it to pirate games. I mean, someone

522
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:34,680
Speaker 1: is always going to find a way to hack hardware

523
00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:37,080
Speaker 1: and make it do something it wasn't intended to do,

524
00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:40,520
Speaker 1: especially if it started off as a PC. That makes

525
00:30:40,560 --> 00:30:44,120
Speaker 1: it easier if you know what you're doing. Now. All

526
00:30:44,160 --> 00:30:46,640
Speaker 1: of this was met with some skepticism, though again I

527
00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:48,880
Speaker 1: have to stress that we've seen these sort of things

528
00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:51,280
Speaker 1: pan out in the long run with stuff like Steam

529
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:53,880
Speaker 1: and various video game console markets. But at the time

530
00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:56,880
Speaker 1: it seems so ambitious and so sudden and out of

531
00:30:56,920 --> 00:30:59,280
Speaker 1: the blue that a lot of people were worried that

532
00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:01,640
Speaker 1: this was too good to be true. And you know

533
00:31:01,680 --> 00:31:04,920
Speaker 1: how the rest of that saying goes well. Athenium Labs

534
00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:07,240
Speaker 1: had made some big promises, including a desire to get

535
00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:09,239
Speaker 1: a product on the market in time for the two

536
00:31:09,280 --> 00:31:12,960
Speaker 1: thousand three holiday season. That time came and went, and

537
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:14,800
Speaker 1: the company had no consoles to show for it, but

538
00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:16,400
Speaker 1: they said, don't worry, it's going to come out in

539
00:31:16,480 --> 00:31:19,880
Speaker 1: holiday season two thousand four. That time came and went

540
00:31:19,960 --> 00:31:23,200
Speaker 1: as well, and still no console. They did show it

541
00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:25,640
Speaker 1: off a couple of times at different at different trade events.

542
00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:27,880
Speaker 1: Like I said, but at least in some cases it

543
00:31:27,960 --> 00:31:30,680
Speaker 1: turned out that it wasn't really a console that people

544
00:31:30,720 --> 00:31:33,920
Speaker 1: were seeing, just the concept of what the console would be.

545
00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:39,840
Speaker 1: Even before Infinium Labs had slipped that two thousand four

546
00:31:39,880 --> 00:31:42,560
Speaker 1: holiday dates, some people were really suspicious of what was

547
00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:46,200
Speaker 1: going on behind the scenes, which included some folks who

548
00:31:46,320 --> 00:31:50,280
Speaker 1: wrote for hard O c P. That's an online magazine

549
00:31:50,280 --> 00:31:53,360
Speaker 1: that caters to PC owners. You can find tons of

550
00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:55,800
Speaker 1: articles and reviews about all sorts of things over there,

551
00:31:55,840 --> 00:32:00,440
Speaker 1: including a pretty tough investigation into Infinium Labs and Timothy

552
00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:05,840
Speaker 1: Roberts in particular. All Right, So it's September two thousand three,

553
00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:09,600
Speaker 1: a Wednesday, as it turns out, and an article goes

554
00:32:09,680 --> 00:32:13,080
Speaker 1: up on hard O c P News titled behind the

555
00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:16,640
Speaker 1: Infinium Phantom Console, and it takes a really hard look

556
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:20,080
Speaker 1: at Timothy Roberts's past as well as the claims made

557
00:32:20,080 --> 00:32:23,800
Speaker 1: by Infinium Labs. The article argued that Roberts had a

558
00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:28,080
Speaker 1: history of starting companies that ultimately failed, while raising millions

559
00:32:28,120 --> 00:32:31,160
Speaker 1: of dollars in investment money in the process. So the

560
00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:34,560
Speaker 1: article alleged that Infinium Labs as of September two thousand three,

561
00:32:34,560 --> 00:32:38,280
Speaker 1: had raised at least twenty five million dollars in venture

562
00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:41,080
Speaker 1: capital and had nothing to show for it. Now, I

563
00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:44,840
Speaker 1: might be inferring too much here, but even in the

564
00:32:44,920 --> 00:32:47,560
Speaker 1: opening of this article, to me, it sounds like they're

565
00:32:47,600 --> 00:32:52,080
Speaker 1: at least hinting that perhaps these business ventures weren't meant

566
00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:55,480
Speaker 1: in sincerity. In other words, there might not have ever

567
00:32:55,520 --> 00:32:59,280
Speaker 1: been an intent to actually have a working business there. Again,

568
00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:04,520
Speaker 1: this is my interpretation. The article does not say this outright. Instead,

569
00:33:04,960 --> 00:33:07,480
Speaker 1: it just seems like there's a hint that maybe there's

570
00:33:07,520 --> 00:33:11,120
Speaker 1: some sort of scam shady business stuff going on, and

571
00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:14,520
Speaker 1: it sounds a lot like the main plot behind the Producers,

572
00:33:14,560 --> 00:33:16,360
Speaker 1: Like if you raise a lot of money for a

573
00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:20,280
Speaker 1: business and that business ultimately fails, you never have any profits.

574
00:33:20,320 --> 00:33:23,720
Speaker 1: You have to worry about paying out to shareholders. If

575
00:33:23,720 --> 00:33:27,000
Speaker 1: the business didn't profit, then you have nothing to pay

576
00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:30,160
Speaker 1: So what what? Who cares if you just have to

577
00:33:30,280 --> 00:33:35,280
Speaker 1: have bought a few cases of incredibly expensive wine in

578
00:33:35,320 --> 00:33:38,200
Speaker 1: the process. But this may be putting words into hard

579
00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:41,960
Speaker 1: o CPS figurative mouth. At least in that first section,

580
00:33:41,960 --> 00:33:44,880
Speaker 1: there are no outright accusations that Roberts was running any

581
00:33:44,880 --> 00:33:48,600
Speaker 1: sort of scam. But the article continues with a breakdown

582
00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:52,280
Speaker 1: of what the phantom console is supposed to have, essentially

583
00:33:52,400 --> 00:33:55,200
Speaker 1: running that same press release I read earlier, but pointed

584
00:33:55,200 --> 00:33:57,520
Speaker 1: out that at least to that point, the only images

585
00:33:57,600 --> 00:34:00,480
Speaker 1: that had been seen outside the company were three D

586
00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:04,600
Speaker 1: renderings and not actual photographs of a working device. Later

587
00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:07,440
Speaker 1: we would get photos and videos of a device that

588
00:34:07,480 --> 00:34:09,960
Speaker 1: appeared to be working, but at this time there were

589
00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:13,680
Speaker 1: there were no such images available. Next, the article laid

590
00:34:13,719 --> 00:34:16,320
Speaker 1: out the places that Roberts had worked over the previous

591
00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:21,120
Speaker 1: eight years. He had held eight different CEO or director

592
00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:25,400
Speaker 1: level positions in those eight years. According to his own website,

593
00:34:25,680 --> 00:34:29,759
Speaker 1: they included two other companies when Force LLC and med

594
00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:34,880
Speaker 1: Higher LLC that we're operating operating concurrently within Phinium Labs. So,

595
00:34:34,920 --> 00:34:37,719
Speaker 1: according to his website, he was a director on one

596
00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:41,680
Speaker 1: Force LLC and med Hire LLC while simultaneously serving as

597
00:34:41,719 --> 00:34:45,440
Speaker 1: the CEO of Infinium Now. The writers at hard O

598
00:34:45,600 --> 00:34:49,400
Speaker 1: c P took time to contact med Hire LLLC to

599
00:34:49,520 --> 00:34:52,840
Speaker 1: check in on Roberts's history. The article states that a

600
00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:57,480
Speaker 1: woman who was identified as Laura Roberts picked up the

601
00:34:57,520 --> 00:35:02,759
Speaker 1: phone and indicated that Laura Roberts different person, uh, and

602
00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:06,680
Speaker 1: Timothy Roberts's mother was in fact the director of med

603
00:35:06,760 --> 00:35:11,120
Speaker 1: Higher lll C, and that Timothy, while being her son,

604
00:35:11,320 --> 00:35:16,920
Speaker 1: was not a director. Later this same Laura Roberts said, oh, no, no, no,

605
00:35:16,960 --> 00:35:20,879
Speaker 1: Timothy Roberts is a co director, but I don't have

606
00:35:21,040 --> 00:35:24,680
Speaker 1: any contact information for him. I don't have a phone

607
00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:28,479
Speaker 1: number or an email address or anything. And when they said,

608
00:35:28,840 --> 00:35:31,759
Speaker 1: isn't it strange that you work for a company but

609
00:35:31,840 --> 00:35:34,640
Speaker 1: you don't have any contact information for one of the

610
00:35:34,719 --> 00:35:37,799
Speaker 1: supposed directors of this company, and her response was he

611
00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:41,560
Speaker 1: changes phones a lot, which also seems a little weird.

612
00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:46,000
Speaker 1: They also tried contacting when Juan Force ll C. And

613
00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:48,880
Speaker 1: they found out that Timothy's brother, Peter, was the executive

614
00:35:48,960 --> 00:35:51,440
Speaker 1: vice president of that company. So there's a lot of

615
00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:54,879
Speaker 1: family business going on here. The piece then talks about

616
00:35:54,960 --> 00:35:58,480
Speaker 1: Roberts's time at Big and Interira, which I've already covered here,

617
00:35:58,480 --> 00:36:00,120
Speaker 1: so I'm not going to go back over it. The

618
00:36:00,160 --> 00:36:02,400
Speaker 1: section framed Roberts as someone who had been involved in

619
00:36:02,440 --> 00:36:06,279
Speaker 1: several remarkable failures, including ones that earned a reputation for

620
00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:11,000
Speaker 1: lavish spending before the coffers ran dry. Next, the article

621
00:36:11,040 --> 00:36:15,080
Speaker 1: turned attention towards the headquarters for the company itself. It

622
00:36:15,160 --> 00:36:18,680
Speaker 1: showed that the register information listing had Infinium Labs as

623
00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:22,799
Speaker 1: address noted as fifty three eighty Gulf of Mexico Drive

624
00:36:22,920 --> 00:36:26,840
Speaker 1: and Longboat Key, Florida. The magazine hired a photographer to

625
00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:29,040
Speaker 1: go to the address to get pictures of the location,

626
00:36:29,080 --> 00:36:31,640
Speaker 1: and what they got back where photos of a small

627
00:36:31,719 --> 00:36:35,719
Speaker 1: strip mall that had one open office space that had

628
00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:39,359
Speaker 1: inside of it a single desk with a telephone on it.

629
00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:42,319
Speaker 1: There were other small businesses at that address, but they

630
00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:44,840
Speaker 1: were all identified that none of them were Infinium Labs.

631
00:36:45,280 --> 00:36:48,200
Speaker 1: Six months later, the magazine had tried again, sending another

632
00:36:48,239 --> 00:36:51,520
Speaker 1: photographer out to that same location. Again, there was no

633
00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:55,600
Speaker 1: evidence of an office operated by Infinium Labs there. They

634
00:36:55,640 --> 00:36:59,080
Speaker 1: decided to inquire at a nearby mailboxes, etcetera that was

635
00:36:59,200 --> 00:37:02,120
Speaker 1: part of this area, and they found that the mail

636
00:37:02,239 --> 00:37:04,680
Speaker 1: that was being sent to Infinium Labs was going to

637
00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:08,200
Speaker 1: a p O box at mailboxes, etcetera, and that the

638
00:37:08,239 --> 00:37:11,759
Speaker 1: company did not appear to operate any physical space at

639
00:37:11,840 --> 00:37:16,479
Speaker 1: that particular address. Curiouser and curious er. Well, a story

640
00:37:16,520 --> 00:37:19,520
Speaker 1: gets even more weird, But before I jump into any

641
00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:22,120
Speaker 1: more of it, let's take another quick break to thank

642
00:37:22,120 --> 00:37:32,640
Speaker 1: our sponsor. Back to the story so hard, OCP reaches

643
00:37:32,680 --> 00:37:36,240
Speaker 1: out to Timothy Roberts to get his response, and Robert

644
00:37:36,280 --> 00:37:39,560
Speaker 1: said that things were just getting started over at Infinium Labs,

645
00:37:39,840 --> 00:37:42,359
Speaker 1: and he admitted that there was no physical office yet,

646
00:37:42,560 --> 00:37:44,520
Speaker 1: but that it was on its way and they were

647
00:37:44,560 --> 00:37:47,720
Speaker 1: just trying to, you know, get everything in order. Now

648
00:37:48,960 --> 00:37:51,120
Speaker 1: you could be really generous and say, all right, I

649
00:37:51,160 --> 00:37:54,160
Speaker 1: believe you, but considering that the company was going to

650
00:37:54,239 --> 00:37:56,520
Speaker 1: have to go into production soon to get units out

651
00:37:56,560 --> 00:38:00,160
Speaker 1: by the holiday season. That was kind of tough off

652
00:38:00,239 --> 00:38:04,439
Speaker 1: right hard. O CP was really skeptical because that time

653
00:38:04,520 --> 00:38:06,319
Speaker 1: was coming up quickly, and if they didn't have a

654
00:38:06,320 --> 00:38:09,280
Speaker 1: physical space, how are they going to actually build these

655
00:38:09,320 --> 00:38:12,040
Speaker 1: consoles that supposedly we're going to be on sale in

656
00:38:12,080 --> 00:38:15,880
Speaker 1: time for the holidays. They even followed up by sending

657
00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:21,400
Speaker 1: a volunteer to a different address. Athenium Labs Corporation announced

658
00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:24,840
Speaker 1: it was moving into a new headquarters building at eighteen

659
00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:29,480
Speaker 1: nineteen Main Street, Suite eight hundred in Sarasota, Florida, and

660
00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:31,840
Speaker 1: the volunteer said that when she went to the building,

661
00:38:32,120 --> 00:38:35,600
Speaker 1: she looked at the directory and saw no companies listed

662
00:38:35,719 --> 00:38:38,000
Speaker 1: for the eighth floor at all. There was an eighth floor,

663
00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:39,960
Speaker 1: so at least there's that, but there was no one

664
00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:42,480
Speaker 1: listed for it. So she took an elevator ride on

665
00:38:42,640 --> 00:38:44,080
Speaker 1: up to the eighth floor, and then she said it

666
00:38:44,120 --> 00:38:47,359
Speaker 1: was a ghost town. There was there's no occupation on

667
00:38:47,400 --> 00:38:50,960
Speaker 1: that floor. Now near the end of the article, you

668
00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:53,359
Speaker 1: get to a pretty tough paragraph. I'm going to quote it.

669
00:38:54,239 --> 00:38:59,280
Speaker 1: The facts speak for themselves. Company closures, bankruptcy, investors losing

670
00:38:59,320 --> 00:39:02,880
Speaker 1: millions of dollars, and current director positions where the company

671
00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:06,120
Speaker 1: isn't even sure he works for them and cannot find

672
00:39:06,160 --> 00:39:09,759
Speaker 1: his email address or telephone number. Mr Roberts has been

673
00:39:09,760 --> 00:39:13,880
Speaker 1: involved with one successful business venture in eight years, according

674
00:39:13,920 --> 00:39:16,799
Speaker 1: to his own resume. He followed that one up with

675
00:39:16,880 --> 00:39:20,719
Speaker 1: several bankrupt and failed businesses. It's been documented by other

676
00:39:20,800 --> 00:39:24,880
Speaker 1: sources that millions and millions of dollars were burned through

677
00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:28,360
Speaker 1: in the last six years. We think that it's possible

678
00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:33,239
Speaker 1: that the same fate could very possibly befall in Phenium Labs. Now.

679
00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:37,120
Speaker 1: The response from Infenium Labs was just as harsh. The

680
00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:39,960
Speaker 1: company complained and said that they were going to file

681
00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:43,759
Speaker 1: a lawsuit against hard O CP in Florida, saying that

682
00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:49,080
Speaker 1: they had made these UH these unsubstantiated claims and accusations

683
00:39:49,080 --> 00:39:52,640
Speaker 1: against the company and therefore had hurt the company's UH

684
00:39:52,880 --> 00:39:56,399
Speaker 1: chances of raising money and getting investment, and therefore if

685
00:39:56,440 --> 00:40:00,319
Speaker 1: they failed, it would be because of criticism them like

686
00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:04,280
Speaker 1: the kind from heart O CP. Heart O CP responded

687
00:40:04,280 --> 00:40:09,240
Speaker 1: by filing a lawsuit for a declatory judgment and saying

688
00:40:09,239 --> 00:40:12,600
Speaker 1: that they didn't do anything wrong from a judge. So

689
00:40:12,640 --> 00:40:15,439
Speaker 1: the judge decided that he would hear the case and

690
00:40:15,719 --> 00:40:18,880
Speaker 1: said that in Penium Labs would need to present information

691
00:40:18,880 --> 00:40:23,719
Speaker 1: about the company's business in Texas because they reportedly had

692
00:40:23,760 --> 00:40:27,600
Speaker 1: an office located in Texas. They would also have to

693
00:40:27,800 --> 00:40:32,120
Speaker 1: provide information about their investors board minute meetings from around

694
00:40:32,160 --> 00:40:34,000
Speaker 1: the time that the article was published, in order to

695
00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:37,600
Speaker 1: indicate whether the company was, as they had claimed, much

696
00:40:37,640 --> 00:40:41,279
Speaker 1: further along than the article had indicated, and also other

697
00:40:41,320 --> 00:40:45,880
Speaker 1: information such as Timothy Roberts's own personal income tax records.

698
00:40:46,320 --> 00:40:50,600
Speaker 1: And Phenium Labs failed to acquiesce to those demands, and

699
00:40:50,719 --> 00:40:54,640
Speaker 1: ultimately the company would settle out of court, reportedly paying

700
00:40:54,760 --> 00:40:58,400
Speaker 1: hard O c p Fifty thou dollars in the process.

701
00:40:59,200 --> 00:41:02,040
Speaker 1: Now in two thousands four, despite having nothing to show

702
00:41:02,080 --> 00:41:05,480
Speaker 1: for itself other than this prototype that had been demonstrated,

703
00:41:05,520 --> 00:41:09,280
Speaker 1: a couple of trade show events and Phenium Labs went public.

704
00:41:09,360 --> 00:41:11,520
Speaker 1: They went from a privately held company to a publicly

705
00:41:11,520 --> 00:41:16,240
Speaker 1: traded company. Timothy Roberts owned a whole lot of shares

706
00:41:16,280 --> 00:41:19,960
Speaker 1: of stock, and by two thousand five things were looking

707
00:41:20,280 --> 00:41:24,800
Speaker 1: particularly shady over at Infinium Labs. Remember they had missed

708
00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:28,760
Speaker 1: two ship dates already with the phantom console. Well, Roberts

709
00:41:29,040 --> 00:41:32,280
Speaker 1: decided to step down as CEO. He still had millions

710
00:41:32,280 --> 00:41:34,640
Speaker 1: of dollars worth of stocks at the time, and he

711
00:41:34,680 --> 00:41:37,640
Speaker 1: did something that got the attention of the US government.

712
00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:41,840
Speaker 1: He hired a stock promoter to send out a facts

713
00:41:41,960 --> 00:41:45,640
Speaker 1: blast to potential investors with claims that the company was

714
00:41:45,680 --> 00:41:48,640
Speaker 1: on the verge of releasing the phantom console and then

715
00:41:48,640 --> 00:41:50,640
Speaker 1: the value of the company was set to blast off

716
00:41:50,640 --> 00:41:54,400
Speaker 1: into the stratosphere. So at the time, this was a

717
00:41:54,440 --> 00:41:59,120
Speaker 1: penny stock, meaning super cheap stocks for in phinium labs.

718
00:41:59,120 --> 00:42:02,120
Speaker 1: But with penn stocks, even the increase of just a

719
00:42:02,160 --> 00:42:05,799
Speaker 1: couple of cents can mean a huge profit if you

720
00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:09,640
Speaker 1: own a ton of stocks. So, as it turns out,

721
00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:13,200
Speaker 1: it look like Timothy Roberts was trying to drive up

722
00:42:13,640 --> 00:42:17,680
Speaker 1: the stock price before he sold off his own stock.

723
00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:21,160
Speaker 1: Roberts was ready to unload it once that price goes up,

724
00:42:21,200 --> 00:42:24,480
Speaker 1: and that's called a pump and dump scheme. You do

725
00:42:24,600 --> 00:42:26,960
Speaker 1: something to artificially pump up the value of a stock

726
00:42:27,200 --> 00:42:30,640
Speaker 1: before you sell off your supply. When the dust settles

727
00:42:30,880 --> 00:42:33,600
Speaker 1: and people see that the hype was just hype, the

728
00:42:33,640 --> 00:42:36,080
Speaker 1: price comes back down, but by then you're already moving

729
00:42:36,120 --> 00:42:38,960
Speaker 1: on to your next gig. Right, Well, that's what the

730
00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:42,680
Speaker 1: sec said Timothy Roberts had done that he had effectively

731
00:42:42,760 --> 00:42:46,720
Speaker 1: run a pump and dump scam using Infinium Labs, and

732
00:42:46,960 --> 00:42:50,399
Speaker 1: the SEC IS the Security Exchange Commission, that they were

733
00:42:50,440 --> 00:42:54,280
Speaker 1: not happy and they had some serious concerns now Roberts

734
00:42:54,320 --> 00:42:57,960
Speaker 1: would end up getting off relatively easy all things considered.

735
00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:01,600
Speaker 1: He was ultimately hit with a thirty thousand dollar fine

736
00:43:01,719 --> 00:43:04,880
Speaker 1: after he reached a settlement with the SEC and as

737
00:43:04,920 --> 00:43:08,120
Speaker 1: part of that settlement, he also agreed to not be

738
00:43:08,320 --> 00:43:11,839
Speaker 1: an officer or director of a publicly traded company for

739
00:43:11,960 --> 00:43:14,719
Speaker 1: five years, and he was supposed to stop playing with

740
00:43:14,719 --> 00:43:19,280
Speaker 1: penny stocks too. Back to Infinium Labs, the company changed

741
00:43:19,280 --> 00:43:22,480
Speaker 1: its name to Phantom Entertainment, and by two thousand six

742
00:43:22,840 --> 00:43:26,239
Speaker 1: they had kind of quietly ended all promotion and discussion

743
00:43:26,280 --> 00:43:30,840
Speaker 1: of this console that never ever materialized. Instead, the company

744
00:43:30,880 --> 00:43:33,720
Speaker 1: decided it was going to pivot and release a gaming

745
00:43:33,719 --> 00:43:37,200
Speaker 1: mouse and keyboard, which sounded a lot like the lapboard

746
00:43:37,200 --> 00:43:39,520
Speaker 1: that was originally going to be part of the Phantom

747
00:43:39,560 --> 00:43:43,960
Speaker 1: console hardware. In September two thousand six, they said this

748
00:43:44,040 --> 00:43:47,440
Speaker 1: lapboard was going to start hitting store shelves in November

749
00:43:47,480 --> 00:43:50,480
Speaker 1: two thousand six. In reality, it would take two more

750
00:43:50,560 --> 00:43:53,880
Speaker 1: years before the Lapboard was actually available towards the second

751
00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:57,920
Speaker 1: half of two thousand eight. In two thousand seven, Ours

752
00:43:57,920 --> 00:44:02,120
Speaker 1: Technica wrote another piece about the company, detailing its many problems,

753
00:44:02,160 --> 00:44:05,200
Speaker 1: including how the headquarters had bounced around from Florida to

754
00:44:05,280 --> 00:44:08,480
Speaker 1: Washington State to New York and was supposedly going to

755
00:44:08,520 --> 00:44:13,040
Speaker 1: move back into Florida. The article's author, Nate Anderson, detailed

756
00:44:13,040 --> 00:44:16,440
Speaker 1: the many problems the company had with various creditors and

757
00:44:16,480 --> 00:44:20,160
Speaker 1: its strategy of issuing more stock when it needed cash,

758
00:44:20,680 --> 00:44:23,600
Speaker 1: and it did this a lot with companies like Merrill

759
00:44:23,680 --> 00:44:27,520
Speaker 1: Lynch or the Motley Fool or Center Point Property, and

760
00:44:27,600 --> 00:44:30,560
Speaker 1: on three occasions by issuing stock to members of the

761
00:44:30,560 --> 00:44:35,799
Speaker 1: Bishara family that had leveled three different lawsuits against the company. Now,

762
00:44:35,840 --> 00:44:38,879
Speaker 1: this did not exactly paint the picture of a legitimate corporation.

763
00:44:39,080 --> 00:44:41,799
Speaker 1: According to Anderson, by two thousand seven, the company had

764
00:44:41,840 --> 00:44:45,240
Speaker 1: been operating at a net loss of more than seventy

765
00:44:45,360 --> 00:44:52,799
Speaker 1: three million dollars. Yikes. When the Lapboard finally did come out,

766
00:44:53,200 --> 00:44:56,600
Speaker 1: it ended up getting really lackluster reviews. A quick jump

767
00:44:56,680 --> 00:45:00,640
Speaker 1: over to the Phantom Entertainment website shows that, amazingly enough,

768
00:45:01,600 --> 00:45:04,239
Speaker 1: it still exists. I don't know if the company does,

769
00:45:04,239 --> 00:45:06,680
Speaker 1: but the website still up. It hasn't been updated since

770
00:45:06,719 --> 00:45:09,440
Speaker 1: two thousand eleven, but it is still there. As for

771
00:45:09,480 --> 00:45:12,520
Speaker 1: Timothy Roberts, why has that scamp been up to since

772
00:45:12,520 --> 00:45:15,720
Speaker 1: his departure from Athenium Labs. Well, in two thousand seven,

773
00:45:15,719 --> 00:45:18,960
Speaker 1: he founded a company called Games Streamer, or at least

774
00:45:18,960 --> 00:45:22,040
Speaker 1: that's when the company's press release says it was founded

775
00:45:22,120 --> 00:45:24,400
Speaker 1: was two thousand seven. The actual existence of the company

776
00:45:24,440 --> 00:45:28,120
Speaker 1: wasn't revealed until two thousand nine, so whether it had

777
00:45:28,120 --> 00:45:31,280
Speaker 1: existed for two years secretly or not, who's to say.

778
00:45:31,440 --> 00:45:34,840
Speaker 1: Now Roberts had listed himself as the CEO and CTO

779
00:45:35,160 --> 00:45:39,560
Speaker 1: and president and CEO B on the company profile. This

780
00:45:39,600 --> 00:45:42,040
Speaker 1: was a privately held company, however, so there was no

781
00:45:42,080 --> 00:45:44,200
Speaker 1: conflict with this agreement that he had made with the

782
00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:47,319
Speaker 1: SEC a few years earlier, because that only applied to

783
00:45:47,400 --> 00:45:50,759
Speaker 1: publicly traded companies. It was also based in Tampa, and

784
00:45:50,760 --> 00:45:53,440
Speaker 1: it was supposed to be a leading innovator in digital

785
00:45:53,440 --> 00:45:57,719
Speaker 1: distribution and streaming solution for games. Now, Roberts wouldn't stay

786
00:45:57,760 --> 00:46:00,520
Speaker 1: there for very long. In two thousand ten, and he

787
00:46:00,719 --> 00:46:04,000
Speaker 1: and a guy named Terence F. Taylor, the CFO of

788
00:46:04,080 --> 00:46:08,200
Speaker 1: game Streamer resigned to start a new company together. This

789
00:46:08,360 --> 00:46:12,239
Speaker 1: was originally going to be a company called Platforms with

790
00:46:12,280 --> 00:46:15,040
Speaker 1: a Z at the end, and it was a digital

791
00:46:15,080 --> 00:46:19,000
Speaker 1: distribution company. But we can't leave game Streamer that quickly,

792
00:46:19,040 --> 00:46:22,080
Speaker 1: you see. The company would end up suing both Roberts

793
00:46:22,120 --> 00:46:24,839
Speaker 1: and Taylor. They claimed that both of them had tried

794
00:46:24,880 --> 00:46:30,320
Speaker 1: to secure trade secrets belonging to game Streamers for themselves. Essentially,

795
00:46:30,800 --> 00:46:35,280
Speaker 1: the allegation was that Timothy Roberts had registered domain names

796
00:46:35,360 --> 00:46:39,360
Speaker 1: and trademarks under his own name rather than under the

797
00:46:39,520 --> 00:46:42,560
Speaker 1: game Streamers company name, and that he then planned on

798
00:46:42,640 --> 00:46:45,560
Speaker 1: using those same ideas in a business that would compete

799
00:46:45,560 --> 00:46:49,719
Speaker 1: directly with game Streamers. The company also accused Roberts of

800
00:46:49,800 --> 00:46:52,920
Speaker 1: threatening them, saying that he was going to reveal confidential

801
00:46:52,960 --> 00:46:56,480
Speaker 1: company information that would ultimately harm the business. Now, Taylor

802
00:46:56,520 --> 00:47:01,000
Speaker 1: and Roberts countersued Game Streamers. They alleged, among other things,

803
00:47:01,200 --> 00:47:03,799
Speaker 1: that they were both being fired for game Streams because

804
00:47:03,800 --> 00:47:07,600
Speaker 1: they refused to convert to Seventh day adventist. I am

805
00:47:07,640 --> 00:47:11,000
Speaker 1: not making any of that up. Ultimately, those lawsuits would

806
00:47:11,000 --> 00:47:13,000
Speaker 1: all settle out of court in two thousand eleven. But

807
00:47:13,200 --> 00:47:16,560
Speaker 1: our story ain't over. Yet, folks, Roberts and Taylor would

808
00:47:16,600 --> 00:47:19,080
Speaker 1: launch another business in two thousand eleven, and it was

809
00:47:19,120 --> 00:47:23,040
Speaker 1: called Sevtira. It was billed as a cloud computing company

810
00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:26,440
Speaker 1: and its name was a combination of Savas. Remember that

811
00:47:26,600 --> 00:47:30,200
Speaker 1: was the first company Roberts had worked with, and in Tira,

812
00:47:30,360 --> 00:47:32,719
Speaker 1: which was that big failed company had worked with, Which

813
00:47:32,760 --> 00:47:34,680
Speaker 1: makes me wonder if Roberts was running out of ideas

814
00:47:34,719 --> 00:47:37,480
Speaker 1: at this point to combine two names of previous businesses

815
00:47:37,480 --> 00:47:40,800
Speaker 1: into a third one. At its height, Savtira had a

816
00:47:40,880 --> 00:47:45,560
Speaker 1: valuation of five hundred million dollars. But here's the problem,

817
00:47:45,600 --> 00:47:50,400
Speaker 1: it was actually worthless. In fact, Sevtira had to declare

818
00:47:50,480 --> 00:47:54,040
Speaker 1: bankruptcy in two thousand twelve and it went into Chapter eleven,

819
00:47:54,239 --> 00:47:57,160
Speaker 1: but then was forced into Chapter seven, which means it

820
00:47:57,239 --> 00:48:01,640
Speaker 1: was liquidated. A judge ordered all assets liquidated to pay

821
00:48:01,680 --> 00:48:05,360
Speaker 1: off creditors. Robertson Taylor had been selling stock certificates for

822
00:48:05,360 --> 00:48:08,880
Speaker 1: a company that simply could not conduct business as was claimed.

823
00:48:09,360 --> 00:48:12,120
Speaker 1: And this wasn't just bad news to wealthy investors who

824
00:48:12,120 --> 00:48:15,799
Speaker 1: were out of a big wad of cash. Savtira's employees

825
00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:18,680
Speaker 1: suffered as well. There were real people who had been

826
00:48:18,719 --> 00:48:20,800
Speaker 1: working for a company under the belief that it was

827
00:48:20,840 --> 00:48:24,600
Speaker 1: a legitimate business, but their paychecks stopped as the company

828
00:48:24,680 --> 00:48:27,200
Speaker 1: ran out of cash, and toward the end, the company's

829
00:48:27,200 --> 00:48:30,279
Speaker 1: bank account was at negative five thousand dollars before they

830
00:48:30,280 --> 00:48:34,160
Speaker 1: were able to secure at two fifty thousand dollar alone. Allegedly,

831
00:48:34,239 --> 00:48:36,200
Speaker 1: a good amount of that loan would end up going

832
00:48:36,239 --> 00:48:39,520
Speaker 1: to some personal expenses that roberts had accumulated, rather than

833
00:48:39,560 --> 00:48:44,560
Speaker 1: to actually pay off creditors of the company. According to prosecutors,

834
00:48:44,840 --> 00:48:46,520
Speaker 1: because yes, of course this is going to end in

835
00:48:46,560 --> 00:48:51,040
Speaker 1: another court case. It was all based on false revenue projections.

836
00:48:51,080 --> 00:48:53,600
Speaker 1: That's what the value, the perceived value of this company

837
00:48:53,680 --> 00:48:57,880
Speaker 1: was hinging upon. Robertson Taylor would be arrested on charges

838
00:48:57,880 --> 00:49:02,680
Speaker 1: that they committed wire fraud. Roberts pled guilty or pleaded guilty,

839
00:49:02,760 --> 00:49:05,520
Speaker 1: and his sentencing was scheduled to happen in two thousand seventeen,

840
00:49:05,920 --> 00:49:08,439
Speaker 1: though as of the recording of this podcast, that still

841
00:49:08,440 --> 00:49:11,520
Speaker 1: hasn't happened. It may happen sometime in mid March last

842
00:49:11,560 --> 00:49:15,800
Speaker 1: I heard uh. He faces up to twenty years in prison.

843
00:49:16,120 --> 00:49:20,440
Speaker 1: His buddy, Terrence Taylor, also pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges,

844
00:49:20,719 --> 00:49:24,240
Speaker 1: and he was recently sentenced to five years in prison

845
00:49:24,320 --> 00:49:27,560
Speaker 1: back in December two thousand seventeen. Now there's a lot

846
00:49:27,600 --> 00:49:30,439
Speaker 1: more I could say about Roberts. For example, he also

847
00:49:30,560 --> 00:49:33,920
Speaker 1: led a company called hashing Space, which is a bitcoin

848
00:49:34,080 --> 00:49:39,000
Speaker 1: minor hosting service. Terrence Taylor was CFO over there too,

849
00:49:39,200 --> 00:49:42,640
Speaker 1: but after the Feds served a six count indictment against

850
00:49:42,719 --> 00:49:45,680
Speaker 1: the two guys, they both stepped down from that company.

851
00:49:45,920 --> 00:49:51,280
Speaker 1: Hashing Space continued on buying out Roberts's ownership of the company. Anyway,

852
00:49:51,840 --> 00:49:55,160
Speaker 1: that's the story of Timothy Roberts and the Phantom Console,

853
00:49:55,520 --> 00:49:59,560
Speaker 1: and I want a cookie. I do not know to

854
00:49:59,680 --> 00:50:03,640
Speaker 1: this whether another Phantom Console was ever sincerely going to

855
00:50:03,680 --> 00:50:06,640
Speaker 1: be built, or if in fact it was just a

856
00:50:06,719 --> 00:50:09,840
Speaker 1: shell so that Timothy Roberts could raise a lot of

857
00:50:09,880 --> 00:50:13,680
Speaker 1: money from investors and then spend it however he liked.

858
00:50:14,239 --> 00:50:16,759
Speaker 1: I don't know the answer to that. There are a

859
00:50:16,800 --> 00:50:18,880
Speaker 1: lot of indications that show that there were at least

860
00:50:19,080 --> 00:50:22,839
Speaker 1: some cursory attempts to create some hardware. And I'm sure

861
00:50:22,880 --> 00:50:26,080
Speaker 1: people who are working for the Phantom are for Infinium

862
00:50:26,160 --> 00:50:29,200
Speaker 1: Labs and then later Phantom Entertainment believed in their heart

863
00:50:29,200 --> 00:50:31,279
Speaker 1: of hearts that they were working on a product that

864
00:50:31,440 --> 00:50:35,080
Speaker 1: was going to go to market, but whether it was

865
00:50:35,120 --> 00:50:38,520
Speaker 1: a sincere attempt or just a hoax from the beginning,

866
00:50:39,160 --> 00:50:42,720
Speaker 1: the fact remains it never went anywhere and it became

867
00:50:42,800 --> 00:50:44,880
Speaker 1: kind of the laughing stock. It was one of those

868
00:50:45,280 --> 00:50:48,640
Speaker 1: things that was held up as not just something that

869
00:50:48,760 --> 00:50:51,239
Speaker 1: to ridicule, but something to show as an example of

870
00:50:51,280 --> 00:50:54,880
Speaker 1: what can happen with vapor wear. So an incredible story

871
00:50:55,600 --> 00:50:58,600
Speaker 1: and uh, maybe we'll follow up on this later on

872
00:50:58,760 --> 00:51:01,520
Speaker 1: and talk more out some of the fallout and also

873
00:51:01,560 --> 00:51:03,319
Speaker 1: some of the things that have happened in the wake

874
00:51:03,960 --> 00:51:07,640
Speaker 1: of the Phantom console that brought some of those ideas

875
00:51:07,640 --> 00:51:10,920
Speaker 1: to life. Like I said, while those ideas were way

876
00:51:10,960 --> 00:51:13,360
Speaker 1: ahead of their time, they are ones that have found

877
00:51:13,360 --> 00:51:17,200
Speaker 1: their ways into various game platforms today, whether it's PC

878
00:51:17,280 --> 00:51:22,520
Speaker 1: based stuff like Steam or it's video game consoles. We've

879
00:51:22,560 --> 00:51:27,480
Speaker 1: seen those concepts worked into video gaming. So there were

880
00:51:27,520 --> 00:51:32,120
Speaker 1: some really good ideas there. If they had been executed properly,

881
00:51:32,239 --> 00:51:35,240
Speaker 1: maybe the landscape of gaming would be very different today.

882
00:51:35,239 --> 00:51:39,719
Speaker 1: Maybe in Phinium Labs would be the valve of today

883
00:51:39,760 --> 00:51:44,040
Speaker 1: where they'd be the dominant player in PC gaming distribution,

884
00:51:44,640 --> 00:51:49,560
Speaker 1: But as it stands, not so much. And that's it.

885
00:51:49,719 --> 00:51:53,399
Speaker 1: I hope you guys enjoyed the Phantom Zone and got

886
00:51:53,440 --> 00:51:57,839
Speaker 1: to learn some stuff about a game console that we're

887
00:51:57,840 --> 00:52:00,480
Speaker 1: still not sure exactly how far along it odd, if

888
00:52:00,520 --> 00:52:04,160
Speaker 1: at all. And really it's an idea that was ahead

889
00:52:04,160 --> 00:52:06,239
Speaker 1: of its time. The question is would it have been

890
00:52:06,320 --> 00:52:11,120
Speaker 1: achievable back then with the technologies that were available or

891
00:52:11,200 --> 00:52:14,040
Speaker 1: was it just something that was too ambitious And if

892
00:52:14,040 --> 00:52:16,680
Speaker 1: they had waited maybe ten years, it would have been fine.

893
00:52:17,000 --> 00:52:19,680
Speaker 1: Who's to say. If you guys have any suggestions for

894
00:52:19,719 --> 00:52:21,920
Speaker 1: future episodes of tech Stuff, reach out to me on

895
00:52:21,960 --> 00:52:25,120
Speaker 1: Facebook or Twitter. We use the handle text stuff hsw

896
00:52:25,440 --> 00:52:27,319
Speaker 1: Let us know if you like this playlist. If you did,

897
00:52:27,360 --> 00:52:29,520
Speaker 1: maybe I'll make up some more of them and we

898
00:52:29,560 --> 00:52:32,239
Speaker 1: can have a few more weeks where we send out

899
00:52:32,239 --> 00:52:34,839
Speaker 1: a playlist of different episodes that have a theme to them.

900
00:52:34,960 --> 00:52:36,840
Speaker 1: Or if you have any specific themes you would like,

901
00:52:36,920 --> 00:52:40,839
Speaker 1: like the history of big companies or a video game

902
00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:43,719
Speaker 1: centric playlist, or whatever it may be, let me know

903
00:52:44,040 --> 00:52:46,319
Speaker 1: and we'll see what we can do and I'll talk

904
00:52:46,360 --> 00:52:54,480
Speaker 1: to you again really soon. Text Stuff is an I

905
00:52:54,560 --> 00:52:58,080
Speaker 1: Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,

906
00:52:58,400 --> 00:53:01,560
Speaker 1: visit the i Heart Radio app Apple podcasts, or wherever

907
00:53:01,640 --> 00:53:03,160
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.