Indrema
Encyclopedia
Indrema was an electronics company infamous for the vaporware
Indrema L600 Entertainment System.
Founded in early 2000 by John Gildred, Indrema's goal was to create a video game console
based on common PC
hardware and the Linux
operating system. The console would have been the only open source
console on the market, as well as the only modern console to allow free software
to be written for it.
The console was expected to be released by the holiday season of 2000, but rather than an official announcement, those subscribed to Indrema's mailing list received instead a "top ten" list in the style of David Letterman
. By this time, people were beginning to suspect that the console was vaporware; Indrema had produced nothing but press releases so far.
Lack of a product and insufficient capital contributed to Indrema's demise. After being unable to raise enough capital to keep the company alive, Indrema shut down on April 6, 2001. In his last Indrema chat session, Gildred revealed that the company needed more than $10,000,000 in capital in order to continue and gave the following advice to the next video game startup: "finish product before talking about it."
which was in the process of being developed by Indrema until Indrema ceased operations in April 2001. Besides game play, it was also to be a CD player, DVD player
, web browser
, and TiVo
-like video recorder. It also would have been an MP3
storage device.
Had the console been released, it would have cost USD$299 and would have had 30 games available at launch. It would have had 64MB RAM and 96MB total. Its storage medium would have been 10GB discs. It would have had HDTV support. Indrema would have let regular end-users develop their games via their development kit. Most companies charge more than $10,000 USD for their kits. It would have had a GPU slide bay (it allowed you to slide out the graphics processor when a better one was available), an x86-based microprocessor running at 600MHz, and it would have been able to process 120-180 million polygons per second.
There was little hope for the L600, however, for its speculated release date was during the peak of Microsoft's Xbox
, Sony's PlayStation 2
, and Nintendo's GameCube, and it was just one of the many independently developed systems that would never rise out of obscurity and gain much popularity, as the three aforementioned systems had already more than monopolized the home console gaming industry.
Vaporware
Vaporware is a term in the computer industry that describes a product, typically computer hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is never actually released nor officially canceled. Vaporware is also a term sometimes used to describe events that are announced or predicted,...
Indrema L600 Entertainment System.
Founded in early 2000 by John Gildred, Indrema's goal was to create a video game console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
based on common PC
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
hardware and the Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
operating system. The console would have been the only open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
console on the market, as well as the only modern console to allow free software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
to be written for it.
The console was expected to be released by the holiday season of 2000, but rather than an official announcement, those subscribed to Indrema's mailing list received instead a "top ten" list in the style of David Letterman
David Letterman
David Michael Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC...
. By this time, people were beginning to suspect that the console was vaporware; Indrema had produced nothing but press releases so far.
Lack of a product and insufficient capital contributed to Indrema's demise. After being unable to raise enough capital to keep the company alive, Indrema shut down on April 6, 2001. In his last Indrema chat session, Gildred revealed that the company needed more than $10,000,000 in capital in order to continue and gave the following advice to the next video game startup: "finish product before talking about it."
L600
The L600 was a Linux-based game console/computerComputer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
which was in the process of being developed by Indrema until Indrema ceased operations in April 2001. Besides game play, it was also to be a CD player, DVD player
DVD player
A DVD player is a device that plays discs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. These devices were invented in 1997 and continue to thrive...
, web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
, and TiVo
TiVo
TiVo is a digital video recorder developed and marketed by TiVo, Inc. and introduced in 1999. TiVo provides an on-screen guide of scheduled broadcast programming television programs, whose features include "Season Pass" schedules which record every new episode of a series, and "WishList"...
-like video recorder. It also would have been an MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
storage device.
Had the console been released, it would have cost USD$299 and would have had 30 games available at launch. It would have had 64MB RAM and 96MB total. Its storage medium would have been 10GB discs. It would have had HDTV support. Indrema would have let regular end-users develop their games via their development kit. Most companies charge more than $10,000 USD for their kits. It would have had a GPU slide bay (it allowed you to slide out the graphics processor when a better one was available), an x86-based microprocessor running at 600MHz, and it would have been able to process 120-180 million polygons per second.
There was little hope for the L600, however, for its speculated release date was during the peak of Microsoft's Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
, Sony's PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
, and Nintendo's GameCube, and it was just one of the many independently developed systems that would never rise out of obscurity and gain much popularity, as the three aforementioned systems had already more than monopolized the home console gaming industry.
See also
- The Phantom, another video game console identified as vaporware.
- PandoraPandora (console)The Pandora is a handheld game console designed to take advantage of existing open source software and to be a target for homebrew development...
, another Linux based Console
External links
- Indrema Informer - includes technical specifications and a list of links to Indrema-related news articles.