CCI Phantom - The Phantom Revolution

The Phantom Revolution

The Phantom Revolution was an unfinished semi-automatic paintball marker developed during the early 1990s. It featured an electrically powered rotary breech which was activated by an on-board computer system and microphone which responded to the sound of the marker being fired. Another notable innovation in the Revolution was its boltless design. The breech, which rotated on an axis in a similar fashion to that of the cylinder of a revolver, allowed a paintball to be fed into the breech which would then align with the firing chamber, creating a seal. The maximum rate of fire was 7 balls per second, or 14 with a two-hole breech. A few working prototypes were demonstrated at the 1996 National Professional Paintball League World Cup in Orlando, Florida by Mike Casady. However, production was halted indefinitely in 1996 due to a technical problem with the motor pinion drive. Additionally, there were several markers being produced or developed at the time which used a switch for a trigger and a circuit board to control the feed and/or the pneumatic firing sequence such as the Smart Parts Shocker. The sport of paintball itself saw explosive growth during this decade and as the industry became more lucrative, many patent disputes and lawsuits occurred. CCI effectively sidestepped them by focusing solely on the pump paintball market. All together enough parts for 50 prototypes were fabricated, 12 were assembled, and all but two have been accounted for by Casady.