Sega, Nintendo Team Up To Create New Graphics Board

TimWeigel writes "The Daily Yomiuri is reporting that Sega, Nintendo and Namco are teaming up to create a new commercial graphics board. This new board, the Triforce (tip o' the hat to all the Zelda fans), will reportedly be based on the hardware in the GameCube. The article indicates it will be targeted towards new game consoles, as well as "similar products". A prototype is scheduled to be demonstrated at the 2002 AOU Amusement Expo on 22 Feb."

Comments

Intresting, but is it really useful?

[LordZardoz]

There are two possibilties. I can see this being used to make it easier to port Sega's and Namco's arcade titles to the GameCube. It may also be used to play GameCube games on other platforms.

But console games, especially Nintendo's, are targeted at their controller. So playing the games on different hardware could be a useless endeavor.

Other then a few development bonuses, I dont really see the upshot.

Besides, Sega has a horrible track record with Hardware.

END COMMUNICATION

Re:Intresting, but is it really useful?

[doctor_oktagon]

Sega has a horrible track record with Hardware?

You've either been smokin crack or have obviously never played either a Sega arcade game or a Dreamcast. The Dreamcast graphics are still almost a match for a PS2 and developers used to enjoy coding for it, as it was so easy and geared towards them.

Sega don't have a good record in MARKETING. But that's different.

Sony are the MS of the console world: they killed the Dreamcast through FUD.

Arcade games usually have extreme controllers, but many of them were sucessfully ported to many different home consoles, so that's another fallacy.

Most likely...

[Chasing Amy]

Most likely the graphics board is going to be aimed at the arcade hardware and home entertainment industry market, not the home user. The article is short on information, but don't you think if a card geared toward consumers were being demoed on Feb. 22, that we'd have heard press about it now?

This card most likely has nothing to do with the home segment at all. It will be marketed toard third-party arcade and home entertainment vendors, as well as used for Sega's and Namco's arcade hardware needs. Believe it or not, a lot of the bigger arcade games these days are powered by basically PC's with powerful graphics boards, like the ones of Quantum3D. Heck, 3Dfx got its start with arcade graphics chips, and the Voodoo 2 powered more than just PC's--arcade games as well.

So, I'd bet that this is not the least bit geared towards the end user.