Halflife 2 Coming to an Arcade Nowhere Near You
Phill Proud writes "Arcade board manufacturer Taito is set to begin sales of an arcade version of Halflife 2, including a multiplayer mode, in the Summer of 2005 (Japan) "Taito will develop an arcade version for their original "Type X" circuit board. The Type X is an arcade game circuit board running Windows XP Embedded that can use the Windows game development environment. The arcade game will be a customised version of the Windows software and will allow 3 game modes - a "Story mode" for single-player play, a "Battle mode" for players country-wide to compete in real-time and a "Mission mode" for players to collaborate tactically.""
I hope for their sake that Half-life 2 doesn't suck.
A Multiplayer Strategy Game for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
Not if I'm in Japan you insensitive clod!
On a slightly related note, I was wating in the airport recently and realized how well an arcade would do there. I might even be willing to spend $1 for a round at some shooter, since that'd be cheap compared to the $8 Big Mac I just ate, and beats the hell out of watching the Weather Channel while sitting on those akward benches.
American arcades need a new direction. Charging more for less gameplay time is not the solution, and is the main cause of the decline we see today (starting with Dragon's Lair). Most arcade games today to no reward better players with extended time. As mentioned, cafes are on the right track, and should be extended to 'Console Arcades', and be similar to water slide parks. $x for x minutes. $x+1 for the whole day. Have setups for teams, competitions, high scores, etc. Have them based on home games, who cares. Rental movies are the same as those bought except stores pay more for licenses, etc. Same thing should be available for console arcades.