Is anyone aware of any new games announced for the Atomiswave platform? To me it seems like it's dead already or am i mistaking?
I just thought they planned on making it a little more longlived. Especially with their modular approach, and I/O board for guns, steering wheels etc. Doesnt really make sense if you're only going to have like 2 driving games and 4 shooting games (or something).
The arcade scene is dead though. How could anything last without being vastly superior? Most arcade games nowdays are no better than what you can do on most consoles. For arcade games to really shine and survive you need an experience unlike anything at home, or so much better. That's hard to do unlike in the past.
It's not technically dead (there's still another title due out for it), but the biggest supporter being SNK has dropped development of future titles for it. I for one am glad to see it go. Underpowered from the get-go and the way they initially sold it (mobo+cart only) was pretty shortsighted. As it is, the average lifespan of arcade hardware these days is about 5 years (same as a console). The most used hardware in arcades right now is System 246/256, Chihiro, Naomi, TypeX, Triforce and Atomiswave. All but the last 3 have been around for at least 4 years, so it's not as dire as people make it seem, but likely that the 14 year run of the Neo Geo MVS will never be duplicated again. As it is, arcade these days are primarily for providing hyper awesome experiences as anyone who has played Maximum Tune2 or Battle Gear 4 can attest. Experiences like these cannot be duplicated at home regardless of what add-ons you buy. And it's not so much about the graphics these days as it once was, but all about direct peer-to-peer competition with human gamers (not Little Timmy's over a broadband connection). Japan thrives on arcade competition, hence the reason why arcades still do somewhat well over there.
It's not surprising to have arcade hardware with only a few games. There are quite a few of them out there. It isn't like home consoles where the library is much bigger.
These days as far as I can tell, everyone is moving towards PC based setups (essentially a generic PC in an arcade case running a customized version of windows, special extra hardware for inputs and outputs and presumably some kind of protection dongle or so)
Arcades are not dead! (in japan) Atomiswave was nothing more than a "time-filler" in the arcade scene. From my experience even at the peak of KOF and Hokuto No Ken love, no Japanese arcade invested in more than a handful of machines. It was never going to be around for long, or become the next neo-geo. It was just a nice little boost in graphics just to keep things a bit fresh. No bad thing imho. + I don't think it is dead just because nothing is getting made for it. People will still want to play the big titles on it for years to come.
the AW definetly had a good run, if youre a beatemup fan its a great system, highres graphcis and superb software support, the system is very easy to operate aswell, just plug n play. im sure sammy made a hefty chunk of cash from it in spite of its short commercial lifespan, tho its very unlikeley it will get any more games.
I thought it sucked. SNK did a half-ass job porting their games over. High res backgrounds on low-res (upscaled) character sprites. Fugly... real fugly. Dolphin Blue is the only one that ever appealed to me.
