Atomiswave: Sammy's attempt at Neo Geo?

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Originally posted by mikey
What I'm wondering is why did they develop a new cartridge-based thing that's so closely-related to an already prevalent system like Naomi, which also has a cartridge-based form and an inexpensive GD-based form? Why do Sammy themselves need to make their own system? What's their goal? Why not just stick with Naomi? It's not bullshit because GGX 1.5 is ready for release. What's the logic of creating this new system? They must have plans for it beyond Guilty Gear, mustn't they?

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Naomi GD-Roms are expensive to maintain from what I've gathered in a few magazines. Why not the normal Naomi cart system? My only guess is Atomiswave is a product of shrinking the Naomi (or DC) frame work into a more affordable board. Nonetheless, unless Sammy plans to use this board for several years like Taito does it's still alot of effort for a arcade system. *-neo

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Originally posted by Ammadeau
Playmore is the biggest credit risk in the videogame industry. Think about it. Would you give a loan to a company which basically recreated themselves in order to ditch a sizable debt? I know there's more to it than that, but still... I'd sooner trust a hobo with the money. That's why I think they need to merge with a pre-existing company if they actually want to improve.

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Yeah, but I would have thought the Fatal Fury.King of Fighters characters would be a property that's worth something. Terry, Mai and Iori are some of the most recognizable characters in gaming. At the worst, I'd have thought a bank would take a lien against them or something...heh, maybe they did.

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Originally posted by StriderKyo
Yeah, but I would have thought the Fatal Fury.King of Fighters characters would be a property that's worth something. Terry, Mai and Iori are some of the most recognizable characters in gaming. At the worst, I'd have thought a bank would take a lien against them or something...heh, maybe they did.

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To people like us, they are easily recognizable, however to most others they aren't. Most fighting fanatics were brought up on MK and later SF, most of them have never heard of KOF, Samurai Showdown, and to a lesser extent Fatal Fury. Infact the first time most of them ever heard of SNK was in Capcom Vs. SNK.

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Originally posted by StriderKyo It's the closest thing they have to a guaranteed income, especially when their highest profile home cart runs are like 500 copies.

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Why would you say 500?

www.gamefront.de

At this year's AOU show Sammy announced two new Atomiswave games. They are:

Demolishfist (action)
Take Sushi (puzzle)

All Atomiswave games are listed as 2003 releases with the exception of Guilty Gear X 1.5 which is TBD. *-neo

Must be trouble afoot.

Sammy has delayed the launch of Atomiswave again, from May 2003 to "sometime in the first half of the fiscal year". *-neo

I'm all for the Atomiswave. The games are looking super sweet and I'd buy one if it weren't for the fact I'm anticipating it being expensive. If it really is a Naomi on steroids...Naomi's are expensive...still. Like $400-$500 on the low end and upwards of a thousand with the right game.

Atomiswave is probably going to come into the fray with at least a $1000 price tag. I'll be amazed if it's less than say...$600.

But out of those 6 games, I'm pretty interested in at least 3 of them (GGX, Dolphin Blue and Sushi Bar). If it has a resonable price tag, I'm gonna be so happy and it'll be time to snag another cab.

As far as replacing the Neo•Geo. I gotta ask; What the hell are you people talking about?

Why would Sammy WANT to replace the Neo? The Neo's market is a niche of gamers willing to shell out for a specific set of games. And always have been.

It's not like there are Neo•Geo arcades all over the world. As if Neo•Geo is the most populated cab worldwide. There's usually like one cab in many arcades, if even one, and they use it to play the newest release and proven money makers like Metal Slug X. I've heard that Latin America has a lot of them, but I don't know first hand or from any reliable source.

But my point is Sammy would probably want better market penetration than that. They'd want thier hardware showcased in the newest and flashiest games up front and center in the arcade world.

The Neo isn't about that. It's new games come and go with relativly little fanfare from casual gamers, with a few mentions from mainstream media, and then they'll eventually make thier way to a port for a home console.

But the thing is, it still makes money for arcade vendors. And in all likelyhood, it'll probably continue to do so for many years.

So long as people want to play the games and so long as the arcade vendors are making money off of them, they'll always be Neo•Geo.

The fact that it's popularity and selling points are not based on pure technology is now why it has such longevity.

There were Neos in arcades when they brought in the ST-Vs with Virtual Fighter 2, and they were in the arcade when they moved the ST-Vs out. The 3D on it now looks outdated and cheap.

But on the Neo get what you expect graphically and the games are good.

Trying to replace it is really a bad plan. The only reason it's cost effective is the hardware is dirt cheap (and if you think about it...they don't even have to manufacture it anymore to 'support' it) and there's a reliable and steady stream of quarters going into it so long as you have one or two specific games in it. And you get a nice spike of play when a new release comes out...which you then have no problem offloading into the secondary market.

The Neo is irreplacable. The only thing that will take it out of the arcades is if people stop playing. And if they keep making games, people won't. Vicious circle.

Instead, I'm hoping that Sammy is trying to really push thier High Res 2D into arcades. Which I'm ALL for, the games are gorgeous. If they play half as good as they look then I think you may be looking at a well planned hardware with a good future.

Must play Dolphin Blue NOW! I'm all for this thing.

And BTW, the Neo Geo can live forever as far as I'm concerned. I love those games. :)

Atomiswave delays may be due to the way Sega is treating Sammy in their merger efforts. Sammy is probably feeling a bit alienated since Sega's tried to bring in Namco. Since they probably have to pay royalties on the hardware, I suspect they may be looking into alternatives even though they have already put a large amount of money into developing the system and software.

Actually, it either just got a LOT more intriguing or a LOT more lame:

http://www.americanvending.com/html/...atomiswave.jpg

Okay "what are we looking at, a picture, yay cool".

But check it... The trackball, light gun and steering wheel control set ups are thier own module deals.

Now, does this mean that you HAVE to have that light gun module to play the light gun games? (meaning, you can't put it into another JAMMA cabinet and hook up thiers or another light gun hardware, that you have to use that specific Atomiswave cab with the module)

Or is it just a cool and easy way for operators to swap out the controls...but you can still put the hardware in any cab you want.

If it's the later then, I'd probably look into getting one of those Atomiswave cabs for my basement, it'd be super sweet to just swap control pannels if I wanna play Capcom Bowling or something.

But if it's the former, and you need one of these cabs to play a light gun, driving or trackball game. It may not fly too well.