NG-Dev Team's arcade & Home Console

[Wrath Of Khan]

Word is that NG-DEV TEAM, they who primarily develop for the Neo Geo systems and port same titles to the Dreamcast
are working on an Arcade gaming system, with a planned home variant.

I inquired with them on Twatter-

They responded:

"It's an arcade system first and foremost. But a home variant too. It can only be programmed in C/C++ and assembly".

"It's a high end arcade enthusiast platform. Our focus is on people that play original arcade PCBs and AES at home."

"It could have a positive impact on arcade dev for sure. The JPN devs that have seen it, were all very excited".

It seems to me that they are aiming for a niche of enthusiasts willing to pay a premium for an arcade style old school experience - its bodes poorly for the Coleco chameleon methinks.

 

[mjohansson]

Sounds interesting, will it be open for anyone to develope for?
It sounds like its not really a competitor for the Chameleon, no words of 3D capability, the Chameleon will have an ARM soc, also the NG-DEV system sounds like it will be meant for arcade type games and while some old school games are very arcady the Chameleon and its fans seem to want home-videogame type of experiences.

 

[Agricola]

No.... just no....
The whole charm of NG: DEV.TEAM was always the production of nice games on old, but beloved hardware. For this, people even paid a premium; a new game on Neo-Geo AES by them can cost >500€ without any problem while such a game would probably go for 10 bucks of Steam/GoG. When they make these games on their own hardware, they can easily lose that nostalgic charm and then it's just some pixelated game on a new hardware that they probably still want a lot of money for.

Also, the console is probably just an updated Neo-Geo (from the users standpoint). The whole reason for buying the old hardware is to have a piece of personal or gaming history. The Neo-Geo was a product of its time, back when having arcade hardware with good controllers at home was something new and exiting. Nowadays every home computer is faster than most of the arcades and can handle arcade sticks without even manually installing any drivers, and the software is extremely cheap with a LOT to choose from. How could they compete with that and reproduce the excitement of the Neo-Geo? I just don't see any way this could become a successful console.

But then again, I'm probably not their target demography.

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

Sounds interesting, will it be open for anyone to develope for?
It sounds like its not really a competitor for the Chameleon, no words of 3D capability, the Chameleon will have an ARM soc, also the NG-DEV system sounds like it will be meant for arcade type games and while some old school games are very arcady the Chameleon and its fans seem to want home-videogame type of experiences.

I'm not sure, but they did ask on twitter if anyone knew of any western arcade developers-
Also they said it will be a lot more powerful than the Sega Dreamcast, more like a dreamcast 2 or 3 if such things existed.
[doublepost=1455822266,1455822128][/doublepost]

No.... just no....
The whole charm of NG: DEV.TEAM was always the production of nice games on old, but beloved hardware. For this, people even paid a premium; a new game on Neo-Geo AES by them can cost >500€ without any problem while such a game would probably go for 10 bucks of Steam/GoG. When they make these games on their own hardware, they can easily lose that nostalgic charm and then it's just some pixelated game on a new hardware that they probably still want a lot of money for.

Also, the console is probably just an updated Neo-Geo (from the users standpoint). The whole reason for buying the old hardware is to have a piece of personal or gaming history. The Neo-Geo was a product of its time, back when having arcade hardware with good controllers at home was something new and exiting. Nowadays every home computer is faster than most of the arcades and can handle arcade sticks without even manually installing any drivers, and the software is extremely cheap with a LOT to choose from. How could they compete with that and reproduce the excitement of the Neo-Geo? I just don't see any way this could become a successful console.

But then again, I'm probably not their target demography.

Yes, and as I said already they say its more powerful than the Dreamcast, more like a DC 2 or 3.
It depends what they have but they said they want to do more with their games than the neo geo systems currently allow.

It sounds more intriguing to me than the coleco Chameleon.

 

[FBnil]

I inquired with them on Twatter-

ROFL.

But very interesting news... If they put in chips that are better than xbox-one and PS4... wow.... however, the game market is, like @Agricola says, fragmented into portable gaming thingies and big rigs... so a hard market to delve into. That said, there are more people who can pay for a console now a days, so the market is bigger too...

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

ROFL.

But very interesting news... If they put in chips that are better than xbox-one and PS4... wow.... however, the game market is, like @Agricola says, fragmented into portable gaming thingies and big rigs... so a hard market to delve into. That said, there are more people who can pay for a console now a days, so the market is bigger too...

Yeah, I guess they are aiming for a specific niche- to do it right they will have to create a desirable object of pure opulence much like the old Neo Geo Home systems, which were priced for the wealthy few. Triple A Hardcore gamers it is then.

 

[erico]

They have a level of reputation by their games, I´d wait to see what pops up from this.
My only problem with the ´arcade´ for today´s standard is that unfortunately I feel that the magik for such in a large scale is gone.

If you check most of the nice arcade games of the 80/90s you will see games that were, in part or totally, tailored to the coin bizz.
They were very hard games and you were usually pressed by a killer time.

As games jumped to the living room or the computer screen, it already felt weird to play with 5 coins or eternal continues.
At the same time, the games started being tailored to be a passive crap, like a scripted movie. The playability ghost from the likes of Dragon Slayer took over.
There could be many reasons but I think the access games had on late 90s were the culprid of things, enough for the industry to start releasing quick to win all family happy type games with short lastability.
But maybe it is just a conforming to the market, like the arcades were.

Quit rant back to topic...

As they are targeting the arcade bizz they are in for a threat. I don´t suppose what they plan to create is going to come cheap, so there is the question if the niche requires and can support such.
Hopefully where they plan to act, arcade is still somehow alive

If they can pull it out, I´m sure going to be a happier man seeing the arcade scene getting a bit of a push.
On an utopic world, I wish I could open an arcade house and probably create own games for it, similar to Locomalito...

 

[mjohansson]

is there any mentioned of date like if its expected to be released this year?

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

is there any mentioned of date like if its expected to be released this year?

Not that I'm aware of. There does not seem to be much info for now; I'm guessing that if they are not ready to officially announce the product then its probably some time away.