I was wondering, because recently there was a "port" of Blazblue:CS. Of course, the game uses something called "windows xp embedded" in the arcades, so I'm thinking it was an easier transition.

Read the link for a better explanation
http://finallyanime.com/2010/01/gigantic-leak-blazblue-continuum-shift-for-pc/

But what "OS" does VF5 have? I know the machine it runs on in arcades is made of pretty common PC components, like intel and nvidia hardware. How hard would it be for someone to make it playable?

BTW, I'm trying to be vague here, as this is a tricky subject to talk about without breaking guidelines. And the page I provided doesn't have any "bad" links, so I hope this is OK.

VF5's hardware is the Sega Lindbergh, its OS is Linux.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Lindbergh#Sega_Lindbergh

Cool, thanks for the link...

So why can't it be adapted to work on other computer's running Linux? Is linux just so customizable that it would take too much programming to make the arcade game work on other machines?

I'm just curious, because I'm spoiled by SF4, which is totally flawless on the PC. Since VF is my favorite series,I'd really like to see that find its way to PC again, even if its brought by amateur VF enthusiasts.

It is not that hard. Sega is just being lazy. Oh and yes Tekken sucks.

How can you say that? It is not about the OS running as undercurrent that makes porting hard or easy. It is the hardware as well that must be taken into account. The Lindberghs, or any other arcade machine type for that matter, share the same hardware. The software (in this case VF) has been optimized for exactly this type of hardware to run on.

The PC, however, is entirely different. The developer has to deal with a whole array of different hardware setups, dependent on what the customer has equipped his PC with. On top of that, each hardware manufacturer works with different routines -- AMD and nVidia, for instance.

I think there is a whole body of work involved for porting an arcade game to the PC (because there is not only one PC setup in the world) than to another console that resembles more an arcade machine because it is very much a closed system with unified hardware as well.

IIRC the last fighting game that sega ported to PC was vf2.. why would they port vf5r/fs to PC when they didn't give us vf4ft or vf5r for consoles?

People would pirate the hell out of hit if given half a chance. No possiblilty of the game being anywhere near a general public PC unless someone steals something.

Yeah, I believe the pirates will hack that game and hack-load it.