Sega new arcade board

http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20090220/ring.htm

Does anybody with some IT experience know what kind of specs those are? anything surprising?

I am thinking it looks like a standard-specced PC, but maybe they will use something like this to start work on VF6...if they are going to work on VF6 that is.

 

They went with a Windows OS than Linux, this time(Which is a good thing)They updated the chip and the graphics card. But, it seems it doesn't have the RAM of the SEGA Europa-R board(4gigs)All and all, this is good.

 

there is an interview about Border Break and the ringedge in the new EDGE issue,

I will try to type it later when I get home, but in short:

Ringedge is not that much more powerful than lindbergh, but more cost effective, fitting the gap between naomi and lindbergh.

I don't think they will use ringedge to develop the next VF because it seems like a stop-gap tool to help the arcade market getting through these though times.


My feeling is that when they will get their hand on something more powerful, then they will showcase it with the next VF.

 

whaaaat, you dont say.

 

ok so as promised heres some relevant parts of the interview with noriyuki shimoda and takehiko mikami:

E: this is the first title runnin gon the ringedge board. in the past, any brand new board has been introduced with the release of the latest virtua fighter. why isn't that the case in this situaton?
NS: in the past, eache new board was designed to introduce higher level graphics and virtua fighter was the tool to demonstrate that, but here, its mainly about cost reduction.

E: is ringedge equal to lindbergh?
NS: overall, i'd say it's superior. this project was originally made for lindbergh, so it was very easy for us to make the switch. it's really comfortable for us to work with.



E: there's the feeling that ring series is filling a huge gap that hadndicapped arcade development between the expensive lindbergh at the top and the naomi at the bottom. is that so?

NS: this indeed create a big gap and was definately seen as a risk for our arcade business. the release of the ringedge (with a pentium dual core E2160 CPU) and the ring wide (witha lower-power Celeron 440 CPU) at much lower cost than lindbergh gives us new possibilities- both development and business-wise.

E: is this title going to translate into more dynamism for arcade videogame development at sega?

NS: ithink that will be the case, not only at sega but thoughout the whole of the arcade videogame market.

 

Ok so my take on this is that it looks similar to the current situation of the console market, where you have big expensive projects for the PS3/360 and smaller games for the Wii, where both options have their pro and cons---considering that Japan seems to have lost interest in videogames recently, I think Sega might hold back on the development of a beastly arcade board, until the finacial/technology situation improves and they can offer great games without risking losing stupid money.

anybody with some better understanding of the arcades please feel free to comment!