Say hello to the Triforce arcade board..

From IGN Cube:


February 18, 2002 - Nintendo of Japan has announced that an arcade board based on the GameCube hardware is in joint development between Nintendo, Sega, and Namco. The hardware is being called the Triforce board, and is aimed to accomplish several things. Nintendo highlighted three points, listed as follows:

• Expand the videogame market
• Create a less expensive development environment for the high-cost arcade sector
• Offer new ways to play videogames, linking the arcade and home market

In a world where arcade hardware is often prohibitively expensive, the low-cost, efficiently powerful GameCube hardware could provide an attractive solution. The exact details of how the hardware will be amended has not been announced, nor have the details of Namco\'s and Sega\'s exact involvement.

IGNcube has long heard rumor of Namco\'s Soul Calibur II being developed on a GameCube arcade board. It seems that possibility is now stronger than ever.

More important to this announcement are that the three companies have stressed wanting to offer up new ways to utilize the arcade market in parallel with home consoles. IGNcube has also heard rumor that the said companies are working on developing a similar system as featured with Neo Geo long ago, where you can play at the arcade, save your data, and take it back home. Sega has recent experience in this area with its Club Kart Card technology.

Namco is rumored to be in development with its own twist on Super Smash Bros. Melee, featuring Namco characters. This would be a perfect example of a title that could well utilize keeping track of arcade statistics as well as your progress at home. Read our full rumor report here for details.

Nintendo plans to demonstrate a prototype of the Triforce arcade hardware on February 22 in Makuhari at the AOU 2002 Amusement Expo. Interestingly, Soul Calibur II will be shown at the event in playable form. Hopefully representatives at the show can now confirm once and for all if the title will be featured on this new GameCube-based arcade hardware.

IGNcube will have a full report from the show in the coming week.[/i]

I stumbled upon this post and found it suiting to be the first to not only read it, but to give my two cents.

I loved the days when you could bring a few rolls of quarters to the arcade and spend a couple hours blasting baddies and munching dots with your budds. However, when the arcades got to a point where to play a game that you presently owned on your console at home cost you four freakin quarters, that’s when I stopped going.

If this new technology helps bring the cost of playing arcades down, it will have my vote. It sounds like it could be some pretty cool stuff.

Well, $1 in quarters for one round of gameplay.. versus $50 for virtually infinite rounds of gameplay.

But how many times do you want to play this game?

Plus you have to own the console, which can be anywhere from $50 (DC) to $300. (Xbox)

And often, the arcade hardware is typically superior. I think it all evens out in the end, myself.