A different graphics debate

[BubbySoup]

I haven't been to the arcades in years - maybe 10+ years.

Back in my youth, we could only ever dream of arcade games such as Out Run and Space Harrier being poorly replicated on the then home computers (C64, speccy etc), and just as we started upgrading to Amigas & ST's, the arcades were moving away from sprite based graphics to today's traditional polygon based images (Virtua fighter, Virtua Racer(?)) and again we played catchup.

So, how do modern day video arcade machines compare to a high-end PC setup in terms of poly pushing power and detail?

 

[ergonomics]

visually i always thought they werent too great. even very high end ones.

i assume this was for stability, they couldnt have these things crash. must have reasonable hardware set ups though in terms of robustness though as they are on pretty much 24/7

slightly off though, in japan they made a half life 2 arcade version,and you play co-op with other people in arcades in japan, and it had a save function as well. amazing stuff, and very very fun it appeared to be, but they didnt ship it to anywhere else.

 

[Squink]

Modern arcade machines seem to rely more on gimmicks to lure in the punters. Years back you'd have lots of free standing arcade machines with a joystick and a couple of buttons. Now they've all got massive screens, light guns, moving seats and so on.

 

[ajones32]

This is the most recent arcade hardware i could find easily on wiki,

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

Seems ok enough

 

[BubbySoup]

Things seem to have changed then, and not for the better

Wonder if you can buy old Space Harrier machines ... I could put one in my garage

 

[Darg]

I know a lot of arcade games around here use playstations or playstations 2 as their base unit. Then they tack on pistols and other rubbish on top of that. tbh arcade games have always looked horrible to me. Only just starting to see them with PS2 quality graphics. Before that was horrible triangley PS1 stuff.

 

[bfar]

There was a time when arcade level hardware was far too expensive to bring to the home user, and like the OP said, we used to marvel at the quality

It's all changed now - along with a decline in the arcade business in Europe, the success of the console market, consumer demand has brought high end hardware to the home, where it belongs imo.