In 1999, cutting-edge arcade games still used custom hardware. By 2005, x86/PC was clearly the end all be all.Was there a specific>moment/event>game>arcade platformwhen the arcade systems with custom architectures were eclipsed by PC?
They became custom playstations (and occasional Xbox) between then, and then they realized they could just take a bunch of good off the shelf PC parts, install some specific linux/embedded windows on there and it just runs games good. I'd say it really started around 2004 with IIDX 9th style using a PC.
>>12068231Also even in 1999, a lot of arcade hardware was already custom Playstation shit, with the exception of Sega hardware, Atari/Midway hardware (basically PC at that point), and a bit of Namco stuff.
>>12068243To be fair, some that kind of hardware was basically budget stuff, probably chosen because it was cheaper to produce and would allow for easier porting to home consoles. Sega's ST-V arcade board was effectively a cart-based Sega Saturn, even though their earlier Model 2 hardware was markedly more powerful (which was also more powerful than PlayStation-like arcade boards, and that's not even getting into the Model 3). I'd say if anything those types of arcade hardware are less indicative of the inability of custom arcade hardware to exceed the power of home consoles, just that companies were seeing less of a reason to bother, as home hardware was increasingly becoming "good enough," and home ports of arcade games were probably bringing in as much or more money than the arcade releases.
>>12068223I got to play that exact game in your pic related ONCE. It was choice. Saw it at only one place too.
>>12068223>Was there a specific>>moment/event>>game>>arcade platform>when the arcade systems with custom architectures were eclipsed by PC?It happened like this - 3DFX started releasing high performance 3D hardware on the PC which had nearly the performance of the entry level SGI and other specialized 3D solutions at the time. PCs were also getting faster at that time, a lot faster.Making the hardware used to be a big investment and there would be a limited amount of games because far fewer people had access to the compilers and tools and boards necessary to make games.Now everybody uses common PC hardware because you can skip the entire hardware development stage, completely.Year wise it would have been about 2004 or so. SNK also sunk everything they had which wasn't going to parties and amusement parks, into a custom 3D solution but ultimately it was not that amazing compared to common commodity PC hardware by the time it was released and this made the other Japs gunshy about making custom hardware too.
>>12068393>>12068285>>12068231>>12068243The final cutting edge game on custom hardware I can think of is Virtua Fighter 4 for the NAOMI 2, circa late 2001/2002. It got a downgraded port to PS2. Probably could've run closer to 1:1 on Xbox depending on how much RAM VF4 actually used (NAOMI 2 had a little over 2x the RAM of OG Xbox) but it is right there at that eclipse horizon.VF5 was Sega Lindbergh (x86). NAOMI 2 fell out of use by 2002 in favor of platforms like Chihiro and Triforce >>12068386Solid choice
