Half-Life 2 heading to Japanese arcades

By Kristan Reed Published 1 November, 2004

Bizarre, but true.

Valve's long awaited sequel to Half-Life is heading to Japanese arcades, following news that arcade veteran Taito has signed a deal with the developer to produce a version for its Type-X arcade hardware for release in the summer of 2005.

Details of the game modes included have already been released, with the single player story campaign joined by two online modes; competitive Battle mode, and co-operative Mission mode, and both will be playable between anyone visiting Japanese arcades.

Player data is stored on a server level, allowing players to continue their progress and store statistical information regardless of which machine they play on thanks to Taito's NESYS system, previously used on other titles including Battle Gear 3 and Zoid Infinity.

Accordingly for such a high profile title, visitors to Japanese arcades can expect to play the game in a salubrious cockpit-style cabinet, complete with full 5.1 surround sound, although control device information has yet to be revealed. We're expecting something typically adventurous.

As regards whether the machine will be released outside of Japan, that's something we'll be aiming to establish shortly, and its success could well provide a shot in the arm for the spluttering arcade industry over in Europe, where finding a decent, up-to-date arcade is almost impossible these days, and a far cry from the thriving scene of 20 years ago when visits to smoky haunts to play the latest games was all part of the ritual for any keen gamer.

For those interested in the technical side of the arcade version of Half-Life 2, it’s based on Taito's relatively new Type-X board, a PC-based system that makes the task of converting PC games a relatively painless exercise. In terms of specifications, the innards sport just a 2.5ghz celeron, 256mb ram, Radeon 9200se, and onboard AC97 5.1, and could prove to be an interesting avenue for PC game developers in the coming years, although could do with significantly more beef in the graphics, CPU and RAM department to cope with anything Doom-III related.

Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (9) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • deepmenace #1 7 years ago

    lets hope the interface is a big 90's style VR outfit !

    touch sensitive floor pad for movement, full motorcycle helmet motion sensing doohicky and a weird baseless joystick for aiming.

    i live in hope.

  • deepmenace #2 7 years ago

    some weird future messaging goin on here.

    whats up?

  • bunglebonce #3 7 years ago

    Why don't we get stuff like that here? You wouldn't get me off the thing.

  • gizmo #4 7 years ago

    I didn't think the Jap's liked this sort of game?

  • kincaide #5 7 years ago

    Very interesting

  • groovychainsaw #6 7 years ago

    hmmmm... sounds good - give it a big screen, 5.1 surround.... better than my house.... but will it be mouse and keyboard?

  • statix101 #7 7 years ago

    "it points to a fairly high end system at its core,"


    Not really, its only a 2.5ghz celeron, 256mb ram, Radeon 9200se, and onboard AC97 5.1 audio, oh god i sound such a geek, can you tell i read EDGE..:))

    it was mainly designed to do 2d shooters, although for 3d games the gfx card can be upgraded to a 9600.

    the above spec would only class it as a low/mid range pc.
    Edited by 1 at 01/11/04 @ 12:59

  • StixxUK #8 7 years ago

    Heyyy, that sounds like quite a cool idea. Japanese arcades must be so much better than the likes you get tacked onto bowling alleys over here!

    I remember in the early 90s when games like Virtua Fighter and Daytona USA were just coming out, arcades were the place to be. Now home games stuff has soared so far ahead, though.

  • Tiger_Walts #9 7 years ago

    Does VU have the rights to arcade releases on the H-L IP?

    If not then this might be another 2 fingers up at VU from Valve.

    "Oh no, don't bother with the online and arcade distribution rights, HL2 is too big a game to be released that way..."