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amcdc79
rank 10
Posted:
Tue Jan 27, 2009 9:37 pm
quote : #1
profile : pm
Posts: 127
Anyone know why none of the Atomiswave games were not released, when there were Naomi games being ported long after Sega had dropped the console?

http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=812

Forgive me for asking if this has been brought up before.

What were the limitations or reasons?
 
lordnikon
rank 87
Posted:
Wed Jan 28, 2009 12:48 am
quote : #2
profile : pm
Posts: 5902
Type: NTSC-U/C
The answer to this lies in the type of games ported to the Dreamcast late in its life cycle. So lets take a look at the games released on the Dreamcast from 2003 to 2007. First we will eliminate the "adventure" or dating sim games as they are called, as they really hold no significance here. Practically every game released on the Dreamcast during this time period was a horizontal / vertical scrolling shooter, aka a shoot-em-up, or shmup. Titles like Border Down, Chaos Field, Trizeal, etc etc.

The only games that did not fit into this genre were King of Fighters 2002 (fighter), and Puyo Puyo Fever (puzzle). KOF2002 was released in June of 2003, which immediatly followed the release of KOF2001 from December of 2002. So this released was not too out of the ordinary. Puyo Puyo Fever was developed for the NAOMI by Sonic Team, and then was ported to the Dreamcast by MileStone, the developer of 3 shmups ported to the Dreamcast during these 4 years. While a puzzle game, it was the Dreamcast's final Sega developed release and was sort of like a fitting last hurrah for the DC at the time. I am sure some higher up developers at the time like Yuji Naka really pushed to get this game released on the Dreamcast. Plus it was easy money. I bet they sold just as many copies if not more on Dreamcast at the time than the other platforms they released it on.

Other than those 2 games, every other game was shooter. It would have been grossly out of place for SNK to come back to release a DC game after almost 4 years passing since 2002's release. KOF2002 was actually a NEOGEO game, so there wasn't anything stopping them from releasing other later NEO titles like KOF2003 or SVC Chaos on the Dreamcast at the time. They obviously decided to focus their intellectual properties on other game systems.

The Atomiswave did not have any shmups on the platform. The closest would be Dolphin Blue, but that game was like a Metal Slug clone. So it is more like your typical side-scrolling action shooter, rather than a shmup.

It is important to note that the shmup developers at the time found a way to directly reach their audience by porting their games to the Dreamcast. People who play shooters are import savey, already own arcade sticks, and gobble up pretty much any new shmup release that comes out. Not only this but due to the easy import capabilities of the Dreamcast, anyone all over the world could buy these games and easily boot them on their Dreamcast. It was a win-win scenario. The developers were able to sell their games to a target audience and reap a higher profit margin with less hassle, while fans of shooters were able to purchase, own, and play these great amazing games.

The Dreamcast is a huge reason why many of these developers are still in business today. Just look at Warashi for instance. They rose from the dead. The company was dormant for years. Warashi had a previous Dreamcast shmup that never made it to the DC, and was instead added in a PS2 Simple 2000 Series budget compilation instead. Then they return years later to develop Trigger Heart Excelica and release it for the NAOMI & Dreamcast. So I think this is what people really need to realize about the state of releases during the Dreamcast's final years. It really was all about shooters, and giving these developers a medium to reach their target consumer base with very little investment on their part. All they had to do was develop the game for the Arcades, and then it was all set to be ported to the Dreamcast platform with ease.

With the Atomiswave I don't think you would have seen the same results with a bunch of fighting game ports, which is what the Atomis mostly consists of.
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Metal Hedgehog
rank 11
Posted:
Thu Jan 29, 2009 5:26 am
quote : #3
profile : pm
Posts: 159
Isn't the atomixwave system/engine used in king of fighters Neo-wave?

I should of clicked the link lol. Yeah they did. I would of love to see svc snk vs capcom on dreamcast.
 
amcdc79
rank 10
Posted:
Fri Jan 30, 2009 8:54 pm
quote : #4
profile : pm
Posts: 127
Thanks Lordnikon for raising many good points, and I'd have to agree with pretty much all that you said. I just find it sad that since Sega was still producing the GD-ROMS at the time, it should have been a no-brainer to have released at least one of the games. As far as the fighters(which were many)only a couple really interested me, but the game you mentioned(Dolphin Blue) and Metal Slug 6 looked cool and might have had some success, who knows?

The two racing ones also looked good, and they might have satisfied the many Dreamcast racing fans who were not big shooter fans. Many times I heard from Dreamcast fans asking if some other genres other than dating sims and shooters were ever going to be released.

Has anyone played any of the Atomiswave games? Were they any good? Would they have fit on a GD-ROM?

What a tragedy to have had a Dreamcast arcade system come out after the DC had been dropped, yet not one of the games were ever released(ported? Rolling Eyes)
 
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