Starblade 2?

[Cacophanus]

Where is it and where can you buy it?

[geldra]

Do you mean that huge farking ORBS thing? Has it even been released yet?

[Papercut]

arcade version 2001/2002:

http://www.system16.com/namco/hrdw_system246.html#sb2

I'm pretty sure there wasn't a home version.

[Cacophanus]

I saw that, but when I was in Japan I never saw the damn thing. Was it ever actually released?

As for porting, it's System 246 which means a PS2 is a given.

[Papercut]

system16 are very good at listing Namco machines, so it must have been released (in that huge ORBS cabinet too).

[Cacophanus]

I never saw it though, and it was out whilst I was living there. I am very confused.

Are there any pictures of it in-situ?

[Papercut]

I did search for some, there only seems to be the pics of the ORBS cab that system16 have floating around.

The ORBS cab was very expensive, so I guess not many units were made. Sega were going to provide some games for the ORBS cabinet, and Rez was rumoured, but nothing ever came of it.

[Cacophanus]

I have seen many pictures of the awesome cabinet, but they all seem to be either at trade shows or at the offices of Namco themselves. The media on the cabinet itself belies something quite fragile (have a look at this movie to see what I mean). So I am still in two minds whether it got an actual public release. I would be much obliged if some of NTSC-uk's Akiba brethren could confirm this state of affairs?

I, for one, hung out a lot at the various Shinjuku Sportslands (for Virtual On) and never saw something as cool as this. The screenshots for it look lurvely though.

Rez would have been an experience to remember in that cabinet. Whilst the actual gameplay was somewhat vapid, the visuals were most certainly unique.

[Papercut]

This guy mentions the project being abandoned at 40% complete:

http://piggybank.sepiamoons.com/jeffarchives/2003_01_01_jeffarchives.html

Here someone mentions that it didn't turn up at the following JAMMA show:

http://www.casbox.com/Stinger/Sting91.html

Namco themselves don't list it either:

http://www.namco.co.jp/aa/list/catalogue-f.html

Other sites mention it being released in 2002 or 2003, and klov don't list it at all, so its all a bit of a mystery. Does look like it never happened, eh?

Rez would have been an experience to remember in that cabinet. Whilst the actual gameplay was somewhat vapid, the visuals were most certainly unique.

It would have been redone with surround sound too, which would have been something special. Vapid gameplay indeed...

[Cacophanus]

It's fun, to be sure, but it's an overtly simplified on rails shmup. How can it be anything but vapid?

As for the ORBS thang, I am beginning to think the same thing. It's been dropped. Bloody shame though!

[geldra]

Wasnt the namco version of StarFox mooted for it too?

[seibu]

I was thinking about this ORBS thing - I guess it would have been quite a headache for arcade owners.

What would people get up to in there? How would you make them leave when the game was over? For the game to have any kind of attract mode, or for people to watch you would need an external monitor.

Basically, it would probably need a human operator to be present at all times (like Sega's R360) and some kind of video camera to monitor people inside. Maybe not enough arcades wanted to take it on?