Developer Digital Cybercherries has today announced plans to develop a new version of their acclaimed virtual arcade. NewRetroArcade: Neon will be built for SteamVR and will include multiplayer, motion-controls, and room-scale capability for the HTC Vive.
Launched all the way back in 2014, NewRetroArcade is a brilliant recreation of an ’80s arcade which is populated with cabinets full of classic arcade games which actually work, thanks to an underlying emulator. The UE4-based visuals remain top-notch two years later, and even though the game was launched long before the days of first-party VR motion controllers and the room-scale Vive, this fan favorite seems like the perfect fit for an update to bring it in line with modern VR systems.
After teasing us just the other day, it was safe to assume that we’d soon see a Vive compatible update of NewRetroArcade, but today we’re excited to learn that the developer is going several steps further, announcing an entirely new version of the title, NewRetroArcade: Neon, with an expanded scope.
Developer Digital Cybercherries tells us that they plan to update the original NewRetroArcade with SteamVR support for free. Meanwhile, NewRetroArcade: Neon will be a separate, paid release which will include multiplayer and “a huge amount of new content.”
That new content seems that it won’t come only in the form of more arcade cabinets; the developer teases an air hockey table as a new physical game which could be played by multiple players simultaneously, perhaps with others to come. In the original release of NewRetroArcade, the lovingly crafted virtual arcade space featured darts, bowling, and a basketball machine in addition to a slew of functional arcade cabinets.
It isn’t clear yet if NewRetroArcade: Neon will build upon the physical space of the former release or if it will be built anew to include the expanded content.
As ever, the developers want to make it possible for players to customize the arcade space, and Digital Cybercherries says they’re exploring Steam Workshop as a potential solution to facilitate sharing player-made cabinets and custom configurations of the space.
For now the studio isn’t announcing when we’ll see either the free SteamVR compatible version of NewRetroArcade, nor the price or release date of NewRetroArcade: Neon; all we know for certain is that it come soon enough.