Digital Leisure has announced the release of Space Ace HD for PCs, with a release set for
sometime in 2008 to the new optical formats HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Thanks to modern technologies the game has been fully remastered in 1080p, with a new 5.1 surround sound channel mix. Also improved (like with Dragon’s Lair HD) are things such as response time, allowing for a more seamless experience. All versions will also include a new making-of featurette with Don Bluth, the games animator and watch mode, where you can just watch the game unfold (in the correct manner) and enjoy the high-def experience. It appears that all versions will retail for a somewhat steep $50 with the PC version coming in November and the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray versions coming ‘sometime in 2008’.
What would be interesting is if they could release some sort of coin-op kit with the new versions in hand. I think having an HD version of Dragon’s Lair or Space Ace at the arcade itself would turn a few heads and provide a truly authentic arcade experience (as no matter what they tell you, playing games made for the arcade can never be experienced in just the right manner at home). Of course these games have been released on so many different consoles at this point that it’s probably known less as an arcade game by your average gamer. Digital Leisure also plans on brining Dragon’s Lair 2 to all of these formats sometime next year, so we’ll have to wait on that one.
[Digital Leisure Space Ace HD press release] [Details on HD-DVD and Blu-Ray versions] [Discuss on the Forum]
As long as they got rid of the HORRIBLE latency between making a move and the move actually registering on the DVD player, I’ll pick this one up.
From my understanding, the HD versions of Dragon’s Lair (on all of the aforementioned formats) corrected the latency problem, for a seamless experience. Barring any issues, this should too, which makes it a better experience I think.
Thanks for the new. making-of featurette will be interesting.