Coin-op maestros Taito have revealed that they are porting Half-Life 2 to their new Type X arcade hardware, with a coin-op version of the Valve first-person shooter due to be released worldwide next summer (insert Half-Life 2 release date joke here).
The Type X board is based on the architecture of an ATX IBM-compatible PC and makes use of the Windows XP embedded operating system. What that basically means is that PC games can be ported to the platform easily, which could pave the way for more high-profile PC-to-arcade conversions (and we remember the days when it was always the other way round).
It's not clear exactly how Half-Life 2 will be adapted to make it a coherent coin-op experience, although we do know that there will be a trio of modes: a single-player Story mode, a Cooperative multiplayer network option and an online Battle function. Expect more news on this intriguing H-L 2 development in the near future.
Half-Life 2 is released for PC on 16 November. The arcade version will follow in summer 2005 while a date for the Xbox version has yet to be announced
