Roxor Games, Inc. is a 25-person company based in Austin, Texas that develops video game software for the arcade and home markets. Founded in 2002, Roxor works with developers of open source software to deploy games on a Linux-based hardware platform in the arcade and on multiple home consoles. Although their most well known product, In The Groove , is proprietary software, the developers regularly contribute code back to the open source project StepMania upon which In The Groove is based.
Type | Private |
---|---|
Founded | 2002 |
Fate | Unknown Status |
Headquarters | Austin, Texas |
Products | Tux Racer Arcade In The Groove Road Rebel |
Their first product was an arcade redemption version of Tux Racer, where tickets are dispensed based on how well the player collects fish while guiding Tux (the Linux penguin mascot) down one of four snow-covered hills. The sequel, Tux 2, featuring new characters and levels, was in market testing[ when? ].
Their second product was In The Groove , a series of games in the arcade dance game genre. Following the well-established practice of converting arcade systems via kits, Version 1.0 of In The Groove was released as an upgrade kit for existing arcade dance cabinets. Roxor Games then developed a PlayStation 2 version of In The Groove, which was the first game ever published by RedOctane in June 2005. In The Groove: PC/Mac was released in July 2006. [1] [2]
Pump It Up: In The Groove 2 was released in June 2005 both as an upgrade kit and in a dedicated cabinet manufactured by Andamiro (hence the addition of the Pump It Up name). In The Groove 2 debuted on the arcade earnings chart of Replay Magazine in September 2005, and remained in the top 15 for over 23 months. It hit #1 in February 2006.
However, following a lawsuit from Konami, [3] the maker of Dance Dance Revolution , the series was acquired by them, and development for In The Groove 3 was halted prematurely. Roxor has not produced any rhythm games since, but a group of people who had developed In The Groove (including Kyle Ward and Chris Foy) formed "Fun In Motion" and continued working with Andamiro to produce a spinoff of their existing intellectual property instead, leading to the creation of Pump It Up Pro and its sequels. This group now operates as Step Revolution, LLC.
Roxor's latest product is a driving game titled Road Rebel . It is a multiplayer car combat game featuring support for a wide variety of driving cabinets and network play. Road Rebel will be offered as both an upgrade kit and a dedicated cabinet. It is currently on market test with Namco's arcade division.
Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, Dance Dance Revolution is the pioneering series of the rhythm and dance genre in video games. Players stand on a "dance platform" or stage and hit colored arrows laid out in a cross with their feet to musical and visual cues. Players are judged by how well they time their dance to the patterns presented to them and are allowed to choose more music to play to if they receive a passing score.
Tux Racer is a 2000 open-source winter sports racing video game starring the Linux mascot, Tux the penguin. It was originally developed by Jasmin Patry as a computer graphics project at the University of Waterloo. Later on, Patry and the newly founded Sunspire Studios, composed of several former students of the university, expanded it. In the game, the player controls Tux as he slides down a course of snow and ice collecting herring.
StepMania is a cross-platform rhythm video game and engine. It was originally developed as a clone of Konami's arcade game series Dance Dance Revolution, and has since evolved into an extensible rhythm game engine capable of supporting a variety of rhythm-based game types. Released under the MIT License, StepMania is open-source free software.
Beatmania IIDX is a series of rhythm video games, that was first introduced by Konami in Japan on February 26, 1999. IIDX has since spawned 31 arcade releases and 14 console releases on the Sony PlayStation 2. It is the sequel to the beatmania game series, and part of the Bemani line of music games. A PC release titled beatmania IIDX INFINITAS has been released, beginning alpha testing in September 2015, and was heavily updated to a new version in 2020.
Bemani, stylized as BEMANI, is Konami's music video game division. Originally named the Games & Music Division (G.M.D.), it changed its name in honor of its first and most successful game, Beatmania, and expanded into other music-based games, most notably rhythm games such as Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Freaks, and Drum Mania.
Pump It Up is a music video game series developed and published by Andamiro, a Korean arcade game producer. The game is similar to Dance Dance Revolution, except that it has five arrow panels as opposed to four, and is typically played on a dance pad with five arrow panels: the top-left, top-right, bottom-left, bottom-right, and a center. Additional gameplay modes may utilize two five-panel pads side by side. These panels are pressed using the player's feet, in response to arrows that appear on the screen in front of the player. The arrows are synchronized to the general rhythm or beat of a chosen song, and success is dependent on the player's ability to time and position their steps accordingly.
Pop'n Music, commonly abbreviated as Pop'n, PM or PNM and stylized as pop'n music, is a music video game series in the Bemani series made by Konami. The games are known for their bright colors, upbeat songs, and cute cartoon character graphics. Originally released in 1998, the series has had 22 home releases in Japan as well as 30 mainline arcade versions.
In the Groove is a rhythm game developed & published by Roxor Games, and is the first game in the In the Groove series. The game was shown in an official beta-testing preview on July 9, 2004, and was officially released in arcades around August 30, 2004. A PlayStation 2 port of In the Groove was released on June 17, 2005 by RedOctane.
Road Fighter is a racing arcade video game developed by Konami and released in 1984. It was the first racing game from Konami. The goal is to reach the finish line within the stages without running out of time, hitting other cars or running out of fuel. The game spawned a spiritual successor, Konami GT (1986), and two sequels, Midnight Run: Road Fighter 2 (1995) and Winding Heat (1996). A Japan-only sequel was also released 14 years later, Road Fighters (2010).
In the Groove 2 is the sequel to Roxor Games' 2004 arcade game In the Groove. It was released to arcades officially on June 18, 2005. It was available as an upgrade kit and as a dedicated cabinet developed by Andamiro. The price for a dedicated cabinet was $9,999 USD and the upgrade kit was US$2,999.
Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova, released in Europe as Dancing Stage SuperNova, is an arcade and PlayStation 2 game in the Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) series of music video games. It was produced by Konami and released through Betson Enterprises. The game was released in Europe on April 28, 2006, followed shortly by a North American release on May 15 and a Japanese release on July 12.
An open-source video game, or simply an open-source game, is a video game whose source code is open-source. They are often freely distributable and sometimes cross-platform compatible.
Linux gaming refers to playing video games on a Linux operating system. Because many games are not natively supported for the Linux kernel, various software has been made to run Windows games, such as Wine, Proton, and Lutris. The Linux gaming community has a presence on the internet with users who attempt to run games that are normally not supported on Linux. This includes a subreddit which has over 240k members as of January 2023.
In the Groove is a series of music video games that uses a four-panel dance pad. The series was first developed by Roxor Games during a time when four-panel dance games in the arcade market were on the decline. As of October 18, 2006, Konami has acquired the intellectual property rights to the series.
Beatmania IIDX is an arcade music video game developed by Bemani and published by Konami. It was released in Japan on February 26, 1999. The objective is to perform songs using a controller with seven keys and a turntable. After the surprise success of Beatmania, Benami conceived IIDX to simulate an actual disc jockey (DJ) live performance. Its arcade cabinet contains a widescreen monitor, speakers, and eight spotlights. Bemani later developed several updated versions of IIDX to increased success. The game retrospectively received a positive reception from video game publications for its gameplay and increased difficulty. A sequel, Beatmania III, was released in 2000.
Dance Dance Revolution X is a music video game developed by Konami. A part of the Dance Dance Revolution series, it was announced in 2008 for Japan and on May 15, 2008 for the North American PlayStation 2. The arcade version was announced on July 7, 2008, July 9, 2008 in Europe, and July 10, 2008 for North America. Released to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Dance Dance Revolution, DDR X sports an improved interface, new music, and new modes of play. The arcade release featured an overhauled cabinet design with a widescreen display, e-Amusement and USB access, and an improved sound system. Despite such new design of its arcade cabinet, upgrade kit to change the edition of DDR on its first generation arcade cabinet from SuperNOVA2 to X is also available. The PlayStation 2 release has link ability with the arcade machine, multi-player support over LAN, and other improved and returning features such as EyeToy support. DDR X was called a "truly global version", with a multi-regional release by all three major Konami houses.
On May 9, 2005, video game developer Konami Corporation sued Roxor Games, developers of In the Groove, a video game similar to Konami’s pioneering Dance Dance Revolution. In the Groove could be purchased as a kit that needed to be plugged into a Dance Dance Revolution arcade machine in order to be used.
Dance Dance Revolution A20 is a music video game, the 17th installment of the Dance Dance Revolution arcade series in Japan, and the sequel to Dance Dance Revolution A. The game was released on new, golden cabinets on March 20, 2019 in Japan. A software upgrade for older cabinets for Japan and Asia was released on July 24, 2019, with South Korea receiving a localized release on August 1, 2019, and North America on September 24, 2019. A location test in Europe began on October 7, 2019, and ended on March 16, 2020.
StepManiaX is a rhythm game developed & published by Step Revolution, a studio formed by former developers of In the Groove, ReRave, and Pump It Up Pro. It is considered a spiritual successor to the In the Groove series. The name is a nod to the legacy of the open-source simulator StepMania, as many of the original StepMania developers were involved with the project. StepManiaX is derived from the same codebase, with modifications made to support the new game types, lights, touch support, connectivity, and the custom Android operating system and hardware that dedicated units run on.