You need to see it to understand it, they said. They were right too - amBX requires a huge leap of faith. It marks the return of Philips to the games industry but you have to wonder what they've been smoking in the meantime.
So what is it? Well, think lights that react to your game and fans that kick in when you are, say, flying a plane or exploring a high peak. The word Philips use is immersion, but at this point you're probably using much stronger language. Bear with me though.
The demo I saw yesterday included a reworking of the trailer for Broken Sword 3 complete with lightning (white LED flashes on and off), bad guy in underground setting (red LED glows) and plane flying through clouds (fans blow air in face). Sounds ridiculous? Absolutely, but bizarrely it sort of works. The lighting is fairly subtle - amBX is short for ambient experiences - and the fans are used sparingly enough to be effective. Perhaps most importantly of all, I actually missed it a bit when playing on the PC last night.
The consumer package will launch later this year for the PC. It will include fans and lights, with the hardware itself being unveiled at E3. The aesthetics here will be crucial, as persuading your partner to have lights and fans surrounding your home PC will be hard enough as it is. You may need to hide the reciept as well, although the estimated cost - around 150-200 quid - is unlikely to put off curious hardcore gamers.
Perhaps the biggest potential of amBX is the software itself. The scripting software is allegedly akin to HTML in ease of use, which means users can create their own scripts for any game. The frankly bonkers demo of an amBX-ed Sonic Heroes highlighted what is likely to happen when punters are let loose and the community grows.
Philips have signed up some developers - including Revolution with Broken Sword 4 - and are in talks with others. Support is key, of course, although the system is backwards compatible with older PC games. There will be a console launch next year too while the obvious potential for home-cinema should make a TV ready system then too. Foolhardy, visionary or, as I suspect, somewhere in between, amBX is certainly a breath of fresh air.
