I had the chance to pick and play a game from a list of arcade games back when arcade machines were still popular. I personally chose to play the ever popular Tetris game by Sega which was published back in 1988. I chose this game because of my experience playing other Tetris-like games such as: Tetris Friends.
Here is a link if you want to play: https://archive.org/details/arcade_tetris
Image Source: https://tetris.fandom.com/wiki/Tetris_(Sega)
My thoughts:
- The game was as much as I expected. It did not have any of the flashy power ups or fluid animations that you see in modern Tetris titles. I started off well using a common two-gap tactic that would allow me to stack high and create combos. However, I quickly realized that there was no combo system and that you would gain the most points with a Tetris (clearing five lines). With me handling the funky controls and the increasing rate at which the blocks drop, it eventually got to the point where my screen was filled and the words “Game Over” appeared along with a nice little monkey. I put my favorite 3 letter name “AAA” to showcase my highscore! (Navigating the menus is hard!).
- I would say that playing Tetris on an emulator is a completely different experience than playing on a arcade cabinet. Besides the obvious difference between the two being controls, I thought that the emulator was a poorer experience when compared with a cabinet. The arcade cabinet would give the whole experience that the developers intended to give the user. You would see a better quality of sound, image, controls, and atmosphere when playing on a cabinet. Despite all its drawbacks, the emulator held up where it counted as I did not notice any input delay while playing.
