Name That Tune (Bally, 3/23/86)

Arcade Video game published 38 years ago:

Name That Tune (c) 1986 Bally Sente.

The game itself was an almost exact translation of the 1980s incarnation of the gameshow. It was all colors and text, and the only animation in it was a little hand that played notes on a piano. The interface had to be simple, as they used up all the ROM space on the different songs.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID: 0E54

Main CPU: Motorola M6809 (@ 1.25 Mhz)
Sound CPU: Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips: (6x) CEM3394 (@ 4 Mhz)

Screen orientation: Horizontal
Video resolution: 256 x 240 pixels
Screen refresh: 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors: 1024

Players: 2
Buttons: 4

- TRIVIA -

Name That Tune was released in March 1986.

This game came out when arcades were at a very low point. But someone over at Sente gets the bright idea that a big honking upright 'Name that Tune' machine would make lots of money. So they proceeded to pay big money to license the show, and then they went ahead and started pumping out 'Name that Tune' arcade games. It was a big flop. They were targeting the wrong audience with this game. Teenagers simply weren't interested in trying to name old 40s and 50s songs. This game could have done fine if it was in a bartop unit instead.

This title was available only as a conversion kit for machines with the Sente SAC-I hardware installed. This meant that most of them ended up in the futuristic looking all-metal SAC-I cabinets.

There were supposed to be several different upgrade chips available for this game, but they seem to have fallen off the face of the earth.

- STAFF -

Game design: Owen Rubin
Project coordinator: Gary Levenberg
Arrangements and orchestration: Richard Greene
Screem graphics: Bil Maher
Game consultant: Tommy Oliver
Gonzo programming: Ed Rotberg
Doctor memory: Dave Ross
Ace Technician: Paul Brandt
Hardware wizardry: Howard Delman
King Video: Rich Adam