Name that Tune was an old arcade game released by Sente way back in 1986.

The story

Oh boy was this game a big fat mistake. Lets look at the timing on this one. This game came out in 1986 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.

The game

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.

The Machine

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. You can read more about those machines in the Sente node.

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. My guess is that nobody was interested in upgrading this game, because it never really made any money in the first place.

As far as controls go, this game had two banks of buttons running down the control panel, which corresponded to the onscreen numbers of the tunes.

Where to play

You will probably have to play this title with the MAME emulator, as original machines are rather hard to find.

If you want to add this game to your arcade game collection then your best bet is to hit yourself over the head with a hammer, and ask yourself why you would want this game. Then if you still want it, then send a few messages out in the arcade newsgroups, and check eBay, eventually one will show up.