Video Game Vintage Title: T-MEK

T-MEK

T-MEK is a two-player, sit-down, virtual reality fighting arcade game manufactured by Atari Games in 1994.

T-MEK Plot

n/a

T-MEK Gameplay

Each player can choose their MEK (a hovering tank with special weapons and abilities). One player can play against 6 AI players and the occasional Boss, or two players can play against each other and 4 AI players. There is a special Tournament mode where two players can go one on one. Up to three T-MEK cabinets can be linked for six-player competitions. T-MEK was later ported to DOS and the Sega 32X; rather than linking multiple systems together, the home versions featured split-screen multiplayer for two players. The 32X version was poorly reviewed, while the DOS version was met with fair reviews.

Atari could not compete with the Japanese game manufacturers in hardware development, so T-MEK did not offer a great leap in graphics or computing capability. As a result, T-MEK was one of the first arcade games to offer an effective surround sound solution, which Atari advertised as "CAGE Audio". Each player's station had four fairly high quality speakers; two in front and two behind the player, and a subwoofer mounted directly below the seat, which was quite effective in rattling a player in battle. T-MEK has no background music soundtrack, which was a departure for "deluxe" arcade games in the coming-of-age era of digitally sampled audio, and instead relied upon the sound to help aid the player in finding enemies.