T-Mek
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T-Mek is a two-player, sit-down, virtual reality fighting arcade game manufactured by Atari Games in 1994. 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.[citation needed]
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 euphemistically named "CAGE Audio". Each player's station had 4 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.
[edit] Hardware
- Hardware: Atari GT-system (also used in Primal Rage)
- CPU: Motorola 68000 series.
- Joysticks: Robust construct analog, one trigger and one thumb button per stick, two sticks per seat.
- Monitors: Dual 25" Wells-Gardner K7000 standard-resolution.
- Power supply: Standard PC AT.
- Code: Written in C.
