Arcade Archives: Othello

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This week's Arcade Archives release is... Othello (Success, 1984)

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Only one ROM is included this time, with no Preference Settings available.

Oh nice, I get a week off before Dead Connection releases next week! Still, we can use this opportunity for a little history lesson, as I learned a fair bit about Othello for this one (aside from, of course, how to play it). We'll have to use Wikipedia a little here, but the quick version is that Othello is a variant of the game board game Reversi that was patented in 1971 by Goro Hasegawa, which was licensed by a company called Tsukuda Original in 1983 to huge success (this is the name of the company on this game's title screen). From there, Tsukuda Original was succeeded by PalBox then acquired by MegaHouse, who license Othello to this day outside of Japan (thanks for the extra notes, electricboogaloofunk!).

You can't just use the name Othello though, you have to go through Othello, Co. and MegaHouse, and Hamster did go to the trouble for this release, a Success adaptation of the game from 1984. Success did a handful of arcade Othello games, surprisingly, although the favourite is clearly Othello Shiyouyo because it has some pretty excellent faces. Anyway, this is a 1984 rendition of Othello, so it's pretty basic- you can go against either a CPU opponent with five selectable difficulties at the start or go against a friend- but it does have a few extra features, specifically two help discs per match that make the best move for you and two rewind discs that scrub out the last move for you to restrategise. The giant smiley face is also a neat touch- if you're playing very well against the CPU and making the right moves, it'll smile at you! If you're playing badly, it'll eventually start to cry. I made it do that a lot when I tried it, because I am absolute garbage at Othello, and it even starts to talk to you in Japanese as you make blunder after blunder. Oh well. The music is also nice and chilled-out for an arcade game, you could almost go to sleep to this if it wasn't such an intense Othello match. Definitely more of a curiosity, and there are almost certainly better modern options, but the way I see it, not every arcade game can be a Metamorphic Force or a Riot. There is a space for smaller things like this, sometimes.

... Can we see that Othello Shiyouyo face again, please?

Perfect.