What are “TATE Mode” Games (And The Best Way To Play Them Today)

Summary

• Arcade games can be vertical or horizontal, but TATE mode lets vertical games take up the whole screen space on modern screens.
• Vertical “schmups” offer engaging gameplay with fast scrolling and boss fights.
• Modern screens are horizontal, but TATE modes allow for screen rotation to play vertical games.

Among the many types of beloved arcade games the TATE (vertical) shooter is a standout. The word “tate” simple means “vertical” in Japanese, but it also coincidentally sounds like “rotate”, which, as you’ll see, is pretty appropriate.

Arcade Games Could Be Vertical or Horizontal

Arcade cabinets that use CRT tubes can have two orientations for the screen. It can be a 4:3 horizontal display, or it can be a 3:4 vertical screen. It’s still the same screen, it’s just that the display has been mounted on its “side”, which is not what home tube TVs were designed to do.

This meant that games could be designed to take advantage of this alternative display orientation, and in games like Pac-Man this allowed for a maze that was longer vertically than horizontally.

Vertical Schmups Were the Best!

While early arcade games tended to use static screens, it wasn’t long before scrolling became possible. Smooth scrolling arcade graphics felt like a huge leap, and our home PCs certainly couldn’t do it at the time. Consoles like the NES and SNES were famous for bringing smooth scrolling in games like Super Mario Bros. into our homes, and later when PC titles like Jazz Jackrabbit cracked the code for smooth scrolling on PC it was yet again a big deal.

It’s here where we get to vertical scrolling “schmups” or shoot-em-ups. Games like TwinBee and 1942 put you in control of some sort of vehicle or character that moves across a vertical-scrolling playfield. Enemies come from above (or all directions) as you progress from the bottom to the top of the level. Usually there’s a boss fight waiting at the end of the level.

These games are exciting, and the vertical orientation of the screen and fast scrolling makes vertical schmups some of the most engaging arcade games to play, in my opinion.

Vertical Games Are a Problem on Horizontal Screens

These days, you don’t need to go to the arcade to experience these vertical schmups. You can emulate them using software like MAME, but many of these games have official re-releases, often as part of a retro collection. My Nintendo Switch is turning into my arcade system of choice, especially since I got a great arcade stick for it, and that includes lots of vertical schmups.

The problem is that our modern screens are almost all 16:9 horizontal widescreens. Which means the vertical game only takes up a small sliver at the center of the screen. This is where TATE mode comes in.

TATE Modes Let You Literally Flip the Screen

So, in these games, there’s generally a TATE mode option in the menus that lets you rotate the screen, which means the game now takes up the full vertical space available or close to it. If you’re playing these games on a PC, Mac, or Linux system, and it doesn’t have a TATE mode, then you can just adjust your display settings to rotate the desktop to the orientation you want.

Monitors Are Easy To Rotate These Days

Lots of monitors now have stands that allow them to be rotated into portrait mode, so if you connect your console to one of these, or the aforementioned PC systems, you can play vertical schmups the way they were meant to be played.