How would Data fare at the old NES game, Tetris? I'm sure many of you know how the game is played. After a while, the shapes fall down the screen so fast that it's impossible to move them into place quickly enough. As a result, the game ends pretty quickly. Data can 'tap' the controller much faster than a human, so I'm wondering if he'd be able to play the game indefinitely, or would the shapes eventually move so fast that even he would lose in time? Also, how would Data, with his enhanced abilities, do against other old video games, just having a basic knowledge of them (what can be found in the game manuals)? Would he ever die, or lose any game stamina whatsoever? Say, games such as Mario 3, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, The Legend of Zelda, Tiger Heli, Fester's Quest, etc.
I think Data could figure out how to crush most video games pretty easily. If there's any limitation it's with the frame rate of the games and the transmission rate of the controllers. I guess a few of those old arcade games have randomly generated events that could create inescapable death situations. But then again he could probably determine the random seed rather quickly.
Would be a great idea for a TNG recut ep 'data gets addicted to video games and neglects his other duties '
Rejiggering the holodeck to play old-school video games is one of the things I've often thought about, if it was one of the things the characters could do. (Playing a version of Super Mario Bros. where YOU are Mario?)