Yeah, it's true. Old games like gameboy and NES tetris (either flavor), and the Atari arcaee machine were one piece at a time random, and not particularly evenly distributed either.
https://harddrop.com/wiki/Tetris_(Game_Boy)#Randomizer
L: 10.7 %
J, I, Z: 13.7 %
O, S, T: 16.1 %