blast from the past
Wow, that old already, I actually remember playing that :)
(before I discovered you can actually do useful things with a computer)
So just as everyone is coming to the end of their January Dryathalon, I find the only thing I have on my mind is more beer. Indeed, I'm reminded of Tapper, which incorporates two of my favourite pastimes: drinking and gaming. Tapper (1983) Pour substitute? Tapper is an arcade classic and so iconic it’s even lovingly …
I'll always have some nostalgia for Tapper, as it was one of the earliest "proper" arcade-style games I remember playing- on a friend's BBC B, at a time when my Dad only had a ZX81.
The BBC B conversion had a "Mountain Dew" sign (*) instead of "Budweiser" on the bonus level. (**)
In fact, they apparently made a family-friendly alcohol-free arcade version called "Root Beer Tapper", which is the one I have on "Midway Arcade Treasures", though the aforementioned "Mountain Dew" BBC B conversion was still just called "Tapper". Probably because no-one in the UK had heard of root beer back then anyway.
Anyway, regarding the arcade original- the graphics are much higher resolution than most games of the time, aren't they? (Wikipedia says they're 480x512, which sounds about right). The detailing and cartoony feel must have been quite impressive back then.
(*) This was long before Mountain Dew's brief existence on the 90s UK market- for years I only knew it from that game (and didn't know what it was).
(**) Now that I think of it, I assume the masked character in the original Budweiser version wasn't called the "soda bandit" either.
Tapper is a great game. I have the arcade machine in my garage. It's been sitting there in the dark for the last 10 years. When I got it it would work without sound, coming up with an "Interface Sound Board error" when it booted. Then the monitor died and that's where it has sat ever since!
The graphics weren't as good as the screenshots here, but it was still a fun game.
I seem to remember another way to "die" was if a customer got to the end of the bar, and proceeded to throw you sliding along the bar until you hit the wall :-)
And the stress was when the music got faster and faster, when the bar was almost empty.
Might have to fire up the C64 emulator this evening...... Tapper and Uridium are on the playlist tonight!
Beer----> sliding towards the next punk through the door
OMG, Paradroid on the C64 loaded from a 1541 disk drive using the @ loader in around 1.5 seconds.
I bet you any money you couldn't get a game to load up on a modern PC in that time, even a simple one like Paradroid!
Taking on a 999 with a poor 100-series was always a tough ask, timing was essential to have the last erg of energy to flip the switch to your side :)
Check out the range of bars on Discworld Mud... And the range of drinks. You can get so unbelievably pished that you fall unconscious or wander blindly, have an unbelievably strong coffee that sends you out the other side of sober, have absinthe that makes you see bunnies... There's even badly rolled cigarettes and dodgy mushrooms if drinking isn't your thing. And a type of pepper you snort and sneeze so hard it blows you across the room...
Love the nod to Wreck it Ralph, my boy loves that movie.
Poor Tapper was put in the dark room at the far end of the arcade. By the time you worked your way back there, you were out of coins/tokens. Although, Space Invaders Deluxe and Galaxian were in the same room, and I spent many hours there playing them and watching the really good players for better techniques. If I could have a game, I would like Robotron 2084. I've seen online/pc versions that don't do the original justice...