Every so often, you run into a game that you look at and think to yourself, who the heck came up with this? I thought the standards of a video game are to drive a car, rescue a princess, shoot an alien or even jump into your lily pad. So how is a game like Tapper any different? Oh it’s different, in more ways than one!
Back in 1983, I remember traveling with my parents to Arizona to visit my grandmother. Sure, I got to see some of the sites of a desert. And sure I got to see the Grand Canyon. Seriously, when are they going to fill that in? Anyway, I was way to young to go on a golf course to try my best at the 9 hole course. But lucky for me there were alternatives. There was a place I remember really well called Golf N Stuff. This was an awesome place. Outside there was three 18 hole courses, a go cart track and bumper boats. On the inside, which was a castle, was three levels of arcade madness. On the bottom was pinball machines. And the next two levels were regular video games. Oh the memories!!!
But on the second floor, right by the rail in the middle of the castle, next to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, was Tapper. Tapper? What the heck? So you are a bartender getting alcohol for patrons and collecting money. How hard can that be? I do want to back up to mention that this machine had Budweiser written all over it. But later on, there was actually a root beer version created for the kids. Like they would know the difference. I guess they did this so they can put the game in Showbiz Pizza. Anyway, this was an incredible game to play, and a lot of fun. To this day, when I play it, I feel like having a root beer. Stupid I know, but just another triggered memory that I talked about a couple weeks ago.
I loved the bonus round too. When the evil guy shakes up your drinks and you have to open the unshaken drink. I always just took my finger and put it on the screen to follow it. Probably wasn’t a good idea the first time to play right after eating pizza. I kinda left marks of pizza grease on the screen. Oops. I also remember that my parents were a little surprised to see me playing this since it was all about service of alcohol. And I do remember telling them, “The guy is serving beer to adults not kids.” I guess they were ok with that since I got to play three more times.
I still play the game at home on my computer. But I gotta tell ya, it’s just not the same as playing the real thing. To have a grip on the tapper server and serve the drinks is just totally cool. In addition to that, there is also a place to put your drink of your choice. Yeah, you can put it on your desk, but then you have to worry about the danged coaster. AAARRGGGHHHH THE STRUGGLES. It’s ok, breathe, time to move on and…
Keep Calm and Insert Coin
Brad has been a die hard arcade fan ever since he can remember. From the first time he played Space Invaders, to the first time he played Pacman, Brad has always had a love for video games. Hanging out at either the Great American Fun Factory in the mall, or spending the night in front of the glowing games at the local roller rink, he was always thinking about when he can spend the next quarter. He also worked at Babbages, which is now GameStop, for over six years. Mostly because they had a really sweet checkout policy on new products and great discounts. But since he had the Atari 2600, he has never looked back and owned some of the greatest home machines, NES, SNES, GENESIS, Turbo Graphix 16, GameBoy, Game Gear, Lynx, Playsation 1,2,3,4 and Vita, XBOX, Gamecube, and N64...just to name a few. Brad is also a reviewer for Mobile Beat Magazine as well as a freelance videographer, part time disc jockey, performing artist and photographer. But has a true love is for video games and Star Wars, as he is a member of the 501st Central Garrison. His ultimate dream is to own a fully working pinball machine and arcade machine. Difficult to say which one, but a Star Wars one would be nice start.
