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Tapper (Arcade)

Status: Stopped playing - Something better came along
I started playing this game on Wednesday 6 September, 2006  //  I stopped playing this game on: Monday 3 September, 2007
Current opinion of this game
Hard, hard, fun. Tapper really is like a shooter game where you can't waste any shots. :-)

September 7, 2006 07:56:39 AM
Current high score: 26,025

Need more practice....


September 6, 2006 11:02:42 PM
I'll be doing some work analyzing Tapper, so I though I might as well keep a GameLog of my gameplay.

It's been a bit surprising to go back to a game I hadn't played in a long, long time. Obviously, I had forgotten a lot of the details...and it is probably very likely that I had some of the details wrong in the first place. I've never actually played the arcade cabinet version of Tapper, though I definitely played it on my Apple IIe back in the day. It must have been either a clone or a port, I can't honestly say at the moment.

So, the gameplay? It's surprisingly richer than what I remembered. First of all, there's a bonus level! This was an interesting "find". (as soon as I played, all those memories came rushing back!). Yeah, it the old find the beer can that hasn't been shaken (after they're all shuffled) bonus game!

The second thing which has surprised me is how the gameworld's spatiality behaves very differently from what you see on the screen. Let me explain:

1. If you are at the bar at the top of the screen and go up, you appear at the bar at the bottom of the screen.
2. If you are at the bar at the bottom and go down, you appear at the top.

In other words, a typical wraparound space just like Asteroids or even Pac-Man. However, the representation is totally at odds with this kind of movement!

Another thing, if you run down the bar (left or right, depending on the level) and then press up/down/serve beer you are instantly teleported next to the keg! (in other words, you don't have to run back to the beginning of the bar).

I found these aspects rather intriguing given that tapper is a game which went to great lengths to have a rich and varied set of locations and characters. Sure, the decision was to make gameplay more interesting, but they definitely sacrificed on the "realism". Cool, eh?


 
kudos for original design to Rodrigo Barria