Hello its blogging time once again and its a very special one today as yesterday happened to be my 21st birthday and with it I was allowed to drink of legal age for the first time. So to celebrate, I'm going to take a look at a unique video game from from times long gone that combines video games with beer. And that game is Tapper.
When it comes to the history of video games, alcohol has had a connection with the industry during key events. Japanese video game company Taito got their start selling the first domestically produced vodka in Japan, The first Pong machine was tested in Andy Capps tavern, arcade classics like Frogger and Donkey Kong were test marketed in bars, and the consumption of alcohol is a common side activity in many M rated games like Yakuza and Grand Theft Auto. But Tapper was different as beer was directly liked to it theme and how the game was originally marketed and presented. Released in 1983, Tapper was an arcade game that definitely stood out compared to other arcade games of the time. It wasn't designed to go into arcades, it was designed to go into bars which is reflected in the design of the cabinet sporting a brass rail footrest and drink holders to place your frosted mug of choice.
The game itself was also quite out of the ordinary. you play as a bartender who must serve eager, impatient, thirsty patrons before they come to the end of the bar while collecting empty mugs before they get to the end of the bar. The four way joystick moves your bartender up and down and the left and right taps pour the beer. If either the bar patron or an empty mug gets to the end you lose a life. while this may seem difficult there is some help in the form of tips. Not only will these give you extra points, but it will also cause a group of dancing showgirls to appear for a brief moment, distracting a portion of the customers so that they will stop advancing. However, distracted customers cannot catch drinks, so if you pour a glass to a patron that's distracted, it will go to the end of the bar and break, resulting in a lost life, Lose all 3 lives and the game is over. combine that with a can swapping minigame and bonus animations at the end of each level, and you've got a game that's filled with charm, quirkiness and class.
But what's just as unusual about the game is who developed it and how it was created. While the game was distributed by Bally Midway, The company that designed the game was Marvin Glass and Associates. But the thing is Marvin Glass were not a video game company, In fact they were in business before video games as they were a toy and board game design company a very successful one. The company was founded in 1941 and was founded and named after Marvin Glass, an entrepreneurial artist who began by licensing and selling Yakity Yak Talking Teeth, the first wind up chattering teeth, invented by Eddy Goldfarb, in 1949.
The company's first big hit was Mr. Machine, a mechanical construction toy invented by former watchmaker Leo Kripak and licensed to Ideal Toys in 1960. A child could take Mr. Machine apart and put him back together. It was such a hit that Lionel Weintraub, the president of Ideal, made it the company mascot and featured it in many of Ideal's early TV ads.
Marvin Glass would go on to design many classic toys and board games in the 60's and 70's for companies like Hasbro, Marx, and Milton Bradly. Many of which are still sold today such as Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, Lite Brite, Mouse Trap, Operation, and Simon.
In the early 80s, they decided to enter the video game business by teaming up with fellow Chicago based company Bally Midway and launching their first game, Domino Man, to arcades in 1982.
Around the same time, A licensing deal was about to take place thanks to Bally's goto licensing deal maker, VP of marketing, Tom Nieman.
He joined the company in 1972 in their pinball division and previously was able to make a deal with rock group KISS for the KISS pinball machine in 1979.
In 1983, Nieman signed a deal with Anheuser-Busch, the makers of Budweiser. The idea that Bally Midway had at the time was that not all gamers are teenagers, nor do they always hang out in arcades. So, why not build more games for less competitive street locations like bars? To develop the game further, they pitched the idea to Marvin Glass, and development was handled to Steven Meyer and R. Scott Morrison.
The two previously worked on Domino Man, With Meyer being the programmer, and Morrison being the artist. Knowing only that the game would appear in a bar, the idea for Tapper began with a simple suggestion from Meyer: “How about a bar game where you’re sliding beers back and forth?” Inspired by the images he had seen in countless western movies, he said to Morrison that it would be fun if the bartender was filling and throwing beers.
Eventually, all the elements fell into place. First, the bar patrons inched their way down the bar, towards the bartender, demanding service. Once served, the force of the sliding beer knocked a patron back a notch. This appeasement only lasted for a moment, and demands on the bartender’s time increased. A finished drink produced both an empty glass, that was pushed back towards the bartender, but also an irate drunk demanding more beer. The player had to catch these returned glasses while still serving beers. An empty glass that reached the end of the bar would break, and a drunk who reached the end of the bar became fed up and would slide the bartender back down the bar, smashing all the empty glasses in his path. Both situations resulted in the loss of a life.
The game proved to be a success with 3,300 units of Tapper manufactured, the game’s success began to moved from bars and into arcades. However this lead to a quite expected problem. Due to the game's all alcohol serving concept and Budweiser branding, some people were mistakenly up in arms about the game supposedly marketing alcohol to kids. This was stupid, but understandable, So Bally Midway released an altered version of the game the next year in 1984 called Root Beer Tapper, which replaced the Buds with root beer and turned the bartender into a classic soda jerk. Which somehow makes even less sense than it did before. What kind of Old West saloon carried root beer on tap? Maybe it's sarsaparilla, and maybe this is just a themed bar, Who knows.
Meyer and Morrison would design a few more games for Bally Midway including Wacko, Journey, and Timber (also featuring the mustached character from Domino Man and Tapper).
Marvin Glass and Bally Midway eventually went their separate ways (No pun intended with the Journey reference) With Marvin Glass returning to designing toys and board games and continuing to do so until they shut down in 1988. Steve Meyer went on to work for MicroProse in 1987 in the playtesting department on titles like Project Stealth Fighter for the Commodore 64, Sid Meier's Pirates! for the Commodore 64 and IBM PC, and F-19 Stealth Fighter for MSDOS, eventually becoming Director of Software Development in Sid Meier's Civilization V.
R. Scott Morrison went on to work for Incredible Technologies working on Capcom Bowling and eventually the Golden Tee Golf series, one of the most successful videogames that is also found in bars. he eventually became the vice president of marketing for Incredible Technologies, and held that position until he left the company in 2019.
R. Scott Morrison went on to work for Incredible Technologies working on Capcom Bowling and eventually the Golden Tee Golf series, one of the most successful videogames that is also found in bars. he eventually became the vice president of marketing for Incredible Technologies, and held that position until he left the company in 2019.
Today, Tapper is still playable as it has been rereleased (well in the form of Root Beer Tapper anyway) in many compilations on for systems including the Nintendo 64, PlayStation 2 the Xbox, The Nintendo GameCube, the PC, The PlayStation 3, The Xbox 360, The PlayStation 4, The Xbox One, and The Nintendo Wii U. The Game has also been referenced a few times in other games and in pop culture. In Fallout 76, there's a minigame clone in the game called Nuka Taper, and also has an appearance in movie Wreck-It Ralph and its sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet with the bartender voiced by Maurice LaMarche. If you ever come across a version of Tapper, Whether it be Budweiser Tapper or Root Beer Tapper, either in an original cabinet or through a rerelease, I'd say give it a shot. It's challenging and charming enough that you'll want to keep coming back with a joystick in your hand and, preferably, a beer in your other. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time!
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