Tapper - Videogame by Bally Midway

	Museum of the Game® International Arcade Museum® - Killer List of Videogames®	Sign In Register

Tapper

Name: Tapper
Manufacturer: Bally Midway
Year: 1983
Type: Videogame

Class: Wide Release
Genre: Platform
Monitor:

Orientation: Horizontal
Type: Raster: Standard Resolution
CRT: Color

Conversion Class: Midway MCR III
Game Specific: Tapper Pinout

Number of Simultaneous Players: 1
Maximum number of Players: 2
Gameplay: Alternating
Control Panel Layout: Single Player Ambidextrous
Sound: Unamplified Stereo (requires two-channel amp)

Cabinet Styles:

Upright/Standard
Cocktail

Click here to contribute another image.

Tapper Control Panel ImageTapper Instruction Card Image

Tapper Description

Tapper was produced by Bally Midway in 1983.

Bally Midway released 96 different machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1980.

Other machines made by Bally Midway during the time period Tapper was produced include NFL Football, Professor Pac-Man, Journey, Kapt'n Krooz'r, Jr. Pac-Man, Blue Print, Super Pac-Man, Bump 'n Jump, Pac-Man Plus, and Tron.

You are a bartender serving Budweiser beer to patrons. You must serve everyone a beer before they work their way up to the kegs. You must also grab empty mugs before they slide off the end of the bar. Extra points for collecting tips. Bonus rounds involve locating the one beer that has not been shaken, and serving it.

Tapper - KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 4.27 (18 votes)

Personal Impressions Score: 4.56

     Overall 'Like': 4.65
     Fun (Social): 4.35
     Fun (Solo): 4.41
     Collector Desire: 4.76

Technical Impressions Score: 4.18

     Gameplay: 4.65
     Graphics: 4.00
     Originality: 4.71
     Sound/Music: 3.94

Personal Impressions and Technical Impressions each account for half of the total score. Within the Personal Impressions category, "Like" carries a little more weight than the other factors.

Log in to rate this game!

Cabinet Information

The cabinet is set up to resemble a bar. There is a brass rail that runs along the bottom and two brass drink or ashtray holders one on each side of the control panel. The cabinet and game play on the beer version features the Budweiser logo. The pour spouts have Budweiser handles to resemble the actual pour spouts in real bars.

Cabinet Style Weights and Measures

Type
Upright/Standard
Cocktail

Cheats, Tricks, Bugs, and Easter Eggs

Holding down the joystick and both tappers and pressing both start buttons on the title screen will reveal a credits screen in both Tapper and Root Beer Tapper.

Game Play

There are four different levels:

Cowboys
Athletes
Punk Rockers
Aliens

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Tapper Census

There are 11,501 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,116 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 152,490 machines (6,536 unique titles).

Very Common - There are 251 known instances of this machine owned by Tapper collectors who are active members. Of these, 238 of them are original dedicated machines, and 11 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

For Sale - There are 16 active VAPS members with Tapper machines for sale. There is one active VAPS member with an extra Tapper circuit board for sale.

Wanted - Very Popular - There are 77 active VAPS members currently looking for Tapper. There are 4 active VAPS members looking for Tapper board sets.

This game ranks a 51 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.

This game ranks a 89 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often wanted, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

Rarity and Popularity independently are NOT necessarily indications of value. [More Information]

Trivia

There are two common versions of this game -- one with Budweiser beer and another with root beer. In the late 1990s, a couple of boards made by SEGA featuring the Suntory logo were discovered. Sega denies they ever produced the board and it is not listed in any of their databases. The Suntory Tapper board is a complete re-engineering of the MCR/III hardware. Suntory is a defunct brand of Japanese beer.

Around 3300 Tapper uprights were made and maybe the first 100 or so were released with color side art. About 300 cocktail machines were also made.

According to programmer Scott Morrison, sometime during the development of the game, the programmers thought it would be fun to hear belching in the game to correspond with the belching action of some of the customers as they finished their drinks. The design team got a speech chip from Texas Instruments, and they took turns belching into a microphone to create a chip full of their own belches to be used in the game. However, although this feature was very funny to the programmers, Scott Morrison says that it got obnoxious after a while, and they scrapped the chip, figuring that the rest of the audience would feel the same way.

Legacy

Tapper
Root Beer Tapper

Manuals

Tapper Parts And Operating Manual 54 Pages, 3 MB File.

Foto-Finder® (books)

Arcade Treasures, Kurtz (ISBN 088740619X): Page: 167; Color photo; Price guide: 1994
The Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games, Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256): Page: 185; Color photo;
The Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games, Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256): Page: 234; Color photo;
Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games, Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256): Page: 185; Color photo; Price guide:

Video Clips

Tapper Arcade Game Video Review - MCR High-Score Save Battery

Tapper

See Recent Video Links Added to Other Records

Additional References
(logged in members often see more)

The Arcade Flyer Archive (TAFA): Tapper Flyer #1170

Contribute

Contribute an image to this machine record.
Log in to add YouTube or Google 3D SketchUp links
Please consider donating to the International Arcade Museum Library

eBay Listings

Click to search eBay for Tapper Videogame machines and related items.

Click to search eBay for machines and parts made by Bally Midway.

Check out the IAM/KLOV report of the hottest coin-op machine auctions, powered by Ace.com.

*TODAY'S PICKS FOR:
Tapper

	1. Custom Handmade TAPPER Arcade Style Joystick Handles- Set of 2- NEW Auction ends in: 3 weeks, 4 days
	FixedPrice	$150.00
	2. TAPPER, DISCS OF TRON, TIMBER FULL BOARDSET WORKING FLAWLESS! Auction ends in: 1 week, 12 hours
	FixedPrice	$999.99
	3. Bally Midway style Tapper Arcade cup holder molds Auction ends in: 1 week, 6 days
	FixedPrice	$1,500.00
	4. Tapper Arcade Marquee 23" x 9.25" Auction ends in: 1 week, 16 hours
	StoreInventory	$19.95
	5. Bally Midway TAPPER arcade custom coasters for cup holders on the cabinet! Auction ends in: 1 week, 5 days
	FixedPrice	$26.99
	6. New OIL CAPACITOR for TRON TAPPER SATANS HOLLOW ARCADE Midway Games MCRII MCRIII Auction ends in: 1 week, 2 days
	FixedPrice	$9.99
	7. MCR BALLY MIDWAY POWER SUPPLY TRON TWO TIGERS TAPPER Auction ends in: 3 weeks, 5 days
	FixedPrice	$45.00
	8. Tapper Arcade Marquee - Bally/Midway Cab Auction ends in: 3 weeks, 1 day
	FixedPrice	$64.99
	9. NEW MCR Ribbon Cables (Tron, Satan's Hollow, Spy Hunter, Tapper, etc) Auction ends in: 12 hours, 1 minute
	FixedPrice	$25.00
	10. New OIL CAPACITOR for TRON TAPPER SATANS HOLLOW ARCADE Midway Games MCRII MCRIII Auction ends in: 2 weeks, 5 days
	FixedPrice	$12.99
Additional Results Available
Click Here To Browse This Category on eBay! (exits this site)
Powered by Ace.com.