Acorn User


Tapper
By U. S. Gold
BBC Model B

 
Published in Acorn User #046

Barrels Of Fun On Tap

Tapper

This arcade game is a barrel of laughs. Several barrels, in fact, because you play a frantic bartender whose job is to keep an ever-growing crowd of customers satisfied. They sidle into various parts of the bar and you have to leap around, filling glasses from the beer taps, slinging them along the bar, saloon-style, and collecting the empties they sling back at you. You lose a life if you keep a thirsty customer waiting too long.

(Actually, the instructions have been carefully edited for the benefit of under-age users, and would like us to believe that it's really a soda fountain and you're only serving fizzy pop. But that doesn't fool anyone.)

As you become proficient, you'll be promoted from the Wild West Saloon to the Jock Bar (patronised not by thirsty Scotsmen, thank goodness, but by sporty people in baseball caps), then to the Punk Bar, with its purple-haired customers, and finally to the Space Bar, full of creatures almost as weird as the punks. In between bars, you can pick up bonus points in an interlude with the 'Soda Bandit'. He shakes up cans of Budweiser - sorry, soda pop - then shuffles them around rapidly. You score by picking the one he hasn't shaken and opening it. If you guess wrong, you're sprayed! Either way, you're soon back in the bar with a horde of impatient customers.

Tapper

Sometimes, one of the customers is kind enough to leave you a tip.

If you can collect it without mishap, a pair of dancing girls start doing a can-can and most of the punters stop drinking to watch - which gives you a breather. It's all good fun and very reminiscent of The Sun, the Acorn User local.

The instruction leaflet was obviously printed for an earlier version of the game, for another micro.

It suggests, for example, you can use a joystick on the BBC Micro version, which you can't (although you can choose your own keys), and it talks about a two-player game, which also isn't available.

Never mind, it's easy enough to learn to play - but frustratingly difficult to play it well. It's an entertaining game with a high very addictiveness rating.

Jeffery Pike

Other BBC Model B Game Reviews By Jeffery Pike


  • Steve Davis Snooker Front Cover
    Steve Davis Snooker
  • Waterloo Front Cover
    Waterloo
  • Sim Front Cover
    Sim
  • Lode Runner Front Cover
    Lode Runner
  • Citadel Front Cover
    Citadel
  • Gyroscope Front Cover
    Gyroscope
  • Death Star Front Cover
    Death Star
  • Type Invaders Front Cover
    Type Invaders
  • 3D Space Ranger Front Cover
    3D Space Ranger
  • Guitar Chord Tutor Front Cover
    Guitar Chord Tutor