Home computers were made to be bought by pretty typical consumers. Hence, they were made with cost in mind, and as such weren't on the bleeding edge of technology. But arcade games, well, the point was to attract enough people to the game to cover the high cost of manufacturing/maintaining it. So they used the best technology and often used custom hardware to achieve that quality. As such, they were often used as technological showcases, and surpassed the much weaker home computers of the time.
Nice that Wreck-It Ralph featured this game as a hangout spot for characters. And for those wondering about Root Beer on tap, look at the A&W restaurants, they have a giant root beer tap isolated from the rest of the soda fountain.
I enjoyed it! Ended up seeing it a couple times, actually. Really liked the ideas in it, where arcade game characters all hang out and have jobs and stuff, and the glitches being a thing was really cool. Would've liked more usage of licensed characters but ah whatever, it was a fun movie.
Yeah, it was also on "Midway Arcade Origins" for the XBox 360, which can be played on the XBox One through their backward compatibility program, so it's well worth picking up if you can find a copy. (To me, this is basically "the disc with Robotron: 2084 on it," but my daughter recently became surprisingly fond of Tapper after a visit to Funspot, which had the original arcade cabinet with Budweiser theming.)
I actually played this on the N64 Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits Vol. 1 (of 1). It was my favorite...mainly because I absolutely loved Root Beer when I was that tiny. Despite the fact that I was..like, 5 when the freaking Gamecube launched, I absolutely loved these classic arcade games.
***** Well... They tried to make music and gameplay at the same time... they failed. They were able to summon aliens and have gameplay at the same time though.
Hi LGR. I know this is kind of out of the blue, but I was watching your Yoot Tower video today, and I remembered this one. 6 years ago I was a middle school kid recovering from a major surgery. While I was bedridden and out of my mind on pain meds I don't remember much. However, I do remember I would watch many of the same shows, movies and videos over and over again for some reason. Well, long story short this particular video was one of those. I watched it countless times. Your voice, your sense of humor and this neat little dose of video game history helped me through a really rough time, and I wanted to say thank you.
Just to clear up a mystery, at least in the arcade version, the dancing ladies only appear when you pick up the tips. So there's a bit of risk reward with the tips... they're worth points, and in the more panicky moments it may be a relief to distract some patrons so they stop moving forward. On the other hand, you can easily make a mistake a slide beer to the distracted peeps, and it will make you have to play longer to clear the level. I tend to avoid the tips unless I'm really trying to challenge myself. I get better scores by just getting to higher levels and trying to survive.
Im still very impressed with the arcade Tappers graphics. They look amazing to this very day. I think that large difference in quality between the arcade games and the consoles of the day played a large part in the North American Game Crash of 82/83.
I stopped using them over two years ago because they got old, and in many ways. I got way more comments from people saying they didn't like it than I ever did of people saying they did, and I personally just got bored with it and was tired of messing with editing an intro each time. Plus, according to my stats 90% of people skipped it anyway, so why continue? A short, simple logo of some kind works better for me as a result. It's gone, and for the time being I feel it's better that way.
That fricking challenging stage in Tapper. I've probably chosen the right can maybe twice in all the years I've been playing it. Great review Clint, thanks!
This was one of the first video games I have ever played. I remember playing it on my Dad's Commodore 64 back in 1984. It's still a great game even to this day.
Just wanted to say that your channel is the reason i really started to collect games and also got in to retro games, so thanks LGR for all the amazing vids and the inspiration to do what i like... and now i need a bloody rom of this game purely to say to my friends that i got a came called fapper... that will freak them out :P
This is probably my favourite arcade game ever, I played this hundreds of times...on the midway arcade treasures compilation. Sadly there are almost no arcades in germany.
This was and still is one of my favorite games of all time. You can really tell that a lot of time went into make the cabinet look memorable. Also, if to anyone that want to play this and they live near the New England area, there is one at Funspot in NH. That is where I played it last.
I grew up on the original IBM PC version. I remember finding a bug that when you lose the game, the part when the drunk throws your character on the counter, you still have control over the left and right movement. So basically you could mess around and postpone your death by pressing left then right to make your character go right which eventually you'll go through the wall and come out the other end of the screen. Good times, good times.
The PC Booter version was also "cracked" to an .EXE file that runs from DOS, but of course, there is no way out but a 3 finger salute. The Booter version also supports IBM PCjr (and I suppose Tandy, for that matter) sound. On my PCjr, there was not only the option for sound and no sound, but also external speaker, which would utilize the jr's sound chip. That sound chip always emitted a pop from the speakers when initialized if I remember correctly. Played it tons when I was a kid.
I remember playing the IBM PC version of this with my cousins and we never paid any attention to any "Mountain Dew" labels and even called this game not Tapper, but just Beer.
Pro tip: Ignore the tips. They really mess up the rhythm of the game and I always do MUCH better without them. This is my favorite game from the various Midway arcade collections I've played over the years. I was excited to see it was coming up next, and the review did not disappoint. :)
Nice job with the video! I used to play this all the time in the arcade and always wished they would release it on the Colecovision, but that never happened. I'm glad they included it on the Midway PS3 collection, even if it is the root beer variety.
I just staggered over this! Oh man! I never knew Clint did arcade reviews! :D Also - Retrovision -- and The Video Game Years is how I became subscribed to: Roo - The Gaming Historian - LGR - Game Chasers - Retrovision - Pat the NES Punk and on and on.. :D
I'll be playing both the original arcade cabinet and PC re-release, so check next week :D And haha, I'm glad someone caught that "Intellivision-murdering" reference!
I have an N64 cartridge called Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits Vol. 1 and on it there was this game, Joust, Robotron 2084, Defender, Spy Hunter, and Sinistar. I played Rootbeer Tapper more than any of the other games on the cart, I absolutely loved it ^^ In fact watching this makes me want to hook up my N64 and play it again.
Having played the arcade cabinet version of Tapper, as a child, in a bar (the 80s were a weird time), I can confirm it never made me want to drink... just help feed my growing video game addiction!
First version of this I ever played was on C64 and that too was a really good port. Nowadays, there's MAME for the original in all its glory. I love how crisp the graphics look.
Did you know that Finnish sculptor Kain Tapper was fucking great (one of the best) at competitive Tapper and set multiple Twin Galaxies records in the arcade version. In fact, he changed his surname to match his awesome playing skills. Rest in peace Kain, Tapper scoreboards have never been the same.
I never knew why, but when I first tried tapper as a kid, I found it absolutely addicting. Maybe it was the cheerful guy or the fact that I really like soda. XD
Most home ports of Tapper had an endorsement deal with Pepsi Cola (as evident by the Mountain Dew logo). The Coleco version is a port of Root Beer Tapper due to financial troubles, being the last Colecovision game, the video game crash, leading to their bankruptcy and their biggest liquidation being the Cabbage Patch Kids.
Tapper is an awesome game (even the root beer version). This old arcade game is much much much (x99) better than this "level" from Back to the Future on the NES. And - of course - nice review and nice video.
I've mainly played this on Midway Arcade Treasures, there's some really interesting trivia such as the fact they were going to add digitized burp sound effects to the game, but decided to omit them because of how annoying it could get.
I remember playing the Commodore 64 port, in fact it is one of the very first games I remember playing as a kid (disturbing?). The graphics and sound were much better than the ports you've included here. I also seem to recall that a port for the Spectrum was made, and Wikipedia seems to agree with me, though I don't remember anything particular about it. It would be nice if you made another video about the C64/Speccy port once you have the time.
The music in the PC version was the very reason my dad modded our XT clone with a volume button. I loved the game, but that awful racket really wasn't something you wanted to hear through a big honkin' 3" PC squealer. Guess I could upload some footage of the composite version on the off chance that someone cares. :)
Valid point, it's probably not worth the hassle; although in that case I would recommend to use the music briefly in the beginning, much like your monthly summaries. Thanks for the reply.
Home computers were made to be bought by pretty typical consumers. Hence, they were made with cost in mind, and as such weren't on the bleeding edge of technology. But arcade games, well, the point was to attract enough people to the game to cover the high cost of manufacturing/maintaining it. So they used the best technology and often used custom hardware to achieve that quality. As such, they were often used as technological showcases, and surpassed the much weaker home computers of the time.
Nice that Wreck-It Ralph featured this game as a hangout spot for characters. And for those wondering about Root Beer on tap, look at the A&W restaurants, they have a giant root beer tap isolated from the rest of the soda fountain.
And to highlight even more Tapper realism, the A&W staff get upset when you slide a mug off the counter and it shatters!
Funnily enough, the version of Tapper seen in Wreck-It-Ralph combines elements of both the Budweiser and Root Beer versions.
Can you imagine if we had a hack like that? Tapper title and character, but backgrounds and drinks are Root Beer Related.
@@robbiewalker2831 id play it
I enjoyed it! Ended up seeing it a couple times, actually. Really liked the ideas in it, where arcade game characters all hang out and have jobs and stuff, and the glitches being a thing was really cool. Would've liked more usage of licensed characters but ah whatever, it was a fun movie.
I remember playing the Root Beer Tapper version on a Midway Classic Games collection for the PS2. It's a very fun game, but also difficult.
Yeah, it was also on "Midway Arcade Origins" for the XBox 360, which can be played on the XBox One through their backward compatibility program, so it's well worth picking up if you can find a copy. (To me, this is basically "the disc with Robotron: 2084 on it," but my daughter recently became surprisingly fond of Tapper after a visit to Funspot, which had the original arcade cabinet with Budweiser theming.)
I actually played this on the N64 Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits Vol. 1 (of 1). It was my favorite...mainly because I absolutely loved Root Beer when I was that tiny.
Despite the fact that I was..like, 5 when the freaking Gamecube launched, I absolutely loved these classic arcade games.
I'm not the one with the problem. Mountain Dew is the one with the problem.
Neopets actually has a version of this game called Slushie Slinger that's on the site during their yearly Altador Cup event.
Quite correct! It basically had its own little OS on-disk.
Lgr talking to himself:
@@TheOriginalSide1TH-cam didn’t have inline replies ten years ago.
@@flp322 still funny
Great review as always.
I love how Tapper recently appeared in Wreck It Ralph.
First game I ever owned for the Spectrum :)
+Larry Bundy Jr I'm sooo sorry for you.
JK
ManticTac
It wasn't bad! It was this and Finders Keepers.
*****
Well...
They tried to make music and gameplay at the same time... they failed.
They were able to summon aliens and have gameplay at the same time though.
+Larry Bundy Jr The ZX Spectrum version has the most ear piercing sounds ever!
If I recall the music was 'A hard days night' by the beatles
Then I suppose my Fapper anecdote at 03:40 had some merit :D
Always loved Tapper, it demonstrates what Arcade games are all about.
You occasionally sound exactly like duke nukem.
wait until he kicks butt and chews gum
Mountain Dew Tapper sounds like a homebrew version name! Mmmmmm.......Mountain Dew!
Oh man, saw the "Coming Soon" link for Time Traveler. Can't wait! A very impressive game from my youth.
Hi LGR. I know this is kind of out of the blue, but I was watching your Yoot Tower video today, and I remembered this one. 6 years ago I was a middle school kid recovering from a major surgery. While I was bedridden and out of my mind on pain meds I don't remember much. However, I do remember I would watch many of the same shows, movies and videos over and over again for some reason. Well, long story short this particular video was one of those. I watched it countless times. Your voice, your sense of humor and this neat little dose of video game history helped me through a really rough time, and I wanted to say thank you.
C64 version was pretty awesome. Used to play it quite much as kid. Btw. thanks for these entertaining videos as they bring much memories from youth.
I admit I'm mainly here because of the references to this game in Wreck It Ralph.
Just to clear up a mystery, at least in the arcade version, the dancing ladies only appear when you pick up the tips. So there's a bit of risk reward with the tips... they're worth points, and in the more panicky moments it may be a relief to distract some patrons so they stop moving forward. On the other hand, you can easily make a mistake a slide beer to the distracted peeps, and it will make you have to play longer to clear the level. I tend to avoid the tips unless I'm really trying to challenge myself. I get better scores by just getting to higher levels and trying to survive.
wow im actually old enough to remember playing this in the arcade. and i didnt become a alcoholic, great video, subscribed
Im still very impressed with the arcade Tappers graphics. They look amazing to this very day. I think that large difference in quality between the arcade games and the consoles of the day played a large part in the North American Game Crash of 82/83.
I stopped using them over two years ago because they got old, and in many ways. I got way more comments from people saying they didn't like it than I ever did of people saying they did, and I personally just got bored with it and was tired of messing with editing an intro each time.
Plus, according to my stats 90% of people skipped it anyway, so why continue? A short, simple logo of some kind works better for me as a result. It's gone, and for the time being I feel it's better that way.
That fricking challenging stage in Tapper. I've probably chosen the right can maybe twice in all the years I've been playing it. Great review Clint, thanks!
Good job, Clint. You destroyed the comment section when you said "fapper"
Damn, I want that original cabinet! Thanks for the great review as always.
This was one of the first video games I have ever played. I remember playing it on my Dad's Commodore 64 back in 1984. It's still a great game even to this day.
I recognized pretty much every reference to game, my favorite one being the "!" from MGS
Brother, big fan of yours, and I appreciate the work that you put in. Thank you for what you do.
This one just showed up in my recommendations and I just read "Fapper" at first glance... omg
Just wanted to say that your channel is the reason i really started to collect games and also got in to retro games, so thanks LGR for all the amazing vids and the inspiration to do what i like... and now i need a bloody rom of this game purely to say to my friends that i got a came called fapper... that will freak them out :P
This is probably my favourite arcade game ever, I played this hundreds of times...on the midway arcade treasures compilation. Sadly there are almost no arcades in germany.
I think the part at the end where he pours himself a beer of his own is one of the best victory animations in gaming ever!
Sure. Just go ahead and hand me the wallet...
This was and still is one of my favorite games of all time. You can really tell that a lot of time went into make the cabinet look memorable. Also, if to anyone that want to play this and they live near the New England area, there is one at Funspot in NH. That is where I played it last.
I grew up on the original IBM PC version. I remember finding a bug that when you lose the game, the part when the drunk throws your character on the counter, you still have control over the left and right movement. So basically you could mess around and postpone your death by pressing left then right to make your character go right which eventually you'll go through the wall and come out the other end of the screen. Good times, good times.
One of my favorite arcade games of the time.
Very addicting.
The PC Booter version was also "cracked" to an .EXE file that runs from DOS, but of course, there is no way out but a 3 finger salute.
The Booter version also supports IBM PCjr (and I suppose Tandy, for that matter) sound. On my PCjr, there was not only the option for sound and no sound, but also external speaker, which would utilize the jr's sound chip. That sound chip always emitted a pop from the speakers when initialized if I remember correctly. Played it tons when I was a kid.
loved this on zx spectrum :-) got a bit messy but still good. I need a bud now
that has got to be the best arcade cabinet i have ever seen in a you tube video. Things are not made with love anymore .
I remember playing the IBM PC version of this with my cousins and we never paid any attention to any "Mountain Dew" labels and even called this game not Tapper, but just Beer.
lol wth is the bartender doing between pouring drinks on the apple2 version??? Maybe Sega really thought it was supposed to be "Fapper" !
I remember playing this on C64
I fucking love Tapper! It's such an addictive game.
Fapper: Milk edition (Lenny face)
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Pro tip: Ignore the tips. They really mess up the rhythm of the game and I always do MUCH better without them.
This is my favorite game from the various Midway arcade collections I've played over the years. I was excited to see it was coming up next, and the review did not disappoint. :)
Nice job with the video!
I used to play this all the time in the arcade and always wished they would release it on the Colecovision, but that never happened. I'm glad they included it on the Midway PS3 collection, even if it is the root beer variety.
I just staggered over this! Oh man! I never knew Clint did arcade reviews! :D
Also - Retrovision -- and The Video Game Years is how I became subscribed to:
Roo - The Gaming Historian - LGR - Game Chasers - Retrovision - Pat the NES Punk and on and on.. :D
Classic Warner Bros. @1:22. Cooome baack heeere, you raaa-bit. Niiighty night. Another great nostalgia trip. Thanks, LGR.
Root beer Fapper: A new take on the classic soda jerk.
Nice
I'll be playing both the original arcade cabinet and PC re-release, so check next week :D
And haha, I'm glad someone caught that "Intellivision-murdering" reference!
Man this game was awesome back in the day :)
I have an N64 cartridge called Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits Vol. 1 and on it there was this game, Joust, Robotron 2084, Defender, Spy Hunter, and Sinistar. I played Rootbeer Tapper more than any of the other games on the cart, I absolutely loved it ^^ In fact watching this makes me want to hook up my N64 and play it again.
Having played the arcade cabinet version of Tapper, as a child, in a bar (the 80s were a weird time), I can confirm it never made me want to drink... just help feed my growing video game addiction!
First version of this I ever played was on C64 and that too was a really good port. Nowadays, there's MAME for the original in all its glory. I love how crisp the graphics look.
I remember the Apple II version fondly. I often got to the start of the second loop (Western Saloons) before Game Over.
That coming soon video preview looks delightfully cheezy
Did you know that Finnish sculptor Kain Tapper was fucking great (one of the best) at competitive Tapper and set multiple Twin Galaxies records in the arcade version. In fact, he changed his surname to match his awesome playing skills. Rest in peace Kain, Tapper scoreboards have never been the same.
I actually blew the mind of a Budweiser employee about this game and its connection not only with Budd but with Mountain Dew
Classic. A lot of frustration playing this in my childhood.
You're right, I should correct this.
Expect hourly crap reports!
I never knew why, but when I first tried tapper as a kid, I found it absolutely addicting. Maybe it was the cheerful guy or the fact that I really like soda. XD
I saw Wreck-it-ralph recently and it had a reference to Tapper and I never knew about it, Thanks!
one of my favorite games on the N64 midway compilation...
-Looks down through the comments- Good to know I wasn't the only one that read Fapper in the thumbnail.
I used to play the ZX Spectrum version, which was pretty good too. Serving beer to aliens was always tough.
See the teaser at the end of this video? Yes, come back soon :)
The Colecovision version is also quite good.
Also, nice nod to Sarah's Intellivision. May it rest in peace.
My favorite feature on the actual arcade machine is the brass foot pole at the bottom of the machine, as if you were actually at a bar.
The tapper looks like a soulless demon during the bonus round in the PC booter version.
Most home ports of Tapper had an endorsement deal with Pepsi Cola (as evident by the Mountain Dew logo). The Coleco version is a port of Root Beer Tapper due to financial troubles, being the last Colecovision game, the video game crash, leading to their bankruptcy and their biggest liquidation being the Cabbage Patch Kids.
I remember Tapper, especially Root Beer Tapper for the Xbox.
I wanna play Fapper ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
The animation of the Apple II version does look the type... :P
i got that on my 'home console' for daily use
Budwieser Fapper, Root Beer Fapper, or Mountain Dew Fapper?
I have Root Beer Tapper for the ColecoVision, which I got for a Christmas present in 1985. Pretty fun game, even if it is without Budweiser.
Considering I even mention this in the video, no, I'd say definitely not.
Nice video LGR, great humour too. Looking forward to the Sega game I see next ;) Very strange cab but so cool.
The Coleco's version was actually pretty good, complete with the Hamburglar shaking up cans of "root beer" minus the large Mountain Dew sign.
Tapper is an awesome game (even the root beer version). This old arcade game is much much much (x99) better than this "level" from Back to the Future on the NES. And - of course - nice review and nice video.
I got this in a mid way greatest hits for the game cube. It was a fun game I loved it.
Well, they already have "Fapper" for the Atari 2600. It's called "Beat 'Em and Eat 'Em."
I've mainly played this on Midway Arcade Treasures, there's some really interesting trivia such as the fact they were going to add digitized burp sound effects to the game, but decided to omit them because of how annoying it could get.
Got a version of this on ps1 :3
I remember playing this on the Commodore 64, and Man I was used to polish the Bar, A LOT haha. It was a fun game though.
I remember playing the Commodore 64 port, in fact it is one of the very first games I remember playing as a kid (disturbing?). The graphics and sound were much better than the ports you've included here. I also seem to recall that a port for the Spectrum was made, and Wikipedia seems to agree with me, though I don't remember anything particular about it. It would be nice if you made another video about the C64/Speccy port once you have the time.
Dem sounds in the PC version... This game was soooo addictive...
Classic game. C64 and Colecovision had good conversions too.
The music in the PC version was the very reason my dad modded our XT clone with a volume button. I loved the game, but that awful racket really wasn't something you wanted to hear through a big honkin' 3" PC squealer.
Guess I could upload some footage of the composite version on the off chance that someone cares. :)
Haha I Saw What You Did There With Your "Mountain Dew Intellivision Killer" Reference!
Valid point, it's probably not worth the hassle; although in that case I would recommend to use the music briefly in the beginning, much like your monthly summaries.
Thanks for the reply.
My kinda game. 🍺
Great game and the 2600 conversion is, overall, very impressive.
"Fapper" sounds like it could be a pornographic re-skin for the 2600, like those other horrible porn games they already had.
*oh no*
i remember playing this version of tapper as the little kid. back then i didn't know how to play the game ah memories.
i love tapper i used to go to pizza place that had it,loved it.
Where was the cabinet footage filmed?
psychic2ombie Galloping Ghost Arcade in Illinois.
I actually don't live too far from Illinois 😀
If you're ever in the Romeoville, IL, area - there's a very large Arcade here.
i honestly can't wait to see what the hell is going on in the top right on the arcade august screen
The Atari XL was the best 8-bit version.Fast and smooth,with great music as well.
I didn't actually know this was a real game when I watched wreck it ralph. I want to play it now.
i was surprised to see tapper in that movie, the only movie where we actully see him.
had no idea they were around before the master system, which i thought came out in the late 80's but wikipedia seems to think came out in '85
You ever play the Simpsons Tapper game in the arcade? Played it once in an arcade in Maryland, it is AMAZING.