Tapper(Arcade) FAQ version 1.0.0
by Andrew Schultz
[email protected]
This document is copyright 2001 Andrew Schultz
[email protected].
Please do not reproduce for profit without my consent. If you send me a
polite letter requesting this FAQ by name and addressing me by name,
I'll probably let you post it on your gaming site. Thanks!
****AD SPACE****
My home page is at:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/2762
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OUTLINE
INTRODUCTION
CONTROLS AND QUIRKS AND IRKS THEREIN
POINT SCORING
LEVEL STRUCTURE
PEOPLE IN LEVELS
STRATEGIES FOR LEVEL
BONUS ROUNDS
END-OF-LEVEL ANTICS
MY STRONG OPINIONS
VERSIONS
CREDITS
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INTRODUCTION
Tapper is really one of the classic video games out there. Although
it has a PG-rated offshoot(Root Beer Tapper) it is the only game that
stands as a paean to drug use--contrast to NARC, which was a paean to
the war on drugs, well, sort of. You control a bartender who moves
between four bars and serves beer to customers that run to the edge of
the bar. If he serves a beer where there is no customer, you lose a
life. If a customer reaches him, you lose a life. If a customer is not
knocked back by the beer and returns the empty glass, and it falls, you
lose a life. It's a simple concept and addictive and has the neat
feature that you can't just go blindly firing unlike other games. The
challenge on the later levels is to multi-task correctly(hey, wait,
that's for executives, not bartenders!) Although the game is slightly
unfair(see very bottom) the four bar environs and fun bonus rounds help
make the game quite good.
CONTROLS AND QUIRKS AND IRKS THEREIN
If you have an original arcade system, there is a tap you push down
and up to serve a beer. You can move up and down in the conventional
ways although diagonal moving is not permissible. Also, if you go down
from the bottom or up from the top, your bartender scrolls around. This
"hyperspace" is quite useful at times.
If you are playing on an emulator or on a port, you will probably
have to get the timing of pushing the button down and releasing. You
can't do it quickly as the beer will only be partially poured, and the
bartender will have nothing to sling. If you do it slowly, of course,
you lose time, so you really need to get the timing down. I linger as
fractionally as I consciously can before re-serving. If it is done
right you can go pretty quickly and if you linger a bit longer you can
serve more than four beers in a row to an aisle with four people--
perhaps very handy on later levels. So quickest is not always
necessarily best.
Moving up and down is not immediately responsive so you will have to
give your bartender some leeway if he wishes to catch a beer at the last
moment.
Upon moving up or down you are placed by the keg where you can pour
and serve a beer. This is useful because you can move towards the
customers to pick up a beer and move up to serve another beer quickly.
Specific examples of where this is nice include when two glasses seem
determined to crash on the floor at once. Reach out to get one and hit
up.
You also return to the starting point in your aisle if you try to
pour a beer--the beer goes floating down too.
You can also pour a beer, move vertically, and then sling it down.
This is useful if you realize you've made a mistake and there's no-one
to serve; you can save time serving some other folks.
One trick you can use at your peril is the sling-as-they're-about-
to-finish. Depending on the rate the person starts to drink their beer,
that's the rate they finish at, so you can sometimes sling them a beer
right away to get rid of them. Misfire a bit, though, and you could
sling a beer nowhere, losing you a bartender.
POINT SCORING
--50 for each saloon patron you send off his aisle
--75 for each sports bar patron you send off his aisle
--100 for each punk bar patron you send off the aisle
--150 for each alien bar patron you send off the aisle
--100 for each empty mug you pick up
--1000 for completing a level
--3000 for getting the bonus level right
You get extra men at 20000 and then after each additional sum of sixty
points.
LEVEL STRUCTURE
The level locations and design repeat every 13 levels. In fact,
from level 14 on, the people repeat; however, for the first 13, you
slowly get more people in the bar at one time. The customers slowly
approach you faster as you go through the levels.
Below are the first thirteen levels and the designs. The
designation "x----" means the patrons are on the left and "----x" means
they are on the right. Of course the number is how many patrons there
are.
Certain patterns are clear, i.e. there is no formation with three kegs
on one side. What you cannot see from the diagram is how the playing
fields get more trapezoidal as the levels advance; 1-2 has equal sized
bar aisles, but after 10-13 you see a pronounced centered set of aisles
with each lower aisle being slightly longer than the upper.
****FIRST WAVE****
****SALOON LEVELS****
LEVEL 1
1----
1----
1----
1----
LEVEL 2
2----
2----
2----
2----
****OUTDOOR SPORTS BAR LEVELS****
LEVEL 3
----2
----3
----3
----3
LEVEL 4
----2
----3
----3
----4
LEVEL 5
----3
----3
----4
----4
****PUNK BAR LEVELS****
LEVEL 6
----2
----3
3----
4----
LEVEL 7
3----
3----
----4
----4
LEVEL 8
----3
----4
4----
4----
LEVEL 9
4----
4----
----4
----4
****ALIEN BAR LEVELS****
LEVEL 10
----4
4----
4----
----4
LEVEL 11
4----
----4
----4
4----
LEVEL 12
----4
4----
----4
4----
LEVEL 13
4----
----4
4----
----4
****SECOND WAVE****
****SALOON LEVELS****
LEVEL 14
----4
4----
----4
4----
LEVEL 15
4----
----4
4----
----4
****OUTDOOR SPORTS BAR LEVELS****
LEVEL 16
----4
----4
----4
----4
LEVEL 17
----4
----4
----4
----4
LEVEL 18
----4
----4
----4
----4
****PUNK BAR LEVELS****
LEVEL 19
----4
----4
4----
4----
LEVEL 20
4----
4----
----4
----4
LEVEL 21
----4
----4
4----
4----
LEVEL 22
4----
4----
----4
----4
****ALIEN BAR LEVELS****
LEVEL 23
----4
----4
----4
----4
LEVEL 24
----4
----4
----4
----4
LEVEL 25
----4
----4
----4
----4
LEVEL 26
----4
----4
----4
----4
PEOPLE IN LEVELS
Saloon(1-2):man with mustache and shirt/vest/bandana. Most wear hats.
The woman wears a simple shirt.
Sports bar(3-5):baseball(batting helmet, bat,) football(helmet/football)
and basketball(crewcut/ball) players and female tennis player with
racket and pony-tail
Punk bar(6-9):man with triangular collar, man with mohawk and vest, man
with safety pin in head, and woman with triangular floppy hair
Alien bar(10-13):a smart-alecky guy with a t-shirt with a diamond hole
that I call "Nregix," a koala bear looking alien that walks on the
bar(this may be the one female,) an alien with a snout, and an alien
with periscope eyes. They are colored red, green, purple or blue with
an occasional orange or grey snout.
STRATEGIES FOR LEVELS
General stuff: people reappear faster and closer to you as the level
drags on. They also seem to close in faster. So if you are able to
finish quickly, great. That should be the object later in the levels.
Also, as you go up in levels, the top levels seem to get smaller in
width, meaning they are more imperative, although on the bright side
people that appear there are easily knocked back. The dancing girls
also may not be worth it unless there are a LOT of people in play.
Often it is annoying to tell the people who have turned around from the
people who haven't--if you sling beers at folks who have, you lose a
man, of course.
Levels 1 and 2 are pretty easy. They are good practice for clean beer-
slinging and if you go pretty quickly you shouldn't have to serve any
extra beers in level 1. In level 2 you will probably need to serve
extra beers on the bottom row. You're more likely to get a tip there,
though, in case you want to see the saloon girls dance.
Levels 3-5 are a bit tougher. Fortunately you can finish them off
quicker. In general I prefer to sling as many beers as I can, move
down, etc. until I am back where I started. Then I need to "multi-task"
picking up beers and serving them although it is not too bad--nothing's
too fast. After slinging beers to the top row, you may want to go up
and take care of the third and fourth rows again.
Levels 6-9 follow the same sort of regimen although you will really need
to get the sling-four routine down as most rows will by now have four
patrons. Multitasking becomes more important here, and you'll have to
pick up a lot of beers and immediately serve and move up and down and
learn how to combine moves. Only go to the top when there seems to be
an emergency there and the bottom customers aren't taken care of. Only
pick up tips from the top.
Levels 10-13 are much the same as 6-9. If you don't have precise
pouring skills nailed down here, you are history as a bartender. Sorry
for the cop-out but read the general information below for advice.
GENERAL STUFF
General stuff includes--NEVER wait around. Always look for a beer
to sling and develop peripheral sight so you can see what is crashing
where. On later levels you will need to pay special attention to people
not knocked back out of the aisle at the top--it means a beer mug will
be returned quickly. Often you will want to sling a beer before running
to get empty mugs, or you may sling a beer, go up to get an empty mug,
and come back for the rest. In general, if you play good "defense,"
i.e. make sure mugs don't fall, and spend a lot of time sending mugs
off, you should be able to get through a level. Although you are really
in the best shape if you can get through a level quickly--it's possible
up to the fourth punk bar.
Also, you should never run inwards after a mug that isn't halfway to
your side of the aisle. There's plenty of time to do another chore and
come back. Above all, DON'T PANIC. There's usually a way to do a ton
of stuff at once. When in doubt, defend(i.e. pick up glasses) but don't
put yourself in doubt if no glasses are close to falling.
BONUS ROUNDS
Bonus rounds appear after you have cleared all of one type of bar,
i.e. saloon, outside sports bar, punk bar, aliens' bar. This means that
you get a chance for a bonus at levels 13x+2, 13x+5, 13x+9, and 13x+13,
x >= 0.
The closest thing to evil in this game appears to the left. Your
bartender, magnified a bit unflatteringly and with his back to the
action over on the right, smiles obliviously as the masked black man
shakes up five of the six cans in the center. He then bangs the table
and the cans start flipping around. If you focus on your can you should
be able to figure out where it winds up, but a moment of inattention
will mess things up. The cans get faster until level 9 when you have to
pay close attention indeed.
Success gets you 3000 and a "This Bud's For You." Failure gets your
bartender a shower of fizz, a defeated look and an impromptu new hair
style.
END-OF-LEVEL ANTICS
Your bartender may do five things on completion of a level.
1. throw a glass in the air and backheel and smash it, with a grin
and a wave.
2. throw a glass in the air and backheel it and hurt his foot and
jump around.
3. throw a glass in the air off the top of the screen, where it stuns
a bird that falls on his head.
4. throw a glass in the air and have it land over his head
5. throw a glass in the air and have it crash over his head,
frightening him a bit
He may also drink two beers instead of one.
MY STRONG OPINIONS
Although this game is easy to like it is rather unfair. Although it
is probably too tough to get to the fourteenth level without extreme
practice, once you do, you only get fifty points for serving cowboy
fellows who are faster than the aliens(150 points.) The bonus rounds
also don't increase even though the beers switch around faster.
Furthermore if you are extremely efficient you don't get anything
extra(i.e. clearing the board completely with only a few people
returning--if the game kept track of that and rewarded you, that would
be cool.) Some of the controls are a bit unresponsive as well. This
puts a small dent in the abundant humor you otherwise see in Tapper.
End of FAQ proper
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VERSIONS
1.0.0 submitted to GameFAQs 11/12/2001 as more or less complete(i.e. I'm
sure it's not perfect, but it's the best I can do with six Apple games I
-really- want to write for)
CREDITS
www.shockwave.com for having this game for free for a while. Budweiser
for the most ingenious corporate shills ever, even better than their
beer commercials. I forget if the beer itself is any good, as I haven't
had any since high school.
www.mame.net which allows you to check various levels easily with
Pugsy's handy cheat page.
