I am now the proud owner of an honest-to-God, according -to-Hoyle, real live ARCADE GAME!
It’s a Tapper, from 1983, made by Midway. Pretty rare, as these things go. In the game you are a bartender, working four different bars at the same time. You have to serve all the customers before they reach the end of the bar, while also catching the empty mugs they throw back at you.
The game looks really cool. It has a bar rail, and the controllers are actual beer taps! I have it sitting in my living room, and I think this is the most awesome thing in the world. I would have killed for this when I was 14!
That game was so damned hard. I could never figure it out. But I did think it was pretty cool. As far as video games go, it’s a pretty original concept. No space aliens or lasers or anything. Just a dude serving beers as fast as he can.
It was later changed to “Root Beer Tapper” under pressure from tight-assed parents… so if your little guy is dishing up the actual suds instead of A&W, it’s all that much rarer.