I have a friend who works at an arcade bar where they serve beers, so it's not hard for him to talk me into visiting his work place. After going around to see which games to play, I noticed that I seem to always gravitate towards Tapper and N.A.R.C. What alarms me is that these are the two games that most involve beer and drugs.
In Tapper (1983) you control a bartender pouring beers and passing them down three or four long bars to advancing customers. If a customer makes it all the way to the end of the bar without getting a drink, they pick you up and throw you down the bar (costing you a life). Also, if they send an empty glass down the bar before you can catch it, that also results in a lost life. It's a fast paced strategy game, but I'm always wondering why this doesn't staff more bartenders? I also start wondering why there isn't any security up in there? It seems like a scary place to work when a customer can whip your ass for not getting a drink out fast enough.
Believe it or not, this game was sponsered by Budweiser, there is a Budweiser sign on the side of the game and hanging up on the wall of the video game bar, and at one point they say "This Bud's for you!" I used to play this game at a family pizza place as a little kid, and even then I thought it was amazing that I could put in a quarter and be a bartender!
If you thought Tapper was nuts you have got to play N.A.R.C. (1988). In this shoot-em-up classic you control special agents looking to bring down Mr. Big, the nation's biggest drug dealer. Along the way you arrest a number of suspects, but usually you shoot them with a machine gun or blow them to hell with a rocket launcher. There are times in the game where you will blow something up and bags of cocaine will fly everywhere, at which time you scoop them up. At the end of each level it shows how many busts you made, confirmed kills you racked up, and how many drugs you confiscated. One level there are guys heaving giant seringes at you, and then in another there are steroid abusing guys picking up dumpsters and chucking them at you. This game really put the "war" in the whole "War On Drugs" thing that was going on in the 1980's. It's a blast!
Boy, I'm getting excited just talking about these two classics. I may be paying my friend another visit really soon. See you around, blog buddies.
8 comments:
I would say that NARC is more typical of the kind video game the masses prefer. Does anyone get to snort the cocaine? They ought to have that feature to make it more realistic. Merry Christmas, Dr Ken.
Very true. You should be able to confiscate it, sneak a sniff, and then get super speed and laser focus for a stretch. Merry Christmas to you and all the other gorillas.
sounds like an excellent game. in 1980 i bought a pinball arcade and lived the life of riley for about a year.
Billy: That would be cool to have one of those in my place, but my apartment is small. It just wouldn't work out. Some day I'll get "Tapper" and "NARC" in my house. When I'm rich. When that money falls of the truck.
Could've been worse. Could've been Frogger, which is just a suicide mission without much of a payoff.
I think you turned out just fine, Dr. Ken. I am a big fan of Galaga. We have a similar arcade in town and it was fun having a few adult beverages and killing those damn aliens.
Exile: Yeah, that game is odd because the frog is as big as the cars. Why does he die so easily when hit by one? Couldn't he stomp on a few of them? And why does he die when he goes in the water? Can't they swim? I'll stick to my bartender and cocaine bust games.
Shife: Did I tell you I met my wife over a game of Galaga? True story. I challenged her to a game and she whipped my ass.
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