Tapper (VIC-20) — unofficial fan version

Tapper for the Commodore VIC-20: a fan-made version of the 1983 arcade classic, written from scratch in 6502 assembly for a VIC-20 with a 16K memory expansion. It's all character graphics, with smooth movement, and it plays as close to the arcade as a 22-column screen allows.

Note: Tapper works on both PAL and NTSC machines at the same speed. The music is tuned for PAL, so on NTSC it plays a little flat.

You run the bar. The customers are thirsty, there are four bars to look after, and they won't stop coming.

This is an unofficial fan project, not connected with or endorsed by the owners of the original game.

How it plays

- Pour a beer at the tap, then slide it down the bar. A customer who catches it is pushed back, right out of the doors if he's close enough.

- Anyone still in the bar drinks up, slides the empty back and comes on again. Catch that mug!

- You lose a life if a full mug reaches the end with nobody to catch it, if an empty falls off your end, or if a customer reaches your end of the bar, when he slides you down it for serving too slow.

- Clear every customer to finish the level. Lose no lives and it's a perfect bar.

- 3 lives, and an extra life every 20,000 points.

What's in it:

- Six bar layouts: bars that run the other way with the tap on the left, mixtures of both, and shorter bars with the doors further in

- Smooth movement: customers and mugs move in 2-pixel steps, not whole characters, on a machine with no sprites

- Four kinds of customer: cowboys are slow and heavy, long hair drinks fast, mohawks are quick but fly furthest when hit

- The floor show: collect a tip and everybody stops to watch for 3 seconds, but they won't catch beers while they do

- The Soda Bandit bonus round after every even level: follow the one mug he didn't shake

- Two tunes in two voices: "Camptown Races" on the title and "Oh! Susanna" in the bar, with jingles for extra lives, cleared bars, lost lives and game over

- Difficulty that climbs smoothly, level by level, up to level 8

- PAL and NTSC: the game checks which machine it's on and runs at the same speed

- Start from level 1, 2 or 3, high score, pause, and separate music and sound effects switches

Controls

Change bar: Joystick up / down (port 1), or W / S

Run along the bar: Joystick left / right, or A / D

Pour: Hold fire or SPACE until the mug is full, then release

Pause: P or F1

Quit: While paused: Q, then Y or N

Music / Sound: | M / S on the title screen

Starting level: 1, 2, 3 or joystick left / right on the title screen

Start: Fire on the title screen

How to play:

Press fire (or SPACE) on the title screen to start.

For a joystick, open the joystick settings and map a joystick (or the keyboard "keyset" joystick) to Joystick port 1.

Scoring:

Beer served - 50

Empty mug caught - 100

Customer out of the doors - 100

Tip - 1500

Bar cleared - 1000

Perfect bar (no life lost) - 3000

Bonus round - 3000

Tips:

- Watch the empties: stay near the tap or you'll miss one coming back

- Heavy cowboys don't slide far. They'll take more than one beer to shift

- Don't pour during a show unless you know the mug will be caught after it ends

- Tips are worth having, but the run to collect one leaves your tap unattended

- On mixed layouts your tap swaps sides as you change bars, so look before you pour

Credits:

- Created by Tony Brice (Xerra)

- Thanks to Carl & Triona

- Inspired by: Tapper, the 1983 arcade game by Marvin Glass & Associates, published by Bally Midway

- Music: "Camptown Races" and "Oh! Susanna" by Stephen Foster (public domain), arranged for the VIC-20

- Built with KickAssembler, tested in VICE

- This game was coded with Claude assistance