Tapper (sometimes known as Root Beer Tapper) is an iconic arcade game first manufactured in 1983 by Bally Midway. It features gameplay based on the job of bartending – serving drinks to customers and cleaning up after them.
Category Archives: Bally Midway
Domino Man, Arcade
This strange 1983 arcade game from Bally Midway is based on the bizarre-but-satisfying craze of ‘domino toppling’.
10 Best Spy Hunter Conversions
LISTS: as decided by The King of Grabs, in order of greatness:
These are just an opinion, but please do feel free to comment with your opinions. Unless you’re a comment spammer. In which case: do feel free to f*ck off…
Bally Midway‘s classic Spy Hunter is a brilliant overhead race game with guns and bumping cars and speed boats and chasing helicopters, and general high-speed excitement. It is such a good game that it has been converted to pretty much every gaming system known to man.
Here’s our rundown of the top 10 Spy Hunter conversions…
1. Nintendo Entertainment System < Probably the most fun
2. Atari 800 << Better than most
3. Commodore 64 <<< Entertaining
4. ZX Spectrum <<<< A fun conversion
5. ColecoVision <<<<< Pretty good
6. Amstrad CPC <<<<<< Reasonable
7. Atari 2600 <<<<<<< Basic
8. BBC Micro <<<<<<<< Forgettable
9. Apple II <<<<<<<< Rubbish
10. PC MS-DOS <<<<<<<<< Utterly terrible
And, of course, not forgetting the utterly brilliant arcade original.
More: Spy Hunter on Wikipedia
Spy Hunter, Atari 2600
You’d expect the Atari 2600 version of Spy Hunter to be the runt of the litter, and… it’s actually not too bad.
Spy Hunter, BBC Micro
David Hoskins made this BBC Micro conversion of Spy Hunter for Micro Power, Sega and US Gold (not to mention Bally Midway) in 1986.*
It’s a strange conversion overall.
Spy Hunter, Apple II
Like the MS-DOS version of Spy Hunter, the Apple II conversion of the classic Bally Midway arcade game is a bit… erm, rubbish.
Spy Hunter, Amstrad CPC
Released by Sega in 1986, this Amstrad CPC conversion of Spy Hunter drives well enough, but looks a bit dented on the outside. Meaning: the graphics are a bit basic…
Spy Hunter, Atari 8-bit
The Atari 8-bit version of Spy Hunter is a cracking rendition, with smooth scrolling and decent sprites.
Spy Hunter, PC
Spy Hunter for PC MS-DOS is unfortunately a terrible stinker of a video game. I can forgive the four-colour, CGA graphics, but I can’t forgive the repetitive, dull gameplay and the unresponsive controls.
Spy Hunter, NES
The 1987 Nintendo Entertainment System conversion of Spy Hunter was handled by Sunsoft and is an excellent addition to the Spy Hunter family.
In some respects this is better than the arcade original, because it’s not quite so mind-bendingly difficult…
The King of Grabs 