Root Beer Tapper Video Game

The Root Beer Tapper coin-operated Videogame by Bally Midway (circa 1984), and it's history and background, photos, repair help, manuals, for sale.

Tapper is a classic game of filling 'em up and letting 'em loose. Did you know they had beer in space? Neither did I!

• 1Revisional Differences

Revisional Differences

Tapper underwent several revisions; besides the original release, there was a revision to that version, as well as Root Beer Tapper, a version of the game which replaced all references to beer with root beer after Bally Midway received complaints about supposedly advertising alcohol to children. The most notable change in this besides the beer removal is that the bartender the character plays as became a soda jerk. There is another version of the game which replaces the Budweiser beer references to that of the Japanese beer brand Suntory, though it has an odd history - despite being based on the original Tapper, even sharing its copyright information, the Suntory version supposedly surfaced in the 1990s on arcade boards made by Sega, who have denied any involvement. The Suntory release is something of a mix between Tapper and Root Beer Tapper, since it keeps the beer theme of the original, but uses the same censorship of Budweiser that Root Beer Tapper does.

Title Screen

The logo was completely redesigned for Root Beer Tapper, and the copyright information was updated from 1983 to 1984. In Tapper, the 'Tapper' fills up, while in Root Beer Tapper the mug fills up.

Country Bar

Each version of the game uses their own logos for the back wall. Tapper uses the Budweiser logo, the Suntory version uses the Suntory logo, and Root Beer Tapper uses a generic root beer sign. Similar changes are applied to the kegs. The window in Root Beer Tapper has been changed from 'BAR' to 'SODA'. The Suntory version keeps the 'BAR', but makes the text taller. The kegs have an extra detail in Root Beer Tapper and the Suntory version. The colors of the counters and their shadows were swapped in Root Beer Tapper and the Suntory version. The doors are also slightly different in each version.

Can Minigame

Before the minigame, each version flashes their own sponsor logo.

Another standard logo replacement. Each of the cans have been edited to fit the game's theme. Root Beer Tapper and the Suntory version have a graphical glitch on the object on the foreground object on the right that isn't in the original version or its revision. The Suntory version changes the number of supports on the counter's railing and breaks up its shadow, and extends the back wall down so that the floor can't be seen.

The message for choosing the right can is different between Tapper and both Root Beer Tapper and the Suntory version; in the original, the message is 'THIS BUDS FOR YOU', while the other versions use the non-Budweiser referencing version 'THIS ONES FOR YOU'.

Sports

The logo on the blimp was changed between all the versions and the blimp itself was moved in Root Beer Tapper. Root Beer Tapper changes the umbrellas to read 'ROOT BEER' instead of displaying a logo and have a slightly different shape than the ones in the other versions. Only Tapper has logos on the kegs. The ice around the kegs was adjusted slightly in Root Beer Tapper; this change was carried over to the Suntory version. Each version has a different number of braces on its counters, with the Suntory version having the most and Root Beer Tapper having the least. The clouds in the sky are different in each version; Tapper only has three clouds, while the other versions have four. While Root Beer Tapper's and the Suntory version's clouds are in the same places as each other, three of the four clouds are differently shaped. The Suntory version fixes a graphical glitch on the bleachers that the previous versions have.

Punk Bar

Each version uses the same logo from the Country Bar for their back wall, albeit with different palettes. The 'vomit' splatters on the wall have been adjusted in each version to account for the changing logos. Root Beer Tapper lacks a logo on its kegs. Strangely, the liquid under said kegs did not receive a color swap, making it possibly the only reference to real beer in the entire game. Root Beer Tapper makes the window taller. The Suntory version moves the window up and right; it also has a graphical error in the bottom left side of the screen that no other version has. Each version has the televisions on the right wall in different places and makes slight changes to the doors that the punks enter through.

High Score Screen

The cheerleader's hair color was changed between Set A and Set B of the original version. This change is also present in the cheerleaders on the Sports stages and on the operator's menu, though it's easiest to see on the high score screen.

Sound Test

Some of the songs were renamed when the Budweiser sponsorship was taken out. 'BUD WIN' became 'WIN TUNE', while 'BUD SONG 1' and 'BUD SONG 2' became 'SONG 1' and 'SONG 2' (not to be confused with the Blur song of the same name, of course).