A Broderbund Macintosh game from the late 1980s. In black and white to work on the rather limited screen of Macintosh Plus and Macintosh SE.
You play shufflepuck against aliens in some cafe in a space colony. You can choose which alien to play, and they all have different personalities and playing styles. The game also lets you adjust the size of your paddle and the speed of the mouse.
I remember playing this a lot during my lunch breaks in a previous job, and finding out which tactic would beat which alien was as fun as actually playing the game. I specifically remember a Morticia Adams-like creature who would mirror whatever you did. You shoot a slow shot, she shoots a slow shot, you shoot a fast angled shot... You get it. Another creature was so fast that the only way I could play without immediately losing, would be by making the paddle as wide as the board. It's like cheating, but at least I could manage a draw. In all there were about a dozen different creatures.
Another nice feature of the game was the fantastic glass-breaking sound effect you heard when you lost.
Hmm... maybe I should get myself a Macintosh again...
As so gently pointed out by more than one fellow users, the Shufflepuck Cafe game was also ported to several other platforms, like Amiga, Atari ST, Nintendo, Amstrad CPC and Apple IIgs. In the porting color was added, but the game is still of the same addictive nature. I even found it on a list of Best Atari ST games on a shared 21st place. If you know of any other ports, let me know and I'll add them.
Here is a list of the possible contenders you could choose from:
- DC3-ALSO
- The standard training robot, which you can configure to respond the way you want.
- Skip Feeney
- Novice player who is a bit of a wimp. A few hard hits and you win.
- Visine Orb
- Native of Sqalor III, short but efficient.
- Vinnie the Dweeb
- Very accurate player
- Lexan Smythe-Worthington
- A drinking lizard who sometimes get a bit tipsy.
- The General
- Hard hitting wannabe revolutionary
- Nerual Ttoille
- Hooded creature with the face in the shadows. Mirrors your playing exactly.
- Princess Bejin
- This is the Morticia lookalike I mentioned above. She has mental powers, and when she serves she doesn't even touch the puck
- Biff Raunch
- A big mean hard-hitting alien. The reigning champion. Terrible winner and even worse loser. Almost impossible to beat.