A woman playing Whac-A-Mole |
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| Manufacturer(s) | Bob's Space Racers, Inc. |
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| Years active | version released in 1985 |
Whac-A-Mole is an arcade redemption game. A typical Whac-A-Mole machine consists of a large, waist-level cabinet with five holes in its top and a large, soft, black mallet. Each hole contains a single plastic mole and the machinery necessary to move it up and down. Once the game starts, the moles will begin to pop up from their holes at random. The object of the game is to force the individual moles back into their holes by hitting them directly on the head with the mallet, thereby adding to the player's score. The more quickly this is done the higher the final score will be.
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The popular carnival game was invented in 1976 by Aaron Fechter of Creative Engineering, Inc.[1]
The cabinet has a three-digit readout of the current player's score and, on later models, a best score of the day readout. The mallet is usually attached to the game by a rope in order to prevent patrons from walking away with it.
Current versions of the Whac-A-Mole include three displays for Bonus Score, High Score as well as current game score. Home versions as distributed by Bob's Space Racers, include one display to show the current score.
If the player does not strike a mole within a certain time or with enough force, it will eventually sink back into its hole with no score. Although gameplay starts out slow enough for most people to hit all of the moles that rise, it gradually increases in speed, with each mole spending less time above the hole and with more moles outside of their holes at the same time. After a designated time limit, the game ends, regardless of the skill of the player. The final score is based upon the number of moles that the player struck.
In addition to the single-player game described above, there is a multi-player game, most often found at amusement parks. In this version, there is a large bank of individual Whac-A-Mole games linked together, and the goal is to be the first player to reach a designated score, rather than hit the most moles within a certain time. In most versions, striking a mole is worth ten points, and the winner is the first player to reach a score of 150 (i.e. 15 moles). The winner receives a prize, typically a small stuffed animal, which can be traded up for a larger stuffed animal should the player win again.
Game play options have become more adjustable allowing the operator and or owner to selectively alter the high score, hits points, rate of progressive speed as well as the game time.
The Whac-A-Mole game trademark is owned by Bob's Space Racers.[2] Machines with similar gameplay are sold under other names. Whac-A-Mole has also been the basis for a number of internet games and mobile games that are similar in gameplay and strategy.
Engineer Tim Hunkin built and installed a "Whack a Banker" machine at Southwold Pier in England[3] made from parts of a previous "Whack a Warden" machine.[4]
The connotation of "Whac-a-mole" or "Whack-a-mole" in colloquial usage is that of a repetitious and futile task: each time the attacker is "whacked" or kicked off a service, he only pops up again from another direction.[5][6] The term has been used in the computer and networking industry to describe the phenomenon of fending off recurring spammers, vandals or miscreants. It is also used in the military to refer to opposing troops who keep re-appearing.[7][8] This use has been common in the Iraq War in reference to the difficulty of defeating the Iraqi insurgency.[9] Nuclear scientist Edwin Lyman compares the multiple simultaneous crises at Fukushima I to a game of “whack-a-mole” [10]