Shufflepuck Café

Shufflepuck Café

Cover art by Gary Ruddell
Developer(s) Christopher Gross
Gene Portwood
Lauren Elliott
Publisher(s) Brøderbund
Ubisoft
Platform(s) Macintosh (original)
Amiga, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, NEC PC-9801 (Japan), Sharp X68000 (Japan), Family Computer (Japan), MS-DOS
Release 6 July 1989
Genre(s) Sports game
Mode(s) Single player

Shufflepuck Café is a computer air hockey game developed by Christopher Gross, Gene Portwood and Lauren Elliott for Brøderbund (not a table shuffleboard video game, as the name would suggest—though that was the intention when the name was first coined by Christopher Gross). Originally developed for the Macintosh, it was later adapted by Brøderbund for the Amiga, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, Nintendo Entertainment System, Sharp X68000, NES, NEC PC-9801 and MS-DOS.

Gameplay

Screenshot from the Amiga version, playing against Princess Bejin

There are two game modes. The player can compete in a tournament, playing against opponents who visit the Café, or can practice against each opponent to find out his/her/its weakness in a single-player match.

The game is controlled via the computer's mouse. The bat on the playing field bounces a hockey puck between the player and the opponent. When one of the players manages to knock the hockey puck past the opponent's bat, the player scores.

After a set number of points (usually 15) the match is over.

Shufflepuck Café includes nine opponents:

In some versions, during gameplay there is a cheat option, which gives the player the option of winning or losing the game, winning or losing the tournament or gaining or losing five points.

Subsequent releases include Shufflepuck Revolution (an OS X version, now discontinued) and Shufflepuck (from the same developer).

Plot

There is a general storyline behind the Amiga version of the game in which the player is an inter-galactic salesman whose spaceship has broken down. He needs to find a telephone to call the breakdown service and get the spaceship fixed. Shufflepuck Café is the nearest place for miles, so he goes in to use their telephone. The main eight Shufflepuck players are standing in his way and will not let him get to the phone until he has beaten them all. Once all are defeated, the player gets in his spaceship and flies off into the distance.

Reception

The game was reviewed in 1989 in Dragon #142 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 412 out of 5 stars.[1] On release, Famitsu magazine scored the Famicom version of the game a 23 out of 40.[2]

References

  1. Lesser, Hartley; Lesser, Patricia; Lesser, Kirk (February 1989). "The Role of Computers". Dragon (142): 42–51.
  2. お買い物に便利 : 新作ゲームクロスレビュー - シャッフル パック・カフェ. Famicom Tsūshin. No.22. Pg.19. 26 October 1990.
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