Shufflepuck Cafe (Game)

Shufflepuck Cafe

GAME » on July 1988

Amiga (Platform)Amstrad CPC (Platform)Atari ST (Platform)Mac (Platform)NEC PC-9801 (Platform)Nintendo Entertainment System (Platform)PC (Platform)Sharp X68000 (Platform)

Enter a den of inter-galactic misfits and challenge them to a unique version of air hockey in this 1988-1989 mouse-focused computer game.

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Overview

A variety of challengers awaits you in the galaxy's last den of air hockey enthusiasts!

Shufflepuck Café is a comedic sci-fi air hockey game developed by Christopher Gross (with contributions by Gene Portwood (Person) and Lauren Elliott (Person)) and published by Brøderbund for Macintosh computers in July 1988.

One of the earliest computer games to be developed with mouse controls in mind, Shufflepuck Café builds on the concept of air hockey (from a first-person perspective) with the rectangular paddles and open player walls of the classic game Pong (Game). Despite its name and use of a table that resembles a shufflepuck table, the game bears little resemblance to traditional shufflepuck.

The game, sporting a comical sci-fi theme, features nine unique opponents to challenge, each with a variety of strengths and weaknesses. In the game's story, established with its later ports, players control a successful inter-galactic salesman whose ride breaks down into the wrong side of town. Needing a phone to call for repairs, the salesman enters a shoddy structure into a den of misfits playing the titular Shufflepuck.

The game later received numerous colorized ports throughout 1989, including ports by Infogrames to the Amiga (Platform), the Atari ST (Platform), and DOS PCs, an European-exclusive port by Microïds (Company) for the Amstrad CPC (Platform), and Japanese-exclusive ports by Brøderbund Japan to the NEC PC-9801, Sharp X68000 (Platform), and Family Computer. An Apple IIgs (Platform) version was advertised on the box for some of the other releases, but was unreleased.

It later received a spiritual successor with the 2012 game Shufflepuck Cantina.

Gameplay

This air hockey game can be played in sessions against one opponent at a time, which the player chooses from a splash screen that features every character, or in a tournament mode where the player takes on every opponent in order of difficulty on their way to the top.

The player must rebound the puck past the opponents paddle, effectively breaking the holographic "glass" at the end of the table. The winner is the first to score fifteen points.

Customization

When not playing in the game's Tournament mode, players can adjust various aspects of the game, including their paddle's size and strength, whether or not a central "blocker" paddle is used (which is customizable in size and how much it moves), and the training droid's AI.

In the game's default Tournament settings, the player's paddle takes up 20% of the playfield, with the puck leaving their paddle at a minimum of 50% speed on idle "blocked" shots and a maximum of 130% speed (70% for side-to-side) on active "power" shots. When holding down the mouse button, this adds up to 10% more speed on power shots. All of these can be adjusted for easier or harder difficulty, with the possibility of more advanced play depending on if the mouse button is held.

Opponents

Along with the game's customizable training robot (the DC3-ALSO), the game includes eight distinct opponents, each with their own strategies and tricks. While they can be challenged separately, players can face off in a "tournament" against them in order:

"Skip" Feeney - A timid, nerdy human guy and a novice player. As the first opponent, he is the game's easiest challenge and does not play aggressively.
Visine Orb (Character) - A short, nervous creature who quickly moves his paddle around the playfield in an erratic manner. Despite his erratic movement and his bouncy serves, he doesn't do much to block the player's shots.
Vinnie The Dweeb (Character) - An easy-going and languid player who can spike his shots if given a slow serve, although he is slow to react otherwise.
Lexan Smythe-Worthington - An aristocratic player who starts off as a strong opponent. However, as he scores against the player, he takes a sip of champagne and becomes less effective.
Eneg Doowtrop (Character) - A pig-faced player in military garb who plays aggressively with a slightly-smaller paddle, although the often leave gaps in his defenses. Known in some versions as The General, his name is contributor Gene Portwood (Person) spelled backwards.
Nerual Ttoille (Character) - A mysterious hooded figure who mimics the player's shots in its returns. Despite its aggressive serves and difficult play style, its smaller paddle can leave gaps in its defenses. Its name is contributor Lauren Elliott (Person) spelled backwards.
Princess Bejin (Character) - A beautiful woman who, despite being human in appearance, occasionally cheats by using her telekinesis in her serves (with the sound of her powers determining if the puck moves in the same or opposite side). However, she has the smallest paddle out of all challengers, at half-size.
Biff Raunch (Character) - A burly human biker and the Café's champion. As the final opponent, he is the game's hardest challenge and has no weaknesses.

The PC-98 and X68000 versions feature two new exclusive characters:

Saming Lolan
Bongo Banger

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