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This game was and still is considered my favorite arcade game. I used to play this game when I was just 7 years old at
a corner store that I used to live next to. One day I was having my very best game ever and the game man came to swap it for
another game. He wouldn't even let my finish my game. He unplugged it and took it away. He tried to make it up to me by giving
me free credits on another game but it didn't work. That was the last time I ever played it as an arcade machine.
Fast forward about 13 years: I remember this game but I cannot remember the title. After a few days of searching the
web I happen upon the name. I find that MAME emulates this game so I start using MAME (This is the soul reason I got
into MAME). Here it is now 7 years after that and now I finally own this great game. If you're keeping track, 20 years after
I last played Mappy as an arcade machine, I have my very own! Received 07-08-04.
This machine is by no way considered to be in perfect shape. The monitor had
just been replaced. The marquee lights were out so I replaced the bulbs and ballasts. The coin mechs are missing. It's got
chips and scratches as any 21yr old game would. It plays beautifully. It even came with the keys!
From Klov:
DescriptionYou are a mouse in a house of burglar-cats intent on recovering their stolen loot. You get from floor
to floor by jumping on trampolines. Various doors are your only defense against the cats.
Cabinet InformationMappy has an unusually large marquee, measuring 22 inches wide by 16.5 inches tall, mounted
on a light box on top of the main cabinet. The side art appears to be adhesive decals.
Game IntroductionThe game music appears to be based on ragtime. There are a total of fifteen rounds in the game,
after which it wraps back to the first round. The design was created by Namco and licensed to Bally Midway, who built it.
The player controls Mappy, the "Micro Police, a police-mouse whose job is to collect valuables from a cat's house (one
has to surmise that he is retrieving stolen goods).
In hot pursuit of our hero is a gang of five pink cats called Meowsky or "Naughty Folks" and a large red fat cat called
Goro or "Boss The Big Bit".
Cheats, Tricks and BugsMappy can sometimes pass through Goro without being killed when Goro leaves a stolen item.
Game PlayConsists of trying to recover a set of stolen goods from a house apparently owned by cats, one of whom is
a boss (Goro).
Treasures (two each) / Value (points):
- tape player - 100
- television - 200
- computer - 300
- painting - 400
- safe - 500
Other sources of points include bouncing on a trampoline (10 points), striking a cat with a door (50 points, 0 points if
they hit a door on their own), microwaving cats (200 per cat and multiply by two if you get Goro), retrieving a treasure with
Goro behind it (1000 point bonus), striking cats with a bell (300 for Meowsky, 1000 for Goro), and dropping cats through a
hole in the floor (unknown value).
Strategies for getting the treasures without getting killed and maximizing your points vary. If you retrieve the treasures
in pairs, multipliers will increase such that the final treasure, the second safe, will be worth 3000 points. This would give
you a potential 8500 points just from treasure recovery. Getting killed resets the multiplier, so this assumes that you take
the treasures in order and don't get killed. You might also simply try to microwave as many cats as possible at once, and
catch Goro behind every treasure he hides behind.
Use the Door button to open and close doors. Cats are stunned by doors which hit them, but they can open normal doors which
they come upon from behind. Only Mappy can open microwave doors. Once used, microwave doors become regular doors. Cats never
close doors. Rounds begin and game resumes with all doors closed regardless of their previous state.
Levels 3, 7, 11, and 15 are bonus rounds. Each red balloon you pop is worth 200 points later. The last balloon, with Goro
behind it, is worth 2000 points later. Bouncing on trampolines here is still worth 10 points. If you get all the balloons,
you'll get a total of 5000 points plus a bonus of 5000 points. To completely clear rounds 11 and 15 require noting a difference
between rounds three and seven. If you wait too long after the HURRY UP message, a green spinning disc with Goro on it will
appear.
MiscellaneousLICENSOR: Namco
In the Japanese version Goro is called Nyamco.
TechnicalThe game uses two 6809 microprocessors and a Namco 8-channel PSG for sounds.
TriviaThis game was and still is, more popular in Japan than it is in the USA, possibly due to cultural differences.
There have been sequels to this game (e.g. Hopping Mappy), but these were only released in Japan.
Cats and mice have been in cartoons for as long as anyone can remember. Tom and Jerry, Pixie, Dixie and Jinx, Herman and
Katnip, Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse, Krazy Kat and Ignatz and the list goes on and on. So when video game designers brought
the cat and mouse theme into video games. First, there was Mouse Trap by Exidy and then there was Mappy by Namco
(licensed to Bally/Midway).
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