Mappy (Japan) - MAME machine

Arcade Video game published 41 years ago:

Mappy © 1983 Namco.

You are Mappy, the brave mouse policeman. Mappy's mission is to retrieve all of the stolen treasure from the Mewkies cat gang. They've stashed all of the loot in their leader's mansion which contains several floors, and numerous trampolines that the Mewkies like to use to travel between stories. Mappy must keep away from the cats and collect all items in the house before moving on to the next house. If Mappy is caught by a cat, he loses a life. Mappy also loses a life if he crashes to the floor by breaking through a trampoline or falling into a pitfall. When all of Mappy's lives are lost, the game is over.

Houses have six floors, and some houses in later rounds have an attic. Mappy gets to the different floors by jumping on a trampoline. Mappy can jump three times on a trampoline, but the fourth time will break it. Once Mappy moves onto a floor, he can jump on the trampoline another three times.

When Mappy jumps on the trampoline, he will go to the top floor of the house unless you push the joystick left or right to move him onto a particular floor. You can move Mappy onto a floor as he's on the way up, but not on the way down.

Nyamco, the boss cat, does not chase Mappy. Instead he moves around in a zigzag pattern. He also like to hide for a few seconds behind a treasure.

The cats are very sneaky and, if given half a chance, will try to corner Mappy at the end of one of the platforms or to trap him on one of the floors he must use to get to the treasures he's after.

The cats have no defense mechanisms of any kind. But they cannot be permanently eliminated either. As soon as Mappy puts one cat out of commission, another cat appears somewhere else in the house.

However, in an emergency, you can slow one cat down for short periods of time. This is accomplished by having Mappy throw open a standard door in the cat's face to knock him down and stun him. When hit by the door, the cat will be stunned for several seconds. When he is disabled like this, Mappy can walk right by him and not get caught. To temporarily eliminate more than one pursuer at a time, Mappy must catch them in the microwaves emitted when opening power doors - the thick flashing doors that flicker with different colors.

As your skill level increases, the number and direction of pursuers coming at you at any one time and the speed with which they move, is gradually increased; plus, their pursuit patterns become more and more devious while their overall accuracy is highly improved.

Bonus lives are awarded to you periodically throughout the game as you reach or pass certain preselected point values ('Extra Lives' dip switch).

Once all the treasure in the house has been retrieved, you move on to the next house.

A bonus round is awarded to you after the 2nd house, and after every 3rd house thereafter, i.e. in after the 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th, etc. houses. In the bonus rounds, you score extra points by popping balloons. Using the trampoline, jump to pop as many balloons as possible in the fewest number of moves. The bonus round ends when the music ends. If you die during a bonus round, the bonus round ends there, but the number of lives remaining is not affected.

• CAST OF CHARACTERS -

Mappy ("Micro Police") - This is you, our hero and defender of justice, the police-mouse who is on the case to recover the stolen loot from the enemy cats.

Nyamco ("Boss The Big Bit") - Does not chase Mappy, but moves around the house in a zig-zag fashion

Mewkies ("Naughty Folks") - This gang of smaller cats chases and tries to catch Mappy.

Gosenzo - This appears when Mappy moves throughout the house for a long period of time without retrieving any stolen items. Once it appears, Mappy has no chance of escaping.

Doors - When Mappy is directly in front of a door, press the Door button to open the door. Doors open in the direction of the doorknob. Mappy cannot go through a closed door; you must open it to go through.

Power Doors - These flicker with different colors and are thicker than the ordinary doors. When you press the Door button, the door opens and sends a microwave that flushes away Mappy's feline pursuers. There are four power doors in each house.

TECHNICAL
Game ID: MP

Main CPU: Motorola M6809 (@ 1.536 Mhz)
Sound CPU: Motorola M6809 (@ 1.536 Mhz)
Sound Chips: Namco 8-channel WSG

Players: 2
Control: 2-way joystick
Buttons: 1 (used to open and close doors)

TRIVIA
Mappy was released in March 1983 in Japan.

Mappy was the first game from Namco to include the message 'All Rights Reserved' on the title screen.

The mapping of the level counters in Mappy is a little strange; after level 49, the level symbols in the bottom right corner temporarily stop updating, but the numerical level counter and the high score display both record the proper level. The level symbols then start displaying correctly again at level 100 and continues to display correctly until level 254. Level 255 morphs into Level 0. Then the game starts over again and becomes easy again for Level 1.

Mappy is likely derived from 'mappo', a Japanese slang term (slightly insulting) for a policeman.

Nyamco is not only a play on Namco, but also comes from 'nyanko', the Japanese equivalent of "kitty cat".

Greg Bond holds the official record for this game with 658,160 points on June 27, 2002.

SCORING
Bouncing on a trampoline: 10 points

Grabbing a radio: 100 points
Grabbing a TV: 200 points
Grabbing a computer: 300 points
Grabbing a Mona Lisa painting: 400 points
Grabbing a safe: 500 points

In addition, a special multiplier is applied if the second instance of an item is grabbed immediately after the first:

1st Pair: 2x
2nd Pair: 3x
3rd Pair: 4x
4th Pair: 5x
5th Pair: 6x

(Losing a life resets the multiplier)

Picking up loot while Nyamco is hiding behind it: 1,000 extra points

Catching cats in a microwave:
1 cat: 200 points
2 cats: 400 points
3 cats: 800 points
4 cats: 1,200 points
5 cats: 1,600 points
6 cats: 2,000 points
7 cats: 3,000 points
8 cats: 4,000 points
9 cats: 5,000 points
10 cats: 6,000 points
NOTE: When Nyamco is caught in the wave, he not only counts towards the number of cats captured, he also doubles the score.

Hitting a cat with a bell: 300 points
Hitting Nyamco with a bell: 1,000 points

BONUS ROUNDS:

Popping a red balloon: 200 points
Popping the large blue balloon: 2,000 points
Perfect (bonus for popping all balloons): 5,000 points

TIPS AND TRICKS
Doors can be used in many ways. For example, knock out a cat with a swinging door, or have Mappy body slam a cat by pulling open a door.

Houses 8, 9, and 10 have bells hanging from the top floor. When Mappy bumps one of these, it falls and temporarily stuns the cats below.

In houses 12, 13, and 14, parts of the floor will flicker. When Mappy passes over one of these, it becomes a pitfall for a set time. Cats who fall into the pitfall are temporarily knocked unconscious.

To save time in the bonus round, break through a trampoline by having Mappy bounce off a side wall three times instead of going all the way up to the top of the jump each time. Push the stick left or right just as Mappy begins his jump.

• Easter Egg 1:

1) Enter service mode.
2) Keep Left pressed to make the screen scroll left until the grid covers the whole screen.
3) Press the service switch 3 times (the one that adds a credit, not the one to enter service mode).
4) Keep Button 1 pressed and enter the following sequence: Left(x4), Start1(x6), Left(x3), Start2. '© 1983 NAMCO' will appear on the screen.

• Easter Egg 2:

1) Play the game and reach the third bonus round (the one after round 10).
2) Press Button1(x3), Start1(x3) and Start2(x3).
After the score of the bonus round is shown, this text will be added at the bottom of the screen: '© 1983 Namco All Rights Reserved'.

SERIES

• Mappy (1983)
• Hopping Mappy (1986)
• Mappy-Land (1986, Nintendo Famicom)
• Mappy Kids (1989, Nintendo Famicom)
• Mappy Arrangement (1995): part of "Namco Classics Collection Vol.1"

STAFF
Planning: Hideharu Sato
Hardware: Toru Ogawa, Shigeru Sato
Programming: Kazuo Kurosu
Music by: Nobuyuki Ohnogi

PORTS

• CONSOLES:

[JP] Nintendo Famicom (nov.14, 1984) "Mappy [Model NMP-4500]"
[JP] Super Cassette Vision (1986) "Mappy [Model 28 NO.09340]"
[AU] Sony PlayStation (1996) "Namco Museum Vol.2 [Model SCES-00267]"
[JP] Sony PlayStation (feb.9, 1996) "Namco Museum Vol.2 [Model SLPS-00210]"
[EU] Sony PlayStation (nov.1996) "Namco Museum Vol.2 [Model SCES-00267]"
[JP] Sony PS2 (jan.26, 2006) "Namco Museum Arcade Hits! [Model SLPS-25590]"
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.24, 2006) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary"
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model SLES-53957]"
[EU] Nintendo GameCube (may.5, 2006) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model DOL-G5NP-EUR]"
[JP] Nintendo Wii (dec.6, 2007) "Minna de Asobou! Namco Carnival [Model RVL-RNWJ-JPN]"
[EU] Nintendo Wii (apr.18, 2008) "Namco Museum Remix [Model RVL-RN2P]"
[KO] Nintendo Wii (apr.26, 2008) "Namco Museum Remix"
[AU] Nintendo Wii (may.1, 2008) "Namco Museum Remix [Model RVL-RN2P]"
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console Arcade] [AU] (mar.23, 2009)
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console Arcade] [EU] (mar.25, 2009)
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console Arcade] [JP] (apr.14, 2009)
[EU] Microsoft XBOX 360 (may.15, 2009) "Namco Museum - Virtual Arcade"
[AU] Microsoft XBOX 360 (june.4, 2009) "Namco Museum - Virtual Arcade"
[JP] Microsoft XBOX 360 (nov.5, 2009) "Namco Museum - Virtual Arcade [Model 2RD-00001]"

• HANDHELDS:

[JP] Sega Game Gear (may.24, 1991) "Mappy [Model T-14027]"
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy (jul.21, 1996) "Namco Gallery Vol.1 [Model DMG-ANGJ]"
[EU] Sony PSP (dec.9, 2005) "Namco Museum Battle Collection [Model UCES-00116]"
[JP] Sony PSP (feb.23, 2006) "Namco Museum Vol.2 [Model ULJS-00047]"
Sony PSP [KO] (nov.8, 2007) "Namco Museum Vol.2"
[JP] Nintendo DS (oct.11, 2007) "Namco Museum DS [Model NTR-YNMJ-JPN]"
[EU] Nintendo DS (feb.29, 2008) "Namco Museum DS [Model NTR-YNMP-EUR]"

• COMPUTERS:

Fujitsu FM-7 [JP] (1983)
[JP] MSX (1984)
PC [MS Windows] [JP] (apr.25, 1997) "Namco History Vol.1"
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.27, 2006) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary"
PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] [AU] (may.19, 2006) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary"
Sord-M5 [JP]
NEC PC-6001 [JP]
NEC PC-8001 [JP]
NEC PC-8801 [JP]
NEC PC-9800 series [JP]
[JP] Sharp X1 (nov.1986) "Mappy (New Version)"
Sharp MZ1200/1500 [JP]
Sharp MZ2500 [JP]
[JP] Sharp X68000

• OTHERS:

Arcade [JP] (1995) "Namco Classics Collection Vol.1"
Let's TV play classic series - Namco Nostalgia 1 [JP]

CONTRIBUTE
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