One day, three people at Brøderbund Software, named Christopher Gross, Gene Portwood and Lauren Elliott, had a burning question: "What if you could play air hockey in the Mos Eisley cantina?"
From this High Concept, the game named Shufflepuck Café was born. It was originally released for Apple Macintosh in 1989; from then on, it was ported to NES and all the major computers of its day.
Contains examples of...
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Bejin has black hair in most versions, but is blonde in the NES port, while Biff loses his hair entirely and has tattoos instead.
- Adaptation Species Change: The face Nerual reveals when one of you scores in most versions resembles a cycloptic ogre, but in the NES port it's some kind of moray eel-like creature.
- Adaptational Modesty: Downplayed in that her outfit is still pretty revealing, but Bejin has a bra covering her breasts in the NES port, whereas the other versions made it pretty clear there was nothing but skin under her cape.
- The Alcoholic: Lexan takes swigs throughout the game, becomes increasingly uncoordinated, and passes out at the end whether he wins or not.
- All Bikers Are Hells Angels: Biff Raunch is a burly, grizzled member of the Heaven's Devils Galacticycle Club.
- All There in the Manual: You're a traveling salesman whose spaceship broke down, and you've come to the café looking for a phone. The patrons won't let you by until you've bested them all in a Shufflepuck tournament.
- And Starring: On the title screen, two developers' names exchange positions to affirm their equal importance.
- Armchair Military: Eneg styles himself as a revolutionary general, but he really just owns the costume.
- Badass Bandolier: In the Mac version, Vinnie has one that holds what look like beer bottles.
- Camera Abuse: Goals scored on the player appear to smash into the glass of the screen...whereas goals scored on the other player crack an invisible plane on the far side of the court.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: Lexan plays very well initially, but he sips his champagne as the game goes on, lowering his skills greatly.
- The Computer Shall Taunt You:
- If he wins, Vinnie sticks out his tongue with a "nyah-nyah" noise.
- Biff laughs loudly whenever he scores a point.
- Ditto Fighter: Nerual matches your moves.
- Emotionless Girl: Aside from a wink and a tiny smile when things go her way, Bejin remains completely impassive.
- The Faceless: Nerual initially presents as this; after a score they'll open their cloak to reveal a face in their torso, while some artwork such as their Profile image in the NES version shows glowing eyes in the hooded darkness. It's unclear if they're a midget wearing a fake head, two creatures wearing one outfit, or are literally a two-headed being.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Per the manual, "if you lose you'll earn their contempt. Win, and you'll earn their resentment."
- Frictionless Ice: You can hit the puck exactly sideways and watch it bounce back and forth forever without losing momentum.
- Meaningful Name: Visine Orb is only visible from the eyes up.
- Navel-Deep Neckline: Princess Bejin wears her robes open, exposing her cleavage and navel.
- Password Save: You can input a six-number password to start the tournament at a certain opponent in the NES version.
- Sdrawkcab Name: Eneg Doowtrop and Nerual Ttoille, after two of the developers.
- Telekinesis: How Bejin serves the puck. As her profile in the manual puts it, "Her serve is something to see."
- Training Dummy: Robot bartender DC3 can be configured for any level of difficulty.
- The Unintelligible: DC3 speaks in R2D2 noises.
- Warm-Up Boss:
- Skip, the first opponent. He's extremely poor at the game, hitting the puck very lightly and not attempting to defend his side.
- Visine, the second opponent, isn't much better. His only "strategy" is to blindly move his mallet back and forth, the air hockey equivalent of Button Mashing.
- Walking Shirtless Scene:
- Biff, like any good biker, wears only an open sleeveless leather vest on his top. In the NES version he's completely topless.
- Vinnie has only a single strap around his chest in the DOS, mac, and NES versions, though in the Atari and Amiga versions he wears a jacket.