Sometimes it bothers me how that are not enough video games out there that are appropriate for younger children. Perhaps now more than ever, there are way too many violent video games out there that are not good for toddlers and kindergartners. Hal Labratory’s Kirby games are some of the very few for this age group.
One company that agreed with this viewpoint was Moppet Video (that’s Mopp-et not… you know the puppets made by The Jim Hanson Company!) Their entire business strategy was to create games for children and younger people in general. Their cabinets were much shorter in height than the standard six-foot tall cabinet.: they usually stood just under 4 feet. These things are tiny! To the point where an adult would have to kneel or sit cross-legged to play them!
Leprechaun in action.
Moppet has a grand-stinking total of 5 releases listed on most arcade databases, all of which came out in 1982: Desert Race, Leprechaun, Pirate Treasure, Noah’s Ark and Tugboat. Tugboat seemingly to be the most popular one, as that’s the one my peers often report in the wild, Noah’s Ark seemingly to be the more obscure; I’ve only seen it at conventions. Desert Race is almost mystical with their being very little documentation of it online. Noah’s Ark, in particular, is a rare Biblically themed arcade game. Leprechaun was a clone of another arcade game: Pot of Gold .
So, only five games… what happened? Supposedly, the games did not make money. They were too easy! For instance, Tugboat is a game where you control a tugboat and avoid obstacles. The thing is, they are not too many obstacles to avoid. One credit could go a long way. There were not enough sucker-punches to convince the player to drop more quarters.
With a few thousand Moppet cabinets ever produced, the vast majority of them were sold to Chuck E. Cheese’s. Chuck E. Cheese’s has a policy where they destroy older games so that they can use them as a tax write-off and that’s ultimately what happened to most of the Moppet Video cabinets. Very few remain and they’re jealously guarded by collectors and arcade preservation experts.
