What is Aqua Blooper Piper?

If wrestling with the pipes under ihe kitchen sink is not your idea of a good time, you might be tempted to avoid a game that casts its players as plumbers. But in the case of Aqua Blooper Piper, you’d be missing a lot of fun. It comes from Casady & Greene, who also produced Crystal Quest. Like Crystal Quest, Aqua Blooper Piper has first-rate animation and sound and is guaranteed to be addictive.

The game's premise is that you have to get a customer's shower working by installing a water pipe between openings at the left and right sides of the screen. A conveyor bell moves pieces of pipe past you, and you install them by clicking and drugging them to any pipe opening. To complete a level successfully, you must create an unbroken pipe between the left and right connections. If you do — and that's a big if — you’ 11 advance to a faster, more challenging level.

The pipe pieces run the gamut from straight ones equipped with openings at each end to Rube Goldberg-esque pieces with twists. Sums, and multiple outlets. You have to work fast, because you're penalized for each piece that drops off the end of the conveyor belt. At higher levels, the game tortures you with frustrating time limits. You're still penalized for any pieces you drop and also for any leaks in the pipes. Positive reinforcement is fairly hard to come by; it consists of bonuses for creating perfect pipes, using lots of pipe pieces, and completing a level quickly.

For your convenience, there's a “boss key,” which displays a fake bomb dialog box on-screen. Clicking on Resume takes you back to the game in progress, and clicking on Restart exits the game. This comes in handy for hopelessly addicted players who find themselves laying pipe on the sly while they’re at work. Another nice touch is a customizer application, which lets you change sounds or pictures as well as import your own.

Like every good game. Aqua Blooper Piper is easy to learn and difficult to master, And it’s a bit like eating salted peanuts — it’s almost impossible to quit once you’ve gotten started.

LeVitus, Bob. (April 1992). Aqua Blooper Piper. MacUser. (pg. 95).

Download Aqua Blooper Piper for Mac

Architecture

Motorola 68K

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Basilisk II