Mappy is a 1983 platform arcade game released by Namco in Japan and Bally Midway in the US.
Quick Facts
| Title | Mappy |
| Year | 1983 |
| Manufacturer | Namco (Japan) / Bally Midway (US) |
| Designer(s) | Hiroshi Ono |
| Genre | Platform |
| Hardware | Arcade cabinet running modified Super Pac-Man hardware with horizontal scrolling support |
| Ports | 13 ports, including Famicom, MSX, and Sharp X1 — see Ports section |
History
Namco released Mappy in Japanese arcades in March 1983, with Bally Midway bringing the cabinet to North America the following month. Artist Hiroshi Ono designed the game, casting players as a police mouse called Mappy who recovers stolen goods from a mansion overrun by thieving cats. The hardware was a modified revision of Namco’s own Super Pac-Man board, adapted to support the horizontal-scrolling mansion layouts the game relies on rather than the single-screen mazes of Namco’s earlier hits.
Trade publication Game Machine tracked Mappy among Japan’s best-performing table arcade units in the months after launch, ranking it third in May 1983 before it reached the top of the new table-cabinet chart in June that year. The cabinet ran on dual 6809 processors paired with a Namco eight-channel sound chip, giving operators a distinctive audio profile compared to rival cats-and-mice clones of the era. Namco followed up with the arcade sequel Hopping Mappy in 1986 and the Famicom-only Mappy-Land, extending the character beyond the original release. Mappy has since resurfaced as a supporting character across Namco’s franchises, including a 2013 web animated series and cameo roles in later crossover titles, cementing the mouse as a recognizable, if secondary, Namco mascot.
Gameplay
Players guide Mappy through a multi-story mansion, opening and closing doors to stun the cat gang led by the oversized Goro while working through each floor’s stolen items. Every room contains valuables placed in matching pairs, and collecting both items in a pair back-to-back multiplies the point payout, rewarding players who plan a room-clearing route rather than grabbing loot at random. Movement between floors relies on trampolines instead of stairs or ladders: Mappy bounces upward automatically on contact, but each trampoline weakens and eventually collapses after repeated use. Later rounds raise the pressure by adding faster cats, bells that dislodge and fall from the ceiling, and additional collapsing floor sections layered on top of the wearing trampolines. A joystick and a door button are the only controls, so the challenge comes from timing door openings against cats rather than from complex input combinations.
- Pair-based item collection that rewards consecutive matching pickups with score multipliers
- Trampoline-based vertical movement between mansion floors, with trampolines degrading after repeated bounces
- Door-slam mechanic used to stun pursuing cats rather than a direct attack
- Escalating hazards across rounds, including falling bells and vanishing floor sections
Cabinet & Hardware
Mappy’s arcade board is a modified revision of Namco’s Super Pac-Man hardware, updated specifically to support the horizontal scrolling the mansion levels require. Reports on the original cabinet describe dual 6809 microprocessors handling game logic alongside a Namco eight-channel programmable sound generator for the game’s music and effects, giving operators a machine that reused familiar Namco circuitry while extending it for a very different style of level design than Pac-Man’s fixed single-screen mazes.
Ports & Re-releases
| Platform | Year |
|---|---|
| Famicom | 1984 |
| MSX | 1984 |
| Sharp X1 | — |
| MZ-700/MZ-1500 | — |
| FM-7 | — |
| PC-88 | — |
| PC-8000 | — |
| PC-6001 | — |
| Super Cassette Vision | — |
| X68000 | — |
| Game Gear | 1991 |
| Windows | 1999 |
| Game Boy Advance | 2004 |
Mappy has also reached modern audiences through Arcade Archives, which brought the original arcade version to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, and through recurring appearances in Namco Museum compilations. Check the Famicom/NES, Game Gear, and Game Boy Advance platform pages for details on those specific ports.
Where to Play Legally Today
- Official compilation releases such as Namco Museum and the Arcade Archives port of Mappy on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4
- MAME, run only with legally owned ROM dumps from a cabinet or licensed source you own
- Arcade museums and retro arcade venues that keep a working Mappy cabinet on their floor
Collector Value
Original Mappy cabinets are less common on the secondary market than mainline Pac-Man family machines, making well-preserved uprights with intact marquee and side art a comparatively harder find for collectors. Because the board is a modified Super Pac-Man revision, standalone Mappy PCBs also draw interest from collectors who already own a compatible cabinet shell and want to swap in the original game logic. Home ports on cartridge and disk-based Japanese computer platforms are considerably harder to source outside Japan than the later Game Gear or Game Boy Advance versions, which remain an accessible, low-cost way to experience the game without a cabinet.
FAQs
Who made Mappy?
Mappy was designed by Hiroshi Ono and manufactured by Namco in Japan, with Bally Midway handling the North American release.
What year did Mappy come out?
Mappy came out in 1983.
What genre is Mappy?
Mappy is a platform arcade game in which the player collects paired stolen items while avoiding pursuing cats across multiple mansion floors.
What hardware did Mappy run on?
Mappy ran on an arcade board that modified Namco’s Super Pac-Man hardware to add horizontal scrolling support for the mansion levels.
Has Mappy been ported to home consoles?
Yes, Mappy has been ported to at least thirteen platforms since 1984, including the Famicom, MSX, Sharp X1, FM-7, PC-88, Game Gear, Windows, and Game Boy Advance.
See also the related Pac-Man and Dig Dug arcade pages, and browse the Golden Age of Arcade Games hub for more classic Namco titles.
Sources
Facts on this page last verified 2026-07-15.