Shufflepuck Café is an air hockey computer game developed by Domark. It was published by Ubisoft (and later Brøderbund) in 1989, for the Amiga, Atari ST, Apple IIGS (leaked version), Macintosh, Amstrad CPC, Famicom (in Japan) and DOS operating systems.

There are two game modes. The player can compete in a tournament, playing against opponents who visit the Café, or can practice against each opponent to find out his/her/its weakness in a single-player match.

The game is controlled via the computer's mouse. The bat on the playing field bounces a hockey puck between the player and the opponent. When one of the players manages to knock the hockey puck past the opponent's bat, the player scores.

After a set number of points (usually 15) the match is over.

Shufflepuck Café includes nine opponents:

• Skip Feeney: A male human in his early 20s. Has just started in shufflepuck and thus is very nervous, making him easy to beat.
• Visine Orb: A green-coloured alien with huge eyes, who is only about 1.5 metres tall and can barely see over his end of the table. Plays similarly to Skip Feeney.
• Vinnie the Dweeb: A veteran shufflepuck player who keeps his calm and is not easily surprised. His playing style is consistent and thus well learnt.
• Lexan Smythe-Worthington: A lizard-like alien, a filthy rich playboy who gets 30,000 credits per year to keep away from his homeworld. He begins playing fiercely and hard to beat, but as play progresses, he sips his champagne, making him inebriated and less focused on the game, thus easier to beat. When defeated, he hiccups and passes out.
• The General (also known as Eneg): A pig-like alien who pretends to be a military general, although all he really is is a militaristic gung-ho enthusiast. Recently divorced, he's addicted to shufflepuck, which he plays with fierceness and devotion.
• Nerual Ttoille: A non-corporeal spiritual alien. Always keeps his cool and focuses on the game, making him very hard to beat. When he scores a point, he opens his robe to expose a smirking, one-eyed face at chest level.
• Princess Bejin: A woman with spiritual powers. When it's her turn to serve the puck, she uses telekinesis to make it move in a seemingly impossible pattern. When you beat her, she reveals a little bit of her cleavage. There is a way to predict her serve every time: there are two sounds made when she serves, one indicates the puck will change direction and the other means it will continue in the same direction.
• Biff Raunch: The reigning champion. A tough, street-hardened biker dude who plays a mean game.
• DC3: A robot waiter. DC3 serves as a training partner, who can be customised to be as easy or as difficult as the player wishes. He does not play in the main championship.

In some versions, during gameplay there is a cheat option, which gives the player the option of winning or losing the game, winning or losing the tournament or gaining or losing five points.

There is a general storyline behind the Amiga version of the game in which the player is an inter-galactic salesman whose spaceship has broken down. He needs to find a telephone to call the breakdown service and get the spaceship fixed. Shufflepuck Café is the nearest place for miles, so he goes in to use their telephone. The main eight Shufflepuck players are standing in his way and will not let him get to the 'phone until he has beaten them all.

External links

• Shufflepuck Café game review
• Another Shufflepuck Café review