Why boop instead of whack?

The arcade version of this game hands you a padded mallet and asks you to bonk moles on the head. I didn’t love the bonking for a game young kids would play, so when we built our own, I kept the quick reflexes and changed the story.

In Mole Boop the moles aren’t pests. It’s past their bedtime, they’re sleepy, and they keep popping up to see what’s going on. A soft boop on the nose makes them yawn and sink back into bed. The bunnies are only visiting, so you leave them alone.

A bit of real whack-a-mole history

The game started in Japan. Kazuo Yamada of TOGO, a Japanese amusement company, invented it in 1975, working from pencil sketches he drew the year before. TOGO put it into Japanese arcades that year under the name Mogura Taiji, which means “mole buster.” Japan’s Game Machine trade magazine ranked it the second highest-grossing electro-mechanical arcade game of 1976.

In the United States, the version most people know came from Bob’s Space Racers, a Florida company Bob Cassata started in his garage in 1970. They called it Whac-A-Mole. The company dates its start to 1976, while other accounts say 1977. A 1978 newspaper described a mole popping up from one of five holes in front of the player, and said the hard part was not knowing which hole it would pick next.

Whac-A-Mole is a registered trademark. In 2008 the brand was sold to Mattel, and Bob’s Space Racers kept a license to go on making the arcade machines. That’s why our game has its own name.

A few real mole facts

The eastern mole of North America has broad front feet with large claws that point outward, and in loose soil it can tunnel up to 18 feet in an hour. The star-nosed mole has a nose ringed with 22 finger-like tentacles that it uses to feel its way around. It’s the fastest eater of any mammal, with a quickest find-and-gulp of 120 milliseconds. It can even smell underwater by blowing tiny bubbles and sniffing them back in.

The bedtime ladder

Your score earns you a title. Your best is marked on the ladder under the game.

• Sleepy Helper: everyone starts here.
• Night Nurse: 20 points.
• Lullaby Pro: 50 points.
• Dream Keeper: 100 points.
• Mole Whisperer: 150 points. This takes long streaks.

How to play

• Press Start booping. After a 3, 2, 1 countdown, moles pop out of the nine burrows.
• Tap a mole to boop its nose and send it back to bed for 1 point.
• Don’t boop the bunnies. Each one costs 3 points.
• A golden mole is rare and worth 5 points.
• 5 boops in a row doubles your points, and 10 in a row triples them. Tapping an empty burrow, booping a bunny or letting a mole slip away starts the streak over.
• A round lasts 60 seconds. The moles get quicker as it goes, and after 20 seconds two can pop up at once.
• On a keyboard, keys 1 to 9 match the burrows like a number pad.
• The game pauses if you switch tabs. Your best score saves on this device.
• Sound is on to start. Tap 🔊 to mute, or 🎵 for music.
• Earn 3 stickers in this game for your QuickBOP sticker book.

Tips

Rest your eyes on the middle. From the center burrow, all eight others are close by, so you spot moles sooner.

Look for ears. Bunnies have tall pink ears and no nightcap. A quick look before you tap saves 3 points and your streak.

Guard your streak. At 10 in a row every mole is worth 3 points. Don’t tap empty burrows hoping a mole will show up.

Go for gold first. Golden moles duck back down a little sooner than the others, so when two pop up together, boop the golden one first.

Your turn

The meadow is at the top of this page, and the moles are already yawning. Boop a few back to bed and see how far up the ladder you can get.