An important detail about the whole thing is that Tapper was designed and written by Marvin Glass and Associates, a toy design firm in Chicago. Glass was responsible for hit toys like the Evel Knievel stunt bike, Mousetrap, Simon, Lite Brite, Operation, Rockem Sockem Robots, etc.
Toymakers patent the living hell out of everything they do. So writing a 5000-word patent about a videogame was pretty much par for the course for MGA.
It's surprising that both of us found game patents for old games we like at nearly the same time. I found this one for Tokyo Xtreme Racer (1999, Dreamcast) just a few days ago.
Toymakers patent the living hell out of everything they do. So writing a 5000-word patent about a videogame was pretty much par for the course for MGA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Glass_and_Associates