Yesterday, on episode 8 of (No) Blue Monday Gaming Show, I played some of an arcade game that has long fascinated me: Toobin! This arcade game we’re also score chasing this week, see: Season 3 Week 22: Toobin – How to Join Us, Play, Beat Your Personal Best. This is also the first of dozens of games we’ve score chased where there are essentially two different score types: playing the maxed warp level score vs. playing with no warp. Both versions are one credit only.
Toobin’ was jointly published by Atari and Midway in 1988. It’s a vertical cab with a unique control scheme: five buttons, with four to control right and left paddling and one to throw collected cans at objects.
There are various play strategies. Here are a few tips I use to get further into the game:
- Let the computer tuber go ahead of you in dangerous areas, he will trip or shoot out the traps. In easier areas, you want to be first
- Pass through the score flags in the middle to score the max points, if you bump either side you get lower points
- Stun the fishermen and other enemies that toss stuff at you, this will make it easier to get past them
- Be ready to use your cans to take out hazards in front of you: brush, trees, falling and floating trees, to redirect snakes and so on
- Don’t delay too long toward the top because an alligator will track down and eat you
- Learn the patterns of where the good stuff is placed, extra lives, high point chests and so on. You want to position your tube to go into these areas
Arcade games in the 70s, 80s and 90s seemed to focus more often on innovative control panels and Toobin’ is no exception joining games like Defender (what other game has controls like Defender?), Paperboy, Star Wars, Tron and plenty more!
We’ve mentioned several times here at PGM that this is a great time for gaming. The quantity and variety of games that can be played throughout history is virtually limitless for any one gamer. With 270,000+ games, Gamers are hopelessly outnumbered + National Card Playing Day You can’t play more than what’s good that is out there to play. You can’t get good at every good game that exists in history. There has never been a time like this in gaming before.
However, there are some downsides to the state of gaming in 2025. A big one is we don’t actually own the games we buy any more. They are licensed, rented, streamed and/or tied to some sort of subscription or online service. Games like Toobin are not like this. It’s a physical game on a chipset with an arcade ROM that has been emulated. It’s not connected to a network, it’s not getting patched or code updated. Search out Toobin’ at your favorite local arcade. It’s out there.
Join us at PGM this week playing Toobin’. Share your personal best on PGM’s iScored: https://iscored.info/?mode=public&user=Playgamesmore