Players control a tireless zookeeper named Zeke as he tries to catch a herd of rampaging animals by laying bricks around them as fast as possible. To make matters worse, a monkey has captured Zelda, Zeke's girlfriend, and he needs to rescue her, too. Created during the heyday of the maze chase, Zoo Keeper is a fast-paced frenzy featuring some of the craziest sound effects ever to grace an arcade.

This Week's Grand Prize

Each of the top ten winners in this tournament will receive some GameTap swag from our hall closet. The grand prize winner, though, will also receive this beautiful Zoo Keeper owner's manual we just bought on eBay!



That's right, our grand prize winner can pretend to be a seedy arcade owner from the 80s, and learn how to adjust the Zoo Keeper game to rip off kids as much as possible, read valuable troubleshooting tips, and get support phone numbers that no longer work!

The Scores to Beat

The all-time Zoo Keeper high score, according to high score authority Twin Galaxies, is 35,732,870. This score was accomplished by one Shawn Cram on February 8, 2004, exactly three days after being named official Twin Galaxies referee. Curious!


Zoo Keeper world record holder Shawn Cram from the 2005 Funspot International Classic Video & Pinball Tournament (courtesy Classic Arcade Gaming)
GameTap's current record score for Zoo Keeper is 20,284,650, set on August 5, 2007 by user erikrogers777. There's a very important distinction to keep in mind, though; Twin Galaxies expressly forbids a scoring exploit that is attainable during the coconut stage of the game. GameTap gives no such restrictions, so mastering this may be the key to victory in the tournament.



But don't worry, you don't necessarily have to compete with these guys! The GameTap Monday Leaderboard Tournament is a one-day affair against your fellow GameTappers. Here are the official rules:

1. Contestants will have from 6 a.m. EST to 11:59 p.m. EST on Monday, April 7, 2008, to submit their scores to the leaderboard via the GameTap client.
2. Only the top score per TapID will count toward the contest, with all other scores being thrown out.
3. Only one TapID per household will be eligible.

Not a Gold user? Not a problem! Zoo Keeper is available on GameTap for free, so absolutely anyone can compete! And not only that, the game is available for both Windows and Macintosh users, because we're awesome like that.

Again, the tournament starts on Monday, April 7, 2008, at 6:00 a.m. EST. If you need help posting Leaderboard scores, check out the handy guide the next post down. Good luck everyone!

Download and Play Zoo Keeper