Whac-A-Mole

Mogura Taiji was invented in 1975 by Kazuo Yamada of TOGO, based on ten of the designer's pencil sketches from 1974. TOGO released it as Mogura Taiji to Japanese amusement arcades in 1975. It became a major commercial success in Japan, where it was the second highest-grossing electro-mechanical arcade game of 1976 and again in 1977, second only to Namco's popular arcade racing game F-1 in both years. Mogura Taiji was licensed to Bandai in 1977.

Bandai (now part of Bandai Namco Holdings) introduced the game to the Japanese home market as a toy in 1977, called Mogura Tataki (モグラたたき; "Mole Smash"); it was a major hit by 1978, selling over 1 million units. In the late 1970s, arcade centers in Japan were flooded with similar, derivative "mole buster" games. Mogura Taiji has since been commonly found at Japanese festivals.