| Gun Fight | |
|---|---|
 North American print ad | |
| Developer | Taito |
| Publishers |
|
| Designers | Tomohiro Nishikado Dave Nutting (US) |
| Programmer | Tom McHugh (US) |
| Platforms | Arcade,Astrocade,Atari 8-bit |
| Release | ArcadeAstrocade
|
| Genre | Multidirectional shooter |
| Mode | Multiplayer |
| Arcade system | Taito Discrete Logic Midway 8080 (US) |
Gun Fight, known asWestern Gun[a] in Japan[4][2] and Europe,[5] is a 1975multidirectional shooterarcade video game designed byTomohiro Nishikado,[6] and released byTaito in Japan[4] and Europe[5] and byMidway in North America.[4][6] Based around twoOld West cowboys armed with revolvers and squaring off in a duel, it was the first video game to depict human-to-humancombat.[7] The Midway version was also the first video game to use amicroprocessor instead ofTTL.[7][8] The game's concept was adapted fromSega's 1969 arcadeelectro-mechanical gameGun Fight.
The game was a global commercial success. In Japan,Western Gun was among the top ten highest-grossingarcade video games of 1976. In the United States,Gun Fight sold 8,600arcade cabinets and was the third highest-grossingarcade game of 1975, second highest-grossingarcade game of 1976 and fifth highestarcade game of 1977.
It was ported to theBally Astrocadevideo game console[9] as abuilt-in game[10] in 1977[11] and later theAtari 8-bit computers.[citation needed]
Western Gun is a single-screen shooter[12] where two players compete in an Old West gun fight.[13] It was the first video game to depict human-to-humancombat.[7][9] When shot, the characters fall to the ground and the words "GOT ME!" appear above the body.[14] The game has twojoysticks per player: an eight-way joystick for moving the computerized cowboy and the other for changing the shooting direction.[4][15] Unlike later dual stick games,Western Gun has the movement joystick on the right.
Obstacles between the characters block shots, such as acactus,[16] and (in laterlevels) stagecoaches.[14] The guns have limited ammunition, with each player given six bullets. A round ends if both players run out of ammo.[12] Gunshots can ricochet off the top and bottom edges of the playfield, allowing for indirect hits.[12][16]
Taito's originalWestern Gun allows the two players to move around anywhere on the screen. Midway's version,Gun Fight, restricts each player to their respective portions of the screen and also increased the size of the characters.[17]
Western Gun was developed byTomohiro Nishikado forTaito Corporation. He based the gameplay off of theelectro-mechanical gameGun Fight (1969) released bySega.[18]Gun Fight featured two cowboys on a movable track behind rock walls were separated by a field of objects like cacti, trees, and a saloon. If the players shot the cacti, the top would temporarily fall over, as would the cowboy if struck. Points were accumulated by shooting an opponent as many times as possible within the allotted timeframe. Nishikado adapted the mechanics of the original game and added rocks that bullets could ricochet off. Cacti in the environment would be partially destroyed when shot.
Having previously explored creating representational humanoids with the gameTV Basketball (1974), Nishikado pushed the bar further by creating two articulated characters who could wander the screen as well as move their arms to aim the gun. The game was developed usingtransistor–transistor logic (TTL), as game development had not yet moved tomicroprocessors. The game was among the most complex TTL games developed in the 1970s.
The game features two sets of controls – onejoystick to move the character and fire the weapon and another for aiming the arm. The secondary joystick only allows for vertical movement, with direction being dependent on the movement of the character.Western Gun could be considered the firsttwin-stick shooter.
Taito had previously made licensing deals withMidway Manufacturing to release their video games in the United States, includingTV Basketball andSpeed Race (1974) (renamedWheels by Midway). OnceWestern Gun was in development, the game was shown to representatives of Midway. The executives were not impressed with the game's graphics, which they considered unappealing for North American audiences.
Dave Nutting Associates (DNA) was a coin-operated game development firm operated byDave Nutting and Jeffery Fredriksen. Previously, DNA had tried to interest Midway's parent companyBally Manufacturing in a microprocessor-basedpinball game. Though Bally did not accept this deal, DNA maintained a close relationship. Using theIntel 8080 microprocessor, Fredriksen developed hardware to powerarcade video games. He pioneered the use of a cost-effectiveframebuffer, which enabled versatility to create any type of game they desired.[19] The hardware included a specialbarrel shifter circuit built from discrete chips.[20] The microprocessor used this to shift each pattern of picture bits to the proper horizontal bit offset, reading back each shifted byte and then writing it into the framebuffer. The 8080, like other microprocessors of its era, had shift instructions that could only shift by a single bit position. With the shifter circuit, the microprocessor could quickly shift a picture byte by several bit positions, giving it more time for other work.
Nutting and Fredriksen developed a basic demonstration of a baseball game and showcased it to Midway, who had created many pitch-and-bat electro-mechanical baseball games. Midway instead proposed that DNA should adaptWestern Gun to their arcade hardware. To program this translation, Fredriksen recruited from hisalma mater theUniversity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The head of the Robotic and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Richard Northouse, agreed to have two of his students sent to DNA as a work-study. Thomas A. McHugh (1946–2020) and another programmer (later replaced byJamie Fenton) were propositioned to work onGun Fight. McHugh took the offer and served as the principle programmer under game designer David Nutting. The game was programmed inassembly language using anIntellec 8 microprocessor development system, with graphical elements translated from hexadecimal code.[21]
DNA's version increased the size of the player characters, while at the same time restricting each character's movement on their respective halves of the screen. It also added limited shots, indicated by a set of bullets drawn graphically at the bottom of the screen. The game's cabinet featured a bezel which provided indications of score, game time, and bullets. The screen also featured an overlay which rendered the white graphical elements of the screen yellow. Controls were altered slightly fromWestern Gun, with a larger aiming stick featuring a wider range of movement rather than purely vertical.
Their version of the game eliminated the rock obstacles, added indestructible trees, and created a progression of stages after each round. More obstacles were added to the field as the scores got higher, introducing a moving stagecoach to serve as an additional impediment.
Midway's version was released asGun Fight in November 1975.
In Japan,Western Gun was among the top ten highest-ratedarcade video games of 1976 by operators polled in the 1976 New Year's Holiday period.[22]
Gun Fight sold 8,600 units in the United States, making it among the best selling video games of the time period and the top selling game released in1975.[23]
In March 1976, the first annualRePlay arcade chart listedGun Fight as third best-charting video game among its polled operators.[24] In October the same year,RePlay listedGun Fight in second place, below Midway'sSea Wolf.[25] In November 1977, the first annualPlay Meter arcade chart listedGun Fight as the fifth best-chartingarcade video game of 1977.[26]Play Meter later listed it among the top 30 toparcade games of 1978 among operators polled.[27]
Tomohiro Nishikado believed that his original version was more fun than Midway's version, but he was impressed with the Midway machine's improved graphics and smoother animation. He was inspired to explore microprocessor-based hardware, which eventually resulted inSpace Invaders (1978).[28] The hardware ofSpace Invaders is incredibly similar toGun Fight, including the use of the barrel shifter circuit.[29][30] The hardware was also reused in subsequent Dave Nutting Associates-developed Midway games includingSea Wolf (1976) and280 ZZZAP (1976). In Taito'sSpace Invaders Part II of 1979, this circuit was replaced by aFujitsu MB14241, a single-chip implementation of the barrel shifter introduced inGun Fight.
In 2021,The Guardian listed it as the eleventh greatestvideo game of the 1970s.[31]
When Dave Nutting Associates developed theBally Professional Arcade console, they included a built-in version of Gun Fight in the system'sROM.[32] This version was programmed by Alan McNeil, later ofBerzerk fame.
In 1984,Epyx releasedGun Fight bundled with another Midway game,Sea Wolf II, forAtari 8-bit computers as part of theirArcade Classics compilation.
Gun Fight was popular enough to spawn a sequel released in 1977,Boot Hill.
The game was included inGameSpy's "Hall of Fame" in 2002. They commented that "Gun Fight was the first game to feature two humanized characters attempting to outfight each other, which would become one of the most common themes in games for the next 25-plus years"; that it was one of the first Japanese video games imported to North America; and that Midway's version "was the first microprocessor-based arcade game".[14]
David Crane developed the gameOutlaw (1978), which was based on the Midway version ofGun Fight.[33][34] Crane said the game was influenced byGun Fight and liked the idea of making a game with two opposinggunfighters.[35] Other companies had released similar games for their consoles during this period, such asGunfighter for theRCA Studio II, and an official adaptation ofGun Fight was a built-in game on theBally Professional Arcade.[36]
In 1982, the cloneGunfight was released for theAtari 8-bit computers by Hofacker / Elcomp Publishing.[citation needed]The Duel for theCommodore 64 is a clone released in 1985.[37]
Taito used a control scheme similar toWestern Gun for therun and gun video gameFront Line (1982).[38] In 1995,GamesMaster hostDominik Diamond calledSega's arcade gameVirtual On: Cyber Troopers "a futuristic version" ofGun Fight.[39]
As a game, I thought our version ofWestern Gun was more fun. But just from using a microprocessor, the walking animation became much smoother and prettier in Midway's version.
Most of these games do not actually use the MB14241 shifter IC, but instead implement equivalent functionality using a bunch of standard 74XX IC's.
... data shifter, using either ~11 74xx chips, AM25S10s, Fujitsu MB14221 or Fujitsu MB14241 chips, which all do the same thing.