Big Buck Hunter is a hunting
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
developed by Play Mechanix, Inc. Primarily developed for
arcades, the goal of the game is to shoot moving bucks without shooting a doe or female animal.
The Incredible Technologies' initial series of games from December 2000 – 2005 operated on a single gun platform and allowed four players to compete round robin style through various treks and bonus stages. Raw Thrills' Big Buck Hunter Pro and Big Buck Safari introduced a two gun platform, allowing head-to-head competition in addition to a variety of new animals and critters to hunt.
Gameplay
Inspired by ''
Duck Hunt
is a 1984 light gun shooter video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) video game console and the Nintendo Vs. System arcade hardware. The game was first released in April 1984, in Japan for the ...
'', the game's goal is to shoot the male animals as they run across the screen. The round ends when a female one is shot. Each scene will begin with a couple of animals walking without any suspicions. After a first shot is done, the animals will begin running and the hunt starts. ''Big Buck Hunter'' is separated in five screens, also known as "treks". A hunting sessions concludes in a bonus round. The players can either participate solo or one on one by using two plastic rifles. How much points will be earned depends on certain factors like distance, weight and accuracy. There are different states to choose from with a variety of animals, like
antelope
The term antelope is used to refer to many species of even-toed ruminant that are indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia.
Antelope comprise a wastebasket taxon defined as any of numerous Old World grazing and browsing hoofed mammals ...
or
moose
The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult mal ...
. The hunting can be done in different conditions varying from fog to snow, with overall 16 bonus rounds. All of the Big Buck HD machines are networked so they can track the players' rankings through online leaderboards. Big Buck HD was the first edition to integrate
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
and
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
. That allows players to share and compare scores and awards via social networks.
Tournaments
Big Buck Hunter game cabinets that are connected to the CoinUp Network can support local and national tournaments. If a game cabinet is participating in a current tournament, the 'Tournaments' button will appear on the first Game Selection Screen. After selecting the Tournament button, the player can scroll through all tournaments currently playing on that game cabinet. For Big Buck Hunter Pro & Safari, the National Tournaments ran monthly (usually from the 7th to the 27th of each month for Pro and the 1st to the 21st of each month for Safari until the end of 2012). National Tournaments did return to Big Buck HD WILD for a short time in 2017 and 2018, but on a weekly basis with a particular theme for each month. Players can find out about current tournament, prizes, participating locations and follow their tournament ranking at the Big Buck Hunter Website. Operators can also choose to set up their own custom tournaments for Big Buck HD, Wild, & Reloaded games that they own via the CoinUp website. They can choose the prizes, cost, sites, and bonuses they desire and assign them to desired units.
Beginning in 2008, a World Championship Tournament was introduced. It brings in 64 people from all over the world in an elimination tournament, where the highest rated players in each region get to earn an invite for the event. Regional Qualifying tournaments occur in August and September, with winners advancing to the World Championship Tournament, which occurs every fall in cities like
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
,
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
,
Austin
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
, &
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
. On November 10, 2012, the Big Buck Hunter World Tournament was held in the Altman Building in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
Starting in 2013, players would no longer be divided by region, and instead they would have to play 5 national tournaments. Each tournament was themed to a specific animal for the 2013 and 2014 Qualifiers. Their 10 best scores in each tournament would determine where they ended up on the leaderboard. The Ladies' Tourney, introduced in 2011, had its own qualifier tournament as well. Starting in 2015, the qualifier would start as early as May, with a new tournament unlocking at the start of every month, and the tournaments were changed so that they would use random animals since this was the first year where there were more than 5 animals in Big Buck HD. In 2016 and 2017, the tournaments were animal themed once again, with each tournament having 1 or 2 animals in them. Australia & Canada also had their own national tournaments to determine who would move on.
In May 2018, Pro mode was introduced. This mode was designed to allow easier World Championship qualification. The player's top 5 scores on each Trek of each animal determines where they rank on the Skill leaderboard for the Qualifier Season (on Reloaded machines it is their top 3 scores obtained with the gun and their top 2 scores obtained with the bow). If they are not eligible for the Skill leaderboard but have a sufficient cumulative score, they would be on the Wildcard leaderboard. If a player is female, their scores would count for both the World Championship and Ladies' Tourney. Also, any region can participate in Pro mode, and they are no longer locked into their own leaderboards. With Pro mode becoming a core part of the game, the qualifier would start in November, and end in September, with the World Championship happening in October.
Development
The game is intended for the adult drinking community, hence it is being marketed more to be used at
bars than
arcade
Arcade most often refers to:
* Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine
** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware
** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board
* Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games
* ...
s.
''Big Buck Hunters concept came from George Petro, the Play Mechanix's founder and the former staff of
Midway Games
Midway Games Inc., known previously as Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known as simply Midway, was an American video game developer and publisher. Midway's franchises included ''Mortal Kombat'', ''Rampage (series), Rampage'' ...
, while thinking about what to do next with the company. After the release of Midway's ''Invasion: The Abductors'' in 1999, Petro thought that hunting games were popular in homes but there was also a lack of those in arcades. He pitched the idea to the design team, and shortly after started developing the prototype with
Incredible Technologies
Incredible Technologies (IT) (formerly Free Radical Software (FRS)) is an American designer and manufacturer of coin-operated video games and Class III casino games, based in Vernon Hills, Illinois. The company's most widely used product is the ...
doing the manufacture of the arcade machine. Incredible Technologies partnered with Play Mechanix to create the rest of the games until Call of the Wild in 2005.
Outside of Big Buck Hunter,
Innovative Concepts in Entertainment
Innovative Concepts in Entertainment, abbreviated as ICE, is an American electronic game and redemption game manufacturing company based in Clarence, New York, United States. The company was founded in 1982 and has since become the leader of the ...
(ICE) partnered with Play Mechanix to develop eight games: ''Special Forces: Elite Training'' (2003), ''Johnny Nero Action Hero'' (2004), ''Rhythm Nation'' (2005), ''Zoofari'' (2006), ''
Deal or No Deal
''Deal or No Deal'' is the name of several closely related television game shows, the first of which (launching the format) was the Dutch ''Miljoenenjacht (Netherlands), Miljoenenjacht'' (''Hunt/Chase for Millions''). The centerpiece of this f ...
'' (2007), ''
Ice Age: Ice Breaker'' (2012), ''
Angry Birds Arcade'' (2016), and ''
Pink Panther: Jewel Heist'' (2017)
Needing financial support to do an improved version of the game called Big Buck Hunter Pro, the developers contacted
Raw Thrills
Raw Thrills, Inc. is an arcade game entertainment company based in Skokie, Illinois. It is best known for developing arcade games based on films.
History
Raw Thrills was founded in 2001 by Eugene Jarvis, Deepak Deo, and Andrew Eloff. The staff ...
in 2006. As a part of the agreement, Play Mechanix got a design role, while Raw Thrills took over the production and distribution. Raw Thrills was also involved with Big Buck Safari, which introduced hunting in Africa, as well as trophy hunting, which included animals such as zebras, elephants, hippos, and other big animals. They released Open Season in 2009, which added more animals to Pro. In 2010, a year later, Big Buck World was released to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Big Buck Hunter. It combined Open Season & Outback (the upgrade to Safari) into one cabinet.
In 2012, they released Big Buck HD, which combined elements from Pro & Safari and presented them in 1080p high-definition graphics, and added groundbreaking online features such as the ability to compete with players from other locations live, improved tournaments, and easier account creation. A Duck Dynasty-themed side game was added in 2013.
In 2015, Big Buck HD WILD came out, which added 3 new animals (which were released separately by year) as well as a zombie-themed shooter. A 4th animal was added in 2018.
In 2020, Big Buck Hunter Reloaded was released and added more stuff to Big Buck HD. In addition to a new animal, 2 new side games were introduced, including a sequel to the zombie game as well as a partial remake of Terminator Salvation, which was released in 2010. And it also presented a brand new player interface to make it easy to navigate.
List of arcade games
Big Buck Hunter: (2000)
Big Buck Hunter: Shooter's Challenge: (2002)
Big Buck Hunter II: Sportsman's Paradise: (2002)
Big Buck Hunter 2006: Call of the Wild: (2005)
Big Buck Hunter Pro: (2006)
Big Buck Safari: (2008)
Big Buck Hunter Pro Open Season: (2009)
Big Buck World: (2010)
Big Buck HD: (2012)
Big Buck HD WILD: (2015)
Big Buck Hunter Reloaded: (2020)
Release
It spawned a series of new arcade versions including ''Big Buck Hunter Pro'' and ''Big Buck Safari''. In 2012, ''Big Buck HD'' was released. It includes elements from both ''Big Buck Hunter Pro'' and ''Big Buck Safari'' in high-definition. In 2009, an
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
version of ''Big Buck Hunter Pro'' was released. Following that, an iOS version of ''Big Buck Safari'' was released in 2011. GameMill Entertainment released parts of Big Buck HD WILD as ''Big Buck Hunter Arcade'' for
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
,
PlayStation 4
The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...
, and
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
in 2016, and for
Nintendo Switch
The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...
in 2018. Play Mechanix also made a partnership with Tastemakers LLC in 2019, and both had announced that Big Buck Hunter Pro arcade will be part of
Arcade1Up
Arcade1Up is a computer hardware production company that specializes in the production of working 3/4 scale arcade video games using modern components and emulation.
History
Arcade1Up was established as a subsidiary of Tastemakers, Inc. in 2018 by ...
lineup in Fall 2020.
The developers partnered with
Anheuser-Busch InBev
Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, commonly known as AB InBev, is an American-Belgian multinational drink and brewing company based in Leuven, Belgium. AB InBev has a global functional management office in New York City, and regional headquarters ...
, offering a special permit that unlocks a special "Great White Buck" level. The money earned from purchases of those went to the
National Forest Foundation
The National Forest Foundation, an American non-profit organization, was created by Congress in 1992 to be the official non-profit partner of the United States Forest Service. Its mission is to engage Americans in community-based national programs ...
to help preserving forests in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.
''Big Buck Hunter'' has sold around 7,500 units in 2006.
References
External links
Official website
{{Raw Thrills
2000 video games
Arcade video games
GameMill Entertainment games
Hunting video games
IOS games
Light gun games
Nintendo Switch games
PlayStation 4 games
Video games developed in the United States
Wii games
Windows games
Xbox One games