Gun Fight
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''Gun Fight'', known as in Japan and Europe, is a 1975
multidirectional shooter Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of charac ...
arcade game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released by
Taito is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, toys, arcade cabinets and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, vending machines and jukeboxes into Japan. I ...
in Japan and Europe and by Midway in North America. Based around two
Old West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...
cowboys armed with revolvers and squaring off in a duel, it was the first video game to depict human-to-human combat. The Midway version was also the first video game to use a
microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circ ...
. The game's concept was adapted from Sega's 1969 arcade
electro-mechanical game Electro-mechanical games (EM games) are types of arcade games that operate on a combination of some electronic circuitry and mechanical actions from the player to move items contained within the game's cabinet. Some of these were early light gun ...
''Gun Fight''. The game was a global commercial success. In Japan, ''Western Gun'' was among the top ten highest-grossing arcade video games of 1976. In the United States, ''Gun Fight'' sold 8,600 arcade cabinets and was the third highest-grossing arcade game of 1975, second highest-grossing arcade game of 1976 and fifth highest arcade game of 1977. It was ported to the
Bally Astrocade The ''Bally'' ''Astrocade'' (also known as ''Bally Arcade'' or initially as ''Bally ABA-1000'') is a second-generation home video game console and simple computer system designed by a team at Midway, at that time the videogame division of Ball ...
video game console A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to ...
as a built-in game in 1977 and later the Atari 8-bit family. It is the first ever violent video game that depicts violence like realistic death.


Gameplay

''Western Gun'' is a single-screen shooter where two players compete in an Old West gun fight. It was the first video game to depict human-to-human combat. When shot, the characters in fall to the ground and the words "GOT ME!" appear above the body. The game has two joysticks per player: an eight-way joystick for moving the computerized cowboy and the other for changing the shooting direction. Unlike later dual stick games, ''Western Gun'' has the movement joystick on the right. Obstacles between the characters block shots, such as a
cactus A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Gree ...
, and (in later levels) stagecoaches. The guns have limited ammunition, with each player given six bullets. A round ends if both players run out of ammo. Gunshots can ricochet off the top and bottom edges of the playfield, allowing for indirect hits. Taito's original ''Western 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.


Development

Both ''Western Gun'' and ''Gun Fight'' have artwork of Wild West cowboys on the cabinet, with matching in-game graphics featuring cacti, rocks, and human characters (and a covered wagon in ''Gun Fight''). These cartoon-like humans were in contrast to earlier games which used miniature shapes to represent abstract blocks or spaceships. The original game, ''Western Gun'', was created by Tomohiro Nishikado for Taito. The game's concept was adapted from a Sega arcade
electro-mechanical game Electro-mechanical games (EM games) are types of arcade games that operate on a combination of some electronic circuitry and mechanical actions from the player to move items contained within the game's cabinet. Some of these were early light gun ...
, also called ''Gun Fight'', which was released in 1969. In that game, two players control cowboy figurines on opposing sides of a playfield full of obstacles, with each player attempting to shoot the opponent's cowboy. The cowboy figurines were adapted into character sprites, with both players able to maneuver across a landscape while shooting each other. It was the second game by Nishikado to use human character sprites, after a 1974
sports video game A sports video game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with a game, including team sports, track and field, extreme sports, and combat sports. Some games emphasize actually playing the sport (s ...
he designed for Taito, ''Basketball'', which was released as ''TV Basketball'' by Midway in North America. Taito licensed ''Western Gun'' to Midway for release in North America, one of the first such licenses, after the 1974
scrolling In computer displays, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display, vertically or horizontally. "Scrolling," as such, does not change the layout of the text ...
racing game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic ra ...
''
Speed Race is a 1974 arcade racing video game developed and manufactured by Taito and released under the titles ''Racer'' and ''Wheels'' in North America by distributor Midway Manufacturing in 1975. Designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, the gameplay involves th ...
'', also designed by Nishikado, and the 1974
sports game A sports video game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with a game, including team sports, track and field, extreme sports, and combat sports. Some games emphasize actually playing the sport ( ...
''
Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
''. The title ''Western Gun'', while making perfect sense for Japanese audiences in that it conveyed the setting and theme as simply as possible, sounded odd to American audiences, so it was renamed ''Gun Fight'' for its American localization. Taito's version was based on
discrete logic A logic gate is an idealized or physical device implementing a Boolean function, a logical operation performed on one or more binary inputs that produces a single binary output. Depending on the context, the term may refer to an ideal logic gate ...
. When Dave Nutting adapted the game for Midway, he decided to base it on the
Intel 8080 The Intel 8080 (''"eighty-eighty"'') is the second 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel. It first appeared in April 1974 and is an extended and enhanced variant of the earlier 8008 design, although without binary compatibil ...
, which made ''Gun Fight'' the first video game to use a
microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circ ...
. Steve L. Kent (2001), '' The ultimate history of video games: from Pong to Pokémon and beyond : the story behind the craze that touched our lives and changed the world'', p. 64, Prima, Nutting's company Dave Nutting Associates had already used microprocessor technology in prototypes of arcade
pinball Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails call ...
machines, and the first arcade
pinball Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails call ...
machine to include a microprocessor, '' The Spirit of '76'' by
Mirco Games Mirco Games was a pinball and arcade game manufacturer from Phoenix, Arizona that existed from 1969 to 1978. They were originally called Arizona Automation from 1969 to 1973 and then changed their name to Mirco in 1974 . They created the first micr ...
, used this technology under license. Midway's version, which had a black-and-white raster
monitor Monitor or monitor may refer to: Places * Monitor, Alberta * Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States * Monitor, Kentucky * Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States * Monitor, Washington * Monitor, Logan County, West ...
with a transparent yellow screen overlay, used
bitmap In computing, a bitmap is a mapping from some domain (for example, a range of integers) to bits. It is also called a bit array or bitmap index. As a noun, the term "bitmap" is very often used to refer to a particular bitmapping application: t ...
ped
framebuffer A framebuffer (frame buffer, or sometimes framestore) is a portion of random-access memory (RAM) containing a bitmap that drives a video display. It is a memory buffer containing data representing all the pixels in a complete video frame. Mode ...
technology to display the game text and graphics, including its
animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...
human-like characters. To make the animation fast and smooth, the game included a special barrel shifter circuit built from multiple discrete chips. The microprocessor used this to shift each pattern of picture bits, byte-by-byte, 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. A similar shifter circuit was used in later Midway and Taito games whose hardware was based on ''Gun Fight'', such as '' Sea Wolf'' and ''
Space Invaders is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter an ...
''. (In some later ''
Space Invaders is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter an ...
'' derivatives, such as Taito's ''
Space Invaders Part II is a 1979 fixed shooter arcade game developed and published by Taito. In North America, it was distributed by Midway Games as ''Space Invaders Deluxe''. It is the sequel to ''Space Invaders'' (1978). The player controls a laser base that must d ...
'' of 1979, this circuit is a Fujitsu MB14241, a single-chip implementation of the barrel shifter.) Midway's version increased the size of the character sprites, while at the same time restricting each character's movement to their respective portions of the screen. 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. This led him to design microprocessors into his subsequent games, including the 1978
shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of charac ...
''
Space Invaders is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter an ...
''.


Reception

In Japan, ''Western Gun'' was among the top ten highest-grossing arcade video games of 1976. In the United States, following its November 1975 release there, ''Gun Fight'' sold 500 arcade cabinets by the end of 1975, making it one of the top ten best-selling arcade games of 1975. It eventually went on to sell 8,600 arcade cabinets in the United States. In March 1976, the first annual ''RePlay'' arcade chart listed ''Gun Fight'' as the third highest-grossing arcade game of the previous year in the United States, below the Kee game '' Tank I & II'' and Taito/Midway game '' Wheels I & II''. In October 1976, ''RePlay'' listed ''Gun Fight'' as the second highest-grossing arcade game of 1976 in the United States, below Midway's '' Sea Wolf''. In November 1977, the first annual ''
Play Meter ''Play Meter'' (initially ''Coin Industry Play Meter'') was an American trade magazine focusing on the coin-op amusement arcade industry, including jukebox and arcade game machines. It was founded in December 1974 by publisher and editor Ralph C. ...
'' arcade chart listed ''Gun Fight'' as the fifth highest-grossing arcade video game of 1977. ''Play Meter'' later listed it among the top 30 highest-grossing arcade games of 1978. In 2021, ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' listed it as the eleventh greatest video game of the 1970s.


Ports

In 1978, the game was introduced to the home market with a
port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...
to the
Bally Astrocade The ''Bally'' ''Astrocade'' (also known as ''Bally Arcade'' or initially as ''Bally ABA-1000'') is a second-generation home video game console and simple computer system designed by a team at Midway, at that time the videogame division of Ball ...
, which included a color version of the game within the system's
ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...
. In 1983,
Epyx Epyx, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher active in the late 1970s and 1980s. The company was founded as Automated Simulations by Jim Connelley and Jon Freeman, originally using Epyx as a brand name for action-oriented games before ren ...
released ''Gun Fight'' and another Midway game, '' Sea Wolf II'', for the Atari 8-bit family as an ''Arcade Classics'' compilation.


Legacy

The game was included in GameSpy's "Hall of Fame" in 2002. They stated 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."
Atari, Inc. Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry. Based primarily around the Sunny ...
released a similar arcade game in 1976 titled '' Outlaw'' which was ported to the
Atari VCS The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocessor- ...
. In 1982, the clone ''Gunfight'' was released for the Atari 8-bit family by Hofacker / Elcomp Publishing. ''The Duel'' for the Commodore 64 is a clone released in 1985. Taito used a control scheme similar to ''Western Gun'' for the
run-and-gun shooter Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of charac ...
'' Front Line'' (1982). In 1995, '' GamesMaster'' host
Dominik Diamond Paul Dominik Diamond (born 31 December 1969) is a Scottish television and radio presenter and newspaper columnist. He is best known as the original presenter of Channel 4's video gaming programme '' GamesMaster'', as host of ''The Dominik Diamo ...
called Sega's arcade game '' Virtual On: Cyber Troopers'' "a futuristic version of the old ''Gun Fight'' game."


See also

*''
Boot Hill Boot Hill, or Boothill, is the given name of many cemeteries, chiefly in the Western United States. During the 19th and early 20th century it was a common name for the burial grounds of gunfighters, or those who " died with their boots on" (i.e ...
'' (1977) *'' Sheriff'' (1979)


Notes


References


External links

*{{KLOV game, id=8039
Arcade-History.com Gun Fight page
1975 video games Arcade video games Atari 8-bit family games Bally Astrocade games Midway video games Multidirectional shooters Pack-in video games Taito arcade games Video games developed in Japan Video games developed in the United States Western (genre) video games