For many, Wild Gunman is a Nintendo classic that was released on the NES. For others, it’s the arcade game Marty McFly was playing when he landed in Back to the Future in 2015. But what many don’t know is that Wild Gunman was previously a full motion video arcade game released in 1974.
Also read: SEGA is also ceasing its activity in the arcade in the west
In 1974, when Nintendo was producing electromechanical games for use in arcades and other entertainment venues, the Kyoto company launched a certain Wild Gunman in Japan. Behind this title is a shooting game designed by Gunpei Yokoi (better known as one of the creators of the Game Boy) in which the player faces a series of cowboys in a duel.
This game had the specialty of staging film actors in real settings. These images were saved on 16mm reels that were transferred to the terminal during a game. The player had to shoot as quickly as possible after his enemy’s eyes flashed. Depending on how the user played, the course of the adventure varied.
In total, the game was able to discover four scenarios: A, B, C and D. And each of these scenarios was played on two reels. With the game approaching 50 years old, these reels were largely considered lost. But luckily for Nintendo fans and those interested in the history of the video game, two reels of Wild Gunman have just re-emerged.
Archive saves
As Chris Kohler forwards Twitter, a certain Ben Solovey has the roles with Scenario D from Wild Gunman. And he’s digitizing them right now:
It happened to M-Fing!
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– “Critical Kate” Willrt š¤š» (@katewillaert) July 1, 2021
At the hour in which these lines are being written, we do not yet know what Ben Solovey is up to after scanning these images. But the fact that they are will clearly favor their preservation. In fact, a simple internet search reveals that the images of this original version of Wild Gunman are currently few and of poor quality. The curious can see the progress of the process on the Ben Solovey’s Instagram account.
To end with an anecdote, when the Wild Gunman hit American gambling halls in 1976, SEGA imported him into the land of Uncle Sam. a cannot be invented.
Are you interested in this story? Do you plan to follow the progress of the project? Do you know this version of Wild Gunman? Tell us all about it in the comments below.
