Wild Gunman (arcade)

Wild Gunman is a game that was first released in arcades in 1974 by Nintendo. A better, updated version was released in arcades in 1984 along with a Nintendo Entertainment System version. The arcade versions of the popular video game used light guns.

The original 1974 version of the game featured a 16mm-projection screen that had the player shoot the gunman when his eyes blinked. If he or she did so at the right moment, the gunman would be shot down and killed. If they didn't, the player would be shot (in the in game). The arcade was large and was part of the Simulation System that also included Shooting Trainer, which was much less exciting than its dueling counterpart.

Interestingly the gunman you have to shoot is an actual video of an actor dressed as a cowboy. There are a variety of videos that the developers shot specifically for the game, each one portraying a different gunman. In all there seems to be 4 different actors that the player can shoot.

Oddly in 1984 Nintendo rereleased the game, though replaced the actors with uninteresting sprites. This was presumably done to emulate perfectly the home console version of the game which was also released that year for the Famicom.