Gun Fight

Before the space invaders landed and before Pac-Man ate his first dot, there was a cabinet where two buddies stood shoulder to shoulder and settled things the old-fashioned way. Gun Fight is a high-noon duel: one gunslinger on each side of the screen, a stretch of desert in between, and first to land the shot wins.

Most people have never seen one in the wild, but it sits right at the root of the family tree for every versus game and shooter that followed. Simple, fast, and seriously competitive, it was the kind of game that always ended with “okay, one more.”

History

Midway brought Gun Fight to American arcades in 1975. It was a reworking of Western Gun, a Japanese game from Taito designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, the same designer who would go on to create Space Invaders a few years later.

For the U.S. release, Midway rebuilt the game around a microprocessor instead of the hardwired logic most cabinets used back then. It's often cited as the first arcade game to run on a microprocessor, a shift that made far more ambitious games possible. The art got an upgrade too: cowboys in hats, cacti, and covered wagons to duck behind.

How to play

Each player uses one stick to move their gunslinger and another to aim the six-shooter high, straight, or low, with a trigger to fire. You get six bullets per showdown, so spraying shots around is a fast way to lose.

Obstacles in the middle of the field soak up bullets, and some get chipped away as they take hits. Shots can also bounce off the top and bottom edges, which lets a sharp player bank a bullet around cover. Every hit is a point, and the game runs on a timer.

Fun facts

• It started life as Taito's Western Gun, designed by Tomohiro Nishikado.
• It's one of the earliest arcade games to show human figures fighting each other.
• Bank shots off the screen edges turn every duel into a little geometry lesson.

In the arcade

Gun Fight isn't in the arcade yet. It's on our wish list, and you can vote for it with the “I Want to Play It” button on this page. The games with the most votes move up the line, so it could be coming soon to UsuArcade.

In the meantime, if head-to-head bragging rights are your thing, you can already play Space Invaders, the next big hit from the same designer, or Street Fighter II, where one-on-one dueling became legendary. For more classic shooting, try Astro Fighter or Asteroids.

Once Gun Fight lands in the arcade, you'll be able to play it online two-player, each on your own phone or PC, in the same game.

FAQ