Early Games Where You Shoot Humans

[8bitgamer]

I'm trying to think of some early (1970s through 1982) video games in which you shoot humans (as opposed to aliens, ships or robots or whatever). Off the top of my head, I'm thinking of Gun Fight for the arcades, Gunfight for the Astrocade, and Outlaw for the 2600 (all similar).

What others come to mind?

[Ro-J]

Wow, I thought this would be easy to come up with something, but no. I was thinking Raiders of the Lost Ark (2600; 1982). There's a gun in the game, but I don't believe you can actually shoot anyone, just snakes. Other than that, nothing.

[treismac]

Released in 1982, Riddle of the Sphinx by Imagic for the 2600 has you kill humans with a sling and rocks.

[Gameguy]

I'll go with Defender. If a human is being abducted you can shoot them, though this isn't what you're supposed to be doing in the game.

[bb_hood]

When I saw the title of this thread the first game that sprung to mind was Defender.

[InsaneDavid]

Exidy's Chiller is going to be the best example. Also Elevator Action.

[8bitgamer]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

Riddle of the Sphinx and Defender are good examples. I hadn't thought of the latter since, like Gameguy said, you aren't supposed to shoot them.

I thought of Elevator Action, but it came out in 1983. Chiller came out in 1986.

[Leo_A]

I'll go with Defender. If a human is being abducted you can shoot them, though this isn't what you're supposed to be doing in the game.

You also can shoot them when they're alone on the ground (It's one of the expert strategies for the game... intentionally kill all humans except 1 to prevent them from becoming mutants) or when they're falling back to Earth after being freed. They're always vulnerable to your laser.

[Gameguy]

It's been awhile since I've played Defender so I couldn't remember if you could shoot them while they're on the ground.

As for other games, if you can count computer games there's Castle Wolfenstein from 1981.

[goldenband]

Gangster Alley for Atari 2600 just misses the cut, at 1983, but I have to imagine there are other similar games that predated it. Certainly there are tons of electromechanical games where you shoot people, dating back to the 1940s at least. The original Wild Gunman (http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=10432) was one.

[Koa Zo]

Certainly there are tons of electromechanical games where you shoot people, dating back to the 1940s at least. The original Wild Gunman (http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=10432) was one.

Great topic. I'd discussed this some times before with friends, trying to think about when killing people became the norm in video games. In the modern era of course it took off with graphic developments being able to recreate more lifelike simulations.

Narc and Lethal Enforces were a novelty that never appealed to me. The first time I saw a group of people getting their jollies on headshots in Goldeneye I was thoroughly disgusted.


edit: curious that Eugene Jarvas was the guy behind both Defender and NARC (and Robotron, which was also somewhat violent in that animated humans were getting assimilated/annihilated)

[Tanooki]

How about the Nintendo title Sheriff (1979) which is very early, you take down bad guys in that, but then later with their quickdraw arcade adaptation of the NES title Wild Gunman featured in Back to the Future 2 where they whole point is a quickdraw kill or be killed timed event.

[8bitgamer]

How about the Nintendo title Sheriff (1979) which is very early, you take down bad guys in that, but then later with their quickdraw arcade adaptation of the NES title Wild Gunman featured in Back to the Future 2 where they whole point is a quickdraw kill or be killed timed event.

Sheriff is a good one. I figured there must be at least one other western game that met the criteria.

[aryoshi]

First games that came to mind were Defender and Chiller, especially Chiller.