Classic of the Month - Gun Fight

Manufacturer:	Midway
Genre:	Shooter
Board:	Dedicated Intel 8080-based hardware
Year:	1975

It's my birthday this month, so I thought I'd talk about a game from the year I was born, 1975 (oh God, I really am 36 now, aren't I?).   Anyway, this month's classic is Midway's Gun Fight, which was actually based on Taito's 1974 game Western Gun.  In the early to mid-1970s, games were still very primitive and most were variations of Atari's hit game Pong!  Despite the wild west theme and the six shooter action, so too was Gun Fight.  It was a two player only and the game play consisted of the players facing off, in true Spaghetti Western style.  Where it starts to feel like Pong is in the way the bullets can be ricocheted off the top and bottom of the screen.  The controls consisted of a 4-way joystick that controlled the character and a pistol grip with a trigger, which only tilted vertically, controlling the gun, making for fairly visceral and intense action - even by today's standards. 

MTW

What is a cocktail table?

Most arcade machines were upright, but because it was common for bars and cafes to have a few machines, a table form factor was invented know as "cocktail tables". These machines were designed to be used as a table, featured a screen that pointed upwards through the glass surface and often had two sets of controls (on either side of the screen), so two people could play without swapping seats.

Cocktail tables were quite rare and just like this picture, I think I only ever saw Pac-Man machines. Unsurprisingly they are much sought after pieces of hardware. My guess is, like me, most old arcade fans know a cocktail table is their best chance of persuading their wife or girlfriend to let them have a real machine in their house. If that sounds like a good idea, expect to pay two or even three times as much as you would an upright.

MTW

Tron: Legacy pinball is on its way

Tron and arcades are synonymous. Aside from the arcade references in the film, it also spawned two coin-op machines, Tron and Discs of Tron.  The former was a landmark machine for me; the latter was pretty, but lacklustre.  So it's hardly surprising that a coin-op machine was planned for the sequel, Tron: Legacy and given the state of modern arcades, it's perhaps not surprising that this new machine is actually a pinball table.

Announced last week, Parts4Pinballs.com has the following information about the table:

Not much details has come out yet but here are some of the features on the game:
Illuminated Motorized Spinning Disc in the center back of the playfield is protected by the Motorized Bank of 3 Yellow Targets, that retracts into the playfield. The Spinning Disc shoots the ball randomly across and around the playfield.


3rd Flipper at the left, half way up the playfield. Shoots beautifully into the one of the two plastic ramps. This Flipper is fed by many shots, including an orbit shot, a small loop shot, a skill entry shot.


The miniature TRON video game is mounted above the Scoop near the right side, about half way up the playfield. Shooting into the Scoop starts exciting features and collects big points.


In addition to the Motorized Target Bank, this game has 4 TRON targets on the left, 2 Spinning Targets, numerous other Targets, and of course 3 Pop Bumpers to the right side.

So there's no other details at the moment, so I guess we'll have to make do with a few images:

 

MTW