Continue our journey to discover videogames set in Wild West! If you missed the first part, ride fast here, for everyone else… Happy reading!
Gun.Smoke (1985)
Published on Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, NES, Famicom, MSX and, of course, proposed in coin-op version in the arcade, Gun.Smoke is a scrolling shooter developed in the studios Capcom and completed in 1985. The game takes its name from the Gunsmoke television series, which it was clearly inspired by, although not officially. Some of the 8-bit versions it has been converted to have taken the name of Gunsmoke or Desperado. The title is also present in some collections of Capcom classics available for Saturn, PlayStation, Xbox and PC. Billy was the protagonist of the adventure and his task was to get the better of the members of a dangerous band of outlaws, each of which represented a boss at the end of the level.
Law of the West (1985)
Law of the West, developed in collaboration by Accolade, Hyppopotamus Software and Pony Canyon, is an adventure set in the Wild West released in 1987 for Apple II and Commodore 64. In Japan, the title also saw the light on NES and NEC PC-8801. The title was also supposed to come out on XZ Spectrum, but that version was never released. Players were asked to take on the role of the sheriff of Gold Gulch and try to survive day in and day out. Between a firefight and the other you could try the approach with some sweet damsels who colored the game world. Depending on how you chose to carry on a dialogue you could take part in "extra" shootings. Be careful what you say when you wander the streets of Law of the West, cowboys!
Gold Rush! (1988)
Gold Rush! (later titled "California: Gold Rush!") is a graphic adventure developed and published by Sierra On-Line way back in '88, designed by Doug and Ken MacNeil. It is one of the latest games developed by Sierra to offer the “AGI” (Adventure Game Interpreter) interface, a graphics engine owned by Sierra itself, originally developed for King's Quest in 1984. Gold Rush! is set in 1848, just before the California Gold Rush broke out. The player, in the role of journalist Jerrod Wilson, finds himself in those parts in search of his lost brother. The gold rush is unleashed during his research, and the situation becomes complicated ... The developers included in Gold Rush! a "nice" surprise dedicated to all those who used a pirated copy of the title: at a certain moment of the adventure, in fact, the players were asked to type a specific word, present in the instruction booklet. By entering the wrong word, the protagonist was arrested and the adventure could not be completed.
Lost Dutchman Mine (1989)
Dress up in the dusty (and sweaty) clothes of a miner in Lost Dutchman Mine, developed by Magnetic Images for Amiga, Atari ST and PC (MS-DOS) in 1989. It is a single-player adventure where, as it is easy to guess, the search for gold was the main activity: the precious mineral was collected on the bed of rivers and humid caves. The scenarios were able to change with each new game. A bit like what happens in Terraria, so to speak.
Mad Dog McCree (1990)
The one developed by American Laser Games in 1990 it was the first live-action laserdisc videogame in history. The player takes on the role of a mysterious, nameless protagonist who is asked to free the local mayor and his poor daughter, kidnapped by the fearsome "Mad Dog McCree". The exact order of events depended on the choices the player decided to make within the adventure. Filming for every single scene in the game was filmed in New Mexico, where the American Laser Games was born.
Blood Bros. (1990)
Blood Bros. It is an arcade game developed and published by TAD Corporation, in Japan and Europe (in North America it was published by Fabtek). This is the spiritual sequel of Cabal, of which he shared most of the game mechanics. In Blood Bros., two blood brothers, a cowboy and an Indian, hunt down the outlaw Big Bad John in the troubled town of Dodge City. The title was also supposed to be released on Super Nintendo, but game designer Fusaki suffered a stroke and was forced to leave the company. The SNES version, due to this sad event, never saw the light.
Back to the Future Part III (1991)
Back to the Future Part III, is a videogame officially based on the legendary cinematographic work born in 1985 thanks to Robert Zemeckis, and developed by Sonda Software for Image Works and Arena Entertainment. The title was released on various platforms, including Atari ST, Commodore 64 and Sega Genesis. The title was basically divided into four different game types, including horse racing, target shooting, cake throwing and train racing.
Sunset Riders (1991)
In 1991, in coin-op version, Sega Mega Drive and Genesis and, finally, Super Nintendo, Konami public Sunset riders, side scrolling shooter set in the Far West where the player plays the role of a bounty hunter, more fearsome than the bounties themselves! The coin-op version was released in two different versions: for two and for four players. Versions for the Sega and Nintendo consoles were released in '92 and '93 respectively.
The Lone Ranger (1991)
in 1991 Konami public The Lone Ranger (“The Lone Ranger”), an action adventure developed for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The title was based on the radio and television series of the same name and players took on the role of this courageous lone Ranger called to face the Wild West, in game phases that alternated between the classic ones of a scrolling shooter and fierce first-person shootings. Ultimate goal: to have revenge on Butch Cavendish, an outlaw who killed some companions of our dear Ranger.
Mad Dog II: The Lost Gold (1992)
in 1992 American Laser Games and Digital Leisure developed the second installment of the live-action Mad Dog series, titled Mad Dog II: The Lost Gold. The game was originally published on coin-op, and then saw the light in different versions, until it reached the Wii in 2009 and the PlayStation 3 in 2013, strictly in digital format, among the pages of the PlayStation Store. Among the most relevant innovations of this sequel, the use of a real dedicated soundtrack, almost completely absent in the first chapter.
