Wild Gunman

Did You Know?

• In Japan, Wild Gunman was the sixth highest-grossing EM arcade game of 1976.
• The 1974 game sold around 100 units, making them very rare to acquire.

History

Wild Gunman began as one of Nintendo's electro-mechanical (EM) arcade games, created by Gunpei Yokoi and released in 1974. The original machine used a light gun connected to a 16 mm projection screen, displaying full-motion video footage of an American Wild West gunslinger. When the enemy character's eyes flashed, the player drew and fired; a successful shot changed the projection to the gunman falling, while failure showed the gunman drawing and firing. A premature draw triggered a foul light and made the duel unwinnable. The game featured five gunslinger opponents. Sega released Wild Gunman in North America in 1976. The footage was filmed with uncredited local extras on location around Kyoto and at the Nara Dreamland amusement park. A recreation of the arcade game was built by Canadian arcade repairman and YouTuber Callan Brown, who plans to showcase it at the 2026 Ontario PinFest convention from May 30 to May 31. Nintendo adapted the EM game into a video game with cartoon-style sprites. The Famicom version launched in Japan in 1984 with the Beam Gun, a plastic western-style revolver modeled after the Colt Single Action Army, packaged with a holster belt. The NES version followed in the United States in 1985. Nintendo re-released the game on the Wii U Virtual Console on October 21, 2015, to coincide with Back to the Future Day.

Gameplay

In Wild Gunman, you must hold your fire until your opponent’s eyes flash and a speech bubble says “FIRE!!” If you shoot too soon, you lose that duel and the next one starts. The game has four film scenes—Film-A through Film-D—each recorded on two 16 mm film reels to show different outcomes, for eight reels total. Collector Benjamin Solovey found two original reels in 2021. Three modes are available: GAME A pits you against one outlaw, GAME B against two, and GAME C against a whole gang.

Legacy

Experimental filmmaker Craig Baldwin's 1978 short Wild Gunman re-edited, sped up, and slowed down footage from the original 1974 arcade game to surreal effect. The 1974 arcade game appears in the 1981 film Gas, played by the main antagonist, who loses to a gunman and shoots the game's projector screen with a real gun; the appearance nods to actor Sterling Hayden. In Back to the Future Part II (1989), Marty McFly plays a non-existent arcade version of the NES Wild Gunman resembling a Nintendo VS. System cabinet. The 1990 sequel Part III reveals that frequent play has given Marty skill with a real revolver. In the Super Smash Bros. series, the Duck Hunt duo can summon Wild Gunman characters to attack opponents, and their Final Smash traps opponents in a shootout between gunmen and Hogan's Alley enemies.