Gamers Futilely Shoot Duck Hunt Dog on Nintendo NES – Today in Retro Gaming – October 18th, 1985
The Nintendo Entertainment System was known for a lot of things- one of which was the light gun zapper. The game that really showed the interaction of the zapper was Duck Hunt which featured a couple of different game modes. The game mode most gamers probably remember is the one the game is named after, hunting ducks. Who reading this has NOT tried to shoot that smarty pants dog after missing both ducks in a round?(html comment removed: more)
Sure, there was a clay pigeon shooting mode but most gamers did not bother with that mode for one reason or another. For me, I didn’t bother that much with clay pigeons because it was just not as fun as hunting ducks in the other mode. There is a certain charm to the main mode of Duck Hunt. From the infuriating dog snickering at you for missing to the ducks flying and falling after being shot. This mode exudes that hard to explain Nintendo charm.
Duck Hunt was the party game before party games were really a thing. Sure, Nintendo would almost create the party game (no I am not counting board game conversions) genre later with releases like Super Smash Bros on the Nintendo 64. Considering Duck Hunt predated later efforts by at least two console releases makes it one of the earliest party games worth playing- and betting on and laughing with friends and family when you want to just shoot that dog.
Nintendo never bothered to follow up Duck Hunt with anything later on- even though it surely would have been a fun game. That is sad considering the Super Nintendo had a bazooka style “zapper” and then the Nintendo Wii was basically the zapper for all games. It just seems like Nintendo missed a chance to sell some accessories over the years.
Duck Hunt is a rather common title so don’t spend too much on a zapper gun and a copy on Ebay.
This remembrance was originally posted on Retro Gaming Magazine a gaming website full of gaming memories.
I could never really work out how that light gun was supposed to work. It's not like the TV had a sensor with a way of sending data back to the console. Was the whole thing just a farce?
Haha yeah, as far as I can recall this was the common controversy back in the day! Does this thing actually work or is it plain random!?!
The screen flashing when you clicked the trigger was the key. Also calibration of the light gun was imperative to it working right (having to point to the four corners and pull the trigger).
The process is actually quite deep. I will have to find one of the better articles on how it worked. The basic idea is the screen flashing when pulling the trigger, it would produce a white box around the duck and if calibration was correct and your aim decent then it counted as a hit.
I remember that game, forgot where I played it however as Nintendo systems were never released (at that time) where I live.
It was a good, if simple, game that showed off the technology of the light gun quite well, that is for sure.