Video Game Firsts - Western Gun / Gun Fight - Warped Factor - Words in the Key of Geek.

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Video Game Firsts - Western Gun / Gun Fight

Do you feel lucky?


Released in 1975, Western Gun was the first video game to depict human to human contact.

But that's not the only first for this particular arcade game. Originally released in Japan and Europe by Taito, Midway Games bought the licence for North America, re-branded it as Gun Fight and included the first ever use of a microprocessor in their arcade cabinet - rather than the traditional 'Transistor- transistor logic' circuit boards that were in all games beforehand.


Following its November 1975 release in North America, Gun Fight went on to sell over 8,000 arcade cabinets in the United States alone. The theme of the game involves two Old West cowboys armed with revolvers and squaring off in a duel. Whoever shoots the other cowboy first wins the duel. 

Gun Fight used an Intel 8080 CPU, an 8-bit chip that was considered to be the first truly usable microprocessor. What did this do for games? Simply put, being faster than the old circuit boards it allowed the graphics to be more continuous, more fluid, and also more solid. A huge step forward in arcade gaming, paving the way for Space Invaders, Pac-Man and every classic title released over the last 40 years.

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