Whereas Nintendo has been a outstanding drive within the recreation business for many years, it took a while earlier than they turned absolutely the powerhouse they’re right now. Lengthy earlier than their dominance in residence consoles, Nintendo manufactured enjoying playing cards, toys, and numerous gadgets–and, in the course of the Seventies and 80s, they invested closely in creating coin-operated leisure for arcades. Even years earlier than Donkey Kong turned a company-defining hit, Nintendo was performing some wild issues in arcades.
Wild Gunman ’74, named such by gaming historian Kate Willaert to keep away from confusion with different Nintendo merchandise bearing the identical title, was engineered by Nintendo’s legendary creator and inventor Gunpei Yokoi. It was an enormous lightgun recreation that used full-motion video to depict Wild West quick-draw shootouts with outlaws–an absolute technological marvel for the time that earned numerous fawning press in coin-operated commerce magazines. Sadly, that spectacular expertise didn’t translate to gross sales for the costly cupboard, with roughly 100 models being bought, making Wild Gunman ’74 extraordinarily uncommon. Due to the machine’s age, dimension, proprietary expertise, and obscurity, working Wild Gunman ’74 models are virtually not possible to find–only one unique machine is understood to exist, within the arms of a non-public collector.
However when Canadian arcade collector and restore skilled Callan Brown received ahold of a number of the unique Wild Gunman 74 movie reels used within the arcade machine from an eBay public sale, he felt a have to try to restore it to its full, working glory–which he documented in an in depth YouTube video.
