Sheriff Nintendo (arcade game)

Sheriff (シェリフ?) is an arcade game developed by Nintendo R&D1 in 1979, designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda Some sources claim that Ikegami Tsushinki also did design work on Sheriff. It is one of the earliest Western-style video games developed (alongside Gun Fight). The player controls a county sheriff who must defend the town from bandits. It was a run and gun multi-directional shooter that featured dual-stick controls, with one joystick for movement and the other for aiming, and a large number of enemies shooting many bullets, paving the way for later dual-stick shooters such as Robotron: 2084 (1982) and Geometry Wars (2003)


Sheriff has unique controls for shooting and moving around the screen. The shooting joystick consists of a switch that can be pointed into eight different directions. The player must indicate a direction, then press the switch in order to shoot. The movement joystick is also set so that a considerable time delay exists before the new direction takes effect on screen. These controls allow the sheriff to walk in one direction while shooting in another.
The entire screen is part of the game field, except for the score indication on the top of the screen. 16 bandits surround the outer rim, marked by a dotted barricade. Bullets from either the sheriff or the bandits can destroy these barriers, and they can function as defensive walls or aiming obstacles for the player. Unbreakable bricks also exist on the midpoint of each side of the screen, and display the current level number.
The basic action taken by the enemy bandits is to walk around the outer rim while firing bullets at the sheriff, but they will sometimes enter into the central area, along with a change in game music. The sheriff must avoid touching the bandits, dodge bullets, and shoot all 16 bandits to complete each level.


Many players were unable to cope with the 8-way joystick of the original game, leading to its relative unpopularity. The sequel, Sheriff 2 was released in 1979, with the characters changed to cute animals, and a greatly simplified control system. The 8-way joystick used for shooting was replaced with a normal button, so the sheriff can only shoot in the direction he is facing. Another game pattern was also added, where the bandits enter into the central area, but run straight through the top half instead of chasing the sheriff. The player can gain bonus points if he manages to shoot all of the bandits while they are running through the central area. However, Sheriff 2 was not distributed widely enough to gain any sort of following.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Sheriff
• Nintendo
• (arcade
• game)
• 1979

[kdreamland]

I love the music for this game

[bland9876]

Wario ware gba has this game in black and white but the sheriff has a pink mustash

[lewisner]

The money I spent on this game.......