It’s widespread data that Nintendo made novelty toys and Hanafuda playing cards lengthy earlier than they arrived to video video games. Whereas they reshaped the trade, their video games previous to Donkey Kong are much less famend. There’s good motive for that. Wild Gunman, their first arcade sport, is notoriously uncommon. There is no such thing as a proof {that a} working cupboard exists anyplace on the planet. Till now. A Canadian arcade repairman and YouTuber took on the problem of reconstructing one after coming into possession of its most integral elements.
“Someday in July 2025, as I used to be searching the arcade elements class on eBay i got here throughout an public sale that didn’t make lots of sense to me,” stated Callan “74XX” Brown in his video, “a set of Nintendo branded movie reels.” Relationship again to 1974, Wild Gunman was Nintendo’s first arcade sport, nevertheless it was not a online game per se. Utilizing two simultaneous movie reel projectors, the sunshine gun western would alternate between them relying on the place you shot, triggering a profitable or shedding state. Making the sport, Gunpei Yokoi requested Fuji use Tetoron, a polyester combine that could possibly be extra sturdy. That stated, Yokoi nonetheless believed it will start to wear down after 1,000 play classes, by no means thoughts entice modes. Whereas the complete movement sport was a novel hit at launch, its lifetime potential to drag a revenue appeared doubtful, nevermind the video invasion and introduction Laserdiscs. Surviving copies of the Wild Gunman reels are extremely uncommon. In 2021, historian Kate Willært believed that the cleanest footage of Nintendo’s first sport wasn’t in arcades, however in an underground experimental brief movie and the boneheaded ‘80s comedy Gasoline. Later that 12 months, a collector got here throughout two of the 4 movie reels.
Puzzled by seeing movie reels in an arcade public sale, Brown observed the standard Nintendo management stickers, portray them because the legit article. It’s attainable these have been the holy grail. After putting a profitable bid and shopping for a classroom 16mm projector from a close-by city (thanks Ontario training system), Brown was in a position to watch the Wild Gunman reels, doubtless their first screening in 40 years.
Getting the footage digitized, Brown then started working reconstructing Nintendo’s historic cupboard himself. Reverse engineering patents and making use of open supply software program, he’s constructed a powerful modernized duplicate of Wild Gunman. With video projections from scans of the unique inventory, the elusive movies will likely be spared from additional misery. Brown says he intends to showcase his work in native conventions, resembling Ontario PinFest. “Thanks for becoming a member of me on my journey to make what could be the one playable Wild Gunman ‘74 in North America,” says Brown, “perhaps the world.”
