Sheriff (video game)
| Sheriff | |
|---|---|
Arcade flyer of Sheriff
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| Developer(s) | Nintendo R&D1 |
| Publisher(s) |
Nintendo (Japan, Europe) Exidy (North America) |
| Designer(s) | Genyo Takeda |
| Artist(s) | Shigeru Miyamoto |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Multi-directional shooter |
| Mode(s) |
Single-player, Two-player |
| Cabinet | Up-right, Cocktail |
| Arcade system | Nintendo 8080 |
| CPU |
8080 @ 2.016 MHz, 8035 @ 400 kHz |
| Sound |
SN76477 @ 400 kHz, DAC @ 400 kHz, Mono |
| Display |
Raster (vertical), 224×256 resolution, 8 out of 1024 colors |
Sheriff (シェリフ), also known as Bandido, is an arcade game developed by Nintendo R&D1 in 1979, designed by Genyo Takeda with art by Shigeru Miyamoto. Some sources claim that Ikegami Tsushinki also did design work on Sheriff. It is one of the earliest Western-style video games developed (following Gun Fight). The player controls a county sheriff tasked with defense of a town against bandits.
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.
A remake of the original titled Sheriff 2 was released in 1979, but few changes were made other than the addition of color graphics and minor changes in bonus scoring. The game was also distributed by Exidy in 1980 and released as Bandido.
The game was originally released in two formats; an upright cabinet and a cocktail (tabletop) version. These versions also made their way into Europe and Asia via imports. In the UK, Sheriff was licensed for production and distribution by Bell-Fruit Manufacturing in an upright cabinet. Bell-Fruit's core product range at the time was fruit/slot machines. Sheriff (and later Puckman) marked the company's first, and short lived, diversification into the market of video games as licensee, so the cabinet design for this territory differed considerably from that of the Japanese version. Although it featured the same marquee and bezel design, it shared many properties more commonly associated with slot machines (e.g. no side art or cabinet decals). However, the game's title in this region remained unchanged as Sheriff.
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