Chiller is an Exidy

Exidy

Exidy was one of the largest creators of arcade video games during the early period of video games, from 1974 until at least 1986 . The company was founded by H.R."Pete" Kauffman...

 light gun

Light gun

A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games.Modern screen-based light guns work by building a sensor into the gun itself, and the on-screen target emit light rather than the gun...

 arcade game

Arcade game

An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...

 released in 1986. An unlicensed port

Game port

The game port is a device port found on IBM PC compatible systems throughout the 1980s and 1990s. It was the traditional connector for joystick input devices until superseded by USB in the 21st century....

 was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System

Nintendo Entertainment System

The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...

 in 1990 by American Game Cartridges, with the option of using either the standard controller or the NES Zapper

NES Zapper

The NES Zapper, also known as the Beam Gun in Japan, is an electronic light gun accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Japanese Famicom. It was released in Japan for the Famicom on and alongside the launch of the NES in North America in October 1985...

. The player takes on the role of an unseen torturer

Torture

Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...

 who must maim, mutilate, and murder helpless victims in a variety of dungeon

Dungeon

A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably belongs more to the Renaissance period...

 settings. Few of the enemies in the game are capable of fighting back, with the challenge element lying in how quickly the player can cause each of the victims to die.

The game sold poorly in the United States because arcade owners refused to purchase it; Exidy did, however, find success in marketing it to third world countries  Modern gamers often criticize the game for its senseless violence and encouraging the torture and murder of apparently innocent people, as opposed to the gamer fighting enemies capable of defending themselves.

Overview

The game consists of a series of screens representing various dungeon and horror movie settings. Most screens feature helpless victims bound or restrained by a variety of medieval torture devices. The player must figure out how to kill every victim in as short amount a time as possible; although it is possible to simply shoot the victims to death, this process takes a considerable amount of time, as even headshots simply result in chunks of flesh and bone being blown away, leaving the victims alive. Rather, the challenge lies in finding ways to activate the various torture devices, resulting in quicker, bloodier deaths.

For each screen, shooting all available targets gives the player a bonus shooting round. The game features a Ghost counter on-screen scoring system named the "Ectoplasmic Tabulator". It has very similar gameplay to "Crossbow

Crossbow (video game)

Crossbow is a video arcade game released by Exidy in 1983. It was later published by Absolute Entertainment for the Commodore 64, DOS and by Atari for the 2600, 7800 and XE Game System starting in 1987.-Description:...

" and other related Exidy 440 board system games.

Arcade and NES game differences

• The NES version has a storyline that attempts to soften the implications of the violence by stating that all of the victims are actually monsters: "Back in the middle ages a castle on the outskirts of town has been invaded by an evil force which is causing the dead to come back to life! You need to stop this force before it can create a large army and take over the town. ...Each level also has 8 talismans hidden in it; you need to find and destroy these to stop the monsters from appearing."

• The horrific head seen in "Hallway" chasing a woman merely travels across the room in the NES version, with the Arcade's horrific head appearing from the end of the Hallway, coming quite close to the screen, then moving to the side, chasing the woman. This may have been because of the NES' lack of scaling features.

• There is an on-screen scoring system that was originally called the "Ectoplasmic
  Ectoplasm (paranormal)
  Ectoplasm is a term coined by Charles Richet to denote a substance or spiritual energy "exteriorized" by physical mediums...
  
   Tabulator" but due to screen resolution limitations was changed to "Monster Meter (TM)".

• The "items" used to play the bonus shooting stage in the arcade version are referred to as "Talismans"

• The levels are played in reverse to the arcade game:

Additionally, the NES version contained some minor censorship from the arcade version. This included removing the nudity on the female victims in the graveyard; removing the ability to shoot the flesh off of the rack victims; censoring many of the body parts scattered around the torture room; and changing the monk pushing a cart of body parts to a nun

Nun

A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...

pushing a baby carriage (although the nun can still be shot).

External links

• Chiller examined in detail on Ironic Consumer