Crossbow is a video arcade game released by 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...

 in 1983. It was later published by Absolute Entertainment

Absolute Entertainment

Absolute Entertainment was a video game publisher based in Glen Rock, New Jersey and later in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Through its development house Imagineering, Absolute Entertainment produced titles for the Amiga, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Sega Game Gear, Sega Mega Drive, Mega-CD, Game Boy,...

 for the Commodore 64

Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...

, DOS

DOS

DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...

 and by Atari for the 2600

Atari 2600

The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...

, 7800

Atari 7800

The Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800, is a video game console re-released by Atari Corporation in January 1986. The original release had occurred two years earlier under Atari Inc. The 7800 had originally been designed to replace Atari Inc.'s Atari 5200 in 1984, but was temporarily...

 and XE Game System

Atari 8-bit family

The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers manufactured from 1979 to 1992. All are based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU and were the first home computers designed with custom coprocessor chips...

 starting in 1987.

Description

Crossbow was the first arcade game with fully digitized sound and speech (some earlier games such as Journey

Journey (arcade game)

Journey is an arcade game released by Bally Midway in 1983, following the success of the albums Escape and Frontiers by the rock band Journey. Bally/Midway decided to ride this wave of popularity and created an arcade game based on the band...

used a loop tape for music and speech effects). It also featured some of the most advanced graphics of the time. Unlike other gun games, such as Operation Wolf

Operation Wolf

Operation Wolf is a one-player shooter arcade game made by Taito in 1987. It spawned three sequels: Operation Thunderbolt , Operation Wolf 3 and Operation Tiger .-Description:...

(released four years later) that used a positional gun, Crossbow featured an optical 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...

. The game's light gun resembled a full-sized crossbow. Some complained that it was heavy and difficult to aim.

Gameplay

Gameplay requires the player to protect a band of adventurers from afar by shooting objects that threaten them. The adventurers enter from the left-hand side of the screen and attempt to cross the screen unharmed. If the player helps them reach the opposite side of the screen safely, the adventurers survive to the next scenario, and new adventurers are occasionally granted between scenarios. Levels are chosen by shooting a destination on a map screen.

Scenarios include: town, desert, volcano, cave, bridge, jungle, and castle. The goal is to reach the final scenario, past the castle, in which the player confronts the Master—who presumably created the dangers in the game. Defeating his manifestation (a huge face which shoots projectiles from the eyes) wins the game. The player is treated to a brief congratulation and a challenge to defeat the Master again. Following this screen the player starts over with however many adventurers survived the confrontation.

This game can be played with the MAME

MAME

MAME is an emulator application designed to recreate the hardware of arcade game systems in software on modern personal computers and other platforms. The intention is to preserve gaming history by preventing vintage games from being lost or forgotten...

 video game emulator, using a mouse instead of the crossbow-shaped light gun.

An iPhone version was released in 2010 by Mean Hamster Software

Mean Hamster Software

Mean Hamster Software, Inc. is a video game developer founded by John Swiderski in 1985. Mean Hamster Software created several games for the Atari 5200 from 1999-2004. They then created Myst for Windows Mobile in 2005, and after the release of Riven: The Sequel to Myst for Pocket PC in 2006, Mean...

.

Credits

• Game designer and chief programmer: Nick Ilyin
• Programming: Vic Tolomei, Larry Hutcherson
• Hardware designer:Howell Ivy
• Sounds and vocal characterization: Ken Nicholson
• Lynn Pointer (art design)