Fear Not, Pedestrians!
Man vs Nature
Hello from New Orleans, readers. My choice of video games is quite limited when I’m on the road so I decided to take a walk down memory lane courtesy of MAME. I came up with the arcade classic Crossbow. This game had a crossbow mounted on the arcade cabinet. In emulation, the crossbow is replaced by the mouse. If you’re big on authenticity, visit Logitech’s site to sign the petition for a USB crossbow controller.
Your job as the master crossbowman is to protect your party of characters from horrors encountered on a leisurely stroll. The jackasses in your party know nothing of defending themselves and march forward relentlessly. Their walking routes include deserts, jungles, volcanoes, caverns, and finally a castle. In the screenshot above, you can see me defending my helpless crew against rabid monkeys and a bloodthirsty toucan. Don’t worry, all party members made it through unscathed. Crossbow was a major gaming triumph as the first arcade game to use digitized audio and a light gun. It’s also the first arcade game to use a crossbow as far as I know. It’s 22 years old but it’s still a butter-churning good time.