Crossbow (version 2.0)

Arcade Video game published 41 years ago:

Crossbow (c) 1983 Exidy.

Early first-person shoot'em up game with a dungeons and dragons feel about it. Features good speech and screams.

Gameplay requires the player to protect a band of adventurers (referred to as "friends" by the game) 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. In addition to the obstacles, the adventurers are vulnerable to the player's shots. The first time the player shoots an adventurer, an on-screen message is shown: "DON'T SHOOT YOUR FRIENDS!" Thereafter, shooting an adventurer will cause him/her to emit a cry of pain, and to walk at a slower pace the rest of the way. A second shot will kill the adventurer.Scenarios are chosen by shooting a destination on a map screen, which include: town, desert, volcano, cave, bridge, jungle, and castle.

The short path to reach the castle is by using the following Color paths -> Green -> Blue -> Blue -> Red.

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 the Master of Darkness requires shooting him in the eyes when they turn red (and deadly). The player is treated to a brief congratulation and a challenge to defeat the Master again, but if you dare. Following this screen the player starts over with however many adventurers survived the confrontation.

- TECHNICAL -

Exidy 440 hardware

Main CPU : Motorola M6809 (@ 1.6224 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Motorola M6809 (@ 811.2 Khz)
Sound Chips : Custom (@ 50.7 Khz)

Players : 1
Control : lightgun
Buttons : 1

- TRIVIA -

Released in October 1983, Crossbow is the first of Exidy's classic shoot'em up. It was also the first video game in history to completely use digitized sound and music.

Fadi Baroody holds the official record for this game with 21654300 points on August 1994 in Myrtle Beach, SC Wild-Rapids Water Park.

This message is in the sound CPU at E3B0:
DMA.A69
COPYRIGHT (C) 1983
EXIDY INC.
MARK VON STRIVER
LA PLUME DE MA TANTE EST SUR LE BUREAU

The last sentence is derived from a useless but ubiquitous phrase used to demonstrate grammatically correct French. The full sentence would be "La plume de ma tante est sur le bureau de mon oncle".

- STAFF -

Software: Nick Ilyin, Larry Hutcherson, Vic Tolomei
Hardware: Howell Ivy, Mark Von Striver
Graphics: Mike Craven, Leland Mar, Hector Galindo
Audio: Ken Nicholson
Art: Rey Maninang
Support: Joe Stieber, Pam Banegas, Lynn Leigh, Al Petretto

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[US] Atari 2600 (1987) [Model CX26139]
[US] Atari 7800 (1988) [Model CX7844]
[US] Atari XEGS (1988) [Model RX8088]
[JP] Nintendo Famicom : prototype.

* COMPUTERS:
[US] Commodore C64 (1988) : Absolute Entertainment.