Safari (set 1)

Arcade Video game published 47 years ago:

Safari (c) 1977 Gremlin.

This game was in black and white, not greyscale (like many early games used), but just 2 colors, black and white. But the characters and animals were large, and very detailed for just using a single color. There were 4 different animals that you could hunt. Snakes and lions were both rather slow moving, and good for 100 points each. Wild boars would run quickly across the screen, but would net you 200 for a kill. Finally, vultures were small and would move around erratically near the top of the screen (being worth 300 points if you could hit them). Touching any of the beasties meant instant death, but it mattered little, because this game played on time limits anyway. Death only meant that you would lose a few seconds waiting for your intrepid big game hunter to reappear (the game lasted 90 seconds total).

- TECHNICAL -

BOARD # 815-0001
Prom stickers: 57-66

Main CPU: Zilog Z80 (@ 1.93356 Mhz)

Screen orientation: Horizontal
Video resolution: 256 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh: 60.00 Hz

Players: 1
Control: 4-way joystick, joystick 2-way
Buttons: 1

- TRIVIA -

This June 1977 release was a joint venture between Sega and Gremlin. It came in a green dedicated cabinet with sideart of a hunter in a jungle scene. This may have been the first game to utilize twin joysticks. The first was a 4-Way joystick that controlled the movement of your hunter. While the second was a 2-Way joystick with a top mounted fire button. That one was used to aim and shoot. This game uses a cabinet overlay to produce the surrounding effect.