Retro Coin Op Synopsis

"Greenhorn, you couldn’t hit the side of a barn!"

To risk an insult like this, all a person had to do was drop a coin into a “fast draw” gun game. These coin-ops pitted players face-to-face with a life-size cowboy mannequin…if the novice proved a quicker draw than his nemesis, he won the round, sure…but more importantly, he ducked the rival cowboy’s verbal mud slingin’.

These particular rifle games were especially popular in the 60’s and 70’s, and unlike other coin-ops, they were almost entirely skill-based. If a player had a good eye and had invested a few coins to know where the targets would be popping up, well then, gun glory would have surely been his. Manufacturers figured their most profitable demographic with these games would be teenagers and middle-class white collar workers—gentlemen who never had much experience with firearms, but fancied a try.

With the advent of video gaming, mechanical rifle coin-ops lost popularity, though video and fast draw did occasionally merge. In 1994, American Laser Games offered Fast Draw Show Down to the quarter-toting public. The enemy this time was no mannequin, it was a real-life outlaw on a video screen. Once a player squared off and the signal was given, both grabbed for their holsters and had at it. But if a player jumped the gun (and that’s no pun—that’s actually where the phrase comes from, cowpoke), he was disqualified from the next round of shootouts. If, on the other hand, he did win, and continued to win the three shootouts that followed, he was granted a title like “Super Sheriff,” and his name was displayed for all the arcade varmints to see and admire. Yee-hah!

Arcade Machine Release History

1960s - Fast Draw Gun games

Arcade Game Sub Categories

simulator
shooting

Machine Manufacturer

various

Other Arcade Game Links