THE HISTORY OF VIDEOGAMES PART 4 - April 1999
| If you've been following this
series, you could be forgiven for thinking that Boot Hill (released by Midway in 1977)
represented a pretty major leap forward for arcade technology. Those detailed background
graphics, that lush use of glowing colour... Sadly, though, it was all a big con. Boot
Hill's colourful backdrops were achieved by the unscientific method of sticking a big
bit of cellophane with the background painted on it over the screen, with the all-white
graphics then superimposed on top. Cheats. All the same, Boot Hill WAS still a pretty important videogames innovator. It was the first game ever to have two on-screen humans battling against each other at the same time, and as such it's the grandfather of the fighting games that take up most of the floorspace in modern arcades. It also - unfortunately -introduced the idea of having separate controls for aiming and moving (a horrible notion that only ever seems to make life unnecessarily awkward for the clumsy, ham-fisted or plain rat-arsed player, and which has only ever been done well in the classic Robotron and its sequels), but despite that it's still a fun little game, if only for the great Michael Owen-style overacting of your cowboy as he falls to the ground clutching his heart and crying "Penalty!" Er, I mean "Shot Me!" |
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