Sheriff (1979)

[Drum]

So this game is pretty awesome.

It's pretty much the first twin stick shooter, 3 years before Robotron 2084 (never mind that the second stick is actually a dial that you twist to change direction of your gun, it's mechanically identical!).
It's also one of the first games with a musical accompaniment (it may be the first, I'm not sure). The music speeds up as the enemies do, making it factor into the gameplay as well. Sort of an evolution of Space Invaders' 'heart beat'.
It also has a (trivial) story - rescue the girl - but that's still a first, or near-first.
Gameplay-wise, it's sort of like Space Invaders but the enemies are circling you, and firing from all sides instead of descending from above. It also has a similar destructible cover system, with houses and fence posts filling in for the bunkers of Space Invaders. The top and bottom houses are indestructible, and display the current level. As the player goes through the levels, enemies shoot more bullets, making the game more challenging. Every now and again, a vulture flies across the top of the screen just like the UFO in Space Invaders - it's no threat, but you get a bonus for shooting it, which varies depending on (I think) the current stage. As you kill the circling bandits, the others speed up. They also occasionally break their position circling the village and enter it (up to four at a time), where their movement becomes much more erratic and freeform, making the game more like Robotron. Bandits outside the village award you 30 points, inside the village award you 60 - so there's the potential for some risk vs reward scoring. Beat a few levels and you 'rescue the girl' which awards you double points and an erotic entanglement.
This is Nintendo's first arcade game, and Shigeru Miyamoto's first game, so it's weird it doesn't get more attention - especially considering its achievements. It's pretty fun even today, so I'm having a tough time figuring out why it doesn't get its props. Is it the somewhat uninspiring western theme? That the game just wasn't a hit at the time? I don't know.
Anyway, discuss!

[Drum]

This was meant to go on the shmup board, sorry (yes, it counts).

[Ed Oscuro]

I'll take a wild guess and say it's not popular because it sucks.

I'm not a huge fan of Robotron 2084 (the game) but that's ahead of this by a ways. Even with the extra dimensions it gets repetitive in a hurry. Hit detection strikes me as very spotty. Overall, reminds me of Radar Scope: Some interesting new elements but overall it doesn't really mesh. Gun Fight from four years earlier is about as interesting in the long run, and The Tin Star from 1983 does the theme better.

[Drum]

Ugh, your opinions are terrible - I challenge you to a duel.
Remember, this was released in 1979 - the year of Asteroids, Hien-Kyo Alien and Warrior. The movement of the enemies/player is a bit herky-jerky, but similar to Space Invaders (only less flickery). Sheriff does not have spotty hit detection - it's consistent and pixel perfect. The flickering when you die is probably throwing you off. Obviously Galaxian is smoother, but 'smooth' should only get you so far.
Of course Robotron is ahead of it! It came out three years later.
I don't know why you're bringing up Gun Fight and Tin Star other than the theme (which tells me my 'theme' theory is dead on). Gun Fight has shit on Sheriff and rightly takes its place in videogame obscura - it was basically a less interesting version of Computer Space/Space Wars and introduced nothing to canon. It gets props for being one of the very first arcade games (and I use the term 'game' loosely, because Gun Fight barely fits that bill), but that's it and that's not much when you're worse than what came before. Tin Star is basically just a crappy Sheriff clone where the bullets move to fast and the twin stick setup is pointless.
I'm not saying Sheriff is a brilliant game, but it has more going on upstairs than games that are considered classics (see: Galaxian) and it's fun enough, especially for the time.

[Ed Oscuro]

Look, let's both admit that neither of us were playing games in 1979. So you can't even fall back to the standard of "well it was great fun back then" and nostalgia tinted shades in defending this one. Interesting ideas, terrible execution. It's just not that fun. I could think of worse things to play, but - if this is what games were like, I'd be doing something else with my time. To be sure, they were ahead of the game...which makes this something, but not my first choice for gaming. And yes, I managed over 5K and through a "loop" on my second play despite always being disoriented when playing these with the keyboard. (Didn't bother with my dying 360 pad).

Also, Gun Fight is more rightfully called a digression from the Pong theme. You aim your gun, and look for cover. Not much more interesting than the scene from Airplane with the kids playing Pong but there you are.

[Drum]

Bah, I'm not falling back on nostalgia - you said yourself that neither of use actually have any nostalgia for it. Weird-ass point to make. Personally, I'd much rather play Asteroids and I think most people would (I'd rather play Asteroids than anything that came out in the late seventies/early 80s) - but I'd rather play Sheriff than Space Invaders! Do I think it's fun? I'd say it's 'pretty fun', but I wouldn't go further than that and don't deserve this torrent of abuse (keke). Game deserves some recognition, is all.

[DEL]

I don't think I came across Sheriff

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/thread ... West-Games

but I did play the original cabinet of Boot Hill 1977:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AVIBGwYCks
I played it in a Ski hotel in Chamonix during a School Ski trip in 1980/81.
If it wasn't Boot Hill, then it was an almost identical 1 on 1 duel with cactuses in the middle.

An original Asteroids cabinet was sitting next to it.