Duck Hunt

Duck Hunt is a video game that consists of 3 releases

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Duck Hunt was one of the original NES launch titles, featuring a lightgun, ducks and a laughing blood-hound.

Overview

Duck Hunt was first developed in conjunction with the Laser Clay Shooting System. This system was a light gun simulation made by Nintendo. The game itself was created by Nintendo Research and Development Team 1 in 1973, a time before Nintendo had branched into game development. The game was directed by Takehiro Izushi and produced by Gunpei Yokoi. The same team where responsible for the creation and development of the light gun used by the game. The game OST was composed by Koji Kondo (of metal Gear Solid fame) and Hirokazu Tanaka, both of whom are credited in many Nintendo Game OST’s of that era. After that, its next release was as one of a two game package with the original Super Mario Bros for the NES in 1980. Given the fact that it was made with the intention of being more of a tech demo shipped with the NES much like Wii sports is for the Wii, it was hardly seen as a game and was rarely reviewed at that time. Duck Hunt has since been placed in multiple cartridge combination's, including a special bundle which gave you a 3 in one game cartridge with Duck Hunt, Super Mario Bros and World Class Track Meet.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Duck Hunt focuses on the use of the Nintendo Zapper Lightgun that shipped with the game. There are three game modes: 1/2 ducks or "clay-pigeon shooting". In the duck modes, the player must repeatedly shoot down one or two ducks before a certain time limit expires, and with a limited supply of ammunition. In the clay-pigeon mode, the ducks are replaced by (you guessed it) clay-pigeons, smaller sprites that are harder to hit, and here the difficulty ramps up much more quickly.

The lightgun is essentially a lightsensor in a barrel. and when the player presses the trigger, the game screen turns black for a short time, except for a small white square around the target(s). This rather simplistic approach made it easy for more inventive players to create ways to cheat the system. For example, by simply pointing the gun at a lamp, the game always registers hits. Also, by putting a magnifying lens in front of the barrel, you can transform the zapper into a "light-shotgun", meaning that the lightsensor now sees a larger part of the screen, which lessens the need of correct aiming.

When in one of the "duck-modes", a dog appears on the screen every round to pick up the ducks you shot, or to laugh at you if you failed to bring down any duck. It is rumored that in some versions of the game, in a special bonus stage, it is possible to shoot the dog, thus ridding yourself of the only nemesis in this simple game.

Duck Hunt’s characters have since made appearances in other games. The dog can be seen in Barker Bill’s Trick Shooting, and in Super Smash Brothers Brawl a trophy can be unlocked which has the ducks from the Duck Hunt displayed on it.

Technical details about how the light gun works in duck hunt

Yes it uses the "death flash" technique that as described somewhat higher up which shows a light spot when you press the trigger that the photo diode in the light gun detects and then send a signal to the NES that is was a hit.
However this technique does not work when there are more than one duck on the screen (the system would not know which duck you have hit).

Hence why Nintendo developed another technique called "the coordinates of the apocalypses".
When there is more than one duck on the screen instead of showing a black screen with a white spot like it does when there is only one duck the game will show the light gun a black screen and then a plain white screen.
Perhaps some of you have tried and play duck hunt on a flat screen and experienced that it did not work this is because duck hunt is build using the mechanics of the electrons in a cathodic television.
Whenever a cathodic television shows a new frame the new pixels will appear one for one from left to right from up to down on the screen.

Say we have a screen with only four pixels (pixel A on the top right hand corner B top left hand corner C in the bottom left hand corner and D in the bottom right hand corner ) that is entirely black and that has to display a white screen. The four pixels will become white in the following order A ,B ,C and then D.

Arms of the trade.

Now lets say that this would take four seconds (in reality it happens so fast that you wont even notice it).
second 0: all black
second 1: only A white BCD black
second 2: AB white CD black
second 3: ABC white D black
second 4: ABCD white

Let's imagine that there is a duck at pixel B and that you are aiming correctly. You press the trigger, the screen turns black and then then screen starts to become white. After two seconds pixel B will become white, the light gun will send a positive signal to the NES. The NES knows that the duck was at pixel B and that after you pulled the trigger it took 2 seconds before the signal came from the light gun. By doing some calculations, then game can show the duck being gunned down. Using this technique Duck Hunt was able to put more than one duck on screen at a time.

General Information Edit

Game Name	Duck Hunt
Platform(s)	MSX NES Arcade
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Developer(s)	Nintendo R&D1
Genres	Add a new genre Light-Gun Shooter
Themes	Add a new theme Comedy
Original US Release	Oct. 18, 1985 need a fuzzy date?
Original US Release	know the real date?
Aliases