Crossbow (video game)

Exidy

Industry	Video games
Founded	1973
Products	Video games, including Crossbow

Crossbow is an arcade light gun shooter created by Exidy in 1983. Subsequently, Absolute Entertainment released versions for the Commodore 64 and MS-DOS, while Atari Corporation published ports for the Atari 2600, Atari 7800, and Atari 8-bit computers starting from 1987. The game features a positional shooting device designed to mimic a life-sized crossbow.

Exidy promoted Crossbow to arcade operators emphasizing its adaptability for future themes through conversion kits. Five conversion kits, all beginning with the letter 'c', were introduced: Cheyenne, Combat, Crackshot, Clay Pigeon, and the provocative Chiller. Other titles compatible with the Exidy 440 platform included Hit 'n Miss, Showdown, Top Secret, and Who Dunnit.

Gameplay

Players use the crossbow gun to defend adventurers as they move across the screen. These characters enter from the left side and must reach the far right safely to progress. If an adventurer is accidentally shot once, a warning is issued; further hits will either slow their movement or result in their death.

To choose different scenarios, players shoot at various destinations displayed on a map, such as town, desert, volcano, cave, bridge, jungle, and castle. The ultimate objective involves confronting the Master of Darkness by targeting his eyes when they glow red. Upon defeating him, the game restarts with any remaining adventurers.

A distinctive feature is that inserting a quarter activates a voice clip stating "You will die!", adding to the arcade experience.

Reception

In 1983, Gene Lewin from Play Meter magazine reviewed the dedicated arcade cabinet version, assigning it a score of 4 out of 10 and commenting that it was "a good game but overpriced." Later, in 1995, Flux placed Crossbow at number 98 in their Top 100 Video Games list, describing it as "a true harbinger of future arcade hits."