Wild Gunman Replica
Marty discovers the Wild Gunman arcade machine in the Cafe 80s in 2015.
- "You gotta use your hands? That's like a baby's toy!"
- —Kid in Cafe 80s.
Wild Gunman was the name of a light gun video game released by Nintendo. Originally released in 1974 using still photographs, Nintendo re-released it on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985 in an updated format (as well as on the Japanese system the Nintendo Famicom in 1984), replacing the photographs of the original with cartoony sprite graphics. In Hill Valley, Wild Gunman was released as an arcade game. One of the machines was apparently located in a 7-Eleven store, where Marty McFly would hone his shooting skills.
On October 21, 2015, when Marty entered the Cafe 80s, there was an arcade cabinet of Wild Gunman sitting in the corner. Marty proceeded to play the game in order to impress some kids with his shooting skills, but they were nonplussed, comparing the game to "a baby's toy". How electronic games worked in 2015 was unclear. Perhaps they were voice-controlled, like the McFlys' television and video telephone, or perhaps they guided by the player's thoughts.
On September 5, 1885, Marty played a gear-operated shooting game, which strongly resembled Wild Gunman in concept. The gun salesman, operating this game, echoed the 2015 comment, telling Marty that "It's so easy, a baby could do it."
Sometime by May 14, 1986, Starbase Zero had a Wild Gunman arcade cabinet that was in need of repairs.
In the 1986B timeline, an arcade cabinet of Wild Gunman is among the many contraband items confiscated by Edna Strickland, under Kid Tannen's former speakeasy.
Behind the scenes
- On the DVD commentary of Back to the Future Part II, Bob Gale stated that the arcade cabinet used in the movie was made specifically for the movie, as Nintendo had not released a dedicated Wild Gunman machine into arcades.
- Marty's confrontation with the cartoon Wild West villains, in Part II, foreshadows his showdown with a real Wild West villain, Buford Tannen, in Part III.
