Shooting Gallery

For information about the sport of shooting see shooting

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The Shooting Gallery was a light gun (actually a light rifle) and is regarded as the first commercial light gun ever created for any arcade or video game console . It was originally created by Ralph Baer, the inventor of the Oddysey 1, in 1967 as part of a prototype gaming unit. The prototype light gun was used as an interface for playing multiple choice games.

Related Topics:
Light gun - Arcade - Video game console - Ralph Baer - 1967

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This prototype design was later developed into the Shooting Gallery for the Magnavox Odyssey. The console had a special port built into it for this peripheral. The Shooting Gallery allowed playing four additional games. This simple shotgun-inspired light gun would only detect light, and not necessarily what particular target, which thus allowed the player to cheat by shooting any light source, say a light bulb.

Related Topics:
Magnavox Odyssey - Peripheral - Shotgun

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Since no scores were displayed on the TV screen for any Oddysey 1 game, cheating was somewhat irrelevant. A rumor circulated that the Shooting Gallery rifle would only work with a Magnavox TV set. Although wrong, lots of people didn't buy this rifle and only 20,000 or so were sold.

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