Timeline | 1985: Duck Hunt

Duck Hunt was an awesome game for the NES

Released in America as a launch game for the NES, Duck Hunt utilized a 'Zapper' controller for the NES that allowed the player to 'shoot' digital ducks on the screen. This simple premise along with decent graphics (for the time) and smooth gameplay, two modes (one shooting ducks and another clay pigeons) and a teasing Dog that has since become a fan favorite all came together to make Duck Hunt a great experience.

A screenshot showing a freshly shot duck about to fall from the sky.

Duck Hunt was based on a 1976 toy/game made by Nintendo of the same name, the original was Japan only and as it came out before Nintendo got popular worldwide it did not sell to a very wide audience. Duck Hunt on the NES and the Zapper controller (which was used for a few other games, but none nearly as popular as Duck Hunt) helped to reinforce the marketing of the NES as a toy as opposed to a computer that happened to play games. The Zapper itself was actually a light detector in that when you pulled the trigger the screen would go black for a single frame, then the next frame most of the screen would stay black but the target would be drawn in all white, the gun would sense the change from low light to bright light and register a hit - otherwise you missed! This entire process is nearly imperceptible by the human eye, but you do get a nice 'flashing' effect on the screen which most take to be the visual effect of the gun shooting. An interesting side note of this process is that it is only compatible with CRT displays, newer LCDs' plasma or other flat panel display TVs will not work due to the display lag (the gun assumes you missed because it doesn't see what it thinks it should in time).

The Duck Hunt Dog would laugh if you missed. He has become very popular among fans and is rumored to be featured in the next Smash Bros. game (unverified as of Sept. 2014)

Duck Hunt's popularity was further increased by the fact that it was packaged in with Super Mario Bros. (on the same cartridge most of the time) and even further packaged with another game (World Class Track Meet) on a 3 Game Cartridge for the NES Power Set (Console bundle with the Power Pad). The Zapper would get an SNES equivalent (the Super Scope) but would not be nearly as popular as on the NES and Duck Hunt really never got a sequel (although there is a similar game in Wii Play for the Wii). Duck Hunt is one of the most memorable games on the NES (and with its pedigree that is really saying something) simply due to the amount of simple fun it could be!

Further Reading:

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_Hunt

The Original Duck Hunt Game Info (beforemario.com)
http://blog.beforemario.com/2012/10/nintendo-kousenjuu-duck-hunt-how-it.html