Road Runner

Desert Gun (originally known as Road Runner) is a first-person shooter arcade game that had been released by Midway Games in 1977; it utilizes an Intel 8080 microprocessor (running at 1.9968 MHz), and the player must use a lightgun (made up to look like a hunting rifle) with a trigger to shoot various animals (including road runners), for points. As with several other early Midway games, the gameplay is time-based, as opposed to life-based - and much like in Sea Wolf, the game will be extended if you manage to reach a preset amount of points before the game timer runs out. The reason for the name change is not like that of Datsun 280 Zzzap; when Midway merged with Bally, they had also released a game called "Road Runner" but according to Jay (now Jamie) Fenton, the real reason for the name change was to avoid legal issues with Warner Bros. who had created a cartoon character called "The Road Runner" in 1948. That character would later go on to appear in an Atari arcade title, from 1985.

• 

  Screenshot of the game.

• 

  Upright arcade cabinet.

• 

  The "Road Runner" flyer.