Sheriff (arcade game)

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Sheriff
Screenshot of Sheriff
Developer(s)	Nintendo
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Release date(s)	1979
Genre(s)	Multi-directional shooter/Run and gun
Mode(s)	2 players
Platform(s)	Arcade
Input	Joystick 8-Way, optical spinner
Arcade display	Raster, 224 x 256 pixels (Vertical), 8 colors

Sheriff is an arcade game developed and released by Nintendo in 1979.

The player controls a sheriff trapped in a square formation of bandits. You have to shoot all of the bandits in the formation to clear each stage. Occasionally, the music will change and the bandits standing in the corners will run into the central area where Sheriff stands. Shoot condors for bonus points. Every few levels you will get a bonus animation featuring the damsel that Sheriff is trying to rescue.

Sheriff's movement is controlled with a joystick, but you can aim his shots with a control dial, meaning you can walk in one direction while shooting in another.

[edit] Legacy

A sequel was supposedly released in 1979, but it appears that this was no more than a colour version of the original game.

The game was duplicated by Exidy in 1980 and released as Bandido. It is not clear if this is an officially licensed version or just a clone.

The game was originally released in two formats by Nintendo - an upright cabinet and a cocktail (tabletop) version. These versions also made their way into Europe and Asia via imports.

In the UK, Sheriff was licensed for production and distribution by Bell-Fruit Manufacturing in the form of an upright cabinet. Bell-Fruit's core product range at the time was primarily fruit/slot machines. Sheriff (and later Puckman) marked the companies first, and short lived, diversification into the market of video games as licensee, so the cabinet design for this territory differed quite considerably to that of the Japanese version. Although it featured the same design of marquee and bezel, it shared many properties more commonly associated with slot machines (eg. no side art or cabinet decals). However, in this region the name of the game remained as Sheriff.

Sheriff appears during the (real) staff credits sequence on the Game Boy Camera software.

In Super Smash Bros Melee, Sheriff appears as one of the collectable trophies.

In WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!, Sheriff is the basis for one of 9-Volt's Classic Nintendo games. You can also unlock a full version of the game (slightly edited) called Wario's Sheriff.