Carnival

Carnival

 

In 1980, Sega released an arcade game where the player could shoot rows of rabbits, owls, ducks, and bonus items in a carnival shooting arcade. The animals are arranged into three rows that move in opposite directions. If the player fails to shoot the ducks and they reach the bottom row, they will “come alive” and move to the bottom of the screen to eat the player’s bullets.

At the top of the screen there is also a spinning wheel with eight pipes that must also be shot to complete the level. Once the entire level is cleared, the player moves to a bonus stage where a bear has to be host as many times as possible to get points. During the regular game, additional bonus items appear that give the player either additional bullets or bonus points. Carnival was ported to the 2600 with mixed success. The game only has the main shooting gallery screen and lacks the bonus screen with the bear, something that is rather unfortunate. The main screen, though, is done pretty well. The animals on the shooting gallery look very close to their arcade counterparts (though they are a bit large) and they are rendered in one colour just like in the arcade (ducks are yellow, owls are red, rabbits are white). The spinning wheel with the pipes has been simplified as it has only four pipes but at least it is still here. The in-game music is absent, sadly, but the sound effects are pretty well done.

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