Outlaw is a 1978 shooter video game developed at Atari by David Crane. The game has a Western setting, where one or two players either aim at targets or fellow gunfighters to reach 10 points in a set time. Several modes are available allowing for different obstacles and rules varying how the players move, how their bullets act and how the obstacles block the bullets.
It was the first video game Crane made for Atari after being hired in 1977. He described the making of it as a "trial by fire" to learn what he could and could not do within the limitations of the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS). Like many early games for the system, Outlaw is a variation of an existing arcade game, namely Gun Fight (1975). Upon release, it received positive reviews from Creative Computing, The Space Gamer and the Xenia Daily Gazette. It has since been re-released in various Atari-themed compilation packages.
Theme and gameplay
Outlaw is a video game with a Western theme. Due to the limited technology and graphics of the 1970s, both arcade and console video games displayed artwork with montage of gunfighters, horses and covered wagons in its cabinet and box art to help illustrate these motifs to players. Outlaw can be played in a one or two-player mode. Each player can move up, down, left, and right on the screen. When holding down the button to aim, the player can control the angle the player will shoot at. Releasing the button fires a bullet.