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‘Red Dead Revolver’ on the PlayStation 2 was originally meant as a spiritual successor to the arcade game ‘Gun.Smoke’.Credit: Rockstar Games
What with Red Dead Redemption 2 now finally released, it’s worth going back to looking at the origins of the Red Dead series and how it ties into the history of Capcom arcade games.
The first game in the Red Dead series was Red Dead Revolver on the PlayStation 2. Released back in 2004 by Rockstar Games, it actually started out as a Capcom game.
The original plan was to have U.S. developer Angel Studios make the game for Capcom. Even back then this wasn’t all that strange, as a few years earlier Capcom had already funded a U.S. developed update to the Ghosts n’ Goblins series in the form of Maximo: Ghosts to Glory also for the PlayStation 2.
Eventually, Capcom sold off Red Dead Revolver to Take-Two Interactive and Angel Studios became Rockstar San Diego.
It’s this Capcom arcade gaming lineage that Red Dead Revolver tapped into as well, as it was originally meant as a spiritual successor to the arcade game Gun.Smoke (shown below).
Gun.Smoke was an interesting vertical scrolling shoot-em-up designed by Yoshiki Okamoto and released back in 1985, this was way before Okamoto would go on to work on games such as Street Fighter II.
During the mid-80s, Japanese arcades could not get enough of shoot-em-ups, with games like Darius, Gradius and R-Type dominating the landscape.
What made Gun.Smoke so interesting though, was that it eschewed the typical science-fiction approach of a spaceship singlehandedly vanquishing an alien armada to that of a simple gunslinger instead.
It was a wonderful piece of contextual reframing and it helped Gun.Smoke stand out and become a success.
It was this cowboy themed arcade game by Capcom that was the inspiration behind Red Dead Revolver and subsequently the entire Red Dead series.
Obviously, Red Dead Revolver and the other Red Dead games since have evolved in their own way but it’s interesting to see how the series originated and what inspired its creation.
Follow me on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. I also manage Mecha Damashii and do toy reviews over at hobbylink.tv.
Read my Forbes blog here.
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‘Red Dead Revolver’ on the PlayStation 2 was originally meant as a spiritual successor to the arcade game ‘Gun.Smoke’.Credit: Rockstar Games
What with Red Dead Redemption 2 now finally released, it’s worth going back to looking at the origins of the Red Dead series and how it ties into the history of Capcom arcade games.
The first game in the Red Dead series was Red Dead Revolver on the PlayStation 2. Released back in 2004 by Rockstar Games, it actually started out as a Capcom game.
The original plan was to have U.S. developer Angel Studios make the game for Capcom. Even back then this wasn’t all that strange, as a few years earlier Capcom had already funded a U.S. developed update to the Ghosts n’ Goblins series in the form of Maximo: Ghosts to Glory also for the PlayStation 2.
Eventually, Capcom sold off Red Dead Revolver to Take-Two Interactive and Angel Studios became Rockstar San Diego.
It’s this Capcom arcade gaming lineage that Red Dead Revolver tapped into as well, as it was originally meant as a spiritual successor to the arcade game Gun.Smoke (shown below).
Gun.Smoke was an interesting vertical scrolling shoot-em-up designed by Yoshiki Okamoto and released back in 1985, this was way before Okamoto would go on to work on games such as Street Fighter II.
During the mid-80s, Japanese arcades could not get enough of shoot-em-ups, with games like Darius, Gradius and R-Type dominating the landscape.
What made Gun.Smoke so interesting though, was that it eschewed the typical science-fiction approach of a spaceship singlehandedly vanquishing an alien armada to that of a simple gunslinger instead.
It was a wonderful piece of contextual reframing and it helped Gun.Smoke stand out and become a success.
It was this cowboy themed arcade game by Capcom that was the inspiration behind Red Dead Revolver and subsequently the entire Red Dead series.
Obviously, Red Dead Revolver and the other Red Dead games since have evolved in their own way but it’s interesting to see how the series originated and what inspired its creation.
Follow me on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. I also manage Mecha Damashii and do toy reviews over at hobbylink.tv.
Read my Forbes blog here.
