Showdown in 2100 A.D.

Showdown in 2100 A.D.

Odyssey 2 - USA - 1st edition.

Developer Magnavox Publisher Philips, Magnavox Published 1979-??-?? Platforms Odyssey 2 Genres Action, Shooter Themes Action, Western Multiplayer Simultaneous versus Distribution Commercial

Showdown in 2100 A.D. is a shooter developed by Magnavox and published by Philips for the Odyssey 2 in 1979. Players control a cowboy and try to shoot their opponent before getting shot themselves; a mechanic very clearly based on Gun Fight. In the European release, you play as human gunslingers, but the setting of the North American releases was altered so players control robots, either as censorship or to make sense of the weird trees, I'm not sure.

Personal

Own?	No.
Won?	Yes. Beat AI with a perfect 10-to-0 score.
Finished	2023-10-25.

While looking for more beatable Odyssey 2 games, I found this one and not only beat the AI on my first, but also got a perfect score after only a few more attempts.

Review

2	2	2	1	2

Best Version: Odyssey 2

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• It's fun for a little while.
• It's nice that the game has an AI in an era when that was uncommon. Too bad it's so dumb.
• Hiding extra bullets in the tree of your character's matching color was a nice idea, though, it isn't used much since players start each round with so much ammo.

Bad

• The controls could stand to be refined. There is a fairly long delay between when you press fire and when your gunslinger actually shoots which you must be compensate for. Also, changing direction from left-to-right, and vice versa, takes longer than it should.
• Why are trees about a third the height of the cowboys, and, why do bullets ricochet off them?
• The walking animation of the cowboys looks pretty bad.
• The AI is too weak. I was able to win 10 to 0 on my fifth attempt. A difficulty setting would have helped even if it had to cheat.
• It's quite difficult to predict how your bullets will ricochet, so the mechanic isn't very usable. If the trees were larger, this would be more obvious.
• Atari's Outlaw was released a year prior, and was much more interesting to play. It had more level variety and the ricochet mechanic was better. The only thing better about this game is it has a weak AI and better animation.

Ugly

• There isn't much going on in this game. You'll see everything it has to offer after a few seconds.
• Cowboys shoot at shoulder level, can be hit anywhere in their body, and the second player's cowboy always starts lower on the screen. This mean, player two has an intrinsic advantage. If they started on the same row, this imbalance wouldn't exist.

Media

Box Art

• 

  A grizzled gunslinger in the desert. Perfect art for the game, if a bit dull.

• 

  A robot hand reaching for a pistol with a Mars-like planet in the background. I like the perspective work, and the metal "trees" help explain their odd behavior in the game.

Documentation

• 

  Manual - USA.

Videos

Longplay.

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	There are no women.
Bechdel test?	Fail	There are no women.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	Characters don't have a clear race.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Credits

Role	Staff
Entire Game	Ed Averett

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
Dutch	Revolverheld	Revolverheld	Gunfighter
English (Europe)	Electronic Volleyball
English (UK)	Gunfighter
English (USA)	Showdown in 2100 A.D.
French (Canada)	Confrontation en 2100 Après J.-C.!	Confrontation en 2100 Apres J.-C.!	Confrontation in 2100 A.D.!
French (France)	Duel	Duel	Duel
German	Revolverhelden	Revolverhelden	Gunslingers
Italian	Western	Western	Western
Portuguese (Brazil)	Duelo no Velho Oeste!	Duelo no Velho Oeste!	Duel in the Wild West!
Spanish	Pistolero	Pistolero	Gunslinger
Swedish	Cowboy-duell	Cowboy-duell	Cowboy Duel

Links