[HN Gopher] I've wanted to play that 'Killer Shark' arcade game ...
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I've wanted to play that 'Killer Shark' arcade game briefly seen in
'Jaws'
Author : speckx
Score : 40 points
Date : 2025-11-14 17:22 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.remindmagazine.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.remindmagazine.com)
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20240626184542/https://www.remin...
|
| Broken video links as well. Here appears to be a few:
|
| https://youtu.be/RSgvQr9tV9Y
|
| https://youtu.be/ObUw9ezvp5o
|
| https://youtu.be/ATcbU9w-PuY
| randycupertino wrote:
| Old school NES Jaws is really fun! If you want a 1980s retro
| throwback you can play it online here, and a few other retro game
| websites:
|
| https://www.retrogames.cz/play_381-NES.php
|
| When you get the minisub (appears randomly after 20 conch shells
| or I think 30,000 points) it is sooooo fun.
| havblue wrote:
| Minisub goes in the water. You go in the water. Shark's in the
| water...
|
| Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies...
| alexjplant wrote:
| Years ago some enterprising individual made a Flash version of
| the non-existent computer game in "Big" [1]. It's just a single
| room but the fact that somebody went to such lengths is amazing.
|
| [1] https://www.kongregate.com/games/bomtoons/cavern-of-the-
| evil...
| defulmere wrote:
| I've played it!
|
| Back in the 70s a campground near Mandeville, Louisiana had a
| Killer Shark machine in a small arcade next to their pool, I
| spent the entire vacation (and way too many quarters) in there
| much to my parents' dismay :)
| bni wrote:
| I also remember playing it in the late 80s, in an amusement
| park in my home country of Sweden. Game was already quite old
| by then, but these things had a long life outside the US.
|
| I specifically remember the gun and the gruesome way the shark
| dies.
| MomsAVoxell wrote:
| I grew up on Scarborough Beach, in Perth, Western Australia,
| during the 70's. This was basically peak Australian beach culture
| - everything you could want in a sunny day at the beach -
| bikini's, surf, sharks, hamburgers, jewellery lost in the sand,
| the ever shrinking swim suit .. the whole deal. Bike gangs and
| surf nerds, newly returned from Vietnam, beating each other to
| smithereens in the baking parking lots while the girls watched
| on. I can still smell the sun cream lotion, and remember the
| smell of my Dads hamburger grill, erected in the ruins of the
| famous 50's "Snake Pit" haunt, replete with ghosts and memories
| of dances gone by, of rock and roll been and gone, replaced with
| stoner rock and KISS or Abba, depending on your thing.. I have
| muscle memory buried deep for the regular cleaning of the onion
| slicing machine, the giant bottles of mayo I had to refill, every
| single day. The beetroot stains and the harvesting of the
| 'crispies' from the competing deep fryer shop, "Peters by the
| Sea", who sold us kids a pack of the junk for 10c a bag, and
| which is the only remaining survivor of the era, still slinging
| buns even today ..
|
| The esplanade in those days was basically a sullen row of shops,
| one after the other offering beach-goers refreshments and
| entertainment, luring every customer in with the promise of fun
| and cheer .. and every single one of those 8 or so shops had a
| small Cold War going on against the other, for entertainment
| devices.
|
| At one end, there was an air-hockey paradise with a side row of
| electromechanical games, one of which was indeed Killer Shark,
| along with another airplane bombing game that ran on a big map,
| rolling underneath the camera through which the player would view
| and send down their 'light bombs' as we kids referred to them,
| way back then. My first impression of "Germany", as it were,
| rolling endlessly in some kind of ethereal, hypnotic landscape.
| Pinballs and stuff too, almost an overwhelming selection of
| blinking chaos into which to pour coins. Each shop had its
| speciality - my Dads' place (MINDERBINDERS, in case there are any
| sand gropers about) specialised in pinball and stag films in a
| back room, for those who knew the secret handshake.
|
| Killer Shark was great - it was so clearly a mechanical game that
| you could never beat, but on occasion the odd punter would score
| a free game or so. Even more of a treat, the proprietors would
| sometimes start off the games with 20 credits or so, just sitting
| there, to attract the teens. There was another electro-
| mechanical, ocean themed game, something like "SPEAR HUNT", which
| offered players a few snapper and some stingrays upon which to
| direct their sun-kissed ire, should they have a remaining 20c or
| two to waste.
|
| I loved that era of my life (was just a boy starting school) ..
| 1976 .. the brand new "Breakout" appears suddenly, and it
| immediately soaked up all the coins from the neighborhood. I
| remember seeing the service guy open up Breakout and all the
| coins just came pouring out .. and then, slowly, the rest of the
| strip went video and computer, Space Invaders arrived, and the
| electromechanical games slowly phased out, becoming ever more
| unpopular and under-used as the year rolled over.
|
| My first memory of Killer Shark was fun - my last, sadness, as
| its faded exterior got loaded onto the truck to be replaced by
| something brighter, flashier, more challenging. Soon enough there
| were only 'computer games' and pinballs, and all those delicate
| machines got replaced, one by one. Eventually, the esplanade
| itself got replaced with a modern monstrosity, and the era ended
| with the fervent twang of the 80's arriving, power synth chords
| and all.
|
| But I still remember the squealing joy of a player, spearing
| themselves a shark, only to be pissing themselves with
| laughter/fearjoy once the shark 'recovered' and made them face a
| frontal attack. It was, somehow, cathartic.
|
| Until a real shark showed up in the surf and bit a kids leg off,
| during prime surf hour.
|
| That made me the computer kid I still am, today.
| whoodle wrote:
| That was a really nice read, thank you.
| MomsAVoxell wrote:
| You're welcome. Was a fun memory to wander into again. Makes
| you think what is the "Killer Shark" or "Breakout" of today,
| eh kids? I guess Minecraft and GTA might fill that spot, some
| day, in some future VR utopia ..
| Lio wrote:
| Not directly linked to "Killer Shark" but for anyone that likes
| custom mechanical arcade machines I thoroughly recommend Tim
| Hunkin's two arcade:
|
| https://www.underthepier.com/ in Southwold, Suffolk
|
| https://www.novelty-automation.com/ in Holborn, London
|
| There links pages also cover some other arcades in case there's
| something closer to you.
| bitwize wrote:
| I love electromechanical arcade games. My father mentioned one
| from his youth that had you manning an anti-aircraft gun and
| shooting down incoming WWII fighters. This would have been made
| in the 1950s or maybe even the late 40s, given the time frame at
| which he played it.
|
| I managed to find a game that was conceptually similar, but
| certainly not the game my father played. It was _Sky Hawk_ by
| Nintendo, made in 1976:
|
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2GMAWtqJr3w
|
| The way it works is there are actually three clips of footage:
| plane attacking, plane exploding, and a light spot indicating the
| target area needed to register a hit. The latter two are shown on
| the bottom half of the film frame at different times. A mirror
| usually reflects the top half of the film, showing the
| "attacking" footage, toward the screen where the player can see
| it. However, the gun is mechanically linked to a light sensor
| pointed at the bottom half, and if it picks up the light spot in
| the "light spot" footage, a hit will be registered. When the
| "plane blowing up" footage starts, the mirror will pivot to
| reflect that to the screen instead, and you will be awarded a
| point.
|
| It was an ingenious setup that required no computers to operate.
| It was pure mechanics and optics.
|
| Another difference is, _Sky Hawk_ used footage of R /C model
| planes to simulate the incoming fighters. From my father's
| description, the game he played used footage of actual fighters
| taken during actual WWII engagements. But the idea is the same,
| and it makes me wonder if a similar mirror setup were used in his
| game as well.
| add-sub-mul-div wrote:
| Needless and awkward rewriting of the title.
| mulmen wrote:
| I believe the video mode in the new Jaws pinball machine is based
| on Killer Shark.
| TheHunter wrote:
| There's an implementation of it inside the JAWS pinball game,
| which can be activated and played on the LCD using the flippers
| as controls. The game even comes with 3D glasses, and you can
| play it in 3D if you so desire.
|
| https://shop.sternpinball.com/collections/games/products/jaw...
| jonny_eh wrote:
| Fun fact: Stern Pinball was owned for a while by Japanese game
| company Data East in the 80s and 90s. Then it was sold to Sega
| for a few years in the late 90s, until it was spun out as an
| independent company.
| UncleSlacky wrote:
| I'm sure that I used to play this (or something _very_ similar) a
| lot in the late 70s - I don 't remember there being much
| "background" but the extremely bloody shark graphics were
| memorable!
| foxyv wrote:
| For a hot second I thought this article was talking about Sewer
| Shark on the Sega CD.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewer_Shark
| JodieBenitez wrote:
| You can. Almost. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-H-tcpo5pE
| vee-kay wrote:
| This would be jawsome in VR!!
| qingcharles wrote:
| There was this "VR" version when I was a kid in the 80s:
|
| https://i.etsystatic.com/32161931/r/il/f63592/6781095364/il_.
| ..
| DrNosferatu wrote:
| We need a MAME for electromechanical arcade games!
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(page generated 2025-11-18 23:01 UTC)