Time Traveler (Holographic Cowboy Coin-Op)

[mechanized]

Anyone else remember this game?

 

You played as a time traveling cowboy, fighting to save some princess through different ages of time, gunslinging against robots, space ninjas, and other cowboys in the past with timed directional commands and firing.

 

If you bit the dust, you could use a Time Reversal Cube to go back in time to before your death, and have a chance at evading that fate.

 

Reason I ask is that I recently found a Home version of the game, which I played at the arcade when I was younger. (I'm not much for arcades anymore, or even then, having been very selective of what I would pay my quarters, and even warier of anything trying to part me from TWO quarters. If it wasn't obvious by that, I don't visit arcades much anymore, heh.) But this is one of the few games I played more than once and was memorable.

 

How common is this? The only copy I've ever seen is the one I bought used from an EB, though I wasn't really looking, to be honest. I didn't even know it existed until late last week.

[joeybastard]

I remember that game. Outside of the hologram though it was pretty lame, in my opinion.

 

What system is the home version for? I hope it's got greatly expanded gameplay over the arcade machine.

[Jess Ragan]

I think he means that it was released on DVD. Technically, it would be compatible with the PS2 and the XBox (provided you have the peripheral that allows you to play DVDs).

 

JR

[mechanized]

Correct, it is a DVD-based game, but is explicitly PS2 compatible.

 

Since they couldn't make a holographic home version, they have two play modes on the disc: a 3-D mode, and a normal mode (just the old game on a TV). Came with the 3-D glasses, too.

 

The entire thing looked pretty unused, which could be silent testament to the game's point of interest being focused on the Holographic display, rather than play mechanics. I'd say it's still a viable game, in the spirit of Dragon's Lair and other Push This Button/Direction Now and games built around a film with a sort of Choose Your Adventure feel.

 

(Edited: Mistook Dragon's Lair for Dragon Slayer.... they do sound similar!)

[mechanized]

And as an addendum, of sorts, this link has a pretty good review of it.

 

http://www.geocities.com/wiredlounger/mpog...metraveler.html

 

Do excuse any pop-ups, since it's on geoshitties.com.

[adams_ale]

I remember the first time I saw this game at the arcade. It really was amazing to me then; I was in awe at it's graphics. I only played it once and I remember dying really quickly. Too bad it wasn't as fun to play as it was to watch.

[RIVER]

Mech, as God as my witness last night I was looking for some mame roms to download and I spent over an hour searching for that game specifically couldnt remember the name and I must have downloaded 50 games with different titles like gun man, gunslinger, gun fighter, gun war, gun battle, old west gun, ext....... never found it, now I know why, WRONG NAME!! Then I just read your post and flipped out, thanks for reading my mind!! I used to play that game every week at our local aladans castle, It was a cool game but it was pretty hard.

[Rocko]

I saw that at eb- it was a dvd game. I was going to buy it ($4.99, why not?) Just never got around to it. They still have it though.

[schuwalker]

My friend had this game in his arcade. Pretty cool at first but it gets repetitve after awhile. Beaten it several times.. I actually own the disc for this...

[Gregory DG]

Too bad they never released a more open 3D game like this. It would have been cool to have a 3D Pac-Man or something.

[dogcorn]

My main beef with the DVD version is that it has a noticeable skip after every move (correct or incorrect). I guess that's how DVD players work, but it really detracted from the experience for me.

 

Also, the 3-d effect has to be "simulated" with red/blue glasses, double imaging, and a weird moving graphic in the background that looks sort of like a tunnel if you use your imagination. I know I can't expect it to be the same as the arcade, but I don't think this setup added any 3-d feel at all.

[Cap5750]

I'm like several others. I remember seeing it in the arcade and being amazed at the "graphics", but never played it because 1) it was too expensive to play and 2) appeared to be too hard when I watched others play it.

[Zwackery]

Never saw one in an arcade, but a cinema multiplex had one in their lobby. I recall that is was very expensive to play, compared to other games at the time, and I rarely ever saw anyone play it. People tended to stand around and just watch the attract mode.

[DigitalDaredevil]

I thought it looked great but played lousy. Plus the cost versus play time ratio was not good enough to get the attention of my quarters back in the day.