Hogan's Alley

Hogan's Alley is one of the three Nintendo light gun games that defined the Zapper, and the one that asks you to think rather than just to shoot. The targets are cardboard cut-outs that pop up in a shooting range, and only some of them are supposed to be hit.

Three cut-outs stand in a row and flick up in sequence: an armed gangster, a policeman, and an innocent bystander. Shoot the gangster and you score; shoot either of the other two and you lose a life, so the game is really a reaction test with a decision attached, and it gets fast enough that the decision is the hard part. Two further modes fill out the cartridge - a Trick Shot round where you have to shoot a bullet in flight so it ricochets into a can, and a skeet round for straight aiming practice. With a second Zapper plugged in, two players can compete on the same targets, which made it the standard party cartridge of the 1985 launch window.

• ▸Three target types - gangster, policeman, bystander - with only one that scores
• ▸Trick Shot mode where you must shoot a bullet in mid-air to knock down a can
• ▸Skeet shooting round for pure aiming practice
• ▸Two-player mode on a single screen with a second Zapper