It's High Noon 🤠

This is my PICO-8 remake of Ocean Soft's Highnoon, originally made for the C64 by Andrew Spencer and Steve Wiggins.

There are a lot more bullets on screen in my version and the gameplay is much faster. Also there are no abducted saloon girls in my game since they are all pretty much capable of defending themselves.

 

How to play: Waves

Use the D-pad or arrow keys to move around.

Shoot by tapping or holding the primary button or x.

Hold down the secondary button or c to keep firing in the same direction.

 

How to play: Duels

Wait for the games title plate to vanish and the "Draw!" text to appear on screen and shoot quickly using the primary or secondary button. Shoot too early and you will lose a life.

 

Hints

Shoot outlaws early during the levels to get a higher bonus at the end of a wave in duels.

Keep moving around since outlaws will always shoot in your general direction.

You can exit the screen to the left and right to reappear on the opposite side. Use this to your advantage to avoid bullets.

From wave three onwards outlaws will throw dynamite sticks at you. Shoot the dynamite to kill outlaws.

Horses (wave 4 onwards) can't kill you but the riders might.

 

The Bountydex

In duels you will fight a variety of outlaws with randomly generated names and titles. There are ten special titles that can be collected in your Bountydex by shooting them in duels. Since it is a chance of like 1000:1 to meet one of these titles exactly there are two ways of unlocking these titles.

Let's take a look at the second item, the Blind Barber.

Now let's say you meet a Furious Barber in a duel and you shoot them. Justice in the Wild West was just a word and since you shot a barber, the item will be crossed off your Bountydex with one stroke even if it was not a blind barber. After all how many wanted barbers can there be?

Now let's say you got really lucky and you meet the Blind Barber against all the odds. You shoot them and their title will be crossed off the Bountydex with two strokes. It might be not possible to meet the exact titles for the entire Bountydex but you are welcome to try.

And yes: many innocent barbers were shot in the Wild West.

To access the Bountydex press down on the title screen. Press up to get back to the title.

 

Bonus game: High-Low

There is also a hidden bonus game of dice. To access it, press right on the title screen.

You can bet on how you think the numbers of the next roll of dice turn out compared to the displayed pair of dice: higher or lower. Bet your money accordingly to raise your high score.

By the way: The more entries you got collected in your Bountydex the more money you start out with.

I actually researched dice games of the old west and it appears that back in the days people really played this game besides poker.

 

Where can I play it

Play it right here in the browser at the top of the screen.
Or download the cart and play it in your PICO-8 fantasy console.
Or search for "high noon" in Splore of your PICO-8 fantasy console.