| Type | Light gun shooter |
|---|---|
| Inventor(s) | Hiroshi Yamauchi, Gunpei Yokoi |
| Company | Nintendo |
| Country | Japan |
| Availability | 1973–1978 |
| Materials | Laser Clay Shooting System Overhead projector, rifle Mini Laser Clay 16mm film projector, rifle or revolver, arcade cabinet |
The Laser Clay Shooting System (レーザークレー射撃システム) is a light gun shooting simulation game created by Nintendo in 1973. The game consisted of an overhead projector which displayed moving targets behind a background; players would fire at the targets with a rifle, in which a mechanism of reflections would determine whether or not the "laser shot" from the rifle hit the target.
The concept behind the Laser Clay Shooting System came from Hiroshi Yamauchi, while Gunpei Yokoi was behind the development of the system. It was released in deserted bowling alleys in Japan in 1973; upon release, it was a commercial success, but the success of the system quickly evaporated as a result of the 1973 oil crisis and the ensuing recession in Japan, which left Nintendo ¥5 billion in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy. In 1974, Yamauchi, in an attempt to revive Nintendo, released a smaller, cheaper version of the Laser Clay Shooting System, titled "Mini Laser Clay". Deployed mostly in arcades, players shoot moving targets, provided by a 16mm film projector, at an arcade cabinet. This system featured several games and achieved significant success for Nintendo throughout the 1970s, which helped the company out of its financial situation.
The laser shooting idea was subsequently taken up by other manufacturers. The principle of a laser gun, which fires beams of light at a reflective target, inspired pigeon clay shooting simulators, where the pigeon clays are replaced with reflective flying disks. The product of this type was an analogue system developed by UK company Lasersport.[1] In the early 2020s, a digital laser clay shooting system was developed by SLR Games,[2] also a UK manufacturer.