Introduction: Canyon Bomber is the first ever one-switch arcade game. It was created even before Space Invaders existed, in 1977 - if you can imagine such a time, when amusement arcades were full of pinball machines, table-football and people.
The following description is from this game's author, Howard Delman: "Canyon Bomber was a two player competitive game. Players controlled two vintage aircraft... a bi-plane and a blimp. The aircraft flew back and forth over a canyon filled with numbered targets. The player had only one control - a button marked "drop". His objective was to time the release of his bombs so as to hit the most targets. He played continuously, until he used up his allotment of misses. As the targets were destroyed, and the canyon got emptied, the competition really heated up."
Thanks to a very clever free piece of software called MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) this game and many others can be played on a PC and other computers.
Download: Canyon Bomber ROM file and MAME.
Emulation Help: OneSwitch MAME page.
Accessibility Features: Because this game works with MAME, it's possible to connect a huge range of controllers and to redefine controls any which way you like. You can also slow the game down which can be very helpful. Cheats: Unlimited Bombs for either or both players (requires a special cheat file).
Technical Help: With a little bit of setting up this game can be made a pure one-switch game. You'll need to set the game to FREE PLAY by adjusting the "DIP SWITCHES" (access this menu by pressing the TAB key and using the cursor keys). Then set your player one start button and player one DROP BOMB button to the same key (e.g. the SPACE BAR) then do the same for the player two equivalents to a different key (e.g. the RETURN key). Ensure that your switches trigger these controls and away you go. It's easier to do than to write (trust me!). More help at the OneSwitch Emulators pages.
The speed of game play can be reduced from within MAME: enable game cheats, and then press the Tilde key (top left under ESCAPE) to access the CPU speed controls. Alternatively, you can do the same by using CPU Killer, although someone who knows a lot about computers will need to turn off "Frame Skipping".
Controls: Player one Drop Bomb. Player two Drop bomb. ESCAPE quits the game.
Conclusion: A game that needs very good tracking skills, and fairly accurate timing skills too. Not the most visually exciting game, and limited fun when playing against the computer, but with a willing human opponent , this can be a great game. OneSwitch.org.uk rating 3/5
