Radar Scope
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| Radar Scope | |
| |
| Developer(s) | Nintendo |
|---|---|
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Release date(s) |  1979 November, 1980
|
| Genre(s) | Shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Followed by | Donkey Kong |
Radar Scope is an arcade game by Nintendo released in 1979 in Japan and 1980 in America. The game was a commercial failure that eventually led Nintendo to replace all of the Radar Scope cabinets with the Donkey Kong video game, which became Nintendo's saving grace and didn't only return Nintendo to their former glory, but exceeded it completely. Ironically, Nintendo's biggest flop saved them and shot them to the top of the industry. The complete history of this is explained below.
[edit] History
Nintendo was regularly delivering arcade video games to the market, most of which were simple shooters that were clones of previously released video games like Space Invaders. Because of this, Nintendo was not yet a household name outside of Japan, and within their home country they weren't nearly as well known as they used to be. Radar Scope was set to be released in Japan, and was relatively successful. Meanwhile Nintendo opened up a branch in the United States called Nintendo of America, and the president of the company ordered a large shipment of Radar Scope cabinets due to its success in Japan. Months and months later the game eventually came to America in New York, and retailers were severely disappointed with the game that Nintendo promised them. Time had passed since it was developed, and newer, more interesting games were already on the market that out shined this game completely.
So, with retailers rejecting Nintendo's new game, Nintendo of America was left with thousands of unused arcade units. They didn't want them to go to waste, though they requested that Nintendo in Japan make a game that can use the cabinet. Initially Hiroshi Yamauchi, the president of Nintendo, assigned Shigeru Miyamoto to just remake the game and make it more modern for the players. Instead, Miyamoto made an entirely new game that wasn't even part of the shooting genre, but of a relatively new genre that had hardly been explored. He replaced the unused Radar Scope arcade units with his masterpiece Donkey Kong, which upon release would become one of the most successful arcade games ever released, all thanks to an unsuccessful, uninspired shooter.
