Taylor Mr. Top Gun

Description: Mr. TopGun, Taylor, 1960s or early 1970s (exact date unknown), had a player holster with a six-shoter gun facing a full sized manikin gunfighter. An 8-track tape played the gunfighters voice as it would entice the player into a fight. When Mr. Top Gun's eyes flashed it was time to draw. If you shot him in the chest with the light beam pistol before he shot you, the manikin would scream and then his eyes would light up. Three trys per coin. There was also a timer that showed how fast the player shoot. Much like Taylor Shoot Out at Rock Gulch and Dynamic Amusement Mr. Quick Draw and Gun Slinger

If you have a Mr. Top Gun for sale please contact me at cfh@provide.net

sound track1
sound track2

The main tape player uses 8-track tapes that have been modified with additional conductive tape splices, in a tape player that has also been modified to use the conductive splices to time the play of the game. Conventional 8-track players use these conductive splices to switch tracks (an 8-track tape contains four stereo tracks). But in this case, the conductive foils are not used to switch tracks at all. All audio is contained on stereo track 1. The right channel has the audio for the introductions, the "Draw!" command, and the sound of the gunshot. After every gunshot, the audio diverges, depending upon whether the player has won the shoot out. If he fails, the game plays the audio from the right channel, which is usually some sort of gloating, for example "You miserable polecat, you didn't even come close!". If the player has out-drawn Mr. Top Gun, the left channel is played, with responses like this: "Yow, you got me you ornery coyote!"

Conductive foil splices are placed strategically on the tape, and these are detected by the circuitry inside the game in order to control the gameplay. The beginning of the game is preceded by two tape foils: a short 3/8" wide foil followed by a 1 inch gap and then a 1/4" conductive foil. There are three rounds in every game, and at the end of rounds 1 and 2, there is a 3/8" to 1/2" foil. At the end of the third round, there are the two splices that precede each new game, as described previously. And since this a continuous loop tape, the tape loops back to the beginning after the end of the third game. These tapes are an additional challenge to make, not only because of all of the extra conductive foils required, but because the excess tape on the 8-track cartridge must be removed. The active audio is less than 2 1/2 minutes long, which is shorter than any standard blank cartridge. So, the excess tape needs to be removed from the cartridge, which also happens to be on the inside of the reel.

But wait, there's more! Along with the main Mr. Top Gun tape that I received from Randy Peck, I also got two other tapes, labeled "BALLYHOO and "TOP GUN BALLYHOO". These tapes have identical audio that is completely different than the tape above. There are no conductive splices on this tape at all, and it's simply composed of "attract mode" speech of random lengths and spacing. It's a different speaker than the game tape, but the script is just as quaint: "Hey Greenhorn, you look like a man I'd like to draw against. C'mon gimmie some competition, pardner, I'll give you three chances - I don't think you could hit a barn with a brick". There are a total of 14 such quotes, repeating about every 4 1/2 minutes.

This tape would be activated when the game is idle, in order to attract players. "Ballyhoo" is a term meaning "advertising noisily or blatantly". Below is the audio from the "Ballyhoo" tape.



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