Chiller (video game)

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Chiller
Title screen of Chiller
Developer(s)	Exidy
Publisher(s)	Exidy
Platform(s)	Arcade
Release date	1986
Genre(s)	Light-gun games
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players, alternating turns
Input methods	Light gun, 1 button
Cabinet	Upright
Arcade system	Exidy 440 CPU:
Display	Raster 320x240 resolution, Horizontal 256 colors

Not to be confused with the 1985 Mastertronic computer game Chiller, published for Commodore 64, Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and MSX

Chiller is an Exidy light gun arcade game released in 1986. An unlicensed port was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990 by American Game Cartridges, with the option of using either the standard controller or the NES Zapper.

Some consider Chiller to be the most gratuitously violent video game released to that point -- it was banned in the UK. The gameplay includes shooting (among other targets) the appendages of living people who are bound and chained in a dungeon setting. The graphics depict flesh being ripped off in chunks.

A player's goal is to shoot everything that there is on the screen, both animated characters (ghosts, zombies, humans) and inanimate elements of the background. There are four unique screens detailing various horror scenarios and settings, a torture chamber, a rack room, a hallway, and a cemetery. For each screen, shooting all available targets gives the player a bonus shooting round. The game features a Ghost counter on-screen scoring system named the "Ectoplasmic Tabulator". It has very similar gameplay to "Crossbow" and other related Exidy 440 board system games.

During the development, the entire building was cursed by a plague of spiders that covered the exterior windows.[1] Some say it was because of the demonic nature of the game while others say it was because Exidy did not pay its exterminator bills.

Artwork was drawn using 4-position joysticks.

Chiller's name was a not-so-veiled reference to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video which was very popular at the time the game was made. The MSX version featured a music theme inspired by Michael Jackson's "Thriller" music track.