CREEPINGNET'S WORLD
DR. MARIO
Duck Hunt was one of the launch releases for the NES in 1984, and was a Arcade release and Famicom Release in 1984 (and one of the first Famicom games to recive an artistic label). It's actually a Video Game-ified version of a 1976 Projector based Shooting game of the same name released by Nintendo. It most often was released in the pack-in multi-carts between 1986 and 1992 ie Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt or Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet - which is the version I have as obvious by the cartridge to the left. It was also released, in early "Black Label" 5-screw form, as a standalone cartridge.

In Duck Hunt, there are 4 game varities - you have the actual "Duck Hunt" portion with a Game A that sends up one duck at a time, or Game B that sends up two, in a kinda-sorta bayou-ish environment. Then there's a Skeet Shooting variant where you shoot clay pidgeons over a mountain horizon filled with trees - sort of the "Duck Hunt for PETA People" section. This game is also one of the rare few that uses the Nintendo Zapper, a light gun that was pretty kick-ass looking for something altered to fit the NES's color scheme. How it worked was when you pulled the trigger, the screen would go black except the duck which would be the brightest color white the NES could produce, and on old CRT TV's, that was about the same lumens as a light bulb - so people would cheat by pointing the Zapper at their livingroom lights, lol.

In a way, Duck Hunt was one of those universal "killer apps" for the NES that everyone wanted and everyone enjoyed. Everyone from your 5 year old son to your dad would totally dig this game, however, as the novelty wore off, usually the Zapper would go in the drawer as the kids took to playing Super Mario Bros..
Git' dat' dern' dawg! - My Experiences
Duck Hunt was one of those games for the NES that I thought was cool from minute one, but kinda' forgot about once the subject of Mario came on, how can you blame me, I was born in 83'. Anyway, Duck Hunt was one of those games that you usually popped in on a rainy sunday afternoon, and then proceeded to want to kill that dang dog that laughed at you (why nobody has made a NES ROM Hack for Duck Hunt that allows you to shoot the dog is anyone's guess).
Video(s)