This Week In Retro: Silent Scope (Patreon)

July 1999: Position target in the center and pull the switch

by Diamond Feit

We all know how the medium of video games loves the military, because when you need a protagonist to battle their way through an entire horde of oncoming foes, who better than a soldier trained to kill? Yet amongst the many people who serve in the armed forces, no one fits the needs of a video game better than the humble sniper. Regular troops must juggle a lot of tasks, spending most of their days on mundane activities like digging ditches or hauling equipment. Snipers, on the other hand, have but one job: Pull the trigger.

Despite this apparent match made in heaven, for a long stretch of gaming history there were surprisingly few titles dedicated to sniping. Plenty of first and third-person shooters included sniper rifles, offering players an opportunity to pick off hostiles one by one from a safe distance, yet it seems that locking players into long-range shooting proved unpopular with developers. Even arcade machines designed around aiming down the sights of a plastic gun tended to focus on the manic feedback of pistols or machine guns instead of the slow, steady sniper experience.

Given this relative scarcity, it makes Konami's decision to produce an all-sniping video game extra remarkable. I know I had seen my fair share of unusual arcade cabinets growing up in the early 1980s but prior to the release of Silent Scope in 1999, I cannot recall seeing another setup so committed to a single gameplay action.

To set the stage for Silent Scope, we must begin with its highly unconventional cabinet design. As mentioned above, plenty of other machines sought to deliver the sensation of gripping a firearm and firing it at a screen; by the 90s many of these releases even included a measure of force feedback to further sell the illusion of recoil as each bullet left the barrel. The simple days of Nintendo's Duck Hunt had long given way to SNK's Beast Busters, Namco's Point Blank, and Sega's Gunblade NY.

Konami produced a number of on-rails arcade shooters in the 90s such as Lethal Enforcers, Crypt Killer, and Evil Night—the latter of which included two handguns and a shotgun. Silent Scope resembles those games, as anyone approaching the cabinet will take notice of its hefty, singular sniper rifle controller. However, spectators watching the game in action may have to squint to make out the ant-sized enemies on the screen.

In truth, Silent Scope only simulates zooming in via the rifle's telescopic sight. In an interview with Time Extension, designer Masaaki Kukino explained the truth behind the arcade machine's illusion. "We were thinking at the time about whether we could create a new arcade game system using the 2-3 inch color LCD monitors of mobile phones," Kukino said, "so we came up with the idea of a sniper rifle shooter in which the player searches for a target and shoots at a scene displayed on the monitor." While the main screen displays a wide view of the battlefield, the rifle actually displays a separate close-up view on a tiny screen inside its scope. As Kukino put it, this dual-screen approach "creat[ed] a greater sense of space between the gun and the main monitor."

Though Silent Scope communicates the most critical information on the gun's built-in screen, the large monitor has its own uses. For starters, it lets players quickly survey the premises at a glance; the game even highlights imminent hazards such as gunmen about to return fire. Red arrows on the scope's small display do point towards danger, but unless you're tracking two enemies close together, it's often faster to peep the big screen for directions before turning back to the mini-screen for precision aiming.

For all its hardware innovations, the narrative driving Silent Scope feels rote, even by arcade game standards. The player character never gets a name or even a specific job title, just orders to pursue a group of "armed terrorists" who have kidnapped the President of the United States along with his family. Aside from a few boss characters who taunt the player, most of these "terrorists" express no ideology or personality. They exist purely for players to eliminate without hesitation or remorse.

The action opens in Chicago, a big city with plenty of rooftops ideal for sniping. With exposed, stationary targets and largely unobstructed views, this first stage lets players get the feel of their equipment and the game's rhythm. Unlike other arcade shooters, Silent Scope has no alternate fire modes, power ups, or even a reload command. Wasting shots means wasting time as an on-screen countdown constantly speeds towards zero; successful kills add more seconds to the clock.

Players must learn to align their crosshairs and neutralize threats quickly, with headshots scoring the most points. Ordinary grunts go down in one hit regardless, but a well-placed bullet between the eyes will instantly wipe out a boss' health points. While a patient sniper will always outperform a brash shooter, dawdling too long will draw enemy fire and deplete the player's life reserves. Silent Scope uses this threat of danger—along with the ticking clock—to keep the pressure on and keep coins pumping into the cashbox.

Speaking of time, a single playthrough of Silent Scope shouldn't last more than 15 minutes, making it shorter than most of its contemporaries. I wonder if this brevity was an intentional gesture, lest players strain their eyes focusing on the rifle's diminutive screen. Either way, Silent Scope encourages repeat business by offering branching paths through its story mode, as players get to choose their next destination after the first stage. Even though all routes involve rescuing the same hostages and end with a final battle in the terrorists' hideout, the setpieces vary wildly between playthroughs.

For all the attention it achieved in arcades, Silent Scope proved popular in living rooms as well thanks to an assortment of home console ports. Konami brought the sniper adventure to both the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 in time for the holidays in 2000; neither version included any peripherals nor did they support existing light gun controllers. In the years that followed, Konami also aimed for the handheld crowd with special versions for the Game Boy Advance, mobile phones, and eventually smartphones.

Silent Scope turned into a franchise all its own in the early 21st century, with a couple arcade sequels which found their way to consoles as well. Silent Scope 3 debuted on PlayStation 2, a reflection of the diminishing arcade scene as well as a sign that fans didn't need a make-believe rifle to enjoy indulging their sharpshooting fantasies. Silent Scope 3 remains the final chapter of Konami's sniper saga, although the company took aim at arcades one last time with Silent Scope Bone-Eater in 2014, assigning actual development duties to third-party studio tri-Ace.

Arcades have become quite scarce these days, even in Japan, and Konami barely develops any video games anymore, so I doubt we'll ever see the Silent Scope brand name make a comeback. However, armchair sniping enthusiasts now have a bevy of options to peruse, especially on digital storefronts where catering to a niche audience has never been easier. Scanning the Sniper tag on Steam returns hundreds of results, running the gamut from gritty military simulations to absurd sexual escapades.

Neither Konami nor Silent Scope first introduced sniper rifles to the medium of video games. For me, zooming in on guard towers in the opening level of GoldenEye 007 first made me realize how exhilarating sniping could be. However, I'd argue that the immediate success of an arcade machine featuring nothing but sniping encouraged other developers to follow Konami's lead. Correlation may not equal causation, but I choose to believe Silent Scope's debut in 1999 at least played a role in affording players today the opportunity to fire a high-powered round into Adolf Hitler's lone testicle.

Writer/podcaster/performer Diamond Feit lives in Osaka, Japan but xer work and opinions exist across the internet.