Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show

Summary
A collection of six Rodeo games. It was inspired by the famous show of "Buffalo" Bill Cody, that toured America and Europe in the late 19th/early 20th century with performers like markswoman Annie Oakley, propagating the mythos of the "Wild West". Of the six games "Bronco Riding" (staying on a bucking horse for as long as possible) is probably of most interest to horse fans; but "Calf roping", "Steer Wrestling", "Stage Coach Rescue" also include riding. There's even an animated pony in the background of "Knife Throwing", only "Trick-Shooting" has no horses.

Game Design
2D, "romantic" illustrations, reminiscing of contemporary depictions and advertisements of the "Wild West". View depends on the games: Bronco riding is a side-view animation, steer wrestling is top-down, calf roping isometric and the stage coach rescue is a side-scroller.

Gameplay
When starting a game you can choose the number of players and which events you want to participate in. The games are clearly designed for joystick but you can also play them with the arrow keys and space.

Bronco Riding (bronc.exe): Try to stay as long as possible on the bucking horse. The arrow keys around the horse show in which direction you should lean (i.e. move the joystick/press arrow key). You can also look on the "balance meter" in the right corner. If one of the arrows fills up, you'll fall down, so you have to quickly move in the opposite direction to make the meter go down and have the rider stay up.

In Calf roping (ropin.exe) and Steer Wrestling (wrest.exe) you have to move your horse with the arrow keys and catch the poor bovine with the space key. If you miss, the rider will fall flat on their face.

For the Stagecoach Rescue (stage.exe) you have to ride up to the doors and then fight the Indian. Riding faster is done by quickly hitting left and right - you can try to evade the thrown luggage with up and down (there are only two lanes). Once you are at the stage's doors, press space to hop on. Fighting/blocking is done with arrow keys. (The music for this part is from Rossini's Overture to "Guillaume Tell", one of the most famous musical riding themes. It was also the title music for the once popular "Lone Ranger" western series).

System Requirements & Compatibility
The game can be played online as part of the Internet Archive's Game Library.