What is it?
Originally a promotion for Johnnie Walker Whiskey, this silly little arcade shooter quickly gained a cult followership in Germany. In front of a beautiful landscape, cartoony but 3D-rendered moorhens are flying. You try to score as many points as possible in the 90 seconds the game gives you by shooting them down. The record is by 975 or something. Here some hints:
- The smaller, farther away moorhens will gain more points.
- Occasionally a big moorhen will pop up right in front. This is a sort of bonus and will gain 25 points.
- When you are out of ammo, reload with the right mouse button.
- Shooting the wings off the windmill will gain extra points.
- Shooting the hat off the scarecrow will gain extra points and increase the number of moorhens.
- Shooting the planes and baloons reduces your score.
Due to its enormous success, commercial sequels, as well as parodies,
soon followed. Early in 2000 it was used to transfer the dangerous CIH
virus (Chernobyl
), but that didn't reduce its popularity either.
In the same year it was ported to Macintosh as
MacMoorhuhn.
Outside Germany, it was hardly noticed, as far as I can tell.
