clay pigeon

A clay pigeon is a frisbee-shaped target used in the sports of skeet shooting, trap shooting and also for training in rifle shooting (in this case they are not thrown, they are just placed on a convenient berm). Clay pigeons are thrown into the sky by catapult-like machines that use springs and levers. Serious ranges use large automated machines that can have over one hundred skeets loaded in a series of hoppers.
Clay pigeons (also called clays) are not made of clay - actually they are made of marble dust bound together with vegetable pitch. They are normally painted in bright colors, like blaze orange, and they are very brittle - they will smash if dropped on the floor from 3 feet. The diameter ranges from 6 to 10 centimeters and the weight varies from 100 to 30 grams (for various applications). While the Olympic trap and skeet competition uses only the standard target, in other disciplines you find also the following types: rocket, rabbit, battue, midi and the really microscopic minis.

Who invented it anyway?: in 1880, at a time of great popularity for pigeon shooting, American inventor George Ligowski had the brilliant idea of producing modeled clay disks.

More than you ever wanted to know about the sport at: http://www.sportingclays.net/

The current proliferation of "Bubba" games like Deer Hunter is not a new phenomenon at all. As a matter of fact, games like that have been coming out since at least the mid 1980s. Exidy's Clay Pigeon was but one of them.

Clay Pigeon was a shooting based arcade game released by Exidy in 1986. This title ran on the Exidy 440 hardware, along with such famous titles as Chiller and Crossbow.

The object of Clay Pigeon was to shoot as many clay targets as you can, using an arcade light gun that was shaped like a shotgun. At the start of the game you are given the choice of selecting either Trap Shooting or Skeet Shooting. Trap shooting is where the clay target is thrown directly away from the shooter, while in skeet shooting the target is launched across the shooter's field of vision.

The graphics are done in Exidy's realistic style, each round is played against a decent looking outdoor background, and an extremely repetitive announcer yells "pull" to warn you of each and every target being launched. After several rounds of targets, you finally get to go after some real live animals! The real live animals are of course, ducks! The ducks are small and fly onto the screen in small groups of up to around a half dozen or so, and unlike the earlier title "Duck Hunt", you cannot miss any of these. Missing any ducks in this round ends the game instantly, and will more than likely have you fumbling for another quarter in an attempt to do it right this time.

This title was available as either a conversion kit for Exidy's earlier gun titles, or as a dedicated cabinet. The game came in a big heavy black cabinet with the gun mounted on a huge control panel, all of the Exidy gun games used this cabinet, the only differences were the artwork, and the kind of gun.

There were at least two different marquees on this title, the first one had a large "Clay Pigeon" logo on a blue background, while the other had a small logo and a picture of a fence in a grassy field.

You can convert this title to Chiller, Crossbow, Cheyenne, Combat, Catch - 22, Showdown, Who Dunit, Top Secret, Hit 'N Miss, Victory, Yukon or Crack Shot simply by burning a new set of EPROMs for the game boards.

If you are unable to find a real Clay Pigeon machine, then have no fear, because this title is fully supported by MAME.