I've Wanted to Play That 'Killer Shark' Arcade Game Briefly Seen in 'Jaws'

Summary

For Over 40 Years, I’ve Wanted to Play That Cool-Looking ‘Killer Shark’ Arcade Game Briefly Seen in ‘Jaws’ © Universal/Screenshot: youtube.com/@vghchannel A young man plays the electro-mechanical arcade game Killer Shark in a scene from Jaws Like a lot of people, I have a “bucket list” of things I’d like to do before I shed this mortal coil. A number of items on this list are probably similar to those other people have, like wanting to travel to certain places. But also on that list are more offbeat (some might say “weird”) and nostalgic sorts of things that I hope to experience/try at some point. One of these experiences has been on my to-do list for over 40 years, ever since I watched the broadcast premiere of Jaws on ABC’s Sunday Night Movie in 1979, and it’s a thing that I’ve been reminded of wanting to do each of the many times I have watched Steven Spielberg’s classic thriller since. And that is: to play the Killer Shark arcade game that is briefly shown in the movie. VIDEO The game pops up near the end of a scene at the Amity Island beach on the Fourth of July where we see throngs of people heading toward the shore, blissfully unaware that the shark they thought had been killed is actually still out there. It’s a cool set-up scene, and what made it even cooler for me as a kid (and what I still love) is the little beachside arcade. It is here that Spielberg zooms in on the screen of one game a young man is playing: Killer Shark. For a few seconds, we see this guy aiming the game cabinet’s light-gun at the screen and firing it at a shark that seems to have been created by light projection. For a long time I had thought Killer Shark was a traditional video game, but it was actually an example of an electromechanical game created by Sega in the early ‘70s (there does appear to be an actual video game off to the side in this scene; I believe the yellow cabinet that some other kids are gathered around is Computer Space, which became the first arcade video game when...