He described the making of it as a "trial by fire" to learn what he could and could not do within the limitations of the Atari Video Computer System.

Upon release, it received positive reviews from Creative Computing, The Space Gamer and the Xenia Daily Gazette.

In "Blowaway" mode, bullets are more powerful and can destroy the centre obstacles in the game, such as a stage coach, wall or a cactus.

In getaway mode, players can move immediately after shooting their gun instead of having to wait until their bullet vanishes for the screen or hits a target.

After proofreading a newspaper ad his friend had made for the work, he wrote a resume, was interviewed the next day at 10 am and had the job by 2 pm.

He later reflected that the best thing about the game was learning how to develop the gameplay elements so he could work on more complicated projects in the future.

[7] In 2023, Atari SA announced it would re-release Outlaw for the system on a physical cartridge.

[15][16] From contemporary reviews, David H. Ahl of Creative Computing appeared to have enjoyed the game, stating that "after a couple of glasses of wine, Chris Cef and I went into fits of convulsive laughter playing this game and lost or ability to fire straight.

[19] From retrospective reviews, Brett Alan Weiss, writing for AllGame said that Outlaw as a single-player game was overly simplistic and dull and was best played as a multiplayer game where competing against an opponent was much more fun but not as strong as the similar Combat (1977).