Firetrack

Last updated

Firetrack
FiretrackEUBoxShotC64.jpg
Developer(s) Aardvark Software
Publisher(s) Electric Dreams Software
Superior Software (Electron)
Designer(s) Nick Pelling
Platform(s) Acorn Electron, BBC Micro, Commodore 64
Release1987: BBC, C64
1989: Electron
Genre(s) Scrolling shooter
Mode(s) Single-player

Firetrack is a vertically-scrolling shooter programmed by Nick Pelling and released for the BBC Micro and Commodore 64 platforms in 1987 by Electric Dreams Software. It was also ported to the Acorn Electron by Superior Software in 1989 as part of the Play It Again Sam 7 compilation. [1] It resembles the 1984 arcade game Star Force in style and gameplay. The game was technically advanced and very well received by critics.

Contents

Gameplay

Firetrack on the BBC Micro showing landscape, explosions and enemies, with player ship to lower left. BBC micro Firetrack screenshot.png
Firetrack on the BBC Micro showing landscape, explosions and enemies, with player ship to lower left.

The player controls a fighter ship which flies at constant speed and heading over a series of worlds. The player is faced with both airborne enemies (who approach in different attack formations) and ground-based enemies. Destruction of a whole attack wave results in bonus points, and destruction of specific ground targets (such as buildings marked with X) results in bonus points (and an occasional extra life) at the end of each level. Some enemies are indestructible and must be avoided. There are no power-ups, although the rate of fire increases with more challenging levels.

Development

Nick Pelling designed the game and programmed the BBC Micro and Commodore 64 versions which were released in 1987 by Electric Dreams Software. When including the game on the 1989 Play It Again Sam 7 compilation, Superior Software also commissioned a conversion to the Acorn Electron which was carried out by Chris Terran.

On the BBC Micro version, it automatically detects sideways RAM expansion if present, which allows more detailed graphics on the levels, without any changes to the underlying gameplay. Innovative use of colour makes the 8-colour palette of the BBC look much broader. The scrolling is smooth and flicker-free, and there is very little noticeable slowing, even when many enemies are displayed at once. If shadow RAM is present, the graphics are double buffered.

The Acorn Electron version exploits a division in the way the Electron handles its display: of the seven available graphics modes, two are configured so that the final two of every ten scanlines are blank and are not based on the contents of RAM. If 16 scanlines of continuous graphical data are written to a character-block-aligned portion of the screen then they will appear as a continuous block in most modes but in the two non-continuous modes they will be displayed as two blocks of 8 scanlines, separated in the middle by two blank scanlines. In order to keep track of its position within the display, the Electron maintains an internal display address counter. The same counter is used in both the continuous and non-continuous graphics modes and switching modes mid-frame does not cause any adjustment to the counter. Firetrack switches from a non-continuous to a continuous graphics mode partway down the display. By using the palette to mask the top area of the display and taking care about when it changes mode it can shift the continuous graphics at the bottom of the display down in two pixel increments (rather than the usual eight for vertical scrolling) because the internal display counter is not incremented on blank scanlines during non-continuous graphics modes.

Reception

Zzap!64 gave an overall score of 88%, commenting that the game could "truly be said to be of arcade quality" and is "fast, frenetic and extremely playable – easily the best vertically scrolling shoot 'em up to date". [2] Electron User , when reviewing the Play It Again Sam 7 compilation, were also very enthusiastic with reviewer Martin Reed praising the "amazingly smooth vertical-scrolling" and stating that "the graphics are stunning and give an amazingly realistic 3D effect that I wouldn't have thought was possible on the Electron". In her second opinion, Janice Murray claimed it would be worth buying the compilation even if you already owned the other three games: "This technically brilliant piece of programming makes a fine game which proves to be very fast and addictive. The other titles can be considered bonuses thrown in for free". [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acorn Electron</span> Personal computer sold in Britain

The Acorn Electron was a lower-cost alternative to the BBC Micro educational/home computer, also developed by Acorn Computers Ltd, to provide many of the features of that more expensive machine at a price more competitive with that of the ZX Spectrum. It had 32 kilobytes of RAM, and its ROM included BBC BASIC II together with the operating system. Announced in 1982 for a possible release the same year, it was eventually introduced on 25 August 1983 priced at £199.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Color Graphics Adapter</span> IBM PC graphic adapter and display standard

The Color Graphics Adapter (CGA), originally also called the Color/Graphics Adapter or IBM Color/Graphics Monitor Adapter, introduced in 1981, was IBM's first color graphics card for the IBM PC and established a de facto computer display standard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PC Engine SuperGrafx</span> 1989 home video game console

The PC Engine SuperGrafx, also known as simply the SuperGrafx, is a fourth-generation home video game console manufactured by NEC Home Electronics and released in Japan in 1989. It is the successor system to the PC Engine, released two years prior. Originally known as the PC Engine 2 during production stages, it was purported as a true 16-bit home console, featuring improved graphics and audio capabilities over its predecessor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ANTIC</span> Computer graphics chip

Alphanumeric Television Interface Controller (ANTIC) is an LSI ASIC dedicated to generating 2D computer graphics to be shown on a television screen or computer display. Under the direction of Jay Miner, the chip was designed in 1977–1978 by Joe Decuir, Francois Michel, and Steve Smith for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers first released in 1979 and was patented by Atari, Inc. in 1981. ANTIC is also used in the 1982 Atari 5200 video game console, which shares most of the same hardware as the 8-bit computers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motorola 6845</span> Display controller

The Motorola 6845, or MC6845, is a display controller that was widely used in 8-bit computers during the 1980s. Originally intended for designs based on the Motorola 6800 CPU and given a related part number, it was more widely used alongside various other processors, and was most commonly found in machines based on the Zilog Z80 and MOS 6502.

<i>Exile</i> (1988 video game) Single-player action-adventure video game first published in 1988

Exile is a single-player action-adventure video game originally published for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron in 1988 by Superior Software and later ported to the Commodore 64, Amiga, CD32 and Atari ST, all published by Audiogenic. The game was designed and programmed by Peter Irvin and Jeremy Smith. It is often cited as one of the earliest examples of a Metroidvania game and featured "realistic gravity, inertia and object mass years before players understood the concept of a physics engine... an astounding level of AI, stealth-based gameplay, a logical ecosystem governing the world's creatures and a teleportation mechanic that feels startlingly like a predecessor to Portal".

A display list, also called a command list in Direct3D 12 and a command buffer in Vulkan, is a series of graphics commands so that they may be later run when the list is executed. Systems that make use of display list functionality are called retained mode systems, while systems that do not are as opposed to immediate mode systems. In OpenGL, display lists are useful to redraw the same geometry or apply a set of state changes multiple times. This benefit is also used with Direct3D 12's bundle command lists. In Direct3D 12 and Vulkan, display lists are regularly used for per-frame recording and execution.

<i>Frak!</i> 1984 video game

Frak! is a scrolling platform video game programmed by Nick Pelling for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron and published by his own Aardvark Software in 1984. It was ported to the Commodore 64 the following year by "The B Team". The BBC and Electron versions were included on the Superior Software compilation Play It Again Sam 4 in 1987 and re-issued in budget form by Alternative Software in 1989.

<i>Bone Cruncher</i> 1987 video game

Bone Cruncher is a puzzle video game for the Acorn Electron, BBC Micro, and Commodore 64 first published by Superior Software in 1987. It uses the "rocks and diamonds" mechanics of Boulder Dash. An Amiga version was released in 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acorn MOS</span> Computer operating system

The Machine Operating System (MOS) or OS is a discontinued computer operating system (OS) used in Acorn Computers' BBC computer range. It included support for four-channel sound, graphics, file system abstraction, and digital and analogue input/output (I/O) including a daisy-chained expansion bus. The system was single-tasking, monolithic and non-reentrant.

A raster interrupt is an interrupt signal in a legacy computer system which is used for display timing. It is usually, though not always, generated by a system's graphics chip as the scan lines of a frame are being readied to send to the monitor for display. The most basic implementation of a raster interrupt is the vertical blank interrupt.

<i>Syncron</i> (video game) 1987 video game

Syncron is a vertically scrolling shooter written by Gary Partis for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron and published by Superior Software in 1987.

<i>Strykers Run</i> 1986 video game

Stryker's Run is a video game designed by Chris Roberts and Philip Meller for the BBC Micro and BBC Master which was published by Superior Software in 1986. It was also later converted to the Acorn Electron. It is a 2D side-scrolling action game. It was well received, particularly for its graphics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BBC Micro</span> Series of British microcomputers by Acorn

The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputer designed and built by Acorn Computers Limited in the 1980s for the Computer Literacy Project of the BBC. Designed with an emphasis on education, it was notable for its ruggedness, expandability, and the quality of its operating system. The machine was the focus of a number of educational BBC TV programmes on computer literacy, starting with The Computer Programme in 1982, followed by Making the Most of the Micro, Computers in Control in 1983, and finally Micro Live in 1985.

<i>Superman: The Man of Steel</i> (1989 video game) 1989 video game

Superman: The Man of Steel is a 1989 video game featuring the DC Comics character Superman. It was developed and published by UK software company Tynesoft under license from First Star Software.

<i>Deathstar</i> (video game) 1985 video game

Deathstar is multidirectional shooter for the Acorn Electron and BBC Micro developed by Peter Johnson and originally published in the UK by Superior Software in 1985. It is a clone of the arcade game Sinistar.

<i>Ballistix</i> 1989 video game

Ballistix is a video game created by Martin Edmondson for the Amiga and Atari ST and published by Psyclapse in 1989. It was also converted to a number of other home computers in the same year and the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 console in 1991. It is a fictional futuristic sport involving directing a puck to a goal by shooting small balls at it.

<i>Galaforce</i> 1986 video game

Galaforce is a fixed shooter video game for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron, written by Kevin Edwards and published by Superior Software in 1986. It spawned a sequel, Galaforce 2 (1988), and later, Galaforce Worlds (2003).

<i>Castle Quest</i> (1985 video game) 1985 video game

Castle Quest is action-adventure game for the BBC Micro noted at the time of release as being the best game on the platform in its genre for its problem solving, colourful graphics and smooth scrolling.

References

  1. ↑ FireTrack Archived 19 April 2013 at archive.today at Acorn Electron World
  2. ↑ Firetrack review, Zzap!64, April 1987
  3. ↑ "Hallmarked Golden Oldies", Electron User, June 1989
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.