Game Review #4: Fire Fly (Atari 2600)

Entry posted by cessnaace March 30, 2019

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Game: Fire Fly
System: Atari 2600/VCS/Sears Video Arcade
Publisher: Mythicon
Programmer: Bruce de Graaf
Serial/Catalog Number: MA1002
Copyright: 1983

Genre: Shoot 'em Up

Controller: Joystick (Sega Game Pad compatible); Ball Controller
Players: 1 or 2 (Alternating)

Game Variations: 5

RARITY RATING: 4 (Scarce+)
Also published in Brazil by Canal 3 on tape.

The manual has a long and rather silly story of the events that lead up to the game. Basics. The date is March 17, 2093. You're a test pilot of an interplanetary space ship called Delta 12. Your power plant malfunctions, and you wind up on a planet inhabited by giant mechanical bugs. But wait. The twist is that they aren't out to get you. No, your enemies are their enemies, called Bad-Bugs. How creative. Anyhow, they place you in command of their best machine-bug. Wait, they're mechanical bugs who fly machine-bugs? That makes no sense. So we'll ignore that part. You're tasked with saving their last remaining living creature, called the Pixie (or, in the very next sentence of the manual, Pixy).

GAME VARIATIONS
No menu of course. Use the Select Switch.

Variation 1: Practice Mode, 1 Player. No Scoring; Unlimited lives. When this variation is selected a single human (or humanoid type) figure and a smiley face are displayed. Mythicon could have named this variation Pointless Mode.

Variation 2: Level 1; 1 Player. Score points by shooting enemies. Additional points for picking up treasures and saving the Pixy (or Pixie, take your pick).

Variation 3: Level 1; 2 Players. Play alternates by starting with the left controller. Makes sense. When this variation is selected two humanoid type figures are displayed, with a large gap between them. This is the game's subtle way to suggest that if there are actually 2 people who wish to play this atrocity together they should stay as far apart from one another as possible.

Variation 4: Level 2; 1 Player. Enemies are more difficulty to shoot. This makes a really bad game worse. A single humanoid and a diamond are depicted on screen.

Variation 5: Level 2; 2 Players. A diamond between them.

The Difficulty Switches are not used.

SCORING

10 points for shooting a group of enemies.
20 points for shooting the pumpkin.
30 points for rescuing the Pixy, or Pixie. Whatever.
99 points for recovering treasure.

You start with 3 lives. There's no way to earn more.

There is music in the game, but it's a short irritating sequence of tones that play on an endless loop. The maximum amount of points that you can earn are 9,999. The game continues on from there but no more scoring for you. Not even a roll-over.

3 players at http://highscore.com have scores of 9,999 achieved on actual Atari hardware (my current score is 5,690). 3 players have scores of 9,999 achieved through emulation. While I have this game imported into my emulator, I haven't submitted an emulated score yet. I'll save that torturous experience for another time.

YOUTUBE PLAY VIDEO OF FIRE FLY - 9,999 POINTS ACHIEVED

RANKING: 4 (out of 4)

ATARI 2600/VCS GAMES REVIEWED SO FAR, AND THEIR CURRENT RANKING

1. Worm War I
2. Demolition Herby
3. Alligator People (Prototype)
4. Fire Fly

OTHER ATARI 2600 GAMES PROGRAMMED BY BRUCE DE GRAAF
Gee, they're all Mythicon games. I own a complete set of Mythicon games. All 3 of them. Lucky me.