What is Firefall Arcade?

Hark back to the heyday of video arcades . . . remember Centipede? In Firefall Arcade, the centipede is called a fireworm, but the game is still a fun way to waste time. The fireworm races down the screen, bumping into barriers, changing directions, splitting into pieces, and plummeting toward your ship at high speed. Shoot it! See it pop and segment! Destroy six worms and you’re on to the bonus round.

The screen is bordered by brick walls. A status box containing score, level, and number of lives is on the right. Destructible barriers, among which the fireworms career and you maneuver, litter the screen. There are also everlasting barriers, which creep from the sidelines and float into position among the normal barriers. While they’re mobile they’re vulnerable; once they’re fixed they’re (almost) indestructible.

The fireworm isn’t your only target or danger: barrier droppers excrete destructible barriers and kill on contact; slideworms — lethal spinning pasta — also destroy on contact; and prisoner cubes dog you, always trying to herd you toward disaster. If one touches you, you explode.

On your side are temporary power boosters called powerups. Powerups give you shields, double- and treble-shot guns, and free lives; they also freeze targets and dephase your ship (allowing you to travel through barriers). There are also several helpers — some might call them cheats — hidden in the game (just think ⌘ keys and developers’ name's).

To play Firefall Arcade, you need 256 colors and at least a 13-inch monitor, plus about 3.4MB of RAM. The game runs on anything from an LC up. On an 040 machine you can play in enhanced mode, with even more graphics and longer fireworms.

You won’t need to read a manual or spend hours learning this game. There is, in fact, no manual, only a threefold card, which lists all the information you need to play: key commands, point values, the different powerups, tech-support numbers, strategy, and installation instructions.

The action on Firefall Arcade seems to change with the input device. I played it with the Apple Desktop Bus Mouse II, the Kensington Turbo Mouse trackball, and the Advanced Gravis GamePad, and found none completely satisfactory at first. I experienced restricted or slow movement or an irritating float factor that sent me coasting into death traps. However, a call to Inline’s tech support set me straight on optimum settings (use the penultimate fast setting for the Apple mouse and the Deliverance gameset for the GamePad).

I wish Firefall Arcade had a save-as-you-go option, but in that respect it’s very arcade-like: when you’re outta lives, that’s it. While the designers have really added nothing new to an old video game, if you loved Centipede or are just looking for a fun shoot-’em-up, Firefall Arcade will satisfy.

Courteau, Suzanne. (June 1994). Firefall Arcade. Macworld. (pg. 90).

Download Firefall Arcade for Mac

Architecture

68K + PPC (FAT)

System Requirements

From Mac OS 7.0 up to Mac OS 10.4

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Basilisk II