We are still waiting on a suitable Amiga AGA emulator with robust recording features before tackling such games.
Line of Fire
Line of Fire, original arcade game by Sega. C64 home conversion by Creative Materials and published by US Gold in 1991.
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Player's Review
"You've broken through enemy lines, you've captured the Rapier machine gun.... now you have to get back to base... but first you will have to cross the Line of Fire. Get ready for unlimited fire power, pilot high speed powerboats - through white water rapids, aircraft over dense jungles, advancing and reversing; circling 360, dodging helicopter squadrons out to get you. Getting in was tough - getting out alive will be damned near impossible! Line of Fire "This time they've gone too far!"
While most US gold arcade conversions can be classed as bad but borderline playable, Line of Fire on the C64 can only be summed up as tragic and should never have been released in its current state. While first person sprite scaling games have never been the C64s strength to reproduce, other games such as Operation Thunderbolt and Space Gun a few years later show it can be done. There is not much in the way of sounds. Just shooting and some explosion effects. The graphics are quite basic but move quite smoothly, at least until you have more than one enemy on screen.
The game is unfinished. Upon finishing level 7 you get the normal end of level screen, press n to continue. In doing so you are left with a blank screen, no new level or ending or even a return to the title screen. To stop players getting that far, the level five boss hits you with a swinging chain hook. It cant be avoided and will take off 100% of health as it hits you. Game Over! Start all over again.
However, if you are really quick and have saved all grenades, chucking 4 at the boss the moment it appears will destroy the chains. The soldier only shoots at player two so you can finish him off at your leisure.
The game is challenging, maybe even overly difficult to make sure you don't get to the end. You have only one life, but plenty of med kits are provided and you will need them as most enemies hit hard. Level one is a warm up but level two will test you patience as the helicopters launch missiles you can barely hit and enemies will often start shooting before they are even on screen to shoot at. It's worth noting that you only have to cover your side of the screen as nothing on the other side can harm you. Level three is rewarding as even though you have bombers to contend with, there are plenty of med packs and destroying the boats even gives health!
Overall then, this is not exactly a great conversion but not unplayable if you like these first person on rail arcade shooters. However being left so blatantly unfinished should have resulted in us gold being sued, all copies returned and the company bankrupted instead of being shrugged off and the game left sitting on the shelf.
The title screen music and only music was provided by Dave Lowe which sounds like it was thrown together from offcuts of his previous Power Drift title tune. The Disk version has been played but I also tried the tape version. It has all the same issues except it doesn't allow you to continue past the final score screen. It doesn't respond to the n key to continue and just hangs there.
00:00:00 Title Music
00:01:46 Game
While most US gold arcade conversions can be classed as bad but borderline playable, Line of Fire on the C64 can only be summed up as tragic and should never have been released in its current state. While first person sprite scaling games have never been the C64s strength to reproduce, other games such as Operation Thunderbolt and Space Gun a few years later show it can be done. There is not much in the way of sounds. Just shooting and some explosion effects. The graphics are quite basic but move quite smoothly, at least until you have more than one enemy on screen.
The game is unfinished. Upon finishing level 7 you get the normal end of level screen, press n to continue. In doing so you are left with a blank screen, no new level or ending or even a return to the title screen. To stop players getting that far, the level five boss hits you with a swinging chain hook. It cant be avoided and will take off 100% of health as it hits you. Game Over! Start all over again.
However, if you are really quick and have saved all grenades, chucking 4 at the boss the moment it appears will destroy the chains. The soldier only shoots at player two so you can finish him off at your leisure.
The game is challenging, maybe even overly difficult to make sure you don't get to the end. You have only one life, but plenty of med kits are provided and you will need them as most enemies hit hard. Level one is a warm up but level two will test you patience as the helicopters launch missiles you can barely hit and enemies will often start shooting before they are even on screen to shoot at. It's worth noting that you only have to cover your side of the screen as nothing on the other side can harm you. Level three is rewarding as even though you have bombers to contend with, there are plenty of med packs and destroying the boats even gives health!
Overall then, this is not exactly a great conversion but not unplayable if you like these first person on rail arcade shooters. However being left so blatantly unfinished should have resulted in us gold being sued, all copies returned and the company bankrupted instead of being shrugged off and the game left sitting on the shelf.
The title screen music and only music was provided by Dave Lowe which sounds like it was thrown together from offcuts of his previous Power Drift title tune. The Disk version has been played but I also tried the tape version. It has all the same issues except it doesn't allow you to continue past the final score screen. It doesn't respond to the n key to continue and just hangs there.
00:00:00 Title Music
00:01:46 Game
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