Brave Firefighters

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Brave Firefighters
System(s): Sega Hikaru
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega AM1
Genre: Shoot-'em-Up
Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code

Brave Firefighters known as Shouboushi Brave Fire Fighters (消防士 BRAVE FIRE FIGHTERS) in Japan, is a light-gun shooter game released for Sega Hikaru arcade hardware in 1999. It uses a heavy, vibrating light-gun controller shaped like a fire hose to provide a realistic simulation of firefighting.

The debut title for the Sega Hikaru arcade system in 1999, it had the most technically advanced graphics of its time. It was the first game with Phong shading, which has since become the most common shading technique. It also had the most advanced lighting, particle and fire effects of its time, and the most detailed environments at the time of its release.

Gameplay

An electrical fault has caused the WhiteHead Hotel to go up in flames, trapping Mayor Taylor and his family inside. The object of the game is to extinguish the fires and progress through the building in order to rescue the mayor.

Fires may be extinguished by pushing the "drainage" button on the hose controller to release a stream of water. Continuous use of this button depletes the player's Water Gauge and decreases the distance and power of the water stream. The "nozzle" of the hose can also be twisted to create a powerful fog stream that can be used to extinguish nearby fires and flying sparks, as well as to move or destroy obstacles in the player's path. The player is under a time limit for each stage, but extra seconds are added to the timer if fires are extinguished quickly. When the timer runs out, the game ends.

A modified version of "Brave Firefighters" was produced by SEGA and donated to the Kyoto City Disaster Prevention Center. This version of the game has a different scenario and opening movie, Japanese subtitles, shortened stages, and no time limit.

History

Development

According to Sega in August 1999: "Brave Firefighters utilizes a slightly modified Naomi Hardware system called Hikaru. Hikaru incorporates a custom Sega graphics chip and possesses larger memory capacity then standard Naomi systems. "These modifications were necessary because in Brave Firefighters, our engineers were faced with the daunting challenge of creating 3d images of flames and sprayed water," stated Sega's Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Barbara Joyiens. "If you stop and think about it, both have an almost infinite number of shapes, sizes, colors, levels of opaqueness, shadings and shadows. And, when you combine the two by simulating the spraying of water on a flame, you create an entirely different set of challenges for our game designers and engineers to overcome; challenges that would be extremely difficult, if not impossible to overcome utilizing existing 3D computers. Hikaru has the horsepower to handle these demanding graphic challenges with clarity, depth and precision."

Production credits

• Producer: Rikiya Nakagawa
• Programmers: Junpei Satoh, Masaru Sugahara, Kousei Kataoka, Masahiro Tomiyama, Atsushi Ueno
• Designers: Yoshiaki Aoki, Tatsuto Kumada, Akiko Kobayashi, Ryodo Tanaka, Hideyuki Katoh, Kazuhiro Takimoto, Hiroyuki Taguchi, Toshihiro Fujimaki, Takamasa Nakada, Kumiko Yamada
• Cabinet: Yoshinao Usuki, Hiroyuki Takahashi, Mieko Sakaniwa, Yasuhiro Komori, Masayoshi Yamada
• Sound Staff: Makito Nomiya, Susumu Tsukagoshi
• Publicity: Mika Araki
• Special Thanks to: Kaori Fukano, Shinichiro Okumoto, Hard Ware R&D Team 3, Samurai Library Team in Cooperation with Tohatsu
• Directors & Planners: Yasuhiro Hayashida, Takashi Oda
• Presented by SEGA
• ©Sega Enterprises, Ltd. 1999

Digital manuals

• 

  US manual

Magazine articles

Main article: Brave Firefighters/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

• 

  Hikaru US flyer

• 

  Hikaru JP flyer

Physical scans

Hikaru, US

Hikaru, JP