Line of Fire

n/a

Line of Fire

System(s): Sega X Board, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum

Publisher: Sega,

U.S. Gold

Developer: Sega AM1,

Creative Materials, Uncle Art (music), Tiertex (protection)

Creative Materials

Genre: Shoot-'em-Up

Number of players: 1

Release	Date	RRP	Code
JP	1989-12^[1]	¥?	?
US	1989^[2]	$?	?
AU	19xx	$?	?

UK	1991-01	£24.9924.99^[3]
UK	1991-01	£24.9924.99^[3]
ES (Cassette)	1990
ES (Disk)	1990
UK (Cassette)	1990-12^[4]	£10.9910.99^[4]
UK (Disk)	1990-12^[4]	£14.9914.99^[4]
UK (Cassette)	1990-12^[4]	£10.9910.99^[4]
ES (Cassette)	1990
UK (Cassette)	1990-12^[4]	£10.9910.99^[4]

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Line of Fire (ライン・オブ・ファイヤー), also called Bakudan Yarou (爆弾野郎) in Japan, is a Sega X Board light gun game released in 1989. In the game, you play as two escaping POWs who were captured after either disabling or seizing a "secret machine gun unit" from the enemy.

The game is presented in 3D first person, though walls will only meet at right angles. This is similar to the ray-casting graphics of later first-person shooters. It also anticipates the look of later texture-mapped 3D polygons, but with sprite manipulation rather than polygons.

The game was ported to several home computers in Europe by U.S. Gold, but never to a Sega home console. A retooled version with vastly different gameplay was released for the Sega Master System.

Versions

Unlike most other Sega arcade conversions of the time, the Amiga and Atari ST versions feature some degree of software-based sprite scaling, although sprite limits meant this could not be implemented for hte background of the first stage^[5]. To compensate, the number of on-screen enemies is reduced over the arcade, and several enemy types had to be removed entirely^[5].

The plan had originally been to use Vidi-ST to screenshot (or "digitise") graphics from the arcade board in monochrome, which would then be edited and coloured by hand, but this proved too slow. The team then purchased a different digitising solution - the Coloupic by JCL, but this was incompatible with the arcade machine's NTSC output^[6]. JCL offered to resolve it, but while the backgrounds came out okay, sprites did not^[6]. The team eventually built a custom Amiga expansion board that could interface with the arcade ROMs, converted Sega's graphics into Amiga IFF files, and edited through PIXmate^[6].

Production credits

Amiga version

The production credits are found in a rant located in the file s/startup-sequence, which explains that Sega would not allow them to put their names in the game.

Programming: Richard Aplin
Music: Uncle Art
Graphics:
- extracting bitmaps from the original arcade game's video output: Andy Heike, Nick Vincent
- extracting sprites from the original arcade game ROM: Richard Aplin
- color reduction for the Amiga: Andy Heike, Nick Vincent, "and some students in Manchester"
PCM sample extraction: Richard Aplin
Copy protection: Tiertex
Management: Steve Fitton (US Gold), Tony Porter (US Gold)

Atari ST version

The rant mentioned above notes that Richard Aplin is also the programmer for that version, but unlike most Sega Amiga ports, this version was developed later.

Magazine articles

Main article: Line of Fire/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Main article: Line of Fire/Promotional material.

Physical scans

Arcade version

Sega Retro Average

Publication	Version	Score

	N/A
Based on 0 reviews

Line of Fire

X Board, JP

Amiga version

Sega Retro Average

Publication

Version

Score

ACE (UK)

82

^[8]

Aktueller Software Markt (DE)

50

^[13]

CU Amiga (UK)

85

^[9]

Computer & Video Games (UK)

85

^[14]

The Games Machine (IT)

84

^[15]

Joystick (FR)

76

^[16]

Power Play (DE)

23

^[17]

Raze (UK)

70

^[11]

Tilt (FR)

50

^[18]

Zzap!64 (UK)

65

^[12]

	67
Based on 10 reviews

Line of Fire

Amiga, UK

Disk

Amstrad CPC version

Sega Retro Average

Publication

Version

Score

Joystick (FR)

60

^[16]

Zzap! (IT)

38

^[19]

	49
Based on 2 reviews

Line of Fire

Amstrad CPC, UK (cassette)

Amstrad CPC, UK (disk)

Amstrad CPC, ES (cassette)

Amstrad CPC, ES (disk)

Atari ST version

Sega Retro Average

Publication

Version

Score

Aktueller Software Markt (DE)

45

^[13]

ST Action (UK)

59

^[21]

ST Format (UK)

39

^[22]

	48
Based on 3 reviews

Line of Fire

Atari ST, UK

Commodore 64 version

Sega Retro Average

Publication

Version

Score

Commodore Format (UK)

40

^[23]

Power Play (DE)

11

^[25]

Your Commodore (UK)

55

^[24]

Zzap!64 (UK)

32

^[12]

Zzap! (IT)

32

^[19]

	34
Based on 5 reviews

Line of Fire

Commodore 64, UK

ZX Spectrum version

Sega Retro Average

Publication

Version

Score

Crash (UK)

70

^[26]

Computer & Video Games (UK)

85

^[14]

Svet Kompjutera (YU)

60

^[29]

Sinclair User (UK)

82

^[27]

Your Sinclair (UK)

72

^[28]

	74
Based on 5 reviews

Line of Fire

ZX Spectrum, UK

Cassette

ZX Spectrum, ES

ZX Spectrum, ES (Especial 8 Bits)

References

↑ https://sega-interactive.co.jp/special/history/title/lineoffire.html
↑ http://sega-interactive.co.jp/special/history/title/lineoffire.html
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 File:ACE UK 40.pdf, page 55
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 ^4.2 ^4.3 ^4.4 ^4.5 ^4.6 ^4.7 File:CVG UK 109.pdf, page 167
↑ ^5.0 ^5.1 Zero, "December 1990" (UK; 1990-1x-xx), page 19
↑ ^6.0 ^6.1 ^6.2 Zero, "December 1990" (UK; 1990-1x-xx), page 22
↑ File:CommodoreUser UK 77.pdf, page 89
↑ ^8.0 ^8.1 File:ACE UK 41.pdf, page 60 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:ACE UK 41.pdf_p60" defined multiple times with different content
↑ ^9.0 ^9.1 File:CUAmiga UK 011.pdf, page 56 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:CUAmiga UK 011.pdf_p56" defined multiple times with different content
↑ ^10.0 ^10.1 File:CVG UK 110.pdf, page 130
↑ ^11.0 ^11.1 Raze, "March 1991" (UK; 1991-01-31), page 52
↑ ^12.0 ^12.1 ^12.2 ^12.3 File:Zzap64 UK 071.pdf, page 69 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:Zzap64 UK 071.pdf_p69" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:Zzap64 UK 071.pdf_p69" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:Zzap64 UK 071.pdf_p69" defined multiple times with different content
↑ ^13.0 ^13.1 Aktueller Software Markt, "März 1991" (DE; 1991-02-22), page 59
↑ ^14.0 ^14.1 Computer & Video Games, "January 1991" (UK; 1990-12-15), page 74
↑ The Games Machine, "Febbraio 1991" (IT; 1991-xx-xx), page 42
↑ ^16.0 ^16.1 Joystick, "Janvier 1991" (FR; 199x-xx-xx), page 200
↑ Power Play, "3/91" (DE; 1991-02-15), page 120
↑ Tilt, "Février 1991" (FR; 1991-0x-xx), page 79
↑ ^19.0 ^19.1 ^19.2 ^19.3 File:Zzap IT 54.pdf, page 16 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:Zzap IT 54.pdf_p16" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:Zzap IT 54.pdf_p16" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:Zzap IT 54.pdf_p16" defined multiple times with different content
↑ File:STAction UK 34.pdf, page 80
↑ ST Action, "February 1991" (UK; 1991-01-xx), page 82
↑ ST Format, "February 1991" (UK; 1991-01-10), page 90
↑ ^23.0 ^23.1 File:CommodoreFormat UK 06.pdf, page 42 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:CommodoreFormat UK 06.pdf_p42" defined multiple times with different content
↑ ^24.0 ^24.1 File:YourCommodore UK 77.pdf, page 24 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:YourCommodore UK 77.pdf_p24" defined multiple times with different content
↑ Power Play, "4/91" (DE; 1991-03-15), page 119
↑ ^26.0 ^26.1 File:Crash UK 84.pdf, page 63 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:Crash UK 84.pdf_p63" defined multiple times with different content
↑ ^27.0 ^27.1 File:SinclairUser UK 107.pdf, page 52 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:SinclairUser UK 107.pdf_p52" defined multiple times with different content
↑ ^28.0 ^28.1 File:YourSinclair UK 61.pdf, page 25 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:YourSinclair UK 61.pdf_p25" defined multiple times with different content
↑ Svet Kompjutera, "Jun 1991" (YU; 1991-xx-xx), page 75

Line of Fire
	Main page \| Comparisons \| Credits \| Hidden content \| Magazine articles \| Reception \| Promotional material No results

[https:.2F.2Fsega-interactive.co.jp.2Fspecial.2Fhistory.2Ftitle.2Flineoffire.html-1] ttps://sega-interactive.co.jp/special/history/title/lineoffire.html

[http:.2F.2Fsega-interactive.co.jp.2Fspecial.2Fhistory.2Ftitle.2Flineoffire.html-2] ttp://sega-interactive.co.jp/special/history/title/lineoffire.html

[:File:ACE_UK_40.pdf_p55-3] 3.0 ^3.1 File:ACE UK 40.pdf, page 55

[:File:CVG_UK_109.pdf_p167-4] 4.0 ^4.1 ^4.2 ^4.3 ^4.4 ^4.5 ^4.6 ^4.7 File:CVG UK 109.pdf, page 167

[:File:Zero_UK_14.pdf_p19-5] 5.0 ^5.1 Zero, "December 1990" (UK; 1990-1x-xx), page 19

[:File:Zero_UK_14.pdf_p22-6] 6.0 ^6.1 ^6.2 Zero, "December 1990" (UK; 1990-1x-xx), page 22

[:File:CommodoreUser_UK_77.pdf_p89-7] File:CommodoreUser UK 77.pdf, page 89

[:File:ACE_UK_41.pdf_p60-8] 8.0 ^8.1 File:ACE UK 41.pdf, page 60 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:ACE UK 41.pdf_p60" defined multiple times with different content

[:File:CUAmiga_UK_011.pdf_p56-9] 9.0 ^9.1 File:CUAmiga UK 011.pdf, page 56 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:CUAmiga UK 011.pdf_p56" defined multiple times with different content

[:File:CVG_UK_110.pdf_p130-10] 10.0 ^10.1 File:CVG UK 110.pdf, page 130

[:File:Raze_UK_05.pdf_p52-11] 11.0 ^11.1 Raze, "March 1991" (UK; 1991-01-31), page 52

[:File:Zzap64_UK_071.pdf_p69-12] 12.0 ^12.1 ^12.2 ^12.3 File:Zzap64 UK 071.pdf, page 69 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:Zzap64 UK 071.pdf_p69" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:Zzap64 UK 071.pdf_p69" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:Zzap64 UK 071.pdf_p69" defined multiple times with different content

[:File:ASM_DE_1991-03.pdf_p59-13] 13.0 ^13.1 Aktueller Software Markt, "März 1991" (DE; 1991-02-22), page 59

[:File:CVG_UK_110.pdf_p74-14] 14.0 ^14.1 Computer & Video Games, "January 1991" (UK; 1990-12-15), page 74

[:File:TheGamesMachine_IT_028.pdf_p42-15] The Games Machine, "Febbraio 1991" (IT; 1991-xx-xx), page 42

[:File:Joystick_FR_012.pdf_p200-16] 16.0 ^16.1 Joystick, "Janvier 1991" (FR; 199x-xx-xx), page 200

[:File:PowerPlay_DE_1991-03.pdf_p120-17] Power Play, "3/91" (DE; 1991-02-15), page 120

[:File:Tilt_FR_087.pdf_p79-18] Tilt, "Février 1991" (FR; 1991-0x-xx), page 79

[:File:Zzap_IT_54.pdf_p16-19] 19.0 ^19.1 ^19.2 ^19.3 File:Zzap IT 54.pdf, page 16 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:Zzap IT 54.pdf_p16" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:Zzap IT 54.pdf_p16" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:Zzap IT 54.pdf_p16" defined multiple times with different content

[:File:STAction_UK_34.pdf_p80-20] File:STAction UK 34.pdf, page 80

[:File:STAction_UK_34.pdf_p82-21] ST Action, "February 1991" (UK; 1991-01-xx), page 82

[22] ST Format, "February 1991" (UK; 1991-01-10), page 90

[:File:CommodoreFormat_UK_06.pdf_p42-23] 23.0 ^23.1 File:CommodoreFormat UK 06.pdf, page 42 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:CommodoreFormat UK 06.pdf_p42" defined multiple times with different content

[:File:YourCommodore_UK_77.pdf_p24-24] 24.0 ^24.1 File:YourCommodore UK 77.pdf, page 24 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:YourCommodore UK 77.pdf_p24" defined multiple times with different content

[:File:PowerPlay_DE_1991-04.pdf_p119-25] Power Play, "4/91" (DE; 1991-03-15), page 119

[:File:Crash_UK_84.pdf_p63-26] 26.0 ^26.1 File:Crash UK 84.pdf, page 63 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:Crash UK 84.pdf_p63" defined multiple times with different content

[:File:SinclairUser_UK_107.pdf_p52-27] 27.0 ^27.1 File:SinclairUser UK 107.pdf, page 52 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:SinclairUser UK 107.pdf_p52" defined multiple times with different content

[:File:YourSinclair_UK_61.pdf_p25-28] 28.0 ^28.1 File:YourSinclair UK 61.pdf, page 25 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:YourSinclair UK 61.pdf_p25" defined multiple times with different content

[:File:SvetKompjutera_YU_081.pdf_p75-29] Svet Kompjutera, "Jun 1991" (YU; 1991-xx-xx), page 75

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Line of Fire

From Sega Retro

Contents

Versions

Production credits

Amiga version

Atari ST version

Magazine articles

Promotional material

Physical scans

Arcade version

Amiga version

Amstrad CPC version

Atari ST version

Commodore 64 version

ZX Spectrum version

References