Line of Fire

From Sega Retro

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LineofFire title.png

Line of Fire
System(s): Sega X Board, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
Publisher: Sega,
Amiga
Amstrad CPC
ZX Spectrum
U.S. Gold
Developer:
Genre: Shoot-'em-Up

















Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code
Arcade (X Board)
JP		 ¥? ?
Arcade (X Board)
US		 $? ?
Arcade (X Board)
AU		 $? ?



























Amiga
UK 		£24.9924.99[2]
Atari ST
UK 		£24.9924.99[2]
Amstrad CPC
ES
(Cassette)
Amstrad CPC
ES
(Disk)
Amstrad CPC
UK
(Cassette) 		£10.9910.99[3]
Amstrad CPC
UK
(Disk) 		£14.9914.99[3]
Commodore 64
UK
(Cassette) 		£10.9910.99[3]
ZX Spectrum
ES
(Cassette)
ZX Spectrum
UK
(Cassette) 		£10.9910.99[3]

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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[4]. To compensate, the number of on-screen enemies is reduced over the arcade, and several enemy types had to be removed entirely[4].

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[5]. JCL offered to resolve it, but while the backgrounds came out okay, sprites did not[5]. 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[5].

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 Score Source
66 [6]
Arcade
 66
Based on
1 review
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
Arcade
 N/A
Based on
0 reviews

Line of Fire

X Board, JP

Amiga version

Sega Retro Average 
Publication Score Source
82 [7]
85 [8]
85 [9]
70 [10]
65 [11]
Amiga
 77
Based on
5 reviews
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
ACE (UK)
82
[12]
Aktueller Software Markt (DE)
50
[13]
CU Amiga (UK)
85
[14]
Computer & Video Games (UK)
85
[15]
The Games Machine (IT)
84
[16]
Joystick (FR)
76
[17]
Power Play (DE)
23
[18]
Raze (UK)
70
[10]
Tilt (FR)
50
[19]
Zzap!64 (UK)
65
[11]
Amiga
 67
Based on
10 reviews

Line of Fire

Amiga, UK

LineOfFire Amiga EU Disk.jpg
Disk

Amstrad CPC version

Sega Retro Average 
Publication Score Source
38 [20]
Amstrad CPC
 38
Based on
1 review
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
Joystick (FR)
60
[17]
Zzap! (IT)
38
[20]
Amstrad CPC
 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 Score Source
59 [21]
Atari ST
 59
Based on
1 review
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
Aktueller Software Markt (DE)
45
[13]
ST Action (UK)
59
[22]
ST Format (UK)
39
[23]
Atari ST
 48
Based on
3 reviews

Line of Fire

Atari ST, UK

Commodore 64 version

Sega Retro Average 
Publication Score Source
40 [24]
55 [25]
32 [11]
32 [20]
Commodore 64
 40
Based on
4 reviews
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
Commodore Format (UK)
40
[24]
Power Play (DE)
11
[26]
Your Commodore (UK)
55
[27]
Zzap!64 (UK)
32
[11]
Zzap! (IT)
32
[20]
Commodore 64
 34
Based on
5 reviews

Line of Fire

Commodore 64, UK

ZX Spectrum version

Sega Retro Average 
Publication Score Source
85 [9]
70 [28]
82 [29]
72 [30]
ZX Spectrum
 77
Based on
4 reviews
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
Crash (UK)
70
[28]
Computer & Video Games (UK)
85
[15]
Svet Kompjutera (YU)
60
[31]
Sinclair User (UK)
82
[32]
Your Sinclair (UK)
72
[30]
ZX Spectrum
 74
Based on
5 reviews

Line of Fire

ZX Spectrum, UK

LineofFire Spectrum UK Cassette.jpg
Cassette
ZX Spectrum, ES

ZX Spectrum, ES (Especial 8 Bits)

References

  1. ↑ Sega Arcade History, Enterbrain, page 101
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 ACE, "January 1991" (UK; 1990-12-xx), page 55
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Computer & Video Games, "December 1990" (UK; 1990-11-16), page 167
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Zero, "December 1990" (UK; 1990-1x-xx), page 19
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Zero, "December 1990" (UK; 1990-1x-xx), page 22
  6. ↑ Commodore User, "February 1990" (UK; 1990-01-26), page 89
  7. ↑ ACE, "February 1991" (UK; 1991-01-08), page 60-61 (60)
  8. ↑ CU Amiga, "January 1991" (UK; 1990-12-xx), page 56/57 (56)
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Computer & Video Games, "January 1991" (UK; 1990-12-15), page 130-131 (130)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Raze, "March 1991" (UK; 1991-01-31), page 52
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Zzap!64, "March 1991" (UK; 1991-xx-xx), page 69
  12. ↑ ACE, "February 1991" (UK; 1991-01-08), page 60
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Aktueller Software Markt, "März 1991" (DE; 1991-02-22), page 59
  14. ↑ CU Amiga, "January 1991" (UK; 1990-12-xx), page 56
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Computer & Video Games, "January 1991" (UK; 1990-12-15), page 74
  16. ↑ The Games Machine, "Febbraio 1991" (IT; 1991-xx-xx), page 42
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Joystick, "Janvier 1991" (FR; 199x-xx-xx), page 200
  18. ↑ Power Play, "3/91" (DE; 1991-02-15), page 120
  19. ↑ Tilt, "Février 1991" (FR; 1991-0x-xx), page 79
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 Zzap!, "Marzo 1991" (IT; 1991-xx-xx), page 16
  21. ↑ ST Action, "February 1991" (UK; 1991-01-xx), page 82 (80)
  22. ↑ ST Action, "February 1991" (UK; 1991-01-xx), page 82
  23. ↑ ST Format, "February 1991" (UK; 1991-01-10), page 90
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Commodore Format, "March 1991" (UK; 1991-02-21), page 42
  25. ↑ Your Commodore, "March 1991" (UK; 1991-02-22), page 24/25 (24)
  26. ↑ Power Play, "4/91" (DE; 1991-03-15), page 119
  27. ↑ Your Commodore, "March 1991" (UK; 1991-02-22), page 24
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Crash, "January 1991" (UK; 1990-12-13), page 63
  29. ↑ Sinclair User, "January 1991" (UK; 1990-12-18), page 52/53 (52)
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Your Sinclair, "January 1991" (UK; 1990-12-06), page 25
  31. ↑ Svet Kompjutera, "Jun 1991" (YU; 1991-xx-xx), page 75
  32. ↑ Sinclair User, "January 1991" (UK; 1990-12-18), page 52


Line of Fire

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