Fire Fighter (1985 video game)

Title screen.

Fire Fighter is a freeware turn-based puzzle game where you try to contain forest fires. It was developed and published by Eben Sprinsock for MS-DOS in 1985. In the game, you are a fire fighter trying to stop a forest fire from wiping out a forest filled with houses. You can air-drop water, build fire breaks, and start backfires in order to prevent the blaze. Points are awarded for how much of the forest you're able to save once the fire finally dies out. The game was compiled with a Borland compiler, probably Pascal.

Personal

Fire Fighter was included as shovelware in the Keypunch Software title, Convoy, which is where I first saw it. As was typical with Keypunch, they removed all the developer's credits and re-titled it to Fire Out. I wasn't really interested in this game when I first saw it, and couldn't really tell exactly what was going on. However, after I actually read through the rules and replayed it a couple more times, I figured it out. Of course, due to the highly-random, yet monotonous, game play, I quickly lost interest. I've beaten the game in all three difficulty levels, though I've never recorded my scores.

Status

The game is distributed as freeware, but with a request for $10.

Review

2	4	1	1	2

Best Version: DOS

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• I like that the developer included multiple strategic options to the game. You aren't just dropping water, you can also make fire breaks and start backfires which both add to the strategy.

Bad

• The game is very lacking in multimedia with only the most primitive color and sound.
• There are very few units in the game: forest, fire, burned out, house, lake, and firebreak. This would be enough for a simple board game, but, the developer should have taken advantage of the fact that it's on a computer and added more complexity. Perhaps more units, more interesting lakes, a larger playing field, etc. As it it, the game is just too simple.

Ugly

• The game is pretty dull. You can "beat" it simply by letting the fire rage out of control. Run the game several times over and over again, and you'll eventually get a high score simply out of sheer luck.

Media

Screenshots

• 

  Title screen.

• 

  First page of instructions.

• 

  It starts out looking simple.

• 

  But the fires quickly get out of control.

• 

  And leave a path of devastation.

Releases

Released	Notes
1985-??-??	Distribution method unknown, probably BBS.
1987-07-15	Fire Out published by Keypunch Software in Convoy. Hacked to remove author's name.

Download

This collection includes the original game and the Keypunch version.

• Download (Info) - All versions.

Links