Crossfire is a

multidirectional shooter Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of charact ...

created by Jay Sullivan for the

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...

and published by On-Line Systems in 1981. It was ported to the

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

VIC-20 The VIC-20 (known as the VC-20 in Germany and the VIC-1001 in Japan) is an 8-bit home computer that was sold by Commodore Business Machines. The VIC-20 was announced in 1980, roughly three years after Commodore's first personal computer, the PE ...

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

, and

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...

(as a self-booting disk). The Atari 8-bit release had a separate cartridge and magnetic media release; the cartridge version ran on a 16k machine and used character mode graphics while the magnetic media version largely duplicated the graphics from the Apple II and ran in hi-res bitmap mode, needing 32k of memory to run. The C64 release had background music which is absent from other versions. A cartridge version of ''Crossfire'' was a 1984

launch title This list includes terms used in video games and the video game industry, as well as slang used by players. 0–9 A ...

for the

IBM PCjr The IBM PCjr (pronounced "PC junior") was a home computer produced and marketed by IBM from March 1984 to May 1985, intended as a lower-cost variant of the IBM PC with hardware capabilities better suited for video games, in order to compete mor ...

, announced in late 1983.

Gameplay

The player uses the IJKL keys to move or the joystick (the Atari and Commodore versions are joystick only) and ESDF to shoot left, right, up, and down through the pathways on an evenly-spaced grid of blocks, avoiding incoming fire and dispatching enemies. The player can move and fire in four directions, but can only stop in intersections. The player advances a level when all enemies are destroyed. Along the left, right, and top sides of the playfield are 16 pockets which release enemies. These enemies emerge and move among the blocks, firing at and attempting to collide with the player. The four types of enemies differ only in appearance, not in power or behavior, and are worth 10, 20, 40, and 80 points respectively. Enemies move and fire in four directions, but are slower than the player and never run out of

ammunition Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weap ...

. Within four blocks near the middle of the playfield are orange, spindle-shaped bonus items. Once the player has fired 12 times (after the beginning of the level or after collecting the previous bonus) the item emerges from its block. If it has not been collected after 6 shots, it returns to its block, and no further bonus items will appear in that level. Capturing the bonus items grants 100, 200, 400, and 800 points. The player can fire a limited number of shots before having to reload. This starts at 35 and decreases by 5 each level until 15. When 10 shots remain, a cluster of four pulsing white dots appears which reloads the player's ammunition. Only one shot can be in the air at a time. Play begins with three ships, and an extra ship is awarded every 5,000 points.

Reception

'' Softline'' called ''Crossfire'' "a new twist on arcade games with delightfully colorful beasties and smooth animation", which "offers hours of challenge and enjoyment for the dedicated and persevering gamester". ''

BYTE The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...

'' called ''Crossfire'' "one of the most difficult and challenging arcade games to play ... The reflexes take a long time to master, but, once you get the hang of it, it's addictive". ''

PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present d ...

''s review was less favorable, calling the alien-attack scenario overused. It described the IBM PC version's graphics as "adequate, but nothing spectacular", and the controls as imprecise and inelegant. In March 1983, the Atari 8-bit computer version of ''Crossfire'' received a Certificate of Merit in the category of "Best Arcade/Action Computer Games" at the 4th annual

Arkie Awards An electronic game is a game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as pro ...

, however reviews for other versions were mixed. ''

Ahoy! ''Ahoy!'' was a computer magazine published between January 1984 and January 1989 in the US, focusing on all Commodore color computers, but especially the Commodore 64 and Amiga. History The first issue of ''Ahoy!'' was published in January 198 ...

''s review was critical, stating "come now, do we really need a bare bones grid shooting game (the VIC graphics are absolutely starved), with no character or atmosphere?" ''

InfoWorld ''InfoWorld'' (abbreviated IW) is an information technology media business. Founded in 1978, it began as a monthly magazine. In 2007, it transitioned to a web-only publication. Its parent company today is International Data Group, and its siste ...

'' was more positive regarding the IBM PCjr version, describing it as "an engrossing waste of time". ''The

Addison-Wesley Addison-Wesley is an American publisher of textbooks and computer literature. It is an imprint of Pearson PLC, a global publishing and education company. In addition to publishing books, Addison-Wesley also distributes its technical titles through ...

Book of Atari Software 1984'' gave the game an overall B+ rating, calling it "one of the best strategy shoot-'em-ups to come along in a long while ... it remains tough, and one that you won't tire of easily."

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web, title=The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers, url=https://dadgum.com/giantlist/, last1=Hague, first1=James

External links

''Crossfire''
at Atari Mania 1981 video games Apple II games Atari 8-bit family games Commodore 64 games VIC-20 games Multidirectional shooters Sierra Entertainment games Video games developed in the United States