''Fire Truck'' is a black-and-white 1978 arcade game developed and published by

Atari, Inc. Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry. Based primarily around the Sunny ...

According to '' GamesRadar'', it was the earliest video game with

cooperative gameplay Cooperative game may refer to: * Cooperative board game, board games in which players work together to achieve a common goal * Cooperative game theory, in game theory, a game with competition between groups of players and the possibility of cooperat ...

where two players have to work together. ''Fire Truck'' is built on the multi-directional

scrolling In computer displays, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display, vertically or horizontally. "Scrolling," as such, does not change the layout of the text ...

technology created for Atari's '' Super Bug'' released the previous year. A single-player version was released as ''Smokey Joe''. It is internally identical to ''Fire Truck''. Both games were programmed by Howard Delman. ''Fire Truck'' was distributed in Japan by

Namco was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Namco Taiwan in Kaohsiung, ...

Gameplay

Players must cooperate to drive the truck through traffic as far as possible without crashing. While the game can be played with one player, it was primarily designed for two. The front player steers the tractor of the truck sitting down, controlling the gas and brakes, while the rear player stands, and steers the

tiller A tiller or till is a lever used to steer a vehicle. The mechanism is primarily used in watercraft, where it is attached to an outboard motor, rudder post or stock to provide leverage in the form of torque for the helmsman to turn the rudder. ...

for the rear wheels, controlling the swing of the trailer. The cabinet also provides the players with bells and horns, although these have no use in the actual game.

Reception

In the United States, ''RePlay'' magazine listed ''Smokey Joe'' as the ninth highest-grossing arcade game of 1978, and the original ''Fire Truck'' as the year's 12th highest-grossing title.

References

External links

* 1978 video games Arcade video games Arcade-only video games Atari arcade games Cooperative video games Racing video games Video games about firefighting Video games developed in the United States {{racing-videogame-stub