+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | F I R E T R U C K | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ GAME: FIRE TRUCK PLATFORM: ARCADE GENRE: DRIVING/RACING CREATOR: ATARI Copyright 1978 AUTHOR OF THIS FAQ: Kevin Butler AKA War Doc E-MAIL: kevinb(at)technologist(dot)com FAQ VERSION: 1.01 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS UNIT I: INTRODUCTION 1. Legal Stuff 2. Version Information 3. Acknowledgements 4. Welcome 5. Overview UNIT II: GAME INFORMATION 6. The Game 6.1 The Controls 6.2 The Playing Field 6.3 Scoring UNIT III: STRATEGIES 7. Playing the Game UNIT IV: CONCLUSION 8. Conclusion _______________________________________________________________________________ To find a particular chapter or subchapter do the following: 1. Highlight the chapter or subchapter name you wish to find. 2. Press CTRL-C 3. Press CTRL-F 4. Press CTRL-V 5. Press CTRL-F 5. You will arrive at the desired chapter or subchapter. _______________________________________________________________________________ ************** ********************************* U N I T I ********************************** ************** +=================+ | 1. LEGAL STUFF |============================================================ +=================+ This guide may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advanced permission from the author. Use of this guide on any other web sit or as part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. All content in this guide is Copyright 2003 by Kevin Butler. Only the sites listed below have permission to publish this work or to display it: www.gamefaqs.com www.cheats.de www.ign.com If you wish to put this guide on your site, e-mail me and ask. Save yourself the headache of putting up with lawsuits and whatnot because you failed to ask a simple "Can I post your guide on ?". If you wish to use info in this guide, please acknowledge that you have done so. If you see this guide on any other site then the one listed above, please e-mail me. If you wish to ask questions or give input to this guide, please e-mail me. Just have Fire Truck as the subject so I know it isn't another kooky vendor trying to sell me hair gel or another XXX site telling me I have new friends. +=========================+ | 2. VERSION INFORMATION |==================================================== +=========================+ Version 1.0 8/16/03: A guide is born. Version 1.01 8/28/03: Fixed a couple of errors. +======================+ | 3. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |======================================================= +======================+ The following are a list of people or organizations that have made this FAQ possible: My wonderful family (who has had to put up with the tapping on the keyboard) Atari for making a great arcade game GameFAQ's for putting up this FAQ +=============+ | 4. WELCOME |================================================================ +=============+ Welcome to my FAQ for Fire Truck. Since the game is just a driving game that requires you to get a certain amount of points to continue driving, there is no walkthrough per se. Instead it will be broken up into the game itself and strategies for survival. Input is appreciated along with constructive criticism. If you wish to e-mail me thoughts on this FAQ, better ways of doing things, other strategies, etc., feel free. Make sure you put Fire Truck as the subject. If you don't, I'm liable to discard the e-mail as spam. +==============+ | 5. OVERVIEW |=============================================================== +==============+ Fire Truck was one of the first games to feature a cooperative feature. One player could either drive the fire engine or the hook and ladder while the computer drove the opposite part. Two players could play where one drove the fire engine while sitting up front while the other player stood in back and controlled the hook and ladder. This game also featured the front player having a horn while the back player had a bell. Neither of these buttons, though, effected game play. This game never really gained a large popular following mostly due to the fact that Space Invaders was released the same year. Nonetheless, it still proved to be somewhat popular just due to the fact it was different. Your goal is to make it to a fire that you will never reach. To achieve this, you must drive through twisting city streets while avoiding the curbs and hazards in the road such as cars and oil slicks. If you score enough points, you may be lucky to get bonus fuel (which is used as a timer in this game). The screen goes into reverse video when you are playing off your bonus fuel. Have fun and good luck navigating the city streets. *************** ******************************** U N I T II ********************************** *************** +==============+ | 6. THE GAME |=============================================================== +==============+ Fire Truck is a simple two-dimensional driving game. Your perspective is from overhead as you navigate through the city streets. The object is to score points by getting as much distance as possible in the least amount of time. Those who are good enough can get bonus time for a specific amount of points. Beware, though, it will not be as easy as it seems. ____________________ / 6.1 The Controls /__________________________________________________________ -------------------- The controls on this game are pretty easy. - A steering wheel (for both players front and rear) - A gas pedal at the bottom of the cabinet - A horn button for the front player - A bell button for the rear player _________________________ / 6.2 The Playing Field /_____________________________________________________ ------------------------- The playing field is really simple. It shows a detailed map of the town you are driving through. This usually consists of the road you are driving on, houses, cars, trees, and fire hydrants. Here is an example of the playing field. Keep in mind that you will get reverse video (white and black instead of black and white) when you are burning off your bonus fuel (screen is drawn larger then it is): +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | S C O R E (CURRENT SCORE) | |___________________________________________________________________| | / + | | \ | | | \ | | | - + | | | --- | | ____________ | | (__) | ---- | | | | | _ | |+----+| | | | | | | || || | | | | | | | ++ | | +-----+ | | | +------+ | || ++ || | | | | | | | | |+----+| | | | | | | | | +----+ | | | | | | | | ||--|| | +----+ | | +----+ +-+ | ||--|| | | | | | | ||--|| | | | | | | ||| ||| | +----+ | | +---------+ | |+----+| | | | | | | ---- | | | | | | | +----+ | | | | | |___________________________________________________________________| | F U E L (CURRENT FUEL LEVEL) | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ You control your fire truck to stay on the road and avoid all of the hazards while trying to get a high enough score for extra time. _______________ / 6.3 Scoring /_______________________________________________________________ --------------- Scoring in this game is really simple. Your score is tied to distance traveled so obviously you want to cover the most amount of distance in the shortest period of time. Your score goes up in 10 point increments. Depending on what the fuel setting on the machine is set to determines what your score needs to be for extended time. Below are these settings: +--------------++----------------+ | FUEL SETTING || REQUIRED SCORE | +--------------++----------------+ +--------------++----------------+ | 60 || 120 | +--------------++----------------+ | 90 || 160 | +--------------++----------------+ | 120 || 220 | +--------------++----------------+ | 150 || 270 | +--------------++----------------+ An extended time of 39 fuel is awarded when you are equal to or greater then the required score. After you get done playing the game, you will get a rating based on your final score. Below are the ratings: +-------------++--------+ | SCORE RANGE || RATING | +-------------++--------+ +-------------++--------+ | 0 - 50 || SORRY | +-------------++--------+ | 60 - 100 || SO-SO | +-------------++--------+ | 110 - 140 || GOOD | +-------------++--------+ | 150 & OVER || ACE | +-------------++--------+ **************** ******************************** U N I T III ********************************* **************** +======================+ | 7. PLAYING THE GAME |======================================================= +======================+ When you start the game, your fire truck will be in the middle of the road. It will be your job to navigate the truck through the city streets and avoid all the hazards. - Try to stay in the middle of the road as much as possible. Especially around curves since it is very easy to run into hazards on the road. - Learn how to use the steering effectively. The steering is relatively sensitive so don't spin the wheel or you will quickly find out that your fire truck either isn't going anywhere, or it is hitting hazards which drastically effects distance traveled. Small movements on the steering wheel (front or back) should be enough to keep the fire truck from going out of control. - In addition to steering, learn how to use the gas pedal effectively to slow down around corners. This is easier then speeding through them and running into hazards which consumes a lot more fuel then just going slowly. If you are driving the hook and ladder, just make sure you keep the hook and ladder in line with the fire truck. - Don't panic if you do hit a hazard. Just patiently turn the fire truck or hook and ladder so you clear the hazard and can continue on your way. - Make sure you follow the directional arrows on the road or you may end up going backwards down the road and head for unpleasant surprises. - Your goal is to get the points necessary to get bonus time. After playing this game for a while, you will notice that the roads tend to repeat them- selves making it easier to anticipate when the next curve or hazard is coming up. **************** ******************************** U N I T IV ********************************* **************** +================+ | 9. CONCLUSION |============================================================= +================+ I recall this game sitting in the corner of the local bowling alley away from the other video games (of course multiple Space Invaders machines took up a lot of room). At first when I played this game, it seemed very hard due to the sensitivity of the steering plus the load crashing noise whenever you hit some sort of hazard. With time and practice, one definitely could get better at this game. Plus, me and a friend had fun doing the two player thing where we would each do the fire truck or hook and ladder. This was probably the most challenging part of the game. At that time, most games were time based and one's skill determined whether they got to continue on or just accept the score they got. Although simple in design, it was still a fun game to play. Un- fortunately, it is very rare to find this machine anywhere. However, through the miracle of emulation, a whole new generation is realizing what we "old" folks enjoyed those many years ago. I hope this guide helps you in being able to get the most amount of gameplay for this game. If you do have other ideas or thoughts, please e-mail me and share them. Who knows, maybe I'll start a Q&A Chapter in this guide if enough people ask the same questions. Anyway, thank you again for reading this guide. To see other FAQ's I have written please go to: http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/32691.html ~~~ No trees were harmed in the making of this FAQ ~~~