Fire Truck

From WE Computers Museum
Fire truck flyer.jpg
Fire Truck
Developer Atari
Publisher Atari
Platforms Arcade, Linux, macOS, Windows
Released Arcade
North America: 1978
Linux, macOS (Atari Vault DLC)
Worldwide: November 26, 2019
Windows
Worldwide (Atari Vault DLC): November 26, 2019
Worldwide (Atari 50): November 11, 2022
One, PS4, PS5, Switch, VCS, X/S (Atari 50)
Worldwide: November 11, 2022
Added to
Museum
Linux/Mac/Windows (Vault DLC): December 4, 2019
Windows (Atari 50): December 4, 2019

Fire Truck was an arcade game developed and released by Atari in 1979. It ran on a board set with a Motorola 6800 central processing unit (CPU).

Story

A fire truck has to drive through a town, making it as far as possible without crashing.

If the fire truck is the model named Smokey Joe, then it is simply driven by one person. However, if it is the standard variant of Fire Truck, then the truck is driven by two people cooperatively.

In the latter case, one person is sitting, driving the truck and controlling the accelerator pedal and braking mechanism. The other person is standing, controlling the tiller mechanism carrying the ladder by steering the swing of the trailer.

The goal is to rack up as many points as possible before the truck either crashes or runs out of fuel.

Versions of the game

The standard Fire Truck variant of the game is a two-player cooperative game with a cabinet with two controlling mechanisms. The sit-down portion has a steering wheel, accelerator, and braking mechanism to control the truck in the game. Whereas the stand-up portion behind the seat has a steering wheel to control the trailer in the game.

The Smokey Joe variant is simply a one-player game without the stand-up portion of the cabinet, so the trailer doesn't steer independently of the truck.

Both variants were released by Atari in 1978.