Fire Fight
Windows - 1996
Description of Fire Fight
One of the most underrated shareware releases from Epic Megagames, Fire Fight is an excellent, very addictive isometric shoot em-up from Polish developer Chaos Works.
Although the game did well enough to warrant a later retail release by Electronic Arts, it unfortunately did not do well in the market and disappeared in the matter of months. Fans of EA’s own Desert Strike will be right at home with Fire Fight -- in fact, the designers aren’t ashamed at admitting their influence: there is one mission in the game called "AKA Future Strike" to dispel any doubt.
You play a futuristic skimmer pilot working for the autocratic "Phantom Council" which reminds me of the Empire for good reason ;) Your job, naturally, is to bring subversive planets back under the Council’s control by flying strike missions against air and ground targets.
As Epic’s own Zone 66 took the shooter genre to new heights with 360-degree freedom of movement, Fire Fight takes the innovation one step further by placing the 360-degree view within a smooth-scrolling isometric environment, brought to life by sharp SVGA graphics. The game also requires some tactical planning to succeed: in addition to shooting everything in sight, you need to collect weapons and equipment upgrades, beam up important items, drop off and pick up strike teams, and so on.
Similar to Tie Fighter, you are given next objectives in the mission by radio as you complete each phase. Although bare, the HUD provides all important information, including an excellent situational radar that tells you where to go next (as well as warn you incoming air-to-air threats). As usual, the missions (18 in total) get bigger and tougher as you progress, and there are secret bonuses for the perfectionists to find.
Six dedicated multiplayer maps are available for fragfest fun, where as many as four ships can fight to the death under numerous customizable rules. Although the controls take some time to get used to, they are remarkably versatile once mastered, and allows for some impressive maneuvers. (the designers even make them similar to DOOM keys to help you along). There are tons of cool power-ups, including homing missiles, space mines, cloaking devices, grenades, and electric shockwaves.
The single-player missions may not last that long, but with the replayability of the multi-player mode, Fire Fight is undoubtedly one of the best 2D shoot em-ups you will ever play, bar none. Two thumbs up, way up!
Review By HOTUD
External links
Captures and Snapshots
Comments and reviews
FireFighter 2024-02-08 1 point
Based on various youtube videos of how to get PCem running windows 95. Good guide on https://www.betaarchive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40232 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r_5pR1-gEc
Download PCEMv17: https://pcem-emulator.co.uk/downloads.html (Legit program, Github page here: https://github.com/sarah-walker-pcem/pcem/?tab=readme-ov-file)
Download PCEMv17 roms here: https://archive.org/details/pcem-v-17-roms
Replace "PCemV17Win\roms" content with "PCem v17 ROMs" content
Run "PCem.exe" in "PCemV17Win" folder.
This should hopefully open the PCem Configuration Manager. Here we will build an emulated machine to run windows 95, to run FireFight. I followed this youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsysiwhJiEc
Click "new" icon.
Enter config name, e.g. "fire_fight"
In motherboard tab (first tab) -
Machine: [Socket 7] Shuttle HOT-557
CPU: Intel Pentium MMX 166
In monitor tab (second tab) -
Choose Device: S3 Virge/DX
Speed: Default
Check Voodoo Graphics
Go into settings (hammer/wrench icon) -
Vodoo type: Voodoo 2
Framebuffer memory size: 4MB
Texture memory size: 4MB
Check Bilinear filtering
Check Recompiler
Render Threads: 2
In sound tab (third tab) -
Device: Sound Blaster 16
In Harddrive tab -
FDD1: 3.5'' 2.88M
FDD2: None
Type: Hard drive
New hard drive (hard drive icon with plus sign next to Type) -
New File: Location for your virtual hard drive
Size (MB): 1000
Time to boot. Press Load button for your fire_fight virtual pc.
There should be some loading goin on, ending with: "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER" - time to install windows 95:
Get the windows 95 boot disk: https://winworldpc.com/product/microsoft-windows-boot-disk/95-osr2x
Get the Windows 95 OSR2 (OEM) (ISO) https://winworldpc.com/product/windows-95/osr-2
In the running fire_fight emulation window -
Select "Disc" from the top menu and then "Change Drive A", load the boot disk image.
Select "CD-ROM" from the top menu and then "Load image", load the OSR2 image.
Press "Enter" as prompted
Select option 1: Load NEC IDE CDROM driver
After a while, when allowed to type at "A:\", run command "fdisk" -
Y - Enter (You want large disk support)
Choose 1 - Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive
Create Primary DOS Partition
Use maximum available size
press ESC
Go to top menu System - Hard Reset
Select option 1: Load NEC IDE CDROM driver
run command "format c:". If you cannot write "shift ." to get character ":", use numpad code 58 (hold alt then write 58 on numpad)
Proceed with format
Volume label none (just press enter)
Run "D:\setup"
Press "Enter" to continue with setup
Click "Continue" to continue with setup, now it's starting to look like more regular setup wizards. -
Click next until serial number is required.
Enter serial number from OSR2 page (e.g. 24796-OEM-0014736-66386)
Tick "Sound, MIDI, or Video Capture Card"
Choose "Install most common components"
Choose "No, I do not want a startup disk"
Choose Next. Wait for install.
When prompted to remove all disks, go to top menu "Disc" and choose "Eject drive A".
Press OK.
Windows 95 should now be installing, might take a while.
When prompted for time click close
When prompted for printer click cancel
Click ok to reboot.
Windows 95 should now be up and running!
Sound driver should work, time to install graphics driver -
Download drivers: https://archive.org/details/s3-virge-dx-gx-gx2-win9x-driver
Load the disk image into drive A using the "Disc" emulator top menu
Go to Start - Settings - Control Panel - Add New Hardware -
click next until able to choose Display Adapter - select "Have disk", choose drive A, select "S3 Inc. Virge/DX/GX"
click ok - next - finish
Eject drive A
Start - shut down - restart computer
With graphics driver installed we have to change to the driver -
Right click emulated windows 95 desktop background - properties - settings - advanced properties - "Change..." in adapter tab - select the V3 driver - ok - apply - ok
Leave color at 256 and display at 640 x 480 as that is FireFights settings
CAN WE PLAY THE GAME NOW?
Yes! Load the firefight.cue into the cdrom. Install directx when prompted. Press play.
Electronic Arts.
Epic MegaGames.
Chaos Works.
Fire Fight.
(Game loads into demo mode, just press escape and you can enter the game proper)
Controls: arrows for moving, z/x for strafe, buttons 123456 select weapon, space to shoot, shift for turbo.
Choose difficulty in "options" in the game launcher.
MUSTAFA 2024-02-04 1 point
In order to go fullscreen, go to DXWnd (version 2.05.81 in my case) select and modify the firefight to set your resolution under 'position' from the 'Main' tab. My monitor resolution is 1280x1024 so mine looks like W 1280 H 1024.
Next, go to the 'Video' tab enable 'modal' window style, and select 'Emulate Win Maximize" under Window handling.
Dre 2024-01-28 0 point
@MUSTAFA, cant you just download and release the copy already done with the steps.
Saad29 2023-12-04 0 point
ok i have somehow found a way to play this game...just had to download pather and it worked fine..but the screen is 640x400...is there any way to make it full screen?
Saad29 2023-12-04 1 point
hello...im new here...cant understand anything on how to install this game...is there anyone who can show me step by step on how to install this game on my window 10? i would really appreciate it... its my childhood game....thank you
Ultramegamighty 2023-10-21 1 point
@Mustafa Steps 1 and 3 worked for me just fine, thank you for the info and the diligence. Got the game to run just fine, although in a fairly small window. Is there a way to make this one full screen? I've fiddled with several settings, but nothing seems to do it.
Eaemcw 2022-11-06 1 point
@MUSTAFA, that worked perfectly in my Windows 10 machine, thank you! The second step is not even necessary, by the way.
Could someone please upload the original MIDI files? I found the soundtrack on YouTube, but it's a single m4a file. I couldn't get the game to play regular audio files or even CD audio files, and even if that were possible, I still would need to extract the eight tracks from the YouTube file.
Mustafa 2022-02-12 5 points
Got it to work on my windows xp machine.
1. Modify cwe.ini and add the lines "use_640x400 = yes" and "use_320x200 = no" under SPR.
2. Using PowerIso create a new readable disk image since the game is not cracked. I used the .bin .cue format. Mount this new image with modified .ini using Daemontools or whatever.
3. Download a program called DXWND from sourceforge. Select FIREFIGHT.exe and make sure "hook enabled" is selected. From the Mouse tab select "correct MOUSEHOOK callback and press Ok.
Ultramegamighty 2021-08-13 3 points
This one is giving me an absolute barrage of problems, and I can't get it to run. First it hits me with
'cwe.ini:/spr/use_640x400' no such label [Text]
engine initialization failed
So I added 'use_640x400 = yes' in the [spr] section of cwe.ini. Then it hits me with
'cwe.ini:/spr/use_320x200' no such label [Text]
engine initialization failed
So I added the appropriate use line there, but instead of yes, I put no. Then it hits me with
unable to hook keyboard [Kbd::init]
eem initialization failure
engine initialization failed
I tried adding 'Kbd::init = yes', but that's likely the wrong code because then it threw a joystick error at me. I know I'm missing something, but I have no idea what.
0570 2020-04-28 4 points
@FORBIDDEN64
I still have the original .MIDI files back from when I had the game on CD. Hit me up on Reddit (u/0570) if you're interested.
Giuseppe81 2020-01-05 2 points
Hi! the game works, but i can't save the missions. once I get out of the game I always have to start from mission 1 again
forbidden64 2019-10-22 0 point
Hi, I found this game after many years of looking for it again. I guess I have found most of my white whale games! The other one was Aethra Chronicles. This game is AWESOME!!!! It hasn't aged a day since I played it all the way back in 1998. The music is missing as the other user pointed out... because the music really added ambiance to the game. My sound works fine though! If I can, I'd like to buy an original copy of the game to get the music back. The iso doesn't appear to have preserved the audio tracks in spite of its large size. When I write it back to the disc, it is only 48 megs. The installer doesn't work. However, you can just copy the game into a folder and play it.
That said! MAN is this game fun!!!! Your bosses are jerks too. I never noticed as a kid but they are brutal! Anyway, as HOTUD pointed out this is a two thumbs way up game. It stuck with me for 20+ years in my memories so it has to be good! I hope you give this one a try because it is probably the best shmup for windows ever made. The multi-dimensional parallax scrolling and satisfying weaponry leave nothing to be desired. Even switching weapons feels good. As the reviewer pointed out too, all the controls are borrowed straight out of doom, which for a die hard 90s gamer like me, means I feel right at home with the cursor, ctrl, alt for strafing key combo. numbers select your weapons as well.
You will enjoy blowing up structures and dancing around guided missiles while you shred and bring hell to the bad guys!
Thiago Costa 2019-07-14 1 point
This game was awesome !! I remember when I first played a shareware. I would just like a little help if possible. The Game runs perfectly, but in execution, I had to uninstall the antivirus. The game runs, but without the songs of the levels. How to reslove? Thank you very much!!
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