Getting from A to B - but how!
Firefly is an abstract shoot-'em-up - there's no saving-the-world scenario, just a colourful, nail-biting challenge.
It starts on a grid five squares by nine. Down the left-hand side is a row of white squares, and that's where you start in your firefly craft. The aim is to reach a green switch on the opposite side of the grid by moving one square at a time.
Planets and blue triangular symbols are scattered across the board, as well as blank squares. You can land quite safely on a blank square, but landing on a blue square - sometimes essential - presents you with two icons: a thumbs-up and a thumbs-down.
Landing on the thumbs-up allows you a clear path across that particular square, but if you land on the thumbs-down the grid is rearranged and the firefly craft damaged.
So with luck you can move the craft onto the nearest blank space. What then? Well, the craft is shown inside a maze dotted with generators, and the aim of this subgame is to destroy them.
You can enter each generator after collecting four bubble-like structures - and once you're inside the generator, another set of thumbs-up/thumbs-down icons appears. To destroy the generator, hit the thumbs-up - if you hit the thumbs-down by mistake, you lose the bubble structures and again sustain a hefty amount of damage.
And the mazes are inhabited by myriad aliens, ruthlessly efficient at destroying intruders. But some fish-shaped aliens, helpful little chaps, shed water droplets when shot. Collecting these replenishes lost energy and repairs the scratches and dents on the firefly craft.
A handy map at the bottom of the screen shows where all the generators are; some are isolated and can only be reached by teleporter. There's another challenge: on entering the teleporter, you're confronted by your own ship surrounded by a circle of alternating red and blue squares. To activate the teleporter, just shoot three blue squares in a row - but with each one shot the action speeds up, so a sharp eye is essential!
When all the generators have been destroyed in that particular sector, the display reverts to the opening grid screen, and the square you've just cleared is now coloured white. And you carry on zipping through these tests of skill and concentration till the green switch is reached.
- Producer: Special FX
- Retail Price: £7.95 cassette,
£14.95 disk - Author: Jonathan Smith
