Line of Fire Longplay (C64) [QHD]

Game Info
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Developer: Creative Materials
Publisher: U.S. Gold
Year of Release: 1990

Game Review & Impressions
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If you saw the thumbnail and clicked to watch this video, you either already know the game and just how TERRIBLE this conversion is, or you're so perplexed by the disproportionate and incomprehensible stick-blob graphics that you were so intrigued that you just had to satiate some kind of morbid curiosity.

Either way, you're now watching, for which you have my sympathy - welcome to Line of Fire, hands down one of the WORST, if not THE worst coin-op conversions in all of C64 history. The fine folks over on the ‪@zappedpast3297‬ Discord noted that no longplays of this excuse of a game seemed to exist online, so I stepped into the breach and....well....spent 30 minutes of my life that I'll never get back.

For those unaware, the original Line of Fire arcade machine was Sega's answer to Operation Thunderbolt, and was based around their legendary sprite scaling arcade hardware. It's an audio-visual stunner of an on-rails shooter, featuring machine guns bolted to the cabinet.

The C64 conversion is none of those things. It's a glitchy mess with graphics so hilariously bad it defies the mind how this could ever be released for general consumption. The tape version cost a ridiculous £10.99 on release, with the disk version a staggering £15.99 - U.S. Gold published some real rubbish in their time, but this has got to be one of the worst! The menus looks like unfinished placeholders, and the fact there's an option to mute the sound tells you all you need to know about this horror. The mismatched scale of 20-foot soldiers and miniature jeeps will make your jaws drop in disbelief as they twitch and fidget their way on to the screen, only to disappear in a series of explosions (including the troops) when shot.

I will concede that all of the levels of the arcade version seem to be present, but that's little consolation when they're all equally rubbish. The final insult comes when you beat stage 7 and discover the game has no ending....nothing....nada; you press fire to proceed and get a black screen, and nothing else happens.

This could be just another case of an overburdened developer given too little time to convert yet another coin-op the C64 had no hope of ever replicating, but U.S. Gold should never have released this. It's a barely functioning mess that would be difficult to justify at budget price, let alone the ridiculous £11, and should just have been sent straight to landfill - absolutely awful.

Related Videos
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   • Line of Fire Longplay (Arcade) [4K]  

Chapters
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00:00 Title screen
00:40 Stage 1
03:59 Stage 2
08:37 Stage 3
11:40 Stage 4
15:54 Stage 5
18:53 Stage 6
22:06 Stage 7