Game 14: GridFire (1987)

Australia
Released 1987
Genre: Arcade, Shooter
Developer: Tony Barker
Date Started: 28 June 2025
Date Ended: 28 June 2025
Total Hours: 0.5
Difficulty: 4/5
Final Rating: 21

GridFire is simple arcade-style game where you control some kind of diamond shaped robot that moves through a top-down grid of colored stones, shooting at and fleeing from randomly appearing enemy entities. The goal is to collect as many points as possible while keeping alive as long as you can. There are no lives or levels and nothing to collect accept occasionally appearing ammunition power-ups, because yes, your laser gun has limited ammo. Shooting enemies only gives you a short time to breathe, as they respawn quickly (and sometimes right under you).

Programming feels pretty fine for an early game. I encountered no bugs and just slight slowdowns when there were too many entities on the screen, I’m giving it 5/10. Controls work decent as soon as you get used to the fact that your robot moves in a grid-like fashion, and that you can only shoot while standing still which makes it necessary to plan your moves ahead and apply some tactics, as quick moves while shooting are impossible. Shooting itself felt weirdly satisfying, though: 5/10. The game has a slight vibe thanks to it art style, which is a bit strange, and the robotic sound effects but apart from that, there is not much to it, so I’m giving it 3/10. The Graphics are simple but effective, I actually like the primary color style and all the highlighted edges, which I’ve always associated with Amiga games, 5/10. There is no story, so that’s 0/10. Audio is limited to some robotic sound effects, your lasers firing, and explosions, though it all fits nicely and only gets annoying after prolonged playing: 3/10. The game is fun for a short while, but gets repetitive quickly, and it’s pretty damn hard. One of the frustrating factors is enemies sometimes spawning right under your robot. I’m giving it 3/10. The final rating is 21, not too shabby for a simple arcade game like this. I think there would have been a lot or more potential in terms of gameplay, as I quite liked the aesthetic and the shooting mechanics, and somehow these colored stones are suggestive. It’s a bit of a pity they end up just being a background element.

The developer, Tony Barker, seems to have moved on to commercial games after this, releasing 5 games between 1987 and 1989, all with a similar graphical style and somewhat abstract. It also seems he was quite active in the Atari ST demo scene, releasing multiple demos over the years under the label Moving Pixels.