Firefox ?-??-83 (Fighter Command)

This is the second oldest of the three prototypes. Fighter Command is very similar to the ‘Combat II’ version, but is only 4K and has some interesting differences. The first major difference is that the game starts out with a neat little intro sequence where a grid is drawn on the ground and then highlighted with lightning flashes in the background. The player is then taken to the hanger screen which appears to be the same as the newer version. On the cockpit screen there is a separate option for Guns between Missile and Defense (this causes the screen to extend below the viewable area), but the moving cursor skips over it. There’s also an extra status indicator on the side of the screen that is red instead of green. The Altitude display is also missing. What appears to be an enemy jet in the distance is also visible from the runway.

The player takes off the same was as in the newer prototype, but combat is initiated almost immediately. Instead of the cursor being locked onto the Guns option however, it continues to scroll. Although Missiles are highlighted, selecting this option still does nothing. The player can adjust speed (although this does nothing) or select the radar but the jet does not show up. As the cursor continually skips the Guns option the player cannot fire at the jet, so there is nothing else to do. The enemy jet also never gets closer or further away in this version.

This prototype continually rolls the screen on an NTSC TV although the prototype is clearly intended to be NTSC as the colors are correct. Why this is is unknown, but it may be due to the programmer trying to do too much between screen retraces.

Prototype Differences

The prototype starts out with an into drawing a grid on the ground before going to the hangar screen

The prototype has the wrong number of scanlines and continually rolls

There is a separate Guns option that is never highlighted

There is an extra indicator light on the left side that is red

The radar is different. It's it's bigger but doesn't show any enemies or make any sounds

The player gets into combat immediately after taking off

The player cannot shoot at the enemy jet as Guns is never selected

The enemy jet stays the exact same distance from the player

There are no crosshairs for shooting at the jet

The cursor continues to move during combat instead of being locked on Guns

There is a purple bar on the horizon