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firetrk: MAME ROM Information.

History:

Fire Truck (c) 06/1978 Atari.

Fire Truck is a simple two-dimensional driving game. Your perspective is from overhead as you navigate through the city streets. The object is to score points by getting as much distance as possible in the least amount of time. Those who are good enough can get bonus time for a specific amount of points. Beware, though, it will not be as easy as it seems.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : 030926

Main CPU : M6800 (@ 1.008 Mhz)

Sound Chips : Discrete (@ 1.008 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Vertical

Video resolution : 240 x 320 pixels

Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz

Palette Colors : 4

Players : 2

Control : Steering wheel (for both players front and rear), Gas pedal (at the bottom of the cabinet)

Buttons : 2 (HORN (front player), BELL (rear player))

- TRIVIA -

This game is also known as "Smokey Joe".

Fire Truck was one of the first games to feature a cooperative feature. One player could either drive the fire engine or the hook and ladder while the computer drove the opposite part. Two players could play where one drove the fire engine while sitting up front while the other player stood in back and controlled the hook and ladder. This game also featured the front player having a horn while the back player had a bell. Neither of these buttons, though, effected game play. This game never really gained a large popular following mostly due to the fact that "Space Invaders" was released the same year. Nonetheless, it still proved to be somewhat popular just due to the fact it was different.

- SCORING -

Scoring in this game is really simple. Your score is tied to distance traveled so obviously you want to cover the most amount of distance in the shortest period of time. Your score goes up in 10 point increments. Depending on what the fuel setting on the machine is set to determines what your score needs to

be for extended time. Below are these settings :

FUEL SETTING || REQUIRED SCORE |

Fuel Setting : 60 - Required Score : 120

Fuel Setting : 90 - Required Score : 160

Fuel Setting : 120 - Required Score : 220

Fuel Setting : 150 - Required Score : 270

An extended time of 39 fuel is awarded when you are equal to or greater then the required score.

After you get done playing the game, you will get a rating based on your final score. Below are the ratings :

Score Range : 0-50 - Rating : SORRY

Score Range : 60-100 - Rating : SO-SO

Score Range : 110-140 - Rating : GOOG

Score Range : 150-Over - Rating : ACE

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* When you start the game, your fire truck will be in the middle of the road. It will be your job to navigate the truck through the city streets and avoid all the hazards. Try to stay in the middle of the road as much as possible. Especially around curves since it is very easy to run into hazards on the road.

* Learn how to use the steering effectively. The steering is relatively sensitive so don't spin the wheel or you will quickly find out that your fire truck either isn't going anywhere, or it is hitting hazards which drastically effects distance traveled. Small movements on the steering wheel (front or back) should be enough to keep the fire truck from going out of control.

* In addition to steering, learn how to use the gas pedal effectively to slow down around corners. This is easier then speeding through them and running into hazards which consumes a lot more fuel then just going slowly. If you are driving the hook and ladder, just make sure you keep the hook and ladder in line with the fire truck.

* Don't panic if you do hit a hazard. Just patiently turn the fire truck or hook and ladder so you clear the hazard and can continue on your way.

* Make sure you follow the directional arrows on the road or you may end up going backwards down the road and head for unpleasant surprises.

* Your goal is to get the points necessary to get bonus time. After playing this game for a while, you will notice that the roads tend to repeat themselves making it easier to anticipate when the next curve or hazard is coming up.

- STAFF -

Designed and programmed by : Howard Delman (Howie)

Hardware Engineer : John Ray

- SOURCES -

Game's rom.

Machine's picture.

F.A.Q. by Kevin Butler A.K.A. War Doc

MAME Info:

0.37b12 [Phil Stroffolino]

Artwork available

SETUP:

- Select Fire Truck (2 Player) or Smokey Joe (1 Player) in the dipswitch menu. Two drivers work as a team to control a hook-and-ladder fire engine. One player drives the cab, the other steers the trailer simulating the excitement of an actual fire chase. A single player can choose to drive either the cab or the trailer. In this mode, the computer takes over as the alternate driving partner.

WIP:

- 0.141u3: Changed description to 'Fire Truck / Smokey Joe'.

- 0.140u1: Derrick Renaud optimized speed of DISCRETE_DAC_R1 and fixed operation of DISCRETE_COUNTER_7492.

- 9th July 2008: Mr. Do - Fire Truck now has a Smokey Joe bezel (one-player version of the game), based on a photo from Star Worlds Arcade.

- 16th October 2006: Mr. Do - Bobby Tribble sent me a BUNCH of photographs. I worked on the easy ones first: Fire Truck bezel.

- 0.94u5: Derrick Renaud updated Fire Truck to use new 7492 counter. Changed adjusters so frequency goes higher when adjusted to the right.

- 0.88: Derrick Renaud added proper CPU clock frequency change when going in/out of service mode in Fire Truck. Changed watchdog to proper time using new MDRV_WATCHDOG_VBLANK_INIT function.

- 0.80u2: Derrick Renaud updated Fire Truck to use Aaron's DISCRETE_ADJUSTMENT changes.

- 0.80: Derrick Renaud updated Fire Truck to use new discrete sound components. Pulled discrete code out and put in sndhrdw\ataridis.c.

- 0.65: Derrick Renaud fixed sound in Fire Truck, Super Bug and Monte Carlo.

- 31st January 2003: Aaron Giles forwarded Derrick Renaud's improvements to the discrete sound in Fire Truck, Super Bug and Monte Carlo.

- 0.61: Changed M6800 CPU clock speed to 1008000 Hz. Fixed cpu1/gfx3/4 rom loading, dipswitches and visible area to 240x230. Added 3rd player and removed 4th button. Added 'Service Mode' and 2x 'Unused'dipswitches.

- 29th May 2002: Stefan Jokisch merged the Fire Truck and Super Bug drivers and improved both of them significantly.

- 0.60: Added sync prom ($0 - not used).

- 0.37b14: Added Discrete sound. Changed input to 4x buttons.

- 4th March 2001: Keith Wilkins added discrete sound support to Fire Truck and fixed a few other bugs in the discrete sound engine.

- 0.37b12: Phil Stroffolino added Fire Truck (Atari 1978).

- 14th February 2001: With Nicola Salmoria's help, Juergen Buchmueller fixed some 6808 CPU core bugs that prevented Fire Truck from working.

- 7th February 2001: Phil Stroffolino added collision detection to Fire Truck, but it still unfortunately does not work with the C 6808/6800 core.

- 5th February 2001: Phil Stroffolino sent in a Fire Truck driver based on Ron Fries' and Dan Boris' original work, but the game does not start because of CPU core bugs and it also lacks collision detection.

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Romset: 22 kb / 12 files / 8.99 zip

MAME XML Output:

<description>Fire Truck / Smokey Joe</description>

<manufacturer>Atari</manufacturer>

</input>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</game>

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