Gameplay
The player controls whether his ship is moving forward or backwards via a lever. A control yoke translates the player's view left, right, up, or down. The controls are loose and somewhat floaty; nimble moves are not possible. The player has a button that fires his quad-linked lasers at a targeting reticle. The lasers travel slowly, taking about 2 seconds to reach their target, and only one shot can be in the air at once. Furthermore, each shot the player fires causes heat to build up in his ship. If the player's rate of fire is too high, his guns will overheat and he will need to wait for them to cool down.
If the player can maneuver such that a TIE fighter-like ship is directly in the targeting reticle, he will "lock on" and any shots fired will automatically hit. When the player successfully shoots an enemy TIE fighter lookalike, the screen prints "GOT HIM". Occasionally, a thinner, horizontally oriented ship that looks like a Viper from Battlestar Galactica will be seen. These have "Exidy" written on their tails, and are worth the largest amount of points. If the player successfully shoots this ship, the screen displays "GOT US". These ships can not be locked onto.
The game is timed. The more quarters the player puts in, the longer he can play. As the player shoots enemy ships, they increase in skill, and also in point value. If the player reaches certain point thresholds, he is given more "fuel" and can thus play longer. The player's ship can be shot; this simply resets the quality of enemies (and thus their point value) down to the lowest level.
Read more about this topic: Star Fire