Dragonfire (video game)

Dragonfire is a 1982 video game written by Bob Smith and published by Imagic.^[1] The player grabs treasure guarded by a dragon while avoiding fireballs. It was originally released for the Atari 2600 then ported to the Intellivision, VIC-20, Commodore 64, Apple II, ZX Spectrum, ColecoVision, and TRS-80 Color Computer.

Dragonfire
Intellivision box art
Developer(s)	Imagic
Publisher(s)	Imagic
Designer(s)	Bob Smith[1]
Platform(s)	Atari 2600, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, VIC-20, Intellivision, TRS-80 Color Computer, Apple II
Release	May 21, 1982: 2600 1982: Intellivision 1983: VIC, Spectrum 1984: Apple, C64, ColecoVision, CoCo
Genre(s)	Action
Mode(s)	1-2 players alternating turns

The game's source code was put into the public domain by developer Bob Smith on May 24, 2003.^[2]

Gameplay

The player jumping over a fireball on the first stage, the castle bridge

The second stage: the treasure room

Each level of Dragonfire has two stages. The first stage is a side view of the character trying to cross a drawbridge to reach a castle. To traverse the bridge, the player must duck under high fireballs and jump over low fireballs. Upon success, the second stage begins, which has a more top-down point of view. The player guides the character around the room collecting treasure and dodging fireballs spewed by a dragon that patrols the bottom of the screen. Collecting every piece of treasure opens a door to the next level.

A single hit from a fireball in either stage takes one of the player's seven initial lives. In each level, the character and fireballs get progressively faster.

Reception

Electronic Games in 1983 described Dragonfire as "especially useful as an introduction to fantasy gaming for younger players — while still having enough thrills to please the rest".^[3] The game would go on to receive a Certificate of Merit in the category of "1984 Best Videogame Audio-Visual Effects (Less than 16K ROM)" at the 5th annual Arkie Awards.^[4]: 42