Space Firehawk (C64)
A downloadable game
A Space Firebird (1980) inspired shoot 'em up for the Commodore 64
All programming, graphics and sound by Karsten Senkel
FEATURES
12 different enemys
Asteroid fields
Boss battles
Power-ups
Ship and weapon upgrades
Balanced difficulty curve
Highscore table
CONTROLS
Joystick port 2
SPACE to pause current game
NOTES
Space Firehawk is developed for PAL systems but
will also run (a little faster) on NTSC.
Space Firehawk has been tested on real hardware
(CRT recommended) as well as on the Vice emulator.
Space Firehawk is SD2IEC compatible (single load file).
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Comments
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Very nice shooter. Our German-language review can be found in our recorded livestream starting at 00:57:02. Subscription to our YouTube or Twitch channel is welcome. 🙂
Very interesting game, I heard the very passionate story about making this game, so I wonder how I can run it on the Vice Emulator... (Someone might help? I'm very new into this..)
Hi, thanks for purchasing. Just fire up the x64 emulator, then simply drag & drop the .prg-file into the emulation window. If you need more detailed help, feel free to send me a mail to spacefirehawk(at)gmx.de
like an arcade game, but on c64. great stuff 8.5/10
Graphics remind me of Space Firebird which I'm guessing is its inspiration. That was one of my favorites as a kid. Nice and enjoyable game with great graphics and good controls!
Looking back at C64 and Speccy games I can now see what made the popular games great. This game has really worked to the strengths of the C64 and the sprites are amazing! Great work.
Purchased this yesterday after seeing a reTweet by Vinny from Freeze64 about this. I cant believe I let this one pass me by on release. But made up for that now. Purchased and played. Very impressed. I will be talking about this on this months Pixel Gaiden podcast and will recommend that people come and give this a shot. Love the design and presentation.
At first the dynamic for down and fire for shield was annoying me and kept wasting them. But it's a good way to activate it when you need it rather than hitting a key on the keyboard. Could you maybe make it for two button sticks and give an option in a later version so you could activate with the second button maybe?
Thats my only thing and it's minor, does not detract from the enjoyment and this is now one of my go-to shooters on the C64.
Good to see the NTSC support and will be trying it out on my NTSC C128 to see the speed difference!
Great work :) - Tim from the Pixel Gaiden podcast
Many thanks for your support.
I tried a lot of things because of the second fire button. Since a lot of people tend to hold the fire button down all the time and accidentally pull the joystick down very quickly, simply pushing the joystick down while firing was not an option. Therefore you have to pull the joystick down without the fire button and then press the button while the stick is still being pulled down. Of course, this has the disadvantage that in the heat of the moment you sometimes can't do this fast enough.
A second button on the joystick would be fantastic, but unfortunately I don't know of any standardized design that I could support.
Just the second fire introduced with Commodore 64 GS. Exactly the second fire supported by VICE.
Take a loook at: https://github.com/crystalct/5plusbuttonsJoystick#readme
A lot of effort must have been put into this one. And its free. But I bought it, because its so good. Normally I just take free stuff, I dont tend to throw out money. =D
Very nice game, apart from the good gameplay I like all the small details, for example hit and damaged enemy ships that are out of control or even the neat score counter. And if you buy weapon upgrades the sound fx of fired shots changes. Cool!
And I like the overall design. It creates an atmosphere of its own.
Thanks for making this game. Rated it with 5 stars!
Small complains taking up more space than the praise:
XD
What I`m missing is more music (an atmospheric but minimalistic menue track for example)...but I guess it would not fit into one file without loading anymore (202 blocks big)....?
A SAVEABLE HIGHSCORE TABLE! I like it when my scores are preserved. =(
Could you add that? (Maybe compile an additional version for those who`d want that) I`d love that. <3
Why is there a damn timer when I enter my name to the highscore table? Its an epic moment and I have to rush through it? =D
Thank you for your support and the kind words regarding the details and atmosphere.
I've spent about two years of my rare spare time coding this.
As for the lack of music, you're right that there is simply not enough memory left.
I love video machines from the early eighties, so I tried to get that atmosphere right.
Hence the attract mode, the score advance table and of course the highscore timer.
I also wanted the game as a cartridge, so no disk operations.
By the way, there soon will be a cartridge release containing Space Firehawk (+) from bobr.games
But if you really need a high score saver: The guys from Laxity have built it into their cracked version, which can be found on csdb.dk
Just turn off the trainer ;-)
Two years, thats some passion and dedication for sure.^^
Space Firehawk +.....will it have extra content (hence the + ? ) ?
Thanks for the advice, I`ll get the cracked version. Since I own the game I can do that with a clean conscience...XDDD
I saved snapshots in Vice to keep my scores ( 26680 is my best so far....), but thats kinda annoying.^^
very good
It looks pretty cool! I've purchased 15 copies, which I will distribute to the FREEZE64.com team and a few lucky subscribers.
I may even feature it in a future issue of FREEZE64 'zine - definitely a page of POKES ;-)
Keep up the great work!
Wow !!! Many thanks for your support !
such a fine game, thanks.
Thanks to all, for giving the game a try :)
This is great shit. Not many good titles released for free so this goes into the collection. Thx
I downloaded and played Space Firehawk on my U64. I love space arcade shoot 'em ups. This game is excellent. It has addictive game play, and gave me this good old arcade game feeling. Well done and thank you for delivering to us such a great treat.
Thank you Richard, this really means something to me. That good old arcade game feeling is exactly what I had in mind, when making Space Firehawk.
This looks lovely - let's give it a shot! :)
Great!
Its very good game! Keep up your great workings!!!!
My congratulations Karsten,
Thank you !
This is a really nice shooter! Thanks for making it.
Thanks a lot, enjoy :)