This just in: Starfirebirds doesn't have faces of old indian men falling

[mr_lou]

Just a short funny and true story from my life.

Starfirebirds was the very first game I got for my Amstrad CPC.
I still remember coming home with the CPC, and turning it on, and loading the game.

It's your average space-shooter. But at some point, not far into the game, something weird fell down from above: The face of an Indian man with a turban and a beard. At least that's what it looked like to me. I didn't think much about it, since many games have the weirdest things in them. Especially the C64 has quite a few games that makes no sense whatsoever regarding sprites.

It wasn't until a few days ago I stumbled across "Space Firebirds" on MAME, and immediately saw that it was in fact the "original" that Starfirebirds was based on. But there was no Indian man with a beard in this game. Instead there was a bird.... which of course made more sense, considering the name of the game.

So now, after all these years, I see that this sprite in Starfirebirds is actually supposed to be a bird....hehe. For all these years I was sure it was some guru master chasing me. And it was actually a bit more scary as a guru Indian man, than a bird.....

[robcfg]

Haahahahaha!


This is a nice story indeed. And the thing is, I cannot see a bird there 

[mr_lou]

No, it is rather difficult to get that sprite to look like a bird.
The green "beard" is supposed to be the tail-feathers.
And then you should imagine that its wings are wide open.

Try looking at this YouTube clip of the original Space Firebirds.

Space Firebird {Arcade}
At 0:44 the bird appears.

It's easy to see the resemblance, but even when you see the resemblance, it's still difficult to make the CPC sprite look like a bird. 

[Devilmarkus]

Looks a bit like Bin Laden after his holidays in Chernobyl...

[Gryzor]

Hahaha! Nice story indeed, thanks for sharing!
No way I can see a bird in that, but after your interpretation I can see the Indian indeed...


PS The arcade looks like a nice little game!

[Puresox]

Yeah it's a classic , good old shoot em'up Space firebirds!

[mr_lou]

After having played the original Space Firebirds, I actually find the Amstrad CPC version Starfirebirds a bit better than I used to. It's not such a bad port.
And when playing Starfirebirds on my Arcade Cabinet, it's even better. 

[Puresox]

Yeah it is quite impressive , It can handle a lot of sprites flying around the screen  without it slowing down and it speeds up quite well on later levels.