Fire Away (game)

Fire Away was a series of handheld electronic games marketed by Tandy beginning in the 1980s.

The 10 point tier was populated by a UFO that appeared every 15 shots, moving across the top.

When the missile count got low, the game made a warning sound.

The UFO flew in random patterns, to cause the player to expend missiles through misses.

In 1983, Tandy introduced the Cosmic 2000 Fire Away and it was a departure from the design of the previous two games.

This may have been due to Tandy licensing the game from a different company, in this case, Hanzawa, rather than through Gakken.

Actronics also licensed the game from Hanzawa, marketing it under the name Twinvader III.

The case was shaped to resemble an arcade game and the joystick was replaced with left and right buttons.

Like the first two games, this was a licensed product from Gakken and thus it used the same basic styling as its fore bearers.

The tiers were reduced to six and included the missile station, a "barrier", and four invader zones.

Unlike the previous games, the player did not lose when the invader reached the bottom of the screen.

Tandy let the line languish for several years when, in 1989, they introduced LCD Fire Away.

The game was also smaller and used a similar control layout as Cosmic 2000 Fire Away did.

Tandy/Radio Shack would repackage the same game as Invasion Force and later, in 1990, as Jet Fighter.

[1] While carrying the same name, the original Bandai game used aircraft rather than alien invaders which set it apart from the Fire Away line.

The same game was sold by Collins Industrial as the Star Trek II:Wrath of Khan Video Game Watch while Majestron released the watch as Cosmic Wars.

Three Fire Aways.