Star Fire is a first-person arcade coin-operated space combat video game created by Technical Magic for Midway-Bally and licensed for manufacture to Exidy in December 1978.

Designed by Ted Michon[4] and David Rolfe and inspired by the film Star Wars, the game is not based on a licensed property.

Star Fire was a major success for Exidy, and became the first arcade video game to use an enclosed sit-down cockpit cabinet,[5][6] the first to allow a highest scoring player to enter their initials in a high score table, and one of the first to be built on a reprogrammable microprocessor based game system with full screen color graphics.

If the player can maneuver such that a TIE fighter-like ship is directly in the targeting reticle, the weapon will "lock on" and any shots fired will automatically hit.

[7] Michon was inspired by the spaceship battles in the film Star Wars, and devised a game that aimed to recreate the sense of freedom of space flight.

To save memory, compromises were made such as stars possibly changing from white to blue when enemy ships pass in front of them.

Next, to create a 3D effect, using a technique called sprite-scaling, Owen would draw different images of the same enemy spacecraft, and Rolfe would switch the sprites with larger versions as they approached the player.

With no one to fund their project, Rolfe spent extra time at his second job at APh Technological Consulting, who was working to lay down the programming framework for what would become the Mattel Intellivision.

Michon found and contacted Exidy, a small arcade company based in Sunnyvale, California who developed titles such as Death Race and Circus.

[2] Reviewing it at the 1978 Amusement & Music Operators Association Exposition, Play Meter praised the game's mostly enclosed cabinet design as providing a sense of actually piloting a ship in space.

It further lauded the game's visuals and sound effects, and noted its initials-based high score system and that in-game collisions with enemy fighters cause the entire cabinet to vibrate.

[10] A 1983 article in Electronic Games called Star Fire a "closet classic ... deserving of a better fate", and "ahead of its time and unable to find a market".