Project Firestart is one of the most important games of its generation — and yet it still goes largely overlooked.

Lighting the Fire

Project Firestart is a game exclusive to the Commodore 64 home computer and was published in North America in 1989 by Electronic Arts and developed by Dynamix, a company most famous for its flight sims. They would eventually fall under the Sierra Online banner where they would attain greater recognition, but here in the mid-late 80s, their games are being published by a tag team of Activision and Electronic Arts.

As was common in those days, the team behind it is small, consisting of just seven people led by co-founders Jeff Tunnell and Damon Slye. Jeff Tunnell would have a long career in the games industry and would spearhead much of the company’s output under Sierra following its acquisition of Dynamix in 1990.

Burn, baby, burn!

So, what is Project Firestart?

It’s survival horror. Very likely the first one we would recognise as a survival horror adventure game. Alone in the Dark may very well have popularized one form of them that would eventually birth the Resident Evil series, but here in 1988 and on relatively humble hardware already being overshadowed by 16-bit siblings, the first of its kind experimented with many of the series’s rules and hallmark features.

Effective application of a feeling of dread? Check.

Strategic use of sound? Check.

Limited resources? Check.

Found narratives? Check.

Freedom of movement through a defined space that rewards exploration and familiarity? Check!

Cinematic flair? Check!

Jumpscares? Check!

Phew. That’s a lot of check-ing. But it’s worth emphasising just how groundbreaking Project Firestart is. And how relatively timeless it is in terms of design. With a few refinements, it could easily be published as a lo-fi indie title today.

A Familiar Story Told in an Unfamiliar Way

I will say now that I’m not going to spoil Project Firestart’s plotline. It deserves better than that. I’ll only lightly touch on a few story beats and show screenshots of areas you’ll encounter within the first few minutes of play.

So, as you boot up the game, you’re cast in the role of Jon Hawking, a seasoned agent working for the United System States. And the first thing you’ll learn as your boss video-messages you is that contact has been lost with a research vessel in orbit of Saturn. This is a situation that so concerns the powers that be they plan to remotely self-destruct the vessel but not before giving you the opportunity to board it and recover its valuable research data.

So, all very standard sci-fi fare so far. But it gives us one key detail: you will be on a time limit. And as the game proper starts after a well-and-truly spooky introduction cutscene, yes a cutscene, a ticking real-time clock will be one of just three HUD elements that greet you. This is just one element of minimalism that Project Firestart uses effectively. And time is just as limited a resource as the number of charges in the weapon you’ve brought along with you.

As you push left and move across the 2D space, no doubt admiring the smooth animation of your character’s run cycle and just how good-looking a game it is, you’ll notice another element of minimalism — sound design. You’ll be greeted by a short burst of signature music that becomes something you anticipate hearing as it is used to mark important discoveries and events, but aside from the sound of your footsteps, all is silent. It’s quiet, worrying so. Where’s the crew to greet you?

Another thing you’ll quickly notice is that Firestart experiments with both 2D side-scrolling sections and pseudo-3D cabinet projection areas. The ship is one big cohesive environment; there are no separate stages that you’ll move through and never see again. You’ll learn the layout and frequently backtrack between the sections of the ship as you unravel the mystery of just what happened and what grizzly fate befell its crew.

Only in text adventures of the era have I encountered cohesive locations like Project Firestart’s Prometheus, where the environment itself becomes a character in its own right. And the found narratives I mentioned earlier? Something I dearly love in games? These are well-written, evocative, and used just as effectively as any other element, rewarding keen-eyed investigators and patient readers.

Did I mention yet that there are multiple endings?

Project Firestart is a meaty game by the standards of the day, but it’s still a relatively short experience. And you know what? That’s okay. Project Firestart rewards repeat plays and becoming so familiar with the ship that you can effectively speedrun it. When my partner and I first became aware of it back in January of 2022, I couldn’t help but gush about it — and then we played it over and over again, about six times in all, learning every nuance of the game, which event happens where and at what time, and every facet of its story in an effort to winkle out the ‘100% completion ending’.

We even streamed a playthrough of it on Twitch that same week, by which time I needed to feign a bit of ignorance of things to come while still being so familiar with the layout and chain of events that I could provide a smooth playthrough experience.

A Bittersweet Breakthrough

IGN did once feature it back in 2009 in a list of survival horror pioneers, which also provides some juicy behind-the-scenes detail, including how harrowing a project its creation turned out to be. Project Firestart took over two years to develop, an uncommonly long development period for the mid-80s, as they struggled to work within the limitations of the C64 and realize their ambitious vision. The whole ordeal seems to have so scarred Jeff Tunnell that even now he will only reluctantly speak of Firestart. Part of it seems to be bitterness over how poorly the game was marketed, going unreleased in Europe, one of the heartlands of the C64. And it’s likely because of these factors that there was no 16-bit Amiga or Atari ST release and the game slipped quickly into the mists of history.

I’ll link to the article below as it’s an interesting read.

https://www.ign.com/articles/2009/10/30/ign-presents-the-history-of-survival-horror?

Concluding thoughts

I could gush about Project Firestart plenty more, but that would risk venturing into spoiler territory. I feel like I’ve laid the case for Project Firestart being of continuing importance and showing why I was so impressed and how it struck such a chord with me.

I recommend seeking out Project Firestart and firing it up in your C64 emulator of choice. Or at least watching a longplay. It’s a wonderful game, an uncannily rich experience on its original hardware, and absolutely worth the time you’ll spend with it.