Crossfire

You shoot and jump, you shoot and jump. That's it. Crossfire from 1983 is an arcade shooter that takes only what's essential from game design and forgets the rest. You don't have time for story or atmosphere — just reflexes and patience.

You move across a screen full of enemies and obstacles, collecting ammo and trying to stay alive. The goal is simple: get through all the levels and victory is yours. No side bonuses, no hidden codes, no reason to come back for something you missed. The game just pushes you forward and up.

The controls are standard for the time — arrow keys, spacebar to shoot, maybe some key to jump. Shots go horizontally, you fall down because of gravity, falling slows you down. That's all. It's not about precision or timing — it's about how many hits you can take before you run out of lives. The game field is tight, enemies come at you without much of a plan, just to bother you. The graphics are forgettable, the sound equally so. The game doesn't try to be flashy at all.

Crossfire belongs in the category of games that didn't impress anyone even back in the eighties. The concept itself was outdated, the design lacked the ingenuity of the competition, and overall it feels like an exercise that nobody particularly wanted. Remembering it today means remembering something that was confusing even back then.

If you want to recall what the beginning of arcade gaming on computers was like — raw, straightforward, without unnecessary excuses — Crossfire shows it for a brief moment. But this isn't a nostalgic experience. This is a reminder why some games stayed in the eighties.