Fire Away was a series of handheld electronic games marketed by Tandy beginning in the 1980s. In all, there were six different products in the line, nearly all of which were actually licensed by Tandy rather than being original Tandy games. The games looked to capitalize on the popularity of the video game Space Invaders which was released in 1978.
History
Fire Away was the first Tandy game to hold the name. Released in 1981, Tandy licensed the game from the Japanese company Gakken who created and sold the game under the name Invader. The game was also licensed to Computer Games Limited (CGL) as Galaxy Invader and by Vanity Fair as Electron Blaster. The game, regardless of the company, was essentially the same. A joystick was used by the player's left hand to move the gun base to the left and right. A large red button used by the player's right hand fired the missiles. There were three settings, 1, 2, and 3, which adjusted the game speed, with '3' being the fastest. There were seven tiers on the plastic screen which covered the VFD display. The bottom tier, labeled "G", was where the base moved. The two tiers above this had no label while the remaining tiers were marked 1, 2, 3, and 10. The numbers referred to the points earned when the player eliminated the invader. The 10 point tier was populated by a UFO that appeared every 15 shots, moving across the top. The invaders themselves would populate within the remaining point earning tiers, two at a time. They would drop bombs and move down towards the player's base. If the invader reached the "G" tier, the game ended (although a glitch meant that holding down the fire button 'immunized' the player against an alien that reached the "G" tier. After a few seconds, the alien vanished and the player could continue). Three hits on the base by bombs would end the game. Once the player reached 199 points, the game ended in victory for the player. Both the Tandy and Vanity Fair versions of the game used a blue housing while the Gakken and CGL games used a white housing. The game used four AA batteries and the LED made the invaders, etc. appear blue. The original retail price was $39.95.
The following year, in 1982, Tandy introduced the next Fire Away under the title Cosmic 1000 Fire Away. Like the first game, Tandy licensed it from Gakken who sold the game as Galaxy Invader 1000 while CGL also licensed the game, selling it under the same name as Gakken. The principle of the new game remained the same but with improvements in the case design and adding some changes to the game play. Another tier was added for a total of eight. The missile station was on the tier marked "M" with the Ground ("G") being the next tier up. The remaining tiers were again points earned, starting at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10. These tiers were marked as the "Invader Zone" while the top tier was the "UFO Zone". The player now had to obtain 999 points and had a finite number of missiles to launch at the invaders (250 missiles). The player earned a bonus missile station and 50 more missiles if he or she reached 700 points. When the missile count got low, the game made a warning sound. The game ended when 999 points was reached, or all missile station were destroyed, or the invader reached the "G" tier, or the player ran out of missiles. The UFO flew in random patterns, to cause the player to expend missiles through misses. Four AA batteries provided power with the LED colored so that the missile station, the invaders, their bombs, and the score were blue while the player's missiles, the UFO, and hits on the missile station and invaders appeared red. The retail price increased to $59.95.