>> Miracles can happen : road trip for Exidy STAR FIRE *cockpit* !!! <<

[retrocab]

very cool
nice cab looks good next to the starblade

[Andreas_AUT]

Really nice, the letter type in the monitor reminds me to Star Wars.

Even the starships ingame did the same to me
I like how the backart "shines" with your lights turned on. Did you repaint the flight controls?

[DarthNuno]

More facts which make the game 'special'  

Star Fire a first person space shooter arcade game released by Exidy in 1979. It is the first arcade game to use a sit-down cockpit, and the first arcade game to allow a player to enter his or her initials into the high score table. Star Fire is in full color—without the use of monitor overlays—which was still unusual in 1979.

The look and feel of Star Fire is directly lifted from the movie Star Wars, though the game is not officially licensed. The attract-mode displays the name Star Fire in the same swooping sans-serif display typeface used by the Star Wars main titles. The enemy spaceships are TIE fighters and the player's primary weapon is an array of 4 lasers that fire in an "X" pattern, implying that the player is flying a ship somewhat akin to an X-wing. The enemy base looks like the Death Star. (source wiki)

Few words from David Rolfe (creator of the game) about the 'Star Wars' similitudes  

question> Your 1979 Exidy coin-op Star Fire is very reminiscent of the Star Wars movie released just prior. The ships look similar to Tie-Fighters, and even the text font is almost identical to the Star Wars logo. Was it Exidy's idea to ride the Star Wars wave, without a license? You certainly beat Atari to the punch!

answer>There's a long story behind the creation of Star Fire. It started in 1977, when I was just out of college. A friend, Ted Michon, had graduated two years ahead of me. He was an electrical engineer and had made some connections in the video game industry; in fact he was the creator of a game called "Night Driver" which was first released by a small company named Micronetics, and later picked up by Atari. In 1977, the movie "Star Wars" came out, and Ted thought it was the best movie ever, and he wanted to develop a game in this genre. Ted was then working with Midway, and he developed a processor-controlled color game unit (at this time, microprocessors were rare and color was even rarer, and they had never been combined in a coin unit). Ted asked me to do the software, which I did. Ted and his wife prepared the graphics, which had a "Star Wars" look to them. He figured that either we would license the rights or we would make whatever changes were necessary to avoid legal infringements. We moved towards completion, but Midway was not satisfied with the game and we couldn't tweak it to their satisfaction; eventually they passed on it and Ted searched for another buyer. Exidy bought the completed game and built a wonderful case for it, and the rest is history. So the succinct answer to your question is that Exidy had very little input into the game play, and Ted was responsible for the Star Wars look. (source)

[DarthNuno]

And here's the video that shows the beast in action   

[MK1968]

So....Back in  1979-80ish, an Arcade in Tyler, Tx got Star Fire in and I was blown away! I was 11 at the time and since it was the cockpit version, it felt like I was actually in a space ship. Nothing else like it. I made plans to get a job and start saving for one immediately! I actually lived in Dallas, about 100 miles away and would visit my grandparents in Tyler where I’d beg to go to the arcade just for Star Fire. I thought night and day about it. I planed to live in one and thought if I got good enough that I could play long enough to reach a star or planet...lol. A couple of days ago I watched a documentary called “King of the arcades” and saw a cockpit version of a Star Wars game and thought about Star Fire for the first time in many years. I couldn’t remember the name but kind of remembered it was close to Star Wars in name. Eventually after trying searches on Google, I found your post. Thanks for the memories! If I hit the lottery, expect a large offer coming your way. 

[DarthNuno]

Really nice story, thanks for posting it 
No need to hit the lottery, game is for sale at the very reasonable (and negociable) price right here