Booty was Firebird's first platform game. The player controlled Jim the cabin boy, who had to go below decks and gather booty, which he could do by walking over the various items and collecting them automatically. Sometimes items would be booby-trapped and Jim would then have to rush away as quickly as possible before the bomb went off.
Ghost pirates would wander around the lower decks and Jim would have to avoid them at all costs, as touching them would immediately cost Jim a life. There were also plenty of numbered locked doors that required corresponding keys to open them. Jim had to collect and use the keys in the right order if he was going to complete the game.
Booty also featured a hidden game that was only activated if the Spectrum had a Currah Micro Speech device connected. Instead of seeing the usual game when the tape had finished loading, the player got to swim under the sea and catch 20 goldfish without running out of air or colliding with the big fish that swam around him! Players could also make this hidden game appear by poking 52798,58 whilst on the controls menu.