Time Pilot
Encyclopedia
Time Pilot is a multi-directional scrolling shooter and free-roaming
aerial combat
arcade game
designed by Yoshiki Okamoto
, released by Konami
in 1982, and distributed in the United States by Centuri
. Debuting in the golden age of video arcade games, it is a time travel
themed game that allowed the player's plane to freely move across open air space that can scroll
indefinitely in all directions. The Killer List of Videogames
included Time Pilot in its list of top 100 arcade games of all time.
of a futuristic fighter
jet
, trying to rescue fellow pilots trapped in different time eras. The player must fight off hordes of enemy craft and defeat the mother ship (or "boss")
present in every level. The background moves in the opposite direction to the player's plane, rather than the other way around; the player's plane always remains in the center.
s instead. The specific eras visited, the common enemies and the motherships are:
The mothership is destroyed with seven direct hits. Once all the eras have been visited, the levels start over again but are harder and faster. The Gameboy Advance version of Time Pilot in Konami Arcade Classics includes a hidden sixth era, 1,000,000BC, where the player must destroy vicious pterodactyls in order to return to the early 20th century.
.
. Though a respectable game, it did not do nearly as well as the original. A special version named Time Pilot '95 also appears in the Super Famicom
game Ganbare Goemon Kirakira Douchuu: Boku ga Dancer ni Natta Wake (of the Ganbare Goemon
series), and can be unlocked when the main game is completely cleared. A version of the game for Xbox Live Arcade
by Digital Eclipse features optional updated graphics, although the game plays identically (it is a port of the original). Konami released a similar game, Time Ace
, for the Nintendo DS
in 2007.
and Centuri
for global regions outside of Japan. Centuri obtained the license for North America, whereas Atari produced dedicated cabinets with the game for sale in the United Kingdom and Ireland
.
to video game console
s for personal use.
Open world
An open world is a type of video game level design where a player can roam freely through a virtual world and is given considerable freedom in choosing how to approach objectives...
aerial combat
Combat flight simulator
Combat flight simulators are video games used to simulate military aircraft and their operations...
arcade game
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
designed by Yoshiki Okamoto
Yoshiki Okamoto
Yoshiki Okamoto , sometimes credited as Kihaji Okamoto, is a video game designer credited with producing many popular titles for Konami, including Gyruss and Time Pilot, and Capcom, including Final Fight and Street Fighter II...
, released by Konami
Konami
is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
in 1982, and distributed in the United States by Centuri
Centuri
Centuri, based in Hialeah, Florida, was one of the top six suppliers of coin operated video game machinery in the United States. Many of the machines distributed in the US under the Centuri name were licensed from overseas manufacturers, particularly Konami....
. Debuting in the golden age of video arcade games, it is a time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
themed game that allowed the player's plane to freely move across open air space that can scroll
Scrolling
In computer graphics, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display. "Scrolling", as such, does not change the layout of the text or pictures, or but incrementally moves the user's view across what is...
indefinitely in all directions. The Killer List of Videogames
Killer List of Videogames
The Killer List of Videogames is a web site featuring an online encyclopedia devoted to cataloging arcade games past and present. It is the video game department of the International Arcade Museum, and has been referred to as "the IMDb for players."....
included Time Pilot in its list of top 100 arcade games of all time.
Overview
The player assumes the role of a pilotAviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
of a futuristic fighter
Fighter aircraft
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...
jet
Jet aircraft
A jet aircraft is an aircraft propelled by jet engines. Jet aircraft generally fly much faster than propeller-powered aircraft and at higher altitudes – as high as . At these altitudes, jet engines achieve maximum efficiency over long distances. The engines in propeller-powered aircraft...
, trying to rescue fellow pilots trapped in different time eras. The player must fight off hordes of enemy craft and defeat the mother ship (or "boss")
Boss (video games)
A boss is an enemy-based challenge which is found in video games. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight...
present in every level. The background moves in the opposite direction to the player's plane, rather than the other way around; the player's plane always remains in the center.
Description
This game has the player travel through five time periods, rescuing stranded fellow pilots. The player must fight off droves of enemy craft while picking up parachuting friendly pilots. Once 56 enemy craft are defeated, Initially 25 on the MSX platform, and increases by 5 after each game cycle (finishing the last battle against the UFOs), the player must defeat the mothership for the time period. Once she is destroyed, any remaining enemy craft are also eliminated and the player time-travels to the next level. All the levels have a blue sky and clouds as the background except the last level, which has space and asteroidAsteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
s instead. The specific eras visited, the common enemies and the motherships are:
- 1910: biplaneBiplaneA biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...
s and a blimpBlimpA blimp, or non-rigid airship, is a floating airship without an internal supporting framework or keel. A non-rigid airship differs from a semi-rigid airship and a rigid airship in that it does not have any rigid structure, neither a complete framework nor a partial keel, to help the airbag... - 1940: WWII monoplaneMonoplaneA monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with one main set of wing surfaces, in contrast to a biplane or triplane. Since the late 1930s it has been the most common form for a fixed wing aircraft.-Types of monoplane:...
s and a B-25 - 1970: helicopterHelicopterA helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
s and a large, blue CH-47CH-47 ChinookThe Boeing CH-47 Chinook is an American twin-engine, tandem rotor heavy-lift helicopter. Its top speed of 170 knots is faster than contemporary utility and attack helicopters of the 1960s... - 1982 (Konami version)/1983 (Centuri version): jetsFighter aircraftA fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...
and a B-52B-52 StratofortressThe Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber operated by the United States Air Force since the 1950s. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, who have continued to provide maintainence and upgrades to the aircraft in service... - 2001: UFOUnidentified flying objectA term originally coined by the military, an unidentified flying object is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object...
s
The mothership is destroyed with seven direct hits. Once all the eras have been visited, the levels start over again but are harder and faster. The Gameboy Advance version of Time Pilot in Konami Arcade Classics includes a hidden sixth era, 1,000,000BC, where the player must destroy vicious pterodactyls in order to return to the early 20th century.
Development
According to his account, Yoshiki Okamoto's proposal for Time Pilot was initially rejected by his boss at Konami, who assigned Okamoto to work on a driving game instead. Okamoto secretly gave instructions to his programmer to work on his idea, while pretending to be working on a driving game in front of his boss. When Time Pilot was a success, Okamoto's boss claimed credit for Okamoto's idea. The free-roaming style of gameplay used in Time Pilot was influenced by Namco's BosconianBosconian
is a free-roaming multi-directional scrolling shooter arcade game that was developed by Namco and released in 1981. In contrast to the more linear shooter games of its time, Bosconian allows the player's ship to freely move across open space that scrolls in all directions. The game also features a...
.
Legacy
This game was one of the more successful games of the era. It spawned one sequel in 1984, Time Pilot '84Time Pilot '84
Time Pilot '84: Further Into Unknown World is a 4-way scrolling shoot 'em up, released in 1984 by Konami. It is the sequel to Time Pilot. You pilot your craft over many time periods. Unlike the original, which told you the year of each level, the new time periods are designated by new enemies and...
. Though a respectable game, it did not do nearly as well as the original. A special version named Time Pilot '95 also appears in the Super Famicom
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
game Ganbare Goemon Kirakira Douchuu: Boku ga Dancer ni Natta Wake (of the Ganbare Goemon
Ganbare Goemon
, known as Legend of the Mystical Ninja, Mystical Ninja, and Goemon in North America and the PAL region, is a long-running video game series produced by Konami....
series), and can be unlocked when the main game is completely cleared. A version of the game for Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
by Digital Eclipse features optional updated graphics, although the game plays identically (it is a port of the original). Konami released a similar game, Time Ace
Time Ace
Time Ace is a 2007 aerial combat game for the Nintendo DS, by game publisher Konami. The game is based on the concept that an eccentric inventor from 1914, Dr. Hugo Clock, has formed a plan to travel forward in time to end World War I, but the evil Dr. Klaus Scythe uses the time machine to further...
, for the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
in 2007.
License
The game was successfully licensed to both AtariAtari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
and Centuri
Centuri
Centuri, based in Hialeah, Florida, was one of the top six suppliers of coin operated video game machinery in the United States. Many of the machines distributed in the US under the Centuri name were licensed from overseas manufacturers, particularly Konami....
for global regions outside of Japan. Centuri obtained the license for North America, whereas Atari produced dedicated cabinets with the game for sale in the United Kingdom and Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
.
Ports
Like many games of the era, Time Pilot was portedPorting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
to video game console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
s for personal use.
- Atari 2600Atari 2600The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
, MSXMSXMSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...
and ColecoVisionColecoVisionThe ColecoVision is Coleco Industries' second generation home video game console which was released in August 1982. The ColecoVision offered arcade-quality graphics and gaming style, and the means to expand the system's basic hardware...
in 1983 - PlayStationPlayStationThe is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
as part of the Konami Arcade ClassicsKonami Arcade ClassicsKonami Arcade Classics is an arcade compilation released in 1999 for the PlayStation. It was originally released in the arcades as Konami 80's AC Special. It contained ten games; Pooyan, Scramble, Yie Ar Kung-Fu, Roc 'N Rope, Shao-Lin's Road, Circus Charlie, Super Cobra, Road Fighter, Time Pilot...
compilation in 1999 - Game Boy AdvanceGame Boy AdvanceThe is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
as part of the Konami Collector's Series: Arcade AdvancedKonami Collector's Series: Arcade AdvancedKonami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced was released on March 22, 2002, for the Game Boy Advance. It was released in Europe under the name Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Classics...
compilation on March 18, 2002. - Xbox 360Xbox 360The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
as part of Xbox Live ArcadeXbox Live ArcadeXbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
on August 30, 2006. - Nintendo DSNintendo DSThe is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
as part of Konami Classics Series: Arcade HitsKonami Classics Series: Arcade HitsKonami Classics Series: Arcade Hits, released as Konami Arcade Collection in Japan and Konami Arcade Classics in Europe and Oceania, is a collection of 15 classic arcade games by Konami for the Nintendo DS.-Lineup:...
. - Mobile Phones: Released for i-modeI-modeNTT DoCoMo's i-mode is a mobile internet service popular in Japan. Unlike Wireless Application Protocol, i-mode encompasses a wider variety of internet standards, including web access, e-mail and the packet-switched network that delivers the data...
mobile phones in Japan in 2004. - Microsoft'sMicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
Game RoomGame RoomGame Room is a gaming service for the Xbox 360 video game system, Microsoft Windows PCs, and Windows Phone 7. Launched on March 24, 2010, Game Room lets players download classic video games and compete against each other for high scores...
service for its Xbox 360Xbox 360The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
console and for Windows-basedMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
PCPersonal computerA personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
s in May 2010.
External links
- Pilot entry at the CenturiCenturiCenturi, based in Hialeah, Florida, was one of the top six suppliers of coin operated video game machinery in the United States. Many of the machines distributed in the US under the Centuri name were licensed from overseas manufacturers, particularly Konami....
.net Arcade Database