Time Pilot
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Template:Infobox Arcade Game Time Pilot is a 1982 arcade game by Konami and distributed in the US by Centuri, designed by Yoshiki Okamoto. It is a flying themed game debuting in the Golden Age of Video Games.
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Overview
The player assumes the role of a pilot 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.
Description
This game has the player travel through five time periods, rescuing stranded fellow pilots. The player must fight off enemy hordes of enemy craft while picking up parachuting friendly pilots. Once 56 enemy craft are defeated, the player must defeat the mothership for the time period. Once she is destroyed, any remaining enemy craft are also eliminated and the player progresses to the next level. All the levels have a blue sky and clouds as the background except the last level, which has space and asteroids instead. The specific eras visited, the common enemies and the motherships are:
- 1910: biplanes and a blimp
- 1940: WWII monoplanes and a B-25
- 1970: helicopters and a large, blue, CH-47
- 1982 (Konami version)/1983 (Centuri version): jets and a B-52
- 2001: UFOs
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.
Legacy
This game was one of the more successful games of the era. It spawned one sequel in 1984, Time Pilot '84. Though a respectable game, it did not do nearly as well as the original.
Licence
The game was successfully licensed to both Atari and Centuri for global regions outside of Japan. Centuri obtained the license for the USA region, whereas Atari produced dedicated cabinets with the game for sale in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Ports
Like many games of the era, Time Pilot was ported to video game consoles for personal use. It was ported to the Atari 2600 and ColecoVision in 1983. It was also ported to the Playstation as part of the Konami Arcade Classics compilation, as well as the Game Boy Advance as part of the Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced compilation.