Have you ever fancied flying a futuristic jet and fighting off hordes of enemies whilst time traveling? Well Time Pilot arcade might just be the game for you.
Designed by Yoshiki Okamoto and released by Konami in arcades in 1982, Time Pilot is a multi-directional scrolling arcade shooter and it’s fun one too.
Time Pilot Arcade
Time Pilot is a classic arcade game that I play all the time. It’s an easy to play game where frantic joystick reflexes and a fire button is all you need. It’s a great old-school arcade shooter.
More Classic Arcade Games:
- Burger Time Arcade
- Robotron 2084
- Star Wars the Arcade Game
- The Joy of Old Arcade Games
- Arcade Collecting
Now if I’m honest with you lot out there, Time Pilot along with similar titles from the early 80s were not games that I played originally in the arcades having been very young when it was first released.
But since being a bit older and wiser it’s now a game that I will play all the time on My Home Arcade cabs and at gaming expos and it’s just instant fun.
Time Pilot Arcade Levels
Let’s tell you a little bit more about the different levels of the game. As the title ‘Time Pilot’ suggests you are the pilot of a futuristic jet
which can travel through time.
The game is made up of five different time periods…
- 1910
- 1940
- 1970
- 1982
- 2001
1910
With the first level 1910 you are battling biplanes. Once you’ve destroyed so many you will then get a blimp come across the middle of the screen. You have to destroy the blimp to take you to the next level.
Basically that’s how the game works. You have to destroy a number of different enemies to then destroy the boss vehicle. Destroying the boss will then allow you time travel to the next level.
1940
The second level is 1940 where you’re battling world war 2 planes and the boss is a big B25 jet. If you can get through that you then go to 1970.
1970
With 1970 being the era of Vietnam it’s all about battling enemy helicopters. The boss is a big blue helicopter that you have to destroy.
1982
Then you get to 1982 where you’re fighting fighter jets (the game was released the same year). If you can destroy enough of them then you will then have to destroy the boss which is a B-52.
2001
Then when you get to the last level before you start over again you jump to 2001. With 2001 being nearly twenty years in the future when Time Pilot was released you end up battling UFO’s. This was Konami’s futuristic vision of how things would be in 2001.
Looping Time Pilot Arcade
Now if you can get through all of those levels then you will start over again at 1910. Second time around is more frantic and a lot more harder with more enemies they can fire a lot quicker than on the original first level.
if you are good enough you can probably have a good marathon session on Time Pilot. I’m certainly not at that level but I do enjoy it very much.
So, biplanes and a blimp mono planes, helicopters jets and finally UFO’s. Before you start again each level gets harder. When you get to the helicopters and the jets they start having weapons like heat seeking missiles that will come directly for you. You have to shoot or try to dodge these missiles. The game just gets more frantic and a lot more challenging as you progress.
Chasing High Scores
With most of these games from this era it’s all about scoring points. In Time Pilot there are ways to get extra points too. The parachuting pilots that drop down the screen that you can rescue will get you bonus points.
There will be an alert sound come on during play. This alert means a squadron of planes, helicopters or whatever level vehicles it may be at the time. When they come onto the screen and if you can destroy all of them you will get a big bonus.
Time Pilot Arcade Home Ports
The game was ported to various home systems like the Atari 2600 and the Commodore 64, MSX, Colecovision and appeared in various arcade classic compilations over time.
For me it’s all about the original Time Pilot arcade version, that’s the definitive version that I would recommend for you guys to go out there and have a look at give and it a go.
Time Pilot 1984 was released as a sequel, but for me it is not as memorable as the original arcade release.
If you have never played Time Pilot, please do give it a try and see what score you can get on this classic early 80s arcade shooter.
More Arcade Game Nostalgia
You can find out more about some other classic arcade games below.
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Daz
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