Oh god the trauma this brought back.
There was also that water level in TMNT https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PHiFNWJXWgI
Carrier Landing in Top Gun for the NES
71–80 of 165 posts
Re: Carrier Landing in Top Gun for the NES
#72Now I just need to get the hang of docking in Elite.
If memory serves, that was relatively easy? Compared with this?
You fly to the entry, point towards it, and then rotate until rotation speed and phase match.
But yea, the docking computer was definitely easier =)
Re: Carrier Landing in Top Gun for the NES
#73Just for comparison, this is how the code could look like in Python:
SUCCESS = 0
TOO_FAR_LEFT = 2
TOO_SLOW_OR_TOO_LOW = 4
TOO_FAST_OR_TOO_HIGH = 8
MIN_ALTITUDE = 100
MAX_ALTITUDE = 300
MIN_SPEED = 200
MAX_SPEED = 400
MIN_SPEED_200_RANGE = 238
MAX_SPEED_300_RANGE = 338
MAX_HEADING_RIGHT = 8
def landing_skill_check(
altitude: int,
speed: int,
heading: int) -> int:
if altitude = MAX_ALTITUDE:
return TOO_FAST_OR_TOO_HIGH
if speed = MAX_SPEED:
return TOO_FAST_OR_TOO_HIGH
if speed = MAX_SPEED_300_RANGE:
return TOO_FAST_OR_TOO_HIGH
if heading = MAX_HEADING_RIGHT:
return TOO_SLOW_OR_TOO_LOW
return SUCCESSRe: Carrier Landing in Top Gun for the NES
#74I never had much trouble landing on the carrier, but refueling in the sky? I think I only managed it a few times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vetEg8J-wcw
The refueling music is the best part of the soundtrack, and somehow that video doesn't have it...different version of the game? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfUZix8jVBY&t=187s
Speaking of the soundtrack, before Virt (Jake Kaufman) made it big (composer behind Shantae, Shovel Knight, Ducktales Remastered, a few others), he made this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uEUImofSms
"Bogey at your 6", the combat theme from the game, but remixed as if Konami had made it for the VRC6, the NES mapper chip that added 3 additional oscillators that made the Japanese release of Castlevania III what it was; he made this using Scream Tracker (or possibly a newer tracker, but its saved in S3M format), because tracker-like chip emulators didn't exist yet (Furnace, et al).
Re: Carrier Landing in Top Gun for the NES
#75I rented this game *TWICE* as a little kid and never got to actually do anything because I couldn't figure out how to land the damn plane.
Re: Carrier Landing in Top Gun for the NES
#76I never had much trouble landing on the carrier, but refueling in the sky? I think I only managed it a few times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vetEg8J-wcw
The refueling music is the best part of the soundtrack, and somehow that video doesn't have it...different version of the game? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfUZix8jVBY&t=187s
I never got that far in the game... but that song gave me a visceral body memory of "difficult things in games that trigger intense 8 bit music" memories.
Re: Carrier Landing in Top Gun for the NES
#77I never had much trouble landing on the carrier, but refueling in the sky? I think I only managed it a few times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vetEg8J-wcw
My recollection is that if you missed it you kept playing but were doomed to crash maybe 30 seconds later from low fuel. Talk about punishing.
Seems like an accurate conclusion.
Re: Carrier Landing in Top Gun for the NES
#78I rented this game *TWICE* as a little kid and never got to actually do anything because I couldn't figure out how to land the damn plane.
My friends owned it (I was never allowed to have a NES myself). Not once did ANY of us ever manage to land the plane. We tried MANY times. This blog makes it seem so easy I want to be angry at it :-)
Re: Carrier Landing in Top Gun for the NES
#79This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we’ll be lucky to live through it.
The number of times I've used that quote in the last 12 years . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnRdPZjoMKM
He was the Ronald Reagan of my time in that he was an actor before becoming a senator instead of POTUS.
Re: Carrier Landing in Top Gun for the NES
#80Brought back memories! This was so frustrating, felt like a huge amount of randomness added to the controls. And each time you failed, you had to re-do the whole level. The other frustrating part of the game was mid-air refueling.