After Burner: The Sega Classic That Brought Air Warfare to the Arcade

Good evening, gentlemen. Today I'm going to look back and talk to you about a game in which playing is like riding in an F14 Tomcat. I'm talking about After Burner.

After Burner is an arcade game that simulates the flight of an F-14 Tomcat fighter jet. The arcade game was designed by the already well-known Jutsu Key for the Sega M2 and released in 1987. The player's mission is to destroy the sets in 18 stages at the beginning of the game. The player takes off from an aircraft carrier called the Sega Enterprise, of course, referencing the Sega company, but also the 1986 film Top Gun and its aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise. In the arcade version, the plane uses a machine gun and a limited number of heat-seeking missiles. In some versions of the game, such as the Master System version, the missiles are unlimited.

The weapons are refueled by another plane after beating a few stages. The arcade game has a flight stick with integrated fire buttons, just like a real flight stick. The game had three variants, two of which are the best known. The first is the standard upright cabinet, which is like a regular arcade game, but with all the controls needed for the game and some plastic parts without lights to stylize it. The second version has a cockpit in which the player can sit and wear a seatbelt, as the machine rotates horizontally, following the movement of the plane on the screen. The second version is probably the most recognized. It has a seat that rotates horizontally, but in addition to this, the cockpit itself is separate and rotates vertically. It has speakers at head level with stereo sound and a seatbelt, just like the Android version. This version is very well-known since it was featured in the movie Terminator 2 and also in Other movies and video games: All cabinets have a monitor frame with flashing lights that indicate when the enemy has you in their sights.

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The game was programmed using the Sega X motherboard, released by Sega in 1987. This system is the third in the Super Skyler hardware series and the continuation of the motherboard used in Out Run, with even more powerful capabilities that allowed it to create an even more vivid and detailed 3D world. This type of hardware continued to grow in the following years with the System 3 and System 32.

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Until Model 1 was created and began making 3-platform games. After Burner had a sequel called After Burner 2, which was released in the same year, although the game is actually a revision of its predecessor rather than a completely new game. This practice has been repeated later with Galaxy Force and Galaxy Force 2. The game was updated with graphical and audio improvements. The waiting sequence at the start of a game when a credit is inserted is different. The game also added an accelerator, allowing players to vary their speed while flying. The game was also extended to 23 levels, and minor changes were added to some enemies, introducing new speed-based challenges with missiles and aircraft behind the player, allowing the user to use the new acceleration control. The soundtrack was updated, using the same songs but with better instruments and more detail.

This second version of the game has some informative secrets and others that are rather useful. For example, on the continue screen, if the player hasn't inserted a new credit yet, they can press the "shoot" button four times. If they miss it twice, insert a coin and press "start." The game will resume, displaying a message that says "Second to 1987." There are other hidden messages in the game. This same secret code is executed every time the player continues, but unfortunately, due to a problem, the rest of the messages are never displayed. The other messages say "present in Sega Bytes, there's a lot of momoko." Programs by Suzuki and Satoshi Mifune. We don't know who she is, like, maybe some secret crush of mine at that moment. The code also works in After Burner 1, but it's much harder to activate because the token and start must be pressed simultaneously, which is difficult to achieve in the arcade. You can also gain advantages in the game by entering different codes. like extra missiles, points, or other messages. I'll leave the codes in the description in case anyone wants to try it. Like Auto and After Burner, it was also released on different consoles and computers, but suffered from the same or worse problems because the After Band hardware was very powerful and difficult to port to other platforms.

Good morning, this is today's retro game. Leave me your opinion in the comments and if you played it in your youth.