A top-down sequel, Time Pilot '84, was released in arcades in 1984. It eliminated the time-travel motif and instead took place over a futuristic landscape.
Gameplay
Players assume the role of a pilot of a futuristic fighterjet trying to rescue fellow pilots trapped in different time eras. The player's jet remains in the center of the screen at all times, and the eight-direction joystick causes their jet to rotate to face in that direction, causing the screen to scroll in that direction to present forward motion.
In each level, players battle many enemy aircraft and the occasional stronger aircraft. After a fixed number of these aircraft are destroyed, as displayed on a bar at the bottom right of the screen, a mothership appears. Once the mothership is defeated, they move onto the next time period. Parachuting pilots will occasionally appear and award players points if collected.
There are five levels: 1910, 1940, 1970, 1982/1983[b] and 2001. After the fifth level is finished, the game repeats thereafter.
Extra lives are given at 10,000 points, and per 50,000 scored up to 960,000; thereafter, the game goes to "survival of the fittest" mode.
Fighters are destroyed if they collide into bullets, enemy ships, bombs or missiles. Game ends when their last fighter is destroyed.
Development
Designer 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 he pretended to work on a driving game in front of his boss.[12]
Reception
In Japan, the annual Game Machine chart listed Time Pilot as the fifth highest-grossing arcade video game of 1982.[13]Game Machine later listed Time Pilot on their June 1, 1983 issue as being the eighteenth most popular arcade title of the month.[14]
In the United States, the game topped the Play Meter arcade earnings chart in February 1983.[15] The Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA) later listed it among the thirteen highest-earning arcade games of 1983.[16]
↑As this level represents what was then the present day, all releases of Time Pilot produced after 1982 contain an updated version of the game that changes the year to 1983.
12"Overseas Readers Column - Konami's Video "Time Pilot" Licensed To Century Of U.S.A.". Game Machine (in Japanese). No.203. Amusement Press, Inc. December 15, 1982. p.30.
