Description of After Burner - MAME

Afterburner is a classic arcade combat-flight-sim/rail-shooter game, every solid gamer born before the dawn of the new millennium probably already knows. You take the role of an american F-14 Tomcat fighter jet pilot, whose sole task is to live through all the eighteen stages the game features, while blasting down as much enemy planes as possible. For that, your Tomcat is equipped with an M-61 Vulcan machine gun and a limited number of AIM-54 Phoenix semi-active radar homing missiles (why, yes, I’m a gun and aviation nerd, and although it’s not directly stated anywhere in the game, real F-14s indeed used AIM-54s, and the missiles actually shown in the game are just way too big to be Sidewinders). Now, for a game released in 1987, SEGA did a great deal of quality work here, especially when it comes to the graphics. Really, the visuals are top-notch, although the pseudo-3D might feel a bit confusing and hard to navigate at first. Well, actually it’s highly probable you’ll feel all kinds of dizzy from all those 2D sprites coming at you to simulate a 3D environment. But hey, bite the bullet, nugget, you’re not in Kansas anymore! The original Afterburner cabinet featured a full-blown sit-down cockpit, with a joystick and two buttons (on the joystick). Here, if you have a flight-stick lying somewhere around, congratulations, you’re in for some realistic arcade nostalgia. But the rest of us will probably have to stick with a mouse/gamepad and a keyboard combo anyway. And personally, I might in the end prefer my mouse anyway, as the analog sticks on my gamepad are all too much sensitive even if I pull the MAME sensitivity slider all the way down to the zero. But hey, if you were luckier with your gamepad choice, suit yourself and use it. Now—obviously—the joystick is there for piloting your jet (what else, damn?). But the two remaining buttons are your good friends too – you use the to fire all your goodies: MAME button1 for onboard machinegun and MAME button2 for launching your Phoenixes. Machinegun ammo is ‘stuck on infinity’, so to speak. The number of missiles carried onboard, however, is limited, as I’ve said before. But worry not, every now and then a refueling plane appears and replenishes your ammo reserves. So, once you have a solid lock on the target, don’t hesitate to fire all those bad boys at all! All and all Afterburner is a classic. Personally I find the gameplay of G-LOC a little bit more appealing, namely because unlike in Afterburner you can see the combat from the first person view here. But all that being said, Afterburner’s visuals are clearly at the top, pushing the game high up in the list of all arcade flight-sims. Note: If you wonder why didn’t I mention anything regarding player’s lives in the game, let’s just say two things. First, it isn’t all that hard for you to figure it out yourself. And second, the whole health system hugely depends on the DIP switch settings. But let’s just give you all a little tip here. Beleive it or not, you can buy additional lives in-game by pressing the coin button.

This game After Burner - MAME working perfectly with emulator version mame64ui, you can download on this web site.