Lost In Translation/Time Pilot

About The Game
Time Pilot is a multi-directional arcade video game shoot-em-up.

Level Overview
Time Pilot consists of 5 different rounds of play which are as follows :

Round 1 : A.D. 1910 - The Age Of Biplane
The attackers are biplanes coming from random directions. Enemy planes shoots at your plane and throw hand grenades when close to you. After 56 biplanes are destroyed, the Mother-Ship appears : a giant air balloon shooting at you! Only 7 hits will destroy the Mother-Ship. During the same stage, one to five parachutes will appear. Dock with them for bonus points.

Round 2 : A.D. 1940 - The Age Of Monoplane
Enemies are monoplane fighters, middle size bombers and large bomber (Mother-Ship). Middle size bombers are aiming constantly at your plane! It could be destroyed by 4 hits and awards 1,500 points.

Round 3 : A.D. 1970 - The Age Of Helicopter
Enemies now are helicopters and large one (Mother-Ship). As a new level of difficulty, the helicopters are using homing missiles.

Round 4 : A.D. 1982 - The Age Of Jetplane
The enemies are modern jet fighters shooting and launching homing missiles. A modern large jet bomber is the Mother-Ship. This is one of the most difficult rounds of the game due to increased speed of jet fighters and random direction attacks.

Round 5 : A.D. 2001 - The Age Of U.F.O.
Hard to be reached and very hard to be passed. Great number of U.F.O.'s are attacking from any direction changing their angles of attack and throwing at your plane two types of Alien Weapons. The stage is fast paced and the Mother-Ship, a superfortress U.F.O., can not be so easily destroyed.

The next, Round 6, is identical with Round 1, but the number of planes attacking you, the speed and number of shots and grenades are gradually increased.

Time Pilot continues with Round 7, 8... making your mission harder and harder. The game is all over when all your planes are destroyed.

Trivia
Released in November 1982.

Licensed to Centuri for US manufacture and distribution (12/1982). Also licensed to Atari.

Yoshiki was told to design a driving game. When he learned of the game's concept, he balked at making it and started on Time Pilot. As development continued, Okamoto showed his boss design docs for the driving game, all the while working on Time Pilot. Although his boss told him to do the driving game instead, he tried to take the credit for Time Pilot. Okamoto decided not to disgrace his boss and let the episode go!!

The background moves in the opposite direction to the player's plane, rather than the other way around; the player's plane always remains in the centre.

A bootleg of this game is known as "Space Pilot".

Game Instructions

 * 1) Control your plane with joystick. Avoid being hit by bullets, bombs and missiles. Do not crash into enemy planes.
 * 2) Advance to next stage by destroying 56 enemies and 7 hits on Mother Ship.
 * 3) Dock with parachutes for bonus points.
 * 4) Bonus plane after 10,000 points, 60,000-points and each additional 50,000 points.
 * 5) Game over when all of your planes are destroyed.


 * The enemy planes/ships find it hardest to shoot you when you are moving in a diagonal direction, so move this way the majority of the time. Just remember to watch your back!


 * Since your ship is very manoeuvrable you can turn through 180 degrees very quickly to pick off an enemy directly behind you. Simply move the joystick or use the keys to face in the opposite direction and you will flip round.


 * Homing missiles - keep firing to destroy them. Alternatively, move your fighter so that the missiles move off screen, and they do not return.


 * The boss ships always move horizontally across the screen. Wait until they pass you, and then move directly behind them. You can then shoot them at will to destroy them.


 * Concentrate on collecting the parachutists where possible, as these represent your biggest potential points haul. On the second level you can leave a few planes remaining and collect parachutists for as long as possible, as this level has no homing missiles and also more parachutists than level one.


 * If you are killed by colliding with an enemy ship you are registered with the points as if you had shot it. This means extra lives are still awarded and also if you collide with the end of level boss you will advance to the next level, providing you have at least one life remaining.

A Way To Get A Great Score
Finish the first stage as soon as possible. On the second stage, don't shoot anything!! Eventually, parachutes will start to appear. Collect the parachutes while avoiding the planes. Each parachute (after #4) will give you 5,000 points. It's possible to roll the machine over (999,999+ points) while remaining on level 2 using this strategy. By the way, while using this cheat you can also shoot the 1,500 point bombers without causing the time bar to be shortened.

Series

 * 1) Time Pilot (1982)
 * 2) Time Pilot '84 - Further Into Unknown World (1984)

Staff

 * Programmed By:
 * Toshio Arima


 * Designed By:
 * Yoshiki Okamoto


 * Character By:
 * Hideki Ooyama


 * Sound By:
 * Mashahiro Inoue

Ports

 * Computers :
 * Commodore C64 (1983, "Space Pilot")
 * MSX (1983)
 * Tandy Color Computer (1983, "Fury")
 * Tandy Color Computer (1983, "Time Patrol")
 * Commodore Amiga (1989, "Space Pilot '89")


 * Others :
 * Konami Arcade Advanced Plug 'n Play TV Game (2004 - Majesco)