After Burner (アフターバーナー?) is a 1987 Japanese flight simulator arcade game by Sega. It is one of the first games designed by Yu Suzuki. The player flew an F-14 using a specialized joystick (with moving seat, in some installations), and the game spawned several sequels.
Gameplay
The game allows the player to control a F-14 Tomcat jet, which must destroy a series of enemy jets throughout 18 stages. At the start of the game, the player takes off from an aircraft carrier called the Sega Enterprise, which shares a similar name to the one used in the 1986 film Top Gun.
The jet itself employs a machine gun and a limited set of missiles. These weapons are replenished by another aircraft after beating a few stages. The aircraft, cannon and missile buttons are all controlled from an integrated flight stick.
The game itself was released in two variations: a standard upright cabinet and a rotating cockpit version. In the cockpit version, the seat rotated horizontally, and the cockpit rotated vertically.
In popular culture
In the 1991 movie, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, John Connor plays After Burner at an arcade.
In another 1991 movie, Suburban Commando, the main character Shep Ramsey plays the game after thinking it’s a real battle, rather than a video game. Although the film tries to imply that it’s a space battle video game, it is clearly seen to be After Burner.
In Red Dwarf series 2 and 3, there is an After Burner upright cabinet in the bar/disco area.
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