Tail Gunner

Tail Gunner is a monochrome vector arcade game created by Vectorbeam in 1979. The premise of the game is that the player is the tailgunner of a large space ship. Enemy spacecraft attack the vessel in groups of three, and the player must aim a set of crosshairs and shoot the enemies before they slip past the player's cannons. Because of the game's depicted viewpoint, instead of appearing to fly into the starfield, the stars move toward the center of the screen.[2]

This article is about the 1979 arcade game. For the military role, see Tail gunner.
Tail Gunner
Developer(s)Vectorbeam
Publisher(s)Cinematronics
Designer(s)Dan Sunday
Larry Rosenthal
Platform(s)Arcade
ReleaseNovember 1979[1]
Genre(s)Shooter
Mode(s)Single player
CabinetVertical
Arcade systemVectorbeam hardware
CPUCCPU @ 5 MHz
SoundAmplified mono, 1 channel
DisplayVector, monochrome

In addition to shooting down the enemy ships, the player is also given limited use of a shield that can block ships from passing. The game ends when ten ships slip past the player's cannon. The game was sold as Tail Gunner II in a sit down cabinet[3] and its controls consisted of a single metal joystick with fire button integrated to the tip.

Tail Gunner's sound card was more complicated than any Cinematronics/Vectorbeam game before it. The cabinet uses the monitor's DAC to translate input from the joystick, so other games cannot necessarily be mounted in a Tail Gunner cabinet.[4]

References
  1. Arcade History page on Tail Gunner
  2. "The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to Playstation and Beyond".
  3. "THE HISTORY OF CINEMATRONICS AND A DESCRIPTION OF THEIR VECTOR GAMES". Tail Gunner came out in a sit-down version, Tail Gunner II.
  4. "THE HISTORY OF CINEMATRONICS AND A DESCRIPTION OF THEIR VECTOR GAMES".
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