Time Pilot
Time Pilot is a multi-directional scrolling shooter and free-roaming aerial combat arcade game designed by Yoshiki Okamoto, released by Konami in 1982, and distributed in the United States by Centuri. Debuting in the golden age of video arcade games, it is a time travel themed game that allowed the player's plane to freely move across open air space that can scroll indefinitely in all directions. The Killer List of Videogames included Time Pilot in its list of top 100 arcade games of all time.
The player assumes the role of a pilot of a futuristic fighter jet, trying to rescue fellow pilots trapped in different time eras. The player must fight off hordes of enemy craft and defeat the mother ship (or "boss") present in every level. 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 center.
70Wit Score
Details
DeveloperKonami
PublisherColeco, Centuri
ReleasedNovember 1, 1982
StatusReleased
Genres
Themes
Platforms
Modes
SeriesTime Pilot
Wit-Index Intelligence
Community Score
Worth Playing70/100
About This Game
A pilot finds themselves stranded across five distinct historical eras, each filled with hostile aircraft and extraterrestrial threats that must be overcome to escape. In each time period—from early aviation through the early 2000s—the player must eliminate waves of enemy fighters while rescuing fellow aviators descending by parachute, building toward a climactic confrontation with that era's powerful mothership. Destroying the massive vessel requires precision and persistence, eliminating all remaining threats and triggering passage to the next period. Once all five eras have been conquered, the cycle repeats with increased difficulty and speed, testing whether the pilot can survive the gauntlet once more. The visual landscape shifts dramatically across the centuries, from cloudy skies above biplanes and helicopters to the star-filled void where UFOs reign supreme.