After Burner

For Western home computer versions, see After Burner (home computers).

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X Board Master System
After Burner
System(s): Sega X Board, Sega Master System
Publisher: Sega Enterprises, Ltd.
Developer: Studio 128 Sega Enterprises, Ltd.
Distributor: Amiro (FR) Unidesa (ES) Tonka (US) Atoll (BX) Brio (SE) Kanal 10 (SE rental) Zegetron (GR) Tec Toy (BR) Samsung (KR)
Peripherals supported: FM Sound Unit
Genre: Shooting
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1987-07-13 ¥? ? US 1987-10 $? ? UK 1987-10 £4,000 ? UK 19xx £? ? JP 1987-12-12 ¥5800 G-1340 US 1988-03 9001 EU 1988 MK-9001-50 BX 19xx FR 198x 300F MK-9001-50 UK 1988-03 £24.95 MK-9001-50 SE 19xx SE (Rental) 19xx GR 19xx AU 1988 MK-9001-50 BR 19xx KR 19xx GB-4340

After Burner (アフターバーナー) is a third-person rail shooter arcade game designed by Yu Suzuki and developed by Studio 128, released for the Sega X Board system in 1987. The game was released in three variations: a standard upright cabinet, and two cockpit versions, one that tilts left and right, and one a rotating cockpit version. An updated version was released months later, After Burner II.

After Burner stands as one of Sega's most successful arcade games, building on the momentum started earlier in the decade with Hang-On, Space Harrier and OutRun. It was the first game to utilise Sega X Board technology, allowing for the easy scaling and rotation of in-game sprites, producing three-dimensional graphics. It is also remembered for its then-revolutionary sit-down cabinet design, complete with a horizontally rotating seat and a vertically rotating cockpit, controlled (like the game) by the integrated analog flight stick, with the cabinet's motion corresponding to the joystick's movement.

Its analog flight-stick controls moved in all directions and measured the degree of push, a precursor to the analog thumbsticks of later console controllers including the XE-1 AP, N64 controller and Control Pad (Saturn). After Burner's gameplay also featured a lock-on system, which was adopted by later rail shooters such as Sega's Panzer Dragoon and Rez.

Story

After Burner takes place in the year "199X", where the world's power is divided between countries "A" and "Z". Taking inspiration from the 1986 film Top Gun, you play as a unnamed navy pilot from A, and are given a top-secret order to prevent Z from creating a superweapon. Flying your aircraft across opposition territory from the aircraft carrier "Sega Enterprise", the objective is to impede Z's ability to create such a weapon and return to base. Along the way the player engages in dog fights with Z's air force.

The precise details vary depending on version; while typically the plot sees the player destroy two bases in which the key to the superweapon is housed, the Japanese Master System version claims you are collecting the information to be delivered to a special lab along the way (although by missing the levels in which there is a base to attack, in reality you are just flying in a circle).

While A and Z are analogous to the cold war adversaries, the United States of America and Soviet Union, respectively, neither are specifically mentioned in game, and the scenery you fly across does not reflect any specific part of the world.

Gameplay

In After Burner, the player pilots an F-14 Tomcat-inspired jet (named F-14 Thunder Cat in the Master System manual) through 18 levels, destroying enemies with machine gun fire and a limited supply of missiles. Similar to Space Harrier, it is an "on-the-rails" shooter - the plane will travel continuously into the screen, with players only able to adjust its X and Y coordinates.

The objective in After Burner is to survive through each of the 18 stages, usually by avoiding enemy missile fire. Shooting down enemies is technically optional (with most points coming from merely staying alive), although alleviates the risk of being destroyed. The player has a limited supply of missiles which are refueled at various intervals throughout the game.

Every six levels is a "bonus" stage, where rather than fight enemy planes, the player is required to dodge scenery. These sections house enemy bases, with points awarded for attacking buildings and vehicles, though despite what the plot claims, destruction is again optional.

History

Development

After Burner began development in December 1986. It was inspired by Yu Suzuki's real-life experience of personally piloting a real jet aircraft and participating in air combat when he visited Florida, United States:

“	At first, after reading all the appropriate guides, they lectured us for a couple of hours, explaining everything. Afterwards, I got into a jet aircraft, and flew around with an instructor. The aircraft was equipped with a laser gun and smoke bombs. And there were two of us. If you hit the opponent, a smoke bomb activates, and that means he was shot. And we were flying around for about two hours shooting each other. [...] After that, I realized that all games about aircraft aren't interesting enough. ... Because in those it was much more difficult to control the aircraft than in real life. Seriously! And I realized something: all those flight simulators were created by people who hadn't even flown a real aircraft!	„
— Yu Suzuki

The game was also influenced by popular culture. Suzuki was originally inspired by Hayao Miyazaki's 1986 anime film Laputa: Castle in the Sky, and the game was going to have a similar steampunk sci-fi/fantasy theme. After watching the 1986 Hollywood film Top Gun, the team realized that the game needs to attract worldwide audiences, so they changed it to a more realistic theme with an F-14 fighter jet. The game was intended to start off in the Mediterranean and head towards Russia, but the team didn't have the time to scout out locations like they did for Out Run, so much of the scenery in After Burner ended up being imaginary. A major challenge when creating the game was sprite/texture rotation, researching how to rotate the surfaces of the sprites, which was a major milestone. Another major milestone was making the smoke trails from missiles look more realistic.

Several members of the development team worked mainly worked on the project at night, with Satoshi Mifune recalling in After Burner 20th Anniversary Box that he often worked until 3 or 4 O'clock in the morning, then played late night billiards at a pool bar, come back to the office at 7 A.M., had a nap, and then continued working at 7 P.M.. A lot of time spent programming the game was also wasted, due to unfortunate circumstances surrounding the different programmers. One of the programmers, Masahiko Kobayashi (also known as Match) would regularly save backups of the work of lead programmer Yu Suzuki's work before Kobayashi returned home. Suzuki would then continue programming early in the morning, but while napping later in the day, Kobayashi would return and restore progress back to the previous backup, causing Suzuki to have to do the work all over again. This is recorded to have went on for several days before the cause was discovered.

After Burner was originally designed to have melodies play over the "After Burner/Red Out" and "Final Take Off" music tracks, but these were taken out of the final game, potentially through fears that they'd be drowned out in a busy arcade environment. Though these versions were never heard in the arcades, they adapted for the album Sega Game Music Vol. 3 After Burner in 1987 (appearing in other albums since), and have been brought back as options in later games (for example, 3D After Burner II). The melodies were also used for the FM Towns version released in 1989, in a remixed CD format.

Release

The Sega Master System port of After Burner used a 512 KB (4 Mbit) cartridge, which was unusually large for a Master System game released in 1987.

Legacy

The original After Burner was released exclusively in Japan, however the western world would receive an updated version of the game, After Burner II in the months which followed. After Burner II is extremely similar in design, bar a few minor tweaks (such as a throttle control, extra levels and slight changes to the missile system), so much so that people often consider it to be a more "complete" version of After Burner than a direct sequel. Due to the similarities and shared cabinet designs and artwork, After Burner II is frequently confused for the original After Burner. A similar relationship would develop with Galaxy Force and Galaxy Force II, also produced by Sega AM2.

In its original form, After Burner was only ported to the Sega Master System (as the console's first four megabit game), however many ports of After Burner II were released under the name of After Burner for home consoles and computers, including the Amiga (twice), Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, IBM PC, FM Towns, MSX, PC Engine, X68000 and ZX Spectrum.

It was also ported to the Sega 32X by Rutubo Games and went under the name of After Burner Complete.

After Burner in its original form was also released as part of Sega Arcade Gallery for the Game Boy Advance.

After Burner has made appearances in popular culture. For example, it made an appearance in the 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Production credits

Main article: After Burner/Production credits.

Magazine articles

Main article: After Burner/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Main article: After Burner/Promotional material.

Photo gallery

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  Sit-down cabinet

Physical scans

X Board version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score Commodore User (UK) 80 Power Play (DE) 80 Sinclair User (UK) 80

	80
Based on 3 reviews

After Burner

X Board, JP

Master System version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score ACE (UK) 70 Aktueller Software Markt (DE) 63 Complete Guide to Consoles (UK) 51 Complete Guide to Consoles (UK) 51 The Complete Guide to Sega (UK) PAL 51 Computer Action (DK) 50 Console XS (UK) PAL 85 Computer & Video Games (UK) 90 The Games Machine (UK) 60 Games Preview (DK) 45 Génération 4 (FR) 81 Micromanía (segunda época) (ES) 70 Mean Machines Sega (UK) 51 Power Play (DE) 50 Sega News (CZ) 68 Sega Power (UK) PAL 51 Sega Power (UK) PAL 25 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 93 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 85 Software Gids (NL) 72 Tilt (FR) 75 Video Game (BR) 75

	64
Based on 22 reviews

After Burner

Master System, JP
Box
Cart Manual

Master System, US
Cover
Cart Manual Poster

Master System, EU
Cover
Cart Manual

Master System, EU (Sega®)
Cover
Manual

Master System, EU ("No Limits")
Cover
Manual

Master System, FR (Blister pack)
Box

Master System, FR (Plain blister pack)
Box

Master System, BX†
Cover
Cart

Master System, SE (Brio)
Manual

Master System, SE (rental; Kanal 10)
Cover

Master System, GR (Zegetron)
Cart

Master System, AU
Cover
Manual

Master System, AU (No barcode variant)
Cover
Cart Manual

Master System, BR
Cover
Cart Manual

Master System, BR (newer)
Cover
Cart Manual

Master System, KR
Cart

Master System, MX
Cover
Cart

Master System, ZA
Cover
Cart

Mega-Tech version

Mega-Tech,
Cart

Technical information

Main article: After Burner/Technical information.