Welcome! This site is dedicated to the outstanding Konami arcade game Time Pilot '84. The game had some mighty big shoes to fill being the sequel to Time Pilot. Fortunately the game is great in its own right and could easily stand on its own.

Here you will find information about the game including a roster of enemies, tips, strategies, and secrets. So kick back and stroll around. And if you're so inclined, let me know what you think.

Happy New Year! This site just keeps chugging along, huh? It's old enough to drink now so that's something.

Falcor781 got in touch recently to share their achievement in recording the first Time Pilot 84 kill screen! It's a heck of a watch.

Falcor was also kind enough to share some strategies and tips for the game. Enjoy!

1. Extra life on stage 5: My friend Hanasu and I were playing and he accidentally stumbled upon an extra life plane that appears on stage 5. I was able to reproduce getting it myself through MAME savestates. Unlike on stage 2, it scrolls horizontally. The interesting thing about it is that it only appears if you do not get the plane on level 2. See the red boxed area.

2. The bonus tanks continue to appear after stage 6 and I believe for every level throughout the game. I have not yet mapped out where all of them are, and will give you more info once I do. They basically come out in the same set of locations as far as I can tell, though.
3. Point pressing: There's some sort of internal counters that determine whether or not the end-of-stage boss will appear. It has to do with how many enemies you kill on screen in part. I think it also has to do a bit with a timer as well (e.g. if you spawn special enemies like planes, or the missile guy comes out), and level number. However, I have not been able to actually put the math together. I have been able to score as high as over 81,000 points on level 1, though!
4. Enemies will not shoot you if you are really, really close to them (not on top, but relatively close). Having this knowledge can be used to your advantage.
5. The way the level 2 or 5 planes emerge is that you have to be going in the vertical (for level 2), or horizontal (for level 5) direction at the time when gray enemies are about to respawn in their cycle. It helps if you're able to kill gray enemies while they are on screen to entice the extra life plane to come out. I don't have an exact science to it, but in my gameplay, you can kinda see what I'm trying to do to coax the plane out.

Seventeen years. The site is almost an adult. In the meantime I've had kids and my kids are almost adults. WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE.

Sooooo the top level domain works again. Don't remember when I got that re-enabled. The JavaScript map scroller thing died a while back. Probably when websites became paranoid about executing code. At least you can still view and download all the maps.

Speaking of which, I added watermarks to the maps. Not to be a jerk about anything, but to protect myself in case someone else decides to be a jerk.

I just got back from this year's California Extreme and it's still fun seeing all those old arcade cabs in one place. I have never seen a TP84 machine at any of the CA Extremes I have attended. Too bad all I have is the PCB and not the full cabinet. Heck, there wasn't even a Time Pilot (original) there this year. That's a shame because it's still one of my faves.

When did this turn into a blog? What is this, the 90s? Well, I am hand-editing this html so maybe there's some time wibbly wobbly going on...

To save money I let the top level domain TimePilot84.com lapse. Of course if you're reading this you know the site is still reachable at http://www.dragonshadow.com/timepilot84.

I also noticed that the site recently hit its 10th year in existence. Thanks to those visitors that have dropped me a line about the site.

I've had this sitting in my inbox for a few months now. Someone suggested I link to the Twin Galaxies high score page for TP84. Brilliant idea so here it is.

While I'm doing links, here's a few more to other Time Pilot '84 pages.

• Killer List of Video Games
• Wikipedia page
• Everything2

I got a mail from reader Rick Kuszewski that is looking to sell his Time Pilot '84 standup arcade machine. It's in great condition and he can provide pics. He's located in the Chicago area. If you're interested send me a mail using the link to the left and I'll get you in touch with him.

Reader Chris B. pointed out a tank formation that I was missing. I added that and labeled the six formations to indicate on which stage they appear.

I also added his strategy for taking out the tank formation on the first level. It's on the enemies page.

I encountered a new tank formation on level 6 yesterday. It's been added to the appropriate map. The new one is in the bottom left corner on the road. I need to label those formations to indicate on what levels they appear.

On the fun side I attempted several times to destroy the tank formation on the first level (just north-west of your starting position). I just can't do it! If I do manage to get all eight it's purely luck and not something I can repeat with any consistency.

Check out the spiffy map section. Most of the map features are up. I'll put the 1-up bonus on its own map, but for now you can see it on the All Map. Look for the green circle in the bottom right corner.

Over a year since the last update huh? I'll see what I can do to keep that from happening again.

I recently finished cleaning up the world map. It's 2048x2048 pixels large and I'm not sure how to display it here. If I had any Java skills I could make an applet that lets you scroll around the landscape. For now at least I put up a small snippet in the map section.

As mentioned way back in May of 2001 (damn I'm lazy), I plan to use the map to show various things about the game. I'll have all the tank patterns labeled as well as the secret targets.

Here's a scan of the instruction sticker that came with the TP '84 kits. Click the image to get a larger sized version (193 kB).

After a couple good rounds with the game I discovered further information about some of the enemies. For one, I saw the bonus formation ( ) two more times in levels 4 and 7. Also, I spotted the 1-up bonus ( ) on level 8. It seems the levels follow a pattern that repeats every six worlds. For instance, the 1-up appears on levels 2 & 8 while the bonus formations on levels 1, 4, and 7 (and I'll bet 10).

Lots of little improvements. Included a couple more screenshots in the enemies section. Also fixed some of the text and filled out the description of the individual gray enemies.

Pop on over to the game summary page for a description of Time Pilot '84. I will be adding some screenshots and possibly more text as I think of it. One item I would like to put on the site is some history of the game. Maybe someday.

I added all the enemies to the enemies page. I may fill in details and will fix inaccuracies as I find them, but for the most part it is done.

More enemy descriptions are available on the enemies page. I will fill in some more details later tonight.

The first three enemies are listed on the enemies page. There are more to come of course.

Here's the first cut of the layout for the site. The links to the left don't do anything yet.

The first thing I am working on for the site is a full map of the Time Pilot '84 world. Using this I can point out items of interest such as the secret targets, tank formations, and so on.

The new color scheme matches the first level in the game. Plus purple is just cool :)

Keep your eyes peeled to this space for all your Time Pilot '84 info. All your Time Pilot are belong to...aw forget it.