After Burner III
From Sega Retro
After Burner III | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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System(s): Sega Mega-CD, FM Towns | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Publisher: CRI (Japan) Sega of America (US) Sega Enterprises, Ltd. (Europe) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Developer: CRI | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Licensor: Sega Enterprises, Ltd. (JP) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Peripherals supported: Six Button Control Pad, XE-1 AP | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Genre: Shooting[1][2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Number of players: 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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After Burner III (アフターバーナーIII) is an aircraft combat game developed for the Sega Mega-CD and FM Towns. It is a port of Strike Fighter, which only saw release in Japanese arcades, adding a CD audio soundtrack (with the addition of music from After Burner II) and cinematic sequences. Though the original arcade game used sprite-scaling extensively, the Mega-CD port does not use the console's dedicated sprite-scaling hardware, instead using pre-scaled sprites.
As Strike Fighter was actually a sequel to G-LOC: Air Battle, it does not have a third-person perspective view like After Burner and After Burner II. After Burner III adds this view as an option.
Contents
Gameplay
Mega-CD version
The player pilots an F-14 Tomcat fighter jet. The jet flies itself through each stage, and the player can engage or evade the various enemies that appear, which include enemy jets as well as ground-based targets. The jet climbs with and dives with . It rolls with and . In the Western versions, the player can choose between two rolling modes in the options: free, where the jet maintains its angle after rolling, and limited, where the jet levels itself after the player releases the D-Pad. The jet can engage its afterburners with , which increases its movement speed. A meter appears to show the power of the afterburners. The afterburners can be used to dodge missiles or outmaneuver enemies. The player can slow the movement of the F-14 by raising its flaps with .
The jet fires its Vulcan cannon with (or ) and fires its Sidewinder missiles with (or ). Both weapons have unlimited ammunition. While the cannons are always fired in the same position in front of the jet, there is a square target zone in the middle of the screen with a crosshair for the missiles. The crosshair automatically moves to acquire the nearest target within this square and turns red when it has locked onto a target.
The jet has a damage meter that increases as it takes damage from enemy fire. The jet is destroyed if the meter fills. Enemy missiles destroy the jet regardless of how much damage it has taken previously. The player continues the mission with a new jet as long as there are extra jets remaining. If the player runs out of extra jets, the game can only be continued by using a continue. Each continue has 3 jets. The player gains an extra jet at 6,000,000 points and then every 3,000,000 points after that. There are three different difficulty levels (Easy, Normal, and Expert), selectable in the options before starting the game. On Easy, the game consists of 11 stages and the player has 2 continues. On Normal, the game has 15 stages and the player has 3 continues. On Expert, the game has 20 stages and the player has 4 continues.
There is an option for changing the perspective between the default cockpit view, as used in the arcade game, and a view from behind the jet, as used by other After Burner games. This option is immediately available in the Western versions but hidden in a special options menu in the Japanese version. When using the cockpit view, the game automatically switches to the back view when an enemy fighter or missile is on the jet's tail. The HUD has a compass and an altimeter in both views. In the cockpit view, there is also a radar and an artificial horizon. Only the Western versions of the game support the Six Button Control Pad, and these versions contain an additional setting to allow switching between the two views during the game with MODE .
In addition the regular game, there are two competition modes: Time Competition, where the player has 90 seconds to hit at least 30 targets, and Hit Competition, where the player has 90 seconds to hit as many targets as possible. As with the regular game, the player has a limited number of spare jets available to use before the challenge is failed; the timer continues rolling if the player's jet is destroyed.
Stages
Stage 1 | |
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Stage 2 | |
Stage 3 | |
Stage 4 | |
Stage 5 | |
Stage 6 | |
Stage 7 | |
Stage 8 | |
Stage 9 | |
Stage 10 | |
Stage 11 | |
Stage 12 | |
Stage 13 | |
Stage 14 | |
Stage 15 | |
Stage 16 | |
Stage 17 | |
Stage 18 | |
Stage 19 | |
Stage 20 | |
Production credits
Mega-CD version
- Chief Programmer: T.Kujirai
- Sub Programmer: S.Ikegami
- Map Design: A.Nagano
- Support: Y.Ishida, H.Ikebe, T.Miyamoto
- Opening Scenario: K.Arai
- Opening Graphics: Studio B.C
- Opening Program: M.Tanaka
- Title Logo Design: Avanti
- Title Logo Editor: H.Tanaka
- Title Back Picture: Kantousya
- Title Back Graphic Editor: K.Tsuchida, M.Yoneda
- Music Arranged by: Sol.Inc
- FM S.E. Programmed by: Cube
- Sales Dept.: S.Tanaka, T.Suzuki, K.Tanaka, T.Endo
- Public Relations Dept.: K.Maeda, T.Yasuda
- Thanks: S.Izumi, T.Nagasato, M.Sato, K.Yabuno, S.Endo, K.Fujita, H.Gunji, M. Sasaki, T.Kanou, N.Omoda, H.Yamashita, S.Take, E.Kurabayashi, T.Hashimoto, M.Suwabe, M.Koizumi, H.Tashiro, K.Iwanami, Y.Honda, Y.Ayabe
- Director: H.Ohtaka
- Sound Support: A.Wada
- Graphic Support: M.Yanagida
- Special Thanks: S.O.A., Sega Enterprises
- Producer: T.Shimizu
- Executive Producer: T.Kobayashi
- Presented by: CRI
Magazine articles
- Main article: After Burner III/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
- Main article: After Burner III/Promotional material.
Physical scans
Mega-CD version
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54 | |
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Based on 31 reviews |
FM Towns version
Technical information
- Main article: After Burner III/Technical information.
External links
- Sega of America webpage: Mega CD
References
- ↑ File:AfterBurnerIII MCD JP Box Front.jpg
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://sega.jp/fb/segahard/mcd/soft_licensee.html (Wayback Machine: 2019-06-10 17:56)
- ↑ File:AfterBurnerIII MCD JP Box Back.jpg
- ↑ https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.video.sega/c/V7zWWt21luc/m/FGNxwdul9P4J
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 GamePro, "August 1993" (US; 1993-xx-xx), page 100
- ↑ Sega Pro, "July 1993" (UK; 1993-06-10), page 18
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Sega Power, "September 1993" (UK; 1993-08-05), page 60
- ↑ Mega Power, "February 1994" (UK; 1994-01-20), page 70
- ↑ Select Round, "Septembre 1993" (FR; 1993-xx-xx), page 2
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Sega Magazin, "September/Oktober 1993" (DE; 1993-09-01), page 28
- ↑ File:After Burner III MCD credits.pdf
- ↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "December 1992" (JP; 1992-11-07), page 32
- ↑ Console Mania, "Ottobre 1993" (IT; 1993-xx-xx), page 81
- ↑ Computer & Video Games, "July 1993" (UK; 1993-06-15), page 109
- ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "May 1993" (US; 1993-xx-xx), page 30
- ↑ Mean Machines: The Essential Sega Guide, "" (UK; 1993-11-18), page 119
- ↑ Famitsu, "1992-11-27" (JP; 1992-11-13), page 40
- ↑ Game Players, "Vol. 6 No. 10 October 1993" (US; 1993-xx-xx), page 125
- ↑ Hippon Super, "December 1992" (JP; 1992-11-04), page 80
- ↑ Joypad, "Février 1993" (FR; 1993-0x-xx), page 100
- ↑ Joypad, "Octobre 1993" (FR; 1993-xx-xx), page 164
- ↑ Joypad, "2/1994" (HU; 1994-xx-xx), page 16
- ↑ Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming, "March 1993" (UK; 1993-xx-xx), page 54
- ↑ Mega Drive Fan, "April 1993" (JP; 1993-03-xx), page 59
- ↑ Mega, "February 1993" (UK; 1993-01-21), page 36
- ↑ Mega Action, "July 1993" (UK; 1993-06-17), page 32
- ↑ Mega Force, "Mega-CD Force: Le Supplément Spécial Mega-CD" (FR; 1993-xx-xx), page 25
- ↑ MegaTech, "March 1993" (UK; 1993-02-20), page 28
- ↑ Marukatsu Mega Drive, "January 1993" (JP; 1992-12-xx), page 108
- ↑ Mean Machines Sega, "March 1993" (UK; 1993-02-28), page 74
- ↑ Player One, "Octobre 1993" (FR; 1993-xx-xx), page 149
- ↑ Sega Pro, "March 1993" (UK; 1993-02-11), page 62
- ↑ Sega Pro, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-11), page 74
- ↑ Sega Zone, "March 1993" (UK; 1993-02-11), page 52
- ↑ Sega Force, "March 1993" (UK; 1993-02-04), page 70
- ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 87
- ↑ Sonic the Comic, "26th June 1993" (UK; 1993-06-26), page 10
- ↑ Supergame, "Junho 1993" (BR; 1993-06-xx), page 20
- ↑ Video Games, "9/93" (DE; 1993-08-25), page 44
After Burner III | |
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Main page | Comparisons | Hidden content | Magazine articles | Reception | Promotional material | Technical information |
Games in the After Burner Series | |
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After Burner (1987) | After Burner II (home computers) (1987) | G-LOC: Air Battle (home computers) (1990) | Strike Fighter (1991) | Sky Target (1995) | Sega Strike Fighter (2000) | After Burner Climax (2006) | |
After Burner (1987) | G-LOC: Air Battle (1991) | |
After Burner (1988) | |
After Burner II (1990) | G-LOC: Air Battle (1993) | |
G-LOC: Air Battle (1990) | |
After Burner III (1992) | |
After Burner Complete (1995) | |
Sega Ages After Burner II (1996) | Sky Target (1997) | |
Sky Target (1997) | |
After Burner II (200x) | After Burner II DX (2007) | |
Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 10: After Burner II (2004) | |
After Burner: Black Falcon (2007) | |
After Burner Climax (2010) | |
3D After Burner II (2013) | |
After Burner Climax (2013) | |
After Burner related media | |
(1987) | (1990) | (1991) | (1997) | (1998) | (2006) | (2007) | (2018) | (2020) | |
(1987) | (1987) |
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