Tokushu Butai Jackal (Japan, 8-way Joystick) - MAME machine

Arcade Video game published 38 years ago:

Tokushu Butai Jackal © 1986 Konami.

1 or 2 players operate a jeep and must battle their way through a huge, vertically scrolling battlefield. Their mission is to save PoWs and deliver them to the nearest helicopter pad so they can be flown to safety. The hostages are trapped in enemy buildings and PoW camps, which must be destroyed in order to release the prisoners. The jeep can only carry up to a maximum of eight PoWs, the current amount being carried is displayed in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.

The jeep is armed with a machine gun and a grenade thrower, the latter of which can be powered-up into a missile launcher. As well as huge numbers of enemy troops and static gun emplacements, the players must also contend with enemy jeeps, tanks, boats, submarines and planes. The final part of the game takes place in the enemy stronghold and the game ends when the final enemy gun emplacements are destroyed.

TECHNICAL
Game ID: GX631

Main CPU: (2x) M6809
Sound Chips: Yamaha YM2151

Screen orientation: Vertical
Video resolution: 224 x 240 pixels
Screen refresh: 60.00 Hz
Palette colors: 512

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 2

TRIVIA
Tokushu Butai Jackal was released in October 1986 in Japan.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Special Force Jackal'.

This game is known outside Japan as "Jackal" and in US as "Top Gunner".

Default high-score table (score ranking):
1ST 20000 --- M.O
2ND 15000 --- H.O
3RD 10000 --- H.T
4TH 5000 --- M.T
5TH 1000 --- K.M

Alfa Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Konamic Game Freaks: Konami Kukeiha Club - 28XA-135) on March 25, 1987.

UPDATES
In "Top Gunner", the jeep has an American flag flying next to the cannon and the sound effects are slightly different.

SCORING
Scoring in this game is pretty complicated due to the fact that there are a lot of things you can get points for.
BOMBER: 2000 Points
ENEMY SOLDIER: 100 Points
FLAMETHROWER SOLDIER: 200 Points
GRENADE THROWING JEEP: 300 Points
GUN (SMALL, FIRE WHITE SHOTS): 200 Points
GUN (LARGE, FIRE RED SHOTS): 400 Points
HELICOPTER: 2000 Points
MISSILE: 400 Points
MISSILE LAUNCHER: 1300 Points
GUN BOATS: 800 Points
SUBMARINE WITH LASER: 1000 Points
TANK (SMALL, FIRE WHITE SHOTS): 400 Points
TANK (MEDIUM, FIRE RED SHOTS): 800 Points
TANK (LARGE, FIRE BLACK SHOTS): 1000 Points
TROOP TRANSPORT: 100 Points

You also get points for saving POW's and dropping them off at the airfields. The scoring goes like this for POW's; for POW's you liberate from the huts:
First: 100 points
Second: 200 points
Third: 400 points
Fourth: 1000 points
Fifth: 2000 points
Sixth: 3000 points
Seventh: 5000 points
Eighth: 10000 points

You get 10,000 points for every POW rescued after the eighth one. If your jeep gets destroyed, the progression starts over again.

For POW's you drop off at the airstrip, the progression works the same as for liberated POW's. The difference is that if you move away from the airstrip, the progression starts over at 100 points again. If you manage to offload all 8 POW's without breaking away from the airstrip or getting destroyed, each POW liberated after that is worth 10,000 points.

TIPS AND TRICKS
The name of the game is POWERUPS. Your success in this game will depend solely on your ability to obtain and KEEP powerups. Your jeep is equipped with two weapons: a machine gun (always shoots up in TG) and a rocket type weapon that shoots the direction you are facing and can be 'boosted' in various ways and usually in steps or levels of powerup. The default level is short range rocket, which Will stop and destroy many buildings and all vehicles.

Here are the levels of powerup you can obtain for your rocket weapon:
1) Short Range Rocket (default) - shoots a short range rocket.
2) Long Range Rocket - shoots a long range rocket (almost the entire length of the screen).
3) Horizontal Exploding Rocket - same as above but the rocket explodes in two directions horizontally, taking out anything the shrapnel hits.
4) Diagonal Exploding Rocket - same as above but the rocket explodes in 4 directions diagonally, taking out anything the shrapnel hits.

There are a couple of ways of boosting your rocket weapon. The assumed way is to blow up the special bunkers that have a single gun turret and a single POW - picking up the POW will give you a nice points bonus as well as a POWERUP to the next level of rocket weapon. These bunkers are available every so often - but you will need a little something extra to get further in the game. You need to get full powerup quickly - and this is how you do it. A diversion in the game (not required to actually finish it) is to shoot open bunkers and pick up POWs - this is above and beyond the single POW bunkers you can snag guys from. Your jeep can handle a total of 8 POWs. First trick - NEVER fill your jeep to capacity - always leave a single slot open. If you fill your jeep up and run across a single 'power up' bunker, you won't be able to pick the POW up and get your powerup. Now, just before you get to the helicopter pad (to release the POWs), you will almost ALWAYS find a bunker with a single powerup POW. Blow it up, get the POW, the powerup, and that will fill your jeep to capacity. YOU WANT YOUR JEEP FULL BEFORE STOPPING AT THE CHOPPER PAD. Clear the area of enemies around the pad (you don't want any surprise enemies popping up and making you move) then park and start releasing the POWs. DO NOT MOVE UNTIL THE LAST MAN IS AWAY. Once all eight are out of the jeep, you can get the heck out of there (chances are, you will being stalked or about to be killed) You will receive a great bonus of points and FULL POWERUP on your rocket weapon! Talk about tilting the odds in your favor! You can do this EACH and EVERY time you are at a helicopter pad! This will earn you HUGE scores and keep your weapon up to snuff.

Remember, every time you die, you lose ONE level of powerup - so aside from the understood incentive for staying alive, you want to also maintain your weapon. Best of all - YOU GET A HUGE BONUS for picking up the powerup POWs when you are at full rocket weapon strength. If you want to see your score skyrocket, get full powerup and start plucking those powerup POWs up. Later in the game, you will need to strategically stop on the helicopter pad to allow yourself to shoot up and to a left angle to shoot down bomber planes that will DEFINITELY start showing up. If you can kill them the second they appear on the screen, none of their bombs will hurt you. If you miss lining up the jeep right, or you miss the plane, you will HAVE to move before the last guy gets out of the jeep or die. It takes some practice (you can't 'reposition' the jeep after the first man gets out or you lose the bonus) but you'll get to be a pro in no time. Enemies are not random in this game, so you can learn where tanks and enemy jeep vehicles reside quite quickly. While it sounds like a 'duh' tip, keep the enemy count low - especially enemy soldiers on foot. While they are little more than an annoyance at the beginning of the game, they QUICKLY become formidable enemies and keeping the number of them 'on screen' to a minimum is a requirement. The enemy subs can be killed before they are all the way out of the water as well as while they are going back in (i.e. when they aren't firing). Learn their location and plant rockets in the water before they have a chance to fire on you. In a two player game, have the player NOT offloading POWs to the helicopter 'stand guard' against the bomber planes (and other enemies for that matter). Then swap off and let the other one offload. Enemies are still 'active' hidden partially off screen (but they don't move or fire). Use this to kill enemies before they take a stance against you (the big tanks especially). Most vehicles can be killed with enough shots from your machine gun. If you don't feel you can reposition yourself in time to line up your rocket, pound away with bullets and hope you kill him first.

STAFF
Staff: Koji Hiroshita, Masato Ohsawa, Hiromichi Okasaki, Hideyuki Tsujimoto, Shinji Tasaka, Kengo Nakamura, Masami Tabata, Kiyoko Mizutani, Yousuke Uno, Mitsuhira Idaka

PORTS

• CONSOLES:

Nintendo Famicom Disk System [JP] (may.2, 1988) "Final Commando: Akai Yousai"

CONTRIBUTE
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