How to play Tomcat online
- Climb / dive: down arrow pulls the nose up, up arrow pushes it down
- Bank left and right: left and right arrow keys
- Throttle: hold Space and press up (more thrust) or down (less thrust)
- Fire weapons: Space while the THREAT screen is showing
- Start a game: F12 (Reset); during a game you must hold it for about two seconds
- Choose a weapon: press F12 while the THREAT screen is up, highlight AIM, EC-M or M-61 with the up and down arrows, then press Space
- Switch cockpit display screens: F11 (Select)
- Landing gear up / down: F4 (left difficulty switch)
- Arresting hook up / down: F9 (right difficulty switch)
Gameplay
Each mission has four stages: launch, flight, combat and landing. On the catapult you wait for the deck officer’s signal, then throttle up until the engine reads its full afterburner thrust of 216%. Raise the landing gear and keep climbing, or a crash-warning horn sounds.
The Select switch cycles through the cockpit computer screens: two STATS pages (speed, altitude, angle of attack, engine thrust, wing angle, compass heading and fuel), THREAT, LANDING and ARMAMENTS. Enemy fighters, called bogeys, only engage once you reach the operating altitude of 5,000 feet. When one appears, the THREAT screen opens by itself and your heads-up display shows the target.
Your arsenal is an M-61 machine gun and three missile types: the long-range AIM-54, the AIM-7 Sparrow and the heat-seeking AIM-9 Sidewinder. To lock a missile on, steer the bogey into the centre of the HUD. For the gun, wait until the HUD flashes red, which means the enemy is within about 500 feet. Electronic Counter Measures (EC-M) protect you against incoming missiles.
When fuel or weapons run low, you are called back to the carrier. To land, turn to a compass heading of roughly 30 to 40 degrees, drop below 2,000 feet, and follow the glide-path guides on the landing display. Gear and hook must both be down before touchdown. The following mission takes place at night, from launch to landing. A mission ends when you land, crash or are shot down, and you then receive a rating from 0 (Civilian) to 9 (Top Gun Graduate), based on your kills, how well you used your weapons and how well you flew.
Tips
- Switch on EC-M right after launch. If you forget, you can still turn it on after an enemy missile has been fired.
- Fly erratically when a missile comes in. Quick dives, climbs and banks are your best defence.
- Start with the AIM-54. The manual recommends the long-range missile for new pilots. Save the Sidewinders for when you are on an enemy’s tail.
- Save fuel. Throttling back below 100% thrust stretches your mission.
- Land slowly. Approach the carrier well below Mach 1.0, and check the gear and hook switches before you reach the deck.
The story behind Tomcat
Absolute Entertainment was founded in 1986 by Garry Kitchen, a former Activision designer, together with his brother Dan Kitchen and other colleagues. Tomcat was one of the company’s last Atari cartridges, released for the 2600 and the 7800 around 1989. In the manual, Dan Kitchen thanks his brother Steven Kitchen as co-designer. Outside the USA the game was renamed Fighter Pilot and distributed by Activision; that PAL release has its own page here. Our site also has a second Tomcat page, which runs a different, unidentified ROM file.
