How to play Tomcat: The F-14 Fighter Simulator online
- Dive / climb: up arrow / down arrow
- Bank left and right: left and right arrow keys
- Fire the selected weapon: Z (left button)
- Engine thrust: hold X (right button) and press up for more power, down for less
- Switch cockpit computer screens: F2 (Select)
- Weapon menu: tap F3 (Reset) on the THREAT screen, pick with up/down and confirm with X
- Start a game: F3; during play, hold F3 for at least two seconds to restart
- Landing gear up/down: F5 (left difficulty switch)
- Arresting hook up/down: F6 (right difficulty switch)
- Full screen: F9
Be careful with F3: a short tap opens the weapon menu, but holding it restarts the game. Both the USA (NTSC) and Europe (PAL) cartridges are on this page; use the switch above the game to change.
Gameplay
Each sortie has four phases: launch, flight, combat and landing. You start on the deck of the carrier U.S.S. Enterprise. Wait until the jet is fuelled and the flight deck officer signals you onto the catapult, then hold X and push up until the engine reaches full afterburner. When he salutes, the catapult fires you off the deck. Pull up and raise the landing gear with F5.
Enemies only attack once you climb to 5,000 feet; a tone tells you when you get there. When a bogey appears, the THREAT screen and a top-down radar view show where it is. You carry an M-61 cannon with 675 rounds that overheats if you fire too long, plus 15 each of three missiles: AIM-7 Sparrows, best when the enemy is on your screen; AIM-9 Sidewinders, best from behind; and long-range AIM-54s, which the manual recommends for beginners. Fire when the head-up display flashes red to show a lock. When a missile is coming at you, a warning light flashes; electronic countermeasures (ECM) show it on radar, and sharp dives, climbs and turns shake it off.
Low fuel or empty racks bring the call to return. Bank to a heading of about 30 to 40 degrees, drop below 2,000 feet and cut thrust to around 30 percent, and the carrier appears ahead. A landing display shows your glide path; hold 70 to 80 feet, correct for crosswinds, lower gear and hook, and push forward to drop onto the deck. Forget gear or hook, or come in off line, and you crash. After every landing, crash or shoot-down you get a mission rating from 0 (Civilian) to 9 (Top Gun Graduate). Your first sortie starts by day and ends with a landing at dusk; the next is flown entirely at night.
Tips
- Switch on ECM right after launch. The designer’s own advice: then incoming missiles show up on radar from the start.
- Stay on the bogey’s tail. Keep the enemy on your screen so he can’t get behind you.
- Go to guns up close. At about 800 feet, switch to the M-61 and keep firing for roughly three seconds.
- Save fuel. Throttle back below 100 percent thrust when you don’t need speed.
- Land slowly. Approach well below Mach 1 and keep the centre line of carrier lights straight.
The story behind Tomcat
Absolute Entertainment was founded in 1986 by Garry Kitchen after he left Activision, together with his brother Dan Kitchen, Alex DeMeo and John Van Ryzin. Tomcat was sold as “Dan Kitchen’s Tomcat”. In a note in the manual, Dan Kitchen says he consulted real fighter pilots to make it accurate, and he thanks his brother Steven Kitchen as co-designer. Absolute released the game for both the Atari 2600 and the Atari 7800.
