The refueling music is the best part of the soundtrack, and somehow that video doesn't have it...different version of the game?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfUZix8jVBY&t=187s

Speaking of the soundtrack, before Virt (Jake Kaufman) made it big (composer behind Shantae, Shovel Knight, Ducktales Remastered, a few others), he made this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uEUImofSms

"Bogey at your 6", the combat theme from the game, but remixed as if Konami had made it for the VRC6, the NES mapper chip that added 3 additional oscillators that made the Japanese release of Castlevania III what it was; he made this using Scream Tracker (or possibly a newer tracker, but its saved in S3M format), because tracker-like chip emulators didn't exist yet (Furnace, et al).

My favorite original virt track is Incident Zero: https://youtu.be/Py1BmKVdHfg

Mine, both from Shovel Knight:

In the Halls of the Usurper (Pridemoor Keep) https://youtu.be/B9ICOx8YWWw

Fighting with All of Our Might https://youtu.be/Sv9IhzPPkxg

The Japanese release of the game flips around the "soundless" sections with the music section, suggesting that listening to that rocking track for most of your flight is the intended experience.

https://tcrf.net/Top_Gun_(NES)#Music

I knew there was a version out there that flipped the music around... but I don't remember the "painted line" aircraft carrier... I wonder if someone made a rom hack like 20 years ago that kept the graphics but flipped the music...

I never got that far in the game... but that song gave me a visceral body memory of "difficult things in games that trigger intense 8 bit music" memories.

How convenient that refueling also replenishes your missiles.

ugh i had forgotten all about this game until I clicked your link and then promptly closed the tab. Carrier landing was frustrating enough but the re-fueling was another level. I played this at my friend's house whenever I would go there and spend the night.

That was an actual thing back in the day, you'd get your parents to let you stay the night at a friend's house and then you'd stay up all night playing NES, eating pizza and watching movies.

Uh, this is still a thing? Kids have sleepovers. And there often isn't much sleeping involved.

(Okay, maybe they aren't playing the NES explicitly, but same thing.)

My boys are 16 and 13 and went through middle school without a single sleepover.

Huh. Well, I teach fifth grade and my students tell me about their sleepovers all the time.

My school is all-girls though, maybe the gender matters.

This was the part that my brother and I could never, ever, not even once, complete. I still rue it to this day.

How in the hell is that tanker flying at ~1,200 knots (1,400mph)!? That is nearly Mach 2!

Same way your F-14 was able to carry up to 40 air-to-air missiles, unlimited cannon rounds, and the space shuttle at the end of the game is tougher and takes more fire to destroy than the aircraft carrier you destroy in mission 2.

Don't forget that you somehow refuel your missiles from the tanker!

I completely forgot! Maybe this game was meant to frighten the Soviets.

Maybe it was indicted speed and not ground speed LOL

Hah, same for me:). But still loved to do these things over and over again.

> 1398 mi/h

Isn't that something like Mach 1.8? That's one fast tanker.

There is a F/A-18 tanker variant, at least.

But you don't do the refueling at those speeds, heh.

My recollection is that if you missed it you kept playing but were doomed to crash maybe 30 seconds later from low fuel. Talk about punishing.

Seems like an accurate conclusion.

Yes, that's right.