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International Arcade Museum® — Killer List of Videogames®

Tail Gunner

Description

You are the Tailgunner of a large starship shooting at fighters closing in on the ship from the rear. The fighters can be blocked with the use of a shield. When ten fighters have passed, the game ends.

Tail Gunner was produced by Cinematronics in 1979.

Cinematronics released 33 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1976. Cinematronics was based in United States.

Other machines made by Cinematronics during the time period Tail Gunner was produced include: Space Wars, Starhawk, Embargo, Flipper Ball, Sundance, Armor Attack, Rip Off, Star Castle, and Boxing Bugs

Specs

Name	Tail Gunner
Developer	Cinematronics (United States)
Year	1979
Type	Videogame
KLOV/MOG #	10012
Class	Wide Release
Genre	Space
Monitor	Orientation: Horizontal Type: Vector Color: Black and White with a Color Overlay
Conversion Class	Cinematronics B&W Vector
# Simultaneous Players	1
# Maximum Players	1
Game Play	Single
Control Panel Layout	Single Player Ambidextrous
Controls	Joystick: Analog Buttons: 2 - Fire\|Shield
Sound	Amplified Mono (one channel)
Cabinet Styles	Upright/Standard
Control Panel	Tail Gunner Control Panel Image

Video Clips

Tailgunner (Cinematronics 1979)

Game Play

The player views space as though looking out from the rear of a spaceship. Waves of enemies approach from the distance and they must be destroyed before they reach the player's ship.

The wave format is similar to the behavior of the pirate tanks in Rip Off, in that the first few waves have only two slow moving ships, but later waves have three which move faster and more erratically with each successive wave. The player has three Shield charges which are used to bounce the approaching enemies away from the player's ship if they get too close.

Tail Gunner KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 4.01 (3 votes)

Fun Factor: 3.92

Overall Like	4.33
Fun (Social)	0.33
Fun (Solo)	2.33
Collector Desire	4.33

Technical Rating: 4.08

Gameplay	4.67
Graphics	4.00
Originality	4.33
Sound/Music	3.33

Personal Impressions and Technical Impressions each account for half of the total score. Within the Personal Impressions category, Like carries a little more weight than the other factors.

Images

Cabinet Information

This game was released in both standup and cockpitstyle cabinets.

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Tail Gunner Census

There are 15,264 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,669 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 166,973 machines (7,000 unique titles).

Common - There are 21 known instances of this machine owned by Tail Gunner collectors who are active members. Of these, 18 of them are original dedicated machines. 3 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

For Sale - There is one active VAPS member with a Tail Gunner machine for sale.

Wanted - Popular - There are 13 active VAPS members currently looking for Tail Gunner.

This game ranks a 6 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.

This game ranks a 25 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

Rarity and Popularity independently are not necessarily indications of value. [More Information]

Flyers

Legacy

Tail Gunner
Tail Gunner II

Manuals

Tail Gunner Service Manual - Tail Gunner Manual — **Tail Gunner Service Manual**
(69 pages, 2.2 MB File)

Foto-Finder® (Books)

The Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 70; Color photo Price guide: No
Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 70; Color photo

eBay Listings

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