Jackal
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Controls
See instructions in the game
History
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Jackal, released in North America for the arcades as Top Gunner, is an overhead run and gun arcade game released by Konami in 1986
The Jackal squad, a four-man team composed of Colonel Decker, Lieutenant Bob, Sergeant Quint and Corporal Grey, is sent to rescue soldiers kept as hostages by the enemy. One or two players control the teams in an armed jeep, which must venture through several enemy strongholds to rescue comrades imprisoned by the enemy. In each of the six levels, the goal is to rescue POWs from various buildings and then transfer them to helicopter dust-off locations. Once the soldiers are secure, the player(s) must then proceed to defeat the boss at the end of each level. In the last level, there are two bosses that must be defeated. As with most run and gun games, there is a point system that can grant the player extra lives depending on the score attained. If a collision occurs with an enemy vehicle or the jeep is hit by an enemy bullet, a life will be lost. Some buildings contain one flashing prisoner; if this man is rescued, the jeep's primary weapon will be upgraded. In addition, if enough prisoners are rescued, a weapon upgrade will be yielded during the unloading process to the rescue helicopter. The Jeep's initial weapons consist of a machine gun and a grenade launcher. The grenade launcher can be upgraded into a rocket launcher, which can be further upgraded to shoot long-range missiles, and two kinds of spread missiles. There were three versions of the original coin-operated game. The original Japanese version (Tokushu Butai Jackal), the world version (simply titled Jackal), and the North American version (Top Gunner). In the Japanese version, the machine gun shoots in whatever direction the player's jeep is facing, whereas in the worldwide and North American versions, it is fixed so that it always shoots north. In the North American versions, the generic orange and blue flags on the players' jeeps are replaced by an American flag on each one. |
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