The real difficulty, not explored in this disassembly, is that the game has semi-realistic physics! My older brother was in flight school at the time and was able to easily land the plane and taught me how to do it.

As the article states, "Altitude and speed are both controlled by throttle input and pitch angle". So you can't just hit the engines or air brakes button to change your speed. If you lower the nose of the plane, you'll speed up and vice versa! So you have to carefully juggle your speed and altitude by altering both your pitch and your engines/air brakes.

My brother taught me that my speed wouldn't reduce if I'm nosediving, so raise the nose a little while opening my air brakes for a quick reduction in speed and then level out to maintain altitude. The game actually models this somewhat accurately!

- No link to other posts

- This post is at https://relaxing.run/blag/posts/top-gun-landing/

- https://relaxing.run/blag/posts/ gives a 403

- https://relaxing.run/blag/ gives a 403

- https://relaxing.run/ gives a full-page picture of some beautiful mountains

- No Atom/RSS link hidden in source

Not a complaint! If this is an intentional choice, I respect it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vetEg8J-wcw

  SUCCESS = 0
  TOO_FAR_LEFT = 2
  TOO_SLOW_OR_TOO_LOW = 4
  TOO_FAST_OR_TOO_HIGH = 8
  MIN_ALTITUDE = 100
  MAX_ALTITUDE = 300
  MIN_SPEED = 200
  MAX_SPEED = 400
  MIN_SPEED_200_RANGE = 238
  MAX_SPEED_300_RANGE = 338
  MAX_HEADING_RIGHT = 8

  def landing_skill_check(
    altitude: int,
    speed: int,
    heading: int) -> int:

    if altitude < MIN_ALTITUDE:
        return TOO_SLOW_OR_TOO_LOW
    if altitude >= MAX_ALTITUDE:
        return TOO_FAST_OR_TOO_HIGH
    if speed < MIN_SPEED:
        return TOO_SLOW_OR_TOO_LOW
    if speed >= MAX_SPEED:
        return TOO_FAST_OR_TOO_HIGH
    if speed < 300:
        if speed < MIN_SPEED_200_RANGE:
            return TOO_SLOW_OR_TOO_LOW
    else:
        if speed >= MAX_SPEED_300_RANGE:
            return TOO_FAST_OR_TOO_HIGH
    if heading < 0:
        return TOO_FAR_LEFT
    if heading >= MAX_HEADING_RIGHT:
        return TOO_SLOW_OR_TOO_LOW

    return SUCCESS

Going back and trying to do all this via emulation is now a lot harder. I don't know if it's the timing or the fact that I'm just old and crappy now, but if I didn't have the save states of an emulator I would have given up on gaming ages ago due to frustration.

Then again I don't have the hyperfocus and 12 hour marathon gaming sessions like I did for much of my youth.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYwcrxbhiLs

So the game does not let the player go all the way to perform the landing? That'd be dissatisfying?

For realism's (and comedy's) sake, they could have shown a pixel ejecting from the five (I think) pixels that form the jet before it explodes into a fireball, then floating down on a tiny parachute and being rescued by a tiny boat.

...but seriously, you didn't even get your score reduced for crashing the plane on landing?

    > Best read with Danger Zone playing on loop

>Request method cautioned for category Weapons/Bombs