Path: news.cs.columbia.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!spool.mu.edu!agate!boulder!ucsu!rintintin.Colorado.EDU!grasso
   From: grasso@rintintin.Colorado.EDU (GRASSO CHRISTOPHER A)
   Keywords: keyhole, keyboard, keyclick, monkey, whiskey
   Sender: news@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (USENET News System)
   Nntp-Posting-Host: rintintin.colorado.edu
   Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
   References: <rcbaaw.723928971@rwb.urc.tue.nl> <q4d2d1a@rpi.edu>
   Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1992 18:36:56 GMT
   Lines: 22

   Has anyone out there seen an old Tailgunner II game? The last time I saw
   one was back in '82.

   For those of you who don't recall T-II, it was a sit-down game by Atari.
   The goal was to prevent squadrons of three ships from passing your starship.
   To this end, you were provided with joystick-operated photon bolts and 
   limited shields which you could briefly engage to bounce the ships back into
   your field of view. (If you were really good with the shields, you could
   deflect a ship using less than 1 shield unit out of the 70 provided.)
   Once 10 ships got by, the game was over.

   The vector graphics were done in a wonderful cool-blue shade. The intro
   featured the words "Tailgunner II" flipping top-to-bottom and approaching
   from distance.

   My record was 8400. (This was an old game, back when targets weren't worth 
   1000 points each.) Anyone else play this?

	   -Chris Grasso
	    U of C

Yeah! I remember that game very well! It was my favorite!  Wow, 10
years ago! I feel SOOO OLD.

....<feeling like Al Bundy reminiscing about the good old days>....

After practicing for weeks to be an expert, I was so good I would
ALWAYS beat someone else's hi-score on that machine.  In fact, I've
NEVER seen any score beat my LOWEST score!  I certainly played it
often enuf.

I've turn over the machine on 4 separate occasions!!!  You know what
happens at 10,000? It doesn't give you a fifth digit; after 9___, it
went to A000 and continued counting.  (I guess noticing this would be
a good way to verify if anyone actually turned it over.)

I noticed that there were at least two settings for the shields, one
was 30 units and the other 70.  (I was able to turn it over for both
types.)  Man, my reflexes were so fast that several times I wouldn't
even use up any energy units when I used my shields (like you
mentioned.) My timing was SO perfect, that in the case when they
swooped across the screen and OUT of view, I was able to time EXACTLY
when to engage my shields AND blast them out of the sky when the
shields bounced them back into view.  Sometimes I would instantly
recognize the flying formation of the 3 ships and blast all 3 out of
the sky in a second or less.  I was superhuman on that machine;
Tailgunner II and I were one!

On some machines, the laser blasts were turned up so loud that it felt
as though there was an actual explosion since the cockpit rocked with
each bulls-eye!

Many times after the game, my entire body would be physically
exhausted due to the excitement! In fact, several times my performance
started to degrade before the end since my hand got so tired moving
the joystick around.

Sure wish I can play that game again. I haven't seen it anywhere since
then...sigh...