Top Gun: The Second Mission

Top Gun: The Second Mission
Also known as: Top Gun: Dual Fighters (JP) Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami Platform: NES Released in JP: December 15, 1989 Released in US: January 1990 Released in EU: October 24, 1991 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden level select. This game has regional differences.

Top Gun: The Second Mission is the sequel to the original Top Gun NES game by Konami. It features improved graphics, the ability to roll your plane, and a one-on-one dogfight mode you can play against the computer or a friend.

Title Screen Secrets

Hidden features accessed via the title screen through Game Genie codes and button combinations.

Stage Select / Invulnerability

The Game Genie codes XTKLLIAV (European version), XTOUYIAV (American version), or XTEUZIAV (Japanese version) re-enables options that are otherwise inaccessible.

Hold A or B and press Start on controller 1 to get invulnerability or stage select, respectively. Holding both, as you may expect, gets you both.

Congratulations Screen

In addition to the above effects, the European version adds another – hold A on controller 2 and press Start on controller 1 to change the Game Over screen to the Congratulations screen.

The screen normally appears when you get a game over after scoring at least 50,000 points.

Ending

Also exclusive to the European version – after enabling the Game Genie code ZLETETLG, press A + B + Start on controller 1 to see the ending.

Build Dates

At the end of the ROM is an ID with the date that version of the game was compiled. A similar ID is found in many other Konami games, with some variations.

JP Version	US Version	EU Prototype
0002890810	0003890816	M0.1910617

So the Japanese version was compiled on August 10, 1989; the American version on August 16; and the European prototype (M0.1) on June 17, 1991.

Regional Differences

To do: There's several gameplay-related differences between the Japanese and international versions.

Title Screen

Japanese	International

The subtitle in the Japanese version, which was changed to Dual Fighters, was lowered and given a new design.

Japanese	International

A single pixel was removed from the face mask of this pilot in the intro. Can you spot it?

Japanese	International

The portrait of Stalin Fortimesky, enemy pilot for Round 6 of the 1P VS Game, has slightly different shading in the international release. (Yes, that's actually his name.)