Retro Arcade: Jackal - Completion on 1 Credit (741100 pts)

A full run of Konami's Jackal completed on one credit with default settings - normal difficulty, 3 lives with bonuses at 30k and 150k - using MAME. Also, the maximum number of hostages (8) were dropped off at all 8 pick-up zones. I was totally inspired by this video from RetroGameDemos:    • Video   who achieved a frankly heroic effort by completing Jackal using only keyboard controls. I had a gamepad and used MAME's inbuilt autofire, and still found this brutally difficult. It took me over 3 and a half months of playing nearly every day just to get my first completion, and another week to beat RGD's completion score. All credit to him. One thing to note, which I had never seen before until this run: there's a suicidal tank in the top right corner that just blows itself up at around the 13:37 mark. I certainly appreciated the gesture. Jackal (aka Top Gunner - US, aka Tokushu Butai Jackal - Japan) is a 1986 top-down shoot 'em up. The jeep you control fires a north facing-only chain gun and can also fire off grenades, which can be ultimately upgraded to a missile with a 4-way explosion. In this arcade version, enemies can take shots at you without even appearing on screen, and the fully upgraded missile is pretty much a must for some heavily defended areas. Jackal had a number of ports, of which the NES version is probably the most fondly remembered. I always loved the arcade version for the music and the difficulty, but admittedly the ending is something of an anti-climax. This was a direct avi capture from MAME+ v0.143.