Uploaded February 2007 | Updated September 2026, 15 hours ago

---

This is how you can land on Top Gun for NES. Watch the numbers. Also, to get past the first level with no attacks, just down DOWN so you gain maximum altitude. The trick to landing, is to get the altitude right first (or the speed if it's closer to the requirement), then try to get the speed right (or altitude if you did speed first), without changing the altitude by more than about 25-100 points. When slowing, aim straight up to try to slow losing altitude. If your altitude drops too low, you will crash.

I could never land the plane when I was a kid, but knew someone that could land 90% of the time, but I never knew how to use the on screen information to adjust the plane to land successfully. Now I understand what is going on, thanks to "The Angry Video Game Nerd" for inspiring me to figure it out. It took me over 20 retry attempts to understand what button does what and what the "advice" they give you actually means.

The landing sequence was exclusively retried until it was successful for the final video in one un-edited video clip.
This took many attempts and could be considered "TAS" (albeit would be considered a poorly executed TAS, and the landing section was raw unedited gameplay).
I wasn't trying to show off,
I just wanted to learn how to do it and to tell other people how to, once I learned.
This was not done live.
There was no webcam.
This should not be considered a "world record" or anything else.
This is strictly for educational purposes only.
Don't judge me Karl Jobst, but keep up the great work!
Karl Jobst video:
'No Damage' Speedruns Have A Huge Problem" youtube.com/watch?v=cnIJrw0cxyo

For an alternative video:

GU KingOfHeart:
"Check out my landing tutorial video!"
youtube.com/watch?v=Gmig6LPW5BQ