Jet Pilot Rising

Jet Pilot Rising is a homebrew game created by Dieter Von Laser. By: Evan G Last updated: March 2, 2016

Anecdote time

First off, I would like to apologize to Dieter Von Laser. He sent me this cart as a gift a couple of years ago, and only now have I got around to making an article. Back in December 2013, while I was living in Australia, I called my mom and she said that I got this "cat game" sent from "Dieter Von Laser". At that time, I was not expecting anything like that delivered to me, let alone to my parents' house in Canada. I also had no idea who Dieter Von Laser was, although I now know it is a pseudonym of a very prominent member of the SNES enthusiast community. I still am not sure how he got the address to my parents' place, considering I hadn't lived there in many years.

Jet Pilot Rising set

The game came in a nice tin, along with a Chistmas card.

Christmas Card

I feel kind of special to be the recipient of this. Thank you Dieter! I had left this at my parents' place in storage, and only brought it out when I went back home last month.

The cart

Cart. The painting is called Happy December, by Louis Wain.

According to this thread on SNESFreaks regarding the publication of this game, only six copies of Jet Pilot Rising were created. It comes in a Super Famicom shell. I didn't open it up, but I am guessing that it was from the donor cart used to make the game. The label is printed on some nice glossy paper, and really has the feel of a commercial game. The artwork on the front is from British artist Louis Wain, who was famous for his paintings of cats.

The Game

credits	Produced for the anniversary of the Super Famicom

This game was produced for the 23rd anniversary of the Super Famicom (released in November 1990). It apparently was coded in a 24 hour period, which is pretty impressive. The game uses artwork from Pixeljoint.com and music from an artist known as stargazer. The makes use of a Sid Station. It kind of reminds me of the music in Top Gear.

intro	title screen

The intro features a picture of a cat, along with a quote from German poet Emanuel Geibel:

Solang du wallst auf Erdenbahnen,
Dem Irrtum, Freund, entgehst du nicht;
Doch läßt dich Irrtum Wahrheit ahnen,
Irrtum ist Farbe, Wahrheit Licht.

The title screen uses a pretty funky font. Not sure what it is, but it is pretty unique.

Collecting coins	Large enemies await

The game itself is a one button affair. You guide a cat riding a rocket, collecting coins and avoiding enemies and obstacles. The graphics include a fog effect, but it isn't really detrimental to the gameplay. The choice of sprites shows off the skill of the pixel artists. The game is somewhat unforgiving, as if you get hit, you are sent back to the beginning of the stage. Because of that, I was never able to get past the second stage. If the gameplay seems familiar, it is because it is the same as the rocket barrel stages in Donkey Kong Country Returns:

DKC Returns, screenshot from Wikipedia

This game is pretty fun, and definitely worth throwing on your flash cart. All the more impressive is that the game was made in a single day. There are plenty of commercially released games that are way worse than this!

Das spiel ist aus! (Game over)

Download the game here