Tailhook

Tailhook is a brand-new game for the Commodore 64, on a 128 KB cartridge.

Catapult off the deck at dusk, strike the island, catch the wire.

Features

• Smooth scrolling over the whole area, from the carrier's deck to the far end of the island, everything on one scale
• Catapult launches and arrested landings: catch a wire with the tailhook, or bolter and go round
• Five missions over different islands, from radar and SAM sites to AA guns, drone hangars, fuel depots and command posts: hit them and they burn, hit them again and they're smoking rubble
• A patrol boat that hunts you at sea, and four ranks from Cadet to Ace
• An illustrated intro and a full-screen briefing before every mission
• Lock-on missiles, a landing aid and a deck officer who waves you in
• Take each island: soldiers run from the burning buildings, and the flag changes hands
• Choose your load on the catapult, dogfight enemy fighters, and watch the smoke trail as your jet is hit
• Radar-guided missiles that home on you, until you knock the radar out
• A dusk sky made of raster splits with clouds drifting behind the island, an animated sea, and SID engine roar and explosions
• Its own SID music: a title theme, a tense briefing tune and a victory fanfare

Play it

Download the .crt and open it in VICE (x64sc), or write it to a Kung Fu Flash or Ultimate cartridge for a real C64. Prefer a disk? The .d64 is the whole game too, with the story in text instead of pictures. Joystick in port 2 (or arrows + Z for the cannon), C for bombs, X for missiles, M for the landing aid. The manual (PDF) explains the rest.

Try before you buy: the first mission plays free in your browser (or as a demo cartridge), and the manual is free too.

Made by

kpatronas, 2026. Graphics (PixelLab), sound, text and code made with AI help.