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Tac/Scan

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Tac/Scan (タック・スキャン) is an arcade shoot-'em up developed by Sega Electronics in 1982. It runs on the vector version of the G80 hardware. Enemy airships are approaching your command base! You need to fly your five plane squadron into battle to defend it. You control a squadron of five ships at t...

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Developer
Sega Electronics

Released on
1982

Size
1–2 Players

Version
Arcade

Requirements
Arcade

Downloads
Shooter

Publisher
Sega Enterprises

ESRB Rating
Not Rated

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Description

Tac/Scan (タック・スキャン) is an arcade shoot-’em up developed by Sega Electronics in 1982. It runs on the vector version of the G80 hardware.

Enemy airships are approaching your command base! You need to fly your five plane squadron into battle to defend it. You control a squadron of five ships at the bottom of the screen, your goal is to earn as many points as possible by destroying the various enemies which will be attacking. If one of the ships in your squadron is hit by enemy fire, it will be destroyed. The game ends when all five ships have been destroyed. As you progress through the game, you will occasionally have the chance to replenish missing ships. Everytime you complete a round by shooting ten enemies, an extra ship will float by on the screen. You can add this ship to your squadron by catching it in an empty space in the formation. Every time you complete four rounds, the game will advance to the next level with increased difficulty!

Tac/Scan

Overview & History

Released into arcades by Sega in 1982, Tac/Scan stands as one of the most visually striking and mechanically distinctive vector-graphics shooters of the golden age. Set against the stark, high-contrast backdrop of deep-space warfare, the game drops players into a tense sci-fi storyline where an armada of alien dreadnoughts threatens human space. Unlike standard fixed shooters, Tac/Scan breaks the action across multiple concurrent stages of engagement, offering a cinematic battle progression that truly pushed the technical boundaries of vector hardware at the time.

Gameplay Features & Mechanics

The gameplay of Tac/Scan is divided into two distinct phases that repeat in escalating waves of difficulty. The opening phase is the "Tactical Scan," where players pilot a formation of up to seven fighter ships arranged in a horizontal line at the bottom of the screen. Instead of moving just a single craft, you control the entire fleet simultaneously, dodging enemy fire and picking off diving alien fighters. If ships are destroyed, your fleet shrinks, directly reducing your offensive firepower for subsequent phases. Once the tactical scan concludes, the action transitions into an intense attack run against a massive enemy mother ship. Here, players must weave through hazardous obstacle fields and target vulnerable exhaust ports on the massive capital ship while managing strict energy or time limits. The combination of fleet management, frantic vector dodging, and multi-phase progression gives Tac/Scan a strategic depth rarely found in coin-op shooters of 1982.