AFTER BURNER – Japanese VHS Gameplay Tape from 1987
This isn’t a fan edit. It’s not a "Let’s Play". It’s not even a strategy guide in the traditional sense.
What you will find is part of a short-lived but curious trend in Japanese media from the mid to late 1980s: commercially released gameplay tapes on VHS. This is a commercially sold gameplay video, professionally recorded, edited, and distributed to an enthusiastic market during the golden age of Japanese arcades.
What Is This Tape?
This particular videotape showcases a spliced run of SEGA’s After Burner, one of the defining arcade experiences of the 1980s. Well, perhaps it isn't After Burner, but in fact After Burner 2. As the video cassette case advertises the name After Burner, the title sequence in the video shows that this might just be its sequel.
The tape runs just under 20 minutes and features a demonstration of the game’s mechanics, pacing, and intensity. The footage is presented without voiceover or captions. It’s just pure gameplay.
The tape begins with the player launching into the sky, and over the next 20 minutes we’re taken on a blisteringly fast tour through After Burner’s gauntlet of missile lock-ons, barrel rolls, and screen-filling explosions.
The footage is not off-screen, nor is it a camcorder recording from inside an arcade. The video was captured directly from the arcade PCB’s video output, as confirmed by the Japanese text printed on the back of the cassette case. When translated, it proudly states:
"The quality is superb as it records the footage directly from the game board."
That said, it’s important to understand that After Burner's graphics, while recorded straight from the board, were still ultimately passed through an analogue mastering process, transferred to magnetic tape, and distributed on cassette. So although the footage begins its life with high fidelity, the final image, while sourced directly from the arcade PCB, was ultimately subject to the softening and colour limitations inherent to VHS tape production of the era.
This tape wasn’t exclusive to VHS either. It was also released on Betamax, giving a nod to early adopters who sought higher picture quality in the home.
Presentation and Style
Unlike today’s gameplay footage, this isn’t a silent raw dump nor a heavily produced showreel. It sits somewhere in between. The majority of the video is direct, unbroken gameplay footage, but with occasional stylistic flourishes such as transitions and kaleidoscopic effects that give the production a uniquely late-’80s, Japanese flavor.
There’s no voiceover, no subtitles, and no explanation of what’s happening. Instead, the tape lets the gameplay speak for itself. Pure spectacle, pure motion. It functions as both reference material and entertainment, much like a live performance or a music video.
Why After Burner?
To understand why After Burner was chosen for this kind of release, you have to consider the impact it had in arcades when it launched in 1987.
After Burner was a natural candidate for this kind of showcase. It was part of SEGA’s line of “Taikan” arcade experiences (a term meaning “body sensation”). These were games designed not just to be played, but to be felt. Just as Hang-On let players lean into turns on a motorbike, and Space Harrier gave the illusion of flight through a moving cabinet, After Burner upped the ante with a full cockpit experience. The deluxe version of the cabinet could tilt, roll, and shake in sync with the on-screen jet fighter’s movement, creating a sensation that bordered on a thrill ride.
These games, many of them designed or overseen by legendary SEGA developer Yu Suzuki, redefined what an arcade experience could be, moving beyond joystick and buttons into visceral, physical immersion.
Technically, After Burner was a marvel. It was built on SEGA’s X-Board hardware, which was cutting-edge at the time. It enabled smooth sprite scaling, complex background layers, and fast-paced 2.5D visuals that blew minds in the pre-polygon era.
The game was inspired by Top Gun, riding high on the popularity of jet fighters and cinematic dogfights. You piloted an F-14 Tomcat through enemy territory, blasting waves of enemy fighters, dodging heat-seeking missiles, and unleashing screen-filling barrages with your vulcan cannon and lock-on missiles.
It was thrilling, loud, and above all, fast. And that’s what made it perfect for a video showcase. Even if you never touched the controls, After Burner was fun to watch.
Who Made This?
The tape credits its producer as Tyrell Corporation, a small but active Japanese video production outfit in the 1980s. And no, despite the name, they’re not affiliated with the fictional Tyrell Corporation from Blade Runner, though the shared name certainly raises an eyebrow.
Tyrell Corporation released a handful of similar tapes during the 1980s, although concrete records are sparse. Among collectors and enthusiasts, some of these tapes are quite rare and highly collectible. Tyrell specialised in niche video productions: anime compilation tapes, music clips, hobbyist media, and occasionally, video game content like this. Their work was part of a larger trend in Japan at the time - home video products that catered to very specific interests and hobbies.
They were never mass-produced for international audiences. Most were sold in small runs, usually through specialty shops or hobby mail-order catalogues. Some might have been available for rental in Japanese video stores alongside anime, idol tapes, and instructional videos.
But while Tyrell produced the video, the copyright and distribution were handled by Pony Canyon Inc., a much larger and well-established Japanese media company. Pony Canyon is credited on the tape packaging as the manufacturer and distributor, and they also hold the video rights.
Their involvement suggests that this tape wasn’t just a side project, it was an officially distributed product, likely sold or rented through mainstream channels. It may not have been mass-produced, but it wasn’t underground either.
Adding to the tape’s legitimacy is the clear presence of SEGA’s logo, both on the physical packaging and within the video itself. A copyright notice states that the graphics and music belong to SEGA, though it stops short of confirming a formal licensing arrangement. So while we can’t say definitively whether this was an officially commissioned release, all signs point to SEGA being at least aware of, and possibly involved in, the project.
Who Was This Tape For?
In the late ’80s, tapes like this served several roles:
- For arcade fans, they were a way to relive the arcade experience at home. Something that console ports of the time couldn’t match.
- For players, they offered strategy by demonstration: rewinding tough sections, studying patterns, and trying to mimic expert play.
- For arcade operators, they could have served as promotional material. A glimpse at the latest arcade hardware in action.
- And for collectors, they were novelties. Visual keepsakes of the games that defined the era.
Today, it might seem strange to buy a VHS tape of someone else playing a game. But at the time, this was one of the only ways you might get to see a full game run, especially a game as challenging as After Burner. Unless you were a top-tier player, or were willing to burn through a stack of coins, you might never see stage 3, let alone stage 18.
Preservation and Recording Details
The copy that I uploaded to The Internet Archive, and used in my YouTube video, was made from a factory-sealed original VHS tape (at least, until I opened it to make this recording), carefully digitised to retain as much of its integrity as possible.
Playback was done using a high-quality VCR outputting YbPbR component video, with a RetroTINK 5X handling Bob deinterlacing at the native frame rate of 59.94fps.
Audio was captured directly from the VCR’s analog outputs using a Behringer DAC, in order to reflect the original audio as faithfully as possible.
There’s been no post-processing, no sharpening, no color correction, no digital filtering. The goal was authenticity, not enhancement. This isn’t an upscale or a remaster, it’s a digital preservation of the analog original.
The goal was to present the footage exactly as it appeared on the original tape, without compression, color correction, or unnecessary filters. This is a preservation project first and foremost.
If you’d like to experience the raw version of this transfer, without my commentary, I’ve uploaded the complete recording to The Internet Archive. The link will be in the description below.
I believe media like this deserves to be saved. Not only for nostalgia, but as part of gaming’s cultural memory.
Legacy and Relevance Today
So, what happened to tapes like this?
While these tapes have become rare in their physical form, the spirit behind them is very much alive.
Today, we see the same impulses, watching gameplay, learning through observation, enjoying games passively, reflected in Twitch streams, speedruns, YouTube longplays, and the like.
This tape is a kind of proto-Let’s Play, a distant ancestor of modern game video culture. It lacks narration, overlays, and chat boxes, but the core idea is the same: Watch, learn and appreciate.
People still love watching games played well, especially when the game itself is something special. What you’re seeing here is a precursor to all of that, a historical seed of what would become a huge part of gaming culture today.
What makes this video special today isn’t just what it shows, but what it represents. It’s a record of how games were showcased in a pre-digital world, where the only way to experience something was to physically own it, or physically be there when it happened.
This tape is a relic, but a powerful one. It speaks to a time when video games were not disposable entertainment, but wonders of design and engineering, worthy of being studied, collected, even watched like performance art.
And in a way, that's still true. The excitement, the speed, the precision on display in After Burner. They haven’t dulled with time. They’ve just become harder to find.
Final Thoughts
Thanks for joining me on this exploration into a wonderful corner of gaming culture and history.
If you enjoyed this and want to see more from me in the future, please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel.
And if you’d like to support me, to help me continue my projects like this and others, then please consider a donation via Ko-fi. (link below). Even small contributions are gratefully received.
And finally, this article was voice-recorded for my YouTube video about this VHS VHS tape. Why not check it out? And don’t forget that the Internet Archive upload of the uncompressed and unaltered transfer is also available, if you’d like to experience the footage in its purest form.
Thanks again. And I hope to see you again soon.