Okay, this is absolutely fascinating. HAMSTER Corporation has just dropped a trailer for their upcoming Arcade Archives Midnight Landing, and it instantly scratched a very specific itch for me.
As a massive fan of flight sims and someone who spent countless hours with aircraft games as a kid, I thought I knew my arcade history inside out. Yet, despite growing up literally five minutes from one of the biggest arcade sea fronts in the North East of England in the ’80s and ’90s—a genuine mecca of coin-op cabinets—I have never seen this game before!
This is a complete blind spot for me, and I love it when these Arcade Archives releases unearth a hidden gem I somehow missed.
The ultimate arcade landing challenge
The trailer itself for Midnight Landing is pure arcade tension. It’s a classic flight simulator focused entirely on the high-stakes challenge of performing a manual landing. You’re put in the cockpit of “Airflight One,” attempting to bring it down safely at “Amsterdam airport,” all under the stern, yet guiding, voice of the control tower.
The video does a brilliant job of building the suspense:
- From Auto to Manual: It starts with that crucial moment where the pilot switches from automatic to manual control, instantly signaling that your skills are about to be put to the test.
- The Countdown: The control tower provides a nerve-wracking countdown, rattling off distance markers like 12 km, 10 km, and 8,000 meters. Every call raises the stakes.
- Emergency on Board: Then, the trailer drops the bomb: a sudden “emergency!” call, followed by increasingly urgent “pull up, pull up!” warnings. This isn’t just a leisurely descent; it’s a fight against the odds, right down to the wire.
And just when you think it’s all going to go wrong, the plane touches down successfully. “Just landed at Amsterdam airport.” The relief is palpable, even in a short trailer.
How did I miss Midnight Landing?
For a kid who practically lived in arcades, feeding countless 10p coins into everything from After Burner to F-14 Tomcat, the idea that such an atmospheric and focused flight game existed and completely bypassed me is baffling. Was it super rare? Was it regional? The record-breaking Arcade Archives series from HAMSTER Corporation is fantastic for exactly this reason, preserving these slices of gaming history and bringing them to modern platforms.
Now, I finally get a chance to experience this intriguing piece of flight sim history and see if I have what it takes to land at Amsterdam airport under pressure. My inner child, who dreamed of being a pilot, is absolutely thrilled (and slightly annoyed he never got to play this back in the day).
Midnight Landing is available now on Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Head to the Arcade Archives website for store links.
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Christian Cawley is a writer and editor who covers consumer electronics, IT, and entertainment media. He has written for publications such as Computer Weekly, Linux Format, MakeUseOf.com, and Tech Radar.
He also produces podcasts, has a cigar box guitar, and of course, loves retro gaming.
