After Burner

The game allows the player to control an F-14 Tomcat jet airplane. At the start of the game, the player takes off from an aircraft carrier called the SEGA Enterprise on a mission to destroy enemy jets over 18 stages.

In the arcade version, the jet employs a machine gun and a limited number of heat-seeking missiles (in the Master System version the player has unlimited missiles). These weapons are replenished by another aircraft, after beating a few stages. The aircraft, cannon and missile buttons are controlled from an integrated flight stick.

After Burner was designed by Yu Suzuki, with assistance from programmer Satoshi Mifune and composer Hiroshi "Hiro" Kawaguchi. Development of the game began in early December 1986, shortly after Out Run was completed, with much of the development team having worked on Out Run. After Burner was intended to be Sega's first "true blockbuster" video game; the project was a closely guarded secret within the company during its development. When the game was in its initial concept stages, Sega had adopted a flextime work system, allowing development of games to be done outside the company; After Burner was one of the first games to be produced under this new system, with development taking place in a building named Studio 128.

Suzuki was inspired by the film Laputa: Castle in the Sky and initially wanted to use a similar aesthetic for After Burner, but this idea was scrapped early on in favor of a style akin to the movie Top Gun, as Suzuki wanted the game more approachable for a worldwide audience. The game was programmed and tested on a PC-98 system, making it the first Sega-published video game to be developed using personal computers rather than workstations.

Game Machine listed After Burner as the most popular arcade game of August 1987 in Japan, where it went on to be the second highest-grossing large arcade game of 1987 (just below Out Run) and the overall highest-grossing arcade game of 1988. In the United States, it was one of the top five highest-grossing dedicated arcade games of 1988, and remained a top ten earner at various arcades through 1990. In the United Kingdom, it was the top-grossing arcade game upon release in September 1987.

The arcade game received positive reviews from critics. Clare Edgeley of Computer and Video Games called it a "fabulous game" with praise for the gameplay and motion cabinet while noting it has a lock-on mechanic similar to the Data East arcade game Lock-On (1986). Top Score said it has "all the finger-numbing action of the best arcade shoot-em-ups, combined with some of the most stunning animation ever seen in a video game" and that it was "a glossy air combat game that ranks higher than similar efforts that have preceded it". The review called it "one of the most beautiful and realistic shooting games ever produced" with "somewhat shallow" gameplay that is nevertheless "definitively worth the price of admission" especially in the "cockpit simulator" cabinet.

Although the After Burner brand was long dormant, Sega created a number of aerial combat games centered on the F-14 Tomcat with many similar features, which are frequently regarded as part of the series. These include G-LOC: Air Battle and its sequel Strike Fighter (later rebranded After Burner III in its home release). Later games associated with the series include Sky Target (which retained similar gameplay and presentation to the original, but with the addition of 3D graphics) and Sega Strike Fighter (an arcade flight combat game which featured free-roaming movement, boasting similar music but with an F/A-18 Hornet as the main plane).

In 2006, Sega released a new sequel on Sega Lindbergh hardware, After Burner Climax, the first arcade game to bear the brand since After Burner II.