HEADS-UP DISPLAY tutorial, verbatim: 'Press A twice to target the enemy closest
to the center of the screen.' A double tap, which is exactly why every button
sweep in flight-controls-runtime.md found nothing and why I concluded targeting
was automatic — each sweep tapped once. It also explains the missiles:
GuidanceType 5 guides to the GAME's selection and the loop had never made one,
so 98 launches guided to nothing.
Wired in: double-tap A when the committed contact is already within 14 deg of
the nose, so the game's choice and ours are the same object. One run: 8 kills
from 66 missiles (12% per missile) against the previous 9 from 101 (8.9%). The
absolute count is inside run variance and the efficiency gain is one sample, so
neither is claimed as decisive — it needs repeat runs.
Also documents that expository tutorials self-advance while interactive ones
stall (BASIC CONTROLS waits forever on 'Go to the box'), and that captions need
cropping across many frames because they type out.
Decoded dat/GP_OPTIONS.pak (po_keys_btn* sprites): the OPTIONS key-config screen
lists every bindable in-flight action. Two of them change the plan.
'Change Target' exists — so target selection IS an input, and the earlier probe
that swept LB/X/B/A/LS/RS found nothing only because it watched the ammo
counters, which those actions do not touch.
'Padlock Mode Toggle' is a view/aim lock onto the selected target: the aim-dwell
problem solved by a game mechanic rather than by tuning a PD controller, and
presumably how a human holds a contact long enough to lock a missile.
Confirms our measured bindings (Use Nose Weapon = RB, Use Main Weapon = Y,
Accelerate/Decelerate = RT/LT, Radar Map Toggle = d-pad) and adds Special Move,
Maneuver, Resupply and Change Main Weapon (which would reach ASMissile, Power
5000). Also records that CONTROL SETTINGS carries a Control Type preset plus
yaw/pitch/roll sensitivity, so the mapping is not fixed and any stick
calibration is only valid for the save's current profile.
Tutorial menu (GP_TUTORIAL.pak) names the six lessons: BASIC CONTROLS,
HEADS-UP DISPLAY, RADAR, SUPPLY AND SPECIAL MOVES, RADIO ORDERS, ADVANCED
CONTROLS.
Probed rather than assumed: hold each pad input and photograph the HUD ammo
counters. RB = nose gun (NOSE BM 6000->5956 in 4 s, ~11 rounds/s, HEAT rises),
Y = main mount (MAIN MPM 300->299), d-pad = tactical map overlay, and
LB/X/B/A/LS/RS move neither counter.
No target-cycle input exists. The green TARGET marker is already up with nothing
pressed, so the game selects for us and a guided missile's lock is a
time-on-target mechanic, not a button. That closes the lethality question: it is
not target choice (escort weighting), not ballistics (now from the confirmed
Shell records), and not the mapping — the steering loop simply never holds the
nose on one contact long enough to lock. Aim dwell is the next lever.
Also records two things the reimplementation needs: two weapons with separate
ammo pools and HUD counters, and a HEAT bar that fills while the gun fires
(cap and cool-down not yet measured).
