ROLLING THUNDER (ARCADE GAME)

'''Rolling Thunder''' is a run and gun arcade game that was released by Namco in 1986. It runs on the Namco System 86 hardware platform and was licensed for US distribution to Atari Games. Set in the 1960s, the player takes the role of a secret agent who must save his female partner from a terrorist organization.

Contents

Gameplay

Power-Ups

Enemy characters

Legacy

Trivia

Ports

External links

Gameplay

The player takes control of Albatross, a member of Interpol's "Rolling Thunder" espionage unit. Albatross' mission is to save a missing female agent named Leila Blitz from a secret society named Geldra located in New York.
Albatross must travel through two different segments or "stories", each comprised of five stages, for a total of ten stages. Depending on the dip switch settings, the player has the option to start the game from any point in "Story 1" (making the first four stages skippable if desired). On each stage, the player can enter doors to hide from enemies (a feature inspired by Taito's ''Elevator Action''), as well jump over to higher or lower platforms with rails, including stairs (a feature reused in Sega's ''Shinobi''). The stages in "Story 2" are essentially harder version of their "Story 1" counterparts, featuring more traps and different enemy placement. At the end of each stage, Leila is shown at a different state of torment or torture on a large monitor screen.
The player is armed only with a handgun and a limited supply of bullets. Thus, the player must defend himself from all incoming enemies while trying to conserve as much ammo as possible. If ammo runs out, then the player's gun can only fire a single "chaser bullet" on-screen at the time. The player can also gain a submachine gun for rapid-fire, which substitute the default handgun until it runs out of ammo. The player can acquire handgun ammo and submachine gun from marked doors only. Despite the presence of a life meter, the player can only take two physical hits from the enemy, since a single hit drains half of the meter. The player is killed instantly when hit by a projectile attack such as enemy bullets or lasers.
The main enemies in ''Rolling Thunder'' are hooded soldiers known as "Maskers". Maskers are dressed in various outfits and colors, which determines their strength and attacking pattern respectively. Some Maskers won't shoot, but will throw grenades instead, while others will shoot their gun below waist-level. Other enemies include mutated bats, yellow creatures and lava men. There are no boss characters in the game, with the exception of Maboo, the game's final opponent. Once Maboo is defeated, Leila is rescued and the game ends.

Power-Ups

The player can acquire additional ammo for either of their weapon behind doors marked as followed:

★ 'Bullet' - Additional ammo for the default handgun. Can contain up to 20, 30 or 50 bullets per door.

★ 'Arms' - Ammo for the submachine gun. Contains up to 40, 80 or 100 bullets per door.

Enemy characters

The following is a list of enemies featured in the game:

★ 'Masker Type A' - Comes in four designated colors: Pink, Orange, White and Gray. They specialize in running, punching, throwing grenades and shooting respectively. Their hoods resemble those of the Ku Klux Klan. Worth 300 points each.

★ 'Masker Type B' - Comes in four designated colors: Yellow, Brown, Green and Blue. Exactly like the Type A Maskers, except they wear goggles and can only be killed with two shots instead of one. Worth 500 points each.

★ 'Ninja' - Similar to the regular Maskers, except they come out from the walls and their color determines the number of hits they can sustain. From 1 hit to 4: Blue, Purple, Yellow and White. Worth 700 points each.

★ 'Bloga' - A yellow mutated creatures which jumps constantly. Can be killed with one bullet and worth 300 points.

★ 'Fire Man' - A fire-covered creature that jumps out from the lava in cavern stages. When shot, it splits into three smaller "fire men". Worth 800 points for the entire set.

★ 'Gelzo' - A giant mutant bat. Flies atop the screen and comes down to attack the player. Worth 800 points.

★ 'Panther' - Black panthers are located behind certain cages and areas in the cavern stages. Worth 500 points.

★ 'Maboo' - The supreme leader of Geldra. A green alien-like humanoid. Attacks the player by rushing towards him or throwing fireballs. Can sustain up to 25 shots from the player's weapon and worth 2,000 points.

Legacy

The game was a wild success in 1986. It presented an attractive mix of stylized, Japanese anime-style graphics mixed with realistically animated motion. The premise of the game, along with its mechanics, were simple enough that anyone could play. The game is considerably difficult though, with its swarms of enemies (especially in later stages), one-hit kills and limited continues (three or six, depending on the settings). As such, an invincibility option and a stage select mode can be enable through the game's dip switches for easier gameplay.
''Rolling Thunder'' was followed by two sequels; ''Rolling Thunder 2'' (1990, Arcade/Sega Mega Drive) and ''Rolling Thunder 3'' (1993, Sega Mega Drive). The Capcom game '' and the Sega game ''Shinobi'' also feature similar gameplay to the ''Rolling Thunder'' series.

Trivia

★ A Rolling Thunder unit appears in the 1996 movie "High School High".

★ There are two different versions of the Rolling Thunder arcade machine, both released in 1986. In the original version, the player is given 180 seconds to complete each level. In the revised version, the player is only given 150 seconds to complete each level. The original version also has slightly easier enemy placement and it does not include the Leila torture scenes between levels.

★ Matt Damon said on The Junkies radio show (8/3/2007) that Rolling Thunder was one of his favorite arcade games in high school.

Ports

''Rolling Thunder'' was ported to a fair number of platforms, including the Nintendo Entertainment System, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, and the Commodore Amiga. A port was planned for the Atari Lynx, but it was never released.
The Nintendo Entertainment System version was developed internally by Namco and contained mild differences such as hidden power-ups in unmarked doors, a password feature and a harder second quest.
The computer versions were developed by Tiertex and published in Europe by US Gold. Though different in terms of visuals, all of them match in being ports from the arcade with no new additions.
The original arcade version was featured in pixel-perfect quality in ''Namco Museum Encore'' for Sony PlayStation and in ''''Namco Museum 50th Anniversary'''' for PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, GameCube, Xbox and PC.

External links

★ ''Rolling Thunder'' at the Namco '70's-'80's VIDEO GAME MUSEUM (Japanese)

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★ Satirical review of ''Rolling Thunder'' at SydLexia.com

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