Rolling Thunder (Arcade)

Rolling Thunder
Developer: Namco Publishers: Namco (JP), Atari Games (US) Platform: Arcade (Namco System 86) Released in JP: December 1986 Released in US: February 1987 This game has revisional differences.

To do: More revisional differences, including a third "in-between" revision that doesn't seem to have much documentation on it at all, but is referenced in its Arcade Archives port.

Rolling Thunder is a side-scrolling action game by Namco where a 007-esque super spy must rescue a hot chick from an army of rainbow-colored klansmen led by an evil Namekian.

Revisional Differences

Old title screen	New title screen

Two versions of Rolling Thunder were released: the original release (also known as the "old version") and a revision known as the "new version". The new version features the following changes:

• The title screen was changed, as shown in the above comparison. In the older version, the title screen is just a light grey Rolling Thunder logo displayed on a giant computer monitor. In the newer version, the logo is darker and has more shading (but loses the "ricochet" effect that goes from Albatross' pistol to the "N" in "THUNDER"), while the monitor's control panel is now being operated by Maskers (the game's enemy characters).
• A stage select mode was added that allows the player to start the game at any of the first five stages. This can be turned off with the game's DIP switches.
• An extend feature has been added as well, allowing players to gain bonus lives after accumulating a certain amount of points (depending on the setting of the DIP switches).
• The old version plays the same background music in every stage. The new version adds a new main theme, which is played in all stages except the cavern/lava stages (Areas 3, 4 and 8), which retain the original music.
• The enemy placement has been changed in order to balance the game's difficulty out, making the earlier stages easier and the later stages harder.
• Cutscenes were added between stages, showing the monitor from the title screen displaying Leila (Albatross' female partner) being captured and tortured, as well as Maboo (the final boss) laughing.
• A bug was fixed which made the player invulnerable in certain areas.