Lost In Translation/Thunder Blade

This page is a stub for arcade games that are part of the Lost In Translation series using information based on MAME (version 0.113u2).
For an example of preferred content and layout please refer to Out Run or The Ninja Warriors.

Thunder Blade
Manufacturer	Sega
Released	1987
Control Method	Analog joystick 2 Button(s)
Main CPU	(2x) 68000 (@ 12.500 MHz) Z80 (@ 4.000 MHz)
Sound CPU	Stereo YM2151 (@ 4.000 MHz) Sega PCM (@ 4.000 MHz)
Video Details	Raster (Horizontal) 320 x 224 pixels 59.64 Hz 24,576 Palette colours
Screens	1
ROM Info	33 ROMs 3,874,816 bytes (3.70 MiB)
MAME ID	thndrbld · thndrbdj

About The Game

Thunder Blade is an arcade video game which has the player taking control of a heavily-armed battle chopper, battling through a variety of both overhead and 'into-the-screen' 3-D stages.

Each stage is packed with a mixture of enemy choppers, planes, tanks, boats and static gun emplacements, all intent on bringing Thunder Blade crashing to the ground.

The player's 'copter is armed with 2 different weapons; a rapid-fire machine gun and air-to-ground missiles - both of which have unlimited ammunition.

The first half of every stage begins with a top-down, vertically-scrolling section, before switching to an 'After Burner-esque', into-the-screen section.

Level Overview

Thunder Blade consists of four stages, which are as follows :

Stage 1

The game begins in a skyscraper-packed city. Enemies consist of rival choppers, jets, and ground-based tanks and gun emplacements. The level ends over the sea, with the player facing a huge and heavily-armed battleship.

Stage 2

This stage begins with the player navigating a desert canyon, before switching to the into-the-screen view and taking the player through a number of stalactite-packed and densely populated caves. A huge ground-based tank awaits the player at the end of the stage.

Stage 3

This begins in a river canyon, before moving on to a rain-forest river network. As well the the usual line-up of enemies, heavily-armed boats are introduced. the end-of-level battle takes place in the skies as the player attempts to destroy a massive jet fighter.

Stage 4

The 4th and final stage begins with a repeat of the first stage's city level, only this time the action takes place at night. The second half of this stage takes the player deep into an industrial complex, eventually leading to an end-of-game showdown with a massive and heavily-armed gun emplacement.

Trivia

Also released as "Thunder Blade [Deluxe Sit-Down model]".

Despite bringing nothing new or original to the shoot'em up genre, Thunder Blade was a huge commercial success for Sega. This was down to the superb and innovative use of their breathtaking sprite-scaling graphics technology - used to such stunning effect in "Out Run", "Super Hang-on", "After Burner", etc. The way Thunder Blade constantly switched between overhead and into-the-screen levels was smooth and flawless and helped to disguise the otherwise unremarkable game-play.

Pony Canyon released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (G.S.M. SEGA 1 - D28B0002) 07/07/1988.

Staff

Music By

Koichi Namiki

Cabinet and Artwork

• 

  Thunder Blade arcade cabinet.

• 

  Thunder Blade flyer.

• 

  Back of the Thunder Blade flyer.

Ports

Consoles

Sega Mega Drive (1988, "Super Thunder Blade")

Sega Master System (1988)

Sega Mega Drive (199?, "MegaGames 3in1 Vol 3")

Computers

Amstrad CPC (1988)

Atari ST (1988)

Commodore 64 (1988)

Commodore Amiga ("Thunder Blade", 1989, U.S. Gold)

NEC PC-Engine (1988)

Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1988)

Sharp X68000 (1990)

Others

Tiger LCD Handheld Game (1988)

Soundtrack Releases

Album Name	Catalogue No.	Released	Publisher	Comments
Galaxy Force -G.S.M. SEGA 1-	D28B-0002	1988-07-21	Pony Canyon Inc.	CD version.
Galaxy Force -G.S.M. SEGA 1-	25P5-0002	1988-07-21	Pony Canyon Inc.	Cassette version.
GALAXY FORCE II & Thunder Blade ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK	WM-0574	2007-07-26	Wavemaster Inc.	CD version.
S.S.T. Band Live!	PCVP-10405	1990-11-21	Pony Canyon	Released on VHS.
Galaxy Force -G.S.M. SEGA 1-	C22B-0002	1988-07-21	Pony Canyon	Vinyl version.

External Links

• Sinclair ZX Spectrum version of Thunder Blade at the World of Spectrum

References

The contents of this page are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
The sources used include MAME (version 0.113u2) and history.dat (revision 1.28 - 2008-10-18).
Please see http://www.arcade-history.com for credits.