Rolling Thunder

1001 Video Games

The Arcade version of Rolling Thunder appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Conversions

US Gold picked up conversion rights and Tiertex ported the game for release on all major home computers in 1988. The C64 version is sluggish and blocky, yet a very playable and satisfactory effort, while the Amstrad features colourful in-game graphics and the Spectrum contains its characteristically faithful sprites and linedrawn backgrounds. The Amiga and Atari ST versions are a relatively disappointment when taking into account that near-perfect conversions could have been achieved on such powerful machines. The Amiga version was US Gold's first foray into the 16-bit Commodore market and its lacklustre execution is perhaps the reason why both it and the Atari ST port were never re-issued pon the Kixx budget label, as were the 8-bit versions. Predictably, all releases feature the ever-obligatory and annoying border around the playing area.Several consoles received conversions with a version for the Atari Lynx and a pleasant Nintendo NES port from Tengen in 1988 which implemented a password system and featured strikingly daring box art for the family-friendly console. An arcade-perfect release finally came to home systems in the Nineties when the game was included on the Sony Playstation's Namco Musem Encore Collection - sadly, a Japan-only exclusive.