The Arcade version(and SMS) yes - ALL OTHER VERSIONS most definately not.
Looking at your Avitar tells me you must have liked the Arcade version too?
"I should use simulator loosely 'cos I don't think it's quite like this on the beach with helicopters and fires and the jumping beach buggy" - paulisthebest3uk 2020.
I loved the arcade game (shame it doesn't work too well on MAME!), and I remember quite enjoying the Speccy version at the time. Can't stand it now though!
Still, I guess it was a big arcade hit at the time and the prospect of being able to play it on a Spectrum was sufficiently mouth watering that people were blinkered to the inevitable limitations of the conversion.
ThunderBlade got fantastic reviews at the time, but I've always found it unplayable.
SEGA is SEGA is SEGA. SAAAYGAAAA.
The way I see that era of games is if you like Space Harrier then you like Thunderblade and Outrun and SuperHangOn and Afterburner etc.....well maybe not Afterburner since it was jam-pants.
The trick to Thunderblade is keep moving and don't go back on yourself - circles and figures of 8 do it usually. It is hard but unplayable is a little harsh?
It was as mentioned one of those over ambitious speccy conversions. On a similar note I had a go of Outrun on 'taculator last night and was too much for the lovely Speccy to handle - Very admirable attempt but it was never gonna give the Arcade feel was it?
"I should use simulator loosely 'cos I don't think it's quite like this on the beach with helicopters and fires and the jumping beach buggy" - paulisthebest3uk 2020.
I used to play the arcade version on holiday in Dumfriesshire back in the late 80's and loved it. Me and my mate would hog it for hours and he always beat me!
The speccy version was utter shite though. Its sooo sloooowwwwwww!!!!! I believe US Gold wasted the opportunity on that one.
Found it in a pub a few years ago and played it again! That music brought back some happy memories!
I always found the Speccy version completely impenetrable. The game would start with your chopper being bombarded and you'd die instantly, then you'd fly along for a bit before randomly being shot down for no apparent reason. And then it'd go downhill from there. I could never understand why it got such high review scores - it's about as typical as you can get of the woeful, monochrome rubbish that US Gold was shovelling out for most of their existence.
Just watched the Thunderblade RZX that's just been uploaded to the RZX Archive. There's a damned good looking game there, lots of nice little sequences.
If only the playability didn't suck so much, it could have been a classic otherwise.
I remember playing the sit down version of Thunderblade at the arcade. It were amazing, particularly how the ground objects zoomed when you got closer to the ground.
I spent ?9.99 on the game for my Speccy too. It was a great disappointment, and I agree, the enemy bullets were impossible to see where they were comming from, and a few seconds later, you'd end up as burning rubble!
Thunderblade was never much of a game even in the arcade; one of the worst sit-down cabs also. Not a bad conversion, but too hard, and whilst monochrome was suitable for many arcade conversions , it wasn't for TB , mainly because it was dificult to tell what was going on!
I really liked Afterburner - especially when played with a joystick.
As for ThunderBlade, the only way I could get into the second stage was to play completely randomly.
I've only played the arcade versions. I found Afterburner to be much more random than Thunderblade. I could finish Thunderblade on one credit. Afterburner required many continues, and I didn't seem to get much better at it with paractise. Something unseen would always nail you, or those homing missiles that came from behind would down you. The best tactic, after the quiet first few stages, seemed to be mash the joystick and thrust lever all over the place, and get as many barrel rolls in as possible. Thunderblade was not as iconic as Space Harrier or OutRun, but it was a decent game. If a little bit short.
I've only played the arcade versions. I found Afterburner to be much more random than Thunderblade. I could finish Thunderblade on one credit. Afterburner required many continues, and I didn't seem to get much better at it with paractise. Something unseen would always nail you, or those homing missiles that came from behind would down you. The best tactic, after the quiet first few stages, seemed to be mash the joystick and thrust lever all over the place, and get as many barrel rolls in as possible. Thunderblade was not as iconic as Space Harrier or OutRun, but it was a decent game. If a little bit short.
There's an art to Afterburner - first of all, learn how to aim with the cross-hairs so you can get lock-ons more often. Second, master the 360-degree roll - you need to do that in order to avoid the missiles coming at you from behind. Third, don't move from your current position until an enemy fires at you, then move one position up or down.
The rest is easy. Must admit the physical arcade version is tougher because the joystick is more unwieldy.
Just watched the Thunderblade RZX that's just been uploaded to the RZX Archive. There's a damned good looking game there, lots of nice little sequences.
Thanks for the tip on the RZX. Just watched it, and it is a lot more than I thought in the game. As already pointed out, the main problem seems to be that you can not tell what is going on.
My impression is that the graphics has not been created on the Spectrum, but just ported from some other format, which gives the feeling of some badly-digitized monocrome images which just does not work well on the Spectrum.
I think if the graphics would been drawn with the Spectrum in mind (i.e. just cleared out a lot of mess) it could have looked great.
I quite like the arcade game of Thunder Blade - the way the joystick physically turned your seat was a neat gimmick. As well as movement, it added weight (yours!) to the controls.
The only home version I played was the ST, but it was bound to be awful on anything other than the arcade.
Huge fan of Space Harrier and most of its conversions. Out-Run isn't too bad but you need a good conversion (MegaDrive, GBA) for it to be playable. Super Hang-On had a really good ST conversion too.
After Burner was just crap though. Why did left and right on the joystick never actually do anything? You'd get a line of enemies on the horizon, but you couldn't turn or aim at anything off to one side. A complete waste of time putting money in that.
The Speccy was always onto a loser with Thunderblade. Even the PC Engine version has ropey scrolling and rough gameplay, so what chance did the Spectrum have?
When Out Run was converted in 1987, the Spectrum suddenly looked old, and high profile arcade conversions from then on often scored less in playability than in comedy value.
When Out Run was converted in 1987, the Spectrum suddenly looked old, and high profile arcade conversions from then on often scored less in playability than in comedy value.
OutRun using an engine based on the Chase HQ engine could be pretty good.
OutRun using an engine based on the Chase HQ engine could be pretty good.
Yeah that would have been interesting, but US Gold were too ambitious with the graphics. Apparently, speccy Out Run is the only version where the car size/screen size ratio is the same as the arcade. I guess that's a case of wrong priorities, though it did make the screenshots look good on the back.
Luckily living in a seaside resort in Fife, I was priveleged to get my hands on a lot of the cutting edge arcade machines at the time. Afterburner, Outrun, Thunderblade & Powerdrift to name but a few.
I was also uber excited when these conversions were mentioned in Crash and eagerly anticipated their release on the Speccy. At the time, I loved the Zx version. Nowadays, I'd rather just fire up Mame if I want to play any arcade game.
There are a few exceptions though - Green Beret, Bionic Commando and Renegade. They are exceptional conversions and worthy of anyones individual attention.
Comments
Looking at your Avitar tells me you must have liked the Arcade version too?
ThunderBlade got fantastic reviews at the time, but I've always found it unplayable.
Still, I guess it was a big arcade hit at the time and the prospect of being able to play it on a Spectrum was sufficiently mouth watering that people were blinkered to the inevitable limitations of the conversion.
SEGA is SEGA is SEGA. SAAAYGAAAA.
The way I see that era of games is if you like Space Harrier then you like Thunderblade and Outrun and SuperHangOn and Afterburner etc.....well maybe not Afterburner since it was jam-pants.
The trick to Thunderblade is keep moving and don't go back on yourself - circles and figures of 8 do it usually. It is hard but unplayable is a little harsh?
It was as mentioned one of those over ambitious speccy conversions. On a similar note I had a go of Outrun on 'taculator last night and was too much for the lovely Speccy to handle - Very admirable attempt but it was never gonna give the Arcade feel was it?
OutRun with the Chase HQ engine could've been really good.
As for ThunderBlade, the only way I could get into the second stage was to play completely randomly.
Nick - I agree with you regarding Outrun.. Even my daughter thinks it's rubbish (
The speccy version was utter shite though. Its sooo sloooowwwwwww!!!!! I believe US Gold wasted the opportunity on that one.
Found it in a pub a few years ago and played it again! That music brought back some happy memories!
My thoughts exactly.
I do like the other SEGA handle crank games, Space Harrier, Hang On, and even Afterburner (but not that much).
Just watched the Thunderblade RZX that's just been uploaded to the RZX Archive. There's a damned good looking game there, lots of nice little sequences.
If only the playability didn't suck so much, it could have been a classic otherwise.
Yeah there is some - very quiet, though.
I spent ?9.99 on the game for my Speccy too. It was a great disappointment, and I agree, the enemy bullets were impossible to see where they were comming from, and a few seconds later, you'd end up as burning rubble!
Now is a bit boring...
I've only played the arcade versions. I found Afterburner to be much more random than Thunderblade. I could finish Thunderblade on one credit. Afterburner required many continues, and I didn't seem to get much better at it with paractise. Something unseen would always nail you, or those homing missiles that came from behind would down you. The best tactic, after the quiet first few stages, seemed to be mash the joystick and thrust lever all over the place, and get as many barrel rolls in as possible. Thunderblade was not as iconic as Space Harrier or OutRun, but it was a decent game. If a little bit short.
There's an art to Afterburner - first of all, learn how to aim with the cross-hairs so you can get lock-ons more often. Second, master the 360-degree roll - you need to do that in order to avoid the missiles coming at you from behind. Third, don't move from your current position until an enemy fires at you, then move one position up or down.
The rest is easy. Must admit the physical arcade version is tougher because the joystick is more unwieldy.
Thanks for the tip on the RZX. Just watched it, and it is a lot more than I thought in the game. As already pointed out, the main problem seems to be that you can not tell what is going on.
My impression is that the graphics has not been created on the Spectrum, but just ported from some other format, which gives the feeling of some badly-digitized monocrome images which just does not work well on the Spectrum.
I think if the graphics would been drawn with the Spectrum in mind (i.e. just cleared out a lot of mess) it could have looked great.
There is some music in the intro and between-levels phase, but no in game-music.
The only home version I played was the ST, but it was bound to be awful on anything other than the arcade.
Huge fan of Space Harrier and most of its conversions. Out-Run isn't too bad but you need a good conversion (MegaDrive, GBA) for it to be playable. Super Hang-On had a really good ST conversion too.
After Burner was just crap though. Why did left and right on the joystick never actually do anything? You'd get a line of enemies on the horizon, but you couldn't turn or aim at anything off to one side. A complete waste of time putting money in that.
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
By coincidence, I played Super Thunderblade on a Megadrive compilation on the Sony PSP - wasn't too bad..
When Out Run was converted in 1987, the Spectrum suddenly looked old, and high profile arcade conversions from then on often scored less in playability than in comedy value.
https://discordapp.com/invite/cZt59EQ
OutRun using an engine based on the Chase HQ engine could be pretty good.
Yeah that would have been interesting, but US Gold were too ambitious with the graphics. Apparently, speccy Out Run is the only version where the car size/screen size ratio is the same as the arcade. I guess that's a case of wrong priorities, though it did make the screenshots look good on the back.
https://discordapp.com/invite/cZt59EQ
I was also uber excited when these conversions were mentioned in Crash and eagerly anticipated their release on the Speccy. At the time, I loved the Zx version. Nowadays, I'd rather just fire up Mame if I want to play any arcade game.
There are a few exceptions though - Green Beret, Bionic Commando and Renegade. They are exceptional conversions and worthy of anyones individual attention.