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Rolling Thunder

Manufacturer: Atari
Year: 1986
Class: Wide Release
Genre: Scrolling Fighter
Type: Videogame

Monitor:

Orientation: Horizontal
Type: Raster: Standard Resolution
CRT: Color
Wells Gardner K7000

Conversion Class: JAMMA
Number of Simultaneous Players: 1
Maximum number of Players: 2
Gameplay: Alternating
Control Panel Layout: Single Player Ambidextrous
Controls:

Joystick: 4-way (up, down, left, right)
Buttons: 2 [Fire|Jump]

Sound: Amplified Mono (one channel)

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Rolling Thunder Control Panel Image

Rolling Thunder Description

You play a secret agent codenamed "Albatross", a member of the Rolling Thunder team. Your mission is to stop the criminal organization known as Geldra, rescue Agent Lelia Blitz and eventually overthrow Geldra's leader Maboo.

Cabinet Information

The cabinet was manufactured by Atari in 1987.

Game Introduction

This game is similar to Shinobi, but without the magic spells. The animation is very good and is set sometime during the 1960s. The main character (Albatross) is tall and the enemies are somewhat creepy. The intermission graphics are entertaining.

Game Play

This is a horizontal-scrolling shooter that is very similar to Shinobi. There are two levels you can walk on and to change levels, simply push the joystick up and press the Jump button.

There are many doors that lie along your path. Some of the doors are labelled and you can enter those rooms to pick-up more ammo or weapon upgrades. Doors that are not labeled often have enemies exiting them. In a pinch, you can duck inside a doorway to avoid a grenade or an enemy jumping on top of you, but do not stay in too long or you will end up fighting against several more enemies.

The player character only has eight units of energy -- two hits, and you are dead.

Miscellaneous

LICENSOR: Namco (1986)

CAPS/VAPS Arcade Census

There are 6,862 members of the Classic Arcade Preservation Society / Video Arcade Preservation Society, 3,937 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 64,459 machines (3,753 unique titles).

Very Common - There are 68 known instances of this machine owned by Rolling Thunder collectors. Of these, 31 of them are original dedicated machines, 2 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet, and 35 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

This game ranks a 42 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most commonly seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.

Wanted - There are 2 VAPS members currently looking for Rolling Thunder. There is one VAPS member looking for a Rolling Thunder circuit board set.

This game ranks a 8 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most commonly seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

Rarity is NOT necessarily an indication of value. [More Information]

Technical

The boardset is Namco System 86.

Fixes

Quite often, there seems to be problems with three or four capacitors along rows A and B. When this problem exists, the digital audio is non-existant. According to http://www.zws.com, the capacitor at position A1 is a likely culprit.

Legacy

Rolling Thunder
Rolling Thunder 2

Manuals

Operator's Manual 48 Pages, 6093 KB File.

Foto-Finder™ (books)

The Encyclpedia of Arcade Video Games, Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256): Page: 203; Color photo;
Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games, Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256): Page: 203; Color photo; Price guide:

Contribute Links

eBay Listings

Click to search eBay for Rolling Thunder Videogame machines and related items.

Click to search eBay for machines and parts made by Atari.

Check out the IAM/KLOV report of the hottest coin-op machines on eBay, powered by Ace.com.

Rolling Thunder - Title screen image

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