Museum of the Game ®

International Arcade Museum® — Killer List of Videogames®

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.

Rolling Thunder was produced by Atari Games in 1986.

Atari Games released 89 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1984. Atari Games was based in United States.

Other machines made by Atari Games during the time period Rolling Thunder was produced include: Road Runner, Star Wars - Empire Strikes Back, Gauntlet, Gauntlet (PlayChoice), Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, Super Sprint, 720 Degrees, Championship Sprint, Relief Pitcher (prototype), and Gauntlet II

Specs

Name	Rolling Thunder
Developer	Atari Games (United States)
Year	1986
Type	Videogame
KLOV/MOG #	9362
Class	Wide Release
Genre	Scrolling Fighter
Monitor	Orientation: Horizontal Type: Raster: Standard Resolution Color: Color Wells Gardner K7000
Conversion Class	JAMMA
Dipswitch Settings	Rolling Thunder Dipswitch Settings (user contributed)
# Simultaneous Players	1
# Maximum Players	2
Game Play	Alternating
Control Panel Layout	Single Player Ambidextrous
Controls	Joystick: 4-way (up, down, left, right) Buttons: 2 - FireJump
Sound	Amplified Mono (one channel)
Cabinet Styles	Upright/Standard
Control Panel	Rolling Thunder Control Panel Image
PCB	Rolling Thunder PCB Image

Video Clips

Rolling Thunder Arcade Review - MAMECADE 59

ROLLING THUNDER (Namco - Arcade - 1986) Retro Danuart

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.

Rolling Thunder KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 3.81 (14 votes)

Fun Factor: 4.02

Overall Like	4.23
Fun (Social)	3.62
Fun (Solo)	4.23
Collector Desire	3.77

Technical Rating: 3.82

Gameplay	4.23
Graphics	3.64
Originality	4.15
Sound/Music	3.92

Personal Impressions and Technical Impressions each account for half of the total score. Within the Personal Impressions category, Like carries a little more weight than the other factors.

Images

Cabinet Information

The cabinet was manufactured by Atari in 1987.

Miscellaneous

LICENSOR: Namco 1986

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Rolling Thunder Census

There are 15,264 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,669 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 166,973 machines (7,000 unique titles).

Very Common - There are 169 known instances of this machine owned by Rolling Thunder collectors who are active members. Of these, 101 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. 65 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

For Sale - There are 8 active VAPS members with a Rolling Thunder machines for sale. There are 2 active VAPS members with a Rolling Thunder circuit boards for sale.

Wanted - Popular - There are 13 active VAPS members currently looking for Rolling Thunder. There are 2 active VAPS members looking for Rolling Thunder boards sets.

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

This game ranks a 23 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

Rarity and Popularity independently are not necessarily indications of value. [More Information]

Flyers

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

Pinout and DIP Switch Settings - Rolling Thunder Manual — **Pinout and DIP Switch Settings**
(2 pages, 295 kB File)

Operator's Manual - Rolling Thunder Manual — **Operator's Manual**
(48 pages, 6.1 MB File)

Foto-Finder® (Books)

The Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 203; Color photo Price guide: No
Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 203; Color photo

Additional References (logged in members often see more)

3D Model (External): Dedicated (loading?) (da7b75246688adad15000ab5e56184f5)

eBay Listings

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

Click to search eBay for Atari Games for machines and parts.

When you click on links below to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Such revenue helps to fund this site's operations. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

TOP WATCHED LISTINGS FOR: Rolling Thunder