Thunder Force III

n/a

Thunder Force III

System(s): Sega Mega Drive

Publisher: Tecnosoft

Developer: Tecnosoft

Distributor: HOT-B (US)

Sound driver: T.S v1.21 (Technosoft)

Genre: Shooting^[1]^[2]^[3]

Number of players: 1

Release	Date	RRP	Code
JP	1990-06-08^[3]	¥6,800 (7,004)6,800e^[4]	T-18033
US	1990-10^[5]	$56.9556.95^[6]	18036
DE	199x
ES	199x
FR	1992-c.04
BR	1992-07^[7]
KR	199x		GM4061JT

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Thunder Force III (サンダーフォースIII) is a 1990 shoot-'em-up developed by Tecnosoft for the Sega Mega Drive. It is the third game in the Thunder Force series and the first to debut on a Sega console. It was brought to the arcades as Thunder Force AC.

Story

Immediately after the events of Thunder Force II, the Galaxy Federation discovers five cloaking devices on five planets circling the ORN Empire's main base, and that any attempt to destroy these cloaking devices will result in ORN's Cerberus destroyer — capable of detecting and destroying large fleets — to take action. With this knowledge, the Galaxy Federation builds a new ship that is both powerful enough to destroy the five cloaking devices yet small enough to avoid detection by Cerberus.

Gameplay

Unlike its predecessors, III only features side-scrolling stages. fires; there is rapidfire. changes speed. changes weapons. Powerups are collected in the usual way. Options can be changed by holding , or when pressing on the title screen - this opens "configuration mode".

Levels

You can start at any of the first five levels, skipping over ones before it.

	Planet Hydra
	A horizontal wilderness. Your only threats are ORN's enemies, with some enemies coming from behind, some shooting homing missiles, and some shooting lasers up at you when you cross. Boss: Gargoyle: A chicken-like beast that shoots fireballs at you. Hi its stomach repeatedly to destroy it.
	Planet Gorgon
	A lava planet with rapidly rising columns of lava being the greatest natural threat. ORN has filled this planet with all sorts of laser enemies to stop you, and the balls of rock take quite a number of hits. Boss: Twin Vulcan: Two machines that circle the screen and shoot bullets at you at intervals. Destroy them both (you won't have to worry about one coming back if you take too long; it won't).
	Planet Seiren
	An underwater level full of ORN enemies. Boss: King Fish
	Planet Haides
	A mountainous level with terrain that rises, falls, and moves around in other ways. Think fast! Boss: G Lobster
	Planet Ellis
	What appears to be an ice mountain planet full of ORN enemies. Boss: Mobile Fort
	Cerberus
	Destroy the destroyer one piece at a time. Penetrate through to the inside and defeat the core to destroy the ship (regardless of how much of the outside you destroyed).
	ORN Base
	Enemies stand guard left and right while a number of traps block your way. Beware the doors that close in on you; you lose a life if you're on the wrong side... Boss: ("No Data")
	ORN Core
	The base of operations of ORN. This is a short level where you fight a miniboss and then face the final boss. Boss: CHA OS [sic]: It (what it was is revealed in the ending) attacks rapidly with several different types of bullets, some of which (like its wave shots) you can destroy.

History

Thunder Force III was released in the US, Japan, South Korea and Brazil, but it is not thought to have been released in the pan-Euro area. However, the US release is known to have been distributed in limited numbers across France and Germany, with the instruction manual exchanged for localised versions^[8]. Official releases in other PAL regions have not been confirmed.

Production credits

Program: Izumi Fukuda, Takashi Iwanaga, Haruhiko Ohtsuka
Graphics & Design: Osamu Tsujikawa, Yoichi Muto
Stage Design: Takashi Iwanaga
Music Compose: Toshiharu Yamanishi, Tomomi Ohtani
Sound Effects: Naosuke Arai
Voice: kaoru
Manual: Fumio Sugano
Wording: Kazue Matsuoka
Produce: Techno Soft

Digital manuals

Mega Drive Mini US manual
Mega Drive Mini JP manual

Magazine articles

Main article: Thunder Force III/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Main article: Thunder Force III/Promotional material.

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average

Publication	Score	Source
ACE (UK)	91	^[9]
Beep! MegaDrive (JP)	85	^[10]
Beep! MegaDrive (readers) (JP)	83	^[11]
Complete Guide to Consoles (UK)	91	№3, p85
Complete Guide to Consoles (UK)	89	^[12]
Consoles + (FR)	90	^[13]
Computer & Video Games (UK)	95	^[14]
Famitsu (JP)	78	№103, [1]
Game Power (IT)	91	^[15]
GamePro (US)	92	^[16]
The Games Machine (UK)	85	^[17]
Hobby Consolas (ES)	95	^[18]
Joypad (FR)	94	^[19]
Joystick (FR)	93	№8, p105
Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK)	84	^[20]
Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK)	85	№5, p95
MegaTech (UK)	89	^[21]
Mean Machines (UK)	86	^[22]
Player One (FR)	97	^[23]
Sega Power (UK)	80	^[24]
Sega Power (UK)	82	^[25]
Sega Pro (UK)	89	^[26]
Sega Pro (UK)	88	^[27]
Sega Pro (UK)	89	№18, p68
Supergame (BR)	88	^[7]
Tilt (FR)	85	№81, p58/59
Zero (UK)	94	^[28]

	88
Based on 27 reviews

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart PCB

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual PCB

Mega Drive, FR

Manual

Mega Drive, DE

Mega Drive, ES

Mega Drive, BR
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, KR
Cover
Cart

Technical information

ROM dump status

System

Hash

Size

Build Date

Source

Comments

✔

CRC32	1b3f399a
MD5	64766dae889d039eb391bc5bf2973f5d
SHA-1	9eadee76eb0509d5a0f16372fc9eac7a883e5f2d

512kB

1990-03

Cartridge (US/JP)

?

CRC32
MD5
SHA-1

1990-08-01

Page

References

Thunder Force games for Sega systems / developed by Sega
	Thunder Force II (1989) \| Thunder Force III (1990) \| Thunder Force IV / Lightening Force: Quest for the Darkstar (1992)
	Thunder Force AC (1990)
	Thunder Force: Gold Pack 1 (1996) \| Thunder Force: Gold Pack 2 (1996) \| Thunder Force V (1997)
	Thunder Force VI (2008)
	Sega Ages Thunder Force IV (2018) \| Sega Ages Thunder Force AC (2020)
Thunder Force related media
	Best of Thunder Force (1997) \| Thunder Force VI Soundtrack Demo (2008) \| Technosoft Music Collection: Thunder Force III & AC (2020)

[:File:ThunderForce3_MD_JP_Box.jpg_p-1] File:ThunderForce3 MD JP Box.jpg

[:File:ThunderForceIII_MD_KR_cover.jpg_p-2] File:ThunderForceIII MD KR cover.jpg

[https:.2F.2Fweb.archive.org.2Fweb.2F20200702232146.2Fhttps:.2F.2Fsega.jp.2Fhistory.2Fhard.2Fmegadrive.2Fsoftware_l.html-3] 3.0 ^3.1 https://sega.jp/history/hard/megadrive/software_l.html (Wayback Machine: 2020-07-02 23:21)

[:File:BeepMD_JP_1990-05.pdf_p115-4] Beep! MegaDrive, "May 1990" (JP; 1990-04-07), page 115

[:File:EGM_US_014.pdf_p64-5] Electronic Gaming Monthly, "September 1990" (US; 1990-xx-xx), page 64

[:File:GamePro_US_016.pdf_p107-6] GamePro, "November 1990" (US; 1990-xx-xx), page 107

[:File:Supergame_BR_12.pdf_p37-7] 7.0 ^7.1 Supergame, "Julho 1992" (BR; 1992-07-xx), page 37

[https:.2F.2Fweb.archive.org.2Fweb.2F20130414082358.2Fhttp:.2F.2Fwww.retrocollect.com.2FGuides.2Fpal-thunder-force-iii-and-the-controversial-sega-megadrive-releases.html-8] ttp://www.retrocollect.com/Guides/pal-thunder-force-iii-and-the-controversial-sega-megadrive-releases.html (Wayback Machine: 2013-04-14 08:23)

[:File:ACE_UK_35.pdf_p60-9] ACE, "August 1990" (UK; 1990-07-xx), page 60

[:File:BeepMD_JP_1990-06.pdf_p109_.28107.29-10] Beep! MegaDrive, "June 1990" (JP; 1990-05-08), page 107 (109)

[:File:SSM_JP_19950901_1995-09.pdf_p85_.2883.29-11] Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 83 (85)

[:File:CGtC_UK_04.pdf_p37-12] Complete Guide to Consoles, "Volume IV" (UK; 1990-11-xx), page 37

[:File:ConsolesPlus_FR_000.pdf_p36_.2836.2F37.29-13] Consoles +, "Tilt Hors-Serie" (FR; 1991-07-xx), page 36/37 (36)

[:File:CVG_UK_105.pdf_p84_.2884.2F85.29-14] Computer & Video Games, "August 1990" (UK; 1990-07-16), page 84/85 (84)

[:File:GamePower_IT_01.pdf_p56_.2854.2F55.29-15] Game Power, "Dicembre 1991" (IT; 1991-xx-xx), page 54/55 (56)

[:File:GamePro_US_016.pdf_p106_.28108.2F109.29-16] GamePro, "November 1990" (US; 1990-xx-xx), page 108/109 (106)

[:File:TGM_UK_33.pdf_p55-17] The Games Machine, "August 1990" (UK; 1990-07-19), page 55

[:File:HobbyConsolas_ES_002.pdf_p24_.2824.2F25.29-18] Hobby Consolas, "Noviembre 1991" (ES; 1991-xx-xx), page 24/25 (24)

[:File:Joypad_FR_006.pdf_p138_.28138.2F139.29-19] Joypad, "Mars 1992" (FR; 1992-0x-xx), page 138/139 (138)

[:File:MDAG_UK_01.pdf_p80-20] Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming, "September 1992" (UK; 1992-xx-xx), page 80

[:File:MegaTech_UK_01.pdf_p81-21] MegaTech, "Xmas 1991" (UK; 1991-12-06), page 81

[:File:MeanMachines_UK_13.pdf_p88_.2888-90.29-22] Mean Machines, "October 1991" (UK; 1991-09-27), page 88-90 (88)

[:File:PlayerOne_FR_013.pdf_p54_.2854.2F55.29-23] Player One, "Octobre 1991" (FR; 1991-xx-xx), page 54/55 (54)

[:File:SegaPower_UK_23.pdf_p54_.2854.2F55.29-24] Sega Power, "October 1991" (UK; 1991-09-05), page 54/55 (54)

[:File:SegaPower_UK_24.pdf_p22-25] Sega Power, "November 1991" (UK; 1991-10-04), page 22

[:File:SegaPro_UK_06.pdf_p30-26] Sega Pro, "April 1992" (UK; 1992-03-19), page 30

[:File:SegaPro_UK_09.pdf_p28_.2828.2F29.29-27] Sega Pro, "July 1992" (UK; 1992-06-18), page 28/29 (28)

[:File:Zero_UK_11.pdf_p72-28] Zero, "September 1990" (UK; 1990-08-09), page 72

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