Thunder Force III
From Sega Retro
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
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.
Contents
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.
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
Magazine articles
- Main article: Thunder Force III/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
- Main article: Thunder Force III/Promotional material.
Physical scans
Sega Retro Average | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
88 | |
---|---|
Based on 27 reviews |
Mega Drive, DE |
---|
|
Mega Drive, ES |
---|
|
Technical information
ROM dump status
System | Hash | Size | Build Date | Source | Comments | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
✔ |
|
512kB | 1990-03 | Cartridge (US/JP) | ||||||||||
? |
|
512kB | 1990-08-01 | CD-R disc | Page |
References
- ↑ File:ThunderForce3 MD JP Box.jpg
- ↑ File:ThunderForceIII MD KR cover.jpg
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://sega.jp/history/hard/megadrive/software_l.html (Wayback Machine: 2020-07-02 23:21)
- ↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "May 1990" (JP; 1990-04-07), page 115
- ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "September 1990" (US; 1990-xx-xx), page 64
- ↑ GamePro, "November 1990" (US; 1990-xx-xx), page 107
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Supergame, "Julho 1992" (BR; 1992-07-xx), page 37
- ↑ http://www.retrocollect.com/Guides/pal-thunder-force-iii-and-the-controversial-sega-megadrive-releases.html (Wayback Machine: 2013-04-14 08:23)
- ↑ ACE, "August 1990" (UK; 1990-07-xx), page 60
- ↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "June 1990" (JP; 1990-05-08), page 107 (109)
- ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 83 (85)
- ↑ Complete Guide to Consoles, "Volume IV" (UK; 1990-11-xx), page 37
- ↑ Consoles +, "Tilt Hors-Serie" (FR; 1991-07-xx), page 36/37 (36)
- ↑ Computer & Video Games, "August 1990" (UK; 1990-07-16), page 84/85 (84)
- ↑ Game Power, "Dicembre 1991" (IT; 1991-xx-xx), page 54/55 (56)
- ↑ GamePro, "November 1990" (US; 1990-xx-xx), page 108/109 (106)
- ↑ The Games Machine, "August 1990" (UK; 1990-07-19), page 55
- ↑ Hobby Consolas, "Noviembre 1991" (ES; 1991-xx-xx), page 24/25 (24)
- ↑ Joypad, "Mars 1992" (FR; 1992-0x-xx), page 138/139 (138)
- ↑ Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming, "September 1992" (UK; 1992-xx-xx), page 80
- ↑ MegaTech, "Xmas 1991" (UK; 1991-12-06), page 81
- ↑ Mean Machines, "October 1991" (UK; 1991-09-27), page 88-90 (88)
- ↑ Player One, "Octobre 1991" (FR; 1991-xx-xx), page 54/55 (54)
- ↑ Sega Power, "October 1991" (UK; 1991-09-05), page 54/55 (54)
- ↑ Sega Power, "November 1991" (UK; 1991-10-04), page 22
- ↑ Sega Pro, "April 1992" (UK; 1992-03-19), page 30
- ↑ Sega Pro, "July 1992" (UK; 1992-06-18), page 28/29 (28)
- ↑ Zero, "September 1990" (UK; 1990-08-09), page 72
Thunder Force III | |
---|---|
Main page | Comparisons | Maps | Hidden content | Magazine articles | Reception | Region coding
|
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) |
- 1 player games
- JP Mega Drive games
- US Mega Drive games
- DE Mega Drive games
- ES Mega Drive games
- FR Mega Drive games
- BR Mega Drive games
- KR Mega Drive games
- Mega Drive games
- 1990 Mega Drive games
- Mega Drive shoot-'em-up games
- All games
- Credits without source
- Rating without PDF source
- Num template
- External rating reference
- Update ratings template
- Games with extra scans
- Games with known prototypes
- Thunder Force III
- Thunder Force