Thunder Force 3 & Thunder Force AC

[Kollision]

Hey Lim, I have a Thunder Spirits score too:

Kollision - 2,366,840 - ALL - Rapidfire ON



all American score - US cart + US SNES

[pegboy]

I've got a thunder spirits score as well, on Maniac Difficulty, no deaths:

Pegboy - 2,173,640 - ALL - Rapidfire off - Maniac Difficulty

Video

[Kollision]

Much respect for clearing it on button mashing, pegboy!

[pegboy]

Much respect for clearing it on button mashing, pegboy!

Thanks, I'm sure my hands will regret it 10 years from now!

[azmun]

Last night, got to 1cc Thunder Force III. Back in the day didn't think this to be possible. It's the easiest of the five shooters I've completed over the last seven months. Only took me one day to practice and since it's relatively short I cleared it few times. There were few unexpected breakthroughs that I encountered. 1-ups, bonus ships and shields were generously littered and awarded. Boss fights were easy except for the last few and even then, you could use temporary invincibility after losing life to make continuous attacks.

That said, like any other shooter you still need some practice and memorization. Baits and traps are scattered all over. It can be quiet difficult to maneuver your ship especially in tight corners and crevices. Power-ups tend to be tricky to obtain. Finally, I really liked how Technosoft paid tribute to R-type stage 3 battleship with stage 6 Cerberus.

In case the moderator would like to update the records, please use the following:

Thunderforce III Normal
azmun - 1 064 250 - Hydra - Genesis cart running on real hardware

[AeroCityMayor]

Nice one matey!

I've not completed this one yet - I've been close but no cigar!

Well done d00d!

Cheers,

Ralph.

[Kollision]

Thunder Force III Normal

Kollision - 1,342,220 - Haides - Saturn

[KoopaTGR]

Thunder Force AC
KoopaTGR - 1 619 240 - ALL - MAME (World)

If you still can't 1CC TFAC with autofire, you're a faggot.

I guess I'm not a faggot anymore.

[KoopaTGR]

Thunder Force III Normal
KoopaTGR - 1 160 520 - Hydra - Genesis/MD

And now I cleared TFIII. Pretty easy as the only roadblock was Haides due to all the memoriser spots. Hunter made quick work of Ellis, and the last 3 stages were pretty much the same as TFAC.

Nice to clear something in such a short window of time.

[pegboy]

Thunder Force AC
PEG - 2,379,990 - ALL - MAME (Japan)

Lost out on 5000 more points because of some sort of bug(?) where the stage 3 midboss didn't show up. WTF was that? I'm probably going to keep playing it some more to crack 2.38 Million, but maybe not. I'll also post a video at some point.

Don't have a fucking clue how they got the WR scores, even with save states and perfect enemy milking I don't think I could get close to those. Must be some secrets or powerups I'm still missing out on.

[pegboy]

Thunder Force AC
PEG - 2,385,430 - ALL - MAME (Japan)

Did a few more runs and basically got the same score as last time except the mid boss was actually there this time, thus the extra 5K or so. There's still a few thousand more points on the table if I milk things a bit better but at this point it's really diminishing returns since I'm not sure where any other big bonuses are located (if they even exist).

Here's a screen cap from the video I captured:

[pegboy]

Thunder Force AC
PEG - 2,389,180 - ALL - MAME (Japan)

This is getting closer to my theoretical max, I might give it a couple more tries but even with save states I've only done about 3K points higher than this, so I'm really not expecting much more unless I discover a hidden powerup or bonus (I swear another one must exist, I just can't believe those WR score is real without it).

[pegboy]

Also, I want to point out that the Saturn version of Thunder Force AC has totally different scoring than the Arcade (Japanese ROM set is the one I'm playing) version.

Right off the bat in stage 2 the enemies give vastly different point values. Those 3 grey drones that show up early in stage 2 only give 350 points each in the arcade version but give 700 points each in the Saturn version. Then the next 2 robots that show up only give 500 points each in the arcade version yet in the Saturn version, the first gives 1000 points, and the second 1500? Also, the stage 4 boss' missiles can be milked for points in the Saturn version while they give no points at all in the arcade version.

Another change is those large yellow "fish" robots that show up in stage 5 normally only give 3K each, but somehow they give variable values in the Saturn version. 3K for the first, 6K for the second, a massive 27K for the 3rd? WTF were they thinking with these changes?

All in all I'd argue that the difference over the whole game is massive, and as much as 100K+ more points in the Saturn version with an equivalent playthrough. Saturn scores should to be placed in a seperate table.

This is yet another reason I will probably never play the console ports anymore for arcade games, as they do lots of stupid shit like this for absolutely no reason.

[ProjectAKo]

You sure are close to the WR. Maybe they know of some obscure tricks or glitches to get just a few more points, but god only knows what that may be.

[pegboy]

I did figure out a bit more, and with a perfect run I could theoretically break 2.4 mil (done it with save states), but that wr score might as well be 100 million points higher, I just dont see how its possible, especially without autofire. Maybe there is some bug exploit or something, god only knows. I can def do better than my current score though.

[ProjectAKo]

There's not a rank increase with autofire is there? I'm sure you guys wouldve noticed that by now. Otherwise that seems like a typo.

http://mtlayk.web.fc2.com/Top/Top3.htm%20 only lists 2,406,570 as the top score not mentioning autofire

[Gemant]

There's not a rank increase with autofire is there? I'm sure you guys wouldve noticed that by now. Otherwise that seems like a typo.

http://mtlayk.web.fc2.com/Top/Top3.htm%20 only lists 2,406,570 as the top score not mentioning autofire

30-05-91 Player: 中井鯉絵 （こ）（ん）（で）（ら） (Gamest) score: 2.411.980 (no autofire) 個 (score send with postcard) Game center: カジノ姫路 City: Hyogo

[pegboy]

Yet another update:

Thunder Force AC
PEG - 2,395,620 - ALL - MAME (Japan)

[GGA_HAN]

A question for you Thunder Force 3 mega drive/genesis players...

what would you say is the theoretical max score for Mania mode of TF3?

I would guess 6.9mil or about, personally...unless I'm missing some major milking opportunities that I don't even know about.

edit, forgot to post my score!



ThunderForce 3 Normal:
HAN - 1 111 630 - Hydra - Genesis/MD

[pegboy]

Probably my final score, broke 2.4 million:
PEG - 2,402,350 - ALL - MAME (Japan)

[Gemant]

The first score in the web in these 15 years above 2,400,000!!

[ProjectAKo]

Sweet! You should upload a video.

[GGA_HAN]

Very nice, Pegboy!

update on my Megadrive/Genesis score:



Thunderforce 3 / Normal
HAN - 1,286,460 - Haides - Genesis/MD

[pegboy]

Sweet! You should upload a video.

Yeah I will post a video at some point (I have a ton of replays saved). Im just contemplating if I want to try to go for the autofire record (the non autofire record is either bogus or there is some obscure tricks being used) or just be done with this game. I would need a perfect run to do it, and probably need to figure out a few more point optimizations in stage 5 and 7. Unfortunately there appears to be an element of luck (?) on stage 6 for another 2k points. Im not sure what triggers it but sometimes way more ships are spawned near the end of the level somtimes. The last score I posted got a very favorable anount of ships.

[ProjectAKo]

Heh. Even if the score is maxed out, you can still tie it.

Also, maybe that guy figured out something that one could only figure out from playing with autofire off? Just a thought.

[GGA_HAN]

another slight increase, sorry for the spam:



Thunderforce III Normal
HAN - 1,303,770 - Hydra - Genesis/MD

[pegboy]

Another high score for Thunder Force AC:
PEG - 2,405,600 - ALL - MAME (Japan)

I still can't figure out what makes the ships spawn like crazy in stage 6, but I got a shitload of them in this run. That combined with a near flawless stage 7 made for my best score yet. Still fucked up a few spots in the earlier levels though. The seeming randomness(?) of stage 6 makes me want to stop playing this game, because even if I play everything else flawless I can still get fucked over by 2-3K worth of points right there.

[pegboy]

Thunder Force AC
PEG - 2,407,200 - ALL - MAME (Japan)

Is this the end of my journey with this game? I know I've said that about 50 times in this thread, but I think I'm really done this time. This supposedly breaks the Japanese WR score using autofire.

I got a shitty draw on the stage 6 ship spawn and still managed to beat my old score. For the record, I still believe a score about 4-5K or more is possible (I've done it with save states), but I'm just not good enough to pull that off, and there are some really aggravating parts to this game like the randomness of stage 6 (loss of 1-3K points with low ship spawn) and even worse the fucking bug(?) where the stage 3 midboss doesn't show up (5K points down the toilet there).

[ProjectAKo]

[Gemant]

Thunder Force AC
PEG - 2,407,200 - ALL - MAME (Japan)

Is this the end of my journey with this game? I know I've said that about 50 times in this thread, but I think I'm really done this time. This supposedly breaks the Japanese WR score using autofire.

I got a shitty draw on the stage 6 ship spawn and still managed to beat my old score. For the record, I still believe a score about 4-5K or more is possible (I've done it with save states), but I'm just not good enough to pull that off, and there are some really aggravating parts to this game like the randomness of stage 6 (loss of 1-3K points with low ship spawn) and even worse the fucking bug(?) where the stage 3 midboss doesn't show up (5K points down the toilet there).

Congratulations . If is a wolfmame replay, I suggest you to send it on Afterburners site, for a higher visibility for the japanese players.