Thunder Force AC - worth tracking down?

[jase25]

Hi

I'd really appreciate some impressions of Thunder Force AC. According to the info i've found it seems like a slightly remixed version of Thunder Force III but with inferior music.

Are there any PCB owners here? It would appear this is quite rare. How much does the PCB usually go for?

Your thoughts would be very much appreciated!

Thanks,
Jase

[clp]

go and play it in mame?

[BulletMagnet]

You could also try Thunder Spirits on the SNES, which was a port of AC if memory serves (not sure how arcade-accurate it was though).

[DANMAKUMAN]

the snes version lacks...and the music isn`t good

[The Coop]

Thunder Force AC is a port of Thunder Force III for the arcade. TFAC's graphics got a little more color in some areas, and less color in other areas, so it's about on the same level with TFIII. The music however, took a step down, as they don't sound as good as the original tunes on the Genesis. TFAC also replaced two levels in TFIII, adding in an asteroid level, and a rehash of a level from TFII. The controls are also little mushy in TFAC, but not so bad that it's unplayable.

Thunder Spirits is basically Thunder Force AC Gaiden. TS took TFAC and tinkered with it. TS has worse sounding music, more changes were done to some of the levels (especially the big battleship level, and the final levels), and the controls feel a little mushier than they were in TFAC.

So TFAC isn't a bad game, it just isn't as good as the Genesis title it's based off of.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Now if Tecnosoft did a PCB version of Thunderforce IV, that would've been ace.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[jase25]

Thanks very much for the info! I played the game on Mame and was slightly underwhelmed. Saying that Mame is not always the best way to judge a game, Nebulasray PCB for example is far superior. Thanks again for the comments.

[louisg]

Just because it hasn't been mentioned on this thread yet: TFAC is on one of the TF gold packs for Saturn, as well as a no-slowdown version if TFIV.

[Thunder Force]

I played the game on Mame and was slightly underwhelmed. Saying that Mame is not always the best way to judge a game, Nebulasray PCB for example is far superior.

Mame is representative in this case. I played the PCB back in the day, and while judged in a vacuum it's not bad at all, coming after TF3 it was hard to not be slightly underwhelmed by AC initially. The game gets pretty good during Stage Five though... if it let me start on that level (easily my favorite part of the game, hurray for TF2 nostalgia), I'd probably play the game a lot more. AC's lower audio quality & lack of decent autofire, also meant that most of the audio experience of playing this PCB was hearing yourself hammering buttons, instead of enjoying a pumping soundtrack like in other TF games.

[dpful]

The firing speed is a little slow, so you've got to jam the buttons like a madman if you don't want to die. Plus, the genesis style graphics don't impress. The game's would be a lot better with a faster rapid fire.

[BIL]

Thunder Force Gold Pack 2 (TFIV + TFAC) also enables full autofire in AC.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

If you have access to a handy auto-fire PCB, then auto-fire would spice things up on the ThunderforceAC PCB. Of course, be aware that some arcade shmup PCBs don't respond well to external auto-fire PCB hacks like Konami's 1987 A-Jax/Typhoon PCBs and a few others.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Limbrooke]

Thunder Force Gold Pack 2 (TFIV + TFAC) also enables full autofire in AC.

This is probably the best version of AC and given it's one I've had the most exposure to, therefore it is what I'd suggest. The lack of auto-fire (or any rapid shot) in the arcade is really odd given every other Thunder Force has auto-fire by default, meaning TF3, the game AC was designed off had auto-fire too. In addition, the difficulty does not match between Japan and the World/Overseas versions of the AC pcb. Incidently in my findings Japan version is more challenging, if ever so slightly.

It's alright game with the core mechanics from the TF found in great supply. Memorization and good music, essentially. As for the audio quality being worse(than TF3), I'll not argue this point but it's not worse to the extent of being inaudiable or unacceptable. The added stages from TF3 don't feel too bad, although it does add to some distinction between it and it's progenitor. TFGP2 is a really good set since TF4 is included too. Not to mention a bonus option in TF4 where a player may captain Styx (the ship from TF3/AC) if certain conditions are met. TF4s downgrade on audio aside, the TFGP2 is a good bet.