Question About Thuder Force IV

[drumguy79]

Today I came across this game:

http://home.austin.rr.com/mrp98n/thunderforce1.jpg
http://home.austin.rr.com/mrp98n/thunderforce2.jpg
http://home.austin.rr.com/mrp98n/thunderforce3.jpg

I have heard people on the board talk about it & I've tried to do some research about it this afternoon, but all the Thunder Force IVs that I've seen online have had different boxes. Does anyone know exactly what I've got here?

I assume that it came from Japan... does it play on my US Genesis? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

[Captain Wrong]

You have what Sega released in the US as Lightening Force (yes, the spelling is intentional, Sega can't spell so well apparently.) It's from Technosoft, and numbers 2 and 3 were also avaliable on the Genny. Number one was for the 68000 series of computers in Japan, I think.

EDIT: Looking at the pictures again, I think you may have a pirated version. There doesn't appear to be any of the usual copywrite info anywhere or the usual MegaDrive logo. This was a pretty popular game in it's time (part 3 was so popular it was actually ported to the arcade rather than the other way around!) so the possibilty of it being pirated is very high. That's my guess, and I'm sticking with it! :)

Me thinks you can play it on a US system if you use a passthrough cart such as a game genie. I don't know if you will need to have a language switch, I know a lot of times Sega used the same ROM in US and Japan carts and just changed the actual cart slightly so it wouldn't fit in the opposite system. Try it and see, you won't mess up your machine.

As for the game it self, it's an excellent shmup, if you're in to that sort of thing. Nice graphics and lots of action. Number 5 came out for PSX a few years ago, if you're so inspired to check it out. (Of course, the Saturn import is supposedly superior, but that's another topic altogether.)

Enjoy!

[drumguy79]

Thanks for the reply Captain Wrong. I just plugged it into my Nomad and it worked fine. The text was in English, not Japanese. In fact, the only odd thing was that after the Thunder Force IV screen came up, it was not followed by a Lightening Force screen. Does it normally have this screen?
That would lead me to believe that your pirate theory is correct. Strange...
Anyone else have another opinion?

[BenT]

Almost certainly a non-legit knock-off.

I think TFIII is the best game in the series, btw. Check it out if like your IV.

[geelw]

the japanese and u.k. versions are simply called thunder force IV. the u.s. one is lightening (sp) force...=^P

wait 'til you get to the last boss... you'll be quite :mad: ...

[Sothy]

Found my complete lightening force for like 3 bux.

Another reason why I prefer to collect genesis.

For some reason even at Swap meets Complete genesis games are 5 bux and loose snes game are like 10 bux.
That of course means i can talk the gun into 3 for 10 bux on genny games.

I think my bartering skills are quite honed.. 6 years at a used video game store... no lists to go on "since funco stopped making them" so
All the prices I buy and sell by are in my head.

Granted its caused problems " I put a Bonk game in the 2 for 5 dollars nes bin once" but when you offer someone wo brings in a bag of complete SNES games 2 dollars each in credit "they usually want the half credit price in cash" makes the stuff i buy at swap meets seem expensive thats probably why im so picky about what I buy. "What you want 5 bucks each for these nes games? **walks away slowly an the seller freaks and motions me back to table** thats right 4 dollars each or stop wasting my time *walks away with complete loopz, adventures of lolo 2 and Firehawk**"

I forget what the topic was now.......

[snorter]

You can see the US version and some tips on my web site at this page:

http://www.genesiscollective.com/ShowPage.php?GameLink=185

The box and cart you have certainly looks like a pirate version.

Snorter