Being a big fan of the Thunder Force series, I've always been curious about the original Thunder Force. What little information I could find about it in English basically said it was released for the MSX, Sharp X1, and NEC PC-8801. So doing a little more research, I discovered there were five versions of the game. There is no MSX version, but there are versions for the Sharp X1, NEC PC-8801, NEC PC-6001, Sharp MZ-1500, and Fujitsu FM-7. I managed to hunt down boxed copies for the PC-8801 and FM-7. I also discovered there was a Thunder Force construction set. Basically the same game, except it featured an engine for designing your own levels. There's at least three versions of it, I own the PC-8801 port.
So today in the mail I got an IBM PC JX from Japan. It's basically the Japanese version of the PC Jr, but slightly more powerful. I thought I was getting one game with it, some silly 3D golf game, but when I opened the box I found a stack of disks for other games! And among them was...
A PC JX version of Thunder Force 1! It came with a manual, too. Judging from the manual, this one includes the construction set. The manual also shows that you control the game with the keyboard rather than a joystick, just like the other versions (unfortunetly.)
It'll take me at least a day to get the JX up and running, as I need to create an adapter to hook it up to a monitor. Once I do, I'll take some screenshots. Most versions of the game play the same (except for the FM-7 version, which doesn't let you move diagonally), but maybe this one will look better than the others.
Edit: I managed to get the JX up and running and ran Thunder Force. It actually looks quite different than the other versions. The colors are more garish and the resolution is a little lower. The scrolling's quite choppy, too.
However, I can't play the game yet because the keyboard doesn't work. I popped the thing open and found a leaking battery damaged the cable connector board. I'll probably have to rebuild the board, but hopefully that won't take too long and I'll be able to play the game.
Anyways, tomorrow I'll get a digital camera and take some screenshots.