Thunder Blade/Versions

Amstrad CPC
Developed by Tiertex Design Studios and published by U.S. Gold in Europe in 1988. The score and lives indicator is built into a large display that takes up a good portion of the bottom of the screen, reducing the usable resolution. Utilizes both the overhead and behind-the-cockpit views.

Atari ST
Developed by Tiertex Design Studios and published by U.S. Gold in Europe in 1989. Localized in North America by Mindscape in 1989. Displays a large border around the game, reducing the usable resolution. Utilizes both the overhead and behind-the-cockpit views. This conversion of the game had a promotional tie-in with Pepsi in the year of it's release in Europe.

Commodore 64
Developed by Tiertex Design Studios and published by U.S. Gold in Europe in 1988. Localized in North America by Mindscape in 1989. Utilizes both the overhead and behind-the-cockpit views.

Commodore Amiga
Developed by Tiertex Design Studios and published by U.S. Gold in Europe in 1989. Localized in North America by Mindscape in 1989. Displays a large border around the game, reducing the usable resolution. Utilizes both the overhead and behind-the-cockpit views. This conversion of the game had a promotional tie-in with Pepsi in the year of it's release in Europe.

DOS
Published by U.S. Gold in Europe in 1988 and localized in North America by Mindscape in 1989. Utilizes both the overhead and behind-the-cockpit views. Displays many colors in EGA mode, but the frame rate is extremely low and choppy.

MSX
Developed by U.S. Gold and published by Erbe Software in Europe in 1988, primarily in Spain. It appears to be a rushed, unoptimized port of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum version.

Nintendo 3DS
Developed by M2 and published by Sega for the Nintendo 3DS, initially in Japan in 2014, and around the rest of the world in 2015. Made available under the title 3D Thunder Blade. Extremely arcade accurate, this port of the game recreates the game very faithfully, while enhancing it by adding three dimensional depth through the stereoscopic view of the system's screen. It also offers touch controls as an alternative to the traditional controls.

PC Engine
Developed and published by NEC Interchannel in Japan at the end of 1990. Only published for the PC Engine, this version was never localized and published in North America for the TurboGrafx-16. This version is considerably faithful to the original arcade, surpassing Sega's own conversion for the Sega Master System, and containing both views unlike Sega's follow-up for the Genesis.

Sega Genesis
Meant as a follow-up to the original arcade version as opposed to a conversion. Does not contain the top-down view except when engaged in boss battles. Incorporates mid-boss battles in behind-the-cockpit perspective. See Super Thunder Blade for more information.

Sega Master System
Developed and published by Sega around the world in 1988. A trimmed down version of the arcade game, both views contain compromises. The top-down view is presented at a fixed altitude. The behind-the-cockpit view is presented at a fixed perspective.

Sharp X68000
Developed internally by Sharp and published in Japan in February of 1990. The Sharp X68000 is famous for its arcade accurate ports, and this conversion is very faithful to the original arcade version.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum
Developed by Tiertex Design Studios and published by U.S. Gold in Europe in 1988. Displays a large border around the game, reducing the usable resolution. The game view itself is displayed in monochrome black and white. Utilizes both the overhead and behind-the-cockpit views.