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Rolling Thunder on Lynx


Syzygy1

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Posted this when question was asked about Lynx R.T the other day, so might as well put it in here as well:

Joel Seider is credited with 'Art' on Lynx version of Rolling Thunder.I did drop him an email about it months ago, never heard anything back though.
Basically Joel, if anyone could contact him, could hopefully shed some light onto his role in the project and give us some idea what work was actually started, if he even wants to talk about it....
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My records show that the product number would have been PA2058. It's been many years, but I may have some more information as well as a screenshot or two. But I will need some time to check through all the literature I have on the Atari Lynx.

 

post-17556-0-43225100-1438562445_thumb.jpg

 

From the November 1992 GamePro Magazine

 

post-17556-0-26019900-1438563588_thumb.jpg

 

From an Atari Catalog

Edited by Supergun
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Thanks for the post.

 

I had seen both before, and the first one I dismissed as a fake thanks to the 4:3 aspect ratio. My bad, looking at it closer you can see on the top right that the magazine just cut the right side of the shot off to get a 4:3 pic.

 

Now... taking the screenshots of various Versions from Hardcore Gaming 101 as source, this could actually be legit. http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/rollingthunder/rollingthunder.htm

 

Looking at the pic and comparing to other Versions... all home ports of RT had the status displays over a black border or in the case of the C64 in a decorated box. The only version of RT where the status displays were overlayed on the playfield was the arcade version!

 

But the screenshot can not be from the arcade version either. The placement of the upper status stuff is more to the right and missing the "MAN 1" display. On the lower edge of the screen on Lynx, there is a Display "MGM", no idea what that means. It is not in the arcade version. Also, the Lynx screenshot always shows three digits für Bullets and MGM, while in the arcade it only shows the number of digits needed at the time. So on Lynx it would be "001", in the arcade it would be "1". And finally, "BULLETS" is written in full in the arcade, on the Lynx pic we only see "BLT". Probably to make up for the low resolution, as it would take a lot of space and cluster the bottom of the screen to write everything without shortening.

 

So, my final verdict... unless there is another version of RT that is not shown on HG101, this screenshot appears to be legit.

 

Which means there was actual work done on RT, and we might still find a prototype someday.

Edited by 108 Stars
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I think they mixed things up... wasn't Gimdo the bad guys from part 2? Part 1 was the organization Geldra....

 

RT 1: GELDRA was the organization, Mabu was the leader (final boss)

RT 2: NEO GELDRA was the organization, Gimdo was the leader

RT 3 takes place during RT 2. Dread was 2nd in command to Gimdo. Story-wise, 2 and 3 happen at the same time.

 

I wish they would make another one.

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RT 1: GELDRA was the organization, Mabu was the leader (final boss)

RT 2: NEO GELDRA was the organization, Gimdo was the leader

RT 3 takes place during RT 2. Dread was 2nd in command to Gimdo. Story-wise, 2 and 3 happen at the same time.

 

I wish they would make another one.

Thanks for the info. I only played through 2 myself.

I would really want part 3, but it was never released outside the US, and thanks to that there is limited supply. Can play it on my Everdrive, but still hope for a CIB copy someday. :)

 

For part 1 I hope the Lynx port will surface someday.

 

Wow, Atari is getting everything wrong!

Indeed. I am pretty sure the kidnapped woman is not the hero's girlfrfiend either, but another agent.

Edited by 108 Stars
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  • 5 months later...

I did ask about it in my latest (as of yet unpublished) interview, reply was:

 

'Cabal, 720, and Vindicators were in development, but I believe were not a top priority for the developer. I had seen all but Rolling Thunder at one point or another in their development. When i moved out of the testing department and took over duties as an associate producer I was assigned many of the old Lynx titles, they called me “the finisher”… '

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  • 3 months later...
  • 2 years later...

Apparently there are claims now doing the rounds that Lynx Rolling Thunder was 100% complete, just held back from release.

 

All we can say for now that there are some questions/discrepancies in what is being reported as fact. :-)

 

Further investigation into this title has been undertaken and hopefully it won't be much longer before it can be made public.

 

We thank you for your patience, but the full story of key lost lynx titles will become clear.

 

This isn't a project of mine, so i am unable to divulge more at this point.

 

We'd just ask people to not get too carried away with some of the current claims until they can be independently verified.

 

Thank you.

Edited by Lost Dragon
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If this game was indeed completed and a binary is found, it would be an awesome find.

 

It would simply be amazing, however the Atari community has had it's hopes raised before and nothing came of it...

 

 

7800 Paperboy being annouced as finished and delivered, yet nobody even knew it was in development.

 

Lynx Strider II finished yet believed lost.

 

We need to be careful we are not once again headed into the wink wink arena, where wild claims are put around as fact.

 

As it stands credible research has been done to find what progress was made on at least 2 Flagship Lost Lynx games and the research was based on internal Atari documentation kindly passed onto me by Scott Stilphen, rather than magazine claims.

 

Lengthy Skype interviews were conducted (not by myself) and the results will be forthcoming. .

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  • 4 months later...

No idea what's happening with the GTW project, so Thread Bump to explain what was basically covered in some of  the Atari Corp documentation Scott Stilphen kindly forwarded onto myself.

 

 

Long story short.

 

 

On December 14th 1992 , John Skruch issued a legal cancellation letter to the (original? ) coder of Lynx Rolling Thunder demanding he return all hardware and materials related to the project to Atari Corp, as Atari had not recieved either the game or had any contact from the coder by this point and that was it's deadline.

 

Coder had 2 weeks to do so or Atari would take legal action.

 

 

I assume coder did return everything as on a further letter from Skruch dated December 21st 1992, Skruch is seen asking a second coder to evaluate Lynx Rolling Thunder code and give a quote for finishing it, as original coder suggested it was 2 weeks away from completion.

 

 

Hopefully the interviews GTW have carried out based on these documents can expand on it's troubled development far greater than i can,  but that's the full extent of my knowledge now shared with the community. 

Edited by Lost Dragon
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Frank does painstaking research,  which is why i passed the documents onto him , rather than simply paste them up online.

 

 

If, after all this time we are simply looking at people looking to convert the awful Amiga version to the Lynx, even though Atari Corp were offering them a stand up version of the coin op to work off, i will be gutted.

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