ThunderCross

Forgotten Worlds / Lost Worlds

Manufacturer Capcom
Year 1988
Emulated MAME

   

Forgotten Worlds Title Screen
Lost Worlds Title Screen

Forgotten Worlds is, in fact, a damn good name for a website dealing with classic arcade games (perhaps a bit less snappy than ThunderCross, though). This 1988 beauty was released by Capcom as a demonstration of the power of its spangly new CPS1 board. Vaguely related to the earlier Side Arms, Forgotten Worlds features a pair of strangely levitating people and their quest to blow stuff up.

This game also features some of the best 'Japlish' ever written:

"You cannot stop me with paramecium alone!"
"Was Mesketit's vessel in the air with the flying stone, also?"

Controls

Forgotten Worlds' controls were unusual, and probably accounted for its rarity compared with other CPS1 games like Strider. A joystick moved your floaty bloke around in the usual manner, but an analogue dial was used to control the direction in which he fired. Pressing down on the dial resulted in him opening fire. This system expanded greatly on the two-way firing of Section Z & Side Arms, these two games being in many ways the ancestors of Forgotten Worlds.

Weapons

The floating man is armed with a fairly standard weapon but, by collecting 'zenny' coins helpfully left behind by deceased aliens, he can buy more powerful guns from a shop that erupts from the ground at opportune moments. Rather like Sainsbury's, then. First purchase should be a satellite, a weapon pod that contains various juicy death-inducing devices such as these :-

Two pints of lager and a packet of crisps, please
Missile
 Fires homing missiles.
All-Direction
 Fires a spray of bullets in all directions.
Laser
 Fires a destructive laser beam.

Bound

 Fires bouncing bullets.
V-Cannon
 Fires twin streams of bullets.
Balkan Cannon
 Fires rapid-fire bullets.
Burner
 A nice flamethrower.
Wide
 Fires large waves of death.
Homing Laser
 Fires bendy laser beams.

Handily, your satellite can also be used as a shield. You can position it by turning the dial without pressing fire.

Variants

Lost Worlds is the Japanese version, and seems identical but for Japanese text.

Emulation

MAME emulates this corker quite nicely. Control is via a Quake-style mouse & keyboard combination, although I imagine you could set up a proper dial controller if you've got one. I've heard that it's possible to play Forgotten Worlds in Callus, but I've never tried it.

Level Guide (soon)

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