The History of Operation Thunderbolt - Arcade console documentary 

1988 really was a sweet spot not just for games but for me life in general😍😍😍 So many great things cartoons, games, TV, and we could still have a fire on Friday night while calling it entertainment.

I was glad to see Operation: Wolf get a shout-out here. One of my favorite shooting games of all time! Thanks for the cool vids!!!

In 1987, those violent movies ran rampant for a testosterone-filled time. Then, in 1988, Taito one-upped it in a monster way.

They raided Prince's closet before the mission. Perfect, I've been waiting for an explanation for the purple overalls on these idiots for 30 + years. Great stuff.

Man! Once again you made a perfect video of nostalgia, I remember dumping quarters in this game in high school

Operation Wolf and Operation Thunderbolt were two classic arcade machines that had no troubles relieving the quarters from my pockets back in the day. Thank you so much for making this video!

Thanks for these videos Patman. You've taught us all about many arcade games that we may have missed or didn't know much about as kids.

A top 5 RU-vid channel. An arcade gaming historian!

I suffered a weird pheonomena of money disappearing from my pocket whenever this game was close by. I never understood it.

Operation Thunderbolt was a challenging game! Thanks for covering the history of this classic era arcade game and the alternate versions. I was not great at blasting so many enemies showing up onscreen at one time. Gumshoe on NES would be one of my favorites. Thanks, Patman!

Loved that old-timey rifle game at the Cedar Point arcade! Made me feel like I was Sheriff Matt Dillon

The Delta Force 1985 film is a major influence on this game. It mirrors it. Hijackers take a holiday plane to Tunisia. There are different locations where people are being held up. A prison, the plane and another building. The stages in this game are similar.

I have a fond memory of playing this with some random kid at a corner that no longer exists. His Dad owned the machine so we had unlimited credits. We finished it. Then I left and never saw him again. That was over 30 years ago. Where ever that kid is these days I hope he's doing well.

First! I've got Patman fever I'm going outta my mind. Thanks once again Pat for your efforts.

Another excellent video from the top man himself. Informative and very entertaining everytime. Many Thanks 😊

So Awsome to see a video on operation thunderbolt. I have both wolf and thunderbolt arcade games which are two of my favourites of my entire collection. Taito also learned from their mistakes and made thunderbolt a more reliable game compared to wolf that had its share of problems. I always thought operation thunderbolt had a bit of the delta force feel to it, I just never understood how enemies could launch grenades at the player inside the plane and nothing ever happened lol. Thanks for sharing, really enjoyed this one.

love each of these videos! another great one. thankful for them and all the time you put into each one.

Thanks for the nostalgia trip! I swear I saw this at every Arcade back in the day. I'm surprised its as chaotic as I remember as a kid, that nade + knife spam is brutal.

Love this channel. Brings me back to my childhood and young adulthood.

Loved playing this in the arcade! Could never beat it though, as I always ended up killing the pilot on the last stage.

Great video. Wolf is a sentimental favorite but, this one is my favorite between the two of them! Used to watch the intro over and over again and it would pump me up even when I was out of quarters! And that distinct Taito sound was awesome.

14:29 not killing the pilot was so frustrating!!!!! And if you were playing with some big dummy….gawd daaaaaaam

As the story goes I remember that western scene where you shoot cans and if you hit the piano player in the ass, he starts playing

As a war history buff I am amazed the game Operation Thunderbolt was based on a real life military campaign of the same name! Another gem of a video PatMan-still a perfect record!!!💯

One of the great arcade games of all times!!! If you haven't, please do Red Baron or Battlezone. Another great video!!

You have sustained a lethal injury. Sorry, but you are finished ... here. That's what I remember most about this game. Speaks volumes about my ability to play it.

what could be better than reliving the adventure as chuck Norris in The Delta Force? I have to find this cabinet and I'll play the soundtrack at full blast to this!

We had a variety of arcade games in our frat house and this was one of them. One of the computer science guys would always crack the cabinet, gaining access to the dip switches, so we could play for free and adjust settings. I have so many incredible memories of playing this and other light gun games. We always got either beat them ups or like gun shooters.

*My Sixth Grade Teacher:* What do you want to do when you grow up? *Me:* Get ammunition... and Jeeps.

A funny little side note. The "Sully Fall Scream" was actually used in the follow up game, Operation Wolf 3. Also there are 16 hostages you need to rescue (8 in both stages 4 and 6,) not the 18 you mentioned earlier. Though we can possibly say 17 if you include the pilot at the end.

This is a great sequel! I like that it's two players.

These games had some of the best arcade guns ever placed on a cabinet.

Holy moly. I have been looking for this game for years. I remembered playing it in the arcades but forgot its name. Thank you for the upload.

I can still play the Arcade at my local arcade (The Box Arcade.) The only gripe with it is the final stage were if you die after reaching the pilot then it's game over even if you have credits or not (which you covered in the original Operation Wolf Documentary.) If I want to beat the game I got to let the boss's minions kill me right before the main fight so I don't run out of health nor ammo (pro tip in a way.) I did get the best ending, but after playing the entire game in a single setting to the ending my muscles ache for hours.

The one thing I learned from Operation: wolf and thunderbolt was that firing from cover is for suckers.

Great video! Wife and i beaten this arcade game deathless cooperatively on Mame like six days ago, so the timing was perfect to know more about the game.

Was glad to finally beat this game on a replay after I accidentally killed the pilot the first time I played this in the arcade. Even harder was a game called Target: Terror because it took me a while to realize you had to shoot the detonator in the terrorist's hand instead of the actual terrorist. LOVED Lethal Enforcers and Mad Dog McCree. I think I also beat Mad Dog McCree 2 and Crime Patrol. Never got to the end of the second Crime Patrol game though. Did get to the end of the Cops game though. That was fun. Bad boys, bad boys lol.

Love your channel 🎉

I am Papa Brad. I do a unofficial fan made show for the iiRcade called The iiRcadians. The iiRcade is home arcade console. This game just was released for the iiRcade and we are doing a special show on it this Wednesday. We will be playing the game and talking about it on the show. Can we play some clips from this amazing history video? We will link the video in the description. Thanks. Huge fan of your content long time watcher. Thank you. Papa Brad of Papa Brad's Gaming.

I remember it well.. another great video 👍

Your videos are amazing, thank you.

Crossbow (and Chiller) were awesome! Loved Maddog McCree too!

Those games are so ridiculously violent it's funny, there's guys hanging from the ceiling right in your face shooting at you

I have deep nostalgic memories of Operation Wolf in arcades and to a lesser extent the NES version. I found Thunderbolt to be a quarter sucker. Too many enemies, too chaotic.

I put many quarters in this, though frankly I put more in Operation Wolf. I remember when the NES port came out, I was super super excited!

You didn't mention Operation Wolf 3. I know people like to forget that game, but it did happen.

This is one of my favorite arcade gun games. You can dump in as many quarters as you want, until you get to the final airplane stage. You die there? It's game over. There are no continues, my friend.

Looks like a great sequel. I never saw it at arcades. It was all about Revolution X and Area 51.

Did you just call me fat Chris? Hey, I'm working on it! Lol 😂

Ah yes, the sequel to Operation Wolf.

First class video!!! Let the nostalgia commence!! Thanks Patman!✌👍.... Btw, how about My Hero?😉

IIRC, Operation Thunderbolt didn't use light guns but rather the guns were basically joysticks that controlled your point of aim. They're less prone to issues with ambient lighting, abuse, reflections on the screen, more precise and reduce the number of technical steps between aiming and shooting. They really made it possible to do things like shooting the terrorist but not the pilot in the final stage of the game. Later light guns made sniper-like shots possible but not so much with the stuff they had in the late 80s & early 90s.

Nearly choked on my dinner with that Prince line. Brilliant.

Had this for my Amstrad GX4000 back in the day. Very enjoyable

Did you ever play Beast Busters? That’s a great one I’ve played on the SNK 40th anniversary collection, which is one of my favorite retro collections.

This is my rifle, this is my gun...this is for fighting this is for fun. Private snowball I want you to take out all the enemies in purple, the same color as the jelly in your jelly donut, do you understand private snowball

I never played this or it's predecessor as a kid in arcades because i always found the game to be intimidating with the amount of action on screen...

I hated how the game let you continue all the way until the end, but then if you died to the final boss it was just game over and you were done. This was a dirty trick, and Taito pulled the same thing with a lot of their other arcade games (Rastan comes to mind). Also for those into home arcade machines, this game just got released for iircade this week with lightgun support. Thanks as always Patman for the great content!

This was my shit bro, I remember playing this an road blaster at my local IHOP when I was a kid S/o homie dressed in fatigue for the video 💯

Operation wolf was one of my favorite arcade games along with afterburner

I loved operation wolf. Great video as always.

Operation Wolf gives me the feeling u described in the beginning

Hell yeah Fat Chris and Patman!!

Wow I forgot all about this game, so much fun

I do remember that unlike the first games uzis this one had 2 mac 10/11s on it

This game's ending reminds me of Taito's "Space Gun", where you can blow up the escape pod's computer, if you're a bad shot.

I don't know from where but this game is embedded in my brain. 10:50. I owned 22:51 on the Amstrad 6128. That was a wild ride.

I always thought this game was a lot more fun than Operation Wolf because I was felt like Wolf was ridiculously hard... I can't get past stage 2 or stage 3 because they are just way too many enemies on the screen all shooting you at the same time. O:TB on the other hand seemed a little bit more fair and you can survive on one credit a lot longer. This game also seemed like you are playing the Chuck Norris role from Delta Force (the 1986 movie) The hostages stupidly and almost purposely standing in your line of gunfire flailing around in a panic always cracked me up. Get out of the way!!!😆

Interesting. I never knew there was a sequel to operation wolf.

Fun video 👍. It's a shame this was never released for the Genesis. I would love to see a video on The Cliffhanger: Edward Randy, which is probably the best Indiana Jones video game ever 😊

I would play both uzi guns at the same time what fun

I remember seeing this arcade machine back in the mid 90s when it was in an arcade at a now defunct waterpark. I never got around to playing it though.

I love how the narrator sounds like Duffman.

the blonde "Arnold" is Dolph Lungren.

Nintendo forgot to remove the cross on the reticle lol

Please do a video on Namco's arcade series Time Crisis

The Amstrad/Speccy/GX4000 version is a lot easier when you realise only things on your "half" of the screen need to be shot - i.e. player one will only take damage if it hits the left side of the screen. The lack of cross hairs still made it incredibly annoying though. As I understand it, this was an edict from Taito as they saw it as a "new feature" and had a power up which gave you a cross hair temporarily that they insisted had to remain. Apparently nobody could persuade them that while that was fine in the arcades, with a physical "gun" you could aim with, it made the home conversions near unplayable.

Never leave out big buck hunter. That game is an under appreciated arcade classic.

flawless documentary as always mr gaming's Bob Ross😉

Did you ever do Taito space gun?

I loved going double uzi, when I had extra money. Total carnage

It looks like Op' Thunderbolt opted not to have Op' Wolf's seizure-inducing screen flashes either, which I'm sure epileptics & migraine sufferers appreciated. Also, nice video!

Poor zombie raid, same cabinet, but no one remembers.

Great video! Thanks

Wonder when you’ll review the rest of the American Laser Games light gun games?!!! Space Pirates is the most unique of the bunch!!!

With the amount of money i spent on lethal enforcers, I could have probably bought a machine for myself.

Another favorite shooter of mine is space gun

Have you tried Line of Fire from Sega, the arcade game is similar to operation thunderbolt but with more sprite scaling going on. The console versions were top down and very different.

So many queefs and farts. Even a few sharts.

This is basically if operation wolf was programmed on a sega super scaler arcade hardware (which due to being made by the same studio as operation wolf, wolf team, makes a lot more sense)

I didn't know Operation thunderbolt Was inspired by a real life incident.

I KNEW THIS HADDA BE RELATED TO OPERATION WOLF

This literally just dropped on iirCade the other day!

What's funny is the AI enemies seem more concerned with avoiding killing the civilians than the player

This is awesome

21:47 that’s an insane amount of enemies on screen!

U should play Violent Storm. It’s the most unintentionally funny game I’ve ever played, and it screams 80s in its campy soundtrack

June 1989, Family Fun Center, Omaha, Nebraska: A friend and I made it to the final stage. We cleared the hijacked airliner and were faced with a terrorist holding a gun on the pilot. Me: Don’t shoot the pilot-shoot for the terrorist’s head. Him: We’re Green Berets, we can fly it out! (He shoots through the pilot and kills both the pilot and terrorist.) Game: THE PILOT IS DEAD! ESCAPE IS IMPOSSIBLE. Me: 😡

I played Operation Wolf with a gamepad when I was a kid because it just didn't occur to me that the lightgun would work. I got way further than I should have but eventual got too difficult for me -_-

Had me thinking as a kid you can take on a Army with a Uzi.. tuh