Your submarine mission in Raging Thunder is to stop Night Wolf, a dangerous renegade fleet of ships, jets and subs making their way to Iceland, where it will receive aid from a newly-formed Communist country. If this fleet proceeds as planned, the new evil empire will be well-stocked with weapons. Your job is to destroy all the ships and planes before they destroy you and complete their mission.The action is fast-paced. So fast paced, in fact, that you may have only seconds to respond when the game begins. Good luck and happy hunting.
Before you start, make sure that you:
1. Make a backup copy of Raging Thunder using the ReRun menu.
2. Make sure your joystick is in Port 2.
Once you've made a backup, load Raging Thunder from the work disk by typing: LOAD "RAGING THUNDER",8 and then type RUN. After a few minutes, your screen will display Raging Thunder's Action menu.
THE ACTION MENU
The Action Menu is where you can change Raging Thunder's pre-game options, such as the level of play.
The levels in Raging Thunder determine what enemy fleet you wish to fight. You can fight a submarine, battle ship, an aircraft carrier, or any combination of the three. A fleet's composition is displayed on the lower right hand corner of the Tactical Viewing Area (the large square on the left side of the screen). The number of each ship in a fleet is displayed under the heading of "A B S", where A represents aircraft carriers, B represents battle ships, and S, submarines. Adjust the level of play by pushing the joystick up or down.
The last option in the action menu lets you regulate the game speed with a range of 1 to 6, 1 being the fastest. Change the speed by moving the joystick to the right or left. This game was designed as a simulation; therefore, the recommended speed is 4.
All changes must be made before the game is started. Once you have made your selections, press the firebutton to begin.
YOU AND YOUR MISSION
When the game starts, you will see a white square that is missing one side. This is your submarine. The front of your sub is the opposite side of the open end of the square.
The Tactical Viewing Box is the large light blue square filling the majority of the right side of the screen. This box is the Raging Thunder field of play. All vessels and aircraft are confined to this area.
THE COMMANDS
KEYPRESS FUNCTION
+ Increase speed 10 knots
(Max. speed 50 knots)
- Decrease speed 10 knots
(Min. speed 0 knots)
rt cursor Turn 45 degrees right
up cursor Turn 45 degrees left
F1 Initiate dive
F1 (again) Halt dive (Max. 600 ft.)
F3 Initiate climb
F3 (again) Halt climb (Min. 0 ft.)
F7 Activate RADAR
F7 (again) Deactivate RADAR
You can monitor your current speed and heading in the Status column on the right hand side of the screen.
DANGERS
Your submarine has the 72 SE turbo system, meaning that if your speed is at 40 knots or above, the turbo unit will be engaged. Turbo mode can be used when battling your enemy, and the best advantage is that no Night Wolf vessel has this technology. However, the unit leaves a trail of turbulence that is easy for the enemy to track.
If your submarine surfaces you will be detected by the enemy. Likewise, jets & helicopters will drop depth charges if your submarine is close to the surface.
One of the best features of your submarine is its radar. A red light indicates when the radar is active, and all aircraft positions are displayed. However, your radar sends out audio waves to track aircraft. These audio waves are used by Night Wolf to pinpoint your location almost immediately.
NAVAL RADAR
Naval Radar is an automatic radar looking for vessels. All vessel locations are unknown, unless they are within the Naval Radar range. This Range is only around your ship, and if a vessel comes into your range, you both will know your locations. When a vessel is within your range it will be displayed on the screen (light blue) and a light in the indication box will be lit next to the U.V. (unidentified vessel) heading.
WEAPONS
Your submarine is equipped with two types of water torpedoes and one air missile. Stingers are your primary water torpedo, but do minimal damage to your enemy. If one of your Stingers hits a vessel, it is recorded as a one-point damage hit. A battleship will sink after only four points of damage.
The other water torpedo is the Thundr-5. This torpedo is your most effective weapon, because it does two-point damage to a ship. Since a submarine sinks after only two damage points, a single Thundr-5 will sink it. Likewise, it would take two Stingers to sink that submarine. Your opponent Night Wolf uses Thundr-5s in retaliation, so be careful!
Your submarine is also equipped with SAMs or surface-to-air missiles for attacking aircraft. SAMs inflict one point of damage. The only aircraft that can be hit are helicopters; jets are too fast for your SAMs.
FIRING
To fire a torpedo at your enemy, aircraft or vessel, take the following steps.
Step 1: Press the 1 key. This lets your sub know that you want to load a weapon into tube 1.
Step 2: Press the 3, 4, or 5 key to indicate which type of weapon you wish to load.
3 = Thundr-5 (2 damage points)
4 = Stinger (1 damage point)
5 = Surface to Air (1 damage point)
Step 3: Press the 8 key to turn on crosshairs (a blue "X"), which help you aim at your target. Adjust the crosshairs with your joystick. They need not be directly on top of a vessel in order to fire and hit it. (But the crosshairs must be on in order to fire.)
Step 4: Press the firebutton.
CLEARING THE TORPEDO TUBE
If you want to change the missile type that is loaded in the tube, begin the firing procedure again and enter the appropriate weapon number in step 2. To empty the tube without firing, enter 0 in step 2.
THE BATTLE
Night Wolf's fleet is composed of battle ships, submarines, aircraft carriers, helicopters, and jets. All of its sea vessels are equipped with Thundr-5s. One hit by any of these vessels will sink your submarine. All aircrafts hold depth charges, which cause 1 damage point to your submarine (2 hits will sink you).
Battleships succumb after four points of damage, submarines after two and aircraft carriers after three. Aircraft Carriers are deadly because they can attack with their own torpedos or send out a helicopter. The jet fighters can't be hit with your SAMs. However, a helicopter can be destroyed with one SAM hit.
To beat Night Wolf and win the game, you must destroy all of Night Wolf's fleet. Once you have destroyed the selected fleet, Night Wolf will, as always, threaten the victor. Pay no attention to them, they're just sore losers.
