Hydro Thunder
2 ports
Hydro Thunder / Offroad Thunder / Arctic Thunder (VCThunder)
mourix/VCThunder
A Windows host for Midway’s Quicksilver II (Hydro Thunder and Offroad Thunder) and Graphite (Arctic Thunder and Ultimate Arctic Thunder) boards. It is not an emulator: the original 32-bit x86 game code runs unmodified on the processor, and VCThunder replaces everything around it: the Phar Lap ETS kernel becomes Win32, the Glide 2.53 boundary is its own rasteriser, and the cabinet’s I/O boards, audio, timebase, and NVRAM are host implementations. According to the README, Hydro Thunder and Offroad Thunder are playable at a locked 30 frames per second, and both Arctic Thunders run at their own 60 but are in progress; link play between two copies is an early beta. Version 0.4 (October 28), the fourth public beta, is the latest. The author says the project was a challenge to see how far Claude Opus 5 could be taken; 4 of its 6 commits list Claude as a co-author.
You needYour own copies of the games as MAME CHDs next to VCThunder.exe; the importer checks the executable (Hydro Thunder v01.01b from 1999-02-27, Offroad Thunder from 2000-02-25, Arctic Thunder v1.002 from 2000-12-18, and Ultimate Arctic Thunder v1.9.5.0 from 2004-05-03, which comes from its update CD and also needs Arctic Thunder’s CHD). Plus Windows.
Hydro Thunder (LANCommander)
LANCommander/HydroThunderOnline
An unofficial Windows port of Midway’s 1999 arcade game: an executable that wraps the game’s original x86 code and runs it in-process. The calls to the embedded operating system and to the Glide API are replaced with calls to win32, XInput, and dgVoodoo2, and parts of the game have been decompiled and rewritten in C, which makes it possible to play online or on a local network with up to 16 racers. It keeps the operator menu (audits, adjustments, and tests) with free play on by default, and offers rebindable keyboard and XInput gamepad controls, windowed or full screen with selectable resolutions, and a lobby hosted on a local network or over the internet through the hydrothunder.racing master server, or through your own with htmaster (also for Linux). Version 1.0.0, from September 27, is the only published release.
You needYour own hydro.chd, the arcade’s hard disk image from the MAME “hydro” set, version 1.0.0, next to hydro.exe (on first run it extracts the game files into a data folder). Windows 10 or 11 with a Direct3D 11 capable graphics card.
Installs with
Quiver Launcher · Ports Launcher
Questions
Can you play Hydro Thunder natively on PC?
Yes, though unfinished. The catalog has 2 ports, all already playable.
What do I need to play it?
Your own copy of Hydro Thunder (Arcade). Recompendium only links projects that don’t distribute the game, and each entry says which version or region you need.
Which one is the most popular?
Hydro Thunder / Offroad Thunder / Arctic Thunder (VCThunder), with 43 stars on GitHub.