Lord British made its debut in Salamander. It is controlled by Player 2. It is the second ship in the Gradius series which is controlled by the Player. Lord British has other names which are Lord. B or Road British, the latter as a result of romanization. It has red streaks intead of blue steaks and has a different shape than Vic Viper. It is in the shape of a Jet.
Since Lord British debuted on Salamander, all of the new weapons (including the Tailgun, despite not being in Salamander) in that game were instantly attributed to it (despite also being available to the Vic Viper at that time and with the weapon set being used by it in later games).
In Gradius Gaiden, where the Vic Viper was limited to the Standard Type 1 weapon set, it gained the Disruptor, its exclusive replacement for Vic Viper's Laser (the Ripple Laser is now the Double). The Disruptor is a unique red-orange laser in that it shoots out in a pulse-like manner and that each beam reaches the length of the screen, it's disadvantage is it's low rapid rating, enemies might be able to sneak up on Lord British when it has finished firing the Disruptor.
Artwork from Yu-Gi-Oh card.
Weapon Sets
Salamander
S = Speed Up
M = Missile
D = Ripple Laser
L = Laser
O = Multiple
? = Force Field
Life Force
S = Hyper Speed
M = Destruct Missile
D = Pulse Laser
L = Laser
O = Multiple
? = Shield
Gradius Gaiden
S = Speed Up
M = 2-Way Missile
D = Ripple Laser
L = Disruptor
O = Option
? = Force Field
Gokujo Parodius
S = Speed Up
M = Missile
D = Double
L = Laser
O = Option
? = Shield
Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius
S = Speed Up
M = Twin Hawk Wind
D = Ripple Laser
L = Laser
O = Option
? = Multi Shield
Sexy Parodius
S = Speed Up
M = Missile
D = Double
L = Laser
O = Option
? = Shield
Trivia
Super deformed chubby version from Gokujo Parodius
When Disruptor is leveled up, it resembles Death MK II's Laser, but smaller, thinner and reddish.
The ship is named after the brave prince of Latis, who piloted the ship by himself and defeated Salamander army along with Vic Viper from planet Gradius. This wasn't changed in Salamander anime, while many background settings in the original video game got slightly changed in the anime trilogy.
The Lord British, and the other Gradius Gaiden ships, have a kind of hyper-driver system than allows them to travel faster than light for escape of the Black Hole in the Stage 7.
