Rampage (arcade game)
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| Rampage | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Bally Midway Maufacturing Company |
| Publisher(s) | Bally Midway |
| Designer(s) | Artist: Brian Colin, Sounds: Michael Bartlow, Software: Jeff Nauman |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Release date | 1986 |
| Genre(s) | Platform game |
| Mode(s) | Up to 3 players simultaneously |
| Input methods | Per Player: Joystick, 2 buttons |
| Cabinet | Upright |
| Display | Raster standard resolution (Used: 512 x 480) (Horizontal) |
Rampage is a 1986 arcade game by Bally Midway. The player(s) take control of gigantic monsters trying to survive against onslaughts of military forces. Each round is completed when the particular city is completely reduced to rubble.
Contents |
[edit] Description
Up to three simultaneous players control the monsters George (a King Kong-like gorilla), Lizzie (a Godzilla-like dinosaur/lizard), or Ralph (a giant werewolf), created from humans who were mutated by various methods. They need to destroy all buildings in a high-rise city to advance to the next city. On their way they can destroy helicopters, tanks, taxis, police cars, boats, and trolleys, as well as eat people.
The monsters can jump and climb buildings, and attack enemies and buildings with punches. Buildings also take damage when jumped on.
The player receives damage from enemy bullets, grenades, shells and so forth, and from falls. Damage can be recovered by eating the right food such as fruit, roast chicken, or soldiers. If a monster takes too much damage, it reverts back into a naked human and starts walking off the screen sideways covering their private parts with their hands. While in this state, the player can be eaten by another player. If the player continues, the human will mutate back into the monster (or fly in on a blimp if off screen when the player restarts) with a full life bar.
Smashing open windows generally reveals an item or person of interest, which may be helpful or harmful. Helpful items include food or money. Dangerous ones include bombs, electrical appliances, and cigarettes. Some items can be both, for example a toaster is dangerous until the toast pops up, and a photographer must be eaten quickly before he dazzles the player's monster with his flash, causing it to fall. If a monster eats a toilet, they immediately go into a humorously animated choking fit.
When a civilian is present waving their hands out a window signalling for help, a player's points meter begins to rapidly increment when the civilian is grabbed. This was said to be an undocumented trick that allows for exceedingly high scores in the game. The only problem is that each player can hold only one type of person. George can hold women, Lizzie can hold men, and Ralph can hold businessmen.
Rampage takes place through 128 days through cities across North America. The game starts in Peoria, Illinois and ends in Plano, Illinois. In Plano, the characters get a mega vitamin bonus which heals all the characters and provides a large point bonus. After this, the cities continue again. This cycle of cities repeats five times. After 768 days, the game resets back to day one.
In terms of points, the point meter only goes up to 9,999,999. After that, the meter resets back to one million.
[edit] Characters
George the Ape
Lizzy the Lizard
Ralph the Wolf
[edit] Ports
Rampage was ported to most home computers and video game consoles of its time, including the Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Atari Lynx, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, MS DOS/IBM PC, ZX Spectrum, Nintendo Entertainment System, and Sega Master System. The Atari Lynx version adds a special fourth character named Larry, a giant rat. The NES version excludes Ralph, reducing the number of monsters to two. Rampage was included as part of the Arcade Party Pak which was released for the PlayStation in 1999. More recently, Rampage was included in 2003's Midway Arcade Treasures, a compilation of arcade games for PC, Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. This game is also available as a bonus feature in Rampage: Total Destruction.
In July 2000, Midway licensed Rampage, along with other Williams Electronics games, to Shockwave for use in an online applet to demonstrate the power of the shockwave web content platform, entitled Shockwave Arcade Collection. The conversion was created by Digital Eclipse. It is currently freely available to be played within the Shockwave web applet. (Note: This game is no longer found at Shockwave, nor are certain other arcade classics.)
Unlike the original arcade game, most of the home ports (such as the NES, Sega, and Atari Lynx versions) actually have a game ending, rather than just repeating levels over and over with no ending.
[edit] Legacy
- Rampage World Tour was designed and developed by the original designers, Brian Colin and Jeff Nauman, and released in 1997 for arcade. It was ported to PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, and Game Boy Color, and is available on the Midway Arcade Treasures 2 collection, which was released in 2004 for Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, and PC.
- Rampage 2: Universal Tour was released in 1999 for PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and Game Boy Color.
- Rampage Through Time was released in 2000 for PlayStation.
- Rampage Puzzle Attack, a puzzle game featuring Rampage characters, was released for Game Boy Advance in 2001.
- Rampage: Total Destruction was released on April 24, 2006, for Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, and later in the same year for Wii. In another game system, you can choose your creatures from a roster of 30 (40 in the Wii version), and interact in a pseudo 3-D environment. It also included the original Rampage game and Rampage World Tour on the same disc.
- On May 18, 2007, Sony re-released the original Rampage on the PlayStation Store for the PlayStation 3 and PSP.
[edit] External links
- Play Rampage on Midway's homepage
- Rampage at the Killer List of Videogames
- Rampage at MobyGames
- Rampage at World of Spectrum
- Rampage guide at StrategyWiki
