Rambo | |
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Publisher(s) | Ocean Software |
Platform(s) | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum |
Release | December 1985 [1] |
Rambo (stylized on-screen as Rambo: First Blood Part II) is a 1985 video game based on the film Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985). The game was designed by David Collier and Tony Pomfret with the ZX Spectrum version converted by Platinum Productions. [1]
The Commodore 64 version's music is by Martin Galway from Northern Ireland, incorporating melodies from the film's score. The Amstrad CPC version's music was played and recorded live by Choice Software's in-house programmer/designer/musician James Edward Cosby also from Northern Ireland, using a Yamaha DX7 synthesiser via the then new MIDI serial comms protocol.
Several other games based on the film were also released, including Rambo for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and Rambo: First Blood Part II for the Master System.
The game follows the movie's story. The player, who is controlling Rambo, has to find his lost equipment, locate the POW camp, rescue the hostages, and make it back to the extraction point while being pursued by constantly respawning enemies. Rambo starts off with just a Bowie knife and grenades (both of which have an unlimited supply, as with all the weapons), and gains points for killing the enemy, and for collecting the following equipment: Rocket Launcher, M16 Rifle, and Bow & Arrows (Explosive & Non Explosive).
The gameplay is based on Capcom's arcade game Commando (1985). [2]
Publication | Score |
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Crash | 79% [3] |
Computer and Video Games | 33/40 [4] |
Sinclair User | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Your Sinclair | 8/10 [6] |
ACE | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Zzap!64 | 96% [8] |
Publication | Award |
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Zzap!64 | Gold Medal |
Rambo was well received. Your Sinclair described it as "a thinking man's Commando. That game starts fast and gets faster until you end up like a one-man whirlwind. Rambo develops into a solid shoot'em up".
Rambo replaced Commando as the number one game in the Gallup ZX Spectrum chart [9] and did the same on the Commodore 64 and All Formats charts the following week. [10] The Amstrad CPC version also went to number one eight weeks later, replacing Yie Ar Kung Fu . [11]
The Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum versions of the game were included on the 1986 compilation They Sold a Million 3, [12] [13] along with Fighter Pilot, Ghostbusters , and Kung-Fu Master .
In 1989, Ocean released the game alongside Daley Thompson's Decathlon and Enduro Racer as one of the launch titles for their new budget range, The Hit Squad. [14] [15] It reached number 4 in the All Formats Budget Games chart. [16]
Ikari Warriors, known as Ikari in Japan, is a vertically scrolling run and gun video game released for arcades by SNK in 1986. It was published in North America by Tradewest. At the time there were many Commando clones on the market. What distinguished Ikari Warriors were rotary joysticks and a two-player cooperative mode. The rotary joystick controls were in turn based on SNK's earlier TNK III (1985). Ikari was originally intended to be an official licensed adaptation of the film Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), but SNK were initially unable to acquire the rights to the film.
Commando, released as Senjō no Ōkami in Japan, is a vertically scrolling run and gun video game released by Capcom for arcades in 1985. The game was designed by Tokuro Fujiwara. It was distributed in North America by Data East, and in Europe by several companies including Capcom, Deith Leisure and Sega, S.A. SONIC. Versions were released for various home computers and video game consoles. It is unrelated to the 1985 film of the same name, which was released six months after the game.
Ghostbusters is a licensed game by Activision based on the film of the same name. It was designed by David Crane and released for several home computer platforms in 1984, and later for video game console systems, including the Atari 2600, Master System and Nintendo Entertainment System. The primary target was the Commodore 64 and the programmer for the initial version of the game was Adam Bellin. All versions of the game were released in the USA except for the Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum versions, which were released only in Europe, and the MSX version, which was released only in Europe, South America, and Japan.
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Artic Computing was a software development company based in Brandesburton, England from 1980 to 1986. The company's first games were for the Sinclair ZX81 home computer, but they expanded and were also responsible for various ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron and Amstrad CPC computer games. The company was set up by Richard Turner and Chris Thornton. Charles Cecil, who later founded Revolution Software, joined the company shortly after it was founded, writing Adventures B through D. Developer Jon Ritman produced a number of ZX81 and Spectrum games for Artic before moving to Ocean Software.
Gun.Smoke is vertically scrolling run and gun video game and designed by Yoshiki Okamoto and released in arcades in 1985. Gun.Smoke centers on a character named Billie Bob, a bounty hunter going after the criminals of the Wild West.
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Rambo III is a series of video games based on the film Rambo III (1988). Like in the film, their main plots center on former Vietnam-era Green Beret John Rambo being recalled up to duty one last time to rescue his former commander, Colonel Sam Trautman, who was captured during a covert operation mission in Soviet-controlled Afghanistan. Taito released an arcade video game based on the film. The console versions were developed and published by Sega, the IBM PC compatible version was developed by Ocean and published by Taito, and Ocean developed and published the other home computer versions: Atari ST, Amiga, Spectrum, C64, Amstrad CPC.
Crystal Computing, later renamed Design Design, was a British video game developer founded in 1982 by Chris Clarke and Ian Stamp while students at the University of Manchester. Graham Stafford, Neil Mottershead, Simon Brattel and Martin Horsley, joined the company as it expanded. The company's first software release was a compilation of games for the Sinclair ZX81, though it was with the ZX Spectrum that Crystal found its greatest success. A deal with the machine's manufacturer Sinclair to distribute Crystal's Zeus Assembler gave the company sufficient funds for a major marketing campaign for their next product, Halls of the Things, an arcade adventure game that became their most successful title.
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Batman is a 1986 isometric action-adventure game by Ocean Software for the Amstrad PCW, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, and MSX, and the first Batman game developed. The game received favourable reviews. An unrelated Batman game was released two years later, titled Batman: The Caped Crusader.
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