Rampage (video game)

Last updated
Rampage
Rampage flyer.png
Arcade game flyer
Developer(s) Bally Midway
Publisher(s) Bally Midway (Arcade)
Sega (Master System)
Data East (NES)
Atari Corporation (Lynx)
Activision (other versions)
Designer(s) Brian Colin, Jeff Nauman
Programmer(s) Jeff Nauman
Artist(s) Brian Colin
Sharon Perry
Composer(s) Michael Bartlow
Series Rampage
Platform(s) Arcade, Master System, NES, Lynx, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, IBM PC
ReleaseArcade: 1986
NES: 1988
Lynx: 1990
Genre(s) Action
Mode(s)One to three simultaneous players
Cabinet Upright
Arcade system Midway MCR-III
Display Raster standard resolution (Used: 512 x 480) (Horizontal)

Rampage is a 1986 arcade game by Bally Midway. [1] Players take control of a trio of gigantic monsters trying to survive against onslaughts of military forces. Each round is completed when a particular city is completely reduced to rubble. Warner Bros. currently owns all rights to the property via their purchase of Midway Games. [2]

Contents

Rampage was inspired by the monster film King Kong , the kaiju film Godzilla , and the platform game Donkey Kong . In turn, Rampage inspired a 2018 film adaptation of the same name. [3]

Gameplay

Up to three simultaneous players control gigantic monsters who were formerly human. The game's protagonists are George, a King Kong-like gigantic gorilla transformed by an experimental vitamin, Lizzie, a Godzilla-like dinosaur/lizard transformed by a radioactive lake, and Ralph, a giant werewolf, transformed by a food additive. As monsters, they need to raze all buildings in a high-rise city to advance to the next level, eating people and destroying helicopters, tanks, taxis, police cars, boats, and trolleys along the way. [4]

The monsters can climb any of the buildings, punching them to pieces on the way down which will eventually reduce them to rubble. The various people can also be punched or grabbed and food items can be eaten. The player's monster receives damage from enemy bullets, sticks of dynamite, shells, punches from other monsters, and falls. Damage is recovered by eating the various food items such as fruit, roast chicken, or even the soldiers. If a monster takes too much damage, it reverts into a naked human and starts walking off the screen sideways, covering its modesty with its hands (and in this state, can be eaten by another monster). If the player continues, the human mutates back into the monster or (if the human walked off the screen) flies in on a blimp (but has lost their score), 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, while 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. When a civilian is present waving their hands at a window signaling for help, a player's points rapidly increase when the person is grabbed. Each monster can hold only one type of person: George can hold women, Lizzie can hold middle-aged men, and Ralph can hold businessmen.

Rampage is set over the course of 128 days in cities across North America. The game starts in Peoria, Illinois and ends in Plano, Illinois. [5] In Plano, players receive a "mega vitamin bonus" which heals all the monsters and provides a large point bonus. After this, the cycle of cities repeats five times. After 768 days, the game resets back to Day 1. As game developer Brian F Colin stated "the hardware couldn't support that much art and we never figured anyone would get through 768 levels". [6]

Some of the home port versions of the game start in San Jose, California and end in Los Angeles, California after going all around North America. The rampage travels through two Canadian provinces and forty-three United States states. Only Connecticut, Delaware, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Vermont are spared from the monster rampage.

Development

The game's lead designers were artist Brian Colin and programmer Jeff Nauman. Neither of them being fans of arcade games at the time, Colin conceived Rampage as a game in which there was "no wrong way to play." To this end, he wanted to eschew the common video game concepts of having a set objective, competing for a high score and dying. Artist Sharon Perry, game tester Jim Belt and composer Michael Bartlow assisted with developing the game. The game's aim of destroying skyscrapers was created because the developers could only move rectangular shapes in the background. The developers had to work within the technical limitations of the time - cities are largely identical in appearance, Ralph and George are the same character palette and head swapped and the dust effect from crumbling buildings conceals glitchy animation. The game's development and release languished as management was unconvinced of the game's unusual concept of casting players as city-destroying monsters, but picked up after new management was installed at the company. Post-release, additional levels were added to the game to make it more difficult. [5] In the opening cutscene reporting on three humans who had mutated into the monsters, Colin put pictures of himself as George, his wife Rae as Lizzy, and Nauman as Ralph. [7]

Release and ports

The game was released for the arcades in 1986. Colin promoted the game via a press release sent to local media outlets in each of the towns mentioned in-game; the press release took the form of an unofficial memo from Bally/Midway that stated that their town was "slated for destruction." [5]

Rampage was ported to the Apple II, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Atari Lynx, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore 64, MS-DOS/IBM PC, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, NES, Sega Master System and Tandy Color Computer 3. 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. In 1997 Tiger Electronics released a handheld LCD version of the game. In 2017, Basic Fun released a mini arcade port of the NES version of the game with Ralph added. This was #10 of their Arcade Classics line. [8]

The original arcade version of Rampage was included in various compilations. In 1999 it was included in Arcade Party Pak for the PlayStation. In 2003 it was included in Midway Arcade Treasures , a compilation of arcade games for the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. In 2005 it was included in Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play for the PlayStation Portable. In 2006 it was a bonus feature in Rampage: Total Destruction . In 2012, it was included in the compilation Midway Arcade Origins . [9]

The game was also an unlockable in the 2015 game Lego Dimensions . In that game, a human-sized version of George the ape appears in one of the sidequests. In the Midway Arcade World level of the game, the player aids him in wrecking the area and protecting him from civilians to get a higher score than Ralph and Lizzie.

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. Rampage was also ported to iOS as part of the Midway arcade app.

In 2018, Arcade 1up released a mini 4-foot version of the original arcade cabinet. [10]

Unlike the original arcade game, most of the home ports (such as the NES, Sega, and Atari Lynx versions) actually end, rather than repeating levels endlessly. The Amstrad CPC port (published by Activision) has in-game music ripped from the basement level of the arcade game Trojan , [11] despite Trojan not having been ported to the Amstrad.

Reception

Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
Crash 7/10 (Arcade)
CVG 60% (Lynx)
IGN 9/10 (Lynx)
Sinclair User 6/10 (ZX Spectrum)
Your Sinclair 6/10 (ZX Spectrum) [12]
Raze 81% (Lynx) [13]

The game was a financial success in arcades, a rare high point for Bally/Midway in the aftermath of the video game crash of 1983. [5]

Computer Gaming World approved of the MS-DOS adaptation of Rampage, especially for those with computers faster than the original IBM PC and an EGA video card. It stated that "Rampage is proof that IBM games can compete with other machines in running entertainment software". [14]

Your Sinclair said it was "All great fun for a while but being a monster can become a drag. So unless you intend to play it three-handed, when the fun factor increases a little, or you're a monster fan of the original, you might just give this a miss for something with more lasting value." [12]

Atari Lynx

CVG Magazine reviewed the Atari Lynx version of the game in their March 1991 issue, giving it a score of 60 out of 100. [15] Robert A. Jung reviewed the game which was posted to IGN Entertainment in July 1999. In his final verdict he wrote that "A lighthearted, silly game that's lots of fun for lots of players (the more the merrier)." Giving a final score of 9 out of 10. [16]

Legacy

In 2012, Walt Disney Animation Studios named their film character Wreck-It Ralph after Ralph the wolf, since as the bad guy in his game "Fix-It Felix Jr.", his job was to smash an apartment building so the hero Felix could repair the damage.[ citation needed ]

Sequels

About a decade later, a second arcade game was released entitled Rampage World Tour , developed for Midway by the original designers, Brian Colin and Jeff Nauman. The success of Rampage World Tour as a home console title was followed by console-exclusive games including Rampage 2: Universal Tour , Rampage Through Time , and Rampage Puzzle Attack . The last game in the series made by Midway was Rampage: Total Destruction .

The latest version was made by Raw Thrills, a redemption game with designs based on the 2018 Rampage film that was at first exclusive to Dave & Buster's. [17]

Film adaptation

On November 18, 2011 it was announced that a theatrical film adaptation based on the game was in tentative development by New Line Cinema with John Rickard set to direct. [18] On June 22, 2015 it was announced that actor Dwayne Johnson and producer Beau Flynn were attached to the project. [19] On July 22, 2015 it was announced that San Andreas director Brad Peyton would direct the film. [20] On July 20, 2016, it was reported that production on the film would begin in March 2017. [21] [22] Filming officially began on April 17, 2017. [23] Rampage was released on April 13, 2018 in 3D and IMAX. [24]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Xenophobe</i> (video game) 1987 video game

Xenophobe is a video game developed Bally Midway and released in arcades in 1987. Starbases, moons, ships, and space cities are infested with aliens, and the players have to kill the aliens before each is completely overrun. The screen is split into three horizontally-scrolling windows, one for each of up to three players, yet all players are in the same game world.

<i>Tapper</i> (video game) 1983 video game

Tapper, also known as Root Beer Tapper, is a 1983 arcade game developed by Marvin Glass and Associates and released by Bally Midway. Tapper puts the player in the shoes of a bartender who must serve eager, thirsty patrons while collecting empty mugs and tips.

<i>Ms. Pac-Man</i> 1981 video game

Ms. Pac-Man is a 1982 maze arcade game developed by General Computer Corporation and published by Midway. It is the sequel to Pac-Man (1980), and the first entry in the series to not be made by Namco. Controlling the titular character, the player is tasked with eating all of the pellets in an enclosed maze while avoiding four colored ghosts. Eating large flashing “Power Pellets” will cause the ghosts to turn blue and flee, which can be consumed for bonus points.

<i>Spy Hunter</i> 1983 arcade video game

Spy Hunter is a vehicular action game developed by Bally Midway and released in arcades in 1983.

<i>Klax</i> (video game) Puzzle video and arcade game by Atari from 1990

Klax is a 1990 puzzle video game designed by Dave Akers and Mark Stephen Pierce. The object is to line up colored blocks into rows of similar colors to make them disappear, to which the object of Columns is similar. Atari Games originally released it as a coin-op follow-up to Tetris, about which they were tangled in a legal dispute at the time. Released in the summer of 1990, it is also known for being the last game to be released on the Atari 2600 before the console was discontinued in early 1992.

<i>Gauntlet</i> (1985 video game) 1985 arcade game by Atari Games

Gauntlet is a fantasy-themed hack and slash 1985 arcade game by Atari Games. It is noted as being one of the first multi-player dungeon crawl arcade games. The core design of Gauntlet comes from Dandy, a 1983 Atari 8-bit family dungeon crawl, which resulted in a threat of legal action.

<i>Jr. Pac-Man</i> video game

Jr. Pac-Man is an arcade game, released by Bally Midway on August 13, 1983. It is based on Pac-Man and its derivatives but, like Baby Pac-Man, and Pac-Man Plus, was created without the authorization of Namco. This was one of several games that would eventually lead to the termination of the licensing agreement between Namco and Bally Midway in 1984. Unlike prior games in the series, the maze in Jr. Pac-Man scrolls horizontally.

<i>Pac-Land</i> 1985 video game

Pac-Land is a 1984 side-scrolling platform arcade game developed and published by Namco. In North America, it was distributed by Midway Games. Controlling Pac-Man, the player must make it to the end of each stage to return a lost fairy back to its home in Fairyland. Pac-Man will need to avoid obstacles, such as falling logs and water-spewing fire hydrants, alongside his enemies the Ghost Gang. Eating large flashing Power Pellets will cause the ghost to turn blue, allowing Pac-Man to eat them for points. It was the first game to run on the Namco Pac-Land hardware.

<i>Paperboy</i> (video game) video game

Paperboy is an arcade game developed and published by Atari Games. It was released in North America in April 1985. The player takes the role of a paperboy who delivers a fictional newspaper called "The Daily Sun" along a suburban street on his bicycle. The arcade version of the game featured bike handlebars as the controller.

<i>Pigskin 621 A.D.</i> 1990 video game

Pigskin 621 A.D. is an arcade game released in 1990 by Bally Midway. One player can battle the computer, or two players can battle head-to-head. Two teams compete to score as many touchdowns as possible in the tradition of American football, but actual play is more similar to rugby football.

<i>Rampage World Tour</i> 1997 video game

Rampage World Tour is a video game released in 1997 and is the second game in the Rampage series. The game was developed as an arcade game for Midway Games by Game Refuge Inc. designers Brian Colin and Jeff Nauman, who conceived and designed the original in 1986. It was ported to the Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, PlayStation, Microsoft Windows and has been re-released on Midway Arcade Treasures 2 as well as being included in Rampage: Total Destruction.

<i>RoadBlasters</i> 1987 video game

RoadBlasters is a combat racing arcade game released by Atari Games in 1987. In RoadBlasters, the player must navigate an armed sports car through 50 different rally races, getting to the finish line before running out of fuel.

<i>S.T.U.N. Runner</i> video game

S.T.U.N. Runner is 3D racing/shooter released in arcades by Atari Games in 1989. The player pilots a futuristic vehicle which can exceed 900 mph, through various tunnels and courses with changing environments, hazards and enemies. S.T.U.N. Runner uses polygonal graphics for the vehicles and track, and is based on an evolution of Atari's Hard Drivin' hardware. The custom cabinet was designed to resemble the craft that the player pilots in-game.

<i>Xybots</i> 1987 video game

Xybots is a 1987 third-person shooter arcade game by Atari Games. In Xybots, up to two players control "Major Rock Hardy" and "Captain Ace Gunn", who must travel through a 3D maze and fight against a series of robots known as the Xybots whose mission is to destroy all mankind. The game features a split screen display showing the gameplay on the bottom half of the screen and information on player status and the current level on the top half. Designed by Ed Logg, it was originally conceived as a sequel to his previous title, Gauntlet. The game was well received, with reviewers lauding the game's various features, particularly the cooperative multiplayer aspect. Despite this, it was met with limited financial success, which has been attributed to its unique control scheme that involves rotating the joystick to turn the player character.

Rampage is a series of video games released by Midway (1986-2009) and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (2009-present) for the arcade and various consoles. The basic premise of the games is that, due to various lab accidents, the player controls a human transformed into a giant monster. The gameplay revolves around the player using their chosen monster to destroy cities around the world while attacking or avoiding police and military forces.

<i>Elvira and the Party Monsters</i> pinball machine

Elvira and the Party Monsters is a 1989 pinball game designed by Dennis Nordman and Jim Patla and released by Midway, featuring horrorshow-hostess Elvira. It was followed 1996 by Scared Stiff, also designed by Nordman.

Game Refuge Inc. is an independent video-game developer with offices in Downers Grove, Illinois. It was founded in 1992 by Brian Colin and Jeff Nauman, the creators of Rampage, Arch Rivals and many other arcade games for Bally/Midway. The company has developed over 45 games for a variety of platforms, including consoles, PCs, arcades, touchscreen countertop machines, casino gaming, mobile devices and Facebook.

Brian Colin is an American video-game designer, artist and animator. Among his best-known works are the coin-operated arcade games Rampage, Arch Rivals and Rampage: World Tour as well as General Chaos for the Sega Genesis game console. He is the CEO of Game Refuge Inc., an independent video-game design and development studio with offices in Downers Grove, Illinois. He has been noted for his work in the field of bitmapped video-game graphics and animation, creating video-game sprites and tiled background graphics with a recognizable, identifiable style. G

<i>Rampage</i> (2018 film) 2018 film by Brad Peyton

Rampage is a 2018 American science fiction monster film directed by Brad Peyton, and based on the video game series of the same name by Midway Games. The film stars Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Malin Åkerman, Jake Lacy, Joe Manganiello, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. It follows primatologist Davis Okoye who must team up with George, an albino gorilla who turns into a raging creature of enormous size as a result of a rogue experiment, to stop two other mutated animals, a wolf named Ralph and a crocodile named Lizzie, from destroying Chicago.

References

  1. "Rampage". The International Arcade Museum. Retrieved 5 Oct 2013.
  2. Brady, Matt. "Warner Bros. Buys Midway Games" . Retrieved July 3, 2009.
  3. "Rampage film review - even shallower than the arcade game". Eurogamer . April 20, 2018.
  4. "Rampage". Arcadehistory.com. Retrieved 3 July 2010.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Borrelli, Christopher (April 11, 2018). "Before the movie, 'Rampage' the video game offered destruction without death". Chicago Tribune. Tronc, Inc.
  6. "Brian F Colin on Twitter".
  7. Rampage Creator Reveals Undiscovered Game Easter Egg and Movie Cameo
  8. "Arcade Classics: Rampage Review". 10 December 2017.
  9. Claiborn, Samuel (13 November 2012). "Midway Arcade Origins Review". IGN.
  10. "Arcade 1UP: Rampage". 10 December 2018.
  11. "Rampage Music on Amstrad CPC". YouTube. 2010-07-11. Retrieved 2012-09-25.
  12. 1 2 Rachael Smith. "Smash everything in sight but don't expect too much of a smash from the thankless task of clearing the inner cities!". Your Sinclair Magazine. Retrieved 9 August 2018 via archive.org.
  13. Julian Boardman (April 1991). "Rampage". Raze Magazine. p. 47. Retrieved 17 August 2018 via archive.org.
  14. Trunzo, James V. (July 1988). "Stompin' On The Savoy / Activision's "Rampage" of Destruction". Computer Gaming World. p. 30.
  15. "Bytesize Atari Lynx". No. 112. CVG Magazine. March 1991. p. 71. Retrieved 28 March 2018.Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  16. Robert A. Jung (6 July 1999). "A lighthearted, silly game that's lots of fun for lots of players". IGN Entertainment. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  17. "Rampage Returning To Arcades, But Not In the Way You'd Expect". comicbook.com.
  18. Kit, Borys (17 November 2011). "Classic Video Game 'Rampage' Headed to Big Screen From New Line (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter.
  19. Kit, Borys (23 June 2015). "Dwayne Johnson to Star in Film Adaptation of 'Rampage' Video Game". The Hollywood Reporter.
  20. Fleming Jr., Mike. "'San Andreas' Team Reunites For 'Rampage'; Brad Peyton To Direct Dwayne Johnson In Arcade Game Adaptation". Deadline.com. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  21. "Seven Bucks Productions And FlynnPictureCo. Sell Muscle Beach Scripted Project To Universal Cable Productions To Be Developed For USA Network". PRNewsWire.com. July 20, 2016. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
  22. Cassidy, Mark. "Brad Peyton Says Rampage Will Be "Emotional, Scary And Real"". Deadline.com. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  23. "Rampage Filming Begins: The Game Adaptation Stars Dwayne Johnson". Comingsoon.net. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
  24. D'Alessandro, Anthony (November 10, 2016). "Bradley Cooper-Lady Gaga Movie 'A Star Is Born' Gets 2018 Release Date". Deadline. Retrieved November 11, 2016.