| Trog | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Midway (Arcade), Acclaim (NES), Software Creations (DOS) |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Nintendo Entertainment System, DOS |
| Release date(s) | 1991 (NA) |
| Genre(s) | Arcade, Puzzle game |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multi player |
| Rating(s) | E |
| Media/distribution | Cartridge (NES) |
Trog! is an arcade game developed by Midway Games for the arcade, and later ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System and DOS by Acclaim Entertainment, Inc.. It was released in North America in 1991.
Contents |
The player assumes the role of Rex, Bloop, Spike, or Gwen, small T-Rex dinosaurs (with Styracosaurus-like heads) in the land of "Og", home to the one-eyed cavemen known as the "Trog". In the NES rendition of the game, only Bloop and Spike are playable.
Players must pick up all colored eggs lying around the map as the Trog cavemen wander around, attempting to eat them. Unlike its influential predecessor, Pac-Man, the dinos can attack at any time with a punch that does not require a power-up. Power-ups also randomly spawn to help finish the level; these include red flowers that increase the player's speed, ice cubes that freeze all on-screen Trogs and pineapples, which turn the character into a full-grown T-Rex that can temporarily eat his enemies. The multiplayer mode consists of two to four dinos on the same screen competing to get all of his/her same-colored eggs first, and players can either attack or protect each other (though power-ups indiscriminately hurt anyone that's in the way regardless). Many stages there are no walls, so characters can travel off the edge of the grid-like islands and plunge into the sea if they're not careful. The Trogs themselves are subject to all hazards the player is; they can even be taken out by their own wheels, fire and pits to comic effect. The Trogs can be one-hit punched, to the side of the head, as they approach the screen edge resulting in them diving into the sea, with bonus points rewarded to the player.
There are three different levels of difficulty: Easy, Advanced and Expert. Advanced Mode rewards a 200,000 level bonus and Expert rewards a 400,000 level bonus. As the levels progress, the cavemen become smarter and invent new ways to capture the dinosaurs. They eventually create fire pits and wheels to burn and flatten, respectively, the character and springs to bounce themselves all over the screen. Catapults and transportation chambers in latter stages help evade these attacks, however these are also usable by the Trogs resulting in some tactical gameplay options.
The arcade version featured "Playmation" graphics in which character models were created with clay animation. The NES version, due to its limitations, was scaled down drastically. The arcade version supports up to four players at a time, while the NES version only supports two (only Bloop and Spike are playable, Rex and Gwen were omitted). Much like many NES games at the time, the home versions box art was contracted out to a different company and did not use the arcade game's art.
The original arcade prototype of Trog! consisted of a strategy puzzle type game which consisted of the player assuming the role of a hand which would lay bones to guide their corresponding dinosaur in the right path, however this idea was heavily panned during testing. In addition the button to lay the bones in the game field was a complete joke which was taken up a notch when a tester allegedly defaced one of the cabinets to add an R which would make the bone button into a completely suggestive joke. Due to the poor reception, Bally/Midway considered canning the game altogether, but the game was given a second chance for two reasons. The first one was because Jack Haeger (the game's creator) spent so much of the budget on the clay animation, and the second reason was because one of the testers suggested to make it into a Pac-Man like game.
Trog! makes appearances in latter Midway titles. As a shootable "easter egg" in the game Revolution X. Additionally, the arcade cabinet makes a brief appearance in Terminator 2: Judgment Day; two girls attend the machine inside a shopping mall arcade as the T-1000 questions them regarding the whereabouts of John Connor.
In the horror rail shooter CarnEvil Trog! can be found in the Freak Show portion of the game as an attraction in the background. He is frozen in a block of ice and labeled "Frozen In Time!" The dino characters also appear as enemies in the Rickety Town level of the game.
The word Trog comes from "troglodyte", a term that refers to a prehistoric cave-dweller or "caveman".[1]