Rampage (video game)

Rampage is a 1986 arcade game by Bally Midway.^[1] Players take control of gigantic monsters trying to survive against onslaughts of military forces. Each round is completed when a particular city is completely reduced to rubble.

Gameplay

Up to three simultaneous players control the monsters George (a King Kong-like gigantic gorilla), Lizzie (a Godzilla-like dinosaur/lizard), or Ralph (a giant werewolf), created from mutated humans. When they were humans, George was a normal middle aged man, Lizzie was a young woman, and Ralph was an elderly man. They were experimented on at Scumlabs. 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.^[2]

The monsters can climb 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, whilst 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, Lizzy can hold 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. 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.

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 U.S. states. Only Connecticut, Delaware, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Vermont are spared.

Release

Originally released for the arcades in 1986, 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, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS/IBM PC, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, NES, 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 for the PlayStation in 1999. In 2003 Rampage was included in Midway Arcade Treasures, a compilation of arcade games for the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox and in 2005 in Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play for the PlayStation Portable. In 2012, Rampage was included in the compilation Midway Arcade Origins.^[3] This game is also available as a bonus feature in Rampage: Total Destruction. Tiger Electronics released a handheld LCD version of the game in the 1990s.

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.

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,^[4] though Trojan was never ported to the Amstrad, a finished version was completed for the ZX Spectrum by Clive Townsend and was to be published by Elite Systems, but was never officially released.

Reception

Computer Gaming World approved of the 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".^[5]

Legacy

Sequels

About a decade later, a sequel was released entitled Rampage World Tour, later followed by console-exclusive games including Rampage 2: Universal Tour, Rampage Through Time, and Rampage Puzzle Attack. The latest game in the series is Rampage: Total Destruction.

Film adaptation

On November 18, 2011 it was announced that a theatrical film adaptation based on the game is in tentative development by New Line Cinema with John Rickard set to direct.^[6] On June 22, 2015 it was announced that actor Dwayne Johnson and producer Beau Flynn were attached to the project.^[7] On July 22, 2015 it was announced that San Andreas director Brad Peyton will direct the film and the movie will be in theaters in 2017^[8]

References

External links

• Rampage at the Killer List of Videogames
• Rampage at MobyGames
• Rampage at World of Spectrum