Rampart

Original arcade game was developed and released by Atari Games in 1990. This nearly arcade perfect DOS conversion by Bitmasters was released two years later. I'm playing the "enhanced" mode, which adds houses on the map. Building over a house cancels wall for that title and spawns siege weapons. There doesn't seem to be any other differences compared to classic mode.

Fun game and nice concept, but can get pretty hard even on very easy difficulty. That's what I played, because addition of houses creates enough difficulty without any extra challenge. I'm also probably not the best ever player in this game. With classic mode I'd go with easy or maybe even normal difficulty. Luck is an important factor for determining success or failure. Sometimes correct type of blocks just keep on coming, but sometimes nothing fits and critical tiles get blocked by fire and siege weapons.

There are two types of Arcade cabinets. 2P version has joysticks and 3P cabinet has trackballs. Mouse control is IMO must for this type of game, but it's hard to master. Even a small twitch while clicking may cause a block to be misplaced, but that's part of the fun and the frustration. Single player can be fun, but multiplayer is intense.