Rampage
Rampage, Arcade original developed by Bally Midway in 1986. Amiga conversion by Monarch Developments and published by Activision in 1989.
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Player's Review
"The game where the nice guys do get a look in. Grab your way through Chicago, punch up New York, and jump on San Francisco. Three indescribably nasty characters which bear a remarkable likeness to King Kong, Godzilla and Wolf-man, need you to send them on a rampage in an enduring 768 days of destruction, through 85 different cities."
I don't know what I was thinking taking on this fairly mediocre game. Rampage is alright in short stints but for 130 odd levels.... that's a chore and the Amiga version is perhaps the worst of all the conversions. The Arcade game is said to have 768 levels (days) which is reach by looping the game five times with each loop having 130 odd levels (yeah, I know the numbers don't add up). The Amiga version is supposedly the same according to the box which is just too much but no unachievable should you have the will to play it that long.
On the Amiga, the game starts off with the control setup for each character. You can configure joystick or keys for each player or turn them off. Note that there are no cpu controlled characters in this version, that's strike 1. Once in game it's time to climb and smash up the buildings whist avoiding enemy fire from soldiers and helicopters. There is sometimes some items to collect that can add a score bonus or take off energy like electrocution from a toaster or bulb. Food items may also occasionally appear but they do so very little you are left to farm soldiers for your energy fix. You can also beat up the other monsters if enabled. Some levels have bridges which can be broken by falling on them and you don't want to go in the water. Sometimes when it gets busy on the ground floor you may want to walk off screen to avoid fire but in the Amiga game, you cant do that (Strike 2).
As the levels progress the enemy fire gets a bit crazy with dynamite, bullets and helicopters flying at you all the time bleeding you of energy and it takes a lot of munching on soldiers to build that energy back up and can hardly be called fair and that a strike 3 from me making this conversion no fun to play at all and multiplayer cant save it. The controls are pretty bad and bind up often as you try to climb up and around buildings. Should police cars or a tank come on screen you should be worried as they can tear you apart.
For this longplay I start off showing a quick game with all three players on screen. After watching this part youve likely seen enough already but if you continue on I start a single monster full playthrough of every level and there is at least an end screen after 130 odd levels. In hindsight I should have better set it up so I could take control of each monster when one falls to better show them. When you die you get to input your name on the highscore table and then continue from same city or died on which does allow you to get through the whole game given the time but it does reset your current score to zero and is an opportunity to swap monster or bring in another one.
Overall this is a bad conversion even for 1989. The gfx look terrible for a 16 bit machine and not that different to the C64 game which I should add is a much better and more faithful conversion, well at least the US release and even included walking off screen as well as cpu players. Lets keep in mind Activision released this garbage conversion at near enough £25. The Atari LYNX is probably the best home conversion and id probably play that over the arcade game.
I don't know what I was thinking taking on this fairly mediocre game. Rampage is alright in short stints but for 130 odd levels.... that's a chore and the Amiga version is perhaps the worst of all the conversions. The Arcade game is said to have 768 levels (days) which is reach by looping the game five times with each loop having 130 odd levels (yeah, I know the numbers don't add up). The Amiga version is supposedly the same according to the box which is just too much but no unachievable should you have the will to play it that long.
On the Amiga, the game starts off with the control setup for each character. You can configure joystick or keys for each player or turn them off. Note that there are no cpu controlled characters in this version, that's strike 1. Once in game it's time to climb and smash up the buildings whist avoiding enemy fire from soldiers and helicopters. There is sometimes some items to collect that can add a score bonus or take off energy like electrocution from a toaster or bulb. Food items may also occasionally appear but they do so very little you are left to farm soldiers for your energy fix. You can also beat up the other monsters if enabled. Some levels have bridges which can be broken by falling on them and you don't want to go in the water. Sometimes when it gets busy on the ground floor you may want to walk off screen to avoid fire but in the Amiga game, you cant do that (Strike 2).
As the levels progress the enemy fire gets a bit crazy with dynamite, bullets and helicopters flying at you all the time bleeding you of energy and it takes a lot of munching on soldiers to build that energy back up and can hardly be called fair and that a strike 3 from me making this conversion no fun to play at all and multiplayer cant save it. The controls are pretty bad and bind up often as you try to climb up and around buildings. Should police cars or a tank come on screen you should be worried as they can tear you apart.
For this longplay I start off showing a quick game with all three players on screen. After watching this part youve likely seen enough already but if you continue on I start a single monster full playthrough of every level and there is at least an end screen after 130 odd levels. In hindsight I should have better set it up so I could take control of each monster when one falls to better show them. When you die you get to input your name on the highscore table and then continue from same city or died on which does allow you to get through the whole game given the time but it does reset your current score to zero and is an opportunity to swap monster or bring in another one.
Overall this is a bad conversion even for 1989. The gfx look terrible for a 16 bit machine and not that different to the C64 game which I should add is a much better and more faithful conversion, well at least the US release and even included walking off screen as well as cpu players. Lets keep in mind Activision released this garbage conversion at near enough £25. The Atari LYNX is probably the best home conversion and id probably play that over the arcade game.
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