LoC 90: Top 50 Arcade Games Countdown

[Darth Geek]

Five is right out.

Crucifixion?! Yeah... first offense.

I fart in your general direction!

[CJones]

#13 (Tie) – Rampage

49 Points, 3 Lists, Top Vote: #1 Pak-Man

Production Date: 1986
Manufacturer: Bally Midway

It's like King Kong vs Godzilla... plus there's a 40 foot werewolf there for some reason.

Rampage always felt, to me, a little like a side scrolling version of Gauntlet. You've got an unusually large cabinet to accommodate more than two simultaneous players, who can help or hinder each other. You bash your way through level after level with no particular goal in mind. And you're constantly on the lookout for food to compensate for the virtually unavoidable damage you take. Also, like Gauntlet, the game lets other players join in. And you can continue if you die, even keeping your score (making score meaningless, but I digress). Gauntlet had only just come out the previous year, so this concept of continuing or "buying in" was actually pretty new.

The plot, such as it is, involves people having been mutated by various things: George by Mega-Vitamins, Lizzie by a radioactive lake, and Ralph by tainted sausages. George climbs the fastest, Lizzie walks the fastest, and Ralph hits the hardest. I always used Ralph, because he could smash open windows the fastest. Punching open windows was kind of key to staying alive, since that's how you found food. Of course you also found all sorts of other stuff, like useless money, plumbing fixtures, dynamite... In fact, there's a lot of dynamite in the game. The National Guardsmen are staked out all over the place, chucking sticks of it clear across the city. And every once in awhile, someone will plant explosives at the base of a building, because clearly the way to stop monsters from destroying the city, is to.. destroy the city.

The game takes place over the course of 128 days, starting in Peoria, IL and ending in Plano, IL. During that time you follow a circuitous route that first heads east, up through New England, west across Canada and northern US, down the west coast, east along the southern states, notably avoiding Mexico, up to Virginia, then meandering around the interior. Then to LA to somehow catch a flight to Hawaii, and from there to Alaska, 'cause why not? After day 128, you receive a "Mega Vitamin Bonus" which restores all your health. And if you somehow actually got this far without putting more money in the machine, you know something I don't. After that, you start in Peoria again. You can loop through the game four times before the day counter resets.

Fun fact: The game was accidentally released with the "free play" option permanently disabled, even though the operator's manual clearly states that there is one. Some boards have romhacks that re-enable the free play feature.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/xnqFFIbF80I" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/xnqFFIbF80I</a>

Up next, speaking of games that remind me of Gauntlet...

[Darth Geek]

#13 (Tie) – Rampage

Now THIS is a game that I remember having a lot of fun playing at the arcade! And it's definitely one that I could see making for a fun movie adaptation if done right.

[CJones]

#13 (Tie) – Gauntlet

49 Points, 3 Lists, Top Vote: #6 CJones

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/A-9K_HvH3Qc" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/A-9K_HvH3Qc</a>

Production Date: 1985
Manufacturer: Atari

I can still remember the first time I ever saw this game. Pembroke Mall in Virginia Beach, same place I first saw Baby Pac-Man. I would have been 10 at the time.

Gauntlet is by no means the first maze shooter. Berzerk and Venture have it beat by several years. But it did have two major things going for it: Co-op multiplayer, and an overwhelming onslaught of monsters. And the two complement each other very well. I don't know if this was the first 4-player game ever, but it was certainly the first I ever saw. Even though the concept of the game was pretty simple and straightforward, there was a surprising amount of tactics that went into doing well in the game, particular in the area of party management. But first, let's take a look at the control layout:



Somebody thought THAT was a good idea First of all, who operates joysticks with their right hand and buttons with their left? Secondly, while I can appreciate the need to accommodate for four sets of controls, turning two of them sideways straight up sucked for the Warrior and the Elf. I had also forgotten about the four dedicated coin slots until today. I can remember at least one instance where I accidentally put money in the wrong slot.

Let's talk tactics for bit. First off, choose the character that best fits your play style. Then remember that the Elf is by FAR the best character (wonky positioning on the cabinet notwithstanding). He's the fastest, has the fastest shot speed, meaning highest rate of fire, and his Magic is only slightly worse than the Wizard. He has bad armor and bad close up fighting, but neither of those is important since you'll just be avoiding monsters or picking them off at range. Second, leave treasure chests alone when possible. Monsters can't move over them and they create bottlenecks. What's more, score influences game difficulty. Third, let the Elf or Wizard have all the potions. God help you if you're using the Warrior alone. You absolutely have to be able to clear the screen at certain points, or eat massive damage.

And when all else fails, cheat (sort of). The game has an anti-deadlock feature. If you stand still (no moving or shooting) for 30 ticks of health loss, all doors will unlock. If you hold still for 100 health ticks, all the walls will become exits. This was meant to allow the game to progress if someone got hopelessly stuck. However, there are levels that are virtually guaranteed to cost you more than 100 Health to try to get through the intended way. So just waiting is a very viable option.

Like with Gauntlet: Legends, it was initially possible to stay alive indefinitely, prompting Atari to instigate a system to make this nearly impossible. The game would take everybody's combined score, divided by number of players, divided again by total credits spent, and the result determined the difficulty. As difficulty rose, more and more food was removed from the game, and monster generators spewed out monsters faster and faster. If you manage to get your score high enough, the difficulty counter could roll to 0. But there's (probably) no way anyone could live that long on one credit.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/aKx4mC7Q1dI" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/aKx4mC7Q1dI</a>

Did I mention the Elf is the best character 

Fun facts:

This was the first Atari game with synthesized speech.

There were 2-player cabinets, but they were rare.

The following is an actual US patent, filed by George Logg, creator of Gauntlet, in June of 1994. It was approved 2 years later

Multi-player, multi-character cooperative play video game with independent player entry and departure

Abstract

A multi-player, multi-character video game where the games rules force the players to cooperate in negotiating the maze at least until the characters reach a portion of the maze where a specific objective is located. Certain limited resources to change the attributes of the characters or to increase their longevity are displayed in a maze. The players may compete to obtain possession of these limited resources when the characters have cooperated in their movements sufficiently to move to the location of the limited resources. Cooperation among the characters is forced by forcing all characters active in the game to remain visible in the displayed window. Players may enter the game at any time, and they may leave the game at any time without affecting the status of the game or the status of the other characters in the game. All active players may simultaneously, independently control their characters so long as they do not attempt to move their characters outside the currently displayed window.

Next up, 3 and 4 player cabinets?  Hah, try 6.

[soguru]

OOHHHHHH I know what it is! I do I do!!! I think...

I fart in your general direction!

We're the people's front of Judea!

To be perfectly blunt, I played Rampage to DEATH when I was a kid. There's only so many times I can keep knocking down the same 12 buildings again and again before it gets really old.

[Johnny Unusual]

I never figured out if eating a toilet hurt you or just made your character make a yucky face.  Regardless, I'll never stop eating those toilets.

[Pak-Man]

Ahh, Rampage. The core goal of the game is so much fun. "Trash EVERYTHING!" It's a concept that brings so much joy to some dark corner of my soul that wants nothing more than to destroy. I'd like to see them reboot Rampage some day. Give me a sprawling 3D metropolis and a million cool and creative ways to destroy every inch of it.

I never figured out if eating a toilet hurt you or just made your character make a yucky face.  Regardless, I'll never stop eating those toilets.

It hurt you just a teeny bit. If you pay attention to the newspaper articles between levels, one of them talks about watching what you eat, and that's what it's talking about. I MIGHT be thinking about a different item, but I think if you waited before punching, the toilet seat would close and it'd be safe to eat.

Now THIS is a game that I remember having a lot of fun playing at the arcade! And it's definitely one that I could see making for a fun movie adaptation if done right.

We'll see..

http://deadline.com/2015/07/rampage-brad-peyton-dwayne-johnson-san-andreas-new-line-midway-arcade-1201483377/#

[Darth Geek]

http://deadline.com/2015/07/rampage-brad-peyton-dwayne-johnson-san-andreas-new-line-midway-arcade-1201483377/#

They have told me that the focus will be consistent with the game, as three giant monsters — a gorilla, a lizard and a wolf — wreak havoc on major cities and landmarks across North America, with Johnson standing in their path.

It's that last part that has me worried. The whole appeal of the movie was that the player (in the case of the movie, the audience) was from the point of view of the monsters. Aside from being a nuisance, WE SHOULD NEVER SEE THE HUMANS AS ANYTHING MORE THAN TINY DOTS! I don't care about the humans, and I don't want to! Besides, with the premise of the game being that they were human at one time, getting to know them a little bit beforehand and then following them as monsters would be a unique take on the typical Kaiju movie.

[Johnny Unusual]

Though I will say that if you are going for the silliness of the games, you could do worse than have the Rock as your human.

[Darth Geek]

Though I will say that if you are going for the silliness of the games, you could do worse than have the Rock as your human.

It would be cool of he eventually became one of the monsters. But just as a human the whole time? I'm not supposed to be rooting for you in a movie based on a video game WHERE WE PLAY AS THE MONSTERS!
Imagine if in Mortal Kombat the fighters weren't the main characters, the movie was told from the standpoint of the janitor who had to clean up after all the fatalities.

[soguru]

How many of you dreamed of having one arcade cabinet game in your house when you were a kid? I know, we all had different arcade cabinets we wanted, but I am almost certain all of us wanted at least one Arcade cabinet or pinball machine in our house when we were kids.

[CJones]

#11 – X-Men

57 Points, 4 Lists, Top Vote: #6 Pak-Man

Production Date: 1992
Manufacturer: Konami

From Rampage, to Gauntlet to THIS. To my knowledge, this is the only 6 player game contained within a single cabinet. A single ENORMOUS cabinet.

The game takes up 4 feet by 6 feet of floor space, and weighs about 350 pounds. There are two 25" monitors, one in the back, and the other underneath that reflect onto a mirror, that together give the illusion of one extra wide monitor. Naturally, the front part is removable, for shipping. What's surprising is that this section is almost entirely hollow. The "table" lifts up like a pinball table if any of the controls need service. Other than the controls, the coin boxes, and a surprisingly small logic board, it's just empty space.

Now, if you are like me, you probably remember the X-Men cartoon. And if you do, you may look at this and think "where did they come up with this particular cast?" I'll tell you where. The game is based on an X-Men TV Pilot from 1989 that wasn't picked up. It was called "Pryde of the X-Men", and it was based of The Uncanny X-Men #129-#139. I remember seeing it multiple times as a kid, and never understood why it was so unlike the rest of the TV series. Marvel Productions decided to spend money that had been budgeted for a thirteenth episode of Robocop: The Animated Series, to make Pryde of the X-Men. The pilot was never picked up, but we all know that another X-Men cartoon was picked up in 1992.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/ykK4sAHkvzw" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/ykK4sAHkvzw</a>

The game looked and sounded fantastic. Game play wise it was a pretty standard TMNT style beat em up.  Storm was easily the best character, as her lightning rod gave her the most reach, and her mutant power could clear the whole screen. There were two and four player variants, but the enormous 6 player model was the shit.
 
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/aVqmss7ZOhY" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/aVqmss7ZOhY</a>

Fun fact: The Japanese version is notably easier, even containing health up items.

Up next, for the person who needs to own a thousand VCRs...

[soguru]

I knew it!! I knew it! Welcome... to die! I am Magneto, master of MAGNET! ha ha ha! Sorry X-men, our Magneto is in another castle! Isn't that Magneto?!

[CJones]

How many of you dreamed of having one arcade cabinet game in your house when you were a kid? I know, we all had different arcade cabinets we wanted, but I am almost certain all of us wanted at least one Arcade cabinet or pinball machine in our house when we were kids.

When I was around 7 or 8, I tried to convince my Grandmother to buy me a Donkey Kong machine. When she wisely refused, I vowed to figure out how to make my own. Never did do so, but that was what got me into programming. If I could own one arcade cabinet today, it would be Paperboy. I miss the handlebar controls so badly

[stethacantus]

How many of you dreamed of having one arcade cabinet game in your house when you were a kid? I know, we all had different arcade cabinets we wanted, but I am almost certain all of us wanted at least one Arcade cabinet or pinball machine in our house when we were kids.

My sister ( well actually, everyone's sister ) watched this sitcom called Silver Spoons because they were in love with the star Ricky Schroder. ( Nothing against the guy. Years later he replaced Jimmy Smith in NYPD Blue and I thought he was a fine actor. But in the 1980s he was still one of those shits from Tiger Beat only preteens girls seemed to love. ) For those of you who either do not remember Silver Spoons, or had the good sense  not to watch it, it was a ripoff of Different Strokes, only with a white kid. The only thing remotely interesting about the show ( and it was not Erin Grey who never seemed to wear anything tight or sexy during the series ) was that the rich guy who adopts Ricky had a couple of arcade video games in his livingroom. It was that show that put the idea in our noggins that you could actually buy a arcade cabinet, like Pac Man, and have it in your house. We all swore that some day when we all had good jobs, we would each buy  arcade games for our homes.

Of course, by the time we all had good jobs, the Atari was long dead, and the Nintendo NES was releasing cartridges that were almost as good as the arcade versions.

I did have a friend who came sooooo close to having his own arcade game. He found a cabinet abandoned at the side of the road, in an area near the railroad yard where people tended to dump their unwanted furniture instead of paying extra to have it taken away by the sanitation department. While he had his little brother stand guard over the cabinet, he went home and talked his father into renting a uhaul truck, and hauling the cabnet home. They got it into their living room, plugged it in, and shorted the power in their house. They took it some place to get it fixed, and found out it was unfixable. Whoever threw it out had good reason to throw it out. The money they wasted on the truck rental, calling an electrician to repair the damage the machine did to their home's wiring, and repair shop they brought the cabinet to, could have been used to buy a real cabinet.

I later found out that buying a video game cabinet was easy. If you knew what you were doing, you could buy a cabinet on credit, then pay the credit off by putting the cabinet in stores and having it turn a profit. A lot of people were doing this, and some actually earned enough money to leave their day jobs.