How to play Rampage online
- Walk: left and right arrow keys
- Climb a building: walk up to it, then press the up arrow
- Punch: hold an arrow key in the direction you want to punch and press Space
- Jump: press Space without holding any direction
- Go to the monster selection screen: Space or F11 (the console’s Select switch)
- Second player: T/F/G/H to move, A to punch and jump
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
Gameplay
You play a person who has been turned into a huge monster. The manual introduces the cast as George the ape, Lizzie the lizard and Ralph the wolf; you pick your monster at the start, and in a two-player game the second player picks one of those left. Your job in each city is to knock down every building while the army fires at you. The manual promises 85 cities to wreck, and the monsters travel across the United States from one to the next.
Your monster has a damage bar. Bullets and other attacks wear it down, and when it runs out your monster shrinks back into a small human and you lose a life. You start with three lives and earn an extra one every 10,000 points. Some punches become bites: if you hit certain enemies, your monster eats them. In a two-player game you can also punch the other monster, and if it turns back into a human, you can eat it for extra points.
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Punching a building or eating a person | 50 |
| Punching a vehicle or another monster | 250 |
| Helicopter | 750 |
| Sign | 1,000 |
Tips
- Go for the signs. At 1,000 points each, they are worth twenty building punches.
- Swat the helicopters. They are worth 750 points and removing them means fewer shots at you.
- Watch your damage bar. A monster that turns human is out of that life, so back away from heavy fire when the bar is low.
- Remember the 10,000-point lives. Scoring well is also how you survive longer, so don’t just knock buildings down; punch everything worth points.
The story behind Rampage
The arcade original was designed by Brian Colin and Jeff Nauman at Bally Midway and came out in August 1986. Activision published the home versions for computers and for the Atari consoles, and the game was ported to more than a dozen systems. The Atari 2600 version appeared in May 1989 and the Atari 7800 version followed that November. Bob Polaro had earlier programmed the 2600 versions of Defender and Road Runner.
Reviews of the 2600 version were mixed: Computer and Video Games gave it 60%, and later reviewers have said the menu screens look good for the 2600 but the cities themselves are plain and repetitive.
Similar games to play next
- King Kong – another giant ape and a tall building
- Road Runner – an earlier 2600 arcade port by Bob Polaro
- Defender – Bob Polaro’s version of the Williams arcade shooter
- Double Dragon – another late Activision arcade conversion for the 2600
- Commando – Activision’s 2600 version of the Capcom arcade game