How to play Rampage online
- Walk: left and right arrow keys
- Climb a building: walk up to it and press the up arrow
- Punch: hold an arrow key in the direction you want to hit and press Z
- Jump: X, with no arrow key held
- Choose your monster: up and down arrows on the selection screen, then Z; press Z again to start a one-player game
Only the USA (NTSC) version of Rampage is available for the 7800, so there is no region switch on this page.
Gameplay
Your goal in each city is simple: knock down every building. Climb up the side, punch holes in the walls until the whole block crumbles, and move on to the next. The game has 132 cities to trash. On the way you can grab and eat the people in the windows and on the street, and punch the helicopters, police cars, tanks, trolleys and boats that try to stop you.
The damage bar under your score shows your energy. Eating food keeps it up, but some items, such as cactus, toasters, poison and switched-on TVs, hurt you instead. If the bar runs out, your monster shrinks back into a small, helpless human. Press the button before he walks off the screen to turn back into a monster. Otherwise the Rampage blimp can drop in a fresh monster, but you can only continue this way twice.
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Eating a pedestrian or soldier | 50 |
| Punching a building | 50–100 |
| Punching a tank or police car | 500 |
| Grabbing money, eating flowers or a switched-off TV | 500 |
| Punching a helicopter, trolley or boat | 750 |
| Eating a monster that has turned human | 1,000 |
Tips
- Jump instead of walking. It gets you across the street much faster.
- Attack vehicles from behind. To avoid their fire, move behind tanks and police cars before you punch them.
- Look before you eat. Food restores energy, but the bad items cost you.
- Stay out of the water. Your strength drains quickly there.
- In two-player games, friends can become lunch. Punching the other monster weakens it, and eating it once it turns human gives you energy and bonus points.
The story behind Rampage
Bally Midway released Rampage in arcades in 1986. Its lead designers were artist Brian Colin and programmer Jeff Nauman. In the story, all three monsters were once ordinary people: George was a scientist exposed to experimental vitamins, Lizzie was contaminated by radioactive waste in a lake, and Ralph ate a hot dog with a mysterious food additive. The arcade machine let up to three people play at once.
Rampage was ported to many home systems. The 7800 version, released in 1989, was programmed for Activision by Spectral Dimensions. It supports up to two players at the same time, so the third monster sits out. An Atari 2600 version came out in 1989 as well.
