Why Was Rampage One of the Best Arcade Games of All Time?
For the video game fans out there that are old enough to remember the glorious arcade era of the 1980’s & 90’s, let us take a moment to think back to those wonderful days. Remember the dark rooms illuminated by brilliant neon lights & the flickering screens from arcade cabinets. Remember the sounds of clinking, whizzing, & sirens interrupted by the loud smashing of buttons & kids yelling at the screens. Remember the weight of that pocket full of quarters you were desperately hoping would last for longer than a half hour (at best). Now…which games were waiting for you in that room?
While everyone had their favorites, there were always a special handful of titles that were so popular they seemed to appear in every arcade around America. Titles like Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Pacman, Galaga, &, of course, Rampage (or Rampage World Tour, if you were a late-90’s kid). Created in 1986 by Brian Colin, Rampage was one of the last major successes for the arcade giant, Bally/Midway. To this day, it is still ranked as one of the best games from the golden age of arcades. Rampage took the same destructive urges that gave each of us joy after knocking over our block towers as kids & dressed them up in a King Kong aesthetic. If that does not sound like the most addicting pitch for a kid’s game, then I don’t know what does.
However, listening to Brian talk about the development process for Rampage, you really start to understand just how lucky it is that the game was even made in the first place. From company executives that refused to believe that the game would resonate with the general public to animators who were convinced that the game was too ambitious for the technology at the time, it took every ounce of faith & hard work that Brian & his programmer, Jeff Nauman, had to finally make this game a reality. In fact, because of that success & so many more, Brian received the ultimate recognition of his career in 2019 when he was inducted into the International Video Game Hall of Fame!
However, don’t think that this is the end of Brian’s story. There is so much more that we have not even begun to touch on here. So, go ahead & hear it from the man himself on today’s edition of Dallas Geek!