pop.cult.scan.fun

COLUMN: The RePlay Files: Rampage's Original Stylings

NOTE: This is crossposted from my work-related GameSetWatch blog, where some new scanning is going on!

[New column 'The RePlay Files' will reprint classic features and news stories from seminal arcade/amusement trade journal RePlay Magazine, with the kind permission of the magazine's creators - check out their website for info about subscriptions, news, and the contents of the latest issue. This initial batch of three articles kicks off with a feature on the launch of Bally's Rampage, from the August 1986 issue of RePlay, including photos and info available online for the first time.]

Bally Readies Choice Entertainment Line-Up

Such was the wild day at Bally Midway when execs and designers put down their tools and camped it up for our readers to launch their equally zany (but appeal-packed) new 3-player upright suitably called Rampage.

Company execs like President Maury Ferchen, Sales VP Steve Blattspieler and Sales Manager Dick Konopa (plus other staffers like Barbara Seifert and John Flakne) had a ball watching the design team don costumes and strike poses evoking the characters and actions on the Rampage scene. Spirits were up, up, up and as Ferchen said: �We�ve waited a long time for a piece like this!�

For want of more adroit descriptions, Rampage is like �Godzilla meets the Three Stooges.� It�s a �Saturday Morning TV cartoon adventure� starring George (the gorilla), Lizzie (the lizard) and Ralph (the wolf) who, with the active guidance of game players, proceed to bash just about every city in North America to smithereens in search of food.

Letting down their hair (plus whiskers and fangs), the costumed �Rampage� designers mug it up for the camera in celebration of their new Bally Midway attraction. Included in that fearsome bunch are Mike Bartlow, Jim Belt, Sharon Perry, Jeff Nauman and Brian Colin.

With insatiable appetites, the three literally go from Peoria to Plano (and 83 cities in between) reducing each cityscape to rubble by punching through walls while avoiding a host of adversaries and other dangers to keep alive and keep up the mayhem.

No mercy in the sales department as Ralph Wolf and George Gorilla pay an unexpected and rather violent call on Blattspieler, who�s attacking back with his favorite weapon � the phone.

The game offers the continuous action feature as players inject successive quarters to keep their individual character alive and bashing just as it�s about to get zonked. And this need for an additional quarter and then another one comes up (on average for a decent player) every two minutes, 45 seconds, so those quarters really add up. (Novices will have to drop additional coins a heck of a lot quicker until they come up to speed.)

There�s a mob of things to do besides wreck real estate, of course, but that�s where most players begin, and you learn these as you go along. Since it�s a three-player, Bally says that new players often get an introduction from those already at the upright and that the learning curve is quick (e.g. a fellow player can tell you to avoid grabbing the toaster since that means electrocution).

Designers Jeff Nauman and Brian Colin join Bally Midway execs Maury Ferchen (left) and Steve Blattspieler by their new 3-player upright. Humorously dubbed �Godzilla meets the Three Stooges� by RePlay, the unit begins shipping to distributors middle of the month.

Bally Midway�s design team under leader Jeff Nauman has been programming Rampage since last January at the Franklin Park, Ill. Shop and has injected a lot of skill into the attraction that players will pick up on as they go along. But even at first blush (first bash?), the friendly but ferocious destruction is more than enough to keep the crowd happy.

By punching the �jump� and �punch� buttons and using the 8-way joystick, the idea is to grab food (for points), spit out �poison� and generally avoid harm. Godzilla himself couldn�t imagine such a field-day in his wildest dreams (and you can bet Godzilla has some wild dreams). You could write a small book about all the madness in this piece (oh yes, there�s a train crash in there too) but right now, let�s simply say Bally Midway could have a boomer here and do a ton of business.

�We�ve tested it and we�re proud to say Rampage is a record-breaker,� noted Blattspieler. �It looks like most operators will recover their investment faster with this than on any dedicated video in recent memory,� he added. �The �Join the Action� buy-in feature is put to full use. Players want to see what comes next or they want to keep up with better players. There are 768 different screens in this but it will take a lot of hours of play before even the best video aficionado can get through the whole entire course,� he stated.

Bringing new meaning to the phrase �dishpan hands�, Sales Manager Dick Konopa gets into the spirit of Bally Midway �Rampage� day.

Bally Midway is proud that the whole package was designed and built at their suburban Chicago plant. Production models will begin shipping to dealers mid-August and the firm is actually saying the piece could take its place next to the likes of Space Invaders, Pac-Man and Spy Hunter in the �Midway Hall of Fame.�

Comic Books: Evan Dorkin, Schoolkids, House Of Marvel?

Anyone who knows me may realize that I'm a bit of a fan of that lovable comics curmudgeon Evan Dorkin - heck, I have original art from both Dork and Bill & Ted framed on the walls here in the computer room, and we even commissioned him to do the cover to Game Developer's Career Guide issue this year.

Thus, I was delighted to come across this pictorial from Marvel Age #106, November 1991, which features some lovable, delightful schoolchildren being given a tour of Marvel, where-in they run into a Milk & Cheese T-shirt-wearing Mr. Dorkin dropping off the latest pages of his Bill & Ted comic. No, really, look!

The precise caption, for those too lazy to click through, is: "As the tour makes its way to the fabled Marvel Bullpen, they pass the editorial offices of Fabian Nicieza and Evan Skolnick, who produce, among other titles, Marvel's BILL & TED comic book. The tour's in luck today, as artist Evan Dorkin is in the office with new pages of artwork. The kids enjoy this most excellent cameo appearance."

The picture itself bears reprinting at a higher res, too, since the child directly to Evan's left appears to be scowling darkly, as if about to strike out at the strange, shaggy being next to him. Caption competition?

Comic Books: Marvel Video Game Special

I have a plethora of other new potential scans to put up soon - they're piling up on top of my scanner as we speak - but here's something fun from a 1993 issue of Marvel in-house promo comic Marvel Age which relates to both comics and video games.

Specifically, it's a two page article about how Marvel's comic book characters were flowing freely (often without much quality control!) onto the Sega Genesis, Nintendo Game Boy and SNES, and even the Sega Game Gear back in the early '90s - but it starts off with pre-release info on Capcom's 'Punisher/Nick Fury coin-op video game' for arcades.

There's a couple of interesting points for extreme video game geeks here - not least that the CPS2 title was eventually released as The Punisher, even though it still has Nick Fury in it too - presumably the name was changed to focus on the one, more famous character. You can also see the full, larger version of the Henry Flint art used for the arcade machine's header title art.

On the second page, there's discussion of the "rapidly expanding CD-ROM field", with pictures from The Amazing Spider-Man Vs. The Kingpin for Sega CD, which was indeed released: "The game also added two new levels, extra combat moves, the ability to collect reproductions of famous Spider-Man comic books issues, and an original musical score by the Mr. Big rock band." Woo!

There's also mention of an Acclaim version of Spider-Man for the Game Boy (which may be 'Invasion Of The Spider-Slayers on the Wikipedia list, I think?), and the U.S. Gold iteration of The Incredible Hulk for the Genesis - both of which were typically mundane cartridge-based superhero titles, I'm afraid. Still, The Punisher is pretty good!

Comic Books: He Said/She Said Comics Presents 'The Bill Clinton Story'

Oop, sorry for the delay - quite a bit of overseas travel and further cataloging of the comic collection (stuck in early '90s superhero hell right now!) has meant some slowness in finding good new artifacts.

But here's one - First Amendment Publishing's two separate covers to He Said/She Said Comics Presents 'The Bill Clinton Story', from 1993 or so. This one's a bit of a doozy - there's a color centerfold picture of Hillary Clinton with a large battleaxe in a bikini standing in front of the White House, captioned 'Hilla The Hun'. In fact, it looks like this He Said/She Said thing was a bit of a running gag for the company - there's at least 6 issues done in that format, including a Woody Allen/Mia Farrow one which I sadly don't have.

So the 'He Said/She Said' comic series has two front covers to detail the dual views to the story, and does actually list a bunch of reasons why Flowers might not be telling the truth. But for all its obvious attempts to be a bit tawdry in telling the story of the alleged affair (this is all far before Monica Lewinsky, don't forget!), it's most interested in nailing Clinton on his policy failings.

In fact, the last page of the Gennifer Flowers side lists quotes from Clinton about tax relief, the Haitians, and homosexuals in the military, and has Flowers saying: "He said all the right things. But a man who will cheat on his wife... will lie to the American public." Strong stuff - but evidently not resonant enough, because I don't think First Amendment Publishing was around for a lot longer after this.

Comic Books: Marvel Age on Sam & Max

One of the boxes of comics I picked up recently had a whole collection of Marvel Age comics, which was Marvel's in-house promo comic in the '80s and early '90s, essentially - listing off upcoming series, interviews with creators, etc.

There's plenty of hilarity in the mag in general (like Stan Lee hyping about Spider-Man the movie, about 10 years before it actually happened!), but here's something neat - a mini-preview in 1991-ish for Epic's Sam & Max comic, which talks to the saintly Steve Purcell:

Looks like the comic reprinted on the page is actually from the Lucasfilm Games newsletter, since it stars the duo inside X-Wing Fighters and the like - lots of good quotes in there, sorry the scan is a little tricky to read in places - this is both for fair use and not-hi-res-enough-scanning reasons.

And you'll notice Purcell's good taste for co-creators, even back when Mike Mignola and Arthur Adams weren't quite so well known as they are now. Looks like at least one or two issues of the Epic comic came out, according to a handy Wikipedia entry - were there any more than that?

Trading Cards 'Dogs By Zito' Miniatures #15, #24

I don't really own many vintage trading cards, but I did recently pick up a set of 'Dogs By Zito' cards from the '40s on eBay, since me and my wife are dachshund owners and aficianados. Looks like this Zito chap, who was apparently a society caricaturist of the time, drew some whimsical, extremely fetching dog-related cartoons as well. Here's the first couple:

Bizarrely enough, the only page devoted to Zito that I can find appears to have pictures of the very same two cards I scanned, albeit in black and white bound form. Well, I have a set of 44 (out of 45) of the Zito cards, and just randomly happened to pick those, so I'll do so more that haven't appeared online sometime soon - they're all pretty funny, though some are mystifying to today's reader.

Arcade Flyers: Parker Bohn III Pro Bowler

OK, just got round to scanning a bunch more stuff, finally, so you'll see quite a few more updates here in the near future. First up is a very silly, relatively recent (2003!) arcade/redemption flyer for a bowling game starring PBA Hall Of Fame-r Parker Bohn III.

The art is pretty horrid, but it's worth checking out just for Parker's excruciating 'yay!' expression on the front of the flyer, and his scarily vein-y arm. If you're throwing massive bowling balls all day, you must get seriously strong muscles, mind you. But it's kinda fun to see a world where a geeky looking moustachio-ed guy is 'the king'. Dig it!

Trading Cards: Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, #18

Oops, sory for the slight delay, but back again - I don't have the whole set of these, but I do have a few highlights from the 'Bill & Ted's Most Atypical Movie' set - in this case, Napoleon pigging down on a gigantic icecream sundae in San Dimas!

The description simply reads as follows: "While Bill and Ted continue to round up subjects for their report, Deacon entertains Napoleon. Napoleon devours the ice cream and receives the Ziggy Piggy Award." It's amazing what a great movie Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is, and this is one of my favorite moments in the film - there's something about tiny unimpressed French dictators, I guess?

Comic Books: Star Trek #5

Some more retro comic book fun, perhaps, with Marvel's Star Trek comic book Issue #5 from 1980 - with the wonderfully sensationalist cover 'Dr McCoy... Killer?', and Mr. Spock yelling: 'Shoot the girl... or the Enterprise dies!' Can spaceships die? Odd.

[The Wikipedia page for Star Trek spinoffs notes: "Marvel's series of Star Trek comics began in 1979 with an adaptation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and continued for another year... Marvel's license from Paramount prohibited them from utilizing concepts introduced in the original series, being restricted to only using the characters and concepts as they appeared in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The series lasted a total of 18 issues, ending in 1981."]

Of course, the other scan is a couple of panels from the final page of the book, which was written by Mike W. Barr and illustrated by Dave Cockrum and Klaus Janson, and including some awesome McCoy badinage to Spock: "Your pointy-eared Vulcan hide saved by primitive human emotions... it's somehow fitting!"

Game Ads: Joust 2600, Masters Of The Universe 2600/Intellivision

From a 1984-era hardboiled DC detective comic Nathaniel Dusk, I found some rather smart ads for Atari 2600 era games as advertisements within the comic - both Joust for the 2600, 5200, and associated Atari home computers, and Masters Of The Universe for the 2600 and Intellivision:

The Joust text is kinda fun ("Joust. You don't play it... you live it"), but the Masters Of The Universe text (with some really high-end screenshots from 1984, apparently from the 'Intellivision with Supergraphics') has more Rights Reserved, Trademark, and licensing *s in the text than just about any other ad I've seen, betraying the series' origins as a merchandising line first and a coherent universe second - sorry, MOTU fans. Both ads are neat, though - I'll try to dig out some similar vintage game ads as time goes on.

Trading Cards: 'Truckin' - Spaced Out'

Since I just picked up a great non-sport trading card collection which has a small selection of a whole bunch of trading card sets dating back to the early '70s, let's try a classic from the Truckin' card collection in 1975.

As the description with the card list notes: "This series features customized trucks/lorries and vans. Each card back shows descriptive text and includes an order form for subscription to Truckin' magazine."And this particular beauty of a van is called 'Spaced Out'.

As you can see from the description of the van, made by Bob Cardenas from Denver, Colorado: "Spaced Out is a good name for this shortened Chevy van... some of the modifications are custom portholes, sunroof, scoop, two-piece front bumper, fog lights, shortened drive pipe, 11-inch driveshaft." Hawtness - I'll take a dozen.

Comic Book: Batman #447 - 'When the Earth Dies! Chapter Three'

Another thing I've been doing recently is picking up boxes of comics on eBay. I was never really a comic book reader when I was a kid, and have got into it a little in recent years, partly for research on a superhero video game I worked on, but have only really picked up TPBs and focused on the Alan Moore, Warren Ellis, Vertigo-type nexus until very recently.

Thus, these random short and long boxes I've grabbed over the past few weeks have included a few surprises (or, at least, surprises to me!), and I'll be featuring snippets here - starting with Batman Issue #447 from May 1990, titled 'When the Earth Dies! Chapter Three'.

As the synopsis explains: "The NKVDemon continues his murder spree, and before long there is only one name left on his list: President Gorbachev himself, who will be attacked on Earth Day."

This was just after the Berlin Wall fell and Communism was starting to disintegrate in Russia, so it's fascinating to see a Batman story set in Russia and featuring a Soviet government superhero who agonizes over West/East unification ("Now we permit that empire to flee us and rush toward the decadent West"). Oh, and it's an awesome Brian Bolland cover. See, superheroes can be relevant after all?

Arcade Flyers: Sega's 'Ollie King' (2004)

Starting out with the arcade flyers - and it must be said that I don't really have a spectacular collection of flyers, and most of them are from 2000 onwards - but here's a nice beginning, a stylish flyer for Sega's 2004 skateboard arcade game 'Ollie King' which isn't even on The Arcade Flyer Archive yet.

From the folks at Amusement Vision who absorbed Smilebit's staff, this seems to have been developed by the Jet Set Radio creators, and is described as follows: "A street wise skateboard action racing game set in the modern day urban jungle. Players can race up to 4 other contestants to set the record time for the course. The more stylish the skateboard tricks are preformed then the faster you go. This is the first skateboard game that concentrates more on racing and speed than special tricks."

[The game uses the Xbox-based Chihiro hardware, but it sadly never got an Xbox conversion, presumably due to it being designed specifically for the skateboard controller, as earlier titles Top Skater and Air Trix also had in differing forms.]

Trading Cards: YO! MTV Raps: #84, Tone Loc

First ever post on the new hotness that is Pop Cult Scan Fun, and the first of a wonderful non-sport trading card set - YO! MTV Raps Series 1, based on the MTV hiphop show of the same name.

I'll be busting out some of the other awesome cards over time, including Biz Markie in a lab coat and obscure-ass female Def Jam rapper Nikki D, hopefully, but in the meantime, here's one of the Tone Loc cards from the first series (as always, click through for a hi-res version):

A co-worker couldn't remember who Tone Loc was, which I was very disappointed by, since 'Wild Thing' and 'Funky Cold Medina' have given him his hall pass to hiphop fame in most people's books. Also, Ace Venture: Pet Detective, yay! But hey, the point of ephemera is that you can't remember, cos of the ephemerality, right? Also, as the back of the card notes: 'Tone is short for Tony, and Loc is short for Loco'. Aha!