Primal Rage: Битва Богов Эпохи Динозавров

1994 arcade video game

Primal Rage is a traditional two dimensional fighting game in which two players select characters to battle each other in one on one combat, or a single player is faced with a campaign of fights against CPU opponents of increasing difficulty. The final battle of the single player game (accessible only at difficulty level 10 or higher) consists of fighting all the other monsters, this time with an increased power bar, made available in a minigame prior to the fight. A total of seven characters are playable: Blizzard, the ape like god of good; Armadon, the ceratopian/thyreophoran like god of life; Talon, the raptor like god of survival; Sauron, the tyrannosaur like god of hunger; Chaos, the ape like god of decay; Vertigo, the cobra like goddess of insanity and Diablo, the tyrannosaur like god of evil. Each character has their own specialized set of three attack moves and abilities. The object is to deplete the opposing character's health meter before the player's own runs out. There are also seven different background stages where fighting takes place, each one representing one of the character's innate domains: the Cliff (Blizzard), the Hollows (Armadon), the Strip (Talon), the Cove (Sauron), the Ruins (Chaos), the Tomb (Vertigo) and the Inferno (Diablo). During fights, human tribesmen wander nearby and worship the creatures as gods. This allows for the creatures to toss them around or devour some to regain health (eating opponents' worshipers adds a bonus to one's score, while eating one's own will penalize the player). Prior to the final battle, a minigame commences in which the player is given the chance to eat as many worshippers as possible to increase health for the endurance round. Two human controlled characters can trigger easter egg minigames of human volleyball and bowling. Unlike most fighting games, where the special moves are performed by moving the joystick followed by pressing one or more buttons, Primal Rage features a system where the player holds down certain buttons, then performs the joystick movements. Later revisions of the arcade game added the ability to perform special moves in the more traditional way, with motion followed by button presses, but kept the original method as well. After the opponent is defeated, a brief moment is allowed for the player to perform a finishing move to end the match in a more dramatic fashion; these are performed in a similar manner to the special moves. Although all characters feature three finishing moves, some of them tend to the humorous side, such as Vertigo's "La Vache Qui Rit" (French for "the laughing cow"), a fatality in which Vertigo transforms her opponent into a cow, which moos and runs away.

A massive meteor strike has devastated Earth. Human civilization comes to an end in the ensuing cataclysms and humanity regresses into tribes of Stone Age dwellers. A primordial rainforest covers the land and the continental landmass has shifted into the shape of a fire breathing dinosaur skull. The planet is now primitively referred to as "Urth" by the survivors of the cataclysms. Seven fearsome creatures with supernatural abilities emerge from their slumber deep within the Urth's crust, and become worshiped as gods by the humans, who form segregated clans beneath the ones they follow. The beasts themselves are divided between those who wish to keep peace on Urth, and those who attempt to plunge the world into further chaos for their own benefit.

Animator Jason Leong recounted: "Every year [Time Warner Interactive] throws a brain storming session where everybody brings up new game ideas. A few years ago I brought up the concept of a head to head dinosaur fighting game, which coincidentally someone else also brought up, but their idea was just two T. Rexes fighting. My original write up included ideas that finally appeared in the game, such as different species of quickly moving dinosaurs and the concept of the dinosaurs being gods." Development began with a series of production sketches of the fighters drawn by Leong. Using these drawings as a basis, model maker Dan Platt crafted model figures of the fighters, from which flexible metal armatures were then cast.

Primal Rage was released for arcades by Time Warner Interactive during August 1994. The game was released in two variants: a standard 25″ cabinet and a deluxe 33″ cabinet. Commercial ports of the title include: 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, 32X, Amiga, Atari Jaguar CD, Game Boy, Game Gear, MS DOS, PlayStation, Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn and Super Nintendo Entertainment System. To promote the home versions, Time Warner Interactive hosted a "National Primal Rage Video Game Tournament" at Six Flags Over Texas in October 1995. A Mac OS port was also planned to be published on November 14, 1995 However, development on the conversion was cancelled in April of the same year. Primal Rage was ported to the Game Boy by Probe Software and released in North America and Europe on August 25, 1995. This port excludes Vertigo from the roster and features a reduced moveset for every character and downgraded visuals. The SNES port, developed by Bitmasters and released in both North America and Europe on August 25, 1995, has more detailed visuals compared to the Genesis release; however, Chaos's golden shower fatality was censored. The MS DOS port, developed by Teeny Weeny Games, features a special setup for keyboard setups and runs at a low resolution. It features long loading times and fewer frames of animation for each character than the arcade version. The Amiga port was released only in Europe in December 1995, with visuals similar to the Genesis release. Although marketed as an Amiga 1200 release, this port is compatible with any Amiga computer with a least 2MB of RAM. The Saturn port was released in North America in June 1996, in Europe in August 1996, featuring more colors, larger sprites, and pre rendered full motion video sequences for each character in single player mode. To allow the Saturn version to run at a solid frame rate, it was made to run at 30 Hz instead of the usual 60 Hz. A version based on arcade version 2.3 was included as part of Midway Arcade Treasures 2 for GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2004,

Primal Rage was a major commercial success, although Atari Games derived more profit from its merchandising than from the game itself. RePlay reported the game to be the third most popular deluxe arcade game at the time. Play Meter also listed the title to be the fourth most popular arcade game at the time. Next Generation reviewed the original arcade version, stating that "All in all, an excellent show of graphics and sound design tarnished by unbalanced gameplay." AllGames Brad Cook praised the arcade version's visuals, sound, gameplay, and replay value, stating that "This is a fun game and a good value at 25 cents per play with 25 cents to continue." It was nominated for the Video Software Dealers Association's "Video Game of the Year" for 1995, losing to Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. GamePro gave the Game Boy and Game Gear versions rave reviews, particularly applauding the graphics and the large selection of easy to execute special moves. They added that "There haven't been Game Gear graphics like these since MK II [Mortal Kombat II]s debut" and expressed astonishment at the absence of slowdown in the Game Boy version. Likewise, VideoGamess Gabe Soria commended both the Game Boy and Game Gear versions. VideoGamess Dan Vebber argued that the Genesis version failed to replicate the arcade original. Mega Funs Sandrie Souleiman praised the graphics and sound of the 3DO version but said that the PlayStation version was better. Likewise, MAN!ACs Oliver Ehrle commended the visuals and sound of the 3DO version but said that the PlayStation version was slightly better. Hobby Consolas praised the sprite's quality and gameplay speed compared to the previous 16 bit versions. GamePro assessed the Jaguar CD version as "one of the Jag CD's strongest" games. They criticized the smaller sprites but said the game otherwise did an exemplary job of recreating the graphics and sound of the arcade version, and that the control with the Jaguar ProController is excellent. In contrast, AllGames Colin Williamson commended the controls but criticized the downgraded visuals compared to the arcade original and loading times, stating that "It's sad that the Jaguar CD suffered such a horrible fate—but with games like this one, it's no big surprise. This is one dino sized disappointment." GameFan praised the PlayStation version for being a near arcade perfect port, and for the addition of a six button control setup. VideoGames stated that the PlayStation version was not worth the asking price due to persisting gameplay issues from the arcade original. VideoGames noted the Saturn's visuals to be better than the PlayStation version. Mega Funs Sandrie Souleiman praised the visuals but criticized the sound design of the Saturn version. In response, Primal Rage publisher Time Warner Interactive pointed out that Rovella never complained to Time Warner, instead taking the issue directly to the media, and that the game was clearly rated "T" for Teen and so should not have been purchased by her 11 year old son in the first place. After this reevaluation, Best Buy put every version of Primal Rage back on the shelves except for the Genesis version, which they said they would only sell if it were rated "M", even though most home versions of the game contain all the same fatalities and gore.

After an unveiling at the 1996 American International Toy Fair, five inch action figures of the seven Primal Rage characters (each bundled with accessories like lava rocks, armor, and tiny humans) were released in stores. Sirius Entertainment published a 4 issue comic book mini series based on the game from 1996 to 1998. Issue #1 features color interior art, and the low run published issues #2–4 feature black and white interior art.

By 1995, Atari had begun production of Primal Rage II. Ken Humphries, senior producer of the home versions of the original Primal Rage, said in an early 1996 interview that "Primal Rage 2 should come out in the arcades in September 1996. As soon as they finish that, we'll start working on the consumer versions." The controls were expanded from a four button to a six button configuration. The game was to feature all seven gods from the original plus ten newcomers: a new dinosaur, a boss, and eight humans called the Avatars, With only two boards of the game considered to be in existence, a dump from the game's board had been circulating online for years, but no emulator had been able to run it, until in March 2017 it was revealed that an individual had created a modified version of MAME, named "MAME4RAGE2", making it able to emulate the game.

When Primal Rage II was canceled, Atari allegedly deemed it necessary to somehow present the story for the sequel. Thus, in 1997, a novel called Primal Rage: The Avatars, written by John Vornholt, was published by Boulevard Books. The book tells what happened to the dinosaur gods 65 million years ago, and then moves into the main story of the gods' reign on Urth renewed, then the beast Necrosan appears. The book also focuses on fleshing out the world of Primal Rage, and does so by bringing "the Avatars" to the forefront of the story, they being the humans chosen by their respective gods to be their shamans or other titles of nobility. Details to the backstory of Primal Rage are made clear in The Avatars. The events in Primal Rage take place in the year 1000 AC (After Cataclysm) or about the year 3000 AD by the Gregorian calendar. The battles of the dinosaur and ape gods are referred to as "The Primal Rage". The spell used to imprison the ape and dinosaur gods is called the Bonds of Forbidding. Necrosan the skeletal dragon (who is referred to as Necronus on the introductory page) reactivates the Bonds of Forbidding to entrap the gods.