Rampage

Rampage for Atari Lynx is Atari’s 1990 handheld adaptation of the monster-destruction arcade game first created by Bally Midway. Developed by Epyx under license from Bally and published by Atari Corporation, it turns the familiar city-smashing premise into a self-contained Lynx adventure for one to four players. Instead of sending a hero to save the day, the game puts players in control of towering mutants whose route through a succession of urban areas leaves buildings, military hardware and city streets in ruins.

The Lynx version begins with an altered origin story. A mishap involving experimental chemicals and creamed spinach at a laboratory transforms four employees into monsters: George, the gorilla; Lizzie, a giant lizard; Ralph, a werewolf; and Larry, a huge rat. Larry is the extra character unique to this version, expanding the usual trio to suit the Lynx’s multiplayer capability. The four escape into the city, where an elusive Lab Technician is said to possess an antidote—but there is only enough for one monster.

Each stage asks the player to demolish the city while surviving its defenders. The directional pad moves a monster around the streets; A punches in the chosen direction, B jumps, and pressing up beside a building starts a climb. A tall structure has to be battered section by section, often from its exterior, until it collapses. Tanks, soldiers and helicopters retaliate with shells, gunfire and bombs, while a crumbling building can injure any monster still on it. Every monster starts with three lives, and losing health reduces the creature back to human form before the next life begins.

Destruction is only part of the game’s rhythm. Breaking through walls and windows reveals objects and people, and eating the right food restores health while other finds can cause harm. Certain characters are worth substantial points, and flasks introduce another risk-and-reward element: each monster has a particular potion that grants invulnerability for the rest of the level, but the wrong one is damaging. Brief Daily News screens introduce the next destination and offer hints, tying the stages to the Lynx edition’s search for the Lab Technician rather than simply presenting a repeating arcade gauntlet.

Rampage on Atari Lynx supports solo play as well as four-player games through linked Lynx systems and ComLynx cables. In multiplayer, participants can cooperate to raze the city and fend off the army, or attack one another while chasing points and the single antidote. A powered-up monster also becomes invisible to the other players, adding a tactical twist to the shared destruction. Players can continue after losing their lives up to level 40, though doing so resets the score; extra lives are awarded at 100,000 and 300,000 points.

This version is a notable branch of the Rampage series because it adapts the 1986 arcade concept around the Lynx hardware and its linking feature instead of merely reproducing the original three-character setup. Its additional character, revised laboratory premise and one-to-four-player design distinguish it from other contemporary home conversions. For players exploring Atari Lynx games, Rampage combines an immediately understandable arcade-style objective—climb, punch, eat and survive—with a platform-specific competitive or cooperative finale built around the hunt for a cure.