Rough Ranger?!

[Deleted]

More like Rough Thunder or Rolling Ranger... I beheld an oddity in the game room of a flea market today. This game, Rough Ranger... created by some company named Suna and distributed by Capcom... it is an ABSOLUTE RIPOFF of Rolling Thunder! The only differences are that is has more of a military theme instead of spies, and it apparently support two players. But... aside from that, the characters look almost exactly as everyone from RT.

Kurt, if ya get the time, get a rom of this... and maybe consider adding it to the Rolling Thunder article. Anyway, it's certainly not as good as RT. I don't know if it was the rather old machine I was on, but the control was a bit loose and unresponsive. Still, it's worth mentioning, because I thought the game was a hack or a bootleg or something. And... it might be.

[HMD]

FUCK YES ROUGH RANGER

[Deleted]

A big LOL there. That was the oddest goddamn opening ever. I mean, the bad guys were jumping around for about fifteen seconds while the girl was there in PLAIN FUCKING SIGHT and the good guys DID NOT DO SHIT while they were hovering around! That is instantly a classic WTF moment in game history.

BTW, who the hell is that girl anyway? Friend of the two heroes? Bigamist wife to both? President's daughter? Princess of Militant Land? Miss America? Some random very *friendly* person that the guys save just for the hell of it?

Feh... such questions need not be answered. The words "LET'S GO TO RESCUE HER" work just as well as "ARE YOU BAD ENOUGH TO SAVE RONNIE" in my mind. That's early 80's arcade gaming for ya. No plot, all action. I would, however, like to know one thing: Why the hell didn't Namco take any legal action for this?

[YourAverageJoe]

The same reason Capcom didn't take action against that NeoGeo fighter that was more Street Fighter-esque than World Heroes?

[Deleted]

youraveragejoe said:

The same reason Capcom didn't take action against that NeoGeo fighter that was more Street Fighter-esque than World Heroes?

That warrants a LOL right there. ;D

Also, I plumb forgot about Code Name: Viper. This wasn't the only time that RT was blatantly ripped off. Anyway, playing through RR... really, REALLY made me wanted to play RT. Certainly not one of the better games I've played. The music's fairly annoying and out of place, and the controls are kinda loose and a bit less responsive than RT. But... I do give it some credit for allowing two players and being more lenient than RT in terms of continuing. A: You pick up right where you died, and 2. They're unlimited.

Still, it's nowhere near as awesome as RT, but a VERY interesting tidbit of information caught my eye in the MAME History file. I'd so love for someone to help affirm this, but it is told that RR was marketed as... *giggle* Get ready for this one: THE FIRST OPENLY GAY VIDEO GAME!!! Okay, so... I can see how the fact that your heroes are shirtless men with berets and you're fighting bad guys in hot pink outfits with yellow go-go boots can be construed as homosexual. But I only have two words (three if you don't count the hyphen): Kung-Fu Master. Is that a gay game on the premise that a conga line of three or more grapplers constitutes group sex? I'd like for someone to confirm RR's gayness, just for the sake of clarity.

[YourAverageJoe]

But why "LET'S GO RESCUE HER!"[/color]

[Deleted]

youraveragejoe said:

But why "LET'S GO RESCUE HER!"

[/color][/quote]

That's one reason why I'm so damn baffled. Maybe she's the President's daughter or something like that? This game is an enigma wrapped in a mystery wrapped in fish wrap wrapped in a fish.

[YourAverageJoe]

Oh, um, that's just another excuse to mess with BBS HTML:

"LET'S GO RECUE HIM HER"[/b]

[[UNPERSON]]

Rough Ranger is easily one of the most (unintentionally?) messed up games I've ever played. We already know how priceless the opening is, but the rest of the game is not without its hilariously bad merit. Despite its military theme and half-assed attempt at Rolling Thunder gameplay, the music is what you'd hear in a ballet and not an Air Force base or a terrorist's underground lair. I'm pretty sure the primary enemies were supposed to be terrorists, but they look more like futuristic cops (I guess they have to be, seeing how the door dissolves briefly whenever they come out from behind it). They also enlisted firebirds and gremlins for some reason. I love how at the end of each stage, an enemy holding the girl walks in, is like "Oops, didn't see you there, gotta go!" and walks the other way while the "hero" just stands there.

I also love how despite the second stage being mere walking distance, they took a jet (with a backwards F16 emblem I add) to get there. I guess it either got shot down or ran out of fuel, because if they just wanted to fly there, these two mystery berets have to be the two dumbest video game characters ever until Beavis & Butt-Head got games of their own.

As for Code Name: Viper, the game is okay, but what really makes this one stand out for me is that the hero looks like he's not wearing pants:

I know that he's actually wearing khakis, but why did they have to make them the exact same color as his skin other than a limited palette?

[ReyVGM]

Trivia:
"This was the first openly gay video game to be marketed in the US."

www.arcade-history.com/index.php?page=detail&id=2265

[necromaniac]

reyvgm said:

Trivia:
"This was the first openly gay video game to be marketed in the US."

www.arcade-history.com/index.php?page=detail&id=2265

Errm, sources and/or verification of that claim?

[ReyVGM]

I gave you the source.

Now if you want certified proof then you're gonna have to play all the games yourself to see if it was really the first openly gay arcade videogame.

But taking into account the 1988 date and all the games I've played released before that date, I'm willing to bet the quote is very accurate.

[necromaniac]

Sorry for not being clear, what I meant was the source of the claim featured on that site.
Did the developers state it? Was it featured in the Advertising?
I've played the game and while it's silly looking, does that equal
"Openly Gay"?