''Ranarama'' (also ''Rana Rama'') is a top-down '' Gauntlet''-like action game developed by

Graftgold Graftgold was an independent computer game developer that came to prominence in the 1980s, producing numerous computer games on a variety of 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit platforms. History The Hewson Era The studio Graftgold was formed in 1983, whe ...

and published by Hewson Consultants in 1987. It was released for the

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Si ...

, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...

home computers. The title appears to be a pun on ''

rana Rana may refer to: Astronomy * Rana (crater), a crater on Mars * Delta Eridani or Rana, a star People, groups and titles * Rana (name), a given name and surname (including a list of people and characters with the name) * Rana (title), a histori ...

'', a genus of frogs. The game concept is similar to a previous game by Steve Turner for the

called '' Quazatron'', which was itself inspired by ''

Paradroid ''Paradroid'' is a Commodore 64 computer game written by Andrew Braybrook and published by Hewson Consultants in 1985. It is a shoot 'em up with puzzle elements and was critically praised at release. The objective is to clear a fleet of spaceships ...

'', created by Turner's

colleague

Andrew Braybrook Andrew Braybrook (born 1960) is a software engineer and former game programmer. He created video games such as '' Paradroid'', '' Gribbly's Day Out'', '' Fire and Ice'', ''Uridium'' and '' Morpheus''. He also programmed the Commodore Amiga and ...

. In 2004 it was featured as one of the games on the

C64 Direct-to-TV The C64 Direct-to-TV, called C64DTV for short, is a single-chip implementation of the Commodore 64 computer, contained in a joystick (modeled after the mid-1980s Competition Pro joystick), with 30 built-in games. The design is similar to the A ...

Plot

The main character is Mervyn, a sorcerer's apprentice whose botched spell turns him into a

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" ''Triadobatrachus'' is ...

just in time to save him from an invasion of evil magic-users who slay his mentors. Mervyn's arcane capabilities are intact, and the game's aim is to hunt down the attackers.

Gameplay

Mervyn has four types of magic and eight increasingly potent and power-consuming spells for each: ''Offensive'' spells serve as projectile weaponry, ''defensive'' spells reduce damage etc., ''effect'' spells activate special abilities or act as area-effect attacks, ''power'' spells fuel the other kinds. The first three are usable indefinitely, but power spells degrade with damage and with a constant drain caused by the other spells that can vary from minimal to vast depending on supply and demand. They drop to level one on expiration; expiring on that level is lethal and ends the game. Commonly found energy

crystal A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macro ...

s replenish some power. The game is set in a

dungeon A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably belongs more to the Renaissance period. An oubliette (from ...

split into eight levels that are freely traversable (but not necessarily immediately survivable), each of which is split into a labyrinthine network of rooms and houses some benevolent glyphs, 12 hostile wizards, hordes of monsters and monster generators. Rooms are not visible before they are entered, and their inhabitants only from within. Monsters cause damage by contact, attack ''en masse'' and fall easily, while wizards are much tougher and use attack spells. The latter ''can'' be defeated by attacks, but contact with them triggers a sub-game of unscrambling the mixed up word "RANARAMA" within a strict time limit. Failure expires the current power spell, but victory destroys the wizard and scatters four

runes Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...

that can be used at Glyphs of Sorcery to change spells. On average there need to be 7.5 switchings of the letters. The starting positions which require the maximum of 16 switchings of the letters are "MAAAARRN" and "MAAAANRR".

Reception

Crash Crash or CRASH may refer to: Common meanings * Collision, an impact between two or more objects * Crash (computing), a condition where a program ceases to respond * Cardiac arrest, a medical condition in which the heart stops beating * Couch su ...

'' gave the Spectrum version an overall score of 90%, calling it an "innovative" ''Gauntlet'' clone. ''

Computer + Video Games ''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot website w ...

'' gave the Commodore 64 version an overall score of 8.5 out of ten, stating that the game requires "a high degree of strategy".

References

External links

*
''Ranarama''
at Atari Mania * {{WoS game, id=0004022, name=Ranarama 1987 video games Action video games Amstrad CPC games Atari ST games Commodore 64 games Fictional frogs Graftgold games Single-player video games Top-down video games Video games about amphibians Video games about shapeshifting Video games about witchcraft Video games developed in the United Kingdom ZX Spectrum games Hewson Consultants games