Crush, Crumble and Chomp!
Encyclopedia
Crush, Crumble and Chomp! is a 1981 computer game from Epyx
. In this game, the player takes control of a movie monster
and attacks a famous city
, such as New York
or San Francisco
. It resembles SPI's 1979 boardgame, The Creature That Ate Sheboygan
.
and used character graphics
for the map and player, using basic graphics on platforms that supported it. On the Atari 8-bit family
, for instance, the map was created out of a custom character set and presented in a low-resolution mode that allowed up to four colors. The same engine was used in most of Epyx's games from the early 1980s, which allowed them to be ported to a variety of home computer
platforms with ease.
The game allows the player to recreate a movie monster and attack a city, much in the manner of the classic horror movies of the 1950s. Specifically, the player can create:
The game also allows the player to "grow" their own monster, with several basic shapes to choose from and a number of "crunch credits" to spend on custom abilities. The number of credits available, and the cost of some abilities, depends on the shape chosen. The player can add a number of abilities until their credits are exhausted.
Crush, Crumble and Chomp! features four cities to attack: San Francisco
, New York
, Washington DC and Tokyo
. Combined with five possible objectives and the six (or numerous ones, counting the custom) monsters, this game has robust replayability. After attacking a city—the main activity of the game—players are rated on how well they did. Players are rated even if their monsters die in the attack and can achieve a high score for what they accomplished before expiring.
s of the era. It was originally released for the TRS-80
, Apple II and Atari 8-bit series
, but was soon ported
to the VIC-20, Commodore 64
and DOS
. The first two versions were marketed under the name "Automated Simulations", the name of the company that would eventually become Epyx. The two later versions, released in 1983, were released under the Epyx name.
#65 by Bruce Humphrey. Humphrey concluded that "The game system isn’t perfect, from the player/monster point of view," but "The game is satisfying, however, from a fun-to-play standpoint, and that counts more."
era that allowed the player to control a classic movie monster. The only other notable home computer game of the era that featured player-controlled monsters was Electronic Arts
' Mail Order Monsters
. However the game featured a different premise—monsters battling one another—instead of monsters attacking an unsuspecting metropolis
like the classic monster movies of the '50s.
Besides being the single game that allowed the player to take control of a classic movie monster, this game may have served as inspiration for the arcade game
Rampage
. Bally Midway's Rampage lets the player take on the role of one of three classic movie monsters, a giant Godzilla-like lizard, a giant werewolf
or a King Kong
-like ape
. In Rampage, the player(s) also attack unsuspecting cities. Like Crush, Crumble and Chomp!, Rampage also uses real cities as its settings.
Other games which have used the same concept were King of the Monsters
which was released in 1991 for the Neo-Geo, and War of the Monsters
for the PlayStation 2
, released in 2003. However, in these games a monster would battle other monsters in cities. It combined several elements of the classic horror movies in one big fight.
Epyx
Epyx, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. The company was founded as Automated Simulations by Jim Connelley and Jon Freeman, originally using Epyx as a brand name for action-oriented games before renaming the company to match in 1983...
. In this game, the player takes control of a movie monster
Monster
A monster is any fictional creature, usually found in legends or horror fiction, that is somewhat hideous and may produce physical harm or mental fear by either its appearance or its actions...
and attacks a famous city
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
, such as New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
or San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
. It resembles SPI's 1979 boardgame, The Creature That Ate Sheboygan
The Creature That Ate Sheboygan
The Creature That Ate Sheboygan is a science fiction board game released in 1979 by Simulations Publications . The game was originally designed by Greg Costikyan. It won the Charles S...
.
Description
Crush, Crumble and Chomp! was a turn-based action game played on a scrolling 2D grid-based map. The game engine was written in BASICBASIC
BASIC is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use - the name is an acronym from Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code....
and used character graphics
ASCII art
ASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable characters defined by the ASCII Standard from 1963 and ASCII compliant character sets with proprietary extended characters...
for the map and player, using basic graphics on platforms that supported it. On the Atari 8-bit family
Atari 8-bit family
The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers manufactured from 1979 to 1992. All are based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU and were the first home computers designed with custom coprocessor chips...
, for instance, the map was created out of a custom character set and presented in a low-resolution mode that allowed up to four colors. The same engine was used in most of Epyx's games from the early 1980s, which allowed them to be ported to a variety of home computer
Home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
platforms with ease.
The game allows the player to recreate a movie monster and attack a city, much in the manner of the classic horror movies of the 1950s. Specifically, the player can create:
- Goshilla, a giant amphibianAmphibianAmphibians , are a class of vertebrate animals including animals such as toads, frogs, caecilians, and salamanders. They are characterized as non-amniote ectothermic tetrapods...
like GodzillaGodzillais a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...
, with a breath and leaving a corrosive trail of radioactive waste. - The KrakenKrakenKraken are legendary sea monsters of giant proportions said to have dwelt off the coasts of Norway and Iceland.In modern German, Krake means octopus but can also refer to the legendary Kraken...
, a giant octopusOctopusThe octopus is a cephalopod mollusc of the order Octopoda. Octopuses have two eyes and four pairs of arms, and like other cephalopods they are bilaterally symmetric. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms...
or squidSquidSquid are cephalopods of the order Teuthida, which comprises around 300 species. Like all other cephalopods, squid have a distinct head, bilateral symmetry, a mantle, and arms. Squid, like cuttlefish, have eight arms arranged in pairs and two, usually longer, tentacles...
-like monster, that can attack bridgeBridgeA bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...
s and seaside portPortA port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....
s and then slip into the water to hide from attack. However, the Kraken could not go on land. - Arachnis, a giant spiderSpiderSpiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
, can clog roads with its webSpider webA spider web, spiderweb, spider's web or cobweb is a device built by a spider out of proteinaceous spider silk extruded from its spinnerets....
and can escape underground via its network of secret tunnels. Arachnis could tunnel underwater, but if emerging in water it was trapped, and could not move, and needed to tunnel back to dry land. - The Glob, akin to the monster in The BlobThe BlobThe Blob is an independently made 1958 American horror/science-fiction film that depicts a giant amoeba-like alien that terrorizes the small community of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania...
, can travel underground in the city's sewerSanitary sewerA sanitary sewer is a separate underground carriage system specifically for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings to treatment or disposal. Sanitary sewers serving industrial areas also carry industrial wastewater...
and absorb obstacles in its path, including skyscraperSkyscraperA skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
s. It also leaves a flammable trail of slime in its wake. The Glob shared Arachnis' tunneling ability, but also its limitation. - Mechismo, a towering robotRobotA robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
ic menace, sports an exotic array of alienExtraterrestrial life in popular cultureIn popular cultures, "extraterrestrials" are life forms — especially intelligent life forms— that are of extraterrestrial origin .-Historical ideas:-Pre-modern:...
weaponry, such as ray guns. It had the advantage over the other monsters in that it did not need to capture and eat people to survive. This was countered by the fact that, as a non-lifeform, it could not heal; the game's customization could allow the player to build a self-repairing robot, but this required a prohibitive amount of "crunch credits." - Mantra, a giant flying monster, like the infamous MothraMothrais a kaiju, a type of fictional monster who first appeared in the serialized novel The Luminous Fairies and Mothra by Takehiko Fukunaga, Shinichiro Nakamura, and Yoshie Hotta...
. Mantra could fly over water, but, if landing in it, was stuck as if Arachnis or The Globe emerging from its tunneling.
The game also allows the player to "grow" their own monster, with several basic shapes to choose from and a number of "crunch credits" to spend on custom abilities. The number of credits available, and the cost of some abilities, depends on the shape chosen. The player can add a number of abilities until their credits are exhausted.
Crush, Crumble and Chomp! features four cities to attack: San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Washington DC and Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
. Combined with five possible objectives and the six (or numerous ones, counting the custom) monsters, this game has robust replayability. After attacking a city—the main activity of the game—players are rated on how well they did. Players are rated even if their monsters die in the attack and can achieve a high score for what they accomplished before expiring.
Ports
Like many of Epyx's games of this period, it was released for several of the popular home computerHome computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
s of the era. It was originally released for the TRS-80
TRS-80
TRS-80 was Tandy Corporation's desktop microcomputer model line, sold through Tandy's Radio Shack stores in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The first units, ordered unseen, were delivered in November 1977, and rolled out to the stores the third week of December. The line won popularity with...
, Apple II and Atari 8-bit series
Atari 8-bit family
The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers manufactured from 1979 to 1992. All are based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU and were the first home computers designed with custom coprocessor chips...
, but was soon ported
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
to the VIC-20, Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
and DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
. The first two versions were marketed under the name "Automated Simulations", the name of the company that would eventually become Epyx. The two later versions, released in 1983, were released under the Epyx name.
Reception
The game was reviewed in 1982 in The DragonDragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
#65 by Bruce Humphrey. Humphrey concluded that "The game system isn’t perfect, from the player/monster point of view," but "The game is satisfying, however, from a fun-to-play standpoint, and that counts more."
Legacy
This is one of the few games of the home computerHome computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
era that allowed the player to control a classic movie monster. The only other notable home computer game of the era that featured player-controlled monsters was Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
' Mail Order Monsters
Mail Order Monsters
Mail Order Monsters is a 1985 computer game created by Paul Reiche III, Evan Robinson and Nicky Robinson and published by Electronic Arts for the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit family home computers....
. However the game featured a different premise—monsters battling one another—instead of monsters attacking an unsuspecting metropolis
Metropolis
A metropolis is a very large city or urban area which is a significant economic, political and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections and communications...
like the classic monster movies of the '50s.
Besides being the single game that allowed the player to take control of a classic movie monster, this game may have served as inspiration for the arcade game
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
Rampage
Rampage (arcade game)
Rampage is a 1986 arcade game by Bally Midway. Players take control of gigantic monsters trying to survive against onslaughts of military forces...
. Bally Midway's Rampage lets the player take on the role of one of three classic movie monsters, a giant Godzilla-like lizard, a giant werewolf
Werewolf
A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope , is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an anthropomorphic wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse...
or a King Kong
King Kong
King Kong is a fictional character, a giant movie monster resembling a gorilla, that has appeared in several movies since 1933. These include the groundbreaking 1933 movie, the film remakes of 1976 and 2005, as well as various sequels of the first two films...
-like ape
Ape
Apes are Old World anthropoid mammals, more specifically a clade of tailless catarrhine primates, belonging to the biological superfamily Hominoidea. The apes are native to Africa and South-east Asia, although in relatively recent times humans have spread all over the world...
. In Rampage, the player(s) also attack unsuspecting cities. Like Crush, Crumble and Chomp!, Rampage also uses real cities as its settings.
Other games which have used the same concept were King of the Monsters
King of the Monsters
King of the Monsters is a series of video games created by SNK Corporation for the Neo-Geo, featuring giant monsters reminiscent of kaiju and tokusatsu.-King of the Monsters:...
which was released in 1991 for the Neo-Geo, and War of the Monsters
War of the Monsters
War of the Monsters is a 3D fighting game for the PlayStation 2 developed by Incognito Entertainment and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The game was released on January 14, 2003 in North America and April 17, 2003 in Europe...
for the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
, released in 2003. However, in these games a monster would battle other monsters in cities. It combined several elements of the classic horror movies in one big fight.
External links
- Crush, Crumble and Chomp! at GameFAQsGameFAQsGameFAQs is a website that hosts FAQs and walkthroughs for video games. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff "CJayC" Veasey and was bought by CNET Networks in May 2003. It is currently owned by CBS Interactive. The site has a database of video game information, cheat codes, reviews, game saves,...