Published on 11/16/2006

The paste had hardly dried on the film posters before we heard that Rambo was to be made into a game by Ocean. How did they get it? And just how do you go about turning a 90 minute feature film into a game? Mike 'Hotshots' Pattenden travelled away to Manchester to find out.

Since the success of Ghostbusters, games based on films are now a major source of income to the software world. But these days it's no longer a case of basing a game upon a popular film, A View To A Kill changed all that. Now the game is launched while the film is still rolling in the cinemas.

Introduction


The paste had hardly dried on the film posters before we heard that Rambo was to be made into a game by Ocean. How did they get it? And just how do you go about turning a 90 minute feature film into a game? Mike 'Hotshots' Pattenden travelled away to Manchester to find out. Since the success of Ghostbusters, games based on films are now a major source of income to the software world. But these days it's no longer a case of basing a game upon a popular film, A View To A Kill changed all that. Now the game is launched while the film is still rolling in the cinemas. Rambo had to be an obvious choice for a computer game. Few films have stirred up the fever of enthusiasm that Sylvester Stallone's explosive return to Vietnam has created since its release here in August. Over in America it's grossed $130 million and looks set to be the biggest film yet. It has gone down well all over the world, packing out cinemas in war stricken Beirut and even El Salvador. Everyone loves a shoot 'em up, and that is really all Rambo is, an indestructible comic strip hero who goes around destroying batallions of enemy troops, tanks and helicopters. It already sounds like a number of computer games on the market, so it came as no surprise to learn that Ocean had scored the deal to make the game of the film of the game.
BIG DEAL
"We had the Rambo deal fixed up well before it got here, before all the hype about banning it and Reagan making those comments," says Ocean director John Woods. In fact the deal was fixed up back in June when the rights to make the game were handed to Ocean on a plate by the company responsible for fixing all licensing deals for Rambo in this country, Movie Media Marketing. Tim Massey was the man responsible for offering Ocean the deal. "One of the offshoots from the film we discussed with its owners was a computer game, and as it turned out we went straight to Ocean, because they have such a good reputation. Ocean came back with an offer which was very reasonable and that was it." The sum? Well of course no-one is saying but Tim Massey quoted "a substantial amount". We have to be talking telephone numbers. With the deal fixed up, all Ocean had to do then was produce the goods. The only criteria being that it's produced quickly and that it's not naff. Looking at the track record of many games based on films that's a tall order.	President Ronald Reagan In 1985 he made an off-hand comment that he had a much better idea of how to deal with America’s enemies after having seen Rambo the night before.
MEET THE TEAM
"The first we knew about it was when John Woods comes in and says `I've got a present for you, we're doing Rambo'. We just went YYEEESS!!" The enthusiasm boils over from the sandwich-filled mouth of chief programmer and software development manager David Collier. He along with Tony Pomfret and Merton Gallway makes up the Rambo team. At twenty-six he's not exactly your programming whizz-kid, but he has got a good track record behind him, which is apt because he was responsible for Hyper sports and before that Daley Thompson's Decathlon.
The Rambo team: Pomfret and Collier - you've seen more meat on a butcher's apron!	I was surprised to learn, though, that nineteen-year-old Tony Pomfret has had a computer for longer. They work as a team and they work fast. Nor are they your identikit programming types. "Look, tell them we don't come from good schools and we haven't been to university. We're both from Atherton, that's near Wigan, and we're layabouts, we're not stiffs!" says Tony. As if to prove the point we head off to the pub and shoot pool. It sounds as if they have an easy time of it, but of course they don't. It takes a lot of thought and effort to produce a game. Not in quite the way I thought, though. I had expected to find 'the team' ensconced in front of a video of the film, eating endless TV dinners, memorising every move. True to form, Pomfret and Collier [listening to them it's more like Cannon and Ball actually) don't work that way. They saw the preview and that was it.

What Do We Do Now?

"We loved it, it was bloody marvellous," laughs Tony. "We came back and wrote down all the major elements of the film and broke it down into four phases." I look around for a detailed storyboard. Naturally there isn't one. A pile of A4 printer paper is spread all over the table. On it crude childlike drawings of Rambo and trees and weapons are scrawled in biro. "We'll probably get around to doing a story-board in a bit," says Dave to allay my fears. I relax a little. "We've got it all sussed anyway," says Tony. "It's a weapons game, part arcade, part adventure. We plan to follow the film very closely." Evidently, by the arguments they have while I'm sitting there, they haven't got it all sussed. The end of the game in par-ticular causes some problems. "I've got it, I've got it!" shouts Tony, leaping from his chair. "No I haven't," he says sitting back down again. "What do you think?", says Dave, "You write the reviews!" I duly give my considered opinion, and for a change it's well received. "Yeah, great, we'll do that." I'm not telling you what I said either.
THE PLOT
Without giving away the plot [Michael] this is a rough outline of what happens in the game. It is, of course, subject to change without notice and no doubt will be. It will begin with a teletext-type message on the screen that simply says "It's up to you", just like the commander tells Stallone in the film. You naturally accept the mission - you wouldn't have bought it otherwise - which is to rescue imprisoned POWs from a Vietnamese camp in the jungle. At various points you must pick up weapons littered around the place and use them in the correct order. For example, it's no use trying to break into the camp with a bazooka. "All the way through you'll have to ask yourself what would Rambo do now?" says Dave. I ask him if it might be predictable if you've seen the film. "Well now you say so I suppose it might have been, but it won't be because you'll always have a number of options and there will be other ways of succeeding. Nor will it be easy."	Rambo (Sylvester Stallone)
Rambo (Sylvester Stallone)	After you've rescued a prisoner you move on to Stage Two. This is you, Rambo, being chased on foot by the helicopter. You must not only survive its attempts to kill you but capture it too. Once you've secured the helicopter it's back to the prison camp for the next phase: blast hell out of Charlie and rescue the rest of the prisoners. Then it's on to the final stage with the classic helicopter chase you see in the film. How do you survive a gunship that's faster and more heavily armed than you? It's up to you to find out, Rambo. It all sounds very impressive - with all the puzzle and zapping it should be a dream game to play. If anyone can do it then Collier and Pomfret can, their blase attitude inspires a kind of blind confidence. The set-up in the room they call 'the Tip' provides rather more concrete evidence.

A Few Technicalities

"No-one has the kind of development system we're working with here, because we've built it ourselves." Basically they have two 64s linked up via three communication lines. This allows the machines to talk to one another in a "complicated handshaking technique". This in turn allows them to utilise 128K of memory, though not of course at the same time. (Why not buy a C128? - Ed.] So what you'll get will be the same kind of technique used on Sabre Wulf where entire blocks are repeated all over the place to generate the effect of a changing landscape. What of Rambo, will he be a little blob drifting around the screen? "No way", says Dave vehemently. "He'll probably be two, maybe even three sprites big. We'll give him the head-band and the muscles. You'll know it's him" - maybe one sprite per muscle.

The scale is big as well. Fifteen screens tall, maybe thirty [they haven't decided yet) by three wide. The view you will get is a sort of elevated camera angle, situated 180° behind Rambo. You will be able to see him in profile, though, because he can turn. As you move him up-screen the land-scape scrolls past. They had finished the scrolling before I left and it was smooth and surprisingly quick. There will be musical accompaniment - not just when the game loads, but all the way through, and not one of the horrible la-la tunes you get with many games. This is where Merton Gallway comes in. He was the man responsible for that superb loading music on Hyper sports. He'll be looking to get that pompous Rambo music on-to your 64, plus a variety of sound effects, like jungle noises and drums. Typically, the expensive looking synth in the corner of the room is discarded for a piece of home-made junk that looks like it came out of a rubbish skip.
SPEED FREAKS
So there you have it, now all they've got to do is put that all together before the November deadline. Sounds impossible. "We did have a minor setback just before you came actually," smiles Tony. "We lost everything we'd done so far when the power failed. It was really funny, one minute there was that little buzz of activity you get when everyone's busy. Next minute, complete silence - then the air was filled with obscenities!". So you're behind then? Tony again: "Not really, we work very fast, I can't understand these programmers who spend a year on their games - it'd bore us senseless. Roland Rat took three weeks. We'll beat the deadline." I wouldn't give you odds on them missing it either. That, then, is how the Rambo game got underway, but the story has only just begun and Commodore User will be keeping in touch with the 'team in the Tip' to keep you up-to-date on the game's development.	Rambo - First Blood Part II
Article reproduced from Commodore User magazine October 1985 edition. Although all text appears unchanged, some photographs or images have been added or modified for aesthetic purposes. Thank you to the following websites which were used for sourcing some images that appear in this article: Reagan Library, Wikipedia.