This document answers some of the commoner questions about PR for the PC
CD-ROM. It is far from comprehensive, though; see the PR General FAQ for
in-depth information on my favorite fighting game. Corrections and
additions to this FAQ are welcomed.
Contents:
1. What is Primal Rage?
2. What do I need to play PR CD-ROM?
3. How is PR CD-ROM different from the arcade version?
4. How do I do keyboard moves?
5. I can't get Blizzard's Freeze Breath!
6. How do I pause PR?
7. Why are obscene words in the source code?
8. Where is the PR Demo?
9. Can I play PR without the CD?
10. Can you e-mail PR to me?
11. What bugs are in PR?
12. Where do I get more PR info?
13. Credits and Thanks
1. ///What is Primal Rage?///
Primal Rage is an arcade fighting game in the same genre as Street Fighter
II, Mortal Kombat, etc. You play the one of seven mythological
dinosaurs/apes and do one-on-one combat in your quest to rule the New
Urth. Use a fully orthogonal interrupt-driven combo system to pummel your
opponents, in addition to half a dozen special moves and three fatalities
per character. If you're getting low on energy, just snack on a human.
Tastes like chicken! ;-)
2. ///What do I need to play PR for the CD-ROM?///
You need a personal computer with a CD-ROM drive (duh), 486 DX/25 and at
least 4 megs of random access memory. My understanding is that if you run
the 4 meg version, you must do all special moves on the keyboard. If you
have 8 megs of RAM available the graphics will be better, the animation
smoother, and the gameplay quicker. If you have 16 megs of RAM to spare,
the game will look and sound its best. The game automatically detects how
much RAM is available and sets up the appropriate version during normal
installation. You can choose the language in which the text is displayed.
While it is possible to do special moves on the keyboard, they are
wildly different from the arcade version and sometimes very frustrating. A
Gravis four-button control pad is recommended; it works especially well
since the arcade game originally had four buttons anyway! ^_^
3. ///How is PR CD-ROM different from the arcade version?///
PR for the CD-ROM is overall an excellent translation. The 16-meg
rendition has all the characters, moves, fatalities, animation, edible
worshipers etc. of arcade PR version 2.3. Best of all, it has combo names!
Combo names happen when you do certain combos involving special moves or
the like; you get the bonus of some outRAGEous name printed on the screen,
like Vertigo's STREAKER COMBO. PR for the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis,
Game Boy and Game Gear all lack combo names. You also have the brand new
play mode options of tug-of-war (both dinos share one big life bar) and
elimination (both players pick several dinos), neither of which are in
Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo PR! Let's hear it for the CD-ROM!
There are only a few minor changes from the arcade in PR for the CD-ROM
(not counting bugs). You still get thunder & lightning for combos with at
least 4 hits and 35% damage, but you only get one clap of lightning
instead of one for each hit in your combo. Vertigo's low 3+4 almost never
hits her opponent. The music has been redone; how its sounds depends on
the quality of your PC's sound card. There are significant pauses in
loading information from the CD-ROM, but it's only noticeable before a
match starts, or when a new dino enters the arena during the Final
Battle/elimination play mode.
4. ///How do I do the moves on a keyboard?///
Um, good question. If you're a lucky soul with a Gravis four-button
joystick then you can do the moves just like in the arcades (see the PR
General FAQ or condensed movelist to learn how). But if you're stuck with
a keyboard, the moves are done quite differently. Fortunately, Sir
Galahad, Cwh and others have found 'em all! These moves also work for a
two-button joystick, or a four-button joystick that you've configured as a
two-button joystick.
IMPORTANT: All keyboard/two-button joystick special moves are done by
holding down buttons 1 and 3 (high quick and low quick) and performing the
proper movements...each move will just list the movements since the
buttons are all the same...
D-Down U-Up T-Towards opponent A-Aawy from opponent
* : finishing move
** : chomp a human
Primal Rage PC-CD Rom keyboard only
cwh v1.2 9/17/95 pc only
thanx to:
ChuckD
blizard14
ermac@imap1.asu.edu
Cmoreno243
5. ///I'm following the manual's directions, using a joystick, and I still
can't get Blizzard's Freeze Breath!!!///
The manual is wrong. Blizzard's Freeze Breath is hold buttons 1+2+4, move
joystick A, T.
NOT 1+2+3 A/T
6. ///How do I pause PR?///
Use the space bar.
7. ///Why are obscene words in the source code?///
It's part of the censor feature. If you achieve the top score, you'll have
the opportunity to enter your full name on the high score list, instead of
just your initials. The censor feature is there to keep you from entering
obscene words, and its default setting is Strict. If you put in a word
that the censor doesn't like, it'll replace the word with a string of j's
(except for the first letter). The censor can't rub out the f-word unless
it knows what the f-word is, so you'll see it and other unsavory words
like it in the program's source code.
Got it? Can we please stop denouncing PR as a tool of the devil
now? Please...?
8. ///Where can I find the Primal Rage demo?///
ky4h@Virginia.EDU (Kin-Wah Yim) writes:
For all of you who want to d/l the demo, you can get it from
computer express's ftp site:
ftp.cexpress.com/demos/ibm/primal.zip
It's around 7.5MB, and it looks pretty cool.
According to Chris (chris@skypoint.com) PC Gamer is supposed to have
Primal Rage and Need for Speed demos in their October issue (disc 11).
sccmcmul@ucsalf.ac.uk (christopher.mcmullen) writes:
The Primal Rage demo is also available on an issue of PC Format (CD), and
later, on PC ZONE's cover cd. However, they appear to be two different
versions of the game, with identical graphics, but different moves, and
neither work with the move list..
9. ///Can I play PR without the CD?///
No. You have to have the CD loaded in order to play PR. This is to keep
people from pirating & distributing illegal copies of the game.
10. ///Can you e-mail me a copy of PR/tell me how to get free money/send
me a PR coin-op?///
No. Computer piracy is contemptible, "free money" is a scam, and a coin-op
costs too much.
11. ///What bugs are in PR?///
We've noticed a few annoying glitches...
sccmcmul@ucsalf.ac.uk (christopher.mcmullen) writes:
1) Finishing a round with Diablo's hot foot messes up the screen palette..
the screen turns kind of psychedelic.
2) Using the joypad, and having the sound effects on causes the character
controlled by the joypad to leap around without pressing a direction. I've
not had this happen in any other game, but turning the sound effects off
seems to fix it.
yours truly (vctr113062@aol.com) writes:
3) Using a keyboard, Sauron cannot do his Earthquake Stomp in the air.
sccmcmul@ucsalf.ac.uk (christopher.mcmullen) writes:
after chatting to someone at TW, this does seem to be a widespread problem
with some KBs.. the way round it I've found, is to define the movement
keys as the cursor keys, and then the hit keys, on the main keyboard...
4) On the left-hand side of the keyboard, characters cannot do a crouching
Low Power basic attack (also knows as the "low 3+4", done by pressing the
x+n+m keys).
bdaniels@mercury.interpath.net (Brian Daniels) writes:
5) After a few plays, when game is brought up it will think the joystick
is stuck in the up position. If you go to the game options screen the
highlight scrolls up non-stop. _Very_ annoying!
I've found that quitting to DOS and re-starting PR takes care of this
glitch. Cwh@aol.com has an even easier fix; just hit alt-j to
automatically configure the joystick (this helps with sound effect
problems as well).
rommel@cs.tu-berlin.de (Jens Petersen) writes:
6) There is a bug in the 2 player handicap setting. The percentage of life
that is selected for the left player is actually being given to the right
player and vice versa.
12. ///Where can I get more info on PR in general?///
Check out the PR General FAQ! It's updated and posted irregularly to
comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, rec.games.video.arcade,
rec.games.video.nintendo, and rec.games.video.sega by yours truly (Victar,
vctr113062@aol.com). The current update can be found at
ftp.netcom.com/pub/vi/vidgames/faqs, or in the ProPage section of
GameZero's World Wide Web site, http://www.gamezero.com/team-0. There's
also a condensed movelist for PR with a four-button joystick.
I will repost the general FAQ/condensed movelist to a specific newsgroup
or e-mail it you upon request. Please send such requests by e-mail.
13. ///Credits and Thanks///
Several of y'all deserve to be on this list but aren't because I can't
remember your name! Sorry! If you'd like to remind me who you are and what
I swiped from your post, e-mail me, and immortality in this FAQ's credits
shall be yours. ^_^
Sir Galahad ..............moves, info
rmsts@indirect.com (RMS).............................moves
mbruce@tower.net (Matt Bruce).....................info
chris@skypoint.com (chris)..............................info
cwh ....................................moves, info
edju@chaph.usc.edu (Liu Kang)......................moves, info
cascade@matrix.infomatch.com (Cascade)......moves
ky4h@Virginia.EDU (Kin-Wah Yim)..............info
kevchow@unixg.ubc.ca (Kevin C. Chow).......moves
sccmcmul@ucsalf.ac.uk (christopher.mcmullen)..info
rommel@cs.tu-berlin.de (Jens Petersen)..............info
bdaniels@mercury.interpath.net (Brian Daniels)..info
