Primal Rage

Ports were released for home video game consoles and personal computers. Efforts to perfectly emulate the arcade original have been unsuccessful due to the use of an unusual copy protection method. Toys, comics, a novel and other merchandise tie-ins were produced. More than 1.5 million copies of the game were sold.

• Title — Primal Rage • Developer — Atari Games • Publisher — Arcade Atari Games Time Warner Interactive

• Illustration — Arcade version screenshot, showcasing a match between Sauron and Armadon Primal Rage is a 2D fighting game in which two players select characters to battle each other in one-on-one combat, or a single player is faced with a campaign of fights against CPU opponents of increasing difficulty. The final battle of the single-player mode (accessible only at difficulty level 10 or higher) consists of fighting all the other monsters, this time with an increased power bar, made available in a minigame prior to the fight. A total of seven fighters are playable: Blizzard, the ape-like god of good; Armadon, the ceratopian/thyreophoran-like god of life; Talon, the raptor-like god of survival; Sauron, the tyrannosaur-like god of hunger; Chaos, the ape-like god of decay; Vertigo, the cobra-like goddess of insanity; and Diablo, the tyrannosaur-like god of evil. Each character has its own specialized set of three attack moves and abilities. The object is to deplete the opposing character's health meter before the player's own runs out. There are also seven different background stages where fighting takes place, each one representing one of the character's innate domains: the Cliff (Blizzard), the Hollows (Armadon), the Strip (Talon), the Cove (Sauron), the Ruins (Chaos), the Tomb (Vertigo) and the Inferno (Diablo). During fights, human tribesmen wander nearby and worship the creatures as gods. This allows for the creatures to toss them around or devour some to regain health (eating opponents' worshipers adds a bonus to one's score, while eating one's own will penalize the player). Prior to the final battle, a minigame commences in which the player is given the chance to eat as many worshipers as possible to increase health for the endurance round. Two human-controlled characters can trigger easter egg minigames of human volleyball and bowling. Unlike most fighting games, where the special moves are performed by moving the joystick followed by pressing one or more buttons, Primal Rage features a system where the player holds down certain buttons, then performs the joystick movements. Later revisions of the arcade game added the ability to perform special moves in the more traditional way, with motion followed by button presses, but kept the original method as well. After the opponent is defeated, a brief moment is allowed for the player to perform a finishing move to end the match in a more dramatic fashion; these are performed in a similar manner to the special moves. Although all characters feature three finishing moves, some of them tend to the humorous side, such as Vertigo's "La Vache Qui Rit" (French for "the laughing cow"), a fatality in which Vertigo transforms her opponent into a cow, which moos and runs away.

A massive meteor strike has devastated Earth. Human civilization comes to an end in the ensuing cataclysms and humanity regresses into tribes of Stone Age dwellers. A primordial rainforest covers the land and the continental landmass has shifted into the shape of a fire-breathing dinosaur skull. The planet is now primitively referred to as "Urth" by the survivors of the cataclysms. Seven fearsome creatures with supernatural abilities emerge from their slumber deep within the Urth's crust, and become worshiped as gods by the humans, who form segregated clans beneath the ones they follow. The beasts themselves are divided between those who wish to keep peace on Urth, and those who attempt to plunge the world into further chaos for their own benefit.

Animator Jason Leong recounted: "Every year [Time Warner Interactive] throws a brain-storming session where everybody brings up new game ideas. A few years ago I brought up the concept of a head-to-head dinosaur fighting game, which coincidentally someone else also brought up, but their idea was just two T. Rexes fighting. My original write-up included ideas that finally appeared in the game, such as different species of quickly moving dinosaurs and the concept of the dinosaurs being gods." The game's graphics were produced via claymation. Development began with a series of production sketches of the fighters drawn by Leong. Using these drawings as a basis, model maker Dan Platt crafted clay model figures of the fighters, for which flexible metal armatures were then cast. The models were airbrushed according to Leong's drawings. The models were filmed through the process of stop motion animation, with about 400 frames shot for each fighter. Production coordinator Stephen Riesenberger says the game was designed to be accessible to novices, with its four-button controls being less daunting than the standard six-button layout, and unusual special move inputs making it easier to perform the attacks by button mashing.

Primal Rage was released for arcades by Time Warner Interactive in August 1994, with two arcade cabinet variants: a standard 25" cabinet and a deluxe 33" cabinet. Commercial ports of the title include: 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, 32X, Amiga, Atari Jaguar CD, Game Boy, Game Gear, MS-DOS, PlayStation, Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn and Super Nintendo Entertainment System. To promote the home versions, Time Warner Interactive hosted a "National Primal Rage Video Game Tournament" at Six Flags Over Texas in October 1995. A Mac OS port was also planned to be published on November 14, 1995, and advertised in Macworlds January 1996 issue. However, development on the conversion was cancelled in April of the same year. Primal Rage was ported to the Game Boy by Probe Software and released in North America and Europe on August 25, 1995. This port excludes Vertigo from the roster and features a reduced moveset for every character and downgraded visuals. The Game Gear port is similar to the Game Boy release but with color graphics, much of the blood and gore retained, and the "urination" fatality intact. This port has smaller sprites, less vibrant colors, and a cheat code that replaces Diablo's followers with Fergus McGovern, former CEO and founder of Probe Software. Prior to launch, a limited version was available for Sega Channel subscribers and a different version was released through the service on August 26, 1995, with twenty-four percent of subscribers taking part in the event to receive an 800 number and win prizes. The SNES port, developed by Bitmasters and released in both North America and Europe on August 25, 1995, has more detailed visuals compared to the Genesis release; however, Chaos's golden shower fatality was censored. The MS-DOS port, developed by Teeny Weeny Games, features a special setup for keyboard setups and runs at a low resolution. Primal Rage was ported to the 3DO and published by LG Electronics in North America and Europe on November 14, 1995, featuring a pre-rendered introduction full-motion video sequence and smaller sprites compared to previous releases. The 32X port was developed by Probe Entertainment and first published in North America on November 14, 1995, and in Europe in March 1996. It is based on the Genesis release but features more arcade-accurate visuals. The Jaguar CD port is similar to the 3DO release, although it lacks the full-motion video introduction and has shorter loading times. The PlayStation port was released in North America and Europe on November 14, 1995, and in Japan on December 13, 1996. It features long loading times and fewer frames of animation for each character than the arcade version. The Amiga port was released only in Europe in December 1995, with visuals similar to the Genesis release. Although marketed as an Amiga 1200 release, this port is compatible with any Amiga computer with at least 2MB of RAM. The Saturn port was released in North America in June 1996, in Europe in August 1996, and in Japan by GameBank on March 26, 1998, featuring more colors, larger sprites, and pre-rendered full motion video sequences for each character in single-player mode. The Saturn version of Primal Rage was the last version to be released. Senior producer Ken Humphries explained, "To be honest, the Saturn version got lost in the shuffle. In the process of trying to get other versions done, the Saturn version was the one they ended up pulling resources from." To allow the Saturn version to run at a solid frame rate, it was made to run at 30 Hz instead of the usual 60 Hz. According to Humphries, it was easier to make the Saturn hardware approximate the size of the arcade version's sprites than it was with other conversions of the game. A few console ports were based on version 1.7 of the arcade game, while most ports were based on version 2.3, a largely revised update to the Arcade game. Features of version 2.3 include modified special inputs, gameplay changes, balance changes, and additional content, such as one additional finisher per character, among many others. A version based on arcade version 2.3 was included as part of Midway Arcade Treasures 2 for GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2004, later being included as part of Midway Arcade Treasures Deluxe Edition for the PC in 2006. There is also an R-Zone version that plays the same as a Tiger Handheld variation of the game. It features Blizzard, Chaos, Talon, Sauron, Vertigo, and Diablo as playable characters, and Armadon serves as the final boss.

In 1996, Ellie Rovella of Gilbert, Arizona, launched a grassroots campaign against the game after her 11-year-old son bought and played the Genesis version of Primal Rage and executed Chaos's urination fatality. The campaign resulted in Best Buy pulling the game from 251 stores nationwide. In response, Primal Rage publisher Time Warner Interactive pointed out that Rovella never complained to Time Warner, instead taking the issue directly to the media, and that the game was clearly rated "T" for Teen and so should not have been purchased by her 11-year-old son in the first place. They also resubmitted Primal Rage for evaluation by the ESRB, who determined that the game had nothing in it to merit increasing the rating to "M" for mature or "AO" for adults only, and again rated it "T". After this reevaluation, Best Buy put every version of Primal Rage back on the shelves except for the Genesis version, which they said they would only sell if it were rated "M", even though most home versions of the game contain all the same fatalities and gore. Time Warner PR director Tracy Egan said the publisher was not overly concerned about the Ellie Rovella controversy since Primal Rage, being a two-year-old arcade game, was already past its sales peak by the time Rovella started her campaign. In the United Kingdom, the game's advertisement parodied the controversy by placing gentle scenes over the violent parts and having Simon Bates mock his VSC video warnings.

After an unveiling at the 1996 American International Toy Fair, five inch action figures of the seven Primal Rage characters (each bundled with accessories like lava rocks, armor, and tiny humans) were released in stores. Sirius Entertainment published a 4-issue comic book mini-series based on the game from 1996 to 1998. Issue #1 features color interior art, and the low-run published issues #2–4 feature black-and-white interior art.

• Title — Primal Rage II • Developer — Atari Games • Publisher — Atari Games • Release — Cancelled • Genre — Fighting • Modes — 2 players, playing simultaneously • Platforms — Arcade • Arcade System — Sony ZN-1 By 1995, Atari had begun production of Primal Rage II. Ken Humphries, senior producer of the home versions of the original Primal Rage, said in an early 1996 interview that "Primal Rage 2 should come out in the arcades in September 1996. As soon as they finish that, we'll start working on the consumer versions." However, the game did not get very far into production before being canceled, as Atari said that it wouldn't generate enough sales. The controls were expanded from a four-button to a six-button configuration. The game was to feature all seven gods from the original plus ten newcomers: a new dinosaur, a boss, and eight humans called the Avatars, that were the gods' surrogates on Urth, with the first game's characters meant to make a comeback as said gods. Necrosan, a boss in the form of a skeletal dragon, once rumored by video game magazine GamePro to be added in an updated release of the original Primal Rage, was to become the main antagonist. The plot focuses on the years after the first game's timeline. It turns out the meteor that crashed on Urth was actually an egg which hatched a being known as Necrosan. The warriors would be Malyssa Wisteria: Avatar of Vertigo, Arik Maka'i: Avatar of Sauron, Keena Amali: Avatar of Talon, Shank Traff: Avatar of Chaos, Sinjin Von Acheron: Avatar of Diablo, Kaze Koriyama: Avatar of Blizzard, Tor Malachite: Avatar of Armadon, and Xiao Ming Tang Kuan: Avatar of Slash Fang. Slash Fang is a newly introduced Primal God in the form of a Smilodon-type Weretiger. Although the game never came to be, its story was later adapted into Primal Rage: The Avatars. Also, the characters of Slash Fang and Necrosan were released with the other god characters in the short-lived Primal Rage action figure series. A test arcade cabinet briefly appeared playable at the Golfland arcades in Milpitas, California, and Sunnyvale, California, and a supposedly finished machine of this was shown at the California Extreme 2001 show. The machine had the original board and most of the original art. In subsequent years, screenshots of the incomplete game were released on the Internet. In December 2012, a YouTube user posted a video of the game, and then in June 2014, it was reported that the game was available for play at Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield, Illinois. With only two boards of the game considered to be in existence, a dump from the game's board had been circulating online for years, but no emulator had been able to run it, until in March 2017 it was revealed that an individual had created a modified version of MAME, named "MAME4RAGE2", making it able to emulate the game. In February 2025 Primal Rage II was promoted to working status in MAME 0.275.

• Illustration — The giant ape Blizzard battles the dinosaur Sauron, from issue #4 of the Primal Rage comic published by Sirius Entertainment. When Primal Rage II was canceled, Atari allegedly deemed it necessary to somehow present the story for the sequel. Thus, in 1997, a novel called Primal Rage: The Avatars, written by John Vornholt, was published by Boulevard Books. The book tells what happened to the dinosaur gods 65 million years ago, and then moves into the main story of the gods' reign on Urth renewed, then the beast Necrosan appears. The book also focuses on fleshing out the world of Primal Rage, and does so by bringing "the Avatars" to the forefront of the story, they being the humans chosen by their respective gods to be their shamans or other titles of nobility. Details to the backstory of Primal Rage are made clear in The Avatars. The events in Primal Rage take place in the year 1000 AC (After Cataclysm) or about the year 3000 AD by the Gregorian calendar. The battles of the dinosaur and ape gods are referred to as "The Primal Rage". The spell used to imprison the ape and dinosaur gods is called the Bonds of Forbidding. Necrosan the skeletal dragon (who is referred to as Necronus on the introductory page) reactivates the Bonds of Forbidding to entrap the gods.