Rana Rama
Description
The purpose of apprentice courses is for young people to learn a trade gradually, without putting yourself or your employers at risk. Unfortunately, nobody explained this to Wizard’s apprentice Mervyn, before he tried to cast a spell to make him irresistible to females, as the spell misfired, and made him attractive only to female frogs. However, his dungeon was soon invaded, and Mervyn was not killed, as he appeared to be a humble frog.
Viewed from above, the aim is to kill all 96 of the wizards who have invaded the dungeon, which is split into 8 levels, each made up of 16 screens and at least 50 rooms. To see what’s in a room he has to enter it, in a manner similar to the Switchblade games.
The game’s rather esoteric title comes from the way you obtain spells to upgrade the four different types of power you have (power, offence, defence and effect). When you meet a warlock you enter a mini game in which the letters RANARAMA are in random order, and by swapping pairs of letters in sequence you must form the full word in as little time as possible. This system of having a sub-game for collecting upgrades is similar to the ‘grappling’ concept in Paradroid.
This earns up to four of the Runes (Mysticism, Witchcraft, Magecraft and Runecraft), each of which can be used on one of the four types of power. The Magecraft offensive use is a fireball, defence for Runecraft makes you invisible to enemies, and the special effect for Witchcraft allows you to jump through space. Lose a life and you lose all these powers, and losing another life means it’s Game Over.
Spellings
- Ranarama - Alternate spelling
Groups +
Screenshots
Promos
Credits (Atari ST version)
6 People
| By | |
| Conversion by | |
| Picture 'ST'ed by | |
| Graphics by | |
| Original package illustration by (Hewson) |
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| Cover Artwork by (Players) |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 80% (based on 18 ratings)
Players
Average score: 2.0 out of 5 (based on 6 ratings with 0 reviews)
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Trivia
Awards
- ACE
- October 1988 (issue #13) - Included in the Top-100 list of 1987/1988 (editorial staff selection)
Analytics
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Related Sites +
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AtariMania (Hewson, UK, Atari ST)
For Atari ST: game entry database; downloadable release; game packaging; advertisement; manuals; magazine reviews; additional material. -
AtariMania (Smash 16, UK, Atari ST)
For Atari ST: game entry database; downloadable release; game packaging; advertisement; manuals; magazine reviews; additional material. -
CPC-Power (in French)
For Amstrad CPC: game database entry; game packaging; manual digitalizations; goodies; advertisement; magazine reviews; downloadable releases; additional material. -
CPCRrulez (in French)
For Amstrad CPC: game database entry; advertisement; game packaging; downloadable releases; additional material. -
Cambridge Centre for Computing History (Hewson, Amstrad CPC)
For Amstrad CPC464, Cassette: exhibit reference ID CH11141; additional material. -
Kio's home
For ZX Spectrum: additional material including – photographed cassette inlay; snapshots; downloadable releases. -
Lemon 64
For Commodore 64: game entry database; advertisement; magazine reviews; music; documentation; cover art; additional material. -
Project 64
For C64: Manuals in text files for the Commodore versions. -
Replacementdocs (Atari ST, Manual)
Documentation for Atari ST. -
The Tipshop
For ZX Spectrum: a central archive for all Spectrum and SAM games hints, tips, cheats, maps, hacks and pokes. -
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Encyclopaedic entry for combined platforms. -
World of Spectrum
For ZX Spectrum: downloadable releases; additional material including – cassette inlay, advertisement, instructions; remakes links; player reviews; magazine references; magazine adverts. -
ZX Spectrum Reviews
For ZX Spectrum: magazine game reviews in HTML.
Identifiers +
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Martin Smith.
Antstream added by firefang9212.
Additional contributors: formercontrib, Jo ST, ZeTomes.
Game added January 10, 2006. Last modified March 3, 2024.