Crush, Crumble and Chomp
Crush, Crumble and Chomp is a game published by EPYX in the early 1980s for various home personal computer platforms. The VIC-20 received a port of the game in 1982 which was released on cassette (product number 436C). The game required the VIC-20 to be equiped with a 16K RAM expansion module.
Crush, Crumble and Chomp follows the theme of classic monster b-movies (i.e. King Kong and Godzilla). The game is a turn-based strategy game in which the player controls one of several types of monsters in order to attack one of the world's major cities (San Francisco, Tokyo, New York or Washington D.C.). The goal can range from rescue of the monster's offspring to total destruction and carnage. Each monster has different abilities and attributes (such as fire-breath, flying, or stronger health). As well, some monsters need to eat to maintain their fighting ability.
Cities contain buildings, people and famous landmarks (all of which can be eaten or destroyed). Police, army vehicles and a helicopter containing a mad scientist all attempt to attack and destroy the invading monster.
The user can control the following monsters:
- Arachnis: A giant spider capable of spinning webs, breathing fire and jumping.
- Goshilla: A giant Tyrannosaur-like reptile able to jump, dig, pulverize buildings and breath several types of destructive substances.
- The Glob: A gooey, amorphous organism capable of travelling underground, squeezing objects and setting fire to everything within a close radius.
- Kraken: A nasty, deep-sea octopod with reaching, crushing tentacles.
- Mantra: A giant, flying, dragon-like reptile with a destructive ultrasonic scream!
- Mechismo: A giant walker-type robot equiped with a destructive, atomizing ray.
The following keyboard commands can be used (some commands only apply to certain monsters depending on their abilities):
- "A" - atomize units or buildings with your destructive ray;
- "B" - set fire to units and buildings your head is facing;
- "C" - crush the building/bridge in front of you;
- "D" - descend (dig) and move subsurface (up to five spaces):
- N (north), E (east), S (south), W (west), U (up to surface);
- "E" - eat the unit in your claw/pay (counters hunger);
- "F" - fly: take off or land;
- "G" - grab the human unit in the square in front of you;
- "H" - turn head right and left 30 degrees (aims desctructive breath);
- "I" - immolate (set fire) to all buildings surrounding you (but some monsters get burned themselves in the process);
- "L" - turn left 90 degrees;
- "M" - move one square forward;
- "N" - do nothing;
- "O" - obliterate units in your square;
- "P" - paralyse units in nearby squares;
- "Q" - quit the game temporarily or permanently;
- "R" - turn right 90 degrees;
- "S" - stomp on units or buidings in your square;
- "T" - lash out with your tail/tentacle - attacking units directly behind you;
- "U" - emit an untrasonic scream which may eliminate nearby units;
- "W" - weave an obstructing web in the square you occupy;
- "Z" - zap flying units with ray beam;
- "#" - check your score.
Several years later, Crush, Crumble and Chomp served as the inspiration for the more action oriented "Movie Monster Game" released by EPYX for the Commodore 64.
The manual contains excellent mood-setting back-stories for all of the monsters, as well as loosely accurate maps of all four cities.
