Roc'n Rope

Roc'n Rope (thing)

Roc'n Rope was an old arcade game released by Konami way back in 1983.

Roc'n Rope is the story of an archeologist on a quest to return missing feathers to the legendary Phoenix. Standing is his way are cavemen and dinosaurs. Luckily our intrepid explorer brought along a flashlight and a harpoon gun in an attempt to even the odds.

This is a great title, and I am really surprised it never became a classic. The graphics were top notch for 1983, and still hold up well even today. Perhaps this game was just a bit too late, or just a tad too complicated. It never really did catch on with the players, but the home version did enjoy a bit of success.

The game itself has a similar feel to Donkey Kong, with the object being to reach the top of the screen. You can use your harpoon gun to fight off dinosaurs, or to move from place to place. While the cavemen are easily stunned with your flashlight. Apparently they have very sensitive eyes.

The first screen is probably all that most of you wankers will ever see. You begin at the bottom left, and must work your way up to the Roc who is at the upper right of the screen. This screen has a brown "outdoors" look to it. There are many layers of ledges coming out from the sides of the screen. While the middle of the screen is open to the sky (except for a few floating platforms). To beat this level all you have to do is use your harpoon gun to climb diagonally back and forth until you reach the top. Oh, and don't forget about the bad guys either.

The second screen is blue and appears to be underground, and actually uses a whole different tileset than the other three screens. Don't worry if you don't know what a tileset is, it isn't that important. There are a lot of dinosaurs on this screen, and not nearly as many platforms as before. But the platforms that are there travel almost completely across the screen, so there really aren't a lot of holes to watch out for. Make it to the top to continue.

The third screen goes back to the "outdoors" appearance from the first one. This screen adds a ferris wheel style plaform in the center of the screen, but it can be avoided if you don't want to use it. Just stick to the right of the screen, and soon you will be at the top.

The final level is shaped a bit more like a mountain, while still maintaining the same tileset as the previous level. Your main concern here is a large waterfall in the center of the screen. You have to time your harpoon climb just right to avoid being killed by the deadly waters (you actually have to cross it twice). Finish this screen and the game starts over, with increased difficulty.

As far as I know Roc'n Rope was only available in an upright configuration. I haven't ever seen a cocktail version, and the advertising materials for the game didn't mention one either.

The upright was in a wood-grained cabinet that was similar in construction to the Frogger cabinet. The sideart was a large sticker showing an adventurer posing with a harpoon gun and a bird. The marquee shows this same adventurer firing his harpoon gun across a chasm at an unsuspecting dinosaur, while a cartoon caveman looks on suspiciously.

The monitor bezel was unadorned, although most machines had a little instruction card underneath the glass. The control panel was a solid green and featured a single 8-Way joystick mounted centrally, with two buttons to either side, which allowed for the game to be played with either hand.

Roc'n Rope was never very popular, so you probably won't be able to find a real machine to play on. I don't even recall ever seeing one of these anywhere, not even back when I was a kid. If you wish to play at home you can try the Atari 2600 or the ColecoVision versions. You can even use the MAME emulator to play on your computer, which is what I usually do.

This is a good game for any arcade game collection, as it has pretty decent replay potential. Since this title is Konami Classic compatible, you will be able to play other Konami games in the same cabinet with little or no work, even Frogger. This game seems to be fairly cheap, although it might take you quite a while to actually find one.

This Atari 2600 game, (by Coleco), was a port of the Konami arcade game of the same name, (could that get much more confusing). This game was also available, (with better graphics), on the ColecoVision. But the original Konami Standard arcade version was the best of all of them.

In Roc N Rope you are an archeologist. You are armed with a harpoon gun that you can use to climb from platform to platform. You also have a flashlight, which is a surprisingly effective weapon against the dinosaurs and cavemen in the game. You have to get to the Phoenix at the top of the screen to advance tot he next level. Sometimes the Phoenix will drop feathers that can be picked up as a bonus. The other powerup item is a golden egg, that will make you invincible for a short amount of time. All in all this is a pretty fun game, but the arcade version is far superior, and I recommend playing that version (either with a real machine, or by using MAME).