MAMEmania: Cadillacs and Dinosaurs
In this series retro game expert Zac Bentz picks his top ten MAME games. If you’re a casual gaming fanboy MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator and is a software emulator that allows you to play ancient arcade games on modern hardware.
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs – Capcom – 1992
Even before you know anything about the game, the title Cadillacs and Dinosaurs makes an impact. It screams B-movie hokeyness, two extremes that should never be combined.
In fact, that game was based on the original comic book series in 1986 called Xenozoic Tales by Mark Schultz. Set in a post-apocalyptic world 600 years after the fact, humans now share the Earth with dinosaurs. Due to the scarcity of materials, anyone with mechanical skills is highly revered. Hence, the Cadillac in question.
The game, made by Capcom in 1992, predictably has very little plot. It’s a side-scrolling button mashing beat-em-up, much like other games such as Final Fight. In fact there are hardly even any Cadillacs or dinosaurs in it. For the most part, the playing will find themselves laying the smack down on clone after clone of various greasy looking dudes (the playable character Hannah is the only woman in the game) and giant thugs with weapons. Each major stage ends with a boss, but for the most part they are little tougher than the other baddies.
What plot there is revolves around a mad scientist running experiments attempting to turn people into super people-saurs. The good guys all want to protect the innocent creatures (and their own garage) fighting their way into the inevitable underground lair of said mad scientist.
The four playable characters are virtually interchangeable. They each have unique states, but it doesn’t translate into much difference. The graphics are extremely colorful and cartoony, which only adds to the strange mix of garage punk and lizards. There isn’t any real increase in difficulty from one stage to the next, just higher numbers of bad guys to pummel. Even the final boss, a two headed bipedal mutant lizard/scientist mash up isn’t much of a problem.
There’s an interesting twist ending in which Jack and Hannah (Jack Hannah?) don’t make it out of the exploding underground lair on time, leaving Mustapha and Mess (yes, his name is Mess) to slowly walk back home alone. Oh! But then the two show up in the Cadillac and everyone goes home happy.
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs is a totally forgettable game, but the comic did spawn a brief cartoon series in 1993 that gained a bit of a cult following. Below are videos from both the game and the cartoon.
Zac Bentz is a regular contributor to the Japanese culture blog Japanator, runs his own Japanese music review blog ZB’s A-Z of J-Music and plays crazy electro-rock in The Surfactants. He lives in Duluth, MN with his wife, pets and a closet full of adventure.