Jurassic Park

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How to play Jurassic Park

Each game uses different controls, most Amiga games use both mouse and keyboard.

Jurassic Park Description

Jurassic Park is a video game for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis published by Sega and developed by BlueSky Software. It was released as part of the tie-in merchandise to the movie of same name from Universal Pictures.

While all of the 5 video games released named 'Jurassic Park' were released to tie into Steven Spielberg's motion picture nearly all of them borrow elements from the Jurassic Park novel by Michael Crichton on which the film was based. In the case of the Sega Mega Drive's Jurassic Park the use of Procompsognathus and the Jungle River attraction and it's pump house, as well as the abundance of park staff.

Jurassic Park is a standard action game, its level design seemingly putting it in the platform game genre, with the end objective being to reach the end of each level, traveling from left to right using items placed at fixed locations. However, the game features a then-uncommon variation in action games, giving players the option of using two characters that played almost totally differently to one another. The game was playable as either Dr Alan Grant or one of the film's versions of a Velociraptor. Grant is the default character and must be changed using the 'Player' option on the game's main menu.

Grant has crash landed on the Island and uses only weapons to defend himself, unusually all bar one of these (a Rocket Launcher) are non-lethal and will only knock out the dinosaurs for a short time, usually causing them to wake up more fierce opponents. Grant has ? weapons: two kinds of Tranquilizer dart (Blue, weaker, Red, stronger), three types of grenade (gas and exploding grenades to K.O. opponents, flares to blind them) plus a Tazer Gun and Rocket Launcher, all of which will run out if their relevant items are not picked up. Grant's health item is a medipack.

The Raptor, which escaped from its pen after lighting stuck it, uses its teeth and claws to stop opponents. Like Grant, it cannot kill dinosaurs easily - or at all - but it can kill any human enemies. Unlike Grant, The Raptor is a fast runner, and can jump higher and farther than him, making The Raptor's game slightly easier. Its health item is generic 'meat', although it has the ability to eat a Compy to refill its health as well.

Levels:

The Jungle - A generic forest/jungle level with vine swinging. A good deal of both the Jurassic Park novel and film are set in this sort of location (though Jungle and Forest levels were very common in platform games of the era). There are no Velociraptors in this level.

The Power Station - features ladders and boxes, making it quite similar to both it's novel and film depictions. Veliciraptors first appear in this level as does the Tyrannosaurus rex who acts as the level's 'boss', his head bursting through the of the final screen causing you to carefully sneak around him or loose a life.

The River - For this level Grant required to use a motorized raft and must players must pick up Fuel Tanks in order to keep the raft moving. The Tyrannosaurus appears again at the water's edge and an angry Triceratops must be passed at the levels finale. The Jungle River ride, while mentioned does not appear in the motion picture it was however a large part of the novel during which Grant, Lex and Tim must evade the Tyrannosaurus at the edge of the river. This Level is omitted if played as the Raptor

The Pump House - This level is incredibly similar a key scene in Crichton's novel where Grant and the Children face the Tyrannosaurus in the Jungle River's pump house behind a waterfall though the level is much larger than the small area in the scene.

The Canyon - The Canyon is a dry, desert like area similar to areas in such places as Mexico not such area is mentioned in either the Jurassic park film or novel as being on the Island, which is tropical in nature. These sort of levels were however very common in the genre at the time. Raptors appear frequently and almost instantaneously in this level which is slightly shorter than most.

The Volcano - again an area that does not appear in either film or novel and appears to be an original creation of the design team. Also like The Canyon the level is short and there is even bigger abundance of Raptors. This level is omitted if played as the Raptor.

The Visitors Center - based very much on the design from the film the level features the game's final boss battle, requiring the player to use the Rocket Launcher to destroy the large Tyrannousaurus skeleton in the main lobby to crush the Velociraptors.

Jurassic Park - additional information

Platform
Game year
Also known as
"ジュラシックパーク" -- Japanese spelling
Cover Art
Jurassic Park - Cover Art Sega Genesis