Up to three players can play at once, guiding their selected characters through eight stages, battling various enemies and bosses.[3] There are four playable characters, each with their own strengths and weaknesses: Jack (balanced type), Hannah (skill type), Mustapha (speed type), and Mess (power type). The game's titular dinosaurs make appearances as neutral characters that may attack both player characters and enemies.
The story begins in the 26th century, when an ensemble gang called the Black Marketeers begin hunting the dinosaurs to serve their unknown purpose. The continuous hunting process has made the dinosaurs violent and now they have started attacking villages and people. Four heroes: mechanic and shaman Jack Tenrec, diplomat and explorer by profession Hannah Dundee, friend and engineer Mustapha Cairo, and mysterious Mess O'Bradovich, have decided to team up against the Black Marketeers.
The protagonists journey to the "City in the Sea" where they suspect the whole hunting network being operating from. As they reach the top of a building they fight Vice Terhune. After being beaten, Vice tells them about Butcher, who had been hunting in the northern woods. Following the information, they go through the swamp forest where they find a lot of dead dinosaurs before reaching and defeating the Butcher.
This is when they receive a message from an old villager who tells them about the weird behavior of the dinosaurs and asks for help. In response to the call, the heroes reach the village where they notice dinosaurs violently attacking the people and that the village has been set on fire by someone. Going ahead further, they meet the old villager again as he tells about the whole network and as soon as he is about to reveal the name of the person behind all of it, he is shot dead by Morgan, who attacks the group as well. During the fight, Morgan talks about the powers of "doctor" transforms himself into a dinosaur-like creature called Morgue. By now, they have come to know that some doctor is trying to create new lifeforms.
The series chronicles the exploits of Jack Tenrec and his crew of ecological freedom fighters known as the "Mechanics".[4] Set in the year 2513, the series takes place in a post-apocalyptic jungle in the vicinity of the ruins of New York City (now known as "The City in the Sea"); societies have had to re-learn 20th-century technology, lost due to a never-explicitly-stated catastrophe, and have only been partially successful in doing so, though the Mechanics have maintained much "Old World" technology and knowledge. His often-reluctant companion is Hannah Dundee, an ambassador from Wasoon, somewhere further south, which is technologically much further behind than the City in the Sea is. She hires Jack as a liaison, while she attempts to create clear communication between her land and the modern civilization. Since the catastrophe, much of the former United States has gone wild, with many species of dinosaurs spontaneously reappearing after going extinct. Together, Jack and Hannah confront the serious issues facing the futuristic environment that humanity has come to inhabit.
C&D is set 450 years in the future after a planet-wide disaster destroyed most of civilization. While details of the disaster were only hinted at in the comics, Chadwick gives a very thorough and plausible-sounding explanation of what happened. (Chadwick will never be accused of slouching on his science.) The world after the apocalypse isn't a desert wasteland, but rather a lush, jungle world where dinosaurs, mammoths, sabertooth cats, terror birds, and every prehistoric animal you can think of live side-by-side. How it got that way is one of the central mysteries of the series.
Black-and-white illustrations coming almost exclusively from the comics make up the bulk of art. Schultz himself evolved as an artist over the course of the series, so some of his early work lacked the attention for detail that later issues possessed. Also, some of his best work appeared in the comic's final issues, which were published after C&D was released. The result is the art in the book is a mixed bag, although much of it is of higher quality than what you would find in most other roleplaying products. A disappointing exception is a bestiary that features several full-page renditions of silly-looking prehistoric animals. These images largely came from Schultz's early work, when he portrayed dinosaurs as tail-dragging behemoths.
While most rules are straight forward, at times Chadwick goes overboard on emphasizing planning and resource management. C&D, in my mind, really is a story-driven setting with its roots in adventure literature, but Chadwick aims for a simulationist approach: He seems to think that roleplaying in the fantasy world of the Xenozoic should be treated as realistically as exploring the American frontier of the 18th century. My guess is most players will just want to fight dinosaurs and uncover pre-cataclysm secrets, not spend a lot of time figuring out how much food and equipment they will need on their expedition.
Narrator: In the 26th century, mankind faces an epic struggle for survival. The forces of nature have spun wildly out of control. Mighty cities have crumbled and the dinosaurs have returned to reclaim the Earth. In this savage land, one man stands alone - Jack Tenrac, defending humanity in a world gone mad. A world where only the strong survive; a world of... Cadillacs and Dinosaurs!
The plot is based on the comic Cadillacs and Dinosaurs and takes place in the "City In The Sea" and its neighboring nearby jungle. The story starts 500 years from the 20th century, when an ensemble gang called the Black Marketeers begin hunting the dinosaurs to serve their unknown purpose. The continuous hunting process has made the dinosaurs violent and now they have started attacking villages and people.
Following the information provided by Vice Terhune, the heroes reaches the swamp forest where they find a lot of dead dinosaurs. Proceeding through the forest they finally reach the place where the butcher is chopping a dead dinosaur with his two machetes. The butcher attacks but ends up being beaten lifeless. Meanwhile, another big name in the hunting network, Hogg, realizes that Jack is busy in the swamp forest and decides to take over Jack's Garage.
The entrance of the garage is blocked with barrels, but the heroes drives through the barrels using their car. They clear out the garage, killing all the gangsters there where they confront Slice, a Mohawk haired guy with boomerangs; the team manages to defeat Slice, regaining control of their garage. This is when they receive a message from an old villager who tells them about the weird behavior of the dinosaurs and asks for help.
In response to the villager's call, the heroes reaches the village where they notice dinosaurs violently attacking the people. They also notice that the village has been set on fire by someone. Going ahead further, they meet the old villager who asked for the help. The villager tells about the whole network and as soon as he is about to reveal the name of the person behind all these activities, he is shot dead with an Uzi by Morgan. Morgan attacks the group as well with Uzi, rocks, grenades and knives, but the four manage to beat him. After receiving some beating from the team, Morgan talks about the powers of "doctor" transforms himself into a dinosaur-like creature called Morgue. The Morgue is beaten lifeless. By now, they have come to know that some doctor is trying to create new lifeforms.
The heroes head towards the basement, going through the library and the computer lab. In the latter, they are interrupted by Slisaurs (hybrids of slice and dinosaurs). The doctor appears on the computer screen, calling himself the creator of a new world and ordering the Slisaurs to finish off the team; however, the Slisaurs fail in their attempt, and the heroes moves deeper in the basement.
Deep down is a bio-lab with different organisms in big jars, including dinosaurs, like Rock Hopper, and hybrids, like Bludges and Tyrogs. Below is a cave, which finally leads to Dr. Fessenden's lab. Seeing the team, he transforms himself into a Morgue-like creature, but is beaten. By now, the transforming serum's effect reaches its peak, and Fessenden transforms into a 3-headed creature. He is said to have the strength of a dinosaur and the brains of the doctor; however, the heroes manage to defeat him. Crippled by his defeat, Fessenden sets the whole laboratory on explosives.
It takes place in the 26th century, humanity has spent hundreds of years underground after a series of environmental catastrophes (potentially due to the rogue second moon whipping around Earth for no reason) and when they return to the surface they discover that previously extinct species have reclaimed the world, including dinosaurs.
Morgan is a member of the criminals that leading by Dr. Simon Fessenden and a volunteer for becoming a strongest creature. He and his men attacks a village with the brainwashed dinosaurs. A villager communicates him with the heroes about their village is under attack. Later, heroes beats all men and encounters the villager. When the villagers talks, Morgan appears and kills him with a gun. Later, Morgan fights with the heroes. However, he is beaten. Later, Morgan went mad and mutates into a dinosaur called Morgue. However, he is beaten again and dies.
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (1993) is Capcom's arcade beat 'em up based on the comic series Xenozoic Tales (though it more leans toward its animated series, which shares the name). The game roughly follows the source material's plot: Taking place 500 years from the 20th century, an ensemble gang called the Black Marketeers begin hunting the dinosaurs to serve their unknown purpose. It's up to Jack Tenrec, Hannah Dundee, Mustapha Cairo, and Mess O'Bradovich to stand up against the evil deeds of the Black Marketeers.
- Acrofatic: The Butcher may be obese, but he's definitely not sluggish: expect him to leap around the place, trying to squash you with his ample buttocks.
- Adapted Out: There is no sign or mention of Wilhelmina Scharnhorst, the governors or Gorgostamos in the game's plot.
- Adaptation Expansion: The Japanese dialogue of the arcade game actually contains extra monologue, as well as specific dialogues unique between each character and enemy boss as opposed to a large number of the recycled English dialogues.
- Adaptational Ugliness: Downplayed. While Wrench Terhune definitely wasn't handsome by any means in Xenozoic Tales, he wasn't obese either. In this game, he's one of the fat mooks, besides Hammer (who was fat in the comics) and Black Elmer.
- Adaptational Villainy: Dr. Simon Fessenden was only a minor character who engaged in mad science and was killed by his own experiment. In this game, he is a Big Bad Evilutionary Biologist.
- All Bikers are Hells Angels: Hogg, the third boss. He fights by driving around and tossing grenades at you, but can also trample you if you don't quickly get out of his way.
- Animalistic Abomination: The Bludge, Morgue and Tyrog mutants are all meshes of human and dinosaur DNA. Fessenden himself turns into one of these as a last resort.
- Ascended Extra: Mess O'Bradovich, your choice of Mighty Glacier, was a fairly minor character in the comics.
- Ax-Crazy:
- The Butcher, who is referred to as "really nuts" by Vice Terhune, behaves the part when you meet him in person, gleefully carving up a dead Stegosaurus with his machettes.
- Dr. Fessenden himself is also murderously violent when cornered.
- Badass Boast: All four playable characters say some sort of blustery quote after defeating a level's boss.
- Bald of Evil:
- Dr. Simon Fessenden fits, despite not being completely bald, yet a very evil individual.
- There is also the second boss, the Butcher, a sadist who takes pleasure in killing dinosaurs and is feared even the other bad guys.
- Also, the regular enemies Black Elmer and Wrench Terhune.
- Bittersweet Ending: Subverted. After Dr. Fessenden is defeated, he activates a self-destruct mechanism on his entire lab, forcing the heroes to hightail it out of there. Hannah unfortunately trips and Jack goes back to help her, in which Mustapha and Mess unknowingly leave them behind as they jump out of the exploding tunnel. The threat of Fessenden has been neutralized, but Mustapha and Mess seem to have lost their dear friends. The two sadly walk back to base as the credits roll. Fortunately, it turned out Jack and Hannah survived as they suddenly drive up next to them in a cadillac.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: The game seems to have been mostly riddled with typos in punctuation and spelling, due to the game being made in Japan. Even some item names are misspelled, like "grove" when it should be "glove", and "paffee" when it should be "parfait".
- The Butcher: The boss of the second level is called this. He fights with two big butcher knives and is introduced slashing away at a dinosaur corpse.
- Car Fu: The third stage allows the player to get into Jack's Cadillac and mow enemies down.
- Combat Pragmatist: Like most games of the genre, the player can make use of bats and knives if dropped by the enemy. Unlike most games of the genre, guns, grenades and bazookas can be utilized as well.
- Competitive Balance: The game gives you stats for the four characters in the select screen, making them:
- Fragile Speedster: Hannah Dundee is the second fastest of the team with the best item usage, but has the lowest power.
- Jack of All Stats: Jack Tenrec is better at power, but has good speed and skill, making him this.
- Lightning Bruiser: Mustapha Cairo is the fastest and hits well with long reach, being able to dish good damage quickly.
- Mighty Glacier: Mess O' Bradovich is the slowest character and has the highest power level, being able to kill enemies faster.
- Continue Countdown: Dying shows you a first-person perspective as Vice Terhune aims a gun at you, taunting you as the timer runs down. Continuing has you sock the goon in the jaw. No prizes for guessing what happens if the timer hits 0..."Eat lead... baby!"
- Degraded Boss: Vice Terhune becomes a recurring enemy called Walther in later stages. Also, the sixth boss, Tyrog, returns as an enemy in the beginning of the final stage and is called Tyrog 2.
- Depraved Dwarf: Morgan, the fifth boss. He is a short, ruthless gang leader who can mutate into a large humanoid dinosaur when needed.
- Dual Boss: The first boss, Vice Terhune, fights with a Rock Hopper on his side.
- The Slisaurs in the seventh stage, two human-lizard hybrids with Slice's moveset. If you play in co-op, you'll be facing three.
- Dual Wielding: The Butcher fights with his two Butcher Knives, that you can knock out of his hands and wield.
- Dub Name Change: A number of enemies have different names in the Japanese version compared to the English version. Examples include Black Elmers being named as James, Gniess being called Risk, Butcher being named Atomic, Hogg being named Gaspar, etc.
- Even Evil Has Standards: The second stage's boss, the Butcher, is considered to be a loathsome nutjob even by Vice Terhune.
- Evil Gloating: Dr. Fessenden's crazed monologue as he morphs into his final form is filled to the brim with this. Fessenden: Pathetic fools! Now, witness the power of my serum as it takes effect! (transforms) I've finally done it! All the strength of the mighty dinosaur and my extreme intelligence, all together in one body! The world is mine to control! Ha ha ha!
- Evil Laugh: The Butcher does this before using certain attacks. So do the regular Fat Bastard mooks.
- Evil Poacher: Regular enemies first fought in the second stage. They are: Joe, Skinner and Gutter. Then there's the sadistic Butcher.
- Evil Redhead: Slice, the fourth boss, sports a red mohawk. He seizes Jack's garage and tries to have Jack and company killed.
- Evilutionary Biologist: Dr. Fessenden has this as his M.O. He thinks that a fusion of human and dinosaur DNA is the next step in our evolution, and plans to create a world full of dino-human hybrids after he's done destroying mankind.
- Expy:
- Recurring enemy Bludge AKA Phantom looks very similar to Blanka.
- The Butcher himself has a similar choice of weaponry as Sodom, the second boss of Final Fight.
- Vice Terhune wields a pistol in combat, not unlike Edi E. from the same game. Likewise, he and his clones use a rather familiar looking jump kick animation...
- Slice and Hogg take some obvious cues from Rolento: the multiplication and the grenades, respectively.
- Knife fighting characters Blade and Razor take inspiration from Holly Wood and El Gado.
- Fat Bastard mooks Black Elmer, Wrench Terhune and Hammer Terhune are clearly inspired by Bill Bull, G. Oriber and Wong Who, both in terms of design and combat style.
- Fat Bastard:
- A certain type of enemy, known for charging at you and jumping onto you. They are: Black Elmer, Hammer Terhune and Wrench Terhune, who will sneer at you with an Evil Laugh if they get the jump on you.
- The second boss, the Butcher, is a bald, obese man who shares a similar set of tactics as the above, and is introduced carving up a dead Stegosaurus with sadistic glee.
- Game-Over Man: Vice Terhune points a gun at you from a first-person perspective during the continue screen. Continuing allows you to punch him in the face. Failure to do so results in you getting shot point blank.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Dr. Simon Fessenden plots to destroy mankind so he can create a world inhabited by dino-human mutants. He's even unleashed some already, such as Bludge, Morgan (who starts as a human but later mutates into a humanoid Pachycephalosaurus called Morgue), the Slisaurs (reptilian clones of Slice) and a strange parasitic organism called Tyrog, which mutates people into reptilian monsters by latching onto their heads.
- His Name Is...: An elder villager in episode 5 uses this line to tell you who is behind the dinosaur attacks, but is gunned down by the stage boss, Morgan, before he can finish his sentence.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: In some stages, the enemies will wake up Shivats (Tyrannosauruses) to attack you. Unfortunately for them, the Shivats are just as happy to attack the bad guys as well as the good ones.
- Husky Russkie: Mess O'Bradovich, judging by his last name and being the Mighty Glacier of the game.
- Hyperactive Metabolism: Picking up food both restores health and gives score (although only if your health bar is full). To quote: "That's good!/Delicious!"
- Inexplicably Preserved Dungeon Meat: You can find food in the most unlikely places, even if it's in wooden barrels at the bottom of a subterranean cave.
- Lean and Mean:
- Recurring enemies Blade and Razor are drawn with rather lanky builds compared to the rest of their allies.
- The fourth boss Slice and his dinosaur-hybrid counterparts, the Slisaurs. They carry an endless supply of razor-sharp boomerangs, which can either be thrown or used as knives. Slice and the Slisaurs are also extremely fast, leaving behind Speed Echoes as they charge or dodge.
- Ludicrous Gibs: Any Mook unfortunate enough to be killed by an explosive attack can suffer from this. Even eyeballs are shown flying from the explosive mess!
- Mad Bomber: Hogg, the third boss, fights primarily by tossing grenades at you.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Fessenden, the Big Bad.
- Mysterious Past: Mess' profile in the attract mode says that he has an "elusive past".
- Mythology Gag: Mess frequently uses wrestling moves and is the largest and strongest playable character, not unlike Mike Haggar.
- One-Winged Angel:
- Morgan, the fifth boss in the game. He starts as human guy with an Uzi and morphs into a humanoid Pachycephalosaurus for the second part of the battle.
- After initially mutating into a slightly stronger Palette Swap of Morgan, Dr. Fessenden turns into a three-headed, six-limbed monstrosity with both human and dinosaur parts that breathes fire.
- Palette Swap: As traditional in this sort of game, you see a lot of reused, color-swapped sprites for the more powerful enemies.
- Precision F-Strike: When you call out the second boss, the Butcher, on his gruesome actions, he responds with a classy "XXXX you!"
- Psycho Knife Nut: The Razor and Blade Mooks specialize in knife-throwing, the Butcher wields a pair of machetes, and Slice, the boss of the fourth level, primarily uses boomerang-shaped knives, as do his successors, the Slisaurs. On the player side, Hannah has better control over knife weapons than the others.
- Puppeteer Parasite: Tyrog, the sixth boss. Its true body consists of a vaguely reptilian head with several tentacles, so it defends itself by latching onto humans, mutating their bodies to match its own DNA and taking control. The stronger the human host is, the stronger Tyrog becomes. Killing the host doesn't necessarily kill Tyrog, which can simply abandon the dead host and bond with another. Interestingly, a dead host reverts to their normal human form if abandoned.
- Skippable Boss: During the fight with Tyrog, it's possible to kill the flying organism part after it detaches from a dead host, avoiding the second and/or third stage of the fight. This is rather difficult though.
- The Smurfette Principle: Exaggerated. Hannah is the only female character in the entire game, let alone the crew of playable characters.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Mess was killed off early in the original comics; it seems that he was added to the game just to give the player the Mighty Glacier option.
- Super Special Move: Each character has an extremely powerful special move such as Hannah Dundee's where she rolls a long distance into the enemy and the roll hits multiple times then she attacks with an automated combo.
- Throw-Away Guns: Guns that have run out of ammunition as the Uzi or the shotgun can be thrown away against enemies as projectiles, or (the rifle and the M-16) can be used as a club.
- Token Black Friend: Mustapha is stated as being Jack's best friend.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: The third stage has you driving a car and mowing down the sort of enemies you'd normally fight mano-a-mano.
- Villainous Breakdown: Fessenden spends his defeat raving madly about his mutation and being in denial about his defeat. So much so that he tries to use a self-destruct button on the lab to kill off our heroes.
- Was Once a Man: Many of Dr. Fessenden's experiments involve this. Fessenden himself as the Final Boss.
- Wrestler in All of Us: Mess O'Bradovich's move set consists of clotheslines, a scoop slam and even a suplex. Oddly enough, he lacks a jump and slam move.
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