General Chaos

n/a

General Chaos
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Electronic Arts (US, Europe), Electronic Arts Victor (Japan)
Developer: Game Refuge
Peripherals supported: 4 Way Play
Genre: Action, Simulation
Number of players: 1-4
Release Date RRP Code JP 1994-01-14 ¥8,9008,900 EM20025 US 1993-08 $49.9549.95 714301 EU 1993-09 E248SMXI EU (EA Classics) 1996-09 EAX02401043 PT 199x PT (EA Classics) 1994 MDJEA0340 UK 1993-09 £44.9944.99 E248SMXI SE (Rental) 199x BR 199x 044660 ZA (EA Classics) 199x

General Chaos, called General Chaos Daikonsen (ジェネラル・カオス 大混戦) in Japan, is a strategy game developed by Electronic Arts for the Sega Mega Drive in 1993.

It sees the player (General Chaos) command a handful of units around a small map, firing at the armies of the enemy (General Havoc). There are five different classes with their own strengths and weaknesses, and the overall aim is to capture the enemy's capital city.

Story

Ever since they were babies, brothers Chaos and Havoc enjoyed playing war games with each other and their classmates, and expanding their knowledge of military tactics. One day, Chaos discovers a rare comic book more valuable than any of the books in their ever-growing library, and shows it to Havoc. Unfortunately, this proves to be a mistake, as the mere sight of it brings out his greedy and treacherous side. Havoc tries to take the book for himself, but it rips apart in a tug-of-war. After this, the two brothers blame each other, and grow apart.

Years later, they both become military dictators of the fictional countries of Moronica (Chaos) and Viceria (Havoc). The two generals war with each other for decades, but for all the battles that rage across the land, they cannot achieve victory. After days of consideration, they come to the decision of using smaller, quicker armies of soldiers all specializing in a particular kind of weapon to settle the score permanently.

Gameplay

Campaign map

The game is a real-time, squad-based strategy game. Before reach battle, the player selects from one of four squads, each drawn from a pool of five different units. Each unit has a different weapon with different characteristics. Battles are depicted from an overhead, isometric perspective on a single screen with no scrolling.

Unit movement is controlled using a cursor, which is moved around with the D-pad. The current unit can be switched with , which cycles through the squad in order. The selected unit can be commanded to move to the cursor with . All units can be ordered to attack a target highlighted with the cursor with . When using the Commando squad, the controls change; instead of controlling a cursor, the player moves the selected unit directly with the D-pad and fires with .

Whenever two soldiers on opposite sides get close enough, the battle pauses and "close combat" ensues, which is a one-on-one brawl between the two units. The soldiers punch with , kick with , and block with . The units fight until one unit loses all of his health points and falls to the ground. Fallen soldiers can be revived by moving the cursor (or another soldier in the case of the Commandos) close to the injured soldier and calling for a medic with to revive him. However, there is a limit on the number of times that a medic can be called. The player starts each game with five medic calls and earns more at 10,000, 25,000, and 50,000 points or by collecting items. Medics cannot be attacked. If a soldier is not revived with a medic, his body eventually decays to a skeleton, and the unit is permanently dead for the rest of the battle. Some attacks can instantly kill a unit so that he cannot be revived by a medic.

In the campaign mode, the player plays through 17 battles as General Chaos with the objective of capturing the General Havoc's capital city. The player can choose between three different battlefields before each match. Some battles have special objectives, such as destroying an aircraft or protecting a tank, which reward bonus points. If the player wins a battle, the front line is pushed towards the enemy's capital. Eventually, the player can attack the enemy's capital directly.

The game supports two-player head-to-head (each player controls a separate squad) and two-player side-by-side (each player controls a pair of Commandos on the same squad and fights the AI) modes. The game also supports up to four simultaneous players with the 4-Way Play adapter. The three player modes pair two players, each with a Commando unit, against a third player with a Commando team or a squad. The four player mode gives each player a Commando and arranges them in pairs against each other.

The game has a tutorial mode called "Boot Camp," which introduces the player to the mechanics of the game.

Units

	Gunner
	Armed with a submachine gun. A well rounded unit with a medium-range attack and high rate of fire, though his gun might jam. It is used primarily for attacking.
	Launcher
	Armed with a rocket launcher, which is a powerful, slow-firing, long-range weapon. The launcher's attack can be stopped by cover but may randomly result in an "instant death" of an opposing combatant (reduced to a skeleton and cannot call a medic). Can destroy bonus objective targets.
	Chucker
	Armed with grenades. Grenades have a low rate of fire and are easily avoidable, but the grenade has good range, goes over cover, and can damage multiple units. Can destroy bonus objective targets.
	Scorcher
	Armed with a flamethrower, which, despite having the shortest range, can hit multiple soldiers and is the fastest weapon. Once a Scorcher is on top of another unit, it is very difficult to survive. Because of this capability, they make excellent flanking and escort units. Attack may randomly result in an "instant death" of an opposing combatant (reduced to a pile of ash and cannot call a medic). If the Scorcher goes into water, his weapon is temporarily disabled (indicated by bubbles being shot out instead of fire).
	Blaster
	Armed with bundles of dynamite sticks, which can be thrown over cover and inflict heavy damage. However, they have a very slow rate of fire and the second shortest attack range. Attack may randomly result in an "instant death" of an opposing combatant (reduced to a skeleton and cannot call a medic). Can destroy bonus objective targets.

Squads

	Assault Team
	Gunner Launcher Chucker Scorcher Blaster
	Brute Force
	Scorcher Scorcher Grenader Grenader Launcher
	Commandos
	Gunner Chucker
	Demolition Squad
	Gunner Gunner Launcher Launcher Chucker

Battlefields

There are 51 total battlefields.

Along the Oalman River

Checkpoint Chaos

Near the Bizzarn Ocean

Versions

Localised names

Also known as

Language	Localised Name	English Translation
English	General Chaos	General Chaos
English (US)	General Chaos	General Chaos
Japanese	ジェネラル・カオス 大混戦	General Chaos Daikonsen

Production credits

• Concept & Design: Brian Colin and Jeff Nauman
• Programming: Jeff Nauman
• Graphics: Brian Colin
• Music & Sound Effects: Mike Bartlow
• Producer: Jim Simmons
• Associate Producer: Chris Wilson
• Assistant Producer: Jeff Glazier
• Technical Director: Tim Brengle
• Testing Manager: Randy Delucchi
• Product Testing: Yun Shin, Tony Iuppa, David Costa, Steve Imes
• Product Manager: Lisa Higgins
• Marketing Art Direction: Nancy Waisanen
• Package Design: The Dynamic Duo
• Documentation: Michael Humes
• Documentation Layout: Emily Favors
• Quality Assurance: Ted Fitzgerald, Terrence Chin
• Special Thanks to Rich Robbins & John Manley

Source:

US manual

Magazine articles

Main article: General Chaos/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #50: "September 1993" (1993-xx-xx)
also published in:

• Sega Visions (US) #15: "October/November 1993" (1993-xx-xx)

Print advert in Consoles + (FR) #23: "Septembre 1993" (1993-0x-xx)

Print advert in Mega Force (ES) #17: "Septiembre 1993" (1993-xx-xx)
also published in:

• Hobby Consolas (ES) #24: "Septiembre 1993" (1993-xx-xx)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source Game Players (US) 77 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) 90 №13, p22/23

	84
Based on 2 reviews

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 60 Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J 65 Consoles + (FR) 79 Cool Gamer (RU) 60 Computer & Video Games (UK) 68 Computer + Video Giochi (IT) PAL 69 Electronic Games (1992-1995) (US) NTSC-U 80 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U 80 Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 3 (RU) 60 Mean Machines: The Essential Sega Guide (UK) 70 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 80 Gamers (DE) 73 GamesMaster (UK) PAL 81 Hippon Super (JP) NTSC-J 65 Hobby Consolas (ES) 82 Hyper (AU) 74 Igry Sega Luchshiye iz luchshikh. Vypusk 1 (RU) 70 Joypad (FR) PAL 86 Joypad (HU) 92 Mega (UK) PAL 65 Mega Action (UK) PAL 88 Mega Force (FR) 93 Mega Fun (DE) PAL 58 Mega Power (UK) PAL 80 MegaTech (UK) PAL 72 Magazina Igrushek (RU) 85 Mean Machines Sega (UK) PAL 71 Player One (FR) 75 Score (CZ) 47 Sega Power (UK) PAL 80 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 91 Sega Zone (UK) PAL 87 Sega Force Mega (UK) PAL 88 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 67 Sonic the Comic (UK) PAL 87 Todo Sega (ES) 83 Tricks (RU) 89 Tricks 16 bit (RU) 79 Video Games (DE) NTSC-U 71 VideoGames (US) NTSC-U 80

	76
Based on 40 reviews

General Chaos

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual PCB

Mega Drive, EU
Cover
Cart Manual PCB

Mega Drive, EU (EA Classics)
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, PT
Cover

Mega Drive, PT (EA Classics)
Cover

Mega Drive, SE (Rental)

Mega Drive, CZ
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, BR
Cover

Mega Drive, ZA/KE/LS/MZ/NA/BW/SZ/ZW (EA Classics)
Cover
Cart

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 f1ecc4df MD5 955622a63dc3b06c13823fb352f50912 SHA-1 aea1dfa67b0e583a3d367a67499948998cb92f56	1MB	1993-08	Cartridge (US/EU)
✔	CRC32 05cc7369 MD5 9ff0afe64a5765a1e2bc1f40bcd2e554 SHA-1 9f205fc916df523ec84e0defbd0f1400a495cf8a	1MB	1994-01	Cartridge (JP)