Robert R Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 It seems to me that a lot of care and attention to detail went into the original Bubsy game, and is my favorite of the Bubsy games for that reason. I mentioned many of the differences I notice in reply #181 - background music for each situation, including each area, each boss, each shirt that provides some kind of protection (invincibility and shadow). And after recently finding apparently the entire soundtrack for the original Bubsy game at http://spunkyradbobcat.tumblr.com, there are apparently even three different variations of the end-of-level victory music, and two different versions ("Clean Only" and "Wet Peeve") that accompany Bubsy in a water slide. (Am I right in assuming that Bubsy's ultimate bad-hair day after shaking off the water was a woman's idea?) Even when losing a life, Bubsy does so cartoonishly, which really shouldn't be much of a surprise. Him being a cartoon character would explain how he somehow wears goggles while on the roller coasters, even though he's not wearing any pants, and has no visible pockets to pull them out of. (Maybe the same hidden pocket he fumbles around in and pulls a watch out of when time expires.) I also got the impression from watching some of the videos on YouTube, and playing the game myself, that the layouts were designed in many cases to reward going all-out. (Scott "BANZAI!!!" Barnes, anyone?) I do find the original game fun to replay, even though I've mastered the game pretty thoroughly (as searching for "Bubsy purrfect" on YouTube should attest). I think I explored every part of every one of those four by 15-to-20-foot maps. Just a couple bugs take a little something away from the original Bubsy - dying with more than 81 lives or completing a level with more than 80 lives triggers a bug that necessitates using a Continue when it shouldn't be necessary. I suspect that has something to do with 81 being 9x9. And others have found that one checkpoint in level 8, if you get it without bopping the Woolie next to it, and die before getting another checkpoint, will drain all your lives one by one by spawning Bubsy right on top of that Woolie. If an update or remake gets made for Claws Encounters, those are definitely two things to fix. On a side note, it looks like Super Bubsy is a remake of Claws Encounters for Windows machines, with Bubsy saying a few more things during play ("Look out, it's Bubsy time!", "Hey, was that Elvis?", "I feel like a furry Huck Finn!"). Bubsy II becomes little challenge when one discovers that in the Ancient Egypt or Medieval areas, you can repeatedly use diving suits to get a super marble in the underwater areas, then use the trading cards from them to buy more diving suits to do so to an even greater extent, and then buy all the lives you need. But, Bubsy II is customizable for how long a game you want, or even just the mini-games. Fractured Furry Tales for the Jaguar is a real challenge, but that also makes it highly satisfying to beat. From the very first level, you are subject to assault by hornets, which you don't see at all in the original Bubsy. That increases the difficulty of Fractured Furry Tales considerably, beyond anything in the original Bubsy or Bubsy II, I'd say. But once you have a strategy for dealing with the hornets, and developing a sense for where they are likely to be (or remembering where they are), the rest of the game becomes more like the original. Though like I said in reply #181, it would be nice to have the audible cues provided by a different background music while a Shadow Bubsy or Invincibility shirt is in effect, which also clues you in to when it's about to wear off. And special background music for facing each boss would be a nice touch, too. Like I said in my earlier reply, maybe the Jaguar cartridges had memory limitations limiting the music and the animations from the original game that could be transferred over (like flying around like a deflating balloon when popped, or getting up and walking off the screen with an accordion middle if Bubsy fell from too great a height without gliding, or an audible "Hello?" when knocking on the inside of the screen). (And hopefully when Virtual Jaguar 2.1.0 for the Mac is working right, I can enjoy the game at the proper speed without having to check and uncheck the GPU every life.) I wonder if I can top my best of finishing with 87 lives to spare... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solidcorp Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Sure enough, here it is... ; ; ONCE FADED OUT DO LIFE/CONTINUE PROCESSING ; LDX #$80 ; STX !INIDISP SEP #MEMBIT SED LDA !LIVES SEC SBC #1 STA !LIVES CLD BMI .NOLIVES ; <<<<< Here is the error JML >PLAYERTURNOVER .MEM8 .IDX8 .NOLIVES ; NO MORE LIVES CONTINUE? DEC !CONTINUES BPL .CONTINUE JMP .NOCONTINUE .CONTINUE Binary byte values are normally stored in two's compliment format and can have 256 values in eight bits. Signed values use the highest bit as a sign bit and can represent numbers between -128 (10000000 binary) and 127 (01111111 binary). The number of lives is stored in one binary coded decimal [bCD] byte. The BCD format stores values as decimal digits in each nibble of a byte, i.e. two's compliment 12 in decimal would look like 0C in hexadecimal and 00001100 in binary, the same value in BCD would look like 12 in hexadecimal and 00010010 in binary. The value 80 in BCD looks like 10000000 in binary which is the first value with the high bit set. Remember that in signed two's compliment signed arithmetic the high bit is the sign bit indicating a negative value. The code above is triggered when Bubsy dies. It decrements the number of lives in BCD and then checks to see if the resulting number of lives is negative, which is logically what would happen if Bubsy had zero lives left (in addition to the current one being played) and died. The problem arises when you decrement BCD 81 lives... it triggers the sign flag and the BMI (Branch if minus) instruction jumps to the code for continuing the game. The code should have checked for zero remaining lives before decrementing the number of lives rather than checking for a negative value after. Good find. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 The code above is triggered when Bubsy dies. It decrements the number of lives in BCD and then checks to see if the resulting number of lives is negative, which is logically what would happen if Bubsy had zero lives left (in addition to the current one being played) and died. The problem arises when you decrement BCD 81 lives... it triggers the sign flag and the BMI (Branch if minus) instruction jumps to the code for continuing the game. The code should have checked for zero remaining lives before decrementing the number of lives rather than checking for a negative value after. In BCD mode a value of $00-$01 is $99 which does set the -ve flag. On the 6502 its best to think of BCD mode operations as being carried out on unsigned values and keep a "sign" bit in another byte (if you need it). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kid_vidiot Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Never thought I'd see such in-depth Bubsy talk....I love it 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soulmeister Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 This was my opinion when I wrote the review lol http://ataritimes.com/article.php?showarticle=605 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 I have one - do you know how excited doctorclu is going to be when he reads this? Got that right sh3-rg! Solidcorp, just wanted to say glad you found this place (would love to hear how you found us). I'm sure I'll have many questions. We have been able to assemble from decompiles (and from Curt Vendel's archives) about 90%-95% of the Jaguar Bubsy source code. Always thought it would be fun to make some minor changes to the game, or even make other Bubsy games for Jag fans to enjoy. So maybe one day we can get your help porting the original Bubsy to the Jaguar with what you know of the original game. Would love to see pictures of the scrolls. I'll admit most of my time has been playing the Jaguar version of the game, but the original Bubsy (Genesis, SNES, and then later PC ports) is a lot of fun. Sure the carnival mazes were a bit laborious at times, but I didn't care. Just barreled through and had a blast with it. Loved the levels on the train. And the music for the desert thereafter was addicting and reminded me of a Wylie Coyote cartoon (especially as much as I died). On the original Bubsy I think I have made it to the Jungle levels. Need to work more on that. I have tried to get to know what memorabilia came out for Bubsy and would love to see what all you have, if nothing else, so a more complete list/catalog can be made for the Bubsy fans and collectors out there. Much of what I have run across so far (mainly by watching Ebay since like 1999) is talked about on the Bubsy Fan Blog. (http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/234-bubsy-bobcat-fan-blog/) "Here is an interesting factoid/egg-ish bit of trivia: Do you know how when you complete a level you see the digits of the code scrambling before they settle on the screen? Those are actually all the codes to all the levels of the game scrolling by. The idea was that if you finish the first level and record that screen with a VCR (hahaha yea, VCR), then play it back frame by frame you could get the codes." That is cool. Can't say I have heard of game giving up all the secrets early on into the game (at the moment I bet people wish the makers of Soccer Kid (another Jaguar game people are asking about as I write this) did the same. Brief mention of Star Castle, love that game, played the arcade game when my dad was repairing one for a customer back when I was a kid for hours and hours. I extensively tested that game for my dad you see. Have to check out the version your company made. Again welcome, and look forward to seeing whatever you dig out for the Bubster. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sh3-rg Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 I bet people wish the makers of Soccer Kid (another Jaguar game people are asking about as I write this) did the same. Sorry to go OT, I posted the codes to the other 2 levels in the other thread 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 Though like I said in reply #181, it would be nice to have the audible cues provided by a different background music while a Shadow Bubsy or Invincibility shirt is in effect, which also clues you in to when it's about to wear off. And special background music for facing each boss would be a nice touch, too. Like I said in my earlier reply, maybe the Jaguar cartridges had memory limitations limiting the music and the animations from the original game that could be transferred over (like flying around like a deflating balloon when popped, or getting up and walking off the screen with an accordion middle if Bubsy fell from too great a height without gliding, or an audible "Hello?" when knocking on the inside of the screen). Jaguar Bubsy was a 2 meg game (nicely compressed and everything). At the time it was made most games were about that size for the Jaguar. My theory is it was cheaper to produce the 2 meg games, or maybe there were not enough additional information to warrant the production costs of a 4 meg game, so they worked within the 2 meg confines (again with nice compression). Anyway, if we were ever interested to make a 4 meg image for the Skunkboards, you could have the 2 meg of game, and go nuts with an additional two meg of sound clips, music variations, and animations and probably still not use up all the space a Jaguar cart can do. So... just saying.. it was not that the Jaguar did not have the space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 [/size] Sorry to go OT, I posted the codes to the other 2 levels in the other thread Oh was that all the codes there were? I was so used to Bubsy FFT and the 15 codes, or even the original Bubsy and those five or so codes. Man, Soccer Kid is a short game in comparison. (still fun of course). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sh3-rg Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 Man, Soccer Kid is a short game in comparison. (still fun of course). It's pretty long really, there are 3 levels per country, so you can only start from russia, japan, usa as an alternative to starting from the beginning, you then have to somehow scrape your way through each of the levels in the country and then beat the bosses (not easy!). Anyway, enough Soccer Kid in here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 This was my opinion when I wrote the review lol http://ataritimes.co...showarticle=605 And finally a get to the message that drew me here tonight (and then I saw Solidcorp's messages and was blown away for a few minutes) When I saw the subtitle of the article "Step aside Skylar, Bubsy is the new voice in town!" and of course Skylar being the computer voice in the Jaguar pack in game Cybermorph (for those that don't venture beyond Bubsy much) I got this fun idea of recompiling Cybermorph with Bubsy voice tracks. Yeh, substitute a picture of Bubsy instead of Skylar, or just remove that entirely, and make it where it is like Bubsy is flying the Cybermorph. So when you hit a mountain, instead of "Where did you learn to fly" Bubsy can say... "A pilot's license, what for?" When the Cybermorph gets shot instead of "Ouch" Bubsy can say "Oh sure! Let's all torch the Bubster!" When it would normally say "Good shot" Bubsy can say ... "NOTHING CAN STOP US NOW!!" Instead of "Well done" Bubsy can say... "Keep it up, just keep it up." And if you were ever able to port Battlemorph (where you can put the ship under water), Bubsy can say whenever you submerge the ship "What do I look like? Flipper?!" And yes, you would finally have something more annoying than Skylar, but it would be a fun fan hack for like 5 to 10 minutes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert R Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 If we ever do get a remake of Fractured Furry Tales, certainly have Bubsy saying something different and witty at the start of each chapter (and fitting for how he's animated for the chapter screen), rather than the same thing for each of the three chapters of a single world. (e.g., "Somebody say there's a giant up here? Uh ohhhh..." instead of "Pilot's license? What for?" on chapter 6, or "You didn't think this would be Reservoir DOGS, did you?" for Chapter 12, or "As if I weren't hyper enough already!" to "Sugar and Spice" as the title for Chapter 13, and save "Nothing can stop me now!" for Chapter 15.) Perhaps something could also be done on the hit detection, so that if Bubsy is higher up than an enemy when contacting it, he'll win, rather than only take out the enemy if on the way down already. I think that would alleviate much of the frustration with leaping to get on top of a charging hornet, but because it contacts you on the way up, you get popped, even if you're on top of it. And certainly landing after getting hit in mid-air shouldn't be the end of any death animation - something else should happen upon landing, whether it's falling over with bouncing eyeballs, getting shattered, or getting flattened. And of course my prior suggestions still apply 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zerosquare Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 A remake of Bubsy? What could possibly go wrong? 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 Just a quick announcement that new entries have been added to the Bubsy Blog in the last three months. In those some new pictures of Bubsy merchandise has been added. Those include: The Bubsy Plush (perhaps the best picture of it to date) The Bubsy in store Standee (for the original Bubsy) The Bubsy Mug And my favorite new find, the Bubsy Portable Hole, a frisbee promotion for Bubsy 2. So check it out... http://atariage.com/forums/blog/234-bubsy-bobcat-fan-blog/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacmania Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 There is a big article on Bubsy The Bobcat in the new Retro Gamer mag if you are interested. There was also a bit about the Jaguar version in particular a few issues back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 Very cool read Scott, thanks for sharing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 (edited) There is a big article on Bubsy The Bobcat in the new Retro Gamer mag if you are interested. There was also a bit about the Jaguar version in particular a few issues back. Was looking for that issue and found the link here... https://www.imagineshop.co.uk/magazines/retro-gamer-issue-114.html Edited April 5, 2013 by doctorclu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacmania Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 Was looking for that issue and found the link here... https://www.imagines...-issue-114.html That's it! And I just looked for you, Jaguar version of Bubsy was featured in Issue 111. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 That's it! And I just looked for you, Jaguar version of Bubsy was featured in Issue 111. Is there any way to view these articles online? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacmania Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 Is there any way to view these articles online? Don't think so but you can get digital versions of each mag much cheaper than print copies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted November 17, 2013 Share Posted November 17, 2013 There has been an update to the Bubsy Fan Blog covering the new Bubsy web game "Bubsy 3 and the James Turrell Retrospective". Read more about it here: http://atariage.com/forums/blog/234/entry-10607-cruizin-youtube-november-2013-bubsy-3d-is-art/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevincal Posted November 18, 2013 Share Posted November 18, 2013 im baffled at how you guys could like bubsy, then again i never gave the genesis or snes games a play. just tried the jag version, and its shit. give me zool 2 or rayman PLEASE. 1 hit death games are just plain, retarded. i guess if you are a masochist, those games are cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeoGeo64 Posted November 21, 2013 Share Posted November 21, 2013 Bubsy was just another failed attempt to create a mascot. I think Rayman is the unofficial mascot of the Jaguar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex Dart Posted November 21, 2013 Share Posted November 21, 2013 Bubsy was just another failed attempt to create a mascot. I think Rayman is the unofficial mascot of the Jaguar. Nope, Rayman belongs to Ubisoft. Like it or not, the Jag's mascot is its own 17(?) button gamepad. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isgoed Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 If there was supposed to be a Jaguar's mascot, I think that Trevor McFur was supposed to be, as Atari called it a "household name". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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