Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa is a baby-themed action platformer that was initially a Japan-only Famicom Disk System and Famicom game until America and Europe got to play it as a Wii Virtual Console title in 2008.
No Damage#
A message reading "NO DAMAGE" will appear at the stage number screen if you set RAM address value 0x1C to 1. While the message would appear to imply an invincibility mode, the only thing it seems to do is keep you from being able to pause.
Level Select#
On the title screen, hold Up + A on Controller 1 and Down + B on Controller 2. While holding all these buttons, press Select on Controller 1 to enable level select mode. Press Select (A in the Famicom version) to cycle through the level numbers to start with.
(Source: kasuminome for GameFAQs)
Version Differences#
Title Screen#
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FDS |
Famicom |
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The first obvious change is the difficulty setting added to the Famicom release. When you press Start you can adjust the difficulty, while on the FDS you start your game. On easy mode you start with 3 health and 4 lives while normal mode starts you off with only 2 health and 2 lives. Also enemy damage is reduced in easy mode. The normal difficulty is equivalent to the FDS version's difficulty.
In the Famicom release, the Konami logo was removed and added three stars, one being discolored. The original FDS release had an animation of Baby Upa dropping down onto the title logo and hopping on it before resting on top of it. However, in the Famicom re-release, Baby Upa was also removed from next to the title. The removed graphics still remain in the ROM, though.
Logo#
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Famicom |
FDS |
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The Famicom release starts off with this logo instead of a loading message.
Music#
The FDS release has some nicer quality music since it uses the system's wavetable sound channel. The Famicom release remixed some tracks to compensate for this.
However, rather than just removing the expanded FDS audio and leaving it like that (ala Gimmick! by Sunsoft), the sound designers in charge of the Famicom port chose to entirely rework and remix the soundtrack, adding new percussion and drum samples along with updating the audio with newer techniques since the original release to compensate for the removed FDS audio.
In addition, some tracks were further altered by having their melodies lowered.
Song Title |
FDS |
Famicom |
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A Rattle Samba (Main BGM) |
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Sweat On The Beat (Underground BGM) |
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BGM3 (Vertical Scroll BGM) |
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BGM4 (Underwater BGM) |
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Invincibility |
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Boss |
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Final Boss |
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Treasure Chest |
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Area Clear |
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World Clear |
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Player Out |
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Game Over |
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The Land Of Happiness (Ending BGM) |
- The original soundtrack did not use any samples whatsoever, and relied on the noise channel for kick drums, drum hits and cymbals. The Famicom re-release adds bass/kick drum percussion to almost every track. Additionally, the noise channel has been changed as well to sound more "snare-like", resulting in the noise drums sounding more focused and much less rough than in the original soundtrack.
- In addition, some tracks have an additional snare drum sample added, displacing the noise channel and relegating it to be used only for cymbal hits. BGM3 (Vertical Scroll BGM) is a prime example of this, along with the normal Boss theme, World Clear, Player Out and Game Over BGM, and Ending theme ("The Land of Happiness").
- World Clear replaces the noise drums for sampled bass drums and snare drums as described above, but switches to only using the noise channel for drums at the very end, done in a snare-like fashion.
- BGM4 (Underwater BGM), the Invincibility theme and Final Boss theme are the only tracks that do not use any samples whatsoever. However, the noise channel has been updated to give more of a snare-like attack to the drums, which makes it sound more focused and less rough than on the original tracks.
- BGM3, BGM4, World Clear, and the Ending BGM are the aforementioned tracks that have been shifted down to a lower key in the Famicom re-release.
Sound Effects#
Although none of the sound effects in the original version used the extra wavetable channel in the FDS, some sound effects were also updated in the Famicom re-release. One example is the Konami pause chime, which was changed from 4 notes to 6 notes, similar to the start chime in Life Force when you start the game, and also sped up as well.
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FDS |
Famicom |
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Staff Credits#
The credits differ between the original 1988 FDS release and the 1993 Famicom re-release. By the time the game was re-released some employees had already left Konami, so the newer credits reflect this, particularly for "Sound Design".
For whatever reason, the "Visual Design" credits were removed entirely in the Famicom version.
(Source: GDRI)
Staff Role |
FDS |
Famicom |
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Programmer |
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Visual Design |
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Chara Design |
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Sound Design |
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Package Design |
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