the cutting room mirror

Bucky O'Hare (NES)

Bucky O'Hare is a platformer based on the somewhat-obscure Saturday-morning cartoon, and is a rare licensed video game that's actually quite good. Of course it was also directed by Masato Maegawa, who would later go on to form a little company called Treasure.

Sub-Page#

Unused Graphics#

Sprites#

BuckyOHare-DeadeyeClimb.png
An unused frame from Deadeye's wall climbing animation.

BuckyOHare-Asteroids.png
Some exploding rocks, possibly asteroids, stored with enemies from the Yellow Planet.

BuckyOHare-Cannon.png
Some sort of cannon or tank, stored with enemies from the Blue Planet. Maybe intended to float on the water?

BuckyOHare-Zapper1.png
Also stored with enemies from the Blue Planet, and judging from design similarities, may be a turning frame for the cannon/tank. In any case, this graphic was reshaded and repurposed as an electricity zapper for the Cell level.

BuckyOHare-Zapper2.png
Another one stored with the Cell enemies. Unlike the last one, this is a half-object intended to be mirrored. The zappers used in the game are purely background graphics and face downward instead of upward.

BuckyOHare-PrisonerStand.png
Locked up in the Cell are a couple prisoner warthogs(?) who flip out if you attack them. This standing frame is unused as they are constantly in their run cycle, even when standing still.

BuckyOHare-PrisonerKick.png
This looks to be a kicking animation.

BuckyOHare-Triborg.png
An unused frame for the Triborg enemy found in the Salvage Chute. The Triborg splits into three parts when shot enough; this part being the middle portion. Its arms are crossed here, while they normally appear in a neutral position.

BuckyOHare-Insect.png
A flying insect stored next to the jumping toads for the final level. Possibly an early/alternate version of the enemy ships that fly towards/behind you.

Backgrounds#

BuckyOHare-IceBlock.png
A cracked variant of the ice blocks found on the Blue Planet. The ice blocks there don't crack and instead break with one shot.

BuckyOHare-Wheel.png
A wheel for the tank boss of the Yellow Planet. The game uses bank switching to make the wheels animate. Perhaps it was a stationary graphic at one point? This version is still slightly different from the two frames used in the final game.

Unused Text#

  • SOUND CHECK - Located at 0x11512. Was likely intended for a sound test, and is coded to appear in the same location as the PASS WORD text on the title screen. A pointer to this text exists, but no routine ever loads its associated index ($09).
  • START DEMO - Located at 0x11522. No pointer remains for this text.

Anti-Piracy#

As with most of the games Konami has published after 1990, this game features a copy-protection routine. It performs a checksum on the © KONAMI 1991 string used on the title screen, as well as part of the checksum routine itself; if either one has been tampered with, the game is forced into Hard Mode, in which a single hit will kill you regardless of your health. For some reason, the US and European versions do not have this check, and always set the Hard Mode flag to $00 at reset.

If you want to try out this mode for yourself, enter the password HARD! and prepare for a frustrating time.

References#


  1. GDR ファミリーコンピュータ ソフト一覧 1992年 - FAMILY COMPUTER Software List 1992↩︎
  2. NES Games↩︎
  3. Video Games (Deutsch) 1992-09, back cover↩︎
  4. Video Games (Deutsch) 1992-08, p. 45↩︎
  5. Total! - Issue 014 (1993-02)(Future Publishing)(GB), p. 17↩︎