Cool Spot (Genesis)

Cool Spot is a charming little mascot platformer starring 7-Up's wayward punctuation.

Cheat Mode#

Press A, A, B, B, C, C, C, C, B, B, A, A, A, A, B, B, C, C on the Options screen. Programmer David Perry will pop up to greet you, and the debug screen will appear.

Disregarding the font, this screen is almost identical to the one seen in Aladdin, Earthworm Jim and Earthworm Jim 2, which David Perry also worked on.

Partially Unused Music#

This page or section needs more audio. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough audio. Please fix this. Specifically: Some of the game's music is programmed to use more sound channels than the Genesis actually has, because the music was made in GEMS. Get a list of songs that do this and get rips which showcase the unused channels.

"Twinklies", as it's known in the sound test screen, is a small jingle that plays when a Spot is released, i.e. when the level's goal is reached. This theme only plays for a couple of frames, as the celebratory stage ending screen quickly shows up. If the player has Freezeability enabled and freezes the game right after Spot's shot hits the cage, though, this theme can be heard in full. It can also be heard in the sound test menu, where its official name is given.

It's used in the Amiga port when collecting a letter in a bonus stage, and in the Master System and Game Gear ports when storing a letter after a bonus stage.

Regional Differences#

To do: Compare the Japanese version

Since PepsiCo owns the manufacturing rights to 7-Up outside of the USA where it was owned by Dr. Pepper instead, Spot wasn't the official 7-Up mascot in Europe (that honor instead going to Fido Dido, the mascot of Slice in the USA, who was interestingly enough also meant to have his own Genesis game). Thusly, all mentions of 7-Up were removed for the European version, for these two reasons, replaced with Virgin branding. However, the European credits screen still mentions that "All characters and related indicia are trademarks of 7-Up Corporation".

To do: Confirm if it's really the credits screen that mentions the 7-Up trademark. I just found this text at 7ACC5 and assumed it shows up in the credits.

The game's name on the copyright screen and the internal name also vary. The game was released as Spot and the Quest for Cool in Europe, but the title screen still uses Cool Spot.

Codename#

Interestingly, the first few bytes of the ROMs that store info on the game's codename contain BOTH names in all versions. They were swapped around for the European release, alongside the obvious Genesis/Mega Drive difference.

SEGA GENESIS    
(C)VRGN 1993.MAY
COOL SPOT       
                
                
SPOT AND THE    
QUEST FOR COOL  

SEGA MEGADRIVE  
(C)VRGN 1993.MAY
SPOT AND THE    
QUEST FOR COOL  
                
COOL SPOT       
                

As such, emulators like Gens call the American version Spot and the Quest for Cool, and the European version Cool Spot.

Title Screen#

US	Europe

The American version has Spot surf on top of a 7-Up bottle. This was changed to a generic plastic bottle with an SOS message inside in the European version.

Pickups#

To do: The pickups are animated in-game, get images that show all of the frames for each one.

US	Europe

The 7-point and health pickups had their 7-Up logo removed for the European version, being replaced by the Virgin logo. Thanks again, Pepsi!

Other Stuff#

• In the special stages, the player has to collect one of 6 letters. These letters form the word UNCOLA (7-Up's catchphrase at the time) in the American version, but VIRGIN in the European version.
• In the cheat mode menu, the telephone number is (714) 833 8710 in the American version and 0101 714 833 8710 in the European version.
• Michael Merren was credited as a second producer in the European version.