the cutting room mirror

Curious George (Game Boy Advance)

Curious George is the Game Boy Advance version of the console game based on the movie of a book series which all share the same name. Sheesh.

Memory Debugging Menu#

Watch on YouTubeThis game has an almost fully functioning, normally inaccessible memory debugger. To access it, change the ROM value at location 0x6A830 to 0x08000C8F. This will show the debugger at the start of each level.

  • Profiling
  • Enable / Disable

This toggle is non-functional. However, profiling can be enabled/disabled by setting 1 byte at address 0x3000000 to n>0 or 0, respectively.
When enabled, there are more profiling options that show average cycles and scanlines the function took:

  • PhysicsSystem::Update()
  • Level::Update()
  • PlacedObjectGenerator::Update()
  • Slow RAM Usage

  • Shows current RAM usage, via amount of free and used blocks.

  • Memory Allocation

  • Displays a list of currently allocated blocks in RAM.
    A: Block location.
    H: Unknown. Potentially is this block's ID.

  • Back

  • Exits the menu.

    The text for this menu is also present in another game developed by Torus Games: Fantastic 4: Flame On.

    (Source: ghomaghity, Ferrox (Text))

    Unused Sounds#

    Located in the game are six unused sound effects. Most of these appear to be leftovers from Fantastic 4: Flame On.

    Sound Effect

    ID

    Notes

    0x03

    Used in Fantastic 4's main menu

    0x04

    0x05

    Used upon exiting a menu in Fantastic 4

    0x06

    Very quiet buzz

    0x07

    0x08

    Development Text#

    Located 106 times over two different areas of ROM is this string of bytes:

    62 61 64 5f 61 6c 6c 6f 63 00 00 00 00 00 ff ff dd 29 00 03 00 00 ff ff ad 2b 00 03

    ... which can be interpreted as:

    bad_alloc
    
    
    
    
    
    )
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    +

    At 0x6B0AC is this strange line. What system they're referencing is unknown, as it's not in the correct format to be used in in-game textboxes. Also present in Fantastic 4: Flame On.

    This is some sample text to output - yes, that's right, I am simply rambling on to test out the system

    Later on at 0x6E93A is this single word. While "TORUS GAMES" is used during the credits, this specific piece of text is never shown.

    Torus

    Starting at 0x1030C5 is list of object names. While some names correlate to in-game objects, many seem to be leftovers from Fantasic 4: Flame On.

    Accumulator
    AreaFade
    AutoWalker
    Balloon
    BasicDamagable
    Boss
    Boss03_Galactus_Part
    CableCar
    CameraRegion
    Chaseable
    CuriousObject
    CutSceneEvent
    CutsceneManager
    DamagePitBox
    DebugPoint
    DemoMode
    EndLevelPosition
    FadeAction
    FadeToColourAction
    FadeToNormalAction
    GameVariableAccessor
    HUDElement
    HUDNumericDisplay
    Hint
    LevelCompleteAction
    LogicSwitch
    MatAnimController
    MsgDrivenGauge
    NPC
    NPCFriendly
    POG_GenerateBox
    PalCycleAction
    Palette
    Pickup
    PlacedAmbientSound
    PlacedAnimation
    PlacedSong
    PlacedTimer
    Platform
    Projectile
    PushAction
    RandomTargetNotifier
    RespawnPosition
    Rope_SS
    ScreenReferenceBox
    ScrollAreaClamp
    ScrollLock
    SideScrollingEndLevel
    SideScrollingRespawn
    Spawner
    SpeechBubble
    Sprite
    StartPosition
    TextBanner
    Timer
    Toggle
    Trampoline
    TransformPlayerAction
    Trap
    TriggerBox
    TutorialStation
    UI_Button
    UI_HighScoreIconBar
    UI_KeypadObserver
    UI_LayerScroll
    UI_LevelSelect
    UI_MapSteppingStone
    UI_MessageBox
    UI_PasswordCharacter
    UI_PasswordWatcher
    UI_ScoreRewardIcon
    UI_SliderKnob
    UI_StructureEvent
    UI_UpgradeLevelBar
    Waypoint

    Right before minigame name and instructions are two placeholder lines. Following the minigame strings are five more lines.

    TODO
    TODO
    mini-game
    TODO
    TODO
    TODO
    TODO

    Located in the credits are a few placeholder lines.

    TODO
    Tester 5
    Tester 6
    Tester 7
    TODO
    Special Thanks 7
    Special Thanks 8