Dudes with Attitude

Dudes with Attitude is a puzzle game where the titular "dudes" (Happy, Dude, Foxy, Babe, Patch, and Bozo) are on a mission to uncover buried jewels on Caribbean islands. Gameplay involves controlling one of them as they bounce back and forth across the screen trying to acquire the jewels on the playfield.

Unused Graphics#

Within the font are 24 unused characters.

A yellow dog.

An egg.

Unused Objects#

Hot Coals#

Hex code: 5B

Hot coals. It makes you die if you touch it two times. While it doesn't appear in any levels proper, it is available in the game's level editor. It also makes an appearance in the 1994 reskin.

Hourglasses#

Hex codes: 77, 75, and 76

Blue, gray, and red hourglasses. For some reason, when you try to get these objects to appear in the game, a shuriken appears near them, which makes it almost impossible to interact with them. Just like the "UNDO" and "REDO" blocks, they don't seem to do anything.

Version Differences#

In 1994, the game was rereleased under the name Trolls on Treasure Island. In this version, all characters were reskinned to look like The Trolls (based on the famous series of plastic dolls).

Title Screen#

Dudes with Attitude	Trolls on Treasure Island

Other than the obvious logo overhaul, the background was changed from black to blue and "PRESS START" text appears differently. The copyright texts were also moved closer to each other and the year was changed from 1990 to 1992, which is strange considering that the game actually came out in 1994. Seems like the development started much earlier than it was released.

Menu Screen#

Dudes with Attitude	Trolls on Treasure Island

The borders appear incorrectly due to a bad tile change, the ability to select your own character was removed (so there is only two instead of six), and the window was slightly shortened.

Map Screen#

Dudes with Attitude	Trolls on Treasure Island

While Dudes with Attitude lets you play the first four stages at the very beginning, Trolls on Treasure Island only allows you to play the stages in a linear order. The map was also completely redrawn, with the ocean becoming much darker and the compass getting moved to the top of the screen.

Gameplay#

Dudes with Attitude	Trolls on Treasure Island

Trolls on Treasure Island mostly has graphical differences, but the gameplay also went through some changes. All 32 stages were redesigned and the troll's head was added in the HUD that changes based on player's actions. Also, whenever you become red (which is done by pressing B), the "Jewels" text gets replaced with "NO NO", "NO DON'T", "HEE HEE", and other messages. This feature wasn't present in Dudes with Attitude.

Audio#

The menu screen music is different in Trolls on Treasure Island.

This robotic sound that plays when the character becomes red was replaced with a squeaky noise in Trolls on Treasure Island.

References#