Mickey Mania 7

Mickey Mania 7 is another one of those unlicensed Famicom ports of 16-bit games that adds a random number at the end of the game's name for whatever reason. While it's unsurprisingly missing a lot of content, what's present is surprisingly faithful to the SNES original.

Notes Bugs

Hidden JY Logo#

Press Up (×4), Down (×4), Left (×2), Right (×2) on the title screen. This version of the logo can also be found in Contra Spirits. The animation of Mickey and Pluto will continue to play over the logo. The only way out of it is to reset the game.

This code does not change for China Rabbit Baby.

Level Select#

Press A + B + Select on the title screen. Up and Down change the level, and Start enters it.

Level Viewer#

An unused level viewer can be re-enabled by changing the bytes at PRG-ROM address $00044 ($00054 in a headered ROM) from 41 85 to C0 84 and starting a new game. It is very similar to the one seen in other games by Ei-How Yang, such as Pocohontos and Toy Story.

The level viewer is, however, a bit glitchy; the coordinates use incorrect sprites (fixed by freezing RAM address $0072 to 74) and the game still forces the IRQ effect for some levels, requiring additional hacking. An IPS patch has been provided below that corrects these issues for you:

Download Mickey Mania 7 Level Viewer hack File: MickeyMania7-LevelViewer.zip (info)

Unused Objects#

ID: 04, duplicates: 16, 20, 25, 26, 27, 2E, 2F, 33, 37, 38

Steamboat Mickey actually exists in the game, and can be placed in-game using cheat 0400:04. Although he's non-functional, he does have unique mappings. The duplicates of him are placeholders for objects that aren't implemented yet.

Unused Graphics#

To do: Check for unused tiles.

Sparkles intended for the pencil transition. Their correct palette is loaded, making them blue.

An unused sprite of the Steamboat Willie Mickey for a pencil transition. The pencil transitions in this port only ever use the Mad Doctor Mickey sprite. None of the other stages' pencil transitions are present. Use code: 000074 6c can re-enable Steamboat Willie Mickey sprite to replace Mad Doctor Mickey sprite in pencil transitions.

It's noteworthy for being loaded onto the Pattern Tables (2nd graphic bank), where the Mad Doctor Mickey sprite is. His correct palette is also loaded, too.

An unused sprite for Mickey in the loading screen. It can be seen by freezing RAM address $033E to 0A.

Remnants of the final boss fight against Pete in the original game - the ball and chain that you use to damage him in his second phase, and the flying spiked stars that rained down whenever he landed from a jump. They are loaded into the last level at random points when the switch object is loaded.

A unused turning sprite for the bug enemy. It isn't loaded at all.

Called "IVE", though it's supposed to spell out "FIVE", likely for an alternate tries option. Loaded into the second bank.

The barrels intended for the tower level. The level in this port instead has falling boxes replacing them.

The flames also for the tower level, which were likely changed to flooding water due to them being background tiles and the console's PPU having a single background layer.

This is a part of the bridge in the original game, but this version uses another floaty bridge instead.

A droplet of water. The pot is unused in the game, so this sprite goes unused too.

Unused Tiles#

Steamboat Willie#

An alternate version of the box that is used in the crane boss, and extra water tiles. There's also alternate platform graphics such as a slope and everything.

Unseen Level Parts#

To do: Is there anything only viewable through the unused level viewer?

The beanstalk section is partially implemented, but bypassing the Y screen lock will reveal nothing.

Unlike the original game, the rearmost part in last Steamboat stage is a huge black square. Use Level Viewer can seen this.

Unused Levels#

Although not accessible within the level select, there are two unused levels in the game, both based on the Mad Doctor level from the original game. They have no music or enemies whatsoever. Freezing the RAM address $0320 to a specific value will allow access to them.

Elevator#

Room ID: 06

Based on the elevator ride from the original game, however the elevator does not move. Collision and screen scrolling appear to be broken - you can jump onto the top of the elevator and proceed to jump further upwards, causing the screen to scroll down, revealing an uncollectable marble. The game will crash if you attempt to complete the level.

There's an unseen level part that can only be seen by either going down using code 0013:B6 and revealing the bottom area, or using the level viewer and scrolling down.

Potion Room#

Room ID: 07

Based on the potion-concoction room that precedes the boss in the original game. A singular marble is present in the entrance corridor. None of the apparatus for making the potion (levers, beaker, burner, etc.) are present, but the level geometry has full proper collision. Due to the door also being absent, you can walk past where it would be, but the screen stops before the point where the boss room would load in the original. The game will crash if you attempt to complete the level.

All of the apparatus for making the potion still have graphics and data.

To do: Confirm that the following isn't just the result of the game loading garbage.

There's an unseen level part if you bypass the X scroll lock.

Unused Sounds#

Intended for the pencil animation.

An alternate steam whistle sound.

Partially Unused Music#

Normally, the game over music only plays for the first 4 seconds before sending you to the title screen. It also often plays with errors on the Square 1 channel.

Version Differences#

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this.

Mickey Mania 7	China Rabbit Baby

Many games released by J.Y. Company were available in at least two different versions, hardcoded in and selectable via internal DIP switches. Mickey Mania 7 has an alternate hardcoded version called China Rabbit Baby, which changes the title screen and Mickey sprites, as well as the cutscene animations, to a poorly-recolored Buster Bunny, using his sprites from Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose!.

Mickey Mania 7	China Rabbit Baby

As mentioned above, Mickey Mouse was changed to Buster Bunny, including some unused animations for some reason.

Mickey Mania 7	China Rabbit Baby

The replication of Mickey waiting for his stopwatch from the original game was replaced with a depiction of Buster Bunny walking. An already existing animation was likely used to cut costs.

Strangely, Mickey Mania 7 correctly uses a pencil animation before the first level starts, but China Rabbit Baby uses the waiting animation.

Mickey Mania 7	China Rabbit Baby

Furthermore, a slight difference is that the player can press Up to make Mickey look up. This was removed from China Rabbit Baby, likely due to being done on a budget, and the hitbox was updated to match the new sprite of the main character.

Strangely, the credits were not altered for China Rabbit Baby at all, resulting in Miki Mickey Mouse still appearing there.

Oddities#

In normal circumstances, the game will demonstrate all the levels that can be played directly one by one after the title screen. But player can't be hurt in demo mode, though player still try to avoid enemies automatically.

Leftover Data#

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Is there more stuff inside the ROM?

Although the debug menu seen in a few of Ei-How Yang's other games is not present here, there is a lot of leftover code/data from development, along with some early ROM banks from Contra Spirits for some odd reason.

Among the game's CHR data is the generic CHR font that is used for debug menus. It may be related to that.