Motocross Maniacs

Motocross Maniacs was Konami's very first game on the Game Boy and also the first racing game on that system.

Motocross with added loops, basically.

Unused Level Tiles#

These level tile IDs are never loaded in any of the 8 race tracks ($CE00 to $DDFF in memory). Most of these even have proper collision checks.

Unused Graphics#

This sequence of symbols and letters is loaded in VRAM while on the title and course select screens on the Japanese Game Boy version:

The J, Z, X, H, –, ©, ´, ◻, J, :, Z, X, W, H, G, B, K, N, 0, 9, - as seen in the image - are not used in any game version throughout the entire game.

0 does sometimes load in place of the gas meter when the race track unloads, but it cannot be seen.

The US and European Game Boy versions add ., and . symbols that are used for the intro and title screens of those game versions.

As seen in the above image, at the end of the sequence of symbols with grey background, there is one symbol that looks like garbled mess. This symbol looks different on each game version and does not get used either.

Version Differences#

There are five different game versions:

• The Japanese version
• The US version
• The original European version from 1991
• The revised European version from 1995
• Konami GB Collection Vol. 3 for Game Boy Color, released in Europe
• Konami GB Collection Vol. 2 for Super Game Boy, released in Japan

European copies from 1995 and onwards were released by Konami themselves instead of Palcom due to the latter going defunct, and a revision to the game was made with the logo and title screens were altered to accommodate this.

Logo Screen#

Japan/Europe (1995)	US	Europe (1991)

The logo screen differs between the original Game Boy versions. The Konami GB Collection versions don't have these.

Title Screen#

Japan	US	Europe (1991)	Europe (1995)	Japan (Collection)	Europe (Collection)

• Copyright information was updated between versions.
• The Japanese Konami GB Collection Vol. 2 version sports an SGB border while the European Konami GB Collection Vol. 3 version supports GBC colors.
• The "VS 2-PLAYER" option was removed in both Konami GB Collection versions.
• For some reason, the European Konami GB Collection Vol 3 version changed the game's title to Bikers. This is likely to coincide with the European release of Motocross Maniacs 2 going by the name of Crazy Bikers.

Course Select#

Japan US Europe Japan (Collection)	Europe (Collection)

Interestingly, the European Konami GB Collection Vol. 3 version slightly tweaked behavior on the course select screen. The square for the second row only becomes visible after making your selection in the first row.

Preview Screen#

Japan Japan (Collection) Europe (Collection)	US Europe

There was a typo in the word QUALIFYING that was fixed in the original US and European Game Boy versions. Unfortunately, the typo was reintroduced in the Konami GB Collection versions.

Gameplay#

While the SGB border and GBC colors are nice additions by the Konami GB Collection versions, unfortunately the game runs slower in those versions compared to the original Game Boy versions, especially the European version that runs almost at only half the speed. This is true even when playing the game in GB mode.

References#