This article has a talk page!You are a panda...on AN ADVENTURE! Somehow, Hummer Team went from porting bigger platform games to making a simple, small platform game like this.
This game, alongside Space Shuttle Exploration, was originally released on a 5-in-1 multicart by Ramar International (or "Rinco"), bundled with an incredibly rare "Talkman" Famiclone system. It would later resurface on various plug & play releases, mainly from Power Joy.
Unused Graphics#
The bobcat(?) was supposed to have a longer tail in the game. Even when putting the tiles together, the tail doesn't seem to connect properly. It's as if Hummer Team cut part of the tail off early in development and just left the tiles in for it.
Graphics for Rinco's logo.
Prior to 2024, the only known games that were published by Rinco were Captain Majid, Captain Bassam, The Dragon, and Os Cavaleiros do Zodíaco ("Knights of the Zodiac", also known as Street fighter II [sic]), and Panda Adventure was never seen on a cart published by them.
In 2024,1 photos were uploaded of a cartridge called Talkman 5 in 1, showing "PANDA" and "SPACE SHUTTLE" (another Hummer Team game that has these graphics as well); Os Cavaleiros do Zodíaco also has traits of a Hummer Team game such as the vanilla NES audio, so it's very likely that they were contracted by Rinco for game development at some point.
Unused Music#
Present at 0701.
23: Was most likely used with the Rinco graphics above. Sounds similar to a tune played in The Dragon's intro when the Rinco logo is on-screen.
24: The "Talking Cartridge" versions of Rinco games have copyright screens that feature a man (most likely Adnan Mohamed Kasem) shouting "RINCO!"; it is speculated that this track is an attempt at conveying that on vanilla NES hardware.
Other Versions/Hacks#
Panda Adventure (PowerJoy Version)#
This variation appears on PowerJoy multicarts using different colors.
Rings#
A pretty big hack of Panda Adventure that's based on The Lord of the Rings and uses graphics from Donkey Kong Country 4, first appeared on one of ABABSoft's Super Cool Boy 4-in-1 with the serial number as SDN3545. However, the rest of the game is pretty much the same. In Super New Year Cart 15-in-1, it goes by such names as "Gorge", "Peace Sea", "The Bridge", and "Green Evil" (although the last three variations start the game on different levels).
Unused Title Screen#
Changing the value under 0007 to 03 makes whatever is left of the title screen in the 15-in-1 version appear. The graphics were most likely removed in order to remove any Lord of the Rings references and make more space on the ROM for Pink Jelly, since the game loads Pink Jelly's CHR Data for the title screen in this version.
Unused Music#
There is a lot of unused music in this game. These can be found by changing the value in 0701 to one of the below.
20: Was originally used in Titenic and Harry's Legend.
22: A track only found in King Fishing as the map selection screen music.
25: Appears on Zechess' Samuri 60-in-1 Plug & Play controller playing on the menu. It also resembles Ottawan's D.I.S.C.O.
26: Only known to be used in King Fishing as well, this track can be found in a certain map while fishing in the game...
27: Appears on Zechess' ZDog 44-in-1 Plug & Play controller in the Monkey game. It is a cover of the song "Dead Bodies" from Ultima VII.
29: Appears on Zechess' Samuri 60-in-1 Plug & Play controller in the Drumfire game. Also originating from Ultima VII.
2B: Appears on Zechess' Samuri 60-in-1 Plug & Play controller as well as Z-Dog (also released by Zechess) in the Cute Heads game. This version has very miniscule differences to the one that ended up being used in Cute Heads. This was identified to be "PARTY.MID".
2C: An earlier variant of Zechess' Samuri 60-in-1 Plug & Play controller Star Bank intro.
2D: Appears on Zechess' Samuri 60-in-1 Plug & Play controller during the screen before the game begins. Also used in Hummer Team's Ping Pong game. This is a cover of the demo track "Big City Beat" from Midisoft Recording Session, which was also later included in Clickteam's The Games Factory.
2E: Never used in any other Hummer Team game. It is a cover of the song "Aqualung" by Jethro Tull.
2F: Never used in any other Hummer Team game, identified as "BLUES2.MID". Fishing, a game speculated to be made by Nice Code that is in a few plug-n-play devices and looks very similar to King Fishing, contains a rendition of the song as its title screen theme.
Pink Jelly#
A hack of Rings that appears on the Super New Year Cart 15-in-1. It removes the character select screen and the protagonist is a pink cat called Pink Jelly, who resembles Tails from the Sonic the Hedgehog series and would reappear in a few Samuri mini-games.
On the cart, it also goes under such names as "Beach Head", "Jungle War", and "Adventure", but these variations just make the game start on different levels.