Prehistorik Man (Game Boy)

Contrary to its name, Prehistorik Man on the Game Boy is actually based on Prehistorik 2. Although mediocre, it makes up for that by being very advanced in the graphics and effects department.

Secret Greetings Message#

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At the title screen, press Left, Right, B, A, Up, Down, A, B, Right, Left. A 3D scroller with a secret developer message will be displayed. The only way out of this screen is to reset the Game Boy.

The full text of this message can be seen below, formatted with line-feeds for convenience.

PICT OF LOGON PRESENTS YOU THIS OTHER PART OF THE DEMO. THE 3D SCROLL DEMO.
WELCOME TO THE AMSTRAD CHEAT! EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE GREETED IN A GAMEBOY GAME,I KNOW..
GREETINX TO.. ALL CPC FREAX! VERY SPECIAL THANX TO.. BSC AND
KANGAROO MUSIQUE OF HJT. WITHOUT BSC'S SOUNDTRAKKER AND KANGAROO'S COMPOSING ABILITIES
THERE WOULD NOT BE ANY COOL MUSIC IN THIS GAME. DANKE THORSTI UND OLLI!
IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT..
THE AMSTRAD CPC IS AN 8 BIT HOME COMPUTER AND WAS PUBLISHED IN EUROPE BACK IN 1984.
IT IS LIKE A GAMEBOY WITH COLOUR SCREEN AND KEYBOARD.
MEMORY FULL,BYE...

Logon System were (are?) a French demoscene group that focused their efforts on the Amstrad CPC. The 3D scrolling effect is adapted from Pict's contribution to their most famous release, "The Demo". Programmer Elmar Krieger was part of the CPC demoscene and open about adapting their techniques to the Game Boy's hardware, so credit where it's due...

Incompatibility Message#

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Find a way to trigger this and then record its footage. This could also very well be an anti-piracy measure. We need to go deeper.

When the 3D scene appears to tell you a message, all of the ones that are available in the ROM are loaded into memory at address $EB1E. The first one that is loaded is a message warning of an incompatible peripheral being attached:

YOUR GAMEBOY IS FITTED WITH EQUIPMENT THAT IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH THIS GAME

Debug Crash Handler#

All versions of this game have a working crash handler. It's even still linked to some portions of the code. There are two places in the boss screen handling routine that can execute it if something goes wrong. Use Game Genie 00D‑658‑6EA+00D‑668‑D5A to make this screen appear as soon as you reach the first boss.

This screen will show the current registers and banks state. You can also watch a memory dump using the D-Pad.