Spot: The Cool Adventure

Spot: The Cool Adventure is not exactly a Game Boy port of M.C. Kids, but rather a straightforward platformer loosely based on that game, even sharing its McDonald's license... at least in Europe.

Debug Leftovers#

All these codes are for the European version, but all these leftovers are present in all regional versions. The main branch to draw the debug output is disabled but two special checks for level indexes are still active. If you use Game Genie code 011-B5D-E6A, you'll see a permanent debug output at the game's HUD. This also allows the following error messages to appear onscreen when triggered.

Error Message#

When entering the stage on the overworld map, the game checks the stage index and will throw an error if it exceeds $11. Use Game Genie code 00C-AEB-A2E to pass this check and to see the actual error message "TOO MANY LEVELS".

There is one more error message string in the game's resources at 0x00158A, "TOO MANY SPRITES", but it is unreferenced by any code or any other leftovers.

General Error Message#

Another debug assert may be triggered at the beginning of an actual stage. It also checks for the stage index to not exceed $11 for some reason. Use Game Genie code 00B-80F-A2E to trigger it when the difficulty select stage starts. There are some values from the game's RAM being displayed as well as a generic "ERROR" message right next to them.

Regional Differences#

For the American and Japanese releases, the McDonald's license was replaced with a 7-Up/Cool Spot one. Many changes were made as a result, mostly to the graphics.

Europe	US/Japan

The title screens are completely different. Interestingly, the McDonaldland title screen features three fish enemies from M.C. Kids which don't appear anywhere else in McDonaldland or The Cool Adventure.

Europe	US/Japan

In McDonaldland, the difficulty select screen has a block that you can touch to change between Mick and Mack.

Spot is the only main character in The Cool Adventure; as such, the block was removed, and the flower on it was moved to the ground. The M and "Lives" on the HUD were changed to a circle and "Spots", respectively.

McDonaldland has an introduction before the map, along with message houses between worlds. They were simply removed from The Cool Adventure... but not entirely, as the text for the first scene above is still at 0x778D.

Europe	US/Japan

The map screen has several differences. The M icons representing the stages were changed to 7Up logos, and the border around the world name was changed from Ms to Spot heads.

Europe	US/Japan

These are the houses where the McDonald's mascots reside in McDonaldland. The last space was redrawn for The Cool Adventure while the rest were simply removed, leaving empty stretches of road.

The world names are different as well:

Europe	US/Japan

The 100-for-a-free-life items were changed from M icons to the Cool Points from Cool Spot.

Europe	US/Japan

The decals in the Funhouse depict Ronald McDonald or Spot, depending on the version.

Europe	US/Japan

This sign, also seen in the Funhouse, was outright replaced with a smaller variant.

Europe	US/Japan

In the bonus area of the second Funhouse level, the text on the player's ship was changed from "MCK" to "SPOT", using a smaller font.

When you reach the end of the fourth Funhouse level in McDonaldland, the Hamburglar appears, runs off, and sics the final boss on you. When the boss is defeated, he drops Ronald's magic bag, which must then be picked up. Both of these touches were removed in The Cool Adventure, resulting in the boss appearing and dying rather unceremoniously.

Europe	US/Japan

After the final stage, McDonaldland has one more cutscene where Ronald thanks the player for finding the magic bag, followed by a shot of all of the major characters waving at the screen. The Cool Adventure has only one ending screen, in which Spot walks up and jumps onto the side of the 7-Up can. The enemy roll call is the same in both versions.

Europe	US/Japan

The Game Over screens, like the title screens, are totally different.

McDonaldland Game Over screen	In-Game

Interestingly, the McDonaldland game over screen appears to depict an early version of the final boss room. The only differences are the removal of the Ronald head (likely to make room for the "GAME OVER" text) and the placement of the machine that spawns the blocks. In the Game Over screen, it's placed slightly further from the left wall, and it uses some unique tiles where the pipe meets the curtains, which aren't used in the in-game version. The in-game boss room still uses unique tiles for where the pipe meets the curtains, but they're less noticeably different from the regular curtain tiles.