A Bug's Life, Aladdin 2000

[Azathoth]

Both of these arrived today courtesy Sonik.

A Bug's Life is a port of the MD version, has DVS Electronics on the label but they're not mentioned on the title screen. Crap controls, same jerky platforming engine as all the other SNES pirates, and I'm not even going to bother to mention what sound music/FX/driver it uses... Much like Pocket Monster it's just a second rate port of the MD game.

Aladdin 2000, where do I start on this turd? Firstly, by thanking RetrogamerX for donating his cartridge; then by cursing those responsible for it's existence. You will literally fall through the fucking floor within the first 10 seconds of the game. Then there's this weird glitch where stuff you'd normally walk over that would hurt you (spikes, hot coals) doesn't actually hurt you at all, and in fact your character slides without animating at all when walking over it. It's a horrible, horrible game. As was speculated in another thread, it's a port of the MD version to SNES, but honestly the Famicom port was way better. The controls are awful, the physics are inconsistent, and from what I can tell the music might be original but the loop is so short it repeats after about 15 seconds.

Hopefully have this cracked soon so you can all be as underwhelmed as I.

[Barver]

Wow, looks like I missed some interesting stuff since being gone for awhile

Looking forward to seeing Aladdin the most, despite how crappy it sounds

[Azathoth]

I can't keep pulling gems like these out of my ass just to get you out of retirement

[Brn89]

Barver

Oct 18 2011, 12:39:04 AM

Looking forward to seeing Aladdin the most, despite how crappy it sounds [/quote]So am I, although I have a feeling it will be virtually unplayable even when Azathoth told us that you fall through the floor

[Pepper-98]

BrydoRX

Oct 18 2011, 05:19:08 AM

Barver

Oct 18 2011, 12:39:04 AM

Looking forward to seeing Aladdin the most, despite how crappy it sounds [/quote]So am I, although I have a feeling it will be virtually unplayable even when Azathoth told us that you fall through the floor [/quote]So the game's on par with a Yong Yong title, that's what I'm getting?  :rolleyes:  I bet the game also randomly crashes after the first level.

[Azathoth]

I managed to play up to level 3 in Aladdin, not sure exactly how many levels are included nor how they compare to the MD original since I never really played that one much either.

The whole "falling through the floor" thing happens.. a lot. When you do it, you don't actually die, your character continually jumps over and over and you can move left/right until you get to a "flat" section of the level where you could normally stand. Because you don't actually die and the game doesn't crash, it makes me thing that the programmers intentionally made the whole continual jumping thing to compensate for the falling bug rather than just fix the damn thing.

Both games dumped but need copy protection removed. Might have something workable within a week.

[Barver]

Hopefully it won't end up like Hercules and not be possible to crack :x

[Barver]

So nay news from d4s on if there's gonna be any problems with any of them without the original cartridges?

[Azathoth]

Spoke with him about a week ago and he said hadn't made a whole lot of progress, both of them have protection routines that are not similar to those in older games. No progress at all on Aladdin 2000 and A Bug's Life crashed when the first level started.

I will try to upload some pictures sometime soon. I'm unable to do videos since a)my capture device is as old as the hills and isn't hooked up and b) I'm on 56k

Here's the carts. I found it hilarious that Aladdin 2000 had a marker on both the PCB and shell so that the sweatshop workers would be sure to place the board correctly

Attachments:

• A2k.jpg (33.3 KB)
• A2k_PCB.jpg (22.11 KB)
• ABL.jpg (31.95 KB)

[Barver]

So uh..any progress? =p

Probably not possible to crack them without the original carts I'm betting, though it could just be doesn't have enough time ti get to cracking them. But I always assume the worst since it makes the pain easier later

[Azathoth]

Both had new copy protection routines not found in other carts. I tried redumping both to make sure that wasn't the problem but that didn't help either. Ended up sending both carts to D4S last week just in case it would help to physically examine them, or maybe get a working dump using a different device.

The guy that sent me Aladdin 2000 actually did it free, as long as I distributed the ROM and sent the actual cartridge to the AVGN for review afterwards, which I thought was an immensely generous gesture.

[Barver]

Haha, I wonder if the AVGN would ever do a pirate episode. Only touching on that one pirate wouldn't be enough

Well, that's good news he's at least getting the cartridges to examine. Look forward to any further news.

[djshok]

I wonder if that one jump in Bug's Life is possible on the SNES since it doesn't seem to be on the Genesis version.  I doubt it, but a guy can hope right...

[Azathoth]

Which jump would that be? I never played either version beyond about 3 minutes into the first level so I don't know a whole lot about the game.

Would you happen to have a savestate for it that's at the jump?

[djshok]

Azathoth

Feb 4 2012, 04:31:39 AM

Which jump would that be? I never played either version beyond about 3 minutes into the first level so I don't know a whole lot about the game.

Would you happen to have a savestate for it that's at the jump?[/quote]Here's a screenshot of the jump in the MD/Genesis version.



I think I still have a save state of it, I'll check later tonight, if I have it, I'll upload so you can check out and rage it too.