The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy

The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy
Developer: Codemasters Publishers: Camerica (US), Codemasters (EU) Platforms: Unlicensed NES, Aladdin Deck Enhancer Released in US: 1991 Released in EU: 1992 This game has unused animations. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences. This game has a prerelease article This game has a notes page This game has a bugs page This game has a Data Crystal page

The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy is one of the most ambitious titles in the series, sporting a large world interconnected in multiple directions with the aid of several different minigames.

This wasn't enough to make it sell well, however, as although it was finished by September 1990, a legal action between Camerica and Nintendo over the Game Genie held back Codemasters' first batch of NES games until mid-1991, missing the 1990 Christmas rush. This resulted in the game selling 150,000 units instead of the expected 500,000.

Sub-Pages

Prerelease Info

Notes

Bugs

ROM/RAM Test

All NES games developed by Codemasters are based on the same stub library. As a result, all of these games, including those on multicarts, include a "smiley test" that verifies the integrity of the PRG ROM and CHR RAM chips.

To activate the PRG ROM test, hold Up + Down + Left + Right + A + Select + Start and press Reset. To activate the CHR RAM test, hold Up + Down + Left + Right + B + Select + Start and press Reset. (These tests can also be run simultaneously by holding both A and B, and the results will be ORed together in RAM.) If the PRG ROM checksum matches with the internal value or the CHR RAM chip has no bad cells, the program will display a happy green face; otherwise, it will display a sad red face. The code also attempts to write the test results to an unknown device at $4400, possibly an automated cartridge tester.

Note that the tests cannot be performed with an unmodified controller, as the design of the D-Pad prevents more than two directions from being pressed at once.

Passed	Failed

Unused Graphics

Unused Facial Expressions

Dizzy's face can show a range of emotions based on the environment and player's actions. Two of these expressions are never used (even though their graphics are always loaded into CHR RAM), and they look out of place compared to all the others - it's unknown what they could have been meant for. They can be viewed in-game by changing the memory at location $B8 (Blue game version) or $B5 (Red versions) to the appropriate value.

Hex value: $07

Hex value: $09

Unused Text Characters

The new font in the trilingual version of the game contains unused tiles for inverted question and exclamation marks and a tilde over the top of an N, making it look as if also adding the Spanish-translated script was under consideration. The game even checks for three unused character values to produce these glyphs correctly if you edit them into the ROM's text: $2F prints "¿", $31 prints "¡", and $6E prints "ñ".

On a related note, the language menu loads 27 characters of a font shared with Dizzy the Adventurer (and only slightly modified from Treasure Island Dizzy) but only uses 15 of them, which at least leaves the option open for the menu to print other words, although Ñ is not among them. Another 4 of its characters get used for "KELDOR TOWN STREET MAP", but there the game only loads the letters it needs.

Unused Castle Guards

The combatants in the castle entrance minigame can appear as any of three 8×16 graphics, but there are two more such graphics among them in the PPU bank that never appear. These two would go on to be used for this minigame in the Fantastic Dizzy ports for Master System and Game Gear.

Revisional Differences

There are three major versions of this game: the original "golden" standalone cartridge version, the revised Aladdin Deck Enhancer cartridge version (also sold in Europe on both standalone and "Plug-thru" cartridge designs), and the further-revised Europe-exclusive standalone cartridge version. The final European version is mostly the same gameplay-wise as the Aladdin release, but not identical. The two major versions are often identified by the color of their title screen logo ("Blue" for original version, "Red" for Aladdin and European versions).

From all observable evidence, the third version is the one included on the Oliver Twins Collection for the Evercade wherever it's sold since 2020, making it officially intercontinental now.

There also exists a slight revision of the first Blue release, present on the "Pegasus Golden Five" multicart. It has the intro scroll sequence disabled, apparently for compatibility reasons - some of the famiclone consoles and/or TV sets might be unable to display it.

Map Changes Things aren't where you found them in 1991.

Differences Between Blue and Red Versions

• The Codemasters intro screen shows a 1991 copyright date in the Blue Version but 1992 in the Red versions, which also place another "CODEMASTERS" on top in the same font as "ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!" by lowering everything else a bit.

Blue	Red

• The logo color on the title screen was changed from blue to red.

Blue	Red (Aladdin)

• Both the Blue and Red versions perform a check at startup to determine whether the game is being played on an NTSC or PAL console, and adjust the timing of various effects accordingly. However, the Blue version does not adjust the music speed, causing it to be played too slowly on PAL consoles. This was fixed in the Red versions, although the pitch is still incorrect. The detected console region is stored in RAM at $EF (Blue game version) or $EB (Red versions).
• The Red versions' attract mode takes a little longer to load each screen, and following the last character portrait it adds a credits page.

• Dizzy walks at a much faster pace in the Red versions, accelerating to double his speed from the Blue version. A few areas are modified to account for the higher speed enabling Dizzy to jump farther. Note that Dizzy still walks slowly during the final part of the game, thus sparing Zaks' tower from such an overhaul.
• The Red versions actually filter simultaneous Left + Right presses into just making Dizzy move left, at least outside of minigames, whereas holding Left + Right in the Blue version would make Dizzy walk/jump in place while facing left. You can still see this behavior in the Zaks' Tower and Bubble Dizzy minigames if you have an uninhibited controller, though.
• Item locations are vastly different as often as not, and some of the quests were altered. See the subpage for the rundown.
• The Red versions have 250 stars to collect, versus 100 in the Blue version. Along with the 150 new star locations, some of the original star locations are slightly modified.
• In the Red versions, stars are present in the minigames, though they don't award points nor pop up a notice about what the 250th star unlocks like the overworld stars. This means you have to complete the Bubble Dizzy minigame in order to be able to reach the final boss. (This was not mandatory in the Blue version because, although the island it deposits Dizzy onto is beyond his original jump range, you can simply swim to that island by acquiring Denzil's flippers first.)
• In the Red versions, the numbers shown when picking up a star use a smaller, straighter font, never include leading zeroes (as the Blue version would for single-digit numbers), and are made from a single star graphic with a red-and-white palette-cycling effect instead of reusing the collectible stars' spinning animation. They're also more animated, zooming out from where the star was grabbed.

Blue	Red

• To help deal with the sprite limit, collecting a star in the Blue version "despawns" all mobile enemies while the "stars remaining" count is onscreen, granting the player a nice reprieve as the enemies are invisible, frozen, and unable to deal damage. This does not happen in the Red versions, but in some areas the star count makes the player unable to see or collect other stars, making it important not to rush through exploration.
• Picking up an item pushes it all the way to the rightmost open slot in the Red versions instead of always having to step through all three slots with repeated presses of B. This appears to be why Dizzy now stops reacting to B or Select for up to a second after grabbing or dropping items without another two in hand. The Red versions also prohibit Dizzy from dropping an item during the same action as picking up another item unless the inventory is already full, meaning this system can cost more time when a player needs to pull out the third item while hanging onto the other two.
• In the Blue version, when the items were scrolling in the statusbar they stop 1 pixel short of their correct position, which could be corrected by viewing the inventory screen, or going to another area. This was fixed in the Red version.
• Dora's plight is only told the first time Dizzy picks her up, not repeated every time she is dropped and grabbed again as the Blue version did.
• The brass cymbals were changed to vanish from existence once they've been used to wake up Dozy.
• You can't set fire to the pile of straw anywhere outside Denzil's hut (at least when the match is used directly on the straw).
• Enemy spiders are somewhat quicker and more courteous than in the Blue version, refraining from dropping again until they have fully climbed to the tops of their threads.
• The dragon has a more aggressive firing pattern that is no longer possible to slip through despite Dizzy's increased speed.
• Minecart ride minigame was made much easier - its top speed was lowered, and the explosions rarely damage the tracks, which is something you had to dodge frequently in the Blue version. Also of note is that the stars (present only in the Red versions) are laid in such a way that they show you the correct path to take (ie. leading to the last exit), which can help as well.
• The mine's elevator machinery puzzle was reworked in the Red versions into just another item fetch. The Blue version features four separate machines that each control whether one mine elevator can be used, and they are randomly set to on or off upon entering the mine. Dizzy can toggle the switches on these machines emptyhanded with B, but the puzzle is in the fact that each switch toggles three machines at once. The Red versions combine them into one larger machine containing all four activation lights that is always shut off to begin with. To fix the elevators permanently, you need to use the wrench item on it, which is new to the Red versions. Note that the elevators can still be individually activated or deactivated via the following RAM addresses:
  $738:??
  $739:??
  $73A:??
  $73B:??
  ?? = 00 (off), 01 (on)

Blue	Red

• As mentioned above, the Red version adds a new item called "A solid metal wrench", which has a previously unused hex value $02. The item with value $1E was changed from "A heavy rock" to "A large bag of salt". They both accomplish the same goal, although you needed to use three rocks in the Blue version to fully raise the level of water with a log already floating on top, as opposed to one bag of salt in the Red versions to make a sunken log float to the top of already-high-enough water.
• The other two rocks were replaced by another new item in two states: Hex value $1F is "An empty old tin bucket", found in the small cave underneath the graveyard, and it becomes item $20, "A bucket full of water", upon being submerged. This item is required to put out a fireplace on the first floor of Zaks' castle, as a wall has been added to the second story of the castle to prevent Dizzy from bypassing the fire as he normally would in the Blue version.
• The trampette was changed to bounce Dizzy one set height, just high enough to exit the cave it's found in if placed on the platform directly below the mouth of the cave. In the Blue version, Dizzy could not jump back onto this platform, and the trampette would bounce Dizzy in proportion to the distance he fell onto it, so the apparent intended solution was to place the trampette on the ground just to the left of the platform, jump onto it to reach the platform, then jump back off the platform to land on the trampette with enough force to bounce up to the right past the platform and out the hole. With the new set bounce height, this solution no longer works in the Red versions! They also remove some minor bugs such as the trampette giving Dizzy micro-bounces with a stuttering sound effect if he jumps through the front of it and being unable to break through the surface of water with a bounce from underwater.
• After Dizzy has taken the second minecart exit in the Red versions, letting him out on the eastern shore of Carber Bay, that exit will also serve as an entrance, transporting Dizzy back to the mine, standing beside the minecart. This provides players a way out from getting stuck on that beach without the items needed to proceed in either direction without drowning repeatedly. Dizzy will also return to the minecart if he is killed after taking this exit in all three NES versions so long as he is holding neither the Aqua-Lung nor the flippers, suggesting this entrance is just a deathless repurposing of the same special respawn code. Both methods of warping back have the same restriction that they will not work if Dizzy has visited one screen above the beach (the countryside or the grasslands) or three screens below the beach (the bay's deepest cave; seems like a mistake) since arriving.
• The game no longer crashes or softlocks when you die while swinging on a rope.
• A bug was fixed (or at least attempted to fix) where - in specific circumstances - some stars could reappear after you collect them all.
• In the Blue version, if you happened to jump right before entering Dizzy Down the Rapids minigame, you would die instantly after taking one of the exits leading back into the city. This was patched in the Aladdin version.
• Two new cheats were added:
  • Play Any Minigame: Go to Dizzy's house, stand under the table between the two cupboards, then pause the game. While paused, hold A + B together with a directional button (Up for minecart ride, Right for river barrel ride, Down for castle entrance, Left for Bubble Dizzy), then unpause the game. The minigame will activate when you leave the house. After the minigame, the game will return to the title screen.
  • Extra Life: At the intro story screen, hold Left + Select. You'll be given an extra life.
• In-game reset button combination was added: press and hold A + B then press Select + Start.

Differences Between US Red and European Red Versions

• All instances of color $0D were replaced with $0E in the game's palettes. Color $0D is an invalid "blacker than black" color which caused problems on some NTSC television sets, such as screen warping and loss of color. Unfortunately, all of Codemasters' previous games, as well as the NES version of the Game Genie, used this invalid value. Even displays that normally can handle the color $0D may still choke on the unrolling intro story scroll in the previous versions due to the use of color emphasis bits to darken the underside of the scroll.
• You can now choose from three languages: English, French, or German. The language menu only appears after the Dizzy logo has finished bouncing in, and then the player can press Start again to begin at least a second after "PRESS START" has floated in, a significant delay from the previous versions allowing the player to start before the Dizzy logo had even entered the screen. It won't stop to offer this menu again after Game Over, but you still have to wait for the Dizzy logo to bounce into place before pressing Start to start again.

• The "CAMERICA™ PRESENTS" logo on the title screen was replaced with an all-new "CODEMASTERS™ presents" graphic.

Aladdin	Europe

• The story in the intro does not "unroll" as it does in previous versions.

Blue / Aladdin	Europe

• The intro story screen can only be cleared by the Start button at least two seconds after it has appeared. Previous versions allowed any button to clear the screen after it had finished unrolling, or it would clear itself after waiting another thirteen seconds, a bit inconsiderate to slower readers.
• The font used in the intro and inventory screens was simplified and had its capital letters removed.

Blue / Aladdin	Europe

• You start the game with three extra lives, as opposed to two in previous versions.
• Screen transitions take slightly longer in the European release. Conversely, while closing the inventory screen is slower as well, bringing it up is actually somewhat faster for unknown reasons.
• While jumping, you can't pick up items in a quick succession, you have to wait until the sliding animation finishes.
• The spell ("Hocus pocus/Busy wizzy/Conjure up/Another Dizzy") and image of a stork were removed from the extra life puzzle and replaced with an image of Theodore casting a spell on Dizzy (as seen in the "Fantastic Dizzy" versions of the game released on other platforms), likely due to the aforementioned inclusion of French and German language settings. The background was also slightly altered, removing the lines that marked the horizon and formed a cheap sky gradient, while the hourglass looks a bit different just from the light red and dark red in its palette being swapped.

Blue / Aladdin	Europe

• A map system was added to Keldor Town in its tunnels, making navigation much easier.

Blue / Aladdin	Europe

• Keldor Castle only requires you to win the exterior shootout once, and then you can reenter instantly as many times as you like. Previous versions required winning the fight every time you wanted to enter, so if you dropped the crossbow inside and left without clearing the castle of the rest of its key items, tough luck!
• The compartment in the center of the pirate ship now awards 10 points for prying it open with the strong crowbar, like most other object puzzles. The first two versions awarded no points for opening it!
• The score actually stops at the maximum of 9999 if the player tries to exceed it. Previous versions made the score loop back to 0000.
• Minor bug: When viewing your inventory, Grand Dizzy's house displays a description from the wrong location. In the English version it's also glitched.

Blue / Aladdin	Europe

• Minor bug: Bubble Dizzy minigame uses an incorrect palette during evening. What's interesting is that this palette reveals extra detail on the oxygen meter, on the droplets from splashing in, on Dizzy's shell, and—only while hanging from the plank—on Dizzy's gloves and boots! Normally these details are never seen due to duplicate colors in the palettes.

Blue / Aladdin	Europe

• Another new cheat was added: Hold Left + A while pressing Start to clear the opening story scroll. From then until Game Over, you can hold A + B to halt Dizzy's normal motion updates and gain the ability to freely move Dizzy in any direction with the D-Pad, ignoring gravity and obstacles until you let go of either of those buttons, but still interacting with objects otherwise. This cheat doesn't apply to minigames.

Text Differences

Introduction

Blue/Aladdin	Europe
starring Dizzy: our hero	starring dizzy our hero!

Blue/Aladdin	Europe
Daisy: the damsel in distress	daisy the damsel in distress!

Blue/Aladdin	Europe
Dozy: the sleepy one!	dozy the sleepy one!

Blue/Aladdin	Europe
Denzil: the cool dude!	denzil the cool dude!

Blue/Aladdin	Europe
Dora: Dizzy's sis.	dora dizzy's sister

Blue/Aladdin	Europe
grand Dizzy: thewise one	grand dizzy the wise one

Blue/Aladdin	Europe
Dylan: peace man!	dylan peace man!

Aladdin	Europe
programmed by the oliver twins and peter williamson graphics leigh christian music by matt gray	programming the oliver twins and peter williamson graphics leigh christian music matt gray

Colons and "by" are out; exclamation marks are in. In the original font, the space between "the" and "wise" is only implied by how many blank pixels the "w" has around it as a double-width character.

Area Descriptions

Blue/Aladdin	Europe
you are in the passageway between dock st. and and bridge st., carrying	you are in the passageway between dock st. and bridge st., carrying

A redundant "and" was finally removed.

Blue/Aladdin	Europe English (Unused)	Europe English (Used)
you are deep in the hull of the pirate ship, well below sea level, carrying	you are deep in the hull of the pirate ship, well below sea level, carrying	you're exploring deep into this old ship now owned by blackheart, carrying

Europe French (Unused)	Europe French (Used)
vous êtes dans la coque du vaisseau pirate, sous la surface, portant	vous explorez ce vieux vaisseau appartenant à coeur-noir, portant

Europe German (Unused)	Europe German (Used)
du bist im rumpf des piratenschiffes unter der wasserlinie und trägst	du erforschst gründlich schwarzherz' altes schiff. bei dir trägst du

The original description is actually still present in the later European PRG-ROM at $1AD36, yet for some reason it reuses the description of the deck above this area. The same problem applies to the French and German modes, which means these translations go unseen on NES!

Blue/Aladdin	Europe English (Unused)	Europe English (Used)
you are in grand Dizzy's hut near a large cast iron cooking cauldron, carrying	you are in grand dizzy's hut near a large cast iron cooking cauldron, carrying	er a dangerous pond, carrying

Europe French (Unused)	Europe French (Used)
vous êtes dans la cabane du grand dizzy, près d'un grand chaudron, portant	vous êtes sur l'herbe près d'un pont cassé traversant une mare, portant

Europe German (Unused)	Europe German (Used)
du bist in opa dizzys hütte mit einem eisernen kochtopf und trägst	du bist auf einer wiese bei einer kaputten brücke und trägst

This partial description of another area was definitely a mistake. Curiously, the original description can be found twice in the final PRG-ROM, both at $19B27 with the other area descriptions and also off by itself at $06A14 with the punctuation encoded differently. Again new translations go unused.

Item Descriptions

Aladdin	Europe
a solid metal wrench	a machine wrench

The first new item gets a new name already, giving more of a clue as to its purpose.

Interactions

Blue/Aladdin	Europe
Denzil wanted to be cool! so zaks granted his wish and froze him in ice while he swam. now he needs your help!	denzil wanted to be cool! so zaks granted his wish and froze him in ice while he swam. now he needs your help!

The last sentence about Denzil's plight was moved to start on a new line.

Blue/Aladdin	Europe
grand Dizzy's eyes light up as he drinks the medicine. he offers you the treasured golden egg he found in the diamond mine	grand dizzy's eyes light up as he drinks the medicine. he offers you the treasured golden egg he found in the diamond mine.

Without the wide M's, there's room for a period at the end of the sentence about Grand Dizzy's reward.

Blue/Aladdin	Europe
oh no! Dora's been turned into a green frog by the evil wizard zaks can you help break his evil magic?	oh no! dora's been turned into a green frog by the evil wizard zaks. can you help break his evil magic?

Again it appears a period would not have originally fit after "wizard Zaks."

Blue/Aladdin	Europe
the prince kisses the frog and instantly Dora returns. he is so pleased he gives you his crossbow	the prince kisses the frog and instantly dora returns. he is so pleased he gives you his crossbow.

The wide W in "his crossbow" definitely didn't leave room for a period either.

Blue	Aladdin
'yawwwn!!' says Dozy as the clash of the cymbals wake him. Dozy has got a strange looking item to give you.	'yawn!!' says Dozy as the clash of the cymbals wake him. Dozy offers you his old thick rug.

The prize for waking Dozy was swapped from Zaks' portcullis winch handle to the thick Persian rug, so the text is rewritten to reflect this.

Blue/Aladdin	Europe
well done! you have collected all the stars and can now enter zaks' tower, where Daisy is being held. go! Dizzy! go!	well done! you have collected all the stars and can now enter zaks' tower, where daisy is being held. go! dizzy go!

The final exhortation loses one of the exclamation marks that broke it into three parts, now making it two, and the second line is no longer spaced toward the center. This might have been done to match the title of the game from Quattro Arcade.