Spy Fox in Dry Cereal

''Spy Fox to Mobile Command Center... I've penetrated William the Kid's secret fortress, and I've found the disarm button for his dastardly Milky Weapon of Destruction. Unfortunately, it seems to require some sort of diode to function. In lieu of further developments, I think I'll spend the next few hours playing Happy Fun Sub on my Spy Watch. Spy Fox out.''

That is to say, a goat kidnaps all the cows in the world, and an anthropomorphic fox foils his plot with a barrage of puns, gags, and references that sail straight over the target audience's heads.

Unused Subtitles
As is the norm for Humongous's games, Spy Fox has subtitles that can't be turned on in-game. They're activated by adding the line TextOn=1 to the game's entry in the file hegames.ini (or on ScummVM, scummvm.ini).

In some cases, the subtitles are noticeably different from the spoken dialogue. For example, the script indicates that the weasel guarding the S.S. Deadweight should call Spy Fox "monsieur," but the voice actor substitutes "sir" instead. These probably represent last-minute, in-studio dialogue rewrites.

Unused Dialogue
One piece of unused dialogue is known to exist in Spy Fox in Dry Cereal, it is located directly after the dialog used in the under water guard chase cutscene. Supposedly after Spy Fox got away from the guard, he would say "Where'd he go?" However this dialogue is never used.



Debug Rooms
Like many other Humongous games, this one contains several debug rooms. They are activated by adding any of the following lines to hegames.ini: TransBigCheater=M TransBigCheater=m WhosABigCheater=I WhosABigCheater=i

Path Select


Pressing C during gameplay brings up this screen, which allows the player to modify which puzzles the game uses. The "Rescued Udderly" option will change the island between its regular and "closed" appearances.

Room Select
The G key brings up this menu, which lists all the rooms in the game. Clicking on one warps Spy Fox to it.

Note the odd layout of the third screen -- were some rooms deleted? Also, the icon labeled "Pipe Dive" leads to the Happy Fun Sub title screen, perhaps indicating a prototype name.

Item Select


Pressing I summons this screen. Clicking on an item or talk balloon crosses out its icon and places it in the appropriate section of Spy Fox's inventory.

Happy Fun Sub Debug Mode
Spy Fox is so slick that even his minigame has a debug mode. Add the line StizeveIsTheBizomb=1 to hegames.ini and start up Happy Fun Sub. This enables several keyboard commands:

The numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 will change the terrain and enemies to match a particular level.

C partially disables the spy ship's collision detection, preventing enemies from damaging it. It can also pass through land, but this is buggy -- after doing so, it's unable to pick up buoys, and pressing C again instantly destroys it.

G prompts the player for a level to warp to. Be warned that this doesn't work correctly on ScummVM -- instead of a dialog box, the game gives a system message asking for a level number without any chance for input. This freezes and usually crashes the game.

E3 Demo Mode
Adding the line E3Demo=90997 to hegames.ini changes the game to what seems to be the mode used for demonstrating the game at E3 1997.

When this code is enabled, the game skips the first introductory scene with William the Kid and goes straight to "Somewhere over the Mediterranean Sea." From there, gameplay proceeds as normal up until Spy Fox saves Mr. Udderly. The game freeze frames on Spy Fox preparing to pull the release lever, Mr. Udderly falling, and Mr. Udderly's landing, with a narrator announcing: Will Spy Fox save Mr. Udderly? Which falls faster, 400 pounds of feathers or 400 pounds of beef? Will Mr. Udderly fall through the ice? Can piranhas strip a cow to the bone in udderly seconds? Why am I shouting? A full-screen Spy Fox logo then appears, and the narrator adds: Find out all the answers and more this fall. SpyFox in Dry Cereal. The "action" trumpet flare then plays, and the game restarts.

inv-spyjail
Among the regular items in the item selection screen is object 393, "inv-spyjail" (second row, first icon). Clicking on it will place it in Spy Fox's inventory, where hovering the mouse over it produces an unused message from Spy Fox:

Here's where the bad guys go - JAIL! Clicking on it prompts Spy Fox for something to use it on, like any other item, but it doesn't seem to work on anything.

The name and description suggest that at one point, this paper contained the coordinates for the Spy Jail. In the game, Monkey Penny displays the coordinates on the Spy Watch, rendering this unnecessary.

Unused Music
Unused BGM 1 An unused piece of music. No obvious place it would have been used. It would later be used in Spy Fox in Cheese Chase.

Unused BGM 2 Another unused track, also without any clues to placement.

Unused BGM 3 Uses a similar "wobbly" instrument to some of the Kid's Fortress music; possibly intended for it.

Opening Logos
Spy Fox in Dry Cereal was re-released twice, in 2002 and 2007 (not counting the accidental import of the UK dub).

The 1997 version shows the standard Humongous logo with no website. The 2002 version first shows the Infogrames logo with its "color hysteria" animation, followed by the flip-book version of the Humongous logo. The "It's a The Junior Adventure" screen was cut entirely.

The 2007 version was given a newer and more bland title screen with no sound effects, which bears some surprising resemblance to the original "Humongous Entertainment Presents..." variant used in the early titles. Again, the Junior Adventure logo was cut.

Removed Music
Nearly all of the revisions of this game exclude two of the songs. One of them is the second Piano Waltz played by Johnny Gecko in the Car Chase path. The second is the music that plays when William the Kid is in his giant blimp escaping. The sinister music that played was replaced with the title screen music for Happy Fun Sub.

Different Title Screen for Happy Fun Sub
The later versions of Spy Fox in Dry Cereal have a slightly different title screen for Happy Fun Sub. The Happy Fun Sub logo was made much smaller and what look like recycling arrows were added around it.