High Seas Havoc

High Seas Havoc is about an anthropomorphic seal, Havoc, who finds a girl named Bridget on a shore. She holds the map that points to the location of the precious Emeralda. After they become friends, Bernardo, a pirate, kidnaps her and Havoc's sidekick.

The game features your classic platforming elements like enemy-stomping and "100 = extra life" collectibles. And three different names for the game, depending on the region.

Stage Select


Programming for a stage select menu begins at address. To access it on bootup, use Action Replay codes or Game Genie codes. If you receive a red screen instead (bad checksum), add Master Code (Action Replay) or  (Game Genie).

Now, begin a new game to start on the selected stage, or view the ending.

Free VRAM Placeholder
On the VRAM, blocks that aren't being used have "FREE" written on them.

Unused Difficulty Mode
The memory address has the current difficulty mode. If it's set to 4, with Action Replay code or Game Genie code, it'll use a specially easy difficulty mode. In it, you lose almost no health when attacked, but it's not that linear. Randomly, attacks will cause 0 damage, 1 damage, double damage, half damage... There isn't a very clear pattern, but most of the time, you're invulnerable, and even OHKO hazards aren't normally enough to take you down right away.

Setting the difficulty to anything over 4 will make the game crash and reset when damage is taken.

Cape Sealph
The US and Japanese versions start on Cape Sealph, after which is the Pirate Ship. The European version starts on the Pirate Ship, although Cape Sealph is still present: when the game loads, it's set to open level 0 (Cape Sealph), but at the very last second, before the level introduction screen appears, it quickly sets the variable to 1 (Pirate Ship). You can use Action Replay code or Game Genie code  to force the game to load Cape Sealph.

Fading
Whenever there's a fade out in the European version, the game just fades to black. The US and Japanese versions add a bit more color.
 * Game start/Level end/Score tally complete: Fades out to pink, then white.
 * Level start (after the main character pushes the "S" letter): Fades out to light green, then white.

Codemasters
Seems like Codemasters were only involved in the European version. As such, the European version includes the Codemasters logo screen after the Data East logo screen. Additionally, the copyright notice on the title screen was changed from "© 1993 DATA EAST CORPORATION. LICENSED BY SEGA ENTERPRISES LTD." to "© CODEMASTERS SOFTWARE CO. LTD. 1994". Finally, the options screen and the level introduction screen (the one that shows the level's name) have a different background for each version.

The US/JP versions have the Data East logo inside every cell of the background pattern. The European version has the Codemasters logo instead, which takes up 2 cells horizontally. The small heads also open their mouths at different times for each version in the level introduction screen.

Attraction Mode Demos
The demos are a bit different between versions. They use the same levels, in the same order, and they're both played with 0 lives, but the players have different personalities, so to speak. The US/Japanese player gets hurt a lot more and is less aggressive, but more willing to go fast. The European player is more careful, but more willing to defeat enemies and get treasure.

Frozen Palace 1

 * US/Japan
 * The player keeps going forward, minimally caring about the jewels.
 * On the first enemy, he tries to attack one of the birds... from behind, resulting in him taking damage.
 * Shortly after, he falls onto the soon-to-be-frozen water, freezing himself.
 * He kills 4/6 of the next enemy's birds and decides to move on.


 * Europe
 * The player stops sometimes between jumps, going slower overall, and collecting more jewels.
 * After taking down 5/6 of the first enemy's birds and moving on, he quickly turns back and finishes the last one off.
 * He manages to avoid getting frozen on the nearby pool.
 * He gets hurt after an iffy battle with the next enemy, and moves on.
 * He's frozen on the second next pool and, miraculously, is able to break free really fast, hinting that he might have used a turbo controller.

Mt. Chester 1

 * US/Japan
 * He walks right into the first spikeball, getting hit in the process. He then calmly waits for his chance to walk under it.
 * He ignores some jewels, and stops midway through the first hill, slowing down tremendously.
 * He gets hit by a boulder just as the demo ends.


 * Europe
 * He calmly waits for his chance to go under the spikeball, without getting hit.
 * He jumps to get some extra jewels, and patiently waits for a boulder to come at him so he can jump over it.
 * He doesn't stop on the hills, but when he takes cover, he grows impatient and tries to climb up, only to be greeted by a boulder. He manages to avoid being hit.
 * The demo stops when the second chest is opened - after the US version's player.

Otarucean 2

 * US/Japan
 * The player goes forward pretty fast and kills the first fish easily, but is surprised by the second fish and forced to drop down.
 * He still makes his way back up instead of continuing, just to get the shoes.
 * When he gets to the platform, he's hit by a fish, causing him to fall down and stubbornly go for the shoes again.
 * He's a bit more careful when he's confronted with the retracting blades.


 * Europe
 * He misses a jewel, and does another jump just to get it.
 * He crouches to avoid being hit by a fish, demonstrating the usefulness of crouching.
 * He's also careful on the retracting blades part, but he's more focused on getting jewels.

Pirate Ship

 * US/Japan
 * He goes forward pretty solidly, but after a bit, he realizes there're some shoes back to the left, and backtracks over to them.
 * He collects some jewels from both back-and-forth trips, but misses one. OCD doesn't affect him, as he just ignores the missing jewel.
 * He carefully and efficiently makes his way up the first sail-post and gets the treasure, but then drops down and goes forward without caring for any riches.
 * The demo ends with an out-of-place roll.


 * Europe
 * The player goes for the shoes right away, and manages to slickly collect all jewels with a single jump.
 * He climbs the same sail-post, but uses an enemy as a bouncing platform.
 * He misses hitting the enemy on the top 2 times, but nonetheless manages to hit him a 3rd time.
 * After getting the treasure, he takes a slightly different path, with more jewels.
 * The demo ends with the player trying to hit an enemy guarding a treasure chest, but getting hurt due to a mistimed axe kick.