Disney's Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers (Nintendo 64)

Disney's Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers
Also known as: Donald Duck: Quack Attack (EU) Developer: Ubi Soft Casablanca Publisher: Ubi Soft Platform: Nintendo 64 Released in US: December 8, 2000 Released in EU: December 20, 2000 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused objects. This game has unused music. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has regional differences. This game has a development article This game has a bugs page

A port of the Dreamcast/Windows version of Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers, a 3D platformer very similar to Crash Bandicoot where Donald must travel around the world to rescue Daisy.

This version is probably best known for having music ported from the Dreamcast/Windows version with many errors, which probably resulted in one of the most glitchy soundtracks in video game history.

To do: Should this page and the Windows version page be merged into one? It is the same version but with a few differences that might be worth documenting. See here on the discussion page for more info.

Sub-Page

Development Info

Bugs

Out of Bounds Objects

To do: Post a picture of the objects

In Forest Edge, two milkshake objects are located out of bounds near the start of the level.

Unseen Midi Comments

Markers

The midi files of the songs contain many markers with the names "Marker ##". These are just bookmarks leftover from the composer that are never read by the game.
Interestingly, these markers extend beyond the length of the song, which may indicate that each song consisted of one midi file before they were downgraded and divided into individual segments for the N64 port.

What's also weird is that each marker always has the exact same name, which can make midi editors bug out.

Comments

Each song has several comments in the first channel, which may be the names of the individual midi channels with each channel named "S 5000 X" with X being a unique number.
Why these are used as notes and not as properly channel names is pretty strange, possibly a faulty export?

They often don't seem to match the number of midi channels, which is because many midi channels were deleted for the N64 port.

Soundtrack Errors And Oddities

To the detriment of the game's nice soundtrack, the music has been heavily downgraded to fit the game cartridge in a sequenced form. And besides that, it seemed a lot went wrong in the downgrading phase. Most noticeable are faulty sounding instruments, missing instruments, and instruments that are way too quiet to even hear properly. Due to this faulty porting there are countless unused midi channels as well, which are not audible due to various reasons.

Looking at the midi files and the soundbank, it is strongly suspected that whoever had the job of porting the music to the N64 version had barely any knowledge about general midi and sound sampling.

These errors include:

• Wrong Key due to wrong sample rates
• Missing Instruments, even though they are in the midi file; countless unused midi channels
• Wrong instruments used for some channels (it is often a wrong drum instrument)
• Botched midi edits to make many errors like wrongly adjusted zone range of some instruments not noticeable (often leads to wrong sounding notes)
• Unnecessary duplicates of instrument samples in the sound bank, which is not only a waste of space, but also makes the instrument itself sound a bit too loud (e.g. the xhylophone instrument is found 4 times, but is identical)
• Based on comparisons of the original Windows/Dreamcast and N64 version songs, some songs originally had instrument changes within individual channels. Even though the Nintendo 64 definitely supports this, they are not present here in places where they were very likely. (This leads to mismatched instruments in various places).

Wrong Key

All songs in the Nintendo 64 version are in a different key as the other versions. The sequenced music itself is in its correct key however, but most of the instrument samples are in the wrong key.

This happens because all instrument samples are being played at the wrong sample rate of 22050 Hz instead of the correct 16000 Hz (Only the drum and bongo instruments need this sample rate). Not only does this result in the instruments being played too fast and too short, but it also causes the entire soundtrack to be played in the wrong key.

Even though the Nintendo 64 can only store all instrument samples in a fixed sample rate (either 22050 or 16000 Hz), you can still set the sample rate to be played for each instrument individually in the sound bank, which the person responsible probably didn't know.

Used (22050 Hz)	Corrected (16000 Hz)

Below is an example of a corrected version compared to the used one, as well as the original, non-downgraded version of the Windows and Dreamcast versions:

Used	Corrected	Undowngraded Version

Missing Instruments

Many songs lack some instruments and some are just very quiet compared to the non-downgraded version. Extracting the game's sequenced music however reveals, that many instruments are actually not missing, just not used.

The absence of the instruments has many, strange reasons:

• Many midi channels are simply set too quietly
• Many notes have their individual volume set too quietly
• In the instrument bank, some samples have a lower zone range, which causes these instruments to simply not play after a certain high or low note. This is very noticeable in the xhylophone notes in the Main Street theme.
• Many channels have an reverb setting, which doesn't seem to work proberly in this game's midi player and will make the channel very quiet instead.
• Some instruments are missing a few samples for higher octaves, which causes some instruments in a high octave range to either sound a bit too low, because it then uses a sample from a lower octave range, or simply not sound at all, because the Zone Range was not set up to this octave.
• Some notes are so extremely short (midi lenght value 1) that they are not audible. These notes were meant to decay with a reverb, but this is not possible with this game's midi player.

There doesn't even seem to be any suspicion that some instruments were just muted to save the time of fixing them, but they are really just porting errors, because when you reactivate the instruments, they don't even sound wrong but even adapted to the smaller selection of instruments in the bank.

Inaudible Channels

Almost every song in the game has at least one midi channel that is never audible which often happens due to their channel volume set almost quietly.

Urban High-Rises' theme for example is missing pretty much all of its lead instruments as well as some drum channels, even though they are present in the song file, making the song very static.
Below is an example of a corrected version compared to the used one, as well as the original, non-downgraded version of the Windows and Dreamcast versions:

Used	Corrected	Undowngraded Version

Inaudible Notes

In some cases, the individual volume levels of the instruments are set much too low. Sometimes you can hear them very slightly but barely noticeable. This seems to have been a mistake during porting, because more often the notes are too quiet, which are only slightly quieter in the undowngraded version.

Here again is an example of a fixed version of the second segment of The Roofs, where three quarters of the instruments are almost inaudible due to this porting error. Also, in this song, when looping at the end of the song, a wrong piano note is sounding that cannot be found in the midi file. It is not yet clear why this is, but it may be due to a faulty loop that assigns the midi channels to the instruments from the first segment of the song before the last segment is even finished.

Used	Corrected	Undowngraded Version

Incorrect Background Instrument

Some songs have a rather out of place organ like sound. This sound is actually supposed to be a background instrument, but since this is also played at the completely wrong sample rate (22050 Hz instead of 7500 Hz) it is played at more than three times the speed.

Used (22050 Hz)	Corrected (7500 Hz)

Following are two examples of corrected versions. One example shows a fixed version of Creepy Corridor for comparison to the original CD quality version, while the second example shows a fixed version of Dangerous Cliff Theme, which is the only N64 exclusive song not found as an unused song in its original CD quality in the Windows version (every other N64 only song can be found unused in the Windows version).

Creepy Corridor

Used	Corrected	Undowngraded Version

Dangerous Cliff

Used	Corrected

Interestingly, Creepy Corridor has a slightly different, longer melody and a different instrumentation than the Windows version, suggesting that it is a late or early version (the latter is more likely).

Unused Text

Demo Selection Text

Side Walk
Urban High-Rises
Haunted Hall
Creepy Coridor

Leftover texts of a level selection from the early Windows demo. Oddly enough, these texts seem to be from an even earlier version, since First Avenue uses the internal name and Creepy Corridor is misspelled.

These unused text slots also exist unused in the Windows/Dreamcast version, but there First Avenue's text got overwritten with a letter test.

Boss Stage Names

Just like in the Windows/Dreamcast version, level names for each boss level exist, but are not displayed when standing on the teleporter as with the other levels.

English	German	France	Espanol	Italiano
Bernadette's Peak	Bernadettes Gipfel	Pic de Bernadette	El Pico de Bernadette	Il Picco di Bernadette
Beagle Boy's Tower	Panzerknackerturm	Tour Rapetou	Torre Apandadora	La Torre della Banda Bassotti
Magica's Devilish Dome	Gundels Teufelsgewölbe	La Coupole	La Cúpula de Mágica	La Cupola Infernale di Amelia
Ceremonial Room	Zeremonie-Zimmer	Salle de cérémonie	La Sala de las Ceremonias	La Sala del Cerimoniale

Placeholder Text

texte non valide

Empty, unused text slots use this placeholder text.
And yes, it also exist in the Windows/Dreamcast version.

Development Text

...But what does it mean? This game has text or audio that needs to be translated. If you are fluent with this language, please read our translation guidelines and then submit a translation!

A few error messages from ticked developers can be found at 0x1D301 and 0xBF878 in the ROM.

error in file %s in line %d
AllocTmp: ecrase les données
---> AllocTmp: sort de la RAM <---
 Manque %d octets
écrasement de la pile des références indéfinies !!!

C'est quoi ce bordel !?!??! g_AlphabetCharacterPointer = %x 
C'est quoi ce bordel !?!??! p3d = %x 
C'est quoi ce bordel !?!??! d_stObjectsTable = %x 
Ecrasement memoire !?!??! Po = %x 
Ecrasement memoire !?!??! pObj = %x
Creation de section critique pour le son impossible
Null visual material in particles !!!

(Source: Ferrox)

Rayman 2 Leftover Text

Present at 0xE8C0D0 in the ROM is dialogue left over from Rayman 2.

  Presents
Rayman, look what the pirates have done to our world.
A planet of anguish and pain, haunted by Evil.
A dark place, teeming with fierce monsters.
Nothing can stop them now that they've captured you.
They've taken everything and reduced our people to slaves.
Robots search for innocent prey.
In the chaos, they exploded the Heart of the world.
The 1000 Lums of energy which form It have been scattered.
We are getting weak.
Soon, it will be too late.
You must escape, Rayman.
You are our only hope!
The Buccaneer, the pirates' prison ship, commander the admiral RazorBeard.
Slaves now on board
Wake up Rayman, I have sent you help.
Water...
Spare us...
Not the whip!
ooh
Help!
Rayman?
Globox! My friend!
Are you ok, Rayman?
Not really... I feel weak and my powers have disappeared.
You know... I think this might be the end...
No! Not the end! Globox bring good gift from LY!
LY, the fairy?
A silver lum!
Incredible! I can feel its energy building up in me...
Now I can shoot with my fist again!
Globox we're saved!
Yahoooo!
Let's go see LY! She'll give me all my powers back.
Daddy saved Rayman!
Where's Daddy?
Uh, that is to say… we were separated, and uh....
Not Daddy Globox?
We want our Daddy!
Now don't worry kiddies!
I'll bring your dad back!
But first I've got to find LY.
She likes to hang out around here. Have you seen her?
What?
The mean old pirates took LY over there!
Hmmmm...
I've got to set her free!
Come in, you useless grub!
Rayman has the 4 masks and he is on the ship.
You've failed me again...
I warned you, didn't I?
Let's see how well you swim in molten lava...
Meanwhile, I'll just handle this little problem myself.
Prepare the Grolgoth!
I know how to lure Rayman to me...
Identify target!
Leave my friend alone!
Now you're alone… for eternity!  Ha! Ha! Ha!
Huh?
Are you O.K., Globox?
I'll be fine! Now go!
Now I've got you...
Heey!
Ooooooh!
Don't be afraid, Rayman...
I'm here!
Whooah!
Bravo Rayman! You were sensational!
Razorbeard is nearly beaten!
Thanks to you, hope has come back into our hearts.
The slaves have broken their chains and escaped.
On land, Polokus eliminated all the Robo-pirates.
Destroy Razorbeard, and our victory will be complete!
Rayman! I've saved one little surprise for you...
Rayman!
Clark!
Uh, oh...
Rayman!
You're the best!
Help! Please!
Back off kiddies.
Yahoooo! Yipeeee!
Yahooo! Yipeeee!
Yipeeee! Yahoooo!
Kudos for Rayman! Hurrah!
Yipeee! Yahooo!
Get out of the prisonship, kids!
I still have to find Globox.
Glooboox!

(Source: Ferrox)

Oddities

Untouchable collision

Gyros House from the main menu has collision, although it is never used for anything.
This strange oddity exists not only in the Dreamcast/Windows version, but also in Rayman 2, which runs on the same engine.

Strange Dialogue

The German dialogue text from the Beagle Boy before the boss starts is pretty out of place and doesn't seem to be meant for this dialogue at all, but rather more for Gyro.
It means "Well done! I'm getting energy now, I'll bring it back".

This strange oddity does not exist in the Windows/Dreamcast version. There it uses the correct translation of the English text.

Desynchronous Intro Music

The song for the intro cutscene apparently starts too late, which not only makes the song sound somewhat out of sync with the cutscene, but also makes the last 10 seconds or so of the song completely unused.

Regional Differences

USA	Europe

In Europe, the game's title was changed to Donald Duck: Quack Attack.