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

Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers is a 3D platformer very similar to Crash Bandicoot where Donald must travel around the world to rescue Daisy.

The Nintendo 64 version is based on the Dreamcast and Windows versions along with some downgrades like textures and, probably, one of the strangest and most erroneously ways of porting music in the history of video games.

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Development Info

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.

Soundtrack Oddities And Errors

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.
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

For some reason all songs are in a different key as the other versions. The sequenced music itself is in its correct key however, but all 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.

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 instruments are simply 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
• Some channels try to play an instrument that does not exist in the bank

Instead of choosing the important instrument channels and adapting them to the downgraded version, some channels were simply set to silent, probably to skip the time for fixing it. Another strange porting method is that because of the low zone range of some instruments, the notes were simply shifted octave by octave so that the instruments would play. However, this leads to instruments sounding too low or too high.
The correct and even simpler solution would have been to simply increase the zone range of the respective instrument in the bank. This would not only have played the instruments correctly, but the octave shifting would not have been necessary at all and would have saved a lot of time.

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 with a few fixes, like increasing volume of instruments, compared to the used one, as well as the original, non-downgraded version of the Windows and Dreamcast versions:

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).

Development Text

A few error messages 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)

Regional Differences

USA	Europe

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