Koko Adventure

Koko Adventure
Also known as: Buzz & Waldog (Prototype) Developer: Open Corp. Publisher: Daou Infosys Platform: Unlicensed NES Released in KR: 1993 This game has unused code. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has a prototype article

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Koko Adventure (코코 어드벤쳐) is an unlicensed game released in Korea. A US release under the name of Buzz & Waldog was planned, but cancelled. The game is pretty similar to Toto World 3, another game from Open Corp. for the Sega Master System. It also has a lot of content stolen from other games, including background graphics from Super Mario World and the sound engine from Tiny Toon Adventures.

Region Switch

To do: Does this effects the Easter Egg too?

Offset $C000 in CPU address space ($1C010 in the iNES file) is a region switch, which changes how the title screen is rendered. In the Korean version it is set to $FF, and in the US prototype it is set to $00. Changing the switch in the US prototype will display the Korean title, albeit with an incorrect palette. In the Korean version, however, this will display a tilemap that doesn't match up with either the "Spinner" or "Waldog" variants of the US title, although it does load the appropriate graphics bank. Judging from the layout of the tiles, it's possible the original US title was simply "Ko Ko Adventure".

Easter Egg

Korea	US

Both versions of the game contain a rather interesting Easter egg. If you rack up 50 minutes of actual gameplay, the screen will go black and display the word "REST" in Korean or English, prompting you to take a short break. While you can skip this screen and reset the timer by pressing Start, if you actually take the game's advice and rest for at least 5 minutes, you'll be rewarded with an extra life!

The timer is paused between stages, on the game over/continue screens, and while the game is paused, and is reset if you ever return to the title screen and start a new game. A less tedious way to see this screen outside of emulation is to use the Game Genie code PEOKOGZL, which reduces the wait to one minute.

Unused Graphics

To do: There's more.

English logo

An unused English title screen logo featuring "Spinner" instead of Waldog, as well as letters that would have spelled out "Inovation Tech." [sic], the would-be US publisher. It seems an overseas release was planned from the beginning.

Waldog sprites

Interestingly, three early frames for Waldog can be found amongst Koko's graphics. These are also present in the US prototype.

Early Open Corp. logo

An early Open Corp. logo, which can also be found on the doors in-game. Its presence is a mystery, as there are other early Open Corp. games which use the final logo, including Toto World 3. This is also present in the US prototype.

"REST"

While the "REST" graphics at the top of this bank are used for the aforementioned Easter egg, the remainder are not. They seem to be artist's notes or doodles of some kind.

Unused Music

Track ID $74 (track 6 in the NSF) is unused in both versions of the game. To hear it at the title screen, use the Game Genie code GNNATOEA.