Pengo (Arcade)

Pengo
Developer: Coreland Publisher: Sega Platform: Arcade (custom) Released internationally: 1982 This game has hidden developer credits. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences.

Pengo is a Swiss stop-motion children's television series penguin who kills Sno-bees by crushing them with ice blocks.

Sometimes he'll crush the ice blocks too.

Unused Graphics

Animations for the Pengos and Sno-bees in the intro walking away from the screen. All the Pengos and Sno-bees have sprites dedicated to all of their angles in various sizes, but some of these angles aren't used.

As present in the game, the intro shows the two groups moving south while occasionally turning to show side angles, but never do they fully turn to show their backs. It's possible the path they took were once more sophisticated.

The last four levels of depth are used for the Pengos and Sno-bees until they reach a certain distance on the intro before swapping to the front and side-facing sprites.

One of Pac-Man's sprites, the sixth frame of his death animation, can be found within the game's graphic banks. This is the only remnant of Pengo being built off of Pac-Man's hardware.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Music

In Sets 1 and 3 (see below), this track is played during the maze drawing sequence. It's unused in sets 2 and 4.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Hidden Credits

A hidden credits screen can be seen by holding Up and Button 1 for both players, then pressing 1P Start.

(Source: Sega Retro)

Other Developer Text

Two other chunks of developer text can be found in the main CPU. The first starts at 0x251C:

SNO-BEE DISPLAY BY NAKAKUMA AKIRA

(Source: Original TCRF research)

The second begins at 0x4D00 and gives credit to a fourth staff member. Note that each line is repeated 48 times!

1982:9:1 JAPAN :NOBUO KODERA : :TSUTOMU IWANE : :AKIRA NAKAKUMA: :SHINJI EGI :

(Source: Digital Press - Dave Widel)

Version Differences

For a long time, the different versions of Pengo were labeled as sets. However, with the arrival of MAME 0.252, it was revealed that the versions which use the Popcorn music are the Japanese versions, while the others (which use the new theme) are the International versions.

	Japan, 315-5010 type, rev C MAME: pengoja Former Name: Set 1C	World, not encrypted, rev A MAME: pengo Former Name: Set 2	Japan, not encrypted MAME: pengoj Former Name: Set 3	World, 315-5010 type, set 3 MAME: pengoc Former Name: Set 4
Test Menu Bug	Yes	No	No	No
ACT or RD	ACT	RD	RD	RD
High Score Default	20,000	0	20,000	0
High Score Name	AKIRA	MMIZU	MMIZU	MMIZU
Demo Version	Old	New	Old	Old
Curtain Speed	Slow	Fast	Slow	Slow
Maze Drawing Speed	Slow	Instant	Slow	Instant
Main Theme	Old	New	Old	New
Game Flow Changes	None	All	None	Some

There are four distinct versions of Pengo in the MAME romset: two Japanese versions and two International ones. The chronological order seems to be this:

• Earlier Japanese Version (pengoja, ex Set 1 revision C)
• Later Japanese Version (pengoj, ex Set 3)
• Earlier World Version (pengoc, ex Set 4)
• Later World Version (pengo, ex Set 2)

Most Sega-published home versions of the game appear to be based on the earlier Japanese version, retaining the ACT text and maze drawing sequences, although they usually replace the main theme with a unique song.

Test Menu Bug

In the earlier Japanese version, the test mode's dip switch display will not properly track the number of points needed for a bonus life. Fixed in all other versions.

ACT or RD

In the earlier Japanese version only, each stage is referred to as an ACT. For whatever reason, this was changed to RD in all other versions.

Default High Scores and Names

Japan (Earlier) pengoja	Japan (Later) pengoj	World pengoc/pengo

World versions changed the default high score from 20,000 to 0.

In the earlier Japanese version, the default high score names, spell out "AKIRA" vertically, the name of the game's programmer. All other versions list a "MMIZU", who might be a different member of the staff, but that name doesn't come up in the game's code at all.

Note that in the World versions, the formatting of "RD" was changed from " RD" to "RD ".

Demo Version

Strangely, the competently played demo from the other 3 version was altered in the later World version so that Pengo dies almost immediately.

Curtain Speed

This is the speed of the curtain before each level. This was sped up in the later World version so that it only lasts for a few frames.

Both Japanese versions will take a few seconds to draw the maze before each level starts.

This sequence was removed in both World versions, where the maze is set up almost instantly.

Main Theme

Old	New

Probably the most significant difference. In the Japanese versions, the main theme is an 8-bit version of the song "Popcorn".

This was changed in the World versions to an original track, most likely due to copyright issues. This new track would later be used in the Atari 2600 and 5200 releases, alongside being remixed for the Game Gear version.

While the newer track is longer, the old track has a feature that the new track doesn't: When time is running out, the music will speed up.

Game Flow Changes

The earlier World version introduced a number of changes to make the game flow faster than in previous sets.

• Number of frames before the level completion time is shown changed from 32 to 8.
• Number of frames after a time bonus is calculated changed from 128 to 64.
• Number of frames before the screen wipes after the player has died changed from 128 to a single frame.

Additional changes were made in later World version:

• Delay before player can move at the start of a stage changed from 64 frames to 16 frames.
• Delay before the next level loads after an intermission changed from 64 frames to 16 frames.
• Delay before the sky rapidly changes colors in the intro changed from 64 frames to 48 frames.

(Source: Original TCRF research)