Putt-Putt Enters the Race

Putt-Putt Enters the Race
Developer: Humongous Entertainment Publisher: Humongous Entertainment Platforms: Windows, Mac OS Classic Released in US: 1998 This game has unused graphics. This game has unused cinematics. This game has unused music. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material.

In his fifth outing, Putt-Putt Enters the Race, Putt-Putt is invited to join the Cartown 500, but it turns out there are some things he needs, including being a certain age, passing several tests, learning about proper safety in the fast lane, and training for it all.

Oh wait, sorry, that would make way too much sense. As it turns out, all you need in Cartown to enter a race are a few physical items. Apparently regulations are overrated. During the trek, Putt-Putt demonstrates his rather broadly-defined interpretation of "fun" when he calls nearly everything that, including an overly tedious vegetable-picking minigame, hammering nails in, and putting things on a shelf.

Unused Subtitles

Most Humongous games have inaccessible subtitles, and this one is no exception. To activate them, add the setting

TextOn=1

to either hegames.ini or scummvm.ini.

Debug Mode

Like many Humongous games, this one has debug rooms for easy testing. To enable it, input

SputmDebug=101298

into hegames.ini or scummvm.ini. On the original interpreter, this will also display the current room on the window title. If you only want the room name but not the debug mode, you can also enter "WhichRoom=1" into hegames.ini.

(Source: The ScummVM Wiki)

Room Select

Press Shift+G or use the command "room 15" in ScummVM's debugger to access the room select. Clicking on a room warps Putt-Putt to it.

Items and Paths Select

Unlike most Humongous games, this one combines the path select and item select screens into one. Press Shift+I or use the command "room 28" in ScummVM's debugger to access it. Clicking on an item puts it in Putt-Putt's inventory. Clicking "Randomize" changes the current path setup.

Unused Graphics

General

File	Comments
	Placeholder image for the load/save screen, oddly present twice in the game data. Similar images exist in most Humongous games.

Room 9 (Tunnel Entrance)

File	Comments
	A storyboard sequence of Putt-Putt honking and entering the tunnel.

Room 10 (Torvil's Farm)

File	Comments
	Various storyboard drawings of Putt-Putt conversing with Torvil, as well as entering and leaving the screen. The first image is oddly present twice in the game data.
	A storyboard sequence of Torvil singing.

Room 20 (Paint Job)

File	Comments
	A storyboard sequence of Putt-Putt getting a paint job.

Room 37 (Toy Store)

File	Comments
	Two storyboard drawings of Putt-Putt entering the toy store.

Room 39 (Phone)

File	Comments
	A lone storyboard drawing of Putt-Putt dialing on the phone. In the finished game Putt-Putt's antenna is not shown dialing the numbers; the buttons are simply pressed when they are clicked on.

Unused Dialogue

File	Subtitles	Comments
	Looks like I've got everything I need for the race. I should go enter now.	This is triggered if you use debug mode to pick up all the plot-significant items in the inventory and then look at the list of things you need for the race. In the finished game, Putt-Putt has a vastly different set of dialogue that is triggered upon picking up the last item, and the game automatically takes you to the speedway. The subtitles here are written exactly as they are in the game data, notably diverging quite a bit from the spoken line; this and the fact that Putt-Putt's lips don't move during the line indicate this was removed early on.
	None	These are voice clips that were originally used in the preview, which is still mostly present in the game data.
	Congratulations. You are the nail master!	These are used when reaching level 99 in the hammer and nail minigame. Because of how repetitive this game is, and how difficult it becomes in the later levels due to the time limit, it is extremely unlikely that anyone encountered this in regular gameplay, meaning this was probably put in as an easter egg. The second line is probably referring to one of the programmers Brian Pulliam, who likely programmed this minigame.
	You have been rewarded...Brian would be proud of you!
	That's a circle.	These would have been used for cutting the tire patch kit along with the square and the triangle, but you can't cut a circle in the finished game. The developers probably realized this when they discovered the tools you are given are only practical for cutting straight lines, and it would have made cutting a circle a complete nightmare. There are no equivalent lines in the Chuck conversations, indicating this was a pretty early removal.
	That shape is a circle.

Unused Music

File	Comments
	Melody-less version of Betsy Bulldozer's theme.
	Melody-less version of Outback Al's theme.
	This is a piece from Putt-Putt Travels Through Time that originally played at a few points in the game, including its load/save screen. It's stored with the load/save screen sound effects in this game despite being a standard music track in Time.

Hidden Click Points

The Racing Cheater

The game has an odd click point that skips the whole game and heads straight into the race. The only known way to trigger this is to hold Shift while clicking on the green car (this works in both ScummVM and the original game). This may have been used by HE to quickly get to the race after the Red Line Rick intro.

Preview Leftover

The old preview for this game still partially exists in the final game, and what remains of it can be played by running script 206 in room 24. Though the dialog and most of the animation, aside from the mechanics fixing up Putt-Putt, is still here, Pep's original helmet design is only left over on a few frames and a lot of the sound effects have been removed. Also, since the final screen is used for a closeup of a conversation in the finished game, part of Putt-Putt is welded together with the background.