Raid on Bungeling Bay (NES)

Raid on Bungeling Bay
Developer: Hudson Soft Publishers: Hudson Soft (JP), Brøderbund (US) Platform: NES Released in JP: February 22, 1985 Released in US: September 1987 This game has a hidden developer message. This game has hidden developer credits. This game has regional differences.

An NES port of some strange Commodore 64 game that was originally made by this random guy named William Ralph Wright. He went on to do a few other things.

This port is notable for being the first Famicom game to feature full 8-way scrolling.

Hidden Message

The Japanese version contains a hidden developer's message, triggered by pressing Up + B + Select while the demo gameplay is shown. The string "BY KIKU" will appear at the bottom of the screen.

"KIKU" is a pseudonym for Kikuta Masaaki (菊田昌昭), one of Hudson's programmers. Most games programmed by Masaaki have secrets or hidden messages, including Nuts & Milk, Binary Land, and Challenger.

Although the US version contains the string and the code, it uses a completely different title screen display routine, and uses a different title screen text block from the CHR ROM data, so a grey screen is shown instead of the title screen.

Regional Differences

Title Screen

Japan	US

Microphone Support

In the Japanese version's 2-player mode, use the microphone in the second controller and a "Mic" icon will appear under the score. If you repeatedly use the microphone, the icon will turn red. Keep using it and eventually up to six fighter jets will appear and attack you. While this can't be triggered in the US release due to the second controller not having a microphone, the functionality is still present and has not been dummied out.